BfAECH 6, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



203 



Moqui Indians. It is a fascinating book, both 

 to the scientific and general reader. With a 

 graphic pen he carries you with him on a long- 

 trip replete with thrilling incidents, over re- 

 gions seldom visited. The book savors rather 

 of a conglomeration of detached notes, than a 

 compilation. Perhaps too much was attempted 

 in trying to give a popular account of his trip, 

 and yet preserve the flavor of the note-book 

 written on the spot, which is so valuable for 

 scientific purposes. He seems also to have 

 fallen into the mistake of supposing his read- 

 ers to be cut off from books, as he unfortu- 

 nately was, and has filled the larger part of three 

 chapters (pp. 196-225) with quotations which 

 it would have been sufficient to give b\ r refer- 

 ence. The minuteness of detail with which 

 he describes eveiy circumstance seems unne- 

 cessary while his travels were in not unknown 

 regions ; but they become invaluable when he 

 describes the snake-dance, and his visits to the 

 various Moqui villages. The book consists of 

 an account of a dance in one of the pueblos 

 on the Kio Grande, which is curious from its 

 mixture of old heathen ceremonies with the 

 Roman forms introduced hy the Spanish 

 priests ; then of his trip through a corner of 

 the Navajo reservation to the Moqui village of 

 Hualpi (pronounced Wolpi), where the snake- 

 dance was witnessed ; and then of visits to the 

 other pueblos of the Moquis. These Moquis 

 occupy several isolated mesas in north-eastern 

 Arizona, and are by far the most primitive of 

 all the Pueblo tribes. They were not affected 

 even by the Spanish civilization, as were all the 

 other tribes, including the closely related Zunis, 

 and are to-day almost what the}' were four 

 hundred or more years ago. Their life, habits, 

 costumes, and industries are described with an 

 accuracy and minuteness which renders the 

 book invaluable to the ethnologist, and yet so 

 entertainingly that no one can fail to be inter- 

 ested. The snake-dance seems to be the last 

 remnant of what was once an almost universal 

 worship among the tribes of North America. 

 Owing to fortunate circumstances and his own 

 coolness and untiring perseverance, Capt. 

 Bourke was able to see even the secret ceremo- 

 nies of this dance, which no white man has seen 

 before, or will be likely to see so thoroughlv 

 again. 



The plates accompanying the work are ad- 

 mirable reproductions of the artist's paintings. 

 It is sufficient to say that the paintings are by 

 Moran, and are accurate in color and drawing, 

 as well as spirited and realistic. — a quality 

 generally absent in illustrations of Indians. 

 Thev alone are worth the cost of the book. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The meteorological observatory at Tokio has 

 recorded 546 Japanese earthquakes in the ten years 

 ending Dec. 10, 1884. Of these, 334 (or fifty-six per 

 cent) have occurred during the six colder months, 

 and 212 (or thirty-five per cent) during the six warmer 

 months, of the year. Professor Milne's compilation of 

 387 earthquakes observed in northern Japan in the 

 two years ending October, 1883, however, shows a 

 still greater proportion for the winter months; the 

 percentages being seventy-two for the months from 

 October to March inclusive, and twenty-eight from 

 April to September. 



— Prof. J. P. OTieilly has recently published in 

 the Transactions of the Royal Irish academy a map 

 of Great Britain and Ireland in which he has at- 

 tempted to graphically represent the earthquakes of 

 the United Kingdom relative to their frequency. It 

 would appear that Ireland has been less subject to 

 shocks than Great Britain ; that the points of more 

 frequent action in Ireland lie near or on the coast; 

 and that the south coast of England presents a num- 

 ber of points of activity situated approximately on 

 the same line, in all probability connected with a 

 system of jointing corresponding to the general direc- 

 tion of the coast. 



— Dr. M. Eschenhagen writes to Nature that the 

 earthquake shock of Dec. 25 last was registered by 

 the magnetograph at the imperial marine observatory 

 at Wilhelmshaven ; the Lloyd's magnetic balance, the 

 instrument for vertical intensity, being set in oscil- 

 lation first at 9.52 p.m., local time. 



— The earthquake wave of Jan. 22 last in England 

 appeared to the vicar of Bampton to pass directly 

 under his house. A letter from Mr. Edward Parfitt 

 in Nature states that it occurred at 8.42 p.m. In the 

 drawing-room at the vicarage it appeared as if a heavy 

 traction-engine was passing close to the window: the 

 window faces eastward. In the kitchen the servants 

 were greatly alarmed by a rumbling noise and a shak- 

 ing under the floor. Some of the vicar's neighbors 

 say they heard a report ; and houses with cellars under 

 them, and higher, felt the shaking more. Some per- 

 sons who were up stairs, thinking that it was some ex- 

 plosion, rushed down stairs and out of doors. The 

 effects were also felt at Shillingford, two miles dis- 

 tant; and also at Combehead, one and a half miles 

 distant. The porters at the station describe it as like 

 a heavily-laden mineral-train passing. The only 

 damage done at Bampton was that a piece of wall 

 was thrown down. 



— It is suggested by the Seismological society of 

 Japan that the system of telegraph-stations around 

 Tokio and Yokohama may be utilized in warning the 

 inhabitants of either city of the approach of an earth- 

 quake. This might be accomplished by causing such 

 a shock, felt at any of these stations, to complete an 

 electric circuit which could be made to fire a gun 

 almost instantaneously. The inhabitants would re- 

 ceive from two to six minutes' warning, which would 

 give them sufficient time to extinguish their fires, 



