NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



67 



thin, but if the edge of the knife is 

 allowed to run too deep, it is 

 liable to be notched. Portions of 

 thin structures like leaves, petals, 

 etc., may readily be sectioned by 

 placing them between pieces of 

 elder or sunflower pith. Always 

 clean the knife after cutting with 

 it, and do not allow fragments of 

 tissue to dry upon it. Sections of 

 fresh tissues, or of those that have 

 been preserved in any of the pre 

 servative fluids, should immediate- 

 ly be place in liquid after cutting, 

 to prevent air from getting into 

 the cells. 



9. In all your work with the 

 microscope, proceed understand- 

 ing^. Endeavor to know the rea- 

 son for every test you are called 

 upon to apply, and be careful in 

 interpreting the results of each 

 test. Do not rest satisfied until 

 you thoroughly understand every 

 tissue and structure given you for 

 study. 



10. It is excellent practice for 

 the student to keep an accurate 

 record in writing, and by means of 

 drawings, of all the facts observed 

 and the work done by him in the 

 microscopical laboratory. — Mi- 

 croscope. 



Remarkable Archaeological Dis- 

 covery of Recent Years. 



Vast and wonderful are the treas- 

 ures which the spade, that humble 

 instrument of toil, has brought to 

 light in recent years from the 

 ruins of cities buried beneath the 

 dust of many centuries — buried so 

 deep and so long ago that their 

 very names have passed out of the 

 records of man, and even the learn- 

 ed antiquarians who study over the 

 upturned relics of by-gone times 

 are at a loss to " know where or 

 what the link may be connecting 

 them with modern civilization. 

 Stranger than the strangest fiction, 

 and more marvelous than the 

 dreams of the poets, are the dis- 

 coveries made in the under-world 

 by the busy, patient, plodding sci- 

 entists of these m odern days. It 

 is a saying that of "human mold 

 we reap our daily bread." 



So has been revealed to us by 

 the archaeologist the equally start- 

 ling fact that we are literally walk- 

 ing day by day upon the very tombs 

 of a buried race of men. This is 

 true, even here in America,- which 

 we are wont to think of as a new 

 country, a virgin land, whose whole 

 history dates back only a few brief 

 years. As a matter of sober and 

 scientific fact many of the richest 



and rarest archaeological "finds" 

 of recent years have been right 

 here under our so-called "primeval 

 forests" and the "virgin soik'of our 

 valleys and uplands. 



It was only the other day, in a 

 rock-hewn tomb down in Southern 

 Mexico, that there was found a 

 bronze and hammered iron sword, 

 bearing on its blade and handle — 

 in rich inlaying of silver — charac- 

 ters of record and representations 

 of life distinctively Assyrian and 

 Grecian. The roughly hammered 

 iron blade showed the crudity of 

 the early days of the iron age, but 

 the exquisite inlaying of silver on 

 the bronze bore testimony to the 

 cunning of the silversmiths who 

 wrought the weapon. To all ap- 

 pearances, and according to the 

 inscriptions, it was a royal arm, 

 for on its ample hilt it bore in hor- 

 izontal lines the crowned head of 

 its evident wearer, while below, in ( 

 cuneiforn characters on the blade, 

 were apparently the title and name 

 of the sovereign. The sword and 

 scabbard weighed twelve pounds, 

 of which the sword alone repre- 

 sented two-thirds of the total. 

 How a Chaldean sword could find 

 its way into the tomb in Mexico is 

 more than any one has been able 

 to conjecture. 



All over the Central and South- 

 ern Mexico there are relics of a de- 

 parted race whose annals antedate 

 even those of the Aztecs. Anti- 

 quarians have endeavored to read 

 their history in the stones of Tula, 

 which was the old Toltec capital, 

 now a place of ruins. Old Tula is 

 now overgrown and half hidden 

 from sight. San Juan Teotituacan 

 also is famous for its two great 

 earthen, pyramids which stand out 

 on the plain, a half mile apart. 

 One of them was dedicated to the 

 sun, the other to the moon. The 

 earth for miles around is filled with 

 small images — caritas — insomuch 

 that it seems as if these ancient 

 people spent most of their time in 

 making them. 



A marvelous story is that which 

 comes from Arizona, where a few 

 months ago some prospectors in 

 the Bradshaw Mountains came up- 

 on a cliff dwellers' village in one 

 of the most inaccessible canons of 

 that range, the largest village of the 

 kind ever yet discovered. Several 

 of the houses were explored and 

 large quantities of pottery and some 

 instruments, evidently used for 

 cultivating the soil were found. In 

 one the skeleton of a man, not over 

 four ft. eight in. in height, was dis- 

 covered. The canon at this place 

 is half a mile wide and shows evi- 



dence of having been cultivated. 

 If this theory proves to be true, it 

 will throw more light on the habits 

 of this little known people. So far 

 as known no other evidence has 

 ever been discovered of cliff dwell- 

 ers having cultivated the soil. An 

 Austrian student, Herr Low, who 

 has been ! raveling in Central Amer- 

 ica, has recently obtained and for- 

 warded to the Imperial Museum 

 in Vienna twelve large stone slabs 

 bearing foot prints in the solid rock 

 taken from the quarry over Lake 

 Managua, in the territory of Nica- 

 ragua. 



These foot prints had been over- 

 lain by eleven different layers of 

 stone, extending to a depth of four 

 meters, and indicating an antiquity 

 for our race quite transcending all 

 conjectures hitherto hazarded. 

 They are about three-quarters of a 

 meter square and are sunk into the 

 stone to a depth, of from eight to 

 ten centimeters. The footprints 

 are said to be very conspicuous, 

 and seem to be those of three dis- 

 tinct persons, one of whom was a 

 child. To what race or what age 

 they belonged no one yet has ven- 

 tured to guess. 



Curious and puzzling as any- 

 thing brought to light in recent 

 years was some ancient handiwork 

 found not long ago in making ex- 

 cavations for a canal connecting 

 lakes Eustis and Dora, in southern 

 Florida. The first excavations re- 

 vealed the existence of a clearly 

 defined wall lying in a line tend- 

 ing toward the southwest, from 

 where it was first struck. The wall 

 was composed of a dark-brown 

 sandstone, very much crumbled in 

 places, but more distinct, more 

 clearly defined, and the stone more 

 solid as the digging increased in 

 depth. The wall was evidently 

 the eastern side of an ancient home 

 or fortification, as the slope of the 

 outer wall was to the west. About 

 eight feet from the slope of the 

 eastern wall a mound of sand was 

 struck, imbedded in the muck for- 

 mation above and around it. This 

 sand mound was dug into only a 

 few inches, but enough was discov- 

 ered to warrant the belief that here 

 on the northwestern shore of Lake 

 Dora is submerged a city or town 

 or fortification older by centuries 

 than anything yet discovered in 

 this portion of Florida. Small, 

 curiously shaped blocks of sand- 

 stone, some of them showing traces 

 of fire, pieces of pottery, and uten- 

 sils made of mottled flint, were 

 thrown out by the men while work- 

 ing waist deep in water. One 

 spear head of mottled flint, five 



