POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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continually rises to the surface of the water 

 and floats upon it over an area of many 

 miles. At the thermal acid springs in the 

 Coso Eange, Inyo County, thousands of tons 

 of pure sulphur cover the ground, which 

 were deposited there in former times, when 

 the water must have contained large quan- 

 tities of sulphureted hydrogen. Owens 

 Lake is a remarkable body of water, which 

 is more than twice as salt as the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Volcanic mineral springs are lugu- 

 briously situated in Death Valley, and Sara- 

 toga Springs at the south end of Funeral 

 Range, south of Death Valley. Mono Lake, 

 in many of its features, resembles the Dead 

 Sea. Of Byron Springs, in Contra Costa 

 County, one, called " Surprise," is both ca- 

 thartic and emetic. Some of the springs 

 are sparkling with carbonic acid ; others 

 contain sulphureted and phosphurcted hy- 

 drogen ; and there are hot mud-baths. Las- 

 sen County is full of hot (boiling) springs, 

 having a temperature of from 200° to 212°. 



Alpine Funerals. — A clew to the origin 

 of the Irish wake and other funeral pomposi- 

 ties, which we are sometimes inclined to re- 

 gard as relics of barbarism, may be found in 

 the funeral customs of some of the Alpine re- 

 gions. The circle of acquaintance of the more 

 prosperous people of the villages often ex- 

 tends over miles of country ; and the friends 

 of a deceased proprietor will make long jour- 

 neys to attend his funeral. The dictates of 

 hospitality require that their physical wants 

 be provided for ; or, if not, they will meet at 

 the inn and naturally have something very 

 like a feast. In some districts, even before 

 death occurs and the patient is in his last 

 agonies, all around are informed of the fact 

 and expected to make a ceremonial last visit. 

 They enter the sick-room, take a long look 

 at the dying man, and go their ways. After 

 death, when the body has been prepared for 

 burial, a table is spread covered with re- 

 freshments, and open house is held till the 

 funeral. Whoever comes is invited to eat 

 and drink. Two candles are kept burning 

 by the coffin, and two women are employed 

 to watch and pass their time in prayer. Aft- 

 er the funeral a hot meal is given to the 

 guests. In Carinthia, while perfect quiet 

 and decency are preserved, the friends are 

 invited to come in and say a prayer for the 



soul of their late friend, at stated hours, or 

 during the whole time ; and occasionally one 

 of them repeats the prayer aloud, while the 

 others join in. On leaving the room, each 

 of the visitors is offered a piece of bread and 

 a glass of wine or spirits, and is expected to 

 accept. Such customs, perfectly simple and 

 proper in their origin, may easily, when car- 

 ried to excess or abused by unworthy per- 

 sons or intruders, degenerate into the repul- 

 sive wake. 



The Girl's Kitchen-Garden.— The Girl's 

 Kitchen-Garden, a practical development of 

 the Kindergarten in adaptation to English 

 or American habits, is an institution for 

 teaching girls from very childhood those 

 things which pertain to good house-work and 

 good housekeeping, by a series of illustra- 

 tive lessons which are made as attractive as 

 possible. It includes a graduated series of 

 three courses. In the first course the girls 

 are taught methodical daily work, by being 

 taken step by step through the series of du- 

 ties, to the accompaniment of lively songs, 

 bright object-lessons, and little toy models 

 for table-setting and bed-making. The second 

 course includes washing, ironing, and house- 

 cleaning; in the third course, the parts of 

 beef and mutton, pie-making, baby-dressing 

 with dolly, and " waiting on the door." An 

 English journal observes, respecting the pos- 

 sible utility of the institution: "One can 

 not but notice how happy little girls are if 

 allowed to dust mother's chairs or to iron the 

 stockings and handkerchiefs ; how deftly 

 they manage the sweeping-broom with a han- 

 dle about twice as tall as themselves ; how 

 delighted to have a small piece of dough and 

 make grimy little editions of mother's tarts. 

 And one can not but be struck, too, by the 

 fact that as these same little girls grow older 

 they lose this taste, and come to look upon 

 domestic work as drudgery, preferring, when 

 they leave school, any occupation but house- 

 work. Is not this, in a great measure, due 

 to the fact that this natural womanly taste 

 is neglected, and its cultivation left out of 

 the girl's education, with the result that our 

 girls go out as little maids-of-all-work with 

 such profound ignorance and want of meth- 

 od that they are a torment to the mistress 

 and a misery to themselves ? " The kitchen- 

 garden is intended to help remedy this evil. 



