792 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 245 



tons; composite steamers, 109, of an aggregate burthen of 32,820 

 tons ; and wooden steamers, 822, of an aggregate burthen of 

 380,655 tons. Of the steamers afloat in 1885, 5,792 were owned by 

 the United Kingdom and its colonies, their aggregate burthen 

 being 6,595,871 tons. The other countries of the world owned 

 steamers as follows, last year : Germany, 579 ; France, 509 ; 

 Spain, 401; the United States, 400; Norway, 287; Russia, 212; 

 Denmark, 200; Italy, 173; Holland, 152; Brazil, 141; Japan, 105; 

 Greece and Turke}-, 82 each ; Belgium, 68 ; Chili and the Argen- 

 tine Republic, 43 each ; China and Portugal, 27 each; Hawaii, 21 ; 

 Mexico, 15 ; and miscellaneous, 50. It will be seen, that, notwith- 

 standing the great depression prevailing in steam-shipping, the 

 number of steamers afloat has increased to the extent of 327, as 

 compared with 1885. 



— The official returns quoted from the Wochenschrift ficr 

 Brauerei for the first six months of the current year show the 

 export of a total weight of 64,079 tons, being an excess of 2,789 

 tons as compared with the same period of 1886, but representing a 

 decrease of 13,281 tons as against the first six months of 1885. 

 There has been a progressive export during the earlier part of the 

 last three years to Hamburg, Bremen, Austria, Switzerland, and 

 Sweden, while deliveries to France and Belgium have fallen off. 

 There is an increase this year in exports to Holland and Denmark. 

 Trade with Great Britain and Russia has been larger than in 1886, 

 although not up to the mark of 1885 ; while there is a decrease in 

 shipments to the United States, Italy, and Spain, as compared with 

 1 886. Imports from Austria were for the three six-monthly periods, 



was dug up. Four of them are neariy same size, — about seven 

 mches long, one and a half inches wide at broadest place, and 

 about one-fourth of an inch in thickness along the middle line. 

 The fifth is half an inch shorter, one and one-fourth inches in great- 

 est breadth, and neariy half an inch thick. It is hardly so well fin- 

 ished as the other four. 



When found, they were all lying close together, their flat sides 

 in contact, and points up, evidently so placed intentionally. They 

 were buried about two feet below the surface of the ground. They 

 are now in my possession. j. w. Kilpatrick. 



Fayette, Mo., Sept. 30. 



Over-Pressure in the Schools. 



I THINK it is an unfortunate fact that our public-school system 

 is not elastic enough to mould itself to the needs of the individual. 

 Grades are a necessity in it, and grades must be quite rigidly fixed. 

 But I think that the parents can mould the system so that there 

 shall be no over-pressure. A great source of trouble is that the 

 parents often positively encourage the pressure. A mother brought 

 to me her daughter, a shamefully overworked high-school scholar ; 

 no exercise, except the walk to and from school. . If this mother 

 takes my advice, and sends word to the teacher, " My daughter is 

 not going to stand at the head of her class any more ; if necessary, 

 she will be honestly and healthily at the foot," the teacher may re- 

 ply, " Then she cannot graduate, and have a diploma." Then the 

 mother must mould the public-school system to her daughter's 

 needs, and say, " Then she will not graduate. I am content to have 



STONE DAGGER FROM MISSOURI. 



5,433,6,236, and 6,829 tons ; and from Great Britain, 404, 441, and 

 504 tons. Thus it will be seen imports have, on the whole, been 

 increasing. The imports from Austria have always been much in 

 excess of the exports to that country, but formerly imports from 

 Great Britain were inferior in quantity to the direct exports thither. 

 The quantities were as neariy as possible equalized during the 

 period under review, but it is conjectured that a portion of the beer 

 nominally exported to the Hamburg district was subsequently 

 forwarded to England. 



*^.* The attention of scietitiji 

 columns of SciE.riC^ /or placing pt 

 their investigations. Twenty cop 

 e furnished free to any cor? 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



r called to the advantages of the correspondence 

 mptly on record brief preliminary notices of 

 s of the number containing his communication 

 ifiondent oti request. 



It with the character of 



it so." Perhaps she will not say this, for parental pride is one cause 

 of the over-pressure. 



Another cause is parental laziness. It is easy to keep a boy em- 

 ployed evenings by compelling him to stay at home and study his 

 lessons. Otherwise he must either be allowed to choose his own 

 amusement, in the house or out of it (which, of course, is not the 

 best thing), or the parents must have him on their minds, and pro- 

 vide amusements for him, or at least have an oversight of his recre- 

 ations, which is a trouble. In practice, too many parents either let 

 their children roam the streets at night, or beg the teacher to give 

 their children enough to do, so that they must have some lessons to 

 occupy their evenings. E. P. King. 



Providence, R.I., Oct. 8. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries 

 thejournal. 



Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is 

 in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Stone ' Daggers ' from Missouri. 



The following may be worth recording. A few days since, near 

 this place, a farmer, digging to make a pond, in land that has never 

 been under cultivation, found a ' deposit ' of five chipped stone 

 'daggers' (or spear-heads .?). I enclose an outline sketch of one 

 the exact size of the specimen. The ' daggers ' are of chert, and 

 so much alike in material, that one can easily suppose them made 

 from pieces of the same mass of stone. The workmanship, as in- 

 dicated by the finish of the implements, is of superior merit. Each 

 implement is chipped to a sharp edge all around, even at the base. 

 They are all in perfect condition except No. 2, which received 

 small breaks on one side of base and at extreme tip of point as it 



Silver in Oregon. 



I FIND silver in minute quantities in several of the eruptive rocks 

 of north-western Oregon. The upper lava-flows on the Portland 

 Hills contain, as far as I have investigated them, amounts ranging 

 from one-tenth of an ounce per ton (or .0000034 of one per cent) to 

 one-fourth of an ounce (or .0000085 °f one P^r cent). The lava in 

 question is a scoriaceous micro-basalt, very much decomposed in 

 the exposed portions, but becoming sound and hard at a few feet 

 depth. 



Specimens of volcanic tufa from an immense deposit in the west- 

 ern foot-hills of the Cascade Range, near the Clackamas River, 

 yield from a ' trace ' of silver up to the surprising quantity of six 

 ounces per ton (or .0002 of one per cent). 



In the assays I employed the scorification method, using test lead 

 devoid of silver. Herbert Lang. 



Portland, Ore., Sept. 30. 



