May 25, i888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



493 



from 7 to 15 fathoms. Latterly empty petroleum 

 tins, with the ends knocked out and a sheet of glass 

 inserted at one end, have been used to asssist the vision. 

 The glazed end is plunged into the water, when a clearer 

 and deeper view is obtained. The divers enter upon 

 this employment at the age of ten, and continue it to 

 forty years. As a rule they are strong and healthy. 

 During the last ten years the find of shells has been 

 gradually falling oif. 



Possible Age of Orange Trees. — There is in the 

 gardens of Versailles an orange-tree more than 450 years 

 of age. It was planted at Pampeluna about 1416, by 

 Eleanor of Castille. It was afterwards transplanted to 

 Chantilly and Fontainebleau, and finally to Versailles, in 

 1684. This case is the more remarkable as the tree has 

 undergone four transplantations, and has never enjoyed 

 anything like its natural climate. 



Monstrosities in Beaks of Birds. — Mr. W. B. 

 Tegetmeier {Field), gives a number of cases of such 

 deformities. He shows that the beak of a bird grows 

 from the base, like hair or fingernails, and if the balance 

 of growth and wear is not maintained, deformity ensues. 

 Malformation of the beak is sometimes produced by a 

 blow, the bird flying violently against a branch if 

 suddenly startled, perhaps in the twilight, so as to drive 

 the upper mandible down through the lower. A 

 deformed beak may also result from disease. 



Alleged Hybrid between the Duck and the Fowl. — 

 Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, after examining the circumstances 

 of an alleged case of this very improbable hybridity, 

 concludes that the specimens in question were simply 

 in'itances of malformation. 



Phosphorescent Organs of Fishes. — Professor von 

 Lindonfeld, after studying the collections of the 

 "Challenger" Expedition, recognises no fewer than twelve 

 types of these organs, more than one of which may 

 occur on a single fish. 



Capture of Moths. — The following method of catch- 

 ing night-flying insects is given by W. V. Reichenar in 

 Humboldt: — Behind the left-hand part of a window 

 (the method is applicable only with windows opening 

 like folding-doors) he places a couple of bright lamps 

 and sets the other side very slightly ajar. As soon as 

 any specimens settle on the panes the other side is 

 silently opened and a wide-mouthed bottle containing 

 cyanide of potassium is applied against the glass over the 

 insect ; it is then cautiously lifted off, a card or a slip of 

 paper being laid over the mouth. 



♦■Jsw^'^S.ifH' 



THE "SERPENT MOUND" OF OHIO. 



NORTH AMERICA retains, as memorials of an un- 

 known past, monuments which cannot be compared 

 to anything existing in the Eastern Continent. These are 

 immense embankments, extending often over entire 

 regions, and certainly intended for defensive purposes. 

 There are further mounds of various forms — conical, 

 square, triangular, polygonal — almost always constructed 

 with mathematical regularity. These last are sometimes 



places of worship, terminating above in a platform which 

 is reached by an incline, skilfully arranged — sometimes 

 mausoleums — as it is proved by the heaps of human 

 bones which they conceal. At other times, as at 

 Ohilicothe (Missouri), they cover altars of burnt clay, on 

 which are piled thousands of objects of stone, bone, 

 copper, all having evidently been submitted to an 

 intense fire, in the execution of some religious rite. 



These mounds appear in incalculable numbers in the 

 valleys of the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri, and 

 their tributaries. They are met with from Lake Ontario, 

 in the North as far as Georgia in the South ; from New 

 Jersey in the East to Kentucky and Missouri in the 

 West. Louisiana, the valleys of the Arkansas, and the 

 Red River were peopled by the mound-builders. Quite 

 recently there has been discovered near Carthage, in 

 Alabama, a remarkable group of mounds in the form of 

 elevated slopes, which the plough is unfortunately 

 obliterating day by day. 



Some of these mounds attain considerable dimensions. 

 Thus the Labokia Mound is placed in the midst of sixty 

 others, varying from thirty to sixty feet in height, and 

 covering an area of twelve acres. The great mound 

 overlooks all the others ; it rises in four successive 

 terraces to the height of ninety-one feet. The base 

 measures 500 feet by 720 feet, and the terminal plat- 

 form 146 feet by 720 feet. It has been computed that 

 not fewer than twenty-five millions of cubic feet of earth 

 enter into its construction. The mound of .Seltzertown 

 is not much less imposing, and that on the river Estowah, 

 in Georgia, was covered with gigantic trees,the successors 

 of others whose existence is proved by their half- 

 decomposed trunks. 



It would be easy to mention many other mounds, all 

 affording an exceptional interest. The most curious — 

 and they are not few — are those formed in the shape of 

 animals. In particular, in Ohio and Wisconsin, they 

 may be counted by thousands. Some of them represent 

 mammalia up to sixty-five yards in length, birds whose 

 wings have a spread of thirty-two yards, gigantic reptiles, 

 especially tortoises and lizards, and the other day there 

 was announced from Minnesota the discovery of a 

 spider whose body and legs covered no less than an 

 acre. 



One of the most celebrated mounds represents a 

 human figure in such good preservation that it is easy 

 of recognition. According to an old tradition this 

 artificial eminence was erected in honour of a chief 

 killed in battle, whilst a smaller mound, placed between 

 the legs of the figure, was consecrated to the memory of 

 his son, who fell at the same time. We may still men- 

 tion the lizard in the county of Liking, and a mound 

 near Newport (Ohio) representing an eagle. This latter is 

 situated in the midst of an enclosure surrounded by 

 terraces, known as the Old Fort. 



The Alligator of Granville (Ohio) is placed on a 

 mound ; each of its legs measures twenty feet in length, 

 the body 255 by 80 feet, the tail 100 feet, and all the 

 members rise from 3 to 5 feet above the level of the 

 ground. An ape discovered in Wisconsin is about 160 

 feet in length. This is a fact of some importance. No 

 member of the great monkey-tribe is known to have 

 existed, coevally with man, to the North of Mexico. 

 Hence we must infer either that the monkeys must have 

 been found in North America during the human epoch, 

 or else that the mound-builders were familiar with the 

 animal world of Central and South America. 



