Decembkr 6, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



897 



currents to the winds useful for navigation may 

 be ascertained, would seem to be as legitimate 

 a task as sounding the depths of the oceans and 

 determining the currents and temperatures pre- 

 vailing there. But if our Navy Department 

 will not authorize this, a private expedition 

 should be organized to investigate the questions 

 mentioned in my letter to Science on ' A New 

 Field for Kites in Meteorology.' Since then, 

 Professor Hildebrandson, of Upsala, who is an 

 eminent authority on the circulation of the 

 atmosphere, writes me that a meteorologist on a 

 steamship provided with kites, and also with 

 small balloons to ascertain the drift of the 

 upper winds when there are no clouds, by mak- 

 ing atmospheric soundings between the area of 

 high barometric pressure in. the North Atlantic 

 and the constant southeast trades south of the 

 equator, and in this way investigating the tem- 

 perature and flow of the so-called anti-trades, 

 could solve in three months one of the most 

 important problems in meteorology. If any of 

 your readers will furnish the steamer required, 

 I stand ready to carry out these investigations. 



A. Lawrence Rotch. 

 Blue Hill Meteokological Observ- 

 atory, Hyde Park, Mass., 

 November 18, 1901. 



PERMANENT SKIN DECORATION. 



If Mr. H. Newell Wardle * had referred to 

 Mr. H. Ling Roth's great compilation, 'The 

 Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo,' 

 he would have found the Bornean process of 

 tatooing described and the implements figured. 

 From actual experience I can assure Mr. 

 Wardle that in Sarawak, at all events, the pat- 

 tern is gently printed on the skin from a wooden 

 block and the pigment is driven into the skin 

 by means of an ordinary tatooing needle 

 which is hit by a slender iron rod. This is the 

 typical Tahitian 'tatu.' Examples of the ap- 

 paratus employed will be found in the splendid 

 Furness-Hose collection in the Free Museum of 

 Science and Art in Philadelphia. 



A. C. Haddon. 



LIFTING HOT STONES. 



To THE Editor of Science: In the late 

 number of Nature Professor S. P. Langley calls 

 * Science, Vol. XIV., p. 776. 



attention to an old Tahitian priest who walked 

 in bare feet over the heated stones of a pit pre- 

 pared for cooking. Mr. Andrew Lang calls 

 attention also to the fact that this was a cere- 

 monial performance, preparatory to the cook- 

 ing. 



The United States National Museum is in re- 

 ceipt of a letter from Lieutenant Campbell E. 

 Babcock, U. S. A., stationed at Vancouver 

 Barracks, Washington State, enclosing a com- 

 munication from Chief Peter Wildsho, of the 

 Coeur d'Alene Indians in Idaho. Peter in his 

 simple way is telling how fifty years ago his an- 

 cestors cooked their food in basket pots by 

 means of hot stones. At the close of the de- 

 scription is the following in Peter's own words : 

 '' An amazing little story is connected with this 

 basket for cooking food with hot stones. The 

 medicine-man was considered a very powerful 

 being by his tribe. He could take away the 

 life of a man at his word or cure a sick or dy- 

 ing person. His power depended on the wild 

 beasts that are fierce and powerful, and he car- 

 ried constantly around his body some parts of 

 the animal, such as a piece of the tail." This 

 man to show his power stripped himself and 

 painted his body. While he was singing and 

 dancing, accompanied by all the Indians, he 

 went to the basket containing cold water 

 and sang, and, while all were watching him in 

 awe, he slowly took the red-hot stones in both 

 hands and dropped them into the basket of 

 cold water. The water was heated and not a 

 blister or burn was to be seen on his hands. 



O. T. Mason. • 



THE HITTORF JUBILEE. 



The Academy of Sciences at Berlin has issued 

 the following terse summary of the life-work of 

 the venerable Hittorf : 

 EERBN J OH ANN FBI ED RICH HITTORF* zum 



Fiinfzigjdhrigen Doctor juMlaeum am XXI. October 



MDCCCLXXXX VI. 



hochgeehrter herr college ! 



Indem die Konigliche Akademie der Wissenschaf- 

 ten Ihnen zu der Jubelfeier Ihrer Promotion herzliche 

 Gliickwiinsche sendet, erinnert sie sich dankbar dea 

 hervorragenden Antheils Ihrer Arbeit an dein Fort- 

 schreiten Ihrer Wissenscbaften, der Physik und der 



* Usually known aa Wilhelm Hittorf. 



