NOTES. 



575 



though servile and subject to the Masai, are 

 not slaves. They present almost the appear- 

 ance of dwarfs. "I saw no man among 

 them," she says, " who attained a height of 

 over four feet and a few inches ; most of 

 them were very much smaller. The Masai 

 know no law but that of capture, and attack 

 the Taveta with much animosity. Their 

 custom of forbidding passage through their 

 territory is enforced by placing in the middle 

 of the path, over which an individual or a 

 caravan must pass, a bullet over which they 

 cross two twigs stripped of foliage, with the 

 exception of a tufted top ; the first person 

 crossing this barrier is usually speared or 

 shot. Not knowing of this custom, I inad- 

 vertently came to such a barrier and kicked it 

 aside, when I was seized by one of my head- 

 men, who held me back, informing me that 

 if I crossed that point I should most likely 

 be assassinated; and in a moment about 

 thirty young Masai warriors made their ap- 

 pearance in a great state of agitation, with 

 frantic gesticulations, announcing that I must 

 pay a certain amount of hongo for the depre- 

 dation I had committed." The author had 

 great difficulty in getting even instantaneous 

 photographs of any of the tribes. They re- 

 garded the camera as a species of witch- 

 craft, and were put to flight the moment 

 they saw a square box held up before them. 

 But they were greatly entertained by the 

 music-box; and the principal men of the 

 tribe would sit by the hour round the tent 

 while it was playing, waving themselves back- 

 ward and forward, and repeating " God ! god ! 

 god ! give us rain ! god, give us clothes ! " 

 until Mrs. French-Sheldon began to feel that 

 her resources in the way of exerting influ- 

 ence with the supreme power were very much 

 overtaxed. 



Platinum and its Sources. — Platinum is 

 used in the manufacture of incandescent 

 electric lamps, in the construction of stills 

 for the concentration of sulphuric acid, as 

 material for the wires by which artificial 

 teeth are fastened to plates, and in smaller 

 quantities for chemists' crucibles, jewelry, 

 etc. For all these purposes about 215,000 

 ounces are consumed every year. The Ural 

 region of Russia has for many years supplied 

 all the platinum used in the world. Other 

 mines of far less productiveness are in the 



United States of Colombia, British Columbia, 

 and the United States. Colombia produces 

 about a hundred and twenty- five kilogrammes 

 of the metal, all from native washings. The 

 platiniferous area, although of low grade, is 

 very extensive, and in part suitable for hy- 

 draulic mining. A considerable quantity of 

 American capital, it is said, has been invested 

 there, and Colombia is expected to become 

 an important producer of the metal. The 

 only platinum deposits of importance in Brit- 

 ish Columbia are on the Talameen River. 

 The total production of this province is 

 about sixty-five kilogrammes. Much prospect- 

 ing for platinum has been done in the United 

 States, but so far without success in finding 

 paying quantities, and to the present time 

 all the platinum produced has been inci- 

 dental to the production of gold from various 

 auriferous gravels in California and Oregon. 



NOTES. 



According to a paper by Miss Millicent 

 W. Shinn, the great refractor of the Lick 

 Observatory and the observatory itself may be 

 traced to Mr. Lick's desire to be immortalized 

 by leaving bequests for costly statues of him- 

 self and family. He was told by Mr. Staples 

 that "more likely we shall get into a war 

 with Russia or somebody, and they will come 

 round here with war ships and smash the 

 statues in pieces in bombarding the city." 

 Mr. Lick was so struck by this that he asked, 

 " What shall I do with the money, then ? " 

 when the suggestion of the telescope was 

 made. 



Many of the allusions and much of the 

 science found in sixteenth century literature, 

 including the works of Jonson, Spenser, Mar- 

 lowe, Massinger, and Shakespeare, are derived 

 from the Be Proprietatihus Herum of Bar- 

 tholomew Anglicanus, a Franciscan monk, 

 which was written in Latin about the middle 

 of the thirteenth century, and was translated 

 into English by John of Trevisa in 1397. 

 The work affords a curious insight into the 

 ideas of our ancestors about natural phe- 

 nomena, and into their credulity in believing 

 the stories of wonders from far countries. 

 Much of it is derived from ancient authori- 

 ties. A budget of selections from this book 

 has recently been published in London. 



The oscillation of projectiles is photo- 

 graphically recorded by Prof. Neesen, of 

 Berlin. He employed hollow projectiles, in 

 the interior of which was placed a sensitive 

 plate, illuminated by sunlight through a small 

 opening. During the rotatory flight of the 

 projectile the ray of light described curves 



