February 5, 1886. J 



SCIENCE. 



119 



heavy rain the 14th and 15th, and on the 16th 

 records 'rain about every pm. this summer.' 



The remarkable gust of rain and wind that 

 wrecked the long bridge over the Connecticut River, 

 and many fine elms there and in Hadley, Jane 14, 

 1877, began as the usual darkening of more or less 

 general and ordinary cumulo-stratus at the same 

 centre near Williamsburg. It seemed hardly moving, 

 with a slight sheet of rain, for a while, and then I 

 noticed its rather rapid increase of size and motion. 

 It expanded south-east, in shape like a ploughshare, 

 and its accelerated movement down the hill-slopes 

 toward Northampton became exciting to witness. 

 There was nothing like a downward-reaching funnel ; 

 but the whole rain-cloud was near to the earth, and, 

 for a while before reaching the river-bridge, there 

 were, in front of the cloud, wisps of cloud that 

 moved rapidly upward, backward, and downward, as 

 if around a horizontal axis. After passing Hadley, 

 it exhibited no features different from a common 

 rain-cloud, and passed off over the Holyoke range. 



Files of signal-service weather-maps may be con- 

 sulted for the days above mentioned ; and citizens of 

 Northampton may recall enough to show whence the 

 tornado came on the evening of Sept. 4, 1873. The 

 hotel on Mount Holyoke would be an excellent post 

 of observation to exactly locate and watch the cloud- 

 intensifying spot above described. 



H. W. Parker. 



Grinnell, lo. 



Tadpoles in winter. 



A few days ago one of my students brought me 

 three large tadpoles, seven centimetres in length, 

 from a well in a depression in an open field. The 

 well overflows in the spring of the year, and the 

 water this winter has been quite cold, yet the tad- 

 poles do not seem torpid at all, but swim freely 

 about. 



I had always supposed that these animals could 

 only live in the warmer months of the year, and 

 would like to know if any readers of Science have 

 ever found them alive during the winter. 



H. M. Hill. 



Watertown, N.Y., Jan. 30. 



A monument to de Saussure. 



The month of August, 1887. is the centenary of the 

 ascent of Mont Blanc by de Saussure, the first to ac- 

 complish it after Jacques Balmont, the guide, whose 

 success of the previous year had been stimulated by 

 de Saussure's offer of a prize for the discovery of a 

 practicable route. 



The commune of Chamonix, with the co operation 

 of the French alpine club and others, proposes to 

 erect a monument to the eminent geologist, physicist, 

 and explorer. American contributions toward this 

 object will show our appreciation of the character of 

 the man, and the value of his work. 



The Appalachian mountain club, in response to 

 solicitation from the French society, will take pleas- 

 ure in transmitting donations, which may be sent to 

 the corresponding secretary, Prof. Charles E. Fay, 

 at the club-room. Owing to delay in receiving the 

 invitation, replies must be immediate, as the lists 

 are open abroad only until the close of the present 

 month. J. Rayner Edmands, 



President. 



The Appalachian mountain club, 



7 Park Street, Boston, Mass., Feb. 2. 



The Davenport tablets. 



In the issues of your journal for Dec. 25 and Jan. 

 1, Rev. Cyrus Thomas, of the Bureau of ethnology, 

 directs attention to the Davenport tablets, and seri- 

 ously questions their authenticity. In entering upon 

 this undertaking, Professor Thomas stated, that, to 

 properly discuss the question of their genuineness, 

 " a personal inspection of the relics, and a thorough 

 investigation of all the circumstances attending their 

 discovery, should be made ; " and then he added, " I 

 do not claim to be thus prepared." Probably no 

 writer ever before set out to prepare a piece of 1 de- 

 structive criticism ' with so frank a confession of his 

 disqualification for the task. 



In his arraignment of our relics, Professor Thomas 

 charges upon them these grave offences : that on the 

 limestone tablet the sun is represented with a face, 

 and that the artist has carved thereon the ' Arabic 8 ' 

 and the ' Roman numerals viii ; ' that on the shale 

 tablets there are also ' three Arabic 8's ; ' that nearly 

 all of the letter characters of the ' cremation scene ' 

 may be found on p. 1766 of Webster's Unabridged 

 dictionary, edition of 1872 ; and that the two forms 

 of the ' Gallic O ' appear together on the tablet just 

 as given on the page of the dictionary. These are 

 fair specimens of the arguments by which Professor 

 Thomas attempts to controvert the unimpeached 

 statements of the discoverers. The resemblances in- 

 dicated are so trivial and purely fanciful as to 

 scarcely attain the level of serious criticism. If Pro- 

 fessor Thomas will take the Grave Creek tablet, or 

 even the famous Rosetta stone, and sit down before 

 them with his ' Webster's Unabridged.' he will find 

 no end of similar resemblances. A single glance, for 

 instance, at the Grave Creek tablet will reveal the 

 ' Arabic 4,' twice repeated, and he will find his argu- 

 ments equally forcible if applied to it. In answer to 

 the accusation that the sun appears with a face, it 

 may be said that this is not uncommon in Indian 

 pictography. 



In his impeachment of the limestone tablet, Profes- 

 sor Thomas then advances this argument: "The 

 simple fact that the vault under the pile of loose 

 stones was empty, save the presence of the relic, 

 appears to absolutely forbid the idea of age. It is 

 well known to all who have taken any part in exca- 

 vating, that the water running down through earth, 

 and a pile of stones beneath / will at length fill all the 

 crevices with earth, and, in fact, all places not her- 

 metically sealed." 



It will be noticed that Professor Thomas speaks of 

 this limestone tablet being ' under a pile of loose 

 stones,' which is an inaccurate statement, inasmuch 

 as the vault wherein it was placed was entirely cov- 

 ered by a limestone slab, now in the museum of the 

 academy. Therefore, so far as any direct descent of 

 water was concerned, this vault was practically 

 'hermetically sealed.' If water entered at all, it 

 must have been horizontally through the wall of 

 loose stones at the sides. The crevices in this wall 

 were filled with decayed shells, and, as most of the 

 water falling upon a mound would pass off on the 

 surface, the small amount of moisture absorbed into 

 its substance would not ' run down through the earth ' 

 at all, but instead would slowly percolate from grain 

 to grain of sand or clay, which, having no current 

 like ' running water,' could transport little or no 

 earth. Apparently no good reason can be given why 

 a vault so protected from above, as well as at the 

 sides, could not remain empty for ages. 



