T6 The West American Scientist. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. Crossman, of the California State Mining Bureau, asserts 

 that the Klamath river, in the Siskiyou mountain foothills, is the 

 last remnant of a stupendous river like the Mississippi or Amazon, 

 which watered broad fertile valleys previous to the upheavel of 

 the present coast range of mountains. This was at a period con- 

 temporaneous with the mammoth, mastodon and other species of 

 that creation. The bones of these animals are found on the 

 banks of this prehistoric river. It is also asserted that a print of 

 a moccasined foot, two feet in length, was lately discovered at 

 Soda Bar in the Siskiyou foothills, and Mr. Crossman has made 

 arrangements to secure a plaster mold of the foot-prints for pre- 

 servation in the State Museum. 



Prof. Morse, of Salem, Mass., has invented a most interesting 

 and practical method of utilizing the heat of the sun. The 

 arrangement consists of a shallow box, the bottom of which is of 

 corrugated iron, and the top of glass, and is placed in such a 

 position that the sun shines directly upon it, the rays of the sun 

 pass through the glass and are absorbed by the iron heating 

 it to a high temperature, and by a system of ventilation, 

 a current of air is passed through the apparatus and into the room 

 to be heated. By these means the air has been heated on sunny 

 days to about ninety degrees of Fahrenheit by passing over the 

 iron. 



One of the human foot-prints found in volcanic rock in Nicara- 

 gua several years ago, is described by Dr. G. Brinton as being 

 nine and one-half inches long, three inches wide at the heel and 

 four and one-half at the toe. The apparent length of the foot it- 

 self is eight inches. Dr. Brinton considers the foot-prints genuine 

 but is uncertain whether they are so ancient as has been sup- 

 posed. 



PUBLISHERS' NOTES. 



Mr. George Kennan contributed to the September Century an article on • Exile by 

 Administrative Process,' in which he gives a great number of instances of the banishment of 

 persons to Siberia, without the observance of any of the legal formalities that in most countries 

 precede or attend a deprivation of rights. Mr. Kennan also discusses, in an open letter in 

 this number of The Century, the question, ' Is the Siberian Exile System to be at Once Abol- 

 ished?' stating his reasons for believing that the plan of reform now being discussed in Rus- 

 sia, and which is said by the London ' Spectator ' to involve the entire abolition of exile to 

 Siberia as a method of punishment, will not be put into operation. Mr. Kennan says that the 

 present plan is one proposed by the chief of the Russian Prison Department, with whom he 

 had a long and interesting conversation just before his departure from St. Petersburg. It 

 grew out of the many complaints of the respectable inhabitants of Siberia, who demanded that 

 the penal cla-ses of Russia should not be turned loose upon them. The Russian official only 

 hoped to restrict and reform the system, so as to make it more tolerable to the Siberian peo- 

 ple, by shutting up in prisons in European Russia a certain proportion of prisoners who are 

 now sent to Siberia. This reform would have affected in the year 1885 fewer than three 

 thousand exiles out of a total of over ten thousand. 



Before such a plan goes to the Council of State for discussion it is always submitted to the 

 ministers within whose jurisdiction it falls — in the present case, the Minister of Justice, the 

 Minister of Finance, an.l the Minister of the Interior. Two of these officers have already dis- 

 approved of the plan, the Minister of Justice declaring that ' exile to Siberia fov political and 

 religious offenses must be preserved,' and it is Mr. Kennan's belief that the scheme will not 

 even reach the Council of State. 



This is by no means the first measure of reform which has been submitted to the Tsar's 

 ministers, but every effort has so far been fruitless, and the plans have been found ' im- 

 practicable.' 



