138 



SCIENCE. 



ence given to the feminine gender instead of, as in the more 

 ungallant English, to the masculine ; for instance, the 

 word theirs translates " two hers." The work I present is 

 necessarily but a chrestomalthy compared to what can be 

 done in the study of each of the Iroquois languages. 

 Enough beauties, however, have been discovered through 

 this mere insight to convince one that their possibilities 

 were great. The reflection is, therefore, sad that in all 

 probability fifty years hence these chrestomalthies, imper- 

 fect as they are, may be the only record of their former 

 existence. Even now English is fast becoming the com- 

 municating medium of the people, as it is of the pulpit and 

 the school. We can, therefore, safely predict that within 

 the next century the Iroquois languages, as spoken by its 

 six different tribes, will have become a thing of the past. 



STRUCTURE OF MICA VEINS IN NORTH 

 CAROLINA. 



By W. C. Kerr. 



At Danville, Va., Professor Kerr, of Raleigh, found veins 

 or dykes which seemed to have been filled neither by fused 

 matter nor by the ordinary mode of infiltration, but by a 

 fine granular fragmented mass, derived from the containing 

 bedded rocks, by the crowding, jamming and mechanical 

 comminution of the rocks themselves. The mica veins in 

 North Carolina are simply dykes of very coarse granite. 

 When the crystallization becomes so coarse that the diame- 

 ter of the mica sheets passes three or four inches, the dyke 

 is called a mica vein. These veins are found in the upper 

 Laurentian or Montalban, and may be considered charac- 

 teristic of that horizon in North Carolina. The most pro- 

 ductive veins are found in the high plateau between the 

 Blue Ridge and the Smoky mountains, mostly in two or 

 three counties. The amount of marketable mica produced 

 per month is not more than two or three tons, although a 

 much larger quantity could be obtained if the market de- 

 manded it. The most valuable of the present mica mines 

 were opened and wrought by the mound-builders many ages 

 ago on a much larger scale than now. There are evidences 

 in the great river valleys in North Carolina of extensive 

 glaciation in remote times, although the last glacial period 

 is wholly unrepresented on the present surface. The pro- 

 trusion of the eastern coast of North Carolina, about a hun- 

 dred miles beyond the general Atlantic coast, is due to the 

 interaction of the Arctic shore current and the Gulf stream, 

 which collect the detritus thrown into the sea from Mary- 

 land to South Carolina, and drop them about Hatteras. 

 This action has carried the coast of North Carolina to with- 

 in fifty miles of the margin of the deep Atlantic channel, 

 and, therefore, near its limit. The sounds behind the chain 

 of sand islands or dunes, known as " The Banks," are rap- 

 idly silted up and converted into marsh and dryland by the 

 sands blown over the dunes, and by the sediment brought 

 down by the numerous rivers from the interior. The move- 

 ment of the sand of these dunes was found to be about one 

 foot per annum landward. 



TRANSFORMATION OF PLANORBIS. 



A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE EVOLUTION OK SPECIES. 



By A. Hyatt. 



The word evolution means the birth or derivation of one 

 or more things or beings from others, through the action of 

 natural laws. A child is evolved from its parents, a 

 mineral from its constituents, a state of civilization from 

 the conditions and surroundings of a preceding age. While 

 evolution furnishes us with a valuable working hypothesis, 

 science cannot forget that it is still on trial. The impatience 

 of many when it is doubted or denied savors more of the 

 dogmatism of belief than of the judicial earnestness of 

 investigation. Every individual differs in certain superficial 

 characters from the parent forms, but is still identical with 

 hem in all its fundamental characteristics. This constantly 

 itcurring relationship among all creatures is the best estab- 



lished of all the laws of biology. It is the so-called law 

 to heredity, that like tends to reproduce like. There seem 

 to be only two causes which produce the variations which 

 we observe ; one is the law of heredity, the other is the 

 surrounding influences or the sum of the physicial influ- 

 ences upon the organism. The first tends to preserve 

 uniformity, the second modifies the action of the first. The 

 law of natural selection asserts that some individuals are 

 stronger or better fitted to compete with others, in the 

 struggle of life, than are others of the same species : hence 

 they will live and perpetuate their kind, while the others 

 die out. An erroneous impression exists, that Darwinian 

 doctrines are more or less supported by all naturalists who 

 accept evolution, but it is far from the truth. The Darwinian 

 hypothesis is so very easy of application, and saves so much 

 trouble in the way of investigation, that it is very generally 

 employed, without the preliminary caution of a rigid ana- 

 lysis of the facts, and it is safe to say that it is often misap- 

 plied. A great amount of nonsense has been written about 

 its being a fundamental law, in all forgetfulness that we are 

 yet to find a law for the origin of the variations upon which 

 it acts ; it cannot be the primary cause of the variations, 

 for the laws of heredity are still more fundamental. The 

 speaker then described the situation and character of 

 Steinheim, where numerous shells of the Planorbidae are 

 found in the strata, which have been very regularly depos- 

 ited. Hilgendorf claims to have discovered great evidences 

 of the gradual evolution of the various forms from the sim- 

 plest and oldest specimens, but Mr. Hyatt has failed to find 

 what Hilgendorf describes. By means of a lantern a num- 

 ber of illustrations of the shells were projected upon a 

 screen, and quite fully described. Four lines of descend- 

 ants were shown to branch out from four of the simplest 

 forms, with all the gaps between the species filled with in- 

 termediate varieties. Each one of the lines or series has 

 its own set of characteristic differences, and its own pecu- 

 liar history. It is a fair inference from the facts before us, 

 that the species from the progressive series, which become 

 largjr and finer in every way, owe their increase in size to 

 the favorable physical condition of the Steinheim basis. 

 Darwinists would say that in the basin a battle had taken 

 place, which only the favored ones survived. Mr. Hyatt 

 endeavored to present, in a popular manner, the life-history 

 of a single species, the planorbis levis, and its evolution into 

 twenty or thirty distinguishable forms, most of which may 

 properly be called by different names and considered as 

 distinct species. He also endeavored to bring the concep- 

 tion that the variations which led to these different species 

 were due to the action of the laws of heredity, modified by 

 physical forces, especially by the force of gravitation, into a 

 tangible form. There are many characteristics which are 

 due solely to the action of the physical influences which 

 surround them ; they vary with every change of locality, 

 but remain quite constant and uniform within each. 



MOUNDS OF ILLINOIS. 



By W. McAdams, Otterville, Ills. 



Mr. McAdams stated that during a period of some 25 

 years, when leisure permitted, he had been exploring in the 

 mounds of the State. Within a radius of 50 miles from the 

 mouth of the Illinois river there were many thousands of 

 mounds erected by the past inhabitants of the country. 



A map was shown illustrating the ancient works of the 

 region, which include almost every variety of mound in the 

 Union. Mr. McAdams has explored hundreds of these 

 mounds, and collected a great quantity of valuable material 

 illustrating the habits and customsof the people of that age. 

 He gave illustrations of House, Burial, Temple and other 

 Mounds. 



Many of the small mounds in this section, the speaker 

 thought, were the remains of dwelling places, originally 

 made by placing poles on end, or in a vertical position, 

 fastened at the top, and the whole covered with sod and 

 earth. This structure, after being repaired from year to 

 year, would finally decay, fall to prices and form a mound. 

 In many of these mounds he had found ashes, remains of 

 animals eaten, and other articles that would be found in 



