April 8, 1887.J 



sciuisrcE. 



341 



tremely large. Travelling even at the rate of forty- 

 miles an hour, these moths must have been on the 

 wing at least twenty-fonr honrs, in many cases ex- 

 posed to the rain. The specimens captured seemed 

 by no means exhausted, and could probably have 

 prolonged their flight to a much greater distance. It 

 has seemed best to place this occurrence on record 

 even at this late day, as showing how readily islands 

 may receive important additions to their fauna from 

 very distant quarters. Feedeeic A. Lucas. 



Washington, March 30. 



On tiptoe. 



The letter of Prof. F. C. Van Dyck {Science, ix. 

 p. 235) in relation to the mechanical problem in- 

 volved in standing: on tiptoe seems to be somewhat 

 misleading, in so far as he insists that it is not a 

 lever of the second order. As the lever of the second 

 order is defined to be that in which the weight, or 

 resistance to be overcoaie, is between the fulcrum 

 and the power, and as in this case the ground is the 

 fulcrum, and the power is applied at the heel, it is 

 evidently a lever of the second order. Moreover, if 

 the power applied at the heel reacted on something 

 exterior to the bony mechanism, the case would be 

 simple and obvious. But inasmuch as the power, or 

 contracting muscle of the calf of the leg, is attached 

 both to the heel and to the head of the tibia, the 

 efficacy of the power is thereby modified. But it 

 does not alter the defined order of lever : it merely 

 augments, to the extent of the reaction, the resistance 

 to be overcome in raising the weight resting on the 

 ankle. 



Thus, in the annexed figure, assuming that the 

 forces producing equilibrium act in parallel direc- 

 tions, and regarding it as a lever of the second or- 

 der, in which C is the fulcrum or centre of moments, 

 for conditions of equilibrium we have, P X CA = 

 TTX VB+ PXCB.-.PX CA—PXCB = WX CB .• . 

 . PX AB = W X CB .-. P: W::CB : AB. Hence, 

 while by the position of the fulcrum C it is actually 

 a lever of the second order, yet, by virtue of the re- 

 action of P, it is mechanically equivalent to a lever 

 of the first order. 



In an analogous manner, it seems to me that the 

 confusion and perplexity in relation to the 'boat-oar' 

 problem might be cleared up (vide Phil, mag., xxiii. 

 pp. 58, 224, 1887). It is scarcely necessary to add 

 that the foregoing solution of this problem is very 

 old : if I am not mistaken, it may be found in one of 

 the editions of Dr. Golding Bird's ' Elements of nat- 

 ural philosophy,' published more than twenty years 

 ago. John LeConte. 



Berkeley, Cal., March 23. 



The loss of the Tonquin. 



It has generally been stated that the Tonquin, 

 which figures so prominently in the history of the 

 north-west coast, was destroyed at Nootka. Bancroft 

 accepts this version in his ' History of. the north- 

 west coast ' (1884) ; while others, following Greenow 

 (1840), place the occurrence at Clayoquot, both these 

 places being on the west coast of Vancouver Island. 

 The facts so far as known, however, appear to me to 

 point to Na-wi-ti, on the north coast of Vancouver 

 Island, as the true locality. 



The Tonquin, it may be remembered, was a vessel 

 of 290 tons burden, belonging to Astor's American 

 fur company. After reaching Astoria, in the mouth 

 of the Columbia, in 1811, she was despatched on a 

 trading-voyage to the north, leaving Astoria on June 

 5. It is unnecessary to detail the circumstances 

 leading up to the attack on the vessel while at an- 

 chor, the massacre of the crew, and the subsequent 

 explosion of the magazine, by which the vessel was 

 destroyed and a large number of natives who had 

 crowded on board were killed. The facts were sub- 

 sequently obtained from a Chehalis Indian inter- 

 preter, who alone escaped, and are recorded by Ross 

 Cox and by Franchere in ' The Columbia Eiver ' 

 (1832) and ' Narrative of a voyage to the north-west 

 coast of America' (1854) respectively. The name of 

 the locality, as given by the Chehalis interpreter, is 

 alone sufficiently distinctive, and I can account for 

 the circumstance that its correspondence with Na- 

 wi-ti has, so far as I am aware, been overlooked, 

 only by the fact that this name has not usually ap- 

 peared on the maps, though to be found as ' Nah- 

 witti ' on the detailed charts of the coast. Bancroft, 

 indeed, denies the existence of any siich name as 

 that given by the interpreter and adopted by Fran- 

 chere, and afterwards by Irving in ' Astoria ' {op. 

 cit., p. 155). 



The Indians known as the Nawitti by the whites, 

 comprising the Tla-tli-si-Kwila and Ne-kum'-ke-lis- 

 la septs or tribes of the Kwakiool people, now to- 

 gether inhabit a village named by them Mel'-oopa, 

 on the south-east side of Hope Island. Their origi- 

 nal town was, however, situated on a small rocky 

 peninsula on the east side of Cape Commerell, which 

 forms the north point of Vancouver Island. Here 

 remains of old houses are yet to be seen, and the 

 place was and still is by the Indians known as Na- 

 wi-ti. 



Boss Cox, who came into personal contact with the 

 escaped Chehalis interpreter, writes of the loss of 

 the Tonquin, " A few days after their departure from 

 the Columbia, they anchored opposite a large Indian 

 village, named New-Whitty, in the vicinity of 

 Nootka, where Mr. McKay immediately opened a 

 smart trade with the natives." After giving the re- 

 lation of the interpreter as to the massacre and ex- 

 plosion, he describes the escape of three (four 

 according to Franchere) of the crew in a boat: 

 "They rowed hard for the mouth of the harbor, 

 with the intention, as is supposed, of coasting along 

 the shore to the Columbia; but after passing the 

 bar, a head wind and flowing tide drove them back, 

 and compelled them to land late at night in a small 

 cove," where they were afterwards found and killed 

 by the natives. Franchere's version of the story is 

 much the same with that of Cox, except that he 

 gives the name as ' Newity,' and in another place as 

 'Newitti' {op. cit., p. 180). 



