POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



281 



rior plane of the body. The author had made 

 a careful examination of the seating in schools, 

 and found that faulty positions are certainly 

 induced because of the lack of adaptation of 

 seat to pupil and of pupil to seat. It was not 

 possible to say how much of a factor poor 

 seating is in causing lateral curvature, but 

 there could no longer be any doubt that it 

 plays an important part. He favored as a 

 counteractive measure the introduction of 

 general neutral movements tending to de- 

 velop the whole child along the lines of 

 his natural muscular evolution, or exercises 

 like those of the Swedish gymnastic system. 

 Some of the participants in the discussion of 

 the reading of the paper suggested that faulty 

 school attitudes might be less potent in pro- 

 ducing curvature than bad habits acquired 

 independently of them. All agreed upon the 

 utility of suitable exercise as a counteractive. 



Contrasts in Mountain Scenery. — Writing 

 in Appalachia from the New Hampshire 

 mountains of his visit to the Sierra Madre 

 Mountains, Mr. Charles E. Fay begins by 

 describing the contrast between the two 

 scenes, than which, he says, there can hard- 

 ly be a greater one. "The cool, balsamic 

 air, the morning sky already piled with 

 cumulus cloud prophetic of showers in mid- 

 afternoon, the green fields cut by teeming 

 brooks undulating away to meet the darker 

 forest green that drapes the varied shapes of 

 Whiteface, Passaconaway, Paugus, and the 

 lower slopes of Chocorua, are a striking an- 

 tithesis to what we looked on there. These 

 mountains woo you, and there is an anticipated 

 satisfaction in the promise made yourself to 

 stand on every one of the peaks within your 

 range of vision, attaining them by pleasant 

 journeys through ferny, mossy, pathless 

 woods. But in southern California the 

 mountains do not invite one — at least, not 

 for their own sakes. The conditions of climb- 

 ing are most unfavorable. The summer heat 

 is intense. They lie beyond an unattractive 

 stretch ; for the grass and flowers that in 

 spring cover in wonderful profusion the 

 ground that slopes upward to the sudden be- 

 ginning of the steep foothills have withered, 

 and in July all is parched and barren. The 

 scattered live-oaks in the foreground, domi- 

 neered by the will of the prevailing wind, 

 have a half-frightened air; nothing of the 



repose of our maples, oaks, and white pines. 

 The mountains themselves, rising with an 

 almost monotonous uniformity of grade, are 

 also burned as dry as a cinder, their dead- 

 white rocks pallidly reflecting the remorse- 

 less sunlight. Not until near the summits or 

 deep in the canons do you find forest trees. 

 The dull vegetation of the slopes of lesser 

 altitude is of a shrubbery hard to penetrate, 

 the most common sorts being a so-called 

 greasewood (not the plant known in Colorado 

 by that name) and a disagreeable thorn-bush, 

 which, however slightly broken as you force 

 your way through it, gives forth a sticky, 

 milk-white juice ; less frequent is the ruan- 

 zanita, its smooth, reddish brown being pret- 

 tier to the eye than yielding to the push." 

 These slopes abound in rattlesnakes, and 

 there are myriads of lizards or " swifts." 



Amenities of Scientific Controversy. — 



Says the Independent, April 20, 1893 : "Not 

 on the ground of incompetency, but on the 

 ground of courtesy and decency, we will say 

 that there ought to be a certain overhauling 

 of the United States Geological Survey. Our 

 attention has been called to articles in the 

 American Anthropologist and the Literary 

 Northwest by William J McGee, member of 

 the Geological Survey, criticising a geological 

 work recently written by a competent gentle- 

 man not connected with the Survey, but who 

 has given great attention for many years to 

 surface geology. This review is sprinkled 

 with such words, applied to the author of 

 this volume, as ' idlers,' ' pitiable paupers,' 

 'swindle,' 'harpies,' 'parasites,' 'shyster,' 

 'gull,' 'vulture,' and 'betinseled charlatan.' 

 It is a long while since we have seen so inde- 

 cent an article." 



The Channels of Mars. — A new explana- 

 tion of the channels of Mars is offered by 

 Mr. T. W. Kingsmill, of Shanghai, China, as 

 follows : As Mars revolves round the sun, 

 under the rule of gravitation, it must have 

 tides on its surface ; and since its moons are 

 not sufficiently large to cause any sensible 

 rise, its tides must be mostly solar. Now, the 

 best views we have of this planet are when 

 it is in opposition — that is, when we are in- 

 terposed between it and the sun, so that we 

 should always see it best at high tide. The 

 writer then makes rather a strong point of 



