SCIENCE. 
r 75 
anywhere west of Central New York. The stone imple- 
ments, and I believe there are none of copper, are ruder 
and less varied than those first mentioned and are found 
not only in Western Vermont, but also over the eastern 
portion of the State and the other New England States. 
The pottery, occurring chiefly in fragments, is incised and 
cord-marked and decorated with a great variety of patterns 
made up of straight lines, circles, &c. This and the stone 
objects, which seem to be associated with it, appear to be 
the work of a different and less highly cultivated people 
than those who made the finer specimens first mentioned, 
and their makers appear to have lived all over New England 
and Eastern New York. Thus we have evidence of the 
former occupation of Western Vermont by a widely spread 
people, of much skill in the manufacture of stone objects ; 
a people having commenced with those living in the copper 
region of Lake Superior, and with those living in Florida or 
some portion of the South, for the shell beals are, some of 
them, if not all, made from Southern species of mollusks, 
and also of an anci'ent, but later occupation by a people of 
less wide distribution and less development in arts. 
THE INDIAN CENSUS.* 
Colonel Garrick Mallery, U. S. A., now attached to the 
Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, discussed last Monday 
a subject of national interest. On the nine previous occa- 
sions when the census of the United States was directed to 
be taken, the Indians, not taxed, forming a part neither of 
the voting population nor of any basis of representation, 
were simply disregarded. The present law provides for 
the enumeration and the ascertainment of their statistics. 
This change in legislation may have arisen from the aband- 
onment of the doctrine of necessary extinction, the ferce 
natures theory combated by ( olonel Mallery at the Nash- 
ville meeting of the Association in 1877, and from the prob- 
ability of the early absorption of many of the Indians into 
the body of the taxable and voting population, which ren- 
ders them of future political importance, a factor the effect 
of which should be estimated. It is also probable that the 
interest in ethnologic research, noticeable throughout the 
country, has influenced Congress. General Walker, the 
able superintendent of the census, has availed himself of an 
agency that never before existed. The Bureau of Ethnology, 
lately established by act of Congress and now under the di- 
rection of Major Powell, was entrusted with the whole of 
the duty in question. Without the preparation already 
made by the Bureau of Ethnology the work could not be 
done accurately, and by scientific methods. It might pos- 
sibly have fallen into the hands of mere office seekers, per- 
haps of persons interested in the concealment if not per- 
petration of frauds. The enumeration of the Indians is 
difficult. Though restrained more or less successfully 
within specified limits, they are still apt to range over large 
regions, and to be away, for long periods from the place of 
their compulsory or voluntary habitation. This is especially 
the case in Summer, and the day of June fixed for the gen- 
eral census being inappropriate, the first day of October 
was selected instead. There are other causes interfering 
with accuracy. If fraud is attempted it is assisted by an 
enlarged paper-number of recipients of rations, and the In- 
dians themselves are tempted to swell their lists, both for 
rations and annuities. Hostile or troublesome bands, 
under differing circumstances, seek to exaggerate or con- 
ceal their military strength. The aboriginal reluctance of 
each person to give his own name, and of all to speak of 
deceased relatives and friends is well known. These 
and many other obstacles require that the duty shall 
be in charge of persons familiar with the Indian 
customs, who both know what to look for and how 
to find it. The forms and schedules of the general 
census being wholly inapplicable, others have been pre- 
pared with great care. They are five in number. 1. Popu- 
lation. Each sheet is confined to one family in one dwell- 
ing, that unit being of much greater importance in savage 
and barbaric than in civilized life. The location of the 
dwelling is given by legal and natural subdivisions, also 1 
its description ; if a house, whether of b/ick, stone, adobe, 
frame or log ; if pueblo, whether stone or adobe ; if lodge, 
*Read before the A. A. A. S., Bo r<?8o. 
whether of cloth, skins, slabs, poles, brush, bark, tule, stone 
or earth. The head of the family, often a woman, is first 
designated, and the relationship of each person to that 
head. For each individual the Indian name is given, with 
the English translation of that name; also the English, 
Spanish, French or other name habitually used. This 
serves not merely for identification, but brings out the 
names originally designated on the system of the gens or- 
ganization, and also the title or sobriquet generally be- 
stowed in after-life from some achievement or circumstance 
often of sociologic, if not historic, interest. Mixture of 
blood between several tribes, and between Indians and 
whites and negroes, is noted, and all matters relating to 
advance in civilization, such as wearing citizen’s dress, 
amount and kind of personal and real property ownership, 
in which is recognized cultivation of land and sources of 
subsistence. 2. The schedule for vital statistics inquires 
into the causes of deaths during the past year, and the prev- 
alence of the diseases to which Indians are subject ; among 
other interesting points obtaining in the Indian tongue a 
statement from the head of the family, or medicine man, of 
the cause of death, thus showing the aboriginal theories of 
diseases. 3, Industries , embraces every appropriate par- 
ticular under that head, classified for full and mixed bloods, 
and adopted whites and negroes, all by tribes instead of by 
families and individuals, as in the “ population ” schedule, 
and with details more useful for statistical purposes. 4, 
Education, is on the same principle. Schedule 5 guides 
and simplifies research into the wondrous system of rami- 
fied consanguinities and affinities, on which savage society 
is founded and depends. The work of the present census 
of the Indians will be of great practical value. It will cor- 
rect some popular errors which have obstructed judicious 
legislation, confused statesmanship and misled philanthropy, 
and will render frauds difficult of perpetration. The sched- 
ules also show that advantage has been taken of this op- 
portunity to lead research into points of deep scientific in- 
terest. 
EXPERIMENTS ON THE STRENGTH OF YEL- 
LOW PINE.* 
By Prof. R. H. Thurston. 
The elasticity of yellow pine timber as used in construc- 
tion is very variable, the modulus varying from one to three 
millions, the average being about two millions in small 
sections, and a little above one and a half millions in large 
timber. 
The highest values are as often given by green as by sea- 
soned timber, and that, under sixteen square inches section 
and fifty-four inches length, at least, the magnitude of the 
modulus of elasticity is independent of the size of the piece. 
The density of the wood does not determine the modulus; 
since the figure varies sometimes directly and sometimes 
inversely with the density, even where the wood is as nearly 
as possible in the same condition as to seasoning. 
A high modulus usuall}’ accompanies high tenacity and 
great transverse strength, but it is not invariably the fact 
that maximum ultimate strength is accompanied by initial 
stiffness. 
The pseudo moduli, determined by taking considerable 
deflections, are usually not greatly different from those de- 
termined from small deflections and light loads. The val- 
ues of these moduli often decrease with increase in deflec- 
tion. 
An inspection of the woods tested plainly indicates, in 
the opinion of the writer, that the density of the pines is 
so considerably modified by the amount of pitch con- 
tained in the sap channels that it cannot be regarded as 
indicative of the strength of the timber. Where quite 
free from sap the wood usually exhibits increase of 
strength and elastic resistance to deflection, with increase 
of density. 
The strength of timber, otherwise similar, is greatly af- 
fected by its structure, and the resistance offered to 
stresses applied transversely is greatest when the sections 
♦Read before the A. A. A. S., Boston, 1880. 
