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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



lakes above the level of the sea, in going 

 from the pole to the equator, rises as the 

 snow-line rises. Alpine lakes are classified 

 as valley lakes and mountain lakes. The 

 former are generally of considerable extent. 

 They occupy the bottoms of the valleys and 

 form a horizontal zone among themselves, 

 bounding the circumference of a former gla- 

 cial region, where the currents of ice, at the 

 moment of maximum congelation, could ex- 

 ercise their greatest action. The others are 

 generally small and lie at great elevations, 

 in the heart of the mountainous region; but 

 they are also frequently present in numbers 

 at a common height in each chain of mount- 

 ains, where they indicate the last stage in 

 the retreat of the glaciers. Mountain lakes 

 have only an ephemeral existence, for the 

 amount of detritus which they receive and 

 the depth of their effluents contribute to 

 their speedy disappearance. More than a 

 hundred lakes have gone out in this way in 

 the Tyrol during the last century. 



Famines and Irrigation in India.— Mr. 



IT. C. Danvers has summarized the histories 

 of fifty-two famines in India, extending over 

 a period of twenty-three hundred or twenty- 

 four hundred years, of which thirty occurred 

 in the historical period, and twenty-two 

 within the present century. The earliest 

 was between 503 and 443 b. c. Then a 

 period of fifteen hundred years follows with- 

 out a record, though not, doubtless, without 

 famines. The year a. d. 1033 was remark- 

 able for very extensive drought and famine, 

 succeeded by a pestilence. The earliest 

 famine in the Deccan occurred in the year 

 1200, and lasted twelve years. The distress 

 of 1345 was caused, in part, by excessive 

 taxation, by reason of which " the poor be- 

 came beggars, the rich became rebels, and 

 the farmers were forced to fly to the woods, 

 and to maintain themselves by rapine. The 

 lands were left uncultivated, and grain con- 

 sequently became scarce, famine began to 

 desolate whole provinces, and the sufferings 

 of the people obliterated from their minds 

 every idea of government and subjection to 

 authority." The great Doorga Decree famine 

 of 1396 arose from a total want of season- 

 able rain, and lasted twelve years. In the 

 famine of 1811, the Government sanctioned 

 disbursements on account of ceremonies for 



rain to be performed in the principal pago- 

 das in Cuddapah. In Kattywar, men sold 

 their children for food, and many respecta- 

 ble and well-to-do persons poisoned them- 

 selves to secure release from the pangs of 

 hunger ; and others died from want of that 

 grain which their riches could not purchase. 

 The great famine in southern India, of 

 18*76-'78, was the worst which has been ex- 

 perienced since the beginning of the century. 

 It is estimated that five and a half millions 

 more, out of one hundred and ninety million 

 people, perished than would have died had 

 the seasons been ordinarily healthy. Mr. 

 Danvers anticipates great results in mitigat- 

 ing the evils of famine from the extension 

 of the railroads, by means of which provis- 

 ions can be speedily taken into regions of 

 scarcity, and prices kept down. In the dis- 

 cussion in the Society of Arts upon Mr. 

 Danvers's paper, General Itundal laid great 

 stress on the economical advantages of sys- 

 tems of irrigation. The total sum expended 

 on irrigation works throughout India was 

 £24,500,000, while the total loss which the 

 Government had sustained in successive 

 famines was given as £23,500,000. The 

 irrigation works returned more than five per 

 cent net, but the sum hopelessly spent in 

 trying to mitigate famine returned nothing, 

 and ten million lives had been lost during 

 the century. The Godavery works, after 

 thirty-five years, had netted £1,400,000, or 

 double the whole capital outlay ; the Kistna 

 works, after twenty-five years, had netted 

 £281,000, which was, perhaps, half what 

 they had actually cost. These two works 

 irrigated 563,700 acres and 303,000 acres 

 respectively. The Tanjore works were still 

 more remunerative. Other works had not 

 given so large visible returns; but they 

 could not be called failures, because they 

 provided security against future famines, 

 and were otherwise economically beneficial. 



Identification by Thnmb - Marks. — 



Among other anthropometrical data, Mr. 

 Francis Galton has secured the impressions 

 in printer's ink of the two thumbs of many 

 hundred persons, in order to determine the 

 possibility of using that method in identifi- 

 cation. He says that a minute investigation 

 of thumb or finger marks shows an extraor- 

 dinary difference in small though perfectly 



