138 
SCIENCE. 
ence given to the feminine gender instead of, as in the more 
ungallant English, to the masculine ; for instance, the 
word theirs translates “ two hers.” The work I present is 
necessarily but a chrestomalthy compared to what can be 
done in the study of each of the Iroquois languages. 
Enough beauties, however, have been discovered through 
this mere insight to convince one that their possibilities 
were great. The reflection is, therefore, sad that in all 
probability fifty years hence these chrestomalthies, imper- 
fect as they are, may be the only record of their former 
existence. Even now English is fast becoming the com- 
municating medium of the people, as it is of the pulpit and 
the school. We can, therefore, safely predict that within 
the next century the Iroquois languages, as spoken by its 
six different tribes, will have become a thing of the past. 
STRUCTURE OF MICA VEINS IN NORTH 
CAROLINA. 
By W. C. Kerr. 
At Danville, Va., Professor Kerr, of Raleigh, found veins 
or dykes which seemed to have been filled neither by fused 
matter nor by the ordinary mode of infiltration, but by a 
fine granular fragmented mass, derived from the containing 
bedded rocks, by the crowding, jamming and mechanical 
comminution of the rocks themselves. The mica veins in 
North Carolina are simply dykes of very coarse granite. 
When the crystallization becomes so coarse that the diame- 
ter of the mica sheets passes three or four inches, the dyke 
is called a mica vein. These veins are found in the upper 
Laurentian or Montalban, and may be considered charac- 
teristic of that horizon in North Carolina. The most pro- 
ductive veins are found in the high plateau between the 
Blue Ridge and the Smoky mountains, mostly in two or 
three counties. The amount of marketable mica produced 
per month is not more than two or three tons, although a 
much larger quantity could be obtained if the market de- 
manded it. The most valuable of the present mica mines 
were opened and wrought by the mound-builders many ages 
ago on a much larger scale than now. There are evidences 
in the great river valleys in North Carolina of extensive 
glaciation in remote times, although the last glacial period 
is wholly unrepresented on the present surface. The pro- 
trusion of the eastern coast of North Carolina, about a hun- 
dred miles beyond the general Atlantic coast, is due to the 
interaction of the Arctic shore current and the Gulf stream, 
which collect the detritus thrown into the sea from Mary- 
land to South Carolina, and drop them about Hatteras. 
This action has carried the coast of North Carolina to with- 
in fifty miles of the margin of the deep Atlantic channel, 
and, therefore, near its limit. The sounds behind the chain 
of sand islands or dunes, known as “ The Banks,” are rap- 
idly silted up and converted into marsh and dryland by the 
sands blown over the dunes, and by the sediment brought 
down by the numerous rivers from the interior. The move- 
ment of the sand of these dunes was found to be about one 
foot per annum landward. 
TRANSFORMATION OF PLANORBIS. 
A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE EVOLUTION OF SPECIES. 
By A. Hyatt. 
The word evolution means the birth or derivation of one 
or more things or beings from others, through the action of 
natural laws. A child is evolved from its parents, a 
mineral from its constituents, a state of civilization from 
the conditions and surroundings of a preceding age. While 
evolution furnishes us with a valuable working hypothesis, 
science cannot forget that it is still on trial. The impatience 
of many when it is doubted or denied savors more of the 
dogmatism of belief than of the judicial earnestness of 
investigation. Every individual differs in certain superficial 
characters from the parent forms, but is still identical with 
hem in all its fundamental characteristics. This constantly 
recurring relationship among all creatures is the best estab- 
lished of all the laws of biology. It is the so-called law 
to heredity, that like tends to reproduce like. There seem 
to be only two causes which produce the variations which 
we observe ; one is the law of heredity, the other is the 
surrounding influences or the sum of the physicial influ- 
ences upon the organism. The first tends to preserve 
uniformity, the second modifies the action of the first. The 
law of natural selection asserts that some individuals are 
stronger or better fitted to compete with others, in the 
struggle of life, than are others of the same species : hence 
they will live and perpetuate their kind, while the others 
die out. An erroneous impression exists, that Darwinian 
doctrines are more or less supported by all naturalists who 
accept evolution, but it is far from the truth. The Darwinian 
hypothesis is so very easy of application, and saves so much 
trouble in the way of investigation, that it is very generally 
employed, without the preliminary caution of a rigid ana- 
lysis of the facts, and it is safe to say that it is often misap- 
plied. A great amount of nonsense has been written about 
its being a fundamental law, in all forgetfulness that we are 
yet to find a law for the origin of the variations upon which 
it acts ; it cannot be the primary cause of the variations, 
for the laws of heredity are still more fundamental. The 
speaker then described the situation and character of 
Steinheim, where numerous shells of the Planorbidae are 
found in the strata, which have been very regularly depos- 
ited. Hilgendorf claims to have discovered great evidences 
of the gradual evolution of the various forms from the sim- 
plest and oldest specimens, but Mr. Hyatt has failed to find 
what Hilgendorf describes. By means of a lantern a num- 
ber of illustrations of the shells were projected upon a 
screen, and quite fully described. Four lines of descend- 
ants were shown to branch out from four of the simplest 
forms, with all the gaps between the species filled with in- 
termediate varieties. Each one of the lines or series has 
its own set of characteristic differences, and its own pecu- 
liar history. It is a fair inference from the facts before us, 
that the species from the progressive series, which become 
larger and finer in every way, owe their increase in size to 
the favorable physical condition of the Steinheim basis. 
Darwinists would say that in the basin a battle had taken 
place, which only the favored ones survived. Mr. Hyatt 
endeavored to present, in a popular manner, the life-history 
of a single species, the planorbis levis, and its evolution into 
twenty or thirty distinguishable forms, most of which may 
properly be called by different names and considered as 
distinct species. He also endeavored to bring the concep- 
tion that the variations which led to these different species 
were due to the action of the laws of heredity, modified by 
physical forces, especially by the force of gravitation, into a 
tangible form. There are many characteristics which are 
due solely to the action of the physical influences which 
surround them ; they vary with every change of locality, 
but remain quite constant and uniform within each. 
MOUNDS OF ILLINOIS. 
By W. McAdams, Otterville, Ills. 
Mr. McAdams stated that during a period of some 25 
years, when leisure permitted, he had been exploring in the 
mounds of the State. Within a radius of 50 miles from the 
mouth of the Illinois river there were many thousands of 
mounds erected by the past inhabitants of the country. 
A map was shown illustrating the ancient works of the 
region, which include almost every variety of mound in the 
Union. Mr. McAdams has explored hundreds of these 
mounds, and collected a great quantity of valuable material 
illustrating the habits and customs of the people of that age. 
He gave illustrations of House, Burial, Temple and other 
Mounds. 
Many of the small mounds in this section, the speaker 
thought, were the remains of dwelling places, originally 
made by placing poles on end, or in a vertical position, 
fastened at the top, and the whole covered with sod and 
earth. This structure, after being repaired from year to 
year, would finally decay, fall to prices and form a mound. 
In many of these mounds he had found ashes, remains of 
animals eaten, and other articles that would be found in 
