March 23. 1888.] 



SCIENCE. 



139 



country to the north. The stones in the clay are glaciated, often of 

 limestone, with only a small proportion of crystalline pebbles or 

 bowlders. In the deposits of the ridges, native copper has been 

 found : consequently the drift-carrying agent moved south-eastward 

 down Georgian Bay, to the west end of the Oak Ridge, and proba- 

 bly throughout its whole length. North and east of Belleville there 

 are many more and fragmentary ridges having a trend somewhat 

 across that of the Oak Ridge. 



The glaciation of the region adds great difficulties to the expla- 

 nation of the phenomena. The striation in the Ottawa valley, from 

 Lake Tamiscamang to the junction of the St. Lawrence, is to the 

 south-eastward, with very rare local exceptions. On the Niagara 

 escarpment, between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario, from sixteen 

 hundred down to seven hundred feet above the sea, the striae are also 

 to the south-east ; but between these widely separated regions the sur- 

 face markings of the rocks are obscured to the west and south by drift, 

 and to the north and east are absent and rarely seen, although the 

 crystalline rocks are commonly rounded or very rarely polished, — 

 an absence that can only in part be accounted for by subsequent 

 erosion. About the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario the striations 

 are to the south-west or west. Between the Ottawa River and 

 Georgian Bay there is a high prominence which divided the 

 drift-bearing currents ; but north of Lake Huron the glaciation is 

 very strongly marked, and the direction is to the south-west, with 

 very rare local variations. 



All the lobes of glaciation about the Lakes, from Superior to the 

 Ottawa valley, radiate backwards to the broad and open, but low 

 basin of James's (Hudson) Bay. The watershed between the Lakes 

 and Hudson Bay. during the epoch of the formation of the drift, 

 was several hundred feet lower than now, — which is about si.\teen 

 hundred feet at present, — as shown by the differential elevation of 

 the beaches. 



For these conflicting phenomena of the drift no explanation was 

 offered, but rather sought for. 



Some remarks upon the paper were offered by Mr. Gilbert, who 

 had observed the slight amount of erosion in the Ottawa valley ; but 

 he thought that generalized explanations of the drift were very often 

 contradicted when applied to special regions, and that our knowl- 

 edge of the phenomena would not at present give a satisfactory 

 explanation. 



Determination of Atomic Weights. 



Prof. F. W. Clarke, in a paper on the determination of atomic 

 weights, read before the Philosophical Society at its last meeting, 

 discussed the sources of error in such constants, both with regard 

 to the processes of weighing and to the chemical considerations in- 

 volved. He dwelt especially upon the uncertainty in the atomic 

 weight of oxygen, which affects the atomic weights of nearly all the 

 other elements, and urged the importance of other determinations 

 which should not hinge upon oxygen. Prout's hypothesis, now of 

 importance in all discussions as to the nature of the chemical ele- 

 ments, requires the most precise determination of atomic weights, 

 and none of the latter are vet known with enough certainty to settle 

 the question at issue. 



Distribution of Indian Tribes in North America. 



The United States Geological Survey has nearly ready for pub- 

 lication a map showing the distribution of the Indian tribes on this 

 continent north of Mexico. Including the labor which Major Powell 

 himself and his immediate assistants have expended in the collec- 

 tion, arrangement, and digestion of the material for this map, and 

 that done by the Bureau of Ethnology, it will represent the work of 

 about fifteen years, and will be one of the most important and in- 

 teresting publications ever made by the Geological Survey. All of 

 the Indians living in this country at the time of the white occupa- 

 tion have been divided into linguistic families, and the territory occu- 

 pied by each one of these families is represented on the map by a 

 distinctive color. The number of these families is about 60, and 

 the number of separate tribes between 300 and 350. 



One of the first and most important facts shown by this map is 

 that the territory occupied by each linguistic family, with few ex- 

 ceptions, is continuous. An important deduction in relation to the 

 habits of the Indians is drawn from this fact, — that instead of 

 being nomadic, and wandering over the continent at will, as has 

 been generally supposed, the Indians had fixed homes, the bound- 



aries of which were almost as plainly marked as the dividing lines 

 between the several States are to-day, and that their wanderings 

 were within limited areas, rarely or never extending beyond these 

 fixed boundaries. The Indians had their permanent villages, in 

 which they lived for five, ten, twenty, or perhaps fifty years. At 

 certain seasons of the year they went to the coast or to the rivers to 

 fish, or to the forest or plains to hunt. The boundaries of the ter- 

 ritories occupied by each family were occasionally changed by con- 

 quest. A stronger tribe or family would by war push back its 

 weaker neighbors, and thus extend its dominion. But the terri- 

 tory so conquered was recognized by the vanquished, as well as by 

 the victor, as the property of the latter. If the Indians had been 

 nomadic, and wandered over the continent or over large portions of 

 it, branches of the same linguistic family would^ have been found 

 scattered broadcast all over the country. 



Some of the few exceptions to this general rule of distribution 

 are exceedingly interesting, and throw a light upon the unwritten 

 and even forgotten history of some of the tribes. For instance: a 

 little colony of the great Siouan family is found in Virginia. How 

 it became separated, crossed the mountains, and maintained itself 

 in the midst of another family speaking an entirely different lan- 

 guage, suggests a very interesting topic for the study of the ethnol- 

 ogist. Again : all the north-western part of the continent was oc- 

 cupied by the Athabascan family, very peaceable Indians. But the 

 Apaches and Navajos of New Mexico and Arizona belong to the 

 same family, and are among the most warlike on the continent. To 

 their surroundings and the necessity of wresting their new home 

 from its previous occupants and holding it, as well as to the inhos- 

 pitable character of the country, may not their change of character 

 be attributed? Another little tribe of the Athabascans is found in 

 California. 



One of the most degraded families of Indians of North Ainerica 

 is the Shoshonean, of which the Diggers are a branch. And yet, 

 strange as it may appear, the Moquis, more advanced toward civili- 

 zation than any others of the Pueblo Indians, are Shoshonean. 



One exceedingly interesting feature of the map is the great num- 

 ber of little families that lived in California and Oregon. Some of 

 these comprise only a few individuals, — not more than forty or 

 fifty, — and yet their languages are entirely distinct from those 

 spoken by the surrounding tribes. In one instance Mr. Henshaw, 

 who has charge of the construction of the map, found in California 

 a single man, the sole survivor of his tribe. From him enough was 

 learned to preserve the language once spoken by his ancestors, but 

 with his death that tongue becomes extinct. 



A very curious fact in relation to the distribution of the Eskimo 

 is that they inhabit the coast of the Arctic regions to the exclusion 

 of other Indians, beginning on the east shore of Greenland, and fol- 

 lowing the coast-line of that island around to the point farthest 

 north inhabited by man. Then, beginning on the coast on the 

 mainland, they occupy narrow strips on the north shores of Hudson 

 Bay and along the northern coast of the continent, around past 

 Bering Strait, and down the north-west coast of the continent to 

 Prince William's Sound. Throughout all this immense coast-line 

 the differentiation of language is very small ; so that an Eskimo 

 from Greenland transported to Bering Strait would in a month be 

 able to speak the language of the natives there as well as though 

 he had been born there. In striking contrast were the numerous 

 distinct families of Indians in the valleys of California and Oregon, 

 whose languages are so different that they could not understand each 

 other. 



This map, when published, will be accompanied by a report and 

 discussion of the facts it discloses, and will be a very important 

 contribution to the science of ethnology. 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Malaria. 

 The subject of malaria has always been a most interesting one 

 for the study of the physician. Until the year 1879 its origin was 

 obscure, although various theories were advanced to account for 

 it. Klebs and Tommasi-Crudeli, in 1879, discovered in the soil 

 of the Roman Campagna a bacillus, to which they gave the 

 name bacillus malaria, and to which they attributed malarial 

 disease. In 1881 Laveran, a French surgeon in Algiers, discovered 



