chambered by foxes and badgers, and the natural arrangement upset.

The gray to black ash-layer passes imperceptibly into the gray soil, which consists essentially of limestone, gravel, ashes, and, at the lower part, of bones and flint masses. Among these are found innumerable hammers of rolled stone, and large limestone blocks used as seats around the hearth. These are distinguished both by form and size from the flat stone seats of the older deposit. So, too, there are two sorts of flint borers, which disappear as one goes deeper. The prevailing bones here are those of the reindeer and the horse, but those of the Alpine hare are much rarer than in the older deposit. The yellow soil was in places replaced by bone breccia, interspersed with flint nodules, handiwork, and refuse. The layer itself is divided into two parts separated by a layer of rolled stones among which were found numerous chisel-shaped, cut and split bone implements, stone knives and scrapers, bone needles, etc., with the aforenamed flat stones ranged around. Pebbles split by fire, resembling the New Zealand cooking stones in form, size, and general appearance are also abundant. The evidences of this latest excavation enable us to say decisively that man was the contemporary of the mammoth, the reindeer, the glutton, and the other subarctic animals in Central Europe at the close of the last Glacial epoch, that he knew nothing of metals or agriculture, that he had domesticated no animals, not even the dog, that he lived by hunting, but was, nevertheless, familiar with fire, intelligent, and artistic. He was uncivilized, but there is nothing to indicate that he was nearer the apes than we are.

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN EXPEDITION. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, London, January.

THI

HIS important expedition has succeeded in traversing, from north to south, the first, or most southerly of the three great blanks it was commissioned to explore. This is the wide interior space lying between the track of Forrest in 1874 and that of Giles in 1875. The party crossed the boundary between South and West Australia, at a point to the east of Fort Müller, in lat. 26° 10′ S., and long. 128° E., and struck south across the desert from Mt. Squires, making for Queen Victoria Spring on Giles's track of 1875. Arriving at that expected abundant water supply, they found it nearly dry, and all hopes of a thorough exploration of the region were destroyed. Under these circumstances, and sorely straitened for water, a direct route was taken for the nearest cattle stations, near the southern seaboard of West Australia and Esperance Bay, from which latter port, Mr. David Lindsay, the leader of the expedition, dispatched reports to Adelaide in October last. The country traversed appeared to have had no rain for two years. Owing to admirable management on the trying march of 560 miles through an almost waterless country, the health of the party had not suffered, and only two of the camels had died. Notwithstanding the extreme aridity of the region, Mr. Lindsay says it cannot be characterized as a desert, for the country is more or less clothed with bushes and trees, and for many miles there is a gum-tree forest which extends into South Australia, the trees reaching often three feet in diameter and fifty to sixty feet in height. He adds that the clean white trunks and dark-green tops of the trees, from a short distance, present a charming aspect, but that a nearer examination presents the usual signs of aridity, the ground being covered with nothing but the desert-loving spinifex, and useless shrubs. Mr. E. A. Wells, the surveyor of the expedition, reports that the whole of the country traveled over from Mount Squires, was inhabited by natives who got their water supply partly by draining the roots of certain mallee trees, some of which, distinguishable only by the keen eyes of a native, yield quantities of pure water. It was Mr. Lindsay's intention to remain near the South coast for some weeks to

restore the strength of the sorely-tried camels, and then to proceed again towards the interior, taking a more westerly route, so as to cross Giles's route at Ullaring, and Forrest's track at Mount Ida, and thence on to Hope's station via the new gold fields. From the last mentioned place he had hopes of making an excursion southeast as far as latitude 28°, thus completing sufficiently the examination of the first great area it is the object of the expedition to explore before proceeding to the second, further north.

THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH.
GEO. C. HURLBUT.

Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, New York,
Vol. xxiii, No. 4, Pt. 1.

THE

THE eighth number of the publication, Die Bevölkerung der Erde, founded by Behm and Wagner in 1872, was arrested by the death of Dr. Behm in 1884, and was not completed until the present year.

It gives the total population of the earth at about 1,480,000,ooo, divided as follows: Europe, with 9,729,861 square kilometres, has 357,379,000 inhabitants; Asia has 44,142,658 sq. kil., and 825,954,000 inhabitants; Africa, 29,207,000 sq. kil., and 163,953,000 inhabitants; America (North and South), 38,334,000 sq. kil., and 121,713,000 inhabitants; Australia and Tasmania, 7,695,726 sq. kil., and 3.230,000 inhabitants; the Oceanic Islands, 1,898,700 sq. kil., and 7,420 000 inhabitants; and the Polar Regions, 4,482,620 sq. kil., and 80,400 inhabitants. In the figures for Asia are included the islands, excepting those of the Arctic, Iceland, and Nova Zembla; and the Atlantic Islands are left out of the calculation for Europe; Madagascar and other islands are excluded from the estimates for Africa, and the Polar regions from the American estimate. Some lakes, gulfs, and inland seas are included in the estimates of areas.

For many countries of the world figures represent only the probable population and area, estimated, in the absence of exact data, from the most trustworthy information within reach. The most densely peopled country is Belgium with 533 to the square mile. Then follow in Europe, the Netherlands with 355, Great Britain and Ireland with 319, Italy with 270, the German Empire with 233, Switzerland with 184, France with 182, Austro-Hungary with 169, Denmark with 146, Portugal with 123, Servia with 116, Roumania with 97, Spain with 88, Greece with 87, European Turkey with 82, European Russia (without Finland) with 48, Sweden with 27. and Norway with 14.

In Asia, Frencli and Portuguese India have 489 to the square mile, Japan has 270, China proper 231, British India 195. In America, the greatest density of population is in the French possessions which have 64 inhabitants to the square mile, the West Indies come next with 56, and the United States with 18, though the Statesman's Year Book, for 1891, makes the density 21.5; Mexico and Central America have each 15, the South American States range from 10 down to 2.5, and British North America comes in last with only 1.6 to the square mile.

Australia has inhabitant to the square mile, and New Zealand counts 5.

E

MOUNT ST. ELIAS AND ITS GLACIERS.

ISRAEL C. RUSSELL.

American Journal of Science, New Haven, March. ARLY in June of the present year, I returned to the St. Elias region, and with five camp hands for companions, crosed the Malaspina glacier to the Chaix hills and from there went up the Agassiz and Newton glaciers. Our highest camp was in the snow, in the great amphitheatre in which the Newton glacier rises, between Mt. Newton and Mt. St. Elias, at an elevation of 8,000 feet. We occupied it for twelve days, being prevented from advancing by clouds and snow storms. On the day we did advance we climbed to the divide between Mt. Newton and Mt. St. Elias, and from there ascended the north slope of the great pyramid forming the summit of Mt. * 10,000 sq. kilometres 3,861.161 sq. miles.

St. Elias until we reached an elevation of a little over 14,500 feet above the sea.

But I

From the divide, and while climbing the slope above it, we had an unobstructed view of the vast unexplored region north of the St. Elias range. The day was unusually beautiful, and a strange land which had never before been seen by man, lay spread out like a map beneath our feet. Having previously crossed the mountain-system of which the St. Elias range forms a part, some two hundred miles east of Mt. St. Elias, and traversed the country to the northward, I expected, on reaching the divide between Mt. Newton and Mt. St. Elias, to behold a similar region. I pictured to myself a comparatively low forested land, interspersed with lakes, and divided by streams, and perhaps giving some signs of human occupation. was entirely mistaken. What did meet my astonished gaze was a vast snow-covered region, limitless in its expanse, through which hundreds, and perhaps thousands of barren mountainpeaks project. There was not a stream, not a lake, and not a vestige of vegetation in sight. A more desolate or a more lifeless land one never beheld. Vast, smooth snow-surfaces, without crevasses or breaks, stretched away to seemingly limitless distances, diversified only by jagged and angular mountainpeaks. The general elevation of the snow-surface is about 8,000 feet while the mountain-peaks, which pierce it, are from ten to twelve thousand feet or more, in altitude above the sea. To the north I could see every detail in the forbidding landscape for miles and miles. The most distant 'peaks in that direction were forty or fifty miles away. To the southeast was Mount Fairweather, sharply defined against the sky, although 200 miles distant. About an equal distance to the northwest are two prominent mountainranges, the highest peaks of which appeared to be as lofty as Mount Fairweather. These are in the vicinity of Mount Wrangell, but no volcanic vapor could be seen about them.

The view to the north called to mind the pictures that explorers give, of the borders of the great Greenland ice-sheet, where many rocky islands, known as nunataks, alone break the monotony of the great boundless sea of ice. The region before me was a land of nunataks.

A

RELIGIOUS.

RELIGIOUS FANATICISM AND WAR.

J. FROHSCHAMMER. Deutsche Revue, Breslau, March. CCORDING to an old legend there was a period in the infancy of the race when all men lived together on the plains of Shinar, speaking one common language. There, according to the legend, they resolved to build a city and also a tower whose pinnacle should reach to the blue vault of Heaven, that they might thereby make a name for themselves, and that it might become a point of union in case they and their descendants should be scattered over the earth. The legend has it that God was displeased with the undertaking, and came down and confused their tongues, so that they could no more understand each other, but became the subjects of division and strife, in consequence of which they separated, and spread over the earth. This legend originated evidently in a very imperfect conception of God, and of his methods of dealing with men; but, be that as it may, what is told in this old legend of the building of the Tower of Babel, is shown, in the history of humanity to have been brought about by religion, by the origin and development of the consciousness of a divinity, and through religious culture; for, from the beginning until now, nothing has tended SO much to engender animosity as religion, nothing has so much promoted misunderstanding and strife, as belief in the supernatural, the divine! In so far, then, it may certainly be said that it is God Himself who introduced divisions and strife among men, yet not the actual living God, only God as created

in the intellectual apprehensions of men. Moreover, the more perfect the religion, the more and keener are the divisions and strifes which it engenders, as is evidenced by Judaism and Mohammedanism, and no less so by Christianity from its foundation until now. Religion, which should promote peace and union among men, and bring them blessings and happiness, has had precisely the opposite effect. Religion testifies to the common weaknesses of humanity inasmuch as through it there is a universal appeal to higher and supernatural power in times of difficulty or distress. It testifies no less to the common dignity of humanity, because through it all men afford evidence of a loftier nature and endowments which elevate them above the things of earth.

The gods of the heathen, the national gods, were simply divine personifications of the national aims, political as well as religious, and as such were not calculated to provoke that religious fanaticism which prevailed in later ages. It was only in case of conquered races being carried away captive that there was any occasion for the play of fanaticism.

But the case was very different with the Monotheistic Israelites. It is true that the one God of this people was primarily and essentially a national God, but He was also at the same time apprehended as a universal God, a God of all the gods of the nations. The constitution of the Israelites was not politico-religious like that of the heathen nations, but religiopolitical, that is to say, a theocracy. Their political life and aims were ostensibly in conformity with God's behests. They believed that God had given them the land of Canaan for an inheritance, and in their fanaticism they deemed it their duty to exterminate the original inhabitants. They recognized no rights of the conquered people, and showed mercy neither to young nor old, because to have done so would have been in violation of the behests of their God. This belief of the Israelites that they were led directly by God for the accomplishment of His will, engendered in every case of opposition, a blind fanaticism, and made a fearful religious war of what would otherwise have been a simple war of conquest. Religious fanaticism consists essentially in this, that the person dominated by it believes that he has inherited his religious convictions direct from God, that his actions are in furtherance of God's will, and that any opposition to him is tantamount to hostility to God. This naturally fills him with indignation and hate, which expresses itself in wild deeds, when these are possible. The religious fanatic comports himself towards those of other creeds, as though he were himself the absolute infallible God, and as if all men must accept his views, unqualifiedly, under penalty of loss of freedom and of life.

Christianity, also, in the course of its development, has not been wanting in this religious, wild, and violent, nay, even horrible, fanaticism, only in this case it takes the dominant form of fanatical religious orthodoxy against so-called heterdoxy or heresy. Jesus Himself separated religion, the belief in God, and morality, the God-given obedience to the Divine will, from all earthly power; but as the Church gathered strength, it became fanatical and persecuting, and the State was called upon to draw the Sword for the conversion or extirpation of the heathen, and from time to time all Christendom took up arms to decide the claims of the opposing parties in the Church, so that practically, as one side or the other triumphed, orthodoxy became a mere question of physical force. Even Augusagainst the Donatists, on the ground that it was done for the tine justified the application of force on behalf of the Church benefit of the subjugated themselves.

The sixteenth century is especially characterized by its religious wars, and the fires lighted by the Papacy for the extinction of heresy have but recently died out. England, Germany, and France were the theatres of the most terrible religious war, and in the other countries of Europe, fanatical persecutions were alternately indulged in by both religious parties, and fire and sword were everywhere the recognized modes of conversion, and of doing God's service; although one might rather have supposed that an immediate Divine revelation from an Incarnate Deity, who came to instruct and redeem the world, would have resulted in peace and concord.

THE STATE OF THE ARMENIAN CLERGY.

"HOROH."

The Hairenik (Armenian), Constantinople, February.

(This writer, on occasion of an obituary notice of Mr. Spurgeon, is pointing out the fatal lack of preachers in the Armenian church, and goes on to describe the ordinary ministrations of the clergy.)

THE

HE fact is that to the clergy the Church is a shop, its altar and its ornaments are the instruments of trade, and all connected with it, from Vartabed to Verger, are absorbed in getting money, the Holy Days and fast days being regarded as the time for pushing business. Here is a picture of one of these services: It is Christmas night. The church has none of the simplicity of the churches of olden time, but is decorated like a Bazaar in Pera. I went to the church expecting to hear a sermon, to be instructed and inspired by thoughts suited to the day. The preacher gave a Christmas sermon. It was a recitation from memory of a set form of words, which he has repeated every year ever since I can remember. It occupied fifteen minutes, and the preacher poured out his soul in an impassioned plea for money. This occupied half an hour. While the Mass was going on, the deacons and others were pushing their way through the congregation with plates to take up contributions. All but two of the priests left the altar, and throwing something over their vestments, seized plates and ran to join in the spoiling of the multitude. While the priests at the altar are chanting Stand in fear, stand with trembling," the priests pushing their way through the congregation are preventing the people from either standing or trembling, by their appeal to them to remember the "preacher's" plate, the “deacon's" plate, the "school" plate, the plate “for the rest of souls," etc. The din of changing money is heard. Discussions arise over the acceptibility of worn silver, and while the one in front is settling such a question, those behind, compelled to wait, pass the time in chat with their friends in the congregation. So intent are the priests that they do not see that they are interrupting the service, and at the words from the altar Take, eat, this is My body," the congregation have to interfere to make them wait until the "Take, eat" is finished. After this service followed the ceremony of the Baptism of Christ. I thought now, at least, we shall hear a sermon. The preacher went up into the pulpit, said a few hasty words about Baptism, and then gave his time to an appeal to the people to remember and give freely to the plate of St. John, the Fore

#runner.

Here is another picture of the church on a common feastday: I went early in order to hear the beautiful hymn of "The Consecrated Ones." But out of the six priest's only two had yet arrived, and they, with the assistance of a boy, were rattling through the solemn words. By the time they had finished, the other priests began to come in. Last of all comes the preacher of the day. Then the Mass is chanted. In the midst of it the preacher slips out into the vestry to take a smoke and a cup of coffee and to enjoy himself a bit. Meanwhile, in a side chapel two priests are dividing the fees for a funeral, and the noise of their discussion sometimes drowns the words of the chant "Thou only art Holy, oh Lord!" Boys and girls are running about the church. They play by the side of the vergers, but are not reproved because the vergers are too busy reckoning their prospective gains from the care of the overshoes and the umbrellas. A party of school children come in, and stand quietly waiting for their teacher. But the teacher does not come, and little by little they begin to nudge and jostle one another, to whisper and to quarrel,' Finally, in the midst of the Te Deum, one boy seizes the cap of another, and flings it into the midst of the church!

It is such scenes which result from the fact that the attention of the clergy is absorbed by other objects than the instruction of the people.

THE TRUE CHARACTER OF THEOSOPHY.*

THE

THE EDITOR.

The Month, London, March.

'HE teaching of Theosophy has the merit, if merit it can be Called, of flattering all the various tendencies of the mod

ern mind, to reconcile men's craving for the invisible with a belief in the reign of law. It peoples the universe with unseen agencies, who are continually present to us, although we see them not. It proclaims the universal reign of law, and at the same time concedes man's freedom of action. It declares man free from any personal responsibility to any personal and invisible Being whom he is bound to obey and worship, and leaves him entirely master of his own fortunes, and with the future entirely under his control. It proposes a lofty morality, and even a spirit of asceticism, that have for their object to throw into the shade the Christian morality and the asceticism of the saints. It takes under its sheltering wings all other religions whatever, declaring them to be imperfect endeavors after the Theosophic system, and their founders to have been adepts" who had reached a high stage of Theosophic development. It brushes aside the miracles of Christianity and the marvels of Spiritualism, as mere child's play compared with the wonders that are in the power of the most illustrious of the Mahatmas. It declares all those marvels which are generally regarded as supernatural, to be nothing more than the exercise of the natural powers of those who have penetrated far into the secrets of Nature, and obtained by a long course of training, which has lasted, it may be, for thousands of years, such a mastery over the material world as makes them almost as independent of it as theology represents the angels as being. Its adepts now think it advisable to encourage the formation of a universal brotherhood, as well as a Theosophical Society for the spread of its teaching.

Such a system wakens curiosity and kindles the imagination. Its growing influence seems to point to it as destined to play an important part in the mental history of the coming generation. It is one of the marks of genius in a system that it assimilates the prevalent tendencies of the age, swimming with the current while directing its course. And this Theosophy undoubtedly does.

Proceeding now to examine the credentials of the new system: I do not hesitate to express my deliberate conviction that many of the Theosophic marvels are such as no amount of conjuring skill or clever deception could have produced, but that there is in them a large element of what, for convenience sake, I will call preterhuman agency at work.

If we now pass to the consideration of the distinctive dogmas of the Theosophists, and ask what evidence beyond the miracles they can advance in support of so bold a hypothesis as is involved, our Theosophist vouches from his own personal knowledge and experience for the existence of those privileged beings, the Mahatmas, having held communication with them and witnessed their powers.

But if we would know the true character of Theosophy we must look to its teaching respecting God. Now, on this point, the Deity of the Theosophist differs little or nothing from the "Eternal Something" of Mr. Herbert Spencer. It denies most expressly and unmistakably any sort of Personal God. God is all, and all is God. God is the Infinite and Eternal Cause, the rootless root of all that was, and is, and ever shall be. In other words, Theosophy is merely a sort of resuscitated Pantheism, assuming a tone of friendly patronage toward all other religions, but at the same time cutting at the root of all that makes religion deserving of the name. It claims that Jesus was an adept, but denies that He was the typical Christ. As regards the marvels of Theosophy, we find the facts undeniable. We find a set of phenomena almost exactly identical with those of Spiritualism. In Spiritualism, the foolish * See also THE LITERARY DIGEST, January 30 and March 12.

persons who have taken part in it have been made the tools of preternatural beings for the spread of doctrines opposed to Christianity. Are we justified in arriving at any other conclusion in respect of the Theosophists?

To put the matter in plain English, Theosophy is a false, anti-Christian, godless system, teaching doctrines subversive of all belief and all true morality, and putting forward as its credentials, wonders which are neither more or less than simple devilry.

To sum up. The wonders of Theosophy are not (speaking generally) impostures. Many of them are quite inexplicable by natural means. They cannot be supernatural, for the system to which they bear witness is one that blasphemes alike Almighty God and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot, therefore, avoid the inference that they are due to the preternatural powers of the invisible enemies of God. It is nothing else than a system of devilry veiled under fair names, and hiding its true character behind the veil of a universal Brotherhood, and the pretense of a superior knowledge of Nature's secret laws. It deserves the hatred and abhorrence, not only of every one who calls himself a Christian, but also of every believer in the unity of a Personal God.

IN

46

MERMAIDS AS RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS.

ROBERT J. PRESTON, M.A.

The Antiquary, London, February.

Na church at Zennor, a town of Cornwall, England, is a bench-end curiously carved. All over the county of Cornwall are churches containing bench-ends, which are cut with 'mystic, wonderful" figures; but none are more striking than the one at Zennor, where, crudely cut, is found a mermaid. At first sight such a thing seems out of place in a Christian church, but the symbolization dispels all idea of incongruity. It is intended to represent the double nature of our Lord-the human and Divine-and when we remember the symbolic significance to the early Christians of each letter of the Greek ixous, we can hardly fail to see the end the carver had in view. The Philistines of old, who were a maritime people-just as the Zennor folk are-and who derived their substance from toiling on the deep, had among the number of their deities the fish-god, Dagon, who "shamed his worshipers" and the goddess, Derceto, half human, half divine, at Ashkelon. At Khorsabad are bas-reliefs of human beings with the tails of fish, and one of the incarnations attributed to the Hindu god, Vishnu, took the same form. Especially among the Cornish people-shore-dwellers as they mainly are and a naturally superstitious race-the figure of a mermaid would (as in fact it did) appeal to their feeling of reverence for the mysterious, and materially help to impress a religious fact on their minds.

The result of this old carving has been a legend, a story that cannot fail to remind us of the Mediterranean Circe of the old classics and her seductive wiles, or of the beautiful French romance of Melusine, or again of the water-sprites, the Undines of the North. Every Zennor man, woman, and child knows the legend of the lovely mermaid, who could not choose among "the bold, merry mermen under the sea," but, spurning their advances, came on land to seek an earthly lover. On a Sunday she came to Zennor Church and heard the beautiful chanting of Mathey (Matthew) Trewhela, the squire's son. After the service was ended she tried to induce Mathey to go with her to her ocean-home. He at last consented and went away, never returning to Zennor. Such is the romance which has woven itself around two bare facts-the carved holy-oak image of the. mermaid on the parish church, and the reputation of Zennor men for their good singing! The mermaid, however, plays an important part in the folk lore of Cornwall, and may be found in many an old Cornish "droll." In one family to this day there is religiously preserved as an ancient heirloom a comb, which is said to have been given to an ancestor as a mark of favor by a "maid of the sea." Yet skeptical iconoclasts say that it is the spine of a hake or some other large fish!

GER

MISCELLANEOUS.

IN NORTHERN GERMAN AFRICA.
Gartenlaube, Leipzig, February.

ERMAN AFRICA, to quote Wissmann, has two coasts, the one watered by the Indian Ocean, the other by the great Central African lakes, the Victoria Nyanza, the Tanganyka, and the Nyassa. The maintenance and security of the highway between these two coasts is the chief practical problem awaiting German solution.

In so far as concerns the settled agricultural tribes within the sphere of German influence, the establishment of German dominion is beset with no especial difficulties. And now, since Arab influence has been essentially broken, the chief danger threatens from the side of the nomadic tribes, which people both sides of the main caravan road. An underestimate of the pastoral tribes of Wahahis has recently cost us a section of the protecting army. This bitter experience should teach us to make a careful study of a similar pastoral people who inhabit the north of the German protected region. These are the Massais, for an exhaustive account of whom we are indebted to the travelers, Fischer, Thompson, and Carl Peters.

Dwelling on the lofty plateaus, eastward of the Lakes," writes Carl Peters in his work, The German Emin Pascha Expedition, "where winter and summer do not alternate annually, but in the course of every twenty-four hours throughout the year; where winter has made the night its realm, and a tropical heat dominates the day, we find the Massais impervious to every alternation of climate. With rapid strides they tread the steppes to the rich lands of the Bantu in the South, aye, even to the very sea-shores. Consistent with his nature, the Massai has developed a religious system, in accordance with which the Massais are the sons of the

gods, and possess a god-given right to all the cattle on earth. Every non-Massai caught in possession of cattle is deserving of death, and the Massai ruthlessly murders not only the armed man, but the child on the mother's breast, the maiden, and the helpless graybeard."

The readers of the Gartenlaube have been made familiar with the manners and customs of these nomadic robbers, by Fischer's graphic pictures published in 1885. At that time there was a question of relieving Emin Pascha, and African travelers, including Wissmann, Reichard, and Stanley, pronounced the route through the Massai land impracticable; Carl Peters, however, determined to adopt it, and came out victorious in his battles with the Massais. This fact gave the impression that the fighting qualities of the Massais, and the danger to be apprehended from them, had been very much overrated, but Peters himself wrote nothing to justify that impression. "I tried," said Peters, " to intimidate them by forest fires, by hand grenades, and even by means of an eclipse of the moon, which I was opportunely enabled to announce. but I found at last that it was impossible to produce the desired impression on them in any other way than by the action of repeating guns and double rifles, directed against their own persons."

The comparative harmlessness of the Massais has been inferred, too, from the fact that they have no firearms, but only spears and bows; but the description given by Peters of the skill with which they take advantage of cover in coming to the attack, shows that they are as familiar with the art of war as the American red-man. "The Massais advanced from tree to tree," writes Peters in a description of one of his fights, "always careful to cover themselves from our musketry. I will admit that in this supreme moment I gave up all for lost, and still I could not restrain my admiration for the steady and skillful advance of the foeman, for whom, at the same time, I conceived a deadly hatred."

There is nothing to justify us in the conclusion that we shall

ever succeed by peaceful means in subjecting and civilizing races, which for ages have regarded war and rapine as the noblest pursuits. On the contrary, the more we learn of Africa the more the conviction grows upon us that here, too, on the Dark Continent, we shall find ourselves committed to a species of Indian warfare.

Like the Wahahis, the Massais rush down from their elevated plateaus upon the low country, and we can hardly count on being able to impose a lasting peace on them in any measurable period. They may at first be intimidated by our weapons, but later they will possess themselves of firearms also. What we have to expect from them may be best inferred from the following characteristic sketch by Peters: "Like the Huns under Attila, and other nomadic races, the Massais display the lusts of conquest and bloodthirstiness developed to the utmost. The exclusively animal food which they subsist on has physiologically enhanced their natural ferocity, and the brutalizing tendency, inevitable with a people who have for ages been accustomed to strike down in cold blood the domestic animals which they have reared and tended from birth, is strongly emphasized in these pastoral tribes. A pastoral people among whom the herdsman is not also the butcher of his cattle, may develop all the softer sentiments, as we so often find them pictured in Arcadian song. But where, for hundreds of generations, the herdsmen have sacrificed their cattle with their own hands, as among the Mongolians of the high plateaus of Central Asia, or the Massais of the table-lands of Central Africa, a brutal insensibility is from age to age intensified by heredity. This law has in all ages rendered the nomadic races the fiercest phenomena of human history, as has been exemplified in Europe by such figures as Attila and Ghengis Khan.

WHIL

NATURE'S MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
E. B. SOUTHWICK.

Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, New York, March. HILE examining a limb taken from a pine tree a few days ago, I I found in it the burrow of the carpenter-bee. After cutting off the ends it proved to be quite a perfect flute. distinct sound could be produced upon it, and no doubt a tune could be played upon it were holes made in it corresponding to those of the flute. Here we find the first inventor of the flute principle.

It is said that in some forests the holes are so abundant in the reeds, that the wind as it passes through these thickets, makes a very loud whistling sound. Then the cricket is our primitive violin. On the under side of the wing-covers, or "elytra," as they are scientifically called, there are notched ridges which, when examined with a moderate power of the microscope have something the appearance of file-teeth. The friction of these notches, as they are rubbed together, produces the musical sound that we hear in our fields and houses, and which is exactly analogous to the friction of the bow on the string of the violin. This is probably one of the most ingenious modes of causing musical vibrations.

The cicada represents the vibrator, or what is sometimes called the reed. It is introduced into various musical instruments, as, for example, the harmonica, clarionet, oboe, bassoon, and various organ-pipes.

The simplest form of vibrator is, perhaps, the jew's-harp, or more properly, jaw's-harp, because the instrument is held against the teeth, while its tongue is vibrated by strokes of the finger.

The vocal organs of the male cicada are constructed on the same principle. If one of these insects be examined, there may be seen on the lower surface two curious and nearly circular flaps, just at the junction of the thorax with the abdomen. It is by the action of these two little vibrators that the cicada is able to produce the sound which, in calm weather, may be heard at the distance of a mile.

Perhaps the earliest music as regards man lies in certain savage races who, as long as they can maintain a rhythmical beat on any substance, do not care what it is. Among the rudest musical instruments are hollow logs; but a great

advance is made when a piece of skin is stretched over the cavity and beaten, instead of the log.

It is said that some tribes in West Africa make drums of so much power that their sullen roar can be heard for miles away, as their slow, triple beat summons the tribe to arms. Our most perfect instruments in this line are the bass and kettle drums. They seem to be easy to play upon, but one can find out his mistake by trying one. Nature's model is the interior of the ear, the drum or tympanum, the vibrations of which enable us to hear.

In vibrations of strings, the first instruments were the vines and runners of the forest, and these were played upon as the hurricane swept through them. The Eolian harp is one of the first examples of this. With this instrument no fingers are needed to touch the strings, but the current of air sets them vibrating in the most wonderful manner, and they automatically divide themselves into the component parts of the common chord, and produce octaves, fifths, and thirds, ad infinitum. Strips of fibre torn from tree or plant often vibrate in the wind-force, and give forth bass-like notes in the forest.

In the instance of the swan we have a most remarkable example of the trombone. This instrument, as we all know, has the advantage of being lengthened at will, thus giving the performer a fresh tonic, and consequently another series of harmonics. Valved and keyed instruments have a similar advantage, the one acting by lengthening, the other by shortening the air. In the brass instrument, furnished with a mouthpiece and not with a reed, the notes are obtained by vibrations of the inclosed air, caused by the movements of the lips, which set the current of air vibrating and divide it into harmonics.

The hum of the gnat, or the buzz of the bee, sounds familiar to us, are all nature's music, and the air is filled with these musicians, which eons of ages ago made melodious the primitive earth.

A very curious instrument has been invented, by which we are enabled to measure, by the sound, the rapidity with which a flying insect moves its wings. This instrument is called the "siren," and enables us to measure the vibrations of sound as accurately as the barometer measures the weight of the atmosphere.

It will be seen from the examples above given that nature was before us in musical methods.

THE FIRST STEAMSHIPS.

Stein der Weisen, Vienna, February.

HE first steamboat was built by Papin, who navigated it safely down the Fulda in 1707. Unfortunately it was destroyed by sailors, in a spirit of trade-jealousy. In 1775 Perrier built, in Paris, a steamship which was, however, used only for experiments. Jouffroy took up Perrier's idea, and, in 1783, built a steamer which really, for a time, navigated the Saone, and then passed into forgetfulness. In 1785, John Fitch, a Connecticut mechanic, took up the idea, and constructed first a simple model of a paddle-wheel steamer. A pipe-kettle was employed in its construction. The first ship was propelled by side paddles like an Indian canoe. In the second ship the same mode was adopted, only in this case the paddles were affixed to the after-part of the boat. In July, 1788 the ship was completed and made the passage to Burlington.

But it was not until 1807 that the American, Robert Fulton, first started steam-navigation into actual life. In conjunction with Livingston he established with the steamer Clermont a regular service between New York and Albany. The success of this undertaking was so satisfactory that four new boats were built, in 1811, for regular service on other rivers.

In England, Henry Bell urged enthusiastically the advantages of the application of steam to navigation as early as 1786. In 1811 he engaged in the construction of the steamer Comet which was completed in 1811. It was advertised as a passenger ship for regular traffic between Greenock and Glasgow, and it was only a few months, before it came to be regarded as a trustworthy means of transport. In 1815 Bell built more steamers, and the result was the successful introduction of steam navigation in England. In France steam navigation dates from 1816, on the Bodensee from 1822, and on the Rhine from 1825. At length, in 1838 the transatlantic steam navigation was inaugurated, the first passage from En land to America being made by Brunel's steamer the Great Western.