SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 100. 



return with his boat loaded with clams, the meat of 

 which was given to the country-people in return for 

 opening the shells, as they were ruined by boiling. 

 The blue 'heart' of the clam, as it was called, w r as 

 cut out, and made up into the beads used for the 

 ground-work of bells. My informant said, further, 

 that he had often paid out thousands of dollars per 

 week, buying the beads of the white country-people, 

 who manufactured them in their several homes. The 

 hole of the bead was made with an ' arm drill,' and 

 the beads were polished or rounded on grindstones. 

 He says the white beads cannot be made from clam, 

 but from conch shells, which they have always im- 

 ported from the West Indies. The young clams can- 

 not be used, and the old have so deerea>ed in number 

 that this branch of the industry has been greatly re- 

 duced. 



I had with me an Iroquois wampum belt, bearing 

 the marks of age, which they immediately pronounced 

 to have been made after their manner. Although 

 they had been familiar with Indians, they had never 

 known of their making the beads. They had always 

 depended upon the trappers for their market, and re- 

 lated incidents connected with their dealings with 

 ' fur companies,' etc. The conch-shell is used also 

 in the manufacture of the pipe beads, rosettes, etc. 

 The holes in the pieces composing the rosettes are 

 drilled, some of them, by the country-women in the 

 vicinity. Specimens of the latter I shall take to New 

 Orleans to represent a minute branch of the industry. 



If desired, I will resume this subject at a future 

 time, and will present other proofs which go far to- 

 wards supporting the statement made by the director 

 of the Bureau of ethnology. 



Eeminnie A. Smith. 



Was it imagination? 



The note on artificial auroras, in Science for Nov. 

 14, reminds me of an experience which occurred to 

 myself and party on a mountain summit two or three 

 years ago. There was an unusually brilliant aurora, 

 and it was remarked by several that the streamers 

 seemed to be very near us; and presently, as we stood 

 in the open air with heads uncovered, we began to 

 feel the sensations produced by proximity to a body 

 charged with electricity. The fact that such a sensa- 

 tion had actually been produced by the aurora, was 

 doubted by some scientific men to whom I mentioned 

 it; and it was attributed to imagination, which, I fear, 

 is guilty of much, and often accused of mote. My 

 object now is chiefly to inquire whether others have 

 had a similar experience. If, during the exhibition 

 of an aurora, such an artificial pillar of light can be 

 formed, I see no reason for doubting the evidence of 

 my own senses; which, by the way, was so definite, 

 and so distinctly perceived, that I could not doubt it 

 if I desired to do so. E. T. Quimby. 



THE MANAGERS TO THE READERS. 



It is not often that the managers of this 

 journal feel disposed to address their readers 

 with editorial directness. Our principal dut}* 

 is to record with fidelit}* and promptness the 

 progress of science, and to make such com- 

 ments upon its achievements as will enable 

 intelligent people to follow with ease the course 



of inquiry in departments which are remote 

 from their daily avocations. But the opening 

 of a fifth volume furnishes us an opportunity 

 for a few retrospective and prospective obser- 

 vations. 



We have successfully* passed w r hat is some- 

 times called ' the dangerous second year.' A 

 more intimate acquaintance with our staff of 

 contributors, and a more accurate knowledge 

 of the requirements of our readers, have enabled 

 us from time to time to modify our original 

 plans, and to adapt them more closely to the 

 actual scientific condition of the country. 



We are constantly exposed to contrary ten- 

 dencies. The cry often reaches us for - more 

 popular ' articles. The public appetite, which 

 has been whetted for half a century by muse- 

 ums, lectures, magazines, books, and tracts, 

 revealing the ' wonders of science,' - the curi- 

 osities ' of nature, the mysteries of the micro- 

 scope, the magnitudes of the telescope, and 

 other like marvels, calls upon us to give more 

 entertaining and sometimes more sensational 

 papers. When this desire is somewhat mod- 

 erated, it still looks for novelties, surprising dis- 

 coveries, extraordinary announcements, and is 

 liable to disappointment if our weekly issue 

 appears with ' nothing striking in it.' On the 

 other hand, the teachers and leaders of science 

 would generally be glad to have this journal 

 become more scientific, and less popular, by 

 printing longer papers than we commonly offer, 

 more abstracts of important memoirs, more 

 elaborate discussions of controverted points. 

 Between these two opposing tendencies, it is 

 no eas} T task to keep a steady course. A brief 

 recapitulation of our principles may enable our 

 readers to understand our position. 



In the first place, Science aims to gather 

 from original American sources early and 

 trustworthy information in respect to the sci- 

 entific work wmich is in progress in every part 

 of this land and under all the various agencies, 

 governmental, institutional, social, and indi- 

 vidual. We do all in our power to elicit from 

 the universities, the learned societies, the labo- 

 ratories, the surve3's, the observatories, and 

 the national scientific departments, accurate 



