138 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 80. 



earth and sky, the proposed plan of Mr. Jamin is the 

 only logical one; and it deserves, and, coming from 

 such a source, will no doubt receive, the thorough 

 consideration of meteorologists. H. M. Paul. 



Washington, July 22. 



INDIAN LANGUAGES OF 

 AMERICA. 



SOUTH 



The Indian languages of South America certain- 

 ly, deserve to be investigated as thoroughly as any 

 other languages of the globe ; but, unfortunately, there 

 are only a few men who make of them an object of 

 research. Abstracts of their grammatic elements 

 have been published, from earlier sources chiefly, by 

 Professor Friedr. Miiller in his ' Grundziige der sprach- 

 wissenschaf t,' and by Lucien Adam in his ' Examen 

 grammatical de seize langues Americaines' (Paris, 

 1882). The following treatises, published of late, have 

 come to our notice, and have added considerably 

 to our knowledge of these curious forms of human 

 speech: 1°. Dr. Julius Platzmann's ' Glossar der feu- 

 erlandischen sprache.' This is an attempt to present 

 the Yahgan dialect of the Fuegian Islands in lexical 

 form, and is chiefly based upon a Fuegian translation 

 of the Gospel of St. Luke. It is preceded by four 

 historical and topographical articles, composed by Dr. 

 Karl Whistling, enlarging upon physical peculiarities 

 of these islands. 2°. The first results of a scientific 

 exploration of the Fuegian Islands by Bove, aided by 

 the government of Italy, have been made public by 

 Giacomo Bove, in his ' I Fuegini, secondo l'ultimo 

 suo viaggio ' (Parte prima, Genova, 1883). Extensive 

 vocabularies of the language are published in this 

 volume. 3°. A manuscript of ISIS, by John Luccok, 

 containing grammatical elements and a vocabulary 

 of the Tupi language or lingoa geral of Brazil, was 

 published at Rio de Janeiro by H. Laemmert & 

 Co., 1SS2. Curiously enough, the titlepage contains 

 the statement that the material is ' badly arranged.' 

 4°. Dr. Julius Platzmann's facsimile edition of Have- 

 stadt's book on Chilidugu, which has been previously 

 referred to in Science, iii. 550. 5°. A short ethno- 

 graphic and linguistic article on the Indians of An- 

 tioquia and of the Cauca valley, Columbian Union, 

 was published by R. B. White, F. G. S., in the Jour- 

 nal of the anthropological institute of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, 1S84. It contains vocabularies of the 

 Noanama and Tado dialects of the Choco linguistic 

 family. 0°. In the form of vocabularies of about two 

 hundred terms each, seven Bolivian languages are 

 given by Dr. Edwin R. Heath in the April number 

 (1883) of the Kansas city review. These languages 

 are the Canichana, Cayuaba, Mobima, Mosetena, 

 Pacavara, Maropa, and Tacana. The author has given 

 a graphic account of his travels through that de- 

 serted and malarial country in the Transactions of 

 the American geographical society of New York, 

 1883. 7°. The foreign and Indian words introduced 

 into the Portuguese of Brazil were collected by Braz 

 da Costa Rabim in the Rivista trimensal of Rio Ja- 

 neiro, vol. xlv., under the title ' Vocabulos indige- 



nas e outros introduzidos no uzo vulgar.' 8°. An 

 array of notices of former travellers upon the Aimo- 

 res has been gathered by A. H. Keane, professor 

 at the London university, partly anthropological, 

 partly ethnographical, with a short linguistic appen- 

 dix, and published with his own remarks in the 

 Journal of the anthropological institute, November, 

 1883 (15 pages, 8°), under the superscription \ On the 

 Botocudos.' The tribal name, Aimores ('vagrant 

 enemies'), is preferable to and much older than 

 Botocudos ('the ones wearing the lip-ornament'), 

 which applies to many other South- American tribes 

 just as well. Another name, the one by which they 

 call themselves, is Nkra/kmun (or ' men, people'). 



THE NEW BOGOSLOFF VOLCANO. 



The Grewingk or New Bogosloff volcano, de- 

 scribed in Science (Jan. 25, 1884) from observations 

 made last fall by Capts. Hague and Anderson, was 

 visited by the revenue-cutter Thomas Corwin on the 

 20th of last May. Photographs and reports have 

 been received at the treasury department which add 

 considerably to our knowledge of its condition. It 

 appears that the two peaks are united by a low dry 

 spit, or bar, of sand and gravel which has doubtless 

 been thrown up by the sea; and Ship Rock now rises 

 from this bar nearly midway between the two peaks. 

 Ship Rock, which is a nearly perpendicular pillar, 

 seems, from the position of the barnacles on its base, 

 to have been raised about twenty feet above its old 

 level. The Bogosloff peak seems to have suffered by 

 the commotion attending the eruption, as the Corwin 

 party estimates its height to be about five hundred 

 feet, while observations in 1873 by the U. S. coast 

 survey gave it a height of over eight hundred feet, 

 the upper third of which was composed of extremely 

 acute, inaccessible pinnacles. As this determination 

 was dependent upon a base-line measured by a patent 

 log, which might have been put considerably in error 

 by currents, too much dependence must not be placed 

 on the discrepancy; nevertheless, as older observa- 

 tions all gave a greater height still, it is probable that 

 a considerable change has taken place, if the Corwin's 

 estimate be correct. The Grewingk cone was stated 

 to be eight hundred or a thousand feet in height, and 

 three-quarters of a mile in diameter, by Capt. Hague. 

 It is now reported to be nearly the same height as 

 the Bogosloff peak, or some four hundred and fifty 

 feet in height and half a mile in diameter. Until 

 the details of the survey are received, no exact figures 

 can be given. A convenient landing-place is formed 

 by the bight on either side of the sand-spit above 

 mentioned, where the shore is also bold, there being 

 three fathoms under the stern, with the boat's head on 

 the beach. Farther off, the soundings are regular for a 

 short distance, and then drop to a considerable depth ; 

 north from the Grewingk peak, however, no bottom 

 could be found close in with ninety fathoms of line. 

 The observations for position do not seem to have 

 been very good, owing to cloudy weather, but showed 

 a close correspondence with earlier determinations. 



