16 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



"This third root of the ash is in Heaven, and under it is the Holy Urdar- 

 fount 'Tis here that the gods sit in judgment." * * * "There is an 

 eagle perched upon its branches who knows many things, and the squirrel named 

 Rotatosk runs up and down the Ash, and seeks to cause strife between the eagle 

 and Nidhogg. There are so many snakes with Nidhogg in Hvergelmir that no 

 tongue can recount them." 



INDIAN FIGURES IN WESTERN KANSAS. 



BY PROF. S. W. WILLISTON, PEABODY MUSEUM, NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



For many years the region of the headwaters of the Smoky Hill, Saline and 

 Solomon rivers was a favorite hunting-ground for various tribes of Indians, who 

 have left frequent indications of their picture-making propensities in the carvings 

 scattered over the chalk cliffs. Most of them appear to be 

 descriptive, but some were evidently allegorical and others 

 humorous, or even obscene. The most conspicuous of any 

 that I observed, in company with Prof. Mudge, was on the top 

 of a high mound or hill on the south fork of the Solomon river, 

 about due north of Coyote station. It was shaped as in the 

 accompanying cut, and measured over sixty feet in length by 

 nearly thirty in width, and composed of small cobble stones laid 

 smoothly and evenly. Scattered about over several acres were a 

 score or more of small mounds, built up of stones and not cov- 

 ering any graves. 



The object in building these (and the labor had been considerable,) is very 

 problematic; it may have been for amusement, but more probably some supersti- 

 tious rite, the figure intended to represent some chief, for the sex was strongly 

 indicated. 



ASTRONOMY. 



ONE ELEVEN-YEAR PERIOD OF SUN-SPOT OBSERVATIONS. 



BY WM. DAWSON, SPICELAND, IND. 



When viewed through a telescope magnifying about fifty times, the sun is a 

 beautiful object. There must, however, be some means of protecting the eye from 

 the intense light and heat. The best way I know of to do this, without much 

 cost, is to place a kind of cap, having a hole in it about an inch in diameter, over 

 the object-glass. Then put a piece of deeply tinted glass over the eye-piece, 

 when you may look at the sun as comfortably as at the moon. With a six-foot 



