NOTES. 



863 



another occasion some beast gnawed a hole 

 through the tent while we were asleep, and 

 ate the bread which I was using for a pillow. 

 A skin I hung up to dry on the tent-rope 

 vanished, and the scampering of little feet 

 up and down the outside of the tent com- 

 menced every night the moment we retired 

 to rest." 



A Country of Salt. — Everything in the 

 country of the river Cha'i, in Central Asia, is 

 described by Gabriel Bouvalot as covered with 

 salt. It is seen in the walls of the houses and 

 on the banks of the rivers, and the water one 

 drinks is very salt. Traveling saltpeter-makers 

 go in summer from place to place wherever 

 they can find materials to work upon. Their 

 mode of operation is a rough-and-ready one. 

 Holes in the earth serve as vats and boilers, 

 and below these are placed ovens. Abun- 

 dance of brushwood supplies material for the 

 fires. The workers collect from the surface 

 of the earth heaps of a compost of salt and 

 animal manure. This is soaked for twenty- 

 four hours in water, then filtered, and then 

 boiled for twenty-four hours, cleansed, and 

 placed in the sun, so that the water may 

 evaporate. An ordinary workman can make 

 about fifty pounds in a day, and this he sells 

 at the rate of a penny a pound. The work- 

 ers appear quite contented with their lot, 

 and the industry is preserved in their fami- 

 lies for generations. 



NOTES. 



Several f< effigy mounds " in the Rock 

 River Valley, 111., have been described by 

 T. H. Lewis. The "Rockford Turtle" is 

 184^ feet long and from three to five and a 

 half feet high, and stands in the midst of the 

 best part of Rockford. It is associated 

 with a bird-mound, seven round mounds, 

 and two embankments. An animal mound 

 in Jo Daviess County is 216' feet long, with 

 an average height of five and a half feet, 

 has its fore-feet resting on an embankment, 

 and is associated with twenty-three other 

 mounds and two embankments. A bird effigy 

 on the east side of Rock River some five 

 miles below Rockford, and an animal 116£ 

 feet long at Freeport, are described. Few of 

 the Illinois effigy mounds are in good preser- 

 vation. 



A marked difference is observed by Dr. 

 George M. Dawson, of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada, as between the maritime Indi- 

 ans of the coast and the Indian tribes 



of southern British Columbia. While it is 

 largely one of habit and mode of life, it is 

 also almost everywhere coincident with radi- 

 cal differences in language. The natural 

 tendency to diversity as between coast-in- 

 habiting fishermen and roaming hunters is 

 intensified and perpetuated by the barrier 

 of the Coast Range. The diversity breaks 

 down to some extent only on certain routes 

 of trade between the coast and the interior. 



The distinction of the Legion of Honor 

 has been conferred upon Prof. C. V. Riley 

 by the French Government. The Minister 

 of Agriculture, writing to Prof. Riley on the 

 subject, said that in awarding the honor the 

 Government had sought to reward the im- 

 portant services which he had rendered to 

 agriculture generally of all countries, and 

 particularly to France, by his labors and 

 discoveries. 



A case of poisoning by mackerel was re- 

 cently established at a coroner's inquest in 

 London. The deceased, who had eaten a 

 part of the fish adjacent to the head, was 

 attacked with gastritis and pneumonia, be- 

 came delirious, and died ; while his wife, 

 who ate another part of the fish, suffered no 

 inconvenience. The gills of the mackerel 

 appearing to have undergone fermentation, 

 the victim's illness was ascribed to his hav- 

 ing eaten decomposed fish. Cases of this 

 kind, which used to be regarded as unac- 

 countable, are now considered due to the 

 presence of ptomaines developed by decom- 

 position. 



A peculiar tendency in idiots to imper- 

 fections and disease in the teeth has been 

 noticed by several physicians; and it has 

 been studied by Madame Sollier in a hun- 

 dred cases of idiots taken at random. The 

 multiplicity and variety of the dental lesions 

 were remarkable ; and the conclusion has 

 been drawn that idiocy, with or without epi- 

 lepsy, predisposes to arrests of development 

 and to anomalies of dentition. The effect 

 rarely appears in the first teeth, however, 

 but almost wholly in the second. 



Mr. CARRUTHERS,PresidentoftheLinnjean 

 Society, has found that seven original and 

 authentic portraits of Linnasus are in exist- 

 ence. The most widely known engravings 

 are from the originals by Inlander and Ros- 

 lin ; and these give the most faithful repre- 

 sentations of the features of the great natu- 

 ralist. 



An instantaneous photographic appara- 

 tus is proposed to take the place of the judge 

 at the winning-post in race-courses. Its value 

 is seen in very close races, when the judges 

 can not decide accurately, and in what are 

 called "dead heats," when two or three 

 horses appear to reach the winning-post at 

 exactly the same time. The photograph will 

 show one of the horses to be an inch or so 

 ahead, and decide in his favor. 



