274 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Sept. 14, 1? 



argued that if it were possible to transmit economically 

 the power from a few large engines to a great number of 

 small workshops there would be a great saving of power, 

 as well as a great saving of time. 



He pointed out that there are four methods of trans- 

 mitting power to a distance : by a moving rope, by air 

 compressed or rarified, by water forced through a pipe, 

 and by electricity. Hitherto the distribution of power 

 by water pressure has been most in favour in this 

 country, but Professor Ayrton is of opinion that the 

 electric transmission of power, even now, bids fair to 

 surpass all other methods, for the following reasons : It 

 is economical in fuel ; it gives more perfect control over 

 each individual machine ; tools can be brought to the 

 work, instead of the work being taken to the 

 tools; there is greater cleanliness; and finally 

 the power which during the day-time might be 

 mainly used for driving machinery, could, in the easiest 

 possible way, be used during the night for giving light. 

 By turning a handle one way the electric current could 

 be made to work an electric motor, and by turning it the 

 other way the current which would come and return by 

 the same wires as before, could be used for electric 

 lighting. Professor Ayrton remarked that it might be 

 said that the transmission of power by coal-gas fulfilled 

 this condition, but so also did the transmission by a loaded 

 coal waggon. In both these cases it was the fuel itself 

 that was transported, not the power. 



The chief attraction of the evening was the welding 

 of iron and steel bars one inch square in section by 

 by a high tension current transmitted through a small 

 wire. Aluminium was also welded quickly by the same 

 means. It has yet to be proved whether or not this 

 sudden heating of the metals can be effected without 

 subjecting them to excessive strains, but the mere fact of 

 being able to weld so quickly and so easily was of itself 

 very striking. In conclusion Professor Ayrton showed a 

 working model of the " Telpher Line," invented by the 

 late Professor Fleeming Jenkin, Professor Perry, and 

 himself. 



«^>*^iiigS<e-<- ■ 



Discovery of an Ancient City. — In the north-east 

 of the province of Chihuahua there have been found, 

 according to the Revue Francaise de I'Etrangere, the 

 remains of an ancient city excavated and sculptured in 

 the rocks like Petra in the land of Edom. No traditions 

 concerning this city survive, but the ruins show that its 

 prehistoric inhabitants must have been civilised. There 

 are hundreds of rooms hewn in the solid rock on the side 

 of the mountain, and the stone extracted has served for 

 buildings. There are many heights of rooms and stairs 

 cut in the rock leading from house to house. In many 

 places the rock is elegantly sculptured and polished. 



Legal Standards of Time. — M. Bouquet de la Grye, 

 in a communication to the Academy of Sciences, mentions 

 a project for the adoption of a uniform time throughout 

 France, Algeria, and Tunisia. The standard adopted will 

 drobably be Paris time. 



Earthquake in Greece. — -Two violent shocks of earth- 

 quake occurred on September 10th at Vostitza, in the 

 Northern Peloponnesus. Great destruction was caused 

 to property. 



The Buffon Centenary. — On the 17th of this month 

 the centennial anniversary of the death of Buffon will be 

 solemnised at Montbard. 



THE HUACAS OF CHIRIQUI. 



THE ancient tombs in Central America, which are 

 known in the Spanish-American of the country by 

 the name of " huacas," abound in interesting relics of 

 long past generations. 



The whole coast of the Isthmus of Darien, especially 

 on the shore washed by the Pacific, is thickly studded 

 with these " huacas," but those at Chiriqui, on the Atlantic 

 coast, are for the most part in a better state of preser- 

 vation than those elsewhere. Until within the last few 

 years, Chiriqui was almost an unknown land, having 

 apparently even evaded the notice of the Spanish con- 

 querors, although they penetrated into many parts of 

 Darien and Panama, but the proposed cutting of a con- 

 necting canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 

 necessitating careful engineering surveys of the isthmus, 

 has brought the district into comparatively prominent 

 notice. The first important discoveries of old-world 

 relics took place in 1858, when two workmen, in the 

 course of their digging, unearthed a small gold figure, 

 and incited by this unlooked-for treasure to further in- 

 vestigations, continued their excavations with an ardour 

 which soon met with a very ample reward. The report 

 of their success rapidly spread abroad, and within 

 twelve months of the date of the first discovery the 

 ground for miles around was furrowed with the excava- 

 tions of eager treasure-seekers, most of whom reaped a 

 wonderful harvest of idols, ornaments, etc., in gold and 

 copper. Unfortunately, however, the interest since 

 taken in the primitive races of America was then only 

 in its infancy, and the greater part of these ornaments, 

 which might perhaps have thrown important lights upon 

 the ethnology of Central America, was melted down for 

 the sake of the metal of which they were composed. 

 Only comparatively few specimens were preserved 

 intact from these first excavations, but happily their 

 discoverers left in some cases copious notes as to the 

 tombs where they were found, and it is partly to 

 this earlier testimony, corroborated by the experiences of 

 later days, that we owe much of our knowledge on the 

 subject. As in parts of Peru, the tombs in Chiriqui are 

 sometimes square, sometimes oval ; they are arranged 

 without regard to any particular direction, extending to 

 a depth of some eighteen feet beneath the surface of the 

 soil, and are lined with rough stones covered with a 

 kind of paving stone, which must have been brought, in 

 most instances, from a considerable distance. The 

 ground was covered with pebbles, upon which the 

 corpse was laid, wrapped in a simple shroud, the 

 elaborate garments and bandages of the Peruvian mum- 

 mies being absent. These corpses are commonly 

 called " mummies," but the term is, as a matter of 

 fact, a misnomer, these bodies owing their preser- 

 vation to the lightness of the soil and air, and not 

 to any artificial process, as in the case of the true 

 mummy of the Egyptians and of the Guanchos (the 

 aborigines of the Canary Isles), where the body under- 

 went an elaborate process of embalming with resinous 

 gums, salts, or wax. 



In the "huacas" of Chiriqui the skeletons of the dead, 

 save occasional fragments, have, in many cases, dis- 

 appeared, the atmosphere there being apparently 

 deficient in those marvellous properties of the atmo- 

 sphere of Western Peru, which have preserved the 

 bodies in the coast tombs in a condition almost as per- 

 fect as that ensured for the Egyptian mummies by the 

 old embalming. The relatively destructive effects of 



