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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
SHOWING
THE OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND CONDITION
OF THE INSTITUTION
THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1908.
mE INCRE
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WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1904.
=
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a 4 a
ee TER
FROM THE
SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
ACCOMPANYING
The Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Institution for
the year ending June 30, 1903.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
Washington, D. C., May 12, 1904.
To the Congress of the United States:
In accordance with section 5593 ot the Revised Statutes of the
United States, I have the honor, in behalf of the Board of Regents, to
submit to Congress the Annual Report of the operations, expenditures,
and condition of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June
30, 1903.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Hon. Witt1am P. Frye,
President pro tempore of the Senate.
III
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1903.
SUBJECTS.
1. Proceedings of the Board of Regents for the session of January
28, 1903. .
2. Report of the executive committee, exhibiting the financial affairs
of the Institution, including a statement of the Smithson fund, and
receipts and expenditures for the year ending June 30, 1903.
3. Annual report of the Secretary, giving an account of the opera-
tions and condition of the Institution for the year ending June 30,
1903, with statistics of exchanges,
4, General appendix, comprising a selection of miscellaneous mem-
oirs of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the Institution,
teachers, and others engaged in the promotion of knowledge. These
memoirs relate chiefly to the calendar year 1903.
ete.
IV :
CONTENTS.
age.
Letter from the Secretary, submitting the Annual Report of the Regents to pate
(OT CSG ee eee oe te rer ner ee er ete cu age eet em ae Sane alee sans to Se Seen See I
Generalicsubjectstotune Ammualehkeportassn] sees eee eee eee IV
(Conitentsrotsthewine por ienrs=se met eee is are OAC eens mre ea ie ce Reese Vv
ISO tes Ate arenes epee ere ee eae en Oe oe te Seah oe ened Se ese IX
MemibersiexrojtCioLombneskistaplishmmentes es seo = ee aces eee ee XIII
IRASeVETOUNEY OME Wars Siem neon AMS Ss soe oo oeee see os boson aGes soesee XIV
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BoarRp OF REGENTS.
Streube clita © e tii ore) learner 2 es) 3 ae parce pe tetera ee es Spee ye pee XV.
Report OF THE Executive Commirree for the year ending June 30, 1903.
(Croianshiiorn @re wore sional diwlly aly WOR shee do esde ce oosses conse tote aseeseese XXI
ReceiptsiandiexpenditmresMomihe year aac ee sae ae See ee See XXII
Appropriation tor Imtermationaleb xchanees sees sae) se ena eee ease XXUI
ID eres) Ch: Cre orernohhiquIrRas OF KANG oe ssa 5 cokoets conse one 5k Saas saeacsseee XXIII
AV OLOpmiatlonstoneaumenti cane thmOlOocyer cee ees = sae ae ee eee XXIV
Details of expenditunes ol camoce ets se es Cote ee XXIV
Mporopriations torte National Museum. 2. 52222225. 222-2.52.-. XXVI
Stan sroiexpendiinmmesrolgeaile tamara ee Y= See ee oe arate ae XXKVI
Appropriation foreAstrophysical Observatory — 2-2. -2-2-2-2-.-5--25-22-- XLIV
Detail srotexpenditunestol sane ne a= ese ae fa a eee XLV
Appropriation tor observation of solar eclipses: 2. == 222... 22 es. 25.. XLVI
Balan ceroisscim Che eee wae re VDL Pet wigs Le ee tee ee XLVI
Appropriation tor the National Zoological Park: —2- 222. 4--25-2-+-s2se-5- XLVI
Detailstovexpenditumestor Santen re ee ee ee eee eee XLYI
Iecryoninolninhein oS tee SS AO Nees Oe ee Ae a ae deer aan sae ee ane eoes LI
Gremer alls aenumnanenl yoo ene a ee Meee i tee ene SS Fn LR ee wee LUI
Acts AND RESOLUTIONS OF CoNnaRress relative to Smithsonian Institution, ete - LY
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
ire SMITHSONIAN: ENSEITUTION 22: 2-00 225s 2-22. tce se see cee shea ee wee ea bel 1
UithrewEis talloli sin emitpeases yan ones See arose aie eR eres ea ene ee 1
IBOvECtOM@RereMISK eee anes eee ere oe Sao eo. = pees See eee ee nies Skee Z
Wreanizatlonrol ROPCMiS ites seem toes 2 aoc cc asec eee este eats cs Soe sss 4
NGS EPAblO mee see ae ae ee rte eee ne cla ares tise eee eRe erat ae cles 4
TBABUO GIN oes Sse ae ct ae a ee ta te CE eae Re 5
TENY OREN VSS Ss Se AN 5 ee pee RC a eer er > en 5
RCSEALC sem tema Sone mea ee ge eh Sire en Ge te ee Se ERE OS a Sc 7
Od gain seit dle eee ere ne ee ERE Re ee et Re 7
IN aD LES ktaln] eyecare ee ean yk ene Re le Somer Bho eco 8
SEG OO MOMS aoe adi joe oo a eS OIE DOE a CaSO So eee nee eS as Sec acre 10
DEAE] ON GREW EUG S ONS) a MeN St a tt ar ee a 11
Vali CONTENTS.
THE SMITHSONIAN InsrrruTion—Continued.
NEA ay, 2. SSE aye SS oe ae ne ee ee ee eee
Correspondence? saree eee hee hae ceteris ae aetna ectees Cee eee ee
Miscelll amie Ouse sie x eee ee ees eae ree SP cee
National Musemm titan eee cating so aree ae Sens ae eee tee ae sere
BuneateoreAum eri camsks thm Ol G:yeseses ea ee ee ee
Imbernational ¥weliane es =e: <5 Soha ates ce ea rere een ee eee
National Zoological! Park: 2. 4.20 20. 2 So. ae a ee Be ee
Astrophysical ‘Observatory< Sites s asa eo ee eee ee OS see re meres
Appendixes:
I. Report on the United States National Museum............-..-.---
II. Report on the Bureau of American Ethnology .......----.---------
III. Report on the International Exchange Service .....--.-------------
LV: Report/on the; National Zoological Parkes” 22222 ae4- - . 2 = eee
V.. Report on the: Astrophysical! Observatory 23-2 22--=-- - =e
Wile Re portrot umes lellorastain ase eee eee Bee ee ro SSE LOS
VilleuReportroistheybditor ass. so eee ere wee ne a eee Seaekees
GENERAL APPENDIX.
General Description of the Moon, by Prof. N.S. Shaler. --2. 222252 22s 2 ==—
The Pressure Due to Radiation, by E. F. Nichols and G. F. Hull....-.-.----
The Sun-spot Period and the Variations of the Mean Annual Temperature of
the Earth, by Dr. Ch. Nordmann....-.-.- "Jha Bice ota = ee
Methods of Forecasting the Weather, by Prof. J. M. Pernter....-.......----
Progress with Air'Ships;. by Maj: BY Baden-Powell- 2: ==. 22523-- eee eee
MerialsNavications by2O) Chanutes= 2256 co8e eee eee oe
Graham? Bell’sRetrahbedralKites 225 5-2 ee eee ae ee
Radium, by d.Curie.522 ceaecieeace Sock nee oe eee see
Radinm by id's J:- Pb omson., sa 2 acs 2 oe eer ise eee eee oe = = eee
Experiments in Radio-Activity and the Production of Helium from Radium,
by Sir William Ramsay and-Mir. Frederick Soddiy- 5-4 2.22 2.5---2 c= see
Me “N'? Raysot Ms Blondlot, by;CiGs Abbots so ssce ny = o> oe
Modern, Views.on-Matter, by Sir Oliverduodece 222252 25-62 =e eee
Modern Views on Matter: the Realization of a Dream, by Sir William Crookes.
The Atomic ‘Theory. by Prof Hy .Wisi@larice =: ese cae eee ee eee
Imtra-atomic, Hmerewp bys Gustave Leu Ones == ese ee ee
Meek Vectra Hureala ces lavas WW ingly yee ale eee
High-speed Electric Interurban Railways, by George H. Gibson.......-.----
The Marienfelde-Zossen High-speed Electric Railway Trials, by Alfred Gra-
Gen Watzs se See Ss oe eS eye SS Sie ee er ee
The Beginnings of Photography, by Maj. Gen. J. Waterhouse -........------
The Relations of Geology, by Prof. Charles Lapworth. -............----------
Terrestrial Magnetism in its Relation to Geography, by Capt. E. W. Creak - - --
An Exploration to Mount McKinley, by Alfred H. Brooks ...-..--.---------
North Polar Exploration, 1898-1902, by Commander R. E. Peary.-----------
First Year’s work of National Antarctic Expedition, by Sir Clements R.
Markhami:.=. (022%. 2a22. See ee se eee ee ee eee
The Swedish Antarctic Expedition, by Otto Nordenskidld and others... ..---
Hood: Plantsioh Ancient Americas by Os tke Coo kee sae ees ee
Desert Plants as a Source of Drinking Water, by Frederick V. Coville--------
A New Theory of the Origin of Species, by A. Dastre ...........---=---.----
CONTENTS.
The Byolution of the Human Hoot; by. Anthomys---- ©2222. -_-.-2.-.2-2-
The Name Mammal and the Idea Expressed, by Theodore Gill. .--.....-__--
Experimental Studies on the Mental Life of Animals, by N. Vaschide and P.
INOSSEMI! SEC SS Sd SUSE E Jo AOR eI CSI Cre IS ras ES SRN ee en a
Atm taut atellcn tas Oiyelehemrag OU lines sess eee anos Gee ee
Plamimecoes, Nests, sby ErankM.\Chapman=2. 2520925. asssees oe 222 225.2
Upon Maternal Solicitude in Rhynchota and other Nonsocial Insects, by
(Cree ieee attr: keel iy tees popes Sk ee ee ic ee ae eos es Sena aicee
The Psychical Faculties of Ants and some other Insects, by A. Forel. .-------
Miiske@sccntimy Captivity, by-diulnsehiotiescs2< ss! 26s 5.2 a2... .bolo2. 22 Sle:
HrozeneVianim OF Maine Sill erlas lis © ORR ween] sa ser = oe Senne Sa ee
Spouting and Movements of Whales, by E. C. Racovitza ........-.------.-.---
Problems Arising from Variations in the Development of Skull and Brains,
Dygbro iw ohngome s\n Otome Meee ee eee a Soi ee ee eee ee
The Antiquity of the Lion in Greece, by Dr. A. B. Meyer........:-.--------
The Excavations at Abusir, Egypt, by Prof. Dr. A. Wiedemann _........----
The Ancient Hittites, by Dr. Leopold Messerschmidt - -...-...-.-..--------
Central American Hieroglyphic Writing, by Cyrus Thomas..............-.--
Traces of Aboriginal Operations in an Iron Mine near Leslie, Mo., by W. H.
le olaayess Sie aeeresGe 8 eo ao 7 ee ae re a ee eS ee ae meena
Whasaand. Central Tibet by Gass isybikoi..-2 22 22.575 sa set eens
A Journey of Geographical and Archzeological Exploration in Chinese Tur-
eestcuninm Dive Vi ANS S Ge Unie a eae nein een 7 eareeye tenement 6 Se eet ee
From the Somali Coast through Ethiopia to the Sudan, by Oscar Neumann-.--
RMIMe val apancse Dyncapigl) Briakloymerc <8. 95 2 soko. <2 ose ee ote
ithe: Korean: Langnage, joy. Homer, B Hulbert, 2-222. 2.2 ee e2ecdlog li ncancss
whe thepublic of-Lasama. py chroi-, Willinmeb,- Burr. -.o2). 2.1.2 Soe eee eases
ihe Reclamationsai the West, by FH Newell: . 2.2.22. 52-0...2 2.22 2eoe.
RODeTE LOnky -BestonkADYyp Ws. Ji-Wubandess 2-24 oeo8z Solel 3 jk ee eek
Pheodore: Mommisen. by Knail Reich 22-35-3522... doce lt e ca ss tee cee
SECRETARY’S
Plate I.
Jf
IU
IVE
V.
VI.
WA
Tue Moon (SHALER).
Plate I.
10l.
JUNI
JN
We
Wale
Walle
WADUL
16Xe
De
Lbs On eae AuB Ss.
REPORT:
HlephaAnteBOMse aMORVATd ees cee eae esi Me a guna enone
Kehidna, Tasmanian: devil, and-zebra wolf...............-.---2
Stimmmontulbetonicoelostatia. 2-5 es oe ee eee eee
The large coelostat with second mirror, Smithsonian Astrophys-
ical Observatory
Bolographic energy curves of the solar spectrum of a 60° glass
prism. Observations of April 17, 1903
Transparency of the atmosphere from bolographic observations. -
Distribution of radiation in the normal solar spectrum outside
the.earth’satmespieres Sst es hom ee FL ice
(Explanation page faces each plate):
Moon’s age, 8 days, 4 hours
Moon’s age,
Moon’s age,
Moon’s age, 2
Moon’s age, 21 days, 16 hours
Photograph by Ritchey
COMERS; AM Ge Ke plete sae, eats Sak ee ee OI cee
Rayesystemuadhoutuly Chore ese eee eee ee ee ee
MaresNubiumand-surrounmdimegs:*) 352-5 2o2502.2 22... sc ee nee
Mare Tranquilitatis and surroundings
ProGress wird ArRsHIPS (BADEN-PoWELL):
Plate I.
; If,
II.
Mine eeelonuGiyganizslnipom ees eee 2 2 am eee. OE Sere ian?
Garmotebebaudyaalrsiipes so xen er ao ee oe
Welbanicdiyzaurs hijo mins ent ine ys ne alae = eee yee ee ee reer aare
IV. (a) Lebaudy airship, view from below; (+) the Lebaudy shed. --
TETRAHEDRAL KiIrEs:
Plate I.
Fig. 1, Winged tetrahedral cell. Fig. 2, Sixty-four-cell tetrahedral
**N”’ Rays (Aszor):
Plate I.
kite. Fig. 3, Four-celled kite. Fig. 4, The Aerodrome kite. -
Imereaseds luminosity. produced bya .INi7 maysesse. sos) ose se
HicH Speep Evecrric Rartnways (Grpson):
Plate I.
Il.
II.
IV.
Vv.
Types of modern American cars for heavy electric-railway service -
Fig. 1, Locomotive for the Buffalo and Lockport Railway.
Fig. 2, Map showing development of electric railways about
Cleveland @ ni One ses eee eee eee eae hE ees as
Dusseldorf-Krefeld road, with cars which run at 60 km. per hour-
Fig. 1, Suspended railway and train at Elberfeld. Fig. 2, Truck
of the Gornergrat locomotive. Fig. 38, Stansstad-Engelberg
electrie locomotive betore! housing. 2s. 22 2.5... 2.6. ck. os 5-:--
184
210
316
316
320
320
x
LIST OF PLATES.
MARIENFELDE-Zoss—EN Evectric RarLbway (GRADENWITZ):
Plate I.
NE
IDOE.
Wi.
. Fig. 1, The truck; identical on both cars.
The-Marientelde-Zossen: track: 35. < 2< ais qoin-s oe eee a= se See
Fig. 1, The Siemens and Halske car used in the experiments.
Fig. 2, The A. E. G. car used in the high-speed runs. -.--------
Diagrams showing connections of the Siemens and Halske and
thera Hs Gricarseres Pec tivelivaateee noe ees ease oe aa a
Fig. 2, Normal rail-
way carriage used:in traction experiments. 2225-222 s252---...-
The Niedersch6nweide-Spindlersfelde track and double aerial
SITES] 6S) OVS) (ONO pete oh = ge eee ee Ree Bees pea eh a Oe a
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM (CREAK):
Plate I. Map showing secular change in magnetic declination (litho-
graphy) acc. 2 facets cee oe ee See ee eee Eo eek ee seer
II. Map showing lines of equal magnetic declination (lithograph) - -
Mount McKin ey (Brooks) :
Pilates ewookinemprateMiount Mic Kamileyes=2 = er ass een ee
II. The Mount McKinley region, Alaska, showing the route of the
expedition <fostas ss es ees eee ot eos Ree
Il. Fig. 1, Tyonok, Cook Inlet, Alaska. Fig. 2, The route along
the beach@beyond “yonok is ==! s=5e. 5 o> =.= = ee eee
IV. Fig. 1, Packing through meadow lowland of tall grass. Fig. 2,
Packine-@ horse preparatory. for a /start: =< 2-522 se aseseeee ee
V. Fig. 1, Towing horses across the Yentua River. Fig. 2, The
heartofthe Mlaskaniran cessor = 2 eee ssa eee eee
VI. Fig. 1, Looking toward Rainy Pass. Fig. 2, Camp in the cot-
TON WOOdS Lak cakes See see saree See ere ee
VII. Mount McKinley as seen through the clouds ---...-...--------
VIIT; "The slopes'of Mount MeKinley -22224-4-55- 2555-450 eee
IX. Fig. 1, At the head of the Cantwell River. Fig. 2, Turitella on
the Tananas, S925 aes? sn ee seo eee eee eee
North Potar EXxPLoratrons (PEARY):
Plate I. Sketch map of the explorations (lithograph) --.----..--.---.--
II. Fig. 1, Landing -supples at Cape d’Urville. Fig. 2, Winter
Guarterstat; Cape d.Urvilllenes ese eee nee ee ee eee
Ill. Fig. 1, Cape Lawrence. Fig. 2, Cape Louis Napoleon......-.--
IV. Fig. 1, Etah, winter quarters. Fig. 2, Lateral river of Benedict
Ga aCieK = 2 ct 2 nn sO ee ee eR
V. Fig. 1, Musk oxen, Cape Jesup. Fig. 2, Musk oxen, Buch-
Anan (Bayn Gece bee ae Gee Se 3/5 eee eC ne SS | ee a ee
VI. Fig. 1, Ice jam, Cape Barrow. Fig. 2, Along the ice foot..___--
VII.. Fig. 1, Cape Albert. Fig. 2, Crossing Princess Marie Bay -. -- - -
VIII. Fig. 1, Bringing out Greely records. Fig. 2, Fort Conger. -----
IX Across: Hilesm ere Wand eases ase sae ee eee ees eee
Narionat Antarctic EXpPEepirion (MARKHAM):
Plate I. Sketch map of first year’s work (lithograph) ..:..........-.---
SwepisH Antarctic ExpEepirion (NORDENSKIOLD) :
Plate I.
Sketch map ofexplorations': yeasts ee eee hee oe ees
Desert PLANTS FoR Drinkinc WATER (CovILue):
Plate I.
ale
FLAMINGOES’
Plate I.
10K
A Bisnaga sliced abahie:toprsses=.ee nas oes ee a
Indian drinking from a Bisnaga
Nests (CHAPMAN):
Par tiotatcoloniye soe sais a he ee ee
Fig. 1, Colony of about 2,000 nests. Fi
groves. Fig. 3, Part of a flock
eo, 2
g. 2, Nests among man-
LIST OF PLATES. XI
Musk-Oxen (Scui6rr) : Page.
Plate I. Musk ox in Copenhagen. Fig. 1, one-half year old. Fig. 2, 1
yea Older kigsos lo months Oldestes aie. See sees cool tle l ei. 604
II. Musk ox in Copenhagen. Fig. 1, 20 months old. Fig. 2, 2
WiSheseO Glee ee See secon CASES eee eRe Een See teen eee ee 604
III. Fig. 1, Musk ox in Copenhagen, 3 years old. Fig. 2, Yak and
Callie Sas ae ae cone Nees = Sn e ee WS eee ee eee ha Loa oe. 606
IV. Fig. 1, Preparing to cut hoofs of the musk ox. Fig. 2, Cutting
the hoofs. Fig. 3, Musk ox, New York Zoological Gardens.. 606
MammMorn From SiBeRrA (HERZ):
Rlatesleeliceswalileepereso vkalhiivenr= 422 S45 ena eens Sect. 614
IDL Jeo Ot maEKeMTIE IN Oil Clits od S25 soso onSae Soosa dee sn SenSeoe 614
lige Sidevadeweutter: pantialvexcavatlones= se ene See 616
IV. Side view from east after partial excavation. ..---.---..---.---- 616
Nees Kem aewaiihiyOOG srenmimeiiis seme = tees seen setae meen. eek eet 618
NOR McitOhetOOt me aaa ts eee Se RUE ee beh Se ee LS 618
Vile hiessirehichtehind footesshies-2) bettdoretoot=: s2-4 5. 42-o4-- 518
\VilibEeReconsinuctedamammotinninemugemml) = =e os4 sees ons ss se-e-- ee 624
ix Mopontedisicelet onrim MIUSeUM eho = ot ee sae a tats i= cea 2 624
Lion IN GREECE (Meyer):
Riate ls Collossalimanrbleslionstromi@nidusi 2 9----5- 20) -sne2= ee eae 668
EXcaVATIons AT ABUSIR (WIEDEMANN):
Rlate Wes Obeliskrofsilelvo polisher emt snee ese a oe eye enc ea 678
Dike LimothewsrRapyrusmeole less aoe ee ee ee Lee ee 678
JUNE, Above news yoni (Ol, Wl Goo Soke onc se Seabee sesso soees 680
Ve Aim oth euspe ay Gus. CON tiie a seas ere eaters eee re 680
Wie Bbvanoydovans JER KAAS, Wolo ih* 5 aeeee coe aseoue ose ee aeeeesseosese 680
VS iimotheusskapy rus wel Veseeeaasee: cee ase se oe cece a= Ne cee 680
Valiee imo theusPe apy mussscOlenviser es = eee fe sa es eae eee 680
NWADOL, “UMumayoilavetins Jezyonaclsh wueveanneinisss Ue ee ooooseenogronoessocadeses 680
Tue Hirrires (MEsSERSCHMIDT) :
Plate I. Fig. 1, Hittite representation of meal. Fig. 2, Hittite warrior.
FOI S CL LEMS 8 Sue seer eee Le Sen ese ee eee 692
II. Fig. 1, Divinity embracing a king or priest; Boghazkeu. Fig.
2, Divinity with headgear decorated with horns. From
Jerabis. Fig. 3, Religious scene; Boghazkeu--.-.--.--.--.---- 692
Til. Fig. 1, God of the chase. Fig. 2, King. Fig. 3, Winged
Gbivahatiny Walon leverol Ol wan aa ae web ace ne hae one eEecoueeeses 694
IV. Fig. 1, Storm god Teshup. Figs. 2 and 3, Warrior.- Fig. 4,
Up pliamibvss Ss= a see ee hare eee ee SL a ee er 694
We IHS Il literal eos, Iie, Wma slo cos = con ohedeeaooseuouccs 696
VI. Fig. 1, Winged sphinx with head of man and lion. Fig. 2,
Waingedisphinxawath humeant heads esses e ses] sss 2— 5-2-2 —- 696
CENTRAL AMERICAN HrrRoGuiypHics (THOMAS):
avout alenquetalblets=s 926 s8 4. oe eae na. ae hen cetera te ee See 706
ike MemplevomtablesChichenulitzae ase sees ese. = oe eee seein. 706
III. Copy of Plate X XIX, Codex Troano (Brasseur de Bourbourg’s
Waitvon)) 5 a Coloredyplate sa ses. a ee oe ee 708
ABORIGINAL IRoN MINE (Hotes):
Platewti=Generaliview ofethearon mine =ioosc2 2 25 2h 222 ss onet. ot 724
4 Pies otstone sledeevneadsie as! ete eh a bse e ee 724
liieesaceromtheroreybouivg ==) ssere aes es eee tens oe eee ace ao 726
IV. Workmen on outer margin discover open galleries -.....-.----- 726
MIL LIST OF PLATES.
ABORIGINAL IRON Mine (Houtmes)—Continued.
Plate Vo) Sectionsshowinevancient callleriess==2-) 22525 s)52 == eee eee
VI. Stone mining implements found in mine .---..-----.----------
VII. View of mine wall, with traces of ancient tunnels ---.-.---.----
CENTRAL TrBET (TsyBIKOFF):
Rlateelalehasawdewairomueast= sss he ene ene tae ee eee
Jie Tehasa ino mam orth See cemse sens aries aint seh ae. ote ee sie oe
III. Lhasa; Mount Mar bo ri and palace of Dalai lama-..--.--.-.2---
IV. Lhasa; Potala, palace of Dalai lama from east.-.-.....-..-------
V. Lhasa; Potala (a) from west-northwest; (b) from north-north-
CSUs Ben RR aE eR ee ee eRe Ie
Vil) hasa: Gadan Kansar) palaceot old kings/of Tibet 2222--2-----
VII. (a) Monastery Galdagn in Tibet; (>) Monastery Tashi Lhunpo
la EID Eb eesti ees Be eel ee OSG Same cian o epee See
CHINESE TURKESTAN (STEIN):
Plate I. Fig. 1, Photo-theodolite view of Kilik Pass. Fig. 2, Icy ranges
OKOIRHOMCONC MM BDU Ae Koln nGy OMe Hee ela ee ee eco Skoe
II. Fig. 3, Muztagh ata. Fig. 4, Peak‘‘ Kuenluen No. 5” (‘‘Muztagh’’ )
Ill. Fig. 5, Glaciers at head of Kash River. Fig. 6, Eroded ranges
near Vacan-da was -censose no stewe wate eee cs aoe eee
IV. Fig. 7, Sculptures in Temple Cella. Fig. 8, Room of ancient
dwelling: 2245 oe ee aeet ooo cae soe noe cee eae ee eee
V. Fig. 9, Sand-buried ancient house. Fig. 10, Covering tablets of
wood -wathuclay, seals {ees a | See
VI. Fig. 11, Relievos in Rawak Stupa Court. Fig. 12, Colossal statues
IW SAIN |= see soe ae eas ae ee eo ee ee
Wide Portion of Chinese wiurkestans (lithograph) ie-s22 oes eee
Somat Coast To. SupAN (NEUMANN):
Plate I. Fig. 1, Basalt rocks, British Somaliland. Fig. 2, Menelik Falls. -
Il. Fig. 1, The Blue Nile near Abuye. Fig. 2, Suksuk River-------
Ill. Fig. 1, Giditscho boat on Lake Abaya. Fig. 2, Gardulla land-
SCape A. twee tec cose aici cae oe gine nes eee eee Soe
IDs Ieee 3 Weyer iin IDK, eikee, 92, Ohoaroy IMIR S ocecosescce scence
VY. Fig. 1, Jiren market (Djimma). Fig. 2; Schekho hut--.....-..-
VI. Map of journey of Mr. Neumann through Ethiopia (lithograph ) -
REPUBLIC OF PANAMA (BurRR):
Plate I. Fig. 1, One of the hospital buildings on the hill back of Panama.
hig. 2, Wow tide inthe harbonoibanamas== =n s===s=.eeee
Il. Fig. 1, Cutting the canal through morasses changes river region.
Migs? The:Culebraieut, = 25 sao. see eae oe ae eee ae
RECLAMATION OF THE West (NEWELL):
Plate I. Fig. 1, An abandoned house on an unirrigated plain. Fig. 2, One
of the methods of obtaining a water supply.._.........------
Il. Fig. 1, Floating through Gunnison Canyon. Fig. 2, Top of Tor-
rence Malis Gunnison Canyones ees sea eee ee ee
Pe Hloatinernd owmeuhe1Coloradoukiy cise e eee ea eee
IWemRedi@amyonroisthe:Colorad op iver sane eee eee
k. H. Tuurston (Duranp):
Plate I. Robert Henry: Thurstonr.- 2s. 2 s2ce oe oe er ee ee eee
1
(oe)
ioe)
ay Sy ea
Re} H
tS for)
838
838
840,
840
843
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
MEMBERS EX OFFICIO OF THE ‘ ESTABLISHMENT.”
THEODORE RoosgEye.t, President of the United States.
(Vacancy), Vice-President of the United States.
Metyitte W. Fuuier, Chief Justice of the United States.
Joun Hay, Secretary of State.
Lestig M. SHaw, Secretary of the Treasury.
Exinu Roor, Secretary of War.
PHILANDER C. Knox, Attorney-General.
Henry C. Payne, Postmaster-General.
Wituram H. Moopy, Secretary of the Navy.
Eran ALLEN Hitcucocr, Secretary of the Interior.
James Wixson, Secretary of Agriculture.
GeEOoRGE B. Cortetyou, Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
4
REGENTS OF THE INSTITUTION.
(List given on the following page. )
OFFICERS OF THE INSTITUTION.
Samuet P. LANGiey, Secretary.
Director of the Institution, and Keeper of the U. S. National Museum. .
RicHARD RaATHBUN, Assistant Secretary.
XIII
REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
By the organizing act approved August 10, 1846 (Revised Statutes,
Title LX XIII, section 5580), **The business of the Institution shall
be conducted at the citv of Washington by a Board of Regents, named
the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, to be composed of the
Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the United States, three members
of the Senate, and three members of the House of Representatives,
together with six other persons, other than members of Congress, two
of whom shall be resident in the city of Washington and the other
four shall be inhabitants of some State, but no two of the same State.”
REGENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1908.
The Chief Justice of the United States:
MELVILLE W. FULLER, elected Chancellor and President of the Board, Jan-
uary 9, 1899. “
The Vice-President of the United States (vacancy ):
WILLIAM P. FRYE, President pro tempore of the Senate, acting as Regent.
United States Senators: Term expires.
SHELBY M. CULLOM (appointed Mar. 24, 1885, Mar. 28, 1889,
Deer tS. 1895 vandeVlars vealOOI) eS 2 eee eee 8 Mar. 3, 1907
ORVILLE H. PLATT (appointed Jan. 18, 1899, Feb. 28, 1903). Mar. 3, 1909
FRANCIS M. COCKRELL (appointed Mar. 7, 1901).........-.- Mar. 3, 1905
Members of the House of Representatives:
ROBERT R. HITT (appointed Aug. 11, 1898, Jan. 4, 1894, Dee.
20, 1895, Dec. 22, 1897, Jan. 4, 1900, and Dec. 13, 1901)_-..----- Dee. 23, 1903
ROBERT ADAMS, Jr. (appointed Dec. 20, 1895, Dec. 22, 1897,
Jan: 4: al GO0OMaindiaDeesai3: cs: Oi) eee do peer ere Dec. 23; 1903
HUGH A. DINSMORE (appointed Jan. 4, 1900, and Dec. 13, 1901). Dec. 23, 1903
Citizens of a State:
JAMES B. ANGELL, of Michigan (appointed Jan. 19, 1887, Jan.
DEBS OS eetex ry lived eure Ae AIS SO) ee ean Jan. 24, 1905
ANDREW D. WHITE, of New York (appointed Feb. 15, 1888,
Marios 94 sander jumer2 a 900) sane area a ss Pd Se June 2, 1906
RICHARD OLNEY, of Massachusetts (appointed Jan. 24, 1900).. Jan. 24, 1906
GEORGE GRAY, of Delaware (appointed Jan. 14, 1901)....---- Jan. 14,.1907
Citizens of Washington City:
JOHN B. HENDERSON (appointed Jan. 26, 1892, and Jan. 24,
NOG B IS oF Rese Sea ae Lee a aes cea a erent ce ee eS =e RE ee Jan. 24, 1904
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (appointed Jan. 24, 1898).._.-. Jan. 24,1904
Executive Committee of the Board of Regents.
J. B. Henperson, Chairman. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.
Rogsert R. Hirvr.
XIV
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS AT THE ANNUAL
MEETING HELD JANUARY 28, 1903.
In accordance with a resolution of the Board of Regents adopted
January 8, 1890, by which its annual meeting occurs on the fourth
Wednesday of each year, the board met to-day at 10 o’clock a. m.
Present: Chief Justice Fuller (Chancellor), in the chair; the Hon.
William P. Frye; the Hon. 8. M. Cullom; the Hon. O. H. Platt; the
Hon. F. M. Cockrell; the Hon. Robert Adams, jr.; the Hon. Hugh A.
Dinsmore; the Hon. Richard Olney; the Hon. John B. Henderson;
Dr. James B. Angell; Dr. A. Graham Bell, and the Secretary, Mr.
S. P. Langley.
EXCUSES FOR NONATTENDANCE.
The Secretary stated that Judge Gray had written that his engage-
ments would prevent his attendance; Doctor White was in Europe,
and Mr. Hitt was confined to his house by an indisposition.
READING OF THE MINUTES.
At the suggestion of the Chancellor the Secretary read the minutes
of the last meeting in abstract, and there being no objection they were
declared approved.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
la al alee a _ O ~ L 5 F - by
The Secretary presented his annual report of the operations of the
Institution to June 30, 1902.
On motion, the report was accepted.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Senator Henderson, chairman, presented the report of the com-
mittee to June 30, 1902.
On motion, the report was adopted.
sm 1903 Il xy
XVI PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE.PERMANENT COMMITTEE.
Senator Henderson, chairman, made the following report in regard
to the condition of the various matters under the charge of the com-
mittee:
There were no new developments during the year with regard to the Avery fund
or the Sprague bequest. :
THE HODGKINS FUND.
Progress has been made in the suit of O’ Donaghue v. Smith. An appeal was taken
to the general term from the decision of the trial justice who allowed the verdict in
favor of the daughter of Mr. O’ Donaghue, who was an infant at the time of partition.
The general term affirmed the action of the justice below, which has caused delay.
The Smithsonian counsel, Mr. Hackett, is now ready to proceed with the hearing of
the case.
During the year the house and lot at Elizabeth, N. J. has been sold to advantage.
THE ANDREWS BEQUES?.
A preliminary contest is now going on before a referee upon the question whether
one-half of Mr. Andrews’s estate should not go to his heirs by reason of an alleged
violation of the statutes of 1860, preventing a testator from giving to a charitable cor-
poration more than one-half of his estate, after payment of debts. Mr. Hackett is of
the opinion that the Institution’s prospects for success continue fair.
THE REID BEQUEST.
During the year the Institution was supplied with a copy of the will of the late
Addison T. Reid, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who died on September 15, 1902. The will
provides for the payment of the income upon the property to persons named, and
upon their death, for the payment of the principal of the estate, with accumulations,
to the Smithsonian, Institution, to found a chair in biology in memory of the testator’s
grandfather, Asher Tunis. The will was admitted to probate by the surrogate of
King’s County on December 10, 1902. The estate is valued at $10,000.
STATEMENT OF FUNDS USED IN EXPERIMENTS IN MECHANICAL FLIGHT.
On November 9, 1898, the Board of Ordnance and Fortifications of
the War Department made an allotment of $25,000 for carrying on
experiments in mechanical flight, and on December 16, 1899, supple-
mented this by another allotment of $25,000. These funds lasted
until October 15, 1901. Commencing October 16, 1901, and continu-
ing until June 15, 1902, the sum of $5,565.75 was used in carrying on
this work from the special funds received from Dr. Alexander Graham
Bell and the late Dr. J. H. Kidder, for researches to be conducted
personally by the Secretary.
Since June 16, 1902, expenditures for work in mechanical flight
have been made from the Hodgkins fund in accordance with the reso-
lution of the Board of Regents of January 26, 1898; and for this pur-
pose from June 16 to December 31, 1902, the sum of $6,558.61 has
been used for continuing these experiments.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. XVII
RESOLUTION RELATIVE TO INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.
Senator Henderson, as chairman of the executive committee, intro-
duced the following customary resolution:
Resolved, That the income of the institution for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1904, be appropriated for the service of the Institution, to he expended by the Sec-
retary with the advice of the executive committee, with full discretion on the part
of the Secretary as to items.
On motion the resolution was adopted.
REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON NEEDS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL
MUSEUM.
Senator Platt, as chairmen of the special committee appointed at
the last annual meeting, submitted the following report:
The committee of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, appointed
in accordance with a resolution of the Board ‘‘to represent to Congress the pressing
necessity of additional room for the proper exhibition of specimens belonging to
the National Museum,’’ have examined the plans prepared under the direction of the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in accordance with the provisions of the
sundry civil appropriation act approved June 28, 1902.
The committee adopted the following motion:
““That under the limitations of the law the committee hereby report to Congress
plan B for a new National Museum building as the best obtainable for the amount
mentioned; but in the judgment of the committee the larger plan A is believed to
be the one which should be adopted, and we, therefore, ask that Congress shall make
the appropriation for it instead of for the smaller plan.”
But if an appropriation for the construction of a building upon the larger plan can
not be made now, the committee respectfully urge upon Congress an appropriation
of $1,500,000 to construct that portion of the completed plan shown in Plan B. They
further represent to Congress the fact that collections of the greatest value are in
immediate danger of destruction, and are now actually undergoing degeneration in
the present unsuitable, unsafe, temporary quarters, and that the erection of a new
building is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the national collections.
Respectfully submitted.
O: EY Prarr,
S. M. CuLtom,
F. M. CoecKReEtt,
Re Re Homer
Rosr. ADAMS, JR.,
HuecuH A. Dinsmore,
Members of the Special Committee of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
After discussion, on motion of Mr. Adams, it was
Resolved, That the report of the committee be adopted, and that they be instructed
to proceed to bring the matter to a conclusion by securing an appropriation.
The Secretary announced the death on September 23, 1902, of Major
John W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, and his
appointment on October 11, of Mr. William H. Holmes as Chief of
the Bureau, and made a statement as to the present status of the
Bureau and its future policy.
XVIII PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS.
He spoke of the work of the Zoological Park, of the Bureau of Inter-
national Exchanges, and of the Astrophysical Observatory. He also
spoke of the National Museum’s needs, and of the efforts being made
to secure a new building. He then gave a brief statement of his con-
nection with the Carnegie Institution.
The Secretary submitted to the Board a proposition to add $25,000
of accumulated interest from the unrestricted funds of the Institution
to the permanent fund, and after an explanation, Senator Henderson
offered the following resolution:
Resolved, That the Secretary is hereby authorized to deposit in the Treasury of the
United States, under the terms of section 5591 of the Revised Statutes, as an addition
to the permanent fund of the Institution, the sum of $25,000 from the unexpended
balance.
On motion the resolution was adopted.
By resolution of the Board a special committee of five, consisting of
the Chancellor, Senators Cullom and Platt, and Representatives Adams
and Dinsmore was appointed to consider the question of specitically
defining the powers of the executive committee, to report at a special
meeting called for March 12, 1903.
A special meeting of the Board of Regents was held on March 12, at
10 o’clock a. m.
Present: Mr. Chief Justice Fuller, Chancellor, in the chair; the
Hon. William P. Frye, the Hon. O. H. Platt, the Hon. F. M. Cock-
rel], the Hon. R. R. Hitt, the Hon. Robert Adams, jr., the Hon. Hugh
A. Dinsmore, the Hon. John B. Henderson, the Hon. George Gray,
Dr. A. Graham Bell; and the Secretary, Mr. 8, P. Langley.
The Secretary read letters from Senator Cullom and Doctor Angell,
stating that their engagements prevented their attendance. He had
no word from Mr. Olney, who had said, however, at the annual meet-
ing that it would probably be impracticable for him to attend on this
occasion. Doctor White was absent in Europe.
The Chancellor reported informally upon the duties heretofore dis-
charged by the executive committee. No definite conclusion had been
reached as to the question of defining the powers of that committee,
but it was thought desirable that it should hold regular meetings and
that the Board of Regents should hold two stated meetings in addition
to the annual meeting prescribed by law. It was therefore—
Resolved, That, in addition to the prescribed meeting held on the fourth Wednes-
day in January, regular meetings of the Board shall be held on the Tuesday after the
first Monday in December and on the 6th day of March, unless that date falls on
Sunday, when the following Monday shall be substituted.
The special committee was continued, with a request to further
pursue the examination of the whole subject and to report at the
December meeting
oO,
=
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. XIX
Senator Platt read the following clause from the sundry civil act,
approved March 3, 1903:
Building for National Museum: To enable the Regents of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion to commence the erection of a suitable fireproof building with granite fronts, for
the use of the National Museum, to be erected on the north side of the Mall, between
Ninth and Twelfth streets northwest, substantially in accordance with the Plan A,
prepared and submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
under the provisions of the act approved June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and
two, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Said building complete, including
heating and ventilating apparatus and elevators, shall cost not to exceed three mil-
lion five hundred thousand dollars, and a contract or contracts for its completion is
hereby authorized to be entered into, subject to appropriations to be made by Con-
gress. The construction shall be in charge of Bernard R. Green, Superintendent of
Buildings and Grounds, Library of Congress, who shall make the contracts herein
authorized and disburse all appropriations made for the work, and shall receive as
full compensation for his services hereunder the sum of two thousand dollars annu-
ally in addition to his present salary, to be paid out of said appropriations.
Senator Platt suggested that the Secretary be authorized to repre-
sent the Board of Regents in carrying out the provisions of this clause;
and, after a very full discussion of the subject, the following resolution
was adopted:
resolved, That the Secretary, with the advice and consent of the Chancellor and
the Chairman of the Executive Committee, be authorizod to represent the Board of
Regents so far as may be necessary in consultation with Bernard R. Green, to whom
the construction and contracts for the new Museum building are committed by Con-
egress in the act making an appropriation for that purpose.
Mr. Bell introduced resolutions providing for appointments under
the Institution, which were referred to the special committee already
existing.
On the motion of Senator Cockrell, it was—
Resolved, That the Secretary cause to be prepared a compilation of all laws or parts
of laws referring to or in any manner affecting the Smithsonian Institution and the
Bureaus under its charge, including all appropriations by Congress for its purposes
or use.
Referring to previous action of the Board concerning the removal
of the remains of James Smithson to this country, Mr. Bell offered to
bring them to the United States if the Regents would care for them
thereafter, and after remarks the suggestion was accepted that Mr.
Bell renew his inquiry at the next meeting.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF
REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
For THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1903.
To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution:
Your Executive Committee respectfully submits the following report
in relation to the funds of the Institution, the appropriations by Con-
gress, and the receipts and expenditures for the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, the United States National Museum, the International Exchanges,
the Bureau of Ethnology, the National Zoological Park, and the Astro-
physical Observatory for the year ending June 30, 1903, and balances
of former years:
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
Condition of the Fund July 1, 1903.
The amount of the bequest of James Smithson deposited in the
Treasury of the United States, according to act of Congress of August
10, 1846, was $515,169. To this was added by authority of Congress,
February 8, 1867, the residuary legacy of Smithson, savings from
income and other sources, to the amount of $134,831.
To this also have been added a bequest from James Hamilton, of
Pennsylvania, of $1,000; a bequest of Dr. Simeon Habel, of New
York, of $500; the proceeds of the sale of Virginia bonds, $51,500; a
gift from Thomas G. Hodgkins, of New York, of $200,000 and $8,000,
being a portion of the residuary legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins, and
$1,000, the accumulated interest on the Hamilton bequest, savings
from income, $25,000, making in all, as the permanent fund, $937,000.
The Institution also holds the additional sum of $42,000, received
upon the death of Thomas G. Hodgkins, in registered West Shore
Railroad 4 per cent bonds, which were, by order of this committee,
under date of May 18, 1894, placed in the hands of the Secretary of
the Institution, to be held by him subject to the conditions of said
order.
XXI
XXIL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Statement of receipts and expenditures from July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Cashonnands Inaly als 190 ey ee eee eee oe eee $81, 120. 91
Variance Cue mouavel Uiwdhy WS A eo cece esse ee $27, 360. 00
Interest on tunds January, slJ0Ss sees === eee 27, 360. 00
54, 720. 00
Interest to January 1, 1903, on West Shore bonds.......-.-- 1, 680. 00
——> $137, 520. 91
Cash tromijsales ofspublications >=. <. 2-2 29. = ses 329. 87
@ash from’ repayments; freight, ete- ssa seer eee eee eee 11, 105. 50
— 11, 435. 37
otalineceiptej-B Se ies Ae RE RE ee tee Me eine ene ree 148, 956. 28
EXPENDITURES.
Buildings:
Repairs, care, an] improvements. .---...--- $3, 964. 85
Bunniburevand hexbuness ss sesee ee eee eee 1, 068. 05
$5, 032. 90
General expenses:
Rostaceiandstelegraph\==s-s5—-ee--eeeee ee 418.98
Statlonenyacc= ses omens ee See eee ere ee 1, 289. 00
Incidental si(imeliicas yeies)= == eeeeee ee 4, 567. 34
Library (books, periodicals, ete. )---~---- So ay Wai ae
Salaries Gio + sese. eae aces eee ees 23, 927. 65
Galleryiof art oo25.222 2. Sse See eae 251. 38
Meeting sjo3 Sash 3 so toe eee 294. 00
SSDI OE:
Publications and researches:
Smithsonian contributions ........--.----- 790. 01
Miscellaneous collections.-........-...----- 976. 29
Reports heas4 eer wae sees eases eee 2, 710: 09
Special publications... = 5. -aB. 22222552025 167.18
Researches aseaee- eee ee eae 3, 488. 50
Ap palatusin eece esa. cases ook ee ee eee 1, 550. 14
Hodgekingitund. 32225 2s eae = oe 14, 247.48
ee 23, 879. 69
Literary and! scientific exchanges. 222 22-225 2-24-22 — 5, 714. 09
UncCreaseroLmumd se Se ee © cea a ee ee ee 25, 000. 00
93, 448. 61
BalamcenmMexipended sme rs Os SO) sie eee ae 55, 507. 67
The cash received from the sale of publications, from repayments,
freights, and other sources is to be credited to the items of expendi-
ture as follows:
SME SOI AM COM Hl CU1O 10 Sep eee 365. 05
Miscellaneous collections == sss se eee eee err eae a aeree
IRE POPS anc: 2 sd. tede Re e ee eeeeee 11.08
— $329. 87
Tc Nan Css ee ee ee ES eee SA Ae iS, SU, Be
Tncidentals: 23 2: 22.24 322 ee eee 2, 194. 23
$11, 435. 37
“In addition to the above $23,927.65, paid for salaries under general expenses,
$10,748.81 were paid for services, viz, $3,034.68 charged to building account, $483
to furniture and fixtures account, $2,718.67 to researches account, $1,886.67 to
library account, $1,353.64 to apparatus account, $242.51 to reports account, and
$1,029.64 to Hodgkins fund account.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTER. XXIII
The net expenditures of the Institution for the year ending June
30, 1903, were therefore $82,013.24, or $11,435.37 less than the gross
expenditures, $93,448.61, as above stated.
All moneys received by the Smithsonian Institution from interest,
sales, refunding of moneys temporarily advanced, or otherwise, are
deposited with the Treasurer of the United States to the credit of the
Secretary of the Institution, and all payments are made by his checks
on the Treasurer of the United States.
Your committee also presents the following statements in regard to
appropriations and expenditures for objects intrusted by Congress to
the care of the Smithsonian Institution:
Detailed statement of disbursements from appropriations committed by Congress to the care
of the Smithsonian Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, and from balances
of former years.
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1903.
RECEIPTS,
Appropriated by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
expenses of the system of international exchanges between the United
States and foreign countries under the direction of the Smithsonian
Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary em-
ployees and the purchase of necessary books and periodicals’? (sundry
Ginleactruime: 28 lO02) ees ene ee os PRR nce aS omen I ee at $26, 000. 00
DISBURSEMENTS.
[From July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Salaries or compensation:
IFAChneIGUTALO el A MOntNSwaiwacone sss eee 2 oo Se $2, 700. 00
I Gane Gans, UP scavoyvond cs Ate Nees ees eae es = ee 2,199. 96
Melero ONES ai plOU nt see ce= Set ae oases oe ee $e 1, 800. 00
clerked oamonthsatiol2pes- .- 2. S We TS ee ge ee ee 1, 590. 00
clei Kon OMUNS aublOS OS a2... ee eee oe dale ec cece 1, 299296
Cle chee RM OMUL Neel Ol men ese et ee Oe ee ee 960. 00
(eclerkeel2 MOnUNS ai pose see a eee eee Leet ee ea 660. 00
istenoorapher ni -months, ab plOO>: 228 Rie oe es 1, 200. 00
igpackersntitm onthe. at oopese= eee ae ket ee eS See 605. 00
Eworkmanawelemontis catimol: sycte ae eee ete eo ee 660. 00
IS ESSeUPEr AI MONS AG PIWs 2-2. So oe ese SE oe ee 360. 00
IL ramuersrererayegeie. 12 TaaVoualHlovsy, LAG eee Be ee ee eae 360. 00
ligitessen gern a MONS maAbpoO ss once 2 fio hs aetna ee ee aa eee oeloe 300. 00
ieacent-lsmonthicratepolOGs: eee ese eae 4. 4 ees eee SL. 1, 100. 00
HEC et nm Oninn ai pro at oS lee ek Ee ee 900. 00
Paecin GMOS lpi eee s Ses neen oe onc fe oe wees 90. 90
Notal salariesor' compensation. 22.222 2 62 je ee Evan Sek ae 16, 694. 92
General expenses:
1B) SEO SEMaS ak es Seas ene eae ea a Saree Ee $38. 00
1 BY G e1Sy AA eye ct oes Se eit fara eee Hy Moe. 10)
LOIRE ES Le Lee cs Ee Syn aos ee oe ae 5, 674. 15
XXIV REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
General ex penses—Continued.
ee $7, 482.04
HT Oita eee ee aes ean eee Spee ne ere eee $4. 45
Sina HONE ee BES eer sHice aome Se ee 155. 24
Station eyes soe ae ee eae eee oe ae 428. 00
Rotaledishbursememts ese 7 een eee ee eae ere oe
Balancer yi lyel 03 eas ee ee ec ee oe
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1902.
Balance dialiyalle O02 sasiper lashmepontessee eee asses ee oe-
Salaries or compensation:
acent OmmMontassatipolnoGs see same $550. 00
lk erexernhe, GO semonone ale}, Bhp etd 0) Sas eee oo ee aoa So5cme bas 300. 00
ikacentoOnmonths ati dlomss seen eee eae = 90. 00
otaltsalartestorecompensatloneees hee eee eee eee sere
General expenses:
SOO Keg apes pre ie eas el eee a Se 7.50
IBOxesiesee == Aptis es eae ge a rae py veneer ayer th ae ae 151. 50
FEET iGreen tare rate ee ees els eee a eee 825. 97
SIMIDO VSIA asa at San Sea en nec Come rae aE Hee 13. 66
SUppWesme sean coe ye ee es eo ers ee 16.50
$940. 00
1, 015. 13
Total disbursements -..-- tig. Poe Bie A tt ee
‘Balance Juliy: [el Q03he. pencre antec ce Hee See eee
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1901.
Balance July 1, 1902, as' per last report--2-5 eee ee eee
$24, 177. 86
1, 822. 14
$23. 55
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 38090, by the
Treasury Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians,
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries
or compensation of all necessary employees, and the purchase of neces-
sary books and periodicals, fifty thousand dollars, of which sum not
exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars may be used for rent of
building’’ (sundry civil act, June 28, 1902)
DISBURSEMENTS.
Salaries or compensation:
1 director, 23 months 8 days, at $375.......-. $1, 037. 50
1 chief of bureau, 8 months 17 days, at $375.. 3, 205. 65
1 ethnologistin charge, 12 months, at $333.33.. 3, 999. 96
1 ethnologist, 12 months, at $200 ..........- 2, 400. 00
1 ethnologist, 11 months, at $166.67........- WL, CBS), Bi
1 ethnologist, 12 months, at $166.67......... 2, 000. 04
1 ethnologist, 12 months, at $133.33.......-- 1, 599. 96
$50, 000. 00
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. XXV
Salaries or compensation—Continued.
1 ethnologist, 12 months, at $125 -........-- $1, 500. 00
1 ethnologist, 12 months, at $125 -.......... 1, 500. 00
1 ethnologist, 4 months, at $125 -........--- 500. 00
1 ethnologic assistant, 6 months, at $100... -- 600. 00
1 assistant ethnologist, 12 months, at $75. --- 900. 00
1 illustrator, 12 months, at $166.67...-_...-. 2, 000. 04
lweditorye!AmonthssatiplOOe ses sseee aoe see 1, 200. 00
1 editorial assistant, 22 months, at $75_...--- 212. 50
1 librarian, 6 months 14 days, at $75....---- 483. 87
il Glatliky Avior ns Mets aoe Ces ook eae 375. 00
i Glade -ibinoimines Ses esse apes ase ase aeee 100. 00
leclenkes| aniombtls eater! OOhrs eee 1, 200. 00
clerk amonths sat plO0R tess. s se = 1, 200. 00
itclerkasOmmonths wat plQ02 42 = eee 1, 000. 00
lgelerkess| mm ombliss alder =e ee ny 900. 00
1 messenger, 12 months, at $60.-.....---.-- 720. 00
1 messenger, 12 months, at $50............- 600. 00 '
1 skilled laborer, 12 months, at $60_...._.-- 720. 00
imlaborer el 2 emonths sabiptorses sense ose =e 540. 00
Notalisalariesvor compensavoneaae ss eee see] $32, 327. 89
- General expenses:
IBOwligs: aiavel lommobitve, - pees peacsosesoe aSsnosr 498. 67
Drawinessand wllustrations 2. .2.2252--22.-- 300. 90
LECUREli ts pee tee aon Sek vine. Seto 67.98
ETN epee Ao eres Sear een 45.10
EGU ULC Seen ree Sate ee See Sy eS pe ree ye 96. 50
METMUSCRED bare set teeny ok oe Saecres care eee ois 3, 651. 70
Winseelllamecousmes acres aaa, 5 1s See ne sey ene 162.17
Postage, telegraph, and telephone ..---..--- 102. 50
RVC ratiiey erepe renee es yet SM Fat ce lng ook tA 1, 375. 00
SPCC user vices: 2 meni as ae oe socks 1, 161. 00
SNOU CIM TE pa ee ee ee el 9a700
Siaiomeniygerra sae EN DRE ceca Se Ses 23 320. 01
SISOS dat Stee Sus ohne ees enn rear 345. 94
Traveling and field expenses .........--...- 4,117, 65
14, 182. 12
A OTA CIS UESeIml CMS ine 12 hore ne ee oer eee ee ee 2 $46, 510. 01
Ballance ere Wye a9 Sees ee ee eal aoe ee ae eer oe ee 3, 489. 99
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1902.
BAlanceriilyaleeLoO2ZsassnetslastarepOrteerr ses ee ene | oases eee $2, 976.18
DISBURSEMENTS.
General expenses:
BOOS 50ers AiO ars GOES OBIE OE ee ee en $142. 00
lecuietinggs eer Sano es Be ee ose Silo Ile
WBS EG Beis 2 ea, See es Chee se 787.50
Mice NAM ecOUse ee ee sae eee ser tek eR SE th ge 21.58
ReleminOn ese ee ae ee Sees were eine She oe Pees erse re Speke 12.50
Re nite ee ee ters Soro het a No eto 8 Sth hs Oe 125. 00
XXXVI REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
General expenses—Continued.,
Specimens A. aioe a reece cis sae Ve eoe sae eee a cae eee $580. 00
SU DIES See ee eee are ee eae rea ee 26: 94
Mrave lta ditieldvexspences= sorte ay: sete ee ae ene eee 912. 05
otal ais wurSenn eit yeep a ae ae ee ei, eee Rnd Rey eeepc $2, fod. 41.
Balance iuliv lh wll QOS oe Se eam eae eae a ee ee ey eras 220° 77
AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1901.
Balance iulivale 902s ase Gales te Tyo OT eae $1. 93
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treasury
Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PRESERVATION OF COLLECTIONS, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903,
“for continuing the preservation, exhibition, and increase of the col-
lections from the surveying and exploring expeditions of the Goyern-
ment, and from other sources, including salaries or compensation of
all necessary employees, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars,
of which sum five thousand five hundred dollars may be used for
necessary drawings and illustrations for publications of the National
Museum, and all other necessary incidental expenses’’ (sundry civil
Pelt, diay 25 ENP) oo seecec De Sasi eee ee eee $180, 000. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Salaniesior ConipensatlOn=es sees eee ee $162, 208. 04
SpecialiserviCeswe ses ers.s 2 facie seo ae 1, 100. 45
MotaliServices s...s2 cs kee ee Eee $163, 308. 49
Miscellaneous:
Drawings and illustrations -.......------ $1, 772. 99
SUP WW ES etom cat cee isis ee eee 2, 971. 09
St@hOneL Vases ee see. eae eee 839. 19
Mirae leer paces eee cee eee 346. 89
Breit se Mer eee ee 2 eee 1, 164. 15
Motalinniscellaneous) 24 ase 7, 094. 31
Total expenditures 2... .2.2.2.00 4 J Seec eee eee 170, 402. 80
Balance July 1, 1908, to meet outstanding liabilities .........-.. 9) 097. 20
Analysis of expenditures for salaries or compensation.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Scientific staff:
1 assistant secretary, 12 months, at $258.33_.........-.- $3, 099. 96
1 head curator, 3 months 14 days, at $291.66 ........_-- 1, 006. 7
1 head curator (acting), 7 months 16 days, at $291.66.... 2,197.17
1 head curator, 10 months 57 days, at $291.66 -.....---- 3, 461. 34
ighead curator el 2emonthessalb p29) lo 6 ae eee ee 3, 499. 92
icurator(actine);dlGidayswatep200 a a ees 106. 67
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Scientifie staff—Continued.
Cuna bomber Olin ayaln hs OU) Besa a ns ee etre neers oe =
1 curator, 4 months 14 days, at $200. ..-..-.-.-.-----=--
iL CUAKOw, (TOMI TG, Et NOOR Se heen sense = caeesocmesse
eenrator Ieannonihs anna 0 sea ses ae = See nee
IciratLonsel emotions wat.o20 02] se sae eee ns oe
IMCURATOM po eMOMtN Sats p2OUl oes ee cele eee eee ae
assistanizcuraton. | 2imontihnewaty ple) ose e nee cee
lmassistanticurator U2 months at ploOeens. sem seee eee
imassistant curator, l6idays. at ol3d.30 == e-2e -sese= a> =
1 assistant curator, 12 months, at $150...........-- ae?
1 assistant curator, 11 months 14 days, at $133.33....._-
IPASSIStaMircunaAtoOIre 2m OM biaS.sa byl oO ese eer eae ==
1 assistant-curator, 12 months, at $116.66 ......-..--.--
IFAssistanh Curators he monbhss at pilsoems sas -eese = se oe-
1 assistant curator, 11 months 27 days, at $116.66 __...--
1 assistant curator, 12 months, at $116.66 .............-
ieassistant curatomule mont ner atoll oOls= see es oo ae oe
leacsistamt Curator le monbmns:atipillo Os eee S22 se eee
leassistanie Curacon Amon hicwatpliaasoomneesee see =
1 second assistant curator, 12 months, at $100._..._._--
1 aid, 6 months, at $83.33; 6 months, at $100... -.-- ee
merce w lean atlases dlaiyissyaltecp: (0) Bee = seer eee
iL-gaicl, UZ} savers pgttepee big ee Sor ens oo ae sae eg aseeam@eaas A
eardeellpm onthstat piolsoscs sees se a. Ae ee Seeaie
pitas Aaneonm ths aAbipOl 22 tek Avs. MBean ee eee
Th zavlol, By wenvormd ars} IY CO bhush lem nese > aocc 5 onesoea seas se
iaidlOnmonihsiA4S2sday sat poo. cole eee aes = sae se al
eal dealermombhs seat pO 02sec ses eee nr serene ne
Nea cewelenn Omiblorsaty po Ul ec cosines sc a os eines ree eee
ade MmonthstotVdays yal PSo-59 — = ase Nee a eee
il aul, We inovomlasl, aie tO eee eae aoe oneal oes
eA eateunTOmthis-satrpe Oem sce vas Se eee oe Ar Le sy
ibanel, WimormMed ns, ate tC BAe Vee eee ee eee eee
IWCUStOGIanaeZaMonta Sabra! see eee Soe eee ee
Preparators:
Ephorosraphers 2 months vabtibl jose. sseseees sas -5-
ismocelersa montis abil O0Per cee. see ee ae
| GeiollOeNS i, UY maemo, MEO 58 oj 25sseesns seaseedoue
Iedirakismanvels daysiuatihosscneesecoce ose. aoe eee ae
1 preparator, 4 months 20 days, at $40 -.....-.--.-.----
lepreparalorm lA months. abi polss se S224 esses nee =
il joeyogueier, Me ae mOS, Cle ctWeooecaeoooasdeeens coaene
il jonceyoeiieziwone, IA vaavormni nspemiie NORE oa oeo cage eeee so eooeee
1 preparator, 8 months 33 days, at $70.....-...----.-----
1 preparator, 10 months, at $85; 495 hours, at $0.50. -_-.-
1 preparator, 10 months 513 days, at $45..........-..---
1 preparator, 6 months 24 days, at $50; 14 days, at 560...
Ie pLeparaor es MM ONUM athe OM ee een ge ees re
I PLepALaAOrs me nMMOMLAS | Ab pierre eee see See se oe
SOLE PALALOL,el-nIMOnNthS wal @odeeees ee eee cee = oe
1 preparator, 5 months 15 days, at $40 .......-....------
I preparator, 11 months 27 days, at $90 ....-...-..-.-...
$2, 400.
893. 3:
600.
2, 400.
2, 400.
750.
1, 800.
1, 800.
falls
800.
1, 528.
300.
Ieee)
1, 500.
1, 384.
ooo:
1, 800.
1, 800.
rode:
1, 200.
Te OSoR
1, 146.
999:
900. (
240.
462. 3
965.
1, 200.
(eile
e200)
600.
600.
300.
2,100.
XXVIT
$52, 695. 25
XXVIII REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Preparators—Continued :
1 botanical assistant, 2 months, at $40_.................- $80. 00
1 botanical assistant, 2 months 29 days, at $75.......... 220. 16
echiet taxidermist lZamonths ath see ee see ee eee 1, 500. 00
ittaxidermist, 2 omonths sat eo0= 42505 so sae eee 720. 00
iitaxid ermist wl amOmbil saci OO see eee ee 1, 200. 00
$17, 107. 84
Clerical staff:
1 administrative assistant, 12 months, at $291.66_.....-- 3, 499. 92
Alewbiwoye, 11 ionvorninsieninnnksy/ 3555 555eqeccescesoososksoe 2, 004. 00
1 chief of division, 12 months, at $200.......... .-....-- 2, 400. 00
icresistrar sl 2imonths- athe lores ee aes ee 2, 004. 00
1 disbursing clerk, 12 months, at $116.67..............- 1, 400. 04
1 assistant librarian, 12 months, at $133.338........-.-..- 1 Pita }she as)
cinancerclerkesliZnmonths vat 2o =e eee 1,500. 00
1 property clerk (acting), 12 months, at $60...........- 720. 00
itstenoorapher, tsmonths, atchl00ssse ssa e eee ae ee 1, 100. 00
1 stenographer, 4 months 15 days, at $50.=............. 225. 00
lestenographer lZmmonthssat so 0 sesso eee aes 1, 080. 00
Istenosrapher, sl2 monthscal pl (O-22 sao eee oe 2, 100. 00
1 stenographer and typewriter, 12 days, at $60 ......... 24. 00
1 stenographer and typewriter, 7 days, at $50 ........... 29
1 stenographer and typewriter, 6 months 45 days, at $60. 450. 42
1 stenographer and typewriter, 12 months, at $83.33 .__- 999. 96
1 stenographer and typewriter, 3 months 45 days, at $60;
ZO day Sav ho8 ak eer cee eens ee ee ee 308. 90
1 stenographer and typewriter, 16 days, at $60.........- 32. 00
1 stenographer and typewriter, 12 months, at $50......- 600. 00
1 stenographer and typewriter, 43 days, at $65.........- 91. 84
1 stenographer and typewriter, 1 month 20 days, at $125. 205. 65
1 stenographer and typewriter, 5 months 17 days, at $60- 332. 90
1 stenographer and typewriter, 2 months 9 days, at $65... 149. 50
1 stenographer and typewriter, 5 months 13 days, at $75. 406. 45
1 typewriter, 4 months 14 days, at $45; 2 months 42 days,
BGA OM eee ee Bee ee eee eee 339. 83
istypewrxiter, 12 months, at S6aee2 -. 22-252 ee eee eee 780. 00
istypewriter, 4 months 2 days, at/e45, 2.2252 seen ee 183. 00
1 typewriter, 12 months, at $85 _..... Seisiis ee a eee 1, 020. 00
igivpewriver,. l2imonths: at $7 0-e=s2 see ae ee 840. 00
iclenk 2imonths at SlO0k. =a: s2-— s oe ee 1, 200. 00
i-clenk. 1)? nonthis; sat Ponce. eo ee pe ee ee ee 420. 00
delerk, do.days, at $6026 2225... 8554-5 5- ee 30. 00
itclerks 12 months; “ati PG0ss o fo. sen eee 720. 00
elerk, 12months at oiones 5555 42 eeeeeeeeee 900. 00
ihclerk,2:days ab Goons oscsts ess 2 oe eee 5 (H7/
1 clerk, 4 months, at $40; 3 months, at $45............- 295. 00
lkelerk: 1 Zamonths ate ose. eee eee 900. 00
ivclerk, U2smonths: jats (oa a2 ae en, er eeeey eee 900. 00
UUNfe) Kergligel as covevauil mish ti et Men SMR ee 1, 500. 00
ieclerk,. d2imonths vat pO = eee yee ee 1, 200. 00
icelerk, 12imonthscanG 0a cee a ee 720. 00
clerk, 4*monthsitat pS8.03 seo sae aoe | ae 330. 32
Ieelerk,:9 months; ati e702 ee sear 675. 00
ielerk, 12 months atieG0ss.oseee 2 ee 720. 00
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Clerical staff—Continued:
WelerksWiemonths:Zodaysuatb40essse- = ee aes $473. 33
Mclenkee Zam omul seis renee os eae eine eee oe Se 900. 00
iclerke wep ombhs air pOU Rese seer sere aan ce ieee rer oe 720. 00
itclenk Ss monshs seaaysabiprtUe asses ess ss- 2525250 5- 168. 43
Ieclerkesl opm onths eat poss a= an ae et ee ee 600. 00
Welerkess months lGidayss ab po0ls- sce oases 2 Senses se - 175. 81
clerk en OnbhSssatepOU sa ane ees Se cerciacs onc see teen 600. 00
1 clerk, 9 months, at $40; 3 months, at $50..........__- 510. 00
IL @lo@ak, 12 TNO tint Wi) nee coos ooooes sease see Eeeraeee 900. 00
eles; Us saivora Hors EHO ee ee aS eee a ae 720. 00
NeGlenkasl ona ouths vate pililoecce = aka s ster a eee ee 1, 380. 00
leclerkeel2 monthswatiniOrmeees sees eee See 900. 00
IGlenk GO pMOnGHS watipleoe wesc ose eee see 750. 00
ikclerkalZamMOnchs. abihoosap te eects ee oc .c cs oe oe 660. 00
iclerkey4rmonths Gs daysratipr0 =) oo sees eee oe 183. 57
leclerkeel0imonths29)\ days atialOO)s sss s2ae- 225s oes 1, 0938. 55
clerk elZemonuiematnpo Os ae ee sae eee ace eee 600. 00
lscataloguerse Cay Sati pes = eee yee oes arse 4. 00
iseataloguen ro Oras atid Ole tem see ane sere ere oe 39. 39
eatalouere2 2a daysnciiinG os. sane ees aoa) ee 45. 00
1 cataloguer, 3 months 27 days, at $50 .-.-............- 198. 21
1 bibliographical assistant, 3 months 18 days, at $83.33-.- 303. 56
Buildings and labor:
1 general foreman, 12 months, at $122.50.............-- 1, 470. 00
iGforemana le nmonthswatrhoO! 9... seeee reese sae see 600. 00
1 lieutenant of watch, 12 months, at $70 ..........__.-- 840. 00
1 watchman, 9'months'75 days, at $55. ........-.......- 629. 79
1 watchman, 1 months 29 days, at $60)._.............- 718. 00
I \yeteelmyaneenay, 174 reevovoun os Cor ies aessooeecs occ soeaa = 720. 00
IL ywelmaneya;, UPA tavernas}, pe k ese eea senor es ees 6 ee 720. 00
iiwatchimean sl 2emomths pain POWs. 225 see ee ee 720. 00
1 watchman, 9 months 72 days, at $55 .............-..- 626. 06
leywrate him ane Mo mtins mati moo- meee cies aes cae sees 660. 00
iewatchman- 2 months, atiGoo. 2.62.2 522-252 s sf. a5 660. 00
iiwakchmianeel Zam onGhsscttpol see aeee n= eee nee 720. 00
il yyenclarmenoy, UY somone vey ERE CNR | 6 coon osocescas ee 720. 00
1 watchman, 11 months 24 days, at $60 .........2...--: 665. 00
I yyeclarenain, UP) Taverne, eras 2 ps oes cg osesscccee 720. 00
ii watchmianslZamonths atv opo see see eee eee 660. 00
1 watchman) 5 months 54 days, at $55 -.............-..- 370. 81
1 watchman, 10 months 48 days, at $55 ................ 636. 35
ivatchinianr slam Oonths sath Seeeee eee esses eeeee 660. 00
iSwatchmans Ganonths at 609.2252. 2es2 5. see 55-5 oe 360. 00
(watchman el2smontinss at poe == seme eee eee 660. 00
bsyeieounenay, INGEN Mbt) Seo Soeccsone aes aSeesenose ese 2.00
lewatchman wll emonmbhs eat poses see oe asses eee ae 605. 00
ikwatchuianteale day. ahipatesone = asks e ee een: J 5ae 2.00
f watchman, & months, 3.days, at $55..........-2.....--- 280. 32
le Wate bin oeeletOnb MSs ib p40 see ee eee nee 480. 00
livate bina anlar Onbha Ss ain oD ee see eereeaee eerie ae 660. 00
1 watchman, 11 months, 18 days, at $55............-... 638. 00
lwatehmans L2rmMonthns rat. pope es ss ane ae 660. 00
XXIX
348, 850. 50
XXX REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Buildings and labor—Confinued.
i watchman, 5 months 30:days, at $00... |. 222-22 eo. $328. 23
1 watchman, 11 months 183 days, at $60 ...........--.- 697. 00
I yeuclauanena,, We enovNANS, AN MG) = conc kcscssosegnssonSee 780. 00
ekaullledslaborenim pao mtlieiaiti p20 eee ee ee ee 480. 00
1 skilled laborer, 8 months 36 CEMCECnE Ui ccoasepacds- 552. 00
lesknlledslaborens2o Gays yaa OD see ses eee eee 5}, 245)
1 skilled laborer, 10 months 16 days, at $40 ...-.-.-.--- 420. 65
lesknlledslabonrer elo Onuhs raion ome eee 660. 00
it cfreilkeol Meloyeywere, I into eels eSeuecccochesceeseue 62. 50
1 skilled laborer, 10 months, at $40; 2 months, at $50. - 500. 00
1 skilled lajborenek2 months satebo Ose see ee eee 600. 00
IL \rOueisine ial, Bilaroknys, Ayn cles Saas cceeaocgosesessanaee 469. 50
JMaborers2i 9. days saul oO seeeese sea se eee eae eee 328. 88
IL Vey oxornere, OAS) Cnet All PI) os coanaSeccosSceuaseasnasoc 43.50
lelaborenr) J2hmonths alta pan sss ese ee es eee - 540.00
IMlAbOrer we daysatiple 20) soe e see eee eee aera 2. 50
Ilaborerys20s days, ati oilt.o 02ers eee sees) rae rele ar 480. 75
I knowygere, WPA vavomnolsy Chive ee okeeees soe caosogee son oe 480. 00
iMaborer ss nmonths!25 days) ablo40e see se see ee 152. 26
IMaborersolls> cays yal pleo0 hee sse eee e eee aaa 470.25
laborers 20Siday ss atin lato m seme eae ee See eee 364. O1
laborer. 2ocdays, atiSilkc0e 22. eee ose eee 37.50
iaborerysil32- days atoll. 00.225 a2 — see eee ee 470. 25
1 laborer loidays, at pl: S0f2 22 == se. ae Eee eee 22.50
lela orersallOGrdaryiss ait piles 0) epee eee ae 159. 00
MlaborertAl. day. is a5 2s. 5-S0 es. bee een eee 2.00
Maborern 2 months) ati pone See 540. 00
iaboreryoordaye watcpl ioe sate eee eee 57. 75
I laborer yeil9sdays, at) plcd0): ==. sees see eee eee 479. 63
lL Jaborer#25\ days, at $150" -.3- 222 eee 37.50
i Jaborer; 25) dans: ab: pl. Osea a rere ee 37.50
IMalborery3203 days) vat bile) aaa aera ee ere 480. 75
ll laborer, 3225 .days\-at pljosenssea eee eee eee 564. 38
I laborers 344-days; at S100 Res ae ee ee ee 516. 00
I laborers 227) days,-at ols 5 0 =e eee eee ee 340. 50
MaborerwlZimonths ai poo see 420. 00
laborer Zo days; atioll.00 beams eee eee 37.50
Iaborery 29" days. ati plist eee ram 3 ye ee 29. 00
laborers 12 mnomb hs a braeaeeee eee een 300. 00
IMaborer; 143d aivs alti gli 0 eens oem are eee 214. 50
iMaborer, Gi days, at: plea 0s 2 ue =e ee 9. 00
ll laborer; 6 days) at: pli 50 eee =e eye eee 9. 00
l laborer: I day; at $20 asas0 .o2en ee ceet ace eee eee 2. 00
laborers Tsim onith soars 0 see 550. 00
I laborer; 8222 days, lat; plso0 eae see eee 484.13
1 laborer, 313. daysiat S1b50) 35 ees ee es eee 469. 50
i laborer; 3ilhs darysiwa bibles 0a eee ee AVR PAS:
IMaborer, 8305, day Ssatr ls 0 eee ee 503. 25
| laborer, “1, day; at:$22 25 eee oe eee ee ee 2.00
1 laborer, 1 day,-at'$222 45.22 eee ee eee ee ee 2. 00
iMaborerivdayeratin2ae esses Sh start LG Oe eek Ral eR 2. 00
laborer, liday, at $2. Ssscee eee ee ee eee 2.00
isaborers 12 months ates 0 see see ee - 480. 00
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Buildings and labor—Continued.
1 laborer, 12 months, at 540
1 laborer, 313 days, at $1.50
1 laborer, 3 months, at 520
1 laborer, 3 months, at 540
1 laborer, 318 days, at 31.50
1 Jaborer, 23 days, at $1.50
1 laborer, 2 months 35 days, at $40
1 laborer, 158 days, at $1.50
1 laborer, 12 months, at 540
1 laborer, 23 days, at $1.
1 attendant, 163
5) anne ree eee eee here t
iplaboner2ardavs, vat) plea 0c eee sees ee ee oe
1 laborer, 26 days, at 51.75
1 laborer, 12 days, at $1
1 laborer, 31935 days, at $1.50
1 laborer, 1 day,
1 laborer, 313 days, at 31.50
1 messenger, 12 months, at $20
1 messenger, 21 days, at $20; 9 days, at $30
1 messenger, 6 months 353 days, at $20
1 messenger, 11 months 21 days, at $30
ljmessencer.2lidayssatip20e.- 9. oss eee ease sa ee
1 messenger, 12 months, at $20
1 messenger, 11 months 18 days, at $20
lomecsencer liamoniberati poo]. seen eee e Soe ae
lemessencerwlodaysual po0 kes. ot seems e es =e
1 mail carrier, 9 months, at $40
GLANS ralty piles Seer cs wee ete eee es
1 attendant, 12 months, at 540
1 attendant, 156 days, at $1
1 attendant, 341} days, at 1.50
1 cleaner, 12 months, at 530
lecleaner pl 2smominee atipoosese- mise saaaa= aes cs noe
cleaners monthelZidavsnatib20 sna. 5 ssecacce es aa e
1 cleaner, 11 months 29 days, at $30
ieleaners i? months) abipo0's 2-22 eecc es cee c ee °
1 cleaner, 12 months, at $30
1 cleaner, 11 months 29 days, at $30
incleanermilimonthsuli7 days: au hao o- assncese= sos) ee
3480. 00
469. 50
60. 00
120. 00
477. 00
vo ow Ww
Se
LS
rm)
oe
(Se)
Ot
Je)
9. 00
404. 83
Motalisalaniess*§ 8-8 e 84 -at- eee ee By yee GE a
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PRESERVATION OF COLLECTIONS, 1902.
RECEIPTS.
Balance as per report July 1, 1902 .
Jai were eee eee eee eee ee ee eee eee
EXPENDITURES.
(July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Salaries; onmcompensations--s5-.. .cs22.<s-ee = $15. 00
SS Peclalesenuilces meer sot sere Sense ee Rey ie 439. 81
Total services
sm 1903
ee a
IIL
XXXI
—— $43,554.45
162, 208. 04
$5, 709. 78
XXXIL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Miscellaneous:
Drawings and illustrations -.......-.--.- $640. 78
SUD Piles ee en ote See ee ces mer 3, 028. 60
SlatloMenyse wares see ee eee eee eeeee 909. 84
Travels. Aen) Aen eee eo ee eerie 101. 99
1D Reed eee Gere ee ea ee SABER ee soe 415. 54
otalemisce llanecoussesses Geese ee eee eee eee eee $5, 096. 75
Totalrexpenditures 2.2 2sicS2scccje oe iekic en se ease ate See $d, 550. 62
Balance Jiullivl O03 > sees eee ee ee oe or eevee ss eee 159. 16
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
AP propmaionspy Congress) Marclhia.01 OO) meee eerie esa ine siscmiee eee $180, 000. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
Salanesior compensanones===——ees see aaa $161, 897. 99
Specialiservices: see. aes oie sete see 2, 255. 36
Motal services £2.22 s.c2 =< See ee ee eee $164, 153. 35
Miscellaneous:
Drawings and illustrations ............-. 2,787. 83
Suppliestecase scot eee eae 6, 533. 99
Niditomenyesess sete Su. Pe oe eee 2, 663. 02
BR gee) lee a Ss Sse sc Re mi ae ee ah as oe 7 Ul All
Rreichite eae ern ns aco a ee ee 1, 681. 44
Totalamiscellanéouss:.s=... ssc. eae eee 15, 687. 49
Total expenditures. <:.- < so 2620) ee eee eee eee 179, 840. 84
Balance: July 1.1903. 32... ce Se ee ee 159. 16
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PRESERVATION OF COLLECTIONS, 1901.
RECEIPTS.
Balance as per report July 1, 1902/5032 2 eee eee nee $74. 49
EXPENDITURES.
Special services... 2. 2..2<06- 54 Se ee $8. 00
Miscellaneous:
Freight 25 o2cActts noes ta ee $39. 36
Supplies < s.2..ce2cc.a bi sas eee eee 2.25
Totalmiscellancousseqe. 4] e eee 41.61
Total expenditure: 5.42.22 eee eee eee ee eee 49. 61
Balance.) \o<.2.5:cc ss Soe ee
Balance carried, under the provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the
Treasury Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. XXXII
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1900, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
Approprianon by Congress:June 6, 1900 2.25... 2. Sees sseesbet Sl esecee $180, 000. 0C
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1900, to June 30, 1903.]
Salaniesior conmpensationins-252-=----— ---er $159, 174. 45
SPECIMINSCRVICES i aac Se ee eee ise She ec oe 5, 198. 14
Rotalisenvicesa- eaee once est on ee tae wae cee tetas $164, 372. 59
Miscellaneous:
Drawings and illustrations .......-.-.--- 2, 436. 30
SU LCS eee eee a eater me eee eae 6, 089. 10
SUMONGIAY S3c cape hdaastoneaperecbeeease ol g9
* CORSE lead xe a2 52 nln a Ts SNe YP 3, 490. 19
1 ERRCeO Yea ON UE ete Se tes nv a 1, 834. 95
Motalemiscellancousteemsee ee ee eer. sa ee 15, 602. 53
MO LAME spe CLUES =e one ee ee ere ee ee eee 179; 975. 12
Balance carried to surplus fund as above. .--....----.---------< 24. 88
NATIONAL MUSEUM—FURNITURE AND FIXTURES, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903,
“for cases, furniture, fixtures, and appliances required for the exhi-
bition and safe-keeping of the collections of the National Museum,
including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees’”’ (sun-
Gueye Giyallavere dbwneAAss, ES TOPA)) ee ae ee are Ae ee eee ene eee. $22, 500. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903. ]
SHEIILEWeIEESIE os See oe Rs aa a a $12, 342. 35
SE CIUINSERVICEN: seems a= ase cise acer ee ae 14. 60
FLO tale Servi Ces Saas eee sp ee eae a es $12, 356. 95
Miscellaneous:
@asesseSlOrag Cea aaa sa Soe ye See 2, 266. 00
CASES excl Only eye ee 881. 00
Wrawers= trayss Cte oa. aia cee a5 eae Se 2 844. 52
Hramesiang! woodwork ssee40 = 55525" 743. 91
(GETS Ss espe re 452. 04
Eland iathGgree eo MN Pe = See ae 433. 66
AIG YOY =| Rec eee RE Ee eget Ae et ype
(CG tae eee ee a oes a Sel Silo
EVILS a es Re ES ete Ler A 590. 79
paints OSs ClCe ss a/c soc ns2 ace Sse ae 259. 62
Ofticesfurnitune tse ets 2 se oe 1, 478. 38
eathersrulober, corksoesse ao2-55 4s 2ee 265, 33
XXXIV REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Miscellaneous—Continued.
Drala nn OS ie ae ey iy? REC ee eee eae $4. 00
I abC te ss ate oe ae at Ae eed ey eee 58. 80
4 Mi Nf 2) Gee ee ee pre ae ere ee Pes aE 114. 15
Rotal«miscellanecoush 425. ae ee ee eee $8, 446. 81
Rotalcexpenditures:s: 9-52 sea5 = see ee ee $20, 803. 76
Balance July 1, 1903, to meet outstanding liabilities. .........--- 1, 696. 24
Analysis of expenditures for salaries or compensation.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903. ]
(ESuperintendent ro months athp2o 0p eee eee ee ee a $750. 00
Wsupenvisoriom constiuctions | 2mmonths atepl 40 ssee eee ee eee 1, 680. 00
iseclerks;G months att peonson sce. osee eee ee hae ae eae a ee * 499.98
iishopmoreman eli2z sm Onths at) noo ran eens e eee e seers eee eee 1, 020. 00
iMeanpenter. Ss days abes2- Aa: | Jose) eee ee aes Sek eet ee 939. 00
incarpenter,’ 195d .days,at $3.2 255. sose2 56> ene cee esse ee 586. 50
lcarpenter; Vo2. days. at $3.2 ...25. 62-2555. 2455 4-ane eee eee 456. 00
icarpenter, 14 davis ab G8e -<at 2-0 5s cee ae oe ae eee 342. 00
iearpentery LOLdays, atths) << 22220. 5.2 oe ace eee ee 312. 00
icearpenter, G6 days,atida- cc. 2-222 oaccse ee oes (ae ee eee 198. 00
Inearpenter,. 27 Gays; abips.on. S25.5<2 5 Seek oe eee eee 81. 00
iskilled laborer, 313 days, at $225.2. 152 Sacer eee ee ee 704, 25
skilled aborerssimonbhse 19 ss cdaiys salah One see ee ee 688. 69
I skalledMalborery lean Ombinsseaity sO 20) 0) eee rea eee 687.50
i skalledslaborersjmonths ate 90 ace ee eee 630. 00
i-skilled laborerwlili3 days; at $2080» =. << $902 eee eee eee 316. 40
iskilleddaborer:10fidays;at-$2.80' -3o oo. pee ean eee 291. 20
i skilled laborersi39 days; at:$2:80 Ss: 22s ae ee en ee 109. 20
ielkalledlaborer, 14.days,.at'$3:50 : 25.25) eee eee 49. 00
inskilled laborer] 4days: at $3.50:..2 5-5. eee ene 49. 00
iskilled laborer, 13idays, at $2.80 52 5. secant ee 36. 40
iskilledvlaborer;-7 days, at‘$2)50';. 1) 5522.44 s5 ee eee 17.50
ieskilled laborers ddayvat.G2°80.2 925) pee eee eee eee eee 1. 40
ipamter, 11 months 28) days at'$7o ous eee ee eee 895. 95
I workman, S45 days; atis2e- 2 = eps oe ee ee are ae eee 629. 00
J-painter’s assistant, 52: days) lati Oia. cr ne ee 91. 00
Ilaborer, 58:days) at: S17beecn cers ee ee ee 101.50
1 laborer, 66: days, at'$l.b0: S325 5 ee ee ee ee 84. 00
1 laborer, 283 days, yceriti hi S45 ec see epee en ee ce ee 49.88
l laborer; 26 days cat $ls50 pb Seecmc Sas eee ee ee ee eee 39. 00
1 laborer, ‘6\days) iat Pil 5025 ee ee oe a ee 9. 00
Total gcse ee Nee eee ee 12, 342. 35
NATIONAL MUSEUM—FURNITURE AND FIXTURES, 1902.
RECEIPTS.
Balance'as per report Julyel, 1902¢2ss2 5 oe eee ee eee $2,156. 15
REPORT OF
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903. ]
Miscellaneous:
THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
XXXV
CacedmexdnilloitvOmmers: pee eee pa ee Se Naps ea syeces $70. 00
DAN Vers athens elCy meses etcrae Sry eee ees rae meee ase alee 562. 83
JOINS Greve AOU. | 5S Ne BS sa SpeSeueeceeeooessonee 481. 69
[BIGRRG SIRS! tees ik ae et 9 Ser eee Oe ae een he eee 49. 39
INOS ccc SSS Ee eee AE A BOE ee Snr se ee fe oe
(CHVGYH oe E sre xing Sse eects og BREs OAT Sera Agr deca OPO Be EER NPR eae 34. O1
LS Tire) Coie ee et at Marans REN RAI emir fs Sing fy ch Ene 124. 69
Ranihseo lle LCM eatin emer toe mies, Seine OED oA eRe Fe 5 8. 80
Ofieesitimmiiunes se sa arenes ee se Mh eee Seas ae aa ee 778. 30
IPod) opbcyec o> ee Ae oes eae aae SES ese Soe eae 12. 35
IPE CEI hei oles See eS eS oe re OA eee eee 1. 25
Motalenmiscellamecouse- meat cee sto ess oe fae ee Sea $2, 131. 08
Balancerdiullivgel tl 90S sera mee tenes oi sc ce ic neice ore 5. O07
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
ppLropranonn ova Congress Manchion LOO Sa seee eee =e ey eee ee
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1991, to June 30, 1903.]
SaAlaniestonicomipensa tones === esses] eee $11, 742.49
Se CIMESCTNI CCS sae sacta kas Se sae s elk Ee aie 24. 40
Mo talaservd COS wear tos scars nS aaa ete Soe
Miscellaneous:
(CHISEL NS) 00) N02 ee ee ee eee pe See o200500
Wases exhibitions tee See ei ete eee 70. 00
Wranwiersntrayen ClG.en Seon ase fa nos ee oak 1, 088. 08
Frames and woodwork... -......-...-..-<.- 796. 64
(CHS Sis 7S a eg 1, 193. 21
vanecliywanewa scree set aes eS ane Le 2 861. 03
NGOS ees Beene keen ee ee Se eee 45. 38
COM, COMMU COs csacaseecd boos eaeses 106. 05
Ghiitrallo CTaerar sere he ene ee er 1, 445. 21
IPEWHiMNT RSLS KOMI) AOS SENS een ee ae eee 308. 48
Oficebhtrmininen ee oe ee oe eee 1, 419. 85
eather aru pers COnKka ses se = ee a 305. 66
LONER VARA) se ye ee te ee et 103. 00
[EIKO Orin Oe ee ee Pe are 201. 90
IRE) OS 2 Wee eee SE ee es eee eee Pee A 52. 25
PED EG Uae ee eam Sree Sete yk EG 1. 30
Rotalsmuscelilan coustsssress oe. aster es cons a Seen
otallexpenditures = 227s asce cee «cee aee ee See
SAT Ge AMC pat ed HS ts eee et Se SRS BS ees
S11, 766. 89
8, 228. 04
$20, 000. 00
19, 994. 93
5: 07
XVI REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—FURNITURE AND FIXTURES, 1901.
RECEIPTS.
Balance as per report July 1, 1902.....-..... gone o cisiseee ee see eee
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090,
by the Treasury Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30,
1903.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—HEATING AND LIGHTING, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1903, ‘for
expense of heating, lighting, electrical, telegraphic, and telephonic
service for the National Museum (sundry civil act, June 28, 1902)...-.
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903. ]
Salaries onicompensailoneees scree eens seer $8, 224. 02
SICaO CINE A AICS GRR A oe Case so cnceobeooodosaane 34. 16
Motalsservices = sacs 5 eee ee = Cee ese = $8, 258. 18
Miscellaneous:
@oaltand wood!) 3232-3. eee eee ener $3, 908. 11
Gasca re sie OS se eee eee ee cee pce 932570
RentaliotcallbOxesheys= === eee eee eee 90. 00
Mlectrical supplies esseaes- 2 aes eeeeeeeee 190. 21
Blectricity a sass. tastes see eer ee eee 1, 255. 05
Heating supplies) 522-28 ee way es eee 864. 74
Releorams. cence ese ore eee ee eee 08. 43
Mele phones) Hee ie= home see oo eeta eo = eee 499. 95
Totalmmiscellaneoustesassc oe i Cone eee 7, 779.19
Motaliexpenditures! 52a. ge <n we Fede nee eee eee oe ee eee eee
Balance diuilivaliesl 903 cass son artes meee ee eee oe ort
Analysis of expenditures for salaries or compensation.
{July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
i-superintendent,,2:months, at. p200)-\.- sos sos. sos sss. eee eee
ikengincer, 2pmonths, atipl22:00". 2: es semen e sae eee eee
1 telephone operator, 6 months, at $45; 6 months, at $50.._.........2.
Ptelephone operator, 313 days, at. $l:o0.- 2222222 oa 22 ee eee
lGfiremans | 2months at po0l en sss eee setae See
ivfireman, 10) months, ati p60 Soe 2s S22 eee
lvskalled@laboner. S068 Geauyseat Doe se eee
iskalledalaborer, Zim onths aii ojo see ee eee eee eee ae ae
1 skilled laborer, 5 months, at $90. ........._-- Bee Sar5 3
igskilled laborer wli7 dayssatios.00 hse see eee eE eee eee eee eae
skilled laborer: 17 days 7atib3sso02 sees oe eee tee eee eee
1 skilled laborer, 183 days, at $3.50 --.--- 5 Ee, Sie en eae ee
ISplumbers (assistants 2349 clays weluy 2220 meee a
Ilaborer 32035 days, (ert jit (ees ame eee eee ee gee ee
i laborer, 317 days; at/SU5022¢ = seers nee er nee See eee
Ilaborer, 79 days, at $2.20) 52, sas ee ee ee
1 laborer, 98% days; at! Sioa eee eee
Idaborer, 145. daiysy at Bios = eae ae
li laborer, 12 days at Sl s7 bese ae cena. se ee eee eee eee
Total . ..2c.45356 552 ee ee ee re
$1. 89
$18, 000. 00
$500. 00
1, 470. 00
570. 00
47. 25
720. 00
600. 00
919. 88
900. 00
450. 00
59. 50
59. 50
47. 25
527. 63
480. 75
475. 50
177. 75
172. 38
25. 63
21. 00
8, 224. 02
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—HEATING AND LIGHTING, 1902.
RECEIPTS.
iBalanceas peridsn epoch, July I 1902. 22 oe acs ocieewe ono ssans-
EXPENDITURES.
® [July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
SMEG ING sees e553 Rn ON a Ao See ee ea eee $25. 00
Miscellaneous: -
@odlandiwoodee.-- ss. oe eee eee eee ee $5. 50
(AS Wane eee ae os se Seman aaa ceaie s oie 78. 30
ientalvotcallsboxesii~..-.2--s-seee--- 22-6 i= = 20. 00
Blectricalasup plicswee er aa eins eee cate er oe 652. 04
lectin Clive ese Sas eon Sete cree ee eo 174. 61
FTCALIM OL SU PILES hee epaer-ioe ier cisterns = 338. 55
UGISeRINS 326 Shasta saaddsadantaneaesness ee 42. 08
ANGIEY ON NOT OVES) 5S Se eels SEI ae tee ee 189. 83
Electrical installation supplies........-..---- 32. 92
Totalmiscellancoussa-Ssese eras ese ese oan aioe 1h533..63
MotalgexpenGitunes: sama seamaster ta aie cke
Balances dilyiols (90382 jaca 2 wok cie ee seis Stara mene > see creyceioe
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress March 3, 1901, including electrical installa-
BSL Tames OC) Peete eee ee wren we Oa nee eee See tt, en no ae Oe
Salaries Or compensation. -.--- .------+------- $8, 419. 13
Speclalesenviceswer sete sane eae cee | Sones 52.75
PRO LARS Tavs GES teres oe ak ee ee ee ae eae $8, 471. 88
Miscellaneous:
Coallandewood! tar. 2 sees coe e eek ese 4, 492. 02
(Gene) ga bese Bee ee ee ee aoe 1, 357. 00
Rentalgots calllllboxes emcee na see soe eeeee 120. 00
Hlectricalisuppliesss: 2s -cass seca 5c ea -ee 969. 90
IEE Gal City pepe ee ae yee ee eee 975. 41
lean eysup plies essai ee eeee yee = 912. 63
MPeleoramse ssa arene tvs oak eiscice acne 44. 37
NSU O NONE SE ae eee eRe eee epee. 674. 77
Notalsmiscellaneous;meoular S222-5--5525---252-5 5% 9, 528. 10
Rotaliresulanexpenditures=—- assess seeeses sss ee IU( SISIS), teks)
ELECTRICAL INSTALLATION.
RECEIPTS.
JN SFORGTOMENTIOMN S86 5e— Seba p BESO SEE oLOLee $5, 000. 00
XXXVII
$1, 560. 43
1, 558. 83
1. 60
$23, 000. 00
XXXVIITI REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
EXPENDITURES.
Salaries or compensation.-..-.--- $2, 090. 48
Miscellaneous:
Supplies ¢ +222 ssu-2 5-25 o=— 2, 754. 87
LOO Sess aeet Risk eee 4.18
Wroochwaids sos-aseseaesccce 148. 89
— s
Total electrical installation.........--- $4,998.42 $4, 998. 42
2 $22,998. 40
Balance of electric installation -__-.--- 1.58 ~—
Balance ot appropriatlon==s---- >see oe eee ee eee ea eee 1. 60
NATIONAL MUSEUM—HEATING AND LIGHTING, 1901.
RECEIPTS.
Balancevasipern report diulliyg e190 2k eye eee ee eet ate eee ote 50. 23
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treasury
Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—POSTAGE, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘“‘for
postage stamps and foreign postal cards for the National Museum”’
(sundrytennlact June 28501902) ee ae ee ee eee $500. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
PRostave stam ps;and toreisn postal cardsSe = = seer a4) eee eee eee 500. 00
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PRINTING AND BINDING, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘ for .
the Smithsonian Institution, for printing labels and blanks, and for
the Bulletinsand Proceedings of the National Museum, the editions of
which shall not be less than 3,000 copies, and binding, in half turkey
or material not more expensive, scientific books and pamphlets pre-
sented to and acquired by the National Museum library’’ (sundry
civilhacts Jume:28. 1902 \) Sees cee ee pe ee a $17, 000. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Bulletins ofthe Min se ina ee eae $7, 791. 58
Proceeding siof tie inise tina sees ee 7, 467. OL
Label seas ecu eich eee oe 479. 08
Blanksiand circularsi¢ 464005 ee eee eee ee 270. 35
Congressional Records ee eee ee eee 16. 00
Congressionalidecuments!2s-- 22 ee eae 58. 25
Record books)-246 jes ee a eee ee ops eee ee 106, 24
Binding’... 22.12.22. 6. ee nr 805. 90
Total expenditures! 222 3222255 ee ee 16, 994. 41
Balance Duly: 15 TQOBe Le ae eee eee ee ere eee 5. 59
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. XXXIX
NATIONAL MUSEUM—RENT OF WORKSHOPS, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
rent of workshops and temporary storage quarters for the National
Miisenmea( SUndnyactwmlhact wmme 28. O02) 2s ey eee esse $4, 400. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903. ]
hotalkexqpen ditunestas ster ase gee See eo a eine Soe a acne ae bees 4, 399. 92
Ballamcer uve 0 3 sem areata ee eee rete Sack ae eS Says ee ae . 08
NATIONAL MUSEUM—RENT OF WORKSHOPS, 1902.
Balancers mMetsreponiliyall elQ02 mes ne = = ae ee eee $0. 08
EVI eRIatee Ret anne OU sere recor Se ens ees ee RS See I hs oe 08
NATIONAL MUSEUM—RENT OF WORKSHOPS, 1901.
RECEIPTS.
BeMee Ac Der TEPOLl Uys la tO Aas so = Ss sce eee we Se eS oa ee $0. 08
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Troasury
Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—BUILDING REPAIRS, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
repairs to buildings, shops, and sheds, National Museum, including
all necessary labor and material’’ (sundry civil act, June 28,1902).... $15, 000. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Salaries or compensatlom: -2-4--s5-.--- 22255 $10, 167. 89
SOCOE! SEAVICSs) See Re a ee ee ae nee 299. 80
SRO LAIBSCTVACES yar eels) fe nee ees $10, 467. 69
Miscellaneous:
Gti) Carey aot ee ere ee ers ee ee Selene 447.90
Cement, plaster, gravel, lime, sand, mortar .. 206. 01
BIE ROWE MROOS SW One Re Sen need uae ee See 264. 13
Raimtssolssolwes brushes... e esse 5-. = 505. 70
NVOUUIWORKee Saue nee. xe pee ee 85. 98
Skeylightsrandiventilatorsy-—2 9-2-2 ase eee = 428. 00
(GER Be Je See Saas 6 aS ee 2 een en 84. 85
(CHOWN, Conan. Ce 9s Ae he ae eee 1.50
JPA sc Sa ace ae See aoe ae eee Sere eee 40.50
IW reli Syren tee ere) ore ee isi Ne aoe 35. 00
SlaGin ero Olea aa meee fee yn Se eee 750. 00
SUC Ul) COUN Sears pete es a ee ee ee ee ea 47.77
IByiclaworke see e- SAS Ae eee See ee 106. 00
otalmrscellancougmcas sees eee yee eee 3, 003. 3
Roraivexmenqubwnest= sesso ane ea cee eet os eek 3, 471. 08
DEAN ESe My MOUS ces te eee = a eke ee ce eee. Se 1, 528. 97
XL
1 superintendent,
1 foreman, 12 months, at $85
1 clerk, 6 months, at $100
1 carpenter, 314 days, at $3
1 carpenter, 2763
1 carpenter, 90 days, at $3
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE.
Analysis of expenditures for salaries or compensation.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
4 months, at $250
Gayshati po ae sete ene seer asthe s.5 56 a6 she a
lecanpenters| Gidays abidal eect aoe eee ees Sates a sis Sea ones
lecarpenter lla dayc ati porsscee cl see sete oe eee Sere el Se iiwi cies ase ar
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
| skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 skilled laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 messenger, 9 months 12 days, at $20
1 messenger, 1 month 15 days, at $20
Balance as per report July 1, 1902
Salaries or compensation
Special services -
Total services
Spr ont hss lad abycire trail 0 pee errr
463 days, at $2.80; 69 days, at $3
SC-GE EL BincwacOs Gls GENS, Abts ocosscsecoonacessccs
OG ay Sat BS vee ic aye oh ence cea eee a ree
ae) GEL Chica 2a GRO, Mintibicsoooceccosassousecoe
Ode GAYS, Ab Dose oa eee SR Sep ee ee ee
liGxdays ati p2-s09 28) dayswatooss see ee eee
34 days,
14 days, at $3; 9 days, at $3.50
22 days,7at $2.80 2. Sacctse. ence oe 2 ee eee
19 days at $3... Socoe ea sae eee eee
20 days, at $70 per month
16 days, at-$2.80
14 days, at $2.80
L2rdays va pcsOU aes eer e once a
113 days, at $2.80
Sis daysi-ati Pl (Oi Sasa ee as eee ee eee
282/GAYS ab Ol s( 0's ee ae See Cee eee eee
324% days, at $1.50
51} days, at $1.75
34 days,
27 days,
1 laborer, 27 days,
1 laborer, 13 days,
1 painter’s helper, 74 days, at $1.75
at $1.50
at $1.75
at $1.50
NATIONAL MUSEUM—BUILDING REPAIRS, 1902.
RECEIPTS.
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
$1, 000. 00
1, 020. 00
600. 00
942. 00
829.
270.
48.
a
746.
660.
337.
277.
201,
184.
160.
128.
113.
95.2
73:
61,
57.
46.
. 74
. 68
10, 167. 89
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. XLI
Miscellaneous:
IL [OUaT Sie Se hee ae ae ee eee $84. 27
Brick, cement, plaster, gravel, lime, sand ...... 58. 35
ardware-andetoolss-ss-e— 5 esse teense so 257. 21
Ralmts aol sstUnusheSes == ee en cae oe sees secees 14.50
Wo Odio errr ae Bee ce cane aie mete 258. 74
LEED CSE PSS eta ce ered i 7.50
Sate eae ae ee oe oe sie cis 770. 40
Total miscellaneous expenditure. .-....--.=.----==--- $1, 450. 97
New boilers.
SecialsenviCedis aa 35 ese te ys sis ss et $65. 00
MO TAlISERVACES Is eee mots omic Se ees cece 65. 00
Miscellaneous: ;
Brick, stone, cement, lime, gravel, sand. 4. 00
Ne wes welCn ase ee A com rn 286. 00
ardiwaneran dato Ol Gress pr ane cyesee oa 19. 00
LEC eee ee ee 1.80
NRE eS ie eae See Oe coe ae ee re 3.05
Motalmniscellanecouss=ssesee see see 393. 85
Total expenditure, new boilers ........---------- 418. 85
Motalkexpen GG UmeSs i ioe ere ers eye eee ee re es aS $1, 911. 07
Balancer ull yale OOS are er Sees = mae eee ee oe mares io Se 27.23
NATIONAL MUSEUM—BUILDING REPAIRS, 1901.
, RECEIPTS.
iBalanceradsperre pore wulive le O02 sees see coe = asa = coos sae e $0. 04
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treas-
ury Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—GALLERIES, 1902.
RECEIPTS.
Balancemsiper reportronuliye e022 eam as. 8 Se see enemies eose koe $37. 92
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
TAGHETIO GH Ses © RU Eee an pa One ge oe 2 $19. 25
(COMET = 22 SEA ele eect ne ge et ce a ty oer eng Ee 17. 50
Motalkexmen GUGURES ey = ames = iar ee os ene, eg kc 36. 75
Balancer Ulva O03 se ee ees Ms ees ee ee eae eee eS IL, Wey
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]}
RECEIPTS.
EMH PLOpMAanone Mya Goncresss Vlarcht dy lOO ll se eeeeeee one re = see eee eee ee $5, 000. 00
XLT REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
Salanlesior Compensatl Ones === eens =e eee $2, 404. 02
Specialiservicesie* Shennan eee ere eee ae 3. 50
Aoi} hee tein ee Eee eek ee ome $2, 407. 52
Miscellaneous:
ElardwanestOOlsetCase eee eee eee eee 269. 61
Cement, gravel, sand, stone-..-....----- 378. 42
Cloth cottons iret sa nem ee ao ok ae re 24, 28
IBUSIOS Se Sere ees rere ares Eee 2.50
umber eae San see eee eee 133. 24
Steel beams, iron posts, ete.-.---.-.----- 1, 440. 51
Wioodworkre<2 - ens aaa eee sae ee 52. 75
PAPer is os post essai sae esees sere eee 15. 00
Kireproolpantitionss=-sees- ae seeeeeeee 275. 00
Mota maiscellancousese ese aoe eee ee ee eee 2,591. 31
Totaliexpenditunes= ==. = eee esp eee ee ee ee ee eee
Balance July: 190822 55-022 csS oes ee eae
NATIONAL MUSEUM—BOOKS, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
purchase of books, pamphlets, and periodicals for reference in the
National Museum” (sundry civil act, June 28, 1902)-_-....--=.--2..2.
EX PENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Totalexpenditures:= 82 tests on 22 ot ses eee ee eee By ed ener
Balancers iulliyeal ALO Ose eee lee oe eater pene eee eee
NATIONAL MUSEUM—BOOKS, 1902.
3
The Ay
$2, 000. 00
1, 393. 38
606. 62
RECEIPTS.
Balanceiasmpen report: duliygi 990 2 eee ete ee $1, 142. 97
EXPENDITURES.
; {July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Total-expenditures -..2- 9. 2526 Soe 8 oe oe ee 944. 70
Balance, July 1;,1903.. = <- .6osce ee eee ee ee 198. 27
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by, Congress Vilar lil Ore $2, 000. 00
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.)
Total expenditures ....2. 2.52 2S ae ee ee 1, 801. 73
Balance Jul yale 1903 ase ee er 198. 27
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—BOOKS, 1901.
RECEIPTS.
Hala Cevaca per he pontine Ulva lem OU eas a ne SS ae aye Ses Seat ne anew Siac
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
XLII
$92. 14
86. 74
5. 40
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treas-
ury Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1900, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
AQ proprmation bv Cconoress une Oy 1 Q00R=22 22 ee 2 ane an- ae eno ea
EXPENDITURES.
HO raliReROn MitUnes =. se taees we sens see eso oe etter ace le fe
Balancercarnedsto surplus funds asaibovere —sess-- eee see ee eee
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PURCHASE OF SPECIMENS, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
purchase.of specimens to supply deficiencies in the collections of the
National Museum’”’ (sundry civil act, June 28, 1902)......--..------
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Jal enarees id ira WOU Se See oe ees see ey enn eee
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PURCHASE OF SPECIMENS, 1902.
RECEIPTS.
Balamecerasiper reportedly lh MO022 see soo one ae oe oa nee ee el
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Total statement of receipts and expenditures.
[July 1, 1901, to June 30, 1903.]
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress March 3, 1901_.............--------------
EXPENDITURES.
TAGTRE (Ss cra S08 WIT CaS CS At cS a ee eee i
Sey ON avers: AGE STR NEO fae ee et ee
$2, 000. 00
1, 994. 60
5. 40
$10, 000. 00
4, 000, 69
2,416. 04
$10, 000. .00
9, 944. 74
5d. 26
XLIV REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PURCHASE OF SPECIMENS, 1901.
RECEIPTS.
Balancelassper report Jimlys lh 1902/2 a ee ee eee
$72. 17
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treasury
Department to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
NATIONAL MUSEUM—CONTRIBUTIONS TO NATIONAL HERBARIUM, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘ for
printing and publishing the contributions from the United States
National Herbarium, the editions of which shall not be less than
3,000 copies, including the preparation of necessary illustrations,
proof reading, bibliographical work, and special editorial work,
$7,000: Provided, That one-half of said copies shall be placed on sale
at an advance of 10 per cent over their cost’? (sundry civil act, June
28 VOO2N ode ci Sea Gi re ae See ee Te ares oer Se rete rears aetna
EXPENDITURES.
[July 1, 1901, to June 80, 1903.]
Editorial assistant, 12 months, at $1383.33 ........-...--.---- $1, 599. 96
AUHDGIH, 7 Worormdars) Uh Obs) REE) a6 Seo besoeaacccaesccaoss 933. 33
Prntwng 1 200'capies’ot volume 25.2 5252 --- eee eee eee 471.30
Paints, brushes, and drawing material...................-- 22. 90
Total expenditures: 52s $2 soa eee
Balancegully ay) 19032.i-2-eccut fst we a ie teas ees
NATIONAL MUSEUM—PLANS FOR ADDITIONAL BUILDING, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘ for
the preparation, under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithson-
ian Institution, of preliminary plans for an additional fireproof, steel-
frame, brick, and terra-cotta building, to cost not exceeding $1,500,000
for the United States National Museum, to be erected, when appro-
priated for, on the Mall between Ninth and Twelfth streets west, said
plans when completed to be transmitted by the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution to Congress’’ (sundry civil act, June 28,
1902)
EXPENDITURES.
{July 1, 1902, to June 30, 1903.]
Rorspreparation of plansis 2. esse a ee ee ee eee
Balance vsiuallty: 1 OOS ee as care ee te ee ee
$7, 000. 00
3, 027. 49
3, 972. ol
$5, 000. 00
4, 956. 80
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘ for
maintenance of Astrophysical Observatory, under the direction of the
Smithsonian Institution, including salaries of assistants, the purchase
of necessary books and periodicals, apparatus, printing and publishing
results of researches, not exceeding 1,500 copies, repairs and altera-
tions of buildings, and miscellaneous expenses, $15,000” (sundry civil
act, June 28, 1902)
$15, 000. 00
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. XLV
DISBURSEMENTS.
Salaries or compensation:
i aid, 34 months, at $175; 84 months, at $200.. $2, 312. 50
ieassistant, 2s: mionths, at 6902222222222... 22 225. 00
1 junior assistant, 33 months, at $110; 83
MONtMIS Ab pla ees eee eee ees eae ot 1, 447.50
1 junior assistant, 13 months, at $75 ..._...-- 112. 50
1 photographer assistant, 2 months, at $70-..-- 140. 00
ledrattsmany.9 Ol days at poses see] ae 2 =e 450. 00
Ieclenkeriom onthe ete see sses eeeeins shoes 125. 00
1 stenographer, 113 months and 4 days, at
M0 2 See een ie ee ee ee 1, 162. 90
1 library cataloguer, } month and 16 days, at
(MIO) 2: Je cu San ogcOeS SE ces eae aee Seer Coo aee 40. 64
1 instrument maker, 33 months, at $80; 83
MOCIMNN, AU O Go Seee console eeS aE eueesee 1, 045. 00
il dameionein, We araeaywasy Rie eiel) poo oe eooecesoee 720. 00
tineman 2 months) at G60) 9-2. .ses2os2as5 5. 120. 00
1 laborer, 6 months, at $20; 6 months, at $25... 270. 00
lmcleaner lov dayswatipileessecce ose ees oe 157. 00
imcleanery (a .Gays, ab glee se 5-ease eae 7.50
Total salaries or compensation.-----.-.---.---.--- $8, 335. 54
General expenses:
JNO ETRNG) S eee sea oan See e eens $2, 093. 88
IROO)s eniavel ovmavchnayers a Ree See eA eee 157. 09
LBSEAKe FtSh sh 2 eet a Sea ee enlist 128. 90
Boil din are pall ey ree eae eng aes 40. 65
(CASI OS er erse re Nee es ga Fe ee ws 67. 40
BE CHICIt yee ees ene See rt 314. 55
JEN OU POU AUR OE ee te A PS es ee ee ear es eet 9. 50
Retort cua lis vemlliimn oyayee ere ee ee oe 92
[DADO OEE ane CSAS ce eae eee eee 130. 40
Jez TKS LO. Soe ree eee ee ee 20. 81
San Gerecenlemiam Ontanwe ss =e ears e eo see 386. 47
'SIRSCON Ts ADIOS Vy Oe seaports Sere ee ae IL OA. 2%
SAU 0) QIUV ES eam eS orth eee ee ees ee 532.75
SOMO RIMES Sees GaSe eae eee eee ica ieee 218. 00
PRET Co TAT Sey 5 te eee Ne ee eee ees te ne 2.96
— 5, 248. 75
DG tolechish unEsenltentsre sae ee eee ee ee eee eine soe eee ee $13, 584. 29
iDallamcerdulivgll LOO Stee epee ae reer e rs, 8 ere ares OR eee 1, 415. 71
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1902.
Balance’ July i) 1902, as per last report. .~ -~ s52:..2=-.--2.2----2.522%. $2, 253. 69
DISBURSEMENTS.
General expenses:
Je\POY OE TE CDS) Pies Sean et GON ae = ae eS a $97. 67
0.0 kes feu Calo lan Gin Op Se ere ra eas, 2 ayn ees ee ele ta ORO HLA
IS UL Gn Dee PAE Sy wayne Paso oe er es eee tae Apa Pe ke (il
OR nlatGer ee ae ae ee ee eo eee SE Soe ee ee ee 5. 25
Cementycandtandubricksse. 4 =... 245822 oe co 12. 70
XLVI REPORT OF THE EXEOUTIVE COMMITTEE.
General expenses—Continued.
Hlectricity sos ties ae eee oes SE earn mar eee SE 369. 68
inert bir. oe. os ber a ho Sit ce oe ee 14. 50
Pim Per 2 ss 2 oe ee ee ee ie eee ene eee 92. 68
Paints): ee Se ee ee ae er Sera 100. 66
Special ‘services © 222k Sasec sas os meee oe sees eee ee 17.50
Supplies's...002 7.8.2 e Sees t Soe eee eee mae 119. 38
Total disbursements) 22 22 eee ee ee eee $930. 47
Balance July 19084482 2526-2 See cee: Se ee eee ee eee Ray 2
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1901.
BalanceJuly 1, 1902 "asper last report so-24-2-e2 =e eee eee ee $0. 92
»
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treasury
Department, to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
OBSERVATION OF ECLIPSE OF MAY 28, 1900.
Balance July 902 astper laste ponte. see ee ae a ee ee $755. 74
Balance July 1;.1903 0.2) esses 2 Sina ch ect eet eee 755. 74
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, 1903.
RECEIPTS.
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, “for
continuing the construction of roads, walks, bridges, water supply, sew-
erage, drainage, and for grading, planting, and otherwise improving
the grounds; erecting and repairing buildings and inclosures; care, sub-
sistence, purchase, and transportation of animals, including salaries or
compensation of all necessary employees; the purchase of necessary
books and periodicals; the printing and publishing of operations, not
exceeding 1,500 copies, and general incidental expenses not otherwise
provided for, $90,000”’ (sundry civil act, June 28, 1902)...-........- $90, 000. 00
DISBURSEMENTS.
Salaries or compensation:
1 superintendent, 12 months, at $225..--- $2, 700. 00
1 property clerk, 12 months, at $150.---- 1, 800. 00
Melerk, 12:months at pllOSs5 2s 1, 320. 00
elenk- el 2smontilhs ee ty biol) eae eee 1, 320. 00
1 stenographer, 12 months, at $83.33~..-- 999, 96
1 landscape gardener, 12 months, at
DEOiDO re Sai Bap see eee ee 999. 96
1 photographer’s assistant, 6 months, at
Bees eh en orl ee A ey a ee 420. 00
1 head keeper, 12 months, at $112.50. .--- 1, 350. 00
1 keeper, 12 months, at $60 ...........-- 720. 00
1 keeper, 12 months, at $60.......------ 720. 00
1 keeper, 11 months and 233 days, at $60. 706, 32
1 laborer, 4 months, at $50; 1 keeper, 8
months at POO sees oe aa 680. 00
1 keeper, 12 months, at $60.........--..- 720. 00
1 sergeant of watch, 12 months, at $65. - 780. 00
1 watchman, 12 months, at $60...-..----- 720. 00
1 watchman, 12 months, at $55...-....-.- 660. 00
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. XLVII
Salaries or compensation—Continued.
1 assistant foreman, 12 months, at $65 __- $780. 00
1 machinist, 12 months, at $83.33... -.---- 999. 96
l assistant blacksmith, 113 months and
WeGay sat: SO) Se tee ot ae tee she ie 704. 00
1 workman, 113 months and 143 days, at
CGD Bie ed Se ASE ab ras Le ere a oe 718. 06
1 workman, 114 months, at $60_.-.-...-- 690. 00
1 laborer, 114 months, at $60.-........-.- 690. 00
1 laborer, 12 months, at $60....-.....--- 720. 00
slaponers 2 maronmtlise atipoo!=.es=sseee= : 660. 00
1 laborer, 13 months and 2 days, at $20-- 31. 29
Motalisalaricsoricompensationes== eee ee eeec ee ee $22, 609. 55
Miscellaneous:
IAN Daa LUSPeetas ee eee eS = ose ee ee 165. 88
Bull dingsee seer ake eas ae meec eos 1, 000. 00
Bill cinosnnabe nial aeen eee a eee ae 687. 49
Drawih ose eto nee ee esa nese eee 75. 00
Beneing, cage material, ‘ete: _--<.=--2--: 4, 647. 69
HOO CRs Monte ate oh) Sose ner seraamaetine sates ie 12, 761. 75
Freight and transportation of animals. --- 2, 115. 22
ue lia seas Stash ee eee t ceeenise eae 834. 07
JR UN OU RE ee Rene eek ened oe 36. 40
DMA ee ae ee ee A eee Be Re IOS 7ao
Machinery etoolss ete Saeesee- == s22- =eeee 738. 51
Miscellaneous supplies. ..--...----.----- 796. 36
Paintiswollsolass etch sas sesso =e essere 357. 45
Postage, telegraph, and telephones ------ 50. 50
Rurchaseohamimals\eer asses = 2 soso ee ee 1, 906. 81
Road material-and grading....---..----. 741. 67
Special services .:..-- Shoes ie Lick tee Sas 21.00
Stationery WOOKS" eC masse esse es ele 245.10
Sunveying plans) eles sass2s-s5-52-- see 1, 102. 50
Traveling and field expenses -.-.-.------ 68. 50
Pireesplantdmeter as ssas sear e eas coke 115: 11
Waters pliyasetCres ss eessea- === = eas 396. OL
Motaleuniscellaneousnessas-a2- see ee oc oe nco ee 29, 920. 53
Wages of mechanics and laborers and hire of teams in con-
structing buildings and inclosures, laying water pipes,
building roads, gutters, and walks, planting trees, and
otherwise improving the grounds:
1 stone mason, 7} days, at $3.50.......-- $25. 38
ieearpenter,28% days, at ¢3..-. 22.2 o25 22 85. 50
Weanpenter,. 285, days: abipavs.----2s--o52- 85. 50
INGArpenitery oo OAS wabemorss s4- oes ae 105. 00
carpenter nlamdayswatipolcesee ses ae sees 39. 00°
I carpenter, 46 days, at $3 ...........--- 138. 00
carpenter dimadaysy at pore == = sere 51. 00
1 carpenter, 36 days, at $3 ---.-. Se etna 108: 00
Mearpentersds days, at: $3ieoncs oa. o—e- 39. 00
i carpenter, 51} days, at $3 -.-...-.....- 153. 75
iearpenter-.62% days, at $3)..255.2-.2.22- 187. 50
sm 1903 IV
XLVIIL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Wages of mechanics and laborers and hire of teams in con-
structing buildings and inclosures, ete. —Continued.
1 carpenter, 3135 days, at $3..-...:-.-.--- $940. 50
jeer, AN CEN ES Gln cosccocoece soo 62.50
1 cement finisher, 7? days, at $2.80 ...--- 21.70
IMaborery Z9INdays sat p2. 00s ee = see 727. 50
IpiaborervoGo) days: atip2) mee eee eee 730. 00
ilaborers3s02idays; atie2 ease ese eee 604. 00
iMaborerso0idaysmatip2ieea= ess seeee nee 700. 00
Imaborenw2(9audays atebopeee ees ee 559. 00
islaborer. sb days auple/o=seeeeeeee eee 638. 75
i laborer, 2905 days, at $1.75......--..--- 508. 37
labonrerwotmdancuau plas = —= eee ee 607. 25
Imlaborernpliii2sdayswatipleiosee seer eee 301. 86
ihiaborers s6o1days, au ole (Oses see eee 638. 75
1 laborer, 348 days, at $1.75..--.....---- 609. 00
I laborer;, 284 days; atl 7os-2--2-----=- 497.01
imaboner 2932 days watt leioe =e ease ee 514. 06
iNaborerss27Aidays atibla(Oss2> 556-2 =e — 572. 69
iMaborerss6lt days -atibhliose- sss) ss -- 632. 17
Iplaborenwi/idays. vat wl0> oo see= seme 265. 49
iplaborer.202 days wat plan 0 sess e see ae 302. 99
i laborer, 1362 days) atipleo0 B= ssss === 204. 37
I Florent; Gay: GENEL Ata cMi)e =o cascasce 530. 62
iMaborersmeidaysmatioleo 0 sea see eee eer 106. 87
1 laborer, 345 days, at $1.50_---....-.-.-- 517. 50
1 laborer, 288 days, at $1.50, and 91 days,
EWN AD Pre aA Seay Mets orks eee atten 591. 25
1 laborer, 2584 days, at $1.50......--.--- 387. 75
1 laborer, 2955 days, at $1.50. -.......--- 443. 25
1 laborer, 1943 days, at $1.50. ---...----- 291.75
I Maborerso635 days at pleoQeee sess e a= 545. 25
I aborer, 620 days, atpleo0fee= so] sees 2-" 93. 38
1 laborer, 334 days, at $1.50.....-..----- 501. 01
i Vaborer Gre days. atipleo Oks sss e sees 101. 62
i laborer; 2752 days, at $l-50-- 2-2-2 ----- 413. 62
iMaborernsl4s sedans anil) ae ee PPB AIL
I laborer, 298% days, at $1.50....----.--- 447. 38
1 laborer, 3423 days, at $1.50........---- 513. 78
1 laborer, 444 days, at $1.50...........-- 66. 37
iMaborerlS2idaysyateileo0sseeaee eee PHla% tl
1 laborer, 128% days, at $1.50...--..----- 192. 75
iMlaborer.wilexc anys arbi piles) (see eee 107. 62
i laborer) 25idays; at pleo0ss =]. 2-25 376. 50
1 laborer, 1634 days, at $1.50...-..--..-- 245, 27
1 laborer, 3072 days, at $1.50..........-- 461. 62
1 laborer, 1163 days, at:$1.50........-..- 174. 74
1 laborer, 274 days, at $1.50, and 91 days,
at SL. (ooo ae tees ee eee ee eer 570. 25.
1 laborer; 3093 days, atepl-505225-e. oe 464. 25
I laborer; 197 days, atSE-50-- =o. 2-6 e- 295. 50
1 laborer, 2574 days, at/$1.50. 222-2 --2-- 385. 87
1 laborer, 126? days; at $1.50. .........-. 190. 12
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTER.
Wages of mechanics and laborers and hire of teams in con-
structing buildings and inclosures, ete. —Continued.
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer.
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
{ laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
at $1.75
1 laborer,
1 laborer,
BUY Glenasy ain Wee 0)s as oo eos oo kos
ISSidaysea plo 0k =e eee =e eee
LAday sat pilsoOS =e 2-2
Bode: ORAM BiboMlNe cceascosce
STC ava aledil-s0 MS a eee ete are
29 davsiaingleoOsss4=55 5225
47 Gays. ab PlesQe. >... 22-2.
AP days atehleo ee eee eae
SF CMW, Mpc. see eeesscee
Bi OVE, Mh OL), Gos eoeeasede
BO GENE, Me il. oe sescooosee
ieadanysencitanilis. 0) eee eee
sir Gays, Mtoe osécossoecce
Denys secuty pilin) 0 sreve ete ere a
Ib Gl aay Sey ait piles) () see ae
AGA S eatrols oO Mc ose kee an:
NOldays ratio a0: Sa esse oe
“ail GEMS, Glibe NO ceaacsecaasec
Aye CAN, Bie Gil o5555565esee
Does GENE, Bin 0. ssscnssaces
103 days, at $1.5
Dine CAS Als oleae 25s ee5s5ce-
45% days, at $1.5
64 dayematapileo 0s sys 5) eee
AGE WE aig MILs sassseccesce
AN days, ate so02 << ose oe
50) days) ainel.50. S25 222 -eee.
See CENA, Gis Moss Seas desessoe
22 GAYS, aAtGlsHOs 2.2. 222 oce
LO days; ati pled0ss= one ose
HOedays at Gleo0l sae 8...
Oidays atl HOS. cacy) ko 4s
Ser Gee, Mic wls nea eeosse5 sae
Pedy SEIS ENE Mee 5eeem oo mee=
(aie GENE, Alb tH Ws eoeeeooceace
IURs\ Glenys. he nloaW5e——ssoness5e
Uidays: at pl G0ss s252 sees eae
044 days, at plo0s Ses casee =
Hos aycmatt dle 0s es
Cher Glenys, Bib le cceccanoscce
Soe Cay Sera tyepile)\) eae ee ae
GZEd ay Se aicgle 50a ee eee:
SAVS Abel sO0s= 2 scee2 252-52
WAS days) atiplep0e ss 4545 55.
Gieedays rat Sl:50.- 2 2<22 see.
3365 days, at $1.50...2.......-
Zi Idays ray plwOOsn-=2—- oe 2 }
2013 days, at $1.50, and 76 days,
OHO aC aycm alti pile ape eee
Spe CENMEL Bip ILS ooo ese Sse
$302. 99
282. 00
Ws ——s
j=! CO
ot bo mI GO
(0/2) fer)
Or or
(ee) Sor)
NS Ot bo ST Ot Ol Go ©
or0)
eS)
“I tb
Oo D>
SOO §
~I OD
41.6
XLIX
L REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Wages of mechanics and laborers and hire of teams in con-
structing buildings and inclosures, ete.—Continued.
1 laborer, 240 days, at $1.25, and 121 days,
abi Plt OU sa ses See ae sae 3481.50
1 laborer, 3663 days, at $1 -.----- eae 366. 50
ilaborersS0) days atlas er a 80. 00
iMaborerso2idayswatioleae =e eee eee 52. 00
i laborer 4o33) days; atipilessessss = ses5ee 453. 50
1 helper, 3124 days, at 75 cents. ......--- 234. 18
I helpers 365 days; atwo cents=---22s2--= 273. 75
1 helper, 203 days, at 50 cents_-.....---- 10.12
1 helper, 35} days, at 75 cents....---.---- 26. 44
1 water boy, 172} days, at 75 cents... ---- 129.18
1 water boy, 14 days, at 75 cents.-------- 10.50
1 water boy, 1 day, at 50 cents.......-...- 50
1 water boy, 148} days, at 50 cents ..---- 74. 12
1 attendant, 694 days, at 75 cents....-..-.- 52. 13
1 attendant, 223 days, at 75 cents....--.- 167. 25
attendant. ldayz,at forcentses-> se sas 75
1 attendant, 7 days, at 75 cents..-.-.-....-- 5, 25
1 stonebreaker, 4 cubic yards, at 60 cents. 2. 40
1 stonebreaker, 12 cubic yards, at 60 cents- 7. 20
1 stonebreaker, 83 cubic yards, at 60 cents- 49. 80
1 wagon and team, 2} days, at $3.50 ----- 7. 88
1 wagon and team, 793 days, at $3.50 ---- 278. 25
1 wagon and team, 102% days, at $3.50. ._- 309. 63
1 wagon and team, 353} days, at $3.50__*- 1, 236. 37
1 horse and cart, 224% days, at $1.75 .._.- 393. 31
1 horse and cart, ? day, at $1.75 -.....-.- 1.31
1 horse and cart, ? day, at $1.75 .......-- ei
1 horse and cart, 2312 days, at $1.75...... 405. 56
1 horse and cart, 4 days, at $1.75......... 7. 00
1 horse, 322 days, at 50-cents........-.-- 161. 01
Totalswares of mechanics. (etce ==. 254-552 eee $32, 714. 88
Total-dishursements:o- 42552525 ee ses se ae ee
Balameey duly 1 LQ OS ies Se eee = ie eS ere te eee ee ee er
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1902.
Balance July 1, 1902, as per last reponse =a scar eee eee
DISBURSEMENTS.
General expenses:
Apparattis’-.é3=2. soe see ne eee $1, 160. 00
‘Building materials -- 532 see =e ee eee a See 23. 25
Fence /and' cage: materials sei 2 cm teers os ee 229.79
Food: 2.5225 52,5.4)- 552 ee ee ee 1, 022. 47
Freight. 2c.223 2c gs See ee eee 879. 78
Bulelis soar Gee et eee ee 11299
Furnitures): 32564 eqs heen ae ae eee 18. 05
Mumiber..22 eles a a ee ee 220. 36
$85, 244. 96
4,755. 04
$5, 485. 23
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
General expenses—Continued.
Niachin ray stools Metcreae reas Sacer cee ee eee ee $44. 53
Miscellancousismppliesmen ses sn = ssn ee ee eas 112. 48
JPET outs hs | ONUESIS (65 Ke ce eR a ae eee we 61. 91
Postage, telegrams, and telephones ...........-...---- (2. 67
Rnrehase ofan steams ee eee ye eee ee 310) 1}
Roadematertatvancdomadin geste nee) eee 1, 166. 49
Stall On Clay WOOO KS me Lee wares eras es eae ee a 65. 20
Surveying: planenetGa= =o Ss 25. ok ok = ean tte 256. 25
irae lsandetiel deexpensesiem se 22 ae n-ne a ee ees 41. 80
reese planta ete: . s2- ais ed 5 ee aN AS Vel Oe aera 35. 00
Waters plyas CLC sa rater reir Meet e Sato oe ees Se 24. 88
Total disbursements ........-- BS pe eee ec Sie ar wity Reet ne
alam cere iuvgllee LOU a exe pts materia See citys ote es ce en erates
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, 1901.
Balance diilhyal lOO easuperllashire ponte = ee ae eo nea ee ee
LI
$17. 28
Balance carried, under provisions of Revised Statutes, section 3090, by the Treasury
Department, to the credit of the surplus fund, June 30, 1903.
ELEPHANT HOUSE, NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, 1903,
Appropriation by Congress for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, ‘‘for
the construction of an elephant house, with bathing pools and other
accessories, including labor and materials and all necessary incidental
expenses, ten thousand dollars, one-half of which sums for the National
Zoological Park shall be paid from the revenues of the District of Colum-
bia and the other half from the Treasury of the United States’? (sundry
GiVMleACt eMC ES SOD.) eats maw cece ene ee er ee ee ee tn se a
CIOL ULSI Copsey RST oe pO ee SEs ete SE Be ea) Sa oe $18. 15
Die h abavegs | OMA Ci COh eee en he Sy em eee ere 435. 00
Construction of building and accessories ..........-..----- 8, 971. 83
CAD Ore OUISIGeTO le COmibT A Ct sep aaes a ers eee ey er 510. 62
otaledisbimrsema enters Aeon eee ae Bi ea Eee eh Ra,
Balam cena ly slr eO 032 See mtete Aces al othe 2 ae Mr ee eee AR reat
RECAPITULATION.
$10, 000. 00
9, 935. 60
64. 40
The total amount of funds administered by the Institution during the year ending
June 30, 1903, appears from the foregoing statements and account books to have
been as follows:
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
From balance of last year, July. 1, 1902 ...............-.- $81, 120. 91
From interest on Smithsonian fund for the year._...-._-- 54, 720. 00
Brom interest on West Shore bonds -._-.-.-2-2.---.-.-.- 1, 680. 00
Rromealesiob publications: #222 isi. As. s a hesee ee 329. 87
Kronvrepaymemnts, freisht; ett 22.26 -css-0 josesen eens: 11, 105. 50
$148, 95¢
5. 28
LItI REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTED BY CONGRESS TO THE CARE OF
THE INSTITUTION.
International exchanges—Smithsonian Institution:
Hrommballame eyo tel 0 00 (ese messes eet
Hromebalameexoiel(Q (0) 2 eee agape eee sees reer
BRromeappropriationdorsl 902-372. ees n = eae eee
American ethnology—Smithsonian Institution:
From balancevotdl900=19 01s ae eee
Hromeubalancerotalo 02 =e = eee
Rromvappropriatons tor 902—3 ses =s==se ane ree
Preservation of collections—National Museum:
From balance of 1900-1900 2222-2222. 22. eee
ironman, loallenovexs Oi IGOIMY. eke secced=csoe5-
From appropriation sor 1002—3.26- ee —-s-ei-eccie
Furniture and fixtures—National Museum:
BrompbalancezolelQ0 0-19 Ole eae ee ee
Riromyoallancevoia(9 02 eee
Brom appropriation for 1902-32-22 = 22-2. 2-52.
Heating and lighting—National Museum:
Krom) balance of L900=)90 esas ea eae eee ese
Veaopaay opubsnavereoue WSN ee
»
From appropriation for,1902-3 --.--.-.- Seas
Postage—National Museum:
9
From appropriation for 1902-3 -..-..2--2.: .-.-
Printing and binding—National Museum:
>
From appropriation tor 1902-3. <--- 2 S22s-2-
Rent of workshops—National Museum:
Hromubalance orl G00—19 lea aaa ee eee eae
From balance of 1901-2 .-....---.-- Bsa aoctete
From appropriation for 1902-3) 22-2 = 2222-=2222=
Building repairs—National Museum:
1 reovon’ lov evorere: Cove INSOO USO = eee See eee
HromlsWallame ero tel Oil 2 eee ese aS
From appropriation for 1902-3 ..-....---:--.--
Galleries—National Museum:
[igovont lokenovess Ot NGWI SY oe secu se ee eas soee
Books—National Museum:
From balance of 1900=190 teas aaa eee
Kromibalanceroil 902 eee
EFromiappropriakion torl902—3yeee=ese = aaa aa
Purchase of specimens—National Museum:
ronmlpalanceot 900 Skee =a eee ee eee
rom) balancer otal S Oi 2) ee
>
Promappropriation tord902—3)ese=aeee= ==
Contributions to National Herbarium—National Museum:
Kromiuappropriationstomil902—3) 2s) ss san eee
Plans for additional building—National Museum:
Kromapprophiation tordl903 eas === =e
$23.55
1, 956. O1
26, 000. 00
1.93
2, 976. 18
50, 000. 00
74, 49
5, 709. 78
180, 000. 00
1.89
2,136. 15
22, 500. 00
0. 23
1, 560. 43
18, 000. 00
$0. 08
08
4, 400. 00
04
1, 938. 30
15, 000. 00
892. 14
1, 142. 97
2,000. 00
2
2, 471.
10, 000.
24, 638.
19, 560.
500.
17, 000.
4, 400.
16, 938. ;
37.
3, 235.
12, 543.
7, 000.
5, O00.
9.56
5 lt
Sa
04
66
00
00
16
11
47
00
00
REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. LIL
Smithsonian Institution:
Astrophysical Observatory
Rromebalancexotel!00=19 0 tees eee eee ee ee $$0. 92
Ikon loMlmGeror MWY — ss 4 koe doces soos eeescos sue 2, 253. 69
Romy Appropriatl onwiOrelo02—3 ess sen eee ee 15, 000. 00
$17, 254. 61
Observation of eclipse of May 28, 1900:
Krome balance iullivye eelG02 8 2 2 2)..oeees asec as See eee oe es ais 755. 74
National Zoological Park:
[Preorony lopnkeuayerss Ort INOS oe oe soso pose eso escsde $17. 28
iromualancero tal O 2 eeees sty vores aa ee rere pee 5, 485. 23
HromMeappRopmatonetorsd.902—3ieeeee = eee sees 90, 000. 00
95, 502. 51
SUMMARY.
Sli sovoukaial JGNSNADNAMON ooo oc ooo ken dose oseosoeees cancoe 148, 956. 28
TEVBESCG ONAN Sh a ah ea ee a Ce eee 27, 979. 56
HBSS ety) Lclon ys prsene ye ee set ea mere rs rw eee tare 52, 978. 11
RrecenvaloncOmeolech Ones sss see eee eee eee 185, 784. 27
HumEMibunKeran Gulbxttinesses ee oe soe Sem 2) Se ee ee eee 24, 6388. 04
Eveatin ova cdelie hip ox sepa oe eee ee eee ae 19, 560. 66
IR OStAG ON eee pee eee oe nee ee Nines 500. 00
Brimntimevamncilio ty ditt sees eet yamine ces eee See ae 17, 000. 00
RenicOtswonksh Opes sen sureties oases aoe eee ae 4, 400. 16
BS cll din cane pans a= aoe se Secs ae ee ase ae See octets 16, 938. 34
(Ga NET taNiST Se ey eas RS ee eee Se Ane Sere et ie See ee 392
TBXOXON ES) Sap ee eS ene ei sen ep re er Sy a II
URGWASerolispecinens == aso oe een eee erases 12, 543. 47
Contributions touNational Selerbariumse sees e eee 7, 000. 00
IPibewavst iioye exo koltiroyoenl JovanllhwnYee oo oe pec eno se ona sea soass= 5, 000. 00
ANS ROC ay SCY | (OQOSSAVENIOIAY senso anda] Cosco asondooos ssence 17, 254. 61
Obsenyationvob eclipse, {ara ee cemee ee eee ae 755. 74
INetiOmall beans kya ae oe er ee eh ee 95, 502. 51
640, 064. 78
The committee has examined the vouchers for payment from the
Smithsonian income during the year ending June 30, 1903, each of
which bears the approval of the Secretary or, in his absence, of the
Acting Secretary, and a certificate that the materials and services charged
were applied to the purposes of the institution.
The quarterly accounts current, the vouchers, and journals have
been examined and found correct.
Statement of regular income from the Smithsonian fund available for use in the year ending
June 80, 1904.
Balancer duiliys [ail 0 sereecvers ce sects as Scere ase eet revs Sore a oes ais oe sere $55, 507. 67
Interest due and receivable July 1, 1903:.--...--...---.--- $27, 964. 17
Interest due and receivable January 1, 1904..........-.--- 28, 110. 00
Interest, West Shore Railroad bonds, due July 1, 1903---.- 840. 00
Interest, West Shore Railroad bonds, due January 1, 1904-- 840. 00
—— 957, 754.17
Total available for year ending June 30, 1904. ....-..-.--------- 113, 261. 84
Respectfully submitted.
J. B. HENDERSON,
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL,
Ropert R. Hirr,
Erecutine Committee.
Wasuineton, D. C., January 25, 1904.
ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS RELATIVE TO
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, ETC.
Continued from previous Reports.
Pp
[Fifty-seventh Congress, first session. ]
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
SMITHSONIAN Deposit [Liprary oF Coneress|.—For custodian,
one thousand five hundred dollars; one assistant, one thousand two
hundred dollars; one messenger, seven hundred and twenty dollars;
one messenger boy, three hundred and sixty dollars; in all, three thou-
sand seven hundred and eighty dollars. (Approved April 28, 1902;
Statutes, XX XII, 130.)
EXCHANGE OF PuBLIC Documents [Liprary of Coneress].—For
expenses of exchanging public documents for the publications of for-
eign governments, one thousand eight hundred dollars. (Approved
April 28, 1902; Statutes, XX XII, 131.)
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.
INTERNATIONAL EXcHAanGEs.—For expenses of the system of inter-
national exchanges between the United States and foreign countries,
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries
or compensation of all necessary employees, and the purchase of neces-
sary books and periodicals, twenty-six thousand dollars. (Approved
June 28, 1902; Statutes, XX XII, 439.) ;
Navat Osservatory.—For repairs to buildings, fixtures, and
fences, furniture, gas, chemicals and stationery, freight (including
transmission of public documents through the Smithsonian exchange),
foreign postage and expressage, plants, fertilizers, and all contingent
expenses, two thousand five hundred dollars. (Approved April 28,
1902; Statutes, X XXII, 155.)
GEOLOGICAL SuRVEY.~For the purchase of necessary books for the
library, including directories and professional and scientific period-
icals needed for statistical purposes, and not exceeding four thousand
dollars for the payment for the transmission of public documents
through the Smithsonian exchange, six thousand dollars: Provided,
That the purchase of professional and scientific books and period-
LV
LVI ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS.
icals needed for statistical purposes hereafter by the scientific divi-
sions of the United States Geological Survey is hereby authorized to
be made and paid for out of appropriations made for the said Survey.
(Approvec June 28, 1902; Statutes, XXXII, 455.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.
For continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries
or compensation of all necessary employees and the purchase of neces-
sary books and periodicals, fifty thousand dollars, of which sum not
exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars may be used for rent of
building. (Approved June 28, 1902; Statutes, XXXII, 439.)
For North American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, three
dollars and thirty cents. (Approved July 1, 1902; Statutes, XX XII,
585.)
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY.
For maintenance of Astrophysical Observatory, under the direction
of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries of assistants, the
purchase of necessary books and periodicals, apparatus, printing and
publishing results of researches, not exceeding one thousand five
hundred copies, repairs and alterations of buildings, and miscellaneous
expenses, fifteen thousand dollars. (Approved June 28, 1902; Statutes,
XXXII, 439.)
NATIONAL MUSEUM.
For cases, furniture, fixtures, and appliances required for the exhi-
bition and safe-keeping of the collections of the National Museum,
including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, twenty-
two thousand five hundred dollars.
For expense of heating, lighting, electrical, telegraphic, and tele-
phonie service for the National Museum, eighteen thousand dollars.
For continuing the preservation, exhibition, and increase of the col-
lections from the surveying and exploring expeditions of the Goyern-
ment, and from other sources, including salaries or compensation of
all necessary employees, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, of
which sum five thousand five hundred dollars may be used for necessary
drawings and illustrations for publications of the National Museum;
and all other necessary incidental expenses.
For purchase of specimens to supply deficiencies in the collections
of the National Museum, ten thousand dollars.
For purchase of books, pamphlets, and periodicals for reference in
the National Museum, two thousand dollars.
For repairs to buildings, shops, and sheds, National Museum, includ-
ing all necessary labor and material, fifteen thousand dollars.
ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS. LVII
For rent of workshops and temporary storage quarters for the
National Museum, four thousand four hundred dollars.
For postage stamps and foreign postal cards for the National
Museum, five hundred dollars.
For printing and publishing the contributions from the United
States National Herbarium, the editions of which shall not be less
than three thousand copies, including the preparation of necessary
illustrations, proof reading, bibliographical work, and special editorial
work, seven thousand dollars: Prov/ded, That one-half of said copies
shall be placed on sale at an advance of ten per centum over their
cost.
For the preparation, under the direction of the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, of preliminary plans for an additional fire-
proof steel-frame brick-and-terra-cotta building, to cost not exceed-
ing one million five hundred thousand dollars, for the United States
National Museum, to be erected when appropriated for, on the Mall,
between Ninth and Twelfth streets west, said plans when completed to
be transmitted by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to
Congress, five thousand dollars. (Approved June 28, 1902; Statutes,
XXXII, 439-440.)
For preservation of collections, National Museum, eighty-one dol-
lars and twenty-one cents. (Approved February 14, 1902; Statutes,
XXXII, 28.)
For the Smithsonian Institution, for printing labels and blanks, and
for the ** Bulletins” and *‘ Proceedings” of the National Museum, the
editions of which shall not be less than three thousand copies, and
binding, in half turkey, or material not more expensive, scientific
books and pamphlets presented to and acquired by the National
Museum Library, seventeen thousand dollars. (Approved June 28,
1902; Statutes, XX XII, 480.)
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.
For continuing the construction of roads, walks, bridges, water
supply, sewerage and drainage; and for grading, planting, and other-
wise improving the grounds; erecting and repairing buildings and
inclosures; care, subsistence, purchase, and transportation of animals,
including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees; the
purchase of necessary books and periodicals, the printing and pub-
lishing of operations, not exceeding one thousand five hundred copies,
and general incidental expenses not otherwise provided for, ninety
thousand dollars.
For the construction of an elephant house, with bathing pools and
other accessories, including labor and materials and all necessary
incidental expenses, ten thousand dollars; one-half of which sums for
LVIIL ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS.
the National Zoological Park shall be paid from the revenues of the
District of Columbia and the other half from the Treasury of the
United States. (Approved June 28, 1902; Statutes, XX XIT, 440.)
For National Zoological Park, thirty-seven cents. (Approved July
1, 1902; Statutes, XX XII, 585.)
TIFTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION. REPRINTED
FROM 1902 REPORT.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
SmirHsoNIAN Deposrr [Liprary oF Conaress|.—For custodian,
one thousand five hundred dollars; one assistant, one thousand two
hundred dollars; one messenger, seven hundred and twenty dollars;
one messenger boy, three hundred and sixty dollars; in all, three
thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars. (Approved February 25,
1903; Statutes, XX XII, 864.)
_ExcHANGE OF Pusiic Documents [LiBprary OF ConGREss].—For
expenses of exchanging public documents for the publications of for-
eign governments, one thousand eight hundred dollars. (Approved
February 25, 1903; Statutes, XXXII, 865.)
‘NATIONAL MUSEUM.
For cases, furniture, fixtures, and appliances required for the exhi-
bition and safe-keeping of the collections of the National Museum,
including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, twenty-
two thousand five hundred dollars.
For expense of heating, lighting, electrical, telegraphic, and tele-
phonic service for the National Museum, eighteen thousand dollars.
For continuing the preservation, exhibition, and increase of the col-
leetions from the surveying and exploring expeditions of the Govern-
ment, and from other sources, including salaries or compensation of
all necessary employees, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars, of
which sum five thousand five hundred dollars may be used for neces-
sary drawings and illustrations for publications of the National
Museum, and all other necessary incidental expenses.
For purchase of specimens to supply deficiencies in the collections
of the National Museum, ten thousand dollars.
For purchase of books, pamphlets, and periodicals for reference in
the National Museum, two thousand dollars.
For repairs to buildings, shops, and sheds, National Museum, includ-
ing all necessary labor and material, fifteen thousand dollars.
For rent of workshops and temporary storage quarters for the
National Museum, four thousand four hundred dollars.
For postage stamps and foreign postal cards for the National ,
Museum, five hundred dollars. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes,
NNO tO; O25)
ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS. LIX
Buriprne ror Nationat Museum: To enable the Regents of the
Smithsonian Institution to commence the erection of a suitable fire-
proof building with granite fronts, for the use of the National
Museum, to be erected on the north side of the Mall, between Ninth
and Twelfth streets northwest, substantially in accordance with the
Plan A, prepared and submitted to Congress by the secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution under the provisions of the act approved
June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two, two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. Said building complete, including heating and ven-
tilating apparatus and elevators, shall cost not to exceed three million
five hundred thousand dollars, and a contract or contracts for its com-
pletion is hereby authorized to be entered into subject to appropria-
ations to be made by Congress. The construction shall be in charge of
Bernard R. Green, superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Library
of Congress, who shall make the contracts herein authorized and dis-
burse all appropriations made for the work, and shall receive as full
compensation for his services hereunder the sum of two thousand dol-
lars annually in addition to his present salary, to be paid out of said
appropriations. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, X XXII, 1102.)
For the Smithsonian Institution, for printing labels and blanks, and
for the ** Bulletins” and ‘‘ Proceedings” of the National Museum, the
editions of which shall not be less than three thousand copies, and
binding, in half turkey, or material not more expensive, scientific
books and pamphlets presented to and acquired by the National
Museum Library, seventeen thousand dollars. (Approved March 3,
1903; Statutes, XX XII, 1146.)
For preservation of collections, National Museum, sixty cents.
(Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, XXXII, 1075.)
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.
For expenses of the system of international exchanges between the
United States and foreign countries, under the direction of the Smith-
sonian Institution, including salaries or compensation of all necessary
employees, and the purchase of necessary books and _ periodicals,
twenty-six thousand dollars. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes
ROX KI MELGH.)
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.—For the purchase of necessary books for the
library, including directories and professional and scientific period-
icals needed for statistical purposes, not to exceed two thousand dollars,
and the payment for the transmission of public documents through
the Smithsonian exchange, four thousand dollars: in all, six thousand
dollars. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, XXXII, 1118.)
LX ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS.
Nava OpservAtory.—For repairs to buildings, fixtures, and
fences, furniture, gas, chemicals, and stationery, freight (including
transmission of public documents through the Smithsonian exchange),
foreign postage, and expressage, plants, fertilizers, and all contingent
expenses, two thousand five hundred dollars. (Approved February
25, 1903; Statutes, X X XII, 889.)
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.
For continuing ethnological researches among the American Indians,
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries
or compensation of all necessary employees and the purchase of neces-
sary books and periodicals, forty thousand dollars, of which sum not
exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars may be used for rent of
building. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, XX XII, 1101.)
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.
For continuing the construction of roads, walks, bridges, water
supply, sewerage and drainage; and for grading, planting, and other-
wise improving the grounds; erecting and repairing buildings and
inclosures; care, subsistence, purchase, and transportation of animals;
including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees, the
purchase of necessary books and periodicals, the printing and publish-
ing of operations, not exceeding one thousand five hundred copies,
and general incidental expenses not otherwise provided for, ninety-five
thousand dollars; one-half of which sum shall be paid from the reve-
nues of the District of Columbia and the other half from the Treasury
of the United States. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, XXXII,
1102.)
For Adams Mill road, Columbia road to Zoo, grade and improve,
seven thousand dollars. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, XXXII,
963.)
That in order to more fully carry out the intent of the provision in
the appropriation act approved July first, nineteen hundred and two,
providing for the expenses of the government of the District of Colum-
bia, authorizing the readjustment of the lines of the streets on the
east side of the Zoological Park, the Commissioners of the District of
Columbia be, and they are hereby, authorized to use as a highway so
much of the Zoological Park as lies within a proposed street on the
east side of said Zoological Park between Kenyon street and Klingle
road, the bounds of said street being located as follows: The east build-
ing line to be distant fifteen feet from the present improved thirty-
foot roadway and the west line to be distant forty-five feet from the
present improved thirty-foot roadway. (Approved March 3, 1903;
Statutes, XX XII, 963.)
ACTS AND RESOLUTIONS OF CONGRESS. LXI
ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY.
For maintenance of Astrophysical Observatory, under the direction
of the Smithsonian Institution, including salaries of assistants, the
purchase of necessary books and periodicals, apparatus, making neces-
sary observations in high altitudes, printing and publishing results of
researches, not exceeding one thousand five hundred copies, repairs
and alterations of buildings and miscellaneous expenses, fifteen thou-
sand dollars. (Approved March 3, 1903; Statutes, XX XII, 1101.)
ILLUSTRATIONS IN GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS.
That no part of the appropriations herein made for printing and
binding shall be used for any illustration, engraving, or photograph,
in any document or report ordered printed by Congress unless the
order to print expressly authorizes the same, nor in any document or
report of any Executive Department or other Government establish-
ment until the head of the Executive Department or Government
establishment shall certify in the letter transmitting such report that
the illustration is necessary and relates entirely to the transaction of
public business. (Sundry civil act, approved March 38, 1903; Stat-
utes, XX XII, 1147.)
Retiehs@ hee
OF
ee eras Bawa © ol lon Bea ae
SpE CR yee AGR as (OLE eho b Sev MES ON PAINe TON Sm no) La OmNS
FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1903.
To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to present herewith my report, show-
ing the operations of the Institution during the year ending June 30,
1903, including the work placed under its direction by Congress in the
United States National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology,
the International Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, and the
Astrophysical Observatory.
Following the precedent of several years, there is given, in the body
of this report, a general account of the affairs of the Institution and
its bureaus, while the appendix presents more detailed statements by
the persons in direct charge of the different branches of the work.
Independently of this, the operations of the National Museum are
fully treated in a separate volume of the Smithsonian Report, and the
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology constitutes a volume
prepared under the supervision of the Chief of that Bureau.
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
THE ESTABLISHMENT.
By act of Congress approved August 10, 1846, the Smithsonian
Institution was created an Establishment. Its statutory members are
the President, the Vice-President, the Chief Justice of the United
States, and the heads of the Executive Departments. The preroga-
tive of the Establishment is ‘the supervision of the affairs of the
Institution and the advice and the instruction of the Board of Regents.”
A vacancy continues to exist in the Establishment caused by the
succession to the Presidency of Vice-President Roosevelt. By the
organization of the Department of Commerce and Labor its Secretary
has become a member of the Establishment.
sm 1903 i
bo
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
As organized on June 30, 1903, the Establishment consisted of the
following ex officio members:
THEODORE Rooskvent, President of the United States.
(Vacancy), Vice-President of the United States.
Mervintte W. Fuuurr, Chief Justice of the United States.
Joun Hay, Secretary of State.
Lesitiz M. Suaw, Secretary of the Treasury.
Exrau Roor, Secretary of War.
PHILANDER C. Knox, Attorney-General.
Henry C. Payne, Postmaster- General.
Wiitt1am H. Moopy, Secretary of the Navy.
Ernan AtLen Hircncocn, Secretary of the Interior.
James Wiuson, Secretary of Agriculture.
GrorGE B. Cortetyou, Secretary of Commerce and Labor.
BOARD OF REGENTS.
The Board of Regents consists of the Vice-President and the Chief
Justice of the United States as ex officio members, three members of
the Senate, three members of the House of Representatives, and six
citizens, ‘‘two of whom shall be residents of the city of Washington
and the other four shall be inhabitants of some State, but no two of
them of the same State.”
In accordance with a resolution of the Board of Regents adopted
January 8, 1890, by which its annual meeting occurs on the fourth
Wednesday of each year, the Board met on January 28, 1903, at 10
o'clock a. m.
The following is an abstract of its proceedings, which will be found
in detail in the annual report of the Board to Congress:
The Secretary presented his annual report of the operations of the
Institution and its several dependencies for. the fiscal year ending
June 30, 1902, and the Board adopted the annual report of the execu-
tive committee to the same date, showing in detail the financial condi-
tion of the Institution. The usual resolution relative to income and
expenditure was adopted.
Senator Henderson, chairman of the permanent committee, reported
upon the expenditures incurred by the Secretary under the authority
of the Board of Regents in continuing his experiments on mechanical
flight. Statements were made in regard to the proposed bequest of
Addison T. Reid; also concerning the will of Wallace C. Andrews and
the status of the residuary legacy under the Hodgkins will.
Senator Platt; chairman of the special committee, appointed in
. accordance with a resolution of the Board—
‘*to represent to Congress the pressing necessity of additional room
for the proper exhibition of specimens belonging to the National
Museum ”—
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 3
reported that the committee had examined the plans prepared under
the direction of the Secretary, as provided in the sundry civil act of
June 28, 1902, and recommended that if an appropriation for the
entire new building could not be made now the committee would
respectfully urge upon Congress an appropriation of $1,500,000 to
construct a portion of the completed plan. The committee further
urged that Congress be advised of the fact that collections of the
greatest value are in immediate danger of destruction, and are now
actually undergoing degeneration in the present unsuitable, unsafe,
temporary quarters, ane that the erection of a new building is aoe
lutely necessary. for the preservation of the national collections. The
members of the committee, in addition to the chairman, were Senators
Cullom and Cockrell and Representatives Hitt, Adams, and Dinsmore.
The report of the committee was adopted and they were instructed to
bring the matter to a conclusion by securing an appropriation.
The Secretary announced to the Board the death, on September 23,
1902, of Maj. J. W. Powell, of the Bureau of Ethnology, and the
appointment on October 11 of Mr. William H. Holmes, and made a
statement as to the status of the Bureau and its future policy.
On motion of Senator Henderson, the Secretary was—
‘*authorized to deposit in the Treasury of the United States, under
the terms of section 5591 of the Revised Statutes, as an addition to
the permanent fund of the Institution, the sum of $25,000 from the
unexpended balance.”
By resolution of the Board a special committee of five, consisting
of the Chancellor, Senators Cullom and Platt, and Representatives
Adams and Dinsmore, was appointed to consider the question of
specifically defining the powers of the executive committee, to report
at a special meeting called for March 12, 1903.
The special meeting was held on March 12, when the Chancellor
reported informally upon the duties heretofore discharged by the
executive committee. No definite conclusion had been reached as to
the question of defining the powers of that committee, but it was
thought desirable that it should hold regular meetings and that the
Board of Regents should hold two stated meetings in addition to the
annual meeting prescribed by law. It was therefore resolved —
“That, in addition to the prescribed meeting held on the fourth
Wednesday in January, regular meetings of the Board shall be held
on the Tuesday after the first Monday in December and on the 6th day
of March, unless that date falls on Sunday, when the following Mon-
day shall be substituted.”
The special committee was continued, with a request to further
pursue the examination of the whole subject and to report at the
December meeting.
Senator Platt read a clause from the sundry civil act approved March
4. REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
8, 1903, authorizing the Regents to commence the erection of a new
building for the National Museum, to cost not to exceed $3,500,000,
and to make contracts for its completion subject to appropriations by
Congress. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated
to begin the work, the construction to be in charge of Bernard R.
Green, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, Library of Congress.
The resolution adopted by the Board will be found on page 17, under
the heading ‘** National Museum.”
Mr. Bell introduced resolutions providing for appointments under
the Institution, which were referred to the special committee already
existing.
Upon motion of Senator Cockrell, the Secretary was authorized to
cause to be prepared a compilation of all laws or parts of laws referring
to or in any manner affecting the Smithsonian Institution and the
bureaus under its charge, including all appropriations by Congress for
its purpose or use.
Referring to previous action of the Board concerning the removal of
the remains of James Smithson to this country, Mr. Bell offered to
bring them to the United States if the Regents would care for them
thereafter, and after remarks the suggestion was accepted that Mr.
Bell renew his inquiry at-the next meeting.
ORGANIZATION OF BOARD OF REGENTS.
As organized at the end of the fiscal year, the Board of Regents con-
sisted of the following members:
The Hon. M. W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States, Chan-
cellor; the Hon. W. P. Frye, President pro tempore of the United
States Senate; Senator 8. M. Cullom; Senator O. H. Platt; Senator
Francis M. Cockrell; Representative R. R. Hitt; Representative Rob-
ert Adams, jr.; Representative Hugh A. Dinsmore; Dr. James B.
Angell; Dr. Andrew D. White; the Hon. J. B. Henderson; Prof. A.
Graham Bell; the Hon. Richard Olney, and the Hon. George Gray.
ADMINISTRATION.
The general supervision of the business of the several dependencies
placed by Congress under the direction of the Institution has year by
year required my increased attention, although as far as practicable
the carrying out of details has been left to those in immediate charge
of the work of the bureaus.
In view of the great development in the science of ethnology during
recent years it seemed desirable that the work of the Bureau of Amer-
ican Ethnology should be reorganized, and in order that I might have
full knowledge of the needs of that Bureau a committee was appointed
to secure detailed information from those engaged in that branch of
the Institution’s activities, and to make recommendations based upon
the results of their observations. The committee began this work
toward the close of the fiscal year,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 5
BUILDINGS.
Certain much-needed repairs to the main roof of the Smithsonian
building are in progress, and in this connection it seems important to
again call attention to the necessity of a reconstruction of the ceiling
and other renovations of the large Anthropological Hall, whose noble
dimensions deserve a worthier treatment, and of improving the access
to it. .
In the paragraphs devoted to the Museum and to the Zoological
Park mention is made of building improvements during the year.
FINANCES.
The permanent funds of the Institution are as follows:
Benucshobpmibhsond Wes a ios.2 sess cae ce tcl esce hcl e2 le Soe e 2522 $515, 169. 00
Hesiduanrylesacyvof smitheon, 186 ie- 242. 22. os ests eens te we ~s 26, 210. 63
Depositpirom:. sayings ofincome, 18672. s222 6 2-2 oo. ee eel 108, 620. 37
Bequest of James Eamulton’ 1875-222.) 322 2--Si ete: 1, 000. 00
Accumulated interest on Hamilton fund, 1895........_..._- 1, 090. 00
— 2, 000. 00
DeQucsmoOmomeonsll abel, 1880 s22 2 .as ee soe eee Se ee oe 500. 00
Deposit from proceeds of sale of bonds, 1881....:........-...----.---- 51, 500. 00
Cimmonenomas Glodeking: 189 esi. eens foe eee jo cece toe 200, 000. 00
Portion of residuary legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins, 1894...........-.- 8, 000. 00
Deposit iromlsavings ot, imcome; 1903 5. .22a0 52.22.5285 225.54-.0255222 25, 000. 00
Total permanent fund ...-.---.- SEE hie See | Rie Ra 937, 000. 00
Under the provisions of the act organizing the Institution and the
act of Congress approved March 12, 1894, the above fund is deposited
in the Treasury of the United States and bears interest at 6 per cent
per annum. In addition to the permanent fund, the regents hold
certain approved railroad bonds, which form part of the fund estab-
lished by Mr. Hodgkins for investigations into the properties of
atmospheric air.
The unexpended balance at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1,
1902, as stated in my last report, was $81,120.91. The total receipts
by the Institution during the year were $67,835.37. Of this sum,
$56,400 was derived from interest and the remaining $11,435.37 was
received from miscellaneous sources.
The disbursements during the year amounted to $93,448.61, the
details of which are given in the report of the executive committee.
This amount includes the sum of $25,000 which, in accordance with a
resolution of the Board of Regents adopted at the last annual meeting,
was drawn from the current funds and deposited in the Treasury of
the United States to the credit of the permanent fund. The balance
remaining to the credit of the Secretary on June 30, 1903, for the
expenses of the Institution was $55,507.67. A considerable part of
6 REPORT OF THE SEOGRETARY.
this balance 1s held against certain contingent obligations which may
be expected to mature as a result of various scientific investigations
and publications in progress.
The Institution was charged by Congress, during the fiscal year
1903, with the disbursement of the following appropriations:
International vExchanges=.=-=2-2cetesn saemeaee bemet ese sce ae eee $26, 000. 00
American Mithnology S250 ssacecewas sae see eee oe See wince toe eee 50, 000. 00
Astroplysical Observatory. 42323 2-2 eee eee see ns ee eee 15, 000. 00
United States National Museum:
[eR AODRS HVIVGL TIDUS = oe eds ons escseoeeessuse $22, 500. 00
Heatino,andWliohting 22 25sec says eee 18, 000. 00
iPresenvatlonmcollechionsmsc een eee ae ee 180, 000. 00
iRurchascolspecimens = -peeeeseeeSeseee eee eee eee 10, 000. 00
iRostagese=saeeeee eR ee tee Peed Sy ea Fue seen Cae 500. 00
IB OOS eee ree ce Rite ces a cs ea es pe a NES Seep eee 2, 000. 00
Rentvotsworkshops 2222s) ee -= soe ee ese eee ee ener 4, 400. 00
Repairs) toy buildines 2202s = eee eee See eae 15, 000. 00
Plans for additional Museum building -----.-----..----- 5, 000. 00
Publishing contributions from Museuin herbarium... --- 7, 000. 00
Printings. 223 ecco oc dooce tee cies ceeeee eee eee 17, 000. 00
—— 281, 400. 00
NationalyZoological Parke e-e-ne eae ee ee eee eee 90, 000. 00
National Zoological Park, elephant house -.-...-...---- 10, 000. 00
———— 100, 000. 00
Total os o2.22 lech 2 nscae Sere eee ees Sats ee eee ee ee 472, 400. 00
Estimates were forwarded as usual to the Secretary of the Treasury
for carrying on the Government’s interests under the charge of the
Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904. The following
table shows the estimates and the sums respectively appropriated:
Appropria-
| Estimates. | One!
imniternation ale xCha mpeg sees ses \lee ssc week cise cheaeee tere eoraseineee $29, 800 $26, 000
American) EthnOlO yan e ascee ana === ame Pte ae ats ord SIC neers rate | 60, 000 40, 000
AStrop hy siCalODservatOryisaceus sciae aa ee eee ee cate se eee 15, 000 15, 000
National Museum:
Hurniturevanditixturesss eos - smc cn ce sete see eee eee eee eee $22, 500 22, 500
Heating and igh tingy-casseee cece ace oe ene eee eee Ee eee 18, 000 18, 000
PreservalioniolcollechOnsese-- eee eee e eaeeee eee eee eee ee 210, 000 180, 000
Purchase! OL SpeCiMeNS® ¢.clsasta acces See ee Nene ee eee eee 10, 000 10, 000
BOOKS 22S sseate cs trasenya ee nace ae oasis eee eee eee Senator 2,000 2, 000
POStAR Canim Saiz Soha tas icine seule nies ¢ OS Se ee oO ee CCC E EEE 500 500
Rentor workshopsi.th-.o3.4 5 hee oo eee eee ee eee eee 4, 400 4, 400
Repairsitoibuildinges) =... 2. sae-e cee coe eee eee eee eee eee 15, 000 15, 000
Publishing contributions, Museum herbarium............2.------ URC at en «Ras Sa
Printings 3. 2ece73 Se eses coe cece ce ee ee eee eee 17, 000 17, 000
—— 306, 400 |———— 269, 400
New building forNational Museummesse cece een eee bene eee ee eee 250, 000
IME Kako a MNZACroNoy-aKOeW! Jethro WA Gao acecocokaasukeduracoaoeSonuasawseoce 110, 000 95, 000
Wiamim aah Ouse ease ee eee eee ORS ae EC cOn Se enSectetaansoe 25, 000
AQUARIUM, Meso cect eticte ah eka ee ee ee eee 25, 000
——— 160, 000
otal. see2 2 sss aok see es ces See lO ee ee ene 571, 200 695, 400
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
“I
RESEARCH.
It was a part of the original plan of the Institution that its Secretary
should not give his time wholly to administrative duties, but should
directly aid in its scientific investigations. @
Research work in various fields of science has been continued by
the Institution and its dependencies.
I have made some progress toward the solution of the problem of
mechanical flight, and have been carrying on, with the consent of the
Regents, some experiments for the War Department, at its expense,
and am adding other experiments, partly at the expense of the Insti-
tution.
In the Astrophysical Observatory I have continued work believed
to be important, and inaugurated some experiments of novel interest,
which are referred to later.
Through the Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology the
Institution has been enabled to carry on various biological and ethno-
logical researches, which will be found fully described elsewhere in
this report and need not be repeated here.
HODGKINS FUND.
Reports giving the final results of some important investigations
which have been prosecuted by the aid of the Hodgkins fund and
others, giving the details of the progress of researches still incomplete,
have been received. Several of these memoirs have already been
issued by the Institution, and others are in course of publication.
The second memoir by Dr. Carl Barus, referred to in my last report
as supplementary to the investigation on ionized air, has been pub-
lished as one of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, under
the title *‘ The Structure of the Nucleus.” Questions necessarily left
outstanding in the first memoir are answered in the second, the two
volumes forming together a valuable contribution to the literature of
the subject.
The thermometric researches of Prof. M. W. Travers, of University
College, London, have been reported on in a memoir entitled *‘On
the Attainment of Very Low Temperatures,” which’ is now in course
of publication. It is the design of Professor Travers to prosecute his
investigation still further, and the question of another grant for the
purpose has been submitted for consideration.
The research on vacuum spectroscopy, by Dr. Victor Schumann, of
Leipzig, has been reported on in detail in a memoir soon to be issued
as one of the Contributions to Knowledge. The special apparatus,
@ Resolved, That the Secretary continue his researches in physical science, and pre-
sent such facts and principles as may be developed for publication in the Smithsonian
contributions. (Adopted at meeting of the Board of Regents January 26, 1847.)
re) REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
which has been both designed and constructed by Doctor Schumann
for conducting this advanced and difficult research, is described in his
report. The interest among specialists in this investigation has been
so general that the Institution has permitted Doctor Schumann to pub-
lish without delay significant discoveries made in the course of his
experiments, on the condition of announcing them at the same time to
the Institution and mentioning the relation of his work to the Hodg-
kins fund.
In February, 1908, Prof. E. W. Scripture, of Yale University, whose
special researches relative to speech or phonetics have called attention
to his work, received a Hodgkins grant for the construction of a
‘*vowel machine,” which, when perfected, he hopes will be equivalent
to devising a perfect yox humana stop for the organ, which may
replace the one now in use. In accordance with the rule of the insti-
tution the application for this grant was referred for an opinion to
the highest accessible authority before approval.
A grant in form of a subscription for a specified number of copies
of the journal Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity
has been again approved, it being apparent that the publication is of
service to the specialists and educational establishments that have been
placed on the list to receive it through the Institution.
Any general allotment of the income from the Hodgkins fund is
precluded by the terms of the bequest, but it may be again repeated
that every request for such assistance receives attention, and an
application by an investigator who is able to comply with the con-
ditions established in accordance with the will of the donor is sure of
serious consideration.
NAPLES TABLE.
The contract for the Smithsonian Table in the Naples Zoological
Station, which was extended from June 30, 1902, through December
of that year, has been again renewed for one year from January 1, 1902.
The applications for the Smithsonian seat have been so numerous
and so urgent that the Institution felt called on to engage another table
fora part of the year. This, however, Doctor Dohrn could not arrange
for, but with his. usual kindness he promised in any event to accom-
modate all the Smithsonian appointees. He has not only done this,
but in several instances has exceeded the requests of the Institution.
During the period from March 1 till July 1, 1903, the table had con-
stantly two occupants. It should be added that whenever the dates of
applications interfered with each other the approval of the Secretary
was accorded, with the understanding that the tenure of the seat should
be subject to such modification as might be suggested by the Director
of the Station.
Dr. C. W. Prentiss, of Harvard University, whose application for
an extension of his occupaney was noted in my last report, remained
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. +)
at the Station on the invitation of Doctor Dohrn, pending a decision as
to the renewal of the Smithsonian lease. His occupancy was after-
wards extended until August 1, making a session of five consecutive
months. Preliminary mention of his research has been received from
Doctor Prentiss, in which he speaks of the exceptional opportunities
afforded at Naples for obtaining valuable living material for his
researches.
During the summer of 1902 Dr. T. H. Morgan, of Bryn Mawr
College, filled another short appointment at the table, and has since
transmitted to the Institution copies of two published memoirs detail-
ing the results of his work.
Dr. C. M. Child, of the University of Chicago, occupied the Smith-
sonian seat from July 1 till December 31, 1902. His report, which
indicates briefly the results of his work without extended discussion,
1s to be published in the first quarterly issue of the Smithsonian Mis-
cellaneous Collections, together with the other papers which have been
submitted, in accordance with the request of the Institution, for this
purpose by those who have recently occupied the Smithsonian seat.
Dr. C. S. Minot, of Harvard University, who filled an appointment
from October 15 till December 15, 1902, reports that his time at Naples
was devoted to procuring series of embryos of Zorpedo ocellata, Mus-
telus levis, Petromyzon, and Amphiorus, and also young specimens of
Pristiurus and Seyllium. Doctor Minot also refers to the ample
resources of the Station, which enabled him te obtain fine series in
varefully selected stages of development. These specimens have been
arranged in serial sections and placed in the Harvard embryological
collection, where they will be open to all competent investigators and
will serve for many years for studies in comparative embryology.
Prof. F. M. MacFarland, of Leland Stanford Junior University,
occupied the Table for five months from November 1, 1902. This was
Professor MacFarland’s second term of occupancy, he having been
appointed to the seat for three months in the spring and summer of
1896.
Dr. C. B. Davenport, of the University of Chicago, held the seat for
parts of November and December, 1902. In a report promptly sub-
mitted at the termination of his occupancy, Doctor Davenport says
that during his short period at Naples he made an investigation into
the development of the color pattern and specific markings of the shell
of Pecten jacobaeus, P. varius, and P. pusio, having also gathered
materials for a quantitative variation study of the shells of this
species. |
Prof. C. W. Hargitt, of Syracuse University, the approval of whose
application was necessarily postponed awaiting a decision as to the
renewal of the lease, received the appointment for March, April, and
May of the current year, during which time he completed a research
10 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
on the early development of Kudendrium. A brief summary of the
work of Doctor Hargitt has been received and will appear in the first
quarterly issue of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. A
more detailed report is to be published later in the Zoologisches
Jahrbuch.
Dr. C. H. Bardeen, associate professor of anatomy in Johns Hopkins
University, occupied the Smithsonian seat during the months of April,
May, and June, 1903, for the purpose of making experimental inves-
tigations in embryological development.
Tn view of the exceptional opportunity for special research afforded
at the Naples Station, which is frequently mentioned appreciatively
in the reports submitted by the appointees of the Institution, the Sec-
retary is glad to have found it practicable to renew again the lease of
the Smithsonian Table, which he hopes on the expiration of the present
contract to be in a position to extend for another term of years.
The submission by a Smithsonian appointee of a brief summary of
the work done at Naples is an appreciated courtesy, but it may be
again stated that should an investigator desire to publish the results of
his work on his own responsibility, a copy of his memoir has always
been deemed sufficient for the purpose of the Institution, which is
chiefly to make suitable reference in the annual report to the often
noteworthy work of those occupying the Smithsonian seat.
It may be said that while the summary of the scientific history of
an applicant, which it is customary to submit with a request for an
appointment, is often unnecessary as a means of acquainting the Insti-
tution with the work of an investigator, such a sketch is of service in
completing the files of the Institution relative to each appointee, and
an abstract of the data thus submitted is transmitted to Doctor Dohrn,
with each notice of an approved application, for the files of the zoo-
logical station.
Dr. T. H. Morgan, of Bryn Mawr, who has several times filled vacan-
cies caused by the absence of members of the advisory committee,
courteously consented again to supply the place of Prof. E. B. Wilson,
during his absence in Europe from February till September, 1903.
With this exception the personnel of the committee has been unchanged
during the year. It gives me pleasure to record again my apprecia-
tion of the aid rendered me by the committee in all questions relating
to appointments to the Smithsonian table.
EXPLORATIONS.
The Institution has continued to carry on various biological and
ethnological explorations through the medium of the National Museum
and the Bureau of American Ethnology, and has also cooperated with
the Executive Departments in these directions. The details of most
of these explorations are given in the paragraphs devoted to the sev-
eral bureaus.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Vl
PUBLICATIONS.
The Institution issued during the year a total of 45,506 volumes or
separates of the series of Contributions, Miscellaneous Collections,
Reports, and publications not included in the regular series.“ The
document division received for action a total of 8,522 letters and cards
of acknowledgment.
In the publications of the Institution the double aim of its founder
is represented, in that it should exist for (1) the ‘*increase” and (2) the
‘* diffusion” of knowledge.
The recording of results of original researches, the ** increase” of
knowledge, is chiefly through the series of Contributions to Knowledge,
a quarto work begun in 1848, and in which more than 140 valuable
memoirs, collected in 32 volumes, have so far been published. There
has been added to this series during the year a memoir of 190 pages by
Dr. Carl Barus on the Structure of the Nucleus, a continuation of his
experiments with ionized air, which were described in a memoir pub-
lished during the previous year.
In the present investigation the author answers certain practical
questions suggested by his last memoir in relation to phosphorus when
used as a source of nuclei; i. e., of extremely small particles tending
to precipitate water from moist air when this is suddenly cooled. It
is, however, the chief aim of the memoir to throw light on the phe-
nomena connected with the presence of nuclei in air by aid of the coro-
nas or color rings seen in such air when its moisture is condensed and
deposited on the nuclei and a distant source of light is looked at
through the turbid medium. As these coronas occur in great variety
and size they lend themselves to measurement when other means fail.
A systematic study is therefore made at the outset of the number of
particles corresponding to all well-defined members of the sequence of
coronas obtained under known conditions of supersaturated air. The
numbers run from less than 100 to upward of 50,000 per cubic centi-
meter.
The results are then applied in an endeavor to find the velocity of
the nucleus by nonelectrical methods, both of a direct and an indirect
kind, utilizing the fact that if nuclei leave the medium the coronas
obtained under like conditions must change correspondingly. Through-
out the latter part of the investigation the nuclei are purposely pro-
duced in the simplest manner possible, by shaking solutions in air;
but in the course of the investigation the author reaches conclusions
which seem to show that the solutional nucleus is of much broader
meteorological significance in its bearing on atmospheric condensation
and electricity than has heretofore been anticipated. It appears that
«Contributions to Knowledge, 1,983; Miscellaneous Collections, 11,667; Reports,
26,237; publications not in regular series, 5,619.
7 ? t ? ?
12 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
in an unbounded region of the atmosphere saturated with water this
nucleus must be a persistent structure. This he finds is strikingly
apparent even when the air is saturated with very volatile liquids other
than water.
In conclusion, the author points out that the size of the nucleus must
vary with the medium in which it is suspended, and that water nuclei
in particular will depend for their dimensions on the meteorological
status of the atmosphere. Finally, the importance of correlating this
variation of nuclear diameter with the electrical activity of the water
nucleus is insisted on, with a view to its possible application to atmos-
pheric electricity.
A memoir by Dr. Victor Schumann on the absorption and emis-
sion of air and its ingredients for light of wave lengths from 250 py
to 100 wyewas put in type during the year, but the presswork was not
completed.
This memoir, which forms the concluding part of Volume X XIX
of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, gives an account of
researches, aided by grants from the Hodgkins fund, on the emission
and absorption of the gases of atmospheric air in the ultraviolet
spectrum. Within the last fifteen years our knowledge of radiation
has been greatly increased, and now embraces wide ranges of the
spectrum heretofore unknown. Without assigning any place to the
numerous kinds of ‘‘ rays” whose discovery has been associated in the
public mind first with the work of Réntgen and later with that of the
Curies, Lam speaking here rather of the extensions of the spectrum
in wave lengths which are actually measurable and known. Thus
beyond the red the spectrum has now been studied in practical conti-
nuity to a wave length of nearly 100 microns; and at a great remove
beyond this is another known region embracing the so-called Hertzian
or electric waves now employed in wireless telegraphy. Beyond the
violet progress has been, relatively speaking, less rapid, unless, indeed,
it shall prove that the Réntgen and other radiations fall in this region.
But a great step in advance has been made by the unwearied investi-
gations of the author of the present work, Doctor Schumann.
The difficulties hindering research in the ultraviolet are great and
consist chiefly in the opacity of the usual optical media to the short
wave-length rays. Quartz, for a long time considered best in this
part of the spectrum, is found to be too opaque, and has been largely
superseded in Doctor Schumann’s investigations by fluorspar for
prisms and plates. Air, even in layers of a few millimeters’ thick-
ness, is almost wholly opaque, and other gases absorb strongly. It
has, therefore, been necessary to employ a spectroscope from which
the air is exhausted: to the highest practicable degree; and this and
other necessary apparatus Doctor Schumann has designed and con-
structed with his own hands, though aided by grants from the Hodg-
kins fund of the Smithsonian Institution.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13
The memoir contains an account of the special apparatus and
method of using it, and continues with a description of the emission
and absorption spectra of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, carbon monox-
ide and dioxide and aqueous vapor for wave lengths, reaching in the
case of hydrogen to about 0.10 micron. Illustrations of the apparatus
and spectra accompany the text, and it is thought the whole will be a
valuable contribution to knowledge, though but preliminary to the
researches Doctor Schumann alone is continuing in this spectral
region.
The Institution has accepted, for publication in the Contributions
to Knowledge, a memoir by Dr. Frederick W. True, entitled ‘* The
whalebone whales of the western North Atlantic, compared with those
occurring in European waters, with some observations on the species
of the North Pacific.” This memoir will make a volume of about 200
pages of text, accompanied by about 50 full-page plates illustrating
the anatomy and habits of the various species described.
For many years I have had a hope of preparing for publication a work
consisting essentially of photographic views of the moon so complete
and, it was expected (with the advance of photography), so minute,
that the features of our satellite might be studied by the geologist and
the selenographer nearly as well as by the astronomer at the telescope.
This hope has been disappointed, for photography, which has made
such eminent advances in the reproduction of nebule and other celes-
tial features, has stood comparatively still in lunar work. We indeed
have far better views than were obtained by Rutherford, but the very
best even of the admirable ones recently procured by Professor
Ritchey at the Yerkes Observatory have proved so far behind what
the eye can directly discern with the telescope that the expectation
that such a work could be advantageously published has been, after a
great deal of labor and preparation for many years, most reluctantly
abandoned. During the past year, however, a memoir has been sub-
mitted to the Institution by Prof. N. S. Shaler, of Cambridge, entitled
‘* A Comparison of the Features of the Earth and the Moon.” It will
be published with some of the best illustrations gathered for the for-
mer purpose, and about 25 of these illustratiens of the moon’s surface,
including many of the photographs taken by Professor Ritchey, will
form a prominent feature. The work will probably appear in the
early part of the ensuing year.
In 1864 the Institution published in the series of Contributions to
Knowledge a memoir by Prof. Henry Draper on the Construction of
a Silvered Glass Telescope. The book has long been out of print, and
as there seemed to be a present demand fora new edition arrange-
ments have been made for its reissue, accompanied by an article by a
competent hand bringing the subject to date.
To the series of Miscellaneous Collections two short papers were
14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
added during the year, and several papers were accepted and progress
made toward their publication. Among the accepted papers may be
mentioned an Index to the Literature of Thorium, 1817-1902, by
Dr. Cavalier H. Joiiet; a Second Supplement to Select Bibliography
of Chemistry, by Dr. H. C. Bolton, bringing the subject down to close
of the year 1902; Researches on the Attainment of Very Low Tem-
peratures, by Prof. Morris W. Travers, of University College, Lon-
don, and a paper by Dr. Amadeus W. Grabau, on the phylogeny or
tribal history of Fusus and its allies, being a very complete description
of the various fossil and recent genera and species classed by conchol-
ogists under the name Fusus.
Among: the proposed publications may be mentioned an elaborate
work by the late Dr. G. Brown Goode on ‘** What has been done in
America for Science.” Doctor Goode left the manuscript nearly com-
pleted, and arrangements have been made to bring it to date and to
put it in condition for printing.
The revised edition of the Smithsonian Physical Tables, issued in
1897, having become exhausted, and the demand continuing, a second
edition was printed in January, 1905.
Arrangements have been made fora quarterly issue of the Smithsonian
Miscellaneous Collections in order to afford a medium for the prompt
publication of brief accounts of the results of researches by the Insti-
tution and its bureaus, especially those of a preliminary nature,
together with such notices concerning the Institution and its activities
as may be of general public interest. Each issue will consist of about
140 pages of text and will be amply illustrated. The quarterly issue
will supplement, not replace, the regular series of the Miscellaneous
Collections.
Mention has heretofore been made of the character of papers pub-
lished in the General Appendix of the Regents’ Report to Congress.
This report, to wnich I have given much personal care, is the only
Smithsonian publication issued in large numbers, and yet the popular
demand for it is far in excess of the edition of 12,000 copies authorized
by law. The volume for 1901 was received from the Public Printer
early in the autumn of 1902 and in a very few weeks every available
copy was distributed. It is desirable that a larger edition should be
authorized.
The manuscript for the 1902 report was sent to the Public Printer
in May, 1903, and most of it was in type before June 30.
Besides the above publications of the Institution itself a large num-
ber of works on anthropological, biological, and geological subjects,
issued by the National Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology,
are referred to in detail in appendices to this report. There was also
sent to press a report by the Astrophysical Observatory on the solar
eclipse expedition of 1900. The Secretary of the Institution received
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15
and submitted to Congress, in accordance with their acts of incorpo-
ration, the annual reports of the American Historical Association and
of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
LIBRARY.
The accessions to the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress
during the year were 1,848 volumes, 21,282 parts of volumes, 3,804
pamphlets, and 379 charts, or a total of 27,313, being an increase of
675 over the previous year, and extending the accession numbers of
the Smithsonian deposit to 452,465. The libraries of the Secretary,
Office and of the Astrophysical Observatory show an increase of 409
volumes, pamphlets, and charts, and 1,625 parts of volumes, making
the total Smithsonian library accessions of the year 29,347. The
serial publications entered on the card catalogue number 24,630.
Gen. John Watts De Peyster has added to his large collection of
books and pamphlets relating to Napoleon Bonaparte, and has also pre-
sented a collection of works on gypsies, a collection of dictionaries and
encyclopedias, many of which are very rare, besides several portraits,
pictures, and paintings.
The National Museum library now contains 19,161 bound volumes
and 32,063 unbound papers. The accessions during the year were
3,161 books, 3,260 pamphlets, and 303 parts of volumes, which include
two important gifts—the E. A. Schwarz collection of books on Ameri-
can Coleoptera and the W. H. Dall collection of books on recent and
fossil mollusks. The librarian refers to these gifts in some detail in his
report in the Appendix.
The Institution has continued to aid in the maintenance of the Inter-
national Catalogue of Scientific Literature, and a total of 14,480 ref-
erences were furnished to the central bureau during the year. Five
volumes of the Catalogue were received and distributed.
CORRESPONDENCE.
The correspondence of the Secretary’s office embraces not only com-
munications referring to the work of the Institution proper, but also
to the National Museum, the International Exchanges, the Bureau of
American Ethnology, the National Zoological Park, and the Astro-
physical Observatory.
Subjects of inquiry by correspondents are perhaps more varied and
embrace a wider range of topics than obtains in other departments of
the Government, yet all are promptly answered.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Hamilton fund.—I have given consideration to the difficult subject
of the useful disposition of the small Hamilton fund, the income of
16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
which it is hoped to apply to a biennial lecture, but no arrangements
have yet been perfected for its delivery.
Gifts.— Among the gifts received by the Institution during the year
may be mentioned a large oil painting, ‘*The March of Time,” pre-
sented by the artist, Mr. Henry Sandham, representing many of the
principal generals of the civil war.
Louisiana Purchase Exposition.—Congress having made an appro-
priation for a Government building and exhibit at the exposition to
be held in St. Louis in 1904, the Secretary has appointed Doctor True
to represent the Institution and its bureaus in the preparation and
installation of its exhibits.
Congress of Americanists.—Mr. F. W. Hodge was. delegated to
represent the Institution at the thirteenth session of the International
Congress of Americanists, held at New York, October 20-25, 1902.
The session was successful in every respect; many foreign govern-
ments and institutions of learning in Europe and throughout the
American Continent were represented, and the communications pre-
sented covered the entire field of aboriginal American history, anthro-
pology, ethnology, archeology, and linguistics.
Congress of Orientalists.—Prof. Paul Haupt, LL. D., honorary cura-
tor of the division of historic archeology in the United States National
Museum, attended the Thirteenth International Congress of Orientalists
as delegate of the Smithsonian Institution. This congress, which was
held at Hamburg, Germany, from September 4 to September 10, 1902,
was organized in eight sections: I, Indo-European Linguistics; I1*,
India; II”, Iran; III, Indo-China and Oceania; IV, Central Asia and
the Far East; V, Semitic; VI, Islam; VIL*, Egyptian; VII*, African;
VIII, Relations between Orient and Occident (including Byzantine
studies). At first it was proposed to have a special colonial section,
but this idea was afterwards abandoned owing to the fact that a special
colonial congress was held at Berlin in October, 1902. The Hamburg
congress, which was attended by more than 600 members from all
parts of the globe, resolved to depart from the practice of printing the
transactions in full and to publish only a volume of proceedings, includ-
ing abstracts of all the papers presented and the subsequest discus-
sions, to be issued within half a year after adjournment. This volume
has as yet not appeared. The next congress will be held at Algiers in
April, 1905.
NATIONAL MUSEUM.
An important epoch in the history of the National Museum has
occurred during the past year, when, by act of March 3, 1903, Con-
gress provided for the erection of an additional building, to cost not to
exceed $3,500,000.
The present building was completed in 1881 and was erected pri-
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ie
marily to accommodate the mass of objects received by the Government
from the International Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, these objects
having been in storage for several years. The present building was
cheaply erected and was not expected to meet the requirements of a
great national museum, and Secretary Baird soon found it necessary to
present to Congress the question of constructing a more adequate one;
and already in 1888, in my early incumbency, this was represented
to the Regents. Although Congress at various times during the past
twenty years has had the matter under consideration, definite action
was not taken by both Senate and House. During the first session of
the last Congress, however, a small appropriation was made for prepa-
ration of plans for a new building, as I stated in my last report.
Preliminary plans were submitted to Congress at its last session and
authority has been granted to the Regents of the Institution to proceed
in the construction of an additional building, to contain about 10 acres
of floor space, or treble that we have at present, which will be worthy
to accommodate the great collections of the nation.
The law reads as follows:
‘* Building for National Museum: To enable the Regents of the Smith-
sonian Institution to commence the erection of a suitable fireproof
building with granite fronts, for the use of the National Museum, to
be erected on the north side of the Mall, between Ninth and Twelfth
streets northwest, substantially in accordance with Plan A, prepared
and submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution under the provisions of the act approved June twenty-ecighth,
nineteen hundred and two, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Said building complete, including heating and ventilating apparatus and
elevators, shall cost not to exceed three million five hundred thousand
dollars, and a contract or contracts for its completion is hereby author-
ized to be entered into, subject to appropriations to be made by Congress.
The construction shall be in charge of Bernard R. Green, Superintend-
ent of Buildings and Grounds, Library of Congress, who shall make
the contracts herein authorized and disburse all appropriations made
for the work, and shall receive as full compensation for his services
hereunder the sum of two thousand dollars annually in addition to his
present salary, to be paid out of said appropriations.”
The Regents, at their meeting of March 12, adopted the following
resolution:
‘* Resolved, That the Secretary, with the advice and consent of the
Chancellor and the chairman of the executive committee, be author-
ized to represent the Board of Regents, so far as may be necessary, in
consultation with Bernard R. Green, to whom the construction and
contracts for the new Museum building are committed by Congress in
the act making an appropriation for that purpose.”
The final plans for the new structure were commenced toward the
close of the fiscal year, and the construction will be pushed as rapidly
as is consistent with the magnitude of the work. It has been decided
to locate the building on the northern side of the Smithsonian Park,
sm 1903 2
18 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
facing the present Smithsonian and Museum buildings, thongh at a
distance of several hundred feet. It will be a fireproof building with
granite front and will have about 500 feet frontage and be about 330
feet deep, with four stories, including the basement. The main and
second floors will be used for exhibition halls, while the basement and
third floors will serve for laboratory and storage purposes.
I have great pleasure in recording this final result of the recommen-
dations of the Regents and their Secretary and of the good will of
Congress.
The year shows marked progress in nearly every branch of the
Museum. Two hundred and thirty-six thousand specimens were
received, making the present total over 5,650,000, and there were dis-
tributed to educational establishments about 383,000 objects. Letters
requesting information show an increase of about 25 per cent in num-
ber, and nearly 900 lots of specimens were received for identification.
The distribution of publications also shows an increase over previous
years, and to the library some valuable collections of books on spe-
cial zoological subjects have been added.
-Among the anthropological accessions during the year I may men-
tion some interesting specimens illustrating the native arts and
industries of Sumatra and the Straits Settlements, collected by Dr.
W. L. Abbott; a large ethnological collection from the Philippines,
furnishing information regarding the life and customs of the natives
of those islands; a number of bronzed wooden images representative
of Buddhist religious art, a series of models of United States war ves-
sels, and of land and naval ordnance; and some relics of General and
Mrs. Grant of much intrinsic and historic interest, presented by their
children.
The biological and geological departments of the Museum. also
received valuable additions, which are enumerated in the report of the
Assistant Secretary, where will also be found details in regard to
explorations and researches conducted under direction of the Museum.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.
Researches among the American Indians have been continued by the
Bureau as outlined in the plan of operations submitted June 30, 1902,
and approved by me May 23, 1903.
The earlier part of the (fiscal) year was marked by the death of Maj.
John W. Powell, and in October Mr. W. H. Holmes was appointed
his successor.
Major Powell was born March 24, 1834, and died September 23,
1902. He organized the Bureau of Ethnology and under the general
direction of the Institution carried on its researches until his death.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19
The story of his well-filled life has been told by others; he was too
near and too dear a friend for me, perhaps, to speak of it With a
wholly impartial judgment, but Iam glad to believe that I, too, had
acquired his friendship and that this mutual feeling colored all our
relations.
Major Powell, who had taken his part in the great events of our
civil war (where he served as captain of artillery under Grant at Vicks-
burg) and who had lost an arm in his country’s service, was first
known to me, as to many others, by one of the most remarkable feats
of exploration left for anyone to accomplish.
The old Spanish explorer, Coronado, who in 1540 penetrated to what
is now known as the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, came back with
the story of a crack in the earth at the bottom of which the great
tower of the cathedral of Seville would seem no bigger than a man.
This was set down as a traveler’s tale.
In this unexplored region the Colorado River, however, was found
to flow for nearly 1,000 miles through scenery unequaled on this
globe, for during a great part of its course it is bounded by walls over
a mile in altitude, at the bottom of which the unknown stream descends
with frequent falls through a channel from which there is no escape
except by climbing the nearly impassable precipices which shut it in.
The river is the only road, and its entire course abounds in hourly
perils. This was the scene of Major Powell’s exploration in 1867, which,
though conducted for purely scientific purposes, yet, considering all
that it involved, may be called one of heroic adventure, while the skill
which overcame every difficulty was not less conspicuous than the
courage of the leader, who, maimed as he was, fought with constant
physical perils, but came through safely together with those who had
trusted their lives to his guidance. None of his subsequent distin-
euished scientific life will ever efface the memory of this splendid
feat. It is one which surpasses in all its elements of interest and
danger, perhaps, the work of any such explorer of modern times.
I leave to more competent hands the description of the great and
notable work in geology and ethnology which occupied Major Powell’s
later life, and only add a few words on some qualities of the man
best known to an intimate friend.
I have been with Major Powell in the life of the city and in the
life of the wilderness, and wherever I have been with him I think I
have been more impressed with the simplicity and self-comprised
nature of his character than even with the complexity of his knowl-
edge and achievements. Besides his splendid capacity for leadership
in battle and adventure, besides his varied knowledge as a scientific
man, the mystery of this world, which pure science so little recog-
nizes, was always present to Major Powell’s mind; the lapse of ages,
20 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
the wonderful birth of species, the path that threaded past time on
and up to man—all these things were present to his thought and
colored his work, were always associated with what he did as a man of
science, and constituted his innermost point of view.
He was a generous man, kind to others and helpful; a brave and
always a self-contained man who found in himself counsel sufficient
for his need. He was a stoic who suffered long years of pain in
silence, and who, at the end, met the approach of death as though it
were a familiar incident of life. We shall not often look upon his like.
In the past year’s work of the Bureau scientific researches among
Indian tribes in the field, in documentary investigations, and in labo-
ratory and general office routine have been pursued with the usual
effectiveness. Systematic field work has been successfully prosecuted
in many States and Territories and in San Domingo and Porto Rico,
Six members of the staff have spent periods of greater or less extent
in the field and have secured materials for embodiment in reports.
These researches have furnished data bearing more or less fully upon
numerous branches of the science of man, including tribal classifica-
tion and history, languages, religions, social systems, arts and indus-
tries, esthetics, and welfare.
A principal feature of the year’s work has been the taking up, with
renewed vigor, of the preparation of the dictionary of Indian tribes,
which had been on hand for a number of years. The plan contem-
plates the publication of two octavo volumes, which shall embody in
compact form the great body of information gathered during the past
years regarding the American race, its linguistic families, tribes, vil-
lages, individuals, and history, and make more evident the great utili-
ties of the Bureau’s work. The first volume was practically ready for
the press at the close of the year, but to my regret the resolution pro-
viding for the issue of the work in octayo form did not reach a vote
during the session of Congress, and the manuscript was not transmit-
ted to the printer.
The reading of proofs of reports in press, the preparation of illus-
trations for forthcoming volumes, and the photographing of visiting
Indians have gone on as usual.
INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.
rhe International Exchange Service of the Institution is the medium
for exchange of publications between the principal governments and
scientific institutions and libraries of the world. Every year shows
an increase over the work accomplished during the previous year.
During the past year the total number of packages handled showed an
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 91
increase of 19 per cent over the year 1901-2, and the weight an increase
of 41 per cent. Seventy-five per cent of the weight represents pack-
ages sent abroad and 25 per cent the weight of packages received from
foreign countries.
The total number of correspondents or beneficiaries of the facilities
of the exchange service at home and abroad aggregates 44,012, of which
13,121 are foreign institutions, 21,332 foreign individuals, 3,319 domes-
tic institutions, and 6,240 domestic individuals.
In 1901 Congress increased from 50 to 62 the number of sets of
official documents of this country to be exchanged with foreign coun-
tries, and provided for a further increase to 100 sets when deemed
expedient in the judgment of the Librarian of Congress. Thus far,
however, the institution has been called on to transmit through its
exchange service only 12 parts of sets to foreign exchanges, thus
leaving 12 full sets actually provided for and 26 additional sets, or
such parts thereof as may be deemed necessary, still available for
exchange with other countries.
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK.
The collection of animals housed and cared for in the National
Zoological Park continues to increase in interest and value, and in
order to adequately provide for it new buildings for special groups of
animals need to be erected. During the past year an elephant house
has been built, which, owing to the limited appropriation, can only be
spoken of as a considerable improvement over the temporary quarters
previously occupied.
It is expected that the funds provided under the general appropria-
tion for the present year will permit the commencement of the con-
struction of a house for small mammals, which is the next most
important need.
As the number of buildings in the park increases it becomes neces-
sary to consider a method of heating them in an effective and econom-
ical manner. At present each separate building has its own heating
apparatus, each requiring the employment of a special set of men for
its care and management. It would conduce to economy both in fuel
and in service if all the buildings in the park lying within a reason-
able radius could be heated from a central heating plant, which could
be managed by a single set of men.
Considerable additions to the collection have been made during the
year through the public spirit of Dr. F. W. Goding, United States
consul at Newcastle, New South Wales, who has sent more than 140
specimens of the unusually interesting fauna of that region. This
shows in a remarkable manner what can be done by our officers abroad
22 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
who are fully awake to the needs of our national collection and are
willing to devote some of their time to its enrichment.
I have repeatedly called attention to the wasteful destruction of
Alaskan fauna, and am gratified to say that the last Congress passed
an act for its protection, so that it may be reasonably expected that
the wholesale slaughter of these interesting animals may be checked.
A clause of the act permits the Smithsonian Institution to procure
specimens for its use.
The Zoological Park was declared by Congress to be for the advance-
ment of science and the instruction and recreation of the people. It
has hitherto more largely fulfilled the second object, but in pursuance
of the special scientific activities of the park I hope that there may be
established at an early date a pathological laboratory, where much may
be learned of the diseases of animals and their relations to those that
affect the human family. Such a useful laboratory can be erected at
a very moderate cost.
The growth of the city in the vicinity of the National Zoological
Park has finally caused a definitive establishment of streets. These do
not in all cases conform to the boundaries of the park, which therefore
abuts at several places upon the back yards of neighboring residences.
This will undoubtedly cause unsightly borders unless some means is
taken to prevent it. I have given a full discussion of this subject in
my report for the years ending June 30, 1895, and June 30, 1896.
The evil has increased rather than diminished, and I would recom-
mend that action be taken by Congress to remedy this condition by
purchasing sufticient land to extend the park to the nearest neighbor-
ing street throughout its entire boundary.
THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY.
Bolographic studies of the spectrum of the sun and the provision of
a large horizontal telescope to be used for studies of special portions
of the solar radiation have been the distinguishing features of the work
of the Astrophysical Observatory during the past year. Results of
uncommon interest have been reached in the bolographic work of the
past twelve months, and especially in the studies of the absorption of
the solar rays by our atmosphere, as appears in the detailed report of
the aid acting in charge, which may be found in the Appendix.
Briefly this has shown that the earth’s atmosphere, so far as it can
be observed here, has been more opaque than usual within the present
calendar year, so much so as to reduce the direct radiation of the sun
at the earth’s surface by about 10 per cent, on the average, through-
out the whole visible and infra-red spectrum, and by more than double
this amount in the blue and violet portions of the spectrum. This
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 2e
alteration of the transparency of the air has not, however, been con-
fined to the region of Washington.
Another interesting observation is that determinations of the rate of
solar radiation outside the earth’s atmosphere might appear to indicate
that there has been adecrease of the solar radiation itself since March 26,
1903; but I refer to this with hesitation, as I have elsewhere observed
that it is scarcely possible to be certain of the accuracy of results of
this sort when based on observations near sea level. The value of a
solar observatory at a high altitude, to which I referred last year, can
hardly be overestimated.
A new determination of the temperature of the sun, based on the
distribution of the solar radiation in the spectrum, has yielded a result
of 5,920- of the centigrade scale above absolute zero.
For the purpose of the special study of the nature of sun spots, the
absorption of the solar gaseous envelope, and for other observations
requiring
a large solar image an equipment including a horizontal
reflecting telescope of 140-foot focus and 20-inch aperature and a
coelostat of improved construction to furnish at all times a 20-inch
horizontal northerly directed solar beam has been provided. The
form of coelostat employed seems so well suited to solar work that
this large instrument will be exhibited by the Observatory at the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. Provision has been made in
connection with the long-focus telescope to churn the air traversed by
the beam from the coelostat to the focal image after the manner
described in my last year’s report. It is hoped that this installation
will have yielded results of interest before another year.
On the whole the work of the Astrophysical Observatory during the
past year has been quite as productive of results of interest as during
any former year of its existence, especially in showing a notable varia-
tion of atmospheric transparency which is likely to have affected
climate and the growth of vegetation over a considerable part of the
parth’s surface, and in the studies of atmospheric absorption and those
relating to the solar constant, to which I have referred, there seems
renewed promise of progress toward the goal **foretelling by such
means those remoter changes of weather which affect harvests,” which is
one of the great aims had in view in the foundation of the Observatory.
Respectfully submitted.
S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
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APPENDIX TO THE SECRETARY’S REPORT.
APPENDIX I.
REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.
Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the condition and opera-
tions of the National Museum during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903.
The most noteworthy occurrence of the year, and, in fact, for many years past,
was the action of Congress in providing for an additional building for the National
Museum, a building that will not only treble the existing amount of space, but also
present an imposing and dignified appearance, and be entirely worthy to house the
great collections of the nation. The public will be greatly benefited by this measure,
and the opportunity will be given to arrange in classified order the great mass of
valuable material which, for over two decades, has been accumulating in insecure
and inconvenient storage quarters.
Marked progress has been made in nearly every branch of the Museum. The
number of specimens received was 236,000, increasing the total now in the possession
of the Museum to over 5,650,000. The number sent out in exchange and as gilts to
educational! establishments was above 33,000. The demands for information by letter
were increased at least 25 per cent, and nearly 900 lots of specimens were received
for identification. The amount of fieldwork carried on by members of the Museum
staff, however, was greatly diminished through lack of means.
There was an increased number and a more extensive distribution of publications,
and the library received as gifts two valuable collections of books and. pamphlets
on special zoological subjects. Preparations for the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition
to be held at St. Louis in 1904 were well under way before the year ended, and the
fact is now evident that the Museum will have in that connection one of the largest
and most interesting exhibits it has ever assembled for such a purpose.
Buildings.—The work upon the final plans for the additional building was com-
menced near the close of the year, but several months must elapse before the work-
ing drawings are sufficiently advanced to begin making contracts. The new
structure will stand upon the north side of the Mall between Ninth and Twelfth
streets, with its center at Tenth street. Its location is, therefore, directly in front
of the present buildings, but at a sufficient distance from them to prevent any clash-
ing between the different styles of architecture. The building will be classic in
character and constructed of granite. Its frontage will be about 500 feet, and its
depth about 330 feet. It will have four stories, including the basement, the main
and second stories to be devoted to the public collections, the others to the storage
of the reserve specimens and the various objects of the activities of the Museum.
The entire floor area will amount to nearly 10 acres. It is expected that about four
years will be required for the completion of the structure.
The repairs about the present Museum building were extensive, owing in large
part to the poor condition of the roof, which seems to develop new leaks during
25
26 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
every heavy rain. The rotunda and four main halls have been erttirely repainted,
and this work was being extended to the four courts at the close of the year. This
extensive renovation will place the exhibition halls in a more presentable condition
than at any previous time.
Many new cases, both for exhibition purposes and for storage, have been con-
structed, and much has been accomplished in the rebuilding and repair of old furni-
ture and fixtures.
Organization and staf?.—One new division (Physical Anthropology ) has been added
to the Department of Anthropology, and one new section (Lower Algze) to the
Department of Biology. The scientific organization of the Museum, therefore, now
comprises 9 divisions and 4 sections in the Department of Anthropology; 9 divisions
and 13 sections in the Department of Biology; and 3 divisions and 3 sections in the
Department of Geology. The scientific staff includes 3 head curators, 17 curators,
13 assistant curators, 15 custodians, 12 aids, + associates, and 2 collaborators, mak-
ing a total of 66 persons, of whom only about one-half are paid employees of the
Museum, the remainder serving in a volunteer or honorary capacity.
Mr. W. H. Holmes, head curator of the Department of Anthropology, having been
appointed Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Prof. Otis T. Mason has been
designated to assume his museum duties as acting head curator.
Dr. A. Hrdlicka took charge of the newly organized Division of Physical Anthro-
‘ology on May 1}, as assistant curator, and Dr. G. T. Moore, of the Department of
Agriculture, became custodian of the new Section of the Lower Algze on May 25.
The designation of Mr. W. T. Swingle has been changed to that of custodian of the
Section of Higher Algze.
On December 31 Mr. Charles T. Simpson resigned his position as principal aid in
the Division of Mollusks, being sueceeded by Mr. Paul Bartsch, whose place was in
turn taken by Mr. W. B. Maishall, appointed aid on April 1. Mr. R. G. Paine was
made an aid in the Division of Reptiles and Batrachians on April 6.
Additions to the collections.—The number of accessions received during the year was
1,648, about 230 more than in 1902, comprising in all about 236,000 specimens. This
increases the total number of specimens in the national collections to above 5,650,000.
Only the more important additions can be mentioned here.
One of the most valuable acquisitions by the Department of Anthropology con-
sisted of material recently collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott in Sumatra and the Straits
Settlements, and illustrating the native arts and industries of a region but poorly
represented in American museums. The many objects, numbering over 1,500, secured
in the Philippine Islands by the late Col. F. F. Hilder, of the Bureau of American
Ethnology, for the Government exhibit at the Pan-American Exposition, have been
turned over to the Museum by the Government Board. This collection is of especial
interest in that it furnishes much authoritative information regarding the life and
customs of the natives of the largest of our new possessions. Dr. Frank Russell,
formerly of the Bureau of American Ethnology, secured important material from
the Pima Indians of southern Arizona, which, together with many ethnological
objects from other sources, have been transferred by the Bureau to the custody
of the Museum. Several collections made by Lieut. G. T. Emmons, of the United
States Navy, illustrating the arts of the Chilcat and other Alaskan tribes, have also
been acquired.
An extremely noteworthy collection deposited in the Museum by Mr. 8. 8. How-
land, otf Washington, D. C., consists of objects representing Buddhist religious art,
such as bronze and wooden images of Buddha and Buddhist saints, shrines, temple
lamps, and sacred writings on palm leaves, and also of several Oriental manuscripts
in Hebrew, Arabic, and other languages. Twenty-eight Jewish ceremonial objects
from North Africa were obtained from Mr. Ephraim Deinard, of Kearney, N. J., one
of the most interesting pieces being an ark of carved wood, containing a parchment
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. OG
scrou of the Pentateuch. The Egyptian exploration fund has presented some
valuable Grieco-Egyptian papyri.
Among the accessions to the Division of Prehistoric Archeology were a collection
of implements and other objects obtained by Mr. W. H. Holmes from near Kimms-
wick, Mo., with the assistance of Mr. Gerard Fowke, who also transmitted a number
of hammer-stones, flint nodules, and other o}jects from ancient quarries near Carter,
Ky., and a series of implements and specimens of ore, which had been mined for use
as paint, from aboriginal hematite mines at Leslie, Mo., collected by Mr. Holmes.
About 300 specimens of stone implements, gathered by the late Mr. Frank Hamilton
Cushing, including spearheads, arrowpoints, harpoons, and tools of various kinds,
and a very important collection made by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in Porto Rico and
Santo Domingo were received from the Bureau of American Ethnology. The ma-
terial from Santo Domingo comprises many types new to the Museum, while that
from Porto Rico contains several stone rings or collars, sculptured pillow stones, the
remains of human skeletons, and various other objects.
A series of models of United States war vessels, including gunboats, monitors, pro-
tected cruisers, and rams, deposited in the Museum by the Navy Department, form
a very attractive exhibit, being of especial interest to the public. The War Depart-
ment has also deposited a large number of models of heavy seacoast cannon, mountain
howitzers, and other types of ordnance formerly used by the Army, and a series of
small arms.
Many relics of General and Mrs. U. 8. Grant, of great intrinsic as well as historic
value, have been presented to the Museum by their children, through Brig. Gen.
Frederick D. Grant, U.S. Army. They include clothing worn by General Grant
during the civil war, commissions to different ranks in the Army, a cabinet presented
to Mrs. Grant by the Empress of Japan, said to be 1,000 years old and yalued at
$20,000, several Japanese vases presented by the Emperor of Japan, and numerous
other objects. Eight hundred and thirty-seven gold, silver, and copper coins were
donated to the Museum by Mr. E. M. Chapman, of New York City.
Casts of the Neanderthal and Prague ancient crania were purchased for the newly
established division of Physical Anthropology, which has also secured five valuable
head-hunter’s skulls from New Guinea, and a large series of crania and parts of human
skeletons from the Army Medical Museum, the United States Fish Commission, and
other sources.
The zoological specimens contributed by Dr. W. L. Abbott consisted of a large
number of deer, squirrels, porcupines, and a new ape, collected in Sumatra and on
the adjacent islands, and on the Riou Peninsula south of Singapore. Many of the
species are new to science. The donations made by Doctor Abbott as the result of
his recent extensive explorations in the East Indies now comprise about 2,500 mam-
mals and nearly 4,000 birds, besides several thousand specimens in other branches
of natural history.
Large collections of bird skins, fishes, corals, mollusks, crustaceans, and other
marine invertebrates, obtained during the expedition of the United States Fish Com-
mission steamer Albatross to the Hawaiian Islands and to Samoa, have been trans-
mitted to the Museum and will be referred to more in detail in the next report.
They include interesting series of the birds of the Laysan Islands.
Dr. EK. A. Mearns, U. 8. Army, presented a quantity of mammals from the Yellow-
stone National Park and from Fort Snelling, Minn., and the Hon. B.S. Rairden,
United States consul at Batavia, two undescribed species ot Tragulus from Java. A
valuable skeleton of the porpoise, Pseudorca crassidens, trom the Hawaiian Islands,
the first reported from that region, was contributed by Prof. C. H. Gilbert, of the
Leland Stantord Junior University.
Several rare birds of paradise and other valuable specimens, including a pair of
flightless cormorants, from the Galapagos Islands, were received from Mr. A. Boucard,
I8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Isle of Wight, England, and a Javan jungle fowl, a black-winged peacock, and other
birds from Mr. Homer Davenport, Morris Plains, N. J. The Bishop Museum, of
Honolulu, presented about 40 bird skins, including several species not previously
represented in the Museum collection, and about 800 interesting specimens from
Chiriqui, Costa Rica, including a number of cotypes. Fifty-two bird skins from Hon-
duras were obtained from Mr. Outram Bangs, of Boston, partly as a gift and partly
in exchange. The most important accession to the Oological collection was a fossil
ege of Aepyornis maximus from Madagascar. Valuable birds’ eggs from Australia,
South America, and other countries were also received from different sources.
Reptiles from southern Florida were contributed by Mr. E. J. Brown, of Lemon
City, and a fine series of salamanders was presented by Messrs. Brimley and Sherman,
of Raleigh, N.C. From Prof. P. Biolley, of the National Museum of San Jose, Costa
Rica, there were obtained several very interesting specimens, including a new gecko,
described by Doctor Stejneger as Sphxrodactylus pacificus. Eighteen snakes from the
Island of Cyprus were purchased from Giacomo Cecconi, of Florence, Italy.
The accessions to the collection of fishes were numerous and important. Dr. O. P.
Jenkins, of Leland Stanford Junior University, donated 42 types of Hawaiian fishes,
constituting a second installment of a series of types the first of which were trans-
mitted in 1901. A yaluable collection of types and cotypes of Japanese fishes was
received from Dr. Dayid S. Jordan, president of the same university. A large sal-
mon, weighing about 50 pounds, taken at Cascapedia, Canada, was presented by Dr.
S. Weir Mitchell, of Philadelphia. A deep-sea pelican fish, captured at a depth of
between 2,000 and 3,000 fathoms, during the survey for the Pacific cable, was trans-
mitted by the officers of the U.S. 8. Nero, and a large conger eel was received from
Mr. Louis Mowbray, of Bermuda, through the New York Aquarium.
Besides the mollusks obtained by the Fish Commission expedition to the Hawaiian
Islands a number of well-preserved land shells from the same region were donated
by Mr. W. H. Henshaw, of Hilo, Hawaii. Interesting collections of shells were also
received from Dr. Henry Loomis, Yokohama, Japan; Mr. F. A. Woodworth, San
Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. T. S. Oldroyd, Burnett, Cal., and the Imperial Academy of
Sciences, St. Petersburg. A specimen of the rare Voluta mamilla Sby., from Tasma-
nia, and other valuable Australian shells, were also added to the mollusk collection.
Among the most important additions to the entomological division were a collec-
tion of over 19,000 specimens of gall wasps, parasites, etc., from Canada, transmitted
by the Department of Agriculture; a series of Costa Rican insects of different orders
purchased from Mr. P. Schild, of New York City; 2,000 specimens of Chilean insects
from Mr. E. C. Reed, Concepcion, Chile; 277 specimens of African Lepidoptera
received in exchange from Dr. Yngve Sjostedt, Stockholm, Sweden; a collection of
mites, including types and cotypes, from Prof. Robert Wolcott, of the University of
Nebraska; specimens of many orders and comprising types and cotypes, from Prof.
T. D. A. Cockerell, East Las Vegas, N. Mex.; about 700 specimens of European Cole-
optera from Dr. W. H. Valway, Cleveland, Ohio, and a valuable series of Venezuelan
Cicindellide and Scarabeidex from Mr. E. A. Klages, of Crafton, Pa. A collection of
African butterflies, including examples of several species described by Doctor Auri-
villius, was received in exchange from the Royal Natural History Museum, Stock-
holm. An important exchange was made with the American Entomological Society,
whereby the Museum received 100 species of Mexican and Central American Hyme-
noptera, including many cotypes. Thirty-four cotypes of Coleoptera were presented
by Prof. H. C. Fall, of Pasadena, Cal.
The Division of Marine Invertebrates obtained through exchange with the Museum
of Natural History, Paris, France, about 50 species of fresh-water crustaceans. <A
series of Japanese crustaceans, including many interesting specimens collected by Dr.
David 8. Jordan and Mr. J. O. Snyder, was presented by the Leland Stanford Junior
University. A number of crustaceans from the Maldive Islands, collected by Mr.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 29
Alexander Agassiz in 1901 and 1902, was received from the Museum of Comparative
Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., and similar material from Costa Rica and Cocos Island
was acquired through exchange with the National Museum of Costa Rica. Among
other accessions of special interest may be mentioned four lots of isopod crustaceans,
including types obtained by the Harriman expedition, received from Prof. Trevor
Kineaid, Seattle, Wash.; 28 specimens of echinoderms and crustaceans from Great
Britain and from various localites in the East, contributed by Mr. H. M. Parritt, of
London, England; a quantity of foraminifera from Great Britain and the Seychelles
Islands, presented by Mr. H. Sidebottom, Cheshire, England, and a collection of
parasites of fishes, transmitted by Prof. Edwin Linton, of Washington, Pa. A very
interesting series of European parasites, comprising trematodes, cestodes, and nema-
todes, was deposited in the Museum by the Bureau of Animal Industry, Department
of Agriculture.
To the Osteological collection were added a skeleton of the giant salamander, Sie-
boldia japonica, presented by the Imperial Museum of Tokyo; three skeletons of
Harris’s cormorant, Nanopterum harrissi, purchased from Mr. R. H. Beck, of Berryessa,
Cal., and a skeleton of musk ox from Ellesmere Land, representing a species new to
the Museum, from Mr. J. S. Warmbath, of Washington, D. C.
The National Herbarium has been enriched by a collection of about 1,400 plants
from the Philippine Archipelago, contributed by the Philippine bureau of agricul-
ture, and by another collection from the same locality received from the Royal
Botanical Gardens, Kew, England. Mr. William R. Maxon, of the Museum staff,
obtained a large collection of ferns and other plants during a collecting trip of about
two months’ duration in Jamaica. Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. 8S. Army, presented a large
series of plants collected in the Yellowstone National Park, and Capt. John Donnell
Smith, of Baltimore, Md., who has made extensive contributions to the Herbarium,
continued his donations during the past year, transmitting a series of plants from the
West Indies and Central America.
As in past years, the principal accessions to the geological collections were from
the United States Geological Survey. Among the more important ones of the year
were two series of minerals, rocks, and ores, constituting a portion of the exhibit
made by the Survey at the expositions recently held in Buffaloand Charleston. An
interesting lot of tourmalinitic quartz from Little Pipestone district, Montana, of
which some of the specimens are covered on one side with parallel layers of ame-
thysts of different hues, accompanied this material.
A yaluable series of massive and cut polished stalactites and stalagmites from the
Copper Queen mine was presented by Mr. James Douglas, of Bisbee, Ariz.
A specimen of pallasite, weighing 351 pounds, from Mount Vernon, Ky.; a mass of
meteoric iron from Arispe, Mexico, weighing 116 pounds; a mass of meteoric iron from
Persimmon Creek, in North Carolina, weighing 9 pounds, and a meteoric stone, weigh-
ing nearly 9 pounds, from Hendersonville, N. C., are among the most important
additions to the meteoric collections.
A small piece of the only known specimen of footeite was donated by Mr. Warren
M. Foote, of Philadelphia, and 35 very desirable minerals not previously represented
in the Museum collection were obtained by purchase.
The largest and most valuable addition to the Division of Stratigraphic Paleontology
was the second installment of the E. O. Ulrich collection of Paleozoic bryozoans,
comprising about 7,500 specimens and 2,500 microscopic slides. The collection as a
whole is the most extensive of its kind in existence and contains many unique speci-
mens. About 14,000 corals, crinoids, mollusks and other invertebrate fossils were
received from Prof. Carl Rominger, of Ann Arbor, Mich. Many of these have been
figured and described in the reports of the geological survey of Michigan. The
Andrew Sherwood collection of Pennsylvania Upper Devonic vertebrate and inver-
tebrate fossils is also entitled to special notice. This collection was brought together
30 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
by Mr. Sherwood, and includes many choice slabs filled with large brachiopods and
mollusks, besides about 3,000 small specimens.
The collection of vertebrate fossils was increased by several important additions,
one of which, comprising the teeth of Mastodon humboldtii and Mastodon cordillerum
and casts of mandibular rami, was received from the British Museum, London, Eng-
land. Dr. H. J. Herbein, of Pottsville, Pa., contributed a slab of sandstone showing
reptilian footprints, from Mount Carbon, Pa., and Mr. Whitman Cross, of the United
States Geological Survey, collected and transmitted a tooth of Cladodus formosus
(Hay) from Needle Mountains Quadrangle, Colorado.
About 500 specimens of Triassic plants, collected in Connecticut and Massachusetts
by Mr. 8. Ward Loper, of the United States Geological Survey, have been turned
over to the Museum; a small series of fossil plants from the Permian of Ohio was
donated by Mr. H. Herzer, of Marietta, Ohio, and about 80 specimens of Paleozoic
plants were received with the Ulrich collection above mentioned.
Exvplorations.—Fewer explorations than usual were carried on last year directly by
the Museum, owing to the scarcity of means for this purpose.
The fieldwork under the Bureau of American Ethnology, which yielded interest-
ing collections of objects, since deposited in the Museum as before mentioned, was
conducted by Mr. William H. Holmes, Mr. Gerard Fowke, and Dr. J. Walter
Fewkes. Mr. Holmes visited the aboriginal hematite mines at Leslie, Mo., and Mr.
Fowke an ancient quarry in Carter County, Ky., while Doctor Fewkes spent con-
siderable time in Santo Domingo and Porto Rico.
The important explorations of Dr. William L. Abbott in Sumatra and the adjoin-
ing islands, as well as on the mainland of the Straits Settlements, have already
been referred to under the heading of Additions to the Collections. These explora-
tions, which are carried on entirely at the expense of Doctor Abbott, have now been
in progress for several years, and through his generosity the National Museum has
been the fortunate recipient of the very large and extremely valuable collections that
he has made.
Mr. F. A. Lucas, with two others of the Museum staff, visited one of the stations
of the Cabot Steam Whaling Company, on the coast of Newfoundland, in the
interest of the St. Louis Exposition, for the purpose of securing as complete a
representation as possible of a large sulphur-bottom whale. He was entirely suc-
cessful, returning with a perfect skeleton of a specimen measuring about 78 feet
long, and with molds of the exterior from which a cast of the entire animal will be
made. These specimens, at the close of the exposition, will be returned and
exhibited in the Museum.
Through the courtesy of the Geographical Society of Baltimore the Museum was
enabled to send Mr. B. A. Bean and Mr. J. H. Riley with an expedition to the
Bahama Islands, where they made collections of the fishes and land animals of
that region.
Dr. H. G. Dyar and Mr. Rolla P. Currie, also of the Museum staff, accompanied
an expedition to British Columbia under the auspices of the Carnegie Museum, and
brought back with them a large and important collection of insects. Mr. Gerrit 8.
Miller, jr., collected mammals in Virginia, and Mr. William R. Maxon plants in
Jamaica.
Mr. 8. Ward Loper, of the United States Geological Survey, made for the Museum
an interesting collection of Triassic plants in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and,
through arrangements with the Director of the Survey, Hon. Charles D. Walcott,
Mr. Charles Schuchert, of the Museum staff, spent several weeks in Virginia and
Georgia with the special view of determining the geological horizons of the southern
part of the Appalachians. Incidental to this study he collected many fossils. Sey-
eral tveeks were spent by Mr. R. 8S. Bassler in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, collect-
ing inyertebrate fossils.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31
In connection with the Baldwin-Ziegler expedition to the Polar regions, a small
collection of natural-history specimens obtained about Franz Josef Land was pre-
sented to the Museum by Mr. Ziegler. It is hoped that the second expedition now
in progress under the same auspices will result in additional accessions from that
little-known region.
Researches.—The Museum collections serve as the basis for a large amount of
scientific work, as detailed each year in the full reports of the Museum, which also
contain lists of the papers resulting from these studies. These investigations are car-
ried on both in Washington and at different establishments throughout the country.
The Museum assistants give to the classification of the collections as much time as
can be spared from their duties as custodians. Specialists from the scientific bureaus
in Washington and from elsewhere are frequent visitors at the Museum, coming for
the purpose of consulting the collections or of conducting researches of greater or
less extent. The number of specimens sent out to investigators during the year has
amounted to more than 12,000.
Among those now engaged in the study of special groups in the direct interest of the
Museum are Prof. Charles L. Edwards, of Trinity College, Hartford, who is at work
upon the pedate holothurians; Prof. Hubert Lyman Clark, of Olivet College, Michi-
gan, who has the apodal holothurians; Prof. C. C. Nutting, of the Uniyersity of Iowa,
who has nearly completed a monograph on the Sertularian hydroids; Dr. Charles
B. Wilson, of the State Normal School, Westfield, Mass., who is studying the para-
sitic copepoda, and one of whose papers on the family Argulidze was published
during the year; and Prof. A. G. Mayer, scientific director of the museum of the
Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, who is finishing the uncompleted studies of
the late Prof. Alpheus Hyatt on the Museum collection of Achatinellide.
Among other well-known specialists to whom zoological material has been lent are
Dr. J. A. Allen and Mr. Frank M. Chapman, of the American Museum of Natural
History, New York City; Mr. Witmer Stone and Mr. J. A. G. Rehn, of the Philadel-
phia Academy of Natural Sciences, and Dr. D. G. Elliot, of the Field Columbian
Museum.
About 400 orchids were sent to Mr. Oakes Ames, of North Easton, Mass., and
about 300 specimens of Rudbeckia and the same number of Coreopsis to Mr. C. D.
Beadle, of Biltmore, N. C.
The Department of Geology has contributed material to the United States Geolog-
ical Survey and to various Bureaus of the Department of Agriculture for use in con-
nection with current investigations; specimens of radio-active minerals have been
furnished to Prof. George F. Barker, of the University of Pennsylvania; about 260
Tertiary insects were lent to Prof. 8. W. Williston, of the University of Chicago, and
500 Carboniferous insects to Dr. Anton Handlirsch, of the Royal Austrian Museum,
Vienna.
Exchanges.—In the act of 1846 founding the Smithsonian Institution, the exchange
of duplicate specimens with other institutions was authorized as a means of enlarging
the collections in the Smithsonian Museum. This practice was begun at an early
date, and has been continued down to the present time. It has not, however, been
carried on to the extent that the collections would permit, for the reason that the
staff has never been large enough to classify the specimens to such a degree that
even a fair part of the duplicates could be set aside from those which must remain
as permanent records in the Museum. Nevertheless, very much has been done in
this way and numerous exchanges were made during the past year. Furthermore,
in accordance with acts of Congress, duplicate specimens not required for exchange,
have been made up into sets and distributed to educational establishments throughout
the country, thus promoting educational interests at a distance from the Museum.
The exhibition halls.—A number of collections and specimens recently received
have been placed on exhibition, but, as intimated in previous reports, the installa-
oo REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
tion of new material is made possible only by transferring other collections to
storage or by crowding the exhibits so closely together as to render them practically
useless to the public.
The gallery of the northwest court has afforded temporary accommodations for the
ethnological material obtained from the Philippine Islands, while the other galleries
assigned to the Department of Anthropology have been utilized in relieving the
general congestion which of late years has become so noticeable throughout the
Museum building. The large ethnological collections received from Dr. William L.
Abbott and from the Museum-Gates expedition, with many others of equal impor-
tance, have been stored away for the present. Special attention has been paid to the
labeling of the historical collections, and conspicuous labels now indicate the con-
tents of the various halls, aleoves, and cases. The study collection of Eskimo
objects has been rearranged and placed temporarily in storage cases in the north-
west range. As it has been impossible to make the repairs called for in the hall
devoted to Prehistoric Archeology, it has remained closed-during nearly the entire
year.
In the Department of Biology good results have been obtained by the rearrange-
ment and refitting of cases, especially those containing the exhibits of mammals,
insects, fishes, and marine invertebrates, and much progress has been made in label-
ing both the small American mammals and the Old World series. A new mounting
has been made of the very beautiful Argus pheasants, which were presented by Dr.
William L. Abbott some years ago, and it is now one of the most attractive of all
the exhibition groups.
The geological halls remain much thé same as last year because no additional
space has become ayailable, but’ there has been some expansion in the exhibit of
fossil vertebrates, to which a specimen of Claosaurus will shortly be added, as well
as the mounted skeleton of a mastodon. The cases containing the nonmetallic min-
erals and the geographic exhibit of economic minerals haye been carefully cleaned
and the specimens rearranged, while the case in the west-south range, in which the
stratigraphic and historical collections are exhibited, has been reconstructed and the
specimens have been reinstalled. A large number of labels and reference cards have
been prepared, and some progress has been made in the preparation of the card cat-
alogue of type material.
Visitors.—The total number of visitors to the Museum building was 315,307, and
to the Smithsonian building 181,174, an increase in the first instance of about 81 per
cent and in the latter of about 26 per cent over the previous year.
Meetings and lectures.—The use of the lecture hall was granted to the Biological
Society of Washington for a series of five scientific lectures given between February
14 and March 14. The Naval Medical School and the Army Medical School also
held their graduating exercises there on April 4 and 14, respectively, and the annual
spring meeting of the National Academy of Sciences was held in the same place from
April 21 to 23.
Publications.—Somewhat more than the usual number of publications were issued
during the past year, and it is estimated that the distribution to libraries and indi-
viduals, both at home and abroad, amounted to about 45,000 volumes and separate
papers.
The new publications of the year consisted of the Annual Report for 1900; the
second volume of Mr. Ridgway’s monograph on The Birds of North and Middle
America; A List of North American Lepidoptera, by Dr. Harrison G. Dyar; volume
24 of the Proceedings, in bound form; the separate papers, 31 in number, consti-
tuting volume 25, and the first 27 papers of volume 26 of the Proceedings. A
pamphlet of instructions to collectors of anthropological objects, with special refer-
ence to the Philippine Islands and other insular possessions, prepared by Mr. Wil-
liam H. Holmes and Prof. O. T. Mason, was issued as Part Q of Bulletin 39.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33
The sundry civil act for 1903 provided for the transfer of the management of the
Contributions from the United States National Herbarium from the Department of
Agriculture to the National Museum. Under this provision two former volumes,
Numbers IT and VII, were reprinted by the Museum, namely, Botany of Western
Texas, by Prof. J. M. Coulter, and Systematic and Geographic Botany and Aborigi-
nal Uses of Plants, by Messrs. Coulter, Rose, Cook, and Chesnut. Of the current
volume, Number VIII, parts 1, 2, and 3, were issued, their titles being as follows:
Studies of Mexican and Central American Plants, by Dr. J. N. Rose; Economic
Plants of Porto Rico, by Prof. O. F. Cook and Mr. G. N. Collins; and A Study of
Certain Mexican and Guatemalan Species of Polypodium, by Mr. William R. Maxon.
A number of Museum papers greatly in demand, the editions of which had become
exhausted, were reprinted. Among them were the first volume of Bulletin 47, by
Doctors Jordan and Evermann, entitled ‘‘ Fishes of North and Middle America;’’? Doc-
tor Stejneger’s paper on the Poisonous Snakes of North America; Doctor Dall’s Pre-
liminary Catalogue of the Shell-bearing Marine Mollusks and Brachiopods of the
Southeastern Coast of the United States; Mr. Ridgway’s monograph on the Humming
Birds, and several of the pamphlets of instructions to collectors from Bulletin No. 39.
Twelve papers prepared by members of the staff, based upon material in the
Museum, were by permission of the Secretary, printed in publications other than
those of the National Museum.
Library.—The increase of the Museum library during the past year has been
mainly due to two very important gifts—the Hubbard and Schwarz, and the Dall
donations. The former collection, consisting of 300 books and 1,500 pamphlets, was
brought together by Mr. G. G. Hubbard and Mr. E. A. Schwarz (custodian of
Coleoptera in the Museum) while carrying on their studies more or less conjointly,
and forms an accessory to their large collection of insects presented to the Museum
several years ago. It is an entomological library, with special reference to the
American Coleoptera. The contribution by Mr. William H. Dall, honorary curator
of Mollusks, comprises about 1,600 bound volumes and about 2,000 pamphlets on the
molluska, a special library of great value, which has been accumulated during many
years of research. It is accompanied by a card catalogue covering the literature of
Conchology, both recent and fossil, up to about 1860.
The aggregate of additions to the library for the year amounted to 3,161 books,
3,260 pamphlets, and 303 parts of volumes.
Expositions.—Much progress has been made during the year in connection with
the preparation of the exhibits for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. An especially
noteworthy feature will consist of the complete skeleton and a cast of the exterior of
a sulphur-bottom whale which measured 78 feet long when caught. It was obtained
at one of the whaling stations on the Newfoundland coast and was roughly prepared
for shipment to this country by members of the Museum staff.
There will be several striking groups in ethnology, arranged by Mr. William H.
Holmes, who is also preparing a model of one of the great Maya temples in southern
Mexico. <A special effort is being made by Dr. F. W. True, the representative of the
Institution and the Museum, to produce a satisfactory display of American animals
mounted in accordance with the latest methods of taxidermy. The geological
exhibit, which is to include one or more of the huge fossil Dinosaurs, is being
prepared under the direction of Dr. George P. Merrill.
Respectfully submitted.
RicHarpd RATHBUN,
Assistant Secretary in charge of the U.S. National Museum,
Mr. 8. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Aveust 1, 1903.
sm 19083
3
APppENDIx II.
REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.
Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations cf the
Bureau of American Ethnology for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903, conducted
in accordance with the act of Congress making provision for continuing researches
relating to the American Indians under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution.
The work has been carried out, in the main, in accordance with the plan of opera-
tions submitted by Director Powell on May 20, 1902, and approved by the Secretary
May 23, 1902.
The death of Maj. J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau, occurred at Haven, Me.,
September 23, 1902. This event profoundly affects the interests of the Bureau, and
closes an epoch of exceptional importance in the history of the science of man. The
wisdom of the foundation laid by Director Powell is everywhere recognized, and the
impetus given to anthropological studies by his work must continue to be felt long
after the present initial stage of the science has ripened into the full knowledge which
shall regulate and direct the future development of the human race.
During the somewhat prolonged period of Director Powell’s illness the adminis-
trative work of the Bureau devolved upon Mr. W J McGee, ethnologist in charge,
who was Acting Director at the time of Major Powell’s death. On October 11, 1902,
Mr. W. H. Holmes, head curator in the Department of Anthropology, United States
National Museum, was appointed Chief of the Bureau and assumed charge of the
office October 13.
The research work of the Bureau has been carried on by a permanent force of 9
scientific employees, while a number of temporary assistants have been engaged for
brief periods in the office and among the western tribes. During the year 5 members
of the staff have spent a portion of their time in the field. The regions visited include
Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Okla-
homa, Indian Territory, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, California, Porto
Rico, and Santo Domingo.
The researches have been of exceptional importance and have dealt with numerous
branches of primitive culture and history, practical questions having been kept as
much as possible in view. The completion of reports on field exploration and the
preparation of papers dealing with special problems have claimed much attention, and
every effort has been made to bring up to date and submit for publication researches
that have been maturing during the previous years. The preparation of data for a
dictionary of the Indian tribes has been a principal feature of the year’s work, claim-
ing the attention of all available members of the Bureau staff and employing the
services of a number of special students. Detailed reference to this work is made
farther on in this report.
The range of the scientific work has been wide but has not extended, save inci-
dentally, to all departments of Anthropology. Philology, sociology, sophiology,
technology, and esthetics have received attention by those conducting investiga-
tions among the tribes in the field and by those engaged in office researches, but
somatology and psychology have received no systematic attention.
34
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35
The nonscientitic work of the Bureau, which includes the library, the photo-
graphic laboratory, the editorial, and the general clerical work has engaged ten
persons aside from the chief administrative officer, and on the whole has progressed
favorably, many changes having been made in method and routine, especially
toward the close of the fiscal year.
For the better understanding of the work of the year and the conditions affecting
the present affairs of the Bureau, considerable data dealing with history, statistics,
and routine have been introduced into this report.
RESEARCH WORK.
The Chief prosecuted archzeological researches at a number of points in the eastern
section of the United States. Previous to October 13 he was engaged, with the
assistance of Mr. Gerard Fowke, in making examinations of the fossil bone beds at
Kimmswick, Mo., with the view of determining whether there was satisfactory
evidence that man was contemporaneous with the mammoth and the mastodon in
that region; but no traces of man were found in direct association with the fossil
remains. Examinations of aboriginal flint quarries and sites of stone-implement
manufacture were made in southern Indiana and in eastern Kentucky. In October
. explorations were undertaken at Lansing, Kans., with the view of determining the
age of the human remains found embedded in loess-like formations near that place.
The formations were extensively trenched by Mr. Fowke, under the direction of the
Chief of the Bureau, and the conclusion was reached that the remains were of
exceptional antiquity for America, but that they could not with certainty be assigned
to a definite geological horizon and that they were probably of post-Glacial time.
In April the Chief paid a visit to Leslie, Mo., for the purpose of studying certain traces
of ancient operations reported to occur in an iron mine near that place. Very inter-
esting phenomena were encountered, the ancient aborigines having penetrated the
ore body in many directions and to surprising depths, the purpose being, apparently,
to obtain the red and yellow iron oxides fér paint. Many hundreds of mining tools
of stone were found in the ancient tunnels. Early in May a trip was made to Georgia
and Alabama for the purpose of examining quarry sites and caverns occupied in
ancient times by the aborigines.
Reports have been prepared on the explorations at Lansing, Kans., and at Leslie,
Mo. The first of these researches deals with the important and ever-recurring ques-
tion of the antiquity of man in America. It has been the aim of the Bureau, and espe-
cially of the present Chief, to occupy conservative ground with respect to this subject,
and to so scrutinize the discoveries and reputed discoveries reported from time to
time that erroneous interpretations should not prevail. The purpose of the excava-
tions made at Lansing was to expose the formations containing the human remains
so fully that geologists of all ways of thinking might study them to advantage, thus
preventing the adoption of conclusions based on inadequate observations. The
Leslie iron mine study has an interesting bearing on the technic and industrial his-
tory of the tribes. It has been a matter of much surprise, as the investigations of
the ancient mining and quarrying have progressed, that the aborigines, seemingly
so nonprogressive and shiftless, should have conceived and carried out really great
enterprises. The technical knowledge and skill displayed are of a low order indeed,
but the work accomplished indicates remarkable enterprise and persistence, and
demonstrates the existence of native capacity of high order.
Mr. W J McGee, ethnologist in charge, continued as Acting Director until October
13. During this period he prepared the annual report for the preceding year, made
a hasty archeological and ethnological reconnoissance in Minnesota, and in Septem-
ber visited Baddeck, Nova Scotia, whence he was called to the deathbed of Major
Powell in Haven, Me. In December he visited Mexico with the view of arranging
for an expediticn to the island of Tiburon, but in this he was-not successful. En route
36 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
he stopped over a day in New Mexico to visit some ancient ruins near the village of
Cuchilla. On returning from Mexico Mr. McGee suffered from a fever which pre-
vented active work for a period of about three months.
In July, August, and September, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes was occupied in the prepa-
ration of the text and illustrations of an account of a reconnoissance made in Porto
Rico during May and June of the previous fiscal year. This report, which was
intended to bea résumé of what is known of the prehistoric inhabitants of Porto
Rico, was finished in October and placed in the hands of the Acting Director, who
transmitted it to the Public Printer as Bulletin 28. Considerable time in these
months was likewise given by Doctor Fewkes to correcting proofs and arranging the
plates of his memoir on a series of native pictures of Hopi katcinas, or ancestor-gods,
for the Twenty-first Annual Report of the Bureau. Doctor Fewkes left Washington
for a second expedition to the West Indies in the middle of November, remaining
there over five months and visiting the islands of Porto Rico and Santo Domingo,
The collection of prehistoric objects made on this trip numbers over 1,000 specimens,
110 of which were obtained by purchase in Santo Domingo, the remainder by explo-
ration and purchase in Porto Rico. Not only is this collection numerically the
largest which has been brought to the Smithsonian Institution from Porto Rico and
Santo Domingo at any one time, but it is also one of the most significant on account
of its wealth in typical forms previously unrepresented in the Museum.
Doctor Fewkes was able to determine by excavations that the inclosures surrounded
by aligned stones and called by the natives ‘“‘juegos de bola’? were made by the
aborigines of the island for ceremonial dance places, and that neighboring mounds
are prehistoric cemeteries. The determination of the burial places of the prehistoric
Porto Ricans and their discovery in numbers are believed to be the most important
results of Doctor Fewkes’s field work in Porto Rico. With this information to guide
him, the archzeologist will have little difficulty in the future in adding to existing
collections of prehistoric objects from Porto Rico and in placing them in their
proper categories.
Doctor Fewkes maae excavations in a cave called ‘‘ Cueva de las Golondrinas,’’ situ-
ated near the town of Manati, and found large quantities of Indian pottery and a few
other objects of aboriginal manufacture. All the evidence collected indicates that
while the aborigines had frequented this cave fora long time, the culture of the
earlier and later occupants was practically identical. After his return to Washington
in May, Doctor Fewkes was occupied in cataloguing the objects collected during the
winter and in preparing a preliminary report on them. He was permitted to with-
draw the account of his previous year’s explorations, which had been transmitted
tothe Public Printer as a bulletin with a view of incorporating with it the new mate-
rial obtained on this second visit to the island. The valuable results of the two
years’ work will thus appear in monographic form in a forthcoming annual report.
The researches of Doctor Fewkes furnish much material of value bearing upon ques-
tions of science and history. Of first importance is the decided advance made toward
identifying and rehabilitating the unfortunate peoples of the West Indies, swept
almost without record from the islands during the early years of Spanish coloniza-
tion. Considerable information regarding their physical characters and manner
of life has been gained, and various branches of culture are illustrated by the col-
lections, while definite notions of the origin, burial customs, and arts and industries
of the island peoples are for the first time conveyed to the world of science. Doctor
Fewkes has thus shed light on a significant and important chapter of aboriginal
American history.
The months of July to November, inclusive, were spent by Mrs. M. C. Stevenson
in researches among the Zuni Indians, the special objects being a comparative study
of the peoples of the Southwest and a collection of the ethnoflora of Zuhi. Some
years ago Mrs. Stevenson observed that the prayers of one of the Zumi rain priests
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Bi
were sung in the Sia tongue, and that one of the esoteric fraternities sang in Piman,
but it was not until her last visit to Zufi that she learned that all of the thirteen eso-
teric fraternities used other languages than their own in their ceremonies. It is diffi-
cult to catch the words of an aboriginal choir singing to the accompaniment of rattles
and drums, especially when the mind is absorbed in noting the ritual rather than the
words employed. But during the last season, haying in view a comparative study of
the Pueblo Indians, and knowing thatat least one fraternity employed a foreign tongue,
Mrs. Stevenson closely observed this feature of the ceremonies and made special
inquiries of the priests and theurgists, thus determining the remarkable fact that this
was true of all. Several reasons could be advanced for this use of strange languages,
but it remains for future investigation to acquaint us fully with the facts.
Mrs. Stevenson makes the important observation that, although the ceremonies
which she describes in her monograph were regularly practiced during the first
decade and a half spent by her in their study and were faithfully observed in every
detail, they have since been gradually changed and in some instances have been
abandoned. It would thus appear that these researches were not undertaken a
moment too soon.
In the main the results of the year’s work in Zuni have been incorporated in the
monographic studies of the Zuni people prepared by Mrs. Stevenson during the pre-
vious years. The final work is now in the editor’s hands and will soon be submitted
for publication. Mrs. Stevenson’s familiarity with the language of the Zunis, the con-
fidence with which she has inspired them, the deep insight she has obtained into
the philosophical and religious meaning of their ceremonies, and her intimate knowl-
edge of their sociology peculiarly fit her for the presentation of a monograph on this
people.
_ The herbarium of edible, medicinal, and fetishistic plants collected by Mrs. Steven-
son over an area 110 miles north and south and 60 miles east and west from Zuhi,
contains about 200 specimens. Among the many interesting varieties are a narcotic,
Datura stramonium, a specific for hemorrhage, Ustilago, and what the Zufi claim to be
their native cotton, Esculapia Mexicana. The fiber of the latter is made at the pres-
ent time into acord for the more sacred objects used by the rain priests, and the
Zunis claim that all of their cotton fabrics were woven of this plant before the advent
of the Spaniards. Acknowledgments are due to Dr. F. V. Coville, Botanist, Depart-
ment of Agriculture, and Dr. J. N. Rose, Assistant Curator, U. 8. National Museum,
for their courteous assistance in providing Mrs. Steyenson with facilities for presery-
ing the plants and also for the classification of the collection.
At the beginning of the fiscal year Mr. James Mooney was in the field in western
Oklahoma, engaged in the prosecution of researches among the Kiowa and Cheyenne
tribes in the joint interest of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Field Colum-
bian Museum under an agreement made in the preceding year. Except during two
brief visits to Washington, in September and in November, 1902, Mr. Mooney
devoted the entire year to researches relating to the social customs, religion, and art
of the tribes, especial attention being given to investigations of the heraldry system
of the Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache tribes as exemplified in the old-time shields and
decorated tipis. His work comprised the preparation of a full series of shield and
tipi models on a suitable scale, together with related investigations and collections.
The heraldry investigation and the model series for the confederated Kiowas and
Kiowa-Apaches are nearly finished and the latter is expected to constitute part of
the Smithsonian exhibit at the forthcoming Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The’
complete model series may be estimated to contain 150 shields and 40 tipis for the
Kiowas and confederated Apaches, and a somewhat smaller number for the Chey-
ennes. In April Mr. Mooney shifted his base of operations from Mount Scott, in the
Kiowa country, to a station near Bridgeport, in the Cheyenne country, about 100 miles
north, and has since been moving about among the widely separated Cheyenne camps.
38 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Some weeks were devoted to a practical study of the hide-dressing process in all its
stages in connection with the making of a full-size skin tipi. This important industry
is thus for the first time placed fully on record. At the close of the present year
Mr. Mooney was preparing to attend the great annual sun dance of the Cheyennes,
to be held about the middle of July.
In addition to the research work referred to above, Mr. Mooney has assisted, both
in the field and during his brief stay in the office, in preparing material for the Dic-
tionary of Indian Tribes, in course of preparation by the Bureau.
The heraldry studies of Mr. Mooney have opened up a field entirely new to Ameri-
can ethnology, and are expected to contribute materially to our knowledge of many
questions heretofore imperfectly understood in relation to the social and military
organization, heredity laws, war customs, tabu system, and religious symbolism of
the Plains tribes. The urgency of the work may be judged by the fact that of per-
haps 300 shields in possession of the Kiowas a generation ago only 8 are now known
to be in existence (4 of which have been obtained by Mr. Mooney for the National
Museum), while more than half the information gained upon the subject came from
old men who have passed away since the investigation began.
During the year Dr. Cyrus Thomas, ethnologist, was engaged mainly on the Dic-
tionary of Indian Tribes, under the supervision of Mr. F. W. Hodge. In the early
months he made a final examination of the data relating to the Algonquian family,
and later took up the Siouan, Muskhogean, Timuquanan, and Natchesan stocks.
Brief articles on a number of the leading subjects intended for introduction into
the dictionary, such as Agriculture, Mounds, Mound-builders, Government, and
numerous biographical sketches of prominent Indians, have been prepared by
Doctor Thomas. He has thus contributed greatly to the interests of the Bureau in
a practical way, putting in final and concise form much of the knowledge accumu-
lated during his thirty years of service in his chosen field.
Doctor Thomas has been largely employed during preceding years, in direct asso-
ciation with Major Powell, in the important work of compiling a list of linguistic
families, languages, and dialects of the tribes of Mexico and Central America, and
the manuscript of this work, comprising some 200 typewritten pages, was submitted
by him at the close of the present year.
At the beginning of the fiscal year Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt was engaged in the
work of making an interlinear translation of a version of the Onondaga (Iroquoian )
cosmologic myth, obtained in the field in 1900 from Mr. John Arthur Gibson, an
intelligent and gifted Seneca priest. This text is by far the longest and fullest of
the five versions of this myth recorded by Mr. Hewitt during several field seasons.
Two of these texts are Seneca, two are Onondaga, and one is Mohawk. The
Mohawk text, related by Mr. Seth Newhouse, the shorter Onondaga text, told by
John Buck, and the longer Seneca text, told by John Armstrong, were sent to press
in the previous fiscal year. The longer Onondaga text contains more than 44,000
words in the Onondaga dialect, to about one-third of which an interlinear translation
has been added. The first draft of a free translation of it was completed in October
of the previous fiscal year. This manuscript will be ready for the press as soon as the
interlinear translation is completed and the free translation is revised. With it
will be submitted the shorter Seneca version, which is practically ready for the press.
Later in the year much work was done on portions of the ritual of the Condoling
Council of the League of the Iroquois. A free translation was made of the Onondaga
version of the so-called ‘‘ Fourteen Matters’’ and also of the Mohawk version of the
‘“ Address of Weleome’’ of the Brother Mourning Nations. The ‘‘Chant of Lamen-
tation,’’ requiring more than an hour to intone, was typewritten ready for interlinea-
tion. This work has enabied Mr Hewitt to ascertain approximately what is yet
needful to complete his projected monograph on the Condoling Council of the League
of the Iroquois.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39
In September Mr. Hewitt, assisted by the Rey. Jesse Kirk, an educated and intel-
ligent Klamath quarter-blood Indian, undertook the special study of the system of
blood relationships and affinities among the Klamaths of the Lutuamian linguistic
family to ascertain whether or not these people have a clan system. This was done
by means of two charts, one for the paternal and the other for the maternal lines of
descent. It was shown by this study that the Klamaths have no clan system such
as that prevailing among the Iroquois. An extensive vocabulary of Klamath voeacies
was also obtained from the Rey. Mr. Kirk, covering 57 manuscript pages. Mr. Hewitt
also devoted much time to work in connection with the Dictionary of Indian Tribes,
furnishing, among other contributions, the articles ‘‘ Adoption,”’ ‘‘Confederacy,’’ and
“* Attakapan Family.”’
During the year Mr. Hewitt’s regular research work has been interfered with to a
very considerable extent by duties imposed in connection with the official corre-
spondence of the Bureau. Many communications were received calling for informa-
tion regarding the native languages, especially the significance of names and the
interpretation of phrases and sentences, and these were for the greater part referred to
Mr. Hewitt for report. Besides this a number of manuscripts forwarded for examina-
tion or for purchase have been placed in his hands for expert consideration.
In past years Mr. Hewitt has taken some part in the care of the great collection of
manuscripts in the Bureau yaults, and toward the close of the present year he was
appointed custodian of manuscripts. In this capacity he has again taken up the
work of identifying, classifying and cataloguing these documents—a work of no little
difficulty and requiring much time.
Dr. John R. Swanton was engaged for the greater part of the year in copying and
translating texts obtained by him from the Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte
Islands, British Columbia, during the winter of 1900-1901. There are two series of
these texts taken in the dialects of Skidegate and Masset, respectively. Of the Skide-
gate series there are 75 texts (one-third of which are war stories) , covering about 360
typewritten pages, and of the Masset series about 90 texts, covering about the same
number of pages. These texts will be ready for publication early in the next fiscal
year.
Doctor Swanton has also been engaged in the preparation of a grammatical study
of the Haida language, which, while it is not exhaustive, will cover all essential
points. He has also in hand a dictionary of the Haida language.
Doctor Swanton has assisted Mr. Hodge in the compilation of the Dictionary of
Indian Tribes, and has revised, copied, and arranged all the descriptive material for
the Chimmesyan, Koluschan, Salishan, Skittagetan, Takilman, and Wakashan lin-
guistic families.
Dr. Albert 8. Gatschet has continued his linguistic work, giving principal attention
to the completion of a work:‘on Algonquian texts, including the Peoria, Miami, and
Wea dialects. He has also made some progress in the preparation of a Peoria dic-
tionary and grammar, and in addition has rendered substantial aid in furnishing
linguistic data called for by correspondents of the Bureau.
Dr. Frank Russell, ethnologist, spent most of the previous year among the Pima
Indians of Arizona, and on the return journey paid a brief visit to the Muskwaki
tribe in Iowa, reaching Washington in July. The report on his researches will appear
in the Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Bureau under the title ‘‘The Pima
Indians of Arizona.”’ His active connection with the Bureau ceased on October 30,
but certain unfinished portions of the work were completed subsequently.
Dr. Stewart Culin, curator of anthropology in the museum of the Brooklyn
Institute, has made progress in the preparation of a monograph on native American
games which has been on hand for some years. It 1s planned to have it appear in
the Twenty-fourth Annual Report.
In September Mr. R. H. Partridge was commissioned by the Acting Director to
40 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
visit New Mexico for the purpose of mapping certain ancient ruins situated in the
valley of the Rio Hermoso, Socorro County. A month was spent in the work, and
the map produced and a brief report descriptive of the exploration have been placed
in the Bureau archives.
Dr. Albert E. Jenks, ethnologist, on furlough from the Bureau and connected with
the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes in the Philippine Islands, has communicated
some details of a successful expedition conducted by himself among the Bontoc
Igorrotes of northern Luzon. About the close of the year he became acting chief of
the Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes, Doctor Barrows, the chief, having been
appointed commissioner,of education for the islands.
Under. the immediate direction of Dr. Franz Boas, honorary ethnologist, impor-
tant linguistic studies were made by Mr. H. H. St. Clair, 2nd, among the Ute,
Shoshoni, and Comanche tribes. Numerous texts, grammatical notes, and vocabu-
laries were collected, and in parts of this work the phonograph was used with suc-
cess. The instrument was employed for recording the dictation of old men, and
then the record was repeated slowly by interpreters. During the winter months
Mr. St. Clair assisted Doctor Boas in the office, carrying forward various linguistic
studies. In addition, Mr. St. Clair continued work ona Chinook dictionary, on which
considerable progress had previously been made, and in June, 1903, he began work
among certain tribal remnants in Oregon, more particularly the Alsea, Coosa, and
Takilma.
Under Doctor Boas’s supervision Mr. William Jones continued his linguistic work
among the Sauks and Foxes. He has made a large collection of texts, all of which
have been copied, and has also elaborated a detailed grammar of the language of
these tribes. He has succeeded in carrying out the analysis of the Algonquian
language in a much more satisfactory manner than did any of the older authors, such
as Baraga, Howse, Cuoq, and Lacombe. It is expected that the manuscript of his
grammatical studies will be completed by the end of the present calendar year. In
the spring of 1903 Mr. Jones made investigations of the language of the Kickapoos,
obtaining a considerable amount of linguistic material from among that tribe.
Besides directing the work of these assistants, Doctor Boas has continued hig
investigation of the grammar of the Tsimshian and Chinook languages.
The ripening of linguistic studies in America initiates a new era in this branch of
research. Powell gave great impetus to the work, and numerous other students
have devoted their energies assiduously to the important task of recording and clas-
sifying the American languages and applying the results to the elucidation of the
history of languages and peoples. The ultimate object of the work conducted under
the direction of Doctor Boas is a morphological classification of the languages of
America. The enumeration of linguistic stocks published by Major Powell in the
seventh annual report of the Bureau, is based entirely on vocabularies, many of which
are very brief. By means of the study of the morphology of languages more remote
relationships can be traced and the results of the lexicographer’s comparisons can be
checked. The grammatical studies that are carried on at present will therefore serve
to elucidate many of the obscure parts of the earlier history of our country and the
significance of the multitude of languages of California and the lower Mississippi
region. The work is being done in systematic cooperation with investigators not
connected with the Bureau. Among these are Dr, A. L. Kroeber, of the University
of California, Dr. Roland B. Dixon, of Harvard University, and’a few other students
who are collecting material in California, partly for the University of California,
partly for the American Museum of Natural History. Up to the present time the
Bureau has taken up, in connection with this work, morphological studies of the
languages of the northwest coast and of the Siouan, Shoshonean, and Algonquian
stocks, three of the largest on our continent. The work has so far advanced that it is
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Al
proposed to prepare at once a handbook of the American languages as a preliminary
publication.
The Bureau has had under way for some years the transcription of the Diccionario
de Motul, a manuscript Maya-Spanish dictionary, borrowed from the library of the
University of Pennsylvania. The copy is intended for the use of Sefor Andomaro
Molina, of Merida, Yucatan, who is engaged in compiling a Maya-English dictionary
to be published by the Bureau. The transcription was in the hands of Miss Jessie
E. Thomas, librarian of the Bureau, but her untimely death in January brought
the work to a close. The dictionary was returned to the university library on March
15, as previously arranged, but permission has since been granted to bring it again
to Washington when a competent copyist is found.
An important feature of the work of the year has been the preparation of material
fora dictionary of the Indian tribes. It was the Secretary’s wish that this under-
taking should be carried rapidly to completion, and Mr. F. W. Hodge, formerly of
the Bureau, but now connected directly with the parent Institution, was detailed to
take charge of the work. Mr. Hodge arranged to spend the afternoon of each day
at the Bureau, and was thus able to personally direct the work, a report on which is
here presented.
DICTIONARY OF INDIAN TRIBES.
At the time of the early exploration and settlement of North America there were
encountered many Indian tribes varying in customs and speaking diverse lan-
guages. Lack of knowledge of the aborigines and ignorance of their languages led
to many curious errors on the part of the early explorers and settlers; names
were applied to the Indians that had no relation whatever to those by which they
were aboriginally known; sometimes nicknames were bestowed, owing, perhaps, to
some personal characteristic, fancied or real; sometimes there was applied the name
given by another tribe, which was often opprobrious; frequently an effort was made
to employ the designation by which a tribal group knew itself, and, as such names
are often unpronounceable by an alien tongue and unrepresentable by a civilized
alphabet, the result was a sorry corruption, varying as the sounds were impressed
on English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Russian, or Swedish ears, or as they were
recorded in many languages, only to be as grossly corrupted when the next traveler
appeared.
Sometimes, again, bands of a single tribe would be given distinctive names, while
clans or gentes would be regarded as independent, autonomous groups to which
separate tribal designations were likewise applied. Consequently, in the literature
of the American Indians, which is practically coextensive with the literature of the
first three centuries of the New World, thousands of tribal names are encountered,
only a small proportion of which are recognizable at a glance; therefore, one of the
most practical and important studies which was undertaken at the inception of the
work of the Bureau was the classification of these names with the view of their pub-
lication as an Indian synonymy. As time passed, however, the scope of the work
was enlarged, for, as the studies of the Bureau were prosecuted, a large amount of
information in regard to the tribes, both past and present, was gained, so that it was
deemed desirable to make of the work a cyclopedia or dictionary of the Indians,
containing tribal synonyms.
The work continued at intervals during several years, most of the scientific corps,
particularly Mr. James Mooney, being engaged in the compilation, under the general
supervision of Mr. H. W. Henshaw, until 1891, when, owing to failure of health,
Mr. Henshaw was compelled to relinquish ethnologic work. Later the task was
assigned to Mr. Hodge, who continued it, so far as his other duties permitted, until
early in 1901, when he was transferred to the office of the Smithsonian Institution.
The work was continued, with many interruptions, until November of the present
42 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
fiscal year, when, as has been stated, Mr. Hodge was again assigned to the task. In
accordance with the Secretary’s wish, the scope of the work was enlarged to include
not only descriptions of the Indian stocks, confederacies, tribes, subtribes, phratries,
bands, clans, gentes, and settlements, as previously planned, but also biographies of
the most noted Indians, sketches of the native manners, arts, and customs, and a list
of Indian words incorporated into the English language.
The facilities of the Bureau were immediately made available, most of the scientific
corps deyoting at least a part of their time to the work, while the services of others
not officially connected with the Bureau were enlisted in directions in which their
special knowledge would be advantageous. To this end the Athapascan stock was
assigned first to Dr. Washington Matthews, whose ill health unfortunately com-
pelled him to relinquish it, when it was given to Dr, J. H. McCormick; the Atta-
capan, Beothukan, Iroquoian, and Uchean stocks were assigned to Mr. J. N. B.
Hewitt; the Chimakuan, Chinookan, Kalapooian, Kusan, Lutuamian, Shahaptian,
Takilman, Waiilatpuan, and Yakonan to Dr. Livingston Farrand; the Chimmesyan,
Koluschan, Salishan, Skittagetan, and Wakashan to Dr. John R. Swanton; the Cal-
fornian stocks to Dr. A. L. Kroeber and Dr. Roland B. Dixon; the Algonquian,
Chitimachan, Karankawan, Muskhogean, Natchesan, Shoshonean, Siouan, and
Timuquanan to Dr. Cyrus Thomas; the Caddoan to Mr. James Mooney; the Eski-
mauan, to Dr. J. H. Bair, and the Kitunahan to Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, while the
Piman and the Pueblo stocks were undertaken personally by Mr. Hodge. At the
close of the year the work on these stock and tribal descriptions had been well
advanced, most of the important as well as a number of the smaller linguistic groups
being entirely ready for final editorial revision. Owing to pressure of other duties,
anumber of the specialists not’ officially connected with the Bureau required more
time than was expected, so that some of the outstanding material can not be finished
as soon as was desired.
In accordance with the plan of enlargement of the scope of the dictionary outlined by
the Secretary, a schedule of all the subjects thought to be necessary was prepared and
they were assigned to the specialists to be succinctly written. Those who have been
engaged in this part of the work are Mr. W. H. Holmes, Mr. F. W. Hodge, Dr. Cyrus
Thomas, Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, Mr. James Mooney, Prof. O. T.
Mason, Dr. Walter Hough, Miss Alice C. Fletcher, Dr. Washington Matthews, Dr.
J. R. Swanton, Mr. Joseph D. MeGuire, Dr. Frank Russell, and Mr. Stewart Culin.
At the close of the fiscal year nearly all of the 300 or more articles thus assigned were
completed, as was the bibliography of works cited in the tribal descriptions of the
dictionary. This latter was prepared by Mr. McGuire.
For several weeks Mr. Hodge has been engaged in putting in final form the first
half of the material for the first of the proposed two volumes. The first of the
Algonquian descriptions (A to M), recorded on about 10,000 cards, were more than
half revised for the printer by the close of June, and many more stocks were awaiting
similar editorial treatment.
EXPOSITION WORK.
Eariy in the year an allotment of $2,000 was made by the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, from funds placed at its disposal by the Government board of the Louisiana
Purchase Exposition, to be used by the Bureau in preparing an exhibit for the
exposition. It is arranged that this exhibit shall comprise ethnological and archzeo-
logical collections illustrative of the research work of the Bureau, and instructions
have been given to members of the staff in the field to take up the work. Progress
has been reported by Dr. J. W. Fewkes, who will illustrate his researches in the
West Indies; by Mrs. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, who will collect specimens illus-
trating Zuni arts and customs, and by Mr. James Mooney, who has in hand a series
of exhibits designed to represent the heraldic systems of the Plains Indians.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43
ILLUSTRATIONS.
The illustrations are a most important feature of the research and publication
work of the Bureau. They consist of drawings, photographs, rubbings, engravings,
etc., derived from many sources, and either used in the illustration of papers or
filed for reference. The photographic work includes the making of photographs of
all visiting Indians, copying pictures and maps, and photographing specimens.
Mr. DeLancey Gill has continued in charge of illustrations, the volume of work
being about the same as in previous years. The preparation of illustrations, the
criticism and revision of engravers’ proofs, and the photographic work have been
carried on in the usual manner. Illustrations for Doctor Fewke’s paper on his Porto
Rican studies, consisting of 25 original drawings and photographs, were prepared and
sent with the manuscript to the Public Printer. Engraved proofs of 330 drawings and
photographs, intended for use in the Twenty-second Annual Report, have been
received fromthe Public Printer during the year, and have been criticised and cor-
rected. The printed editions of 107 colored plates, representing nearly 1,000,000
impressions, to be used in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Annual reports, have
been examined by Mr. Gill and the imperfect work rejected. Drawings to the
number of about 200, intended for forthcoming reports by Mrs. M. C. Stevenson and
Dr. Stewart Culin, were executed by contract under the supervision of the authors.
The preparation of illustrations for reports following the Twenty-third was taken
up toward the close of the year.
The photographic work has progressed satisfactorily. Six hundred and forty-six
63 by 83 inch negatives have been made 123 of which were exposed in the field by
Dr. Frank Russell and developed in the office laboratory. About five hundred 4by5
inch films were exposed in the field by Dr. Fewkes, and also developed in the office
laboratory, and a large number of portraits of visiting Indians were made during
the year. In all, 1,146 negatives were added to the collection and 1,341 prints were
made.
Detailed plans by Mr. Gill of three of the great ruined buildings of Mexico, the
temple of Xochicalco, the temple of the Columns, Mitla, and the House of the Govy-
ernor, Uxmal, were prepared for use in constructing models of the buildings for the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution.
COLLECTIONS.
For a number of years previous to the separation of the Bureau of Ethnology from
the Geological Survey, and also since the separation took place, the Bureau has made
extensive collections of objects illustrating its researches and forming the basis for
important studies. The collections have usually been catalogued on arrival at the
Bureau, and after serving their purposes for study and illustration have been trans-
ferred to the United States National Museum, where they have been recorded and
properly accredited to the Bureau.
During the year important collections have been made as follows: Archeological
collection from Santo Domingo and Porto Rico, by Dr. J. W. Fewkes, 1,210 speci-
mens; archzeological collection from an aboriginal hematite mine in Missouri, by W.
H: Holmes and Gerard Fowke, 160 specimens; collection of flint implements from
Indiana and Kentucky, by Gerard Fowke, many thousands of specimens; ethno-
logical collection from Zuni Pueblo, Arizona, by Mrs. M. C. Stevenson, 220 specimens.
These have been transferred to the National Museum along with numerous other
collections found in the Bureau offices and in storage. The latter include a large col-
lection from the Maine coast shell heaps, made by Mr. F. H. Cushing, 3,058 specimens;
an important collection of ethnological material from the Pima Indians of Arizona,
made by Dr. Frank Russell, 324 specimens, and numerous small collections and
single specimens. These collections haye been accompanied by all available data
44 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
relating to them, and are so placed at the Museum as to be convenient for study by
the various collectors in preparing their reports and by students generally.
MANUSCRIPTS.
Of peculiar value and interest are the manuscripts brought together in the archives
of the Bureau. They number upward of 1,600 and relate chiefly to the Indian lan-
guages. Three hundred and thirty-two of these documents were transferred to the
Bureau on its organization by the Smithsonian Institution. Many others have been
presented to the Bureau since that time, while a large number have been purchased
from the authors. Nota few have been prepared by employees of the Bureau, and,
because fragmentary or not fully elaborated, have been filed awaiting completion and
for reference. A valuable body of linguistic data is thus preserved and available for
the use of students. Besides the linguistic materia] many miscellaneous manuscripts
and documents have accumulated. A few of these are historical, but, the majority
relate to the aborigines. These manuscripts are kept in two fireproof vaults in the
main office and have been recently placed under the custodianship of Mr. J. N. B.
Hewitt, ethnologist.
PUBLICATIONS.
History of the series —When the United States Geographical and Geological Survey
of the Rocky Mountain Region was discontinued, by act of Congress approved March
3, 1879, it had published two volumes (1 and 3) of a quarto series of Contributions to
North American Ethnology. The same act made an appropriation for completing and
preparing for publication other volumes of the series. The work was put in charge of
Maj. J. W. Powell, previously Director of the Rocky Mountatn Survey, and the
Bureau of Ethnology was organized. The new Bureau continued the publication of
the Contributions, and in 1880 the Director began a series of annual reports of prog-
ress to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, which were published, with
accompanying scientific papers, in handsomely illustrated royal octavo volumes.
The printing of the volumes of both series was at first specially authorized by Con-
gressional resolutions, but on March 2, 1881, volumes 6 to 10 of the Contributions
were provided for by a single resolution.
Under authority of a joint resolution of August 5, 1886, the Director of the Bureau
commenced in the following year the publication of a series of bulletins in octavo
form, unbound, which was continued by authority of the concurrent resolution of
July 28, 1888. The public printing act of January 28, 1895, which superseded all
previous acts and resolutions relating to public printing and binding, provided for
the continuance of the series of annual reports only. At that time there had been
published, or were in course of publication, 8 volumes of Contributions to North
American Ethnology, numbered 1-7 and 9, 24 bulletins, and 13 annual reports.
From 1895 to 1900 the Bureau issued the series of annual reports only, but on
April 7 of the latter year Congress passed a concurrent resolution authorizing the
commencement of a new series of bulletins in royal octavo, uniform with the annual
reports. Three numbers of this series (25 to 27) have been issued. The present
edition of both annual reports and bulletins is 9,682 copies, of which the Senate
receives 1,500, the House 3,000, and the Bureau 3,500 (of which 500 are distributed
by the Smithsonian Institution). From the remaining 1,682 are drawn the personal
copies of the members of Congress, those for the Library of Congress and a few other
Government libraries, and those sold by the Superintendent of Documents and
distributed by him to various libraries throughout the country.
Besides the series mentioned there have been issued small editions of several mis-
cellaneous publications intended chiefly or wholly for the use of collaborators and
correspondents. These comprise three introductions to the study of aboriginal
activities (one having been previously published by the Rocky Mountain Survey); a
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45
collection of Indian gesture signs; a set of proof sheets of a bibliography of North
American languages; a provisional list of the principal North American tribes, with
synonyms, and two samples of style for the Dictionary of American Indians, now in
preparation.
There have been issued up to the present time 19 annual reports, of which 4 are
in 2 parts; 27 bulletins, of which 24 are in octavo, unbound, and 3 are in royal
octavo, bound; 8 volumes of Contributions, of which one is in 2 parts; 4 introduc-
tions to the study of aboriginal activities, and 6 miscellaneous pamphlets—69 vol-
umes and pamphlets in all.
Subject-matter of the papers.—The papers published have covered the entire range of
aboriginal characters, activities, and history. Seven deal largely (3 of. them almost
wholly) with the classification of the tribes; almost all contain some cyclopedic
material, but only 1 is devoted to it chiefly, while 18 others have a large amount
of such material; 3 deal chiefly and 9 largely with history and tradition, and 5 are
concerned with relations with the whites as shown through land cessions and reser-
vations. Of those treating of aboriginal activities, 3 deal chiefly and 12 largely with
social organization; 50 are devoted to arts and industries, and 20 more contain con-
siderable material on this subject; 40 are devoted chiefly to linguistics and perhaps
35 to mythology and folklore, and a number of others contain material on both these
topics. The whole constitute a record of great practical value to those dealing with
the interests of the native tribes, and are of the utmost importance to the science
of man.
Publications of the year.—The Nineteenth Annual Report, Bulletins 25 and 27, and
a sample of style of the Dictionary of Indian Tribes (250 copies printed by the
Smithsonian Institution for the use of collaborators) have been issued during the
year, the Nineteenth Annual in October, 1902, Bulletin 25 in June, 1903, Bulletin 27
in January, 1903, and the pamphlet early in the same year.
Forthcoming publications.—The Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Annual
Reports are in press, the former being almost completed, and the Twenty-third
Report, containing Mrs. M. C. Stevenson’s paper on the esoteric and exoteric life of
the Zufi and Dr. Frank Russell’s paper on the Pima Indians, are nearly ready for
transmission to the Public Printer. A paper on Haida Texts, by John R. Swanton,
and a series of papers on Mexican and Mayan antiquities, history, and calendar
systems, by Eduard Seler, E. Forstemann, Paul Schellhas, Carl Sapper, and E. P.
Dieseldorff, is in preparation, and the following unassigned papers have been sub-
mitted: Algonquian Texts (Peoria, Miami, and Wea), by A. 8. Gatschet; List of
Linguistic Families of Mexico and Central America, by Cyrus Thomas.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE PUBLICATIONS.
Publications are sent to two classes of recipients: First, regularly, without special
request, to working anthropologists, public libraries, scientific societies, institutions
of learning, and others who are able to contribute to the work of the Bureau through
publications, ethnologic specimens, or manuscript notes; second, to others in response
to special requests, frequently indorsed by members of Congress.
_ During the year 1,380 copies each of the Nineteenth Annual Report and Bulletins
26 and 27 have been sent to regular recipients, about one-half of these going to the
United States, and 3,600 miscellaneous volumes and pamphlets have been sent in
response to about an equal number of special requests. More than 200 of these
requests have come through Congressmen, and about 400 volumes have been sent in
response,
EDITORIAL WORK.
The editorial work has been in charge of Mr. H. 8S. Wood, assisted during July,
August, and a part of September, 1902, by Dr, Elbert J. Benton. Several sets of
46 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
proofs have also been read by the job. The work has comprised the proof reading of
the Twentieth Annual Report, Bulletin 27, and Bulletin 25, and of the galleys of the
Twenty-first and Twenty-second Annual Reports, the preparation of a list of abbre-
viations for Bulletin 25, and the reading in manuscript of the Mayan and Mexican
papers already mentioned.
LIBRARY.
Although books and documents relating to ethnology were collected to a limited
extent by the Geological Surveys almost from their inception, the library of the
Bureau did not have a separate existence until 1882, at which time a librarian
was first appointed in the United States Geological Survey, with which organization
the Bureau was still domiciled. The systematic acquisition of volumes by purchase
and exchange was begun at this time, though the first entry in the accessions list
was not made until 1885. From then until the separation from the Survey the
record shows a steady though slow growth, as allotments for purchase were small.
At the time of the removal from the Survey building, in 1893, the accessioned vol-
umes numbered about 2,500. Since that date growth has been more rapid, partly
by reason of larger allotments for purchase, but chiefly through judicious exchange.
The library now contains 11,863 volumes, something over 6,000 pamphlets, and
several thousand numbers of periodicals, many of which should be bound and
entered on the accessions list.
Only works dealing with the American Indians and such general anthropologic
works as are needed for constant reference are purchased, though books and papers
dealing with all branches of anthropology and with related sciences are received by
exchange.
During the year there have been received 524 volumes, about 600 pamphlets, and
the current numbers of more than 500 periodicals.
PROPERTY.
The property of the Bureau may be comprised in seven classes, as follows: (1) Office
furniture, appliances, and supplies; (2) field outfits; (5) ethnologic manuscripts and
other documents; (4) illustrations—photographs, drawings, etc.; (5) books and
periodicals; (6) collections held temporarily by collaborators for use in research;
(7) undistributed residue of the editions of Bureau publications.
The additions to the office and field property during the year have been few and
unimportant. Numerous minor manuscripts have been added, principally in con-
nection with the Dictionary of Indian Tribes. The illustrations material has been
increased by several hundred negatives and by numerous prints and drawings. The
library has continued to grow steadily through exchange and purchase.
ACCOUNTS.
When the present Chief took charge of the office Mr. F. M. Barnett was occupying
the position of custodian of accounts and property. It was ascertained during the
spring that vouchers were being tampered with by him, and he was promptly arrested
and indicted. ‘
A critical examination of the Bureau accounts thus became necessary, and all
papers connected with disbursements were at once turned over to the disbursing
officer of the Smithsonian Institution, who proceeded to give them the fullest atten-
tion. One noteworthy result of this examination was the discovery of the fact that
deficiencies existed for the years 1901 and 1902 amounting to between $600 and $700.
Fortunately the accounts at the close of the present year were in such shape that a
sufficient balance remains to liquidate this indebtedness if Congress so desires. At
the close of the year the accounting work was again placed in charge of the Bureau,
and along with its other affairs was reorganized and put on a proper business footing.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 47
NECROLOGY.
JESSIE E. THOMAS.
On January 14, 1903, a skating accident caused the death of Miss Jessie E. Thomas,
librarian of the Bureau.
Miss Thomas was born at Carbondale, Ill., October 31, 1875. She received a pub-
lic school education, and studied French, German, and Spanish under private
teachers; and during four years which she spent as secretary and assistant to her
father, Dr. Cyrus Thomas, of the Bureau, she gained considerable knowledge of the
Maya langtage and of the literature relating to the American Indians in general, as
well as some experience in proof reading and in bibliographic work. She acquired
familiarity with library methods through attendance at the Columbian University,
Washington, D. C., and in May, 1900, was temporarily appointed to fill a vacancy in
the staff of the Bureau library, of which Mr. F. W. Hodge was then in charge. In
September the appointment was made permanent, after Miss Thomas had passed
highest on an examination given by the United States Civil Service Commission to
fill the position. .
On Mr. Hodge’s resignation in the following January she was put in full charge,
and from that time until her death performed the difficult task of managing an
imperfectly arranged and catalogued library with marked ability. Much of her time
was taken up by the copying of the Motul Dictionary (Maya-Spanish, Spanish-Maya)
from the late Doctor Brinton’s collection, and in addition to her other duties she
gave considerable attention to bibliographlic studies intended to lessen the labors of
students of anthropology.
Her extreme carefulness and methodical habits are well illustrated by the perfect
order in which all her work was left, and her staunch character, her modest
demeanor and lovable disposition were highly appreciated by her associates.
JOHN WESLEY POWELL.
John Wesley Powell, founder and director of the Bureau of American Ethnology,
was born March 24, 1834, at Mount Morris, N.Y. He died September 23, 1902, at
his summer home in Haven, Me., and was buried with the honors due a soldier in
Arlington National Cemetery.
His boyhood was spent largely in the town of Jackson, Ohio, where his mind was
first directed toward the study of nature by James Crookham, an eccentric but able
teacher of the village youth. He was a student for brief periods in Jacksonville
and Oberlin colleges, and, taking up natural-history studies, traversed many sections
of the Middle West and South, observing, studying, and collecting. It was thus, no
doubt, that he acquired a decided bent for exploration, but it was probably his
experience as an officer in the civil war that developed the masterly qualities which
made him a leader among men and an organizer in the realm of science.
At the close of the war, declining political preferment, he resumed his scientific
studies and engaged in teaching and in lecturing on geology. During his con-
nection with Wesleyan University and the Illinois State Normal University he
conducted classes in the field, and thus became more and more fully a devotee of
research. In 1867 he found his way to the Far West, where later he reached the
climax of his career as an explorer in his memorable voyage down the Grand Canyon
of the Colorado. This expedition brought into play his splendid courage and com-
manding abilities, and the story of his adventures is fraught with deep romantic
interest. On these voyages of exploration contact with the native tribes gave him
an interest in ethnology, and thenceforth for many years his energies were divided
almost equally between the sciences of geology and anthropology.
Major Powell’s mind was so broadened and strengthened by the varied experiences
48 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
of his early career that when he was called upon to enter the service of the nation
as explorer, geologist, geographer, and ethnologist he naturally assumed the role of
organizer. He gathered about him the best available men in the various depart-
ments of science, assigning them to the fields for which their abilities particularly
fitted them; but at all times he was the master spirit, compassing with clear vision
the widest horizon, and easily pointing the way to even the ablest. His vigorous
methods were an inspiration and his large-mindedness and generosity made a deep
impression on scores of students, who recognized the potent influence exerted by
the master.
As Director of the Geological Survey Major Powell originated and conducted many
enterprises of importance to science and to public welfare, but he was finally forced
by failing health to turn his back upon all branches of the public service save that
relating to the Indian tribes, and in 1893 he resigned the directorship of the Geo-
logical Survey to devote the remainder of his life to the science of man, and as
Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology achieved results that establish his
claim to lasting renown. The Bureau of American Ethnology is peculiarly his own,
the lines of research initiated by him being in the main those that must be followed
as long as the Bureau lasts, and in fact as long as the human race remains a subject
for study. Although the investigations made and directed by Powell related almost
exclusively to the American race, the results are so broad as to apply to all mankind.
It was a fortunate circumstance that his energies were directed to a field little
encumbered by the forms, methods, and determinations of earlier students, since it
enabled him to conduct his investigations on new lines and thus to raise the science
to a higher plane.
The great series of volumes published by the Bureau, more completely Powell’s
own than the world can ever know, are a splendid monument to his memory, a mon-
ument that will lose none of its impressiveness as the years and generations pass,
and when, a little later, the race of red men and their unique culture are but shad-
ows on the face of the world, and other primitive peoples have likewise passed for-
ever out of view, this monument that Powell has reared will stand, not only for
himself but for the nation among the most important contributions to human history
ever made by an individual, an institution, or a State. The world of the future,
viewing Powell’s career, will thank the guiding star that led the farmer boy to become
a teacher, the teacher a soldier, the soldier an explorer, the explorer a geologist, and
the geologist a historian of a vanishing race.
Respectfully submitted.
W. H. Homes, Chief of Bureau.
Mr. S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Sinithsonian Institution.
APPENDIX III.
REPORT ON THE OPERATIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE
SERVICE.
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the Inter-
national Exchange Service during the year ending June 30, 1903.
The work required of this branch of the Smith-
sonian Institution is more essentially of a business
nature than that of any of its dependencies. The
duties of the Exchange Service consist chiefly of
transporting publications from Washington to all
foreign lands, however remote, and of receiving
publications from other countries, recording, and
forwarding them by registered mail to their respec-
tive addresses in the United States.
The requirements of the service necessitate the
handling of many packages, a large number of
which consist of heavy boxes. This fact renders it
necessary that the work should be conducted on the
ground floor, for which reason the south basement
of the Institution was remodeled ten years ago for
the express use of the Exchange Service and the
five rooms thus provided have since been applied
to its uses. These rooms have been furnished with
assorting tables, bins, record filing cases, and such
other office appliances as are necessary for the use of
clerks and other assistants.
Although several delays have occurred in the
delivery of parcels to addresses in other countries,
none of them has been due to negligence on the
part of the Institution. In some instances delay
was due to natural causes, and hence was unavoid-
able; but in the greater number of instances the
delay in delivery was by reason of the fact that
insufficient means are provided in some countries
for conducting their respective exchange bureaus in
a manner to insure prompt delivery of parcels for-
warded in their care.
So far as reported, in only ome instance during
the year has any damage occurred to exchanges in
transit, and even in this case it is believed that the
injury was only slight. In January, 1903, the
steamship La Savoie, of the Compagnie Générale
Transatlantique, while making a voyage from New
York to Havre, shipped water during a gale, and
a consignment of 13 cases for French correspondents
becoming wet a part of the contents was slightly
damaged. It may be regarded as quite remarkable
1903
Fic. 1.—Diagram illustrating the
height of packing boxes, resting with
their largest surfaces one uponanother,
which were used in forwarding ex-
changes from the United States to for-
eign countries during the year 1903 as
compared with the height of the Wash-
ington Monument. Height of boxes,
3,858 feet; height of Monument, 555 feet.
that only one accident of this character should have occurred, although several hun-
dred shipments were made during the year.
sm 1903——4
49
50 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
In the report on the International Exchange Service for the year 1901 reference was
made to the loss of two cases of exchanges by fire and water in the hold of the steam-
ship Castano while loading at her pier in Brooklyn, preparatory to sailing for Aus-
tralian ports. This loss has now been adjusted, and the contributors of the packages
will soon be paid the approximate value of their respective publications.
No better proof can be desired of the appreciation of the facilities afforded the
public by the International Exchange Service than the constant increase in the num-
ber of transmissions by old patrons of the service as well as the growing use to which
the seryice is put by taking advantage of its privileges for the first time.
In order to appreciate the increase in the work of the year over that of the preced-
COUNTRY
Great Britain !
Germany
France
Austria-Hungary a ea
Italy eS |
British America ys
2
o §
ab
=)
i
Brazil
Switzerland
Netherlands |
Victoria
Sweden
Norway
NewSouthWales
South Australia
Each Column Represents 1,250 packages.
Fic. 2.Chart representing the relative number of packages exchanged between the United States
and other countries during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903.
ing twelve months, it should be observed that, including all classes of exchanges,
150,217 packages, weighing 559,718 pounds, were handled in 1902-3, as against 125,796
packages, weighing 396,418 pounds, during the year 1901-2, an increase of 19 per
cent and 41 per cent, respectively. The average weight of all packages transmitted
during 1901-2 was 3 pounds, while the average per package during 1902-3 was nearly
4 pounds. :
The total weight of exchange packages of domestic origin received during the year
for transmission abroad aggregated 419,191 pounds, while the weight of exchanges
from abroad was 140,527 pounds, or 75 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. These
figures apparently do not do justice to foreign contributors, especially those in remote
or thinly populated sections, since, being deprived of the advantages of accessible
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51
exchange bureaus, they are compelled to forward their reciprocal contributions to
correspondents in the United States by post.
The names of
2/n0©nNn ORM DDO DMONDAH MOON
new correspond- |$ | o © K © ~ © © =~ A © e ps Ds ator
ae = —
Sincere 51 em age ren et ON se a am wy hot OPS ON
ents In every part Sole MERI GO ON Gl Ge Se OR vos’ wo °
of the world are gi NR OO @OoMOHR DHS - NW
2
constantly being
added to the ex- ne eee
change list, so that eee
they now reach a fag)
total of 44,012, aa SS
subdivided as fol-
lows: Foreign in- ee
ml
stitutions, 13,121; |
: Spewnas |
foreign —_individ- hn |
uals, 21,332; do- on
mestic institu-
tions, 3,319; and
domestic individ-
uals, 6,240. De- aca ]
tails by countries
ae eS
will be found ina ee i
subjoined table. &
=
These —_corre- [ | i
spondents should leah ire ye fal
|
Each column represents 5,000 packages.
not be considered
as participating in
an exchange with
a
the Smithsonian
Institution itself,
but are the bene-
ficiaries of the fa-
cilities of the Ex-
change Service at
home and abroad.
In 1897 a list of
institutions in
al
other countries,
then numbering
nearly 9,500, was
printed for the use
of the United
States Exchange
Service and sim-
ilar bureaus
abroad, and has
been found to be
of great use in fa-
cilitating their op-
erations. During Fic. 3.—Chart showing the number of packages transmitted through the
the succeeding Six International Exchange Service each year from 1888 to 1903, inclusive.
YEAR
years, however, so many new names have been added that it has been found neces-
sary to revise the list and to publish a new edition, the expense of which has been
provided from the private funds of the Institution.
52 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
The appropriation made by Congress for the International Exchanges during the
year 1902-3 was $26,000, being the same amount as was appropriated for the fiscal
year immediately preceding. Owing to the simplification of the office work, how-
PACKAGES |1850-54 1860-64 |1865-69 |1870-74 |1875-79 |1880-84 1885-89 |1890-94 |1895-99 1900-04
420,000 i= ee
405,000 at Bee
390,000 | ee L i
375,900
360,000 nt Fae
345,000 ee
ie 2
315,000
eee ee el
1——
4
ee s ee
a
270,000 Pa BM
{A
255,000 It | | ! ee
‘
240,000 | r | | iliet = ee
ates [ ie
eee | ee at
7 alc z Ealaw
180,000 | 4 se es
165,000 ——
a a a 7 |
ae PAU
eos ! 2 eae
120,000
105,000 — + Raa
ane | Sa ee
75,000 | 3"
60,000 oe ie Za Ea
ae al ee
eimai ee | ae
Exchanges shipped abroad----- Exchanges received from abroad —
Fic. 4.—Chart representing the increase of exchange transmissions abroad from 1850 to 1904, and also
of packages received from other countries for distribution in the United States during the same
period, Transmissions for 1904 are estimated on the basis of the average increase during the years
1900 to 1903.
ever, it has been possible to reduce the number of employees and consequently the
expenditure for services, thus enabling the Institution to meet the additional expense
of the increased service without a deficit,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 53
Tabular statement of the work of the International Exchange Service during the fiscal year
1902-1903.
Ce coe Weight Number of pon onde ats June 30, | packages
of pack-| of pack- S a 7 __| sent to | Cases
oe han- | han- | £0", | Domesticl Rorrign Romestie Ode abroad.
dled. dled. ei aticad SOCLO UES: lie sree "ills ails: dresses.
1902 | |
liye cee oe Ee | Tee ec Ne ge nt ei Ye
J.T 5 So es oe SUG: Ra eS eae RN 8 eter ee
Septemberen-ssceecee seer Tae FEB le I eZ CP) Ne al ee eR SE Se nee [esata sad DABP tae ee mabe
Gershon eae | 9,175 | 93,703 |.....--- [seer ee ale SPOUTS anes tach rceibel lM. a ste
November <.4..e2--<0-2-24| 12,039 | 57,435 |........ Neewieser ae [Serna [A gestert os ee ae aie pee aR,
DXGSMNIPo-ccsosacoaceacce lieet7G0N e545 47730 Sees eeeteeas Nas." A les.) 252. Seta tee See ane
1903. |
JamMuUanyeers eee eee TRB | CG) Cy All ber Sacus| beecodseos leeeeeeeee aot. sacl some see pare aes
325) CT Oh a ee [F120 126 3 | sedI DAG) ee eet leeee esc [Sbecboetle Ssh 353 | bed sone peaasoae
MCT eee eee seat ee) 1d DOO ESO RSIS sen. soak sod eel rs Se I Soe ge | ere | a
Aprile Sees... Sere 17,065 | 46,662 |.....:.. lesaboeseet eee pte ee eaten wees aes
1 Cae see ae ee TOSS ON | UAC ETON IE 2ceene o'Weael bie coal OS ss ks SES es Pee [tees
JUNC =e oe oo eee tseeee wesc UTE | CANS CRIIIE SS ee dealloneeu ames | Spat edt elope Sr, [aR AR |J-2=--=2-
PoLaleeen es 150,217 | 559,718 | 13,121 3,319 | 21,332 | 6,240 | 33,980] 2,461
Increase over 1901- |
1 G00ee Sees ae heer 24,421 | 163,300 | 1,361 137 | 3, 631 683 | 19 614
The following table shows the number of packages of exchanges handled and the
increase in the number of cgrrespondents each year from 1896 to 1903:
| 1896-97. | 1897-98. | 1898-99. 1899-1900, 1900-1901. 1901-1902. | 1902-1903.
Number of packages Pecorene! 81, 162 84, 208 97,835 | 113,563 | 121,060 | 125,796 150, 217
Weight of packages received, | |
DOUNGSHE eset ence eae ee 247,444 | 801,472 | 317,883 | 409,991 | 414,277 | 396,418 559, 718
Correspondents:
. Foreign societies. -.......-. 9, 414 10, 165 10, 322 10,845 | 11,295 11, 760 13, 121
Foreign individuals....... | IQQONR || ICY || ae VSP || TE Biss | 16,261 | 17,701 21, 382
Domestic societies. ........ 2,445 2, 533 2,596 Peal | 2,996 3, 182 3, 319
Domestic individuals. -_... | 4,136 4, 382 4, 673 5, 000 5, 153 5, 557 | 6, 240
Packages to domestic addresses) 23, 619 21,057 | 30,645 28, 625 31, 367 33, 961 33, 980
Cases shipped abroad. .....-..-. | 1,300 1, 330 1, 500 1, 768 | 1, 757 | 1, 847 2, 461
| 1
54
REPORT OF THE
SECRETARY.
CORRESPONDENTS.
The record of exchange correspondents at the close of the year contained 44,012
addresses, being an increase of 5,812 over those of the preceding year.
ing table gives the number of correspondents in each country and also serves to
illustrate the scope of the service:
The follow-
Number of correspondents of the International Exchange Service in each country on
June 30, 1908.
Correspondents. Correspondents.
Country. st 5 Country. F F
Tes. lviduais,| Tt. ‘hes. |viduals| Tt
AFRICA. | AMERICA (NORTH)—ctd.
A OT AS jsmcme cetera sae 28 37 Goi ;Greenlandien acne asec = sr Oe eee 2
AN Pola tee 22s Sie eias claire = I. lesocceec IL || WES ao) GanoccqesoRoesoonc 165 203 368
INOS. aa ossiapaccsnQoaneneS 6 14 20 || Newfoundland .........- 12 18 30
1ST ee soceeorccccosedeoss |ssencacd 1 1 || St. Pierre, Miquelon...... 2 2 4
British Central Africa....|.......- 2 2 || United! States\..-....--..- 3,319 | 6,240 9, 559
British WE as GAIL Ce eres al eaterar-l-iet 1 1 || West Indies:
Canary Islamdst=-n-sece- it Rasessoc 1 IN bbU Els caoaqnaccoadpsceace® 1 1
Cape (Colony-- -.. > s--=--=- 53 96 14 /MoWMDENS Ssecopasooads 6 5 11
Cape Verde Islands ....-.|...-....- 5 5 Bahamass---ases sec 4 11 15
IB PVP bic m cite msistels wisictere ice 38 65 103 Barbad ose. 2 --ea= 1 10 21 31
ren chyKoOn gO) seeeee scr sect =asiatas 1 1 BermMuUdaissasseeeeee 6 21 27
(Epen ONE) BS sabe cadaaascanae|loopoqdcd 2 2 Buen Ayre-..ccsse ssl seaceeee 1 1
German East Africa... -- Bilicaasosoc 3 Cuba eanjocemeeeecncce 59 124 183
Goldi@oastecess-—---s4-—- 1 3 4 Curdedosse-eeess-- 2 4 6
KODE O tec ccet cee eee eleeiemiece 5 5 Wominieaesaceeseeee= 2 u 9
WES OSiererserecscer canis sie 2 3 5 Grenad ait eeccerye ciel 3 4 a
WIDETIOe. nesses cee esscese 2 9 | 11 Guadeloupe.....-..--- 2 5 tdi
Lourenco Marquez.......|..--..-- 2 2 ati eeeecceemcesisce 38 16 54
Madapascareress--o-ee- == 5 8 13 JAMAICA . sa cee as csiss 19 43 62
Mad cinaaseeneesesseeeere 3 4 qf Marr iin (We eeeeeeerae eeree cee 3 3
Wibhobeahbls) Ss o565qe5oebecer 14 10 24 Montserratoceascs- eee |nseeees 2 2,
MOROCCOM= eae - nee eee eres [ova steers 10 10 INC VIS i oaq cine seisscee|eee ose 1 1
IMOZaImMplgliebesecer sees ses al it PorboeRicOneaese ees 4 34 38
Natal sosceccaeeee-s cree 19 23 42 St: Bartholomew ..-..|-.--.--- 2 2
Orange River Colony ....|.-.....- 2 2 St. Christopher ....-- 2 6 8
IRSIUODLONY — Seo eeccoqoocsealsonoouos 2 2 || silis (Cid0hb< (op saoacseccos aL 4 5
Rhodesia.......-. Lee te? | 1 5 6) || east Muntatlus sees eeee ee 1 1
Steliclenaeess ses sseeas 3 2 5 || Stauiiciaseeeaeeer eee 2 4 6
Senegal <:ds2 es meoccccmoes 1 5 6 StieManbins 226. same oc oaeceaee 2, Pe
Sierra Weone==-e-eeeeee ee 2 3 5 Sis homastaessse- see 3 5 8
Sudamesessesceae nce esece siete 1 if St. VaNCent ee see 1 2 3
DPransvealecaqeectec ees 27 22 49 Santo Domingo ....-- 3 11 14
(MSDS ss ooonanconconaoDcds 9 8 17 NODAL Osis saeco =-!ei<i|le sees 2 2
Fan zZabateecccnesseeceoess 2 5 7 Mrinidadieseessssseee 15 14 29
AMERICA (NORTH). Turks TslandSee---- 3 4 7
Canadas ese eee 304 | 543| 947 || ASBICAS(SOUTH):
Central America: ATS ENING, «cecwessceceees 155 152 307
British Honduras....- 5 12 17? ||| AiO eo oocecenageeséoabe 22 12 34
(CostamRicama-sceeree. 25 41 662) Brazil eesce esate tects 148 154 297
Guatemala... .-------- 42 67 109))| British Guan alee eeee == 16 12 28
Honduras = eeseee-= 12 36 485l/\Chiles a-epmccece ce weceetocin 83 100 183
INI CarAgWaleeeeraecnee 18 42 | 60" (Colombigeencaseeeeee see 36 60 96
Salvadorses--cceee-- 17 11 28h Dutch Guraneessseeseeae= 5 5 10
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 55
Number of correspondents of the International Exchange Service in each country on
June 30, 1903—Continued.
Weonceondente | Correspondents.
sf 7. “ | fo) Fr F |
AMERICA (SOUTH)—ctd. || AUsrRaLasra—continued.
Ecuador... SaBe Cen beee 15 22 | 37 1 Tasman ep sseeee sete eee 21 24 45
Halikdand islands 2 sees2-|--eeeee- 6 © |) WACO E soscesessesososee 108 159 267
French Guiana .........- 1 2 3 ] Western Australia ......- 25 3 58
Paraguay; os-2.sen eee ae oee 20 9 “29 EUROPE. |
BO eo enlaces ecm == an oe sry Austria-Hungary ........ } 787 | 1,190] 1,977
Uruguay ....-.--...-.---. 45 33 48h peledune 44. c eee 352 | 470 822
Venezuela ...........---. Be ss8 76 | Bul paride se ee eee | 13 13 | 26
ASTA. | Denmgrkaeesee eee eee 122 202 | 324
ini a ges ie: aN ed as 7 7 || Bran Geb copes ee anne | 1,785 | 2,369 4,154
MLSE Sania. © ates | 10 8 18 || Gieaovrmons cocoskeessesose 2,461 | 4,050 | 6,511
Geylentemeae ese | 24 4 3g || Gibraltar..........--.-.-- ! 3 4
SIMS Ae ee ee | 49 107 | 156 I GreabBritaim -22se--e eee | 2,141 5,075 7,216
eae ia etic hs aad ae (eee © 4 f | MORCECS -secccnsae cette: | 39 48 | 87
Fey ae aeoeae | 1 3 4 || leeland’.----- 27. = 7... tg 13 | 30
isan dais oe 1 1! 9 | Antalya eee ae eee cece 846 | 1,013 1, 859
Hongkong ............--- 10 91 | 31 | TEXem puree see ee eee 11 5 | 16
in eee ee 238 230 468 || Malta petisan- omen eee eee 11 11 | 22
Tagine ee 5 8 1b | IMOnTEneETOP=es==seenesee 1 i | 2
Toric ee ae ioe 162) 30385 | nae vesesees esses 226 fs 9 S28 550
OTC ee: eee 2 W 13 || OD WaYres o<cecninese seein 140 170 | 310
Mineng tos eee! 1 1 | 9 POLIUP ANS Seat scoes cece. 109 82 191
Malaysia | | IOAN ONE), So Sdacaqhaoooar 40 69 | 109
OTR OC ears been | es 1 1 |] IRUSSIS eee eee enone | 531 895 1, 426
British New Guinea..}.....-.. 1 1 | Servia.......-+--+-+-+.--- ZA 15 | 36
British North Borneo |........ il y || Spain ...------+-2--2--+-- 182 225 | 407
(Gaia on | 3 3 Shite (le See phesoeaeeSce 196 375 | 571
aia ed + eee eon ta) 29 39 54 | Swatzerland@: soe. c= eee 363 ae | 1,039
ING Ghebuales, saemcacaalleanasces | 1 1 || Turkey. .-.---.--+-------- 39 eb 124
Philippine Islands... 11 20 | 31 | POLYNESIA.
Sarawalkcasaceoccess: il Rareyenyaise ay ||) Way UMBC 6 ence asses il 3 4
SUMBtlR) 22s cee sa =— | 3 4 || German New Guinea ....|......-. 1 | 1
Rersiae sasoe soe ese coccce 3 | 8 | 11 || Hawaiian Islands........ | 25 72 97
Portuguese India ........ Lo ..-ee- | 1 | Marshallsistamdsheoeeseesleeeeseee 1 1
Sian eee Rescecsce 7 21 28) || New: Caledonia) 2222-2 2-4l--he---— 2 2
Straits Settlements....... 13 | 15 28 | New Hebrides ....--..... 1 eee 1
AERP SHES | | |S O pues saeco nee eae ea 5 | 5
Reahitip yes eae eens | aces 3 3
New South Wales.......- | 82 | 145 | 297 || Na ee aa Poe | ea 2 9
New Zealand! -....2..---- 88 | * 121 209
Queensland.............- | 39 | 55 94 Intemationals22-.--2+--- BY/ \\soaenaee 73
SoOuphyAstraliiaeee. asec. 45 71 116 MOA. catjelds.c< cites 16, 440 | 27,572 | 44,012
EXCHANGE OF GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS.
The following table exhibits the incoming and outgoing exchanges for the various
branches of the United States Government during the year.
By comparison with the last report it will be observed that there was an increase
during the year 1902-3 of 1,236 packages (11 per cent) received from abroad for
United States institutions, while 21,110 (40 per cent) more packages were sent by
the Government to addresses in other countries than during the preceding year.
56
REPORT OF
THE SECRETARY.
Statement of Government exchanges during the year 1902-8.
{
Packages. Packages.
Name of Bureau. Roctinmlagents Name of Bureau. |Recsivealsent
\) petor: by. for. by.
American Historical Associa- Entomological Commission ... | Pile sesso
LOT Pe senee seer e eee ei ctents | 13 16 || Engineer School of Application.|~ Ws ewecee
Anthracite Coal Strike Com- | Bishi Commiuissionee ec =e eeaee 104 | 798
MISSION oe sso see ee ie Sess ae e ee eeeae 38 || General Land Office.......-.-.- 8 | 7
Astrophysical Observatory ..... Siitseses Geological Survey......---:-:-- 586 6, 481
Auditor for the State and other | Hydrographic Office. .....-.-..- | CE Soscsn5
Departimenitsieeece=--eeeee eas Jocesscdose 676 || Interstate Commerce Commis. |
Bureau of American Ethnology. 241 1, 908 SlOD) Ate eee ee ae ee | 20 320
Bureau of the American Re- | | Library of Congress .........-.. 5, 800 |. 21, 983
[DUDIICS ete eo tenses | Sp Bansees | Life-Saving Service .....-....-- 4 57
Bureau of Education ........... TDM ye ate || Light-House Board..........-.. 2 183
Bureau of MsularmsAviairs ss. sae |e ace see es 7 | National Academy of Sciences. 1138 508
Bureawotthe Mint-2sssss--—-- al 47 | National Bureau of Standards. - 9 So
Bureau of Navigation, Navy -.-. Oy | aeons National Museum .............. | 461 38, 672
Bureau of Navigation, Treasury.|.......-..| 210 || National Zoological Park ....-. | PO Peerciee
Bureau of Ordnance, Navy..... bs eerie | Nautical Almanac Office .....-. 35 371
Bureau of Public Health and | | | Naval ‘Obsenvaitony-2-2--s-ssee a: | 172 1, 041
Marine-Hospital Service ..... 11 | 1,786 || Navy Department.............- | DAE || Saree
BuTeawloOMstatistlGs|= ss... sss 87 | 5,664 | Office of the Chief of Engineers.| 33 6
Bureau of Steam Engineering. . el ere ci | Office of Indian Affairs......... on ee
Gensus| Oiice ssa eaes eae 55 | 5,595 | Ordnance Office, War Depart-
Civil Service Commission ...... 13 | 23 || HOBIE se oncoccoasssescSscasszoc Dl sees
Coast and Geodetic Survey...-. L6OR al SconePatentiOnice eee eee eee 266 1, 823
Commissary-General, United | President of the United States. Ts \l| ib Setevsre
Slates PAM Veen meee ciene lie as eae | 1 || Record and Pension Office .....|....-.--.. 17
Comunissioner of Internal Rey- | Register of the Treasury .....-. seien eee 3
EMUCaeeeeeee seevooseonescesactlocsooseccs 12 | Smithsonian Institution........ 2,931 7,186
Commissioners of the District | | Superintendent of Documents... 5 4
Of COlUMDpIa = saceos <i ea | 3 | 32 || Supervising Architect’s Office -.|.......-.. 1
Comptroller of the Curreney .-. 11 187 || Surgeon-General’s Office .....-. | 175 297
Department of Agriculture... .. 465 | 8,181 |) Treasury Department .......... 11 9
Department of the Interior..... Dbi\e e910)! mene COREE ea oe OY | eaenses
Department of Labor..........- | 71 59 | Wiealtlier Bumeduls2- seems = 167 1, 986
Department of State............ | Dy ena Oat See ais Se ee | 12,526 | 73, 981
RELATIVE INTERCHANGE OF PUBLICATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER
COUNTRIES.
Following is a comparative statement of exchange transmissions by packages
between the United States and other countries during the years 1902 and 1903:
Comparative statement of packages received for transmission through the International
Exchange Service during the fiscal years ending June 30, 1902, and June 30, 1908.
1902. 1903.
Country. Packages. Packages.
For— From— For— | From—
: 7h i “ - |
Wl perils Ce tat cs 1 Ee ey ee Se RR rere 108 106 176 | 70
G00 Repent SNe ERE Gt nee waa cera Gao T OOS ACNCoan Gee ncre aeaee cocs SB oclooooncoee O° || Lastae nies
AMD Mah oe cos cece wisjns cm Smee cenit ree nial ere cee eo oe cee V7 gees eee Gy Be ssecoe
AT ADIA ye aca ee kon cn eee ae See ae Cee eens HOW ssrctreeye ca Ain ean cease
AT OMTIN Bin abe as cnia iste oo Sa Sar ante we w SEE ICO Vo reer ETN 2, 426 787 2, 5385 1, 508
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
570
Comparative statement of packages received for transmission through the International
Exchange Service, ctc.—Continued.
1902.
| 1903.
Country. Packages. Packages.
For— From— For— | From—
INORG MERE MCA yp oasaceoane sess dagcncHaD[s sosaeaeaoonEescaues 4, 480 1, 843 | 5, 667 3,719
INZ.OTCS pears He acre eee osteo e Sata eeistsoesiots ice eee eiasivaee 22 alr HO) | Bease acre Ba eee sscie
IB UNITAS cee sears ore esse ee aie eclo ec s cinie = hela wich wales alos Sine’ 14 aoersececd C.D eee a Sores
1a OBKOKO st See Ged eras to Bale b OOS HO AAE SAE Oo a ea Aae Mn acocG EM Ree en eae PaO Ml mem state
1eyaiee tren, Bega oe Ee Ue Fn 2, 322 2, 072 2,728| 2790
Bermudas ss sas scenes cccece emaaserinise Sees ce cee ob en ceciee fence LT | rtmrcrsieisee byy eowaaeeacas
SOs eyes seera cere ec toe eerie crsieittere reer Ae aids Blewiaseteces lacie mciete 315 11 IPAs) | 14
TBOLM COM eee ae See nee PASE eee SAN GIO Tl Keene Tal eee
BiG AUL abo ee SN SRA A RBA S RSS paPa eae ia ets a) eee tes ere nicee nates eta aiete 1, 522 1,878 2,305 1, 430
IB TItSMeAIM Cri Cam cee sere eames cee ABE OE aor oS UA SRE SSeS 3, 291 952 , 398 | 2, 280
IBRILISHRB Uns fesse scene einer eases eee EBA CESE Galbeeeeeecas sly es eas eee, 2
IB TAGS MaG UL ama eee r rei Seta eet. omer tate Motels TA ES se 5 eee NAY | ee creer
British ondundsteeeess sae ei Seeaieeels SBIR S RO HORAG Billvec= 2asiese 52 SAaiaarse ete
BritishiNew GulMmeas tao 5 eo weeny antisites skis e = oecestestee | Di ehatcratatetateislalllnins Sais aise bie ieeieiees
1s UEhOG) sas Se oer es aebeh ages OSE Oa pbtnoaeeeeeasasoootommanoess | 80 140 IBS eesccrapee
JE WOU I B55 bo Be ESE SAS SHEE Ee EES BE De AICI REISE Se Bares ero iescs | eet Pe seco [seh ater ee Bh eee et
Cananvelsland See. eecseen este cee see sen ene sioeeieeiaciel Dis |b atce ras 2B Cremer
Welebestaaerenetse tiasaetoateeccatennsoeeeccee nests Aeaee cue. AG RS eee led ot aravetarestacie
Caper Colomygecee see sense aoe a oo se eensoaint aaeielaa ans sees 279 1 S7Btlhee eae
(Cesya Omer crate ec a aere Sep ANS yaar ete aie eee te aioe 53 1 112 1
(Chil een reeds Pin. Sater re ers YS Mea RAS Oro 5d: 1,120 3 1, 520 | 76
CONDE cas) dae) pes ee eee eee 296 155 546 | 77
COVOMMBT Bise ce reciee sr cieiere are tote cas eterna cise wis disisieaewielsie cists GOUN ks a eeae N30 seeeeeeone
GUSTAMRIC Hee Repeat ae Seas see eo ae ne asiesaneeisidawoner 773 579 1, 129 340
(CMS Sccc See SL He SE REE Hees 5 5 BEBE a eee Eee i ee ore ee 209 37 565 | 596
Cura CaO maaan eee ee eee tne cece eie nee atetatacisee Dnlee asec PAE ee paces
(Cy RU Sheep eee ere iaeys aoe eres falar eesti a dee lao DiS ease eae () ISomensoaas
IDSs Ob eC EN oli SAS Se a OSE Sis eT i Re re ere ee 1,052 562 1,319 | 165
ID) OMIM CAE ane asese csc saa mae Sees ee nite eae A atigaeeenree ee aacisige MO} asecsacee 1p eee atcnoas
DUC hv GN as = ceyerot 2 aac ew aleicic eleye cei oa aoc a eieis sleiwslereineasie ¢ | 12 2 WG) eee eercterers
IOETNGIO P56 sa cc abane Sob Sea eE ICO Bab eEH DR REE per OHeee rea ree AUGH seem waar 646 6
DEI PAV Lie teers eye eterna yee orice ste chee iavcrere eo aa Bae ae saree W783! Sas eeccctae ZOOu pastoris
Falkland Islands. .-.-.- Mea le eters ape a stere ein yeeros ie ase esa cae oe Br Saves hs52 nA ec odeaane
PMI SlaMds! Sacre cse- sss sees Sa ncesis sees eace Moses ss Anise QHREE Seen Bil asqqsenose
HOTIMOS AN eet steals atoms eeiseen Ne seco sei see cies oeinsacee ss oe Byal ece Cheeses Gi Aaeretercles
TAC CR emetente oats oases a eae cae sme clea ens aoe s 8, 077 3, 301 10, 670 1, 687
Hrenchr@oc nimi Chama tances ss eee 3 eeeeiee 22 Seance Qu sacasee ae Uf \\e ae
Germany basiVAtinl Che sss. cote Le kN Sc Sasa wec tae ae noes|sooossecee [eceeenion tl Beene
Genii iny eee Renee eh Sek PN ee rat of) Ss a aan Mea | 14,057] 6,622] 17,581 6, 085
Gilbralltaneer mec sane a5 eee eos: ee a So Ce | Su | Mer aa le < 3 OOM E Jean ceeee
(GYOC-(COPRIiE A acteies Bae Gong tC EeR Soe ae eee CINE e CIE Te | a5 acre (PRR Bat alladescosots
Goree alkane emu qan sean es eecia ee oad foe nesean ae oeaaeeee Sul eracen cee DOM ease eres
(real aimee eee meee em eeaiterne os eae ne Seek Lee hesases be Gx Ss eer a eS eee cee
GreapBuitain anduirelandis: 2 o.6\.6 e254 4-0-2 vete. see ce eece oe 12,790 | 7, 122 18, 038 7, 106
(CRE CREME eet mme cet eyes art aie ans asses! eatyyecseese 707 40 GSS esse s sate
GreenlanGeeiraaetsac2s caspian aaa scone nee se cea ne sasecde (Oy eerereacsses Dillsseaeiecec
Guadelouper ye ecte staan Stee ans Sos nasa acs eek Seat oe Sith Neuoeel ASHES secrets
(Cin eibenney] aise ra asc s ie cies See Sewn eos aoessa 2 See sees 1GS3e Peemeeere | Dao ete saa
GUN MC Bettas te asta Aneta eae eta elses carers 58 22. 6Sb as Sega bos a) |S eee Poeietepeehea| |e ceerarssere
IBETNS 39> Selon Sos See BS CO Ee AEE Sa ea eae eee ener a eee et Gy y Mactan see BOS) || Emcee sents
LW QUE MM ES AM Ses sense ae ern OE ERO oe hcmece ss set ee oes 54 1 OO cee eee
SIL OMAUMAS fence ace Seseeeet sec celamis see eise cakes ckcosawebebecdec 59 | 119 142 11
TEER ake eee SESS REC EE ee oe eee ee SOM eI. e by fal ee eee
58 REPORT OF THE
SECRETARY.
Comparative statement of packages received for transmission through the International
Exchange Service, etc. —Continued.
1902.
1903.
Country. Packages. Packages.
For— From— For— From—
Weeland: Sozsis-cek asa seee sow Gee see owas Pee er eenarere CU Eee eaae 55 4
1) ob CREB e Sa GEHE aoEe Ob eecdeaooScad olson saecedoosoauosoqdEs 1,451 202 1,815 326
Mibetlives sates See as oc eee Cee eee IN eee ES eretare 4, 423 2, 541 5, 795 1,395
PUEn EN Cer as Sens Beaon ono ceeABOd Ge bo So EHS pound boGaauRESaEaseaoooe ay ean eee 246 J|ecaesseenie
DAMN ic esate Se ore rere Torsone See See erie erate oe ints Dios Serna oeieiaers 1,497 21 2,245 12
BG iter ope HeHobeens cone obdde DOScuac oh bS ce Gn eesseAnepabeeeecee 170 125 229 81
KongovPree!S tate accaswe cc cos aecioae os eet cease ae ere ae tee | eetnaiere crsi=e'l Pras cree ¢ RSS ESIC
KOLO Gis Ncis so) he aiars siotansloiets ie etelseete acters eis atete sis « aintais ates eleleistee GYA beaaaaoasal (EARS SesaconS
Toa OS ce apa se Nea Sea ae See Sina Seale Ba Nala oe aie crue eee a Ree seaeemc bl Reeecaeone
JRA eet ee sO GASES OE DOB AG aoe SR eBoat a Cone nGHOEabeoUauBES Abd ee cece 66) | ssa ersioe
OULENCOMMANGueZan. semecm aris sew clooencicieie wen Saco eeaweee ee CU eae oe ies \scecso5c0r
Eu b-¢-9601] 0100 y eae Rea eee oe ye Ce ee AAR A ee er aa aaa 86 26 95 | iz Seer
iMadagascart est iocniccecccc caren cele ee nisan ee cia ene ne ata eae Gill iStereretrere rere Gis} | ocooocane
INENG Kes LGN Se arenes RY Gd mere Eee OE ee ee ae eee ea Oy Seeeetee a IRS} || Sosacescs
END 6 Se Bein Seats Aegon a aera Ars ee eet A SOU eacrecmeee WYGlloaascoapee
INET GIT Glee one eee) e nee Eee ee a ees Salleeececer 4 | scwanieetne
IMPSv UTILS eeiers cies oie eee oleae ea eee eee nee ae aera DGilsseteceeee 1G) | |scisiseieiestae
IMIGKICO SREB. Saas meer aee Ree ee ee ee Cee EE ee cee peer nie 1, 852 5,195 2,127 3, 466
IMONTCN ER TOW 8s 5: ane Soe et a en eee Die oth ee Sickel tna cel memieeiateeee
MONMtSCrTraibins <as.z.<: Ses actos eee Sowa seine oo seis nec oe ne ceioee cae eral Sialowiomieetere a eicistetataiara| ntsterelarersis oe sierra
IMOLOCCOM Asati oe ee ee eee ee ees Gaise.ceeeeree 135) \ssatenenoae
IN SLR a St Stee ete te ere Dee ee ee 54 2 157 30
Netherland sk cae ss Se isthe erciort ene ae ee ie St ee a 1, 802 | 700 2,479 1, 100
ING wioumdilan dees ree oe ee ete oe ere eters Bone eamee eee (By lReeces shad
NGW: South SW ales =e ee See ne ete ee Ee me 1, 956 614 2,021 363
ING W)-ZCall airy Glare Se repo Se ere eee ne ois Ge icin ieee EEE 809 13 871 6
INTCAT APU fase see seme sec eee tees Saeee shee aenne Seen e ee eee po el Bese TBSu |e semereete
IN OD WE Vice cites oe ee Sere Ie eee ane te Sona 1, 238 57 1, 459 940
Orange Riveri Colonye ceases oes n ccm ckeeloe.c dese sake ee enins leisinios Sloss ecteinniniaee B) \leocesossec
BALA QUAY tsetse osc spree Seer eee see eee ea chee oe eee else ae eee 64 251 98 47
BETS es eae Soe eae esc daa Soran RS nao enn oe ee Ae 38: |leawisesis ste BM) ecooKoaose
POR tress cn Sees eee atic oo tee se CRA ee ee nee ae 699 752 1
Philippinesislan seas eerste see ee ee Eee eee 45 56) ||Peeeeeccee
POLLOMRACO korea cee eiomeee Bee inc eee eee ee eee ee REE ae LD ESS creere D1 | beeeeeenite
POLURE Al: ces Sec Seces eects Se ee CeO oR ae ee 9138 317 947 38
Queenslamdieeee eases cee eee cpa haere ne ee ead 815 2 900 3
IRCUMION cis Jette caeeeti ese sae eines Meee aoe een eee SF pees sree AG! aistecicteinas
IRM OGESIA Sc s Secs sae sae see eC Cee te ee aE aes eee ee cers eee 36) | newewasaed
IROUMAMI ARs 5 ics Poa aoe nee Oe eS eee 154 110 261 59
RAUSSIG) Sacre ee sne See ee ee Ee Se oe ee ae 3,619 1,758 4, 606 849
Ste Cro aac See erste ee ae ee ee Dl iaeceee eee OW | Eaaecryer
StU pHielenays. 32. sok sesso ae eee oe ee eee eens bk | Sgesesoc 295 See i< caletesie
PS] fe <1 Fie ee Ee eS Oe ee eB oousocceddocebcccansocs Dilicceeeiee cae UN ibeccdacoec
St-sMartini a5 os -cae seees ak cence ones ee nee Eee eee SH Peneeecaer PAE eSasoSoced
Stu-seierreland | Miquelonsse: sscee seat e eee eee eee eee eee a Eh Vn ieee Di eee stots
St--THOMaS Hace t aol esciaes ea eee ee Ene SCRE eee Tl Bsscrse steers M4 Sl eters
Sty WIM Cente ss Kole hace ee elec cee eee ee UWeeaesreceoe oe ae ee
SOMO) agosto ee cisns se eee ee ee ee ee eee eee nee AUS) Sess crepes a i Weeocdacou
Gamo. saat s oe os Oe ee eles dis) sjeyararaiwtel | Sreyersiesinse al|ne Seeereerers (Di \Sacoaaecac
Sa Sal vadorc mers hs soe cee meen ee ee en ee 107 3 VBA ons cee see
Samara Cia. se heecwsce soon tee eee cee eee ee 1 eereetisecinc 19) | Fecacmiece
SantoxsDOming ores asco cece cee eee eee eee eee See LOW! Sconsseeee Odin srcrelsreicere 4
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 59
Comparative statement of packages received for transmission through the International
Exchange Service, etc. —Continued.
1902. 1903.
Country. | Packages. Packages.
For— | From— For— From—
Senvia2o ot Apa Cree oan na eee hie eee cement Gill emecacene hg ale | Soe see
SEU ee eee Oe ee me geste n eee sisiincecies BU Bancanonce 84 alco
Sierrameeonerce-nee = seer ress e acim cele alae! sselsi= io) tela a= isis121= Sal eseeeea-6 i} Wl Boareeaeee
SLOVO KSA IGEN: Soba Gone oooedaconseceT ces sos bpoocoscEnesesaes BM \sogcgqenAB Dil tate sists
SOU d, ADMD Sona scosoabosocddeoononospodeodDaConceEeeaaD 1, 055 203 IIe By loeaersasne
Slot UG Gooep es eh Sh creda abereronervedsaSacasedeScscoEeeoeeEaae 1,194 1 Ab2bi 49
Simatis: Sein Scoops coeomep sence dedanoDoddassDoSBEUanEE0C. 54 18 | 109 | 11
Soi neh oobsneosooococaccsouewoecocbaccancoupeGouopoUGuGUDE be ad | eraeretereteretete | 2) Wate eeceee
Swed Gi eptse crcee see eee earsere re meee nicer crecle sia sccicreete eile ats 1,843 276 | 2, 205 | 374
St ZT am Geers ohare siete s/sewieiee cic eis nia siete oc eee eeimeleseisks 2,358 2, 037 Party | 829
Gia peed anneddadscob De uUpcacnadS ose RAB nonEeaCSOpEceennpepacere Bl poaericeeinc CY pebeicices
ST LSTTVSUTA See ee NRE Sie ete ee 58S Set eke eee | 600 | 8 569 6
TORTS da gosducasdcaspscacu76 app seuesppnesadbogedescocEepEnses |" Bit ee eeclaees | 1D aeaececoad
MOM QM es crays or oes ete Saareiaea ste s coins oe Sees Sowa sce estes |ysceces see eoeees | A Nfyzicte sersiorsve
ST TAMISV AB pe seo = ie Sas aia ae iaisel = eke rae dine RetSalais sale aie joicle ciejc<iemrers 548 | Hectares 568 11
Arima eases ee oe RE a on eee See PRS eS | BON eae see 109) ||ABeae eee
ATID S eens cle sieimie secs ae <lsisisjes ss sis\eteierajeisin(e S olculees sate arejaeans © PH \ViSamacseds 55 | Ss pabasosbe
SP IKO Wee oe tenes oe eianiece cee ance oem: cleeciamnisneecieais G35] Reeser ae Ob 7b ater eee
ARTA IGN Soe oeonen one eeae Saas ooeenoSadeer nae ASrpeppaqares 1 HL RE octets D7 eee
WMitedactateshusee eae se coma sees esac sea mieees a teee 38,961 | 82,943 | 38,980] 107,661
WISE? 6 Son dsosboonecoan Ss adad HesopseacoonS De DdodDOpdaanesess 835 32 866 80
WIGTIGALIIEY 5 coos OpEd ORB O ROTO OC COE U ccE ROD OAC COS ED aEen Os DESeade 659 | Seatcoreee 654 | 1
Wal CLO Ler sciee re nreanicis siecle oe se SeOEaBEEOGCUBnEOOoSGadoOpUacdanee 1, 499 691 1, 786 | 1,145
Western Australia: ~2.f2- 22 cada. sce = aes ces ss cislescsic ste wixie co's 664 43 619 | 112
LON ZAD BL ste ac dawiece cease Weicinee st aascceseoe< ss tenes tclewnss 5 [peseeznces Alli Sodacacced
Several changes in the foreign relations of the Exchange Service have occurred
during the year.
Through the good offices of the Department of State arrangements were consum-
mated with Cuba for a mutual exchange of official publications, and in December,
1902, 7 boxes were shipped to Habana to be deposited in the library of the depart-
ment of state at that capital.
On December 29, 1902, a reserve set of 52 cases was forwarded to the London
county council as an exchange for the municipal documents of the city of London.
Transmissions to Pretoria were interrupted at the beginning of the Transvaal war,
and the cases which had accumulated during hostilities were finally dispatched on
March 20, 1903, to the governor of the Transvaal Colony. Later advices indicate
that this set of documents will be deposited in the state library at Pretoria.
Regular shipments will be made in future to the depositories in Habana, Pretoria,
and London at the rate of about one case every two months.
In January, 1903, the Queensland government established an exchange board,
with headquarters in the Parliament House, Brisbane. This board has already
taken up the matter of international exchanges in a systematic manner, and satis-
factory results are sure to follow.
Until further notice the Exchange Service is constrained to discourage the for-
warding of parcels to the Smithsonian Institution for transmission to China except
those bearing addresses in Shanghai.
Reference has frequently been made in these reports to the restrictions placed
60 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. .
upon exchanges forwarded to Japan for distribution. The department of foreign
affairs at Tokyo, to which all consignments are sent by the Smithsonian Institution,
is willing to receive only parcels designed for official institutions of the Japanese
Government or for individuals connected therewith. Although frequent attempts
have been made to induce the foreign office to distribute all contributions for
Japanese correspondents, they have thus far been of no avail.
The United States minister to Ecuador has called the attention of the Institution
to the delay and expense occasioned in transporting exchanges to Quito by mountain
trail from the port of Guayaquil, and suggests that only documents of great impor-
tance be sent to Quito until the railroad which is now building from the coast shall
be completed, about two years hence.
The following is a list of the Smithsonian correspondents acting as distributing
agents or receiving publications for transmission to the United States, and of coun-
tries receiving regularly exchanges through the Institution:
Algeria (via France).
Angola (via Portugal).
Argentina: Museo Nacional, Buenos Ayres.
Austria: K. K. Statistische Central-Commission, Vienna.
Azores (via Portugal).
Belgium: Service Belge des Echanges Internationaux, Brussels.
Bolivia: Oficina Nacional de Inmigracion, Estadistica y Propaganda Geografica, La
Paz.
Brazil: Servico de Permutac¢des Internacionaes, Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
British Colonies: Crown Agents for the Colonies, London.@
Bulgaria: Dr. Paul Leverkuhn, Sofia.
Canada: Sent by mail.
Canary Islands (via Spain).
Cape Colony: Superintendent of the Stationery Department, Cape Town.
Chile: Universidad de Chile, Santiago.
China: Shipments temporarily suspended.
Colombia: Biblioteca Nacional, Bogoté.
Costa Rica: Oficina de Depdsito y Canje de Publicaciones, San José.
Denmark: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen.
Dutch Guiana: Surinaamsche Koloniale Bibliotheek, Paramaribo.
Ecuador: Biblioteca Nacional, Quito.
East India: India Store Department, India Office, London.
Egypt: Société Khédiviale de Géographie, Cairo.
France: Bureau Frane¢ais des Echanges Internationaux, Paris.
Friendly Islands: Sent by mail.
Germany: Dr. Felix Fliigel, Aussere Halle’sche strasse No. 18, Leipzig-Gohlis.
Great Britain and Ireland: Messrs. William Wesley & Son, 28 Essex street, Strand,
London.
Greece: Director of the American School of Classical Studies, Athens.
Greenland (via Denmark).
Guadeloupe (via France).
Guatemala: Instituto Nacional de Guatemala, Guatemala.
Guinea (via Portugal).
Haiti: Secrétaire d’ Etat des Relations Extérieures, Port au Prince.
Honduras: Biblioteca Nacional, Tegucigalpa.
Hungary: Dr. Joseph von Kordsy, ‘‘Redoute,’’ Budapest.
“This method is employed for communicating with a large number of the British
colonies with which no means is available for forwarding exchanges direct.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 61
Iceland (via Denmark).
Italy: Ufficio degli Scambi Internazionali, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele,
Rome
Java (via Netherlands).
Korea (via Russia).
Liberia: Care of American Colonization Society, Washington, D. C.
Luxemburg (via Germany).
_ Madagascar (via France).
Madeira (via Portugal).
Mexico: Sent by mail.
Mozambique (via Portugal).
Natal: Agent-General for Natal, London.
Netherlands: Bureau Scientifique Central Néerlandais, Bibliotheque de l’ Université
Leyden.
New Guinea (via Netherlands).
New Hebrides: Sent by mail.
Newfoundland: Sent by mail.
New South Wales: Board for International Exchanges, Sydney.
New Zealand: Colonial Museum, Wellington.
Nicaragua: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Managua.
Norway: Kongelige Norske Frederiks Universitet, Christiania.
Paraguay: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Asuncion.
Persia (via Russia).
Peru: Seccion para el Canje de Publicaciones Internacionales, Ministerio de Fomento,
Lima.
Portugal: Bibliotheca Nacional, Lisbon.
Queensland: Exchange Board, Parliament House, Brisbane.
Roumania (via Germany).
Russia: Commission Russe des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Impériale
Publique, St. Petersburg.
Salvador: Museo Nacional, San Salvador.
Santo Domingo: Sent by mail.
Servia (via Germany ).
Siam: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York.
South Australia: Astronomical Observatory, Adelaide.
Spain: Oficina para el Canje de Publicaciones Oficiales, Cientificas y Literarias, Sec-
cion de Propiedad Intelectual del Ministerio de Fomento, Madrid.
Sumatra (via Netherlands).
Syria: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York.
Sweden: Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademien, Stockholm.
Switzerland: Service des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Fédérale Centrale,
Berne.
Tasmania: Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart.
Tunis (via France).
Turkey: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston.
Uruguay: Oficina de Depdsito, Reparto y Canje Internacional, Montevideo
Venezuela: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas.
Victoria: Public Library, Museums, and National Gallery, Melbourne.
Western Australia: Victoria Public Library, Perth.
Zanzibar: Sent by mail.
The distribution of exchanges to foreign countries was made in 2,461 cases, 257 of
which contained official documents for authorized depositories, and the contents of
2,204 cases consisted of Government and other publications for miscellaneous corre-
62
spondents.
is given below:
REPORT OF THE
SECRETARY.
Of the latter class of exchanges, the number of cases sent to each country
Natalee poate eases oe ee ee 3
New, South) Wiolegse= ==. ==— === 44
INctherlands: 2202... ene eee 52
ING wabnovidencese a. eee eee
News Zeallan Gls 22.5. Ss a ee eee 15
IND CaRag tine eS Sno eee se eee 6
INOEWOY “2cs4 5-2 sa So eee ere 30
PATA CUA). 2c tone aoe eee ee 2
RETO: SoS oe ce ee 12
IPOlVNESIG =< 2c. ceo eee a Seseeer (>)
IPontugalit> secc oe -52 Soo oe eee 20
Queensland 25) -e22522er eos eee 9
Roumaniantoe.. cet seo ose eee (¢)
IRUSSIA= Steno s oe oe eco eee eee 1
Salvadorsas-. cee ee ee ees 5
SantolDomingoOs= sesso esse eae 5
SOEVIA sae secre seca see eee eee (¢)
SHES Sconscobes, Seassssaesseesss il
SoutheAuetralia= ss" =e) === eee 20
SpalNa. 62 sac seco ss see eee 30
StiiKattgites 2.224 oee te eee 1
Sthucia se. eso oe ee eee 1
Siwedenie 2a reac emer oe 50
SinvbZOTlam Cleese eters ers ae eee 60
Sila) S252. socket nee eee (>)
Magmania = ..s2ees 22 aoe eo ee 5
Transvaal 2s. 22c< cass. Soe ees (4)
Mrinidadies 2.3620. are 4
MUNK Y= 2 2s.ce ae 2 Stee ues eee ee 7
Wruguay S22 2525-2 ine eee ee ea sace 15
Wenezuelaig: = 42 2- sot eee eee 15
WictOnrialc aoe ete tere oe ere eee 23
Wiestexme Aus tical litem ser a 12
AOC NGM a ae Nees ee eee 44
IMUISETIAN ceo ones oe eee ora 86
BAT Wad OSs cae ose cee ee eee eee 1
Bel SvU ae noe ae ae eee 66
IRenmudane foe ste eres eee serene il
IDOlLVIAKe Sac ees eee ose ee 5
13512 7/11 Wee ene ON eRe ee ee oS 44
Britigshecolonlesia 2 eee eee eee eee 30
BritishaG uiana = eee eee eee aes 2
sian Islom@lbtee so csschcecesseee 2
Cape Colony <2.- 2-2-2 scneoaeeee 12
Claii’a soe eee ye eee eos 4
(Gliese see a ee Se 20
Colombia see seers cee sees 11
@ostagRica fee see eee eee eee 15
Cilla ras Se Ie ane a ees ee ees rere 2
Denim areas eer ee ree 30
DotcheGuianaees2s eee eee eee (¢)
CUA OT ae ee ae eee eee eee i)
Hastindiesa sense eee eee. 22
Heyipttcses Sach Seo inte 6
Hrance. and colomiesssaeoeeese else ee 244
Germanive sce jes eee Seer 364
Great Britain and Ireland........-- 426
Giree Ces ioe sec eee ee ee eee 10 |
Guatemallarsses tees aes ceeee nee 9
Ja Beh hepwee pee rey ane ae ee oer Ae Lene: 2
EOnGurds ee eee eee eee a
Hungary; suchas. cacaseeeosoonce ee 40
tally sees oe ees 94
Jamaleaue sect eee ree eae 6
Japan’ 252s Sosesate oacotee: Hose eeoe 65
Wiberides. 395 {eect eco see een eres Y
HY eS acl eee ae ee, ee rae ee ee es (2)
Following is a list of foreign depositories to which sets of United States Govern-
ment publications are sent under the joint resolution of Congress approved March 2,
1867.
One box of current publications was forwarded to each depository on Sep-
tember 8, October 2, and December 17, 1902, and on February 17 and April 27, 1903:
Argentina: Library of the Foreign Office, Buenos Ayres.
Argentina: Biblioteca Publica Provincial, La Plata.
Australia: Commonwealth of Australia, Melbourne.
Austria: K. K. Statistische Central-Commission, Vienna.
Baden: Universitiits-Bibliothek, Freiburg.
Bavaria: K6énigliche Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, Munich.
Belgium: Bibliotheque Royale, Brussels.
Brazil: Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.
« Included in transmissions to Netherlands.
> Packages sent by mail.
¢ included in transmissions to Germany.
@ Included in transmissions to Great Britain.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 63
Canada: Parliamentary Library, Ottawa.
Chile: Biblioteca del Congreso, Santiago.
Colombia: Biblioteca Nacional, Bogota.
Costa Rica: Oficina de Depésito y Canje de Publicaciones, San José.
Cuba: Department of State, Habana.
Denmark: Kongelige Bibliotheket, Copenhagen.
England: British Museum, London.
England: School of Economics and Political Sciences, London.
France: Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
Germany: Deutsche Reichstags-Bibliothek, Berlin.
Greece: National Library, Athens.
Haiti: Secrétaire d’Etat des Relations Extérieures, Port au Prince.
Hungary: Hungarian House of Delegates, Budapest.
India: Secretary to the Government of India, Calcutta.
Ireland: National Library of Ireland, Dublin.
Italy: Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele, Rome.
Japan: Foreign Office, Tokyo.
Mexico: Instituto Bibliogrifico, Museo Nacional, Mexico.
Netherlands: Library of the States General, The Hague.
New South Wales: Board for International Exchanges, Sydney.
New Zealand: General Assembly Library, Wellington.
Norway: Storthingets Bibliothek, Christiania.
Ontario: Legislative Library, Toronto.
Peru: Biblioteca Nacional, Lima.
Portugal: Bibliotheca Nacional, Lisbon.
Prussia: Konigliche Bibliothek, Berlin.
Quebec: Legislative Library, Quebec.
Queensland: Parliamentary Library, Brisbane.
Russia: Imperial Public Library, St. Petersburg.
Saxony: Konigliche Bibliothek, Dresden.
South Australia: Parliament Library, Adelaide.
Spain: Seccion de Propiedad Intelectual del Ministerio de Fomento, Madrid.
Sweden: Kongliga Biblioteket, Stockholm.
Switzerland: Bibliotheque Fédérale, Berne.
Tasmania: Parliamentary Library, Hobart.
Transvaal: State Library, Pretoria.
Turkey: Minister of Public Instruction, Constantinople.
Uruguay: Oficina de Depdsito, Reparto y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones,
Montevideo.
Venezuela: Biblioteca Nacional, Carécas.
Victoria: Public Library, Melbourne.
Western Australia: Victoria Public Library, Perth.
Wurttemberg: Konigliche Bibliothek, Stuttgart.
The 50 sets of official documents proyided by the joint resolution of Congress
approved March 2, 1867, have all been placed in appreciative hands in other coun-
tries, as noted-in the preceding list. Finding that a still further exchange with for-
eign governments was necessary in order to increase the collections in the Library of
Congress, a joint resolution was approved March 2, 1901, providing 62 sets for distri-
bution abroad in lieu of 50 sets as formerly, and further provision was made by this
resolution for increasing the number of sets to 100 on the request of the Librarian of
Congress.
The distribution of the additional sets provided for by the joint resolution of March
2, 1901, has been made through the International Exchange Service to such foreign
depositories as the Librarian of Congress in his judgment has deemed expedient,
64 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
having solely in view the procurement of such publications in exchange as were
especially desired by that library.
On account of lack of space in the Smithsonian building for storing the additional
sets provided for by the resolution of 1901, these documents have been delivered
from the Government Printing Office to the Library of Congress, and in turn are
forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution from time to time for transmission abroad
as negotiations are consummated. When depositories for all these additional sets
shall have been arranged for, however, it is expected that the documents will be
delivered directly from the Government Printing Office to the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, and that all uniform sets will then be shipped abroad at the same time and
accompanied by duplicate printed lists of the contents of each case, as is now custom-
ary when shipments are made to the original 50 depositories.
The following is a list of the new depositories to which consignments have been
made during the year:
British Columbia: Legislative Assembly, Victoria.
Cape Colony: Colonial Governor, Cape Town.
France: Prefecture de la Seine, Paris.
Germany: Foreign Office, Bremen.
Guatemala: Secretary of the Government, Guatemala.
Jamaica: Colonial Secretary, Kingston.
Manitoba: Provincial Library, Winnipeg.
Natal: Colonial Secretary’s Office, Pietermaritzburg.
New Brunswick: Legislative Library, Fredericton.
Northwest Territories: Government Library, Regina.
Nova Scotia: Legislative Library, Halifax.
Prince Edward Island: Legislative Library, Georgetown.
Dr. Felix Flugel, Messrs. William Wesley & Son, and Dr. Joseph von Kérésy con-
tinue to act as agents of the Institution in Leipzig, London, and Budapest, respec-
tively. In each instance the interests of the Institution generally, and those of the
International Exchange Service in particular, are conducted with rare ability.
To those correspondents abroad who give their personal attention and doubtless
often expend private medns in furthering the interests of international exchanges at
large the grateful acknowledgment of the Institution should be accorded.
The appreciation of the Smithsonian Institution and its branches is due to Mr.
Charles A. King, deputy collector of the port of New York, for his constant assist-
ance in clearing assignments from abroad for the Institution. I desire to commend
also the efficiency and faithfulness of the employes of the exchange service through-
out the year.
Respectfully submitted.
F. W. Hopge,
Acting Curator of Exchanges.
Mr. S. P. LANGLEY, :
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
JuLy 1, 1903.
APppENDIXx IV.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL
PARK:
Str: I have the honor to herewith submit the following report relating to the con-
dition and operations of the National Zoological Park for the year ending June 30,
1903:
At the close of that period the approximate value of the property belonging to the
park was as follows:
Pmuldingspbomanimalss isa2 5.212 sees aay ce se a nS os oz RS ee Says Saisie aoe $84, 000
Biiidines foradministrative purposes=22-- 45 s=<. -sa-55 5.52. 2225252225255 14, 000
Ofiecetunnitunes books apparatus etc saa es re eee ee ee 4, 000
Machinery, tools: andaimplem ents: sess see eer eee eee 2, 200
HEN CestanGeQutdOGl tn ClLOSUTES= esse eye ee a 33, 000
Rovdwayes bridges. «paths, TUstic Seats, Cteas 2 ane te a oes See eee Se 80, 000
INA DIGS (Ete) 5,5 8 aay eee St ge, eee Se, Ee ee Oa ee 1, 000
VIG SHS EIST Ses ee Rs NII oa as ye eT oy 400
ATMA SelaEZzOOLOCICalacOllectiompee = see sees ene ee ra ae --- 40,000
A detailed list of the animals in the collection is appended hereto. They may be
classified as follows:
Indige- | po rac Domesti- ore
| nous. | Foreign. | © cated! Total.
ss —
WOTEMIAUS 556 remc soenco aac onan sus bes aon acoascoouoSasetecsseer 310 | 143 | 82 535
I STuRt (San in AN oe ee ae ee te SN er ee tine nee 158 | 125 64 347
Sy gy0 TVS Bea seer ee ee EIR Gene ee | 101 | 7) | aoe ese 118
Tig ENR a ee ee OR ne 8 OH 3a nk Ia | 569 285 146 ~—-1, 000
: es LY |
The accessions of animals during the year have been as follows:
[resented ate cS 5e 558 oe ee rye ef Se ee Se teeeaet =e oe Seale, Sau enlo See ne as
ipunchasedrandecollectedes..< = et a= ae era ee ee eee ee eno ees: 102
ene ee ere a Se eh pet ee eric eS ee Te He tosis Se Sa Sten sity se cieiees 3
Received from Yellowstone National Par kegote.2 Set eh eats i A eee 1
Recerca ise ean ere es Soe Bs Sen eee Pe ee Ade ee Sao eee ae 21
BornemeNational A0olocicalibarkese sco pepe seee re sae see oe ae eee eae ee eee 87
Received from United States consul at Neweastle, New South Wales--.-..-.----- 143
RO tae Ae eee a a Sse Pai Se eto peta stan eo oe 470
The cost for purchase, collection, and transportation of these accessions has been
$4,500.
The appropriation for the general service of the park was made in the following
terms:
For continuing the construction of roads, walks, bridges, water supply, sewerage
and drainage; and for grading, planting, and otherwise improving the grounds; erect-
sm 1903——5 65
66 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
ing and repairing buildings and inclosures; care, subsistence, purchase, and_trans-
portation of animals, including salaries or compensation of all necessary employees;
the purchase of necessary books and periodicals, the printing and publishing of
operations, not exceeding one thousand five hundred copies, and general incidental
expenses not otherwise provided for, ninety thousand dollars.
An additional appropriation was made as follows:
For the construction of an elephant house, with bathing pools and other accesso-
ries, including labor and materials and all necessary incidental expenses, ten thousand
dollars; one-half of which sums for the National Zoological Park shall be paid from
the revenues of the District of Columbia and the other half from the Treasury of the
United States. (Sundry civil act June 28, 1902. )
In submitting estimates to Congress $20,000 was specified for the elephant house.
Only half of this amount was appropriated, which was altogether inadequate for such
a building as had been planned—in fact, was sufficient only to inclose the required
space with the cheapest possible construction having the necessary strength.
The preparation of new plans and specifications adapted to the amount available
was begun as soon as the appropriation had been made and a contract for the work
was let early in September. Work under the contract was commenced promptly and
pushed as rapidly as circumstances would permit. . There was some unavoidable
delay in securing materials, but the building was completed early in January, 1903.
The contract covered building proper, outdoor bathing pool, and fence for outside
yard, and amounted to $8,594. Boiler and heating pipes and some other interior fit-
tings and guard rail around outside yard were not included in the contract, this
work being done by day labor. The total cost, including architect’s commission, was
$10,000. About $500 also was expended from the general appropriation in necessary
grading and construction of walks in the immediate vicinity.
The house is a plain, barn-like structure of brick, 35 by 65 feet inside, a space 35
feet square being provided for the elephant, a 10-foot passage reserved for attendants,
and a space 20 by 35 feet for the public. The outside yard is 79 by 96 feet and
includes a concrete bathing pool 20 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep. The fence is
6 feet high, constructed of steel throughout, and consists of I-beam posts, channel-
beam rail, and pickets of 2}-inch stiff, round steel 19 inches apart. Both posts and
pickets are set in a heavy concrete base. A bar of 2-inch half-round iron, in which
are set small pointed steel knobs, is fastened along the inner side of the rail to dis-
courage the elephant from pushing against it. An area between the yard and pool,
protected by a stockade, has been planted with shrubs and trees, which will soon
shade to a considerable extent both yard and pool. The accompanying illustration
shows the exterior appearance of the house and yard. The elephant was put in the
house March 12, 1903.
Besides the regular cost of maintenance, several important improvements have
been made during the year from the general appropriation.
Boundary fence.—The Secretary had. for several years been urging upon Congress
the need of replacing the wooden boundary fence, which was constructed in 1890.
There was an increase of $10,000 in the general appropriation over the sum provided
for the previous year, and this amount was applied to the construction of a new fence.
Work was begun soon after the appropriation became available, and the fence was
completed during autumn, except on a small portion of the boundary, where the
grades are being changed to conform to newly constructed highways of the District of
Columbia. The fence consists of Page woven-wire fencing, 72 inches wide, of extra.
strength, and carried on posts of heavy iron pipe set in concrete bases. Three barbed
wires are used above, making the total height 90 inches. Heavy galvanized netting
extends 12 inches into the ground below for security against dogs.
The amount available was not sufficient to provide suitable entrance gates, and
temporary gates were made with wire fencing attached to a light frame of angle iron.
The total cost of the fence was $10,000.
"MYVd IWOIDO1IOOZ IVNOILVN NI GYVA GNV 3SNOH LNVHd3134
Red jt a ah,
oiaeniiett oe)
Pe hel aT bia we ai
*] SLV1d "s06| ‘Hoday uRiuOsUyIWS
Smithsonian Repon,.1903. PLATE II.
ECHIDNA. “TASMANIAN DEVIL.”
TASMANIAN “ZEBRA WOLF.”
(Obtained by Dr. F. W. Goding, U. 8. Consul at Newcastle, New South Wales. )
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67
In connection with the building amine fence it became necessary to reestablish
certain points on the boundary line where the grading of District highways had dis-
placed the original marks or where the line had been altered since the official sur-
vey was made. The surveyor of the District of Columbia was accordingly employed
to peoey | the boundany and prepare a new and authoritative map.
Bear yards. yards begun at the close of the previous year have been
completed. Provision has been made fora series of 10 yards, and the site for the
entire series has been graded. The two central cages of the series were built and are
occupied, respectively, by the Kodiak bear and the pair of polar bears. These cages
are approximately 40 feet square, and each contains a bathing pool about 20 feet in
diameter. The fence is 10 feet high, with an overhang inward of 2 feet 6 inches. It
is constructed of vertical bars of #-inch stiff, round steel, spaced 5 inches on centers,
passing through horizontal rails of 23 by { inch round-edged steel. Each yard is
provided with a house in the rear, the front of which is of large weathered rocks laid
up with wide irregular joints. Rear walls are of concrete. Each house has a grating
door at front and rear and a grating across one end the entire width of the house.
In winter a tight storm door is fitted into the rear opening, and the open end of the
house is closed with a wooden panel. ‘The door at the front is closed with a sliding
grating, operated outside the house. There is also a grating door at the rear of the
yard for the use of keepers, all attendance being from the rear. The cost, including
grading, drainage, and water supply, has been $3,000. Trees have been planted
about the cages, which after a few years will shade both animals and visitors. A
trellis of light steel framework has been constructed over the public walk and the
front part of the cages, and over this quick-growing vines are being trained, which
will afford shade till the trees reach sufficient size to render such shade unnecessary.
Eagle cage.—This structure.also was begun as the last fiscal year ended. It was
completed early in the present year and at once occupied. The cage has proved to
be very satisfactory, and it is hoped that in the near future similar structures can be
built for other birds of prey, especially for the California condors, which now have to
be kept ina cage of quite inadequate size.
The following alterations and additions have been made to buildings and grounds
during the year:
Improvements in aquarium.—The small aquarium maintained for several years in
an old work shed proved to be of so much interest to visitors that it seemed advisa-
ble to make some alterations in order to provide more satisfactory conditions for
operation and exhibition. Under your instructions the lighting, which had been
insufficient, was improved by putting in a continuous series of skylights on the north
side and doubling the skylight area on the south side. A new exhibition tank, 12
feet long, 3 feet 10 inches high, and 5 feet deep, was constructed at the end of the
corridor. A second concrete storage tank for salt water was built and an extra pump
and additional piping put in, so that the entire series of tanks on one side and the
new end tank can be supplied with salt water. It was also recognized that a bare
background of asphalted wood did not display fishes to advantage or give any proper
idea of the surroundings in which they ordinarily live. Some of the tanks have
therefore been lined with rock of different kinds, while in others cement has been
combined with gravel and waterworn stones to give the background the appearance
of a natural bank. Fresh-water plants, marine algee, sponges, ete., have been used
as accessories in these tanks to produce, so lar as possible, the appearance of natural
conditions. The improvement thus made has been appreciated by the public as well
as favorably commented on by persons engaged in aquarium work.
A large mirror has been installed on the roof of the aquarium and so connected
that it throws sunlight at all times of day, through colored glass, into one of the
tanks.
68 : REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
e
Addition to temporary bird house.—It was found to be necessary to further enlarge
the temporary bird house in order to furnish winter quarters for birds from the
large flying cage. An extension 50 feet long and 35 feet wide was built at the north
end with a height of 20 feet. The end of this extension was made into a single cage,
20 by 35 feet, extending the full height of the building and provided with a pool,
trees, etc. A considerable part of the birds from the flying cage were kept here dur-
ing the winter. This addition made it possible to keep birds in a fairly comfortable
manner, but, with accessions which have come in during the current year, especially
from United States officers abroad, the collection has again quite outgrown the
accommodations.
Repairs to antelope house.—When this house was built it was necessary, on account
of insufficiency of funds, to use the cheapest materials. Asa natural result some
parts of the structure have already given away from decay. During the year it
became necessary to put new floors in all of the large cages. The wooden floors
were removed and replaced by a macadam surface on a base of stone laid in the
‘Telford’? manner. Concrete walls were built to sustain the front of the cages and
the partitions. New double partitions were also constructed, with doors sliding into
them, and the outer wall was ceiled for greater warmth.
Repairs to inclosures.—Seyveral of the inclosures for ruminant animals have required
repairs during the year. The elk paddock was in such bad condition that the wire
fencing had to be replaced for a distance of 100 rods, and at least an equal amount ©
additional will have to be rebuilt very soon. A fence possessing at once the desirable
qualities of lightness, strength, and durability is apparently not yet obtainable.
“Work on roadways.—No new roadways have been constructed during the year, but
the driveway connecting with Klingle road was rebuilt for a distance of 300 feet in
order to conform to the new grade established for that road. The ford on this drive-
way was also paved with concrete, as the current of Rock Creek frequently eroded
the natural bed at that point to such an extent as to render the crossing unsafe for
carriages. Since this improvement was made there has been no further trouble of
this kind. It also became necessary to remove the metaling from the roadway
between Quarry road entrance and the bridge over the creek, as a considerable fill
was required there to connect with the new entrance road constructed by the District
at that point.
New entrance road from Kenesaw avenue.—The appropriations for the District of
Columbia included the following item: ‘‘ For Kenesaw avenue, entrance to Zoological
Park, grading (and the Commissioners of the District of Columbia are authorized to
adjust the lines of the streets at this locality so as to afford an entrance to the
Zoological Park upon good and satisfactory grade, with authority to exchange with
the owners of the abutting property any land now within the lines of said streets
that may be necessary to accomplish said purpose: Provided, That no expense is
incurred thereby by the United States or the District of Columbia), ten thousand
dollars.”’
This entrance roadway has been graded throughout to a width of 50 feet. It has
not as yet been otherwise improved, but will probably be graveled soon. A fill was
required the entire length of the road, which extends into the park about 200 feet,
and the side slope encroaches on the park the whole length. The park is now bor-
dered on the east side from Quarry road to Klingle road by a bank of raw earth as
steep as it will stand and from 15 to 40 feet high. Measures will have to be taken
to protect the meadow and woodland below from the wash, also to plant the slope
so as to screen it and cover it with a growth of vegetation which will hold the earth
and prevent erosion.
Important accessions.—Dr. F. W. Goding, United States consul at Newcastle, New
South Wales, secured for the park during the year the most important collections
yet received from any one source, amounting to more than 140 specimens, among
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 69
which were a Tasmanian zebra wolf with 3 young, a Tasmanian deyil, 3 echidnas, 13
kangaroos of various species, 3 phalangers, 2 flying phalangers, 4 native cats ( Dasy-
urus), a black-backed jackal, a pair of emus, 30 cockatoos and paroquets, a wedge-
tailed eagle, a pair of black swans, and many other birds. A number of these
animals were gifts from Doctor Goding, or through him, from persons in Australia
who are interested in natural history; others which were especially difficult to obtain
were purchased by Doctor Goding at small cost through correspondents in remote
parts of Australia and Tasmania. His wide acquaintance throughout the Australian
region and knowledge of its fauna made it possible for Doctor Goding to securea
thoroughly representative collection, and acknowledgment is here given of the grat-
itude of the park and of its obligation to Doctor Goding for his valuable assistance.
Some of the animals mentioned are shown in Plate IT.
E. H. Plumacher, United States consul at Maracaibo, Venezuela, presented a
monkey, a deer, a peccary, 2 agoutis, and several iguanas, parrots, and owls.
E. 8. Cunningham, United States consul at Aden, Arabia, presented a fine speci-
men of caracal.
An officer of the Sudan government offered to the President of the United States a
young lion, which was secured for the park. Dr. H. T. McLaughlin, of the Ameri-
can mission at Omdurman, kindly attended to the forwarding of the animal, which
proved to be a fine male about 12 months old. ~
The President presented to the park a bay lynx and a black bear.
Victor J. Evans, of Washington, D. C., presented a fine male Arabian baboon.
Capt. John L. Young, of Young’s Pier, Atlantic City, N. J., presented the aqua-
rium with a number of interesting fishes and also assisted materially in securing other
specimens.
The Yellowstone National Park, through its acting superintendent, Maj. John
Pitcher, U. 8. Army, furnished a fine male grizzly bear, weighing 500 pounds.
Exchanges were made during the year with the New York Zoological Park; Lincoln
Park, Chicago; the Zoological Garden at Buffalo, N. Y., and various private indi-
viduals, by means of which surplus animals were disposed of and desirable speci-
mens obtained. births increased somewhat in number over the previous year, and
it is of interest to note that the beavers have again bred, this time producing three
young.
Purchases included a young female lion obtained for the park by the United States
consul at Aden, Arabia, a specimen of the Oregon cougar, 2 fishers, a female moose
as a mate for the male already in the collection, 4 Cuban flamingos, also a male
Mama and several birds which did not arrive until after the close of the fiscal year.
The young brown bear obtained on the mainland of Alaska, opposite Kodiak
Island, in May, 1901, made a very satisfactory growth and weighed, in June of this
year, 450 pounds. Its weight when captured was 18 pounds. This bear is probably
of the kind recently described as Ursus gyas.
Losses of animals.—The most important were 5 American bison, 3 of which died
from gastro-enteritis, 1 from abscess of the stomach, and 1 from pyzemia; 2 wood-
land caribou, 2 prong-horn antelopes, also 15 monkeys, the loss of which must be
charged mainly to lack of proper housing.
Autopsies on a considerable proportion of the animals which died were made by
the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Agricultural Department, and
facts of interest were learned as well as information secured which will be of service
to the park in the future.
One draft horse and one saddle horse were condemned during the year as unfit
for use and were sold at public auction.
The urgent need of a house for small mammals was brought to the attention of
Congress, and, while no separate appropriation was made for this purpose, it is hoped
that from the slightly increased general appropriation for the year 1904 a sufficient
70 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
amount can be reserved to erect at least a part of the building. Plans for the house
are already well under way.
It would be of the greatest advantage to the park if immediate provision could be
made for its most vital needs. A central heating plant is one of the indispensable
features of a permanent equipment and must be put in ultimately. The establish-
ment of such a plant will result not only in direct and immediate economy through
reducing the amount of fuel and the number of firemen required, but it will also
save the expense of providing each building erected with a separate heating plant,
and will remove from all the public exhibition houses the dirt, smoke, and other
inconveniences which necessarily attend the operation of a heating plant in the
building. :
Need of a suitable public comfort house equipped for ladies and children and
with provision for a restaurant has before been mentioned and is again urged. The
present insufficient arrangements are becoming each year more unsatisfactory and
objectionable. It may be mentioned that accommodations of this kind are among
the most important features in all of the leading zoological gardens.
Attention is again called to the great desirability of providing permanent build-
ings for animals sufficient to keep pace with the growth of the collections, so that
there may be no further necessity for putting up cheap temporary structures, which
are never satisfactory and entail a greater final cost than would result were perma-
nent houses provided at the outset.
Animals in National Zoological Park, June 30, 1903.
Name. - | Number. Name. Number.
MAMMALS. MAMMALS—Continued.
North American species. North American species—Continued.
American bison (Bison americanus) -.-- 4" i Crossitox ( Vulpes wfuluws) 222-2 = ee 1
Prong-horn antelope (Antilocapra Arctic fox ( Vulpes lagopus) ....-------- 12
CMETICONM) eo seee ee cee eee Gaeeais ote 2 || Swift fox (Vulpes velow))...--.-.-------- 6
Virginia deer (Odocoileus virginianus) - 12 || Gray fox ( Urocyon cinereoargenteus) --- 3
Columbia black-tailed deer ( Odocoileus North American otter ( Lutra hudsonica) 2
COUUMULCNIUS) eee a eee eeee eens 1 || Fisher (Mustela pennantii) ......------- 2
Mule deer ( Odocotleus hemionus) ..----- 10 || American badger ( Taxidea taxus) .-..-.- 4
Cuban deer (Odocoileus sp.) -.---------- 1 || Kinkajou ( Totos caudivolvulus) .....--- 2
American elk (Cervus canadensis) ...-. 33 || Americancivetcat (Bassariscus astutus) 1
Newfoundland caribou (Rangifer Raccoon) (Procyon loton) =~. --2---aaene 22
LenTENMOUVH)) soe oe soseesins ie oais seas 1 || Black bear ( Ursus americanus) .....---- 6
Moose (Alces americanus) ....---------- 2 || Cinnamon bear ( Ursus americanus) -.-- a
Collared peceary ( Tayassu angulatum) . 1 || Grizzly bear ( Ursus horribilus)....----- 4
Cougar (Felisiconcolon)eas-see-e -aeeeees 2 || Yakutat bear ( Ursus dallt)--..2...-:--- 1
Oregon cougar (Felis concolor oregon- Kodiak bear ( Ursus middendorffi) ..---. 1
ENSIS) em aanse ese osene Soto sae nees 1 || Polar bear ( Thalarctos maritimus) ....- 2
Oceloti(helispandalis) pase seee eee eee 9 || California sea lion (Zalophus califor-
Yaguarundi (Felis yaguarundi).....-.- 2 MUANUS) oases © sina sine ie aieise ie serene
Biyrai(CRelis cya) = seem seca e ane anaee 1 || Steller’s sea lion (Hwmetopias steller?) -- it
Bayelymix (Ana rA0RUs) eeceeeeecm esse 3 1 || Harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) .......---- 3
Spotted lynx (Lynx rufus maculatus) -- 2 |, Common pocket gopher (Geomys bur-
Florida lynx (Lynx rufus floridanus) -- 2 SOUNTIS) vane pee Oee eee eee ease 2
Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) .-..-.--- 1 | California pocket gopher (Thomomys
Gray wolf (Cants griseus) ....-.--..-.-- 5 DOU): woh Rea woe cee canis eee eee cee 2
Black wolf (Canis griseus) ...-.--.----- 3 |, Mountain pack-rat (Neotoma cinerea) .. 3
Coyote (Cantsitatnans)\=- esses se --eoeee 6 || American beaver (Castor canadensis) -- 11
Coyotel(Ganisimustinon)peasaee eee ee eee 4 || Hutia-conga (Capromys pilorides).....- 9
RECs Ox VAL PEs fULuUs) aes 2 || Southern fox squirrel (Sciwrus niger).. )
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Animals in National Zoological Park, June 30, 19083—Continued.
|
|
“I
Name. Number. Name. Number.
MAMMALS—continued. MAMMALS—continued.
North American species—Continued. || Domesticated and foreign species—Con.
Western fox squirrel (Sciwrus ludovici- Solid-hoofed pig (Sus scrofa).........-- 1
ie all Ss | 16 Le pu CBGSWNAtCUs) ee eseernsee accesses 5
Gray squirrel (Sciwrus carolinensis) - --- 34 Carabao (Bos bubalus)....-...-.-------- i
Black squirrel (Sciwrus carolinensis) --- 9 Yak (Poéphagus grunniens)....-..--.-- =
Mountain chipmunk ( Tamias speciosus) 1g || Barbary sheep (Ovis tragelaphus) ..--.- | 5
Beechey’s ground squirrel (Spermophi- COTE EOE (CHET) socom eos: a)
lus grammurus beecheyi)......-------- le} Angora goat (Capra hircus)...--------- 7
Antelope chipmunk (Spermophilus leu- || Nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) . . - - - - - 4
(ETT re ae oe y || Indian antelope (Antilope cervicapra) - - 2
Mexican ground squirrel (Spermophilus || Sambur deer (Cervus aristotelis)......-- 4
FEA O TERNS eR De sty een 1 Philippine deer (Cervus philippinus) -- - 1
Northern yarying hare (Lepus ameri- || Axis deer (Cervus avis)....-.----------- :
ATT Pe oof te eco ee g | Red deer (Cervus elaphus) ....---------- 1
Peba armadillo (Tatu novemeinctum) -. 4 | Mexican deer (Odocoileus mexicanus) - -| 1
Opossum (Didelphys marsupialis) ....-- 9 || Venezuelan deer (Cariacus sp.)..-...-- q
|| Fallow deer (Dama vulgaris) ...-------- 5
Domesticated and foreign species. '| Common camel (Camelus dromedarius) -| 2
Bonnet monkey (Macacus sinicus) -...- 1 | Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) - - .| 1
Macaque monkey (Macacus cynomol- Llama (Auchenia glama)........------- 3
GUS) So sceiencte vaice ae cise sec cscmnseece= 10 | South American tapir ( Tapirus ameri-
Pig-tailed monkey (Macacus nemestri- | | Canus) ...----------+-2-2 2222222222 3
MNES) iaw seamerec a owas sce oseces pacer es 3 || Donkey (Equus asinus) ........-------- 1
Japanese monkey ( Macacus speciosus) -. 1 | Indian elephant (Llephas indicus) .-.--- 1
Black ape (Cynopithecus niger) .....---- 4 || Mexican agouti (Dasyprocta mexicana) .| 1
Arabian baboon (Papio hamadryas) .... 2 | Hairy-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta |
Spider monkey (Ateles sp.).......-.---- 1 MTUMNOLOPIUG) aaa sa ne eisai eerie eee 2
Capuchin (Cebus capucinus) .......---- 2 | Azara’s agouti (Dasyprocta azarx) ....- 2
Ruffed lemur (Lemur varius) .......--- 2 | Acouchy (Dasyprocta acouchy) ...----- 4
STON CHELSILC0)) hem nme esis neeeen eoteaae Yi | Golden agouti (Dasyprocta aguti) ..---- 1
EDIE Crd (CHEMS TLGTIS) tenanen cence oes ee ee 2 | Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) ...-..----- 17
meopard: (elsipanrdalts)) s-.s.-2 52s 2 | Alpin marty (MS MULES) eee peice eee 5
Caracal (hyns Canacdl)/s2. sense. sesieeee 1 || Coypu (Myocastor coypus) .......-.-.---- 4
Spotted hyena (Hyzna crocuta) .....-.- 1 Crested porcupine ( Hystrix cristata) ---- 3
Striped hyena (Hyxnc striata) ......... 2 || Domestic rabbit (Lepus cwnieulus) ..--- 16
Wioltinound esascesnccn loses eee 2 || Two-toed sloth (Cholepus didactylus) -- 1
Simbermand dopmsec-oesinacceceee sean il | Great gray kangaroo (Macropus gigan-
OUMUCT Ne Aare crc Sess ene eclecise eae es Hi) | C2108) ee = aa 3
Bedlingtoniterrier $5..--2-..c-sc++-s-- = 1 || Wallaros (Macropus robustus) .......---- 1
Smooth-coated fox terrier ............. 3 || Red kangaroo (Macropus rufus)......-- 2
Wire-haired fox terrier ....-...:....5: 1 | Black-striped wallaby (MWacropus dorsa-
Dine or(Canisidzvgo)| saaseesnsa eee 2 TES) ee eee eee ne eeae sees saan es 3
Black-backed jackal ( Canismesomelas) - 1 |} Pademelon wallaby (Macropus thetidis) 2
Palm civet (Paradoxurus fasciatus) .... 1 \| Grey’s wallaby (Macropus greyi) ....--- 1
Mongoose (Herpestes mungo)...--.----- 1 || Brush-tailed rock kangaroo ( Petrogale
Tayra (Galictis barbara)...........-.--- J DENECHULOLG) ieee nceye sia 3a saan itera 4
Red coatimundi (Naswa rufa) .......-- 1 || Bridled wallaby (Onychogale frenata) - . 1
Crab-eating raccoon (Procyon can- | Rat-kangaroo (prymnus rufescens) ..- 4
CRIVOTO) here cna je tveelain eine Secsecioeee 2 | Flying phalanger (Pefawrus sciwreus) - - 2
Japanese bear ( Ursus japonicus) -.-..--- 1 | Common phalanger ( Trichosurus vulpe-
Sun bear ( Ursus malayanus) ....-.-.--- if | CUT eee race ae eae hig ae Meine ee ‘
Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) .......-- 2 | Bandicoot (Perameles sp.)..------------ 1
European hedgehog (Erinaceus euro- | Tasmanian wolf (Thylacynus cynoce-
FOLIA tate oe eases poms ece eenss ates oe Bee Hamer g) ROLLS aera tee eae satan stances inion ciclo = 3
Wild boar (Sus scrofa) . 2 | Tasmanian deyil (Sarcophilus ursinus) - 1
12
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Animals in National Zoological Park, June 30, 1903—Continued.
Name.
Number.
MAMMALS—continued.
Domesticated and foreign species—Con.
Australian “native cat” (Dasyurus sp.) -
Echidna (Echidna aculeata)
BIRDS.
Strawberry finch (Sporeginthus flavidi-
ventris)
Painted grass-finch ( Poéphila mirabilis) -
Bar-breasted fineh ( Munia nisoria)
Java sparrow ( Padda oryzivora)....---.
Parson finch. ...--. PS Seas aoe ace
Piping crow (Gymnorhina tibicen) .....
Toucan (Ramphastos tocard)
Giant kingfisher (Dacelo gigas)
Sulphur-erested cockatoo ( Cacatua gal-
erita)
Leadbeater’s cockatoo (Cacatua lead-
beater)
Bare-eyed cockatoo (Cacatua gym-
MODIS): ajo s Aciacesancc smeeeeosee eee
Roseate coeckatoo( Cacatua roseicapilla) .
Yellow and blue macaw (Ara ararau-
nea)
Red and yellow and blue macaw (Ara
FRACLO) ralem eee ayes ape eae htt eke
Red and blue macaw (Ara chloroptera) .
Great green macaw (Ara militaris).-..
Chattering lory (Lorius garrulus)......
Green paroquet (Conwrus sp.)--..-----
Carolina paroquet (Conuwrus carolinen-
Yellow-naped amazon (Amazona auro-
POLIOLG) © Shame oe eer pe A ay eee
White-fronted amazon ( Amazona leuco-
cephala)
Double yellow-head ( Amazona oratriz) .
Mealy amazona (Amazona farinosa) .--|
Yellow-shouldered amazon (Amazona
OChTOPlErG) | ewe eens eceeene Sess
Levaillant’s amazon (Amazona levail-
LON) EE sears Hee tat eee ee
Barraband’s parrakeet (Polytelis barra- |
UH KU eee = Sakae sna ase SAS pee
Rose-hill parrakeet( Platycercuseximius)
Parrakeet ( Psephotus haematonotus)....
Grass parrakeet (Melopsittacus undula-
TUS) 0. So oe Bains cece ee eee OR EERE
King parrakeet (Aprosmictus cyanopy-
Guus) .c2 coo 6 ea oe ee eee Ree
Cockateel( Calopsittacus novex-hollandiz)|
Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus)..
snowy owl (Nyctea nyctea).........--.-
Barred ow] (Syrnium nebulosum)
Barn owl (Stria pratincola)
(2)
=]
Sora (Porzana carolina)
Name.
BIRDS—continued.
Wenezuelan Owls. <i a2 se cccanc este een
Sereech owl (Megascops asio)
Bald eagle (Halixetus leucocephalus) ...
Harpy eagle ( Thrasaétus harpyia)
| Golden eagle (Aquila chrysaétos)..-..---
| Wedge-tailed eagle ( Uroaétus audaz) ..
| Crowned hawk-eagle (Spizaetus coro-
natus)
Red-tailed hawk ( Buteo borealis)
Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooper?)
California condor (Gymnogyps cali-
fornianus)
Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura)
Black vulture (Catharista atrata)
King vulture ( Gypagus papa)
Lanzarotte pigeon (Columba livia)
Ring dove (Columba palumbus)
Wonga-wonga ( Leucosarcia
picata)
Bronze-winged pigeon ( Phaps chalcop-
tera)
pigeon
| Crested pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotesy ....
Nicobar pigeon ( Calenas nicobarica)...
Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo ferus) .
Chachalaea (Ortalis vetula maccallii) ...
Daubenton’s curassow (Crax dauben-
toni)
Lesser razor-billed curassow (Mitua
tomentosa)
Peafowl1 (Pavo cristatus)
_ Mountain partridge (Oreortyx pictus) ..
Sharp-tailed grouse ( Pediocexles phasi-
anellus
Sandhill crane (Grus mexicana)
Whooping crane (Grus americana) ...-
Thicknee (dicnemus grallarius)
Little blue heron ( Ardea cwrulea)
Great blue heron (Ardea herodias)
Little white egret ( Ardea candidissima) .
Black-crowned night heron (Nyeti-
corax nycticorax N#ViUs)
Australian bittern
Boatbill (Cochleartus cochlearius)
White stork (Ciconia alba)
Black stork (Ciconia nigra)
Marabou stork (Leptoptilus crumeni-
Jerus)
White ibis (Guara alba)
Wood ibis ( Tantalus loculator)
Trumpeter swan (Olor buccinator)
Whistling swan (Olor columbianus) ....
Mute swan (Cygnus gibbus)
Number.
H
Noe eR eH Oo
(Jv)
NR oo
37
RPOnNwm SS & HE bY bY
Now eS &
wowanan sds
REPORT OF THE
SECRETARY.
Animals in National Zoological Park, June 30, 1903—Continued.
Name. Number. | Name. Number.
= —— — =
BIRDS—continued. REPTILES—continued.
Black swan (Cygnus atratus).....-.---- 1 || Painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) ....... 6
Brant) (Branta DEnnicla) ise se- ene 1 || Musk turtle (Aromochelys odorata) ..... 2
Canada goose ( Branta canadensis) ..... 6 || Mud turtle (Cinosternum pennsylvani-
Hutchins’s goose (Branta canadensis CUND)) Sess ence a aeeistetaie see ere cees <eieis 5
MULCHRUNSIU) eaten oe ocrecinineiseecenaan ens 1S) Rerrapine CPsei.demysusps) =e secceiee oe it
Chinese goose (Anser cygnoides) -.-..-- 2 || Gopher turtle (Xerobates polyphemus) .. 2
Greater snow goose (Chen hyperborea Box tortoise ( Cistudo carolina)......... 1
MUUAMS) a-se nc « Sooo eens ates seerer ees 2 || Three-toed box tortoise (Cistudo triun-
Wood duck (Aix sponsa)......-..----- 4 3 DUD ice Be RE ACL OE Shee Ee Bes Coe eee 6
Mandarin duck (Dendronessa galeri- Painted box tortoise ( Cistudo ornata).. 5
(COMET aoe ere SEP COA OCN ABE RoeE 5 || Dunean Island tortoise ( Testudo ephip-
Australian tree-duck (Dendrocygna DET eee RAG I oe os 2
CYLON gsm neeesere eases jaceei ete eee 1 | Albemarle Island tortoise (Testudo
American tree-duck (Dendrocygna MICING) I= Sasso de eo ae ashes oee ee 2
AQ1LSCOLNE) Fascs eee chosen cee anne aeere 1 || Brazilian tortoise ( Testudo tabulata)... 4
Pinta CDasila acuta). ences > <e-¢ 1 || Iguana (Iguana tuberculata) ........-..- 2
iPekineducks CAmasisps)eeasse-sssasese 1 || Australian hooded lizard .............. 1
Mallard duck (Anas boschas) ......-.-- 2 || Comb lizard ( Ctenosaura sp.) ..----..-- 1
Common duck (Anas boschas) ......-.- 3 || Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum)... 6
Australian wild duck (Anas super- Diamond rattlesnake (Crotalus ada-
(GPPOID sasonaaeneeeaeaunoc mee oe a ee 1 MANLEUS) ane sees eae ele eee 3
American flamingo (Phenicopterus Banded rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) i
HUD CT ese eeee eee me ene etme nee Is; Prairie rattlesnake ( Crotalus confluentis) 5
American white pelican (Pelecanus | California rattlesnake (Crotalus lucifer) 2
CHYLRTOTAYNMCHOS) wae =< sais = = ces =e ne 6 || Copperhead (Ancistrodon contortrix) ...| 5
Brown pelican (Pelecanus fuscus)-----| 5 || Water moccasin (Ancistrodon piscivorus) 3
American herring gull (Larus argen- Cuban tree boa ( Epicrates angulifer) - -- 5
LALUSUSTIUCL SONATAS neem ate nee see a 1 || Common boa (Boa constrictor) .......-- 4
Florida cormorant ( Phalacrocorax dilo- Anaconda ( Eunectes murinus)........-- 2
DIRS LOT ULC VIER tetera ie orate eer 5 | Bull snake ( Pityophis sayi sayi)........ 2
Snake bird (Anhinga anhinga)......-- 4 || Pine snake (Pityophis melanoleucus) .. | 6
Common rhea (Rhea americana)....-- 1 | Coach-whip snake (Bascanium jlagelli-
Cassowary (Casuarius australis)......- Sal MMT OnE eae Oe eee aes Seek Cate 8 | 1
Emu (Dromzus nove-hollandiz)....-.- 3 || Black snake (Bascaniwm constrictor)... 6
OTTERS! King snake ( Ophibolus getulus) ........ 3
| Garter snake (EFutxnia sirtalis) ........ | 1
Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) .. 14 |} orn snake (Farancia abacura).......- | 1
American crocodile (Crocodilus amert- | Water snake (Natrix sipedon).......... | 3
CTPTEDN CaSSCECUC- A SORE DOE AONB D AR AROS 2 | Gopher snake (Spilotes corais couperii) -| 3
Animals presented during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903.
Name. Donor. | Number.
Hamadryas baboon ......... VACLOMIs BVals;. WiASDINetOnN Ds Onsen escceeee esses ees 1
Ca pUCHUe seer sees =e E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela 1
White-throated cebus .....-. Commander HH. MeReaiUastNaviyecscss..c. os. setae cee scene 1
NH OR ee ee Reece oe tet Officer of the Sudan government, through Dr. H. T. Mec- 1
Laughlin, Omdurman, Sudan.
CEO tact cece ets esieeee JaemessDeinrickSPiiis puro me oerees kaon. ele es occa ce se
DO Safa steteiet-tein etait alnfetel o's Prof. C. V. Cusachs, Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md ......-.. 1
DO ersern et SRS bs 22 Admiral J. G. Walker, U. S. Navy, Washington, D.C......... 2
Waracals. 2h. icecnc suc eeee soe E. S. Cunningham, United States consul, Aden, Arabia...--.
74
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Animals presented during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903—Continued.
Name. Donor.
Bay yiiks. Sas sce ee eee eee The Presid ents: oe cess | = haa corona dae eee eee eee
Mlorida wild icatess-s2---s.o- WalliampHerMann-Mammivalles a) cons a- aeeecineiteeerer eee
Coyote ss.-e.seceeee tee eee “Recreation,’’ by a subscription fund for benefit of Miss
Irene Murray, Peosta, Iowa.
Rediioxie s=eeeccstecssceesce He Ve ansdale Washing tones Chascenecssisisieitellieeteteeisiesiae
RACCOON. Sa. see nceseceeec eter PAWN Cholson aWashin ston DiC ass-smr ce cece ceiceeeinaseeaet
Blaclubeareee eee see eee Dr. C. W. Bowker, United States Revenue-Cutter Service,
Washington, D.C.
DO Passe ane teen ake | The PTeSid OMit-sasa eee cc eooe coisa sen Meee Acine one
Common Oat ease. ascee esses MastersWieve Mann Vashin Stone Ds Ceecmane ise e eter
Venezuelan deer ............ E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela
IMexicanidGentesesecaaeeccee Company C, United States Marine Corps....-.....---.-------
Collared peccary ...........-. E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Graygsquirrelesescess sae eees Gach PRetwin, Washington, DEC anc-ensanceeecceceesocmeeeess
Mexicaneroundisquinrelsss.| sb MieyenibergsvkeCOsml Greer saree reieetscle aiteinersteieletaisstsisiosierstets
Prairieid og os.cs-mees es saccee DriJ.erice se hiladelphis: Pa ssreosessseee esse ee aeeeeeenee
1 DOS ee HACC HCEE Geer MisspAlliceliParetawashbing ton DNC mecseeseseeries cree ceeecree
Woodchuckseere--aacsseece ce Mrs-B sh wRorers) Washington. Dy Cpacseseaseene-aaeesesmese
Vihitemabpiveeese esse essence Hranecisii. Vurxi Chevys Chasey Mdeessseeeceeereeeeereesteeeer
DOB ime see issios ace seieeet | Mrs Web Balm: \WashinetonD):(Clesssccesssresenaseeem cece
DOs es eects esate een William Mason, Washington, D.C ...................--------
White Belgian hare ......... BdwinvA. Newman: Petworth, D.C io.---n-sssnceacseeetee see
Black Belgian hare..........}-. SOB LG se Soe ee Net ge = cee ahs rah Ae aaa Be
Himalayan ra bpites-ee sess. ese GOP asdan nies cnt asnlorc wise ofacinnaenacc pe doneewisas eee pees
Silverigrayrabbitiecss]sse-e sees CLO ee er ae a ee ae ne ene Se
Peruvian Cayiyieeeses sees cee Charles Silas Baker, Washington iD! Coc cece ce seine tareacees
DO eas aoscacslot Somceeeeaes Mrssh. Le Chamberlain, Washine ton, (DaiCpae-eescseeeerecer
Hairy-rumped agouti........ E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Common opossum....--..... Miss: Ethel Roosevelt, Washington, D. C:.........--...-------
DO fasssc sere e se eee JeED Sang GacAS NOLS \Wiesuine ton NC cesemteers cae eleciceicr
DOp Sactiese sen seeeeeeees JANG CeeNOLOM WASH SLOT DC jesse tet latsietste a lals ele cleteiyseret
Wallaroo) =202 5 s.ceseee sae ee | Julian Windeyer, Newcastle, New South Wales..........--.-
DO «2.58 Seecme nan eee Henry W. Russell, Newcastle, New South Wales......-...-.-
Ratikanfaroossseseseneeeeee Mr. Garnick, Newcastle, New South Wales ............-...--
Hehidneeesessesese reer eee Major Burnage, Neweastle, New South Wales .........------
Yellow-shouldered amazon .
Greeniparoquete--eseeeesere
Great horned owl .........-.-
Sereech owl
Barn owl
Cooperisvhaw ke zessescse acces
Red-tailed hawk -...:-.....--
Purkeyavulitunesssse seeeeseee
Australian dove
Srested pigeon
E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Donor uUMknOWilasa.cscc ccna ce ccicee jase conewisian sie enmilenineaeae
H.W. Rutherford, Washington, D. C
W. VY. Cox, Washington, D. C
E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela
HeC> Henricksen Miami shia) osecccieieectctisecteie recess serene
Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries...........-...-----------
Chas. Payne Smith, Colorado Springs, Colo ..................
J.-M: Harper: Red Rock, NeiMexe eee: se-secsiene men secret
GoW, Halle Washington DaCeoaaasecena seer aae-ereeeeeeare
A. M. Nicholson, Orlando, Fla
Otis'"Bigelow; Avenel, Midiarasacsemecs dace co eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
DrvAy de eearris; Washinton) iC pees seseeserete ser eeeen eee
T. H. Felton, Washington, D. C
Rranikaust, Washine tom gD s(C eeecme as cme sien seieiaee cise
Mr. Kibble, Islington, New South Wales.............----.---
sigeide do :
PaulyBartsch, Washington) Ceescee=ere seers sseceseeesee
Doctor Russell, Newcastle, New South Wales............----
Number.
ee
phwwwwnwends$ Be wee eee ee
a
PENNE EB EP RP eB eB ee eB BP NEP eB ed BE DP PP ee DD
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
“I
Animals presented during the fiscal year ending June 80, 19083—Continued.
Name. Donor. Number.
[Rees
MreeGuck). ..o2csanccchecseoe Frank Underwood, Neweastle, New South Wales...........-. 2
Hering pull. . 3-5 -2--ssee=- Hamypbavley Washington) 5 Case sam see see eee one aee mia 1
WOO! Ao 25 fo esc =-5 osesenere HG bendleton:, Arieustansprings, Valens ce-cesces-sseeacce ea | 1
PANT ALON, so. eo asnisecie stenoses Carrollstarquharaw washington. ws Cieesss.=secs cues ares ane ce 1
BD) Oe oe eee nae eere AG AViEsReese -BaltimonesMid!2 te oo sees ane elec oteiee cence ome 2
DOR Sat ASae ea pagel Ronoaeae DiriwWevire NibiserssKeedysyilles Midi sas-esmcssccc ce scae cess 2
Tieqhimath Sa aeepeoseceeenedecsan E. H. Plumacher, United States consul, Maracaibo, Venezuela. 3
Wooded lizards =-s--eeees- Fitzroy Stacy, Newcastle, New South Wales ................. il
Homednlizandise=-eees a= - soe Wr Jeebogardius Washine tomer D(C assess sees nays sees ess 1
D Om ao steenieees cake seek Ee Mieveniberga, EeGostsdlexmassmare oso see ae a(eeeia safe eee = 2 eer 2
Diamond rattlesnake........ Wo 18lo Witwenel, Iheyrsalvoleveoy INbY eos cee eeceadeosecod ee 1
Prairie rattlesnake,.2-2..--=- James Hullerton> Red odgen Mont e-eas sss eeeeeer a2 see eet 1
Wopperhesd) aecse pace sone eMaGaSiinnerh Washington) see seee nese ee ese ea. 1
Black snake t..sseasecceeasee Draisageswe blackburn w Washington Ds Ce seeseasese saa nee 1
Coachwhip snake..----.-.--- (ONiewEeeRonter pKeissimin cea aren ease ers ase se sere cle eee if
Rein easnake. soci -assegeee ce MACE MEeRGese sbaltim Ores Manas se esce se eitctencieeeciacicisen esas 1
IDO arse een ee eS PRACe Neuman oRichl ands Gales sas e eae ae ee eee ee il
Hog-nosed snake ...........-. (fH: Carrico, Suluhtonephey. oepeesisa = soccer mene naeae toc aaeses 1
DMO Bees a ssc aces seesises: eMIss Vireinia lucas ChanlestowileViceseeseienee sacs oceans 1
PIOLNISNAKE Ses cceceseesemse He Ca Henneksen i Miami hil tena-s- eee reeeeeecseaesseececnee | 1
Summary.
Number.
ATMals-onmhand ey al yas 1902 eee a ereeinas cisisms ace co ae eee econ Meee ec ee ace ne sence eeee 883
INCCESSIONS GUTIN Pyth Csy CAN. e1 cis) sae eine wie cee ial acisteinerete cis siceroe eicieis cie\nie oslo soaeeimiscee 470
ANON lies AG Gates ee eee eaten ees i hee et Ce a eens see Sa Rate ECe one 12583
Deduct loss (by exchange, death, and returning of animals) ........-..-.-........--------- 353
Onshandesnin es 308 G0 Se aac sence oe on See eee oi ee eee See eee ae Soe seer eeeee 1, 000
Respectfully submitted.
Mr. S. P. LAnaiey,
FranK Baker, Superintendent.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
APPENDIX V.
REPORT OF THE WORK OF THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY FOR
THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1903.
Str: The kinds and amounts of the Observatory property are approximately as
follows:
Biildiness ease et as Sa ee $6, 300
ASpparatus 22) tees. c kee Ace tess See ee eee eee in 36, 900
ilbrary/andirecords$=2 22.222 Sst saeco eames eee ae ne EE eee ee 6, 460
Total on 2 Sac noes tok ' ots ia cates See ee 49, 660
During the past year the acquisitions of property of the kind just enumerated have —
been as follows:
(a) Apparatus.—Astronomical and physical apparatus has been purchased at an
expenditure of $3,€00, the chief pieces so procured being in connection with the
installation of a long-focus horizontal reflecting telescope of 20 inches aperature and ~
140 feet focus.
(b) Library and records.—The usual periodicals have been continued and additional
ooks of reference have been purchased, while 184 volumes of periodicals and books
of reference have been bound. There has been expended for these several purposes
$460, of which sum $254.50 was chargeable to the appropriation for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1902.
No repairs of buildings worthy of note have been made during the year, but the
Observatory inclosure was enlarged for the better accommodation of the great hori-
zontal telescope by removing 39 feet at the western end of the south fence to a posi-
tion 20 feet to the south.
No noteworthy losses of property have occurred.
THe Work OF THE OBSERVATORY.
For convenience the work of the Observatory will be considered under three heads,
as follows:
1. Publications and miscellaneous matters.
2. The new horizontal telescope and other apparatus.
3. Investigations relating to the atmospheric absorption and to the solar constant
of radiation.
1. Publications and miscellaneous matters.
Eclipse report.—A report of the expedition to Wadesboro, N. C., to observe the
total solar eclipse of 1900 has been greatly delayed, but is now complete and in the
hands of the printer, and it is expected will be distributed in the coming fiscal year.
It will contain numerous plates illustrative of the work of the expedition and espe-
-cially of the photography of the inner coronal region with the 135-foot focus lens, by
Mr. Smillie.
Miscellaneous work.—The Observatory staff has continued, as heretofore, to furnish
76
PLATE III.
2 Shoo) ss
1a Pipe. Stirring Tibe for Coelosrar
Lhe Astrophysteal Observatory
iathsoniat Lastitut/ora.
Mashington D.C.
c 7 Feb. 28. (903
ube Section |
ND VIEW.
Note :- Figures ak
Where tube is not
portion ; the openit
the tube section, f
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EE
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abe we be dosble © conceive: Inner ube 24° dum.
Make in sections about 5-0" long telescoped to~
sec~
et
Detail of Tube Section Tak
ELEVATION.
Note - Figures at joints i to diem of diaphragm openings.
Where tube js nok cylindrical figures refer te diam of circular
rhion; the opening etl diaphragm following the contour of
the tube section, though propertionately smaller.
Sections ot a.c.e.g.i.
- pa a
Doves
". a {
timate # aidlnh oft adet - _othit lenoas gd?
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. Ch
occasional assistance in matters of a physical or astronomical nature connected with
the Institution. Among experimental undertakings of this kind may be mentioned
the rough measurement of the absorption of certain substances for infra-red radia-
tions, made at the request of some correspondents of the Institution.
Personnel.—No changes have been made in the permanent staff of the Observatory.
Doctor Gilbert completed his temporary services on August 15, 1902, and Dr. J. R.
Benton filled a temporary appointment from September 16, 1902, to November 30,
1902.
2. The new horizontal telescope and other apparatus.
Referring to my report of last year, it will be recalled that preliminary attempts
had been made to measure the absorption of the gases of the solar envelope by bolo-
graphic study of an enlarged solar image, and that it was your intention to continue
the work so as to include the bolographic study of sunspot spectra, but that these
researches were temporarily laid aside till a more suitable arrangement for forming
and guiding the solar image could be obtained. Much study and experiment
has been devoted to this matter in the past year, and as a result a horizontal reflect-
ing telescope of 20 inches aperture and 140 feet focus has been obtained, and pro-
vided with a tube in which the air can be thoroughly stirred to overcome ‘‘boiling,”’
in accordance with the experiments reported last year. To ‘‘feed’’ this horizontal
telescope a modification of the coelostat has been devised which is believed to be
before untried, and which renders this simple instrument so well adapted for
the purpose of solar research that it is hoped that the device will approve itself
elsewhere.
A large instrument of this type has been constructed by the J. A. Brashear Com-
pany, of Allegheny, Pa., and will form a part of the Astrophysical Observatory
exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904. All the above
- apparatus, including the coelostat, long-focus mirror, tube and air-stirring devices,
and three great piers for the coelostat, concave mirror, and bolometric apparatus for
the study of the image, are now in use. The accompanying illustration, Pl. IV,
shows the great coelostat and a portion of the tube which incloses the beam from
the coelostat to the concave mirror, 55 feet north, and thence south and under the
coelostat to the plane of the focal image. It will be noted by the reader that the
beam is reflected in the plane of the meridian from the first plane mirror mounted
on a polar axis which turns half as fast as the earth, and that a second reflection
occurs at the surface of a second plane mirror, adjustable about two horizontal axes,
and also capable of moving bodily, by means of tracks, east and west and north and
south. Thus the second mirror can receive the beam at any hour of any day of the
year, and reflect it in any desired direction. In practice a nearly horizontal and
northerly direction is chosen.
Pl. IIT is from the working drawing of the tube, which is an acute V in general
shape, with alonger branch of circular cross section extending from the concave
mirror on the northern pier to the focus, 140 feet distant on the southern, and with
a shorter branch uniting with the longer at its northern end, but proceeding south-
ward and inclined upward at an angle of 6° and ending at the coelostat, 55 feet dis-
tant. This shorter branch is circular at its northern end, but broadens out to an
elliptical cross section, asshown, in order to inclose the beam for the east and west
positions of the second coelostat mirror. Both branches of the tube are of galvanized
iron, with two walls separated by an air space 1} inches thick all around. The inner
tube is blackened and is provided with diaphragms.
In Plate III is also shown the air ducts which are employed for stirring in the great
tube. Starting from the blowing engine, which is a 29-inch circular fan blower, with
direct-connected 23-horsepower electric motor, making 700 revolutions per minute,
the blast is carried by a 20-inch main to a point near the middle of the tube, where
78 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
the air duct branches into two 14-inch tubes, which proceed north and south respec-
tively and communicate by 5-inch pipes to the interior of telescope tube. At points
intermediate with these other 5-inch pipes lead out of the telescope tube and thence
by return mains to the suction end of the blower, and thus the same air is continually
being churned about through the entire system.
To prevent the blowing engine and the city traffic from communicating prejudicial
tremors to the apparatus, three deep and massive piers have been constructed, sup-
orting respectively the coelostat, the long-focus concave mirr or, and the spectro-
bolometric apparatus used to investigate the solar image. Each pier is contained in
a pit originally 12 feet square and 10 feet deep, but supported by retaining walls of
grouting | foot thick, so as finally to leave a cubical-shaped pit 10 feet onaside. At
the bottom is a layer of sand 2 feet deep, and on this a base of grouting 2 feet thick
and 9 feet square, supporting the brick pier, which is built to the surface of the
ground 7 feet square, with 18-inch walls on the four sides and a 13-inch wall north
and south through the center. Over all is the capstone, 8 feet north and south, 7
feet east and west, and 7 inches thick. In the case of the coelostat pier a two-walled
brick superstructure is carried up to the top of the horizontal tube to support the
base plate of the coelostat. In spite of all these precautions I regret to report that
the disturbance from passing traffic and even distant railroad trains has not been suf-
ficiently eliminated, and requires further measures to be taken to overcome the
almost unconquerable difficulties of the site.
Owing to prolonged cloudy weather, the apparatus had not been fully tried between
the time of its installation, about June 1, and the close of the period covered by this
report, but, so far as preliminary experiments have shown, the whole promises to be
a valuable equipment if the tremors due to the site can be corrected.
The sensitive galvanometer.—Referring to portions of my reports of preceding years
describing the construction and installation of a highly sensitive galvanometer, I
regret that attention has been diverted this year to other matters so completely that
comparatively little work has been done with it. In the fall of last year an appa-
ratus was arranged to measure the heating effect of the brighter stars by its aid, but
unfortunately communication with the mercurial air pump had so quickly blackened
the silvered galyanometer mirrors that this, together with their almost microscopic
size, made it impossible to read the galvanometer by artificial light. After several
trials numerous mirrors were platinized by electrical discharge in vacuo and the gal-
yvanometer was provided with mirrors of this kind, but immediately after the experi-
ments were discontinued to take up work on the provision of the great horizontal
telescope. It is hoped to provide for the use of this special galvanometer in spectrum
work on the solar image, especially in connection with sun spots, and perhaps upon
the heat of the stars.
3. Investigations relating to the solar constant of radiation.
Referring to my last year’s report, the bolographic measurements of atmospheric
absorption then described have been continued chiefly in the hands of the junior
assistant, Mr. Fowle, with improved arrangements and with more complete and
exact results. In connection with them the absorption of the radiation in all parts
of the apparatus has been determined frequently, and measures of the total solar
radiation by the actinometer or pyrheliometer have been made also. From these
several kinds of data the solar constant of radiation, or rate of receipt of solar energy
at the outer limit of our atmosphere, has been computed for a number of the best
days.
Improvement of bolographs.—Betore giving these values, I invite attention to Plate
V, which shows three superposed energy curves of the prismatic solar spectrum.
Such bolographic curves are now obtained covering the region of spectrum from
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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19
wave length 0.375 to wave length 2.5 in about twenty-five minutes of time. This
region extends from beyond the line ‘“‘L,”’ or farther than the eye can see without
special means in the ultra violet, through the whole visible spectrum, and on through
the visible but very intense upper infra-red spectrum as far as glass is transparent.
It includes about ;°°°, of the solar radiation which reaches the earth’s surface, and
so far as experiment has shown, within 1 and 2 per cent of all that reaches the outer
layers of the earth’s atmosphere lies within this spectral region.
It is only since January, 1903, that the apparatus has been so far perfected as to
include in the regular bolographic work the important portion lying between 0.375/4
and 0.47, and in Plate V readers may see for the first time, as the bolometer recog-
nizes them, the general features of the violet solar spectrum so familiar in photo-
graphic spectra. It is, of course, impossible to show the finer details when the bolom-
eter passes through the whole visible and upper infra-red spectrum in less time
than was occupied in passing from through a fourth of the upper infra-red alone in
preparing the detailed map published in 1900; but nevertheless in a rough compar-
ison of three curves it was seen that as many as 325 of the Fraunhofer lines were
discriminated by the bolometer as it passed over them thus rapidly. As remarked
last year, scarcely any ‘‘ dritt’’ of the galvanometer is now experienced, and, indeed,
it is sometimes possible to take bolographs for a month without readjusting the
bolometric circuit in any way. This excellent behavior is principally due to the
improved rheostat and to the 16-coil type of galvanometer, both of which were men-
tioned on page 87 of last year’s report.
Transmission of the atmosphere.—From series of such bolographs as are described at
page 89 in my last year’s report, coefficients of transmission of the atmosphere are
obtained. It is now customary to compute them for more than 30 points in the
spectrum between wave lengths 0.37 “ and 2.5 yu, of which 24 are at wave lengths
where there are no prominent atmospheric bands and the others within such bands.
The reduced observations take such a form that they may be graphically platted as
straight lines whose angle of inclination is a measure of the transmission coefficient
of the air at the given wave length. It is the exactness with which the reduced
observations from the bolograph fall upon such straight lines which furnishes the
principal criterion of their value. To show how close this agreement is on the best
days, I invite attention to Plate VI, which gives for several wave lengths the reduc-
tions of the observations of March 25 and 26, 1903, respectively. Ordinates are
logarithms of heights of the bolographic curves at the selected wave lengths and
abscissee are air masses.
The circles represent observations of March 25 and crosses those of March 26.
Lines I and II are for a wave length of 1.027 uw; Ill and IV at 0.656 4; V and VI at
0.468 4, and VII and VIII at 0.395 u. On nearly all days of observation it is found
that the forenoons yield a less regular series than the afternoons, and it appears as if
the air became clearer and clearer till a little after noon and then remained substan
tially unchanged on the best days till4 or5 o’clock p. m. It is therefore the practice
here to use only afternoon observations in determining atmospheric transmission,
The forenoon observations are distinguished in Plate VI by being connected by dotted
lines.
Notable decrease in the transparency of the air in the present calendar year.—From
numerous determinations of the transmission of the air for solar radiations, a
striking diminution of the transmission has been noted in the best days of this year
as compared with last year. To illustrate this difference I give the following table:
80 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
TABLE |.—Coefficients of atmospheric transmission for radiation from zenith sun.
Wiener pt lies a saa aes aeee | 0.40 | 0.45 | 0.50 | 0.60 | 0.70 | 0.80 | 0.90 | 1.00 | 1.20} 1.60 | 2.00
Date. Transmission coefficients for unit air mass.
1901. |
Octobe rope ss see ee ees Lee ees Ihren 0.81 {0.82 (0.89 0.94 |...... 0.95 0.96 0.95 |......
November 2): 522. ct.ahes 2 tho enna sessleeeee= oS) flecosss . 87 ODwyellssheee 94 . 95 94: \|) eee
1902. |
Mar Ch 2 le 5 2 Stet ces eee ee | Seer Be ayeeee 1 ABS] BOI | 5Ge wile eta EPS ys eee eve 87: L: eee
May Stich es ene pe ge ee | ae | Pe8e Woz Weta) 208" |ese.5- A951 | 194) soe Oil ee eee
September 11 ........ Torte aie Aeon oe .80 | .78 | 87 | .89 0.92 | 92° | .94 | 93).
(O Yet Xo) ooh ht ae eee ee ee ee oe el ee eee . 70 78 34 87 . 89 - 90 91 93) . Jeicetets
GTO DENA ene ae toes ae ee mee eo serra Seepoee 73 78 . 86 89 90 | .91 93 .96 | 0.94
Octobersl Gress teste ce oe eas [le 0) 1] SSH) SU | GSB lIoetexe 286 2\[0 901.1 |e 29 lten eee
OCOD ELIZ Sees Sorte pee oe Se eee ooh CEO REDE Se: lacie) GBs Sets!) Se |] 665) |jgseec.
INOVEMDEr WD = wes Roe oo oe tee ses cee NR re (Ey aie) 83 89 91 92 93 95 96
1903. | |
Hebrianvel Qs seseee eee eee O67. {0645 |. 566) Wl) 72) |e76n 80) 83a eso SomueoO 92
LEO ADEN 925) eran SoenaepooEaaooe .48 | .60) | /66 | 168 | 774 9) 83) | 388 90) 93193 92
Dlarchistes ee eae eee aaa =40)°| ©48° | 266) | 73> eto) | t84le nz SO) neo De OGiee meCE
Mareh 25 -<ssse.eseoceece ES ae 47 |..50-|..57 | (66° |.72" N76 |, 279) | iene) tgank | eee en ene
Marchr26trs f: sitet nes ss.cene here .52 | .58 | .62 | .68 | .77 | .80 | .81 | .83 | .85 | .89 90
IN DOUG fee 5 A RR AMOR oe oe 55. 60) ||| 369° |) 77 180) |) 82) I) $871) 390104" tl Omelet
ANDI OR sates ae an) ek a .397) <52 | 156 | 664 | 571” | 274. 276 || 278 3.825) ses eienes
ATDT NOOR aye: ee ee a ere 5o0:| 46) 249 565.) 266] are: || S76n era |e 80 AlerSomntneS 90
Tsao oe ee eee eee Be .42 | .60 | .66 | .69 |.77 | .82.|.85 | .86 | .88 | .89 86
Generilnean|. <ees ee el ee |....-.| .700 | .730 | .808 | .847 | .856 | .884 | .903 | .920| .919
INA Cyt IEDs oon none ccnndeeas anaale dee a: | bncect | .765 | .769 | .857 | .897 | .910 | .921 | .933 | .930 | .950
Menino tel G0See ee aaa aes | 484 | .557 | .627 | .692 | .753 | .797 | .825 | .847 | .874 | .909 | .912
Percentage difference between | |
mean of 1903 and that of iO le toss [se | 20. | 10° | 13 \a2" || 10,47) 884 I ea5e| esau eee
|
It is to be regretted that the earlier work did not reach up so far in the violet as
we now observe, but the trend of the observations makes it appear that the trans-
parency of the air for the extreme visible violet rays may be 30 per cent less than
last year, and that the transparency for the visible and infra-red spectrum as a whole
has diminished by 10 per cent. If this change is widespread it should be likely to
influence climate, and that it is widespread the falling off of actinometric observa-
tions both in this country and Europe, as reported by several observers, would seem
to indicate.
Selective atmospheric absorption.—Referring to fig. 3, page 89, of my last year’s report,
the depression at a wave length of 0.58 in the curve there shown would appear less
marked in the more recent results, owing to the great decrease in transparency for
the blue and violet rays; but nearly all recent work gives evidence of bands of dimin-
ished atmospheric transmission at wave lengths 0.43, 0.484, and 0.58.
Interesting results have been obtained in respect to the atmospheric transmission
within the great bands of water vapor and oxygen, and it has been found, in con-
firmation of the accuracy of the observations, and especially of the exponential
formula employed in reducing them, that the values of transmission coefficients
within the water-vapor bands of the infra-red are such as would very nearly obliter-
ate these bands from an energy-spectrum curve corrected to represent the distribution
of solar radiation in the spectrum outside the earth’s atmosphere.
Actinometric and pyrheliometric observations.—In the autumn of 1902 an alcohol acti-
Smithsonian Report, 1903.
027
OvT
LocaritHms oF GALVANOMETER DEFLECTIONS.
PLATE VI.
097
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IA
TRANSPARENCY OF THE ATMOSPHERE FROM BOLOGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS,
Smithsonian Report, 1903. ; PLATE VII.
Inrensity oF RADIATION.
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DISTRIBUTION OF RADIATION IN THE NORMAL SOLAR SPECTRUM OUTSIDE THE EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 81
nometer of M. Crova’s well-known design, and constructed under M. Crova’s personal
direction, was received at the Observatory. Thisis a secondary type of instrument,
requiring standardization by comparison with some other radiation-measuring instru-
ment whose constants can be determined. ‘Such an assumed standard was con-
structed here by inclosing the cylindrical bulb of a mercury thermometer in a flat
round box of very thin copper filled with mercury, nickeled on the back and sides,
blackened with platinum deposit in front, and situated in the center of a much larger
hollow, thick-walled wooden sphere coated with bright tin foil within, and provided
with a measured aperture opposite the front of the copper box, to which the solar
beam was led through a diaphragmed blackened tube. Such an instrument is essen-
tially the pyrheliometer of Pouillet, as advantageously modified by Tyndall by the
employment of mercury instead of water, but is rendered still more quick in its action
by the use of copper instead of the iron employed by Tyndall, and partakes somewhat
of the character of a perfect absorber or ‘“‘black body,’’ because inclosed in the tin-
foil coated hollow sphere. The water equivalent of the instrument was determined
by repeated calorimetric measurements. In use it has apparently worked perfectly,
responding so quickly to the heating of the solar rays that the rise of temperature in
the first 20 seconds after exposure is within two or three hundredths of a degree as
great as in the following 20-second intervals.
Nevertheless there is a doubt as to the accuracy of this and, as 1 think, of all
instruments thus far used to measure the total solar radiation, from the fact that they
one and all receive the beam upon a front surface, which must necessarily get warmer
than the rear portion of the instrument, where the rise of temperature is observed,
and hence must lose a portion of the heat by a greater convection and radiation than
that which takes place after insolation has ceased. Thusa portion of the heat always
escapes measurement, and there is no ready way of knowing what its amount is. It
has been sought to devise here some type of standard pyrheliometer to which this
objection does not apply, and it is believed that such an instrument has been found,
although its construction is not yet complete. In principle it depends on receiving
the radiations within a hollow chamber or ‘‘ black body’? and carrying away the
heat by a continuous current of liquid, and the instrument, if successful, can be
employed as a continuous self-recording pyrheliometer.
Meanwhile repeated comparisons have made it sure that both the Crova actinom-
eterand the mercury pyrheliometer give readings proportional to the solar radiation,
though there still remains some doubt as to the absolute magnitudes. Accordingly
one or both of these instruments haye been read on days when the transmission of
the air has been determined, and these two kinds of data have been employed to
compute the solar constant of radiation or rate of receipt of solar radiation outside
the earth’s atmosphere.
THE SOLAR CONSTANT.
This important quantity has been studied by the method you have devised and
described in the report of the Mount Whitney Expedition, and in a recent article in
the Astrophysical Journal for March, 1903. As employed here the method consists
in producing bolographs of the solar spectrum, correcting the form of these for instru-
mental absorption, and again for atmospheric absorption, and then multiplying the
rate of receipt of solar radiation at the earth’s surface, as measured by the actinome-
ter, by the ratio of the areas included under the bolographic curves, corrected for
atmospheric absorption and uncorrected, respectively.
The work here has been more in the way of developing the method of study and
obtaining experience in its use than in the expectation of measuring with certainty
the solar constant itself, for (as you have elsewhere observed ), whereas it is in other
kinds of observation almost a certainty that the mean of a series of observations is
more trustworthy than any single one, here a single observation made without inter-
sm 1903———6
82 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
vening absorption would outweigh any number requiring correction for atmospheric
absorption, and the values observed through smallest air masses are the most trust-
worthy. It follows that values obtained ata low altitude like that of Washington are
necessarily too small, owing to the difficulty of allowing with accuracy for the absorp-
tion of the great thickness of air above the observer.
There has been incorporated in the act appropriating for the support of the Astro-
physical Observatory during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1904, a provision for
high-altitude observations. In anticipation it may be said that apparatus for that
purpose has been ordered. ;
Although, therefore, uncertainty attaches to the actual yalues determined here
and to be given below, still if is probable that they are relatively comparable among
themselves when we consider the apparent accuracy both of the observations and
the exponential formula used in reducing them, as illustrated in Plate VI, and the
fact that the application of coefficients of atmospheric transmission determined simi-
larly would practically obliterate the great selective absorption bands in computing
the form of the solar energy curve outside the atmosphere.
REDUCED OBSERVATIONS OF THE SOLAR RADIATION CONSTANT.
In the following table will be found such computations of the solar constant as
were made up to July 1, 1903. The bolographs on which they depend extend for
the most part from 0.375 4c to 2.5 4, and thus include practically all the solar radia-
tion which reaches the earth’s surface.
A correction of about 1 per cent has been added, representing the best estimate
which could be made of the excess of energy beyond these limits outside the earth’s
atmosphere. All the results depend on the constant of the pyrheliometer, and may
therefore be subject to multiplication by a constant factor to be subsequently deter-
mined. Comparing the values obtained with those which you have given in the
Mount Whitney report of 3 calories, it will be seen that they are about 25 per cent
smaller, and that the difference does not appear to depend on the transmission
coefficients, but rather seems chiefly due to a difference in actinometry.
Thus you have stated the usual actinometer reading at Allegheny, Pa., for clear
blue sky at 1.7 calories,” while the very highest value obtained here is 1.44 calories.
Much lower yalues are reported from recent observations of Mr. Kimball, of the
United States Weather Bureau, at Asheville, N. C., and at Washington, so that on
the whole the question of absolute actinometry seems a very open one.
Turning next to the relative values of the solar constant, it is seen that there is
generally good agreement of the results prior to March 26, 1908, and that since that
date there has been a decrease of about 10 per cent in the computed constant. No
reason for this is known, as some of the best observations were before and others
since March 25, those of February 19, March 25, March 26, and April 29 being con-
sidered to have most weight. February 25 was a most extraordinary day as regards
absence of water vapor absorption. Never since bolographs have been taken here
have the great infra-red water-vapor bands g@ Y QO been observed so feeble as on
February 19.
« The observations of October, 1902, which reached only to 0.48u, have been cor-
rected by means of later work and are therefore of less weight.
> Report of the Mount Whitney Expedition, p. 32.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 83
TABLE 2.— Values of the solar constant of radiation from bolographic studies at
Washington.
Calories per square
aan || gee
Date. ae A ir Ase c a te ae i
: Westy, |r| WA they) cuits) Aop mean
earth’s SUS
suntace: atmos- of sun.
phere
1902. A. m. Cal. Cal.
October Oke ase i seee aos aes Sess Soe eee eee eee 0 06 1.425 1.42 2.20 2.19
October Oi Sasssec weiss Woe oe cclowa eer ercer as prey meter eres i] “Bul 1. 624 1. 44 PAPAL Dead)
October 22 see ose cc asics oe eee tebe eee Sree cnseieee eeee 3 Ol) 2.415 1.30 2.18 2.16
1903. |
JOtE) PADDR AI Sa eee eee Sk ete eee, (a Aan AE ee ele Pam il XOuL 1. 642 1°35 9. 34 2.28
OR eres oi Sad ore Reo Seen eae a See ere Die) 2.003 1.20 AS 225
IMac hiyare sess eee erate cise a ast ere eae ce ie eras 0) (59 | 15.429 1.34 Oye at | 2.26
War Clg ese tiscicters seus sae CORSE ce oe eS cee 2 Ol} 1.454 1.19 2.29 OF ONT
WENO NOW eaeoacasee sane beceenaesae sae sthiabmlecicgeee ss |} 1 57] 1.4388 1.16 2A |} 2.10
ID) Cees eat ere Se eRe pee As an scree ae eas 259) | e764 1.05 2.09 | 2.07
PMU ee Beare ees cae Uoosene 2 at -CU ee inp See 1 2 45 | 1.468 1.19 1.97 1.99
PAIS elec e aisteicte east <is ae A ecine ee och eee ee ele 07 1.145 1.29 2. 23 Deo
PAID TUDO Sees 2o amis selene « Socie Sem aoe = sin ee oc eee aaa | 2 26 1.308 1.05 1.93 | 1.97
Generalimean sseeete wc ccc oo sac fect eines | See eras asl eae eects eee Seine ere 2.167
Mean of results prior to March 26, 1903....-..-......: [ieee atts Se arraree ic Sea 2.229
Meanrofimesilltsiatier Marchi26. LO0Ssesces-2 -see- aeeeleeee sees saemeeee |Eses Somers Sieieersice crete 2.080
THE FORM OF THE SOLAR-ENERGY CURVE OUTSIDE THE ATMOSPHERE AND THE INFERRED
TEMPERATURE OF THE SUN.
Plate VII includes a number of curves which represent on the normal wave-length
scale the distribution of energy in the solar spectrum outside the earth’s atmosphere.
They are computed from prismatic energy curyes by aid of the coefficients of instru-
mental and atmospheric absorption and the known dispersion of the prism. It will
be seen that these recent studies indicate the position of the maximum ordinate at a
wave length of about 0.49 4, or between green and blue of the spectrum, and that
there is a fairly close agreement between the different days’ work. The principal
differences occur in the blue and violet spectrum, and are to some extent caused by
the rapid deterioration of the reflecting power of the silvered surfaces in this region,
which renders very frequent measurements of instrumental absorption necessary, and
even then hardly sufficient.
Paschen and gthers have established an empirical equation connecting the absolute
temperature 7’ with the wave length of maximum energy A,,,,,. Which is as follows:
Xd T=CONSTANT.
max
The constant in this equation has been determined by Paschen, Lummer,
Pringsheim, and others, to be about 2,900 for an ‘‘absolutely black body,’ or per-
fect radiator, and ranging as low as about 2,600 for bright platinum. Using the
former value, we may say that it appears that the radiation of the solar beam outside
the earth’s atmosphere has its maximum energy at the same wave length as a perfect
radiator of the assumed temperature of 5,920° absolute.
SUMMARY.
The operations of the year have consisted chiefly: First, in the provision and suc-
cessful installation of a horizontal reflecting telescope of 20 inches aperture and 140
84 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
feet focus, fed by a new form of two-mirror coelostat, and employed with a provision
for ‘‘churning’’ the air on the path of the beam. This instrumental equipment is to
be used for bolographic study of the solar image, and especially sun-spot energy
spectra and the absorption of the solar envelope. Second, in the continuation, with
improved bolographic apparatus, of studies of the solar-energy spectrum and the
absorption of radiation in the atmosphere.
As the most notable result of the studies of atmospheric absorption, it appears that
the average transmission of the air of Washington for all wave lengths for the best
days of 1902-3 has been as much as 10 per cent less than for the best days of 1901-2,
while the decrease of transparency in the violet is very much greater. There is no
evidence that this remarkable decrease is due to water vapor. Indeed, it has been
well observed on the very driest days.
Inquiries have been made of the Observatory as to whether the blight of the wheat
and barley crops could be attributed to any decrease in the ultraviolet radiation of
the sun, but the Observatory was able only to state the fact that such a decrease had
been observed.
It is probable that something like this affected the actinometric observations
recorded by Croya in the years following the great eruption of Krakatoa, though
whether the smaller one of Mont Pelee can be associated with it is uncertain. There
is no evidence yet obtainable of how general this absorption is at different parts of
the globe, but it is, perhaps, the most notable single result of our- past year’s experi-
ments, and is eminently in the line of the work you have anticipated for the Astro-
physical Observatory, in furnishing data of importanée to the national interests in
agriculture, and in estimating the influences which may affect past and coming
harvests.
Respectfully submitted.
C: G. ABBOT,
Aid, Acting in Charge Astrophysical Observatory.
Mr. S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
APpprEnpIx VI.
REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.
Str: I have the honor to present the report on the operations of the library of the
Smithsonian Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1903.
In the following table is shown the number of volumes, parts of volumes, pam-
phlets, and charts recorded in the accession books of the Smithsonian deposit, Library
of Congress:
Quarto |Octavoor) ,,
or larger.| smaller. Total.
“Wisiltaven Sau Beech eee oe oe et eee ek Ae ee ACR eC Nye e 464 1, 384 | 1, 848
At OTAV.O IIIT OSES eae a ets Sere eee ee as ee Ree 14, 288 6, 994 | 21, 282
HBV EUI CLS eee Re crac een Sas ne te oA rs ee ae Ff 500 3, 304 | 3, 804
(CLITA IO SS SSB ata Cs ea ee ES Peer are ee ee eee eer ao Joaccccesecllbcoseoceac 379
ARO tall peer Senne as o2 BRE cp sca al) s SR aga Meee ah ge arc R See ee Neer es eee eo be 27,313
The accession numbers run from 445524 to 452465.
A small number of these publications are assigned temporarily to the library here
for the use of the staff of the Institution and Museum, the greater quantity being
sent direct to the Library of Congress.
These sendings required about 200 boxes and 20 bags and packages, and are esti-
mated to have amounted to the equivalent of 9,200 octavo volumes. The publi-
cations sent in this way are independent of those transmitted by the Bureau of
International Exchanges, and do not include public documents presented to the
Smithsonian Institution, which are sent to the Library of Congress without stamping,
credit there being given to the country sending.
For several years prior to the removal of the Library of Congress to its new build-
ing a large number of the scientific series bearing upon the work of the Institution
were retained, owing to the crowded condition of the Library of Congress in its old
quarters at the Capitol. During the past year it has been found possible to get these
out, have them taken off the Museum record, and checked on the accession book
and sent to the Library of Congress. These sets, series, and volumes were forwarded
in 167 boxes, estimated to contain about 6,680 octayo volumes, making a total sending
to the Library of Congress for the year of about 15,880 volumes.
The libraries of the Secretary, Office, and Astrophysical Observatory have received
during the year 409 volumes, pamphlets, and charts and 1,625 parts of volumes,
making a total of 2,034, and a grand total, including books for the Smithsonian
deposit, of 29,347. The serial publications entered on the card catalogue number
24,630. ;
85
86 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
The universities at the following places have sent inaugural dissertations and aca-
demic publications:
J
Baltimore (Johns Hop- Ithaca (Cornell). St. Petersburg.
kins). Jena. Strasburg.
Basel. Kazan. Toronto.
Berlin. Konigsberg. Toulouse.
Breslau. Leipzig. Utrecht.
Erlangen. Marburg. Vienna.
Freiburg. Oxford. Washington, D. C. (Cath-
Halle a Saal. Philadelphia ( University of olic University) .
Heidelberg. Pennsylvania). Zurich.
Helsingfors. Rostock.
Owing to the large number of series and parts of sets culled from the Museum
library and sent to the Library of Congress for the Smithsonian deposit during the
year the Office has been occupied with the checking off and making memoranda for
the completing of these sets. While this has taken a great deal of time, the policy
carried on from year to year of increasing the library by exchange has been con-
tinued, and though, for the above reason, there is quite a decrease in the number of
letters written for new exchanges and for completing series already in the library,
the total reached 714. Two hundred and sixty-five periodicals were added to the
receipts and 239 defective series were either completed or partly completed, depend-
ing upon the publisher’s ability to supply the numbers needed. Where certain
numbers of periodicals are reported as missing, a request that they be supplied is
made on a postal card and corresponding cards are sent in acknowledgment of
receipts. During the year 654 numbers were asked for and 424 supplied.
The books in the reference room containing the proceedings and transactions of
the learned societies have been taken from the shelves and rearranged in more sys-
tematic order. These books have been consulted by members of the staff of the
Institution as well as by others. In the reading room the additional shelving has
allowed a better arrangement of the bound volumes of periodicals. Two thousand
seven hundred and forty-seven periodicals were taken out for consultation. No
additional libraries have been added to the list and those maintained in the Institu-
tion are the Secretary’s library, Office library, and the Employee’s library. The
sectional libraries remain as before, i. e., A2rodromics, International Exchange, and
Law Reference.
The sectional library of the Astrophysical Observatory was given a thorough over-
hauling and many volumes belonging to the Smithsonian deposit not being needed
for use there were sent to the Library of Congress. As special help was provided,
many of the missing parts of publications were noted and ordered, and at the close
of the year most of these had been received. The number of volumes bound
was 184.
The section of the library devoted to books of a popular nature for the use of the
employees has been used more than ever. The success of the sending of a number
of books to the Zoological Park once a month has more than repaid the trouble taken,
and 575 books were sent out in the course of the year. There are now 1,413 volumes
on the shelves of the library and 2,946 books were borrowed during the year; 100
magazines were bound and 43 new books added to the collection.
In the reading room, cataloguing room, and entry to the employees’ lbrary open
shelving has been put up, in addition to that which was already in these places,
giving room for expanding and for a better arrangement of the collections of books.
Gen. John Watts de Peyster has continued to add to his already large collection of
books and pamphlets relating to Napoleon Bonaparte, and through his munificence
many rare yolumes have come to enrich the library of the Smithsonian Institution.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 87
Besides these books, a collection of works on gypsies, a collection of dictionaries and
encyclopedias, together with several portraits, pictures, and paintings are included
in his gifts. Many of the dictionaries and encyclopedias are very rare and can not
now be duplicated.
At the close of last year, the extension of the Parthenon frieze in the art room was
under consideration, and during August and September very good casts of this frieze
of about the right height were obtained and placed upon the walls.
The collection of books on art and kindred subjects now in the art room has
received a valuable addition from Dr. E. A. Schwarz, who presented a number of art
publications. It is hoped that in the near future time will be found for the card
cataloguing of this collection, as well as many other works which are already there.
As Congress failed to appropriate money for the representation of the United States
on the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, the Smithsonian Institution
again carried on the work, though with asum quite insufficient for the needs and
the necessary help. A larger amount has been allotted for the coming year, which
will enable the Institution to do the work more thoroughly, and will also make it
possible to fill in the gaps left in the reference to the literature of 1901. The follow-
ing references were furnished to the central bureau:
Nerteratumero tel Oily se Sse tS Aes ee ee ye oe ee eee ame Dy oy tte ge ed SL 6, 150
leTterature Ol MOOD AAs estes Sse et ees eae ee eh ety eg kes i 8, 330
"SRG Ea ee ae ie cA ee Eh tras ea Seng Oe sea ile Much as (SE ee eee 14, 480
The subscription account of the catalogue within the United States is as follows:
Rotalenuniber ot subscriptions torcomplete sets assess = sees eee eee ene see 62
Motalmnumberiotsulbseriphons: toypartial setseseee ss oss see a= soe eee ee ean 37
Toa ess eres een see eee ate eer Ba Se ne ee a eae hs aaa Pea a Ae ee 99
The following volumes of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature of
1901 have been received and distributed: Botany, Part 1; Chemistry, Part I;
Mechanics; Physics, Part 1; Meteorology; Physiology, Part 1; Mathematics; Astron-
omy; Bacteriology; Physics, Part Il; Mineralogy; Geology; Geography; and List of
Journals.
The subscription price for these yolumes represent a total of $3,926.82. Out of
this sum $2,556.52 had been received up to June 30, 1903.
The United States National Museum library has been increased during the past
year by two important gifts—the E. A. Schwarz collection of books, relating to Amer-
ican Coleoptera, and the W. H. Dall collection of books, bearing on recent and fossil
mollusks. The Schwarz Library is one that was built up by Doctor Schwarz and
G. G. Hubbard while carrying on their studies, and is intended to form an accessory
to their collection of insects which was presented to the Museum some years ago.
Doctor Dall, as a collaborator in the Museum, has brought together, in connection
with his studies on the collection of mollusks in the United States National Museum,
a collection of books which comprises about 1,600 bound yolumes and about 2,000
pamphlets. In connection with this library Doctor Dall also presents a card cata-
logue covering the literature of Conchology, recent and fossil, up to about 1860. He
purchased from the executors of Mons. G. P. Deshayes, paleontologist, the original
cards, numbering about 190,000. Doctor Dall obtained this catalogue some twenty-
five years ago, and during the time it was in his possession he added materially to the
number of cards relating to the genera of mollusks, though the series relating to
species remains much as Monsieur Deshayes left it.
During the latter part of last summer the United States National Museum Library
was closed to the public for the purpose of rearranging the books and sorting many
into their proper place and series. This had been impossible during the last few
8&8 2 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
years, owing to tne crowded condition; but within the past year the additional gal-
leries provided haye been turned over, thus giving the space needed for this pur-
pose. All the shelves have been gone over, the books taken down and placed in
the classification, making them more accessible, and a large number belonging to
the Smithsonian deposit were separated from the Museum books and sent over
to the Smithsonian Institution for checking preparatory to their being transmitted
to the Library of Congress. ~
Three special collections of books in the library have been provided with book-
plates—i. e., the Goode Library, the Schwarz Library, and the Dall Library.
The Museum library now contains 19,161 bound volumes and 32,063 unbound
papers. The additions during the year consisted of 3,161 books, 3,260 pamphlets,
and 303 parts of volumes. There were catalogued 916 books, of which 76 belonged
to the Smithsonian deposit; 1,571 pamphlets, of which 18 belonged to the Smith-
sonian deposit, and 9,838 parts of periodicals, of which 2,274 belonged to the
Smithsonian deposit.
‘Three thousand three hundred and sixteen cards were added to the Authors’
Catalogue. These numbers do not include 4,614 cards for books and pamphlets
recatalogued, and also do not include any of the books in the Dall library, but do
include a number of those in the Schwarz library.
The number of books, pamphlets, and periodicals borrowed from the general
library amounted to 23,583, including 4,833 withdrawn for assignment to the
sectional libraries.
There has been no change in the sectional libraries established in the Museum,
and they are as follows:
Administration.
Administrative, assist-
ant.
Anthropology.
Biol ey.
Birds.
Botany.
Children’s room.
Comparative anatomy.
Editor.
Ethnology.
Respectfully submitted.
Mr. S. P. LANGLEY,
Fishes.
Geology.
History.
Insects.
Mammals.
Marine invertebrates.
Materia medica.
Mesozoic fossils.
Mineralogy.
Mollusks.
Oriental archzeology.
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Paleobotany.
Parasites.
Photography.
Prehistoric anthropology.
Reptiles.
Stratigraphic paleontology.
Superintendent.
Taxidermy.
Technology.
Cyrus Apuier, Librarian.
APPENDIX ViI.
REPORT OF THE EDITOR.
Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the publications of the
Smithsonian Institution and its bureaus during the year ending June 30, 1902:
I. SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE.
1373. Hodgkins fund. The Structure of the Nucleus, a continuation of “ Experi-
ments in Ionized Air,’’ by Carl Barus, Hazard professor of physics in Brown Univer-
sity, Providence, R. I. City of Washington: Published by the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, 1902. Quarto. Pages xiv, 176.
1413. [In press.] Hodgkins fund. On the Absorption and Emission of Air and
its Ingredients of Wave Lengths from 250 ju to 100 zu, by Victor Schumann. City
of Washington: Published by the Smithsonian Institution, 1903. Quarto. Pages
ty, 30, 4 plates.
The above memoirs complete Volume X XIX of Contributions to Knowledge, as
follows:
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Vol. XXIX. City of Washington:
Published by the Smithsonian Institution, 1903. Quarto.
CONTENTS.
Advertisement, p. iii. ;
List of Officers, Members, and Regents, p. viii.
Article I (842). On the Application of Interference Methods to Spectroscopic Measurements. By
Albert A. Michelson. Published 1892. 4to, 24 pp., 5 plates.
Article II (980). On the Densities of Oxygen and Hydrogen, and on the Ratio of their Atomic
Weights. By Edward W. Morley. Published 1895. 4to, xii, 117 pp.
Article III (989). The Composition of Expired Air and its Effects upon Animal Life. By J.S. Bill-
ings, 8. Weir Mitchell, and D. H. Bergey. Published 1895. 4to, iii, 81 pp.
Article ITV (1033). Argon, a new constituent of the Atmosphere. By Lord Rayleigh and Prof.
William Ramsay. Published 1896. 4to, iii, 43 pp.
Article V (1034). Atmospheric Actinometry and the Actinic Constitution of the Atmosphere. By
E. Duclaux. Published 1896. 4to, iii, 48 pp.
Article VI (1126), A Determination of the Ratio (kK) of the Specific Heats at Constant Pressure and
at Constant Volume for Air, Oxygen, Carbon-Dioxide, and Hydrogen. By O. Lummer and E. Prings-
heim. Published 1898. 4to, v, 29 pp., 1 plate.
Article VII (1309). Experiments with Ionized Air. By Carl Barus. Published 1901. 4to, x, 95 pp.
Article VIII (1373). The Structure of the Nucleus, a continuation of “ Experiments with Ionized
Air.’ By Carl Barus. Published 1903. 4to, xiv, 176 pp.
Article IX (1413). On the Absorption and Emission of Air and its Ingredients for Light of Wave-
Lengths from 250 up to 100 uu. By Victor Schumann. Published 1903. 4to, iv, 30 pp., 4 plates.
Memoirs on Whalebone Whales of the Western Atlantic, by F. W. True, and on
Comparison of the Features of the Earth and the Moon, by N. 8. Shaler, were in final
preparation for press at the close of the fiscal year.
II. MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.
A revised edition of Smithsonian Physical Tables, a list of publications by the
Institution, and a pamphlet concerning the International Exchange Service, were
issued in the series of Miscellaneous Collections. Several papers were in press at the
close of the year.
89
90 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
1038. Smithsonian Physical Tables, prepared by Thomas Gray. Second Revised
Edition. City of Washington: Published by the Smithsonian Institution, 1903.
Octavo. Pages xxxiv, 301.
1372. The International Exchange Service of the Smithsonian Institution. Wash-
ington City: Published by the Smithsonian Institution, 1902. Octavo. Pages 4.
1376. List of Publications of the Smithsonian Institution 1846-1903. By William
Jones Rhees, Washington City, 1903. Octavo. Pages vu, 99.
1374. [In press.] Index to the Literature of Thorium, 1817-1902, by Cavalier H.
Jotiet, Ph. D. Octavo. About 130 pages.
1417. [In press.] Phylogeny of Fusus and its’ Allies, by Amadeus W. Grabau.
Octayo. About 194 pages and 18 plates.
[ .] [In press.] A Select Bibliography of Chemistry, 1492-1902, by Henry
Carrington Bolton. Second Supplement. Octavo. About 400 pages.
[ .] [Im press.] Hodgkins fund. Researches on the Attainment of Very Low
Temperatures, by Morris W. Travers. Octavo. About 30 pages.
III. SMITHSONIAN ANNUAL REPORTS.
The annual report is in two parts or volumes, one devoted to the Institution proper
and the other to the National Museum. The contents of the Smithsonian volume for
1901 were given in the last report of the editor, though the bound volume had not
then been received from the Public Printer. The 1902 volume has been put in type,
though, with the exception of the Secretary’s Report to the Regents, no parts had
been distributed up to June 30, 1903. Additional copies of several papers from
earlier reports were printed from the stereotype plates.
1367. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution,
showing the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution for the year
ending June 30, 1901. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902. Octavo.
Pages Lxvu, 782, with 173 plates.
The contents of the 1902 Report are as follows:
1369. Report of 8. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the
year ending June 30, 1902. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 1-115,
with plates1-1x. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908. Octavo. A small
edition of this report in royal octayo form was printed in November, 1902.
1378. Journal of Proceedings of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion at meeting of January 22, 1902. Report of Executive Committee. Acts and
Resolutions of Congress. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages xI-LvI.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1901. Octavo.
1379. Recent ronautical Progress, and Deductions to be drawn therefrom regard-
ing the Future of Arial Navigation. By Maj. B..F. 8. Baden-Powell. From the
Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 121-131. Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1903. Octavo.
1380. Some Zronautical Experiments. By Wilbur Wright. From the Smith-
sonian Report for 1902, pages 133-148 with plates 1-1v. Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1381. Stellar Evolution in the Light of Recent Research. By Prof. George E. Hale.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 149-163, with plates 1-x1. Washing-
ton: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1382. A new Solar Theory. By Prof. J. Halm. From the Smithsonian Report for
1902, pages 165-176. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1383. An Experimental Investigation of The Pressure of Light. By Peter Lebedew.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 177-178. Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1384. Comets’ Tails, The Corona and the Aurora Borealis. By Prof. John Cox.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9]
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 179-192. Washington: Goyernment
Printing Office, 1908. Octayo.
1385. ‘‘Good Seeing.”?’ ByS. P. Langley. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902,
pages 193-195, with plate r. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1386. On the Radio-Activity of Matter. By Henri Becquerel, D. C. L., Ph. D.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 197-206, with plates -vir. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1387. History of Cold and the Absolute Zero. By Prof. James Dewar, M. A.,
LL. D., D. Se., F. R. S. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 207-240.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1388. Experimental Phonetics. By Prof. John G. McKendrick, F. R. 8. From
the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 241-259. Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1908. Octavo.
1389. Wireless Telegraphy: Its Past and Present Status and its Prospects. By
William Maver, jr. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 261-274, with
plates -1v. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1908. Octavo.
1390. Telpherage. By Charles M. Clark. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902,
pages 275-286, with plates 1-x1m1. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903.
Octavo.
391. The Evolution of Petrological Ideas. By J. J. Harris Teall, esq., M. A.,
V.P.R.S. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 287-308. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
392. Preliminary Report on the Recent Eruptions of the Soufriére, in St. Vincent,
and of a Visit to Mont Pelée, in Martinique. By Tempest Anderson, M. D., B. Se.,
F. G. 8., and John S. Flett, M. A., D. Se., F. G. 8. From the Smithsonian Report
for 1902, pages 309-330, with plates 1m. Washington: Government Printing Office,
1903. Octavo.
1393. Volcanic Eruptions on Martinique and St. Vincent. By Israel C. Russell.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 331-349, with plates -x1._ Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1394. The Progress of Geographical Knowledge. By Col. Sir T. H. Holdich, C. B.,
K.C.1. E., F.R.G.S. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 351-373. Wash-
ington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1595. The Discovery of the Future. By H. G. Wells. From the Smithsonian
Report for 1902, pages 375-392. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903.
Octavo. ;
1396. The Life of Matter. By A. Dastre. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902,
pages 393-429. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1397. The Craniology of Man and Anthropoid Apes. By N. C. Maenamara.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 431-449, with plates -vr._ Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1398. The Baroussé-Roussé Explorations: A Study of a New Human Type, by M.
Verneau. By Albert Gaudry. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 451-
453, with plates 1, 11. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1399. Fossil Human Remains Found Near Lansing, Kansas. By W. H. Holmes.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 455-462, with plates Im. Washing-
ton: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1400. The Wild Tribes of the Malay Peninsula. By W. W.Skeat, M. A. From
the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 463-478, with plates 1, 1. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1401. The Pygmies of the Great Congo Forest. By Sir Harry H. Johnston,
G. C.M. G. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 479-491. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1402. Guam and Its People. By W. E. Safford. From the Smithsonian Report
92 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
for 1902, pages 493-508, with plates r-xir. Washington: Government Printing Office,
1903. Octavo.
1403. Oriental Elements of Culture in the Occident. By Dr. Georg Jacob. From
the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 509-529. Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1908. Octavo. .
1404. The Nile Reservoir Dam at Assuan. By Thomas H. Means. From the
Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 531-535, with plates 1-v1._ Washington: Govern-
ment Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1405. The Panama Route for a Ship Canal. By William H. Burr. From the
Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 537-557, with plates 1, 11. Washington: Govern-
ment Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1406. The Problemsof Heredity and Their Solution. By W. Bateson, M. A., F. R.S.
From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages 559-580. Washington: Goverment
Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1407. The Morphological Method and Recent Progress in Zoology. By Prof. G. B.
Howes, D. Se., LL. D., F. R. S. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages
581-608. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1408. Coral. By Dr. Louis Roule. From the Smithsonian Report for 1902, pages
609-612, with plates 1,11. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903. Octavo.
1409. Reindeer in Alaska. Bye Gilbert H. Grosvenor. From. the Smithsonian
Report for 1902, pages 613-623, with plates1-x1. Washington: Government Printing
Office, 19038. Octavo.
1410. A Marine University. By W. Kk. Gregory. .From the Smithsonian Report
for 1902, pages 625-632, with plates 1-1. Washington: Government Printing Office,
1903. Octavo. ,
1411. John Wesley Powell. By G. K. Gilbert. From the Smithsonian Report for
1902, pages 633-640, with plate 1. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903.
Octavo.
1412. Rudolph Virchow, 1821-1902. By Oscar Israel. From the Smithsonian
Report for 1902, pages 641-659, with plate 1. Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1903. Octavo.
IV. NATIONAL MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS.
The Museum volume of the Smithsonian Report for 1900 was distributed during
the year and the volume for 1901 was in press. The contents of the 1900 volume |
were given in last year’s report of the editor. The 1901 volume contains the Report
on the Condition and Progress of the National Museum,-by Richard Rathbun,
Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, and the following papers describ-
ing and illustrating collections in the Museum:
1. Report on the Exhibit of the United States National Museum at the Pan-
American Exposition, Buffalo, N. Y., 1901, by Frederick W. True, William H.
Holmes, and George P. Merrill. ~ :
2. Flint Implements and Fossil Remains from a Sulphur Spring at Afton, Ind. TY
by William Henry Holmes.
3. Classification and Arrangement of the Exhibits of an Anthropological Museum,
by William Henry Holmes.
4. Archeological Field Work in Northeastern Arizona. The Museum-Gates Expe-
dition of 1901, by Walter Hough.
5. Narrative of a Visit to Indian Tribes of the Purtis River, Brazil, by Joseph Beal
Steere.
Volume XXIV of the Proceedings of the Museum was completed also the separates
of volume XX V and most of those of volume XX VI:
Proceedings of the United States National Museum. Volume XXIV. Published
under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1902. Octavo, pages xv, 971, with 56 plates.
REPORT OF THE SEORETARY. 93
Papers from volume 25, proceedings of the U. S. National Museum.
No. 1275. A list of the beetles of the District of Columbia. By Henry Ulke
Pages 1-57.
No. 1276. Some new South American birds. By Harry C. Oberholser. Pages
59-68. ,
No. 1277. The Casas Grandes meteorite. By Wirt Tassin. Pages 69-74, plates 1-rv.
No. 1278. A review of the Oplegnathoid fishes of Japan. By David Starr Jordan
and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 75-78
No. 1279. Descriptions of two new species of Squaloid sharks from Japan. By
David Starr Jordan and John Otterbein Snyder. Pages 79-81, figures 1, 2.
No. 1280. New diptera from North America. By D. W. Coquillett. Pages 83-126.
No. 1281. List of birds collected by William T. Foster in Paraguay. By Harry
C. Oberholser. Pages 127-147.
No. 1282. The reptiles of the Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. By L. Stejneger.
Pages 149-158
No. 1283. Contributions toward a monograph of the lepidopterous family Noctuidee
of Boreal North America. <A revision of the moths referred to the genus Leucania,
with descriptions of new species. By John B. Smith. Pages 159-209, plates y—v1.
No. 1284. A list of spiders collected in Arizona by Messrs. Schwarz and Barber
during the summer of 1901. By Nathan Banks. Pages 211-221, plate vir.
No. 1285. Observations on the crustacean fauna of the region about Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky. By William Perry Hay. Pages 223-236, figure 1.
No. 1286. The Ocelot cats. By Edgar A. Medrns. Pages 237-249.
No. 1287. A review of the trigger-fishes, file-fishes and trunk-fishes of Japan.
By David Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 251-286, figures 1-6.
No. 1288. Birds collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott and Mr. C. B. Kloss in the Anda-
man and Nicobar islands.. By Charles W. Richmond. Pages 287-314.
No. 1289. Notes on a collection of fishes from the island of Formosa. By Dayid
Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann. Pages 315-368, figures 1-29.
No. 1290. Descriptions of the larvee of some moths from Colorado. By Harrison
G. Dyar. Pages 369-412.
No. 1291. A review of the cling-fishes (Gobiesocidz) of the waters of Japan. By
David Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 413-416, figure 1.
No. 1292. Observations on the crustacean fauna of Nickajack Cave, Tennessee, and
vicinity. By William Perry Hay. Pages 417-439, figures 1-8
No. 1293. A review of the Blennoid fishes of Japan. By David Starr Jordan and
John Otterbein Snyder. Pages 441-504, figures 1-2!
Nos. 1294 and 1295. A new fresh-water isopod of the genus Mancasellus from
Indiana and a new terrestrial isopod of the genus Pseudarmadillo from Cuba. By
Harriet Richardson. Pages 505-511, figures 1-4 and 1-4.
No. 1296. A review of the Cheetodontidze and related families of fishes found in
the waters of Japan. By Dayid Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 513-
563, figures 1-6.
No. 1297. The relationship and osteology of the Caproid fishes or Antigoniide.
By Edwin Chapin Starks. Payes 565-572, figures 1-3.
No. 1298. Notes on little-known Japanese fishes, with description of a new species
of Aboma. By David Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 573-576, figure 1.
No. 1299. Cambrian Brachiopoda: Acrotreta; Linnarssonella; Obolus; with descrip-
tions of new species. By Charles D. Walcott. Pages.577-612.
No. 1300. On certain species of fishes confused with Bryostemma polyactoceph-
alum. By David Starr Jordan and John Otterbein Snyder. Pages 613-618, figures
1-3.
94 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
No. 1301. The shoulder girdle and characteristic osteology of the Hemibranchiate
fishes. By Edwin Chapin Starks. Pages 619-654, figures 1-6.
No. 1302. North American parasitic copepods of the family Aguilidee, with a bibli-
ography of the group and a systematic review of all known species. By Charles
Branch Wilson. Pages 635-742, plates vii-xxvul, figures 1-23.
No. 1303. A review of the Ophidioid fishes of Japan. By David Starr Jordan and
Henry W. Fowler. Pages 743-766, figures 1-6.
No. 1304. A revision of the American moths of the family Gelechiide, with descrip-
tions of new species. By August Busck. Pages 767-938, plates xxvlI-XxXxII.
No. 1305. A review of the dragonets (Callionymidee) and related fishes of the
waters of Japan. By David Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 939-959,
figures 1-9.
Papers from Volume 26, Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum.
No. 1306. A review of the Berycoid fishes of Japan. By David Starr Jordan and
Henry W. Fowler. Pages 1-21, figures 1-4.
No. 1307. Japanese stalk-eyed crustaceans. By Mary Rathbun. Pages 23-55,
figures 1-24.
No. 1308. A review of the Hemibranchiate fishes of Japan. By David Starr Jordan
and Edwin Chapin Starks. Pages 57-73, figures 1-3.
No. 1309. Descriptions of new species of Hawaiian crabs. By Mary J. Rathbun.
Pages 75-77, figures 1-3.
No. 1310. Contribution to a monograph of the insects of the order Thysanoptera
inhabiting North America. By Warren Elmer Hinds. Pages 79-242, plates 1-x1,
text figures 1-127.
No. 1311. Deseription of a new genus and forty-six new species of crustaceans of
the family Galatheidee, with a list of the known marine species. By James E.
Benedict. Pages 243-334, figures 1-47.
No. 1312. Synopsis of the family Veneridee of the North American recent species.
By William Healey Dall. Pages 335-412, plates x11—xv1.
No. 1313. On the lower Devonic and Ontaric formations of Maryland. By Charles
Schuchert. Pages 413-424.
No. 1314. Observations on the number of young of the Lasiurine bats. By
Marcus Ward Lyon, jr. Pages 425, 426, plate xvir.
No. 1315. Note on the sea anemone, Sagartia paguri Verrill. By J. Playfair
MeMurrich. Pages 427, 428, figures 1, 2.
No. 1316. Onasmall collection of crustaceans from the island of Cuba. By William
Perry Hay. Pages 429-435, figures 1-3.
No. 1317. Mammals collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott on the coast and islands of
Northwest Sumatra. By Gerrit 8. Miller, jr. Pages 437-484, plates xvii—x1x. Map.
No. 1318. Birds collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott on the coast and islands of North-
west Sumatra. By Charles W. Richmond. Pages 485-524. Map.
No. 1319. A review of the Synentognathous fishes of Japan. By David Starr
Jordan and Edwin Chapin Starks. Pages 525-544, figures 1-3.
No. 1320. Notes on the osteology and relationship of the fossil birds of the genera
Hesperornis, Hargeria, Baptornis, and Diatryma. By Frederic A. Lucas. Pages
545-556, figures 1-8.
No. 1321. Rediscovery of one of Holbrook’s Salamanders. By Leonhard Stejne-
ger. Pages 557, 558.
No. 1322. A new procelsterna from the Leeward Islands, Hawaiian group. By
Walter K. Fisher. Pages 559-563.
No. 1323. The structural features of the bryozoan genus Homotrypa, with descrip-
tions of species from the Cincinnatian group. By Ray 8. Bassler. Pages 565-591,
plates Xx-xXv.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. — 95
No. 1324. A review of the Elasmobranchiate fishes of Japan, By David Starr
Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 593-674, plates xxvi-xxvu, figures 1-10.
No. 13825. The cerebral fissures of the Atlantic walrus. By Pierre A. Fish. Pages
675-688, plates XXVIHI-XXIX. :
No. 1326. Description of a new species of sculpin from Japan. By David Starr
Jordan and Edwin Chapin Starks. Pages 689-690, figure 1.
No. 1327. On the identification of a species’ of eucalyptus from the Philippines.
By Joseph Henry Maiden. Pages 691, 692.
No. 1328. Supplementary note on Bleekeria mitsukurii and on certain Japanese
fishes. By David Starr Jordan. Pages 693-696, plate xxx, figures 1-3. .
No. 1329. The use of the name torpedo for the electric catfish. By Theodore Gill.
Pages 697,698.
No. 1830. A review of the Cepolidee or band-fishes of Japan. By David Starr
Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 699-702, figure 1.
No. 1831. A genealogic study of dragon-fly wing venation. By James G. Needham.
Pages 703-764, plates xxxI-tiy, figures 1-44.
No. 1332. A review of the Cobitidee or loaches of the rivers of Japan. By David
Starr Jordan and Henry W. Fowler. Pages 765-774, figures 1, 2.
Of the bulletin series of Museum publications, Bulletin 52, Part IL of Bulletin 50
and Part Q of Bulletin 89 were published.
Bulletin 52. A list of North American Lepidoptera and Key to the Literature of
this order of insects. By Harrison G. Dyar, Ph. D., curator of Lepidoptera, U. 8.
National Museum, assisted by C. H. Fernald, Ph. D., the late George D. Hulst, and
August Busck. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902. Octayo. Pages
OK, GZBb
Bulletin 50. The Birds of North and Middle America: A descriptive Catalogue of
the Higher Groups, Genera, Species, and Subspecies of birds known to oecurin North
America, from the Arctic lands to the Isthmus of Panama, the West Indies, and
other islands of the Caribbean Sea, and the Galapagos Archipelago. By Robert
Ridgway, curator, Division of Birds. Part I]. Family Tanagridee—The Tanager.
Family Icteridee—The Troupials. Family Coerebidee—The Honey Creepers. Family
Minotilidee—The Wood Warblers. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902.
Octavo. Pages xx, 1-834, plates 1-xxu.
Instructions to Collectors of Historical and Anthropological Specimens, by
William Henry Holmes and Otis Tufton Mason, Part Q of Bulletin of the United
States National Museum, No. 39. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902.
Octavo. Pages 16.
Additional copies of several publications of the Museum, of which the stock had
become exhausted, were reprinted from the stereotype plates, including Volume I of
Bulletin 47, on Fishes of North and Middle America, and papers by Stejneger on
Poisonous Snakes, Ridgway on Humming Birds, and Dall’s Catalogue of Shell-
bearing Mollusks.
Of the series of contributions from the United States National Herbarium two
former volumes, Nos. II] and VII, were reprinted and parts 1, 2, and 3 of Volume
VIII.
V. PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY.
There was put to press toward the close of the year a report on The 1900 Solar
Eclipse Expedition of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution,
by 8. P. Langley aided by C. G. Abbot. This is expected to make about 25 quarto
pages of text with about 22 plates. z
VI. PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.
Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution, 1897-98. By J. W. Powell, Director. Parts I, Il.
96 * REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1900. Large octavo. Pages 1-xcn, 1-576*,
571-1160.
This report contains the following papers:
Part I.—Report of the Director, pages v-xcu. Myths of the Gherowees By James
Mooney, pages 3-548, plates i-xxvin. Index. Pages 549-576*.
Part IL. —Tusayan Migration Traditions. By Jesse Walter Fewkes, pages 573-634.
‘ Localization of Tusayan clans.. By Cosmos Mindeleff. Pages 635-653.
Mounds in Northern Honduras. By Thomas Gann. Pages 655-692, plates xx1x—
ROOK TR ;
Mayan Calendar Systems. By Cyrus Thomas. Pages 693-819, plates x1—xLiv.
Primitive Numbers. By W J McGee. Pages 821-851.
Numerical Systems of Mexico and Central America. By Cyrus Thomas. Pages
853-955.
Tusayan Flute and Snake Ceremonies. By Jesse Walter Fewkes. Pages 957-1011,
plates XLV-LXvV.
The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes. By Albert Ernest Jenks. Pages
1013-1137, plates LXvI-LXXxIx.
Index. Pages 1139-1160.
Bulletin 25. Natick Dictionary. By James Hammond Trumbull. Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903. Royal octavo, pages xxvim1, 349.
Bulletin 27. Tsimshian Texts. By Franz Boas. Washington: Government Print-
ing Office, 1902. Royal octavo, pages 244.
VII. PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION.
The Annual Report of thé American Historical Association for the year 1902 was
sent to the printer in April, but presswork was not completed before June 30. The
report is in two volumes, pages 648, 527, with the following contents:
Volume I.
(392) Report of Proceedings of Eighteenth Annual Meeting, at Philadelphia, December 26-30, 1902,
by Charles H. Haskins, corresponding secretary, pp. 17-45.
(393) Subordination in historical treatment, by Alfred Thayer Mahan, pp. 47-63.
(394) The Antecedents of the Declaration of Independence, by James Sullivan, with discussion by
William A. Dunning, pp. 65-85.
(395) Studies in the History of the Federal Convention of 1787, by John Franklin Jameson, pp.
87-167.
(396) A Neglected Point of View in American Colonial History: The Colonies as Dependencies of
Great Britain, by William MacDonald, pp. 169-178.
(897) The French Parliaments, by James Breck Perkins, pp. 179-190.
(398) The Art of Weaving: A Handmaid of Civilization, by William B: Weeden, pp. 191-210.
(399) Municipal Problems in Medieval Switzerland, by John Martin Vincent, pp. 211-221.
(400) Party Politicsin Indiana during the Civil War, by James Albert Woodburn, pp. 223-251.
(401) American Business Corporations before 1789, by Simeon E. Baldwin, pp. 253-274.
(402) The National Canal Policy, by Lindley M. Keasbey, pp. 275-288.
(403) The Neutralization Features of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, by John H. Latané, pp. 289-303.
(404) Suez and Panama, A Parallel, by Theodore S. Woolsey, pp. 305-311.
(405) Reasons for the Withdrawal of the French from Mexico, by Clyde Augustus Duniway, pp.
313-828.
(406) Report of the Public Archives Commission, by William MacDonald, Herbert L. Osgood, John
Martin Vincent, Charles M. Andrews, Edwin Erle Sparks, pp. 329-363, including appendixes (Nos.
407, 408 below). :
(407) The Archives of Oregon, by F. G. Young, pp. 337-355.
(408) Report on the Bexar Archives, by Eugene C. Barker, pp. 357-363.
(409) The Anti-Masonic Party, by Charles McCarthy, pp. 331-574.
(410) List of Publications of American Historical Association, with index of titles, by A. Howard
Clark, pp. 575-639,
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. oth
Volume IT.
(411) Sixth Report of Historical Manuscripts Commission, by Edward G. Bourne, Frederick W.
Moore, Theodore C. Smith, Reuben G. Thwaites, George P. Garrison, Worthington GC. Ford. With
diary and correspondence of Salmon P. Chase, as follows: Calendar of Chase letters heretofore
printed and list of letters now printed; diary of S. P. Chase, July 21 to October 12, 1862; selected
letters of Chase, 1846-1861; letters from George S. Denison to Chase, 1862-1865; miscellaneous letters
to Chase, 1842-1870. pp. 1-527.
VIII. NATIONAL SOCIETY OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
The fifth report of the Society was received and submitted to Congress.
Respectfully submitted.
A. Howarp Cuark, Editor.
Mr. S. P. LANGLEY,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Aveusr 1, 1903.
sm 1903——7
GENERAL APPENDIX
SMITHSONTAN REPORT FOR 1903.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The object of the GENERAL APPENDIX to the Annual Report of the
Smithsonian Institution is to furnish brief accounts of scientific discoy-
ery in particular directions; reports of investigations made by collab-
orators of the Institution; and memoirs of a general character or on
special topics that are of interest or value to the numerous correspond-
ents of the Institution.
It has been a prominent object of the Board of Regents of the Smith-
sonian Institution, from a very early date, to enrich the annual report
required of them by law with memoirs. illustrating the more remark-
able and important developments in physical and biological discovery,
as well as showing the general character of the operations of the Insti-
tution; and this purpose has, during the greater part of its history,
been carried out largely by the publication of such papers as would
possess an interest to all attracted by scientific progress.
In 1880 the Secretary, induced in part by the discontinuance of an
annual summary of progress which for thirty years previous had been
issued by well-known private publishing firms, had prepared by com-
petent collaborators a series of abstracts, showing concisely the prom-
inent features of recent scientific progress in astronomy, geology,
meteorology, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and
anthropology. This latter plan was continued, though not altogether
satisfactorily, down to and including the year 188s.
In the report for 1889 a return was made to the earlier method of
presenting a miscellaneous selection of papers (some of them original)
embracing a considerable range of scientific investigation and discus-
sion. This method has been continued in the present report for 1903.
101
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON. ¢
By N. 8. SHALER,
Professor, Harvard University.
Although the moon has been the most studied of all celestial objects,
few persons except astronomers have a clear idea of even the general
results which have been derived from the vast body of observations
that have been made upon it. For this reason it appears desirable to
preface the account of the special inquiries which are set forth in the
following pages by a statement of what is known concerning this near-
est neighbor of our earth. This account will necessarily be limited to
the facts which can be set forth in other than mathematical form:
fortunately these include all that the reader needs to have in mind in
order to obtain a fairly clear understanding of the questions which are
to be discussed.
The history of primitive astronomy shows that the moon, of all
celestial objects, from the beginning of man’s intellectual development
has been the most closely observed. Although the sun was doubtless
recognized by the lowliest man as the most important feature of the
heavens, as the giver of life, the conditions under which it is seen,
especially its blinding light, long made any extended study of it
impossible. So, except for the very evident changes of its course
across the sky and the consequent succession of the seasons, little was
known of the solar center two hundred years ago, and, save its approx-
imate distance from the earth, its mass, and its general relations to the
planets, not much knowledge of it was gained until the last century.
On the other hand, the moon, because of its nearness, being only about
one four-hundredth part as:‘remote from the earth as the sun, has in a
noteworthy way entered into the records of men. Its relatively short
period of change and the very pronounced character of its alterations
made it the first index of time beyond the round of the day. It is
evident, indeed, that as soon as men began to reckon time they used
the Junar month to make their tally, rather than that of the solar year.
« Introductory chapter from A Comparison of the Features of the Earth and the
Moon, by Prof. N. 8. Shaler, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. XXXIV
(No. 14388), 1903. Quarto, pp. 78, with 25 plates.
103
104 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON.
Moreover, the surface of the moon reveals much to the naked eye,
not clearly, but sufficiently well to afford the basis for speculation and
to tempt the imagination to create there a world like our own. It is
therefore not surprising that a host of myths concerning the nature
of our satellite grew up in the days before the telescope. It is inter-
esting to note the fact that many of these myths have not only become
fixed in the minds of uninstructed people, but they have had a remark-
able influence upon modern astronomers, limiting their capacity to
interpret what their instruments clearly reveal to them. At every
stage in the advance of selenography we note the curious persistency
of the endeavor not only to interpret the lunar features by the terres-
trial, but to warp the observed facts into accord with those seen on
the earth. There is perhaps no better instance of the extent to which
prepossessions and prejudices may affect the judgment of the most
conscientious observer, blinding him to evident truth, than the history
of lunar inquiries affords.
The story of the physical conditions of the moon had best be begun
by noting that the relation of our satellite to a larger sphere is not
exceptional, but the most characteristic of all the relations of one stel-
lar body to another. Of the planets in the solar system, all save the
two nearest to the sun, Mercury and Venus, have one or more smaller
spheres circling about them. The relation of the sun to the several
planets in a larger way repeats this plan of grouping lesser about
greater orbs.
It is generally believed by astronomers that the celestial spheres
have been formed by a process of condensation, due to gravitation, of
matter which was originally widely diffused; that our solar system,
before it was organized into the sun and lesser bodies, was in the form
of a diffused nebulous mass of spheroidal form which extended beyond
the orbit of the outermost planet. As this matter gathered toward
the center, the material now in each of the planets and its satellites
parted from the parent body, probably at first in the form of a nebu-
lous ring, or spiral, which in time broke and gathered into a spheroidal
mass. In that detached portion of the parent nebula the process of
concentration was repeated, with the result that satellites, or, as we
may term them, secondary planets, were formed substantially as the
greater spheres were set off from the sun. There are many questions
and doubts concerning the details of this nebular theory, but that the
evolution of our solar system, and probably of all stellar systems, took
place in substantially the manner indicated appears to be eminently
probable; it is, indeed, fairly well established by what we know of the
distant nebule and by the rings of Saturn, which apparently contain
the material which normally should have formed one or more of its
satellites, but which for some unknown reason have remained
unbroken.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON. 105
It is not certain at just what stage in the concentration of a nebula, a
planet or a satellite may be set off from the parent body; nor can the
present distance of the satellite from the main sphere be assumed as
that at which the parting took place. It is possible that the concen-
tration of the parent body had gone so far that the diffused or nebu-
lous stage of its materials had been passed by and the more advanced
stage of igneous fluidity entered on. It is, however, more likely that
in all cases the separation occurred while the particles of matter were
divided as they are in a gas or vapor. As soon as the two spheres are
separated from one another, and so long as they remain in any meas-
ure fluid, the difference in their gravitative attraction on the nearer
and more remote part of their masses induces tides, and the effect of
these tidal movements, as has been shown by Prof. George Darwin, is
necessarily to impel the two bodies farther apart. It seems certain
that before the earth and the moon became essentially rigid, as they
now are, the effect of these tides in driving them apart must have been
great enough to account for a considerable part of the interval which
now separates them.
In the present condition of the moon it is a sphere having a com-
puted diameter of 2,159.6 miles and its mean distance from the earth
238,818 miles. So far as has been determined the moon exhibits no
trace of flattening at the poles, such as characterizes the earth, unless,
as is possible, there are irregularities of figure on the unseen part of
the sphere. It is essentially globular inform. The fact that the moon
is not flattened at its poles probably indicates that if it once rotated
in the manner of the planet it ceased to do so before it became solid.
The measure of density of the moon—i. e., the proportion of its
weight to its bulk—is only about six-tenths that of the earth. While
the earth’s mean density is nearly 5.7 times that of water, that of the
moon is about 3.5 times as great. ‘Thus the total gravitative force of
the lunar mass is to be reckoned as only about one eighty-first of that
of our planet.
As the moon revolves on its polar axis but once in about a month,
and at a rate that tends to keep the same part of its surface turned
toward the earth, we should, but for the phenomenon of librations,
see no more than one-half of its superficial area. Owing, however, to
this feature, which is due to certain complications of the moon’s
exceedingly varied movements, the satellite in effect sways in relation
to the earth so that at certain times we see farther to the east and at
others farther to the west of its center, and in the succession of these
movements we are able to behold somewhat more than one-half the
total area—in fact, about six-tenths of it. It is impossible to set forth
in this writing the reasons for the librations of the moon, as the mat-
ter can not be explained without giving in mathematical form a full
106 GENERAL DESORIPTION OF THE MOON.
account of the motion of our satellite, which is one of the most com-
plicated of astronomical problems. 4
As noted below, there is some accessible information going to show
that even beyond the extreme field revealed by the librations the sur-
face of the moon has the same character as that which is visible.
Thus we find that up to the limits of the visible part there is no sign
of change in the nature of the surface. It is therefore reasonable to
conclude that the same characteristics extend for some distance beyond
the limits of vision. Wealso note on the verge of the unseen field the
hither margins of certain ring-shaped structures, the so-called volea-
noes, evidently of large size, so that it is fair to conclude that these
features are continued on the unseen part. Moreover, there are some
light-colored bands, such as on this side of the moon always radiate
from crater-like pits, which apparently come over from such centers
on the unseen part. These several facts, taken together, make it
eminently probable that the unseen four-tenths of the lunar surface in
no essential way differs from that we observe. It is, indeed, altogether
likely that we see every type of structure that exists on the moon, and
that a view of its whole area would add nothing essentially new to our
knowledge of the sphere.
Seen by persons of ordinarily good vision, even at a distance of
about 240,000 miles, the moon reveals much of its surface shape, struc-
ture, and color; it is evident that the color varies greatly from very
bright areas to those which are relatively dark, that the latter are
somewhat less in total extent than the former, and that they are dis-
posed in a general way across the northern hemisphere.’ Persons of
more than usually good vision may, under favorable conditions, see on
the edge of the illuminated area the ragged line of the sunlight, which
indicates that the surface is very irregular, the high points coming
into the day before the lower are illuminated. Such persons at time
of full moon can also note, though faintly, some of the bright bands
which, radiating from certain crater-like pits, extend for great distances
over the surface. So, too, they may see at the first stage of the new
and the last of the old moon, the light from the sunlit earth slightly
illuminating the dark part of the lunar sphere, or, as it is often termed,
the old moon in the arms of the new.
With the best modern telescopes under the most suitable conditions
of observation the moon is seen as it would be by the unaided eye if
«An excellent nonmathematical presentation of the question, which affords a
suflicient idea of it, may be found in The Moon, by Richard A. Proctor, pp. 117
et seq., D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1878.
>Itis well to note the fact that in a celestial telescope objects are seen in reverse
position, or ‘‘upside down.’’ For convenience they are usually so depicted on maps
and pictures of the moon; the north pole at the bottom, and the east where it is cus-
tomary to place the west on terrestrial maps.
a3
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON. 107
it were not more than about 40 miles from the observer. The condi-
tions of this seeing are much more favorable than those under which
we behold a range of terrestrial mountains at that distance, for the
reason that the air, and especially the moisture, in our atmosphere
hinders and confuses the light, and there is several times as much of
this obstruction encountered in a distance of 40 miles along the earth’s
surface as there is in looking vertically upward.
Seen with the greater telescopes, the surface of the moon may reveal
to able observers, in the rare moments of the best seeing, circular
objects, such as pits, which are perhaps not more than 500 feet in
diameter. Elevations of much less height may be detected by their
shadows, which, because there is no trace of an atmosphere on the
moon, are extraordinarily sharp, the line between the dark and light
being as distinct as though drawn by aruler. Elongate objects, such
as rifts or crevices in the surface, because of their length, may be vis-
ible even when they are only a few score feet in width, for the same
reason that while a black dot on a wall may not make any impression
on the eye, a line no wider than the dot can be readily perceived.
Owing to these conditions, the surface of the moon has revealed many
of its features to us, perhaps about as well as we could discern them
by the naked eye if the sphere were no more than 20 miles away.
Separated from all theories and prepossessions, the most important
points which have been ascertained as to the condition of the moon’s
surface are as follows:
The surface differs from that of the earth in the fact that it lacks
the envelopes of air and water. That there is no air is indicated by
the feature above noted—that there is no diffusion of the sunlight, the
shadows being absolutely black and with perfectly clean-cut edges.
It is also shown by the fact that when a star is occulted or shut out by
the dise of the moon it disappears suddenly without its light being
displaced, as it would be by refraction if there were any sensible
amount of air in the line of its rays. This evidence affords proof that
if there is any air at all on the moon’s surface it is probably less in
amount than remains in the nearest approach to a vacuum we can
produce by means of an air pump. Like proof of the airless nature
of the moon is afforded by the spectroscope applied to the study of
the light of an occulting star or that of the sun as it is becoming
eclipsed by the moon. In fact, a great body of evidence goes to show
that there is no air whatever on the lunar surface.
The evidence of lack of water at the present time on the surface of
the moon appears to be as complete as that which shows the lack of an
atmosphere. In the first place, there are evidently no seas or even
lakes of discernible size. There are clearly no rivers. If such fea-
tures existed, the reflection of the sun from their surfaces would make
108 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON.
them exceedingly conspicuous on the dark background of the moon,
which for all its apparent brightness is really as dark as the more
somber-hued rocks of the earth’s surface when lit by the sun. More-
over, even were water present, without an atmosphere there could be
no such circulation as takes place on the earth, upward to clouds and
thence downward by the rain and streams to the ocean. Clouds can
not exist unless there be an atmosphere in which they can float, and
even if there be an air of exceeding tenuity on the moon, it is surely
insufficient to support a trace of clouds. Some distinguished astrono-
mers have thought to discern samething floating of a cloud-like
nature, but these observations, though exceedingly interesting, are
not sufficiently verified to have much weight against the body of
well-observed facts that shows the moon to be essentially waterless.
The well-established absence of both air and water in any such
quantities as is necessary to maintain organic life appears to exclude
the possibility of there being any such life as that of plants and ani-
mals on the lunar surface. It may be stated that very few astronomers
are now inclined to believe that the moon can possibly be the abode of
living forms.
Being without an effective atmosphere, for the possible but unproved
remnant that may exist there would be quite ineffective, the moon
lacks the defense against radiation of heat which the air affords the
earth. Therefore in the long lunar night the outflow of heat must
bring the temperature of the darkened part to near that of the celestial
spaces, certainly to some hundred degrees below Fahrenheit zero.
Even in the long day this lack of air and consequent easy radiation
must prevent any considerable warming of the surface. The temper-
ature of the moon has been made the matter of numerous experiments.
These, for various reasons, have not proved very effective. The most
trustworthy, the series undertaken by S. P. Langley, indicate that at
no time does the heat attain to that of melting ice.
Turning now to the shape and structure of the moon’s crust, we
observe that it differs much from that of the earth. Considering first
the more general features, we note that there are none of those broad
ridges and furrows—the continents and the sea basins. A portion of
the surface, mainly in the northern hemisphere, is occupied by wide
plains, which in their general shape are more nearly level than any
equally extensive areas of the land, or, so far as we know, of the ocean
floor of the earth, though they are beset with very many slight irregu-
larities. These areas of rough, dark-hued plains are the seas or maria
of selenographers, so termed because of old they were, from their rela-
tively level nature, supposed to be areas of water. These maria occupy
about one-third of the visible surface. Their height is somewhat less
than that of the crust outside of theirarea. The remaining portion of
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON. 109
the moon is extremely rugged. It is evident that the average declivity
of the slopes is far greater than on the earth. This is apparent in all
the features made visible by the telescope, and it likely extends to
others too minute to be seen by the most powerful instruments.
Zollner, by a very ingenious computation based on the amount of
sunlight reflected, estimates that the average angle of the lunar surface
to its horizon is 52 degrees. Though we have no such basis for reck-
oning the average slope of the lands and sea bottoms of the earth, it
is eminently probable that it does not amount to more than a tenth of
that declivity. This difference, as well as many others, is probably
due to the lack on the moon of the work of water, which so effectively
breaks down the steeps of the earth, tending ever to bring the surface
to a uniform level.
The most notable feature on the lunar surface is the existence of
exceedingly numerous pits, generally with ring-like walls about them,
which slope very steeply to a central cavity and more gently toward
the surrounding country. These pits vary greatly in size; the largest
are more than a hundred miles in diameter, while the smallest discerni-
ble are less than a half mile across. The number increases as the size
diminishes; there are many thousands of them, so small that they are
revealed only when sought for with the most powerful telescopes and
with the best seeing. In all these pits, except those of the smallest
size, and possibly in these also, there is within the ring wall and at a
considerable though variable depth below its summita nearly flat floor,
which often has a central pit of small size or in its place a steep, rude
cone. When this plain is more than 20 miles in diameter, and with
increasing numbers as the floor is wider, there are generally other
irregularly scattered pits and cones. Thus in the case of Plato, a ring
about 60 miles in diameter, there are some scores of these lesser pits.
On the interior of the ring walls of the pits over 10 miles in diameter
there are usually more or less distinct terraces, which suggest, if they
do not clearly indicate, that the material now forming the solid floors
they inclose was once fluid and stood at greater heights in the pit than
that at which it became permanently frozen. It is, indeed, tolerably
certain that the last movement of this material of the floors was one
of interrupted subsidence from an originally greater elevation on the
outside of the ring wall, which is commonly of irregular height, with
many peaks. There are sometimes tongues or protrusions of the sub-
stance which forms the ring, as if it had flowed a short distance and
then had cooled with steep slopes.
The foregoing account of the pits on the lunar surface suggests to
the reader that these features are volcanoes. That view of their nature
was taken by the astronomers who first saw them with the telescope
and has been generally held by their successors. That they are in
110 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON.
some way, and rather nearly, related to the volcanic vents of the earth
appears certain. We have now to note the following peculiar condi-
tions of these pits. First, that they exist in varying proportion, with
no evident law of distribution, all over the visible area of the moon.
Next, that in many instances they intersect each other, showing that
they were not all formed at the same time, but in succession; that the
larger of them are not found on the maria, but on the upland and
apparently the older parts of the surface; and that the evidence from
the intersections clearly shows that the greater of these structures are
prevailingly the elder and that in general the smallest were the latest
formed. In other words, whatever was the nature of the action
involved in the production of these curious structures, its energy
diminished with time, until in the end it could no longer break the
crust.
All over the surface of the moon, outside of the maria, in the regions
not occupied by the volcano-like structures, we find an exceedingly
irregular surface, consisting usually of rude excrescences with no dis-
tinct arrangement, which may attain the height of many thousand feet.
These, when large, have been termed mountains, though they are
very unlike any on the earth in their lack of the features due to
erosion, as well as in the general absence of order in their association.
Elevations of this steep, lumpy form are common on all parts of the
moon. Outside of the maria they are seen at their best in the region
near the north pole, where a large field thus beset is termed the Alps.
From the largest of these elevations a series of like forms can be made
of smaller and smaller size until they become too minute to be revealed
by the telescope; as they decrease in height they tend to become more
regular in shape, very often taking on a dome-like aspect. The only
terrestrial elevations at all resembling these lunar reliefs are certain
‘arely occurring masses of trachytic lava, which appear to have been
spewed out through crevices in a semifluid state, and to have been so
rapidly hardened in cooling that the slopes of the solidified rock
remained very steep. The only reliefs on the moon that remind the
geologist of true mountains are certain low ridges on the surfaces of
the maria.
The surface of the moon exhibits a very great number of fissures or
rents which, when widely opened, are termed valleys, and when nar-
row, rills. Both these names were given because these grooves were
supposed to have been the result of erosion due to flowing water.
The valleys are frequently broad, in the case of that known as the
** Alpine Valley,” at certain places several miles in width; they are steep
walled, and sometimes a mile or more in depth; their bottoms, when
distinctly visible, are seen to be beset with crater-like pits, and show
in no instance a trace of water work, which necessarily excavates
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON. LEY
smooth descending floors such as we find in terrestrial valleys. The
rills are narrow crevices, often so narrow that their bottoms can not
be seen; they frequently branch, and in some instances are continued
as branching cracks for 100 miles or more. The characteristic rills are
far more abundant than the valleys, there being many scores already
described; the slighter are evidently the more numerous; a catalogue
of those visible in the best telescopes would probably amount to several
thousand. (See plates v1, rx, X.)
It is a noteworthy fact that in the case of the rills, and in great
measure also in the valleys, the two sides of the fissure correspond so
that if brought together the rent would be closed. This indicates that
they are essentially cracks which have opened by their walls drawing
apart. Curiously enough, as compared with rents in the earth’s crust,
there is little trace of a change of level of the two sides of these rills—
only in one instance is there such a displacement well made out, that
known as the Straight Wall, where one side of the break is several hun-
dred feet above the other. (See plate 1x.)
In the region outside of the maria much of the general surface of
the moon between the numerous crater-like openings appears in the
best seeing with powerful telescopes to be beset with minute pits, often
so close together that their limits are so far confused that it appears
as honeycombed, or, rather, as a mass of furnace slag full of holes if
greatly magnified, through which the gases developed in melting the
mass escaped. (See plate v.)
Perhaps the most exceptional feature of the lunar surface, as com-
pared with that of the earth, is found in the numerous systems of
radiating light bands, in all about thirty in number, which diverge
from patches of the same hue about certain of the crater-like pits.
These bands of light-colored material are generally narrow, not more
than a few miles in width; they extend for great distances, certain of
them being over 1,000 miles in length, one of them attaining to 1,700
miles in linear extent. In one instance at least, in the crater named
Saussure, a band which intersects the pit may be seen crossing its
floor, and less distinctly, yet clearly enough, it appears on the steep
inside walls of the cavity. In no well-observed case do these radiating
streaks of light-colored material coincide with the before-mentioned
splits or rifts. Yet the assemblage of facts, though the observations
and the theories based upon them are very discrepant, lead us to
believe that they are in the nature of stains or sheets of matter on the
surface of the sphere, or perhaps in the mass of the crust. At some
points the rays of one system cross those of another in a manner that
indicates that the one is of later formation than the other, (See plates
Ill, VU, VIII.)
LT? GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MOON.
Perhaps the most puzzling feature of the radiating streaks, where
everything is perplexing, is found in the way they come into view and
disappear in each Junar period. When the surface is illuminated by
the very oblique rays of the sun they are quite invisible; as the lunar
day advances they become faintly discernible, but are only seen in
perfect clearness near the full moon. The reason for this peculiar
appearance of these light bands under a high sun has been a matter
of much conjecture; it is the subject of discussion in a later chapter
of this memoir, where it is shown that inasmuch as these bands appear
when the earth light falls upon the moon at a high angle, the effect
must be due to the angle of incidence of the rays on the shining sur-
faces. It should be noted that the light bands in most instances
diverge from more or less broad fields of light color about the crater-
like pits, fields which have the same habit of glowing under a high
illumination; in fact, a large part of the surface of the moon, perhaps
near one-tenth of its visible area, becomes thus relatively brilliant at
full moon, though it lacks that quality at the earlier and later stages
of the lunar day.
In the above-considered statement concerning the visible phenomena
of the moon no account is taken of a great variety of obscure features
which, though easily seen with fairly good instruments, have received
slight attention from selenographers. As can readily be imagined,
observers find it difficult to discern dimly seen features which can not
be classed in any group of terrestrial objects. Whosoever will nar-
rowly inspect any part of the lunar surface, noting everything that
meets his eye, will find that he observes much that can not be explained
by what is seen on the earth. It is evident, indeed, that while in the
earlier stages of development this satellite in good part followed the
series of changes undergone by its planet there came a stage in which
it ceased to continue the process of evolution that the parent body has
undergone. The reason for this arrest in development appears to have
been the essential if not complete absence of an atmosphere and of
water.
The difference in height between the lowest and highest points on
the lunar surface is not determined. To the most accented reliefs,
those of the higher crater walls, elevations of more than 25,000 feet
have been assigned; it is, however, to be noted that all these deter-
minations are made from the length of the shadows cast by the emi-
nences, with no effective means of correcting for certain errors
incidental to this method. It may be assumed as tolerably certain
that a number of these elevations have their summits at least 20,000
feet above their bases, and that a few are yet higher. We do not
know how much lower than the ground about these elevations are the
lowest parts of the moon. My own observations incline me to the
GENERAL DESCRIPTION GF THE MOON. 1.466;
opinion that the difference may well amount to as much as 10,000 feet,
so that the total relief of the moon may amount to somewhere between
30,000 and 40,000 feet. That of the earth from the deepest part of
the oceans to the highest mountain summits is probably between
55,000 and 60,000 feet; so that notwithstanding the lack of erosion
and sedimentation which in the earth continually tends to diminish
the difference between the sea-floor and land areas, the surface of
the satellite has a much less range of elevation than the planet. If the
forces which have built the mountains and continents of the earth had
operated without the erosive action of water, there is little doubt that
the difference in height between the highest and lowest parts would
now be many times as great as it is on the moon.
[The following are ten plates selected from the 25 plates in the full
memotr. |
sm 1908——8
PLATE I.
Age of moon, 8 days 4 hours. September 22, 1890. Lick Observatory.
[In accordance with the usage of selenographers, the plates are printed in the
reversed order in which they appear in a celestial telescope. The top of each is the
south, the bottom the north, the right-hand the east, and the left the west. ]
In PI. I the most noteworthy features are the maria of the western half of the
visible portion of the sphere. The rudely circular form of these fields is well shown,
also the fact that none of them extend to the margin or ‘‘limb’’ of the moon. The
bright, slightly curved ridge in the lower half of the picture facing the partly illu-
minated mare—the Mare Imbrium—is the Apennines; the large yulcanoid at its
southern end is Eratosthenes. The larger pit in the ocean opposite the center of the
range is Archimedes; the two craters next to the north are, the nearer, Autolycus,
and the farther and larger, Aristillus. The larger of the two dark pits near the
northern end of the Apennines is Eudoxus, the smaller, Aristoteles. Southeast from
these craters lie the Alps, a group of bright peaks extending in a northeast and south-
west direction. A faint, dark streak shows the position of the Alpine Valley. The
flat, irregular area north of the range is the M. Frigoris.
Close inspection of this plate will show that many of the yulcanoids“ have pits or
cones on their floors, and that these are very often in the center of these level spaces.
The radiating bands or streaks are beginning to appear.
In the Mare Imbrium, near the western end of the Alps, next north of Aristillus,
is Cassini, of which the encircling cone appears to haye been partly melted down by
the lava of the mare so that it shows as a faint ridge with a distinct central crater.
@Tn this memoir all the features of the moon commonly termed ‘‘ volcanoes”’ ete.,
are designated by the generic term ‘‘vulcanoid.”’ :
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Shaler
EEE _____________________________________________________ |
AGE OF Moon, 8 Days 4 Hours. SEPTEMBER 22, 1890. Lick OBSERVATORY
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Shaler PLATE Il.
Moon’s Ace, 10 Days 12 Hours. Lick OBSERVATORY, 1890.
PLATE II.
Moon’s age, 10 days 12 hours. Lick Observatory, 1890.
The most noteworthy changes as compared with Pl. I are the great advance in
the development of the fields of very bright hue, and in the bands radiating from
them. These are most evident in the system of Copernicus. The system of Tycho
also begins to be evident. This vulcanoid may be identified as the deep large crater
with a central cone near the border of the illuminated area. The general irregularity
of these light bands is well shown in those about Copernicus. So, too, the fact that
they are projections from an illuminated or lucent field about the vulcanoid.
The relative absence of large vuleanoids on the maria is noteworthy. Those which
exist lie nearly, if not altogether, on fields of high ground which appear to have risen
above the floors of the maria and so escaped melting.
The problematical crater Linné now appears as a small white patch near the mid-
dle of the eastern side of the M. Serenitatis.
PLATE ITl.
Moon’s age, 14 days 1 hour. July 19, 1891. Lick Observatory.
In this plate the moon is nearly full, the light being oblique enough to illuminate
the crater walls on the eastern margin alone.
The maria are well shown nearly to the eastern margin. Separated by a belt of
relatively high ground from the Oceanus Procellarum is the large yuleanoid Grimaldi.
Tt has a small crater on its floor near its northern side. This yulcanoid has a floor
nearly as dark as the seas. It will be noted that Plato has also a dark floor. On the
margin of the Oceanus Procellarum, southwest of Grimaldi, is a crater Letronne rather
indistinctly seen, the wall of which that faces the maria is, as in other instances,
ruined apparently by the lava of the sea. Other like examples are shown in this
neighborhood. On the shores of the M. Humorem there are three similar instances
of crater walls broken down on the seaward side.
It should be noted that none of the maria distinctly attain the margin of the
moon’s surface. On the eastern lands the O. Procellarum comes near to the border
of the moon, but high, rugged land is cbscurely visible on the very edge. This is
more clearly disclosed at certain stages of libration. On the southwest border some
observers think there is a nearly level area crossing the border, but, as will be seen,
the level land there has not the characteristic dark hue of the maria.
It will be observed that in this nearly vertical light, except Plato, the craters on
the eastern margin only are distinctly visible. Those exceptions are due to the
dark color of their floors. There are two or three craters near the south pole which,
because they have rather dark bottoms, are faintly seen.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Shaler PLATE III.
4
Moon’s AGE, 14 DAYS 1 Hour. JULY 19, 1891, LICK OBSERVATORY.
nithsonian Report, 1903 haler PLATE IV.
Moon’s AGE, 23 Days 7 Hours. JULY 28, 1891, LICK OBSERVATORY.
PLATE, PY.
Moon’s age, 23 days 7 hours. July 28, 1891. Lick Observatory.
At this stage of the waning moon the most interesting of its fields are no longer
visible. There are few that command attention in this plate. It may be noted that
the system of light bands and the central patches whence they proceed, that have
their center in Kepler, are still very bright. The dark mare-like floor of Grimaldi
is visible near the bright margin of the sphere. The observer may obtain something
of the impression, such as is afforded by good seeing with a powerful telescope, that
the Oceanus Procellarum is a relatively shallow sea by the number of fragments of
what seems to have been the more ancient surface that protrude through it.
PLATE V.
Moon’s age, 21 days 16 hours. 1895.
In this plate is depicted an area from near the moon’s equator to near the south
pole. On the eastern margin the sunlight is passing from the surface, the evening
light being so oblique that the bottoms of the vuleanoids are more or less in shadow.
Here and there, in the advancing night, there are lofty peaks on the margin of crater
rims, which still receive a touch of sun and appear as bright points in a black field.
On the western margin the surface is still well illuminated, with the consequent
effect that the surface appears to be much smoother than itis. A view taken a few
hours later would show about as rude a margin as is here depicted.
Perhaps more effectively than any other this view shows how the general surface
of the moon outside of the maria is essentially made up of vuleanoids and ridges, the
apparently smooth parts appearing so only because the small irregularities are not
visible. In this connection it should be noted that near the dark part the surface
is seen to be beset by small shallow craters, the smallest visible being more than a
mile in diameter and probably several hundred feet deep. Such pits, in equal num-
bers to the unit of surface, exist on the bright part to the left when they are observed
by the higher light.
The way in which the smaller craters cut the larger is shown at many points in
this field of view; so, too, the relative lack of sharpness of outline of the greater
vuleanoids as compared with the lesser objects of this group. The low, narrow
ridges which surround the pits are insufficiently shown because the light does not
bring them out. They are best observed near the uppermost part of the picture.
The generality of the fact that the larger craters have flat floors and that these
floors are prevailingly nearly level is well indicated; so, too, the fact that there is
a common tendency of these floors to have either a small crater or a cone in or
near the center of each circular field. Four such craters in the central part of the
area extending in an obscure line from near the base to near the middle of the pic-
ture have cones in their centers. In all, about a dozen of the hundred or so instances
in which they would be recognizable have this feature. It will be evident that all
the craters in this region have their floors far below the level of the encircling ring
and below the general lunar surface.
In sundry instances two adjacent vulcanoids of moderate size have their neighbor-
ing walls broken down so that they exhibit the first stage of ‘‘crater valleys,’ with
a general north and south axis. There are in all about ten cases of this kind on this
field, but several of them are not well disclosed by this illumination.
1903.—Shaler PLATE V.
Smithsonian Report,
1895.
Moon’s AGE, 21 Days 16 Hours.
PLATE VI.
: o-* i
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dita
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Ne
Oot fee
i,
ee.
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- iN
cot j
ee
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ee OS an
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Aad
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- y.
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ad
ae
PHOTOGRAPHED BY RITCHEY WITH 40-INCH TELESCOPE, USING YELLOW COLOR SCREEN
AND ISOCHROMATIC PLATE.
PLATE VI.
Photographed by Ritchey with 40-inch telescope, using yellow color screen and isochromatic
plate.
This plate shows part of the southwest quarter of the moon’s visible surface.
On the lower part of the plate is a portion of the Mare Tranquilitatis; on the middle
of the left-hand side a portion of the Mare Nectaris.
The large, deep vulcanoid with the steep, ragged peaks rising from its floor, on the
lower left-hand portion of the plate, is Theophilus, one of the noblest structures on
the moon. The width of the crater is about 64 miles; the greatest height from the
floor to the crest of the wall, 18,000 feet. The central mass, composed of several
sharp peaks, rises about 6,000 feet above the lava plain. In the center of these
masses there appears to be an obscure crater about half a mile in diameter. The
terraces in the inner wall of the cone are indistinctly shown.
Theophilus has partly invaded Cyrillus, the next large vulcanoid on the southeast,
an older structure with less steep slopes and a generally ruined appearance. South of
Cyrillus, at a distance of half its width, is Catherina. This crater is met by another
of half its diameter, which has developed on one side of its floor. From near the
southeastern margin of Catherina a beautiful row of small craters extends eastwardly
for a distance of over 200 miles to the large vuleanoid Abulfeda. This is perhaps
the most noteworthy crater row on the moon.
The long, curved wall extending from Piccolomini, near the upper left-hand corner
(the large crater with its floor in shadow), to the east side of Catherina, is the Altai
Mountains. Itshould be noted that this step-like structure obscurely extends north-
ward to the M. Tranquilitatis, where it forms an irregular ridge-like promontory.
PLATE Vil.
Copernicus and Kepler. Photographed by Ritchey with the 40-inch Yerkes refractor, with
color screen and isochromatic plate.
The most important features exhibited here are the systems of bright rays of
Copernicus, Kepler, and Aristarchus. These three ray systems, though less exten-
sive than those of Tycho, taken together constitute the greatest exhibition of the
bright bands that exist over the northern part of the surface. The complex branched
nature of these bands is particularly well shown—better, indeed, than the writer has
ever been able to note with the telescope. The fact that the bright bands of each
system are prolongations of a central bright field is tolerably well shown.
Although owing to the high sun and the consequent absence of shadows, Coper-
nicus in this view hardly appears as an elevation, it is, under favorable conditions of
illumination, perhaps the noblest object on the moon. The wall on the eastern side,
according to the estimates of Schmidt, rises to a height of 12,000 feet above the
adjacent plain. The outer slopes of the cone are strongly ridged as by the flow
from the crater of lavas which cooled on the steep slopes; some of these are faintly
traceable in the plate.
“SLV1d SILYWOYHOOS|] GNV N33SY0S
HO1OO HLIM ‘YOLOVYSSY SAMHSA HONI-Ob HLIM ASHOLIY Ad GSHdVYDOLOHd “YAIday GNV SNOINYSdOO
‘HA aLv1d 1aleUS—'EQ6| ‘Hodey uRiuOsYuyIWS
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PHOTOGRAPHED BY RITCHEY.
Ray SYSTEM ABOUT TYCHO.
PLATE Vir:
Ray system about Tycho. Photographed by Ritchey.
This, the most extensive of the ray systems of the moon, has its origin in the field
about Tycho, the large vulcanoid to which the numerous bands apparently converge.
It appears under the high sun as a large pit with a compound central cone. The
rays of this system should be compared with those which have their centers in
Copernicus and Kepler. In these last-named groups the streaks are developed on
relatively level ground, while on that of Tycho they intersect a rugged surface.
On the right hand, some of the bands may be seen crossing the Mare Nubium.
Two of them, of great length, are seen to be nearly parallel for a distance of some
hundred miles.
A number of large yulcanoids, partly in shadow, are shown on the southeast
margin of the moon. Of these, the largest is Schiller. Its length, which is 112 miles,
will serve as a scale in estimating that of the rays.
PLATE IX.
Mare Nubium and surroundings. Photographed by Ritchey, November 21, 1901, 7 hours
32 minutes p.m. Exposure, 1 second.
In this plate Copernicus is the large vulcanoid on the lower margin. The large
crater near the upper margin, a little to the right of the center, with a cone some-
what to the right of its center and ‘‘rill’”’ on its floor, is Pitatus. The three great
vuleanoids in a row extending in a north-and-south direction are, in succession
from the lowest toward the upper margin of the plate, Ptolemzeus, Alphonsus, and
Arzachel. The large, deep crater below and to the right of Pitatus, with a divided
central cone, is Bullialdus.
The most noteworthy features in this plate are found in the many instances in
which the lavas of the maria have partly destroyed the vulcanoids within their
fields. In the upper right-hand fourth of the plate there are a dozen or more of
these ruined craters, some of them with their walls almost effaced. In this part of
the field there are several important rills. Some of these are evidently rows of
eraterlets in which the adjacent walls of the pits have been broken down so as to
form a ragged cleft. A number of these lines of craterlets are traceable on the ~
external slopes of Copernicus. The long, dark line, 65 miles in length, in the upper
third of the plate, a little to the left of the center, is the Straight Wall, the most
extensive fault known on the moon. The height of its cliff is about 500 feet. The
crescent-shaped structure at its southern (upper) end is the remnant of a crater, the
remainder of the margin having been destroyed by the lava of the mare. To the
right of and near by the Straight Wall is a rill extending in a slightly curved course
for a length of about 40 miles, terminating at either end in a distinct craterlet.
The brightly illuminated part of the field depicted on this plate, that to the left
of the center, exhibits many excellent examples of crater valleys, which in their
series afford something like a passage from the condition of rills to those of wider
depressions.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.— Shaler. PLATE IX.
MARE NUBIUM AND SURROUNDINGS.
Photographed by Ritchey, November 21, 1901, 7 hours 32 minutes p.m, Exposure, 1 second.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Shaler PUATEDX
MARE TRANQUILITATIS AND SURROUNDINGS.
Photographed by Ritchey, August 3, 1901, 2 hours 30 minutes a. m., central standard time. Exposure,
three-fourths second.
PEATE X.
Mare Tranquilitatis and surroundings. Photographed by Ritchey, August 3, 1901, 2
hours 30 minutes a. m., central standard time. Exposure, three-fourths second.
This plate includes nearly the whole of the Mare Tranquilitatis and, on the lower
margin, a portion of the M. Serenitatis. The large crater near the strait connecting
these:maria is Plinius. The highland nearest to it is the promontory of Acherusia.
On the southern, or upper, margin the view extends to the flanks of Theophilus.
The most noteworthy features are the mountain ridges on the maria, the manner
in which the maria come in contact with the higher ground, the numerous crater
valleys, and the great ‘‘rills.’’
It may be noted that ridges on the maria exhibit little trace of corresponding
troughs between them, such as are usually found in terrestrial mountain chains.
The contact of the maria with the high ground has evidently resulted in the
partial melting of the walls of several vuleanoids. Where these structures are not
thus affected they are, apparently, in origin later than the formation of the maria.
The crater valleys are abundant on the right-hand or eastern side of the field.
Certain of them have been invaded by the lava of the mare.
Some of the greater rills are very well shown. That on the extreme right side is
Hyginus. It will be observed that the course of these rills is at high angles to the
prevailing direction of the ridges on the mare.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.¢
By E. F. Nicuors and G. F. Hut.
As early as 1619 Kepler’ announced his belief that the solar repul-
sion of the finely divided matter of comets’ tails was due to the out-
ward pressure of light. On the corpuscular theory of light, Newton °
considered Kepler’s idea as plausible enough, but he was of the opinion
that the phenomenon was analogous to the rising of smoke in our own
atmosphere. In the first half of the eighteenth century De Mairan and
Du Fay ¢ contrived elaborate experiments to test this pressure-of-light
theory in the laboratory, but, because of the disturbing action of the
gases surrounding the illuminated bodies employed in the measure-
ments, they obtained wholly confusing and contradictory results.
Later in the same century Rey. A. Bennet’ performed further exper-
iments, but could find no repulsive force not traceable to convection
currents in the gas surrounding the body upon which the light was
projected, due, in his opinion, to the heating effect of the rays. Find-
ing no pressure due to radiation, he made the following unique sug-
gestion in support of the wave theory of light:
Perhaps sensible heat and light may not be caused by the influx or rectilinear
projection of fine particles, but by the vibrations made in the universally diffused
caloric or matter of heat or fluid of light. I think modern discoveries, especially
those of electricity, favor the latter hypothesis.
In the meantime Euler,’ accepting Kepler’s theory attributing the
phenomenon of comets’ tails to light pressure, had hastened to the
«Presented to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, December, 1902.
Reprinted from the Astrophysical Journal, Vol. XVII, No. 5, June, 1903, omitting
some of the tabulated results of experiments.
+’ De Mairan, Traité physique et historique de |’ Aurore boréale (2d ed.), pp. 357,
308. Paris, 1754.
¢Tsaaci Newtoni Opera que Existant Omnia. Samuel Horsley, LL.D., R. 8. S.,
Tom. III, pag. 156. Londinium, 1782.
@ De Mairan, loc. cit., p. 371. This treatise contains also the accounts of still earlier
experiments by Hartsoeker, p. 368, and Homberg, p. 369. The later experiments
are of more historic than intrinsic interest.
é€ A. Bennet, Phil. Trans., p. 81, 1792.
JL. Euler, Histoire de |’ Académie royale de Berlin (2), p. 121, 1746.
115
116 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
support of the wave theory by showing theoretically that a longitudi-
nal wave motion might produce a pressure in the direction of its
propagation upon a body which checked its progress. In 1825 Fres-
nel” made a series of experiments, but arrived at no more definite
conclusion than that the repulsive and attractive forces observed were
not of magnetic nor electric origin.
Crookes’ believed in 1873 that he had found the true radiation pres-
sure in his newly invented radiometer, and cautiously suggested that
his experiments might have some bearing on the prevailing theory of
the nature of light. Crookes’s later experiments and Zéllner’s¢ meas-
urements of radiometric repulsions showed that the radiometric forces
were in some cases 100,000 times greater than the light pressure forces
with which they had been temporarily confused. Zéllner’s experi-
ments are among the most ingenious ever tried in this field of work,
and he missed the discovery of the true radiation pressure by only the
narrowest margin. An excellent bibliography of the whole radio-
metric literature is given by Graetz,“ and an account of some of the
older experiments not mentioned above is given by Crookes.
In 1873 Maxwell,’ on the basis of the electromagnetic theory, showed
that if light were an electromagnetic phenomenon, pressure should
result from the absorption or reflection of a beam of light. After a
discussion of the equations involved, he says: .
Hence in a medium in which waves are propagated there is a pressure in the
direction normal to the waves and numerically ecual to the energy in unit volume.
Maxwell computed the pressure exerted by the sun on the illuminated
surface of the earth, and added:
It is probable that a much greater energy of radiation might be obtained by means
of the concentrated rays from an electric lamp. Such rays falling on a thin metallic
disk, delicately suspended in a vacuum, might perhaps produce an observable
mechanical effect.
Apparently independent of Maxwell, Bartoli announced in 1876
that the second law of thermodynamics required the existence of a
pressure due to radiation numerically equal in amount to that derived
by Maxwell. Bartoli’s reasoning holds for all forms of energy streams
in space, and is of more general application than Maxwell’s equations,
Bartoli contrived elaborate experiments to verify this theory, but was
balked in the search, as all before him had been, by the complicated
aA. Fresnel, Ann. Chem. et Phys., 29, 57, 107, 1825.
DW. Crookes, Phil. Trans., p. 501, 1873.
¢F, Zoliner, Pogg. Ann., 160, 156, 296, 459, 1877.
a1. Graetz, Winkelmann’s Handbuch der Physik, 2b, p. 262. Breslau, 1896.
éW. Crookes, loc. cit., p. 501.
JJ. C. Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricityand Magnetism (1sted.) 2,391. Oxford,
1873.
g A. Bartoli, Sopra 1 movementi prodotti della luce et dal calorie, Florence, Le
Monnier, 1876; also Nuoyo Cimento, 15, 193, 1884.
fond
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. hi
character of the gas action, which he found no way of eliminating
from his experiments.
After Bartoli’s work, the subject was dealt with theoretically by
Boltzmann, Galitzine,’? Guillaume,’ Heaviside,’ and more recently
Goldhammer,’ Fitzgerald,’ Lebedew,% and Hull” have discussed the
bearing of radiation pressure upon the Newtonian law of gravitation,
with special reference to the repulsion of comets’ tails by the sun.
The theory of radiation pressure, combined with the known properties
in negative electrons, has recently been more or less speculatively
applied by Arrhenius‘ to the explanation of many cosmical and
terrestrial phenomena, among which the following may be mentioned:
The solar corona, zodiacal light, gegenschein, comets, origin of come-
tary and meteoric material in space, the emission of gaseous nebule,
the peculiar changes observed in the nebula surrounding Nova Persei,
the northern lights, the variations in atmospheric electricity and ter-
restial magnetism and in the barometric pressure. Schwarzschild’
computed from radiation pressure on small spherical conductors the
size of bodies of unit density for which the ratio of radiation pressure
to gravitational attraction would be a maximum.
Before the Congrés international de Physique in 1900, Professor
Lebedew,* of the University of Moscow, described an arangement of
apparatus which he was using at that time for the measurement of
light pressure. He summarizes the results already obtained as follows:
Les résultats des mesures que j’ai faites jusqu’ici peuvent se résumer ainsi: L’ex-
périence montre qu’un faisceau lumineux incident exerce sur les surfaces planes
absorbantes et réfléchissantes des pressions qui, aux erreurs prés d’obseryation, sont
égales aux valeurs calculées par Maxwell et Bartoli.
No estimate of the ‘errors of observation” was given in the paper,
nor other numerical data. Unfortunately the proceedings of the Paris
Congress did not reach the writers, nor any intimation of the methods
or results of Professor Lebedew’s work, until after the publication of
their own preliminary experiments.
@J,. Boltzmann, Wied. Ann. 22, 31, 291, 1884.
+B. Galitzine, Wied. Ann., 47, 479, 1892.
eCh. Ed. Guillaume, Arch. de Gen. (3), 31, 121, 1894.
20. Heaviside, Electromagnetic Theory, 1, 334. London, 1893.
eD. A. Goldhammer, Ann. der Phys., 4, 834, 1901.
JG. F. Fitzgerald, Proc. Roy. Soc. Dub., 1884.
g P. Lebedew, Wied. Ann., 45, 292, 1892; Astrophysical Journal, 14, 155, 1902.
4G. F. Hull, Trans. Astron. Soc. Toronto, p. 123, 1901.
#8. A. Arrhenius, Lehrbuch der kosmischen Physik, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 149-158,
200-208, 226, 920-925.
JK. Sehwarzschild, Kgl. bayer. Akademie d. Wissenschaften, 31, 293, 1901.
kP. Lebedew, Rapports présentés au Congrés international de Physique (2), p.
133. Paris, 1900.
118 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
The writers” presented the results they had obtained by measure-
ments of radiation pressure at eight different gas pressures, in a pre-
liminary communication to the American Physical Society, meeting
with Section B of the American Association at Denver, August 29,
1901. The main arguments underlying the method of measurement
of the radiation pressure may here be given.
In the experiments of earlier investigators every approach to the
experimental solution of the problem of radiation pressure had been
balked by the disturbing action of the gases which it is impossible to
remove entirely from the space surrounding the body upon which the
radiation falls. The forces of attraction or repulsion, due to the
action of gas molecules, are functions, first, of the temperature differ-
ence between the body and its surroundings, caused by the absorption
by the body of a portion of the rays which fall upon it; and, second, »
of the pressure of the gas surrounding the illuminated body. In the
particular form of apparatus used in the present study, the latter
function appears very complicated, and certain peculiarities of the gas
action remain inexplicable upon the basis of any simple group of
assumptions which the writers have so far been able to make.
Since we can neither do away entirely with the gas nor calculate its
effect under varying conditions, the only hopeful approach which
remains is to devise apparatus and methods of observation which will
reduce the errors due to gas action to a minimum. The following
considerations led to a method by which the elimination of the gas
action was practically accomplished in the present experiments:
1. The surfaces which receive the radiation, the pressure of which
is to be measured, should be as perfect reflectors as possible. This will
reduce the gas action by making the rise of temperature due to absorp-
tion small, while the radiation pressure will be increased; the theory
requiring that a beam totally reflected shall exert twice the pressure
of an equal beam completely absorbed.
2. By studying the action of a beam of constant intensity upon the
same surface surrounded by air at different pressures certain pressures
may be found where the gas action is less than at others.
3. The apparatus—some sort of torsion balance—should carry two
surfaces symmetrically placed with reference to the rotation axis, and
the surfaces of the two arms should be as nearly equal as possible in
every respect. The surfaces or vanes should be so constructed that if
the forces due to gas action (whether suction or pressure on the warmer
surface) and radiation pressure have the same sign in one case, a reversal
of the suspension should reverse the gas action and bring the two forces
into opposition. In this way a mean of the forces on the two faces of
the suspension should be, in part at least, free from gas action.
ak. F. Nichols and G. F. Hull, Science, 14, 588 (October 18, 1901); Phys. Rev., 13,
293 (November, 1901); Astrophysical Journal, 15, p. 62 (January, 1902).
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. 119
4. Radiation pressure, from its nature, must reach its maximum
value instantly, while observation has shown that gas action begins at
zero and increases with length of exposure, rising rapidly at first,
then more slowly to its maximum effect, which, in many of the cases
observed, was not reached until the exposure had lasted from two and
a half to three minutes. For large gas pressures an even longer expos-
ure was necessary to reach stationary conditions. The gas action may
be thus still further reduced by a ballistic or. semiballistic method of
measurement.
In the number of the Annalen der Physik for November, 1901, Pro-
fessor Lebedew” published the results of a more varied series of
measurements of radiation pressure than the early measurements of
the present writers.
Professor Lebedew’s” estimate of the accuracy of his work is such
as to admit of possible errors of 20 per cent in his final results. An
analysis of Professor Lebedew’s paper and comparison with our pre-
liminary experiments seem to show that his accidental errors were
larger than ours, but through an undiscovered false resistance in the
bolometer our final results were somewhat further from the theory
than his. Either of the above researches would have been sufficient
to establish the existence of a pressure due to radiation, but neither
research offered, in our judgment, a satisfactory quantitative confirma-
tion of the Maxwell-Bartoli theory.
LATER PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS.
Description of apparatus; the torsion balance.—The form of suspen-
sion of the torsion balance, used to measure radiation pressure in the
present study, is seen in fig. 1. The rotation axis a4 was a fine rod
of drawn elass. A drawn-glass cross arm c, bent down at either end
into a small hook, was attached to the axis. The surfaces C and D,
which received the light beam, were circular microscope cover-glasses,
12.8 mm. in diameter and 0.17 mm. thick, weighing approximately
51 me. each. To distinguish the two vanes from each other, in case
individual differences should appear in the measure:1 ents, and also to
mark the two faces of each vane for subsequent recognition, a letter
C was marked on one and D on the other by diamond scratches.
Through each glass a hole 0.5 mm. or less in diameter was drilled near
the edge, by means of which the glasses could be hung on the hooks
on the cross arm ¢. On opposite sides of the rotation axis at 7 two
other drawn-glass cross arms were attached. The cover-glasses slipped
easily between these, and were thus held securely in one plane.
«@P. Lebedew, Ann. der Phys., 6, 433, 1901.
bP. Lebedew, Ann. der Phys., 6, 457, 1901.
9
sm 1903
120 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
Farther down on @/ a small silvered plane mirror m, was made fast
at right angles to the plane of C and D. This mirror was polished
bright on the silver side, so that the scale at S, (fig. 2) could be read
in either face. A small brass weight 7, (fig. 1), of 452 mg. mass and
of known dimensions, was attached at the lower endof a4. The cover-
elasses which served as vanes were silvered and brilliantly polished
on the silvered sides, and so hung on the small hooks that both silver
faces or both glass faces were presented to the light. A quartz fiber
F,, 3 em. long, was made fast to the upper end of a4, and to the lower
end of a fine glass rod @,, which carried a horizontal magnet m,. The
to) 6 cms.
Fre. 1.
rod (/, was in turn suspended by a short fiber to a steel pin ce, which
could be raised or lowered in the bearing 4. The whole was carried
by a bent glass tube 7, firmly fastened to a solid brass foot F, resting
on a plane ground-glass plate P, cemented toa brass platform mounted
on three leveling screws not shown. A bell jar B, 25 em. high and
11 cm. in diameter, covered the balance. The flange of the bell jar
was ground to fit the plate P. A ground-in hollow glass stopper
fitted the neck of the bell jar, which could thus be put in connection
with a system of glass tubes leading to a Geissler mercury pump, a
MacLeod pressure gauge, and a vertical glass tube dipping into a
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. 1A
mercury cup and serving as a rough manometer for measuring the
larger gas pressures employed during the observations. The low
pressures were measured on the MacLeod gauge in the usual way.
A semicircular magnet M, fitted to
the vertical curvature of the bell jar,
was used to direct the suspended
magnet m, and thus to ‘control the
zero position of the torsion balance.
By turning M through 180°, the op- aes
posite faces of the vanes C and D ES
could be presented to the light. a AS
THE ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS. peas
aR,
A horizontal section of the appa- i
ratus through the axis of the light i i Uy
beam is shown in fig. 2. The white- e vo taf
hot end of the horizontal carbon 8, f
of an A. 'T. Thompson 90° are lamp,
fed by alternating current, served as
a source. The arc played against
the end of the horizontal carbon
from the vertical carbon, which was 7
screened from the lenses L, and Li, ©
by an asbestos diaphragm d,. A
lens, not shown, projected an en-
larged image of the are and carbons
on an adjacent wall, so that the posi-
tion of the carbons and the condition
of the are could be seen at all times °
by both observers.
The cone of rays passing through
the small diaphragm d, fell upon the
glass condensing lenses L,, L,.
At d, a diaphragm, 11.25 mm. in
diameter, was interposed, which per-
mitted only the central portion of
the cone of rays to pass. Just be-
yond d@, the beam passed to a shutter
at S,. This shutter was worked by
a magnetic escapement, operated by
the second’s contact of a standard
clock. The observer at T, might choose the second for opening or
closing the shutter, but the shutter’s motion always took place at
the time of the second’s contact in the clock. Any exposure was
me)
S
x
9
9
>
x
&
122 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
thus of some whole number of seconds’ duration. The opening in
the shutter was such as to let through, at the time of exposure, all
of the direct beam which passed through @,, but to shut out stray
light. Just beyond the shutter and attached to the diaphragm d, was
a 45° glass plate, which reflected a part of the beam to the lens L,, by
means of which an image of d@, was projected upon one arm of a bolo-
meter at R. The glass lens L, focused a sharp image of the aperture
d, in the plane of the vanes of the torsion balance B,, under the bell
jar. The bell jar was ee with three plate-glass windows W,,
W,, W,. The first two gave a circular opening 42 mm. in diameter,
and through the third pee of the balance were read by a
telescope and scale. The lens L, was arranged to move horizontally
between the stops S,and S,. These were so adjusted that when the
lens was against S, the sharp image of the aperture ¢, fell centrally
upon one vane; and when against 5, the image fell centrally upon the
To galy. G,
REE SN
Wy 6
To galy. Ge
ae
Fie. 3.
other. This adjustment, which was a very important one, was made
by the aid of a telescope T,, mounted on the carriage of a dividing
engine. This was used to observe and measure the position of the
rotation axis, as well as the positions of the images of d,, when the
lens L, was against the stops. For the latter measurements the vanes
could be moved out of the way by turning the suspension through
90° by the control magnet M (fig. 1).
To make sure that the balance as used was entirely free from any
magnetic moment or disturbance, the small magnet 7, was clamped in
one position to maintain a constant zero, and the period of the balance
was accurately measured with the axis of the large magnet M in the
vertical plane of the vanes and again when the axis was at right angles
to the plane of the vanes. Several series of this sort failed to show a
difference of 0.1 second in the period of the balance for the two posi-
tions of the magnet.
THE PRESSURE DUE ‘TO RADIATION: 13
The bolometer at R (fig. 2) was of sheet platinum, 0.001 mm. thick,
rolled in silver. The strip was cut out in the form shown in fig. 3
and mounted on a thin sheet of slate S. Two windows had been cut
in the slate behind the strips at ABCD where the silver had been
removed, leaving the thin platinum. The platinum surfaces were
blackened by Kurlbaum’s process. The image from L, (fig. 2) fell
at D. The silver ends between A and C were connected with E and
F, respectively. On the heavy wire EF a sliding contact c served to
balance the bridge, all four arms of which-are shown in the figure.
METHODS OF OBSERVATION.
The observations leading to the results given later were of three
different kinds: (1) the calibration of the torsion balance; (2) the
measurement of the pressure of radiation in terms of the constant of
the balance, and (3) the measurement of the energy of the same beam
in erg-seconds by the rate of temperature rise of a blackened silver
disk of known mass and specific heat.
1. The determination of the constant of the torsion balance was
made by remoying the vanes C and D and accurately measuring the
period of vibration. Its moment of inertia was easily computed
from the masses and distribution of the various parts about the axis
of rotation. The moment of torsion for 1 mm. deflection on a scale
105 em. distant was 0.36310 ° dynexcm. This value divided by
one-half the distance between the centers of the light spots on the two
vanes gave the force in dynes per scale division deflection. As the
light spots were circles 11.25 mm. in diameter, the area of the image
was very nearly 1 cm.*; hence the above procedure gave roughly the
pressure in dynes per square centimeter.
2. In the measurements of radiation pressure it was easier to refer
the intensity of the beam at each exposure to some arbitrary standard
which could be kept constant than to try to hold the lamp as steady
as would otherwise have been necessary. For this purpose, the bolom-
eter at R (fig. 2) was introduced, and simultaneous observations
were made of the relative intensity of the reflected beam by the deflec-
tion of the galvanometer G, and the pressure due to the transmitted
beam by the deflection of the torsion balance. The actual deflection
of the balance was then reduced to a deflection corresponding to a gal-
ranometer deflection of 100 scale divisions. The galvanometer sensi-
tiveness was carefully tested at the beginning and end of each even-
ing’s work. All observations of pressure were thus reduced to the
pressure due to a beam of fixed intensity.
At each series of radiation pressure measurements two sets of
observations were made. In one of these sets static conditions were
observed, and in the other the deflections of the balance due to short
4 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
exposures were measured. In the static observations each vane of the
balance was exposed in turn to the beam from the lamp, the exposures
lasting until the turning points of the swings showed that stationary
conditions had been reached. The moment of pressure of radiation
and gas action combined would thus be equal to the product of the
static deflection and the constant of the balance. The torsion system
was then turned through 180° by rotating the outside magnet, and
similar observations were made on the reverse side of the vanes. All
turning points of the swinging balance in these observations were
recorded. From the data thus obtained the resultant of the combined
radiation and gas forces could be determined for the time of every
turning point. Every yalue was divided by the deflection at standard
sensitiveness of the galvanometer G, read at the same time, and was
thus reduced to standard lamp. Results thus obtained, together with
the ballistic measurements, showed the direction and extent of the gas
action as well as its variation with length of exposure.
The reasons for reversing the suspension follow: The beam from
the lamp, before reaching the balance, passed through three thick
glass lenses and two glass plates. All wave lengths destructively
absorbed by the glass were thus sifted out of the beam by the time
it reached the balance. vanes. The silver coatings on the vanes
absorbed, therefore, more than the glass. The radiation pressure was
always away from the source, irrespective of the way the vanes were
turned, while the gas action would be exerted mainly on the silvered
sides of the vanes.
At the close of the pressure and energy measurements, when the
reflecting power of the silver faces of the vanes was compared with
that of the elass-silver faces, the reflection from the silver faces was
found very much higher than that for the glass faces backed by silver.
This result was the more surprising because the absorption of the
unsilvered vanes was found by measurement to be negligibly small.¢
This unexpected difference in reflecting power of the two faces of the
mirrors prevented the elimination of the gas action, by the method
described, from being as complete as had been hoped for.. But by
choosing a gas pressure where the gas action after long exposure is
small, the whole gas effect during the time of a ballistic exposure may
be so reduced as to be of little consequence in any case.
By exposing each of the vanes in turn and by reversing the suspen-
sion and averaging results, nearly all errors due to lack of symmetry
in the balance or in the position of the light images with reference to
the rotation axis, or errors due to lack of uniformity in the distribu-
tion of intensity in different parts of ae image, could be eliminated.
“Lord Rayleigh records a similar difference between tre a eicchon ae air- Saale er
and glass-silver surfaces. Scientific papers, Cambridge, 2, 538-559, 1900.
S
The results obtained on the two vanes were
averaged and plotted as curves in fig. 4, where static deflections due
TO RADIATION.
PRESSURE DUE
‘PEGE
ries of static observations in which the g@lass faces of both
The changing character of the gas action, both with time of exposure
and gas pressure surrounding the balance vanes, is well illustrated
vanes were exposed.”
in eight s¢
if
a ee a Ss BeCee CCCs
MERRSBEE
Se eee eee eee et
ee a i a a (a ae PS Sat
Pc a
ADRS Rees
GEGaSE Sees Soccer
{ss pails
Big e SisGiNie ais Sola alee ECE cs i a (7 ps a aL
EEE EEN EE EERE EE EHR EEE
PEE EER EEENCEEEE TEE RREEE Reece rece
EECCA ERECT RTE et
ie:
pep es Sef a Ve i a 1 a
ee Pee ee
N %
A horizontal line
Fia, 4.
«Obseryations were also made on the silver faces, but the gas action when the
lass faces were exposed was nearly double that for the silver faces, so the least favor-
able case is shown.
» Ordinates of the curves are proportional to moments.
to combined radiation pressure and gas action are shown as ordinates
and duration of exposure, in seconds, as abscissve.?
Co
t=)
126 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
through the diagram gives the mean value of the moment of radiation
pressure computed from the data in Table I. Decrease of the deflee-
tion with time indicates gas repulsion on the warmed silver faces and
increase in deflection gas suction. It will be seen from the curves
that beginning at a gas pressure of 66 mm. of mercury, the gas action
was repulsion changing to suction in passing from 19.8 to 11.2 mm.
In the last two cases the total gas action is small. For lower pressures
the suction increases to 0.05 mm. Ata gas pressure of 0.02 mm. the
gas action is again a strong repulsion. :
The curves indicate the existence of two gas pressures, at which the
gas action in our arrangement of apparatus should be zero, one
between 19.8 and 11.2 mm. and the other between 0.05 and 0.02 mm.4@
The former région was chosen for the ballistic measurements and
nearly all of the observations were made at a gas pressure of approxi-
mately 16mm. Even for the two pressures where the decrease in the
static deflection was most rapid, 1. e., at gas pressures of 66 and 0,02
min., the first throw was always in the direction of radiation pressure.
The gas action is strongly influenced by very slight changes in the
inclination of the plane of the vanes to the vertical and also by any
object introduced under the bell jar anywhere near the vanes. For
instance, a very considerable effect was observed when a small vessel
of phosphoric anhydride was placed under the jar behind the vanes,
though the nearest wall of the vessel was separated from the vanes by
a distance of at least 3 em.
During the observations, the polished silver coatings on the vanes
deteriorated rapidly; new coatings rarely lasted for more than two
evenings’ work. As the balance had to be removed and the mirrors
taken from the hooks, silvered, polished, and replaced a great number
of times during the entire series of measurements, although great care
was taken in setting the plane of the vanes vertical, it is not likely
that precisely the same conditions for gas action were ever repeated.
The principal value of the static results was in indicating favorable
gas pressures for work, rather than affording quantitative estimates of
the gas action in short exposures. The dotted parts of the curves are
not based on resuits of observation and might perhaps have been
omitted without loss.
It was plain, therefore, that further elimination of the gas action
must be sought in exposures so short that the gas action would not
have time to reach more than a small fraction of its stationary value.
This led to the method of ballistic observations.
«Crookes in his work with the radiometer discovered ‘certain gas pressures for
which the combined gas and radiation forces neutralized, but as he did not discrimi-
nate between forces due to radiation and gas forces his results were apparently
capricious and his reasoning somewhat confused. See Phil. Trans., p. 519, 1875.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. L2
THE BALLISTIC OBSERVATIONS.
In passing from the static to the ballistic observations it must
always be possible to compute the static equivalent of the ballistic
swings. Furthermore, the exposures should be made as short as pos-
sible without reducing the size of the swing below a value which can
be accurately measured.
If the exposure lasts for one-half the period of the balance, the
deflection, if the gas action be small, and the damping zero, is equal
to 20 where @ is the angle at which the torsion of the fiber will
balance the moment produced by the radiation pressure. If the dura-
tion of the exposure be one-quarter of the period of the balance, the
angle of deflection is 6,/2. The deflection is thus reduced by 30 per
cent, but the effect of the gas action is reduced in greater porportion.
It was decided, therefore, to expose for six seconds, one-fourth of
the balance period. Neglecting the gas action, but taking account of
the damping of the system, it may be shown ae the total angle of
@efcction of the torsion: balance in the ballistic measurements is equal
to 1.357 times the angle at which the torsion moment balances the
moment of the radiation préssure.
To make sure that the observed radiation pressures depended only
on the intensity of the beam, and were uninfluenced by the wave length
of the incident energy, the ballistic observations of pressure, the ther-
mal measurements of intensity, and the determination of the reflection
coefficients were carried out for three entirely different wave groups
of the incident radiation. In the measurements designated ** through
air” no absorbing medium was introduced in the path of the beam
between the lamp and the balance except the glass lenses and plates
already mentioned. In the measurements ‘* through red glass” a plate
of ruby glass was put in the path of the beam between L, and d, (fig. 2).
For the observations ‘‘through water cell” a 9-mm. layer of distilled
water in a glass cell was placed in the path of the beam at the same
point.“
Applying reduction factors to the averages in the separate series of
measurements of radiation pressure, we find the pressure of the stand-
ard light beam which has oa
(a) through air to be (7.01 = 0.023) x 10° dynes;
(>) through red glass to be (6.94 + 0.024) x 107° dynes;
(c) through water cell to be (6.52 + 0. 028) Se TY ee
« Here follow in the origin: a paper dete fied results of 14 pepe series of measure-
ments ‘‘through air,” 8 ‘‘through water,’”’ and 9 ‘through red glass.’’
128 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
THE ENERGY MEASUREMENTS.
The radiant intensity of the beam used in the experiments was deter-
mined by directing it upon the blackened face of a silver disk, weigh-
ing 4.80 grams, of 13.3 mm. diameter, and of 3.55 mm. thickness, and
by measuring its rate of temperature rise as it passed through the
temperature of its surroundings. The disk was obtained from Messrs.
Tiffany & Co., and was said by them to be 99.8 per cent fine silver.
Two holes were bored through parallel diameters of the disk, one-
fourth of the thickness of the disk from either face. Two iron con-
stantan thermojunctions, made by soldering 0.1 mm. wires of the two
metals, were drawn through
the holes into the center of the
disk. To insulate the wires
—
from the disk, fine drawn-
Thermometer
glass tubes were slipped
over them and thrust into
the holes, leaving less than 2
mm. bare wire on either side
of the junctions. The wires
were sealed into the tubes
and the tubes into the disk
by solid shellac. The tubes
projected 15 mm. or more
Thin Board, from the disk and were bent
-- Box upward in planes parallel to
the faces of the disk. The
general arrangement will be
seen in fig. 5. The disk was
lo Calv, toGalu.
suspended by the four wires
some distance below a small
flat wooden box. On the box
was fastened a calorimeter
can swathed in cotton and
filled with kerosene in which
the constant thermojune-
tions were immersed. Cop-
per wires soldered to the two ends of the thermoelectric series were
brought out of the calorimeter, and the circuit was closed through
1,000 ohms in series with the 500 ohms resistance of galvanometer Gis
The thermojunctions in the disk were in series, and as each junction
was midway between the central plane of the disk and either face, it
vas assumed that when the disk was slowly warmed by heating one
face the electromotive forces obtained corresponded to the mean tem-
perature of the disk. One face of the disk was blackened by spray-
ing it with powdered lampblack in alcohol containing a trace of shellac.
Water Jacket
Fig. 5.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. 129
This method was suggested by Prof. G. EK. Hale and gives very fine
and uniform dead-black coatings not inferior to good smoke deposits.
For the energy measurements the bell jar and the torsion balance
were removed from the platform P (fig. 1) and a double-walled cop-
per vessel AB (fig. 5), which served as a water jacket surrounding a
small air chamber C, was mounted in the same place. A tube 2 cm. in
diameter was soldered into the front face of the jacket to admit the light
beam into the chamber C. This opening was covered by a piece of plate
lass similar to the plates forming the larger windows in the bell jar.
The needle system in G,, a four-coi] du Bois-Rubens galvanometer,
was suspended in a strong magnetic field so that its period was about
four seconds. The system was heavily damped by a mica air fan of
large surface. The’disk junctions and galvanometer responded quickly
to the radiation, as was shown by the reversal of motion of the magnet
system 1.2 seconds after the light was cut off from the disk, when the
latter was a few degrees above the temperature of the room.
The disk was calibrated for temperature in terms of the deflection
for a definite sensitiveness of the galvanometer G,. * * *
The mean of two separate calibrations taken several days apart was
9.96 scale divisions for one degree temperature difference.
Before beginning a series of intensity measurements the disk was
suspended in an air chamber containing phosphoric anhydride and sur-
rounded by a jacket of ice and salt. The disk was thus lowered to a
temperature of about zero degrees and was then quickly transferred
to the chamber C (fig. 5), and the beam was directed upon it. When
its temperature had risen to within 5 or 6 degrees of that of the cham-
ber C, galvanometer readings were made at intervals of five seconds
until the disk was heated to a temperature several degrees above its
surroundings. The temperature of the chamber C was determined by
removing the disk and cooling it to a point near the room tempera-
ture, then replacing it and observing its rate of temperature change
for several minutes.
Energy series were made ‘‘ through air,” ‘‘through red glass,” and
‘“‘through water cell,” as in the pressure measurements. During the
experiment the black coatings were frequently cleaned off from the
disk and new ones deposited. The final result therefore does not
correspond to an individual but to an average coating.
To correct for any inequality between the two disk thermojunctions
or any lack of symmetry in their positions, referred to the central
plane of the disk, which might prevent the mean temperature of the two
junctions from representing the mean temperature of the mass, series of
observations were made on each face of the disks. The black coating
was always cleaned off from the face of the disk away from the light.“
oO
>
“In the original paper here follow detailed results of 82 energy measurements
through air, water, and red glass, some on one face of the disk and some on the
other.
130 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
As the general result of all the energy measurements it was found
that the rise in temperature of the silver disk per second when the
light passed: “
(a) through air= (0°.0970--0°.00034) C.;
(6) through red glass=(0°.0946+0°.00036) C.;
(c) through water cell=(0°.0884+0°.00064) C.
The mass of the silver disk was 4.80 grams, its specific heat? at 18°
C.=0.0556; the mechanical equivalent of heat at 18° C.=4.272 x10"
ergs.° Consequently the energy of the standard radiation is
(a) through air, 0.0970 « 4.80 x 0.0556 & 4.272 « 107
or Ey = (1.108 + 0.004) & 108 ergs per second.
(b) through red glass, Hy = (1.078 + 0.004) 10° ergs per second.
(c) through water cell, #,,, = (1.008 + 0.007) 10° ergs per second.
REFLECTING POWER OF THE SURFACES USED.
According to Maxwell and Bartoli, the pressure in dynes per square
centimeter for normal incidence is equal to the energy in ergs in unit
volume of the medium. The energy in unit volume is made up! of
both the direct and reflected beams. If E is the intensity of the inei-
dent beam and p the reflection coefticient, the pressure p = ee
where V is the velocity of light. The methods for measuring p and
EK have already been described. The determination of p for both
sides of the vanes C and D was made by means of a bolometer.
In all, three series of measurements were made on the silver and
two series on the yvlass-silver faces of each vane. To get average
coeflicients which would represent the range of condition of the mir-
rors during the pressure measurements, the vanes were cleaned and
new silver coatings deposited between each two series on the same
vane. The reflection coefficients are as follows:
Connected reflection coefficients in percentages.
Air silver. | Glass silver.
Throvug hyaline aecss ses cee ss Sees Pe ee eee eee eae Eee ee eer eeiemee 92.0 77.6
Reg lassie S228 fos = fact eee nat eeplacees Se peace eee comer er eres ¢ 93.4 | 76.2
89.0 80.5
ZEAL) cee re ree Ee ee a Re ict san SOOM OO SISOS 39, | 0.5
Average coefficients through air, 84.8; red glass, 84.8; water, 84.8.
The diffuse reflection of black coatings deposited by the method
used in blackening the silver disk was measured and computed in the
same manner as the diffused reflection from the vanes C and D. Five
determinations of this reflection were made under different conditions
“See footnote to table on page 131.
bU. Behn, Ann. der Phys., 4, 266, 1900.
¢Mean of Rowland’s and Griffith’s values. “ Phil. Trans., 5, 184, 496, 1893.
@Jn the original paper here follow the details of experiments on the reflecting
power of the surfaces.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. Weuh
and with different coatings. The values in percentages of the incident
beam averaged 4.6 per cent. Thus only 95.4 per cent of the incident
beam was absorbed by the black coating on the silver disk in produc-
ing the temperature increase observed. Hence the true energy of the
beam is equal to the observed energy divided by 0.954.
The silver disk, diameter 13.3 mm., used in the energy measure-
ments, received long waves and scattered radiation which passed round
and through the light-pressure vanes of diameter 12.8 mm. This
amount was experimentally determined for both thin and thick silver
coatings in order to approximate to the average condition of the coat-
ings in the light-pressure measurements, and it was found to average
(a) through air, 1.40 per cent; (4) through red glass, 1.44 per cent;
(c) through water, 0.46 per cent. On this account the energy E of
the standard radiation must be reduced by the above percentages.“
A comparison of observed and computed pressures follows:
_ E
| Observed values |Computed values
uy = = yi srences.,
| in 10—>5 dynes. | in 10—5 dynes. Tyner ence
| Per cent.
hroug hleim Sete swe eersieie os a/icsis Ss oss sa seins ap=7.01+0. 02 7.05+0. 03 —0.6
RUTOU STC Gs SARS Ee oe con od cere sinctelses Sas Seti ae es | p=6:94+ 02 6.86+ .03 +1.1
eMHITOU SMW Alen twee neces aon sec esis ejose eee cence SS == Ze SUR 648+ .04 — .6
a The pressure and energy measurements for the three different wave groups through air, red glass,
and water cell constitute three independent experiments. The values for pressure, 7.01, 6.94, and
6,52 in the three cases are only accidentally related. The difference arises from the different reflect- -
ing power of the 45° glass plate (fig. 2) for the different beams and from the fact that the indications
of the lamp galvanometer G. connected with bolometer R were probably not strictly proportional to
29
energy for throws differing as widely as 33, 60, and 100, which, roughly, were the relative intensities
of the beams through water cell, red glass,and air. The function of the lamp bolometer and galva-
nometer was purely to keep a check on the small variations of the lamp, which rarely fluctuated more
than 10 per cent on either side of the mean value.
An estimate of the approximate magnitude of the gas action not
eliminated by the ballistic method of observation [of which details
appear in the original paper] shows that the uneliminated gas action,
by the most liberal estimate, can not have exceeded 1 per cent of the
radiation pressure. Because of its smallness and indefiniteness no
correction for gas action has been made to the final pressure values.
If corrections were applied, its effect would be to reduce slightly the
observed pressures,
From the agreement within the probable errors of the air, red glass,
and water values with the theory it appears that radiation pressure
depends only upon the intensity of the radiation and is independent
of the wave length.
The Maxwell-Bartoli theory is thus quantitatively confirmed within
the probable errors of observation.
Wiuper Lasoratory, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE,
TTanover, LV. EES February, 1903.
“As the average pitch of the cone of the incident beam was about | part in 40, no
correction need be applied for inclination. Furthermore, the inside of the bell jar
was blackened and the zero of the balance was so chosen that energy reflected from
the window admitting the beam could produce no pressure effects.
132 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
THE APPLICATION OF RADIATION PRESSURE TO COMETARY THEORY.
In the experiments described in = foregoing paper the close agree-
ment of theory with experiment warrants the rigid application of the.
radiation-pressure theory in the ae of cosmical phenomena.
In any balancing of radiation pressure against gravitation in comets
the size of particles is the determining factor. The repulsion due to
radiation pressure depends upon the intensity of the rays, the absorb-
ing and reflecting power of the surface, and the cross section of the
body exposed. Gravitational attraction depends only upon mass,
or the product of volume and density. It will be seen, therefore, that
for spheres of a given substance the weight at a fixed distance from
the sun will vary with the cube of the radius, while radiation pressure
will depend upon the radius squared. The ratio of pressure to weight
will thus be inversely as the radius. This relation holds down to the
point where the particles become so small that they begin to lose in
absorbing and reflecting power through diffraction.
The intensity:of the solar radiation and gravitation diminish with
distance in accordance with the same law, so that the ratio of pressure
to weight is a constant for the same body at all distances from the sun.
For spheres of the same size, and the same absorbing and reflecting
power, the ratio of pressure to gravitation is inversely as the density.
The variation of this ratio, as it depends upon size and density, has’
been used by Lebedew“ and Arrhenius’ in the computation of the
repulsion upon the finely divided matter of comets’ tails, but the lim-
iting value of the ratio for diminishing spheres of the same density
due to diffraction first appears in Schw: srvschildts S paper. ° .
Comet heads.—In the heads of comets the phenomena are most com-
plicated and difficult of explanation, yet it seems worth while to try
to gather together a few of the separate causes which may be at work
in producing this intricate structure.
The heat received from the sun by the nucleus of a comet may be
spent in three ways: (1) In raising the temperature of the nucleus.
As the nucleus is of relatively small mass and probably of low heat
conductivity no very considerable quantity of heat is required for this
purpose. (2) Heat may be, and doubtless is, used in the vaporization
of volatile hydrocarbonsand other substances in the nucleus. (8) Large
quantities of heat are lost from the nucleus by radiation.
The porous structure of meteorites points to a similar straehuce in
cometary nuclei. The jets from the nucleus outward to the envelope
of the head may be formed oy the heating of the maponzable mi ——
@ Wied. Ane Ae OD 1892: Hise Naanherael Journal: 14, 155, 1902.
bLehrbuch der kosmischen Physik, p. 150, Leipzig, 1903.
eSitzungsberichte der math.-phys. Classe der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften
zu Munchen, 31, 298, 1901.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. 11333
in the interior of the nucleus and the consequent shooting out under
pressure of a mixture of gases and dust through holes in a loose outer
erust. Lack of sufficient means of escape in this way may cause ¢
bursting of the nucleus sometimes observed.
The general upward current of vapors from the nucleus to the envel-
ope, aside from jets, may be due to convection away from the more
strongly heated center.4
Because of the counter-pressure due to the radiation of the nucleus
itself, the rising of even small solid particles from the nucleus to the
envelope would not encounter as strong an unbalanced pressure from
the solar rays as particles in the tail. For, if all the heat received
from the sun were again radiated from the frelon on the side toward
the sun, these two counter-radiation pressures would exactly balance
at the surface of the nucleus. ?
Small particles may also be aided in rising from the nucleus toward
the sun by gas forces. By numerous experiments on larger bodies
immersed in a gas and illuminated on one side, it has been shown that
they may be either repelled from the light source or drawn to it,
depending upon the pressure of the surrounding gas. (See curves, in
the foregoing paper, fig. 4.) If the gas pressure is not too low, par-
ticles after leaving the nucleus mene first be drawn toward the sun
until a region of higher vacuum was reached in the ascent, and then
be repelled.¢
The brilliant envelope of the head may be regarded as forming at
the height where condensation, caused by expansion and cooling, takes
place. Here the repelling action of the solar radiation would reach a
high value and the particles in the envelope would be driven backward
to form the tail.
According to Arrhenius this condensation in the eny elopes is assisted
a Matter in the Pes of gases Pa vapors is not subject to eines pressure, as
solid and liquid particles are, because of the minuteness of molecular dimensions.
Except in the spectrum regions of characteristic absorption, radiation can, theoreti-
cally, exert no pressure whatever upon a gas. Hence gases might rise from the
nucleus toward the sun practically unhindered by radiation pressure.
bIt is worth noting in this connection that the longer and invisible waves are as
effective in producing pressure as the visible radiations, and that these long waves
strongly preponderate in the spectra of solid bodies at temperatures low in com-
parison with the solar temperature. :
¢It is possible also that electrostatic forces may play a small part in the forma-
tion of the head from the nucleus. Arrhenius believes the sun to have a positive
electrical charge, due to the fact that it loses more negative electrons by condensation
into nuclei and subsequent repulsion by radiation pressure than it does of positive
electrons which do not as readily serve as centers of condensation. Streams of nega-
tively charged particles would communicate a negative charge to the matter surround-
ing the comet’s nucleus, which would thus be attracted by the sun. As this attrac-
tion would oppose the formation of the tail in the same measure as it assisted that of
the head, it can not be a dominating influence.
dL.c., p. 208.
134 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
by the influx of negatively charged nuclei from the sun, which serve
as condensation centers for the ascending vapors. The height above
the nucleus of the comet at which this condensation would occur would
thus, in some measure, be governed by the supply of negative parti-
cles. These would be found in increasing numbers with diminishing
distance from the sun. This action may be responsible for the contrac-
tion of the head and envelope as comets approach the sun.
The brilliancy of the envelope may be attributed in large part to
the fact that bodies of sufficient size to reflect solar rays are first
formed out of the vapors of the head in this region. The negative
nuclei from the sun would here experience an obstruction and lose the
greater part of their motion by friction. Electrical mterchanges and
discharges would be more active, and the hydrocarbon spectrum be
brighter in the envelope than in other parts of the head.
If the brightness of the head and its envelope depend upon the
number of negatively charged nuclei which strike the comet, and if,
as Arrhenius maintains, the nuclei move out from the sun radially and
in greatest numbers from regions of greater solar activity, comets
crossing the surface defined by solar radii drawn through the sun-spot
belts should show a marked increase in brightness, especially in maxti-
mum sun-spot years. . The writers are not aware that any such
influence has been looked for in the cases where sudden changes of
brightness in comets have been observed.
Comet tacls.—The maximum ratio of radiation pressure to gravita-
tion, obtained theoretically by Schwarzschild for sunlight upon opaque
reflecting spheres of 0.8 density, under the most favorable conditions,
was about 20 to 1, if the recent estimates (ranging from 3.5 to 4) of
the solar constant were used.
In Bredichin’s three types of cometary tails the highest ratio of
attraction to repulsion required is about 18 to 1. The multiple tails
observed in such comets as Donati’s may thus be satisfactorily
explained by the sifting action of radiation pressure in two ways—
either by assuming, with Bredichin, that the particles in the different
tails are of different densities, but of uniform size, or by assuming
uniform density and particles of several different sizes.
While radiation pressure alone may thus afford a satisfactory expla-
nation of comets’ tails, there is no reason to assume that it is the only
cause of the repulsive action observed. There are several ways in
which the gases and vapors present in the tail may exert a force upon
the small solid or liquid particles which are known to exist there:
_ 1. Small particles, if warmed on one side when surrounded by gases
or vapors, even under pressures so low that electrical discharges take
place only under relatively high voltages, experience a strong repul-
sion, similar to that wpon a vane of a Crookes radiometer.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. 135
. Occluded gases or volatile materials upon the surface of the par-
oles would be driven off by the sun’s heat on the illuminated sides,
and the particles would thus receive a thrust in the direction away
from the sun.
3. If the particles were porous or loosely put together, containing
cavities filled with more easily vaporizable substances, the resulting
vapors would be shot out upon the hotter sides and the particles
driven back by a kind of rocket action.
That these combined gas forces are still large, even in high vacua,
will be seen from an actual experiment described later.
If we accept Arrhenius’s theory that the solar activity produces
numberless negative electrons which serve as condensation points for
the vapors surrounding them in the solar atmosphere, and thus form
small, negatively charged nuclei, which are driven from the sun by
radiation pressure,” these nuclei would exert a battering action upon
the particles of the tail. In the last case a strange meeting point is
found between the oldest, or Keplerian, and the latest explanation of
the solar repulsion of comets’ tails.
Finally Prof. J. J. Thomson,’ in investigating the action of electric
waves upon charged bodies immersed in the medium, has found that
a small repulsive effect may arise from this cause. This repulsive
force is entirely distinct from the radiation pressure so far considered,
but on the electro-magnetic theory of light it may be competent to
drive away electrons formed above the photosphere of the sun, inde-
pendently of the sign of the charge and of whether they have formed
nuclei by condensation or not.
These last two causes of repulsion are in all probability of very
minor importance when compared with radiation pressure, or even
with gas action.
Experiment with a laboratory comet's tail.—Some of the above con-
siderations led the writers to try to reproduce, as nearly as possible,
in a vacuum tube some of the conditions believed to exist in comets’
tails. The result of a hasty computation of the magnitude of the
effect which might be expected from radiation pressure provided a
suitable dust coal be found was most encouraging.
At the outset it was apparent that it would be very difficult to man-
ufacture a powder the grains of which would be sufficiently small,
light, and uniform for the purpose; so the spores of a great variety of
degraded vegetable forms were examined. Finally a puffball of the
genus Lycoperdon was discovered, the spores of which averaged
microns in diameter, and were as nearly spherical and uniform in size
«The supposed electrical discharges in the tail of a comet which give rise to its
gaseous emission spectrum are attributed by Arrhenius to the electrical disturbances
caused by the influx of these negative nuclei.
b Phil. Mag., 4, 253, 1902.
SM 1903— 10
136 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
as a pile of apples from the same tree. These spores were light, cel-
lular structures, filled mainly with oil. They were calcined by heat-
ing to redness and all the vaporizable material driven off, leaving only
sponge-like charcoal spheres behind. The density of a mass of these
spheres (individuals could obviously not be dealt with) was measured
and found to be about one-tenth that of water. Making liberal allow-
ances for the spaces between spheres in the pile, the density of a sin-’
gle sphere could not exceed 0.15.4
These spores, together with a quantity of emery sand, were placed
in a glass tube the form of which was suggested by the hourglass.
Smaller tubes led off from either
end. One of these was fused to a
good mercury pump of the Geissler
type, the other bent-down and joined
to a small flask containing mercury.
Allot the tubes were wrapped with
wire gauze and heated to a tempera-
ture just below the softening point
of glass, and the pump was worked
many hours. Whenthe pump showed
no further signs of gas the mercury
in the flask was boiled and mercury
vapor driven through the tubes to
‘arry off any permanent gases which
the pump alone could not reach.
After this had continued for an hour
or more the tube system was sealed
off from the pump and the mercury
flask was surrounded by solid carbon
dioxide and ether, and the hourglass
still heated. In this way all of the
mercury vapor which could be con-
densed at a temperature of —80° C.
was drawn out of the tubes. After
Ie nearly an hour the mercury flask
with its frozen contents was sealed off from the hourglass.
The hourglass was then held in a vertical position and a beam of
light of approximately known intensity was directed horizontally on
the lower half of the tube just below the neck, fig. 1. By tapping the
tube a fine stream of sand and charcoal puftball spores descended.
The sand particles fell through the beam, showing no deflection, but
the spores were driven from the stream sidewise in passing the beam.
«According to Schwarzschild’s formula, the ratio of radiation pressure to solar
gravitation for spheres of the size and density of these spores would be about 6 to 1.
THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION. 137
The observed angle of deflection of the spores from the vertical was
roughly that given from the computation, and the observers believed
that the effects shown must be due almost entirely to light pressure,
with possibly a slight gas action. The action of gases upon heated
bodies of this size had, so far as we know, never been studied, but
one of the writers” had studied the gas action on larger bodies down
to a pressure of permanent gases of 0.0005 mm. of mercury, as shown
by a McCleod gauge, and had observed that for this pressure the gas
action had begun to fall off sharply. The pressure of the permanent
gases in the hourglass must have been well below this value, and it
was thought that nearly all pressure due to vapor had been frozen out.
Later, a review of the preliminary computation was made and an
error discovered which had the effect of bringing out the computed
light pressure on bodies of this size and density far too large. It was
plain, therefore, that the force of deflection due to gas action, proba-
bly of the character of rocket action, was at least ten times as large as
the effect attributable to radiation pressure. Radiation pressure
alone would produce a measurable effect under the conditions of
observation, but would have been far less pronounced than the effect
obtained.
The experiment had unfortunately to be tried under circumstances
much more unfavorable for a pronounced effect of radiation pressure
than exists in comets, for the deflection produced by repulsion must
be measured in terms of terrestrial gravitation, which is over 1,600
times as great as solar gravitation at the distance of the earth. To
approach cometary conditions, therefore, it would have been necessary
to use a light beam 1,600 times as intense as sunlight at the earth.
In the experiment, beams from twenty to forty times as intense as
sunlight were used.
Because of the meagerness of present knowledge concerning the
actual conditions in comets’ tails it is impossible to say how closely
the foregoing experiment fulfilled the purpose for which it was tried.
It would be difficult to prove from present astronomical data that the
hydrocarbon vapors known to exist in comets’ tails exert no radio-
metric repulsion upon the small reflecting particles present. Still
more difficult would it be to show that nothing which corresponds to
what has been called rocket action occurs. This latter repulsion does
not require the presence of any generally diffused atmosphere what-
ever, but simply that the particles send off gases toward the sun under
the action of the sun’s heat. Thus, in passing from the era where no
adequate physical causes which would meet the required conditions
“A result gained in a series of unpublished experiments on gas forces by W. v.
Uljanin and E. F. Nichols. See also W. Crookes, Phil. Trans., p. 300, 1878.
1388 THE PRESSURE DUE TO RADIATION.
could be assigned for the repulsion seen in comets, we are now likely
to be embarrassed in discriminating between several contributing
influences.
The writers hope to repeat the comet’s tail experiment, using smaller
spores, if they can be found, and a tube of the new silica glass which
will stand stronger heating during the pumping, and thus make it
possible to reach higher vacua.
THe Witper PuysicaL LABORATORY,
Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H., April, 1903.
THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD AND THE VARIATIONS OF THE
MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH.¢
By Cu. NorpMann, Docteur és sciences,
Astronome a l Observatoire de Nice.
It has long been sought to discover if the various meteorological
phenomena of the earth, and particularly the temperature, are subject
to periodic variations other than the diurnal and annual periods depend-
ing on the rotation of the earth and its motion in the ecliptic. The
astrologers of the middle ages, who affected to discern a relationship
between the great climatological changes of the globe and the con-
figuration of the sun and planets, and who based predictions upon such
phenomena, may be considered perhaps as the pioneers in this line
of study.
During the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries
men of science made numerous attempts to determine if meteorological
phenomena were dependent on the relative positions of the sun and
moon, and if consequently they could be associated with the various
periods common between these heavenly bodies, such as the Draconic
period, the Saros, and the period of nodes. These studies were influ-
enced by a long-standing and still prevalent belief, profoundly fixed
in the popular mind, that the moon exercises a preponderating
influence upon terrestrial climates.
More modern and exact investigations have thoroughly tested this
traditional belief, and while itis shown that the moon actually appears
to produce tides in the higher regions of our atmosphere analogous to
those of the ocean, it is on the other hand established that our satellite
exercises no appreciable influence upon the temperature or climate of
the earth, and investigations along these lines have been at length
abandoned.
ie
The inquiry was brought upon a new field when, in 1852, Sabine,
Wolf, and Gautier discovered that the phenomena of terrestrial mag-
netism were subject to variations of a period equal to that of the
sun spots. <A little later Fritz discovered the same period in the
manifestations of the aurora borealis. Thenceforth it was natural to
inquire if all the other meteorological phenomena were not equally
subjected to the influences of sun spots. (We do not speak here of
more or less serious : STD which have been made from time to time
a amelates from Revue Générale ae Bemnces: eae 1903, p pp. 803-808.
139
140 THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD.
to find relations between sun spots and the appearance of Asiatic
cholera, famines, or commercial crises. ) “
So far as concerns climatology almost the only result certainly
established thus far, outside the question of temperature, is that
derived by Meldrum,’ director of the observatory on the island of
Mauritius, who found the mean annual rainfall of the earth slightly
greater in years of maxima than in those of minima of sun spots. The
causes of this variation in rainfall are not yet understood, but I may
incidentally remark that the views I have myself advanced in relation
to the aurora borealis’ may afford a simple explanation, for I have
shown that during years of maximum sun spot frequency the Hertzian
waves emanating from the sun induce the formation of the cathode
rays of the aurora borealis more abundantly than in years of minimum
sun spots. On the other hand, it is known that the propagation of
cathode rays is favorable to the condensation of vapor; thus it follows
that water vapor within the atmosphere, other conditions being equal,
would condense more abundantly in the form of rain during years of
maxima of sun spots, as found by Meldrum.
The idea that the sun spots should have some influence on terrestrial
temperatures is very old. This view was advanced by Riccioli in 1651,
shortly after the discovery of sun spots, but so little was known of the
nature and magnitude of their influence down to recent times that in
1872 Wolf was still able to write: **The relation which Herschel sup-
posed to exist between sun spots and the mean temperature of the
earth is still in question.”” It might seem at first sight strange that
while the connection between the sun-spot period and terrestrial mag-
netism and aurora was established almost as soon as the question began
to be investigated, the exact influence of sun spots on the temperature
of the earth, although long suspected, had not been determined even
as late as 1872. There are two kinds of causes contributing to this:
First. While the eleven-year variations of the Aurora Borealis and
of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism are so great as to be readily
discernible in the amplitude of the phenomena in question, the effect
on temperature is only a fraction of a degree centigrade, as we shall
presently show, and thus of an order below that of the accidental and
local variations of temperature.
Second. The researches published on this subject prior to 1872 gave
but uncertain and contradictory results, because the authors did not
“This last idea is not perhaps absurd, for it is certain that if the sun spots really
exercise a sensible influence upen terrestrial meteorology, they may indirectly influ-
ence harvests, as had been suggested by the great Herschel. But the price of grain
depends quite as much, or even more, on political and social circumstances as upon
meteorology.
> Monthly Notices of the Meteorological Society of Mauritius, December, 1878.
¢Ch. Nordmann. Recherches sur le rdle des ondes hertziennes en Astronomie
physique. Rey. Gén. des Sciences, 1° Avril 1902.
@ Wandbuch der Mathematik, Physik, Geodisie und Astronomie, Vol. IT, p. 302.
THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD. 141
in general employ data other than those given by a single station,
instead of employing the only rational method which could distinguish
a general influence of solar origin from causes purely local and tem-
porary, namely, the study of the contemporaneous records of numer-
ous stations. Furthermore, the authors did not employ a sufticiently
long period of observations, for these ought at the very least to extend
over a complete sun-spot cycle. Some writers even ventured to draw
conclusions from the observations continued only a few months at a
single station. Finally, for the most part these early investigators
studied the records of stations in the temperate zones, where, as
K6ppen has shown, the local and accidental variations are so great as
to mask completely such minute changes of mean temperature as are
here in question.
In 1873 there appeared the well-known memoir of Képpen, who
concluded, from an able discussion of the thermometric observations at
numerous stations during the period from 1820 to 1870, that the pres-
ence of sun spots was attended by a slight diminution of the terres-
trial temperature.“ Since the appearance of this memoir, which
constituted the first trustworthy results reached in this direction, no
extended work on the subject has been published. 2
10
Encouraged by the friendly counsel of M. H. Poincaré, I have
undertaken to continue the study of this important subject for the
period 1870 to 1900, for it seemed to me very desirable to throw addi-
tional light, if possible, upon a point so important to physical astron-
omy and the physics of the earth.
The work of K6ppen established that the curve of variation of mean
annual temperature is reasonably regular only for tropical stations,
and that in the regions exterior to the Tropics the curve of variation
becomes so irregular that it is impossible to recognize in it any perio-
dicity whatever. This result was perhaps to be expected, for the
tropical regions are characterized by a very even climate, whereas
for stations nearer the poles the accidental variations of temperature
are very great, and indeed enormously greater than the slight varia-
tion of temperature which will be found below to attend the sunspot
cycle.
Accordingly I have made use of thermometric observations from
tropical stations exclusively in this study, but since the meteorological
observations of the past thirty years have been greatly extended and
systematized, I have been able to employ material much more exten-
sive and trustworthy than was at Képpen’s disposal. Thus the series
of observations for separate stations are generally longer than he
“Koppen: Zeitschrift der dsterreichische Gesellschaft fir Meteorologie, Vol. VIII,
1873, pp. 241, 273.
142 THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD.
employed, so that while he was occasionally obliged to use series of
no more extent than six years of observation, which could not fail to
be a serious source of error, I have retained no series shorter than
eleven years, corresponding to the mean period of the complete sun
spot cycle. Furthermore, while Képpen had no observations from
stations outside the Indies, the Antilles, and tropical America, I have
been able to employ data from a greater number of stations, distrib-
uted more thoroughly over the globe, so that the result obtained can
be considered as really representing the mean state of all that portion
of the earth comprised within the Tropics. The stations for which I
have used all the observations published since 1870 are:
Sierra Leone, Recife (or Pernambuco), Port au Prince, Trinité,
Jamaica, Habana, Manila, Hongkong, Zi Ka Wei, Batavia, Bombay,
Island of Rodriguez; Island of Mauritius.
For each station there has been computed the deviation of the mean
temperature of each year from the general mean for a great number
of years. Then for each year from 1870 to 1900 the general mean of
the deviations of all the stations was obtained.
The following table contains the results thus derived. In the col-
unin headed ** Sun spots,” will be found for each year the relative
number of sun spots according to Wolf; and the column headed
*‘Deviations,” gives in degrees centigrade the mean departure in tem-
perature for all the stations as obtained in the following manner:
If a, represent the arithmetical mean of the deviations of tempera-
ture at all stations for a given year, a, that for the year preceding,
and a, that for the year following, the number found in the column
headed ** Deviations ” corresponding to the year in question is equal to
a,+ 2a, +a,
aaa
These numbers have been employed rather than the direct arith-
metical mean for the given year, in order to give a more regular
series by eliminating as well as possible the secondary irregularities.
TaBLE I.—Comparison of sun spots and temperatures, 1870 to 1900.
| f
}
Year. Sun spots. | Deviations.) Year. Sun spots. | Deviations.
ay °C. | °C.
1870 seca eee eee «139 == 0072)! SIS8G at osu aae eee as aie 25 — 0.17
SY pO a er eta a ee 111 Seca NaI Bi cy eae ee ee A 13 = aol
S72 Stee ya eee eee WOU| (== 07] SSRs! ae See eee: 7 + .13
1873 see ee oe Meee ee GBie| 09s) EL SBO aeep eee ee eee 6 4+ 15
LSTA rene ees eee | 44 2: (,1 33/1800 5s = sae ta eee eee 7 + .06
1S RE aad SOE ance oes 17 ==, FLOM SOT Se son 5s sae ee oe ee 35 + .04
icy Geers Aaeanob ae eese seas ile Pee 3P Nike ees oars, fo Seema ae ce 73 — .05
ABV Seen eee eee ae 22 i MR OSA PISO ean eeee een 5 ee ae as4 —»b.12
1878S Sess ate ee epee 3 | AL 4 AS (S1804S Reo ETI ee Raid Se ee 78 — .05
AS7Onsaces ea eee ae eee Gili ce OG cl ston eae nea eee 64 + .07
TSO seed ene eee | 32 =f: oer 19R) BSG Se eee oe apes wes oe eee 41 + .20
TASt Su be eae a Re 54 =) eo D0 :|| SRO Taree ne teen 26 + .25
WS 2s cen siGenevea re esttet 59 Sa OT | SG 8 ee eee eee | 26 + .19
BSB Re eetise hee eereeeeee a64 =)" yO] W899 2n no csete mem Cemencee | 12 + .18
RSH Se eee 63 20: 391 di GOONER a ee eae meee | 9 + .25
LSS ese ees. ene oe 52 = ,21
|
aMaximum. b Minimum.
THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD. P43
Fig. t is a graphical representation of the results contained in the
table. Ordinates of the curve of temperatures are taken directly from
the column headed ‘* Deviations,” and plotted in the usual way, while
the ordinates of the curve of sun spots are plotted with decreasing
values toward the top of the sheet, so as to give a figure appar ently
the inverse of the sun-spot frequency.
It will be seen at once that the two curves run in a general way
parallel.
Temperature departures.
Sr eciitants = f-
ae
ate
=
Vales wal
x CoN
ae ECENEEE
FEECH aaeGbadsae
Fic. 1.—Comparison of sun spots and mean ioe
The following more careful discussion goes to show that their simi-
larity extends eyen to minor details:
1. If we consider the dates of maxima and minima of temperature
and sun spots, respectively, as found in the two curves, we may express
the results in the form of a table as follows:
TaBieE Il.—Mazxima and minima of sun spots and temperatures.
mae a Al = I : anes :
Minima of | Maxima of|| Maxima of | Minimaof
temperature.| sun spots. || temperature.) sun spots.
Sete eeteisie ea wlatsieloiptalelele 1881 | 1878 |
1884-85 Debye Ween eeseecdacaallstcnpcaranac
SOnCUDO SB sone leccacercpopd || 1889 1889 |
1893 ae a WinsApeceeppoacd bsesseopoccs
Se BSE NCCi MEA eee | 1900 1901
This comparison shows that the agreement between the times of
minima of temperature and maxima of sun spots on the one hand
and between maxima of temperature and minima of sun spots on the
other is very satisfactory.
2. It is well known that the interval between a minimum of sun
spots and the succeeding maximum is usually shorter than the inter-
val between a maximum and the following minimum. The 23 sun-spot
144 THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD.
periods from 1870 to 1900 were not exceptions to this rule, and it will
be noted that the 24 corresponding temperature periods also conform
to it, as appears in Table III.
TasLe I1]1.—Number of years elapsing between times of successive maxima and minima.
oa
| 1 2 3 4 5 6
| Max. Min. Max. Min. Max. Min.
| sun spots. sun spots. sun spots. sun spots. sun spots. sun spots.
eo eee ees SS
Sun spots........ 8 5 6 8
Temperatures ... 11 3.5 4.5 4 7
Min. Max. Min. Max. Min. Max.
| temp. temp. temp. temp. temp. temp.
2 3 4 5 6
|
For both sun spots and temperatures we find:
Interval 2-3 less than 3-4, and 4-5 less than 5-6.
as)
—— — —
——
Moreover, for both temperatures and sun spots the intervals 2-3 and
4-5 are smaller than any of the intervals 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6, despite
= = =
the inequality of the total periods embraced in the two and one-half
cycles considered. These include the half period of eight years (1870
to 1878), a full period of eleven years (1878 to 1889), and a second full
period of twelve years (1589 to i901).
3. Again, designating as ‘‘rich in sun spots” the years for which
the Wolf relative numbers exceed 60, and as **‘ poor in sun spots ” those
years in which they fall below 15, we may form the following table, in
which the temperature variations are divided between the classes so
defined:
TaBLE LV.
Years rich in sun spots. Years poor in sun spots. |
7 Temperature ae Temperature
UGE deviations. | Year. | deviations. |
eC ce
eek Su Olean cictsseime ne se ae —0. 22 ICViseananbeanacosaannGe +0.13
|p LSM ecemececsacise sales 14 1879 osiaaiciisme aise + .16
VB [Zenoss ascee ee eee = AOU all! BST sercrcteeceieies bee cere — .05 |
Igor be ere! 209 ll siaskanhe os ieee aala
NBS3 a .o3 date sya eetojsoeeere = pill) || Tiss) cceetessoganogsace + .15
S84 Nepean 21. || A890 ec es2 site erties + .06
1892 saeae tins saeecace ee 705) ||| el SOO Reese Se meeesaee + .18
Mets eetcuremoassonamssar ID) eS shaposacanssecsons + .25
1894 oss 5.2 buslscileis ences = ob) ||
| WP secosccsoscdoncdcce 07 }
| Mean........-.- a | Meanin ete eal
|
This comparison also exhibits a satisfactory accord between the two
kinds of phenomena.
4. Let us now consider the years of maxima and minima of sun
spots, and for each of these years calculate a ‘*smoothed” sun spot
number by taking the mean between the number for the given year
and the half sum of the numbers for the years next preceding and
next following, respectively. We proceed similarly with the temper-
ature deviations, thus treating both kinds of data in a way to eliminate
secondary influences, while leaving a preponderating importance with
THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD. 145
the year in question. For brevity denote the resulting temperature
deviations by 64 and the sun-spot numbers by 6S. We thus obtain
Table V.
Taste V.—Maxima and minima of sun spots.
Maxima. Minima.
| Year. <= ase a4 ee Year. SS =a
| | 86. és. || 50. és.
Oo” i| od
by (Dseee ease 2a ee as Ol Oy pee ee +0.10 9
fags kolo en en {S08 heee163)" || lien GOL e meena See se ie fal
WT SOR eee rae oes =F 08h) | eee COM | pel OOO Seetes ae erence te |
| Mean......| — .12 Mean...... + ,14
|
Comparing the values of 6S with the numerical values of 64, it
appears that they vary in general in the same sense for years of max-
ima of sun spots, and in opposite senses for years of minima. But if
we regard algebraical signs, a maximum maximorum of 6S corre-
sponds to a minimum minimorum of 04, and vice versa.
5. Finally, the principal points of the preceding discussion may be
implicitly summed up as follows:
The function of temperature departures which we have just con-
sidered may be referred to a new origin of ordinates such that the
departure +0°.25 becomes the new zero; and we may reckon the new
ordinates in the direction which was formerly that of increasing nega-
tive departures. Denoting by 64 the new ordinates as thus consid-
ered, it will be seen that 64 represents in some sort (other things being
equal) the difference for each year between the temperature which
would have been experienced if there had been no sun spots, and that
which was experienced in reality; for the origin of ordinates at 4+-0°.25
corresponds with the conditions of the year 1900 when there were
scarcely any sun spots. If now we take the mean of the values of 04
for the first half period 1870 to 1881, and multiply this mean by the
number of years in this half period, and deal similarly by the periods
1881 to 1889, and 1889 to 1900, also treating the sun spot frequency
data 6S after a similar fashion, the results obtained are expressed by
the following table.¢
TasLteE VI.—Summation of the temperature curves and of the inverse sun-spot frequency
CUrVES.
siatiect
> 26S
Period. S tisg xs hiss ty
| 74 aS | + Shag
aes i = = sustes: ts F He :
is isi PELIOG OL Oe ate ce oe. sok se ne amen wae 297 | 567 | 0.52
YT 9047 | |
f = aay DCTIOGLO HO Reet sec. Fee eee Sma eee es eee mt 216 492 | 44
“ = 1500p 2 HEEIONGH ETO eg Gow.) At nee er 167 | 300° _55
11S lee 6 eR Qe OS ROO Eee ROO ARES ees ARE teas a Ser Oar Se COC ee ae GEeE ane an ess 0.5 + 0.06
«The unit of temperatures for this table is the hundredth of a degree centigrade.
146 . THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD.
>H08
It apppears that =
700
t,
ably constant proportionality between the total number of sun spots
and the summation of the temperature departures for all of the periods
reviewed,
6. From the result just given it seems to follow that we may assign
to the arbitrary sun-spot frequency numbers of Wolf a physical sig-
nificance expressing the mean relation between sun-spot frequency and
terrestrial temperatures. Thus 1 Wolf number corresponds to 0°.01
A — 0S aU.
Finally, from this discussion we are able to state definitely the fol-
lowing law, which is also in agreement with the results of Képpen:
The mean terrestrial temperature is subject to a period identical
with that of sun-spot frequency, and the effect of the presence of sun
spots is to diminish the mean temperature of the earth, so that the
curve of mean temperature departures runs parallel with an inverted
curve of sun-spot frequency.4
= 0.5 + 0.06. There seems to be a remark-
III.
It may now be inquired how far the result just reached might be
theoretically predicted. It is known that sun spots radiate less than
equal surfaces of the adjoining photosphere. This may be visually
observed from a comparative study of sun-spot and photospheric
spectra, which indicates a strong general absorption over the sun
spots. It has also been shown by the bolometric observations of
Langley, who reached the result that the umbra of an average spot
emitted only 54 per cent as much radiation as equal areas of the adja-
cent photosphere. Again, at the time of maximum sun spots the
thickness of the absorbing layer of the chromosphere is increased,
which tends to diminish the radiation of the sun. Still, there are also
present at this time many faculze which radiate more strongly than
other portions of the photosphere. The effect of the faculee tends to
offset the absorption of the more opaque chromosphere, and we may
assume as a first approximation that the two effects compensate each
other, leaving only the influence of sun spots themselves to consider.
From the researches of Zenker,’ based upon several different methods
yielding concordant results, the mean temperature of the earth’s sur-
“This law has been deduced from the discussion of observations made exclusively
at tropical stations, for these alone present a sufficient regularity of climate to per-
mit of the detection of such small temperature variations as are here in question.
But it would seem to be legitimate to extend the application of the law to the whole
surface of the globe, for it is impossible to conceive that a variation of the solar
radiation could influence temperature over half the surface of the earth without
affecting the remainder.
bThermische Aufbau der Klimat. Halle (Leipzig), 1895.
THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD. ay.
face would be —73° C.@ if the solar radiation did not exist. Now, the
actual mean temperature of the earth is about + 15° C.,’ from which it
follows that the effect of solar radiation is to raise the mean temover-
ature of the earth 88° C. above the temperature of space.
The mean area covered by sun spots during a year of maximum
activity may be taken as not far from one one-hundredth of the total
area of the sun’s disk. From this it follows that the radiation is
diminished by the presence of sun spots by about one two-hundredth,
and this should produce a diminution of terrestrial temperature of
about 88, ° or 0°.44 C.
This, it will be remembered, is almost exactly the result obtained
above from the discussion of direct observations as representing the
excess of mean terrestrial temperature during the years of minimum
over those of maximum sun spot activity.°
a[Note by translator.] Professor Poynting gives the temperature of space at
—263° C. See Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society of London, Series A, vol. 202, p.
529, 1903.
bHann: Klimatologie. Stuttgart, 1897.
¢T desire to express here my thanks to M. Mascart, who has been so good as to
place at my disposal for this investigation the library of the Bureau Central meteo-
rologique, and to M. Angot, who has given me most valuable counsel.
[Nore By TRANSLATOR.] The author’s discussion of temperature departures in
connection with the sun-spot cycle has aroused considerable interest among meteor-
ologists. It is fair to say that while expert opinion is not entirely in accord with
him in his methods of study and conclusions, the criticism which has been called
forth by his paper seems to indicate that meteorologists require further evidence
rather than that they wholly disbelieve in the alleged association of sun spots and
temperatures.
Professor Angot, in an article translated for the Monthly Weather Review of Au-
‘gust, 1903 (p. 371), strongly objects to Nordmann’s procedure of smoothing the yearly
temperature departures and combining observations from numerous stations, on the
grounds of uncertainty of the real mean temperatures of some stations, and of the
prejudicial effect upon the general mean of unequal lengths of the series of observa-
tions at the several stations. He prefers to treat each station separately, and gives
reductions of data from Guadaloupe, Hongkong, Batavia, Bombay, Barbados, and
Habana, extending over periods ranging from ten to fifty years, and embracing 16 sun-
spot periods altogether. Fourteen of these periods yield results in the same general
direction as those obtained by Nordmann, and 2 in the contrary, so that Professor
Angot remarks that ‘‘ the probability is, then, according to these observations, 7 to 1,
that an increase in the number of sun spots is accompanied by a diminution in the
temperature.’’ It appears from his reductions that ‘‘an increase of 100 in Wolf’s
relative sun-spot numbers (a difference which frequently exists between a maximum
and a minimum ) will be accompanied by a diminution of 0°.33 C. in the value of the
mean annual temperature.’’ Professor Angot concludes: ‘‘It isevident that in order
to determine the value [of the temperature departure for an increase of 100 sun-spot
numbers] it would be necessary to work with a much larger number of series. I have
given the numbers which precede only as an example of a method which appears to
me more exact and more convincing than that ordinarily employed.”
Professor Abbe, commenting editorially on the articles of Nordmann and Angot
(Monthly Weather Review, October and December, 1903), refers to a discussion of
148 THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD.
the observations at Hohenpeissenberg, extending from 1792 to 1850, which he himself
published in 1870. This discussion yielded the result that an increase of 100 Wolf
numbers in the sun-spot frequency was attended on the average by a decrease of about
1° C. in the mean annual temperature for this station. He refers also to Képpen’s
extensive investigation, which yielded the result that an increase of 100 sun-spot
numbers was attended with a decrease of temperature of 0°.54 C. for equatorial
stations, but with more complex effects for stations in temperate latitudes. But while
this statistical evidence thus tends chiefly in the same direction, Professor Abbe is
not convinced that we can certainly ascribe this apparent temperature periodicity to
solar influences. Hesays that although fora long time he ‘‘ believed that it might be
possible to establish an intimate connection between solar radiation and solar spots,
yet the steady development of our knowledge of the selective absorption of the
earth’s atmosphere has shown that we can not argue by crude statistical methods
from terrestrial temperatures up to solar radiation. We may speak of periods and
variations in our temperatures, but these do not demonstrate a similar period in the
solar temperatures or solar radiations, since unsuspected periodic variations in the
constituents of the earth’s atmosphere may be the cause of the variations we should
otherwise attribute to the sunitself. * * * The mere fact that there is a decrease
of temperature in the Tropics at sun-spot maximum argues nothing as to the direct
relation of cause and effect between the two phenomena. I have on hand a collec-
tion of monthly charts of temperature departures for the whole globe for several suc-
cessive years, which tend to show clearly that the sun-spot period in the earth’s
temperature is a purely local, terrestrial matter, moving round from one part of the
world to another, just as do our droughts and our rains, our barometric waves and
our cold waves; analogous to the movement of an earthquake wave over the ocean,
going sometimes rapidly and sometimes slowly, reflected from a continent, exaggerated
in some arm of the ocean, breaking in waves on a shore, but scarcely felt on an
island in midocean, and finally dying out by virtue of innumerable interruptions, as
all forced waves must do unless they happen to be reenforced by a process similar
to that of resonance in sound wayes.”’ :
A word may be added in connection with Nordmann’s discussion of the direct effect
of sun spots on temperature, which the diminished radiation of sun spots as com-
pared with the photosphere would lead us to expect. Substantially the same argu-
ment, based on Newton’s law of cooling, was published by Professor Langley in 1876
(see Monthly Notices British Astronomical Society, November, 1876), and he reached
the conclusion that the presence of sun spots in a period of maximum solar activity
might reduce the mean temperature of the earth not exceeding 0°.29 C. by their
direct effect in diminishing solar radiation, but he did not decide whether terrestrial
temperature may not be quite otherwise affected by some varying solar action of
which spots are merely accompaniments.
Within the last twenty years it has been shown that Newton’s law of cooling does
not apply to bodies losing heat solely by radiation, and it has been experimentally
verified that, in accordance with Stefan’s law, the perfect radiator or so-called
“absolutely black body’’ emits an amount of radiation proportional to the fourth
power of its temperature above absolute zero. All other bodies radiating by virtue
of their temperature emit less than the perfect radiator at any given temperature, but
at low temperatures imperfect radiators are found to depart from Stefan’s law and
to emit amounts more nearly proportional to the fifth power of their temperature.
Since the earth is losing heat almost solely by radiation and is kept at substantially a
constant mean temperature of about 290° absolute by the solar rays, the earth’s total
radiation is proportional to (290)4* and is equal to that received from the sun if we
neglect the small amount received from space. If now the sun’s radiation were
reduced by 3}5, as supposed by the author, on account of the presence of sun spots,
THE SUN-SPOT PERIOD. 149
the earth would, if allowed sufficient time, take up a new mean temperature T such
é IGN
(290)4* or T=200°( 599). Thus T would be equal to or exceed-
that (T)*t=559
ing 289°.97, and the fall of temperature directly due to the sun spots would be only
0°.08 or less. This line of argument is substantially that adopted by Professor
Poynting, Philosophical Transactions, Series A, vol. 202, p. 530, 1903.
It would therefore appear that the direct effect of sun spots is far smaller than that
observed by Nordmann. But it is entirely possible that the increased absorption of
the sun’s envelope, which he mentions as probably attending them, may produce the
effects found. See in this connection Halm’s article, ‘“A New Solar Theory,’’ Smith-
sonian Report, 1902, and also 8. P. Langley, Astrophysical Journal, June, 1904.
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.¢
By Prof. J. M. PERNTER.
Allow me to-day to address you once again on the subject of weather
prophets, and this time to bring before you not only one or two kinds
of weather forecasting, but to give you a more general survey of all
methods at present in use, be they right or wrong, with or without
results. I will keep strictly to the title of this lecture and give the
prominent place to the methods of forecasting. I shall explain them
and subject them to critical analysis, naming at the same time the
advocates of each of the various methods; in the technical investiga-
tion, we have to do with the value of the methods and not that of the
persons. I must, however, at once bring prominently forward the
fact that we have at present, unfortunately, no method by which we
can forecast the weather with absolute certainty even for one day in
advance, to say nothing of longer periods. This is already self-evident
from the fact that we are now able to speak of many methods of fore-
casting, whereas if there were a sure and infallible method, then it
‘ would be out of place to speak of the other methods to this society for
the advancement of scientific knowledge.
All methods of weather forecasting, not excepting those in use by
the central meteorological offices, are based upon observed weather
conditions, and have, therefore, an empirical foundation. Many of
them do not even make the slightest attempt to put their methods on
a theoretical basis and content themselves with setting up *‘ weather
rules.” Even the scientific methods of professional meteorologists
have not yet succeeded in deducing a theory capable of determining in
advance the changes of the weather as the effect of one or several
known causes. Only the advocates of the influence of the inoon have
ventured solely by means of aprioristic theories to ‘‘ calculate” the
weather for long periods in advance.
« A lecture delivered by Prof. Dr. J. M. Pernter to the Association for the Advance-
ment of Scientific Knowledge, Vienna, January 14, 1903. Translated from the
Vortrige des Vereines zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse in Wien.
43d Jahrgang, Heft 14. Printed in Monthly Weather Review, U. 8. Department of
Agriculture, December, 1903.
sm 1903 dual fel
SY METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
There are many widely different methods by which the various
classes and kinds of weather prophets carry on the work of weather
forecasting. There are those who make use of the behavior of animals
to foretell the weather; hunters who recognize the character of the
approaching season from the actions of the wild animals; the observers
of birds, spiders, crickets, ants, and other animals, from whose conduct
they judge of the approaching weather. But in addition to this class
which utilizes living animals there is another opposing class that pre-
fers to make use of the dead substances of the animal or vegetable
kingdoms, such as hairs, strings of instruments, roots and fibers of
plants; by means of their expansions or contractions, either with the
aid of little weather houses and figures or without them, they recog-
nize the coming weather. Others prefer to consult stones and walls
as to the character of the weather to be expected, and turn rather to
inorganic nature in order to learn from the ‘* sweating” or dryness of
these whether to expect rain or continued fine weather. Thus, as you
see, all the kingdoms of nature are drawn upon to furnish prognostics
of the weather, and it may depend upon the occupations and predilec-
tions of the various persons interested in the coming weather whether
they give the preference to one or the other. But I had almost for-
gotten to mention another class—perhaps the largest—those who are
not to be satisfied by any one of the three kingdoms nor even by all
three together, and who rely only on their own bodies for foretelling
the weather—assuming, of course, that these have nerves, joints, and
corns. Sometimes it is the stomach and sometimes even the head that
is made use of. JI am not joking in the least; on the contrary, the
persons inclined to this kind of weather forecasting excite my sincere
commiseration.
If these classes of weather prophets who undertake to foretell the
weather by the sensations of their bodies, by observations of the ani-
mal and vegetable kingdoms, and even by the processes of inorganic
nature, always rely upon facts which may have a distant connection
with the weather, yet they are still far behind that class which forms
its conclusions of the approaching weather from observations of the
weather conditions themselves. You are all well acquainted with this
latter class of weather prophets. In every community there is at least
one person who is especially relied upon, whether he be a farmer, a
miller, a teacher, or a pastor of long standing. They look up at the
sky, observe the clouds and the direction of their motion, and from
these they forecast the weather for the next day, with good results.
These local weather prophets rely indeed upon phenomena which have
the closest connection with the coming weather. For the weather does
not spring like a Deus ex Machina down from a distant cuckoo’s nest
in the clouds, but is drawn from comparatively near regions, or, if
you prefer, forms gradually in the place itself. This coming, this
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 153
formation of the weather, is announced by the appearance of the sky,
sometimes for a longer, sometimes for a shorter time in advance, and
the skill of the weather prophet consists in rightly interpreting, for
the near future, the appearance of the sky and the weather conditions.
Since it is generally necessary in order to grasp the weather condi-
tions correctly, to have a clear judgment founded on long experience
in observing, together with an accurate eye, and, I might almost say,
an inborn quickness of perception, therefore there are as a rule only
single individuals in every community who enjoy the reputation of
being good weather prophets. Certain phenomena, however, are of
so typical a nature that they have been reduced to fixed rules and are
everywhere expressed in popular language.
Thus every country has its weather signs; if the clouds are increas-
ing, a storm or continuous bad weather is approaching. In every
locality there is one direction of cloud motion that betokens bad
weather, and another, generally the opposite direction, which portends
fine weather, etc. Weather rules relative to the red morning and
evening sky have been deduced. The rules that bad weather is
expected when in any given locality the summit of a certain mountain
is covered with a cap; that a small ‘‘ watery ” halo around the moon
indicates rain; that the weather will continue bad if, when the clouds
break up, a second light covering of clouds is seen above them; that:
it will be fine weather if, after rainy weather, according to the locality,
a certain wind sets in; that a slow breaking up of the clouds gives
promise of fine weather, etc.; all of these rules have been formulated
from long-continued and accurate observation, and are exceedingly
well adapted for local weather forecasts from one day to the next.
Experienced observers also know from the color and nature of the
clouds whether the prevailing weather, notwithstanding otherwise
favorable indications, will continue or will change, and by these deli-
cate distinctions they generally acquire the reputation of being
especially good weather prophets.
These observations of weather signs led the way, however, to more
far-reaching rules which included the attempt to determine from the
weather conditions at a certain season of the year what they would be
for a long series of days; or, to determine from the weather of a sea-
son, or of a certain day, ora fraction of a day, the conditions of an
approaching season. Thus originated the so-called ‘* farmer’s rules,”
among which are some valuable ones based upon good observations
extending over a hundred years, but in contrast to these there are,
unfortunately, many poor ones for which we are indebted to the
superficial and frivolous rules manufactured by speculating calendar
makers.
Others, however, went still further and, from observing that the
weather of one year resembled that of a former year, concluded that
154 METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
there is a certain regularity in the recurrence of years with similar
characteristics, and that they were justified in enunciating the law that
almost exactly the same weather returns at intervals of eleven, or of
eighteen, or nineteen years, so that it would only be necessary to
expect in the coming year the weather observed a certain number of
years before. It is evident that this would be the simplest method
for predicting the weather in any year, day by day, or at least week
by week, and this is the system followed in the so-called ‘* hundred-
year calendar.” Unfortunately the facts do not agree with the
predictions.
Both the methods above named in general endeavor to keep one free
from preconceived ideas as to causes, and base their predictions of the
weather only upon earlier observations and experience, often sup-
ported by records of the weather actually prevailing, whether made
with or without instruments. There are other prophets who have
sought for the cause that dominates the weather and weather changes
and adopting this when found have made their weather predictions
in accordance with the properties, movements, and changes of this
accepted cause.
This latter class, somewhat precipitately and without sufficient
experience in the principles of observational work, but driven by the
innate longing in the human breast to seek for a cause for all matters
and supported only by general a priori considerations has sought for
the dominating cause of the weather. Thus, from the consideration
that the sun dominates everything on the earth, Professor Zenger has
chosen that as the agent of the weather changes, which he ascribes to
the rotation of the sun on its axis. Now, since the time required for
a revolution of the sun occupies about twenty-six days, he has chosen
one-half of the time of a revolution, that is to say twelve to thir-
teen days, as the period by which he measures the changes of the
weather, and has arranged a weather calendar according to which
there is a day of disturbance every twelve to thirteen days. In the
interval between the two days of disturbance there is an interval of
safety, or what he calls ‘‘ calms.” The comparison of the predictions
of the ‘‘days of disturbance” and ‘‘days of calms” with the weather
actually occurring is supposed to give the proof of the correctness of
the assumption that the semirotation of the sun governs the weather.
Up to the present time, however, this has not yet been accomplished,
for the attempted demonstration has entirely failed.
The method of weather predictions proposed by Professor Servus
is of a similar character; he considers the interior of the earth, and_
from the fact that the attraction of the earth upon the atmosphere
attaches the latter to the earth, he argues that ‘‘ all the great disturb-
ances in the equilibrium of our atmosphere are caused by changes In
the condition of the interior of the earth, which produce disturbances
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 155
in the power of attraction.” You will see at once without further
explanation that this is nota tenable principle for weather predictions.
Servus himself, for the purpose of preparing weather predictions, has
been obliged to call in the sun and moon to his aid as causes of the
disturbance in the condition of the interior of the earth. In this way
his method approaches so nearly to that of Zenger and those of the
lunar prophets that we need not treat of it separately.
But Professor Lamprecht has shown us in a most startling manner
how far one may be led away by adopting a priori causes for the
changes of weather without a sufficient basis of experience. By
analyzing a series of observations for several years he has discovered
five periods in weather processes, one of 124 days, one of 1233 days,
one of 13,%; days, one of 14% days, and one of 297 days. Before pass-
ing on I must just tell you that one can, according to his method,
compute periods of almost any length desired. This is not objection-
able; but he now proceeds immediately to find the causes for these
periods, which were really only computed and not at all furnished by
experience, and, since he sincerely wished it, he found them. We can
only be astonished at the boldness of his hypothesis. He assumes
the earth to be surrounded by five rings, similar to the rings of
Saturn, and that their periods of rotation and temporary relations to
one another are the causes of his weather periods. Lamprecht repre-
sented to himself the existence of these imaginary rings in such a
manner that he immediately endowed the rings with names, giving
them successively the following magnificent names: Emperor William
ring, Moltke ring, Bismarck ring, Copernicus ring, King Albert ring.
An old and by far the most widespread method of weather predic-
tion is based on the idea, which is I might say universal among man-
kind,” that the heavenly bodies have an influence on everything which
takes place on the earth, and particularly upon the weather. The
moon is that one which was supposed to more especially influence the
weather, although this power was attributed to the planets also, so
that each one produces a certain kind of weather, and therefore
divides the year into damp, dry, stormy, quiet periods, ete., accord-
ing as one or the other planet is the ‘‘ ruler for the year.” The moon
is credited with the principal dominator of the changes of the weather.
The weather is supposed to change by preference with the moon;
therefore the new moon and the full moon especially possess the
power of influencing the weather, and one of the most widely spread
weather rules is that the weather changes with the new moon and the
« Astrology seems to have been specially cultivated in Mesopotamia and to have
been spread north, south, and west by Sanskrit, Greek, and Arab influences. It is
peculiarly Asiatic and European. There is no record of its having had any great
influence among the Chinese, Malays, or American Indians. It can, therefore,
hardly be spoken of as universal among mankind.—Ed.
156 METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
full moon. However, the first and last quarters are considered of
greatest importance by a great many. Especially clever observers of
the influence of the moon upon the weather pretend to have also
observed the distinctive individual influences of the phases known as
octants. In general the opinion is very widespread that the decreas-
ing moon exercises a weak and the increasing moon a strong influence.
Thus far the theory of the influence of the moon on the weather is the
direct result of the popular belief in the moon, without regard to any
scientific basis.
Iam not able to state whether the growth of this popular belief was
preceded by observations of the weather changes, and is therefore to
be regarded as a result of observations (it is not a question here as
to whether the latter were defective and inconclusive or not), or
whether, on the contrary, the belief in the influence of the heavenly
bodies and in that of the one which, after the sun, appears the largest
and most striking to mankind, namely, the moon, was the earliest
step, and that it was in the light of this belief that observations were
first made. Atall events, the latter is far more probable than the
former, and therefore I can not put the moon theory of weather pre-
dictions in the same category as the methods mentioned in preceding
paragraphs. These latter methods were certainly based on observa-
tions (we say nothing as to whether the observations were correct or
not); but this is not established in regard to the belief in the moon
theory; indeed, the probability is in favor of the contrary process,
namely, the opinion that the moon must influence the weather came
first, and observations only came later in order to see if the theory
were correct.
This idea is strongly supported by the more recent development of
the theory of the influence of the moon upon the weather. This
newest and at the present time very prominent phase of this theory
did not start by collecting reliable observational data and deducing
from these observations the influence of the moon upon the weather,
but first adopted the,old belief in the moon and then sought to create
for it a scientific basis by means of a prioriassumptions and even theo-
retical mathematical explanations.
With these results, either assumed or computed, the representative
of the modernized theory of the moon appears before the public and
invites his contemporaries to test his ‘‘ results” by observation. This
process is, as you see, the exact opposite to that of the true empirical
method. The empiricist makes observations, observes long and
much, and sums up the general results of the observations in certain
propositions or ‘‘rules,” and when it is possible draws his conclusions
as to the cause of the phenomena. The modern moon prophets turn
the process upside down. They designate the moon beforehand as the
rause of the changes of the weather; from the various positions of the
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 157
moon with respect to the earth and the sun, with the assistance of
the laws of attraction—without any strict investigation as to how far
these can possibly be of influence—they compute the attraction exer-
cised by the moon in its separate positions, and say on such and such
a day the influence of the moon must have produced such and such a
result on the weather. The confirmation of these predictions by
the observations should then only show the accuracy of their assump-
tions and computations. The number of these modern moon proph-
ets is at present large. Many of them take into consideration the
planets in addition to the moon. The names of the most prominent
advocates of these moon theories are known to you. They are as fol-
lows: Falb, Ledochowski, Gladbach, Demtschinski, Garigou-Lagrange,
A. Poincaré—not the celebrated mathematician—and Digby.
It would be quite erroneous if this method of investigation into the
causes of the weather were regarded as incorrect and improper. By
this presentation of the subject I wish only to show that the modern
moon prophets—and probably also the older ones—have not intro-
duced strictly inductive empirical methods into their belief in the
moon, but that this belief was there from the first and that they have
made use of the discovery method for its confirmation, since it is on
the basis of the moon theory, or, if you prefer, of aprioristic consid-
erations as to the influence of the moon, that they make their weather
predictions, and then from the agreement between these they endeavor
to deduce the correctness of their assumptions. Against this method
as such there is nothing to be said, but it demands the most conscien-
tious, straightforward, logical, and accurate determination of the con-
sequent weather if we wish by this method to arrive at a confirmation
or refutation of the propositions advanced as to the influence of the
moon. How this is to be managed we have still to learn; meanwhile
it is at present only necessary, in this enumeration of the various
methods for predicting the weather, to include that one which repre-
sents the influence of the moon.
As soon as men began to observe the barometer attentively, they
began gradually to recognize that the rising and falling of the barom-
eter had an evident connection with the weather. It was the celebrated
burgomaster, Otto von Guericke, of Magdeburg, who first used the
barometer as a ‘* weather glass.”” He applied, even then, to his water
barometer the ‘* weather scale” which is at present in such general
use, on which the highest reading occurring at any place is designated
as ‘fine weather,” the lowest reading as ‘‘rain and wind,” ete.
The barometer as a weather glass has taken its course throughout the
world, and is to-day used almost universally. After the introduction
of the aneroid barometer the ‘‘ weather scale” was also affixed to that,
and whoever purchases such an instrument pays particular attention to
te
158 METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
make sure that the weather scale is correctly fixed on it. The makers
of these instruments must know the mean pressure at the dwelling
place of the purchaser; there they place the term *‘changeable;” the
point where the pressure is about 10 millimeters above the mean is
‘fine,’ and at about 20 millimeters above the point designated as
‘“‘ changeable” will be ‘‘ steady,” ‘* fine,” or “dry,” or the like. At
about the same distance below ‘‘ changeable” is placed ‘‘ rain” and
SStonmise
Whoever has provided himself with an instrument of this kind
believes himself to be the possessor of a self-registering weather
prophet and is generally highly indignant if it rains when his barome-
ter stands at ‘‘ fine,” or astonished if it is fine weather when the barom-
eter says “rain.” Since these erroneous indications are not unusual
with the barometer, therefore faith in it as an indicator of the weather
is very much diminished, and is only maintained at all, on the one
hand, by the fact that the barometer frequently ** indicates correctly,”
and, on the other hand, by force of habit. Frequently, however, one
has taken refuge in another instrument, namely, the hygrometer.
This instrument shows only the amount of moisture actually prevail-
ing in the air, in the same way that the barometer indicates the act-
ually prevailing pressure. As the pressure and the moisture are both
connected with the weather, the hygrometer may be usedas a weather
prophet in the same way as the barometer, although that is not its real
vocation. If the hygrometer shows a high degree of moisture, that
only indicates that the air is just then very moist, and this generally
happens only when the weather is already bad. However, it happens
sometimes that the moisture in the air increases while the weather is
still fine, so that the hygrometer then indicates approaching bad
weather. In the same way, the hygrometer will generally indicate
dryness when the weather is fine; it will sometimes, however, when
the weather is not yet fine, point to decreasing moisture, and thereby
foretell approaching drier and finer weather. The best of these
hygrometers are made of human hairs, divested of grease, which have
the property of being expanded by dampness and contracted by dry-
ness ina most admirable manner. This property of varying its dimen-
sions with the changing moisture is also possessed« by other animal
and vegetable substances. There are a number of weather indicators
of this kind, among which the little house with the little man and
woman, in which the man goes out in bad weather and the woman in
fine weather, is probably the best known. |
The discredit into which the hygrometer as a weather prophet has
often fallen is as easily understood as in the case of the barometer.
Its duty is only to show the moisture actually prevailing at its locality,
and this knowledge does not enable one to make determinations of the
approaching weather any more accurately than does a knowledge of
the pressure at any place.
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 15s)
A new, and we must at once say a truly empirical method of weather
prediction, is that at present in use by all the official central meteoro-
logical establishments in the world. This methed has gradually and
slowly developed according to the exact rules of investigation in
scientific practical meteorology, and is still far from having reached
perfection. It has developed entirely, without any addition of an
a priori nature, out of the observations of the weather processes, and
is therefore based entirely upon well-established observational data.
The most fundamental of these facts is that the weather is associated
with the distribution of atmospheric pressure. It has been recognized
more and more clearly by experience that the weather is determined
not by pressure as shown by the barometer at the place of observation,
but by the barometric conditions that prevail over vast regions; for
instance, those distributed over the whole of Europe. Therefore one
must chart and study the distribution of atmospheric pressure over
the whole of Europe if one wishes to understand the weather actually
prevailing.
It was necessary, first of all, to determine by extended observations,
made as nearly simultaneous as possible, the distribution of atmos-
pheric pressure for a definite hour, in order to perceive to what kind
of weather this distribution of atmospheric pressure corresponded.
It was by this means demonstrated that there is an extraordinarily
great variety of forms of atmospheric pressure distribution; that
these, however, can be classified into a certain number of types by
having regard to the form as well as to the weather conditions given
in these forms. * * The thorough and persevering study of
the weather that prevails on the occurrence of each type has led to
the definite and certain recognition of the following theorems:
1. The weather, in all its details, depends upon the distribution of
atmospheric pressure, and the same weather always corresponds to
the same location relative to this distribution.
2. The weather of any place is, therefore, determined by its position
in and relation to the various stvles of pressure distribution.
3. If we succeed in knowing in advance what distribution of atmos-
pheric pressure will prevail on a certain day or ona series of succes-
sive days or a longer .season, then the weather of the day or of the
period of time is thereby determined in advance.
4. The modifications introduced by reason of geographical conditions,
the configuration of the ground—as, for example, the location of a
place in the Alps, etc.-—are constant for the location in each style of
pressure distribution.
By means of these theorems, which were deduced from exact obser-
vations, the foundation was laid for a careful method of weather pre-
diction. Two things were now necessary: (7) The perfecting of our
knowledge of the typical distributions of atmospheric pressure and of
160 METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
the details of the weather attending them; (4) the deduction of the
rules, according to which one form of distribution of pressure either
remains stationary, or moves over Europe, or changes into another
form, or is pushed aside by some other type.
It is in the nature of things that the first task is more easily accom-
plished than the second. The present state of the art of weather pre-
diction in cur central meteorological institutes corresponds to this
condition of affairs. The details of the weather conditions within the
various styles of pressure distribution are, on the whole, quite well
known. However, there remains much to be done in this alinee ‘tion, and
it is now one of the most important duties of meteorology to most
thoroughly investigate, in all directions and details, the distribution
of the weather according to the forms of pressure distribution. The
knowledge of the weather conditions for every place and for every
type of pressure distribution offers the only entirely satisfactory
empirical basis for weather predictions; moreover, it is by this knowl-
edge alone that we can hope at some time to discover the fundamental
laws of the changes in the weather. This knowledge, however, does not
lead us immediately to a prediction of the approaching weather, but only
teaches us to know the weather of one particular place when the distri-
bution of pressure is known. In order to be able to predict the weather,
we must know one thing more—we must know in advance what distri-
bution of atmospheric pressure will prevail at the time for which we are
predicting the weather. This foreknowledge of the pressure distribution
is the starting point upon which the whole weather forecast depends. If
this foreknowledge of the future distribution of atmospheric pressure is
impossible, then weather prediction is impossible; if we can foretell it
approximately, then a weather prediction of greater or less probability
is possible, and we shall be able to make a larger number of correct
than of incorrect predictions; if the distribution of atmospheric pres-
sure can be known in advance with certainty, then we shall be able to
make weather predictions with certainty.
Now, how do we stand as to the question of certainty in foreseeing
the approaching distribution of atmospheric pressure? If we knew
the laws according to which one distribution of atmospheric pressure
changes oyer into another, or according to which it moves across
Europe, as well as the laws that cause one distribution of atmospheric
pressure to continue stationary or suddenly break up and another one
result from it, then the problem could be solved and future weather
could be predicted with entire certainty. We should proceed with
mathematical accuracy in the prediction of weather, and be able to
attain the correctness of the astronomers in their predictions of celes-
tial planetary motions and phenomena. This, of course, is the ultimate
aim of meteorological science, but we are at present so far removed
from it that we have many well-founded doubts as to whether this
object will ever be attained. Up to the present time we are only able
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 161
to deduce from the experience hitherto acquired a few empirical laws
of limited applicability, according to which the types of distribution of
atmospheric pressure remain stationary, change, or transform them-
selves entirely, or perhaps move away over the earth; even this limited
empirical knowledge relates almost entirely to the change from one
day to the next. Since these empirical laws as to the changes in the
distribution of atmospheric pressure are so defective the difficulty of
foreseeing the approaching distribution of pressure is correspondingly
great, and the prediction of the weather even for the next day is pro-
portionately unreliable. Since we have to do only with theorems
founded entirely upon experience, the persons best qualified to make
the predictions are those who through long years of practice have col-
lected the most theorems as to the variations in the forms of pressure
distribution, and have also learned by practice the many modifications
to which these theorems are subject. In the forecasts for the next day
men of much experience attain to more than 80 verifications in a total
of 100 predictions; but the prediction of the distribution of pressure
for more than one day in advance has such a low probability that in a
forecast of the weather for several days in advance we must expect
more failures than results.
You will say: ‘* It is despairingly little that we have to expect from
scientific weather predictions, and hence it is not to be wondered at
that the public generally clamors for methods that promise more.”
It is easy to promise, but one’s promise must be kept, and that is
difficult. It would also be easv for scientific meteorologists to make
the same promises and boastings as the other weather prophets, but
they would then cease to be called scientific. And of what use is it
to cling to those weather prophets who certainly promise a great
deal, but finally leave you in the lurch? Of the popular methods of
predicting the weather above enumerated, none accomplish nearly as
much as is accomplished at present by the scientific method; indeed,
very often they accomplish nothing beyond the noise they make in
praising themselves. However, before I begin to criticise the various
methods, I will briefly lay before you the processes adopted in weather
prediction at the central meteorological stations. You know that at our
central office in Vienna, for example, telegrams arrive every morning
from more than 140 places over the whole of Europe; these telegrams
contain the observations made that morning of pressure, temperature,
moisture, precipitation, and wind. According to these telegrams the
chart of the distribution of atmospheric pressure is drawn as it pre-
railed over Europe that morning; and from this particular style of
distribution of atmospheric pressure in conjunction with that which
prevailed on the preceding day, and by making use of the above-
mentioned empirical laws governing the changes in the forms of the
pressure areas, a tracing is made of the probable areas of atmospheric
162 METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
pressure for the next day. When this sketch is completed then the
predictions for the various portions of the kingdom are madé upon
the basis of our knowledge of the weather conditions at different
points of cach area of atmospheric pressure. Thus the primary diffi-
culty consists in forming a correct conception of the pressure distri-
bution for the next day, based on that prevailing on the morning of
the day in question, and at the same time a clear idea as to the velocity
with which the changes will proceed. In order to facilitate this diffi-
cult task the central office receives immediately before the making of
the forecast, which takes place at 1.30 p. m., a short telegram from
twelve selected stations in Austria-Hungary, giving the latest infor-
mation as to changes in temperature, pressure, and cloudiness that
have occurred at these stations since the morning observation. From
this last item we can perceive with more certainty whether we have
formed a correct idea as to the distribution of atmospheric pressure
for the next day or not, and therefore whether to retain or modify
the forecast. It is only after the data of the midday telegrams have
been made use of that the definitive forecast is made. At 1.45 p. m.
the weather report goes to the printer, and the corresponding tele-
grams are sent to those who have subscribed for the daily telegraphic
forecasts.
The results of this system of honest weather forecasts are indeed
modest, but are suchas to show a real and striking progress in weather
predictions as compared with other methods. Of course even this
sarnest scientific method allows us only to consider the general char-
acteristics of the weather, as, for example, *‘ fine,” ‘‘ windy,” ‘‘ mild,”
‘‘fine and cold,” ‘‘cloady,” ‘‘rainy,” ‘‘ warm,” etc., as the object of
the weather forecast. This method would immediately supplant all
others if it would undertake to foretell the duration and amount of
precipitation, the degree of the thermometer, the exact force of the
wind, etc. However, we may at present be very well satisfied if the
general character of the weather is predicted for us. Unfortunately
even the scientific method can give us no positive certainty, since even
by confining itself to these general characteristics it can at present
offer only a little above 80 per cent of verifications of the weather.
In this state of the case it is self-evident that our efforts are to be
guided in the direction of those studies that will lead us to an ever
increasing accuracy in forecasting. These studies of course relate (1)
to more and more thorough investigations of the weather conditions
at every point and in every phase of the distribution of atmospheric
pressure; (2) to the discovery of signs by which to form a judgment
(a) as to the rapidity and paths with which each type of pressure dis-
tribution moyes over Europe, (4) into what other forms a given type
of distribution transforms itself and the rapidity of such change, and
(c) what changes in the weather attend the various modifications of one
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 1638
and the same type of atmospheric pressure distribution. With the
increase of our knowledge on these points the weather predictions
will also become more and more accurate. However, it is very doubt-
ful whether it will ever be possible for us to invariably attain absolute
accuracy even for one day in advance. Every increase in the percent-
age of verifications is, however, of the greatest value, especially to
national economics.
Now, as a matter of course, the meteorologists are looking every-
where in order to take advantage of everything which may be of assist-
ance to them in this matter. In the first place, there are the many
good weather rules that have been deduced from the experience of
many hundreds of years. But the greatest number and most valuable
of these weather rules are only applicable to local weather predictions,
whereas the central meteorological institutes must make their predic-
tions for very distant countries also, as, for example, Austria for
Dalmatia, Vorarlberg, Bukowina, ete.
Those weather rules, however, which relate to the weather condi-
tions of certain definite dates, and which are generally looked upon as
farmers’ rules, are sometimes of great assistance in making forecasts.
Thus we know that on certain dates of the year there has for centu-
ries been a tendency to a certain kind of weather; for example, to
rainy weather. Therefore, if at such periods the distribution of
atmospheric pressure is of such a form that it may easily change to a
type corresponding to the weather indicated by the farmers’ rules,
then we may be tolerably certain that we must forecast wet weather.
But, on the other hand, if at some such period the distribution of
pressure is of such a character as would ordinarily justify us in hoping
for a change of weather, still we know that this change is not likely
to occur, because there is a continued tendency at this period to wet
weather, and a change of weather is not to be looked for. Such aid as
this from farmers’ rules is, however, of moderate value and rarely
available. But it is quite otherwise, in the opinion of the believers in
the moon, when we consider the support that the weather predictions
might derive from hypotheses that attribute to the moon and the rest
of the heavenly bodies a decided influence on the weather. I will
express myself more in detail on this subject.
First and foremost, I must insist most strongly on the fact that pro-
fessional meteorologists themselves have always recognized and do
recognize one influence of one heavenly body as most decisive and the
sole cause of the weather on our earth, viz, the heating of the earth
and of its atmosphere by the sun. The sun regulates our weather; it
gives rise to winter and summer; by evaporation it raises the aqueous
vapor into the air, and this vapor, by cooling, produces clouds and
rain, snow, storms, and hail; it is the primary cause of the differences
in atmospheric pressure, and in this way produces the winds,
164 METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER.
This heating influence of the sun, as also its modifications by cloudi-
ness, by the wind, by the change from day to night or from winter to
summer, and by the properties of the earth’s surface, which, consist-
ing as it does of water and of land either covered with vegetation or
barren and bald, has varying capacities for absorbing the sun’s heat—
this influence of the heat of the sun has been established with the most
absolute certainty by the most exact observations. It has been demon-
strated to be so much more important than any other cause, if any
such exists, that up to the present time it has not been possible to
recognize any other cause with certainty, in spite of the fact that the
professional meteorologists, and singularly enough they only, have
instituted extensive and most thoroughly exact investigations in order
to discover such other influences, in case there are any, and to deter-
mine their value. And what has been the result of these extraordi-
narily laborious and wearisome investigations? Before I answer this
question I must call your attention to the fact that not one of the rep-
resentatives of the theory of the influence of the moon, or of any other
cosmical influence, has undertaken to give an unobjectionable rigor-
ous demonstration of such an influence. These gentlemen content
themselves with the inventive method and apply it in a very singular
manner. They make their predictions for certain days and always
call attention to the cases when they are successful, but never trouble
themselves about the failures. Now, I beg you to observe that in
every game of chance where there are but two alternatives there must
occur fifty verifications out of every one hundred guesses, when a
ereat number of guesses are made and it is all pure chance. The
time at which the game of chance is played, or the time when the
guess is made, is absolutely without any influence whatever upon the
result. So, also, the drawing out of an even or uneven number of
balls could have no influence upon the weather, even if it should occur
to some one always to predict fine weather when he drew an even’
number and bad weather when he drew an uneven one. If, there-
fore, one should make use of the above-mentioned inventive methods,
he should carefully record all the cases—the failures as well as the
verifications. And then, even if every second case is a success—that
is to say, even if he obtains 50 per cent of verifications—he will know
that the theorem or assumption made use of as the basis of the pre-
dictions really has no causal connection with the weather. Only when
more than 50 per cent of verifications are attained can the argument
favor the assumption, and so much the more in proportion as the
verifications exceed 50 per cent.
This exact method, the only one for testing their hypotheses as to
the cosmical influences on the weather, is the one that has never been
applied; in fact, it has often been distinctly rejected by those who
maintain the existence of these influences; and yet those who make
METHODS OF FORECASTING THE WEATHER. 165
assertions should prove them. It was the professional meteorologists
themselves who undertook the accurate examination of all the various
cosmical hypotheses, and particularly that of the influence of the moon,
and it was they who found a slight influence of the moon on storms,
thunderstorms, the direction of the wind, atmospheric pressure, ete.
Now, do you say, ‘‘I told you so?” Well, first of all, observe—and
I can not insist upon it too strongly—that it is the professional
meteorologists, and they alone, who have made these investigations
which point to a slight influence of the moon. Next, I must direct
your attention to that little word ** slight.” The influence thus dis-
covered by them is indeed so small that we can not even state with
certainty whether it really does exist at all; or whether, perhaps,
it was only perceptible in these investigations because the period
of time included in them is still too short to furnish us with an
unexceptionable result. However, let us assume that this sight influ-
ence really does exist, and let us examine the amount of this influence
a little more closely. Its magnitude is expressed by the percentages
of the favorable cases. We will, however, for once greatly exaggerate
and assume that these favorable cases amount to a surplus of 5 per
cent. That is to say, that in 100 cases 55 succeed and 45 fail. Now, if
you use such lunar rules for weather predictions, what does it advan-
tage you in isolated single cases? For instance, you are in doubt as
to whether the rain is to be expected or not; the influence of the moon
indicates rain with a weight of 0.05. In spite of this small weight, if
now you forecast bad weather, you will, if 100 such cases occur, have
a failure in 45 cases. Had you paid no attention to the influence of
the moon you would possibly have had 50 failures. Thus, in this case
of 5 per cent of surplus, that would be the whole effect of your con-
sideration of the moon’s influence. But we have in fact assumed an
exaggerated case, and the real influence of the moon is in every case
less than one-half of this, if indeed it really exists at all.
You may rest assured that the professional meteorologists accept,
nay, even seek for, everything that can give them any assistance what-
ever in their weather predictions. By constant investigation and study
we may hope to advance step by step and per cent by per cent. Every
single per cent of agreement that is gained is an important advance
and success.
*
PROGRESS WITH AIR SHIPS.¢
By Maj. B. BapEN-PoweE LL, Scots Guards.
The advent of a really practical machine for accomplishing the nay-
igation of the air is awaited with much interest, and the somewhat mea-
ger and unreliable information that one can pick up from the daily press
is apt only to increase our anxiety to know what is really being done
in this line. In the Illustrated Scientific News of June, I gave a brief
sketch of the history of mechanically propelled balloons and what had
been accomplished up to recent years. During this summer some dis-
tinct progress has been achieved in this line.
SANTOS DUMONT NO. 9.
M. Santos Dumont has, of course, been well to the fore, and though
he has only been using his little No. 9 balloon, which may be likened
to a motor bicycle as compared to a large motor car, yet he has been
able to steer this apparatus and drive it about so easily that the
accounts of his trips read as if practical aerial navigation had been
achieved. But, so far as his particular performances go, we are still
some way from this. It has only been during the calmest of weather
that he has dared to venture forth, for his little 3-horsepower engine is
incapable of propelling the vessel at any great speed. This machine is of
a pointed ovoid shape, the length being 49 feet and the greatest diam-
eter 18 feet. This compact form gives better stability than the more
usual cigar shape, if it detracts from speed. The volume of the main
gas vessel is 9,200 cubic feet; but this does not imply that so much gas
is available for levitation, for of this 1,566 cubic feet is occupied by
the ‘‘ballonet,” which is kept partially full of air by a ventilating
fan, so as to keep the whole balloon tightly distended. Along each
side of the balloon a strip of canvas is sewn, in which is inclosed a
number of short battens of wood, and from slings attached to these
some 46 steel wires depend to support the frame. The latter, which
is 29 feet long, is composed of pine rods of triangular section, braced
with steel wires and kept apart by wooden triangles of varying size.
Toward the front of this frame is the little basket car in which the
aeronaut stands, and to the after side of this is fixed the motor. This
@ Reprinted, after revision by the author, from the Illustrated Scientific News,
London, Vol. I, No. 12, September, 1903.
sm 1903 12 167
168 PROGRESS WITH AIR SHIPS.
is a Clement double-cylinder, air-cooled, petrol engine, weighing but
26.4 pounds and developing 3 horsepower, or less than 9 pounds per
horsepower. The fly wheel is formed of a bicycle wheel, which weighs
under 2 pounds and makes 1,600 revolutions. The steel shaft runs
back from the motor to the propeller in rear. This is two-bladed,
formed ‘of steel tubes, covered with tightly stretched oiled silk. The
propeller is 10 feet in diameter and 15 inches in greatest width. It
weighs 24 pounds and makes 200 revolutions per minute, giving a
thrust of 50 to 60 pounds. The balloon itself weighs only 30 pounds,
and the whole apparatus, with framework, car, motor, etc., is under
200 pounds. <A tapering trail rope, 100 feet long, hangs from the
front of the balloon and is supported by a pulley under the rear end
of the frame, so that the balance can be regulated. A large rudder,
of 85 square feet, is placed under the after end of the balloon.
SANTOS DUMONT NO. 10.
The large Santos Dumont No. 10, the *‘Omnibus,” of which a good
deal has been heard, has not yet left its shed. Though it has been
practically ready for some weeks, there seems to be some doubt as to
how it may behave, and with so large a machine it does not do to run
any risks. This new machine is far bigger than any of this aeronaut’s
former balloons, being nearly 200 feet long, and having a capacity of
about 70,000 cubic feet. It is supposed to take 14 passengers, who are
varried in three baskets hung below the long frame. The vessel is to
be propelled by two screws, one at each end of the frame, and these are
driven by a motor of 60 horsepower. A number of horizontal aero-
planes are arranged between the frame and the balloon, to aid in rais-
ing and lowering the apparatus.
SPENCER’S BALLOON.
In England we have also had an experiment with an air ship. Mr.
Stanley Spencer constructed a new balloon, 93 feet long and 24 feet
maximum diameter, containing 30,000 cubic feet. Below this was
“suspended a framework, similar to that used in the Santos Dumont
balloons, 50 feet in :ength and stayed 4 feet apart by triangles of
bamboo. The engine was a Simms motor of 24 horsepower. A screw
propeller, 12 feet in diameter, was placed in front and a large rudder
behind. On its first trial, however, the machine did not prove a suc-
cess, failing to lift. We may look ter ward to a better result in future
experiments.
DEUTSCH’S BALLOON.
Another large machine which is practically ready, and has been for
some time, but which also seems to hesitate about starting on its
maiden voyage, is the ‘‘ Ville de Paris,” belonging to M. Deutsch and
designed by M. Tatin. The general design of this vessel is very much
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PROGRESS WITH AIR SHIPS. 169
the same as that of M. Santos Dumont, but it has one or two peculi-
arities worth noting. Instead of the ordinary net, the balloon is cov-
ered with a ** chemise” of unvarnished silk, to the lower edges of which
a continuous boarding is attached. A square rudder is placed in rear,
suspended from the end of a triangular framework. The screw, of
the same form as the Santos Dumont, is 22 feet in diameter.
LEBAUDY’S BALLOON.
But of greater interest still is the air ship of Messrs. Lebaudy,
which is kept ready inflated in its shed at Moisson. This is probably
the most successful aerial machine ever made. It has now accom-
plished 29 voyages, in all of which, with one exception, it has suc- .
cessfully returned to its point of departure. As comparatively few
details have been hitherto published about this machine, it may be
interesting to give some. The gas vessel is long and finely pointed
at the ends, and contains 80,000 cubic feet. It is composed of two
thicknesses of cloth with a layer of india rubber in between, and the
whole is painted bright yellow. The arrangement, designed by M.
Julliot, is quite different to that adopted by so many other inventors.
There is no long framework suspended below the balloon, but the
lower surface of the latter is made flat, and a frame of steel tubing
surrounds this plane. From the front part of this six steel tubes run
diagonally down to the car, so as to convey the thrust of the propel-
lers to the balloon, the car being supported by a number of steel-wire
ropes. Below the plane is arranged a keel, consisting of a framework
of steel tubing, covered along the after half of it with canvas. This
keel is continued far away to the rear, where it ends with the rudder.
Under the flat part of the balloon is a layer of uninflamable material,
and all the portion above it is occupied by the air-filled ballonet, so
that there is very little danger of the gas becoming ignited from the
engines. The two safety valves to ease the pressure of the gas are
also placed well out of reach behind.
The car consists of a boat-shaped frame of steel, partially covered
in at the sides with canvas, the after part being left open, so as not to
offer any resistance to the air. The engine, a Mercedes, of 40 horse-
power, is placed in the center, the shaft running horizontally across
and geared at right angles to the two propellers. The latter are 2.44 mn.
in diameter, and each consists of a steel bar, to which is fixed a thin
plate of steel of a width equal to one-sixteenth of the circumference.
These comparatively small propellers rotate at a considerable speed—
about 1,000 turns per minute.
In the front part of the car, where the aeronaut in charge stands,
may be seen the steering wheel, similar to that of a motor car. This
is connected by means of an endless chain and wires to the rudder.
Above this are the pressure gauges to show the compression of the
naw) PROGRESS WITH AIR SHIPS.
gas and of the air in the ballonet. To the aeronaut’s left (in the
photograph he is turned about) is the ventilator fan, driven by a belt
from the engine, which drives air through the pipe up into this bal-
lonet. To his right is a metal funnel, continued below the car, in
which to empty the sand ballast, so as not to allow any dust to get
into the engine. The engineer sits in rear of the motor, and here is
to be seen another of the precautionary measures which are so abund-
antly provided. The white square seen in the photograph in rear of
the engines is a thin plate of metal to protect the engineer in case of
anything going wrong with the screw, a detached portion of which,
traveling at so great a speed, might do much damage. Below the back
of the car is the exhaust from the engine, the opening of which is
inclosed in a ball of wire gauze. A store of oil to last fifteen hours is
carried under the car. A small extincteur is carried in case of fire.
It is with some surprise that one notices how very strongly and
solidly all these parts are constructed. Aluminum is conspicuous by
its absence, everything is made of steel, and there seems no attempt
to make it specially light.
The entire weight lifted by the balloon, including passengers, is
given as 5,700 pounds.
The shed in which this enormous vessel is housed is also very well
constructed. It is of wood, well stayed and trussed, with huge doors
across one end. The floor is cemented, a well being made in the cen-
ter for the car to rest in. The arrangements for guiding the airship
out of the shed are very neat. Along each side of the hall, and along
the center, run double rails close together. Four guy ropes depend
from the balloon, two on each side. These end with an iron ring and
ball, which ball is gripped by the rails, a similar ball is attached to the
bottom of the car and is held by the third pair of rails. When the
vessel is to be taken out, a man stands to each of the rings and slides
it along the rails. The rails are continued outside the building, so
that even when the machine is well outside, it is still secured by the
guys. When all is ready to start, the ropes are detached from the
rings and the balloon is free.
As regards te journeys actually made, the first proper ascent was
effected on April 11, when the machine rose at 8.15 a. m. and remained
up for half an hour, covering in that time 19 kilometers. Later in
the same day it made a second ascent, and stayed up for an hour. On
May 8 an important journey was made, the air ship proceeding to the
town of Mantes, 10 kilometers distant, where it went through various
evolutions, went on to Rosny, and then returned to its shed at Moisson,
completing altogether some 23 miles in an hour and a half. On a later
occasion even this record was beaten, the machine going a journey
lasting two and three-quarter hours, and traversing over 61 miles.
These trips were not, apparently, made during the most favorable
eo
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Fic. 1.—THE LEBAUDY AIRSHIP—VIEW FROM BELOW.
Fia@. 2.—THE LEBAUDY SHED.
PROGRESS WITH AIR SHIPS. ily
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weather, for on the journey to Mantes it was said that rain, accom-
panied by a considerable wind, prevailed.
The greatest speed recorded is 11.80 meters per second (or over 25
miles per hour). Ascents have been made at all times of day, from 4
o'clock in the morning to 8 o’clock at night, even in fog and in frost.
The balloon has recently remained for one hundred and ninety-six days
inflated. ‘The ascents were all conducted by the aeronaut, M. Juchmes.
BARTON’S BALLOON.
Another large air ship, though it has not at the time of writing yet
made an ascent, should be nearly ready for its initial trials. This
machine is very different in design to those I have just described.
The shape of the gas vessel is to be somewhat like that of a shell, that
is to say, cylindrical, with an ogival headanda blunt stern. Schwarz’s
balloon was roughly of this shape. It is composed of well-varnished
silk, and will have a ‘‘chemise” of similar fabric unvarnished to go
over the top instead of a net. Portions of the envelope, especially at
the head, are stiffened with bamboo ribs. The balloon is about 170
feet long and some 50 feet in diameter. Underneath this is suspended
a huge framework of stout bamboos, lashed together and trussed with
wire stays. This is 140 feet long, and supports a deck which can be
walked along from end to end. There are three separate engines, each
of 50 horsepower. There are to be three pairs of propellers, each
having several superposed blades. One of the main features of the
apparatus is a series of aeroplanes, which are to assist the horizontal
stability and the raising and lowering of the machine. The whole air
ship is very big and cumbersome, but it has very powerful engines.
If anything should go wrong with the latter, however, it will be a
difficult balloon to manage.
OTHER AIR SHIPS.
An enormous machine is being constructed in San Francisco for
Mr. Stanley. It is to be made almost entirely of aluminum. The
shape is cylindrical, with conical ends, and it is 228 feet long. Pro-
pellers are to be fixed at each end as well as on the top, the latter being
to regulate the rise and fall. It is supposed to take ‘tat least 30 pas-
sengers.” Another machine, but of more ordinary dimensions, is
nearing completion in London. Mr. Beedle, the inventor, proposes to
place a propeller at each end of the frame, but the front one is to be
so arranged that its axis can be turned to one side to guide the vessel.
It contains 24,000 cubic feet, and bes engines of 16 horsepower.
AERIAL NAVIGATION. ¢
By O. Cuanutr, Chicago, Tl.
There are now dawnings of two possible solutions of the problem
of aerial navigation, a problem which has impassioned men for per-
haps four thousand or five thousand years. Navigable balloons have
recently been developed to what is believed to be nearly the limit of
their efficiency, and after three intelligent but unfortunate attempts
by others a successful dynamic flying machine seems to have been
produced by the Messrs. Wright.
It is therefore interesting to review the present status of the ques-
tion, the prospects of its solution, and the probable uses of the hoped-
for air ships.
BALLOONS.
As to balloons, we may pass over the early gropings and failures to
make them navigable. It was recognized very soon that the spherical
balloon was the sport of the wind; that it was necessary to elongate it
in order to evade the resistance of the air, and that, inasmuch as aerial
currents are much more rapid than aqueous currents, it was necessary
to obtain considerable speeds in order to have a useful air ship. This
means. that there must be great driving power and that this power
shall weigh as little as possible, for in any case the balloon itself, with
its adjuncts and passengers, will absorb the greater part of its lifting
power.
Giffard was the first to apply, in 1852, an artificial motor to an elon-
gated balloon. This motor consisted in a steam engine of 3 horse-
power, which weighed with its appurtenances 462 pounds, and Giffard
obtained only 6.71 miles per hour, although his balloon was 144 feet
long and 39 feet in diameter, or about the size of a tramp steamer.
Dupuy de Lome in 1872 went up with a balloon 118 feet long and
49 feet in diameter, but, having a wholesome dread of the contiguity
of fire and inflammable gas, he employed man power (weighing about
2,000 pounds to the horsepower) to drive his screws, and he obtained
«Paper read before Section D, American Association for the Advancement of
Science, December 30, 1903. Published by permission of the author.
173
ee: AERIAL NAVIGATION.
less speed than Giffard. The accidents to Wolfert and to De Bradsky
have since shown the soundness of his fears.
Next came Tissandier, in 1884, who employed an electric motor of
1$ horsepower, weighing some 616 pounds, with which he attained
7.82 miles per hour.
Meanwhile the French war department took up the nonlean It
railed itself of the labors of the previous experimenters and made
vareful and costly investigations of the best modes of construction,
of the best shapes to cleave the air, and of the weight and efficiency a
motors. This culminated in 1885, when Messrs. Renacd and Krebs, of
the aeronautical section, brought out the war balloon ** La France,”
which attained about 14 miles an hour (or half the speed of a trotting
horse) and returned to its shed five times out of the seven occasions
on which it was publicly taken out.
This air ship was 165 feet long, 275 feet in diameter, and was pro-
vided with an electric motor of 9 horsepower, weighing with its appur-
tenances some 1,174 pounds. The longitudinal section was parabolic,
somewhat like a cigar rolled to a sharp point at both ends, the largest
cross section being one-fourth of the distance from the front, and it
was driven, blunt end foremost, by a screw attached at the front of
the car. No better shape and arrangement have yet been devised, and
subsequent experimenters who have wandered away therefrom have
achieved inferior results, so far as the coefficient of resistance is
concerned.
In 1893 the French war department built the **‘ General Meusnier,’
named after an aeronautical officer of extraordinary merit of the first
French Republic. This war balloon is said to be 230 feet long, 30
feet in diameter, 120,000 cubic feet in capacity, and to have been orig-
inally provided with a gasoline motor of 45 horsepower. It is said
by all the writers on the subject that it was never taken out. Possibly
the French were waiting for a war which fortunately never came; but,
be this as it may, it is probable that with the reduction which has since
taken place in gasoline motors this balloon could carry an engine of
some 70 horsepower, and attain a speed of about 30 miles an hour,
which is greater than that of trans-Atlantic steamers.
Some unsuccessful experiments were carried on in Germany in
1897, first by Doctor Wolfert, whose balloon was set on fire by his
gasoline motor and exploded in the air, killing both himself and his
engineer, and later by Schwarz, whose aluminum balloon proved
unmanageable and was smashed in landing. The most ambitious
attempt, however, was that of Count Zeppelin, who built in 1900, a
monster air-ship 420 feet long and 39 feet in diameter. It was a
cylinder with paraboloid ends, but the shape was inferior and almost
all the lifting power was frittered away on an internal frame of alumi-
num, so that the gasoline motor could be of only 32 horsepower, and
AERIAL NAVIGATION. - £75
the speed attained has variously been stated at 8 to 18 miles per hour.
Nevertheless the design of Count Zeppelin contained many excellent
features, and a movement is now on foot in Germany to enable him to
try again, through means of a popular subscription. The mere size,
if he builds again as large, is a great element of success, for as the
cubic contents and lift increase as the cube of the dimensions, while
the weights increase in a far smaller ratio, a balloon of this great size
ought to be able to lift a very powerful motor, and to attain a speed
of 30 or more miles per hour. He has shown that the size is not
beyond the possibility of control.
Meanwhile gasoline motors had been increasing in efficiency and
diminishing in weight. The French war department gave no sign and
it was reserved for a Brazilian, Mr. Santos Dumont, to show to the
Parisians what could be accomplished by equipping an air ship with a
gasoline motor. The history of his triumphs is so present to all minds
that it need only be alluded to, but it may be interesting to give some
details of the sizes and arrangments of his various balloons. His first
idea seems to have been that, in order to make it manageable, a balloon
should be made as small as possible, and that it was practicable to
disencumber it of many adjuncts hitherto considered indispensable.
Neglecting to study carefully what had been found out by his prede-
cessors, he had to learn by experience, and he built five balloons, all
navigables, before he produced, in 1901, his No. 6, with which he won
the Deutsch prize by sailing 33 miles and return in half an hour.
This balloon was 108 feet long, 20 feet in diameter, and was provided
with a gasoline motor of 16 horsepower which might be driven up to
18 or 20 horsepower. While the speed over the ground was 14 miles
an hour, retarded as it was by a light wind, the speed through the air
was about 19 miles an hour, a small but marked advance over any
previous performance; but the result would have been still better if
the shape had been that of Colonel Renard’s balloon.
Since then Mr. Santos Dumont has built four new navigable balloons:
His No. 7, with which he expects to compete at St. Louis in 1904, is
160 feet long and 23 feet in diameter, and is to be provided with a
motor of 60 horsepower; his No. 8, which was sold to parties in New
York last year; his No. 9, which is his visiting balloon, being only 50
feet long and 18 feet in diameter and provided with a 3-horsepower
motor. Its speed is only 10 miles an hour, but it is handy to ride
around to breakfast or afternoon teas. He is now finishing his No. 10,
the omnibus, which is 157 feet long and 28 feet in diameter, with a
motor of 46 horsepower. Fares are to be charged for by the pound
of passenger when it comes out next spring.
Kmulators of Santos Dumont there have been that have come to
grief. Mr. Roze built in 1901 a catamaran consisting of two twin
balloons, which, although 148 feet long, failed to raise their own
176 AERIAL NAVIGATION.
weight serviceably. Mr. Severo built in 1902 a navigable balloon
which was so injudiciously constructed that the car broke away in the
air, and the inventor was killed as well as his engineer. Later in the
same year De Bradsky built a navigable balloon equipped with a gaso-
line motor located so near the vent for the gas that the latter took
fire, exploded the balloon, and the inventor and his engineer were
killed, thus for the second time verifying the fears of the experts who
discountenanced this combination.
Some meritorious projects have been published, but not yet carried
out. Among these may be mentioned that of Mr. Yon, now deceased,
and that of Mr. Louis Godard. The latter project was for a balloon
180 feet long and 36 feet in diameter, with two steam motors of 50
horsepower each. It was expected to attain a speed of 30 miles per
hour.
One navigable balloon which was built this year, that of the Lebaudy
brothers, has achieved a great success. It is 185 feet long, 32 feet in
diameter, and is equipped with a gasoline motor of 40 horsepower.
It has beaten the speed of Santos Dumont, having on many occasions,
it is said, attained 24 miles an hour.
There is also a navigable balloon being built in Paris by Mr. 'Tatin
for Mr. Deutsch, the donor of the famous prize. This is 183 feet
long, 27 feet in diameter, and is equipped with a gasoline motor of 60
horsepower.
Besides these there are said to be a number of navigable balloons
either being built or proposed in France. They are those of the
Marquis de Dion, of Pillet & Robert, of Girardot, of Boisset, and of
Bourgoin, but there is no telling how many of them will materialize.
These are all French balloons, while there are in England the balloon
of Mr. Spencer, 93 feet by 24 feet, with nominally 24 horsepower; of
Mr. Beedle, 93 feet by 24 feet, with 12 horsepower, and that of Doctor
Barton, now in construction, with dimensions of 170 feet in length,
40 feet in diameter, and equipped with a number of aeroplanes and
three gasoline motors of 50 horsepower each. It is a question
whether the weight of the aeroplanes will leave sufficient margin to
lift 150 horsepower.
The ultimate practicable size for balloons is not yet known, but the
mathematics of the subject are now tolerably well understood. The
larger the balloon the more speed it can attain, and it is possible to
design it so that the results shall not be disappointing. Those inventors
who expect to attain 70 to 100 miles an hour by some happy combina-
tion do not know what they are talking about.
It is interesting to speculate which of the above-mentioned navi-
gable balloons would, if competing, stand a chance of winning the
$100,000 prize which has been offered by the St. Louis exposition of
1904. So far as can now be discerned, the only vessels which are
e
AERIAL NAVIGATION. Er
likely to develop the required minimum speed of 20 miles an hour over
the ground, whichspeed really requires about 25 miles an hour through
the air, as there will almost invariably be some wind, will be the San-
tos Dumont No. 7, the Lebaudy and the Deutsch air ships, all of them
French. The English vessels of Spencer and of Beedle are too small
to lift sufficient power to drive them at 25 miles an hour. The balloon
of Doctor Barton might gain this speed if it were not 40 feet in diam-
eter, besides being loaded down with aeroplanes, and it remains to be
seen what will be the effect of this combination. The American air
ships all seem to be too small to lift enough power to give them the
required speed save the Stanley air ship, 228 feet by 56 feet in diam-
eter, begun in San Francisco. Should this be completed in time, and
should the weights be kept approximately near those stated in the
circulars, it might have a chance to obtain 25 miles an hour, but it
would need more than three times the 50 horsepower contemplated in
order to do so, and the weight of the aluminum shell and framing
would probably absorb much of the lifting power.
FLYING MACHINES.
If the aeronautical contest at St. Louis were scheduled to take place
a few years later, thus giving time to consummate recent success, it is
not improbable that the main prize would be carried off by a flying
machine. This yet lacks the safe flotation in the air which appertains
to balloons, but it promises to be eventually very much faster.
The writer found, somewhat to his surprise, when on a visit to
Paris last April, that a decided reaction had set in among the French
against balloons. It seemed to be realized that the limit of speed had
been nearly reached for the present, and that but small utility was to
be expected from navigable balloons. They must be large, costly, and
require expensive housing, while they are slow and frail and carry
very small loads. As commercial carriers they are not to be thought
of, but they may be useful in war and in exploration.
Hence the French are turning their thoughts toward aviation and
propose to repeat some of the experiments with gliding machines
which have taken place in America. Even Colonel Renard, the cele-
brated pioneer of the modern navigable balloon, is now said to have
become a convert to aviation and to say that the time has come to try
the system of combined aeroplanes and lifting screws for flying
apparatus.
A good deal of experimenting has been done with power-driven
flying models. The more recent types have been actuated by twisted
rubber threads, by compressed air and by steam, and the most notable
experiments in order of date are those of Penaud, Tatin, Hargrave,
Phillips, Langley and Tatin, and Richet. The data of these (except
the first) will be found by searchers in such matters in the London
178 AERIAL NAVIGATION.
Times edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, in the article on
aeronautics. The most successful experiment was that of Professor
Langley, who obtained in 1896 three flights of about three-fourths of
a mile each with steam-driven models, the apparatus alighting safely
each time and being in condition to be flown again.
The one great fact which appears from all these various model
experiments is that it requires a relatively enormous power to obtain
support on the air. Omitting the cases in which the power was prob-
ably overestimated, the weights sustained were but 30 to 55 pounds to
the horsepower expended, thus comparing most unfavorably with the
weights transported by land or by water; for a locomotive can haul
about 4,000 pounds to the horsepower upon a level track, and a
steamer can propel a displacement of 4,000 pounds per horsepower on
the water at a speed of 14 miles an hour.
But models are, to a certain extent, misleading. They seldom fly
twice alike and they do not unfold the vicissitudes of their flight.
Moreover, the design for a small model is sometimes quite unsuited
for a large machine, just as the design for a bridge of 10 feet opening
is unsuited for a span of one hundred feet.
After experimenting with models three celebrated inventors have
passed on to full-sized machines to carry a man. They are Maxim,
Ader, and Langley, and all three have been unsuccessful, simply
because their apparatus did not possess the required stability. They
might have flown had the required equilibrium and strength been duly
provided.
Ata cost of about $100,000, Sir Hiram Maxim built and tested in
1894 an enormous flying machine, to carry three men. It consisted
ina combination of superposed aeroplanes, portions of which bagged
under air pressure, and it was driven by two screws 17 feet 10 inches
in diameter, actuated by a steam engine of 363 horsepower with steam
at 275 pounds pressure. The supporting surface was about 4,000
square feet, and the weight 8,000 pounds. The machine ran on a
track of 8-feet gauge, and was prevented from unduly rising by a
track above it of 30-feet gauge. Ata speed of 36 miles per hour all
the weight was sustained by the air, and on the last test the lifting
effect became so great that the rear axle trees were doubled up, and
finally one of the front wheels tore up about 100 feet of the upper
track, when steam was shut off and the machine dropped to the ground
and was broken. Its short flight disclosed that its stability was im-
perfectand Sir Hiram Maxim has not yet undertaken the construction
of the improved machine which he is understood to have had under
contemplation.
Having already built, in 1872 and 1891, two full-sized flying machines
with doubtful results, Mr. Ader, a French electrical inventor, built, in
1897, a third machine at a cost of about $100,000 furnished by the
AERIAL NAVIGATION. 179
French war department. It was like a great bird, with 270 feet sup-
porting surface and 1,100 pounds weight, being driven by a pair of
screws actuated by a steam engine of 40 horsepower, which weighed
about 7 pounds per horsepower. Upon being tested under the super-
vision of the French army officers, the equilibrium was found so
defective that further advance of funds was refused. The amount
lifted per horsepower was 27 pounds.
The data for the full-sized flying machine of Professor Langley,
tested October 7 and December 8, 1903, have not yet been published.
From newspaper photographs it appears to be an amplification of the
models which flew successfully in 1896, and this, necessarily, would
make it very frail. The failures, however, seem to have been caused
by the launching gear and do not prove that this machine is useless.
Like the failures of Maxim and of Ader, it does indicate that a better
design must be sought for, and that the first requisites are that the
machine shall be stable in the air, shall be quite under the control of
its operator, and that he, paradoxical as it may appear, shall have
acquired thorough experience in managing it before he attempts to fly
with it.
This was the kind of practical efficiency acquired by the Wright
brothers, whose flying machine was successfully tested on the 17th
of December. For three years they experimented with gliding
machines, as will be described further on, and it was only after they
had obtained thorough command of their movements in the air that
they ventured to add a motor. How they accomplished this must be
reserved for them to explain, as they are not yet ready to make known
the construction of their machine nor its mode of operation. Too
much praise can not be awarded to these gentlemen. Being accom-
plished mechanics, they designed and built the apparatus, applying
thereto a new and effective mode of control of their own. They
learned its use at considerable personal risk of accident. They planned
and built the motor, having found none in the market deemed suitable.
They evolved a novel and superior form of propeller; and all this was
done with their own hands, without financial help from anybody.
Meantime it is interesting to trace the evolution which has led to
this result and the successive steps which have been taken by others.
It is not enough to design and build an adequate flying machine;
one must know how to use it. There is a bit of tuition which most of
us have seen—that of the parent birds teaching their young to fly—
which demonstrates this proposition. Even with thousands of years’
evolution and heredity, with adequate flying organs, the birdlings need
instruction and experience.
Safety is the all-important requisite. It is indispensable to have a
flying machine which shall be stable in the air and to learn to master
its management. Nothing but practice, practice, practice will gain
180 AERIAL NAVIGATION.
the latter, and upon this the school of Lilienthal and his followers is
founded.
Otto Lilienthal was a German engineer of great originality and
talent, who, after making very valuable researches, assisted by his
brother, published a book in 1889, Der Vogelflug als Grundlage der
Fliegekunst, which it is very desirable to have translated and pub-
lished for the benefit of English investigators. Then, putting his
theories to the test of practice, he built, from 1891 te 1896, a number
of aeroplane machines with which he diligently trained himself in
gliding flight, using gravity for a motive power, by starting from hill-
sides. He grew exceedingly expert, and made, it is said, more than
2,000 flights, until one rueful day (August 9, 1896) he was upset and
killed by a wind gust, probably in consequence of having allowed his
apparatus to get out of order.
He was followed by Mr. Pilcher, an English marine engineer, who
slightly improved the apparatus, but who, after making many hundred
glides, was also upset and killed in October, 1899, through structural
weakness of his machine.
The basis for the equilibrium of an apparatus gliding upon the air
being that the center of gravity shall be on the same vertical line as
the center of air pressure, both Lilienthal and Pilcher reestablished
this condition by moving their bodily weight to the same extent that
the center of pressure varied through the turmoils of the wind. The
writer ventured to think this method erroneous, and proposed to
reverse it by causing the surfaces themselves to alter their position, so
as to bring the center of pressure back vertically over the center
of gravity. He began experimentally with man-carrying gliding
machines in June, 1896, and has since built six machines of five dif-
ferent types, with three of which several thousand glides have been
effected without any accidents. The first was a Lilienthal machine, in
order to test the known before passing to the unknown, and this was
discarded some six weeks before Lilienthal’s sad accident.
With three of the other machines favorable results were obtained.
The best were with the ‘‘two-surface” machine, equipped with an
elastic rudder attachment designed by Mr. Herring, and this was
described and figured in the Aeronautical Annual for 1897.
Three years later Messrs. Wilbur and Orville Wright took up the
problem afresh and have worked independently. These gentlemen
have placed the rudder in front, where it proves more effective than
in the rear, and have placed the operator horizontally on the machine,
thus diminishing by four-fifths the resistance of the man’s body from
that which obtained with their predecessors. In 1900, 1901, 1902, and
1903 they made thousands of glides without accidents, and even suc-
ceeded in hovering in the air for a minute and more at a time. They
had obtained almost complete mastery over their apparatus before they
AERIAL NAVIGATION. 181
ventured to add the motor and propeller. This, in the judgment of
the present writer, is the only course of training by which others may
hope to accomplish success. It is a mistake to undertake too much at
once and to design and build a full-sized flying machine ab initio, for
the motor and propeller introduce complications which had best be
avoided until in the vicissitudes of the winds bird craft has been
learned with gravity as a motive power.
Now that an initial success has been achieved with a flying machine,
we can discern some of the uses of such apparatus, and also some of
its limitations. It doubtless will require some time and a good deal of
experimenting, not devoid of danger, to develop the machine to prac-
tical utility. Its first application will probably be military. We can
conceive how useful it might be in surveying a field of battle, or in
patrolling mountains and jungles over which ordinary means of con-
veyance are difficult. In reaching otherwise inaccessible places, such
as cliffs, in conveying messages, perhaps in carrying life lines to
wrecked vessels, the flying machine may prove preferable to existing
methods, and it may even carry mails in special cases, but the useful
loads carried will be very small. The machines will eventually be
fast, they will be used in sport, but they are not to be thought of as
commercial carriers. To say nothing of the danger, the sizes must
remain small and the passengers few, because the weight will, for the
same design, increase as the cube of the dimensions, while the sup-
porting surfaces will only increase as the square. It is true that when
higher speeds become safe it will require fewer square feet of surface
to carry a man, and that dimensions will actually decrease, but this
will not be enough to carry much greater extraneous loads, such as a
store of explosives or big guns to shoot them. The power required
will always be great, say something like one horsepower to every
hundred pounds of weight, and hence fuel can not be carried for long
single journeys. The north pole and the interior of Sahara may pre-
serve their secrets a while longer.
Upon the whole, navigable balloons and flying machines will con-
stitute a great mechanical triumph for man, but they will not mate-
rially upset existing conditions as has sometimes been predicted.
Their design and performance will doubtless be improved from time
to time, and they will probably develop new uses of their own which
have not yet been thought of.
GRAHAM BELL’S TETRAHEDRAL KITES. ¢
In the June number of the National Geographic Magazine (Wash-
ington, D. C.) is a very interesting and instructive article by Dr. Gra-
ham Bell on the tetrahedral principle in kite structure. The article
itself is so concise and depends so much upon illustrations, which are
reproduced to the number of 20 in the text and 70 in the Appendix,
that an effective representation of the contents in an article of smaller
dimensions is scarcely possible. Still the line of thought that runs
through the work which the article represents is so clear and so sug-
gestive that even an imperfect outline of it may be useful. Doctor
3ell indicates certain stages in the development of his ideas as ** mile-
stones” of progress, and since the ultimate stage of the development
is the possibility of building up very large kite structures by combin-
ing unit cells in such a way that the proportion of weight to wing
area in the structure is nearly the same as that of the constituent cell
the successive stages are noteworthy. They sketch out in a most
interesting manner a reply to Newcomb’s criticism of the limits of
application of the aeroplane based upon the argument that increase
of size means diminished efficiency because, for similar structures, the
weight varies as the cube, while the area, upon which the lifting force
depends, varies as the square of the linear dimensions.
The original stage, the ordinary kite, is a single plane structure.
The first step in advance is the Hargrave box kite, with its upper and
lower aeroplanes for its support and side planes for stability. To
stiffen the framework of the box kite it must be braced longitudinally
and transversely. Accordingly Graham Bell’s development commences
by replacing the rectangular framework of the box kite by a frame-
work of triangular section, which is by construction stiff so far as the
cross section is concerned. The inclined sides are by the vector prin-
ciple of resolution of forces regarded as equivalent to their geometri-
eal projections, and, in so far as the principle applies, the inclined
«Reprinted from Nature, London, August 13, 1903, No. 1763, vol. 68, pp. 347-349.
sm 1903——13 183
‘
184 GRAHAM BELL’S TETRAHEDRAL KITES.
faces represent the combined effect of aeroplanes of the area of the
projections. @
The box kite of triangular section is, however, not stiff as regards
longitudinal shear, and the next ‘* milestone” marks the reduction of
the triangular or prismatic form to the tetrahedron, an essentially stiff
framework for all directions. A tetrahedron of rods with two adja-
cent faces covered with fabric forms a tetrahedral kite cell which, on
the principle of projection before referred to, is equivalent to three
aeroplanes represented by the projections of the covered sides upon
planes at right angles.
The further development of pure tetrahedral construction is obvious.
Four cells can be combined to form a tetrahedron of double linear
dimensions without additional framework; the weight and wing area
are both simply proportional to the number of cells, and not to the
linear dimensions. For each set of four cells thus combined there is
an octahedral free space in the interior which corresponds to the free
space between the two cells of the Hargrave kite. The tetrahedral
kites that have the largest central spaces preserve their equilibrium
best in the air.
Combining 4 multiple cells to fill the outline of a tetrahedron of
double size, again, we get a 16-cell kite, and repeating the process
again a 64-cell kite, occupying a tetrahedron eight times the dimen-
sions of a single cell. The building up of multicellular kites from
the units is represented in the figures here reproduced from illustra-
trations in Doctor Bells article. Fig. 1, Pl. I, represents the unit
cell; fig. 2a combination of 4 cells; fig. 3 of 64 cells.
The kites fly with the points of the wings upward; the line of junc-
tion of the covered faces of the tetrahedron forms a kind of keel. No
details as to the heights attainable are given. The most convenient
place for the attachment of the flying end is said to be the extreme
point of the bow. If the cord is attached to points successively farther
back on the keel, the flying end makes a greater and greater angle
with the horizon, and the kite flies more nearly overhead; but it is not
advisable to carry the point of attachment as far back as the middle
of the keel. A good place for high flights is a point halfway between
the bow and the middle of the keel.
‘**Tetrahedral kites combine in a marked degree the qualities of
strength, lightness, and steady flight; but further experiments are
required before deciding that this form is the best for a kite or that
“This principle to be generally applicable would require the normal component of
wind pressure to be uniform and independent of the angle between the plane and
the wind. This is not the case with an aeroplane (see Rayleigh, Nature,vol. xxv,
p- 108); and for the principle to be applied approximately in the case of the kites
some convention as regards the angle of exposure of the aeroplanes to the wind
would be required.
“ALI AWOYNdOEsY SAHL—"p “SI4 ‘ALIM IYGSHVYLS | G31150-7 YW—"s “DI4
“ALIM TWHCGSHVYLA | G31150-p9 VY—'E ‘SI4
‘| aLV1d "sa}ly S,[|2@G— F061 ‘Woday ueiuosuyjziLUS
GRAHAM BELL'S TETRAHEDRAL KITES. 185
winged cells without horizontal aeroplanes constitute the best arrange-
ment of aero-surtaces.
‘The tetrahedral principle enables us to construct out of light mate-
rials solid frameworks of almost any desired form, and the resulting
structures are admirably adapted for the support of aero-surfaces of
any desired kind, size, or shape.”
The diagrams illustrating the article show various examples of the
formation of complex kites from tetrahedral cells. One form sug-
gested by Professor Langley’s aerodrome, but different in construc-
tion and appearance, is shown in fig. 4, reproduced from an illustration
in the article. That some of these complex kites are on a very large
seale is evident from a case cited, in which an aerodrome kite, which
was struck by a squall before it was let go, lifted two men off their
feet, and subsequently broke its flying cord, a Manila rope of three-
eighths inch diameter.
The simplicity of the construction of the cells, and the obvious pos-
sibilities of their combination, lend an additional fascination to a sub-
ject which is already full of interest.
FADLUM.4
By E. Curie,
Professeur & la Faculté des Sciences de ? Université de Paris.
5
M. Beequerel discovered in 1896 that uranium and its products emit
spontaneously radiations which, like the Réntgen rays, are photo-
graphically active, augment the electrical conductivity of the air
through which they pass, traverse black paper and thin sheets of metal
freely, but can neither be reflected nor refracted.”
Compounds of thorium emit radiations analogous in their proper-
ties, and of comparable intensity.© The radiations thus spontaneously
emitted by certain substances received the name *‘ Becquerel rays,”
and we are accustomed to speak of the substances emitting them as
radio-active.
Madame Curie and myself have discovered new radio-active sub-
stances existing in minute quantities in certain minerals, but possess-
ing the property of radio-activity in a very high degree. We have
separated the radio-active substance polonium, analogous to bismuth
in its chemical reactions, and radium” which more resembles barium.
M. Debierne has since separated actinium, which is a radio-active sub-
stance to be classed chemically with the rare earths.‘
Polonium, radium, and actinium emit radiations of an order of inten-
sity a million times higher than those emitted by uranium and thorium,
and have enabled physicists ta conduct many investigations of the
phenomena of radio-activity within the past few years. The present
paper is confined to the description of radium, which we have proved
to be a new element, and have succeeded in isolating in the form of a
pure salt.’ This is the substance which has been most widely used in
researches on radio-activity.
«Translated from a lecture delivered by Prof. E. Curie before the Royal Institu-
tion of London, as printed in the Revue Scientifique February 13, 1904.
» Becquerel, Comptes rendus de Academie des Sciences, 1896 and 1897. Ruther-
ford, Phil. Mag., 1899.
¢Schmidt, Wied. Ann., Band 65, p. 141. Madame Curie, Comptes rendus de
’ Academie des Sciences, April, 1898.
¢ Discovered in an investigation shared with M. Bémont.
€P. Curie and Mme. Curie, C. R. de l’ Academie des Sciences, July, 1898. P. Curie,
Mme. Curie, and M. Bémont, C. R., December, 1898. Debierne, C. R., October,
1899, and April, 1900.
J Mme. Curie. Thése 4 la Faculté des Sciences de Paris, 1903.
187
188 RADIUM.
TT.
The radiations of radium produce photographic impressions very
quickly, and are able to penetrate any screen whatsoever. Bodies
differ in transparency, but no screen is absolutely opaque to radium *
rays.
The radiations of radium excite phosphorescence in a great number
of bodies, including, among others, the following: Alkaline salts,
alkaline earths, organic substances, the skin, glass, paper, salts of ura-
nium, ete., while diamond, platino-cyanide of barium, and the phos-
phorescent sulphide of zine of Sidot are particularly sensitive. The
luminescence of phosphorescent sulphide of zinc persists for some
time after the removal of the radium which excites it.
Radium emits its rays with equal intensity whether immersed in
liquid air at —180° C. or at ordinary temperatures. When a bit of
radium salt is placed with a little screen of platino-cyanide of barium
in a test tube and the whole plunged into liquid air, the screen appears
to glow at least as strongly as before. Under the same circumstances
a screen of sulphide of zine loses some of its luminosity, but this is
owing to the diminished phosphorescent power of this substance at
low temperatures. .
Little by little phosphorescent substances are altered under the pro-
longed action of radium and become less readily excited and tess
luminous.
The salts of radium are spontaneously luminous, and it may be pre-
sumed that they render themselves phosphorescent by their own radio-
activity. Radium-chloride and radium-bromide are the most intensely
luminous of these salts, and may even appear visibly bright in open
daylight. In these circumstances the light emitted by the radium
recalls to mind the color of that given by the firefly or glowworm.
The luminosity of radium salts diminishes with lapse of time, but
never wholly disappears, and salts at first uncolored become at length
tinged with gray, vellow, or violet.
Le.
The radiations of radium impart electrical conductivity to the air
through which they pass. When a fragment of radium salt is brought
near a charged electroscope the latter is immediately discharged. If
the electroscope is inclosed by a thick, solid wall the discharge still
takes place, though more slowly. Lead and platinum are strongly
absorbent, but aluminum is the most transparent of the metals, and
organic substances absorb relatively little of the Becquerel rays.
Nonconducting liquids, such as petroleum ether, sulphide of carbon,
benzine, and liquid air are rendered conducting under the influence of
radium.”
@P. Curie, C. R., February 17, 1902:
RADIUM. . £89
Under certain conditions the radiations of radium facilitate the pas-
sage of sparks between two conductors placed in air. This is illus-
trated by the apparatus shown in fig. 1, consisting of an induction
coil, B, from the poles, P and P’, of which two metallic circuits are
led to micrometric sparking devices, M and M’, at considerable dis-
tance apart, and offering two distinct paths of equal resistance to the
passage of sparks. The micrometers
are adjusted so that each transmits
equally an abundance of sparks be-
tween their terminals. Upon bring-
ing a fragment of radium near one of
the micrometers the sparks cease to
s at the other e "
pass a the other. Fig. 1.—Conductivity of air augmented by
It appears to be the most penetra- “DUNES
ting rays which are most effective in promoting electrical conductivity,
for the efficiency of the rays for this purpose is not greatly reduced
by interposing a lead screen 2 centimeters thick, although the larger
portion of the rays is arrested by such a screen.
IV.
The radiations of radium can be neither reflected nor refracted.
They form a heterogeneous mixture, separable into three groups,
which following the nomenclature of Rutherford we will designate by
the Greek letters a, #6, and vy. These groups may be discriminated
by the aid of the magnetic
field; for in an intense mag-
netic field the @ rays are
slightly deviated from a
rectilinear course in the
same manner as the ** canal
rays” in vacuum tubes,
while the / rays are devi-
ated like the cathode rays,
and the y rays, like those
of Réntgen, are not deyi-
ated at all.“
A bit of radium (R, fig.
2) is placed within a small
cavity in a block of lead.
MiG. 2.—Magnetic separation of a, B, and y rays. In the absence of all mae-
netic action the radiation escapes from the block as a rectilinear pen-
cil, but in a uniform magnetic field normal to the plane of the figure,
Cc
“Giesel, Wied. Ann., November 2, 1899. Meyer and Von Schweidler, Akad.
Anzeig. Wien, November 3 and 9, 1899. Beequerel, C. R., December 11, 1899, Jan-
uary 26 and February 16, 1903. P. Curie, C. R., January 8, 1900. Villard, C. R.,
Vol. CXXX, p. 1010. Rutherford, Physik-Zeitsch., January 15, 1903.
LOO. =. RADIUM.
and directed toward the rear of this plane, the f rays are strongly
deflected toward the right and caused to follow a circular trajectory;
the @ rays are slightly deviated toward the left, while the vy rays,
which are far the least abundant, continue in a straight line.
The @ rays are of slight penetrating power. A sheet of aluminum
only a few hundredths of a millimeter in thickness absorbs them. To
exhibit their deviation a very intense magnetic field is required, and
the actual demonstration requires a far more delicate method than
that indicated in fig. 2, which is merely a diagram given in general
illustration.“ ‘
The @ rays may be compared to projectiles of atomic dimensions
charged with positive electricity and shot off with ereat velocities.
Apart from their behavior in a magnetic field, the @ rays may be rec-
ognized by their manner of absorption in a succession of thin screens.?
In traversing successively a series of screens the @ rays become less
and less penetrating, whereas
residual R6éntgen rays under
these circumstances become
more and more penetrating.
It appears that the energy of
each projectile becomes less
with each screen that it passes.
It is the a@ rays which appear
to be active in the beautiful
experiment exhibited by the
spinthariscope of Sir William
Crookes. In this apparatus ¢
small fragment of radium salt
(only a fraction of a milligram)
is suspended by a metallic wire
at a small distance (one-half
millimeter) from a screen of phosphorescent sulphide of zinc. When
the face of the screen which is turned toward the radium is examined
in darkness by the aid of a magnifying glass, it appears studded with
sparkling points, reminding one of the stars in the sky, except that
these luminous points are appearing and disappearing continually.
It may be supposed that each bright point which appears is the result
of the impact of a projectile, and thus for the first time there has been.
discovered a means of distinguishing an individual action of an atom.
The f rays are analogous to the cathode rays and behave similarly
in the magnetic field. They comport themselves as projectiles charged
negatively and escaping from the radium with high velocity. These
projectiles (electrons) appear to have a mass about one thousand times
Fig. 3.—Magnetic deviation of B rays.
«Rutherford, Phil. Mag., February, 1903. Becquerel, C. R., Vol. CXX XVI, p.
199.
bMme. Curie, C. R., January 8, 1900.
RADIUM 191
smaller than the hydrogen atom. By means of the following experi-
ment the magnetic deviation of the # rays may be demonstrated. A
tiny phial holding a little radium, R, is placed at one end of a thick-
walled lead tube, AB, as shown in section in fig. 3. An electroscope
is placed somewhat beyond the other end of the tube, so that the pen-
cil of rays emerging from the tube tends to discharge the electroscope.
The lead tube is situated between the poles of an electro-magnet, E E,
and at right angles to the line of poles, NS. When the current is
flowing in the coils of the electro-magnet the # rays are thrown upon
the walls of the lead tube, and do not escape to discharge the electro-
E €
a
Ee oo y
Sante G yy)
a 4,
Fic. 4.—Negative electrical charges transported by B rays.
scope as before, so that it now discharges more slowly. When the
current is cut off the electroscope is again rapidly discharged.
It may be shown that the # rays transport negative electricity, which
is in harmony with the hypothesis that they are electrically charged
projectiles.“ For this experiment the apparatus illustrated in fig. 4
_-may be employed, in which R R represents the radium emitting the 6
rays. Those among them which are directed toward the upper part
of the figure traverse successively a thin sheet of aluminum, EK E E KE,
in electrical contact with the earth, and supporting an insulating block
of paraflin, 7777. They are finally absorbed by a lead block, M M,
which is connected to an electrometer by an insulated wire. It is
Electrometer
Fic. 5.—Negative charges carried by 6 rays.
found that the electrometer is continually charged negatively. In
this experiment the @ rays are absorbed by the sheet of aluminum
which is connected to earth. The layer of paraffin is required to
insulate the lead block M M, for the insulation of this block would be
defective if there was only air between it and the aluminum, on account
of the air being rendered conducting by the presence of the rays, s
that it would then be impossible to detect at the electrometer the
charging of the lead block.
An experiment the inverse of this may be performed. ‘The metallic
trough A A (fig. 5) containing radium, R, is connected with the elec-
aM. and Mme. Curie, C. R., Mareh 5, 1900.
192 RADIUM.
trometer and surrounded by paraflin, 7 77 7, inclosed in the metallic
envelope E E E E, which is connected to earth. Since the @ rays are
but feebly penetrating they can not escape, but the / rays traverse
the paraftin and carry off negative electricity, so that the trough A A
becomes positively charged.
A sealed glass test tube containing radium salt becomes spontane-
ously charged with electricity, as if it were a Leyden jar. If, after a
sufficient time, a line is traced by a glass cutter on the wall of the test
tube, a spark may pass at the point where the wall is thinned by the
scratch, and at the same time the operator receives a feeble shock in
his fingers by the passage of the discharge.
The group of # rays is made up of a variety of rays differing in
their penetrating power. Some / rays are absorbed by a thickness of
one one-hundredth millimeter of aluminum, while others are able to
traverse, before complete absorption, a layer of lead several milli-
meters in thickness. Another method of distinguishing the varieties
of f rays is by the curvature of their path in a magnetic field. In the
experiment represented in fig. 2 the # rays deviated by the magnetic
field would darken a photographic plate all the way from B to C,
The least deviated rays would be distinguished at C and those most
deviated at B. Thus there would appear the photograph of a sort of
spectrum produced by the influence of the magnetic field on the f
rays. By interposing a thin sheet of metal in the path of the rays, it
may be shown that the rays most deviated are suppressed, so that it
appears that the most penetrating rays are least deviated.@
According to the ballistic theory, it may be assumed that the / rays
are composed of electrons projected with different velocities. The most
penetrating rays have the highest velocity. Kaufmann’s researches,
interpreted in the light of the theory of electrons as given by M.
Abraham, lead to very important general conclusions. Certain very
penetrating # rays may consist of electrons impressed with a velocity
nine-tenths of that of light. The property of mass in electrons, and
perhaps in all bodies, may be a consequence of electro-magnetic reac-
tions. The energy required to impress higher and higher velocities
upon an electrically charged body approaches infinity when the veloc-
ity of the body approaches the velocity of light.
The y rays, which are not deviable in a magnetic field, and which
are analogous to X-rays, form but a small part of the total radiation.
Certain y rays are extremely penetrating, and are able to traverse a
thickness of several centimeters of lead.
Becquerel rays may be utilized to make radiographs without special
apparatus. A small glass test tube containing some hundredths of a
gram of radium salt replaces the Crookes tube. Both # and y rays
are employed, but such radiographs lack sharpness on account of the
@ Becquerel, C. R., Vol. CX XX, pp. 206, 372, 810.
RADIUM. 193
diffusion of the # rays by the bodies through which they pass. Sharp
radiographs are obtained by deflecting the # rays with a magnetic
field, so that only the y rays remain; but the y rays are so feeble that
several days’ exposure must then be employed.
V:
Radium salts continually give off heat.” The evolution of heat is
so great that it may be shown in a rough experiment made with two
ordinary mercury thermometers. ‘Two similar vacuum-jacketed recep-
tacles (A and A’, Fig. 6) are employed. In one of them, A, let us
suppose, is placed a test tube containing 0.7 gram of pure radium
bromide, and in the second, A’, is a similar tube of inactive substance
such as chloride of barium. The temperature of each inclosure is
indicated by a thermometer whose bulb is close to the test tube. The
top of each vessel is closed by a wad of cotton. In these conditions
the thermometer t, which is placed in the same vessel with the radium,
continually indicates a temperature
about 8° higher than-that of the other
thermometer t’.
A determination of the amount of
heat emitted by the radium may be
made with the aid of the ice calorimeter
of Bunsen. When a tube of radium is
placed in the calorimeter, there is ob-
served a continual evolution of heat,
which ceases when the radium is with-
drawn. Measurements made with a
sample of radium which had been pre-
Fic. 6.—Continuous evolution of heat by pared a long time previously indicated
podiann that each gram of radium gives off
about 80 small calories per hour. Thus radium gives off sufficient
heat in an hour to melt its own weight of ice. This evolution of heat
produces no change in the appearance of the salt, nor can any ordinary
chemical reaction be pointed out as the source of the heat evolved.
It has been shown that a radium salt when first prepared gives off
comparatively little heat, and that the heating increases steadily toward
a maximum amount, which is not fully attained at the end of a month.
When a salt of radium is dissolved in. water and the solution is
placed in a sealed tube, the quantity of heat evolved by the solution is
at first feeble, but increases and tends toward a constant value, which
is attained after about a month. When this constant state is reached,
the salt in solution evolves the same amount of heat which it would
give if in a solid state.
2
The amount of heat given out by radium at different temperatures
may be determined by causing it to boil a liquefied gas, and measuring
@Curie and Laborde, C. R., March 16, 1903.
194 RADIUM.
the volume of gas evolved. This experiment may be performed with
methyl chloride (at —21° C.). Professor Dewar and M. Curie have
conducted such experiments with liquid oxygen (at —180° C.) and liquid
hydrogen (at —292°C.). This last liquid serves the purpose particularly
well. A tube A (fig. 7) (closed at the lower end and inclosed by a
vacuum heat insulator of Dewar) contains a little liquid hydrogen H.
A tube tt’ serves to convey the gas to be collected over water in the
inverted graduate E. The tube A and its insulator are plunged into
a bath of liquid hydrogen H’. In these conditions no evolution of gas
is produced in A. But when a tube a containing 0.7 gram of radium
bromide is placed in the hydrogen in the tube A, the gas is continually
evolved at the rate of 73 cubic centimeters per minute.
VI.
The radiations of radium provoke many chemical reactions. ‘They
act upon the substances employed in photography in the
same manner as light. Glass is tinged violet or brown,
and salts of the alkalies are colored yellow, violet, blue,
or green. Under the action of the rays paraftin, paper,
and celluloid turn yellow, paper becomes brittle, and
ordinary phosphorus is transformed into the red va-
riety. In general, bodies phosphorescent under the
action of radium rays undergo a transformation, and at
Pic. 7-—Boiling liq, he same time their phosphorescence tends to disappear.
uid hydrogen by Finally it has been shown that the presence of radium
aoa salts promotes the formation of ozone in the air.
VIL
The radiations of radium produce various physiological effects.
A salt of radium contained in an opaque tube of metal or pasteboard
produces a sensation of light upon the eye. This may be shown by
placing the tube of radium before the closed eye or against the temple.
The eye then becomes phosphorescently luminous under the influence
of the rays and light is perceived within the eye itself.”
Radium acts upon the skin so that if one holds a tube of radium in
the hand for some minutes, though no particular sensation is felt at
the time, after fifteen or twenty days an inflammation is produced
and then the skin sloughs off at the place where the radium was
applied. If the action of radium is continued long enough a sore is
formed which may take months to heal. The action of radium rays
on the skin is analogous to that of the Réntgen rays. It has been
attempted to utilize it in the treatment of lupus and cancer.’
E
a Giesel, Naturforscherversammlung, Miinchen, 1899. Himstedt and Nagel, Ann.
der Physik, Vol. TV, 1901.
bWalkoff, Phot. Rundschau, Oct. 1900. Giesel, Berichte d. Deutsche Chem.
Gesell., Vol. XXIII. Becquerel and Curie, C. R., Vol. CX XXII, p. 1289.
RADIUM. 195
The action of radium rays on nervous centers may result in paralysis
or death. They seem to act with particular intensity on living tissues
in the process of growth.@
Vill.
When any solid body is placed near a salt of radium it acquires the
‘radiant properties of radium, or in other words becomes radio-active.
This induced radio-activity persists for some time after the body is
removed from the presence of the radium, but it becomes steadily
feebler and diminishes about half in each half hour till it disappears.
This phenomenon is produced in a particularly intense and regular
fashion if the solid body is placed with the radium salt in a closed
vessel, and it is advantageous to employ a solution of radium salt
rather than the salt in the solid form.?
A salt of radium is placed at A (fig. 8) in a glass reservoir which
communicates by tubes t and t’ with two other glass reservoirs B and
C, from which air may be exhausted. It may be shown that the walls
of the reservoirs B and C become radio-active and emit
Becquerel rays analogous to those emitted ordinarily by
radium itself, while on the contrary the solution of radium
emits very little radiation, so that the radio-activity
becomes, as it were, exteriorized.
This phenomenon is well exhibited in other gases than
air, and is independent of the presence of the gas. The
radio-activity is communicated from one place to another
by a sort of conduction through the gas, and may even be
propagated from one reservoir to another through a cap-
illary tube. Gas which has been in contact with radium,
therefore, acquires the property of imparting radio-
activity to solids. The gas is itself radio-active, but does not emit
rays which are very penetrating. Rays emitted by gases are not
transmitted through the walls of a glass receiver.
When the gas thus modified is removed far from the radium it retains
its properties for a long time, and continues to emit Becquerel rays of
slight penetration and to impart radio-activity to solids. But its
activity from either point of view diminishes by half in each four days
till it disappears.
Rutherford supposes that radium continually emits a radio-active
gaseous substance which diffuses in space and provokes the induced
radio-activity. He gives to this hypothetical substance the name of
radium emanation and believes that it is to be found in a mixed condi-
tion in gases in the vicinity of radium. Without necessarily admit-
Fie. 8— Induced
radio-activity.
@ Danyz, C. R., Feb. 16,1903. G. Bohn, C.R., April 27, 1903.
> M. and Mme. Curie, C. R., Nov. 6, 1899. Curie and Debierne, C. R., Mar. 4, 1901,
July 29,1901, Mar. 25, 1901.
196 RADIUM.
ting the material nature of the emanation, this expression may be
employed to designate the special radio-active energy stored in the
gas. ®
Air charged with the emanation provokes phosphorescence in bodies
which are immersed in it. Glass (especially Thuringian glass) gives
a beautiful white or green phosphorescence. Sidot’s sulphide of zine
becomes excessively brilliant under the action of the emanation.’? This
experiment may be tried with the apparatus shown in fig. 8. The
cock R being closed, the radio-active emanation which is emitted by
the solution in A saturates the air above the solution. When the
emanation has accumulated in A for some days the reservoirs B and
C, whose inner walls are coated with zinc sulphide, are exhausted.
The cock R” is then closed and R opened, so that the air charged with
the emanation expands suddenly into the reservoirs B and C, which
immediately become luminous.
Radium emanation comports itself as a gas from many points of
view. ‘Thus it is shared in the same proportions as a gas would be by
two communicating reservoirs. It diffuses in air according to the law
of diffusion of gases, and has a coefficient of diffusion not far from that
of carbonic acid gas in air. ¢
Messrs. Rutherford and Soddy discovered that the emanation has
the property of condensing at the temperature of liquid air.” The
effects of such condensation may be shown with the apparatus pictured
in fig. 8. The cock R” being closed, and the emanation being diffused
throughout the apparatus, as at the conclusion of the experiment last
described, the reservoirs B and C (which are covered within with phos-
phorescent zinc sulphide) are luminous. On closing the cock R and
plunging the reservoir C in liquid air, at the end of a half hour, it is
seen that the reservoir B has lost its luminosity, while the reservoir C
is still bright. Thus it is seen that the emanation has quitted the res-
ervoir B and become condensed in the cooled portion of the reservoir
C. However, the luminosity of C is not very intense, since the phos-
phorescence of sulphide of zinc is more feeble at the temperature of
liquid air than at ordinary temperatures; but by closing the cock R’,
which interrupts communication between the two reservoirs, and
again bringing C to the temperature of the surroundings, it becomes
again brilliantly illuminated, while B remains dark. Thus the ema-
nation which at first filled the two reservoirs is now all contained in C.
The preceding experiments tend to convince us that the emanation
is analogous to ordinary gases, but up to the present time the hypoth-
esis of the existence of such a gas rests wholly on the manifestations
“Rutherford, Phil. Mag., 1900, 1901, 1902. Numerous articles—Dorn, Abh.
Naturfrshgesel. Halle, June, 1900; P. Curie, C. R. Noy. 17, 1902, Jan. 26, 1903.
Curie and Debierne, C. R., Dec. 2, 1901.
¢Curie and Danne, C. R., 1903.
@Rutherford and Soddy, Phil. Mag., May, 1903. :
RADIUM. 197
of radio-activity. It may be remarked that, contrary to the behavior
of ordinary gases, the emanation spontaneously disappears when con-
tained for a sufficient time in a sealed tube.
The quantity of emanation diminishes by a half in four days, and this
time constant is characteristic of the emanation of radium.
IX.
Having briefly enumerated the principal properties of radium, it is
proper to recall in a few words the origin of its discovery, in which
Mme. Curie has had a very great share.”
Experiments with the substances separated from uranium and tho-
rium had showed that the radio-activity is an atomic property which
always accompanies the atoms of these simple substances. The radio-
activity of a complex substance is generally greater the larger the pro-
portion of the radio-active metal contained in the compound. Certain
ores of uranium, as pitchblende, chalcolite, and camotite, have, how-
ever, a radio-activity superior to that of metallic uranium. We there-
fore questioned whether these minerals might not contain in minute
proportion some substances still unrecognized and far more radio-active
than uranium, and we searched by chemical methods for the hypo-
thetical substances, always guided by the radio-activity of the sub-
stance treated.
Our anticipations were verified by the results. Pitchblende con-
tains new radio-active substances, but in an excessively minute pro-
portion. A ton of pitchblende, for example, contains a quantity of
radium on the order of one-tenth of a gram. In these conditions the
preparation of radium salts is very tedious and costly. A ton of ore
furnishes some kilograms of radiferous barium bromide, from which
the radium is extracted by a series of fractionations.
During the separation of radium, Demar¢ay, whose recent death is
much deplored, was so good as to examine spectroscopically the prod-
ucts which we prepared. This cooperation was most valuable to us,
for at the conclusion of our research the spectrum analysis confirmed
our anticipations and furnished the proof that the radio-active barium
which we had separated from pitchblende contained a new element.
Demarc¢ay made the first investigation of the spectrum of radium.’
tadium has a very sensitive spectrum reaction—indeed, quite as
sensitive as that of barium. The presence of radium may be detected
spectroscopically in radiferous barium containing only one ten-
thousandth of radium; but the radio-activity of radium gives a reac-
tion 10,000 times as sensitive still. An electrometer ordinarily well
insulated enables the observer to detect readily the presence of radium
« Mme. Curie, Thése 4 la Faculté des Sciences, Paris, 1903.
bDemarcay, C. R., December, 1898, and July, 1900.
198 ; RADIUM.
when contained in a mixture of inactive substance in the proportion
of 1 to 100,000,000.
Radium is a higher homologue of barium in the series of alkaline
earth metals. Its atomic weight has been determined by Madame
Curie to be 226.
While thus a near neighbor to barium, it is not found, even as a
trace, in the ordinary mineral sources of barium, and only accompanies
it in the uranium ores, which fact is of great theoretical importance.
ki
Radium therefore gives us an example of a body which, while
remaining in the same state, evolves continuously a considerable
amount of energy. This fact is apparently in contradiction to the
fundamental principles of energetics, and various hypotheses have
been put forward to avoid this contradiction.
Among these hypotheses we may consider two which were made at
the beginning of tae studies of radio-activity.”
In the first hypothesis it is assumed that radium is an element in
process of evolution. It must then be admitted that the evolution is
extremely slow, so that no appreciable change of state is discernable
in the course of several years, for the energy which is disengaged
in the course of a year corresponds with an insignificant transforma-
tion of matter. It would appear natural to suppose that the quantity
of energy put in play in the transformation of atoms Is considerable.
The second hypothesis assumes the existence in space of radiations
still unknown and inaccessible to our senses. Radium might be
assumed to be capable of absorbing the energy of these hypothetical
rays and transforming it into radio-active energy.
The two hypotheses which we have mentioned seem not incompatible.
Since the delivery of this lecture there was made (June 19, 1903) a
discovery of great importance by Messrs. Ramsay and Soddy. They
found that the emanation of radium as it disappears gives place to the
production of helium gas, whose presence can be recognized by spec-
trum analysis. It seems, then, that we are here brought face to face
for the first time with the formation of an element. It is possible
that radium is an unstable chemical element, and that helium is pro-
duced as one of the products of its disaggregation.
«Mme. Curie, Revue général des Sciences, Jan. 30, 1899,
RADIUM.+4
By J. J. THomson.
The discovery by Monsieur and Madame Curie that a sample of
radium gives out sufficient energy to melt half its weight of ice per
hour has attracted attention to the question of the source from which
the radium derives the energy necessary to maintain the radiation;
this problem has been before us ever since the original discovery by
Becquerel of the radiation from uranium. It has been suggested that
the radium derives its energy from the air surrounding it; that the atoms
of radium possess the faculty of abstracting the kinetic energy from the
more rapidly moving air molecules while they are able to retain their
own energy when in collision with the slowly moving molecules of air.
I can not see, however, that even the possession of this property would
explain the behavior of radium; for imagine a portion of radium
placed in a cavity ina block of ice. The ice around the radium gets
melted. Where does the energy forthiscome from? By the hypothesis
there isno change in the energy of the air- radium system in the cavity,
for the energy gained by the radium is lost by the air, while heat can
not flow into the cavity from outside, for the melted ice around the
‘avity is hotter than the ice surrounding it.
Another suggestion which has been made is that the air is traversed
by a very penetrating kind of Becquerel radiation, and that it is the
absorption of this radiation that gives the energy to the radium. We
have direct evidence of the existence of such radiation, for MeClennan
and Burton have recently shown that the ionization of a gas inside a
closed vessel is diminished by immersing the vessel in a large tank full
of water, suggesting that part, at any rate, of the ionization of the gas
is due to a radiation which could penetrate the walls of the vessel, but
which was stopped to an appreciable extent by the water. To explain
the heating effect observed with radium, the absorption of this radia-
tion by radium must be on an altogether different scale from its
absorption by other metals. As no direct experiments have been made
on radium, it is possible that this may be the case; it is not, however,
what we should expect from the experiments which have been made
on the absorption of this radiation by other metals, for these experi-
ments have shown that the absorption depends solely upon the density
«Reprinted from Nature, London, No. 1748, vol. 67, Apr. 30, 1903, pp. 601-602.
sm 1903——14 199
200 RADIUM.
of the absorbing substance and not upon its chemical nature or phys-
ical state. If this law hold for radium, the absorption by it would be
on the same scale as the absorption by lead or gold and altogether too
small to explain the observed effects. We are thus led to seek for
some other explanation. I think that the absence of change in the
radium has been assumed without sufficient justification; all that the
experiments justify us in concluding is that the rate of change is not
sufliciently rapid to be appreciable in a few months. There is, on the
other hand, very strong evidence that the substances actually engaged
in emitting these radiations can only keep up the process for a short
time; then they die out, and the subsequent radiation is due to a dif-
ferent set of radiators.
Take, for example, Becquerel’s experiment when he precipitated
barium from a radio-active solution containing uranium, and found
that the radio-activity was transferred to the precipitate, the solution
not being radio-active; after a time, however, the radio-active precipi-
tate lost its radio-activity, while the solution of uranium regained its
original vigor. The same thing is very strikingly shown by the
remarkable and suggestive experiments made by Rutherford and
Soddy on thorium. They separated ordinary radio-active thoria into
two parts, transferring practically all the radio-activity to a body
called by them ‘‘thorium X,” the mass of which was infinitesimal in
comparison with that of the original thoria. The thorium X thus
separated lost in a few days its radio-activity, while the original thoria
in the same time again became radio-active. This seems as clear a
proof as we could wish for that the radio-activity of a given set of
molecules is not permanent. The same want of permanence is shown
by the radio-active emanations from thorium and radium, and by the
induced radio-activity exhibited by bodies which have been negatively
electrified and exposed to these emanations or to the open air; in all
these cases the radio-activity ceases after a few days. I have recently
found that the water from deep wells in Cambridge contains a radio-
active gas, and that this gas after being liberated from the water
gradually loses its radio-activity. The radio-activity of polonium, too,
is known not to be permanent.
The view that seems to me to be suggested by these results is that
the atom of radium is not stable under all conditions, and that among
the large number of atoms contained in any specimen of radium there
are a few which are in the condition in which stability ceases and
which pass into some other configuration, giving out as they do so
large a quantity of energy. I may, perhaps, make my meaning clearer
by considering a hypothetical case. Suppose tbat the atoms of a gas
X become unstable when they possess an amount of kinetic energy 100
times, say, the average kinetic energy of the atoms at the temperature
of the room, There would, according to the Maxwell-Boltzmann law
RADIUM. 901
of distribution, always be a few atoms in the gas possessing this
amount of kinetic energy; these would by hypothesis break up. If in
doing so they gave out a large amount of energy in the form of
Becquerel radiation, the gas would be radio-active and would continue
to be so until all its atoms had passed through the phase in which they
possessed enough energy to make them unstable. If this energy were
100 times the average energy it would probably take hundreds of
thousands of years before the radio-activity of the gas was sensibly
diminished. Now in the case of radium, just as in the gas, the atoms
are not all in identical physical circumstances, and if there is any law
of distribution like the Maxwell-Boltzmann law, there will on the
above hypothesis, be a very slow transformation of the atoms accom-
panied by a liberation of energy. In the hypothetical case we have
taken the possession of a certain amount of kinetic energy as the
criterion for instability. The argument will apply if any other test is
taken.
It may be objected to this explanation that if the rate at which the
atoms are being transformed is very slow, the energy liberated by the
transformation of a given number of atoms must be very much greater
than that set free when the same number of atoms are concerned in
any known chemical combination. It must be remembered, however,
that the changes contemplated on this hypothesis are of a different
kind from those occurring in ordinary chemical combination. The
changes we are considering are changes in the configuration of the
atom, and it is possible that changes of this kind may be accompanied
by the liberation of very large quantities of energy. Thus, taking
the atomic weight of radium as 225, if the mass of the atom of radium
were due to the presence in it of a large number of corpuscles, each
carrying the charge of 3.4 by 107? electrostatic units of negative
electricity, and if this charge of negative electricity were associated
with an equal charge of positive, so as to make the atom electrically
neutral, then if these positive and negative charges were separated by
a distance of LO~* em., the intrinsic energy possessed by the atom
would be so great that a diminution of it by 1 per cent would be able
to maintain the radiation from radium as measured by Curie for
30,000 years.
Another point to be noted is that the radiation from a concentrated
mass of radium may possibly be very much greater than that from
the same mass when disseminated through a large volume of pitch-
blende; for it is possible that the radiation from one atom may tend to
put the surrounding atoms in the unstable state. If this were so, more
atoms would ina given time pass from the one state to the other if
they were placed so as to receive the radiation from their neighbors
than if they were disseminated through a matrix which shielded each
radium atom from the radiation given out by its neighbors.
EXPERIMENTS IN RADIO-ACTIVITY AND THE PRODUC-
TION OF HELIUM FROM RADIUM.*
By Sir Wrutram Ramsay and Mr. Freperick Soppy.
(1) EXPERIMENTS ON THE RADIO-ACTIVITY OF THE INERT GASES OF THE
ATMOSPHERE.
Of recent years many investigations have been made by Elster and
Geitel, Wilson, Strutt, Rutherford, Cooke, Allen, and others on the
spontaneous ionization of the gases of the atmosphere and on the
excited radio-activity obtainable from it. It became of interest to
ascertain whether the inert monatomic gases of the atmosphere bear
any share in these phenomena. For this purpose a small electroscope
contained in a glass tube of about 20 cubic centimeters capacity, cov-
ered in the interior with tin foil, was employed. After charging, the
apparatus if exhausted retained its charge for thirty-six hours without
diminution. Admission of air caused a slow discharge. In similar
experiments with helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon, the last
mixed with oxygen, the rate of discharge was proportional to the
density and pressure of the gas. This shows that the gases have no
special radio-activity of their own, and accords with the explanation
already advanced by these investigators, that the discharging power
of the air is caused by extraneous radio-activity.
Experiments were also made with the dregs left after liquefied air
had nearly entirely evaporated, and again with the same result; no
increase in discharging power is produced by concentration of a possi-
ble radio-active constituent of the atmosphere.
(2) EXPERIMENTS. ON THE NATURE OF THE RADIO-ACTIVE EMANATION FROM
RADIUM.
The word emanation, originally used by Boyle (‘‘ substantial emana-
tions from the celestial bodies”), was resuscitated by Rutherford to
designate definite substances of a gaseous nature continuously pro-
duced from other substances. The term was also used by Russell
(‘emanation from hydrogen peroxide”) in much the same sense. If
@ By Sir William Ramsay, K. C. B., F. R. S., and Mr. Frederick Soddy. Received
at the Royal Society July 28. Reprinted from Nature, London, August 13, 1903, No.
1763, vol. 68, pp. 354, 355.
203
204 EXPERIMENTS IN RADIO-ACTIVITY.
the adjective ‘‘radio-active” be added, the phenomenon of Rutherford
is distinguished from the phenomena observed by Russell. In this
section we are dealing with the emanation, or radio-active gas obtained
from radium. Rutherford and Soddy investigated the chemical nature
of the thorium emanation (Phil. Mag., 1902, p. 580) and of the radium
emanation (ibid., 1903, p. 457), and came to the conclusion that these
emanations are inert gases which withstand the action of reagents in a
manner hitherto unobserved except with the members of the argon
family. This conclusion was arrived at because the emanations from
thorium and radium could be passed without alteration over platinum
and palladium black, chromate of lead, zine dust, and magnesium
powder, all at a red heat.
We have since found that the radium emanation withstands pro-
longed sparking with oxygen over alkali, and also, during several
hours, the action of a heated mixture of magnesium powder and lime.
The discharging power was maintained unaltered after this treatment,
and inasmuch as a considerable amount of radium was employed it
was possible to use the self-luminosity of the gas as an optical demon-
stration of its persistence.
In an experiment in which the emanation mixed with oxygen had
been sparked for several hours over alkali, a minute fraction of the
total mixture was found to discharge an electroscope almost instantly.
From the main quantity of the gas the oxygen was withdrawn by
ignited phosphorus, and no visible residue was left. When, however,
another gas was introduced, so as to come into contact with the top of
the tube, and then withdrawn, the emanation was found to be present
in it in unaltered amount. It appears, therefore, that phosphorus
burning in oxygen and sparking with oxygen has no effect upon the
gas so far as can be detected by its radio-active properties.
The experiments with magnesium lime were more strictly quanti-
tative. The method of testing the gas before and after treatment with
the reagent was to take one two-thousandth part of the whole mixed
with air, and after introducing it into the reservoir of an electroscope
to measure the rate of discharge. The magnesium-lime tube glowed
brightly when the mixture of emanation and air was admitted, and it
was maintained at a red heat for three hours. The gas was then
washed out with a little hydrogen, diluted with air, and tested as before.
It was found that the discharging power of the gas had been quite
unaltered by this treatment.
The emanation can be dealt with asa gas; it can be extracted by aid
of a Tépler pump; it can be condensed in a U-tube surrounded by
liquid air, and when condensed it can be ‘* washed” with another gas
which can be pumped off completely, and which then possesses no
luminosity and practically no discharging power. The passage of the
emanation from place to place through glass tubes can be followed by
>
EXPERIMENTS IN RADIO-ACTIVITY. 205
the eye ina darkened room. On opening a stopcock between a tube
containing the emanation and the pump, the slow flow through the
capillary tube can be noticed; the rapid passage along the wider tubes;
the delay caused by the plug of phosphorus pentoxide, and the sudden
diffusion into the reservoir of the pump. When compressed, the
luminosity increased, and when the small bubble was expelled through
the capillary it was exceedingly luminous. The peculiarities of the
excited activity left behind on the glass by the emanation could also
be well observed. When the emanation has been left a short time in
contact with the glass, the excited activity lasts only for a short time;
but after the emanation has been stored a long time the excited activity
decays more slowly.
The emanation causes chemical change in a similar manner to the
salts of radium themselves. The emanation pumped off from 50 milli-
grams of radium bromide after dissolving in water, when stored with
oxygen ina small glass tube over mercury, turns the glass distinctly
violet in a single night; if moist the mercury becomes covered with a
film of the red oxide, but if dry it appears to remain unattacked. A
mixture of the emanation with oxygen produces carbon dioxide when
passed through a lubricated stopcock.
(8) OCCURRENCE OF HELIUM IN THE GASES EVOLVED FROM RADIUM BROMIDE.
The gas evolved from 20 milligrams of pure radium bromide (which
we are informed had been prepared three months) by its solution in
water and which consisted mainly of hydrogen and oxygen (ef. Giesel,
Ber., 1903, 347) was tested for helium, the hydrogen and oxygen
being removed by contact with a red-hot spiral of copper wire, par-
tially oxidized, and the resulting water vapor by a tube of phosphorus
pentoxide. The gas issued into a small vacuum tube which showed
the spectrum of carbon dioxide. The vacuum tube was in train witha
small U-tube, and the latter was then cooled with liquid air. This
much reduced the brilliancy of the CO, spectrum, and the D, line of
helium appeared. The coincidence was confirmed by throwing the
spectrum of helium into the spectroscope through the comparison
prism, and shown to be at least within 0.5 of an Angstr6ém unit.
The experiment was carefully repeated in apparatus constructed of
previously unused glass with 30 milligrams of radium bromide, prob-
ably four or five months olc kindly lent us by Professor Rutherford.
The gases evolved were passe through a cooled U-tube on their way
to the vacuum tube, which comp-ctely prevented the passage of carbon
dioxide and the emanation. The spectrum of helium was obtained,
and practically all the lines were seen, including those at 6677, 5876,
5016, 4932, 4713, and 4472. There were also present three lines of
approximate wave lengths, 6180, 5695, 5455, that have not yet been
identified.
206 EXPERIMENTS IN RADIO-ACTIVITY.
On two subsequent occasions the gases evolved from both solutions
of radium bromide were mixed, after four days’ accumulation, which
amounted to about 2.5 cubie centimeters in each case, and were exam-
ined ina similar way. The D, line of helium could not be detected.
It may be well to state the composition found for the gases continu-
ously generated by a solution of radium, for it seemed likely that the
large excess of hydrogen over the composition required to form water,
shown in the analysis given by Bodliinder (Ber., loc. cit.), might be
due to the greater solubility of the oxygen. In our analyses the gases
were extracted with the pump, and the first gave 28.6, the second 29.2,
per cent of oxygen. The slight excess of hydrogen is doubtless due
to the action of the oxygen on the grease of the stopcocks, which has
been already mentioned. The rate of production of these gases is
about 0.5 cubic centimeter per day for 50 milligrams of radium bro-
mide, which is more than twice as great as that found by Bodliinder.
(4) PRODUCTION OF HELIUM BY THE RADIUM EMANATION.
The maximum amount of the emanation obtained from 50 milligrams
of radium bromide was conveyed by means of oxygen into a U-tube
cooled in liquid air, and the latter was then extracted by the pump.
It was then washed out. with a little fresh oxygen, which was again
pumped off. The vacuum tube sealed onto the U-tube, after remov-
ing the liquid air, showed no trace of helium. The spectrum was
apparently a new one, probably that of the emanation, but this has
not yet been completely examined, and we hope to publish further
details shortly. After standing from July 17 to 21; the helium spec-
trum appeared, and the characteristic lines were observed identical in
position with those of a helium tube thrown into the field of vision at
the same time. On July 22 the yellow, the green, the two blues, and
the violet were seen, and in addition the three new lines also present
in the helium obtained from radium. A confirmatory experiment
gave identical results.
We wish to express our indebtedness to the research fund of the
chemical society for a part of the radium used in this investigation.
THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT.
By C. G. Aspor.
[The so-called ‘*N rays,” recently described by M. Blondlot and
others, have too respectable an introduction to the scientific public in
the Comptes Rendus of the Institute of France (from which this paper
has been*chiefly abstracted) and have attracted too wide attention to
justify an omission of all notice of them in this place. It never-
theless seems proper to state here that the experiments on which they
rest are not universally deemed conclusive, and that final judgment
upon them may be suspended until the appearance of still further
eyidence.—Note by 8. P. Langley. |
DISCOVERY.
In the early part of the year 1903 M. Blondlot, professor of physics
at the University of Naney, was carrying on some studies of the X
rays to discover if these could be polarized. He found that a con-
venient method of recognizing the presence and possible polarization
of these rays consisted in the employment of a small electric spark-
ing device. ‘Two sharpened wires, communicating inductively with
the terminals of a Ruhmkorff coil, were so nearly approached that
feeble sparks continually passed between them, and upon bringing
this sparking device near a source of X rays the luminosity of the
sparks was found to increase. M. Blondlot at first thought he
detected by his experiments a considerable degree of polarization in
the X rays, but a little later he decided that it was not the X rays
themselves which gave the appearance of polarization, but a new kind
of rays heretofore unrecognized. In his first experiments with these
rays their source was a Crookes tube provided with a thin covering of
aluminum to cut off the light. The rays which traversed the aluminum
then passed through a rectangular opening in a sheet of lead and fell
upon the little sparking device already mentioned. It was found that
only when the line of sparks flew in a certain direction, as compared
with the slit in the leaden sheet, could the maximum brightness be
observed, and this direction for maximum brightness was altered when
a substance which rotates the plane of polarization of light was intro-
duced.
207
208 THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT.
The experiments on polarization suggested to M. Blondiot the pos-
sibility that the new rays might also be refracted. He tested this by
interposing a quartz prism, and found that in fact the rays were now
diverted from a straight line, so that he was obliged to carry the
sparking device to one side in order to reach a point of increased
luminosity. By means of a quartz lens the fact of the refraction of
the rays was further verified, and following this it was found that the
rays could be reflected regularly and diffusely, just as is the case with
ordinary light. As polarization, refraction, and reflection are not
qualities of X-rays, but are essentially qualities of ordinary light, M.
Blondlot drew the conclusion that he was now dealing with radiation
propagated by waves in the ether in essentially the same manner as
ordinary light. This new type of rays he found to be transmitted by.
wood, paper, aluminum, and many other metals, but to produce no
direct effect upon the eye, the photographic plate, or a phosphorescent
screen, and he was at first unable to recognize them excepting by
means of the little sparking device.
The experiments with refraction in prisms and lenses had indicated
that the index of refraction of these rays in quartz was very high and
indeed exceeding 2. Professor Rubens had not long before discoy-
ered rays of great wave length for which the index of refraction in
quartz was about 2.18. This similarity of refractive index led M.
Blondlot at first to think that perhaps he was now dealing with a type
of radiation belonging to the extreme infra-red, and as Rubens had
employed a Welsbach lamp as a source of the radiations he had meas-
ured, M. Blondlot sought to determine if these tiew rays were also
emitted by this source. Shielding the lamp waich he employed by an
iron covering having a small aluminum window, he was able to detect
the presence of the rays in question in its radiation by the aid of the
small sparking device. When the quartz lens was used to form an
image of the source, the rays appeared not to be homogeneous, but to
contain at least four different varieties whose indices of refraction
were, respectively, 2.94, 2.62, 2.44, and 2.29. With the exception of
lead, rock salt, platinum, and water, the rays were found to be trans-
missible by moderate thicknesses of many different substances, includ-
ing tin foil, copper, aluminum, steel, silver, gold, paraffin, black
rubber, and othevs.
SOURCES OF THE RAYS AND METHODS EMPLOYED IN THEIR RECOGNITION.
M. Blondlot now gave a name to these rays, calling them N rays,
after the city of Nancy, in which he lives. He claims to detect their
presence in the emission of luminous gas flames, as well as in the
sources already mentioned, but he failed to find them in the emission
of a Bunsen burner. The “Nernst lamp is spoken of as a specially
intense source of them.
THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT. 209
Other methods of recognizing the rays were now introduced, for
M. Blondlot was led to inquire whether the sparking device acted as a
sign of their presence by virtue of its electrical properties or by vir-
tue merely of its emission of light. Accordingly he used a small blue
flame instead of the device, and found with it also an increased lumi-
nosity when placing it in the focus of the rays. A little later he
found that phosphorescent substances, though not excited directly by
the rays, yet if first made feebly luminous by ordinary light were
raised to a higher luminosity when exposed to the N rays. In later
experiments it appeared that a surface feebly illuminated by reflected
light became brighter under the influence of N rays. Still more
remarkable, he found that if the N rays fell only on the eye of the
observer, and not on the object observed, the latter was nevertheless
made to appear more luminous, though the N rays themselves produce
no sensation of light. Photography failed as a direct method of
observing the rays, but he used it indirectly to note the increased
luminosity of the spark, the blue flame, or the phosphorescent surface
which was employed to recognize the presence of the rays. .The
accompanying figure, taken from the Comptes Rendus of February
22, 1904, shows an example of this indirect photographic method.
Experiments with the most sensitive apparatus failed to record any
sensible heating produced by the N rays.
M. Blondlot makes the following general remark concerning the ~
observation of the N rays:
The ability to recognize slight variations of luminous intensity varies very much
between different persons. Some see at the first glance, without any difficulty, the
augmentation which the N rays produce in the brightness of a small luminous source,
while to others these changes are very near the limit which they can distinguish,
and it is only after some experience that they are able to be sure of having observed
the phenomenon. The feebleness of these effects and the delicacy of the observation
ought not, however, to arrest our study of these heretofore unknown radiations. I
have found recently that the Welsbach burner may be advantageously replaced as a
source by the Nernst lamp with no glass covering, for this latter gives forth the
N rays with greater intensity, and thus with a 200-watt lamp, for cxample, the phe-
nomena are so marked that they may be easily observed.
N RAYS FROM THE SUN.
The following simple experiment is given by the discoverer to show
the existence of N rays in the solar beam:
A completely darkened chamber is furnished with a window exposed directly to
the sun’s rays, and this window is closed by an oak shutter at least half an inch
thick, so that no ordinary light can possibly penetrate into the room. Behind this
shutter, at about a meter distance, for example, is placed a small glass tube contain-
ing a phosphorescent substance
sulphide of calcium, for example
which has pre-
viously been exposed to light and become feebly luminescent. If, now, in the beam
of the sun, which we suppose to pass through the wooden shutter and fall upon the
phosphorescent tube, we interpose a screen of lead, or even simply the hand of the
PO) THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT.
observer, though at considerable distance from the tube, the brightness of the phos-
phorescence is seen to diminish, and upon removing the obstacle the brightness
again increases. The only precaution which it is necessary to take is to employ a tube
only slightly phosphorescent, but it is advantageous to place behind it a black paper,
so that the interposition of the screen produces no change whatever in the back-
ground against which one sees the tube. The variations of brightness are most
easy to observe near the boundaries of the luminous spot formed upon the black
background by the phosphorescent body, and when the N rays are intercepted these
contours lose their sharpness and regain it when the screen is removed. Sometimes
the variations of brightness are not instantly recognized. Interposition in the path
of the beam of several sheets of alurnainum, of cardboard, and even of a board of
oak more than an inch thick, does not prevent the effect, so that all possibility of
the action of any ordinary radiation is of course excluded. A thin sheet of water,
however, entirely arrests the rays, and thin clouds passing before the sun consider-
ably diminish their action.
WAVE LENGTH OF THE: RAYS IN QUESTION.
M. Blondlot, as we have seen, was at first inclined to think that his
‘ays belonged in the extreme infra-red spectrum, but more recently
he has described measures of their wave length by means of the diffrac-
tion grating which lead him to the opposite conclusion. He employed
a spectroscope with aluminum prism to separate the several different
species of N rays emitted by a Nernst lamp, and then estimated their
wave length by means of several different diffraction gratings having,
respectively, 50, L00, and 200 lines to the millimeter. The following
table contains the results of his measures:
| | Wave lengths. -
| Indices a = a as c SS
lMatare=. 4 Grating employed. | Probable
fraction | values
in alum- 2eG
| inum. Ruliags Rulings Rulings | seduces
0.02mm, | 0.01 mm, | 0.5mm. preceding.
i fe | be ee
1.04 |} 0.00813 | 0.00795 | 0. 00839 0. 00815
asa). 9 - 00980 | . 01020 - 01050 . 00990
1 40 eee 01107 Oe | ene epeneentene . 01170
1.68 | OL460. i see eeesee [sa vseets oerstcicioe . 01460
1.85, | . 01760 . 01710 | . 01840 . 01760
| |
Thus it appears that the N rays belong far beyond the previously
studied ultraviolet, and have a wave length only one-tenth that of the
rays with which Doctor Schumann has been working with his vacuum
spectograph. It is somewhat extraordinary that the N rays should so
readily traverse thicknesses of the air and other substances, which
would entirely arrest the ultraviolet rays examined by Doctor Schu-
mann, but, as is the case in other regions of the spectrum, it may be
that the air has here special bands of great absorption, in one of which
Doctor Schumann’s rays lie, and that beyond this region there are
other parts of the spectrum where the air is again transparent. Another
curious thing about the measures just given is that the aluminum
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Abbot. PeAneale
Without N-rays. With N-rays, produced by two large
lime lights.
Without N-rays. With N-rays, produced by a Nernst
lamp.
PHOTOGRAPHS OF INCREASED LUMINOSITY PRODUCED BY N-RAYS.
a
Li
THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT. 211
prism appears to be anomalously refracting; in other words, its indices
of refraction increase rather than decrease with increasing wave length
of the rays. M. Blondlot suggests that the augmentation of brillianey
observed in a small luminous source under the action of the N rays
may be attributed to a transformation of these radiations into lumi-
nous ones in conformity to the law of Stokes.
STORING UP OF THE N RAYS.
M. Blondlot finds that many substances are able to store up the
N rays and emit them for some time after having been subjected to
the influence of a source. This property, it will be seen, is similar to
the phenomenon of phosphorescence which is observed with ordinary
light. Among the substances which appear to store up the N rays
are quartz, Iceland spar, fluorspar, glass, and many others. Alumi-
num, wood, paper, and paraffin, on the other hand, do not appear to
possess this property of storing up N rays to any very appreciable
extent. The phenomenon is so general that a large portion of the
bodies upon which the sun’s rays fall are said by M. Blondlot to
become saturated with the rays and to’ give them out undiminished in
some cases as long as four days after they have been removed from
the influence of the sun.
N RAYS PRODUCED BY MECHANICAL PROCESSES.
It appeared that compression and other distortions of metals, wood,
glass, rubber, etc., caused these substances to emit N rays while under
such mechanical constraint. Crystalline substances, tempered steel,
and some other bodies possessing special internal structure, are stated
to be spontaneous and permanent sources of N rays. As an illustra-
tion of the permanence with which this property remains associated
with such substances, M. Blondlot mentions that a sword found in an
ancient sepulcher dating from the Merovingian epoch, was found to
give out the N rays strongly. It thus appears that the emission of the
N rays by tempered blades of steel may continue for centuries with-
out becoming enfeebled, and as regards continuous emission, therefore,
the N rays may be compared with the radiation of uranium, radium,
polonium, and other sources of Becquerel rays, although, of course, in
other respects the two kinds of radiations are entirely different.
EMISSION OF N RAYS BY THE HUMAN BODY.
M. Charpentier, while repeating in his laboratory many of the
experiments of M. Blondlot on the production and observation of
N rays, noted that the luminosity of phosphorescent substances used
to detect the presence of the rays appeared to increase when the
observer approached these phosphorescent substances. Continuing
VAM ay? THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT.
the studies which this- observation led him to pursue, he found that
the increase of brightness was most considerable in the vicinity of a
muscle, and was greatest when the muscle was strongly contracted.
Nerves and nervous centers were afterwards found to produce similar
effects, and he was even able to follow in this manner the course of
certain nerves beneath the skin. These experiments suggested to
him that the human body, at least some portions of it, might be emit-
ting N rays, and he found that the emissions observed passed readily
through aluminum, paper, and other substances classed as transparent
to the N rays, and that they were arrested by lead and moistened
paper which had been used by M. Blondlot as screens. The rays were
further found to be reflected and refracted, and could be brought
to a focus by the aid of convex lenses, and appeared to have about
the same indices of refraction as the N rays themselves. It seemed
possible, however, that the human body acted merely as a reservoir,
storing up the rays like some other substances in which such action
had been observed by M. Blondlot, but M. Charpentier states that
_after continuing nine hours in complete darkness the rays were still
emitted by the body, though perhaps a greater sensitiveness of the
eye under these conditions may have made it more easy to recognize
them. However, M. Charpentier is of the opinion that the human
body certainly emits N rays, and especially in those parts of 1t which
are in active use.
From later experiments it was concluded that the lower animals, such
as the monkey and others, are active sources of the N rays, and that
here, as in man, the principal seat of the emission is in the muscles and
nerves. It was not alone the warm-blooded animals which appeared
to give rise to emission, but also the cold-blooded—frogs and others.
As in the case of metals and other substances experimented upon by
M. Blondlot, mechanical constraint, such as the compression of nerves
and muscles, greatly augmented the luminous effects. In order to
localize the observations in a convenient manner, M. Charpentier uses
a narrow lead tube from 2 to 4 inches in length, of which one end is
placed in contact with the body to be examined and the other contains
the phosphorescent substance used as the indicator. He states that
he can thus trace out the regions of the brain which are active in
special functions, such as the ‘* center of Broca,” reputed to be the seat
of articulate language.
It appears from Charpentier’s later experiments that the physiolog-
ical emissions are not- exclusively composed of N rays, but include
other kinds of radiation differing in some degree in their properties
from those which have been found associated with the N rays.
THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT. 213
TRANSMISSION OF THE N RAYS ALONG WIRES.
In the course of M. Charpentier’s experiments he found that the
‘ays emitted by the human body are capable of being transmitted not
only in the air, but along wires of metal, such as copper or aluminum.
This extraordinary discovery has been explained by M. Bichat, who
observes that this method of transmission may be compared to the
repeated reflections of ordinary light within a long glass tube. His
experiments indicated first of all that the wire itself was certainly the
conductor of the rays, and not the medium in which it was placed,
for upon immersing the wire in water the conductivity remained undi-
minished. It was necessary, moreover, that the wire should be of good
transinitting material, for leaden wires are said to transmit nothing.
The wire must not be bent at a sharp angle, nor should it be rough at
any point, for in these cases the internal reflections along its boundary
can not be propagated.
N, RAYS.
Some very recent experiments of M. Blondlot led him to think that,
whereas the N rays augument the luminosity of certain sources of
light, there is another kind of rays associated with them which
diminishes instead of augments the luminosity, and he has investigated
these rays among those emitted by a Nernst lamp. These so-called
N, rays he finds to be reflected and refracted similarly to the N rays,
but to He alternately with them in wave length, so that, for example,
he states that a group of N, rays exists of wave length .003y, a group
of N rays at 0.00484, another group of N, rays at 0.00564, N rays at
0.0067u,and N, rays at 0.0074. All of these new groups, both N
and N,, are of smaller wave length than those included in the table
already given.
Certain sources appear to emit exclusively, or at least principally,
the N, rays, such as copper, silver, and platinum. The N,rays may
be stored up, he states, like the N rays.
CONCLUSION.
To sum up these newly reported discoveries and experiments, it
appears that several other men of scientific standing and attainments
have repeated and verified M. Blondlot’s discoveries of the N and N,
‘ays and those of M. Charpentier on the rays emitted by living bodies.
The observations appear, however, to be difficult, and many able
observers who have endeavored to repeat the experiments have not
been able to verify even the existence of such radiations, to say noth-
ing of making measurements of their wave length by the diffraction
erating. It has been stated in Griticism that augmentation of bright-
ness in phosphorescent substances may be the result of several causes,
914 THE N RAYS OF M. BLONDLOT.
perhaps not sufliciently excluded from M. Blondlot’s experiments. As
we have seen, however, M. Blondlot does not depend wholly on phos-
phorescent screens to observe his rays, and he remarks the difference
in sensitiveness of eyes to minute changes of the intensity of light, so
that this negative evidence is not a disproof of the existence of the
rays in question. On the other hand, the positive photographic evi-
dence afforded in the illustrations given by M. Blondlot, which does
notat all depend on phosphorescence, but only on the brightness of the
little sparking device, seems to outweigh indications depending merely
on sight alone.
In connection with M. Charpentier’s physiological rays, it may be
recalled by the reader that a half century ago there was great interest
aroused, both in scientific and popular circles, by the accounts of the
so-called ** odie force” of Reichenbach. This was said to be mani-
fested as a luminous aureole which appeared to some observers to sur-
round certain persons. For some time there was a controversy
between those who claimed they could see it and those who certainly
could not see it, but at length the discussion disappeared from the
journals, and the general impression has been that no such thing really
existed.
Some persons have thought that these new discoveries of M. Char-
pentier and others may in a certain sense revive the old idea of such
an aureole thrown out by living people, but the methods of observing
the new rays are evidently wholly different. The physiological rays
now being discussed can not be seen by the naked eye, nor do they
affect the photographic plate or any other of the ordinary means of
observing light, and they are only to be distinguished indirectly by
the augmentation of brightness which they produce in feebly luminous
objects. Accordingly, however interesting it may be if we know
that the living body actually is surrounded by special radiations which
it emits in addition to those rays of great wave length which we
have long known are emitted by every body, living or dead, above the
temperature of absolute zero, still so long as our eyes can not see
them they can hardly be supposed to belong in the category of the
aureole of Reichenbach. It is to be hoped that they will not, like this
asserted aureole, fall into scientific oblivion.
MODERN -VIEWS ON MATTER.¢
By Sir Otrver Loner, Hon. D. Sc., F. R. 8.
The nature of matter has been regarded by philosophers from many
points of view, but it is not from any philosophic standpoint that
I presume in this university to ask you to consider the subject
under my guidance. It is because new views as to the structure and
properties of what used to be called the ultimate atom are now
being born, and because these views, whether they succeed in ulti-
mately establishing themselves in every detail or not, are of surpass-
ing interest, that I have chosen this very recently deciphered chapter
of science as the subject-matter for the lecture—the Romanes lecture
to be given this year in remembrance of a man whom I knew as a
friend, and whose mind, if he had been alive to-day, would have been
widely open to these most modern developments of physical science.
Nor would the admittedly speculative character of some of the hypoth-
eses now being thrown out have deterred him from hearing about
them with the keenest interest.
If I may venture to say so, it is the more philosophical side of
physics which has always seemed to me most suitable for study in
this university; and although I disclaim any competence for philo-
sophie treatment in the technical sense, yet 1 doubt not that the new
views, in so far as they turn out to be true views, will have a bearing
on the theory of matter in all future writings on philosophy, besides
exercising a profound effect on the pure sciences of physics and chem-
istry, and perhaps having some influence on certain aspects of biology
also.
In admitting that Iam going to promulgate a speculative hy pothesis—
that is, ahypothesis for which there is evidence but not yet conclusive
evidence—I must not lead you to suppose that the whole of what I have
to say is of this character. On the contrary, much of it is certain;
that is to say, is accepted by a consensus of opinion to-day among
those who by reason of study are competent to judge. I will endeavor
-arefully to discriminate between what is in this sense certain and what
must still be regarded as doubtful and needing further support.
a@The Romanes Lecture, delivered in the Sheldonian Theater, Oxford, June 12,
1903. Reprinted by permission of the author. Published by the Clarendon Press,
Oxford, England, 1903.
sm 1903- 15 215
216 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
To treat the subject properly, to give all the evidence as well as the’
results, would need a volume, or a course of lectures; and in order to
be brief I must frequently be dogmatic, but I shall only intend to be
so in those places where I feel sure that the physicists present (whom
here I salute) will agree with me. When I have a dogma of this kind
to propound I shall call it a thesis. The more speculative opinions |
shall plainly denominate hypotheses.
1. My first thesis is that an electric charge possesses the most fun-
damental and characteristic property of matter, viz, mass or inertia;
so that if anyone were to speak of a milligram or an ounce or a ton of
electricity, though he would certainly be speaking inconveniently, he
might not necessarily be speaking erroneously. At the same time it
would be well to mistrust anyone who employed such a phrase, except
in speaking to experts. He would most likely be talking nonsense; but
if he talks nonsense to experts, his blood is on his own head.
In order to have any appreciable mass, however, an electric charge
must either be extremely great or must be extremely concentrated,
and unless it is to be utterly masked by the matter with which it is
associated it must be the latter; that is to say, it must exist on bodies
of far less than ultra-microscopic size. The mass or inertia of a
charge depends upon two factors—the quantity of electricity in it,
and its potential—and by concentrating a given charge onto «a sufli-
ciently small sphere the latter factor can be raised theoretically to
any value we please, and thus any required inertia can be obtained,
unless a stage is reached at which it becomes physically impossible to
concentrate it any more. -
2. The next thesis is a very simple and familiar one, and dates
virtually from the time of Faraday, though the conception has grad-
ually gained in clearness and solidity. It is that every atom of matter
can have associated with it a certain definite quantity of electricity
called the ionic charge; that some atoms can have double this quantity,
some treble, and so on, but that no atom or any piece of matter can
have a fraction of this quantity; which therefore appears to be an ulti-
mate unit, a sort of ‘‘atom,” of electricity. The ratio of the charge to
the weight of a material atom is measured with accuracy in electrol-
ysis, in accordance with what are called Faraday’s laws; and in so far
as the mass of the atom itself is otherwise approximately known the
quantity of electricity which can be associated with it is known with a
similar degree of approximate accuracy.
3. Now, mathematical data were given by J. J. Thomson in 1881
which enable us to say that if the charge of electricity usually associ-
ated with a single monad atom of matter were concentrated on to a
spherical nucleus one hundred-thousandth of an atom’s dimension
in diameter, it would'thereby possess a mass about one-thousandth of
that of the lightest atom known, viz, the hydrogen atom.
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. Duet:
Such a hypothetical concentrated unit of electricity it has become
customary to call an ‘‘electron,” a name invented by Dr. Johnstone
Stoney to designate the so-to-speak ** atom” or smallest known unit of
electric charge. Every electric charge is to be thought of as due to
the possession of a number of electrons, but a fraction of an electron
is at present considered impossible, meaning that no indication of any
further subdivision has ever loomed even indistinctly above the
horizon of practical or theoretical possibility.
The electrification of an atom of matter consists in attaching such
an electron to it or in detaching one from it. An atom of matter
possessing an electron in excess is called an ‘*ion;” and there is reason
to know that, considered as a charged body, its charge is that which
we have been historically accustomed to designate ** negative; whereas
an atom of matter with one electron in defect is that which has his-
torically been called a ‘* positive” ion.
This inversion in the natural use of the names positive and negative
is inconvenient but accidental and not really serious; it dates from the
time of Benjamin Franklin.
These ions or traveling particles of matter have been long known.
A liquid or a gas conducts because of the locomotion of its charged
particles. The particles travel in an electric field because of their
attached charges, all the positive going one way, and all the negative
the other way; and each kind of matter possesses an intrinsic or char-
acteristic ionic velocity, when urged by a given field through a given
solution. The charges may be likened to horses or other propelling
agency, and the atom to the vehicle or heavy body which is dragged
along. The speed of travel through liquids is very slow, but through
gases is considerably quicker, partly because there is less resistance,
and partly because it is easier to maintain a steep gradient of potential
in a medium where the ions are not too numerous.
The act of production of such ions is styled *‘ionization,” and the
process has been employed to explain very many facts in both physics
and chemistry.
As an example, Réntgen rays passing through air ionize it and
so render it conducting for a time; wherefore they are able readily to
discharge electrified bodies in this secondary way.
~ It may be convenient here toemphasize the dimensions of an electron
as above specified, for the arguments in favor of that size are very
strong, though not absolutely conclusive; we are sure that their mass
is of the order one thousandth of the atomic mass of hydrogen, and
we are sure that if they are purely and solely electrical their size must
be one hundred-thousandth of the linear dimensions of an atom; a size
with which their penetrating power and other behavior is quite con-
sistent. Assuming this estimate to be true, it is noteworthy how very
small these electrical particles are, compared with the atom of matter
218 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
to which they are attached. If an electron is represented by a sphere
an inch in diameter, the diameter of an atom of matter on the same
scale is a mile and a half. Or if an atom of matter is represented by
the size of this theater, an electron is represented on thé same scale
by a printer’s full stop. It is well to bear this extreme smallness in
mind in what follows.
An atom is not a large thing, but if it is composed of electrons, the
spaces between them are enormous compared with their size—as great
relatively as are the spaces between the planets in the solar system.
4. My next thesis is that these electrons or minute-charged cor-
puscles can exist sepurately, for they can be detached from their atoms
of matter at an electrode, not only in electrolytic liquids but also in
gases, and when thus released from their thousandfold more massive
atom, they fly away from the negative electrode with prodigious speed,
because they are acted on by the same electrical propelling force as
before, but now have hardly anything to move.
These isolated flying particles travel a long distance in rarefied
gas, and are known as cathode rays. They were studied by Hittorf,
Crookes, Lenard and others, both inside and outside vacuum tubes,
and they are now known to be flung off spontaneously from many
substances. When stopped suddenly by a massive obstacle, they give
rise to the X radiation discovered by Réntgen. At first these cathode
rays were thought to be atoms of matter, though their extraordinary
penetrating power rendered such a hypothesis difficult of belief, and
caused Crookes to speak of them as matter ina fourth state. They
are, however, certainly energetic bodies, being able to propel light
windmills, to heat platinum to redness, and to charge an electroscope;
they are also able to penetrate thin sheets of metal and to affect pho-
tographic plates or phosphorescent substances on the other side. They
are not so penetrating, however, as are some of the Réntgen rays.
The final definite establishment of the fact that these flying par-
ticles are not atoms of matter, but are bits chipped off the atoms, frac-
tions of an atom, as it were, the same identical kind of bits being
chipped off every kind of chemical atom, their mass always about one-
thousandth of that of a hydrogen atom, and moving under favorable
circumstances with something not much less than the speed of light, is
due to the researches of Prof. J. J. Thomson and his coadjutors in the
Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and represents a long series of
measurements devised and executed with consummate skill.
I have no time to go into detail concerning these important and
elaborate and most interesting investigations. Suffice it to say that
portions of them are due to your own Wykeham professor of physics,
Professor Townsend, working in conjunction and collaboration with
others, under the leadership of Prof. J. J. Thomson; and that this
whole series of Cavendish Laboratory researches may be said to con-
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 219
stitute the high-water mark of the world’s experimental physics during
the beginning of this century.
5. I must not dwell upon the properties and powers of electrons,
nor upon the experimental means by which these measurements were
made, for it is far too large a subject. I must exhibit a few diagrams,
and briefly summarize a few main facts.
Electrons have been shown to be shot off from any negatively
charged body, especially from negatively electrified metals, when
exposed to ultra-violet light.
When shot into a mass of air they ionize that air for a time and
render it electrolytically conducting; also, of course, they can discharge
positively electrified bodies themselves, and can thus be most readily
detected in small numbers.
Electrons in orbital motion have been shown to constitute the mech-
anism by which atoms are able to radiate light; and a great mass of
semiastronomical facts concerning these orbits and their perturbations
have been obtained by immersing the source of light in a-strong mag-
netic field and observing the minute but very definite changes of
spectra thereby produced, a branch of science with which the names
of H. A. Lorentz, of Leyden, and Zeeman, of Amsterdam, will be
inseparably associated.
In all these and other ways the electron has become a familiar
object. It constitutes the ionic charge of matter. Multiples of it,
but no fractions, are possible. Its mass, its charge, and its speed
have been frequently measured by different processes, and always with
consistent results. It is the most definite and fundamental and simple
unit which we know of in nature.
It has thus displaced the so-called atom of matter from its funda-
mental place of indivisibility. The atom of matter has been shown
capable of losing an electron, of having at least one chipped off it.
The electron has been shown to possess in kind, though not in degree,
the fundamental properties of the original atom of which it had
formed a part; and it becomes a reasonable hypothesis to surmise that
the whole of the atom may be built up of positive and negative elec-
trons interleaved together, and of nothing else; an active or charged
ion having one electron in excess or defect, but the neutral atom
having an exact number of pairs. The oppositely charged electrons
are to be thought of on this hypothesis as flying about inside the atom,
as afew thousand specks like full stops might fly about inside this
hall, forming a kind of cosmic system under their strong mutual
forces, and occupying the otherwise empty region of space which we
call the atom—occupying it in the same sense that a few scattered but
armed soldiers can occupy a territory—occupying it by forceful
activity, not by bodily bulk.
990 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
6. The hypothetical part of the statement about the size of an elec-
tron is the following. Whereas both the mass and the charge of an
electron are known, it is not yet quite certain that the mass is wholly
due to the charge. It is possible, but to me very unlikely, that the
electron, as we know it, contains a material nucleus in addition to its
charge, so in that case it need not be so concentrated, because a portion
of its mass would be otherwise accounted for.
I say ‘‘accounted for,” but it would be equally true to say ** unac-
counted for.” The mass which is explicable electrically is to a con-
siderable extent understood, but the mass which is merely material
(whatever that may mean) is not understood at all. We know more
about electricity than about matter, and the way in which electrical
inertia is accounted for electromagnetically and localized in the ether
immediately surrounding the nucleus of charge is comparatively clear
and distinct.
There may possibly be two different kinds of inertia which exactly
simulate each other, one electrical and the other material, and those
who hold this as a reasonable possibility are careful to speak of elec-
trons as ‘‘corpuscles,” meaning charged particles of matter of ex-
tremely small size, much smaller than an atom, consisting of a definite
electric charge and an unknown material nucleus, which nucleus, as
they recognize, but have not yet finally proved, may quite possibly be
Zero.
The chief defect in the electrical theory of matter at present is that
the positive electron, if it exists, has never yet been isolated from the
rest of an atom of matter. It has never been found detached from a
mass less than the hydrogen atom; whereas the negative electron is
constantly and freely encountered flying about alone, its mass being
little more than the thousandth part of an atom of hydrogen.
Until a positive electron can be similarly isolated, the hypothesis
that an atom is really composed solely of electricity—that is to say, of
equal quantities of positive and negative electricity associated together
in a certain grouping of little bodies, each of which is nothing more
than a concentrated charge of electricity of known amount—must
remain a hypothesis.
7. It isa fascinating guess that the electrons constitute the funda-
mental substratum of which all matter is composed; that a grouping
of, say, 700 electrons, 850 positive and 350 negative, interleaved or
interlocked in a state of violent motion so as to produce a stable con-
figuration under the influence of their centrifugal inertia and their
electric forces, constitutes an atom of hydrogen; that sixteen times
as many, in another stable grouping, constitute an atom of oxygen;
that some 16,000 of them go to form an atom of sodium, about 100,-
000 an atom of barium, and 160,000 an atom of radium.
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. Al
On this view all the elements would be regarded as different group-
ings of one fundamental constituent. Of all the groupings possible,
doubtless most are so unstable as never to be formed; but some are
stable, or at least relatively stable, and these stabler groupings consti-
tute the chemical elements that we know. ‘The fundamental ingredient
of which, on this view, the whole of matter is made up, is nothing
more or less than electricity, in the form of an aggregate of an equal
number of positive and negative electric charges.
This, when established, will be a unification of matter such as has
through all the ages been sought; it goes further than had been hoped,
for the substratum is not an unknown and hypothetical protyle, but
the familiar electric charge. Nevertheless, of course, it is no ultimate
explanation. The questions remain, What, then, is an electric charge /
What is the internal structure and constitution of an electron/
Wherein lies the difference between positive and negative electricity /
and What is their relation to the ether of space? Definite questions
these, and doubtless some day answerable; indeed, powerful methods
of attack on this position have been already contrived by Dr. J. Lar-
mor and others; but they are questions of a higher order of difficulty
than those which occupy us to-day, and it must remain for a future
tomanes lecturer to report progress in these directions, whenever
adequate progress has, in fact, been made.
8. That is the end of the first half of my lecture; and six months
ago that, somewhat expanded, might have been the whole of it, because
the next portion would have seemed too fanciful; but discoveries have
been made, chiefly in France and in Canada—some of the most strik-
ing of them within the present year—which remove the treatment of
the next part of my subject from the realm of fancy to the region of
probability, and justify my proceeding further with some of the theo-
retical consequences deducible from an electric theory of matter.
I referred above briefly to the origin of radiation, saying that by
the method of applying a powerful magnet to a source of light, and
examining the minute perturbations in the lines of the spectrum thus
produced, it had been proved that the real source of radiation was an
electric charge in rapid orbital motion; and I now go on to say that
by careful measurement of the amount of perturbation it has been
definitely proved that it is our friends the negative electrons, with a
mass about one thousandth of the smallest known atom of matter, that
are responsible for the excitation of ether waves or the production of
light. Larmor and others have, indeed, shown mathematically that
whenever an electric charge is subject to acceleration, an emission of
some amount of radiation is inevitable, by reason of the interaction of
its electric and magnetic fields; and it is probable that there is no
other source of light or radiation possible except this change in the
222 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
motion of electrons. It is known, for instance, that the violent accel-
eration or retardation of electrons when they encounter an obstacle
is responsible for the excitation of Réntgen rays. All light and all
the Hertz waves or pulses employed in wireless telegraphy are due to
electric acceleration, and the greater the rate of change of velocity
the more violent is the radiation emitted.
The charge may oscillate, as in a Hertz vibrator, or it may revolve,
as ina source of ordinary light, such as a sodium flame. In order to
emit perceptible radiation by revolving, it must revolve with extreme
speed in a very small orbit, so that its rate of curvature or centripetal]
acceleration may be considerable; for it is on the square of the value
of the average acceleration that the energy of radiation depends.
9. All this is of the nature of a definite and certain thesis, but now
we are going to apply it to our hypothesis that the atom of matter is
either wholly or partially composed of electrons in a state of vigorous
motion among themselves. Such revolving or vibrating electrons are
subject to acceleration, either radial or tangential, and must therefore
to a greater or less extent necessarily emit radiation; it becomes
natural to inquire whence comes the energy that is radiated away.
Now, in ordinary familiar cases it is the irregular agitation of
molecules which we call ‘* heat” that is being radiated away; and in
that case the result is a mere cooling, or diminution of the molecular
agitation, which can readily be made up by receipt of similar energy
from the inclosures or from surrounding bodies; or, if not made up,
it can produce the ordinary well-known effects of ‘‘ cold.” But to the
motion of the internal parts of an atom the ideas of heat and tempera-
ture do not apply. The atom, if it lose energy, must lose what is to
it an essential ingredient, and hence this inevitable radiating power
of the constituents of an atom seemed to constitute a difficulty, for it
suggested that an atom of matter was not really a permanent and
eternal thing, but that it contained within itself the seeds of its own
decay and ultimate dissipation into the separate electrons of which it
was composed. The process might indeed be exceedingly slow, the
radiation loss might be almost imperceptible, but, in so far as an atom
is composed of revolving electrons, it is inevitable that. radiation of
energy must go on from it, and that this must in the long run have
some perceptible degenerative result.
10. That result has quite recently, I believe, been experimentally
discovered, and isa part of the phenomenon known as ** radio-activity.”
So now we come to the most remarkable and probably the most inter-
esting step of all.
The phenomenon of spontaneous radio-activity, discovered first by
Beequerel in uranium and thorium, and greatly extended by the bril- .
liant chemical researches of M. and Mme. Curie which resulted in the
discovery of radium, was at first supposed to consist in the emission of
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 723
a sort of X rays or ether pulses; and was subsequently assumed to con-
sist chiefly in the bodily emission of electrons; which were shot off
from the radio-active substance as they are from a negative electrode
in a vacuum tube, or as they are in air when ultra-violet light falls
upon clean negatively charged surfaces.
Asa matter of fact, both these modes of radiation—the wave form
and the corpuscular form—are emitted by radio-active bodies, but
they turn out to be of subordinate importance, and must be regarded
as secondary or subsidiary results of the main phenomenon.
The main fact of radio-activity has been shown by Professor
tutherford, of Montreal, in a paper published in the month of Feb-
ruary this very year, to consist in the flinging away with great violence
of actual atoms of matter—atoms electrified indeed, but not negatively
like electrons, and not small or penetrating like them, but full-sized
atoms, such as are easily stopped by a thin sheet of metal, or even
by a sheet of paper—atoms which are positively charged and possessed
of aremarkable amount of energy, ionizing the air which they bom-
bard to an extraordinary extent, and likewise generating quite a per-
ceptible amount of heat wherever they strike; producing indeed a flash
when they strike a suitable target, as Crookes has shown, quite like
the impact of a cannon ball on an armor plate. Their speed, indeed,
far exceeds that of any cannon ball that ever existed, being as much
faster than a cannon ball as that is faster than a snail’s crawl; a
hundred times faster than the fastest flying star, these atomic pro-
jectiles constitute the fastest moving matter known. This furious
bombardment from a radio-active substance continues without inter-
mission and apparently without sign of diminution or cessation. There
is every reason to believe that a minute scrap of radium, scarcely per-
ceptible to the eye, may go on emitting these energetic projectiles for
hundreds of years.
11. At first sight the fact that it is merely atoms of matter which
are being flung off by most radio-active substances, and that ethereal
and other effects are subsidiary to this emission of substance, seems
to lessen the interest attaching to the phenomenon, reducing it to
something of merely chemical importance and suggesting a resem-
blance to scent or other volatilization from solid bodies. But Professor
Rutherford, with great skill, succeeded in determining approximately
the atomic weight of the utterly imperceptible amount of substance
thrown off, as well as its speed, and found that it was not by any means
the radio-active substance itself which was evaporating, but something
quite different. it
Plainly, if an elementary form of matter is found to be throwing
off another substance, it becomes imperative to inquire what that sub-
stance is and what it is that is left behind. Now, the atomic weight of
‘adium, or of thorium or uranium, or of any known strongly radio-
294 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
active substance, is very high, in each case over two hundred times the
atomic weight of hydrogen, whereas the atomic weight of the substance
flung off appears to be more nearly of the order one or two; in other
words, the substance thrown off is more likely to be either hydrogen
or helium than it is likely to be radium. It is just possible that the
inert chemical elements are by-products of radio-activity.
Now, clearly here is a fact, if fact it be, of prodigious importance.
Undoubtedly the measurements require confirmation, but for myself
I see no reason to doubt them, at least as regards their order of magni-
tude. The atomic weight of radium being, say, 225, and that of the
projected portion being, say, 2, the residue must represent by its
atomic weight the difference between the heavy atom of the original
substance and that of the light atom or atoms which have been flung
away, unless indeed it be assumed, as it will almost certainly be
assumed by some skeptical chemists, those who derided argon and
other chemical discoveries when made in a physical manner, that the
substance flung away is some foreign ingredient or impurity——a
hypothesis, I venture to say, already strongly against the weight of
available evidence.
The substance left behind in the pores of the radio-active substance
has been examined even. more completely than the projected portion;
it is volatile, it slowly diffuses away, and it behaves like a gas. It can
be stored in gas holders when mixed with air, for in amount it is quite
imperceptible to all ordinary tests; and yet it can be passed through
pipes and otherwise dealt with. It condenses not far above the tem-
perature of liquid air, and it is itself radio-active,-but in such a way
that its power decays rapidly with time. Its radio-activity seems to
consist likewise in throwing away part of itself and leaving yet another
residue, likewise radio-active; and one of the residues so left seems
ultimately to pitch away electrons simply instead of atoms of matter.
It is not to be supposed that thorium and radium and uranivm all
behave alike in details. The emanation of one may lose its activity
rapidly, and give rise to another substance which retains its power for
some time; the emanation of another element may: last some time and
generate a substance whose activity rapidly decays, but into these details
it is not now the place to go.
12. Assuming the truth of this strange string of laboratory facts,
we appear to be face to face with a phenomenon quite new in the his-
tory of the world. No one has hitherto observed the transition from
one form of matter to another, though throughout the Middle Ages
such a transmutation was looked for. The transmutation of elements
has been suspected in modern times on evidence vaguely deducible by
skilled observers from the spectroscopic details of solar and stellar
appearances. The evolution of matter has likewise been suspected by
a few chemists of genius. It was perceived, on the strength of Men-
delejeff’s law, that the elements form a kind of family or related series,
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 995
and it was surmised that possibly the barriers between one species and
the next were not absolutely infrangible, but that temporary transi-
tional forms might occur. All this was speculation; but here in radio-
active matter the process appears to be going on before our eyes.
Professor Rutherford and Mr. Soddy, who in Canada during the present
year have worked hard and admirably at the subject, have adduced
facts which point clearly in this direction; and they initially describe
what appear to be the first links of a chain of substances, all produced
in hopelessly minute quantities reckoned by ordinary tests, but which
yet by electrical means can easily be detected, and their boiling points
and other properties investigated. Moreover, the investigators of
these strange substances are able to dissolve and precipitate, and per-
form ordinary chemical operations on, these utterly imponderable and
hopelessly minute deposits of radio-active substances, because of the
powerful means of detection which their ionizing power puts into our
hands—even a few stray atoms being able by their ionizing power to
discharge an electroscope appreciably.
13. Thus, then, it would appear that our theoretical conclusion con-
cerning the inevitable radiation and loss of energy from electrically
constituted atoms of matter, a loss which must inyolve them in neces-
sary change and dissolution, meets with quite unexpectediy rapid con-
firmation, and it is for that reason that I feel willing to accept tenta-
tively and as a working hypothesis this explanation of radio-activity.
It represents a fact previously wanted on theoretical grounds. For
how is radio-activity to be explained? It looks as if the massive and
extremely complex atoms of a radio-active substance were liable to get
into an unstable condition, probably reaching this condition whenever
any part of it attempts or is urged to move with the velocity of light.
IT have shown elsewhere” that the mere fact of radiation will act asa
resisting medium and increase the speed of the particles automatically,
on the same principle that a comet would be accelerated if it met with
resistance, since the inverse-square law applies to electrical central
forces. Electrical mass is not strictly constant; it is a function of
speed, but in such a way that it is practically constant until the velocity
of light is very nearly attained. That is a critical velocity, which
apparently can not be surpassed. When this critical speed is reached
any electrified body becomes suddenly of infinite mass, and something
is bound to happen. What that something is, it is not easy theoret-
ically to say, but the partial or incipient disintegration or dissociation
of the atom and the flying away of a portion with a speed comparable
to that of light is no unlikely result.
Out of the whole multitude of atoms, even of the atoms of a con-
spicuously radio-active substance, it is probable that only a very few
get into this unstable or critical condition at any one time; perhaps not
aSee Nature, June 11, 1908.
226 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
more than one in a million million. Nevertheless, just as occasional
though rare encounters take place in the heavens, followed by the
blaze of a new and temporary star, so, though probably not by the
same mechanism, here and there a few out of the billions of atoms in
any perceptible speck of radium arrive in due time at the unstable con-
dition and break down into something else, with energetic radio-
activity during the sudden collapsing process, emitting in the process
of collapse not only the main projected substance, but likewise also a
few electrons and those X rays which always accompany a sudden
electric jerk or recoil. And the X rays so emitted are of the most
penetrating kind known, being able to pass through an inch of solid
iron in perceptible quantity.
14. The hypothesis concerning radio-activity which is now in the
field, then, is that a very small number—an almost infinitesimal pro-
portion—of the atoms are constantly breaking up, throwing away a
small portion, say 1 per cent, of themselves with immense violence
at about one-tenth of the speed of light; the remainder constitute a
slightly different substance, which, however, is still extremely unstable,
and therefore radio-active, going through its stages with much greater
rapidity than the radium itself, because practically the whole of it is
in theunstable condition, and so giving rise to fresh and fresh products
of its own decay, till a comparatively stable state is reached, or till the
process passes beyond our means of detection.
Roughly, the process may be likened in some respects to the con-
densation or contraction of a nebula. The particles constituting a
whirling nebula fall together until the centrifugal ferce of the periph-
eral portions exceeds the gravitative pull of the central mass, and then
they are shrunk off and left behind, afterwards agglomerating into a
planet, while the residue goes on shrinking and evolving fresh bodies
and generating heat. A nebula is not hot, but it hasan immense store
of potential energy, some of which it can turn into heat, and so form
a hot central nucleus or sun. <A radium atom is not hot, but it, too,
has a great store of potential energy, immense in proportion to its
mass, for it is controlled by electrical, not by gravitational forces; and
just as the falling together of the solar material generates heat, so
that a shrinkage of afew yards per century can account for all its
tremendous emission, so it has been calculated that the collapsing of
the electrical constituents of a radium atom, by so little as 1 per
cent of their distance apart, can supply the whole of the energy of
the observed radiation—large though that is—for something like
thirty thousand years.
15. 1t does not follow that the life of a piece of radium is as great
as that; the data are uncertain at present, but there is absolutely no
ground for the popular and gratuitous surmise that it emits energy
without loss or waste of any kind, and that it is competent to go on
forever. The idea, at one time irresponsibly mooted, that it contra-
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 227
dicted the principle of the conservation of energy, and was troubling
physicists with the idea that they must overhaul their theories—a
thing which they ought always to be delighted to do on good eyi-
dence—this idea was a gratuitous absurdity and never had the slightest
foundation; but the notion that radium was perhaps able to draw upon
some unknown source or store of energy, without itself suffering loss,
was a possibility which has not yet wholly disappeared from some
minds. Sir W. Crookes, for instance, suggested that it might some-
how utilize the most quickly moving atoms of air, after the fashion of
a Maxwell demon—a possibility that should always be borne in mind
as a conceivable explanation of the power of some living organisms.
It is much more reasonable to suppose, however, that radium and the
other like substances are drawing upon their own stores of internal
atomic energy, and thereby gradually disintegrating and falling into
other, and ultimately into more stable, forms of matter.
Not that it is to be supposed that even these are finally and abso-
lutely stable; these, too, are subject to radiation loss, and so must be
liable to decay, but at a vastly slower rate, perhaps not more than a
few hundred atoms changing and diffusing away each second—a process
utterly imperceptible to the most delicate weighing until after the lapse
of millions of years, so that for all practical purposes, and for times
such as are dealt with in cosmic history, they are permanent, even as
the solar system and stellar aggregates appear to us to be permanent.
Yet we know that all these systems are in reality transitory, as terres-
trial structures like the pyramids or as the mountains and the conti-
nents themselves are transitory; of all these things it may be said that
in any given form they have their day and cease to be. But whereas
geological and astronomical configurations pass through their phases
in a time to be reckoned in millions of years, the active life of a solar
system covering perhaps no very long period, it is probable that the
changes we have begun to suspect in the foundation stones of the uni-
verse, the more stable elemental atoms themselves, must require a period
to be expressed only by millions of millions of centuries. For in such
a time as this, at the rate of a hundred atoms per second, a bare kilo-
gram—a couple of pounds only—of matter, even of heavy matter,
would have drifted away, not so much indeed—a couple of ounces
more likely. And yet this period is a million times the estimated age
of the earth.
16. If we allow ourselves to speculate on the strength of the slender
experimental evidence as yet forthcoming, instead of waiting, as to be
wise we must wait, for confirmation and thorough examination of the
facts, we should say that the whole of existing matter appears lable
to processes of change, and in that sense to be a transient phenomenon.
Somehow, we might conjecture, by some means at present unknown,
it takes its rise: electrons of opposite sign crystallizing or falling
together, perhaps at first into a manifestly unstable form; these forms
298 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
then pass on from one into another, going through a series of transi-
tional states, and abiding for a long time in those configurations which
are most stable; giving a process of evolution inconceivably slow in
its later stages, comparatively rapid in its early ones, and yet not so
‘rapid, even in a substance like radium, but that its life as such may
be reckoned by thousands of vears.
If such a transitory existence is ever established for the forms of
matter as we know them, it by no means follows that the process goes
on in one direction only, or that the total amount of matter in the
universe is subject to diminution. There may be regeneration as well
as degeneration.
The total amount of radio-activity in a substance is singularly con-
stant. If the radio-active portion is removed, a fresh supply makes
its appearance at a measured rate, that rate being expressible by a
decreasing geometrical progression, and being precisely equal to the
rate at which the power of the removed portion decays.
Whether the total amount of matter in the universe is constant
likewise, as much disappearing at one end by resolution into electrons
as is formed at the other end by their aggregating together, is at
present quite unknown; and, indeed, it is clear that we have now become
far immersed in the region of speculation. Nevertheless, it is specula-
tion not of an illegitimate character, for it is very consistent with all
that we know about the rest of the material universe.
Astronomy tells us that the cosmic scheme, though it looks perma-
nent, is subject to constant flux. In the sky we see solar systems and
suns in process of formation by aggregation out of nebule; we see
them rise in brilliancy, maintaining a number of planets in health and
activity for a time, and then slowly become subject to decay and death.
What happens after that is not certainly known. It may be that by col-
lision a nebula may be reconstituted and the process started again;
though so long as there is only a force of one sign at work (gravitation
only) it would seem that ultimately the regenerative process must
come to an end. ‘The repellent force exerted by light upon small
particles, however, must not be forgotten; it can overcome gravitation
when it acts on small enough bodies; and there are other possibilities.
Among the parts of an atom certainly the forces are conspicuously not
ef one sign. Inside an atom there exist both attractive and repulsive
forces. The resolution of an atom into its electron constituents, and
the aggregation of these constituents into fresh atoms, are both per-
fectly thinkable. All we have to do is to ascertain by careful and
patient investigation what really happens; and my experience has led
me to feel sure of this—that whatever hypotheses and speculations we
may frame, we can not exceed the reality in genuine wonder; and I
believe that the simplicity and beauty of the truth concerning even
the material universe, when we know it, will be such as to elicit feel-
ings of reverent awe and adoration.
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER: THE REALIZATION OF A
DREAM.¢ .
By Sir Wiciiam Crookes, F. R. S., ete.
For nearly a century men who devote themselves to science have
been dreaming of atoms, molecules, ultramundane particles, and specu-
lating as to the origin of matter; and now to-day they have got so far
as to admit the possibility of resolving the chemical elements into
simpler forms of matter, or even of refining them altogether away into
ethereal vibrations of electrical energy.
This dream has been essentially a British dream, and we have become
speculative und imaginative to an audacious extent, almost belying our
character of a purely practical nation. The notion of impenetrable
mysteries has been dismissed. A mystery is a thing to be solved—
‘‘and man alone can master the impossible.” There has been a vivid
new start. Our physicists have remodeled their views as to the con-
stitution of matter and as to the complexity if not the actual decom-
posability of the chemical elements. To show how far we have been
propelled on the strange new road, how dazzling are the wonders that
waylay the researcher, we have but to recall—matter in a fourth state,
the genesis of the elements, the dissociation of the chemical elements,
the existence of bodies smaller than atoms, the atomic nature of elec-
tricity, the perception of electrons, not to mention other dawning
marvels far removed from the lines of thought usually associated with
English chemistry.
The earliest definite suggestion in the last century of the possible
compound nature of the elements occurs in a lecture delivered in 1809?
by Sir Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. In that memorable
lecture he speculated on the existence of some substance common to
all the metals, and he averred that ‘* If such generalizations should be
supported by facts, a new, a simple, and a grand philosophy would
be the result. From the combination of different quantities of two or
“An address delivered before the Congress of Applied Chemistry at Berlin, June 5,
1903. Reprinted from author’s pamphlet copy, London, 1903.
> Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Vol. VIII, p. 325.
DOO
230 MODERN.VIEWS ON MATTER.
three species of ponderable matter we might conceive all the diversity
of material substances to owe their constitution.”
Again, in 1811, he said:¢
It will be useless to speculate upon the consequences of such an advancement in
chemistry as that of the decomposition and composition of the metals. * * * It
is the duty of a chemist to be bold in pursuit. He must not consider things as
impracticable merely because they have not yet been effected. He must not regard
them as unreasonable because they do not coincide with popular opinion. He
must recollect how contrary knowledge sometimes is to what appears to be experi-
enCen | To inquire whether the metals be capable of being decomposed and
composed is a grand object of true philosophy.
Davy first used the term ‘‘ radiant matter” about 1809, but chiefly
in connection with what is now called ** radiation.” He also used the
term in another sense, and the following passage’ in its clear forecast
is prophetic of the modern electron:
If particles of gases were made to move in free space with an almost infinitely great
velocity—i. e., to become radiant matter—they might produce the different species
of rays, so distinguished by their peculiar effects.
In his lectures at the Royal Institution, in 1816, **On the general
properties of matter,” another prescient chemist, Faraday, used simi-
lar terms when he said:
If we conceive a change as far beyond vaporization as that is above fluidity, and
then take into account also the proportional increased extent of alteration as the
changes rise, we shall, perhaps, if we can form any conception at all, not fall far
short of radiant matter; and as in the last conversion many qualities were lost, so
here also many more would disappear.
Again, in one of his early lectures he strikes a forward note:
At present we begin to feel impatient and to wish for a new state of chemical ele-
a
ments. To decompose the metals, to re-form them, and to realize the once absurd
notion of transmutation are the problems now given to the chemist for solution.
But Faraday was always remarkable for the boldness and originality
with which he regarded generally accepted theories. In 1844 he said:
The view that physical chemistry necessarily takes of atoms is now very large and
complicated; first many elementary atoms—next compound and complicated atoms.
System within system, like the starry heavens, may be right—but may be all wrong.
A year later Faraday startled the world by a discovery to which he
gave the title **On the magnetization of light and the illumination
of the magnetic lines of force.” For fifty years this title was mis-
understood and was attributed to enthusiasm or confused ideas. But
to-day we begin to see the full significance of the Faraday dream.
It was not till 1896 that Zeeman showed a spectrum line could be
acted on by a magnetic field. A spectrum line is caused by motion of
the electron acting on the ether, which can only move and be moved
aoc. eit., Vol. VILL, p. 330:
boc. cit., Vol. VIII, p. 349.
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 931
by the electron. A magnetic field resolves this motion into other
component motions—some slower, others quicker—and thus causes a
single line to split into others of greater and less refrangibility than
the parent line.
In 1879, ina lecture I delivered before the British Association“ at
Sheffield, it fell to my lot to revive ‘‘radiant matter.” I advanced the
theory that in the phenomena of the vacuum tube at high exhaustions
the particles constituting the cathode stream are not solid, nor liquid,
nor gaseous, do not consist of atoms propelled through the tube and
‘ausing luminous, mechanic, or electric phenomena where they strike,
‘“but that they consist of something much smaller than the atom—
fragments of matter, ultra-atomic corpuscles, minute things, very
much smaller, very much lighter than atoms—things which appear to
be the foundation stones of which atoms are composed.” ?
I further demonstrated that the physical properties of radiant matter
are common to all matter at this low density—** Whether the gas origi-
nally under experiment be hydrogen, carbon dioxide, or atmospheric
air, the phenomena of phosphorescence, shadows, magnetic deflection,
etc., are identical.” Here are my words, written nearly a quarter of
a century ago: ‘*We have actually touched the border land where
matter and force seem to merge into one another ‘—the shadowy realm
between the known and unknown. I venture to think that the greatest
scientific problems of the future will find their solution in this border
land, and even beyond; here, it seems to me, lie ultimate realities,
subtle, far-reaching, wonderful.”
It was not till 1581 that J. J. Thomson established the basis of the
electro-dynamic theory. Ina very remarkable memoir in the Philo-
sophical Magazine he explained the phosphorescence of glass under
the influence of the cathode stream by the nearly abrupt changes in
the magnetic field arising from the sudden stoppage of the cathode
particles.
The now generally accepted view that our chemical elements have
been formed from one primordial substance was advocated in 1888 by
me when president of the Chemical Society,“ in connection with a
theory of the genesis of the elements. I spoke of ‘tan infinite num-
ber of immeasurably small ultimate—or, rather, ultimatissimate
particles gradually accreting out of the formless mist, and moving
with inconceivable velocity in all directions.”
Pondering on some of the properties of the rare elements, I strove
to show that the elementary atoms themselves might not be the same
“British Association Reports, Sheffield meeting, 1879. Chemical News, Vol. XL,
p. 91. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1879, Pt..I, p. 585. ‘ Proc. Roy. Soc., 1880, No. 205,
p. 469.
6Sir O. Lodge, Nature, Vol. LX VII, p. 451.
¢**Matter is but a mode of motion’’ (Proce. Roy. Soc., No. 205, p. 472).
@ President’s address to Chem. Soc., March 28, 1888.
sM 1903 16
232 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
now as when first generated—that the primary motions which consti-
tute the existence of the atom might slowly be changing, and even the
secondary motions which produce all the effects we can observe—heat,
chemic, electric, ete.—might in a slight degree be affected; and I
showed the probability that the atoms of the chemical elements were
not eternal in existence, but shared with the rest of Creation the attri-
butes of decay and death.
The same idea was expanded at a lecture I delivered at the Royal
Institution in 1887, when it was suggested that the atomic weights
were not invariable quantities.
I might quote Mr. Herbert Spencer, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Professor
Graham, Sir George Stokes, Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin),
Sir Norman Lockyer, Doctor Gladstone, and many other English men
of science to show that the notion, not necessarily of the decompos-
ability, but at any rate of the complexity of our supposed elements,
has long been ‘‘in the air” of science waiting to take more definite
development. Our minds are gradually getting accustomed to the idea
of the genesis of the elements, and many of us are straining for the
first glimpse of the resolution of the chemical atom. Weare eager to
enter the portal of the mysterious region too readily ticketed ‘‘Unknown
and Unknowable.”
Another phase of the dream now demands attention. I come to the
sxarlier glimpses of the electric theory of matter.
Passing oyer the vaguer speculations of Faraday and the more
positive speculations of Sir William Thomson (now Lord Kelvin), one
of the earliest definite statements of this theory is given in an article
in the Fortnightly Review for June, 1875, by W. K. Clifford, a man
who in common with other pioneers shared that ** noblest misfortune
of being born before his time.” ‘*There is great reason to believe,”
said Clifford, ** that every material atom carries upon it a small electric
current, if it does not wholly consist of this current.”
In 1886, when president of the chemical section of the British asso-
ciation, in a speculation on the origin of matter, I drew a picture of
the gradual formation of the chemical elements by the workings of
three forms of energy—electricity, chemism, and temperature—on the
‘formless mist” (protyle”), vyherein all matter was in the preatomic
state—potential rather than actual. In this scheme the chemical
elements owe their stability to their being the outcome of a struggle
for existence—a Darwinian development by chemical evolution—a
survival of the most stable. Those of lowest atomic weight would
first be formed, then those of intermediate weight, and finally the
« We require a word, analogous to protoplasm, to express the idea of the original
primal matter existing before the evolution of the chemical elements. The word I
venture to use is composed of zpo (earlier than) and UAy (the stuff of which things
are made).
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. Iso
elements having the highest atomic weights, such as thorium and
uranium. I spoke of the ‘‘dissociation point” of the elements.
‘*What comes after uranium?” Tasked. And I answered back—‘* The
result of the next step will be * * the formation of Sere
compounds the dissociation of which is not beyond the powers of our
terrestrial sources of heat.” A dream less than twenty years ago, but
a dream which daily draws nearer to entire and vivid fulfillment. I
will presently show you that radium, the next after uranium, does
actually and spontaneously dissociate.
The idea of units or atoms of electricity—an idea hitherto floating
intangibly like helium in the sun—can now be brought to earth and
submitted to the test of experiment.” Faraday, W. Weber, Laurentz,
Gauss, Zoéllner, Hertz, Helmholtz, Johnstone Stoney, Sir Oliver
Lodge, have all contributed to develope the idea, originally due to
Weber, which took concrete form when Stoney showed that Faraday’s
law of electrolysis involved the existence of a definite charge of elec-
tricity associated with the ions of matter. This definite charge he
called an electron. It was not till some time after the name had been
given that electrons were found to be capable of existing separately.
In 1891, in my inaugural address as president of the Institution of
Electrial Engineers,’ I showed that the stream of cathode rays near the
negative pole was always negatively electrified, the other contents of
the tube being positively electrified, and I explained that ** the division
of the molecule into groups of electro-positive and electro-negative
atoms is necessary for a consistent explanation of the genesis of the
elements.” In a vacuum tube the negative pole is the entrance and
«The equivalent weights of bodies are simply those quantities of them which
contain equal quantities of electricity; * * * it being.the electricity which deter-
mines the equivalent number, because it determines the combining force. Or, if we
adopt the atomic theory or phraseology, then the atoms of bodies which are equiva-
lents to each other in their ordinary chemical action, have equal quantities of
electricity naturally associated with them.’’—Faraday’s Experimental Researches in
Electricity, par. 869, January, 1834.
“This definite quantity of electricity we shall call the molecular charge. If it
were known it would be the most natural unit of electricity.’’—Clerk Maxwell’s
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, first edition, Vol. I, 1878, p. 311.
‘“‘Nature presents us with a single definite quantity of electricity. * * * For
each chemical bond which is ruptured within an electrolyte a certain quantity of
electricity traverses the electrolyte, which is the same in all cases.’’—G. Johnstone
Stoney, On the Physical Units of Nature, British Association meeting, Section A, 1874.
“The same definite quantity of either positive or negative electricity moves always
with each univalent ion, or with every unit of affinity of a multivalent ion.’”’—Helm-
holtz, Faraday Lecture, 1881.
“Every monad atom has associated with it a certain definite quantity of electricity;
every dyad has twice this quantity associated with it; every triad three times as
much, and so on.’’—O. Lodge, On Electrolysis, British Association Report, 1885.
> Electricity in Transitu: from Plenum to Vacuum (Journ. Inst. Electrical Engineers,
Vol. XX, p. 10, January 15, 1891).
234 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
the positive pole the exit for electrons. Falling on a phosphorescent
body, yttria, for instance—a collection of Hertz molecular resonators—
the electrons excite vibrations of, say, 550 billion times a second, pro-
ducing ether waves of the approximate length of 5.75 ten-millionths
of a millimeter, and occasioning in the eye the sensation of citron-
colored light. If, however, the electrons dash against a heavy metal,
they produce ether waves of a far higher frequency than light and
are not continuous vibrations, but, according to Sir George Stokes,
simple shocks or solitary impulses, more like discordant shouts as
compared with musical notes.
During that address an experiment was shown which went far to
prove the dissociation of silver into electrons and positive atoms.“ A
silver pole was used, and near it in front was a sheet of mica with a
hole in its center. The vacuum was very high, and when the poles
were connected with the coil, the silver being negative, electrons shot
from it in all directions, and passing through the hole in the mica
screen formed a bright phosphorescent patch on the opposite side of
the bulb. The action of the coil was continued for some hours to
volatilize a certain portion of the silver. Silver was seen to be
deposited on the mica screen only in the immediate neighborhood of
the pole; the far end of. the bulb, which had been glowing for hours
from the impact of electrons, being free from silver deposit. Here,
then, are two simultaneous actions. Electrons or radiant matter shot
from the negative pole caused the glass against which they struck to
glow with phosphorescent light. Simultaneously, the heavy positive
ions of silver, freed from negative electrons and under the influence
of the electrical stress, likewise flew off and were deposited in the
metallic state near the pole. The ions of metal thus deposited in all
‘ases showed positive electrification.’
In the years 1893-1895 a sudden impulse was given to electric vacuum
work by the publication in Germany of the remarkable results obtained
by Lenard and Réntgen, who showed that the phenomena inside the
vacuum tube were surpassed in interest by what took place outside.
It is not too much to say that from this date what had been a scientific
conjecture became a sober reality.
One important advance in theoretic knowledge has been obtained by
Dewar, the successor of Faraday in the classic laboratories of the
Royal Institution. Soon after Réntgen’s discovery Dewar found that
the relative opacity to the Réntgen rays was in proportion to the
atomic weights of bodies, and he was the first to apply this principle
to settling a debated point in connection with argon. Argon is rela-
tively more opaque to the Réntgen rays than either oxygen, nitrogen,
“1n describing the experiment, one of fundamental importance, modern terms are
empioyed.
bProc. Roy. Soc., Vol. LXIX, p. 421.
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 935
or sodium, and from this Dewar inferred that the atomic weight of
argon was twice its density relative to hydrogen. In the light of
to-day’s researches on the constitution of atoms it is impossible to
overestimate the importance of this discovery. :
In 1896 Becquerel, pursuing the masterly work on phosphorescence
inaugurated by his illustrious father, showed that the salts of uranium
constantly emit emanations, which have the power of penetrating
opaque substances and of affecting a photographic plate in total dark-
ness, and of discharging an electrometer. In some respects these
emanations, known as ‘* Becquerel rays,” behave like rays of light, but
they also resemble Réntgenrays. Their real character has only recently
been ascertained, and even now there is much that is obscure and pro-
visional in the explanation of their constitution and action.
Following closely upon Becquerel’s work came the brilliant researches
of M. and Mme. Curie on the radio-activity of bodies accompanying
uranium.
Hitherto I have been recounting isolated instances of scientific specu-
lation with apparently little relation to one another. The existence
of matter in an ultra gaseous state; material particles smaller than
atoms; the existence of electrical atoms or electrons; the constitution
of Réntgen rays and their passage through opaque bodies: the emana-
tions from uranium; the dissociation of the elements—all these isolated
hypotheses are now focussed and welded into one harmonious theory
by the discovery of radium.
Often do the spirits
Of great events stride on before the events,
And in to-day already walks to-morrow.
No new discovery is ever made without its influence ramifying in
all directions and explaining much that before had been mystifying.
Certainly no discovery of modern times has had such wide-embracing
consequences and thrown such a flood of light on broad regions of
hitherto inexplicable phenomena as this discovery of M. and Mme.
Curie and M. Bémont, who patiently and laboriously plodded along a
road bristling with difficulties almost insuperable to others who, like
myself, have toiled in similar labyrinths of research. The crowning
point of these labors is radium.
Let me briefly recount some of the properties of radium and show
how it reduces speculations and dreams, apparently impossible of
proof, to a concrete form.
Radium is a metal of the calcium, strontium, and barium group.
Its atomic weight, according to C. Runge and J. Precht, is probably
about 258. In this case it occupies the third place below barium in
my lemniscate spiral scheme of the elements,” two unoccupied gaps
intervening.
@ Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. LXIII, p. 408.
236 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
The spectrum of radinm has several well-defined lines; these I have
photographed and have also measured their wave lengths. Two espe-
dally are strong and characteristic—one at wave length 3649.71, and
the other at Wave length 3814.58. These lines enable radium to be
detected spectroscopically.
The most striking property of radium is its power to pour out tor-
rents of emanations bearing a certain resemblance to Réntgen rays,
but differing in important points.
The emanations of radium cause soda glass to assume a violet color,
and they produce many chemical changes. Their physiological action
is strong, a few milligrams brought near the skin in a few hours
producing a wound difficult to heal.
The emanations from radium are of three kinds. One set is the
same as the cathode stream, now identified with free electrons—atoms
of electricity projected into space apart from gross matter—identical
with ‘‘matter in the fourth or ultragaseous state,” Kelvin’s *‘satel-
lites,” Thomson’s ‘* corpuscles” or ** particles;” Lodge’s *‘ disembodied
ionic charges, retaining individuality and identity.” These electrons
are neither ether waves nor a form of energy, but substance possess-
ing inertia (probably electric). Liberated electrons are exceedingly
penetrating. They will discharge an electroscope when the radium is
10 feet or more away, and will affect a photographic plate through
5 or 6 millimeters of lead and several inches of wood or aluminum.
They are not readily filtered out by cotton-wool; they do not behave
asa gas, i. e., they have not properties dependent on intercollisions,
mean free path, etc.; they act more like a fog or mist, are mobile and
earried about by a current of air to which they give temporary con-
ducting powers, clinging to positively electrified bodies and thereby
losing mobility and diffusing on the walls of the containing vessel if
left quiet.
Electrons are deviable in a magnetic field. They are shot from
radium with a velocity of about one-tenth that of light, but are g@rad-
ually obstructed by collisions with air atoms, so that some become
much slowed, and then are what I formerly called loose and erratic
particles, which diffuse about in the air and give it temporary con-
ducting powers. These can turn corners, can be concentrated by mica
cones into a bundle and then produce phosphorescence.
Another set of emanations from radium are not affected by an ordi-
narily powerful magnetic field and are incapable even of passing
through thin material obstructions. These emanations have about one
thousand times the energy of those radiated by the deflectable particles.
They render air a conductor and act strongly on a photographic plate.
Their mass is enormous in comparison with that of the electrons,
and their velocity is probably as great when they leave the radium,
but, in consequence of their greater mass, they are less deflected by
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. ort
the magnet, are easily obstructed by obstacles, and are sooner brought
to rest by collisions with air atoms. The Hon. R. B. Strutt” was the
first to affirm that these nondeflectable rays are the positive ions
moving in a stream from the radio-active body.
Rutherford has shown that these emanations are slightly affected
in a very powerful magnetic field, but in an opposite direction to
the negative electrons. They are therefore proved to be positively
charged bodies moving with great velocity. For the first time Ruther-
ford has measured their speed and mass, and he shows they are ions
of matter moving with a speed of the order of that of light.
There is also a third kind of emanation produced by radium.
Besides the highly penetrating rays deflected by a magnet, there are
very penetrating rays not at all affected by magnetism. These accom-
pany the previous emanations, and are Réntgen rays—ether vibra-
tions—produced as secondary phenomena by the sudden arrest. of
velocity of the electrons by solid matter, producing a series of Stoke-
ee
sian
Many lines of argument and research tending toward the same point
give trustworthy data by which to calculate the masses and velocities
of these different particles. I must deal with big figures, but big and
little are relative and are only of importance in relation to the limita-
tions of our senses. I will take as the standard the atom of hydrogen
geas—the smallest material body hitherto recognized. The mass of an
electron is one seven-hundredths of an atom of hydrogen, or 3 x 10~?°
gram, according to J. J. Thomson, and its velocity is 2 x 10° centi-
meters per second, or two-thirds that of light. The kinetic energy
per milligram is 10'* ergs, about 3,500,000 foot-tons. Beequerel has
calculated that 1 square centimeter of radio-active surface would radiate
into space 1 gram of matter in one billion years.
The positively electrified masses or ions are enormously great in
comparison with the size of the electron. Sir Oliver Lodge illustrates
it thus: If we imagine an ordinary sized church to be an atom of
hydrogen, the electrons constituting it will be represented by about
700 grains of sand, each the size of an ordinary full stop (850 positive
and <
Lord Kelvin, rotating with inconceivable velocity. Put in another
way; the sun’s diameter is about 1,500,000 kilometers, and that of the
smallest planetoid about 24+ kilometers. If an atom of hydrogen be
magnified to the size of the sun, an electron will be about two-thirds
the diameter of the planetoid.
The extreme minuteness and sparseness of the electrons in the atom
account for their penetration. While the more massive ions are
stopped by intercollisions in passing among atoms, so that they are
pulses” or explosive ether waves shot into space.
>
350 negative), dashing in all directions inside, or, according to
@Phil. Trans. KR. 8:, A,-1901, Vol. OXCVI, p. 525.
238 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
almost completely arrested by the thinnest sheet of matter, electrons
will pass almost unobstructed through ordinary opaque bodies.
The action of these emanations on phosphorescent screens is differ-
ent. The electrons strongly affect a screen of barium platinocyanide,
but only slightly one of Sidot’s zine sulphide. On the other hand,
the heavy, massive, nondeflectable positive ions affect the zine-s1lphide
screen strongly, and the barium-piatinocyanide screen in a much less
degree.
Both Réntgen rays and electrons act on a photographic plate and
produce images of metal and other substances inclosed in wood and
leather, and throw shadows of bodies on a barium-platinocyanide
screen. Electrons are much less penetrating than Réntgen rays, and
will not, for instance, show easily the bones of the hand. A photo-
graph of a closed case of instruments is taken by radium emanations
in three days and by Réntgen raysin three minutes. The resemblance
between the two pictures is slight and the differences great.
The power with which radium emanations are endowed of dischareg-
ing electrified bodies is due to the ionization of the gas through which
they pass. This can be effected’ in many other ways; thus, ionization
is communicated to gases faintly by the splashing of water, by flames
and red-hot bodies, by ultraviolet light falling on negatively electri-
fied metals, and strongly by the passage of Réntgen rays.
According to Sir Oliver Lodge’s electronic theory of matter, a chem-
ical atom or ion has a few extra negative electrons in addition to the
ordinary neutral atom, and if these negative electrons are removed it
thereby becomes positively charged. The free electron portion of
the atom is small in comparison with the main bulk, in the proportion
in hydrogen of about 1 to 700. The negative charge consists of super-
added or unbalanced electrons—one, two, three, etc., according to
the chemical valency of the body—whereas the main bulk of the atom
consists of paired groups, equal positive and negative. As soon as
the excess electrons are removed the rest of the atom, or ion, acts as
a massive positively charged body hanging tightly together. Ina
high vacuum the induction spark tears the components of a raritied
gas apart; the positively charged ions, having great comparative
density, are soon slowed down by collisions, while the electrons are
driven from the negative pole with an enormous velocity, depending
on the initial electromotive force and the pressure of gas inside the
tube, but approaching at the highest exhaustions half that of light.
After leaving the negative pole the electrons meet with a certain
resistance in a slight degree by physical collisions, but principally by
reunion with the positive ions.
Since the discovery of radium and the identification of one set of its
emanations with the cathode stream or radiant matter of the vacuum
tube, speculation and experiment have gone hand in hand, and the
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 239
two-fluid theory of electricity is gradually replaced by the original
one-fluid theory of Franklin. On the two-fluid theory the electrons
constitute free negative electricity and the rest of the chemical atom
is charged positively, although a free positive electron is not known.
It seems to me simpler to use the original one-fluid theory of Franklin,
and to say that the electron is the atom or unit of electricity. Fleming
uses the word **coelectrons” to express the heavy positive ion after
separation from the negative electron. ‘* We can no more,” he says,
‘Shave anything which can be called electricity apart from corpuscles
than we can have momentum apart from moving matter.” A so-called
negatively charged chemical atom is one having a surplus of electrons,
the number depending on the valency, whilst a positive ion is one hay-
ing a deficiency of electrons. Differences of electrical charge may thus
be likened to debits and credits in one’s banking account, the electrons
acting as current coin of the realm. On this view only the electron
exists; it is the atom of electricity, and the words positive and negative,
signifving excess and defect of electrons, are only used for convenience
of old-fashioned nomenclature.
The electron theory fits and luminously explains Ampére’s idea that
magnetism is due to a rotating current of electricity round each atom
of iron; and following these definite views of the existence of free
electrons has arisen the electronic theory of matter. It is recognized
that electrons have the one property which has been regarded as
inseparable from matter—nay, almost impossible to separate from our
conception of matter—I mean inertia. Now, in that remarkable
paper of J. J. Thomson’s, published in 1881, he developed the idea of
electric inertia (self-induction) as a reality due to a moving charge.
The electron therefore appears only as apparent mass by reason of its
electro-dynamic properties, and if we consider all forms of matter to
be merely congeries of electrons the inertia of matter would be
explained without any material basis. On this view the electron
would be the ‘‘protyle” of 1886, whose different groupings cause
the genesis of the elements.
There is one more property of the emanations of radium to bring
before your notice. I have shown that the electrons produce phos-
phorescence of a sensitive screen of barium platinocyanide and the
positive ions of radium produce phosphorescence of a screen of zine
blende.
If a few minute grains of radium salt fall on the zine-sulphide screen
the surface is immediately dotted with brilliant specks of green light.
In a dark room, under a microscope with a 4-inch objective, each
luminous spot shows a dull center surrounded by a diffused luminous
halo. Outside the halo the dark surface of the screen scintillates with
sparks of light. No two flashes succeed on the same spot, but are
173
240 MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER.
scattered“ over the surface, coming and going instantaneously, no
movement of translation being seen.
If a solid piece of a radium salt is brought near the screen, and the
surface examined with a pocket lens magnifying about 20 diameters,
scintillating spots are sparsely scattered over the surface. Bringing
the radium nearer the screen, the scintillations become more numerous
and brighter, until when close together the flashes follow so. quickly
that the surface looks like a turbulent luminous sea. When the scin-
tillating points are few, there is no visible residual phosphorescence
and the successive sparks appear ‘‘atoms of intensest light,” like stars
ona black sky. What to the naked eye seems like a uniform ‘* milky
way,” under the lens becomes a multitude of stellar points flashing
over the whole surface.
**Polonium” basic nitrate, actinium, and radio-active platinum pro-
duce a similar effect on the screen, but the scintillations are fewer.
In a vacuum the scintillations are as bright as in air, and, being due
to interatomic motion, they are not affected by extremes of low tem-
perature; in liquid hydrogen they are as brilliant as at the ordinary
temperature.
A convenient way to show these scintillations is to fit the blende
screen at the end of a brass tube with a speck of radium salt in front
about a millimeter off, and to have a lens at the other end. I propose
to call this little instrument the ‘‘ Spinthariscope,” from the Greek
word ozivéapis,“ a scintillation.
It is difficult to estimate the number of flashes of light per second.
With the radium about five centimeters off the screen the flashes are
barely detectable, not more than one or two per second. As the dis-
tance of the radium diminishes, the flashes become more frequent,
until at one or two centimeters they are too numerous to count,
although it is evident this is not of an order of magnitude inconceivably
ereat.
Practically the whole of the luminosity on the blende screen, whether
due to radium or ‘* polonium,” is occasioned by emanations which will
not penetrate card. These are the emanations which cause the scintil-
lations, and the reasons why they are distinct on the blende and feeble
on the platino-cyanide screen is that with the latter the sparks are
seen on a luminous ground of general phosphorescence which renders
the eye less able to see the scintillations.
aEyv@ é«k vnos Opovéev Avaé, Exdepyos AnodAwr,
QOTEPL EISOMEVOS, ECW NUATI TOU 8 amo TOAAaI
onivOapides mw@tavro, Glas S E15 Obpavov KEV
(Here from the ship leaped the far-darting Apollo, like a star at midday, while
from him flitted scintillations of fire, and the brilliancy reached to heaven. )—
Homer’s Hymn to Apollo, lines 440-442.
MODERN VIEWS ON MATTER. 241
It is probable that in these phenomena we actually witness the bom-
bardment of the screen by the positive ions hurled off by radium with
a velocity of the order of that of light. Each particle is rendered
apparent only by the enormous extent of lateral disturbance produced
by its impact on the sensitive surface, Just as individual drops of rain
falling on astill pool are not seen as such, but by reason of the splash
they make on impact, and the ripples and waves they produce in ever-
widening circles.
Indulging in a ‘‘scientific use of the imagination,” and pushing the
hypothesis of the electronic constitution of matter to what I consider
its logical limit, we may be, in fact, witnessing a spontaneous dissoci-
ation of radium—and we begin to doubt the permanent stability of
“matter. The chemical atom may be actually suffering a katabolic
transformation, but at so slow a rate that, supposing a million atoms
fly off every second, it would take a century for weight to diminish
by one milligram.
It must never be forgotten that theories are only useful so long as
they admit of the harmonious correlation of facts into a reasonable
system. Directly a fact refuses to be pigeonholed and will not be
explained on theoretic grounds, the theory must go, or it must be
revised to admit the new fact. The nineteenth century saw the birth
of new views of atoms, electricity, and ether. Our views to-day of
the constitution of matter may appear satisfactory to us, but how will
it be at the close of the twentieth century? Are we not incessantly
learning the lesson that our researches have only a provisional value?
A hundred years hence shall we acquiesce in the resolution of the
material universe into a swarm of rushing electrons /
This fatal quality of atomic dissociation appears to be universal and
operates whenever we brush a piece of glass with silk; it works in the
sunshine and raindrops, and in the lightnings and flame; it prevails in
the waterfall and the stormy sea. And although the whole range of
human experience is all too short to afford a parallax whereby the date
of the extinction of matter can be calculated, protyle, the ** formless
mist,” once again may reign supreme, and the hour hand of eternity
will have completed one revolution.
, }
Ne 5 1
=
os ie Gee ee :
THE ATOMIC THEORY.4
By Prof. F. W. Ciarxes, D. Se.
One hundred years ago, on October 21, 1803, John Dalton gave this
society the first announcement of his famous atomic theory. It was
only a slight preliminary notice, a mere note appended to a memoir
upon another subject, and it attracted little or no attention. In 1804
Dalton communicated his discovery to Dr. Thomas Thomson, who at
once adopted it in his lectures, and in 1807 gave it still wider pub-
licity in a text-book. A year later Dalton published his New System
of Chemical Philosophy, and since then the history of chemistry has
been the history of the atomic theory. To celebrate Dalton’s achieve-
ment, to trace its influence upon chemical doctrine and discovery, is
the purpose of my lecture. It is an old story, and yet a new one; for
every year adds something to it, and the process of development shows
no signs of nearing an end. A theory that grows and is continually
fruitful can not be easily supplanted. Despite attacks and criticisms,
Dalton’s generalization still holds the field; and from it, as from a
parent stem, spring nearly all the other accepted theories of chemistry.
Every thought has its ancestry. Let us briefly trace the genealogy
of the atomic theory. In the very beginnings of philosophy men
sought to discover the nature of the material universe and to bring
unity out of diversity. Is matter one thing or many? Is it continu-
ous or discrete? These questions occupied the human mind before
recorded history began, and their vitality can never be exhausted.
Final answers may be unattainable, but thought will fly beyond the
boundaries of knowledge to bring back, now and then, truly helpful
tidings.
To the early Greek philosophers we must turn for our first authentic
statements of an atomic theory. Other thinkers in older civilizations
doubtless went before them; perhaps in Egypt or Babylonia, but of
them we have no certain knowledge. There is aglimpse of something
in India, but we can not say that Greece drew her inspiration thence.
For us Leucippus was the pioneer, to be followed later by Democritus
«The Wilde Lecture, delivered May 19, 1903, by Professor Clarke before the Man-
chester Literary and Philosophical Society. Reprinted from Memoirs and Proceed-
ings of the Society, Manchester, England, vol. 47, Part IV, No. 11, May 29, 1903.
243
244 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
and Epicurus. Then, in lineal succession, came the Roman, Lucretius,
who gave to the doctrine the most complete statement of all. In the
thought of these men the universe was made up of empty space in
which swam innumerable atoms. These were inconceivably small,
hard particles of matter, indivisible and indestructible, of various
shapes and sizes, and continually in motion. From their movements
and combinations all sensible matter was derived. Except that the
theory was purely qualitative and nonmathematical in form it was
curiously like the molecular hypothesis of modern physics, only with
an absolute vacuum where an intermediary ether is now assumed.
This notion of a vacuum was repellant to many minds; to conceive of
amass of matter so small that there could be none smaller was unrea-
sonable; and hence there arose the interminable controversy between
plenists and atomists which has continued to our own day.
It is, however, essentially a metaphysical controversy, and some
writers have ascribed it to a peculiar distinction between two classes
of minds. The arithmetical thinker deals primarily with number,
which is, in its nature, discontinuous, and to him a material disconti-
nuity offers no difficulties. The geometer, on the other hand, has to
do with continuous magnitudes, and a limited divisibility of anything
in space is not easy for him to conceive. But be this as it may, the
controversy was one of words rather than of realities, and its intrica-
cies have little interest for the scientific student of to-day. It is
always easier to reason about things as we imagine they ought to be,
than about things as they really are, and the latter procedure became
practicable only after experimental science was pretty far advanced.
The Greeks were deficient in physical knowledge, and, therefore, their
speculations remained speculations only, mere intellectual gymnastics
of no direct utility to mankind. They sought to determine the nature
of things by the exercise of reason alone, whereas science, as we under-
stand it, being less confident, seeks mainly to coordinate evidence and
to discover the general statement which shall embrace the largest
possible number of observed relations. The man of science may use
the metaphysical method as a tool, but he does so with the limitations
of definite, verifiable knowledge always in view. Intellectual stimu-
lants may be used temperately, but they need not be discarded
altogether.
From the time of Lucretius until the seventeenth century of our
era the atomistic hypothesis received little serious attention. The
philosophy of Aristotle governed all the schools of Europe, and scho-
lastic quibblings took the place of real investigation. All scholarship
lay under bondage to one master mind, and it was not until Galileo
let fall his weights from the leaning tower of Pisa that the spell of
the Stagirite was broken. Experimental science now came to the fore,
and it was seen that even Aristotelian logic must verify its premises.
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 945
The authority of evidence began to replace the authority of the
schools.
Early in the seventeenth century the atomic philosophy of Epicurus
yas revived by Gassendi, who was soon followed by Boyle, by New-
ton, and by many others. One other important step was taken also.
Boyle, in his Sceptical Chymist, gave the first scientific definition of
an element, a conception which was more fully developed by Lavoisier
later, but which received its complete modern form only after Davy
had decomposed the alkalies and shown the true nature of chlorine,
Without this preliminary work of Boyle and Lavoisier, Dalton’s
theory would hardly have been possible. An elementary atom can be
given no real definition unless we have some notion of an element to
begin with. But the strongest impulse came from Newton, who
accepted atomism in clear and unmistakable terms.
Coming before Newton, Descartes had rejected the atomic hypothe-
sis, holding that there could be no vacuum in the universe and mak-
ing matter essentially synonymous with extension. True, Descartes,
in his famous theory of vortices, imagined whirling particles of
various degrees of fineness; but they were not atoms as atoms and
molecules are now conceived. It may be dangerous to pick out land-
marks in history and to assert that such and such a movement began
at such and such a time. Nevertheless, we may fairly say that the
turning point in physical philosophy was Newton’s discovery of gravi-
tation, for that indicated mass as the fundamental property of matter.
For any given portion of matter which we can segregate and identify
extension is variable and mass is constant; when that conclusion was
established the dominance of atomism became inevitable. Boyle,
Newton, and Lavoisier were legitimate precursors of Dalton, but
whether Boscovich should be so considered is more than doubtful.
His points of force were too abstract a conception to admit of direct
application in the solution of real problems. Dalton certainly owed
nothing to Boscovich, and would just as surely have developed his
theory had the brilliant Dalmatian never written a line.
To Boyle and Newton the atomic hypothesis was a question of
natural philosophy alone, for in their day chemistry as a quantita-
tive science had hardly begun to exist. Attempts were soon made,
however, to give it chemical application, and the first of these which
I have been able to find was due to Emanuel Swedenborg. This phi-
losopher, whose reputation as a man of science has been overshadowed
by his fame as a seer and theologian, published in 1721 a pamphlet
upon chemistry, which is now more easily accessible in an English
translation of relatively recent date.“ It consists of chapters from a
larger unpublished work, and really amounts to nothing more than a
“Some Specimens of a Work on the Principles of Chemistry, with other Treatises.
London, 1847. Originally published at Amsterdam, in Latin,
246 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
sort of atomic geometry. From geometric groupings of small, con-
crete atoms the properties of different substances are deduced, but in
a way which is more curious than instructive.. Between the theory
and the facts there is no obvious relation. The book was absolutely
without influence upon chemical thought or discovery, and therefore
it has escaped general notice. It is the prototype of a class of specu-
lative treatises, considerable in number, some of them recent, and all
of them futile. They represent efforts which were premature and
for which the fundamental support of experimental knowledge was
lacking.
In 1775 Dr. Bryan Higgins, of London, published the prospectus
of a course of lectures upon chemistry, in which the atomic hypothesis
was strongly emphasized. It was still, however, only a hypothesis,
quite as ineffectual as Swedenborg’s attempt, and it led to nothing.
Dr. Higgins recognized seven elements—earth, water, alkali, acid, air,
phlogiston, and light—each one consisting of ‘atoms homogeneal,”
these being ‘‘impenetrable, immutable in figure, inconvertible,” and
all ‘‘olobular, or nearly so.” He speculated upon the attractions and
repulsions between these bodies, but he seems to have solved no prob-
lem and to have suggested no research. William Higgins, on the
other hand, whose work appeared in 1789, showed more insight into
the requirements of true science and had some notions concerning
definite and multiple proportions. His conception of atomic union to
form molecules was fairly clear, but the distinct statement of a quan-
titative law was just beyond his reach. In 1814, however, when Dal-
ton’s discoveries were widely known and accepted, Higgins published
a reclamation of priority.“ In this, with much bitterness, he claims to
have completely anticipated Dalton, a claim which no modern reader
has been able to allow. In Robert Angus Smith’s Memoir of John
Dalton and History of the Atomic Theory,’ the work of Bryan and
William Higgins is quite thoroughly discussed, and therefore we need
not consider the matter any more fully now. We see that atomic
theories were receiving the attention of chemists long before Dalton’s
time, although none of them went much beyond the speculative stage
or was given serviceable form. They were dim foreshadowings of
science; nothing more.
In order that ‘a new thought shall be acceptable, certain prerequisite
conditions must be fulfilled. If the ground is not prepared, the seed
can not be fruitful; if men are not ready, no harvest will be reaped.
Only when the time is ripe, only when long lines of evidence have
begun to converge, can a new theory command attention. Dalton’s
«Experiments and Observations on the Atomic Theory and Electrical Phenomena.
By Williams Higgins, esq., ete. Dublin, 1814.
6 Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, second series,
vol. 13, 1856.
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 947
opportunity came at the right moment, and he knew how to use it well.
Elements had been defined; the constancy of matter was established;
pneumatic chemistry was well developed, and great numbers of quan-
titative analyses awaited interpretation. The foundations were ready
for the master builder, and Dalton was the man. His theory could at
once be tested by the accumulated data, and when that had been done
it was found to be worthy of acceptance.
It is not my purpose to discuss in detail the processes of Dalton’s
mind. The story is told in his own notebooks, which have been given
to the public by Roscoe and Harden,” and it has been sufliciently dis-
cussed by others. We now know that Dalton was thoroughly imbued
with the corpuscular ideas of Newton and that, when studying the dif-
fusion of gases, he was led to the belief that the atoms of different
substances must be different in size. Upon applying this hypothesis
to chemical problems he discovered that these differences were in one
sense measurable and that to every element a single, definite, com-
bining number, the relative weight of its atom, could be assigned.
From this, the law of definite proportions logically followed, for
fractions of atoms were inadmissible; and the law of multiple propor-
tions, which Dalton worked out experimentally, completed the gen-
eralization. The conception that all combination must take place in
fixed proportions was not new, and, indeed, despite the objections of
Berthollet, was generally assumed; but the atomic theory gave a rea-
son for the law and made it intelligible. The idea of multiple propor-
tions had also occurred, although incompletely, to others; but the
determination of atomic weights was altogether original and novel.
The new atomic theory, which figured chemical union. as a juxtaposi-
tion of atoms, coordinated all of these relations and gave to chemistry
for the first time an absolutely general quantitative basis. The tables
of Richter and Fischer, who preceded Dalton, dealt only with special
vases of combination, but they established regularities which rendered
sasier the acceptance of the new and broader teachings. The earlier
atomic speculations were all purely qualitative and incapable of exact
application to specific problems; Dalton created a working tool of
extraordinary power and usefulness. Between the atom of Lucretius
and the Daltonian atom the kinship is very remote.
Dalton was not a learned man, in the sense of mere erudition, but
perhaps his limitations did him no harm. Too much learning is some-
times in the way, and clogs the flight of that imagination by which the
greatest discoveries are made. The man who could not see the forest
because of the trees was a good type of that scholarship which never
«A New View of the Origin of Dalton’s Atomic Theory, etc. By Sir Henry E,
Roseoe and Arthur Harden. London, 1896. See also Debus, in Zeits. Physikal.
Chem., Bd. 20, p. 359, and a rejoinder by Roscoe and Harden in Bd. 22, p. 241.
suit IMB e 1/77
248 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
not generalize. In some ways, doubtless, Dalton was narrow, and he
failed to recognize the improvements which other men soon intro-
duced into his system. The chemical symbols which he proposed were
soon supplanted by the better formule invented by Berzelius, and his
views upon the densities of gases were set aside by the more exact
work of Gay Lussac, which Dalton never fully appreciated. As an
experimenter he was crude and excelled by several of his contempo-
raries; his tables of atomic weights, or rather equivalents, were only
rough approximations to the true values. These defects, however,
are only spots upon the sun and in no wise diminish his glory. Dal-
ton transformed an art into science, and his influence upon chemistry
was never greater than it is to-day. The truth of this statement will
appear when we trace, step by step, the development of chemical doc-
trine. The guiding clue, from first to last, is Dalton’s atomic theory.
Although Dalton first announced his theory in 1803, the publication
of his ‘‘system” in 1808 marks the culmination of his labors. The
memorable controversy between Proust and Berthollet had by this
time exhausted its force, and nearly all chemists were satisfied that
the law of definite or constant proportions must be true. The idea of
multiple proportions was also easily accepted; and as for the combin-
ing numbers, they, after various revisions, came generally into use.
The atomic conception, however, made its way more slowly, for the
fear of metaphysics still governed many acute minds. Davy especially
was late in yielding to it, but in time even his conversion was effected.
Thomson, as we have already noted, was the earliest and most enthu-
siastic disciple of the new system, and Wollaston, although cautiously
preferring the term ‘‘ equivalent” to that of atomic weight, made
useful contributions to the theory. These names mark the childhood
of the doctrine before its vigorous growth had thoroughly begun.
The development of the atomic theory followed two distinct lines,
the one chemical, the other physical, in direction. On the chemical
side the leader was Berzelius, who began in 1811 the publication of his
colossal researches upon definite proportions. At first he seems to
have been influenced by Richter rather than by Dalton, but that bias
was only temporary. For more than thirty years Berzelius continued
these labors, inventing symbols, establishing formule, and determining
atomic weights. He, above all other men, made the atomic theory
applicable to general use, a universal tool suited to practical purposes.
Turner, Penny, Erdmann, and others did noble work of the same
order, but Berzelius overshadowed them all. Throughout his long
vareer he was almost the dictator of chemistry.
It was on the physical side, however, that the theory of Dalton was
most profoundly modified. First came the researches of Gay Lussac,
who, in 1808, showed that combination between gases always took
place in simple relations by volume, and also that all gaseous densities
were proportional either to the combining weights of the several sub-
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 249
stances, or to rational multiples thereof. In 1511 Avogadro general-
ized the new evidence and brought forward the great law which is
now known by his name. Equal volumes of gases, under like condi-
tions of temperature and pressure, contain equal numbers of molecules.
Mass and volume were thus covered by one simple expression, and
both were connected with the weights of the fundamental atoms.
Avogadro, moreover, distinguished clearly between atoms and mole-
cules, a distinction which is of profound importance to chemistry,
although it is not always properly appreciated by students of physics.
The molecule of to-day, which is usually, but not always, a cluster of
atoms, is identical with the atom of the pre-Daltonian philosophers;
while the chemical unit represents a new order of divisibility which
the ancients could never have imagined. A molecule of water was
easily conceived by them, but its decomposition into smaller and
simpler particles-of oxygen and hydrogen, the chemical atoms, was far
beyond the range of their knowledge. That the distinction is not
always borne in mind by physicists is illustrated by the fact that in
Clerk Maxwell’s article *‘Atom,” in the Encyclopedia Britannica,
Dalton is not even mentioned, and the phenomena there selected for
discussion are molecular only.
Maxwell was surely not ignorant of the difference between atoms
and molecules, but his knowledge had not reached the point of com-
plete realization. His thought was of molecules, and so Maxwell
unconsciously neglected the real subject of his chapter—the atom. Of
late years many essays upon the atomic theory have been written
from the physical side, and few of them have been free from this par-
ticular ambiguity. At first a similar error was committed by chem-
ists, who paid small attention to Avogadro’s law, and so the latter
failed to exert much influence upon chemical thought until more than
forty years after its promulgation. The relation discovered by Dulong
and Petit in 1819, that the specific heat of a metal was inversely pro-
portional to its atomic weight, was more speedily accepted; but even
this law did not receive its full application until many years later.
To apply either of these laws to chemical theory involved a clearer
discrimination between atomic weights and equivalents than was pos-
sible at the beginning. A long period of doubt and controversy was
to work itself out before the full force of the physical evidence could
be appreciated. Mitscherlich’s researches upon isomorphism were
more fortunate, and gave immediate help in the determination of
atomic weights and the settlement of formule. For the moment we
need only note that the chemical atom was the underlying conception
by means of which all these lines of testimony were to be unified.
From Dalton and Gay-Lussac to Frankland and Cannizzaro was a
time of fermentation, discussion, and discovery. In chemistry, con-
trary to the saying of the preacher, there were many new things under
the sun, and some of the discoveries were most suggestive. First, it
950 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
was found that certain groups of atoms could be transferred from com-
pound to compound, almost as if they were veritable elements; and
radicles, such as ammonium, cyanogen, and benzoyl, were generally
recognized. I say ‘‘ groups of atoms” advisedly, for as such they were
regarded, and they could hardly have been interpreted otherwise.
Then came the discovery of isomerism; of the fact that two substances
could be strikingly different, and yet composed of the same elements
in exactly the same proportions. This was only explicable upon the
supposition that the atoms were differently arranged within the iso-
meric molecules, and it led investigators more and more to the study
of chemical or molecular structure. Without the atomic theory the
phenomena would have been hopelessly bewildering; with its aid they
were easy to understand and fertile in suggestions for research. Still
another link in the chain of chemical reasoning was forged by Dumas
when he proved that the hydrogen of organic compounds was often
replaceable, atom for atom, by chlorine. Sometimes the replacement
was complete, sometimes it was only partial, and the latter cases were
the most significant. In acetic acid, for example, one, two, or three
fourths of the hydrogen could be successively replaced, but the last
fourth was permanently retained. Hydrogen, then, was combined in
acetic acid in two different ways, one part yielding its place to chlo-
rine, the other being unaffected. This behavior was soon found to be
by no means exceptional: indeed, it was very common, and it opened
a new line of attack upon the problems of chemical constitution. The
existence of radicles, the formation of isomers, and the substitution
of one element by another were facts which strengthened the atomic
theory and seemed to be incapable of reasonable interpretation upon
other terms. Their connection with one another, however, was not
well understood, and wearisome discussions preceded their coordina-
tion under one general law.
With the tedious controversies which distracted chenists between
1830 and 1850 we have nothing now to do; they were important in
their day, but they do not come within the scope of the present argu-
ment. Theory after theory was advanced, prospered for a time, and
then decayed, and chemical literature is crowded with their fossil
remains. Each one, doubtless, indicated an advance in knowledge;
but each one also exaggerated the importance of some special set of
relations and so overshot the mark. During this period, however.
Faraday discovered the law of electrolysis which is now known by his
name, and the chemical equivalents were thereby given another exten :
sionof meaning. The electro-chemical theories of Berzelius had fallen
to the ground, but Faraday’s law came as a permanent addition to the
physical side of chemistry.
During the sixth decade of the nineteenth century two important
forward steps were taken. ‘The kinetic theory of gases gave new force
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 951
to Avogadro’s law, and made its complete recognition by chemists
necessary. Atoms, molecules, equivalents, and atomic weights needed
to be more sharply defined, and in this work many chemists shared.
Berzelius had proposed a system of atomic weights which differed,
except in the value taken for its base, but little from the one now in
use. This was abandoned for a table devised by Gmelin, in which the
laws of Avogadro and of Dulong and Petit were almost if not entirely
ignored. Laurent and Gerhardt attempted to reform the system, but
it was left for Cannizzaro, in 1858, to succeed. By doubling some of
the currently accepted atomic weights order was introduced into the
prevailing chaos, and the chemical constants were brought into har-
mony with the physical laws. The modern atomic weights and our
present chemical notation may be dated from this time, even though
the preliminary anticipations of them were neither few nor incon-
spicuous.
The second great step forward was accomplished through the labors
of several men. Frankland and Kekulé were foremost among them,
but Couper, Odling, Williamson, Wurtz, and Hofmann all contributed
their share to the upbuilding of a new chemistry of which the doctrine
of valency was the corner stone. A new property of the chemical
atom was brought to light, and structural or rational formule became
possible. Each atom was shown to have a fixed capacity for union
with other atoms, a capacity which could be given numerical expression,
and from this discovery important consequences followed. An atom
of hydrogen unites with one other atom only; the atom of oxygen
may combine with two; that of nitrogen with three or five; while
‘arbon has capacity for four. All unions of atoms to atoms within a
molecule are governed by conditions of this order, and the limitations
thus imposed determine the possibilities of combination in a given
class of compounds. In organic chemistry the conception of valency
has been most fruitful, and it has shown the prophetic power which
is characteristic of all good theories. It explains radicles and isomers;
it predicts whole classes of compounds in advance of their actual dis-
covery; and it has guided economic investigations from which creat
industries have sprung. The former partial theories regarding chem-
ical constitution fell into their proper places under the new generali-
zation, for that was broad enough to comprehend them all. All con-
stitutional chemistry depends upon this property of the atoms, and
any other adequate foundation for it would be difficult to find.
I have said that the discovery of valency explained the phenomena
of isomerism. Indeed, it enabled chemists to foresee the existence of
new isomers and it established the conditions under which such com-
pounds could exist. And yet, in one direction at least, its power was
limited and substances were found which the theory could not interpret.
Tartaric acid, for example, exists in two modifications, differing in
Dye THE ATOMIC THEORY.
crystalline form and in their action upon polarized light. One acid
was dextrorotatory, the other levorotatory, while a mixture of the
two in equal proportions was neutral to the polarized beam, and gave
no rotation at all. Their crystals exhibited a similar difference in the
arrangement of certain planes, one set being right-handed, the other
left-handed; and each crystal resembled its isomer like a reflection in
amirror, alike, but reversed. Fora long time this physical isomerism,
as it was called, remained inexplicable, for the rules of valency gave
to both molecules the same structure and offered no hint as to the
cause of the difference. Structural formule, however, said nothing of
the arrangement of the atoms in tridimensional space and it was soon
suspected that the root of the difficulty was here. The mere linking
of the atoms with one another could be represented in a single plane,
but that was obviously an imperfect symbolism.
In 1874 van’t Hoff and Le Bel, working independently of each other,
suggested a solution of the problem. One simple assumption was
enough; merely that the quadrivalent carbon atom was essentially a
tetrahedron or, more precisely, that its four units of chemical attrac-
tion were exerted from a common center in the direction of four tetra-
hedral angles. Atoms of that kind could be built up into structures in
which right-handedness and left-handedness of arrangement appeared,
provided only that each one was united with four other atoms or
groups all different in nature. Stereochemistry was born, the anom-
alies vanished, and many new substances showing optical and crystal-
line properties analogous to those of tartaric acid were soon prepared.
The theory of van’t Hoff and Le Bel was fertile, and therefore it was
justified; it interpreted another set of phenomena, but in order to do
so something like atomic form had first to be assumed. It was only ¢
new extension of Dalton’s atomic theory, but it has suggested a future
development of extraordinary significance. If we can determine, not
merely the linking of the atoms, but also their arrangement in space,
we should be able, sooner or later, to establish a connection between
chemical composition and crystalline form. The architecture of the
molecule and the architecture of the crystal must surely in some way
be related. But the problem is exceedingly complex, and we may have
to wait many years before we reach its solution. The atomic theory
still has room to grow.
Let us now turn back in time and consider another phase of our
subject. In 1815 Prout suggested that the atomic weights of all the
elements were even multiples of that of hydrogen. It was only a
speculation on the part of Prout, and yet it led to important conse-
quences, for it opened a discussion upon the nature of the chemical
elements, and it pointed to hydrogen as the primal matter of the uni-
verse. Prout’s: hypothesis, therefore, became a subject of controversy.
It found many supporters and also many antagonists; but, fortunately,
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 25
one aspect of it was capable of experimental investigation. Some of
the most exact and elaborate determinations of atomic weight have
been made with the direct purpose of testing the truth or falsity of
Prout’s speculation, and science thereby has been notably enriched.
The marvelous researches of Stas, for instance, had this specific object
in view. The verdict was finally unfavorable to Prout. At least, the
best measurements fail to support his idea; but it still has advoeates
who believe that the experimental data are vitiated by unknown
errors, and that future investigations will reverse the decision. In
science there is no court of last appeal.
Prout’s hypothesis, then, stimulated the determination of atomic
weights, and so helped us to a more accurate knowledge of them. It
also led to a search for other relations between these constants, and
thus paved the way for important discoveries. Ddébereiner, Kremers,
Dumas, Pettenkofer, Cooke, and many other chemists published
memoirs upon this theme, but not one of them was general or con-
clusive.“ Groups of elements were compared and relations were
brought to light, but an exhaustive study of the question was hardly
possible until after Cannizzaro had revised the atomic weights and
indicated their proper values.
In 1865 Newlands presented before the London Chemical Society a
communication upon the law of octaves, in which he showed that the
elements, when arranged in the order of their atomic weights, exhibited
a certain regular recurrence of properties. Unfortunately, his views
were not given serious attention, and even met with ridicule, but they
contained the germ of the great truth. It was reserved for the Rus-
sian, Mendeléeff, four years later, to-completely formulate the famous
periodic law. |
Mendeléeff arranged the elements in tabular form, still following
the order of their atomic weights. A periodic variation of their
properties, including the property of valency, at once became evident;
and although the scheme was, and still is, open to some criticism,
its importance could hardly be denied. In the table certain gaps
appeared, presumably belonging to unknown elements, and for three
of these some remarkable predictions were made. The hypothetical
elements were described by Mendeléeff, their atomic weights were
assigned, and their physical properties foretold, and in due time the
prophecies were verified. The three metals—gallium, scandium, and
germanium—have since been discovered, and they correspond very
closely with Mendeléeff’s anticipations. His general conclusion was
that all of the physical properties of the chemical elements are periodic
functions of their atomic weights, and this conclusion, I think, is no
«A very full account of these attempts is given in Venable’s book, The Develop-
ment of the Periodic Law, published at Easton, Pa., in 1896.
954 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
longer seriously doubted. The curves of atomic volumes and melting
points which Lothar Meyer afterwards constructed give strong sup-
port to this view.
The periodic system, then, gives to the numbers discovered by Dalton
a much more profound significance than he ever imagined, and is
destined to connect a great mass of physical data in one general law.
That law we now see, ‘‘as in a glass, darkly;” its complete mathemat-
ical expression is yet to be found, but I believe that it will be fully
developed within the near future. We may have aspiral curve to deal
with, as in the schemes proposed by Stoney or by Crookes, or else a
vibratory expression like that suggested by Emerson Reynolds in his
presidential address before the Chemical Society last year; but in
some form the periodicity of the elements must be recognized, and
one set of relations will connect them all.
In the arrangement proposed by Reynolds the inert gases, the
elements of zero valency, appear at the nodes of a vibrating curve—a
circumstance which gives this method of presentation a peculiar force;
but for the consideration of physical properties the curves drawn by
Lothar Meyer seem likely to be the most useful. In one respect,
however, the periodic system is still defective—it fails to take ade-
quately into account the numerical relations between the atomic
weights, a phase of the problem which should not be ignored. Such
relations exist; some of them have been indicated by your distinguished
fellow-member, Doctor Wilde; and, elusive as they may seem to be,
they are surely not meaningless. The final law must cover the entire
ground, and then atomic weights, physical properties, and valency
will be completely correlated. Prout’s hypothesis is discredited, and
yet it may prove to be a crude first approximation to some deeper
truth, as the probability calculations of Mallet“ and of Strutt? would
seem to indicate. The approaches of the atomic weights to whole
numbers are too close and too frequent to be regarded as purely acci-
dental. But this is aside from our main question. The real point to
note is that the physical properties of the elements are all interde-
pendent, and that the fundamental constants are the atomic masses.
Do I seem to exaggerate? Then look for a moment at the present
condition of physical chemistry, and see how moderate my statements
really are. We have not only the laws already mentioned, of Avo-
gadro, of Dulong and Petit, of Faraday and of Mendeléeff, but also a
multitude of relations connecting the physical constants of bodies with
their chemical character. Even the wave lengths of the spectral lines
are related to the atomic weights of the several elements, as has been
shown by the researches of Runge and his colleagues, of Rummel,’
@Phil. Trans., vol. 171, 1881, p. 1003.
b Phil. Mag. (6), 1, p. 311.
€Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, vol. 10, Part. I, p. 75.
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 955
and of Marshall Watts.“ If we try to study the specific gravity of
solids or liquids, the only clews to regularity are furnished by the
atomic ratios. Atomic and molecular volumes give us the only
approximations to anything like order. Similarly, we speak of atomic
and molecular refraction, of molecular rotation for polarized light, of
molecular conductivity, and the like. In Trouton’s law the latent heat
of vaporization of any liquid becomes a function of the molecular
weight. And, finally, all thermochemical measurements are meaning-
less until they have been stated in terms of gram molecular weights;
then system begins to appear. Chaos rules until the atomic or molec-
ular weight is taken into account; with that considered, the reign of
order begins.
Even to the study of solutions the same conditions apply. Sub-
stances in solution exert pressure, and in this respect they closely
resemble gases. Van’t Hoff has shown that equal volumes of solu-
tions, having under like conditions equal osmotic pressures, contain
equal numbers of molecules, and thus Avogadro’s gas law is curiously
paralleled. The two laws are even equivalent in their anomalies. The
abnormal density of a gas is explained by its dissociation, and the
variations from van’t Hoff’s law are explicable in the same way. The
theory of ionic or electrolytic dissociation, proposec by Arrhenius,
shows that certain substances, when dissolved, are split up into their
ions, and through this conception the analogy between gases and
solutions is made absolutely complete. The ions, however, are atoms
or groups of atoms, and just as Avogadro’s law is applied to the deter-
mination of molecular weights among gases, so van’t Hoff’s rules enable
us to measure the molecular weights of substances in solution. The
atom, the molecule, and the molecular weight enter into all of these
new generalizations. In short, if we take the atomic theory out of
chemistry we shall have little left but a dust heap of unrelated facts.
I have now indicated briefly, and in outline only, the influence of the
atomic theory upon the development of chemical thought. Details
have been purposely omitted; the salient facts are enough for my pur-
pose, and they make, at least for chemists, an exceedingly strong case.
The convergence of the testimony is remarkable, and when we add to
the chemical evidence that which is offered by physics, the theory
becomes overwhelmingly strong. This side of the question I can not
attempt to discuss, but I may in passing just refer to Professor
Riicker’s presidential address before the British Association in 1901,
which covers the ground admirably. The atomic theory has had no
better vindication.
And yet from time to time we are told that the theory has outlived
its usefulness, and that it is now a hindrance rather than a help to
«Phil. Mag. (6), 5, 203.
256 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
science. Some of the objectors are quite dogmatic in their utterances;
some only seek to eyade the theory without going to the extreme of
an absolute denial, and still others, more timid, assume an apologetic
tone, as if the atom were something like a poor relation—to be recog-
nized and tolerated, but not to be encouraged too far. Now, caution
is a good thing if it is not allowed to degenerate into indecision; when
that happens mental obscurity is the result. In science we must have
intellectual resting places; something to serve as a foundation for our
thinking; something concrete and tangible in form. No theory is
immune against hypercriticism; none is absolute and final. With these
considerations borne in mind we may ask whether a doctrine is sery-
iceable or not and we can use it without fear. When we say that
matter, as we know it, behaves as if it were made up of very small,
discrete particles we do not lose ourselves in metaphysics, and we have
a definite conception which can be applied to the correlation of evt-
dence and the solution of problems. Objections count for nothing
against it until something better is offered in its stead—a condition
which the critics of the atomic theory have so far failed to fulfill.
They give us no real substitute for it, no other working tool, and so
their objections, which are too often metaphysical in character, com-
mand little serious attention. Criticism is useful just so far as it helps
to clarify our thinking; when it becomes a mere agent of destruction
it loses force.
Broadly speaking, then, the modern critics of the atomic theory
have shaken it but little. Still, some serious attempts have been made
toward forming an alternative system of chemistry, oF at least a system
in which the atom shall not avowedly appear. The most serious and
perhaps the most elaborate of these devices was that brought forward
in 1866 by Sir Benjamin Brodie“ in his Calculus of Chemical Opera-
tions, which he defended later (1880) in a little book entitled Ideal
Chemistry. In this curious investigation Brodie tries to avoid
hypotheses and to represent chemical acts as operations upon the unit
of space by which weights are generated. This notion is alittle difficult
to grasp, but Brodie’s procedure was perfectly legitimate. His one
fundamental assumption is that hydrogen is so generated by a single
operation, and upon this he erects a system of symbols which, treated
mathematically, lead to some remarkable conclusions. For instance,
chlorine, bromine, iodine, nitrogen, and phosphorus become com-
pounds of hydrogen with as many unknown or ‘‘ideal” elements,
which no actual analysis has yet identified. That is, the known phe-
nomena of chemistry seem to be less simply interpreted by Brodie’s
calculus than in our commonly accepted theories, and certain classes
of phenomena are not considered at all. It is true that Brodie never
completed his work, but it is not easy to see how his notation and
@ Phil Trans., 1866. A second part in 1877.
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 957
reasoning could have accounted for isomerism, much less for the facts
which stereochemistry seeks to explain.
Just here we find the prime difficulty of all attempts to evade the
atomic theory. Up to a certain point we can easily dispense with it,
for we can start with the fact that every element has a definite com-
bining number, and then, without any assumptions as to the ultimate
meaning of these constants we can show that other constants are
intimately connected with them. So far we can ignore the origin of
the so-called atomic weight; but the moment we encounter the facts
of isomerism or chemical structure, and of the partial substitution of
one element by another, our troubles begin. The atomic theory con-
nects all of these data together and gives the mind a simple reason
for the relations which are observed. We can not be satisfied with
mere equations; our thought will seek for that which lies behind
them; and so the antitheorist fails to accomplish his purpose because
he leaves the human mind out of account. The reasoning instrument
has its own laws and requirements, and they, as well as the empirical
observations of science, must be satisfied. Even in astronomy the law
of gravitation is not enough; men are continually striving to ascertain
its cause, and no number of failures can prevent them from trying
again and yet again to penetrate into the heart of the mystery. In
the atomic theory the same tendency is at work, and the very nature
of the atom itself, that thing which we can neither see nor handle, has
become a legitimate subject for our questionings. Shall we, having
gone so far, assume that we can go no farther?
‘All roads lead to Rome.” If we accept the atomic theory, we
sooner, or later find ourselves speculating about the reality of the
atom, and at last we come face to face with the old, old problem of
the unity or diversity of matter. We can, if we choose, employ the
theory as a working tool only and shut our ears to these profounder
questions, but it is not easy to do so. What is the chemical atom?
Is all matter ultimately one substance? We may be unable to solve
either problem, and yet we can examine the evidence and see which
way it points.
I think that all philosophical chemists are now of the belief that the
elements are not absolutely distinct and separate entities. In favor
of their elementary nature we have only negative evidence, the mere
fact that with our present resources we are unable to decompose them
into simpler forms. On that side of the argument there is nothing
more. Onthe other hand, we see that the elements are bound together
by the most intimate relations, so much so that unknown elements can
be accurately described in advance of their discovery, and facts like
these call for an explanation. Something belonging to the elements
in common seems to underlie them all. If, however, we study the
atomic weights, we are forced to observe that the elements do not
258 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
shade into one another continuously, but that they vary by leaps
which are sometimes relatively large, and sometimes quite small. To
Mendeléeff this irregular discontinuity isan argument against the unity
of matter, or rather an indication that the periodic law lends no sup-
port to the belief; but such a conclusion isunnecessary. If the funda-
mental matter, the ‘‘ protyle,” as Crookes has called it, is itself discon-
tinuous and atomic in structure, the same property must be shown in
all of its aggregations, and so the difficulties seen by Mendeléeff dis-
appear. The chemical atoms become clusters of smaller particles,
whose relative magnitudes are as yet unknown.
That bodies smaller than atoms really exist is the conclusion reached
by J. J. Thomson“ from his researches upon the ionization of gases.
According to him, this phenomenon *‘ consists in the detachment from
the atom of a negative ion,” this being *‘ the same for all gases.” He
regards ‘‘the atom as containing a large number of smaller bodies,”
which he calls ‘‘corpuscles,” and these are equal to one another. ‘‘In
the normal atom this assemblage of corpuscles forms a system which
is electrically neutral.” It must be borne in mind that these conclu-
sions are drawn by Thomson from the study of one class of phenomena,
and it is of course possible that they may not be finally sustained.
Their value to us at the present moment lies in their suggestiveness
and in the curious way in which they reenforce other arguments of
similar purport. The possibility that the chemical atoms can be
actually broken down into smaller particles of one and the same kind
is, to say the least, startling, but it can not be disregarded. The evi-
dence obtained by Thomson is, so far as it goes, positive, and it is
entitled to receive due weight in all discussions of our present problem.
It is the first direct testimony that we have been able to obtain, all
previous evidence being either negative or circumstantial. It may be
misinterpreted, but it is not to be pushed aside.
In direct line with the inferences of Thomson are the results obtained
by Rutherford and Soddy in their researches upon radio-activity.
Here, again, we have a subject so new that all opinions concerning it
must be held open to revision, but, so far as we have yet gone, the
evidence seems to point in one way. Rutherford and Soddy? have
studied especially the emanations given off by thorium, and conclude
that from this element a new body is continually generated in which
the radio-activity steadily decays. This loss of emanative power is in
some sort of equilibrium with the rate of its formation. When tho-
rium js ‘‘de-emanated,” it slowly regains its emanative power. The
emanation is a ‘*chemically inert gas, analogous in nature to the mem-
bers of the argon family.” The final conclusion is that radio-activity
may be *‘ considered as a manifestation of subatomic chemical change.”
“Phil. Mag. (5), 48, p. 547. Also Popular Science Monthly, August, 1901.
b Phil. Mag. (6), 4, pp. 395, 581.
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 259
This word *‘ subatomic” is one of ominous import. It implies atomic
complexity, and it also suggests something more. The property of
‘adio-activity is most strikingly exhibited by the metals radium, tho-
rium, and uranium; and these have the highest atomic weights of any
elements known. If the elements are complex, these are the most
complex, and therefore, presumably, the most unstable. Are they in
the act of breaking down? Is there a degradation of matter compar-
able with the dissipation of energy? We can ask these questions, but
we may have to wait long for a reply. There is, however, another
side to the shield, and the universe gives us glimpses of a generative
process, an elementary evolution.
The truth or falsity of the nebular hypothesis is still an open ques-
tion. It is a plausible hypothesis, however, and commands many
strong arguments in its favor. We can see the nebule and prove
them to be clouds. of incandescent gas; we can trace a progressive
development of suns and systems, and at the end of the series we have
the habitable planet wpon which we dwell. The nebular hypothesis
accounts for the observed condition of things, and is therefore by
most men regarded as satisfactory. But this is not all of the story.
Chemically speaking, the nebule are exceedingly simple in composition;
the whiter and hotter stars are a little more complex; then come stars
like our sun, and finally the finished planets, with their many chemical
elements and their myriads of compounds. Here again we have evi-
dence bearing upon our problem, evidence which led me,” more than
thirty years ago, to suggest that the evolution of planets from nebule
had been accompanied by an evolution of the elements themselves.
This thought, stated in a reversed form, has since been developed and
amplified by Lockyer, and it is doubtless familiar to you all. In the
development of the heavenly bodies we seem to see the growth of the
elements; do we, in the phenomena of radio-activity, witness their
decay? This is a startling, possibly a rash, speculation, but it rests
upon evidence which must be considered and weighed.
We have, then, various lines of convergent testimony, and there are
more which I might have cited, all pointing to the conclusion that the
chemical atoms are complex, and that elemental matter, in the last
analysis, is not of many kinds. That there is but one fundamental
substance is not proved; and yet the probability in favor of such an
assumption must be conceded. Assuming it to be true, what, then, is
the nature of the Daltonian atom?
To the chemist the simplest answer to this question is that fur-
nished by the researches of J. J. Thomson, to which reference has
already been made. A cluster of smaller particles or corpuscles satis-
fies the conditions that chemistry imposes on the problem, their ulti-
mate nature being left out of account. For chemical purposes we
eo
fo.
a**yvolution and the spectroscope,’’ Popular Science Monthly, January, 18
260 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
need not inquire whether the corpuscles are divisible or indivisible,
although for other lines of investigation this question may be perti-
nent. But, no matter how far we may push our analysis, we must
always see that something still lies beyond us and realize that nature
has no assignable boundaries. That which philosophers call ‘‘ the
absolute” or ‘*the unconditioned” is forever out of our reach.
Through many theories men have sought to get back a little farther.
Among these Lord Kelvin’s theory of vortex atoms is perhaps the
most conspicuous and certainly the best known. It presupposes an
ideal perfect fluid, continuous, homogeneous, and incompressible;
portions of this in rotation form the vortex rings, which, when once
set in motion by some creative power, move on indestructibly forever.
These rings may be single or linked or knotted together, and they
are the material atoms. The assumed permanence of the atom is thus
accounted for and given at least a mathematical validity, but we have
already seen that the chemical units may not be quite so simple. The
ultimate corpuscles, to use J. J. Thomson’s words, may be vortex
rings; the chemical atom is much more complex. On this theory
chemical union has been explained by supposing that vortices are
assembled in rotation about one another, forming groups which are
permanent under certain conditions and yet are capable of being
broken down. The vortex ring is eternal; its groupings are transi-
tory. This is a plausible and fascinating theory; if only we can
imagine the ideal perfect fluid and apply to it the laws of motion;
that done, all else follows. Unfortunately, however, the fundamental
conception is difficult to grasp and still more difficult to apply. So
far it has done little or nothing for chemistry; it has brought forth
no discoveries nor stimulated chemical research; we can only say that
it does not seem to be imcompatible with what we think we know. In
a certain way it unifies the two opposing conceptions of atomism and
plenism, and this may be, after all, its chief merit.
But there are later theories than that of Kelvin, and some of them
are most daring. For instance, Professor Larmor regards electricity
as atomic in its nature, and supposes that there are two kinds of
atoms— positive and negative electrons. These electrons are regarded
as centers of strain in the ether, and matter is thought to consist of
clusters of electrons in orbital motion round one another. Still more
recently Prof. Osborne Reynolds, in his Rede lecture,” has offered us
an even more startling solution of our problem. He replaces the con-
ventional ether by a granular medium, generally homogeneous, closely
packed, and having a density ten thousand times that of water. Here
and there the medium is strained, producing what Reynolds calls
** singular surfaces of misfit” between the normally piled grains and
@On an Inversion of Ideas as to the Structure of the Universe. Cambridge, 1903.
The Rede lecture, delivered June 10, 1902.
THE ATOMIC THEORY. 261
their partially displaced neighbors. These surfaces are wave-like in
character and constitute what we recognize as ordinary matter.
Where they exist there is a local deficiency of mass, so that matter is
less dense than its surroundings; and this, as Reynolds has said,
is a complete inversion of the ideas which we now hold. Matter is
measured by the absence of the mass which is needed to complete a
normal piling of the grains in the medium. In other words, it might
be defined as the defect of the universe. The ‘singular surfaces”
already mentioned are molecules, which may cohere, but can not pass
through one another, and they preserve their individuality.
Possibly I may misapprehend this theory, for it has been published
in amost concise form, and the reasoning upon which it rests is not
given in detail. I can not criticise it, but I may offer some sugges-
tions. If matter consists of waves in a universal medium, how does
chemical union take place? Shall we conceive of hydrogen as repre-
sented by one set of waves and nitrogen as represented by another,
the two differing only in amplitude? If so, when they combine to
form ammonia there should be eitber a superposition of one set upon
the other, or else a complex system might be found showing interfer-
ence phenomena. But would not the latter supposition imply a
destruction of matter as matter is defined by the theory? Could one
such wave coalesce with or neutralize another? ‘To conceive of a union
of waves without interference is not easy, but the facts of chemical
combination must be taken into account. When we remember that
compounds exist containing hundreds of atoms within the molecule, we
begin to realize the difficulties which a complete theory of matter must
overcome. Chemical and physical evidence must be taken together;
neither can solve the problem alone. At present the simplest concep-
tion for the mind to grasp is that of an aggregation of particles.
Beyond this all is confusion, and mathematical devices can help us
only a little. In speaking thus I assign no limit to the revelations of
the future; some theory, now before the world, may prove its right
to existence and survive; but none such, as yet, can be taken as defi-
nitely established. The theory which stands the test of time will not
be a figment of the imagination; it must be an expression of observed
realties. But enough of speculation; let me, before I close, say a few
words of a more practical character.
Dalton’s statue stands in Manchester, a fitting tribute to his fame.
But it is something which is finished; something on which no more
can be done; something to be seen only by the few. As a local
memorial it serves a worthy purpose, but Dalton’s true monument is
in the set of constants which he discovered, and which are in daily
use by all chemists throughout the world. Here is something that is
not finished; and here Dalton’s memory can be still further honored,
by good work, good research, honest efforts to increase our knowledge.
262 THE ATOMIC THEORY.
We have seen that the atomic weights are the fundamental constants
of all exact chemistry, and that they are almost as important also to
physics; but the mathematical law which must connect them is still
unknown. Every discovery along the line of Dalton’s theory is
another stone added to his monument, and many such discoveries are
yet to be made.
What, now, is needed? First, every atomic weight should be
determined with the utmost accuracy, and what Stas did for a few
elements ought to be done for all. This work has more than theo-
retical significance; its practical bearings are many, but it can not be
done to the best advantage along established lines. So far the investi-
gators have been a mob of individuals; they need to be organized into
an army.
Collective work, cooperative research, is now demanded, and the
men who have hitherto toiled separately should learn to pull together.
Ten men, working on a common plan, in touch with one another, can
accomplish more in a given time than a hundred solitaries. The prin-
ciples at issue are well understood; the methods of research are well
established; but the organizing power has not yet appeared. Shall
this be a great institution for research, able to take up the problems
which are too large for individuals to handle, or a voluntary cooper-
ation between men who are unselfishly inclined to attempt the work ?
This question I can not answer; doubtless it will solve itself in time;
but Iam sure that a method of collective investigation will be found
sooner or later, and that then the advance of exact knowledge will be
more rapid than ever before. When the atomic weights are all accu-
rately known, the problem of the nature of the elements will be near
its solution. Some of the wealth which chemistry has created might
well be expended for this purpose. Who will establisha Dalton labo-
ratory for research, and so give the work which he started a permanent
home 4
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.¢@
By Gusravr LE Bon.
SECTION 1. Purpose of this paper.
In 1902 we published a paper on the dissociation of matter, in which
were detailed the results of certain experiments. Continuing the
investigations on this subject, pursued for some years past, we resumed
our experiments, and these have finally shown that the phenomenon
of radio-activity, that is to say, the dissociation of atoms, at first
supposed to be peculiar to certain exceptional bodies, such as uranium
and radium, is, on the contrary, a general property of matter, and
consequently one of the most widely diffused phenomena of nature.
The aptitude of bodies to become disaggregated, emitting effluvia
analogous to the cathodic rays, and, like them, capable of traversing
material substances and generating X rays, is universal. Light
impinging upon any substance whatever, the burning of a lamp,
chemical reactions of very diverse characters, an electric discharge,
etc., may cause these efHuvia. The bodies designated as radio-active
substances, such as radium, only show in a higher degree a phenome-
non which all matter possesses in some degree.
Srorion 2.— Phenomena observed during the dissociation of matter.
The radio-activity of matter, its dissociation, is always manifested
by the emission into space of effluvia having a velocity comparable to
that of light and possessing qualities analogous to those of cathodic
‘ays, notably the quality of producing X rays as soon as they encoun-
ter an obstacle.
Numerous experiments have definitely shown the source of the vari-
ous radio-active emissions. Whether they come from the cathode of
a Crookes tube, from the radiation of a metal under the action of
light, or from the radiation of bodies spontaneously radio-active, such
as uranium, thorium, etc., these effluvia are of the same nature. They
: : . eC 5 :
undergo the same magnetic deflection; the relation—— of their charge
; dt
to their mass is the same. Their velocity alone varies, but is always
very great.
«Translated and condensed from the Revue Scientifique, 4th series, Vol. XX,
Nos. 16, 17, and 18.
sm 1903—
18 263
264 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
The cathodic rays are charged with electricity, yet can traverse thin
metallic plates connected with the earth without losing their charge.
Whenever they impinge upon an obstacle they immediately give rise
to those peculiar radiations called X rays, which differ from the
‘athodie rays in that they are not deflected by a magnet and traverse
thick metallic plates capable of averting those rays.
Cathodic rays and X rays produce electricity upon all bodies,
whether gaseous or solid, which they meet. They consequently ren-
der the air a conductor of electricity.
By measuring the deflection of the cathodic rays by an electric field
and by a magnetic field, we may estimate the velocity of the particles
composing them, and the relation _ of their charge ¢ to their mass 77.
The velocity found equals a third of that of light. If m expresses
the electric charge in coulombs, we obtain 10* for the relation ©.“
In electrolysis the relation for hydrogen is 10°, one thousand times
smaller. The charge ¢ being the same, the mass of the cathodic par-
ticle would be one one-thousandth that of the atom of hydrogen, the
smallest of known atoms. The ordinary atom would then be disso-
ciated into 1,000 parts to form the cathodic particle.
In place of a Crookes tube let us now use a substance spontaneously
very radio-active—thorium or radium, for example. We again find
most of the preceding phenomena with simple quantitative variations.
For example, we find more rays charged with negative electricity in
the Crookes tubes than in the radium emanations which are specially
charged with positive electricity; but the nature of the phenomena
observed in the two cases appears to be identical.
Radio-active bodies emit three different kinds of radiation, which
may be designated by the letters a, f, and y.
The a radiations are but slightly penetrating, are charged with
positive electricity, and form the greatest part of the emitted rays. It
is under their influence that the air becomes a conductor of electricity.
They appear to be formed by the projection of particles about the
size of a hydrogen atom—that is to say, one thousand times greater
than the particles of the # radiations; their velocity is about one-tenth
that of light. They can not be deflected except by a very powerful
magnet. ;
The f radiations are similar in all respects to the cathodic rays of a
Crookes tube. Like them they are charged with negative electricity,
“This relation varies according to different observers between 1.55 by 107 and 1.84
by 10° (in electro-magnetic units). If we adopt the latter figure we see that, it rep-
resents the enormous charge of 184 millions of coulombs per gramme of cathodic
matter. In electrolysis the charge of a gramme of hydrogen amounts to only 96,000
coulombs.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 265
and may also be deflected by a magnet, but in the opposite direction
from that taken by the @ radiations. They are the ones that produce
the photographic effects. They must be very penetrating.“ Their
velocity, according to Kaufmann, must be nearly that of light.
The y radiations are not deflected by a magnetic field and are proba-
bly similar to X rays and, like them, very penetrating. Their
velocity, according to Blondlot, must be exactly that of light; that is
to say, 300,000 kilometers per second.
Besides these various kinds of radiations which have, as we shall
see in a future paragraph, none of the properties of matter, radio-
active bodies emit, in an infinitely small quantity, an emanation hav-
ing the character of a gas, which can be condensed by means of liquid
air at a temperature of —150° and is made up, according to Ramsay, of
helium. It gives to bodies with which it comes in contact a tempo-
rary radio-activity. The product of the condensation, whose proper-
ties are shown by the action of the electrometer, is invisible and
imponderable, but it can be dissolved in certain acids, and on eyvapo-
rating the solution the radio-activity is obtained, unchanged, in the
residue.
The effluvia of radio-active bodies have very active physiological
properties that have already been studied by many observers. Con-
centrated radium, even when incased by a metallic envelope, burns
the skin. It paralyzes bacteria.
Induced radio-activity, discovered by Rutherford, is that phe-
nomenon by virtue of which radio-active bodies, especially in solution,
communicate for some time their radio-activity to surrounding bodies,
either insulating or conducting. It seems quite evident that in this
case we are dealing with material substances, since induced radio-
activity is not effected through glass and mica, and may be carried to
a distance from radio-active bodies. On blowing the disengaged par-
ticles through a coiled tube and projecting them upon any body what-
ever, the latter soon acquires a temporary radio-activity.
It is by induced radio-activity that is produced the phosphorescence
of sulphide of zinc inclosed in a glass receiver communicating by a
large tube with another receiver containing a solution of radium. Bis-
muth plunged for some days in a solution of nitrate of radium finally,
for the same reason, becomes phosphorescent. All radio-active bodies
are more active in solution than in a solid state, but then they lose their
phosphorescence and can only induce it by their emanations.
“In this, as Rutherford says, they do not resemble the cathodic rays, since the
latter, as Lenard has shown, will hardly traverse metallic layers no thicker than
one one-hundredth of a millimeter. It is probable, rather, that the penetration of
metals is due to the X rays that always accompany these radiations or that are at
least always engendered by them,
266 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
It seems probable that the property possessed by radio-active ema-
nations of condensing the vapor of water is due to material particles
carried along by their radiating force, especially if we consider these
particles as electrified. This is a property common to all dusts, as can
be easily shown by the following well-known experiment: A glass
receiver containing water in «state of ebullition communicates, by glass
tubes, with two other receivers, one filled with ordinary air taken from
the room, the other with air deprived of its dust by simple filtration
through cotton wool. The water vapor entering the receiver contain-
ing the dust-laden air immediately condenses into a thick fog, while
that entering the other receiver remains transparent.
SECTION 3.—Intra-atomic OPCES asas rectal Orme 7) “ener Ua
: / , d dy
When radio-active bodies were discovered physicists did not take the
pains to measure the amount of energy liberated during their disso-
ciation, but vainly sought and still continue to seek some external
source from which these bodies might derive that energy. It is, in
fact, considered as an absolutely fundamental principle that matter
can only give back in some form or other energy it has previously
received.
Now, since all physicists are to-day unanimous in affirming that the
products of all kinds of radio-activity are similar; and since, on the
other hand, the energy necessary for the emitting into space effluvia
having the velocity that the radio-active particles possess is immensely
superior to that we are able to produce by the various forces at our
disposal, is it not evident that it is not outside of matter but within
matter itself that we must seek for the source of the energy expended ?
This liberated energy is the consequence of intra-atomic reactions
which we shall shortly consider and which differ essentially from the
extra-atomic reactions that come under the domain of chemistry, even
if in no other way, by the enormous magnitude of the effects produced.
If this is so—and it is not possible to conceive that it should be
otherwise—we are immediately led to look upon the atoms that make
up matter as immense reservoirs of energy. They may manifest this
energy without borrowing from without, since it exists within them-
selves where it was accumulated at the time of their formation.
What are the fundamental characteristics of this hitherto ignored
energy which we may call simply intra-atomic energy 4
It differs from all others with which we are acquainted by its pro-
digious power. If, instead of dissociating only a few millionths of a
milligram of matter, as we do now, we could succeed in dissociating
some kilograms, we would have, as we shall show, a source of energy
compared with which all the motors combined now driven by coal
would present an insignificant total, It is because of the amount of
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 267
this energy that the radio-active phenomena show such intensity. It
is this which causes the emission of particles endowed with an immense
velocity, phosphorescence and the production of an enormous quantity
of electricity, out of proportion to that which we can maintain wpon
insulated bodies.
The great velocity of the particles discharged into space under the
influence of the energy liberated in the atom would be of itself a proof
that we are in the presence of an entirely new force. It is only in
vibrations of the ether that a velocity comparable to this has hitherto
been observed, and there we readily explain it by the almost perfect
elasticity of the medium. No analogous explanation can be invoked
for the projections of the particles.
X rays also are one of the indirect manifestations of intra-atomic
energy, a new stage of its manifestation.
A form of energy may be declared new when it is differentiated by
its fundamental characters from all those previously known.
We do not yet know all the possible transformations of this new
mode of energy, but we are already convinced as to its origin. We
know that it comes from matter, since we can not produce it without
matter. We know also that when it is once formed it is no longer
matter, since it has lost all material characters, and that it can not
again become matter by any process.
Before an assemblage of facts as conclusive and clear as these, it
seems impossible to admit any hypothesis other than this: Here is an
entirely new mode of energy having no relation to any of those hitherto
observed.
The origin of intra-atomic energy is not entirely inexplicable if we
admit, with astronomers, that the condensation of a nebula sufficed, by
itself alone, to produce the considerable temperature possessed by the
sun. It may be conceived that an analogous condensation of the ether
may have generated the energies contained in the atom. We may
roughly compare the latter to a sphere in which a nonliquefiable gas
was compressed by some billions of atmospheres at the time of the
origin of the world.
SEcTION 4.— Power of the intra-atom ic forces— Matter considered as an
ECNLOPTTIHOUS condensation of energy.
GREAT AMOUNT OF INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
The great energy manifested in radio-active phenomena has pro-
foundly impressed physicists, and for a long time past they have been
seeking its origin. One of them recently observed that the complete
dissociation of a gram of radium would produce sifficient energy to
transport the entire English fleet to the summit of Mont Blanc.
2968 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
Let us try to state with some exactitude the amount of force con-
densed in a small quantity of any matter whatever. The various
methods employed for measuring the velocity of the radio-active par-
ticles have always given about the same results. This velocity is
nearly that of light for certain radio-active emissions and about one-
third of that for the particles in a Crookes tube. Let us take the
lowest of these velocities—about 100,000 kilometers per second—and
try, by taking this for a base, to calculate the energy. that would be
required to completely dissociate one gram of any matter whatever.
The work performed by a body in motion being equal to half the
product of its mass with the square of its velocity, an elementary cal-
culation gives at once the power which would be manifested by the
particles of this gram of matter in case they were endowed with
the supposed velocity. It would be equal to about 6,800,000 horse-
power. This amount of energy would suffice to move, ona level road,
afreight train having a length of a little more than four and one-fourth
times the circumference of the globe.
To move such a train by means of coal would require 2,830,000
kilograms, which, at 24 francs a ton, would cost about 68,000 franes.
These figures, so vast as at first to seem improbable, depend upon
the enormous velocity by which the particles are impelled, a velocity
which we can not approach by any known mechanical means. In the
factor mV” the mass of 1 gram is certainly very small; but as its
velocity is immense, the effects produced must likewise be immense.
Now, all the velocities which we can produce are almost as nothing
compared with those of the particles of dissociated matter. We can
scarcely exceed 1 kilometer per second by the means at our disposal,
while the velocity of the radio-active particles is 100,000 times greater.
Hence the tremendous effects produced.
Rutherford has said that the energy manifested in radio-active phe-
nomena is ‘* perhaps a million times greater than that produced by
the various known reactions of molecular forces.”
He also remarks—and he is, as far as I know, the first physicist who
has decided to make such a statement—that ‘‘since the radio-active
elements do not differ from the other chemical elements by any of
their chemical characters, there is no reason to think that the enormous
reserve of energy they possess is peculiar to them alone. It seems
probable, then, that atomic energy is general and of equal force in all
bodies.” “ This is the thesis that I have constantly defended and upon
which I have for a long time based my contention concerning the
existence of a new form of energy surpassing in force all we have
hitherto known.
Shall we some day succeed in easily liberating this colossal force
that lies within the atoms? No one can tell. Neither could one have
@ Philosophical Magazine, May, 1903, p. 590.
INTRA-ATOMIU ENERGY, 269
told in the time of Galvani that the energy which was used with diffi-
culty to twitch the legs of a frog and attract small fragments of paper
would one day set in motion enormous railway trains.
Perhaps it will always be beyond our powers to completely dissoci-
ate the atom, because the difficulty would probably increase as disso-
ciation advances, yet to dissociate a very small part would suftice.
If, as physicists still claim, matter, instead of being an immense
reservoir of energy, can only restore the energy communicated to it
by some means or other—heat, for example—it is evident that in order
to produce the dissociation of matter there would be necessary an
expenditure of work exactly equal to that which the results of the
dissociation would perform, conformably to one of the fundamental
principles of thermo-dynamics.
It can not, however, be longer held that the energy exhibited by
the dissociated atom comes from without; it must be borrowed from
the enormous reserve that it possesses. Besides, even if it were
merely an agent in the transformation of energy, the importance of
dissociation would still remain, since we can produce it by agents that
are to-day absolutely free to all and unutilized, such as light.“
MATTER CONSIDERED AS AN ENORMOUS CONDENSATION OF ENERGY.
The indisputable fact that the atom is a reservoir of energy leads
immediately, in my opinion, to the hypothesis that matter is com-
posed only of condensed energy of a special mode, whence result its
weight, its form, and its fixity. It is to energy thus considered that
we give the name of matter.
Some ancient facts, quite anterior to the discovery of the cathodic
rays, already pointed to this idea. Take, for example, the quantity
of electricity extracted from bodies by electrolysis. A gram of a
substance such as hydrogen contains a charge of 96,000 coulombs.
The electricity must be there in a state of very considerable condensa-
tion, since by no means at our disposal can we make an insulated body
of the size we have mentioned hold more than a very small fraction of
this charge. Joubert has observed that the quantity of electricity con-
tained in a cubic centimeter of hydrogen would suffice to charge a
sphere as large as the earth with a potential of 6,000 volts.
In my opinion electricity is only one of the manifestations of spe-
cial energy contained in the atoms. It is the state of prodigious con-
densation of this energy that permits the generation of the enormous
“In a recent work (On ether and gravitational matter through infinite space) Lord
Kelyin expresses himself as follows: ‘‘The mechanical value of a cubic kilometer of
solar light is equal to 412 kilogram meters, equivalent to the work of a horsepower
for five and one-half seconds. This result may give some idea of the actual total of
the mechanical energy of the luminous vibrations and of the forces contained in our
atmosphere.”’
270 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
quantity of electricity that the atom can produce, only a part of
which, very probably, appears in ordinary electrolysis. This is not
an hypothesis, since, in the radio-activity manifested by simple bodies,
the quantity of electricity liberated for a given weight of matter is
considerably larger than in electrolysis.
In all the ordinary operations to which we submit matter—fusion,
vaporization, etc., and in all chemical operations—we communicate to
it an additional amount of energy, which apparently augments the
movements of rotation or vibration of the atoms, but we do not touch
their structure, and that is why matter so easily resumes its primitive
state, as we see it do, for example, when we allow a liquefied body to
cool.
Section 5.—TZhe transition between the ponderable and the cmpon-
derable.
Current ideas as to the distinction between the ponderable and the im-
ponderable.-—Science formerly classified the various phenomena of
nature by placing them in clearly separated groups, between which
there appeared to be no connection. These distinctions existed in all
branches of knowledge.
The discovery of the laws of evolution occasioned the disappearance
from the natural sciences of the divisions that had previously seemed
insuperable barriers, and from the protoplasm of primitive creatures
up to man the chain is to-day almost uninterrupted. Missing links
are restored every day, and we now see how changes have been
effected in the course of time from the most simple to the most com-
plex beings.
Physics has followed a similar road, but all the chasms that separate
its different branches have not yet been spanned. It has slowly got
rid of the fluids that formerly embarrassed it. It has discovered the
relations between the different forces and now admits that they all are
but varied manifestations of something indestructible—energy. Thus
it has established the serial permanence of phenomena, has shown the
existence of continuity where only discontinuity formerly appeared.
The law of the conservation of energy is in reality only a simple state-
ment of this continuity. In order to establish continuity throughout,
physies has still an enormous step to take. It still maintains that
there is a deep gulf between the ponderable and the imponderable;
that energy and matter are sharply separated, matter and ether no
less So.
In the present state of scientific thought two ideas are current that
should be considered apart; first, matter can not itself create energy;
second, the imponderable ether is entirely distinct from ponderable
matter—that is to say, it has no analogy with it.
INTRA-ATOMIO ENERGY. Ot ah
The foundations on which these ideas were established seemed to be
so solid that they would defy the inroads of time. We shall, how-
ever, endeavor to show that new facts tend to successfully undermine
them.
The transformation of matter into energy.—A material system isolated
from all external action can not spontaneously generate energy. If we
suppose it to be endowed with an internal energy, chemical or other-’
wise, its quantity of energy will remain invariable as long as the system
is subject only to internal action. This is one of the great principles
of thermo-dynamics.
All past scientific observations seemed to entirely confirm this idea,
that no substance can produce energy without having first borrowed
it from without. All thermo-chemistry is based on the principle that
**the heat disengaged or absorbed in the decomposition of a body is
exactly equal, and contrary in sign to that which it has been necessary
to employ for its transformation.”
To cause the disappearance of this sharp separation we have just
noted it is necessary to succeed in transforming matter into energy
without furnishing anything from without. Now it is just this spon-
taneous transformation that is shown us by all the experiments I
have cited on the radio-activity of matter. The spontaneous produc-
tion of energy thus shown, so at variance with current scientific ideas,
has much embarrassed physicists, who have tried in vain to discover,
outside of the matter affected, the origin of the energy manifested by
it. We have seen that the explanation becomes very simple as soon
as we consent to admit, in accordance with the clearest evidence, that
matter contains a reserve of energy which it can partially lose, either
spontaneously or under slight exciting influences. It may doubtless
be said that it is not really matter that is transformed into energy, but
merely an intra-atomic energy that is given out. Yet, as this energy
of intra-atomic origin can not be generated without the final disappear-
ance of matter, we are justified in saying that this is just what would
happen if matter were transformed into energy. To state this more
fully it would first be necessary to understand the intimate nature of
matter and energy, which no one thus far has been able to do.
The transition between the ponderable and the imponderable Proper-
ties of the substance intermediate between matter and ether.—We have
now reached the second of the propositions above enunciated as one of
the great scientific dogmas of the present day, namely, that the ponder-
able and the imponderable, that is to say, matter and ether, are abso-
lutely distinct, and that there is no connection between them.
In order to prove that this is not the case, we must show that the
effluvia generated by all bodies during their dissociation consist of a
substance having characters intermediate between those of ether and
those of matter.
PA? INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
During many years physicists have held that the particles emitted
in the phenomena of radio-activity were merely fragments of atoms,
doubtless charged with electricity, but nevertheless always formed of
matter.
This opinion might seem to be confirmed by the fact that radio-
active emissions are often accompanied by a projection of material
particles. In a Crookes tube the emission of solid particles from the
cathode is so considerable that they metallize plates exposed to their
projection.
Similar deportation of matter is likewise observed in most electric
phenomena, notably when electricity having a sufficiently high poten-
tial passes between two electrodes. The spectrum of the electric sparks
then formed always shows the lines characteristic of the metals of
which the electrodes are formed. After repeated discharges between
a ballof gold and one of silver, we find silver on the gold ball and gold
onthe silver one. With currents of high frequency Monsieur Oudin
showed that electrodes of amalgamated gold, used in air having the
ordinary pressure, lose nearly one-tenth of a milligram of their
weight per hour. In these yarious cases matter is doubtless carried
away by the velocity of the electric molecules, as is the sand of the
sea by the violence of the waves.
Still another reason seemed to clearly prove the materiality of the
rathodic emissions. They can be deflected by the magnetic field;
besides, they are charged with electricity, and as electricity had not
been known to be transported without material support it was neces-
sary to presuppose the existence of such a support: It is true that,
in the theory of electrons, it is admitted that the electric atom in
motion, wholly free from all matter, behaves exactly like a current
and can be deflected by a magnet; but some years ago that theory,
unsupported by the discovery since made by Zeemann, had not the
considerable extension it has to-day.
The kind of matter-dust supposed to form the emissions from the
cathode and from radio-active bodies showed very singular charac-
teristics for a material substance. According to the experiments of
J.J. Thomson, the products of this emission were identical, no matter
what might be the body dissociated. The electric charge and the
mass being always the same, it was necessary to admit that in different
bodies identical elements were found.
These supposed material elements had likewise lost all the properties
of the matter that gavethem birth. Lenard showed this clearly when
he sought to verify one of the ancient hypotheses, according to which
the effluvia generated by ultra-violet light impinging upon metals are
composed of dust torn from the surface of metals. Taking a body
sodium—easily dissociated by light, and which can also be detected in
infinitesimal quantities in air by means of the spectroscope, he found
INTRA-ATOMIO ENERGY. Wo
that the products of dissociation showed no trace of sodium. If,
then, the effluvia of radio-active bodies are matter, such matter pos-
sesses none of the properties of that from which it was derived.
Max Abraham and Kaufmann proved that the dissociated atoms of
radio-active phenomena are transformed into something extremely dif-
ferent from matter, and which they consider to be composed exclusively
of atoms of electricity; that is to say, of what one to-day calls electrons,
bodies without weight, which differ essentially from ordinary matter,
having no character in common with it except a certain amount of
inertia.
Inertia is, as is well known, the resistance, whose cause is unknown,
that bodies oppose to movement or change of movement. It can be
measured and its measure is defined by the term ‘*mass.” Mass,
then, is the measure of the inertia of matter, its coefficient of resist-
ance tomovement. It has an invariable value for every material body,
one which remains invariable throughout all the transformations to
which that body may be subjected. Constancy of mass is, as I men-
tioned above, one of the fundamental principles ef mechanics and of
chemistry.
Now, this property possessed by the material atom is also possessed
by the electric atom to a certain degree. For some years it has been
admitted that electricity is endowed with inertia. It is, indeed, by
means of this property that we explain the phenomena of induction
and of oscillating discharges. We are ignorant whether that inertia
has the same unit of measure as the inertia of matter. Some physi-
cists suppose, without, indeed, being able to offer any proof, that the
inertia of matter is due to the electrons and is entirely of electro-
magnetic origin.
It does not seem, however, that we can identify the inertia of mat-
ter with that of the electric atom whose mass is, in reality, only an
apparent mass, resulting simply from its state of an electrified body
in movement. The electric corpuscle seems to have a longitudinal
mass (measured by opposition to acceleration in the direction of
motion) different from its transversal mass (perpendicular to the direc-
tion of motion). It is clear that the properties of an electric atom
differ considerably from those of a material atom.
What, then, is the constitution of these hypothetical electric atoms
emitted by all bodies during radio-activity /
The answer to that question will furnish us with exactly the link
between the ponderable and the imponderable, for which we are
searching.
It is evidently impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to
define an electric atom, but we can at least characterize it thus: A
substance that is neither a solid, a liquid, nor a gas, that has no
weight, that traverses obstacles without difficulty, and that has no
974 INTRA-ATOMIO ENERGY.
property in common with matter, except a certain inertia, and, what -
is more, an inertia varying with the velocity, that is more like ether
than matter and forms a transition between them.
The formation of effluvia is an incontestable testimony to the trans-
formation of the ponderable into the imponderable.
This transformation, so contrary to all the precepts laid down by
science, is nevertheless one of the most frequent phenomena in nature.
It is daily effected under our eyes, but as we formerly possessed no
reagent for testing it it was unobserved.
Section 6.— The current conception as to atoms.
Origin of current ideas concerning the structure of atoms.—Those
scientists who follow in foreign journals the experiments and discus-
sions of the most eminent physicists of the present day, such as Lord
Kelvin, J. J. Thomson, Crookes, Larmor, Lorentz, and many others,
have before them a curious spectacle. They see melting away before
them, day by day, fundamental scientific conceptions that seemed estab-
lished solidly enough to remain forever.
Being unable to give, in detail, the steps of this evolution, I will
confine myself to stating summarily the researches of which the present
theories seem the necessary consequence.
Five fundamental discoveries were the origin of the transformation
of ideas concerning matter and electricity. These were, first, facts
revealed by the study of electrolytic dissociation; second, the discoy-
ery of the cathodic rays; third, that of the X-rays; fourth, that of the
so-called radio-active bodies, such as uranium and*radium; fifth, the
demonstration that radio-activity is not a peculiar property of certain
bodies, but is a general property of matter.
The oldest of these discoveries, since, indeed, it goes back to Davy—
that is to say, to the commencement of the last century—is that of the —
dissociation of chemical compounds by an electrical current. Its study
was completed later by various physicists, notably by Faraday, and,
in our time, by Arrhenius. It led on toward the theory of atomic
electricity and the preponderating influence which electric atoms or
electrons have in chemical reactions and the properties of bodies.
It seemed formerly that electric dissociation could only be obtained
from compound bodies, never with simple ones. Yet, as soon as the
vathodic rays and radio-activity were discovered, the theory of electric
dissociation seemed to explain them very well on the simple condition
of admitting that the atoms of a simple body contain, like those of a
compound body, electric atoms having contrary signs and susceptible,
like them, of separation.
The second of these discoveries, that of the cathodic rays, suggested
the idea that there might be a state of matter different from any
hitherto known; but this idea remained without influence up to the
lod
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. DEES)
day when Réntgen, examining more closely the Crookes tubes which
physicists had been using for more than twenty years without seeing
anything new in them, discovered that they gave out peculiar rays,
absolutely different from any then known, to which he gave the name
of X-rays. By this discovery a quite unforeseen thing, entirely new,
since it found no analogy of any kind in known phenomena, was placed
before the world of science.
The discovery of the radio-activity of uranium followed closely upon
that of the X-rays, and had the consequences which I have already
stated. It led especially to the admission that the atoms of certain
bodies, supposed at first to be exceptional in character, possess the
extraordinary property of dissociating themselves, but, as I showed
that this property belongs to all bodies, it was necessary to recognize
that there exists in matter a special and universal property totally
unknown hitherto, and from which it results that the structure of
the atom is necessarily very different from that which had for a long
time been supposed.
Present ideas as to the structure of atoms.—The first origin of our
present ideas concerning the structure of atoms was a consequence of
Faraday’s discoveries in electrolysis. He proved that the molecules
of compound bodies carry a charge of neutral electricity, definite and
constant in amount, which becomes dissociated into positive ions and
negative ions when solutions of metallic salts are traversed by an
electric current. The atom was soon considered as composed of two
elements, a material particle and an electric charge which was believed
to be combined with it or superposed upon it.
In this phase of the evolution of ideas the positive electron and the
negative electron are merely two substances to be added to the list of
elementary bodies with which they are capable of combining. The
idea of the material atom still persists.
In the present evolution there is a tendency to go much further.
After asking themselves whether this material support of the electron
yas really necessary, many physicists have reached the conclusion that
itis not. They reject it entirely and consider the atom as wholly con-
stituted of an aggregate of electrical corpuscles without any material
support. The structure of matter would then be exclusively electrical.
This is evidently a considerable step, and by no means all physi-
cists have yet taken it. Classical ideas prepossess our minds too
completely to be easily got rid of; but, judging from the general ten-
dency at the present time, it would seem quite possible that this idea
may itself become classical in its turn.
As soon as the material atom is generally considered as a simple
ageregation of electric corpuscles we are very quickly led to admit
that it is only a condensation of energy.
276 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
According to the partisans of the exclusively electric structure of
matter, the atom is entirely made up of a certain number of electric
vortices. Around a small number of positive electrons there whirl,
with dizzy velocity, the negative electrons to the number of a thou-
sand, and often more.
Taken together they form an atom, which is thus a sort of solar sys-
tem in miniature. ‘*The material atom,” says Larmor, **is composed
of electrons, and of nothing else.”
These electrons, by neutralizing each other, render the atom elee-
trically neutral. The latter becomes positive or negative only when
it is deprived of electrons of corresponding contrary signs, as is done
in electrolysis. All chemical reactions are due to losses or gains in
electrons.
It will be seen that the old atom of the chemists, formerly considered
so simple, is really remarkably complex. It is a veritable siderial
system, comprising a sun and planets that gravitate about it. From
the architecture of this system are derived the properties of the var-
ious atoms, but all have the same fundamental elements.
Srotion 7.— “ther the fundamental substance of atoms.
The greater part of the phenomena studied by physics—light, heat,
radiant electricity, ete.—are considered as produced by vibrations of
the ether. Gravitation, from which we derive a knowledge of celestial
mechanics and the course of the stars, seems to be still another of its
manifestations. The theoretical speculations on the constitution of
atoms seem also to demand the ether for a basis. — ;
The necessity for the ether has long been realized, because no phe-
nomenon would be conceivable without the existence of this medium.
Without it there would probably be neither weight, nor light, mor
electricity, nor. heat—in a word, nothing of that with which we are
acquainted. The universe would be silent and dead, or would manifest
itself in a form utterly inconceivable. If we could construct a cham-
ber of glass from which the ether was entirely removed, neither heat
nor light could traverse it. It would be absolutely black, and probably
gravitation would cease to act upon bodies placed within it. They
would then lose all their weight.
Yet, as soon as we attempt to define the properties of the ether,
enormous difficulties appear. They arise, especially, from the fact
that, being unable to connect it with anything known, terms of com-
parison, and consequently of definition, fail entirely.
When the books on physics say, in a few lines, that the ether is an
imponderable medium that fills the universe, the first idea that comes
into the mind represents it as a kind of gas sufficiently rarefied to be
imponderable by the means at our-disposal. It is not difficult to imag-
ine such a gas. A. Miller has calculated that if we should diffuse
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. Mw 6
the matter of the sun ‘and the planets that surround it throughout @
space equal to that which separates us from the nearest fixed stars, a
cubic myriameter of such matter thus diffused into a gaseous state
would scarcely weigh the millionth of a milligram, and would con-
sequently be imponderable in our balances. A gas of such tenuity,
representing perhaps the primitive state of our nebula, would be
a quadrillion times less dense than the vacuum carried to the mil-
lionth of an atmosphere in a Crookes tube.
Unhappily the constitution of the ether can not be compared in any
way with that of a gas. Gases are very compressible, while ether can
not be notably compressed. If it were, it could not transmit almost
instantaneously the vibrations of light.
It is only in fluids theoretically perfect, or, better yet, in solids, that
we can find distant analogies with the ether; but we must then imagine
a substance having very singular properties. It must have a rigidity
surpassing that of steel, for if it did not possess that it would not
transmit luminous vibrations at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per
second. The most illustrious of our modern physicists, Lord Kelvin,
considers ether as ‘‘an elastic solid filling all space.”
The elastic solid that forms the ether has very strange properties for
a solid, properties which we find in no other. Its extreme rigidity
must be associated with an extraordinarily low density—that is to say,
so low that its friction is unable to retard the motion of the stars in
space. Hein has calculated that if the density of the ether were only
a million times less than that of the air of a Crookes tube it would
produce a secular alteration of half a second in the average motion of
the moon. Such a medium, in spite of its greatly reduced density,
would soon remove the atmosphere from the earth. It has been cal-
culated that if it had the properties that we attribute toa gas it would
acquire by its impact with the surface of planets deprived of atmos-
phere, like the moon, a temperature of 38,000°. Finally we reach
the idea that the ether is a solid without density or weight, unintelli-
gible as such a proposition may seem.
In order to explain the phenomena observed we must admit that in
this subtance, more rigid than steel, bodies move freely, and we may
produce in it, by setting on fire any substance whatever, those pro-
digiously rapid vibrations called light—vibrations of such velocity
that if we compare them with the speed of a cannon ball the latter
seems at rest. With a piece of glass cut in a certain manner we can
deflect the luminiferous ether from its course and separate its vibra-
tions. It is an agent that we encounter everywhere, that we set into
vibration and deflect at will, but which we can never seize.
That which is still more astonishing is the magnitude of the forces
which the ether is able to transmit. An electromagnet must act across
a vacuum by the intermediation of the ether. Now, as Lord Kelvin
OS INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
remarks, it acts upon iron at a distance with a force that may amount
to 110 kilograms per square centimeter. ** How is it,” says the great
physicist, ‘‘that these tremendous forces are developed within the
ether and that nevertheless solid bedies are free to moye through
this solid?” Wedo not know and we can not tell whether we shall
ever know. Wedo not know the actual relations existing between
electricity and the ether, although it seems more and more evident
that one is derived from the other.
Maxwell considers the ether ** as composed of small spheres animated
with a very rapid movement of rotation which they transmit from
one to another.” Fresnel regarded its elasticity as constant, but its
density as variable. Other physicists believe, on the contrary, that its
density is constant and its elasticity variable. Most of them think
that it is not displaced by the movements of the material systems that
traverse it, but passes through the interstices of all molecules as water
passes through sand.
The physicists are, however, wholly agreed that the ether is a
substance entirely different from matter and that it is not subject to
the laws of gravitation. It is a substance without weight and imma-
terial in the usual sense of that word. It forms the world of the
imponderable.
If the ether has no weight it must nevertheless have mass, since it
presents resistance to movement. This mass is very slight, since the
rapidity of the propagation of light is very great. If it were nothing
at all, such propagation would be instantaneous.
The question of the imponderability of ether, which was discussed
for a long time, seems now definitely settled. It was quite recently
taken up by Lord Kelvin,“ and, for mathematical reasons, which I
can not detail here, he arrives at the conclusion that the ether is formed
by a substance in no way under the control of the laws of gravitation—
that is to say, imponderable. ** But,” adds he, ‘‘ we have no reason to
consider it as absolutely incompressible, and we may admit that a suf-
ficient pressure might condense it.”
It is probable that from this condensation, effected at the begin-
ning of time by a mechanism of which we are entirely ignorant, are
derived the atoms which are considered by many physicists, notably
Larmor, as nuclei of condensation in the ether having the form of
little vortices endowed with an enormous rotatory velocity. ‘* The
material molecule,” writes this physicist, ‘‘is formed entirely by the
ether, and by nothing else.” ?
It is difficult to believe that with such properties the ether is homo-
geneous. If it had been so, the worlds could not have been formed.
«On the clustering of gravitational matter in any part of the universe. (Philo-
sophical Magazine, Jan., 1902.)
> Ether and Matter. S8vo. 400 pages. London, 1900. The work treats, however,
of ether and matter from a mathematical point of view only.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 979
Srecrion 8.—J/ntra-atomic chemical reactions producing the dissociation
of matter.
In examining the properties of radio-active bodies we reached the
conclusion that the radiations they produce come solely from the
energy furnished by the atom where it is found in a state of enormous
condensation. The radiating particles would then be a product of a
disintegration effected in the very interior of the atom.
This disintegration, however, necessarily implies a change of equi-
librium in the arrangement of the numerous elements that compose
anatom. Evidently it is only by passing to other forms of equilibrium
that it can lose its energy, and consequently cause radiations.
The variations of which it is, then, the seat, differ from those with
which chemistry is acquainted by this fundamental particular, that
they are intra-atomic, while the ordinary reactions affecting only the
architecture of groups of atoms are extra-atomic. Ordinary chemistry
can only vary the arrangement of the stones that form an edifice. In
the dissociation of atoms the materials of which the edifice is con-
structed are themselves changed.
We are ignorant of the mechanism by which this atomic disaggre-
gation is effected, but it is quite clear that it implies conditions of a
special kind necessarily very different from those hitherto studied by
chemistry. The quantities of matter involved are infinitely small and
the energy liberated is extraordinarily great, which is the opposite of
what occurs in our ordinary reactions.
We have always maintained“ that there is an analogy between the
phenomena observed and those peculiar chemical reactions that pro-
duce phosphorescence. These reactions take place between bodies of
which one, in infinitesimal proportions to the other, probably acts by
commencing a dissociation. Sulphate of quinine, for example, is not
radio-active. By allowing it to become hydrated after desiccation it
shows radio-activity as long as the hydration lasts. Mercury and tin
present but slight traces of radio-activity under the influence of light,
but by adding to the first of these bodies a small portion of the second
its radio-activity soon becomes very intense.”
“See especially Comptes rendus de l’ Académie des Sciences, April, 1900, p. 892,
and Revue Scientifique, April, 1900, p. 452.
bLa variabilité des especes chimiques (Revue Scientifique, December 22, 1900).
In the bulbs of incandescent lamps it is noted that the incandescence is no longer
produced if the proportion of oxide of cerium added to the oxide of thorium is less
than 1 per cent. Armstrong and Auer admit that the incandescence is due to an
oscillatory oxidation—that is to say, one that is alternately produced and extin-
guished. When oxidated the cerium might combine with thorium, when there would
soon be decomposition, then reoxidation and combination, and so on. These reac-
tions, produced millions of times a second, occasion the luminous oscillations of the
ether which produce incandescence. The theory is very much open to discussion,
and I reproduce it here only to show that the idea of reactions that are set up and
discontinued millions of times a second, and consequently very different from all
those known, seems very acceptable to eminent chemists.
Syn 1903=—=19
280 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
The idea that radio-activity originates ina peculiar chemical process
has rallied to its support several eminent physicists. Notably, it has
been adopted and defended by Rutherford.
‘*Radio-activity,” says he, ‘‘is due to a succession of chemical
changes in which new types of radio-active matter are continually
formed. It is a process of equilibrium in which the cost of the pro-
duction of new radio-activity is balanced by the loss of the radio-
activity already produced. The radio-activity is maintained by the
continual production of new quantities of matter possessing tempo-
rary radio-activity.
‘*A radio-active body is, for that very reason, one which is being
transformed. Radio-activity is the expression of its incessant loss.
Its change is necessarily an atomic disaggregation. The atoms which
have lost something are, by that fact alone, new atoms.” “
Although the quantity of energy radiated by the atoms that are
undergoing a commencement of disaggregation may be relatively
very great, the loss of material substance that occurs in these reac-
tions is very slight, precisely because of the enormous condensation
of energy that is contained in the atom. Professor Becquerel has
estimated that 1 gram of radium loses 1 milligram of matter in a thou-
sand millions of years. Professor Curie contents himself with one
million years. Still more modest, Professor Rutherford speaks only
of some thousands of years, and Professor Crookes of hundreds of
years. These figures, the first of which are quite fantastic, are
reduced more and more as more accurate experiments are made.
According to certain experiments of my own, 1 gram would last
one hundred years, which is just the figure given by Professor Crookes.
The matter can only be absolutely settled by repeated experiments.
Yet even if we accept the figure that Professor Rutherford gives of
some thousands of years for the duration of 1 gram of radium, it
would suffice to prove that if uranium, thorium, and radium had
existed with their radio-active properties in the geological epochs
they would long ago have disappeared. This again supports our theory
that rapid spontaneous radio-activity appeared only after the bodies
became engaged in certain chemical combinations capable of affecting
the stability of their atoms, combinations which we may succeed in
reproducing.
What is the nature of these combinations? Of this we are yet
ignorant, but the various examples cited in my preceding papers?
prove that there exists a whole series of reactions (hydration of
various substances, decomposition of water, decomposition of carbide
of calcium, etc.), capable of causing atomic dissociation, and which
« Philosophical Magazine, February, 1903.
> Revue Scientifique, April, 1900, p. 892, and November 15, 1902, p. 621.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 281
have not been taken into account by chemists because their balances,
the most essential means for testing, are not sufficiently sensitive to
show the changes that occur.
It is evident that we do not yet know the mechanism of the intra-
atomic reactions that produce radio-activity, but we do already know
some of the conditions capable of producing this phenomenon toa
certain degree. In chemistry it is not necessary to know all the con-
ditions of a reaction, but often only a small number of them, in order
to cause that reaction to appear. <A child knowing nothing of the
mechanism of a steam engine may set it going by simply shifting the
lever by which the steam is turned on. In the greater number of
ordinary chemical reactions we work a little as the child does, without
comprehending anything of the action of the mechanism and seeing
only the final results.
SECTION 9.— Modifications produced in matter by the partial dissocia-
tion of its atoms.
We know that the products of the dissociation of atoms can not be
recombined so as to form the bodies from which they originate. We
also know that this dissociation can not be effected, at least by the
means at present at our disposal, except for an infinitesimal quantity
of matter. We must not, therefore, expect to find a very profound
modification in matter only a small part of which has been dissociated.
A modification does, however, necessarily exist. A body whose atoms
have been partly dissociated is necessarily different from the same
body before dissociation has commenced. What, then, are the modifi-
cations presented by bodies after the emission of effluvia from them?
Here we are obliged to leave for the moment the regions of pure
experimentation and proceed by the way of conjectures and analogies.
We are at the threshold of a new chemistry in which the ordinary
reagents and balances can not help us at all, since we are dealing with
reactions whose physical effects may be considerable, although the
quantities of matter employed may be almost infinitely small.
We can, however, already say that the existence of this future
science—intra-atomic chemistry—does not depend upon hypotheses
alone. Numerous facts, scattered here and there, and hitherto unex-
plained, already give some scientific support to these hypotheses and
seem to be about to soon transform them into solid realities.
These facts show us, indeed, that certain simple bodies may undergo
transformations suflicient to change their most fundamental proper-
ties. I have shown this by my experiments with aluminum and
magnesium, but it is shown still better with metals in the so-called
colloidal state. When in that state, even though they are diluted to
an incredible degree—since according to Bernek colloidal platinum is
282 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
very active in a dose of a three hundredth of a milligram of the
metal to a liter of water—they take on properties so intense and pecul-
iar, so different from those which they possess in an ordinary state,
that we can only compare them to certain organic compounds called
diastases. It is found also that they act by their presence alone—that
is to say, without appearing in the final product of the reactions.
Chemists use the term ‘‘ catalytic action” to explain analogous facts.
The body supposed to act only by its presence is perhaps the seat of
special atomic disaggregations which are not shown by reagents. We
will indicate further on experiments on phosphorescence that support
this consideration.
These metals in a colloidal state are obtained by various processes,
the severest of which is the passing through distilled water of an electric
are between two poles made of the metal to be transformed, platinum
or gold, for example.“ After a certain time the water contains, in a
form totally unknown, something derived from the particles of the
metal, and that in the infinitesimal dose I have mentioned above. The
liquid is colored, but it is impossible to separate anything from it by
filtration or to perceive by the microscope any particles in suspension,
which leads us to suppose that these particles, if they exist, are less
than a wave length of light—that is to say, the thousandth of a milli-
meter. It does not seem possible to admit that the metal thus trans-
formed is ina state of solution,’ for the water that contains it presents
none of the characters of a solution, such as a changing of its freezing
or boiling points, the tension of its vapor, etc. In my opinion, the
metal is found in the state of matter that has suffered a commence-
ment of dissociation, and it is exactly for that reason that the colloidal
metal prepared by the electric are possesses none of the qualities of
the body from which it was derived. Colloidal platinum or gold are
certainly not ordinary gold or ig GiencaTe, though they are made from
those metals.
The properties of these colloidal metals are, indeed, without any
analogy with those of a salt or even of a metal in <oltiion.. By certain
of their reactions they resemble organic compounds rather than brute
matter. That is the reason why they have been compared to the
toxines, a kind of diastases of unknown chemical composition gener-
ally formed by bacteria, from which they can be separated by filtration,
an He | in imponderable doses Dresuce tremendously active eee
“The met tals called ‘‘ colloidal,’ Tis au er, for Daas. that are now Rauiee in
commerce, are really simple chemical combinations and have very different
properties.
This would not be theoretically impossible, notwithstanding the supposed insol-
ubility of metals, since a 20-frane piece placed in distilled water for a short time
leaves in the latter traces of the copper which it contains as alloy in a quantity
that can not be shown by reagents, but which is still sufficient to poison certain algee.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 983
According to M. Armand Gautier, two drops of tetanic toxine, con-
taining 99 per cent of water and only 1 per cent of the active body, is
sufficient to kill a horse. ‘‘A gram of this body,” he says ** would
kill 75,000 men.”
Metals in a colloidal state are exactly like toxines or organized fer-
ments. Colloidal platinum decomposes oxygenated water, as do cer-
tain ferments from the blood; by oxidation it transforms alcohol into
acetic acid, as does the Mycoderma aceti. Colloidal iridium decomposes
the formate of lime into carbonate of lime, carbonic acid, and hydrogen,
as is done by certain bacteria. A still more curious thing is that
bodies like prussie acid, iodine, etc., that poison organic ferments“
also paralyze or destroy the action of colloidal metals. It is necessary
to invoke all the weight of our classical ideas concerning the invari-
ability of chemical species in order not to see, in a body whose prop-
erties are so profoundly different from those from which it is derived,
a totally new substance.
It is evident, however, that the opinion of chemists as to the invari-
ability of atoms appears to rest upon a very solid basis, since, after all
the transformations a body may undergo, we may always regenerate
the body. Sulphate of copper bears no resemblance to metallic copper,
but copper can be formed from it without difficulty. This argument
will retain its value so long as we do not succeed in dissociating sufl-
cient quantities of matter, or at least as long as we do not possess the
physical means for revealing the transformations, often very slight,
that occur ina body in which a small amount of dissociation has taken
place. When a metal is modified by a partial dissociation it 1s
changed too little for us to be able to prove it by the ordinary chemi-
cal reactions.
Only physical reactions can give evidence of such modifications.
Radium and phosphorescent bodies furnish an excellent proof of this.
As concerns radium, for example, we know that in its chemical reac-
tions it is entirely identical with barium. It differs from it enor-
mously, however, by its radio-active properties—that is to say, by the
permanent dissociation of its atoms, which physical means alone can
reveal.
As to the marvellous phenomenon of phosphorescence, it likewise
affords an example of substances chemically identical which yet pre-
sent an entirely novel physical property under the influence of traces
of foreign substances that probably act by producing a commencement
of dissociation. The sulphides of calcium or of barium are never
“The action of the poison varies with different toxines. They resist some ener-
getic reagents and are influenced by traces of reagents that would seem to possess
but little activity. M. Armand Gautier has shown that bodies as violent as prussic
acid, corrosive sublimate, and nitrate of silver are without effect upon cobra venom,
while mere traces of alkaline matter prevent its action.
984 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
phosphorescent when pure. Augmented by traces of certain foreign
substances and submitted to the action of an elevated temperature
which produces dissociation of matter in all bodies, as I have shown
in a preceding paper, these same sulphides soon become capable of
producing phosphorescence. These examples might be multiplied.
We must not, then, ask chemistry to inform us as to the transforma-
tions that matter undergoes when it begins to become dissociated. It
is also evident that the only means possessed by that science are some-
times altogether too gross for the differentiation of bodies, and some-
times do not succeed in differentiating them at all. Nearly a quarter
of the elementary bodies already known—that is to say, about fifteen—
so resemble each other in their chemical characters that without cer-
tain physical properties (spectroscopic lines, electric conductibility,
specitic heat, ete.) they would never have been separated. These bodies
are the metals whose oxides form what are called the rare earths.
‘*They are distinguished from-each other,” say Messrs. Wyrouboft
and Verneuil, ‘with some two or three exceptions, only by their
physical properties, and are found to be chemically identical. They
are so much so that by no reaction hitherto devised can they be sepa-
rated, and we are reduced to obtaining them in a more or less pure
state by the empirical and gross process. of fractional distillation.”
In no other manner, indeed, can we obtain radium.
If we marshal the facts cited we arrive at this conclusion—incon-
testable in the case of barium and radium, incontestable in the case of
certain phosphorescent bodies, almost incontestable in the case of
metals in a colloidal state—that reactions having for their probable
origin beginnings of atomic dissociation suffice to give to bodies abso-
lutely novel properties which none of our chemical reagents can
detect, and which were revealed only when new means of physical
investigation were discovered. Ordinary chemistry touches only, I
repeat, the structures formed by atoms and modifies them at its will.
If, however, it disposes at will of the stones of the structures, it does
not yet know how to affect the constitution of those stones. The
intra-atomic chemistry of the future will attempt the study of the
phenomena which take place within the atoms. In this new science,
of which we barely discern the dawn, the old paraphernalia of the
chemists—their balances and their reagents—will probably remain
unemployed.
SECTION 10.— Phases of existence of matter
atoms.
Genesis and evolution of
Birth and evolution of atoms.—\t is hardly thirty years since it
would haye been impossible to write on this subject a single word
deduced from any scientific observation whatever, and one might have
supposed that the history of atoms would always be enveloped in
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 285
darkness. How, indeed, was it possible to suppose that they could
evolve? Was it not universally admitted that they were indestructi-
ble? Everything was changing in the world, and everything was
ephemeral. Beings succeeded each other, always taking on new forms;
stars ended by becoming extinguished; the atom alone was not sub-
jected to the action of time, and seemed eternal. The doctrine of its
immutability reigned for two thousand years, and nothing seemed to
indicate that it could ever be shaken.
We have detailed the experiments which resulted in the crumbling
away of this antique belief. We know now that matter disappears
slowly and that the atoms which compose it are not destined to last
forever.
If, however, atoms are condemned to a relatively ephemeral exist-
ence, it is natural to suppose that they were not formerly what they
are to-day and that they must have evolved during the course of
ages. What were they formerly? Through what successive phases
have they passed? What gradations of form have they assumed?
What were formerly the various material substances which now sur-
round us—stone, lead, iron; in a word, all bodies?
Astronomy alone can answer, in some degree, such questions; and,
indeed, it has done so. Knowing how to penetrate by spectral analysis
into the structure of stars of various ages that illuminate our nights,
it has been able to show us the transformations that matter undergoes
at its earliest stages.
The eminent astronomer, Sir Norman Lockyer, director of one of
the large English observatories, first showed this evolution of matter
in the stars, and was also the first who dared to maintain that the atoms
of elementary bodies were dissociable.“
The proofs that he furnished of this last assertion were convincing,
but minds were not then prepared for them, and it was necessary to
wait till the discovery of the cathedic radiations and the radio-activity
of matter before the antique doctrine of the indestructibility of atoms
could be shaken.
The point of departure of the researches of Sir Norman Lockyer
was this fundamental fact that, contrary to the ideas that first prevailed,
the spectrum of each chemical element varies according to the temper-
ature to which the element is submitted. For example, the spectrum
of iron in an ordinary flame is quite different from the spectram of
the metal in the electric arc. In the flame it presents only a small
number of lines. In the are it presents nearly 2,000 of them. The
spectrum of the same metal likewise varies according as we observe it
in the hottest or the less hot portions of the sun. In tubes containing
“The researches pursued by Sir Norman Lockyer during twenty-five years have
been published by him in a recent book, Inorganic Eyolution, London, 1900.
286 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
rarefied gases traversed by an electric discharge, the same gas, nitro-
gen, for example, may give different spectra, according to the degree
of the vacuum.
Carrying, then, his investigations to the stars, the same astronomer
showed that the whitest ones—which are also the hottest, as is proved
by the prolongation of their spectrum into the ultra violet—are com-
posed of only a very small number of chemical elements. Sirius and
a-Lyra, for example, are composed almost exclusively of hydrogen.
In the red and yellow stars, which are less hot, having begun to cool,
and therefore are older, we see the other chemical elements succes-
sively appear. First, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, etc., then
the metalloids, the latter being seen only in the earliest stars. It is,
therefore, only as their temperature lowers that the elements of the
atoms can group themselves so us to form the elementary bodies.
Sir Norman Lockyer finally arrives at the following conclusion:
‘*The chemical elements are, like plants and animals, the product of
evolution.”
The preceding observations seem to definitely prove, conformably,
indeed, to one of the oldest theories of chemistry, that the various ele-
mentary bodies were derived from a single substance. Hypothesis
begins only when we suppose that this primitive substance was pro-
duced by a condensation of the ether.
It appears doubtful whether heat was the only cause of the trans-
formation of atoms. Other unknown forces must, probably, have
acted. What these forces were is, however, of no consequence; the
essential fact is that observation of the stars shows us the evolution of
atoms and the formation of various bodies under the influence of that
evolution.
We have now reached that
phase of the history of atoms in which, under the influence of unknown
causes whose effects only we can ascertain, they have finally formed
the various elementary bodies that make up our globe and all the
beings that live upon its surface. Matter is born and will persist
during a long succession of ages.
It persists with various characteristics, of which the most marked
appears to be the stability of the atoms that compose it. They serve
to form chemical structures whose form readily varies but whose mass
remains practically invariable throughout all changes.
The materials of the chemical structures are then very stable, but
these structures are sometimes of very great fragility and always of
extreme mobility. The least variations of the environment—tempera-
ture, pressure, etc.—instantly modify the movements of rotation and
oscillation of the atoms of which matter is made up.
These modifications are rendered easy by the granular state of mat-
ter. We are obliged to admit, in fact, that the atoms that compose it
Mobility and sensitiveness of matter.
Y L
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. Pow
never touch each other, and are only kept together by a special force
called cohesion. It is this which permits bodies to retain their form.
If it were possible to annul it by a magic wand, or more simply by an
antagonistic force, we would instantaneously reduce into an atomic
dust a block of metal, a rock, or a living being. We could not even
perceive this dust, for atoms do not seem to possess any properties
that could render them visible to our eyes.
If atoms are simply a condensation of energy we might say that the
matter most rigid in appearance—a block of steel, for example—simply
represents a state of mobile equilibrium between the condensed energy
that constitutes it and the various energies, heat, pressure, etc., that
surround it. Matter yields to their influence as an elastic thread
obeys tractions to which it may be subjected, yet resumes its form as
soon as the traction ceases.
The mobility of matter is one of its most easily demonstrated
characteristics, since it is only necessary to place the hand near a
thermometer bulb to cause the column of liquid to become at once
displaced. Its molecules are then separated from each other under
the influence of slight heat. When we place the hand upon a block of
metal the movements of rotation and oscillation of its atoms are like-
wise modified, but so slightly that we fail to perceive it, which is
precisely the reason why matter appears to us to possess very slight
mobility.
The general belief in its stability seems likewise confirmed by the
observation that in order to cause considerable modifications in a body—
for example, to melt it or to reduce it to vapor—it is necessary to
employ very powerful means.
Sufliciently precise methods of investigation show, on the contrary,
that not only is matter extremely mobile, but also that it possesses a
sensitiveness that no living being has ever approached.
Physiologists measure, as is well known, the sensitiveness of a being —
by the degree of excitation necessary in order to obtain from it a
reaction. The being is considered as very sensitive when it reacts
under slight stimuli. Applying similar tests to brute matter we can
show that the most rigid substance and the least sensitive in appear-
ance, a bar of metal, for example, is really incredibly sensitive. The
matter of the bolometer, formed essentially of a thin thread of plat-
inum, is so sensitive that it reacts—by a variation of electric conducti-
bility—when it is struck by a ray of light having an intensity so feeble
that it can produce an elevation of temperature amounting to only
one hundred millionth of a degree.
With improvement in our means of investigation this extreme sen-
sitiveness of matter and the mobility that necessarily accompanies it
become more and more manifest. M. H. Steele lately showed that it
288 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
is sufficient to lightly touch an iron wire with the finger to cause it to
become at once the seat of an electric current. It is known that ata
distance of hundreds of kilometers the Hertzian waves, whose energy
at such distances is infinitely feeble, profoundly modify the structure
of the metals that they reach, since they change in a marked degree
their electric conductibility. On this phenomenon wireless telegraphy
is based. Various physicists admit that under the influence of these
waves metals instantly undergo allotropic transformations analogous
to those that light produces in certain bodies, notably phosphorus
and sulphur.
This extraordinary sensitiveness of matter, so contrary to what
common observation seemed to indicate, becomes more and more
familiar to physicists, and this is why an expression like ‘‘ the life
of matter,” devoid of sense only twenty-five years ago, is now in cur-
rent use. The study of brute matter reveals more and more proper-
ties that formerly seemed the exclusive endowment of living beings.
M. Bose, investigating the fact that ‘* the most general and delicate sign
of life is the response to an electric current,” proved that this electric
response, ** considered generally as the effect of an unknown vital
force,” exists in matter. He shows also by ingenious experiments“
‘the fatigue” of metals. and its disappearance after repose, the action
of chemical excitants and depressants, the action of poisons on these
same metals, ete.
The dissociation of atoms and the disappearance of matter.—Until
very recently the indestructibility of the elements that compose mat-
ter was considered as the most fundamental dogma of chemistry.
Nor was it vulgar observation alone that taught this; all the experi-
ments of chemistry had only served to confirm it since, throughout all
the transformations that matter might undergo, its mass, measured by
its weight, remained invariable. This invariability of mass bad even
come at last to be the only truly irreducible characteristic of matter
that is to say, the only one that appeared to be independent of the
influences of the environment. The other properties, being always
conditioned by the environment, appeared to be simple relations.
I have recalled in this paper and examined in detail in a preceding
one the facts demonstrating that matter can be dissociated, and conse-
quently that its mass can not be considered as an invariable quantity.
It 1s needless to return to this now. Let us consider the fact as
established and try to explain it.
The explanation will necessarily be hypothetical, as the conception
upon which it rests is an hypothesis. According to our present ideas
regarding the constitution of atoms, each of them may be considered
as a veritable solar system comprising a central part, around which
turn with great velocity at least a thousand particles and sometimes
«Journal de Physique, August, 1902.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 289
many more. The latter must then possess great kinetic energy. If
any cause whatever disturbs their trajectory, or if the rapidity of
their rotation becomes sufficient for the centrifugal force resulting
from it to overcome the attractive force that maintains them in their
orbit, the peripheral particles will then escape into space, following a
tangent of the orbital curve. By this emission they will give rise to
phenomena of radio-activity. To attempt to briefly explain why these
particles whirl about each other since the origin of things would be
useless.
Whatever may be the value of this explanation, the fact of dissocia-
tion exists. It is very singular, surely, to see a system as stable as
that of the atom begin to dissociate under influences so slight as a
ray of light or very simple chemical reactions, but these are facts of
experience before which we must bow.
When it was thought that radio-activity was peculiar to certain
bodies, such as uranium and radium, it was believed, and is still
believed by physicists, that the instability of these bodies was a con-
sequence of their high atomic weight. This explanation disappears
before the fact demonstrated by our former researches that it is just
the metals of the lowest atomic weight, such as magnesium and alumi-
num, that become the most easily radio-active under the influence of
light, while, on the contrary, those of high atomic weight, such as
gold, platinum, and lead, have the lowest radio-activity. Radio-
activity is then independent of atomic weight and is probably due, as
I have suggested, to certain chemical reactions of unknown nature.
Two bodies, not radio-active, may become so by combination. Mer-
cury and tin, for example, are among the bodies having lowest radio-
activity under the influence of light. 1 have shown, however, that
mercury becomes extraordinarily radio-active under the influence of
light as soon as there are added to it some traces of tin.
This example and all similar ones will show that, as said above, the
causes that produce dissociation of atoms are often very slight. How
do they act? Of this we are completely ignorant. Some metals that
become very radio-active under the influence of luminous rays, having
a certain wave length, lose this activity almost entirely under the influ-
ence of rays whose wave length is but slightly different. These facts
seem to have an analogy with the phenomena of resonance. — It is well
known that an organ pipe or a heavy bell may be made to vibrate by
sounding near it a note of a certain vibratory period, while the most
violent noises may not affect it.
Whatever may be the causes capable of dissociating in some slight
degree the aggregate of condensed energy constituting the atom,
those causes exist, and when we know them better we shall certainly
succeed in obtaining a more complete dissociation than we now do,
It was sufficient, in the present state of science, to prove its existence.
290) INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
What becomes of the elements dissociated from atoms? They have
lost, as we have shown, their material character, and we suppose that
they are made up of electric particles. Where do these particles
go to?
Weare here at the extreme limits of our knowledge and are reduced
to replacing explanations by conjectures and interrogation points.
We have seen the material atom become dissociated. Matter consid-
ered as energy condensed under a form in which it acquires weight,
form, and fixity has become transformed into imponderable elements
that are no longer matter, but are not yet ether. Of their destiny we
are still entirely ignorant.
We know by experiment that they can not again form the matter
from which they were derived. Does the electric atom, which all
modern ideas lead us to consider as a localized modification of the
ether, having a permanence in the ether, preserve its individuality
indefinitely? Is it eternal while matter is not so /
Whether it remains isolated or associates itself with matter having
a contrary sign matters little. Eyen though by such an association it
should form an atom of neutral electricity—an unknown thing, shown
as yet by no experiment—it possesses an individuality. But how
long a time does it keep it? If it does not keep it, what does it then
become ¢
That the atom of electricity that necessarily had a beginning is des-
tined to have no end seems hardly probable. If all electric atoms
persist, while their formation is continuous under the influence of so
many diverse causes, they would finally accumulate to such an extent
that they might form a new universe or at least a sort of nebula. It
is therefore probable that they end by losing their individual existence.
But how can they then disappear? Can we suppose that their destiny
is like that of the blocks of ice that float about in the polar regions and
preserve their individual existence so long as they do not encounter
the only cause that can destroy them—an elevation of temperature 4
As soon as this cause of destruction acts upon them they vanish and
disappear in the ocean. Such, perhaps, is the final destiny of the
electric atom. When it has radiated all its energy it disappears in the
ether and is no more.
dynamics; but if the dogma of the indestructibility of matter is taken away, that of
the conservation of energy seems likewise somewhat menaced. However, the ques-
tion is too important to be discussed here, and we will take it up in another paper.
It seems very probable, and I am not alone in so thinking, that the law of the
conservation of energy, whose uncertain limits have been so brilliantly demonstrated
by M. Poincaré in his recent work, La Science et 1’ Hypothése, is, like most physical
laws, like that of Mariotte, for example, true only within certain limits. It would,
then, be useful to preserve it for convenience in calculations.
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 291
If the views set forth in this paper are correct, there exist four suc-
cessive forms of matter. Two are known to us by experience; the
first and the last are as yet hypothetical.
The first form is that exhibited by the ether.
The second that of ordinary matter, formed of atoms which are,
according to our view, only condensed energy in a special state, from
which result form, weight, and fixity.
The third form, with which dissolution commences, is represented
by the so-called electric atom, a substance intermediate between ordi-
nary matter and the ether—that is to say, between the ponderable and
the imponderable. The matter has lost its weight, its inertia is no
longer constant, and its fixity seems to be transitory.
The last phase of the existence of matter would be that in which the
electric atom, having lost its individuality—that is to say, its fixity—
disappears in the ether. This would be the final term of the dissocia-
tion of matter, the final nirvana, into which it seems that everything
must return after an ephemeral existence.
Yet these are merely interpretations. We must not depart from the
facts set forth and which have proved that atoms become dissociated.
Since, too, we have proved that this dissociation is a general phe-
nomenon, we are authorized to conclude that the doctrine of invaria-
bility of atomic weights, on which all modern chemistry is founded, is
only a deceptive appearance, resulting entirely from the want of sensi-
tiveness in balances. If they were sensitive to the millionth of a
milligram, they would show that all our chemical laws are merely
approximations. If balances were capable of such precision, we should
soon show that under many circumstances, and particularly during
chemical reactions, the atom loses a part of its weight. We are then
~authorized to conclude, contrary to the principle stated by Lavoisier
as the basis of chemistry, that we never find in a chemical com-
bination the total weight of the bodies employed to produce that
combination.“
The correctness of this capital fact begins to be recognized by emi-
nent physicists. For example, recently before the Physical Society of
«We are already beginning to prove this experimentally by using extremely sensi-
tive balances and operating during a sufficiently longtime. ‘‘ By the aid of a balance
of great precision,’ writes M. Lucien Poincaré, ‘‘MM. Landwolt and Heydweiler
have weighed numerous bodies before and after the action of chemical changes which
those bodies set up, and these two very expert and very cautious physicists have not
been afraid to announce the sensational result that under certain circumstances the
weight is not the same before and after the reaction. To particularize, the weight ofa
solution of sulphate of copper in water is not the exact sum of the weight of the salt
and the water.’’ (Revue des Sciences, January, 1903, p. 96.)
292 INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY.
London Sir Oliver Lodge, referring to experiments in radio-activity,
expressed himself as follows:
The evolution or transformation of matter is experimentally demonstrated by
experiments upon radio-activity. The heavy atoms of radio-active bodies appear to
collapse and throw off atoms of low atomic weight. It might be thought that this
hypothesis about the degradation and instability of the atoms is mere speculation,
but it is the most reasonable explanation of the observed phenomena. According to
the electric theory of matter, i. e., on the view that the atom contains electrons
with rapid intra-atomic movements obeying laws like astronomical laws, this insta-
bility ought to exist. We must not suppose that atoms are permanent and eternal.
We may possibly find a rise and decay in ordinary matter. The history of an atom
presents analogies with that of a solar system. On the electric theory of matter, the
falling together of electrons might produce the electric aggregate known as an atom,
and its subsequent gradual decay or separation into other forms would be accompa-
nied by epochs of radio-activity. 4
In an address, also quite recent, Sir William Crookes arrived at an
analogous conclusion:
This fatal quality of atomic dissociation appears to be universal and operates when-
ever we brush a piece of glass with silk; it works in the sunshine and raindrops,
and in the lightnings and flame; it prevails in the waterfall and the stormy sea.
And although the whole range of human experience is all too short to afford a
parallax whereby the date of the extinction of matter can be calculated, protyle, the
‘‘formless mist,’’ once again may reign supreme, and the hour hand of eternity will
have completed one revolution. ?
Let us now recapitulate.
By this long analysis we have followed the atom. from its birth to
its decline. We have seen it forming, developing, then beginning to
disappear. Trying to ascertain its nature we have-shown that it con-
stitutes a tremendous reservoir of energy, and is probably nothing but
condensed energy susceptible of being slowly dissociated.
We are certainly ignorant of the nature and mode of action of
forces capable of condensing a part of the ether that fills the universe
into atoms of any gas whatever—such as hydrogen or helium, for
example—then of transforming such gas into substances like sodium,
lead, or gold, but the changes observed in the stars show that forces
capable of producing such transformation actually exist, that they
have operated in the past and still continue to operate.
According to Laplace’s theory of cosmogeny the sun and planets
were at firsta great rotating nebula at whose center a nucleus formed
and from which rings were successively detached, which later formed
the earth and other planets. At first gaseous, these masses became
gradually cooled, and the space primitively filled by the nebula was
occupied only by a few globes that continue to rotate around their
a Physical Society, session of June 3, 19038. Reported in Chemical News June 19,
1905.
>Chemical News, June 12, 1903, p. 281. [See also present Smithsonian Report,
p. 241.]
INTRA-ATOMIC ENERGY. 293
own axes and about the sun. According to the new ideas concerning
the composition of atoms, we are authorized to suppose that each of
them was formed in a similar manner, and, in spite of its minute size,
represents a veritable solar system.
Yet our nebula, like those which still continue to illuminate the
night, necessarily came from something. In the present state of
science we can only suggest the ether as a possible source from which
this something arose, and that is why all investigations lead us back to
considering it as the fundamental element in the universe. The
worlds were born in it and they will die in it.
We are ignorant how an atom came to be formed and why it ends
by slowly disappearing; but we at least know that a similar evolution
is taking place in the worlds that surround us, since we can observe
them going through all the phases of evolution from the nebula to the
cooled star, passing through the stage of incandescent suns similar to
our own. The transformations of the inorganic world now appear
to be as certain as those of organized beings. The atom and conse-
quently matter do not escape from this sovereign and mysterious law
which rules over the birth, growth, and death of the innumerable
stars which people our firmament.
It is in these atomic systems, which were ignored for so long a time
because of their extreme minuteness, that we must doubtless look for
the explanation of some of the mysteries that surround us. The infi-
nitely little may perhaps contain the secrets of the infinitely great.
It is not only from a purely theoretical point of view that it is nec-
essary to thoroughly study the atomic systems and the tremendous
energies that work within them. Science may be on the eve of cap-
turing these energies whose existence was unsuspected and thus ren-
der unnecessary the mining of coal. The provision of combustibles
that the terrestrial strata contain is rapidly becoming exhausted, and if
this reservoir of energy fails, manufactures, the essential element of
civilization, are destined to perish. Without coal, indeed, railroads
and steamboats would be stopped, factories closed, and electric lights
extinguished. The man of science who finds the means of economically
liberating the forces that matter contains will almost instantaneously
change the face of the world. An illimitable source of energy being
gratuitously at the disposal of man, he would not have to procure it
by severe labor. The poor would be the equals of the rich, and the
social question would be no longer agitated,
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.¢
By J. Wrieur.
There are few inventions in the electrical field which have benetited
the chemist and metallurgist more than that comprised under the gen-
eral title of ‘* electric furnace.” Up to, comparatively speaking, a few
years ago the highest attainable temperature by any known artificial
means was 1,800° C., or, possibly, with exceptional facilities and the
exercise of great care, as high a temperature as 2,000° C. may, in some
cases, have been attained, though the exact limit is questionable; cer-
tainly it does not rise much above the latter figure. Thanks, how-
ever, to the indefatigable researches of Moissan, Siemens, Borchers,
Cowles, and some other investigators, we now possess a means for the
artificial production of temperatures far above this limit, which enable
us to fuse and otherwise treat commercially such hitherto refractory
substances as chromium, platinum, carbon, and even the once inde-
structible crystalline form of that element, the diamond.
Generally speaking, electric furnaces may be divided under two
main headings, namely, those in which the heating effect is produced
by the electric are established between two carbon or other electrodes
connected with the source of current, commonly known as are fur-
naces; and those in which the heating effect is produced by the pas-
sage of the current through a resistance, which either forms part and
parcel of the furnace proper, or is constituted, by a suitably conduct-
ing train, of the material to be treated in the furnace. The principle
of this latter type is analogous to that involved in the heating to
incandescence of the ordinary electric-lamp filament, and such fur-
naces are, as a Class, known as resistance furnaces.
The earlier electric furnaces naturally assumed an experimental-
form, and of these that devised by Moissan, the celebrated chemist
and investigator, is probably the simplest. It is an are furnace, and
consists of two chalk blocks bored out at their centers to receive a
carbon crucible, which incloses the center or hearth of the furnace
proper. Into this cavity pass two massive carbon electrodes, through
openings provided for them in the walls of the structure, which is
June, 1903.
SM 1903
20 mae
296 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
the carbon rods are provided, exterior to the furnace, and the are
established between their inner extremities when the current is turned
on plays over the center of the crucible, heating its contents.
A furnace of this type, though its capacity is limited to a single
charge of the crucible at each operation, has nevertheless proved
itself of extreme utility in laboratory practice, and is a very efficient
source of heat in that the hearth or center of activity is entirely sur-
rounded by refractory, nonconducting walls. Very little heat is,
consequently, lost by diffusion or radiation.
A somewhat more elaborate modification of Moissan’s original fur-
nace has been devised by Messrs. Ducretet & Lejeune, of Paris, and is
shown in fig. 1. It consists of a refractory chamber R, built of fire
brick or some other suitable material, and provided with an opening
A, through which the substances to be treated may be introduced. C C
are carbon rods supported in massive tubular clamps TT, which are
water-jacketed to keep down their temperature to a safe limit. Bisa
varbon or magnesia crucible, forming the hearth of the furnace and
containing a charge of the material to be treated, while W is a remoy-
able window or inspection opening, fitted with ruby glass, through
which operations requiring only a moderate heat can be watched
while in progress. When utilized for higher temperatures, this glass
slide is replaced by a slab of refractory material, such as fire brick.
The carbons CC project through the walls of the furnace at right
angles to each other, and the necessary separation of their inner
extremities for the establishment of the are takes place at a point just
above the mouth of the crucible B,as shown. A system of tubes leads
into the interior of the chamber R, and serves, when required, for the
introduction of special gases with which it may be necessary to cause
the contents of the crucible to enter into chemical combination. A
horseshoe permanent magnet M, manipulated at the exterior, exerts a
repellant foree upon the are, directing it down into the crucible as
desired, after the manner of a blowpipe.
Sir William Siemens was the first to apply the electric are furnace
to commercial operations, and his apparatus and experiments were
described in a paper read by him before the Society of Telegraph
TEE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 297
Engineers. According to this astute investigator, who scems to have,
in a measure, grasped the conditions and general principles necessary
to the successful operation of an are furnace—no mean conception,
when one considers the general lack of knowledge on the subject
which prevailed at the time (over twenty years ago)—the advantages
in favor of the electric furnace as a source of heat are that, theoretic-
ally, the heat obtainable is unlimited; fusion is effected in a perfectly
neutral atmosphere; the operation can be carried on in a laboratory,
without much preparation, and under the eye of the operator; and
that the limit of heat practically obtainable with the use of ordinary
refractory materials is very high, because in the electric furnace the
fusing material is at a higher temperature than the crucible, whereas
in ordinary fusion the temperature of the crucible exceeds that of the
material fused within it.
The general principle of the early Siemens arc furnace is represented
in fig. 2, in which B is a refractory crucible of plumbago, magnesia,
lime, or other suitable material,
which may be varied according: to
the nature of the substance to be
dealt with. It is supported at the
center of a cylinder or jacket J,
and is packed around with broken
charcoal, or a similarly poor
conductor of heat. Being thus
isolated, as it were, from the sur-
rounding atmosphere, it retains
its heat, and very little is lost by
diffusion. The negative electrode
consists of a massive carbon rod
C passing vertically through the
center of the lid of the crucible and free to move vertically therein,
though the clearance opening is, for obvious reasons, very small. The
rod © is suspended from the lower end of a copper strap S, which
conducts the current from it, being attached at its upper end to the
curved extremity of a horizontal beam A. The other side of the beam
is provided with an adjustable weight W, and carries, suspended from
its extremity by a hinged joint, a hollow soft-iron cylinder ¢, forming
the core of the solenoid E. P is a dash-pot arrangement in which the
cylinder works, the tendency of E being to raise it out of P against
the counteracting force of the weight W, thus lowering the negative
>
electrode into the crucible. The solenoid winding is connected as a
shunt across the two electrodes. The positive electrode F, which may
be of iron, platinum, or carbon, consists of a rod of one or the other
of these materials passing up through the center of the base of the
crucible. The furnace was originally designed by Siemens for the
298 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
fusion of refractory metals and their ores; consequently, once the
action is started, electrical contact is established between the lower
electrode F and the semimetallic mass in the crucible, and the are con-
tinues to play between the surface of the mass and the movable carbon
rod C. As the current through the furnace increases, that through
the shunt winding of the solenoid diminishes, and the weight W coming
into play causes its end of the beam to descend, thereby raising the
negative electrode C and restoring equilibrium.
The Willson furnace is essentially a modification of Siemens’s orig-
inal form, the solenoid regulation of the upper movable carbon being
replaced by a worm and hand wheel, while the furnace is made contin-
uous in operation by the provision of a tapping hole for drawing off
the molten products. This type of furnace was employed in the man-
ufacture of calcium carbide, which,
when drawn off in a molten state,
is much purer than the ingot or
broken-lump form, in which the
greater bulk of that commodity is
placed on the market.
The Parks carbide furnace, de-
vised by W. P. Parks, of Chicago,
is of the arc variety and provides for
the production of calcium carbide
in the molten state. It is repre-
sented in fig. 3 and consists of a
vertical cylindrical structure F of
refractory material, provided with
a carbon hearth C, which at the
same time acts as the negative elec-
trode. 1t has an annular channel a
cut in its upper surface, which latter
is flush with the inner floor of F.
This channel collects the molten carbide formed, and it drains down,
to be ultimately drawn off at A. The upper, positive, electrode B
consists of a massive, hollow carbon cylinder, in the lower half of
which, or the portion inside the furnace F, are cut radial slots s s,
which subdivide the electrode and tend to set up a circle of ares
around the space bounded by the hearth. TT are gas-supply pipes,
ending in hydrocarbon burners inside of B, which primarily heat the
‘aw material as it passes down the hollow center of the electrode.
The feeding is effected from a hopper H by an Archimedean screw
working in the casing D.
An electrolytic furnace, utilized in the separation of aluminum from
a mixture of purified alumina and cryolite, is that adopted in what is
known as the Herault process. which is being worked by the British
Fic. 3.
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 299
Aluminium Company, of Foyers, New Brunswick, and one or two
metallurgical firms on the Continent.
It consists of an outer iron casing or container F (fig. 4) resting on
an insulating base. This container is lined with massive carbon plates,
cemented together with tar or suitable conducting material, and so
arranged as to form at the center a recess or hearth H, an outlet 0,
from the bottom leading out to the exterior of the furnace, and pro-
viding for drawing off the molten metal.
A series of copper pins ¢ ¢, driven into the iron walls of the container,
serve as a2 means of terminal connection to the carbon blocks, which
constitute one electrode of the furnace, while the other, C, consists of
a number of carbon plates, placed face to face, like the leaves of a
book, the spaces between being filled in with some good electrical con-
ductor, such as sheet copper. The composite electrode thus built up
is mounted in a frame E, by means of which it can be raised or low-
ered as required, and terminal con-
nection is secured by means of an
encircling clamp T. The electrode C
passes through a clearance opening
in the lid L of the furnace, which
consists of graphite plates; openings
pp are also provided for the intro-
duction of the raw material (alumina
and cryolite), thereby making the
furnace continuous in operation.
The furnace is charged with puri-
fied alumina and cryolite, as already
indicated, and, the electrode C having
been lowered, the action is started. The heat thus set up, combined
with the electrolytic action of the current, results in the setting free
of metallic aluminum, while oxygen gas is evolved at the positive or
varbon electrode and enters into combination with it, forming the gases
monoxide and dioxide of carbon.
The molten aluminum collects at the bottom of the hearth and is
tapped off through the outlet 0, fresh material being fed in and the
height of the electrode C regulated as the operation proceeds.
The King furnace is also of the are variety and is utilized in the
manufacture of carbide in ingot form. It consists of a fire-brick
chamber, through the roof of which passes vertically the upper
adjustable electrode. The lower, fixed, electrode is carried by a small
truck or trolley, which runs along rails at the base of the structure and
acts the part of crucible or hearth. The lime and carbon are fed into
it down lateral.channels in the walls of the furnace and are caused to
combine by the heat of the are set up. The upper electrode is gradu-
ally raised as the raw material is fed in, until, at a certain point, the
Fia. 4.
300 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
truck becomes filled with a block or mass of calcium carbide and is
then wheeled out of the furnace to discharge its load. While fusion
is in progress a slight reciprocating motion is given to the truck,
which serves to shake the charge well down and introduce fresh por-
tions of it into the path of the are proper.
The Chavarria-Contardo arc furnace for
the manufacture of calcium carbide pos-
sesses several novel points. Its general
principle is represented diagrammatically
in fie. 5, where ee are the electrodes, run-
ning parallel to one another and slightly
above the axis of the channel or trough
T, which forms the hearth; ¢ ¢ are thin
graphite plates, built up to form a roof-
shaped structure, which becomes itself
intensely hot when the furnace is active.
The raw material is fed in at A, and, pass-
ing over the upper surfaces of ¢ c, receives
a preliminary heating of no mean degree;
it then passes down, taking the course
indicated by the dotted lines, under the
electrodes ¢ ¢ and into the trough T, where it is subjected to the most
intense reflected heat of the arc. The molten carbide formed is drawn
off by way of the outlet o.
The disposal of the gases, especially carbon monoxide, resulting
from the reactions in a carbide furnace has long -been a stumbling
block to the manufacturer in that any attempt at modifying the furnace
to this end resulted in undesira-
ble complications and increased
prime cost. This has been, in a
measure, overcome in the Frélich
are furnace for carbide manufac-
ture, invented by Dr. Oscar Fré-
lich, of Streglitz,Germany. The
Fia. 5.
general arrangement is shown
in fig. 6 and consists of a cylin- |
drieal iron crucible F, mounted s-ll
on standards S, and tapering at
its base to a central discharge
orifice.
LELLAAAL ASV OGSL AEG FE MMMM TELE hd,
SS
A lining of fire clay L protects
the cylindrical wall, while the
inner surface of the conical base is covered by the carbon electrode C.
The remaining electrode consists of the massive carbon cylinder B,
which is hollow, and depends, with its lower edge just over the dis-
charge orifice, the are taking place between the two edges of the
FIG. 6.
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 3801
earbons. Tubes TT lead from the upper portion of the carbon cylin-
der B to the annular chamber R, just outside and inclosing the space
bounded by the lower electrode C. The gases of combustion pass up
the center of B, which acts as a flue, and down by way of the tubes
T T to R, where they mingle with air, admitted through perforations
in the casing, and are consumed, the final products passing out through
the discharge pipe P.
The raw material is fed into the mouth of the furnace around the
central electrode, and, passing through the annular arcing region at
the bottom, where it becomes converted into carbide, falls onto the
adjustable conical table D. This is provided with a lip around its
lower edge and is mounted on a stem s, which, gearing with the lever
/, permits of its being raised or lowered according as the operation of
the furnace is intermittent or continuous.
The Denbergh furnace for the manufacture of sulphuric and phos-
phoric acids, and also ‘* water-glass,” or sodium ortho-silicate, is shown
in fig. 7. It consists of an ordinary
fire-brick structure F, linedat 7 with
arefractory material impervious to
the gases produced in the reactions,
an outlet for which gases is provided ©
at o. The body of the furnace is
contracted below, as shown, and the
outlet R for the fused products is
led up within the walls themselves,
from the point of lowest level to
another point of higher level, which
defines the depth of converted ma-
terial contained within the furnace.
The lid L carries a charge inlet 7 and a hopper H, the feeding being
secured mechanically by a reciprocating movement communicated to
the piston p, which works in a cylinder c, carrying a definite quantity
before it at each stroke. The electrodes E E are of carbon, passing
through terminal sockets in which they are capable of motion in a
direction corresponding with their axes, which permits of feeding as
they wear away, whilst the sockets, in turn, are mounted in a species
of swivel joint, which allows the angle of inclination, and consequently
the height of the arc, to be varied at will.
Koller’s are furnace is of a simple description. It consists of a
longitudinal chamber, with massive carbon blocks projecting through
the end walls. A series of carbon blocks, supported in line with the
terminal electrodes, are arranged along the chamber at regular inter-
rals, their number varying according to the voltage. The are is thus
split up into series, and a number of heated regions are secured in the
center of the mass of raw material which is packed around the blocks.
302 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE,
The Henriveux furnace, for the manufacture of glass, consists of
three steps or slabs of refractory material, forming a species of cascade,
the mixture to be fused being fed from a hopper onto the top step,
whence it descends by gravity over the remainder. The heat from a
powerful are is directed upon each of the three steps, and the mass, in
passing through the series of three, emerges finally in a molten state,
and is collected in a suitable receptacle at the bottom, where it is main-
tained in a state of fusion by a gas or coke fire. It is said to bea very
wasteful process in that a considerable quantity of the heat developed
in the ares is lost or dissipated without performing useful work.
Passing now to resistance fur-
naces, Borchers’s is typical of
that class in which a core, form-
: ing part of the furnace itself, is
] IG heated by the passage of the cur-
AMM] MOMMA OHOH_ ABW ent through it, and imparts its
ara heat to the surrounding mass of
material contained in the furnace. It is represented in fig. 8, and
consists of a block B of refractory material, through the center of
which passes an opening R, forming the crucible or center of activity
into which is fed the material to be treated. This space R is bridged
by a thin carbon rod c, which is attached at its extremities to two
massive carbon electrodes C C, passing through the walls of the
furnace and fed with current through the large metal clamps M.
These massive electrodes serve to conduct the current without undue
heating to the smaller rod ¢, through which it passes in turn, rais-
ing it to a very high temperature, owing to the resistance offered to
its passage by a conductor of considerably smaller cross section, and
forming, as it were, a central,
heated axis to the material con-
tained in the crucible. It thus
diffuses its heat throughout the
mass from its center outwards.
The Gibbs resistance furnace
is based on the Borchers prin-
FIG. 9.
ciple, a carbon rod, or rods, of small section being supported between
massive carbon blocks set in cast-iron sockets let into the brickwork.
The novelty of this invention, however, lies in the position of the
small resistance rods. These are located above the furnace charge
and do not come into actual contact with it at all, the heat being
communicated by reflection from the domed roof.
The Acheson furnace for the manufacture of carborundum is a
somewhat rudimentary device, in that it is built up and pulled down
again for each charge of raw material dealt with. It is represented in
diagram by fig. 9, in which F is a rough fire-brick structure, through
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 303
the end walls of which project the electrodes C C, consisting of com-
posite bundles of carbon rods set in massive metal clamps M. The’
space between the two electrodes is bridged by a conducting path of
coke A, which constitutes the distinct core of the furnace, and rele-
gates it to the class of which Borchers’s furnace is a typical example.
This core is packed round with the raw material N, consisting of coke,
sand, sawdust, and common salt. The process of conversion is said
to be far from economical.
A resistance furnace, based upon the fundamental principle of the
Nernst lamp, has been devised by Doctors Nernst and Glaser. The
resistance, or heater, is cylindrical, electrical connection with it at
the top and bottom being secured by an annular packing of some con-
ducting oxide held in place by iron clamps and bolts. The hollow
cylinder is surrounded by a jacket of oxide loosely packed between
it and an outer cylindrical sheath, an arrangement which prevents
undue waste of heat. The heating cylinder, which consists of a mix-
ture of magnesia, calcium carbonate, alumina, and silica, is closed by
a lid, and the substance to be treated is either packed directly into it
or contained in a crucible located within it. In the former case the
cylinder is protected internally by an additional lining of pure mag-
nesia, coated with graphite to give it an initial conductivity.
The Cowles furnace, again, is typical of that class of resistance fur-
nace in which the path of high resistance consists of the material to be
treated and does not form part of the furnace proper. The Cowles
furnace first made its appearance in 1884, and takes several forms, all
more or less similar in general principle, but differing in such details
as affect the class of work for which they are intended.
In its simplest form it consists of an oblong fire-brick structure,
provided with a lid, in which are one or more vent holes to permit the
escape of the gases generated. Massive carbon electrodes are intro-
duced horizontally through the two ends of the furnace, electrical
connection with them being secured, in an early form, by a species of
tubular gland through which each electrode passed and which was
filled with copper shot. In passing to and fro through these glands
the carbon rods set up a kind of rolling friction with the shot, and
fairly good electrical contact was thus established between them.
A preliminary lining of granular charcoal was given to the furnace,
which, being a bad conductor of heat, prevented undue loss due from
radiation and diffusion. Inside this lining, again, was packed the par-
tially conducting mass to be heated, forming a chain between the two
carbon electrodes. When the current was turned on this mass became
heated by the passage of the current through it, after the manner of
the carbon filament in the ordinary incandescent lamp.
304 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
In a later form (fig. 10) of the Cowles furnace charging funnels F F
were introduced through apertures in the lid, while the hearth sloped
from either end to the center, at the lowest point of which was provided
an outlet 0 for drawing off the molten products. C C are the carbon
electrodes; G, the glands containing the shot; and c¢, the lining of non-
conducting charcoal. The funnels F, by a judicious feeding process,
cea provided a means of
keeping the resist-
c ance of the column of
material fairly uni-
form at all points,
thus Insuring an even
distribution of heat
Fie. 10. throughout the mass.
The Cowles furnace for the treatment of zinc ores was also of the
resistance type, and is represented by fig. 11, where R is a long cyl-
inder of fire clay, mounted in a brickwork setting and surrounded by
a jacket of some refractory material J, which is also a bad conductor
of heat. The inner end of the cylinder R is effectually closed by a
flanged disk of carbon C, which also constitutes one electrode of the
furnace, the other taking the form of a plumbago crucible P, the con-
vex base of which fits into the outer extremity of the cylinder R and
forms a remoyable seal. Further, by way of an aperture « in the
wall of the crucible, the metallic zine passes over into it by distillation
and is collected therein, a chimney or outlet ¢ serving to carry off the
gases and fumes produced. The charge of broken zine ore is, as before,
spread evenly along the cylinder, ‘
so as to form a semiconducting
chain between the two electrodes.
The Cowles furnace for the
manufacture of aluminum alloys
partook of the nature of Bor-
chers’s furnace, although it had
not, strictly speaking, a continu-
ous resistance core of its own.
Two massive tubular electrodes, Fig. 11.
provided with a means for manual adjustment, carried close-fitting
cores of smaller section, which inclined to one another and actually
met, forming a conducting core of high resistance at a point in the
center of the furnace immediately under the aperture of the feeding
hopper. These smaller electrodes, together with the raw material fed
on to them at the point of meeting, formed a conducting link of high
resistance between the main electrodes, and the heating effect of the
current was thus localized and confined to the point at which it was
most needed, namely, at the feeding center of the cavity.
A circular form of resistance furnace, devised by M. it. Conley
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 305
and intended mainly for the reduction of iron ores or the manufacture
of steel, consists of a cylindrical fire-brick structure, the inner wall of
which is contracted to form a narrow opening at about two-thirds of
its depth to the hearth proper, which lies below. At the contraction
is introduced a circular set of electrodes of segmental form, made of
the usual compressed carbon mixture, and isolated from one another
by intervening segments or pillars of fire brick.
The electrode segments constitute an even number, and are con-
nected alternately to the positive and
negative poles of the source of current.
Means of adjustment are provided
which allow the segments to be fed radi-
ally as they wearaway. A similar circle
of segmental electrodes surrounds the
central portion of the furnace proper,
or crucible, which is located below the
contraction and provided with an outlet
for drawing off the molten metal as ites
forms. By a suitable manipulation of
- the current and connections to the fur-
nace it is possible with this device to secure a combination of heated
zones or paths through the mass of material under treatment, the
position of which can be varied at will, so as to penetrate to all parts
and secure a homogeneous and uniform fusion.
The Readman-Parker furnace for the manufacture of phosphorus
was invented independently by these two gentlemen in 1888, and they
subsequently combined their ideas to form a community of interests.
It consists of the usual fire-brick structure F, fig. 12, and feeding
hopper H, the furnace being hermetically
sealed in order to exclude atmosphericair.
A discharge flue A carries off the gases and
vapors formed during the process, and the
interior of the chamber is contracted at its
lower portion, as shown, to form a hearth.
Mutiple electrodes EK E are employed,
facing one another in two rows, passing
through the side walls of the structure,
while smaller electrodes ¢ e, below them,
Fig, 13. which can be brought into closer prox-
imity, are employed to start the current flow. These are subsequently
withdrawn, and the action, which resembles that of a resistance fur-
nace with a conducting path formed of the material under treatment,
is maintained between the main electrodes E E.
The ingot carbide furnace recently patented by Mr. Parker should
have a decided future before it. The principle of its construction is
represented in sectional plan in fig. 13, in which R is a cylindrical
306 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
retort or crucible lined throughout with carbon C, forming one elec-
trode, the other being a massive carbon block of rectangular section
B, which is supported at the center of the retort, and is of such
dimensions that its corners approach very closely to the inner carbon
walls of that vessel. The raw material is fed in at hoppers on either
side of B, their position being indicated by the circles a and 6. While
working the crucible and its contents revolve, thus constantly bring-
ing fresh portions of the mass within the zone of activity, while by a
‘aretully proportioned train of gearing the electrode B is gradually
raised at such a rate that its lower extremity is always immersed at a
constant depth in the mass under treatment, while an ingot of finished
‘arbide is gradually built up beneath it in the erucible.
A series of patents have been recently granted in the United States
on electric furnaces for the manufacture of such comminuted products
as pigments, abrasives, oxides, refined metals, and a miscellaneous
collection of similar character. The general arrangement consists of
an are or resistance furnace, with which is combined an air blast
device, playing either immediately onto the furnace contents or upon
the vapors arising from it. An ex-
ample will serve to demonstrate the
general principle involved.
Fig. 14 represents a furnace of this
description, devised by C. S$. Lomax
and patented as recently as March,
1902. Itis intended for the manufac-
Fig. 14, ture of the various commercial oxides
of lead and tin. A refractory block F has a narrow channel ¢ cut in
its upper surface; this constitutes the hearth of the furnace, and is of
uniform cross section for about the center third of its length. At each
extremity it merges into a deeper and wider wedge-shaped cavity, in
either of which is placed, vertically, an electrode; Tis a main, supply-
ing cold or heated air to the discharge jets ¢ ¢, which are set at such an
angle that the air emerging from them is projected downward into the
central trough or channel; L is a cover or screen which collects the
products and guides them into the chamber R.
The mode of procedure is exceedingly simple. The channel <¢,
together with its enlarged ends, is filled with the molten lead or tin to
be converted; the current is turned on, and that portion of the molten
column bounded by the narrow central channel immediately attains
a considerable temperature, owing to its smaller cross section. When
the required heat has been reached the air blast is brought into play,
‘ausing the finely divided metallic particles to combine with its oxygen,
the resulting compound being carried over into the chamber R. This
form of furnace is adaptable to making a variety of oxides, the neces-
sary changes in chemical combination being brought about by varying
the respective temperatures of the air blast and the molten metal.
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 807
Ruthenburg’s electro-magnetic furnace is another practical example
of the proverb ‘‘ Necessity is the mother of invention.” One of the
purest sources for the extraction of metallic jron is ‘*iron sand” and
similar ores, the process of treating which has hitherto been hampered
by their finely divided state and consequent clogging of the smelting
furnaces. Ruthenburg’s invention has in view the preliminary agglom-
eration of this sand, with the object of thus converting it into a form
more suitable for the ordinary operation of smelting.
His furnace is represented in fig. 15, and consists of two similar
cast-iron hoppers H H, hinged together at the point of support «, and
into which the iron sand is fed at equal rates. The discharge orifices
00 are opposite to each other, and the distance between them can be
varied at will by the handwheel and worm W. The two hoppers con-
stitute the electrodes, terminal con-
nection with them being secured as
shown at ¢ ¢, where the discharge noz-
zles are also water jacketed; C C are
magnetizing coils encircling the hop-
pers and having their windings con-
nected either in series with or in shunt
across the hoppers. Their office is
to magnetize the individual particles
of the sand, causing them to adhere
together temporarily, and thus assist
in forming a self-supporting mass M
across the discharge apertures. This
mass is subjected to the maximum
heating effect, and the semimolten
product drops away into the crucible t Va Ae \ t
R, placed to receive it. R
A novel type of resistance furnace,
Fig. 15.
patented independently, with some
slight variation of detail, by Colby, Ferranti, and Ijellin, is worked
on the inductive principle, and consists of an annular or helical
channel in a refractory base, filled with a conducting or semiconduct-
ing medium, which constitutes the furnace charge, and has a heavy
current induced in it by a surrounding coil of many turns, carry-
ing an alternating current. The device, in point of fact, acts as the
closed circuit secondary of a step-down transformer, and is said to
be admirably adapted for the fusing of such metals as platinum,
which, if exposed to the atmosphere during the process, as in the
ordinary type of furnace, occlude oxygen and other gases in their
mass, which lead subsequently to blowholes and other imperfections
in the casting. The Kjellin furnace principle has recently been
applied to the manufacture of steel at Gysinge, Sweden, with great
SUCCESS.
308 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
The experience of late years in the construction and use of electric
furnaces trends toward the establishment of the resistance furnace as
atype more readily capable of efficient regulation. This is further
accentuated by the fact that overheating is, to a considerable extent,
possible, and, indeed, prevalent in many types of furnace, especially
those of the are variety. Scientists and others unversed in the possi-
bilities of the electric furnace as a source of artificial heat hailed its
introduction with delight as a means of overcoming many of the diffi-
culties previously imposed by the limitations of temperature. In so
doing they in many cases overlooked the very simple fact that it is
possible to have too much of a good thing, and the consequent tend-
ency was to overrate rather than underrate the temperature required
for various commercial processes.
Experience, however, has exposed this fallacy, and as a natural result
we turn to that type of furnace which offers the best means of regula-
tion and the absence of excessive variation, viz, the resistance furnace.
Here again we are beset with fur-
ther difficulties, for if we employ
a portion of the charge itself as:
high-resistance column, excessive
variations creep in, owing to the
changeable nature of the column
with the reactions taking place
within it, whereas if we employ :
definite core of small cross section,
as in the Borchers class, the capac-
ity of the furnace is limited, and
Fic. 16. the cost of its upkeep is increased
by the very necessary and frequent renewal of the conducting rods.
With a view to minimizing these various drawbacks, Mr. H. I.
Irvine, of Niagara Falls, has brought out a resistance furnace in which
the heated column consists of a fused electrolyte, maintained in a state
of fusion by the passage of the current and communicating its heat by
radiation and diffusion to the encircling charge which is packed
around it.
The general construction of this furnace, which was mainly designed
for the manufacture of phosphorus, is represented in fig. 16. It con-
sists of a refractory structure F, lined with carbon C, and fitted with a
domed roof R, in the center of which is a hopper H. Two vertical
carbon electrodes B B descend vertically through R to within a short
distance of the hearth, whilst a possible variation in the direction of
the heating effect is provided by lateral electrodes 6 6, connected with
the hearth itself. The action of the furnace is first started through a
mass of coke K, which forms a bridge between the electrodes B B, and
is subsequently maintained by the fused slag from the furnace charge
THE ELECTRIC FURNACE. 309
‘.
which flows down between the electrodes and is maintained at constant
level by the overflow outlets 0 0.
As pointed out by Mr. Carl Hering, the fire brick or other refrac-
tory lining of all furnaces when heated becomes a conductor after the
manner of a Nernst lamp glower. Though unavoidable, this is a con-
tingency which, with furnaces of the resistance type at least, must be
taken into account, in that it increases the total conductivity of the
device and necessitates a corresponding increase in the working cur-
rent. He further points out that the heat thus communicated is not
lost, except in a small degree, consequent upon the decrease in the
thickness of the nonconducting walls and the diminution of their heat-
conserving qualities.
Equally important with the selection of an easily regulated and com-
paratively invariable electric furnace, ranks the question of tempera-
ture determination. At the enormous temperatures developed in the
electric furnace all previously known methods of temperature measure-
ment, whether by thermometer or pyrometer, desert us, in that the
constituent parts of these various apparatuses will not stand the direct
application of such terrific heat. Here again stern necessity has been
the means of inspiring investigators to action, with a view to discoy-
ering some eflicient method for the measurement or comparison of
these high temperatures.
Fery’s suggested method for determining the high temperatures
usually encountered in electric furnaces consists in a practical applica-
tion of Stefan’s law, which is to the effect that the radiation of an
absolutely black body is proportional to the fourth power of its abso-
lute temperature. Kirchoff has proved that the interior of an inclosure
of which the walls are at a uniform temperature is equivalent to an
‘absolutely black body,” i. e., a body which absorbs all the heat
imparted to it, giving it out again by radiation, and not by reflection.
In this connection, therefore, the interior wall of an electric or other
inclosed furnace may be regarded as an absolutely black body, a small
aperture in which does not materially affect the conditions governing
this definition.
Fery’s practical application of this law to the measurement of fur-
nace temperatures consists in a species of telescope with a fluorspar
objective. This telescope is placed in line with the aperture in the fur-
nace wall, and, receiving the heat radiated therefrom, concentrates it
upon a small thermo-couple. By an inner diaphragm, regulating the
number of rays which reach the thermo-couple, the device is rendered
independent of its distance from the furnace wall. The fluorspar
objective, by its absorption of radiant heat, reduces the sensitiveness
of the arrangement by about 10 per cent; but, notwithstanding this, it
has proved of extreme utility, owing to its enormous range and its
appleability in such cases as those with which we are dealing at the
310 THE ELECTRIC FURNACE.
present moment, where other generally accepted methods are out of
the question. The actual temperature is, of course, obtained from a
specially prepared table or curve, and is read from the electro-motive
force recorded by the thermo-couple.
Another, somewhat crude, method of measuring furnace tempera-
tures, into which the personal element is liable to enter, causing an
error of judgment, consists in a telescope, as before, mounted on a
convenient stand and placed in line with a small aperture in the furnace
wall. Inside the tube of the telescope is located a small incandescent
lamp, which can be energized by one or two battery cells, and the
current through it, and an ammeter placed in series with it, regulated
by a suitable switch and rheostat. The principle upon which its action
depends is that which involves the apparent disappearance of the
filament when raised to the same degree of incandescence as the fur-
nace lining and viewed against the latter asa background. If the
lamp be inactive, the filament appears as a black line; at equal incan-
descence it becomes invisible, while if its state of incandescence be
above that of the furnace it assumes the appearance of a white line.
By regulating, therefore, the current through the lamp until the fila-
ment apparently disappears, its temperature is made equivalent to that
of the furnace, and the result is read on a specially prepared table.
The limit of the apparatus is 3,600° F., so that for electric-furnace
work its field of utility is somewhat limited.
In the preceding paragraphs the writer has by no means covered the
entire field of development of the electric furnace, but has confined
himself to a brief description of those examples-which serve as a
general type of the class to which they, respectively, belong. The
subject is a large one, and its comprehensive study would fill a volume
of no mean dimensions, while its importance from a chemical and
metallurgical point of view must not be underrated.
At the end of the year 1900 the power used in electric furnaces was
estimated at 225,000 horsepower, of which 185,000 horsepower were
employed in the manufacture of calcium carbide, 27,000 horsepower
in the manufacture of aluminum, 11,000 horsepower in that of copper,
while carborundum was responsible for the output of some 2,000
horsepower. Any gain, therefore, in the construction or working of
electric furnaces, however slight, or apparently worthless, provides
food for serious reflection, in that it may be the means of saving large
sums of money annually.
HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.¢
By Grorcr H. Gipson.
The electric railway is to perform a service for mankind as notable
and perhaps ultimately as great as that rendered by its steam-operated
precursor. Already it fees the bulk of suburban and short-distance
interurban passenger traffic; it carries freight, mail, express, and bag-
gage; it operates at speeds reaching 60 miles per hour; its cars are
operated on time schedules and dispatched by telephone; its roadbed
is often as expensive and heavy of construction as that of the best steam
lines; and, what is more interesting to the investor, it pays large divi-
dends. At the present time $1,600,000,000 are nominally invested in
electric roads in the United States and upon this sum $7,000,000 are
paid i in yearly dividends; 300,000 employees receive yearly in wages
$250,000,000, and there are 20,000 miles of track on which 60,000 cars
are run. In 1899, £0 miles of electric road were built for every mile
of steam road constructed.
The greatest development of interurban roads has taken place in the
ereat agricultural districts of the Middle Western States, where they
have grown to a truly surprising extent. It is often said that electric
railways have checked the concentration of population in great cities
by creating suburban districts, but in the farming regions they have
had a still greater effect in building up many small centers of popula-
tion. The Union Traction Company, of Indiana, operates 109 miles of
interurban track and 54 miles of city track in the gas belt of that State
and seryes a population of 350,000. It connects the cities of Ander-
son, Marion, Muncie, Indianapolis, and about 20 smaller towns, and
traverses 6 of the most prosperous counties of the State. The interur-
ban lines are located almost entirely cn private right of way, protected
by fences and cattle guards. Tests aave shown that a maximum speed
of 58 miles an hour may be reacied and an average speed of 45. miles
an hour maintained. Cars are run in each direction every hour, and
special cars are furnished for theater parties, excursions, and picnics.
The rates of fare are approximately 1 cent a mile. The daily receipts
of the interurban lines are said to be $3,000 on an average, but this is
Poe ue Ey incre EEL to $8 ,000, and on one occasion was $11,000 in a
a Reena: ae permission a the “wieliciees. from The eee M agazine,
New York and London, Vol. XXIII, No. 6, September, 1902. Some of the illus-
trations and parts of the original article are here omitted.
sM L905 21 311
aby HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIO INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.
single day. Large additions are contemplated—about doubling the
present mileage. Power is generated inacentral station at Anderson,
containing three 1,000-kilowatt Westinghouse alternators, and is trans-
mitted by 3-phase alternating current at 14,000 volts to 8 substations,
which are supplemented by storage batteries.
One of the greatest possibilities of the interurban road lies in the
development of freight traffic. It is well fitted for the transfer of
farm produce and supplies for farmers and for carrying package
merchandise, and it can often give great convenience of delivery and
the possibility of handling freight economically, especially in small
cities. The Chicago, Harvard and Lake Geneva Railway has not only
a large freight traffic of its own, but carries on an interchange of busi-
ness with steam roads to a greater extent perhaps than any other
electric road in the United States. Its southern terminus is at Har-
vard, on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, and at Walworth,
84 miles north of this place, the road crosses the Chicago, Milwau-
kee and St. Paul Railway, thence running 2 miles northeast to Lake
Geneva, one of Wisconsin’s most popular summer resorts. One-third
of the business of the road is in handling freight. Freight cars from
the railroads are hauled to sidings on the electric road at a flat rate of
$5 per car, and piece freight is transported on a one-rate plan between
any two points on the road for 5 cents per 100 pounds, no package
being handled for less than 10 cents. A freight motar car with a crew
of 2 men carries package freight and hauls from 1 to 4 steam-road
freight cars. There are 6 freight sidings along the road, not including
the company’s yards. Live-stock shipments are an important part of
the business. In summer refrigerator cars are run twice a week over
the Chicago and Northwestern Railway for the benefit of creameries
situated on the electric road, and last winter 8,000 tons of ice were
hauled from Lake Geneva for local use along the line. The company
receives $500 per year for hauling mail two trips daily each way.
Passenger tickets are sold by the electric road to points on the steam
roads and baggage is carried free. The power house is located at
Murray and contains two generators of 500 kilowatts each. The
equipment consists 10 motor cars and 6 trail cars. The maximum
speed is 45 miles per hour.
While many electric roads have been constructed cheaply and of
light materials, the tendency is more and more toward a substantial
type of construction similar to the best steam-railway practice. The
Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Muskegon Railway, recently com-
pleted, is equipped with standard 70-pound T-rails laid on a private
right of way. The road runs from Grand Rapids to Muskegon, Mich.,
a distance of 35 miles, with a branch 7 miles long to Grand Haven.
It parallels steam roads to both cities, the running time of the electric
and steam cars being about the same. The country is well developed
HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS. 313
industrially, containing tin-plate and paper mills, knitting factories,
and machine shops. Grand Rapids has a population of 96,000, Muske-
gon 26,000, and Grand Haven 5,000. The country near Grand Haven
is largely occupied as a summer resort by people from Grand Rapids,
Chicago, and Milwaukee. In passing through towns and cities the
road uses the overhead-trolley system, for which the cars are equipped
with a trolley arm, while upon the inclosed right of way through the
country the third-rail system is employed. The third rail is discon-
tinued at crossings, the current being carried under the highways by
conductors imbedded in pitch in underground conduits. The conductor
rail is of 65-pound section and standard composition, and is supported
upon reconstructed granite insulators. The power house, located at
Fruitport, contains five 250-kilowatt generators, three of which are
double-current machines, generating both direct and alternating cur-
rents, while two are standard alternators. All are direct-connected to
Westinghouse vertical compound engines and are arranged for opera-
tion in multiple.
Another interesting road running out from Grand Rapids is the
Grand Rapids, Holland and Lake Michigan Rapid Railway, extending
from Grand Rapids to Holland and there connecting with two short
lines to the lake shore. This road traverses a rich farming country,
thickly settled by Dutch and Germans, and the two lines to the lake
shore reach a favorite summer-resort district. The aggregate length
of track of the combined roads is 71 miles, the total distance covered
being 45 miles, 19 miles of this comprising the two roads running
from Holland to the lake. * * *
While electric roads are approaching steam lines in type of con-
struction and methods of operation, many of the latter are finding it
advantageous to adopt electric traction, especially for short-haul and
suburban service. The Quebec, Montmorency and Charlevoix Railway
has in this way within two years increased its total yearly capacity
and receipts from $44,221 to $73,292. The overhead trolley is used,
and the cars are equipped with two 50-horsepower motors and air
brakes and are capable of running 45 miles per hour. The total cost
of the electrical installation for 30 miles of track, including 6 double-
truck cars and a 600-kilowatt alternating-current generating station,
was $169,375. On Sundays and holidays the road is used so exten-
sively that its resources are fully taxed, and it has been found neces-
sary to increase the rolling stock so that, in addition to the regular
cars, specials may be run at ten and fifteen minute intervals. It will
further be necessary to construct a double track between Quebee and
Montmorency. In addition to the electric traftic, steam, freight, and
special pilgrimage trains are constantly handled, and no collision or
other accident has so far occurred.
314 HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.
Another road which has greatly improved its service by adopting
electric traction is the Butialo and Lockport Railway. The company
operating this road was organized in April, 1898, and leased for ninety-
nine years the Lockport Branch of the Erie Railroad, running from
Lockport to North Tonawanda, N. Y., and comprising 13} miles of
single track. It has since bought 5} miles of road in the streets of
Lockport, 74 miles of single track between Buffalo and North Tona-
wanda, and a mile of track in Buffalo, making the total length of the
line at present 29 miles and giving “erect service from Buffalo to
Lockport and Niagara Falls. Power is obtained from the Niagara
Falls Power Company, and is transmitted at 10,500 volts to a rotary
converter substation located at Lockport, from which it is fed as
direct current at 1,500 volts to the trolley wires. * * *
A number of roads used chiefly for pleasure riding have been built
in southern California, in the neighborhood of Los Angeles. The
population is composed largely of wealthy people, who linye sought
that part of the country on account of climatic conditions and who
patronize the roads liberally. One of the roads from Los Angeles
extends to Pasadena, and from there to Echo Mountain and Mount
Lowe. Another line runs from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, on the
Pacific Ocean. The Los Angeles-Pasadena line was so well patronized
the first year that it was necessary to double-track the road. It com-
petes with three steam lines, and one of the latter has been compelled
to reduce its tiuin service by half, and would reduce it still further
if that were not prevented by its franchise. The cars on the Pasadena
line are each equipped with two 40-horsepower motors and Standard
air brakes, and make a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. The
road to Santa Monica has quadruple equipments of 50-horsepower
motors and can maintain a speed of 40 miles per hour. Another road
which is being built from Los Angeles 20 miles to Long Beach will
have as one of its features a broad boulevard, 184 feet wide, on each
side of the track.
Perhaps the field of greatest activity in the United States for the
construction of high-speed interurban lines has been in northern Ohio
and southern Michigan, where there is now a network of highly
equipped roads upon which through traffic is being established, offer-
ing even such accommodations as parlor and sleeping cars. It is said
that a service of this character will shortly be established between
Columbus and Cincinnati. The roads utilized will be the Southern
Traction Company’s lines from Cincinnati to Dayton; the Dayton-
Springfield and Urbana to Springfield; and the Columbus, London
and Springfield to Columbus, the service to be established as soon as
the latter road is completed. The schedule time between Columbus
and Cincinnati will be about six hours. It is also proposed to operate
through cars between Cleveland and Cincinnati, the route from Cleve-
HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS. 315
land being over the Cleveland, Elyria and Western, the Cleveland,
Ashland and Mansfield, the Mansfield, Galion and Crestline, and the
Columbus, Delaware and Marion, roads all either in operation or
under construction.
A few notes regarding the Cleveland, Elyriaand Western may be of
interest, since its power house will be the first railway power station
in the United States to be equipped with steam turbines. Two West-
inghouse turbines, running at 1,500 revolutions per minute, are to be
direct-connected to two 1,000 kilowatt, 2-pole generators, delivering
alternating current at 400 volts and 25 cycles per second. Steam will
be supplied to the turbines at 150-pounds pressure and 200-degrees
superheat, and the exhaust will be under a 28-inch vacuum. The
steam consumption is guaranteed not to exceed 10.8 pounds of steam
per horsepower-hour; and at one-half load the steam consumption per
horsepower is not to increase more than 15 per cent. These turbines
are somewhat novel in construction in that the steam is expanded con-
secutively in two chambers—that is, the steam first passes through a
high-pressure cylinder, then through a reheater, and finally through
a low-pressure cylinder. The rotating parts of both the high and
low pressure cylinders are upon one shaft, the bearing being placed
between the two cylinders. Full load may be carried without super-
heat or vacuum. The adoption of steam turbines has increased the
possible capacity with the space available in the existing powerhouse
from 2,000 to 5,000 kilowatts. Two 300-kilowatt rotary converters are
being installed as connecting links between the present direct-current
plant and the alternating-current apparatus. The power is transmitted
to substations along the road by alternating current at 20,000 volts.
Cleveland is the center of an extensive interurban electric-railway
system, extending in one direction nearly to Buffalo, N. Y., and in the
other to Toledo, Ohio, which is also the terminus of a large number
of roads. One of the roads connecting Cleveland and Toledo is the
Toledo, Fremont and Norwalk, about 60 miles in length and controlled
by the Lake Shore Electric Company. The powerhouse at Fremont,
about the middle of the line, contains four alternating-current gen-
erators, direct-connected to 1,750-horsepower Westinghouse steam
engines. Current is transmitted at 16,000 volts to six substations,
which are combined with passenger and freight stations in order to
cut down the cost of attendance. The high-tension transmission wires
are carried upon the poles supporting the trolly brackets. The road-
bed, partly upon private right of way and partly upon public turnpike,
is constructed for speeds exceeding 40 miles per hour. In preparing
for a through service between Cleveland and Toledo, a series of experi-
ments are being made by the Lake Shore Electric Company with a
view of determining the most desirable motors for the traffic. A
cross-country schedule of 35 to 40 miles per hour has been established
316 HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.
and a speed of over 60 miles per hour has been maintained for short
distances. Some of the cars are fitted with four 100-horsepower elec-
tric motors. The cars now in service on the Toledo, Fremont and
Norwalk are equipped with 75-horsepower Westinghouse motors.
That part of the Lake Shore Electric Company’s line between Cleve-
land and Norwalk is entirely on private right of way and is rock bal-
lasted and laid with 75-pound T-rails. This company is making an
especial effort to develop freight traffic in fruit and dairy products.
Passenger mileage books are sold for $12.50 per 1,000 miles, and local
fares are about one-half of those charged by steam roads.
Toledo and Detroit are connected by a series of electric roads, one
of the most completely equipped of which is the Toledo and Monroe
Railway, having 18 miles of single track laid with 70-pound T-rails
and ballasted with broken limestone. The equipment consists of ordi-
nary passenger cars, chair cars, combined passenger and baggage cars,
and freight cars. The passenger cars are 40 feet long and a regular
schedule speed of 80 miles per hour, including stops, is maintained.
The powerhouse contains two 400-kilowatt Westinghouse 3-phase
alternators, and a substation contains a 200-kilowatt rotary converter.
The long distance transmission is at 15,000 volts, the wires being car-
ried on 45-foot pine poles set 6 feet in the ground and surrounded by
concrete, so that no guy wires are necessary. ‘The same poles support
the double trolley wire.
One of the oldest high-speed roads in America is the Detroit, Ypsil-
antiand Ann Arbor Railway. As originally constructed this road had
a length of 50 miles, 40 miles between Detroit and Ann Arbor, with a
branch line of 10 miles to Saline. The line has recently been consider-
ably extended, now reaching to Jackson, Mich., where it connects
with other interurban roads. It is composed of single track through-
out. The equipment consists of 20 cars, each provided with four
50-horsepower motors and quick-acting air brakes. The motors can
all be thrown in series for slow speed through cities. A regular half-
hour service is maintained, with an occasional fifteen-minute service,
and all cars are dispatched by telephone, telephone stations being
located at turn-outs. The most remarkable effect of this road has
been the development of an enormous passenger traffic. During the
first year 4,000 passengers were carried per day, against 200 previ-
ously carried per day by the steam road passing through the same
towns. The fare for 40 miles is 50 cents, while the fare charged by the
steam roads for the same distance is $1.12. A 1,000-mile mileage book
is sold for 1 cent per mile. The average fare per passenger is 15.9
cents. Many houses are being built in the small towns along the
route and market gardening is rapidly developing in the country trav-
ersed. Freight service is given twice a day and express packages are
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gibson. PLATE I.
fYEST CHESTER: ERACTION C
TYPES OF MODERN AMERICAN CARS FOR HEAVY ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SERVICE.
At the top is a 40-foot express car, weighing 25,000 pounds, open from end to end for load;
diagonal doors to take in long pieces; speed, 33 miles. Next comes a 40-foot trolley car
with baggage compartment, Providence and Fall River branch of New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad; weighs 45,000 pounds; seats 28 passengers. Below that
isa 41-foot 25,000 pound car with 9-foot smoking compartment, intended for ayerage
speed of 20 miles. At the bottom is a semiconyertible parlor trolley car for the Butfalo
railway, 41 feet 8 inches long, 31,000 pounds. All by the J. G. Brill Company.
Smithsonian Report, 1903——Gibson. PLATE II.
FIG. 1.—LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE BUFFALO AND LOCKPORT RAILWAY, GENERAL
ELECTRIC COMPANY.
Willoughby
ASHTABULA
cv¢
Bass Lake
oer
U G 5)
eae 3 [esa]
-— West Ph.) He.
“Rocky River Bi aes is Middlefield
S. |Dovei c
7 b>
Pit ie SprinksVe
Vy \ NN 6 \SChagrin Falls
&
Spencer xx
Fig. 2.—MaApP SHOWING (BY HEAvy LINES) THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC
RAILWAYS ABOUT CLEVELAND, OHIO.
HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS. St
earried in the baggage compartments of the passenger cars. When
the line was first opened, more freight was offered tban could be car-
ried, although the rates were two-thirds more than those asked by the
steam-railroad company.
Extending north from Detroit 73 miles to Port Huron, Mich., and
comprising in all 110 miles of single track exclusive of sidings, are the
lines of the Rapid Railway Company, another early pioneer in the elec-
tric interurban railway field. This road is an excellent illustration of
the great advances in the building of electric roads made possible by
high-tension power transmission. All power is generated at a main
station at New Baltimore and transmitted in either direction by alter-
nating currents at 16,500 volts. The power house is equipped with all
the latest improvements in the way of coal and ash handling thachin-
ery, mechanical draft, economizers, etc., and contains three 1,000-
horsepower Westinghouse steam engines, all direct-connected to
3-phase generators. There are five rotary-converter substations—
two north of, two south of, and one at the power house. This rail-
way passes through a rich agricultural country and at its middle part
through a noted summer-resort district, which is rapidly being built
up in consequence of the transportation facilities furnished by the elec-
tric line. About the same fares are charged as upon the Detroit, Ypsi-
lanti and Ann Arbor road, and arrangements have been made for an
extensive freight traftic in fruit, fish, vegetables, groceries, and gen-
eral merchandise. It is said that 50 per cent of the lighter trade going
to Detroit is now carried by the electric road. The cars are run on
train dispatchers’ orders, telephone stations being placed at all sidings.
After leaving the city limits of Detroit there are no grade crossings,
and the track is thoroughly well laid and ballasted. One of the branches
of the road closely follows the shore of Lake St. Clair, and the north-
ern part of the road follows the St. Clair River, passing through
many fishing, hunting, and boating resorts. Hourly service is given
regularly over the whole line, and cars are operated at shorter intervals
between points where traffic is dense. The schedule time for the cars
is 27 miles per hour, including stops, and between stations the speed
reaches 45 miles per hour. * * *
In the State of Michigan there are 24 interurban lines actually in
operation, and franchises have been asked for 47 more. The great
activity in building electric roads in this territory is due, perhaps more
than to anything else, to the fact that it was here that a number of the
earliest and most successful roads in the country were constructed, thus
bringing the possibilities of electric traction before the eyes of business
men and capitalists.
While the Middle West has been the scene of the most active electric
‘ailway building in the United States, considerable progress has been
318 HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.
made in some of the more thickly populated Eastern States. At Hud-
son, N. Y., begins a long electric railway system which extends a dis-
tance of 105 miles to Warrensburg, near Lake George, running for a
great part of the way along the Hudson and through a semimountain-
ous country and giving a view of the Catskills and the Berkshire Hills.
The first 37 miles is covered by the Albany and Hudson Railway, a
small part of which is operated by trolley and the remainder by the
third-rail system. Except through city streets, the company owns its
own right of way, which is fenced in and laid in a very substantial
manner. Both running and conductor rails are of T section and weigh
80 pounds to the yard, the third rail being somewhat lower in carbon
than the service rails in order to reduce the electrical resistance. The
track has been heavily ballasted and the ties are laid 2 feet center to
center, every fifth tie being extended to support the third-rail insulat-
ors. The latter are supported 6 inches above the tie and are made of
wooden blocks, topped by malleable cast-iron caps or chairs. At all
highways and farm crossings the third rail is interrupted, but the con-
tinuity of the circuit is not broken. Power is supplied from a
hydraulic plant at Stuyvesant Falls, on Kinderhook Creek, about 10
miles north of Hudson, and is transmitted by 8-phase current at
12,000 volts to three substations along the line, where it is transformed
to direct current at 600 volts. * * *
In view of the high-speed experiments with 3-phase motors that have
recently been carried on in Germany, it is gratifying to note that sim-
ilar experiments with direct-current motors are shortly to be made in
America. The Aurora, Elgin and Chicago Railway las been designed
for a continuous maximum speed of 70 miles per hour, and the track
is of such substantial character and easy alignment that higher speeds
can be attained. The service rails are to weigh 80 pounds to the yard,
the track is to be rock ballasted, and all bridges will be of concrete
and steel construction. The third rail is to weigh 100 pounds to the
yard and is to be supplied with direct current from substations, to
which power will be transmitted at 26,000 volts by 3-phase alternating
current over aluminum feeders. The schedule speed will be 40 miles
per hour, including stops at stations 3 miles apart. Cars are to weigh
40 tons, and are to run at a maximum speed of 65 miles per hour,
with a possible 70 miles per hour ona level track and with normal
voltage on the third rail. The cars are to be operated either singly
or in trains and are to be equipped by the General Electric Company.
This paper might seem unduly partial if no mention were made of
European roads. However, of high-speed interurban roads in Europe
there are extremely few. In Great Britain it can truthfully be said
there are no high-speed electric roads at all. The difference between
America and Europe with respect to the development of electric trac-
tion is very strikingly shown by the following figures: The miles of
HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS. 319
electrically operated railways are, in the whole world outside of the
United States, 4.64 per million people; in Germany, the highest of
continental countries, 41.8 miles; and in the United States, 276.2
miles. It is said that the new plant of the Manhattan Elevated Rail-
way Company, of New York City, which will have a total power of
40,000 kilowatts, equals in capacity the total electric power available
for traction purposes in France. The United States has 76 per cent
of all the electricity available in the world for traction, 763 per cent
of the electric-railway mileage, and 833 per cent of all the trolley cars.
A German steam road upon which electric traction has been tried
is the Wannsee line, between Berlin and Zehlendorf. Since August,
1900, an electric train has been interspersed in the regular service, a
speed of about 25 miles per hour being maintained. The train weighs
193 tons empty and 220 tons loaded, and is composed of ten coaches,
the first and last having three motors each, of an aggregate capacity
of 975 horsepower. It runs 225 miles per day, the maximum speed
being 31 miles per hour. Direct current is used at 750 volts. The
efficiency of the power transmission between switchboard and axle
was found to be from 70 per cent to 85 per cent. The Government
railroad authorities have decided to discontinue the electric service,
but the failure of the road has been due more to balf-hearted meas-
ures than to any defect in the system.
The first installation of a high-speed electric road in Europe was
between Diisseldorf and Krefeld,a total distance of 13.6 miles, the
longest stretch between stopping places being 10.4 miles. Since the
road parallels the steam railway for the greater part of its length, it
is considered necessary to maintain a speed of 25 miles per hour on
the open stretches. A speed of 87.2 miles per hour has been reached
on trial trips. (Pl. 1v.) The road does not pass through the inter-
vening towns, but only touches the outskirts. It it double-tracked
from Diisseldorf to Oberkassel, the terminus of the Diisseldorf local
traffic. Direct current is used at 600 volts pressure,and the cars are
mounted upon double trucks, each truck carrying a 40-horsepower
motor. The passengers are divided into three classes, the total seating
capacity of a car being 34. Three kinds of brakes are used—viz., hand
brakes, electric short-circuit brakes, and Standard air-brakes—and each
motor car is also equipped with two trolley poles. ‘Trains leave each
terminal station every half hour. The road has developed a quite
considerable freight and farm service.
A road which has attracted considerable attention by its novel and
unique features is the suspended railway at Elberfeld-Barmen, where
the cars are hung froma single rail without any side guards or sup-
ports, so that in going around curves the cars may assume an inclined
position. (Pl. v, fig. 1.) Of the 8 miles originally planned, only 44
320 HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS.
have been built. The speed of the cars is from 123 to 14 miles per
hour. The switching construction is highly interesting, but is not con-
sidered safe and is used only by empty cars.
The Swiss“ roads are very interesting because of the original engi-
neering methods which they embody. Most of them are mountain
roads and are provided with rack rails. They are largely patronized
by tourists and charge very high fares. The road starting at Zermatt
and ascending the Gornergrat has a maximum grade of 20 per cent
and is composed of curves throughout 30 per cent of its total length,
which is 5.7 miles. The entire roadbed was cut from solid rock or
built upon projections. The rack system is of the Abt type. The
locomotives weigh 103 tons each and are equipped with two motors
having an aggregate of 90 horsepower and operating at 500 volts.
(Pl. v, fig. 2.) The speed is only 4; miles per hour, and double-
reduction gearing is used. In addition to the two spindle brakes, one
operated on the rack wheels and the other on the surface wheels, there
is an electric brake which comes into action as soon as the speed of 4%
miles per hour is exceeded. The motors are of the 3-phase induction
type with wound rotors and collector rings, and in coasting they may
be used as extra brakes by inserting resistance in the rotor circuit.
The longest (25 miles) Swiss 3-phase railway is the Burgdorf-Thun
road, opened in 1899. The standard trains weigh 56 tons and have a
maximum speed of 225 miles per hour. Current is transmitted at
16,000 volts, which is stepped down, by means of transformers located
at an average of 2 miles apart, to 750 volts for distribution to the
trolley line. The cars carry four trolleys, two at each end of the car.
The equipment consists of two 2-axle locomotives and six 4-axle motor
‘ars, with a number of trailers for passenger and freight traffic. The
total power of the locomotives is 300 horsepower. <A small trans-
former is installed on each locomotive or motor car for lighting, heat-
ing, and driving an air compressor, Westinghouse air brakes being
used. At present only five trains are operated on the line at any
time. The fare for the entire 25 miles is 40 and 60 cents for the two
classes.
The Stansstad-Engelberg Electric Railway has a total length of 13.8
miles, of which about 1 mile is rack construction. Three-phase cur-
rent is supplied to the trolley line at 750 volts, at which voltage most
of it is generated. The trolley line is protected by Westinghouse
lightning arresters. The rolling stock consists of three locomotives
and seven motor cars weighing 14 tons and seating 46 persons. (PL v,
fio. 3.)
“The important electric installations of Italy were reviewed at some length by
Signor Enrico Bignami in The Engineering Magazine for November, 1900. For this
reason they are omitted from Mr. Gibson’s summary.—The Editors.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gibson. PLATE III.
INTERIORS OF ADVANCED-TYPE TROLLEY CARS.
)
The car above is the ‘*‘ Ondiara,’’ shown in exterior view at the bottom of Pl. I. Below is
a 46-foot 35,000 pound car for the Chicago and Joliet Railway. It has a 14-foot smoking
compartment and toilet room against the partition. Maximum speed 70 miles per hour,
"UNOH YAd SYSLSWO1Y OO LV NNY HOIHM SYVOD HLIM GVOY G1343y4y-sJHOGTaSSNG
“A| 31LV1d ‘uosqig—'eQ6| ‘Woday ueiuosy}IWS
HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC INTERURBAN RAILWAYS. 321
Perhaps the most remarkable of the Swiss railways is the Jungfrau
line, which runs for 14 miles along the base of the mountain and then
ascends by means of a tunnel 63 miles long to an altitude of 15,435
feet. After leaving the terminal station, the passengers are raised a
further 240 feet by an elevator. The grade is 25 per cent along the
entire road, with the exception of a 2.2-mile section which has 67 per
cent grade. The rolling stock consists of five locomotives, ten pas-
senger cars, and two freight cars. The locomotives in reality form the
rear truck of the cars, but can only be used without the latter. Three
independent brakes insure safety during the descent. The locomo-
tives are equipped with two 3-phase motors, having a normal capacity
of 25 horsepower each, and the speed is 4% miles. The forward motor
is coupled to a continuous-current dynamo, which serves to exite both
motors during the descent, thus turning them into generators. There
are but few days when the summit presents a clear view of the sur-
rounding territory, and the traffic is therefore concentrated in a very
short time, when the rush is very great, and at such time eight trains
per day operate. * * *
[Mr. Gibson’s paper concludes with a brief account of the Berlin-
Zossen experiments, which are treated in this report by the following
article by Doctor Gradenwitz. |
oe ie uns
mat: ae igi
'~
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gibson. PEATE V.
Fi@. 1.—SUSPENDED RAILWAY AND TRAIN AT ELBERFELD.
Fic. 3.—STANSSTAD-ENGELBERG ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE BEFORE HOUSING.
THE -MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN HIGH-SPEED ELECTRIC
RAILWAY TRIALS.¢
By Dr. ALFRED GRADENWITZ.
The Marienfelde-Zossen high-speed electric-railway trials, as is
known, were undertaken with a view to obtaining the necessary tech-
nical and economical data for a regular electric-railway service up to
speeds as high as 200 kilometers per hour. Useful data were available
from previous trials made by the Siemens & Halske Company on their
special experimental line in Gross-Lichterfelde, near Berlin, which
line was intended to be a model railway for operation by 10,000-volt
currents. It isdue mainly to the enterprise of the two leading electric
firms in Germany, the Siemens & Halske Company and the Allgemeine
Elektrizitiits Gesellschaft,? as well as to the assistance of the most
important German banking firms and the authorities concerned, that
as early as the fall of 1899 a special concern was formed under the
name ‘*Studiengesellschaft fiir Elektrische Schnellbahnen.” The
German railway authorities placed at the disposal of the undertaking
the Marienfelde-Zossen military railway, and two ears to be con-
structed respectively by the firms mentioned above were to be used
for the experiments.
The Siemens & Halske Company undertook the construction of the
line supplying the electric power, whereas the Allgemeine Elektrizitiits
Gesellschaft were willing to generate the power in their Ober Schén-
weide electricity works as well as to construct the feeding wires thence
to Marienfelde-Zossen. The line was to be constructed after the
model of the Gross-Lichterfelde experimental track, and the same
arrangement of the conductors and collectors, as well as the same kind
of current, namely, 10,000 volts rotary current between two con-
ductors, was to be used.
The Marienfelde-Zossen military line, 23 kilometers in length,
seemed specially available, as there are no curves of less than 2,000
meters radius, the short gradients being not more than 1:200. The
eee way, Be , corresponded only with the older types of
« Reprinted, be permission of ane publishers, from the Beane Nees
_ New York and London, Vol. XX VI, No. 4, January, 1904. Some illustrations of
original article are here omitted.
> Familiarly known by the convenient abbreviation ‘‘A. E. G.’’
324 MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIO-RAILWAY TRIALS.
Prussian railways, consisting of light rails of 33.4 kilograms per
meter (67 pounds per yard), placed partly on wooden sleepers and
partly on short iron sleepers, the roadbed consisting mainly of inferior
material. Though it accordingly was anticipated at the very outset
that the existing permanent way would not be sufficiently resistant for
maximum speeds as high as 200 kilometers per hour, it was decided
to begin the trials without any rebuilding of the track, apart from
some immaterial improvements. After the number of sleepers had
been somewhat increased, and the roadbed reenforced with consider-
able amounts of broken stone, the track stood perfectly well the strain
involved by speeds up to 130 kilometers (80.8 miles) per hour. As,
however, in connection with the experiments made in the fall of 1901,
serious troubles were experienced for the maximum speeds of 140 to
160 kilometers per hour, a thorough rebuilding of the track was
eventually carried out in the course of the summer of 1902. The new
rails have a weight of 42 kilograms per meter (about 845 pounds per
yard) and a length of 12 meters, being placed on 18 fir sleepers with
hard-wood pegs; 15,000 cubic meters broken basalt were used for the
roadbed. About 17 kilometers of the track were fitted with guard
‘ails such as used in connection with ordinary railways on bridges, ete.
These guard rails, the foot of which is 50 millimeters distant from the
main rail, are fixed on cast-iron beds, screwed to every sleeper, this
arrangement, in addition to preventing derailments, imparting an
extraordinary strength to the whole of the roadbed. (Plate 1.)
The overhead line.—TVhe arrangement of the overhead line is shown
in plates 1 and 11, the middle of the pole being about 24 meters distant
from the middle of the track and the three horizontal wires conduct-
ine the 3-phase current being about 1 meter apart. The whole of
the line is divided into sections of about 1 kilometer, each of which
is provided in the middle with a device for compensating losses in
pressure. The neutral point of the system is connected to the earth
and to the rails. The suspension point moves aside somewhat as the
collector presses against the horizontal wire, a satisfactory and simul-
taneous contact between the three horizontal wires and the contact
ares being thus possible. This is insured by having the single parts
on the outrigger, intended for carrying the insulators, connected by
joints. The horizontal wires have a double insulation against earth,
and each insulation separately is susceptible of standing the whole of
the maximum pressure of 20,000 volts occurring during the service.
The wires have cross sections of 100 square millimeters (0.155 square
inch) each, the tension between each two wires varying between 10,000
and 12,000 volts. Hard copper wire with a breaking strength as high
as 38 kilograms per square millimeter and a conductivity more than
97 per cent of that of chemically pure copper is used; lightning
arresters are provided, as well as safety devices in case of a fracture
by which the wire is automatically earthed.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gradenwitz. PLATE lI.
THE MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN TRACK.
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Gradenwitz. PLATE II.
Fic. 1.—THE SIEMENS & HaLsxe CAR USED IN THE MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN
EXPERIMENTS.
s
re a F at Ee
Fig. 2.—THE A. E. G. CAR USED IN THE MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN HIGH-SPEED RUNS.
View taken immediately after the successful trials on October 28, 1903, when a speed of
210 kilometers (130.5 miles) an hour was attained.
MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIC-RAILWAY TRIALS. 325
The collectors.—The collectors are constructed according to the sys-
tem developed by the Siemens & Halske Company on their Gross-
Lichterfelde experimental track; they are nearly identical on both
cars, differing only as to the details. In the Siemens car they have
the form of two masts supported by the cars at either end and moy-
able around their vertical axis. These masts consist of two Mannes-
mann tubes, each about 200 millimeters in diameter, inserted one into
the other. By means of a crank acting on a double-toothed gearing,
any desired rotation of the masts may be effected from the motorman’s
stand. The sliding rings are attached to an insulated tube. Contact
springs, screwed by means of hard-rubber insulators on a special flat
iron frame, are fixed to the three sliding rings. Into the insulating
tubes and partly into the lower part of the collector, the upper tube is
slipped, so as to be readily dismounted after loosening a few screws.
This tube bears, at central distances of 1 meter each, three rotating
axles for the contact bows proper. The wind pressure against the bow
on one side of the rotating axle is balanced by means of a vane attached
to the other side of the axle. The Allgemeine Elektrizitiits Gesell-
schaft car is likewise fitted with two groups of three collectors each,
one for each phase, which, however, instead of being placed on one
common mast, are arranged one behind the other. Both arrangements
have so far given full satisfaction, it being impossible to decide which
is the more available. Sparking between the overhead wires and the
collector bows, as occasionally noted in connection with the earlier
experiments, was recently prevented by some slight improvements in
the construction of the collectors. One of the most difficult problems,
namely, the transmission of high amounts of energy from a stationary
conductor to a train running at enormous speeds, has thus been satis-
factorily solved.
The motor cars.—The two motor cars used with these trials were
constructed by Messrs. Van der Zypen & Charlier, Cologne-Deutz, in
accordance with the electric apparatus supplied by the two electric
firms. The cars, intended for about 50 passengers, are 21 and 22
meters in length, respectively, and correspond as to their dimensions
and equipment with the technical regulations of the Association of
German Railway Administrations. The body of the car rests by
means of two center bolts on two trucks without any special springs.
In addition there are on the frames of each truck four steps limiting
the lateral oscillation of the body by bearing part of the weight of the
ear. Lateral oscillations of the body were moreover observed only
for lower speeds, up to 100 kilometers per hour, whereas with higher
speeds the run of the cars was perfectly steady, much more so than
with ordinary rapid trains. Each of the trucks is fitted with three
axles, the external axles bearing the motor, whereas the central ones
serve as running axles. The distance between the axles was at the
826 MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIC-RAILWAY TRIALS.
beginning 3.8 meters; this has been increased up to 5 meters in con-
nection with the recent successful trials. The distance between the
centers of each two trucks is 13.3 and 14.3 meters, respectively, and
the diameter of the wheel tread 1.25 meters. Two springs are placed
against the axle boxes, namely, one plate spring, 1.5 meters in length,
above each axle box, these plate springs being in turn maintained at
their ends by spiral springs, the tension of which is regulated by
means of screws. As the trucks, in connection with the earlier exper-
iments, followed any deviation in the direction of the track, the dis-
tance of the wheels, as above said, was increased to 5 meters, and the
bearing springs placed so as to be visible and connected with one
another by compensating levers. The center bolts, which formerly
were rigidly fixed to the lower frame, were in the course of the recent
reconstruction provided with lateral pegs fitted with springs, so as to
prevent any transmission of the oscillations of the body to the frame.
The connections of the cars.tz-The connections of the cars are shown
in plate 1m. In the Allgemeine Elektrizitiits Gesellschaft car, the
current is led by means of armored cables from the two groups of col-
lectors to the main switch in the machine room and thence by separate
conductors to the transformers. The main cut-out switch is operated
only after the run is completed, or as an emergency switch in case of
disturbances occurring during the run. From the transformers the
low-tension conductors lead through the main controller to the motors.
The main controller is also placed in the machine room of the car,
being easily actuated from each driver’s stand through a steering wheel
connected by toothed gearing to an axle traversing the whole length
of the car. This controller directs the working current to the motors
and through the resistances, and permits forward and reverse running,
besides providing for the braking of the car by means of reverse cur-
rent. There is in addition a small controller in the driver’s stand,
conveying Jow-tension current from the transformer to the motor for
operating the air compressor in connection with the compressed-air
brake.
The connections in the Siemens & Halske car are somewhat different,
the high-tension current being first conveyed to one of the two main
switches for forward and backward running, which may be controlled
from the driver’s stand, and thence to the two large transformers,
whence the working current is again conveyed through individual
switches toward the motors and the resistances. From the main con-
ductors on the roof of the car, part of the current is in addition branched
off toward the small transformer placed above the motorman’s stand,
and conveyed to the electric motor operating the two air pumps. Two
special cranks are provided in the motorman’s stand for actuating the
reversing switch and the motor switch, respectively, the working re-
sistances being controlled by the driver through a special controlling
PLATE III.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gradenwitz.
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DIAGRAM SHOWING THE CONNECTIONS OF THE SIEMENS & HALSKE AND THE A. E. G. Cars,
RESPECTIVELY.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gradenwitz. PLATE IV.
Fic. 1.—THE TRUCK; IDENTICAL ON BOTH CARS.
Fic. 2.—NORMAL RAILWAY CARRIAGE USED IN TRACTION EXPERIMENTS, NOW BEING
MADE BY THE UNION ELEKTRIZITATS GESELLSCHAFT.
MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIC-RATILWAY TRIALS. 320
wheel with or without the agency of compressed air. These equip-
ments have given satisfactory results with both carriages and proved
very effective, affording full protection against the electric current.
Transformers.—The main characteristics of the transformers used
in each of the cars are as follows:
In the transformers of the Siemens & Halske car the effective iron
sheets are placed vertically on their small edges and distributed in
groups, between which there is space for the passage of air. The
secondary coil is well insulated from the iron cores, the coils of the
primary winding being placed above it. In the ventilating channel
of the iron cores there are protective boxes prolonged as far as the
front plates of the casing and expanding into the latter so as to facili-
tate the drawing in of the air.
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Suspension of the motor on the Allgemeine Elektrizitiits-Gesellschaft car.
The transformers in the Allgemeine Elektrizitiits-Gesellschaft car are
designed, according to the patents of this company, with three parallel
iron cores, the axes of which run longitudinally. Each iron core is
provided with a longitudinal slot, through which, as well as between
the rectangular cores and the round coil, an air current is allowed to
pass. The transformers in both cars have given full satisfaction, the
strong air currents proving particularly effective and preventing any
considerable heating: effects.
The motors.—The motors of the Allgemeine Elektrizitiits-Gesell-
schaft car are designed for an output of 250 horsepower each, provided
with fork-bar coils. The exciting current has a tension of 4385 volts.
The motor cases are fixed on an iron frame supported on both sides of
the carriage by plate springs, each of which is fixed on the main bear-
ing spring of the car. The motor casings each bear a hollow axle,
sm 1903——22
328 MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRICO-RAILWAY TRIALS.
slipped over the car axle, on which the armature of the motor is built.
The motor is coupled to the wheels of the corresponding axle by means
of double arms attached on both ends of the hollow axle and touching
the sliding pieces placed on the wheels. The weight of the motor,
instead of resting immediately on the axles of the car, is thus sup-
ported by bearing springs on the axle boxes of the truck.
The motors constructed by the Siemens & Halske Company on the
other hand are 6-pole motors, also for outputs of 250 horsepower each,
the energy current being conveyed to the rotor at a tension of 1,150
volts by means of three sliding rings. The pressure in the secondary
circuit at rest and at first starting is 650 volts. The rotor is provided
with closed direct-current bar windings, whereas the stationary part
of the motor has rotary-current bar windings. The rotor with its box
is pressed strongly on the axle of the car. The stationary part of the
motor, inclosed by a double cast-iron casing, rests without any inter-
mediate spring on the car-axle bearings. The diameter of the rotor is
780 millimeters, whereas the external diameter of the motor is 1,050
millimeters.
Both the direct fixing of the motors on the axles and the suspension
by springs on the truck have given full satisfaction in connection with
the experiments so far made. In general, the spring suspension seems
to be preferable to the rigid suspension of the motor.
Lirciters and resistances.—'The exciters and resistances, necessary in
starting and in controlling the speed, show also some essential differ-
ences in the two carriages. In order to avoid any. abrupt variations
in the speed and any excessive sparking in the car, the resistances must
be switched off from the circuit quite gradually. In the Allgemeine
Elektrizitiits Gesellschaft car there are to this effect liquid resistances
of the following construction: |
The terminal plates of the opened circuits are placed in two reser-
voirs in the central machine room of the car. Beside each of the
reservoirs there is an electrically driven centrifugal pump, conveying
into the upper reservoir a soda solution placed in a box below the
carriage. The higher the liquid in the latter the smaller will be the
resistance between the electrodes. The height of the liquid is regulated
from the driver’s cab by means of a valve. The pumps work perma-
nently during the run, the liquid circulating in a tube conduit insuring
a permanent cooling (refrigeration). This exciter affords the advan-
tage of dispensing with the contacts and cable joints necessary in con-
nection with solid exciters.
In the Siemens & Halske car, on the other hand, there are metallic
resistances, formed of ‘* Kruppine” bands 45 by 2 millimeters in section.
These bands are placed by groups in flat boxes fitted outside on the
longitudinal wall of the car, below the window. ‘There are in all 29
steps, four being intended for the first inserting and 25 for increasing
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Gradenwitz. PLATE V.
THE NIEDERSCHONWEIDE-SPINDLERSFELDE TRACK AND DOUBLE AERIAL SUSPENSION
USED IN THE UNION ELEKTRIZITATS GESELLSCHAFT.
The scene of a series of independent experiments.
MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIC-RAILWAY TRIALS. 329
and regulating the speed of the motors. Below the resistance boxes
there are the exciter rollers placed longitudinally and bearing bronze
contact pieces; the corresponding contacts are attached to two steel
tubes placed one beside the other and isolated from them. In order
to avoid any such disturbances as would attend on an abrupt increase
in collecting the current, the single contacts are inserted not simul-
taneously but successively. The exciting rollers are actuated through
a longitudinal spindle traversing the whole of the car, rotated from
the driver’s stand by means of a conical toothed gearing. In order to
facilitate the handling of this controlling device, there is a compressed-
air apparatus assisting the driver in starting and reducing automatically
the exciter to its zero position if the current has to be switched off.
By means of a special gearing the controlling may be effected also
without the aid of compressed air.
The trials.—In connection with the trials made in the course of the
fall of 1901, speeds as high as 150 kilometers, and even in one case 160
kilometers, were obtained. As, however, rather material oscillations
and shocks were experienced even at speeds of 140 kilometers per hour,
no further increase of the speed was thought advisable for the moment,
the remainder of the ‘year being given up to very valuable measure-
ments and records on the consumption of electric energy. The
acceleration obtained after starting was different according to the strain
the source of power was put to and the performance of the motors.
In order to attain speeds of 100 kilometers, starting distances of 2,000
to 3,200 meters, and starting times ranging between 138 and 220 seconds
were necessary, these figures corresponding with a mean acceleration
as high as 0.13 to 0.20 meters per second. As, however, the motors are
capable of supplying for short intervals about 3,000 horsepower,
whereas for the above acceleration only 700 to 1,000 horsepower are
required, this represents by no means.an upper limit.
As regards the braking of the cars, both cars may be stopped either
by means of Westinghouse rapid brakes, hand brakes, or using back
current; the Allgemeine Elektrizitiits Gesellschaft car is in addition
fitted with an electric brake. The Westinghouse and electric brakes
may be operated from each motorman’s stand simultaneously, though
the braking equipments are independent for either of the trucks. In
the case of an air pressure as high as 6 atmospheres in the braking
cylinder, two of which are placed on each truck, the pressure on each
of the 24 braking shoes arranged on both sides of the wheel is about
6,000 kilograms, the braking shoes thus receiving a total pressure as
as high as 144,000 kilograms—156 per cent of the weight of the
SATU IAS eave irk
After the trials made in the course of 1901, a thorough rebuilding
of the track, as above stated, was found necessary. This occupied
part of the year 1902, the remainder of which was taken up in the
330 MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIC-RAILWAY TRIALS.
continuation of the experiments on the consumption of energy, etc.,
for speeds up to 130 kilometers. The results of the improvements
made last year were shown, in connection with the recent trials, to be
most satisfactory and even surprising. The track not only stood easily
the strain to which it was put by trials at ever increasing speeds, but
the cars would now run with such safety and steadiness as to make the
shocks of the rails nearly unnoticeable.
The Siemens car was first given a chance to show its possibilities;
after reaching speeds as high as 189 kilometers per hour at the end
of September last, it was anticipated that resuming the experiments
at the beginning of October would lead to the maximum speed of 200
kilometers being finally reached. This was actually the case on Octo-
ber 6, the event being watched by a great number of lookers-on.
The distance between Marienfelde and Zossen was repeatedly tray-
ersed in not more than eight minutes each way, including starting
and braking, the maximum speed of 201 kilometers (126 miles) being
actually reached on the section Mahlow-Dahlwitz-Rangsdorff, traversed
in one and one-half minutes, throughout about 5 kilometers. The
mean speed of 175 kilometers per hour would enable the journey
between Berlin and Cologne (577 kilometers) to be completed in about
three and one-fourth hours, whereas the fastest present trains require
fully nine hours.
This result, which aroused such sensation in the engineering world,
was exceeded on October 23, when 207 kilometers were reached with-
out any disturbing factors being noted.
The Allgemeine Elektrizitiits Gesellschaft car had meanwhile in
turn resumed the experiments, both cars being alternately used in the
course of October. In order to ascertain first the working conditions
of the car, moderate speeds were used at the beginning, which, how-
ever, could rapidly be increased, so that the high-speed car of the All-
gemeine Elektrizitiits Gesellschaft on October 28 even slightly exceeded
the record made by the Siemens car, reaching the enormous speed of
210 kilometers per hour. Both cars ran so steadily that all those
present were highly satisfied.
From a car running at such exceedingly high speeds neighboring
objects, of course, will disappear from view. Though the motorman
would be able to distinguish obstacles on the track, this would be of
little use, the braking distance, i. e., the distance from the beginning
of braking to the stopping of the train, being 2 kilometers, and 1,600
horsepower having been necessary to obtain the desired speed.
Lookers-on could just distinguish the presence of men in the car;
before, however, they were able to fix their figure the car had disap-
peared from view. Though the track is very straight there elapsed
at most one-half minute between the first appearing of the train and
its passage and thence to the instant of 1ts disappearance on the
horizon.
MARIENFELDE-ZOSSEN ELECTRIC-RAILWAY TRIALS. 3381
As the maximum authorized speed has now been reached it is not
intended, for the moment being, to drive the speeds up to any higher
figures, but to complete the measurements already made by an exten-
sive series of records, so as to ascertain fully the working condition
of high-speed electric railways. It is thought probable that under
existing conditions speeds as high as 230 to 240 kilometers per hour
may be obtained without any difficulty, but as no authorization is
obtained for the moment this will have to wait for next year. It is
thought probable that after the successful results of these trials some
railway will be equipped according to the principles ascertained on the
military railway so as to allow of these interesting trials being con-
tinued on a larger scale.
THE BE INNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY—A CHAPTER. IN
THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHOTOG-
RAPHY WITH THE SALTS OF SILVER.¢
By Maj. Gen. J. WarrErHousE, I. A.
Photography proper, i. e., the art of delineating images of external
objects by the agency of light upon chemically prepared sensitive sur-
faces, does not seem to have been seriously thought of, still less prac-
ticed, before the end of the eighteenth century. The publication of
Wedgwood and Davy’s experiments in 1802 showed not only the
possibility of reproducing copies of drawings or paintings on glass,
by contact, upon a sensitive surface of paper or leather impregnated
with silver nitrate, but also gave the first idea of fixing the images of
the camera obscura on such a surface. The results obtained by them
were, however, very imperfect, and photography did not take any
practical shape until the time of Niépce, Daguerre, Reade, and Talbot,
between the years 1825 and 1840. But long before Wedgwood’s time,
and especially during the last two or three decades of the eighteenth
century, when the science of chemistry received such rapid develop-
ment, considerable attention had been given to the chemical and phys-
ical action of light in changing the appearance of many metallic
compounds and organic substances, notably the blackening of animal
or vegetable tissues by silver nitrate, the darkening of the white sil-
ver chloride and other metallic salts, and the darkening or bleaching
of many organic dyes and resins, ete. On the other hand, Newton’s
discovery of the compound nature of white light gave an impetus to
the study of the physical nature and of the chemical and optical prop-
erties of light and color which in more recent years has had and must
continue to have a very strong influence on the further development
and progress of photography. Again, Kepler’s investigations of the
optical principles connected with the projection of images of external
objects upon a screen by means of lenses, single or combined, and the
camera obscura form the basis of modern photographie optics.
About three years ago, when looking up some of the earlier chem-
ical writers for inquiries of my own relative to the action of light upon
«Read before the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, April 28, 1903,
and reprinted, after revision by the author, from The Photographic Journal, London,
Vol. XLIII, June, 1903.
333
334 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
silver and its compounds, I commenced collecting material for an
investigation into the evolution of photography with the salts of silver.
My attention was, however, diverted to the optical side of the ques-
tion connected with the history of the camera obscura and the
telephoto lens, and the results of those inquiries have been published
in the Journal.
The publication of the late Mr. R. B. Litchtield’s biography of Tom
Wedgewood, the first photographer, which was intended as a centenary
memoir of the founder of the art, has renewed my interest in the
subject, and the further investigations I have lately made have, I
think, thrown quite a new light upon the early history of photography
and shown how it was gradually developed from Schulze’s rough
experiment with silver nitrate and chalk, and finally brought about,
though imperfectly, by Wedgwood and Davy. This retrospect seems
the more opportune now that a century has passed since Wedgwood’s
work was first made known, and we are about to celebrate the jubilee
of our society which, however, was not founded until after the inven-
tion of collodion had put photography on a thoroughly practical
basis.
The main facts in the early history of the progress of photo-chem-
istry and optics tending to photography have been noted in- Prof,
J. M. Eder’s admirable Ausfithriches Handbuch der Photographie
(Part I, 1891), in which I have found many useful references to the
sarly writers and literature. 1 know of no English work in which
the subject has been treated with the fullness it deserves. And this is
the more to be regretted because so much of the early investigation
was done by Englishmen and is almost unknown. Robert Hunt’s
Researches on Light has no pretensions to be a history, while W. J.
Harrison’s History of Photography, though it contains a short sum-
mary of the early work, is more devoted to the record of progress in
practical photography since 1839. The story of these early experi-
ments is, however, an interesting one; and although I can only give a
brief and necessarily very incomplete sketch of it, this may serve to
draw attention to the subject and incite further inquiry.
EARLY NOTICES OF SALTS OF SILVER.
Nitrate of silver seems to have been known from very early times.
Doctor Vogel infers from Herapath’s statement that silver has been
found on linen mummy cloths marked with hieroglyphs that the
ancient Egyptians knew of the darkening action of light upon silver
nitrate. (W. and T. J. Herapath, Phil. Mag. (iv) 8, 528, and 5, 339.)
One of the earliest authentic accounts of it is given by Jabir ibn Hay-
yam (commonly known as Geber), who lived about the seventh or
eighth century. In the quaint English translations of his works by
Richard Russel (1678) we find a clear description of nitric acid (dis-
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. oa0
solutive water) prepared by distillation of a mixture of vitriol of
Cyprus (copperas), saltpeter, and alum. By adding sal ammoniac ¢
kind of aqua regia was formed, which he says would dissolve gold,
sulphur, and silver. By dissolving calcined silver in its solutive water
(nitric acid), and allowing a third part to evaporate, he obtained the
nitrate in the form of small fusible stones, like crystal. (Invention of
Verity, cap. 2, p. 266.) He also mentions a peculiar celestine or
hyacinth color produced by exposing silver to the fumes of acute
things—as of vinegar, sal ammoniac, etc. Later on we find a great
many references to this silver blue pigment in the writings of the early
chemists and painters. In some cases the color was no doubt due to
the verdigris formed by the action of strong vinegar on the copper
alloy mixed with the silver, but in others it may have been a form of
chloride or compound chloride of silver with ammonia and copper of
an intense blue color. So that silver chloride may have taken its place
in pictorialart very much earlier than is generally supposed. Entzelius,
in his De Re Metallica (Frankfort, 1557, p. 17), mentions a plum.col-
ored silver ore which, according to Theophrastus, was used as a fine
pigment. He also notes the great variety of color shown by the ores
of silver.
We may pass over Albertus Magnus and the alchemists of the
eleventh to the fifteenth centuries, whose methods of making nitric
acid, silver nitrate, and aqua regia were for the most part derived from
Geber. And though they must have been acquainted with silver
chloride, they have, so faras I have been able to ascertain, left no
record of the action of light upon it or any other silver compound.
Littie, indeed, to this effect can be found in the works of the earlier
mineralogists and metallurgists of the sixteenth century, who mention
several different ores of native silver, but seldom under the name of
horn silver, or luna cornea, and it is very difficult to ascertain which
of the many translucent ores described by them really was the native
chloride.
One of the earliest and by far the most important of these writers,
Georgius Agricola (Georg Bauer), in his De Natura Fossilium, liber 8,
written about 1546, mentions silver as producing black lines and dirty-
ing the hands; acids also corrode it, tinge it blue, and destroy it. In
another passage, in liber LO of the same work, he describes an excellent
method of making the blue pigment above referred to by exposing
sheets of silver full of small fissures, which should be filled up with
mercury, to the vapors of a mixture of sal ammoniae dissolved in the
strongest vinegar in a closed yessel buried in the earth or in dung for
about twenty days.
The best edition of his De Re Metallica and other works, published
at Basel in 1657, is a complete treatise on mining and metallurgy,
illustrated with many curious pictures of mines and mining machinery.
336 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
In an index at page 702 of this book we find the German equivalents
to the Latin names of a number of ores of silver, but there is no men-
tion whatever of horn silver, nor have I found any distinct reference
to it in the volume. Nor is there any reference to the darkening of
these ores by light, though he says of one form of Tyrolean glassy
ore (argentum rude rhéticum, probably a sulphide) that from a blue
inclining to violet it blackens or is ash colored.
FABRICIUS AND OTHERS ON HORN SILVER.
In a note to a memoir on Daguerreotype, written about 1839, Arago
says (Huvres completes, 7, 466) that ina work by Fabricius (De Rebus
Metallicis, 1556) there is a full description of a kind of silver ore called
‘*horned silver,” with the color and transparence of horn, the fusibility
and softness of wax. Exposed to light, it passed from a yellowish
gray to violet, and by a more prolonged action became almost black;
it was natural horn silver. Tissandier (History and Handbook of
Photography) makes Fabricius an alchemist and says that he prepared
luna cornea by precipitating a solution of silver nitrate with sea salt,
and that in his Book of the Metals (1556) he relates that the image
projected by a glass lens onto a surface of luna cornea imprinted itself
in black and gray according as the parts were completely illuminated
or touched only by diffused light. Harrison, in his History, also
gives a similar account.
Beequerel, Eder, and Fabre have already noted that there is nothing
to this effect in the little treatise De Metallicis Rebus ac Nominibus,
observationes varie et erudite, ex Schedis Georgii Fabricii: quibus
ea potissimum explicantur, que Georgius Agricola preeteriit, com-
piled from notes by Georgius Fabricius (Georg Goldschmied) sent by
his brother to Kentmann and published in 1566 by Conrad Gesner, of
Zurich, ina collection of similar treatises on gems, fossils, minerals,
etc. In the chapter on silver (p. 6) Fabricius says: ‘‘ In no metal is
there such a great variety of colors as appears in this by some marvel-
ous artifice of nature: some ores are translucent, as the red or liver-
colored, another is ike a ruby, a third has a horny light (lucem cor-
neam) and is very like cornelian (sarda).” Again he says that ‘tthe
liver-colored ore is described in his book of metals (in nostra corpore
metallico). This also is soft like lead and melts over a candle; poured
out on gypsum, on account of its spiritual subtility it is entirely con-
sumed. Its thinner particles are translucid like horn, the thinnest
like ice.” Ina list of various ores of silver (p. 10) he mentions one
(cornei coloris translucidum), translucid with the color of horn, but
that is all; not a word about any change of color by exposure to light
or otherwise. From the above it seems possible that Fabricius wrote
an earlier work on metals, but I have not been able to find any trace
of it. From 1553 till his death, in 1571, he was director of the college
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 337
at Meissen, and was the author of several philological, historical,
and poetical works (P. Albinus, Meissniche Land-Chronica, p. 322).
His treatise on metals, referred to, is not in the least alchemistic. Son
of a goldsmith, born and living in the mining districts in Saxony, it
is natural that he should have taken an interest in metals. So far as I
have been able to gather, the accounts of his observations of the action
of light on horn silver, or silver chloride, are quite apocryphal.
In G. D. Schreber’s Life of Fabricius (1717) we find several pas-
sages showing the friendship that existed between Fabricius and Agri-
cola and the help given to the latter by the former in compiling his
book, to which the notes by Fabricius were intended as a supplement
and were so published in the edition of 1565.
In another treatise in the same volume, by Johann Kentmann,
describing the minerals of Misnia (Meissen) there is a list of 84 differ-
ent ores of silver, and among the yellow ones he describes one as
‘*pellucid like horn, from Marienberg: melts over a candle.”
The only distinct early notice of horn silver and of its change of
color I have come across is in a little German book by H. Modestin
Fachs, mint master at Leipzig, Probier Buchlein (1567). At page 184,
in a list of silver ores, he mentions horn silver ore (Horen Silberertz)
and says: ‘* It looks just like horn, such as is used for horse combs,
and may be cut and impressed like wax; is very rich in silver. Like
it, such horn silver is wont also to change to the color of oxidized lead
(bley nichter.) ”
Johann Mathesius, in his Bergpostilla, or Sarepta (1578), mentions
horn-colored silver ore as lately found in the Marienberg mines, trans-
parent like the horn of a lantern and fusible over a flame. (This may
explain why Agricola does not notice it.) He does note note the
change of color on exposure, but in the Meissnische Berg-Chronic:
(1590), page 110, Petrus Albinus describes a remarkable white semi-
fluid silver ore from St. Georgen, which was said to be like butter-
milk when found, but soon hardened in the air, becoming like sand or
erit, and its white color changed to brown or rusty. This semifluid
ore is also noticed by Albertus Magnus and Agricola, but there is
nothing to show it was a chloride. Albinus also mentions horn silver
from Marienberg (p. 127) in much the same terms as Mathesius, and,
with regard to the variety of colors it assumes, he quotes the extracts
from Fabricius, given above, as referring to this ore. In this way the
arly knowledge of native horn silver and its lability to change of
color seems to have been entirely confined to the mining districts of
Saxony.
Even in the great work of Aldrovandus, Museum Metallicum (1648),
although we find a very full and interesting account of silver and its
ores, with many illustrations, nothing definite is said about horn sil-
ver. Nor does Father Kircher mention it in his Mundus Subterraneus
(1665).
338 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
From the sixteenth century onward the science of chemistry as dis-
tinct from alchemy, or the search for the philosopher’s stone and
transmutation of metals, began to develop in connection with medicine
under the impulse of the teaching of Paracelsus and his followers.
Tinctures of gold and silver being considered of high remedial value,
attention was paid to the preparation of salts of these metals. It is in
a book of this kind, the Basilica Chymica, by Oswald Croll (Frank-
fort, 1608), we have perhaps the first distinct mention of the precipita-
tion of silver chloride by adding salt water to a solution of silver in
aqua fortis. He mentions its fusibility, softness, and capability of
being cut by a knife, and calls it, from its horn-like appearance after
fusion, ‘‘that unknown luna cornea,” and warns his readers against
it being used in combination with lead to prove the transmutation of
metals, the falsified lead being apparently turned into silver. He
says nothing, however, about any darkening in light.
In the translation of Erckern’s book on Assaying, by Sir John
Pettus (Fleta Minor, 1683), page 5, he refers to the horny ore of silver
as being called so from its transparency, or rather lucidation, like
horn, and very rich in silver next to certain glass ores, or sulphides.
In the same way, C. KK. Schindler, in Der Geheimbde Miinz Guardein
und Berg Probierer (1705), mentions horn ore as a kind of transparent
ore like the horn of a lantern and of rich yield.
That these horny ores of silver were identical with the luna cornea
or horn silver, formed by fusing the precipitated chloride, seems
doubtful from the account of them given by J. A. Cramer in his
Elementa Artis Docimastice (1739), of which there is an English trans-
lation by Dr. Cromwell Mortimer (1764). Horny silver ore is described
as semitrdnsparent, of a deeper or lighter yellow or brown color,
according to the size of the pieces, looking like resin, easily powdered,
and lamellar in structure. When strongly heated it emits sulphurous
and arsenical fumes and only contains two-thirds of silver.
In the second part of the book he describes the purification of silver
by precipitation as chloride with muriatic acid from the solution of the
nitrate. If the precipitate is dried and melted and poured out quickly
‘it appears as a body of a light scarlet color, half transparent, pon-
derous enough, and so tenacious that it is difficult to reduce it to pow-
der, and if you-break it, it seems to be of a fibrous texture within;
whence it is called ‘Lune cornua,’? on account of its resembling the
horns of animals on the outside.” He, however, says nothing about
this substance being darkened by exposure to light, nor of its relation
to the horny silver ore.
CRONSTEDT AND WOULFE.
We find the first distinct recognition of the identity of the true
hornertz, or horny silver ore, with the luna cornea, or horn silver, pre-
pared by precipitation from the nitrate in Cronstedt’s essay toward a
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 339
system of mineralogy (1758), of which an English translation by von
Engestrom and Costa appeared in 1770, and a second edition by
Magellan in 1788. He says that the horn silver ore is the scarcest
silver ore; it is of a white or pearl color, changeable on the surface,
semitransparent, and somewhat ductile when crude and when melted.
It can not be decomposed without some admixture of such substances
as attract the combined acid of the sea salt. Although he notes the
blackening of the glassy ore or sulphide in the air, he does not clearly
mention the blackening of the horn silver. In Magellan’s edition the
darkening of this ore to a violaceous brown when exposed to the sun’s
beams, as happens also to the artificial horn silver, is mentioned in a
note.
The first definite chemical analysis of crude mineral horn silver
compared with the artificially prepared, was made by Peter Woulfe
(Phil. Trans., 66, £776, 608). He notes the confusion existing between
the horny ores and the glassy ores, containing sulphur and arsenic,
and says that Cronstedt and Le Sage asserted that the native horn
silver was composed of silver and sea salt only. Woulfe also found
some sulphate, amounting to about one-third of the chloride, and in
some samples admixture of sulphides. He says nothing about the
darkening in light, but mentions a black horn silver.
DARKENING ACTION OF SILVER NITRATE.
On the other hand, the darkening action of silver nitrate was known
much earlier. It is generally said that Albertus Magnus was the first
to record it in his Compositum de Compositis, but this is not correct.
After his description of the preparation of nitric acid, which is very
similar to Geber’s, he says: ‘*It dissolves silver and separates it from
gold; it calcines mercury and crocus martius; it stains the human
skin with a black color difficult to remove.” As given in the texts
this latter passage certainly refers to the acid and not to the solution
of silver. But there may have been some silver in the acid.
In J. B. Porta’s Magia Naturalis (1589) liber 10, caption 20, we find
a modification of Geber’s old recipe for making aqua fortis, for part-
ing silver from gold, by distilling niter and alum, also for making
aqua regia by adding sal ammoniac to the other ingredients, and another
for sulphuric acid. In liber 16 he gives a number of methods for
secret writing, among others writing on the skin with a solution of
silver in aqua fortis, and in liber 20 he gives a method of disguising
oneself for some time by applying the same solution over the body.
It is curious that he should not have thought of applying the solution
to paper.
In the well-known work by Caneparius, De Atramentis (1619), deal-
ing with the preparation of pigments and inks of various kinds, we
might have expected to find mention of the use of a solution of nitrate
340 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
of silver as a sympathetic ink or as an indellible marking ink, but he
says nothing of this, though he mentions the use of silver for writing.
He gives, however, several recipes for making azure blue pigments
from silver, gold, and mercury, which, in the case of silver, all depend
on the formation of an impure chloride, or double chloride of silver
and copper, by the action of the vapors of vinegar and sal ammoniac
upon thin plates of silver inclosed in a tight vessel and left for some
time under warm dung or grape husks, etc. There is no mention of
any addition of mercury as recommended by Agricola.
Angelus Sala, in his Opera Medico-Chymica (1647), mentions the stain-
ing of the hands by solution of silver nitrate, but says it has not the
strong corrosive action of nitric acid, and when some of the salt was
kept in paper for about a year the paper was darkened but not cor-
roded. He also notes that powdered lunar caustic (lapis lunaris)
exposed to sunshine appeared like the blackest ink; this was after-
wards quoted by Kircher. He noticed the same change of color if it
was mixed with solution of gold. He gives full instructions for erys-
tallizing the solution of lapis lunaris. Sala was the first to recognize
ammonia as a separate body.
In Glauber’s Opera Chymica (1658) there are several passages relat-
ing to the use of nitrate’ of silver solution for staining hard woods like
ebony, or for dyeing leather or feathers black, and this is perhaps the
first mention of the practical use of it for such purposes. In Christo-
pher Packe’s excellent translation of Glauber’s works (1689), Philo-
sophical Furnaces, Part II, caption 28, page 26, a method of preparing
crystallized silver nitrate is described, and the solubility of the chlo-
ride in ammonia is noted as follows:
The remaining solution which is not crystallized, you may, in a copper vessel by
adding sweet water thereto, precipitate over the fire into a calx and then edulcorate
it and dry it and keep it for other use. Or else you may precipitate the same with
salt water and so edulcorate and dry it; and you will have a calx which doth melt
by a gentle fire and is of a special nature, and in the spirit of urin, of salammoniak,
of hartshorn, of amber, of soot, and of hair it doth easily dissolve, and it may be
prepared or turned into good medicines as shortly in our treating of the spirit of
urin shall be taught.
After describing several medicinal preparations of silver, as well as
a green oil, made with spirit of sal ammoniae and useful for silvering
metals or glass he goes on to mention other uses of silver crystals:
Lastly, there be many pretty things more effected (besides the medicinal use) by
means of crystal of silver—viz, when you dissolve them in ordinary sweet rainwater
you may dye beard, hair, skin, and nails of men or beasts into carnation or pink red,
brown, or black, according as you have put more or less thereof in the water, or else
according as the hair was more or less wetted therewith, whereby the aspect of man
or beast (which sometimes in several occasions may not be contemned) is changed
so that they can not be known,
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 341
He says very little about the chloride, and had apparently no idea of
the action of light or sunshine in producing the change of color in
organic matter by the action of silver nitrate.
In the same way Robert Boyle frequently mentions the staining of
the skin by solutions of silver or of gold and also the darkening of the
chloride in the air, but seems to have had no idea that it was due to
the action of light. Thus, in his General History of the Air (1692),
page 53, he says:
If we precipitate a strong solution of good silver made in aqua fortis with a com-
petent quantity of spirit of sea salt we shall have a pouder which at first will be very
white; but if the liquor be not poured off, this being exposed for a good while to
the air, it would acquire on the surface a dark colour, which perhaps an attentive
eye will discern somewhat various, as this or that kind of saltness happens to be
predominant in the air.
At page 52 he mentions that silver plate exposed to the air in Amster-
dam is very readily tarnished, and it is evident that he looked upon the
darkening of the chloride as something analogous and due to saltness
or impurity in the air.
Nicolas Lemery also describes the preparation of a medicinal ** lunar
tincture” made by dissolvi ing precipitated silver chloride in spirit of
urine and spirit of wine. He says, further, that the precipitate of sil-
ver with salt darkens on drying, even in the shade, no doubt on
account of a small quantity of copper present.
SCHULZE’S OBSERVATIONS.
Although the writings of Kunckel and Stahl contain a good deal
about the chemistry of the compounds of silver and their reduction by
heat and chemical methods, we find no observations of the darkening
by light, and the first investigation of this action was made by Johann
Heinrich Schulze, who published an account of his experiments in the
Acta of the Cesarean Academy for 1727. (A full translation of this
paper appeared in this journal for 1898, p. 53.) Though these exper-
iments were mentioned by Priestley and other authors, and, as I propose
show, in all probability led the way to Wedgwood’s work, they
seemed to have entirely dropped out of sight until they were brought
forward by Doctor Eder in 1881, in his history of photography pub-
lished in the Photo. Correspondenz. Like many valuable discoveries,
they originated with the investigation of an accident. Schulze tells us
that while experimenting on the preparation of the Bolognian phos-
phorus, with a mixture of chalk saturated with some aqua fortis which
contained a small quantity of silver, at an open window, he was sur-
prised to find the color of the surface changed to a dark purplish red,
while the part untouched by the sun’s rays remained unchanged.
This curious fact struck him so forcibly that he put aside his original
experiments to investigate the cause of the darkening. His friends
342 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
suggested that it was due to heat, but experiment showed it was not
so. He then divided the mixture into two parts, one being kept in
the dark while the bottle containing the other was put in the hot sun
with a thread passed round it about the middle of the part exposed to
the sun. After some hours’ exposure the thread was removed, and
he was delighted to find that under it the color of the mixture was the
same as that in the back part of the bottle, which had not been exposed.
The experiment was repeated in various ways, and proved that the
change of color depended entirely on the sun’s light, and that heat had
nothing to do with it. He then tried experiments in the converse
way, i. e., he mixed up the fluid to give it a uniform color, and then
covered the greater part of the glass with opaque bodies, or with cut-
out words or sentences on paper, leaving only a small portion of the
mixture exposed. In this way the words or sentences were accurately
and distinctly reproduced on the chalk sediment, and the result was
looked upon as a great marvel by ignorant people.
Feeling that still further investigation was necessary, and believing
that the effects were dependent on the mixture of chalk and aqua fortis,
he tried several experiments with fuming spirits of niter and ordinary
aqua fortis mixed with chalk, but obtaining no result, he remembered
that the aqua fortis he had first used contained some silver, and that
the effects must have been due to it, because he had already noticed
that solutions of silver in aqua fortis turned dark red after exposure
tothe sun. He then repeated his first experiments with an aqua fortis
containing more silver, and observed that the color was more distinctly
marked than before. He found also that reflected sunlight was capable
of producing the same result. He notes that other white substances,
such as hartshorn, white magnesia, ceruse of lead, can be used to show
the same effect as with the chalk. Even then he seems to have felt
that he had not penetrated to the real cause of the phenomenon, and
only suggests the use of it as a means of testing the presence of silver
in a solution, He evidently had no idea of its photographic possi-
bilities. ,
Although Schulze did not set out with the idea of making photo-
graphic copies by means of his silver and chalk mixture, and his
cut-out stencils were only used to give a clear demonstration of the
action of light, it must be acknowledged that his experiments were
distinctly photographic in that he first produces his negative images
of the thread, leaving a white line on a dark ground, and then the
positive images, dark on a white ground, of his cut-out words and
sentences, or in modern parlance his negative, or cliché. There is no
doubt that here we have the germ of the photographic idea, and
further on I shall endeavor to show how it was taken up in this coun-
try and led more or less directly to Wedgwood’s own experiments.
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 343
DU FAY AND HELLOT.
In the Memoirs of the French Academy for 1728, page 50, Du Fay
has described a method of staining agates by treating them with a
solution of silver nitrate, and when dry exposing them to sunshine;
the solution, penetrating to different depths in the more or less absorb-
ent layers of the stone, produced variegated effects not shown in the
original. In some cases the solution was applied witha pen. Du Fay
seems, however, to have had no idea of using a stencil, and to have
worked, though almost contemporaneously, quite independently of
anything done by Schulze, the staining of objects by silver nitrate
solutions being, as we have already seen, well known, though the
necessity of the objects being exposed to light was not so clearly
recognized. - He also used solutions of gold and bismuth, and notes
the favorable effect of a certain amount of moisture in strengthening
the reduction.
Similarly, Hellot, in the same memoirs for 1737, mentions the use of
a weak solution of silver nitrate as a sympathetic ink which would
show nothing so long as the paper were kept in darkness, but on
exposure to the sun darkened and showed the writing in a slaty gray,
this effect being due, as Hellot thought, to the action of some sulphur-
ous principle in the nitric acid which blackened the silver. This is
interesting as, apparently, the first recorded graphic application of
silver nitrate to paper.
BECCARITS OBSERVATIONS.
We have already pointed out the incorrectness of the commonly
accepted statement that Georgius Fabricius was the first to publish the
fact that luna cornea, or silver chloride, darkened on exposure to
light, and, although this darkening must have been constantly observed,
it was, even up to Boyle’s time, not attributed to the action of light,
but rather tosome effect of the air or sulphurous vapors. That it was
due to the action of light was first proved by Jacopo Bartolomeo Bee-
earl, of Bologna, in 1757, by a method very similar to Schulze’s with
the nitrate. His paper, in the fourth volume of the Commentaries of
the Bolognian Academy, deals with the power which light possesses of
itself to change not only the colors but likewise the texture of things.
Having a suspicion that the change in color of luna cornea, gener-
ally attributed to the action of the air, was due to light, he inclosed
some in a glass vessel and placed it at some distance in front of the
window of a room not very brilliantly lighted. After some time he
noticed that the luna cornea on the side toward the window had turned
violet, while that on the other side away from the light retained its
original color. This showed that there was some influence in light
which caused changes of color. To make quite sure, however, he fixed
23
sm L905
344 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
some black paper on the unchanged side of the vessel to see if it would
protect the silver salt, and left it again exposed till next day, when, on
returning to it, he found that the luna cornea had turned violet every-
where except in the parts protected by the paper. From this he con-
cluded that the change was due more to the action of the light than of
the air, and that the same is probably the case with the fading of the
colors of garments, for fullers when dyeing the more costly cloths only
consider a dye good if the color remains unchanged after a long exposure
in full daylight, though they probably attribute the injury to the effect
of the air rather than of light. The remainder of the paper is devoted
to experiments by Bonzo on the changes of color of silken ribbons in
light. Here, as in the case of Schulze, Beccari’s experiment was more
photochemical than photographic.
DR. WILLIAM LEWIS'S INVESTIGATIONS.
So far it had been recognized that the change of color of silver
compounds was due to the action of light, but nothing had been done
to show what chemical changes took place during this action or what
were the conditions to be fulfilled, and the first to make any investiga-
tion in this direction was Dr. William Lewis, M. D., F. R. S., the
author of many works on technical chemistry. In his Commercium
Philosophicum Technicum, or Philosophical Commerce of Arts (1763),
he has given a very full account of his investigations into the cause of
the coloration of ivory, bone, wood, or stone treated with solution of
silver nitrate and exposed to sunshine. He repeated Schulze’s experi-
ments with chalk moistened with solution of silver nitrate, both while
wet and after being dried, and notes that the color is produced only
on those parts on which the sun shines, and that distinct characters may
be exhibited on the mass by intercepting a part of the sun’s light by
threads or cut paper. He found that the color thus produced on the
chalky mixture was not so deep as it was on bone or ivory and was
entirely superficial, so that by shaking up the mixture it again appeared
white. By exposing the mixture constantly to light for many weeks
and frequently shaking it, he was able to darken it throughout, though
weakly. The light of a candle or the ordinary warmth of a fire had
no effect, but at a considerable heat the matter became brown, though
it did not become black as it did in the sun.
He also tried several earthy bodies and found that those which
dissolve in acids, the ashes of vegetables, of bones and horns, darkened
in the same way as chalk and other mineral calcareous earths. Pow-
dered flint remained perfectly uncolored, even after six months’
exposure in the sun. White clay, plaster of Paris, and powdered tale
also remained uncolored; and even chalk itself, previously satiated with
vitriolic acid so as not to be acted upon by the acid in which the silver
was dissolved, was unchanged. He concluded, therefore, that to pro-
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 345
duce a black stain from solution of silver, it was necessary not only
that the substance moistened with it should be exposed to the action
of solar light, but that it should contain some matter which the nitrous
acid might dissolve preferably to the silver which it already held dis-
solved. He observes that though this is plainly the case with bones,
horns, hair, marble, and other bodies which are stained by the silver
solution, there are also some stones, such as ag
stance soluble by the acid has not yet discovered itself. (In another
place he refers to Du Fay’s experiments with agates already noted.)
He goes on to say that this production of a dark color by the action
of the sun is not peculiar to solution of silver, or to a combination of
this solution with soluble earths, and notes that precipitated nitrate of
bismuth and mercurius dulcis, a combination of quicksilver with the
marine acid (calomel), suffer a like change, but do not become black
like silver. He does not mention the action of light on silver chloride.
In the early part of the book he notes also that the solution of gold
in aqua regia stains the skin and other animal and vegetable substances
purple, the coloring being hastened by exposure to the sun and free
air and favored by the presence of moisture. He mentions several
other preparations of the muriate of gold combined with sea salt,
ate, in which a sub-
niter. or sal ammoniac, as well as solutions in ether and volatile oils.
He also discusses the staining power of a solution of platinum in aqua
regia in the light and finds it much less than that of gold. It gives a
brown stain to organic materials dipped in it, but in most cases water’
washes off the stain.
CONNECTION BETWEEN SCHULZE AND WEDGWOOD.
These very interesting researches are, like the previous ones of
Schulze and Beccari, more photochemical than photographic, though
they form a noteworthy contribution to the history of silver printing
which has hitherto been quite overlooked. They are the more impor-
tant because it appears extremely probable that they form the con-
necting link between Schulze and Wedgwood, for we find in Dr.
Thomas Thomson’s History of Chemistry (Vol. I, p. 266), that at Doe-
tor Lewis’s death, in 1781, all the manuscript volumes containing his
experiments and collections from other authors which had been com-
piled by his assistant, Mr. Chicholm, who had been with him for many
vears, were purchased by Mr. Wedgwood, who also took Mr. Chicholm
into his own service and put him in charge of his laboratory. Accord-
ing to Miss Meteyard (Life of Josiah Wedgwood, 2, p. 465), the name
of this assistant was Alexander Chisholm; he had been thirty years
with Doctor Lewis, of Kingston-on-Thames, and entered Wedgwood’s
service at Etruria as secretary and chemical assistant in 1782, and
was for a long time his right-hand man. He died in 1807. From
Mr, Litchfield’s **Tom Wedgwood” (p. 5), it appears that Chisholm (or
346 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
Chisolm, as Litchfield spells it) had a great deal to do with the educa-
tion of young Tom. He was a good chemist, a man of education, and
at least something of a classical scholar, and the boy seems to have
received much of his scientific and classical training from him, and
when at the university corresponded freely with him, chiefly on chem-
ical topics. He no doubt also assisted him in his early experiments.
This connection of Chisholm, first with Doctor Lewis and the photo-
chemical experiments recorded in the Commercium Philosophicum
Technicum, and then with the Wedgwoods, throws a good deal of
light upon the probable origin of Tom Wedgwood’s photographic
experiments, and it is possible that if any of the correspondence
between Tom Wedgwood and Chisholm, or any of the latter’s manu-
script notes, are still available, some valuable information on the
subject may yet be obtainable.
DOCTOR PRIESTLEY.
In 1772 Dr. Joseph Priestley published his valuable History of Dis-
coveries relating to Light, Vision, and Color, and it is interesting to
note (p. 378) that he was a believer in the theory that light was a real
substance, consisting of particles of matter emitted by luminous bodies,
and considered that this view was favored by experiments demonstrat-
ing that the color and inward texture of some bodies are changed by
exposure to light. He notes Duhamel’s researches on the purple
color extracted from a shellfish found in Provence, which is developed
by sunshine; also Beceari’s experiments with luna cornea, already
mentioned. With regard to this he remarks that it does not appear
that Beccarius knew on what ingredient in the composition the change
of color depended, and then he fully describes Schulze’s experiments,
which prove it to have been the silver. Although Doctor Lewis’s
book is mentioned in the list of authorities consulted by Priestley in
the preparation of his history, he makes no mention of his chemical
investigation of Schulze’s experiment, but- goes on to discuss the
further experiments of Bonzius and Beccarius on the action of light
on ribbons, etc.; but these do not concern us at present.
In connection with Priestley it may be noted that Josiah Wedgwood,
the father of Tom, was a subscriber to this book of Priestley’s, and
we may agree with Miss Meteyard that it was not unlikely that young
Wedgewood would know the book, especially as he was interested in
questions bearing on light and heat. Moreover, Mr. Litchfield men-
tions (op. cit., p. 19) that while working at the long series of experi-
ments described in his two papers of 1791-92 Tom Wedgwood was
corresponding with Priestley, who was an intimate friend of the family,
and if he were working at photography at the same time it is not
improbable that his attention would have been drawn to Schulze’s
experiment, even if Chisholm had not already told him of it.
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 347
We next find Schulze’s experiment included by Dr. William Hooper
in his Rational Recreations (1774, 4, 143) under the heading ‘** Writing
on glass by the rays of the sun.” It was repeated by Halle in 1784
in his Magie, oder die Zauberkriifte der Natur, who mentions writing
with sympathetic inks made of solutions of gold or silver, and it
appears also in later collections of chemical experiments. Here we
have the first distinctly graphic application of Schulze’s experiment,
and nothing else of the kind is given by Hooper. For the purpose of
this experiment the cut-out stencils (or, as Schiendl calls them, ** nega-
tives”) were more suitable than the positive prints or projections used
by Wedgwood and Davy. No thought of fixing or of multiplying
copies of his light images seems to have occurred to Schulze or to any
of those who described his experiment, and, indeed, from the nature
of it, it was not likely todo so. In this sense he certainly fell short of
the photographic ideal which Davy and Wedgwood undoubtedly had
before them.
SCHEELE’S OBSERVATIONS.
In 1777 Carl Wilhelm Scheele published his well-known observations
and experiments on air and fire (Aeris atque Ignis examen chemicum.
Upsala and Lips, 1777), of which translations were published in Ger-
man, French, and English. He also was a believer in the prevailing
theory of light being a body, and that the light of the sun was the
same as of a burning candle. He sets himself to prove the presence
of an inflammable principle in light (sec. 60), and starts with the
blackening of a solution of silver nitrate exposed to the sun on a piece
of chalk, noting that reflected white light produces the same effect,
but heat does not; then he asks whether this black color should be
real silver, and in the following sections describes a series of experi-
ments he made to prove it. The most important, photographically,
are in section 63, in which he describes how he first of all prepared
silver chloride by precipitation with sal ammoniac from solution of
the nitrate, washed and dried the precipitate, and exposed it on paper
to the sun for two weeks, when the surface of the white powder grew
black. The powder was then stirred and the operation repeated
several times. He then poured some caustic spirit of sal ammoniac
upon the darkened chloride, and found that the ammonia dissolved a
quantity of the chloride, though some black powder remained. This
was washed and dissolved in pure nitrous acid and was again precipi-
tated as luna cornea. Consequently the blackness which the luna
cornea acquires from the sun’s light, and likewise the solution of silver
poured on chalk, is silver by reduction. In further experiments he
showed that during the exposure of luna cornea to light under water
the latter takes up muriatic acid, which can be proved by its again
precipitating luna cornea in a solution of silver nitrate; also that
348 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
luna cornea, when exposed to light, moistened with nitric acid, does
not change color. In section 66 he demonstrates the presence of
phlogiston in light, and shows that light itself is not phlogiston by
placing in the colored rays of the solar spectrum paper on which some
luna cornea had been spread, when it was found that the darkening
took place much more rapidly in the violet rays than in the others;
i. e., the calx of silver more quickly separates the phlogiston from the
violet than from the other rays. He thus shows that light can not be
considered as a simple substance or an element. These observations
of Scheele’s, scanty as they are, mark a very distinct advance in photo-
chemical knowledge, and demonstrate fully the decompositions that
take place by the exposure of silver compounds to light, so far as the.
imperfect chemical theories of the time allowed. It may be noted that
Scheele did not discover the solubility of silver chloride in ammonia,
as it apparently was known to some of the alchemists, and, as we have
seen, is distinctly mentioned by Glauber and Lemery; also, in 1761,
by Marggraf, who describes the preparation of ammonia (spiritum
urinosum), and says that he can only say of it that it dissolves luna
cornea in the cold. (Chymischer Schriften, pp. 62 and 284.)
SENEBIER AND PHOTOMETRY.
Scheele’s observations were repeated and developed further by Jean
Senebier, but more particularly with reference to the influence of light
on vegetation. His book, Mémoires Physico-chymiques sur linfluence
de la lumiére solaire pour modifier les .6tres des-trois régnes de la
Nature, et surtout ceux du réene végétal (1782), contains a vast num-
ber of interesting observations on the disengagement of air or gas
from leaves under water in sunshine, on the production and devel-
opment of conferv in water, on etiolation and the effects of colored
lights and of the different colored rays of the spectrum on the growth
of plants. He recognized the greater activity of the violet ray. He
preceded Herschel in the examination of the temperature of the differ-
ent rays of the spectrum but failed to note the special heating power
of the ultra-red rays or the extension of action beyond the violet. In
the latter case he placed the chloride in saucers and threw the spectrum
on them. Had he used strips of paper he would probably have
observed the ultra-violet rays. In many of his experiments he used
cut-out masks or shades of metal or other material to cut off the light
of the sun from fruit or plants under observation. He, like others of
his time, believed that light was a material substance, and also in the
existence of phlogiston, so that it is sometimes difficult to translate his
meaning into conformity with modern ideas.
He investigated the changes of color in various woods by the action
of light, using slips of sheet lead as shades, also glazed boxes fitted
with various colored glasses or different thicknesses of the same glass.
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 349
He also used colored ribbons or papers in different thicknesses to erad-
uate the amount and color of the light falling on the woods, and thus
appears to have been the first to use a photometer. He found that
the change of color was due to the resinous constituents of the wood
and the liability to change depended on the amount of resin present.
He does not seem to have made any observations on changes in the
solubility of resins after exposure to ight, but apparently recognized
that the light brought about an oxidation, and that some resins are
bleached while others are darkened.
In the fourteenth memoir (Vol. HI, p. 184) he discusses the action
of light on mineral substances and, after briefly noting its action on
several metallic compounds, he deals, in section 3, page 192, with
the compounds of silver, and especially the chloride (luna cornea).
He refers to the previous work of Beecari, Meyer, Schulze, and
Scheele, and proposes to extend it. Not content with the simple
experiment with a cut-out stencil of sheet brass, he instituted a series
of photometric observations, by exposing the chloride under a varying
number of thicknesses of paper or slips of different woods or of glass.
He confirmed Scheele’s experiment with the spectrum and extended
it by measuring the length of time it took each ray to darken the
chloride, and found that while the more refrangible rays at the blue
end only took from fifteen to thirty-five seconds the less refrangible
from the yellow to the red required from five and one-half to twenty
minutes.
Valuable and interesting as Senebier’s observations are as a contri-
bution to the science of vegetable physiology, they did not advance
photography very much, except in so far as they marked the intro-
duction of a system of photometric measurement, which in recent
years has been recognized as the only reliable basis of scientific
photographic investigation, and perhaps no one has contributed more
to this than our esteemed president, Sir William Abney.
BERTHOLLET.
In the Memoirs of the French Academy for 1785 Berthollet pub-
lished some researches on the action of light upon plants, etc., as well
as upon silver chloride under water, and attributed the darkening of
the silver salt to a partial reduction of the metal caused by the disen-
gagement of oxygen loosely combined with it. He explains this as
being conformable to a law of affinity under which the adherence of
any element increases in proportion as its quantity grows less, and
remarks that gold, silver, and mercury are precipitated on animal
substances in this medium state between the oxide and the metal.
Doctor Eder notes that Berthollet was thus the first to suggest the
formation of a subchloride or oxysubchloride by the action of light
on silver chloride. Berthollet’s views were afterwards changed more
BHIKO) THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
in conformity with Scheele’s observation that hydrochloric acid was
found in the water after exposure of the chloride to light. (Essai de
Statique Chimique, 1803.) He also found that the blackened chloride
dissolved in ammonia as well as the white and was unchanged. There
was, therefore, no disengagement of oxygen from the chloride, the
gas bubbles noticed being due to air adhering to it. This was further
proved by melting some blackened chloride in a retort, as well as by
exposing some white chloride to a moderate heat till it blackened
before melting. In both cases hydrochloric acid was evolved, but no
oxygen. It appears, therefore, that light simply brings about the
separation of a portion of the hydrochloric acid combined with the
silver, and the same effect can be produced by heat. Another portion
of white chloride set in a dark place in a current of air darkened
almost as quickly as if light had acted upon it. The air, therefore,
had caused the disengagement of part of the hydrochloric acid, which
must escape if the chloride blackens, and this result can be brought
about in various ways. We may note that Stahl (Anweisung zur
Metallurgie, 1720) mentions this remarkable volatility of the precipi-
tated chloride and its visible fuming and loss of substance when
exposed to a strong current of air. In another work he also notes the
darkening and volatilization of luna cornea when heated with access
of air, and attributes the change of color to the action of sulphur.
Some experiments by the Abbé A. M. Vassali, described in two
papers entitled ‘‘ Paralléle de la Lumiére Solaire avec celle du Feu
commun,” published in Vol. V of the Memoirs of the Turin Academy
(1791-92), may be noticed. He shows that precipitated silver chloride
can be darkened, though slowly, by the flame of a lamp as well as by
solar rays; also that it could be slightly darkened by the light of the
full moon, especially if it were concentrated by a lens. (This result
was disputed by subsequent observers.) He concludes, therefore, that
the light of the moon is the same as that of a flame or of sunlight, but
not so intense. He used the chloride taken moist from a bottle and
spread on unsized paper. In the second paper, he describes an experi-
ment made to ascertain the loss of weight in the dry chloride after
exposure to light, and how on concentrating the sunlight with a lens
the chloride was partly reduced to metal.
MRS. FULHAME.
More closely connected with photography is the work of Mrs. Ful-
hame, as described in her book, An Essay on Combustion, with a view
to a new Art of Dying and Painting, etc. (1794). She began her
experiments in 1780 in making cloths of gold, silver, and other metals
by chemical processes. She also prepared maps in which the rivers
were shown in silver and the towns, etc., in gold, and it is evident
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. aril
from this and from the title of her book that she had an idea of the
graphic application of reducing solutions of silver and gold upon silk.
It is surprising, therefore, to find that she does not seem to have
thought of making patterns on her silken tissues by using stencils.
She refers to Doctor Lewis’s experiments, already noticed, and could
have got the idea from his account of Schulze’s experiment. There
is, however, no mention of it, and she, like her predecessors, treated
the question of the reduction of metallic salts or solutions by light
almost entirely from its chemical side. Though at fault as regards
her ideas of the nature of light, she made a great many very interest-
ing experiments on the reduction of gold and silver by chemical proc-
esses, as well as by the action of light on pieces of silk treated with
solutions of chloride of gold or nitrate of silver. She found that light
had little or no action on them when they were carefully dried before
exposure, while if they were moistened with water, the metal was very
easily reduced. She concluded, therefore, that the presence of water
Was necessary to effect the reduction, as it also was in the case of other
reducing agents she tried, including hydrogen gas, phosphorus, sul-
phur, and some of its volatile compounds, charcoal, acids, etc. The
favoring effect of moisture in the case of the reduction of gold and
silver by light, had, as we have already seen, been noticed by Du Fay
and Lewis, but not investigated as it was by. Mrs. Fulhame.
The account of her experiments with light is in the eighth chapter
of her book (p. 142), headed ‘*t Reduction of Metals by Light.” She
first shows by experiments with strips of silk treated with solutions of
nitro-muriate of gold and nitrate of silver, dried and suspended over
water and kept in darkness for three months, that water alone has not
the power of reducing metals at the ordinary temperature of the air.
She then describes a series of parallel experiments with strips of silk
treated with solutions of the same salts; (3 and 7) dried in the air and
suspended in a window exposed to the sun for about three months,
both showing considerable darkening and partial reduction, stronger
with the silver than the gold; (4 and 8) dried and suspended in crystal
phials over dry carbonate of potash, the phials being sealed with wax
and exposed to the sun as before, both strips showing only a very
slight reduction on the exposed side of the silk; (5 and 10) the slips
after being dipped in the solutions of gold and silver were placed upon
china plates and exposed to the sun, being kept wet with water during
the exposure. Jn the case of the gold the color soon changed to purple
and after an hour the silk was covered with a coating of bright reduced
gold. With silver the silk also soon darkened and in four hours had
acquired a blackish-gray color, but further exposure was required to
show particles of silver on the under side of the silk; (6 and 11) the
slips were dipped in alcoholic solutions of the gold and silver salts and
ope THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
exposed in the same way on china plates, but kept moist with alcohol.
In the case of the gold no change took place in an hour, The experi-
ment was interrupted by want of sun, and on subsequent exposure there
was a faint change of color and some reduced gold. With silver there
was more darkening, up to reddish brown, but no blackening after
four days’ exposure. In () a slip of sillk was dipped in alcoholic solu-
tion of silver nitrate and after very careful drying in darkness over
sulphuric acid in a phial was exposed to light over the acid for about
three months without the slightest change of color.
From these experiments she concludes: (1) That water is essential
to the reduction of metals by light; (2) that light does not reduce
metals by giving them phlogiston; nor (3) by fusing and expelling
their oxygen; (4) light is a combustible body, for it acts like hydro-
gen, phosphorus, sulphur, and charcoal in the reduction of metals,
and further, that it is obvious that light reduces metals by decompos-
ing water attracting the oxygen, while the hydrogen unites, in its
nascent state, to the oxygen of the metal and reduces it, forming at the
same time a quantity of water equal to that decomposed. — In chapter
10 she gives an intelligent explanation of the decomposition of water
which takes place when silver is precipitated in the metallic form by
iron and other metals, the precipitant uniting with the oxygen, while
the hydrogen combines with the oxygen of the precipitated metal,
forming water, and reduces the metal.
These principles are applicable in the same way to the reduction of
silver by acid iron solutions, as in the wet collodion process. She also
notes the reducing power of gallic, tartaric, and formic acids on
metallic salts. In considering her work it must be remembered that
chemical science was in a very transitional state at the time she wrote,
but it is interesting because it led to further investigation of the action
of light on silver compounds by Count Rumford, Ritter, Berthollet,
and others. Her little treatise was translated into German by Lentin,
and favorably reviewed by Ritter. A very appreciative account of
the experiments with light is to be found in Placidus Heinrich’s prize
essay, ** Von der Natur und den Eigenschaften des Lichtes” (St. Peters-
burg, 1808, p. 106). We find several of her experiments repeated in
a little book of chemical recreations (Rational Amusement, by W. M.
Toulmin, Calcutta, 1822), among them methods of drawing silver or
gold figures of flowers, etc., upon silken ribbons. Many of her obser-
vations were confirmed and extended by Count Rumford in a paper
entitled ‘*An inquiry concerning the chemical properties that have
been attributed to light” (Phil. Trans. R. S., 1798), in which he tried
to show that the reduction of the gold or silver on the tissues was
produced, not by any chemical combination of the matter of light with
such bodies, but merely by the heat which is generated or excited by
the light that is absorbed by them.
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. ade
BLACK.
In Dr. Joseph Black’s Lectures on the Elements of Chemistry
(2, 660), he has fully treated of the salts and best known ores of silver
and discussed the action of light in changing the color of the chloride
and permanently staining organic and mineral substances moistened
with the nitrate. His explanation is similar to Doctor Lewis’s, and he
says those bodies to which the solution is applied attract the acid
from the calcined silver, while at the same time this metal is restored
to its metallic state, or made to approach that state, by the action of
the light, which expels from the calx a quantity of vital air. This
effect of light in this and other similar examples is well known by
experience, but it is not clearly understood how it is produced. Of
the chloride he says that if perfectly dry and white it will not change
its color in air that is also perfectly dry, although accessible to light,
and then he discusses Scheele’s and Berthollet’s experiments upon it.
These lectures were written before 1796.
WILLIAM HERSCHEL AND RITTER.
In 1800 William Herschel, following somewhat in the footsteps of
Senebier, discovered the heat rays beyond the visible red rays, by
means of thermometrical observations, and this discovery was followed
in L801 by the almost more important one, so far as photography is
concerned, made by J. W. Ritter of the invisible ultra-violet rays and
of their strong chemical action upon salts of silver. The first account
of these results appears in an extract from a letter from Herren Rit-
ter and Béckmann, in Gilbert’s Annalen, Volume VII, 1801, page 527,
discussing Herschel’s results. He (Ritter) says: ‘‘On February 22,
T also came upon solar rays on the violet side of the color spectrum
and beyond it, and indeed proved it by means of horn silver. They
reduce even more strongly than the violet light itself, and the extent
of these rays is very great.” A further communication was made in
the Erlangen Literatur Zeitung, 1801, No. 16, page 121, and a complete
account of the investigations was given in a paper read before the
Jena Society for the Investigation of Nature, in the spring of L801
(reprinted in the collected works of Ritter, Physisch-Chemisch
Abhandlungen, II, 81). It is entitled ‘* Remarks on Herschel’s recent
researches on light,” and is a most interesting paper, more so as
regards the chemical action of the red and violet ends of the spec-
trum than for any photographic application.
As the thermometrical method used by Herschel for showing the
extension of the spectrum at the red end would have been useless in
investigating an extension of the violet end, where changes of tem-
perature are not indicated, Ritter, noting Scheele’s observation that
horn silver, or muriate of silver, darkened much more rapidly in the
354 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
violet than in any other ray of the spectrum, followed his method.
A strip of strong white paper was coated very evenly by means of a
brush with precipitated silver chloride finely rubbed down with water
into a semifluid magma. When exposed moist in a dark room to the
solar spectrum of a prism, it at once quickly darkened at a considerable
distance beyond the outer violet, then in the violet itself, and finally
showed the weakest action in that part where the blue loses itself in
the green. Through the yellow and red and on beyond, the chloride
remained white, however long it might be exposed.
This experiment, he says, shows the presence of invisible rays
beyond the violet in continuation of the visible rays, and possessing
the same action, and that, Just as is shown at the red end by the ther-
mometer, their maximum action lies beyond the limit of the visible
‘ays and at a considerable distance from them. In the same way as
the heating action shown by the thermometer is almost confined to
the red end of the spectrum, so the darkening action on the chloride
is almost entirely confined to the blue and violet. He remarks that
Scheele must have made his observation very casually not to have
noticed that in half the spectrum there was no action at all, and it is
to be regretted that he overlooked this fact and the physical and
chemical phenomena connected with it.
He then discusses the chemical nature of the change in the horn
silver, which consists of muriatic acid and silver oxide (silver and
oxygen). By the blackening of this substance the silver loses its oxy-
gen, and, since it can not remain combined with the acid, reverts to the
metallic state, appearing black on account of its being finely divided.
Consequently what occurred on the blue side of the spectrum was
deoxidation, one of the two great processes into which every chemical
reaction finally resolves itself. Its opposite is oxidation. Seeing
that the deoxidation took place only at the blue end of the spectrum,
the question was whether corresponding oxidation took place at the
red end. He set himself to prove it by exposing a strip of paper
coated with the chloride, but already evenly darkened in the violet or
other part of the blue end, so that the red rays fell on the darkened
part, comparing it from time to time with a similarly darkened strip.
He found that near the red and beyond it there was a place at which
the darkened strip became distinctly paler, and it gradually spread
till, after a quarter of an hour, the middle of the spectrum had
retained its original tint, which became gradually weaker until it
almost disappeared at a point beyond the red and then increased again
for a short space.
From this he argues that the loss of color in the darkened chloride
was due to oxidation of the silver, and that therefore the red rays
have oxidizing properties, agreeing very closely in gradation with
that of the rise and fall of temperature in Herschel’s experiments.
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. ODO
Thus the whole prismatic spectrum acquires a new dignity as chem-
ical. In white light, both forces, oxidation and the characteristic
deoxidation, are in a state of opposite combination. The whole spec-
trum is divided into two parts, the sphere of the one toward the
red being oxidation, and of the other, toward the blue, deoxidation.
Inathird experimenta long, darkened strip of the chloride paper was
placed in the spectrum for five or ten minutes, when the outer ends of
the strip were found unchanged; but the whole blue and violet side had
darkened, the maximum being beyond the visible violet rays, as in the
first experiment. The whole of the red end, on the contrary, became
lighter, and the maximum bleaching action was, as before, beyond the
visible red rays. Similar results were obtained by exposing a strip of
the white chloride paper in a bright light and at the same time throw-
ing the spectrum upon it.
After discussing the relative oxidizing and deoxidizing powers of the
two ends of the spectrum and expressing his desire for exact measure-
ments of the intensity of the energy of the various rays throughout
the spectrum, as well as of its extent, he says that in chemistry it is
known that water is the chemical medium in all processes of oxidation
and deoxidation by the wet method. By it alone can the oxidizable be
oxidized and the oxidized deoxidized, and in both cases decomposition
of the water takes place. In the first case the oxygen combines with
the oxidizable body and the hydrogen is set free or combines with any
oxygen present in a free or combined state to form water anew. In
the second case the hydrogen of the water combines with the oxygen
of the oxidizable body to form water, while the oxygen formerly com-
bined with the hydrogen of the water goes to the oxidizable body
present, the deoxidation of which it usually only indirectly brings
about. The active agent in the first is therefore oxygen, and in the
second is something. which possesses the same strong affinity for
oxygen as hydrogen, or is hydrogen itself. He gives as a parallel
the decomposition of water by electricity or magnetism. In a later
paper he completes the parallel by showing that if the two poles of a
voltaic pile are placed in half-blackened silver oxide or chloride the
negative pole increases the darkening, while the positive entirely pre-
vents it. Perfectly dry horn silver appears to remain perfectly
unchanged in sunlight in consequence of the want of water to be
decomposed and supply the hydrogen necessary for the reduction. In
this theory of the action of water he quite supports the theory put
forward by Mrs. Fulhame. The fact that perfectly dry silver chloride
exposed in a vacuum remains white has been proved by Sir William
Abney.
Although it appears from a later paper that Ritter saw how impor-
tant his results would be in connection with the action of light on
organic bodies, it is curious that he made no similar experiments with
356 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
resinous and other organic substances shown by Senebier to be senst-
tive to light. He makes no mention of Senebier; but, had he known
of his work, he would probably have done so, as he recognized that all
bodies were more or less sensitive to light.
Ritter must have been one of the first to recognize the electrical
nature of sunlight and the unity of principle in the polarity of ehem-
istry, electricity, magnetism, and heat. I can not now dwell upon this
aspect of his work, but in the light of modern physico-chemical science
it seems worthy of attention.
DOCTOR WOLLASTON.
The existence of the ultra violet rays was also noticed by Dr. J. H.
Wollaston in 1801, about the same time as they were observed by
Ritter. In a note to a communication to the Royal Society (Phil.
Trans., 1802, p. 379), he says:
Although what I have above described comprises the whole of the prismatic spec-
trum that can be rendered visible, there also pass on each side of it other rays
whereof the eye is not sensible. From Doctor Herschel’s experiments (Phil. Trans.,
1800) we learn that on one side there are invisible rays occasioning heat that are less
refrangible than red light, and on the other I have myself observed (and the same
remark has been made by Mr. Ritter) that there are likewise invisible rays of another
kind that are more refracted than the violet. It is by their chemical effects alone
that the existence of these can be discovered, and by far the most delicate test of
their presence is the white muriate of silver.
To Scheele, among many valuable discoveries, we are indebted for haying first
duly distinguished between radiant heat and light (Traité de l’ Air et du Feu, sees.
56, 57), and to him also we owe the observation that when muriate of silver is exposed
to the common prismatic spectrum it is blackened more in the violet than in any
other kind of light (see. 66). In repeating this experiment I found that the black-
ness extended not only through the space occupied by the violet, but to an equal
degree and to about an equal distance beyond the visible spectrum, and that by
narrowing the pencil of light received on the prism the discoloration may be made
to fall almost entirely beyond the violet.
In a subsequent communication to Nicholson’s Journal (Vol. VII,
1804, p. 298), he explains that in the above note he was careful to
express the power exerted by the most refrangible rays on muriate of
silver in general terms as chemical, not merely from a doubt whether
they would in other cases produce a corresponding effect, but because
he had at that time made experiments which proyed that the same rays
which cause the emission of oxygen by muriate of silver occasion its
absorption by the resin usually called gum guaiacum, which turns
green by absorption of oxygen when exposed in the air to sunshine,
and consequently he objected to Ritter’s designation of the ultra violet
rays as disoxidizing.
He adopted an ingenious method of obtaining prismatic images for
the purpose of his experiments, and in this way must have been one of
the first to produce a photograpbic image on silver chloride by means
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Bf
of a lens. Over a lens seven inches in Ciameter and about twenty-
four and one-fourth inches focus he pasted a circular piece of paper
having its radius one-tenth of an inch less than that of the lens,
thus leaving a prismatic annulus corresponding in the length of its
circumference to a prism twenty-two inches long, so arranged by
its circular form that any one of the colors might at pleasure
be brought to a focus, or the spectrum could be received on a ring
of any diameter required by mere variation of the distance of the
lens. At short distances the exterior margin of the spectrum was
red and the violet within; at greater distances than the focus the order
of the colors was reversed, the violet being on the margin and the red
within. With this apparatus he found that the effect on muriate of
silver was much accelerated. At cistances short of twenty-two and
one-fourth inches a ring was produced, at twenty-two and one-half a
circular dark-colored spot, and at about twenty-three inches appeared
to be the focus of these rays, as the spot was then smallest; at twenty-
three and one-half it was larger, at twenty-four and one-fourth it again
became a ring shaded to the center, and at twenty-four and one-half
(unless the paper had been wetted) the center remained completely
white, though strongly illuminated. He was, however, unable to
restore the white color to the muriate after it had once been tinged,
however slightly, by exposure to the most refrangible rays. Similar
experiments were tried with the gum guaiacum on paper tinged with
an alcoholic solution of the gum.
THOMAS WEDGWOOD.
We now come to Thomas Wedgwood’s experiments. Though they
may have been carried out some years before they were published, I
have thought it better to discuss them in order of the date of their
publication by Davy in 1802. Miss Meteyard mentions (Life of
Wedewood, 2, 586) with regard to Thomas Wedgwood’s early work:
‘*His father early in 1774 had used the camera obscura for taking
views for the Russian service, and Doctor (Matthew) Turner, of
Liverpool, as it was well known, had either invented or brought to
tolerable perfection the art of copying prints upon glass by striking
off impressions with a colored solution of silver and fixing them on
the glass by baking on an iron plate in a heat sufficient to incorporate
the solution with the glass. With knowledge thus obtained and
observation directed, it amounts to absolute certainty that Thomas
Wedgwood, during some of his experiments on the production of light
from different bodies by heat and attrition, made certain discoveries
which led practically to the first principles of photography.” She
goes on to discuss his subsequent experiments with Davy and the
difficulty of fixing the images, and falls into the mistake about the two
358 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
early photographs, supposed to be by T. Wedgwood, which were
brought before this society in 1863, and are now in the society’s col-
lection. Where she got the information about Dr. Matthew Turner’s
burnt-in silver prints she does not say, and I have not been able to
find any other reference to them.
We find, however, that the intimacy between Doctor Turner and
the Wedewoods began in 1762, and afterwards that he compounded
varnishes, fumigations, bronze powders, and other chemical appliances
for Josiah Wedgwood. In a letter from Wedgwood to Bentley, about
1767, he says: ‘*One of the fumigations is a most excellent enamel
color—so fine a yellow that I have some hopes of the great work
being perfected, and that we shall be able to turn even the dirt under
our feet into gold.” Now there is a great deal about glass staining
with silver and other yellow enamels in Doctor Lewis’s Philosophical
Commerce of the Arts (1763) already noticed, and it is quite possible
that Doctor Turner may have used this source of information. There
is evidence to show that T. Wedgwood was engaged in experiments
on the reduction of silver for the ornamentation of pottery about
1790. Miss Meteyard says (op. cit., ii, 585): ** To solve some problems
connected with light he used silver differently prepared, and his obser-
vations thereon led to, the invention of what was termed ‘silvered
ware,’ namely, a pattern of dead or burnished silver upon a black
earthenware body. We first hear of this ware in 1791.” She gives
an engraving of a tea tray ornamented with patterns which could
easily have been obtained from stencils, and it may be noted that
whereas the previous experimenters in this direction had mostly been
chemists, young Wedgwood had very strong artistic instincts, and
being accustomed to prepare designs for pottery would more natu-
rally be led to the pictorial application of the old methods of obtain-
ing Images by the reduction of silver salts. There was no discovery
of any new principle in this reduction, but the application of it to
copying drawings on paper by contact or in the camera was a distinct
and marked advance toward practical photography of which the whole
credit is undoubtedly due to Wedgwood. We find confirmatory evi-
dence that silver pictures were being made about this time in a letter
from James Watt to Josiah Wedgwood, written apparently in 1790
or 1791, and beginning thus: ‘‘ Dear Sir: I thank you for your instrue-
tions as to the silver pictures, about which when at home I will make
some experiments.”
There is some doubt about the date of this letter, Mr. Litchfield put-
ting it as above (Tom Wedgwood, p. 186), while Miss Meteyard notes
it as docketed ‘* Hand Mill—1799” (Group of Englishmen, p.150) and
says it was written a few days after Watt visited Etruria, in 1799, on
business connected with a hand mill. From correspondence with
Leslie, moreover, it seems probable that the early experiments were
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 359
resumed about this date or in 1800. Writing to T. Wedgwood in
November, 1800, Leslie mentions an object glass for the solar micro-
scope and some painted glass which had been left for him at the
Wedgwood House, in York street, St. James square, and Wedgwood
came to town about the same time. Davy could not have taken part
in these experiments, because he was still at Bristol, but they were
old acquaintances, and Davy may have advised him. In Wedgwood’s
earlier experiments of 1790 he no doubt had the assistance of Chisholm,
who, as we have seen already, knew a good deal about the reduction
of silver and other metals by light. Davy mentions in the paper pub-
lished in the Journal of the Royal Institution for 1802 that to copy
the images formed by means of a camera obscura was Wedgwood’s
first object in his researches, and for this purpose he used the nitrate
of silver, which was mentioned to him bya friend as a substance very
sensible to the influence of light, but the images thus formed in the
‘amera were too faint to produce any effect on the nitrate of silver,
and all his numerous experiments to this primary end proved un-
successful.
From the scanty details of the experiments given by Davy in this
paper it is very difficult to ascertain clearly the relative share that
Wedgwood and Davy had in producing the results obtained. It is
evident from the above that the idea of reproducing the images formed
in the camera obscura was Wedgwood’s own, for he had been familiar
with the use of it from his youth, and his first experiments were no
doubt made with paper washed over with a solution of silver nitrate.
For certain subjects, copying paintings on glass, or making delinea-
tions of objects partly opaque and partly transparent in texture, such
as leaves, or wings of insects, etc., white leather was found preferable
to paper, because it was more sensitive, the tanned gelatine no doubt
acting as an accelerator. Davy, however, says that in following
these processes he found that the images of small objects produced
by the solar microscope might be copied without difficulty on paper,
but it was necessary that the paper should be but a small distance
from the lens. He notes also that the muriate of silver was more sen-
sitive than the nitrate and both were more readily acted on when
moist than when dry,a fact long known. The advantage of the nitrate
was its solubility, but leather or paper could be impregnated with ihe
muriate by diffusing it through water and applying it in this form
(as Ritter did) or by immersing paper moistened with the solution of
the nitrate in very dilute muriatie acid. .
In discussing the difficulty of preventing the uncolored parts of the
copies or profiles from being acted on by light, even after repeated
washings, on account of some of the saline matter still adhering to the
white parts of the paper or leather and causing them to darken on
exposure to the sun, he says, ‘‘It is probable that both in the case of
SM 1905 24.
360 THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY.
the nitrate and the muriate, a portion of the metallic oxide abandons
its acid to enter into union with the animal or vegetable substance, so
as to form with it an insoluble compound. — If so, it was not improbable
that substances might be found capable of destroying this compound
either by simple or compound affinities. He had imagined some
experiments on the subject and hoped to publish them later.” In con-
clusion he says: ‘‘ Nothing but a method of preventing the unshaded
parts of the delineation from being colored by exposure to the day is
wanting to render the process as usefulas it is elegant.” From this it
is very evident that he fully appreciated the value of the process if only
the difficulty of rendering the images permanent could be overcome.
It is easy to understand that the want of sensitiveness on the one
hand and on the other the difficulty of fixing the images were sufficient
to render Wedgwood’s original idea of reproducing objects in the
camera quite impracticable with papers prepared with the nitrate or
chloride of silver. Davy does not mention having tried any chemical
method of fixing beyond repeated washings. In the case of the nitrated
papers, washing with warm distilled water should have been sufficient
to render the pictures fairly permanent; but it would not answer with
the muriate, for which the only method available at the time would be
treatment with solution of salt or of ammonia, both of which are
unsatisfactory. Davy, being well acquainted with the previous work
of Scheele, as is shown by his note in the paper, would have known of
the solvent action of ammonia on the unexposed chloride, but, as
Berthollet showed, it also attacks the exposed and darkened parts.
Robert Hunt says it can be used effectively as a fixmg agent for silver
chloride cr nitrate prints, but requires very great care in its use to
avoid the solution of the reduced image. With chloride prints on
paper prepared as described above, without any free silver, by brush-
ing on the chloride (Talbot seems to have been the first to use the
method of preparing the muriated paper by double decomposition with
excess of silver) | found that the image was weak and only loosely
adherent to the paper.
After treatment with dilute solution of ammonia the coating dis-
solved off, leaving a faint gray image, formed, as Davy describes,
by the combination of some of the silver with the organic material of
the paper. A 10 per cent solution of common salt did not have the
same solyent and clearing action as the ammonia, and the paper dark-
ened again readily in the light. The solvent action of hyposulphite of
soda on salts of silver was not known till 1819, when Sir John Her-
schel first drew attention to it. Under these circumstances one can
not be surprised at Davy not following up the subject, he being fully
occupied with his Royal Institution lectures, besides investigations
and researches of greater importance at the time. He published the
results of Wedgwood’s invention with his own observations, as far as
THE BEGINNINGS OF PHOTOGRAPHY. 361
they went; and had he not done so, it is doubtful whether tnere would
have been any record of them at all, and Wedgwood would have lost
all the credit that has always been considered justly due to him of
being the first to apply the well-known reduction of salts of silver by
light to the reproduction of pictures and natural objects either by con-
tact or in the camera. Like so many other discoverers, he was before
his time, and it must be agreed that there is an immense gap between
these imperfect and unsuccessful trials and the brilliant practical
results achieved some years later by Daguerre, Reade, and Talbot,
with the more sensitive iodide of silver, the use of which, it must be
recollected, was rendered possible by Davy’s investigation of Courtois’s
discovery of iodine, and Herschel’s, of an efficient and suitable fixing
salt. To this ultimate success Wedgwood’s early trials with the camera
no doubt contributed as embodying the first idea of practical photog-
‘aphy of natural objects and demonstrating its possibility.
At this point I must conclude my sketch. Although during the
intermediate period, between Wedgwood, in 1802, and Daguerre and
Talbot, in 1839, no marked progress was made in practical photogra-
phy, immense strides were made in the chemistry and optics connected
with it, so that it was gradually being made possible and practicable.
A record of these advances would appropriately form another chapter
in this history.
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THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.+¢
By Prof. Caarvres Larworta, LL. D., F. R. S.
We stand to-day, gentlemen, at the beginning of a new century.
The science of geology, whose devotees we are, is one of the youngest
of the great family of the sciences. The years since first it became
conscious of its being are but few in number, and its struggle for
existence has from the first been incessant. Yet I doubt not that
there are many observers familiar with its history who would assert
that ‘‘ young as it is in years, it is already old in achievements, and
that the roll of its discoveries and the number and extent of its con-
quests stand almost unrivaled for their far-reaching influence upon
the pbilosophy and the practice of mankind.”
But it is neither necessary nor dignified on our part here to-day to
advance or even suggest this claim. For it is not our self-esteem
which prompts our work, or the applause of the world that cheers us
in its pursuit. Rather is it the delight in the work itself which
animates our labors; and it is in the sympathy and the appreciation
of our fellow-workers that we rejoice when our ain is achieved. To
geology and geologists do we stand or fall.
That being so, I have asked myself, as your elected representative,
whether it would not be good for us, as a united family of geologists
met here together at the close of one era and the opening of the next,
to take stock, as it were, of the work which geology has already
accomplished, and note how we are prepared to face the tasks which
the new era will demand of our science and of ourselves.
But self-centered though we may be as individual geologists, and
self-centered though we may consider our science, we share the com-
mon lot of all men, and our science shares the common lot of all the
sciences. As individuals we receive from our fellow-men all that
makes for our social well-being, and our science owes its very exist-
ence, and most of the conditions that make for its progress, to the aid
and sympathy afforded by its fellow-sciences.
We have, therefore, no right to make this prospect or retrospect in
the family privacy of our own science without regard to the feelings
«Anniversary address by the president to the Geological Society of London, Feb-
ruary 20, 1905. Reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,
vol. 59, part 2, May 22, 1903, pp. Ixvi-xcix.
363
364 - THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
or the claims of others. (Geology has not only its privileges, but also
its duties, and the entire world of science and practice has the right
of demanding a justification of the faith that is in us. Nor do I think
that it asks two much if it insists upon a categorical answer to the
questions, What is this geology of which we are so proud and so confi-
dent? What has it done for the mental or material benefit of the
human race? and on what grounds does it justify its claim to respect
and support as one of the factors in the advance of humanity /
Far be it from me to presume to attempt to reply on your behalf to
questions of so serious an import. That task must be left in part to
the eloquent apologists of our science and in part to the results
achieved by the great workers in geology—results that carry the
answer with them. But on an occasion like the present I doubt
whether we can do anything better or more appropriate to the time
than have a quiet but open talk together over the position and rela-
tions of our science.
].—GEOLOGY AND ITS FELLOW-SCIENCES.
GEOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY.
In the words of one of the most devoted adherents of our science,
we might say, ‘* without impropriety, that all the physical sciences are
included under two great heads—astronomy and geology; the one
comprehending all those sciences which teach us the constitution, the
motions, the relative places, and the mutual action of the astra, or
heavenly bodies, while the other singles out for study the one astrum
on which we live, namely, the earth.”
This definition, if we may call it so, is one which is not only simple
and convenient, but it gives perhaps the broadest and clearest view of
the place and mission of geology, regarded from an outside standpoint.
And there is a naturalness in this association of geology and astron-
omy which can not be ignored.
Astronomy concerns itself with the whole of the visible universe,
of which our earth forms but a relatively insignificant part; while
geology deals with that earth regarded as an individual. Astronomy
is the oldest of the sciences, while geology is one of the newest. But
the two sciences have this in common—that to both are granted a mag-
nificence of outlook and an immensity of grasp denied to all the rest.
Yet, compared with other sciences, few perhaps have so small a
number of adherents and working members. It may be that this is
due to the opinion of the majority both of the past and the present
generation that these two sciences seem to demand for their success-
ful prosecution an abnegation of emotion and of all human sympathies;
their grandest results are not the conquests of the heart, but of the
head, wrought out in the cold, dry light of reason.
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 365
It is needless in these days to insist upon the fierce and pained
resistance which both have encountered at almost every fresh advance.
In spite of the fact that in the end every such advance has proved
itself to be a higher stage in the mental or material progress of man-
kind at large, there still exists, even at the present time, an instinctive
antagonism to astronomy and geology in the minds of many, especially
from the sides of literature and of philosophy.
The bewildering immensities of space and time with which these
two sciences deal, and their insistent claim to be the only authorities
that can bring home to the mind of man the awful ideas of infinity
and eternity, cause them to be shunned and dreaded by the man of
letters, and wring now and again a wail of impotence and sadness from
the poet:
What be these two shapes high over the sacred fountain,
Taller than all the muses, and higher than all the mountain?
On these two peaks they stand, ever spreading and heightening.
Look in their deep double shadow, the crowned ones all disappearing!
These are Astronomy and Geology—terrible Muses!
But, while astronomy and geology share almost equally in the vague
dread which they inspire in the minds of those who look only at nature
from the side of the emotional and the beautiful, they by no means
share equally in the admiration instinctively accorded by the average
thinking man to the sciences in general. Along the whole range of
the concrete sciences there is perhaps not one that has so effectually
compelled the respect of men as astronomy. There is not one in whose
progress they have taken so keen an interest, or whose conclusions
have been so unhesitatingly accepted. On the other hand, every new
discovery arrived at by geology appears to have come upon the minds
of men with something of the nature of a shock. The conclusions of
our science seem rarely or never to have been accepted with pleasure
because of their value or their grandeur, but rather to have been
adopted with reluctance and regret and because they were found to
be irresistible.
Yet, after all, this is hardly a matter for astonishment, for it has
its root in the origin and the growth of the two sciences themselves.
Astronomy had its birth in the childhood of mankind, in the silence and
calm of the night, and in the wonder of curiosity and awe. It carried
with it from the very first the mystic fascination of the distant and
unknown. It was associated in man’s mind with the peaceful hours
of rest and of contemplation. It held within it much of the enthusi-
asm and elevation of religion, for it lifted man’s eyes upward and
heavenward, away from the never-ending struggle in the world below.
Geology had none of these attractions.. The world over which early
man wandered was to him the theater of a never-ending conflict, in
366 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
which were arrayed against him impassable seas, unscalable moun-
tains, gloomy forests peopled by deadly beasts of prey, raging streams
and foaming torrents, each and all the haunts of spirits luring him to
doom.
What wonder, then, that astronomy was one of the first of the
sciences to come into being, and that the successive generations of
mankind have mingled with an awe of her greatness a tender and
respectful appreciation of her work and of her results 4
And it was but natural that geology should be nonexistent until
long after most of the other sciences had come into being and some
had grown almost to maturity. Even when she at last appeared and
thrust herself, as it were, into the established aristocracy of the
sciences, she brought with her the stigma of her lowly origin. And
to that she added much of the recklessness and assurance of youth
and a bewildering absence of respect for the settled conventionalities
of opinion and tradition. This is no excuse; but it is in itS way a
reason why she is still supposed to be somewhat of a parvenu among
the sciences, and is often only listened to with patience because of her
powers and her genius.
3ut there is also another reason for the reluctance with which the
conclusions of geology are received by men in general, when compared
with the reception accorded to those of astronomy, namely, the rela-
tive backwardness of the race in its appreciation of the concept of
the extension of time as compared with its advanced appreciation
of the concept of the extension of space. Note the willingness, and
even the welcome, with which any average audience of the present day
accepts the statements and sympathizes with the conclusions of an astro-
nomical lecturer who demands for his remoter starry distances, it may
be, myriads of millions of miles. Compare that reception with the
coldness, or at all events the smiling incredulity, of the same audience
when a geologist suggests for the development of all the geological
formations at the very most a hundred millions of years. But it is
not only the popular audience, but also the majority of the men of
education und experience, who still feel this curious hesitation and
difficulty. And nothing perhaps has so retarded the reception of the
higher conclusions of geology among men in general as this instine-
tive parsimony of the human mind in matters where time is concerned.
Yet, after all, perhaps this is easily accounted for. It has been well
said that ‘* the intellectual advancement of men is due to the relatively
small effects of individual experiences added to the large effects of the
experiences of the antecedent individuals.” The concept of the vast-
ness of space has been familiar to mankind for untold ages, and has
grown and expanded with the growth of the race. The concept of the
immensity of time has entered so little into the intellectual develop-
ment of mankind has a whole, and in its grander aspects so recently,
that the race is as yet incapable of adequately grasping it.
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 867
The wanderings ef early man from place to place and land to land
soon familiarized him with the idea of the extension of space. He had
learned by bitter experience, times out of number, that the distant
horizon which to the eye bounded the vast canopy of the sky above
him was no boundary at all, but shaded away in all directions into a
limitless world beyond, whose practical infinity had been proved to
him by his own wanderings, and by those of his forefathers generation
after generation. Thus the idea of the vastness of space had already
become a part of man’s intellectual equipment long before the origin
of astronomy itself. And this idea has been deepened, broadened,
and strengthened during the successive centuries of progress by the
employment of constantly improving instruments of accurate meas-
urement, by the invention of the telescope, the discoveries of geogra-
phy, and by the application of the higher mathematics to astronomy
as a whole.
But early man (and, indeed, his successors even down to and beyond
the Middle Ages) was miserably provided with the experiences which
might bring home to his mind the immensity of time. Early man
himself had for his longest trustworthy chronological base line a short
seventy years—the span of his own existence—or at most, perhaps, a
hundred years, if he included the experience of his parents. Even in
classical times all the past was to his experience vague and indefinite.
He had, it is true, mythical traditions of heroic ages, golden ages, and
the like, but these when summed up were merely the legendary total
of the experiences of but a few generations. Bound down as was
man’s mind by his anthropomorphic ideas, he naturally assigned to
the earth and mankind a correspondingly brief existence; a few gen-
erations—a few centuries at the most—must have witnessed its birth;
a few generations more must inevitably bring about its death and disap-
pearance. Even since the invention of letters and the compilation of
accurate historical records the period of time of which man possesses
experience, either personally or collectively, is at most a very few
thousands of years. It is hopeless to expect, therefore, that for a long
period to come the geological concept of the immensity of past time
will permeate the minds of the many, or that they will accept the con-
clusions of geology, where time is concerned, with the same confidence
as that with which they have long since accepted the conclusions of
astronomy.
But this intellectual backwardness of the race in the matter of the
appreciation of the vastness of geological time is not only a stumbing
block in the way of the acceptance of the results of geology among
the public at large, but also to the workers in other sciences, and even
to the students of geology itself. It is well within the memory of
many of us how even those holding the most advanced views in other
sciences were intensely reluctant to acknowledge the possibility of the
oe
2
368 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
existence of man upon the earth for more than a few thousands of years.
And among the geologists of the preceding generation the demand of
the so-called ‘*uniformitarians” for those vast eons which must be
granted if the geological formations were accumulated and deposited
at the same rate as corresponding accumulations are brought together
at the present day, was only reluctantly conceded by the majority after
years of conflict and denial. Even at the present time it is the habit
not only of eminent physicists, mathematicians, and chemists, but also
of some of our geological authorities, to scout all reasonings that sug-
gest a geological antiquity for our globe of more than a few millions of
years.
Far be it from me to suggest that geologists should be reckless in
their drafts upon the bank of time; but nothing whatever is gained,
and very much is lost, by persistent niggardliness in this direction.
The astronomer, although persuaded of the possible infinity of the
universe, is just as careful in estimating the length of his grander
base lines of millions of miles as is the geographical surveyor who
takes years, it may be, to measure accurately the length of a base line
a few miles in extent before he commences the triangulation of a single
country. But the consciousness of the astronomer of the practical
infinity of his realms gives him a freedom of action in dealing with
space which is delightful. In the same way the geologist, who is blest
with an assured conviction of the immensity of geological time, moves
with an ease and freedom from cause to effect wholly denied to those
wanting in this conviction. No doctrine in geology has resulted in
such brilliance of discovery as the doctrine cf uniformitarianism,
which sets no theoretical bounds either to the efficacy of present
causes or to the duration of past time. It is not, however, the eternity
of geological time that this doctrine demands, but the assumption of
the vast duration of the geological periods of which it has been made
up. And if to this assumption the geologist adds the conscientious
accuracy of the geodesist and astronomer, and not only takes for pos-
sible, but absolutely demonstrates by discovery after discovery the
true extent of the wons that have gone to the making of the geological
formations, he is certain to foster and eventually to establish in the
minds of men a full and adequate conception of the immensity of geo-
logical time.
GEOLOGY IN PARTICULAR.
I have said that the widest definition of geology is that it is that
science which, leaving to astronomy the study of the heavenly bodies
as a society, devotes itself to the study of the earth as an individual;
in other words, that it is a ‘‘geonomy” as contrasted with an
‘fastronomy.” But while this description is justifiable in principle, it
is open to the natural objection that it shares this earth-knowledge
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 369
with many other sciences, especially with the science of geography.
Perhaps the shortest definition that has been made of our science, and
one equally acceptable to its students and to those who view it from
the outside, is that geology is the ‘‘science of the structure of the
earth. It is in and around that earth structure that all geological
ideas center. In working out the solutions of the problems presented
by that structure, geology not only finds her own special and peculiar
mission, but extends a hand to all her sister sciences.
In studying the solid elements of that structure, geology shades
through the science of mineralogy into that of chemistry. In the
study of the changes which the parts of that structure have undergone
and are now undergoing it shades through the science of meteorology
into that of physics. In the study of the successive surfaces of that
structure it grades into the science of geography. In the study of the
stony relics of the vanished beings that once dwelt upon those surfaces
it joins hands with the sciences of zoology and botany. In studying
the phenomena presented by the sequence and interrelations of the
rock formations which go to the building up of that structure, it finds
the means of reading the past history of the earth and its living
inhabitants—a glory reserved for geology alone.
It was not until geologists discovered that the solid earth crust had
a structure which was made up of definite parts or ‘‘ formations” capa-
ble of individual recognition and description, each showing a special
distribution in space and in time, and each marked by characteristic
features capable of being compared, contrasted, and reasoned about,
that the science of geology attained individuality and became worthy of
its name. It was this discovery—inaugurated by Lehmann and Guet-
tard about the middle of the eighteenth century, made famous by
Werner and his contemporaries toward its close, and established be-
yond all dispute by William Smith at the dawn of the next—that gave
geology a claim to be regarded as one of the concrete sciences, and
placed in her hands the weapons with which she has fought her way
onward irresistibly to the conquest of her kingdom.
Since the days of William Smith, the careful investigation and
mapping out of these geological formations, igneous as well as aqueous,
has spread outward from the original centers of investigation with
extraordinary rapidity, until at the present day there is hardly :
civilized nation that does not possess a government geological survey.
The fascinating problems presented by these formations and the light
which their solution has thrown upon all that concerns the past
development of the earth and of its living inhabitants, have not only
attracted hosts of enthusiastic students to the science itself, but have
given it a far-reaching interest to countless workers in other branches
of knowledge and opinion. As aconsequence, there is hardly a single
important intellectual center in the Old World or the New which has
8370 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
not its own geological society, emulative of our own, whose members
are either engaged in aiding the advance of that science or profiting
by the benefits of that advance. One and all—national surveyors,
members of geological societies, sympathizers in other sciences, col-
lective bodies or isolated individuals—are united in a catholic free-
masonary by their common study of, and interest in, the rocky
structure of the earth.
I will not attempt the impossible by endeavoring to follow in
detail the various stages in the development of geological science, or
by trying to distinguish between what is due to the researches of its
own students, and what is due to the aids afforded them by the fellow-
sciences. But none among us would venture to deny the assertion
that no branch of scientific inquiry has profited more than geology
from what has been termed the ‘‘consensus of the sciences.” No
science has received more ungrudging assistance from other sciences,
or has repaid more fully that assistance in kind. Almost every problem
attacked by geology has needed the aid of some other branch of
knowledge for its solution; almost every advance made by geology
has furthered the progress of one or more of its fellow-sciences.
GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
The discovery of the geological formations themselves may be said
to have been essentially the outcome of the early association of
geology and mineralogy. The brilliant ideas of Werner, embodied in
his so-called *t geognosy,” in which these formations were first identi-
fied by their mineral characters, and then followed over their vast
geographical extension until they were shown to stand related to the
whole of terrestrial nature and of life, had unquestionably their root
in mineralogy; and the geological student of the igneous formations
is incapable of his task unless he is well acquainted with the latest
methods and results of mineralogical science. But the idea of the
inevitable association of mineralogy and geology must not be pressed
too far, nor should it be allowed to give to the whole of geology that
dominant mineralogical color in which it is often erroneously supposed
to be steeped. It is impossible to overestimate the advantages which
have accrued to the science of geology by its association with miner-
alogy. But that association is an alliance and not a conquest. Geol-
ogy is not a province of mineralogy, but an empire in its own right,
and between it and that of chemistry, mineralogy is, as it were, a kind
of buffer kingdom having alliances with both.
But if geology owes much to its alliance with mineralogy, mineral-
ogy has benefited by that alliance to quite as great an extent. Not
only have all the minerals their home and habitat in the rock forma-
tions, but the mineralogist owes to the geologist all that he knows of
their association and distribution. In no branch of our science has
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. aC
mineralogy aided us more than in that of petrology, which has made
such marvelous strides during the past generation; but that debt of
obligation has been well repaid. To the petrologist is owing the dis-
covery of the special association of the minerals in the igneous rocks,
their relative order of generation, and their mutual interferences;
and following upon this he has made known hosts of unexpected data
rich in fascinating problems, opening out a new world of speculation
and research both for the mineralogist and for the chemist.
GEOLOGY AND BIOLOGY.
But if geology owes the first suggestion of the geological forma-
tions and their individualization to mineralogy, she has received bene-
fits of as long standing and of as great a moment from biology and
biologists. The solid foundations of the paleontological side of
geology were laid by the continental biologists, ranging from Steno to
Cuvier, simultaneously with the discovery and the working out of the
order of the geological formations. Nothing in the history of the
growth of geology so astonished mankind or so effectually aided in
lifting and dispersing the dark cloud of obloquy and neglect which
hid from the world the magnitude of the results attained by the early
geologists as the demonstration by the biologist that the extinct
organic remains collected from the geological formations were iden-
tical in structure with creatures living upon the earth at the present
day and that all these fossil forms fell naturally into a place in the
accepted biological classifications. At every successive stage in the
progress of stratigraphy since that time the geologist has been simi-
larly indebted to the biologist for the interpretation and classification
of his fossils; and when we have respect to the rarity and to the frag-
mentary condition of many of these forms, we can not sufficiently
express our gratitude to biology for the aid which she has afforded us.
But there is no need to claim that geology has repaid the debt. It
will be enough if I quote here two short receipts handed in on our
behalf, one by the most distinguished biologist of the latter half of
the century just closed, and another by the present occupant of his
chair. In the words of Huxley, ‘** The doctrine of evolution in biology
is a necessary result of the logical application of the principles of the
geological doctrine of uniformitarianism to the phenomena of life;
Darwin is the natural successor of Hutton and Lyell, and the ‘Origin
of Species’ the logical sequence of the ‘Principles of Geology.’”
These words were written by him about twenty years since, and his
successor, in reviewing from a morphological standpoint a few months
ago the work of zoologists accomplished during these twenty years,
speaks as follows:
The progress through which we have passed has produced revolutionary results;
our knowledge of facts has become materially enhanced, and our classifications have
ate THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
been to a large extent replaced in clearer and more comprehensive schemes; and we
are enabled to-day to deduce with an accuracy proportionate to our increased knowl-
edge of fact the nature of the interrelationships of the living beings, which with
ourselves inhabit the earth. * * * Satisfactory as is the result, it must be clearly
borne in mind that its realization, could not have come about but for a knowledge of
the animals of the past. i
It is at the present day the habit of some to hint that paleontology,
as geologists understand it, is a mere branch of biology, Just as it
was the fashion half a century ago to look upon it as a branch of
geology. But the proper view, I take it, is to regard it as the common
possession of both these sciences. Here, as in so many contests of
opinion, the truth lies in the middle. It is undeniable that all the
organic remains discovered by the geologist were in their day mem-
bers of the great biological chain of life, and have, therefore, their indi-
vidual places and relationships in the scheme of biological classification;
and that as a consequence the study of their structure and their rela-
tionships falls within the province of biology. But it is equally unde-
niable that each of these creatures had an existence during a definite
range of geological time, and that its fossilized remains occur at a
certain horizon in the ascending series of the geological formations.
They have thus a geological arrangement and grouping as inevitable
and necessary as the biological one. While we grant that the biolo-
gist has not only a right but almost an obligation to place in its sys-
tematic biological position in his museum an example of every species
hitherto discovered by the geologist, it is equally important for the
advancement of science in general that the geologist shall have in his
museum a stratigraphical grouping and chronological arrangement of
fossil species always available for his geological work. There is a
phylogenetic grouping by affinity for which the biologist is constantly
striving, and to which he is daily more and more approximating; but
there is also a chronological grouping by geological position, which
for every individual specimen in the paleontological department of a
geological museum was practically fixed the day when that specimen
was collected from a known stratigraphical horizon. We may rest
assured that year by year the stratigraphical classification In our
geological museum will become more detailed and more refined.
This chronological grouping constitutes a tool with which geology can
not possibly dispense. Again and again in the years gone by the
apparent sequence and the known paleontology have been in conflict
as to the true stratigraphical position of local formations, and in every
known case hitherto the paleontological side has scored the victory.
But, indeed, if we geclogists were ever to become so benighted as to
neglect this detailed sequential classification of the fossils in our
museums, the biologists themselves would soon force it upon us for
the sake of their own science. Fossils as thus arranged are and can
be the only tangible proofs of the chronological order in which the
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 373
various types and forms of life made their successive appearance on
the earth; and they are in consequence the clearest and most widely
accepted evidences of the doctrine of biological evolution. And,
further, the more minutely they are arranged in stratigraphical detail
and the greater the number of species, varieties, or mutations which,
are arranged under each horizon, the sooner will biologists have at
their command the necessary materials enabling them to solve those
great outstanding problems that bear upon the laws which have ruled
in the origin, variation, and distribution of species.
GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY.
Turning next to the relations between geography and geology, we
may say, perhaps, that there are no two sciences more intimately con-
nected or more mutually beneficial. I have already referred to the
natural claim of some geologists that, logically, geology includes all
that is contained in the study of the earth. But it might better, per-
haps, be said that geology and geography share much of this collective
study between them. Geology deals with the past of the globe and
geography with its present—the former having, so to speak, the
charge of its history, and the latter of its politics. The surface of the
globe is their common limit, and ina way their common property. All
that comes above that surface lies within the province of geography;
all that comes below that surface lies inside the realm of geology. The
surface of the earth is that which, so to speak, divides them and at
the same time ** binds them together in indissoluble union.” We may,
perhaps, put the case metaphorically. The relationships of the two
are rather like that of man and wife. Geography, like a prudent
woman, has followed the sage advice of Shakespeare and taken unto
her ‘an elder than herself;” but she does not trespass on the domain
of her consort, nor could she possibly maintain the respect of her chil-
dren were she to flaunt before the world the assertion that she is ‘ta
woman with a past.”
It is almost superfluous even to hint at the aid afforded by physical
geography to physical geology, or to attempt to show how mutually
dependent the two have always been one upon the other. At first geol-
ogy was looked upon merely as a branch of physical geography. De
Saussure, who first gave the name of geology to our science, was him-
self in the front rank of the physical geographers of his day. The
study of the whole array of terrestrial phenomena described by the
physical geographer is, if anything, even more necessary to the edu-
cational outfit of the young geologist than the study of mineralogy
and chemistry. Without the aid afforded by the study of the present
phenomena, which properly fall within the ken of the physical geog-
rapher, ‘‘the conquests of Hutton and Lyell would never have been
achieved, and the true philosophy of geology would have been
impossible.”
Sie. THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
Again, every advance made by the geographical surveyor in the
accuracy and details of his maps has resulted in a corresponding
improvement in geological mapping and surveying. Every advance
made by the descriptive geographer in the discovery, delineation, and
description of the geographical relief of continental lands or of the
depths and deposits of the sea has increased geological knowledge,
and has stimulated geological inquiry and discovery in an almost cor-
responding ratio.
But in this case of geography and geology, as in others, the benefits
have certainly been mutual. Broadly speaking, almost the whole of
that vast mass of information which geographers now possess respect-
ing the work of those agencies which rule upon the dynamical side of
physical geography has been wrought out and accumulated by geolo-
gists engaged in searching for the causes of geological action in the
Cam)
past. The grand processes of denudation, erosion, and deposition;
the multifarious action of rain, rivers, and ice; the phenomena of
earthquakes and volcanoes, and the rock-making activities of animals
and plants were most of them first laboriously investigated by geolo-
gists, who welded them into tools for work in their own science and
then handed them over bodily for permanent lodgement in the well-
tilled storehouse of the physical geographer.
As regards the surface of the earth itself, so numberless of late
years have grown the visible and certain points of contact between
the phenomena previously regarded as proper to the one or the other
of the two sciences of geology and physical geography, and so evident
to all has become the sequence of geological causes and geographical
effects, that many geographers have of late years almost lost con-
sciousness eyen of the existence of a possible downward limit to their
science. Reveling in the wealth of geological facts and ideas already
accumulated and lying ready to their hand, scientific writers have
combined with their geographical description of the ‘* forms” of the
surface of the earth the geological explanation of their origins in that
most interesting branch of knowledge which is sometimes named
‘“eveomorphology.” This is undoubtedly a section of geonomic
science which is of great value, and is destined to grow in importance
as time goes on. But its study presupposes a preliminary education
in which geology and geological causes take perhaps the largest share;
and those who would class it merely as a subscience of geography
are as wrong as those who class it merely as a subscience of geology.
It is the healthy and vigorous child of both.
GEOLOGY AND PHYSICS.
Here we enter upon more difficult and dubious ground, namely, the
relations of geology to the science of physics, especially in the matter
of the so-called ‘*hypogene” agencies. The mechanical modes and
means of formation of our mineralogical rock sheets have long since
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 375
been recognized and agreed upon, but the mechanical modes and means
of their deformation have, many of them, yet to be identified and
established. in the matters of cleavage, jointing, and foliation we
have advanced, and in the modes and effects of faulting we have
already made some headway. But in the grander problems of orogeny,
crust warping, and secular elevation and depression we are still very
much in the dark. In spite of all the brilliant work which has been
done of recent years, we are forced to acknowledge that we are still
busied in collecting data upon which to found a philosophic system of
crust deformation. Nothing yet formulated in this direction is of
sufficient definiteness and breadth of grasp to afford matter from
which anything more than suggestive deductions may be drawn by
the higher physics and mathematics.
But although our materials are as yet too heterogeneous and too
complicated to admit satisfactorily of such outside analysis, yet among
geologists themselves there is being developed a tendency to assort
and interpret them from two extreme points of view, which may per-
haps be distinguished as the astronomical and the geonomical.
The working theory employed by the many at the one extreme is
the collapse theory, which is founded essentially upon the (contraction)
hypothesis of the gradual loss of heat of the earth’s interior. This
theory starts from the original covering of our globe, and regards the
present state of that covering as that of a solid and more or less cooled
crust, which warps, folds, and fractures as it follows down upon the
slowly contracting, but still intensely heated (and probably solid),
nucleus. This crust shows in its structure and in the major forms of
the outer surface the combined effects of the radial and tangential
deformations due to the contraction and collapse, these deformations
being grouped about the remains of the chief irregularities proper to
the crust at the time of its original consolidation.
The working theory employed by the few at the other extreme is
the fold theory, founded essentially on the (undulation) hypothesis that
the deformation may be largely due to tidal movements and to the con-
stant redistribution of load and resistances. It starts from the known
modes of deformation of the rock sheets which make up the present
supercrust and of those of its superposed coverings of water and of air.
It regards the earth crust as a spherical shell or bridge surrounding
and balanced upon a fluid nucleus (probably gas-like), the shell being
in astace of general vibration and its parts in a state of regional and
local strain. This shell yields harmonically as a whole, and its various
parts yield in groups or individually to the several stresses, but always
in theoretic units (duads), each made up of two moieties which are the
positive and negative equivalents of each other.
According to both theories, the type of deformation may be that of
undulation, warping, folding, gliding, fracture, or flow, according as
SM L903
25
376 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
the magnitude of the stress, the speed of the action, or the relative
elasticity of the material may determine. Its development may range
in time from that of an instant to that of an won, and its extent from
microscopic to hemispheric.
According to the first theory, however, the deformation is not
theoretically symmetrical, but is consequent upon and has ever been
controlled by the salient features of the original earth crust. Accord-
ing to the second, the deformation is theoretically symmetrical, and is
due to the continual breaking down and readjustment of equilibrium;
it isat every stage controlled by the length and direction of the instan-
aneous polar and equatorial diameters of the earth, and by the sum-
mational and individual deformations already effected.
The tendencies of the first theory are to compare all the phenomena
of yvieldage with those characteristic of solid bodies and to dwell
especially upon the proofs of fracture (with the fault as the central
type); to parallel such signs of symmetry as are apparent with that of
crystals, and the loxodromic trend lines of the earth’s surface with
those of crystalline cleavage. The tendencies of the second theory are
to compare the yieldage phenomena with those of flexible bodies (with
the fold as the central type), grading on the one hand into those of
rigid and on the other into those of liquid bodies, and including all
types; to parallel the symmetries with those of wave forms, and to
refer the trends to composition, interference, or superposition, as the
case may be.
In the first theory there is inherent the expectation of continuous
accretion and discontinuous collapse; in the second the expectation
of rhythmic recurrence of form in space and of movement in time.
According to the first theory the locus of the pole of the land hemi-
sphere on or about the forty-fifth parallel is an accident of evolution
and a survival; according to the second it is a theoretic necessity and a
resultant.
How much of each of these views is a mere mental expedient, and
how much is an expression of fact, must be left for future research to
determine. The discovery of the true path lying between the two
extremes will form one of the tasks which await the geologists of the
coming era.
Il.—GEOoLOGY AND PRACTICE.
GEOLOGY AND THE USEFUL ARTS.
Up to this point I have dealt mainly with the so-called ‘‘ scientific”
aspect of geology, regarding it from the inside point of view as an
interpreter of nature and a member of the great family of the
sciences. But, as I have already hinted, we are bound also to consider
it from the outside or ** practical” point of view as being one of the
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. Ser
servants of mankind and an associate of the useful arts. Indeed it is
wholly impossible to avoid dealing with it from this outside aspect.
In the words of Herbert Spencer:
Not only are the sciences involved with each other, but they are all inextricably
interwoven with the complex web of the arts, and are only conventionally inde-
pendent of it. Originally the two were one, and there has been a perpetual inoscula-
tion of the two eversince. Science has been supplying art with higher generalizations
and more completely qualitative previsions; art has been supplying science with bet-
ter materials and more perfect instruments. * * * And all along this interde-
pendence has been growing closer, not only between tbe arts and sciences, but among
the arts themselves and among the sciences themselves.
I have already noted how greatly geology is indebted to her sister
sciences, and how in every case the aid which she has been: given has
been fully reciprocated and the mutual sympathy broadened and
enlarged. Surely there is no need for me to recall how deep and how
fundamental are the obligations which geology owes to the arts in
general, and to those of mining,
engineering, and topographic sur-
veying in particular. But it may not be without advantage if we
geologists remind ourselves of that which in the absorption of our
researches we are sadly prone to forget, namely, the existence of those
many links that bind our science to the world of practice, and the
vital need there is of strengthening those links by every means in our
power. |
It is true that the first duty of every science is to move incessantly
forward from discovery to discovery along the straight path of un-
remitting investigation and research, following truth withersoever it
may lead, wholly unbiased by the question as to whether that dis-
covery bears any relation whatever to the material wants of mankind.
But it is equally true that once a fresh fact has been discovered, or
once a new and satisfactory conclusion has been reached, if that fact
or that conclusion be of evident benefit to mankind at large, every
lover of his science should welcome its utility and do his best to en-
courage its use.
Here, however, we can not ignore the fact that it is impossible that
full use can be made of the results of any science until those to whom
such results would be of practical value are educated at least in the
principles of that science. And such education has a double value; it
is not only of especial advantage to those who intend to make use of
the results of the science, but it redounds to the benefit of the science
itself, for it trains upa host of sympathetic students all concerned in
its advancement.
We can not fail to recognize that those sciences—such as chemistry,
physics, biology, and the like—which are generally acknowledged
to be most intimately bound up with practice, and an education in
which is held to be absolutely necessary for success in one or more of
318 THE RELATIONS OF GHOLOGY.
the arts or professions, are the sciences which have the greatest num-
ber of students and are making the swiftest progress. It is the height
of absurdity to imagine that geology can, any more than any other
science, possibly restrict its activity to research alone. Rather may
we say that the corporate geological organism has three necessary
functions—research, practice, and education. So long as all three
functions are naturally and healthfully performed, so long will geology
live and flourish. Whenever either function remains long unexercised,
or falls into disuse, there follows, of necessity, a weakness throughout
the entire organism, which must in the end become lethargic and erip-
pled, and fall behind in the race.
When, on the other hand, all three functions are most vigorously
exercised, the progress of the science must be at its swiftest and its
surest. And this fact has been well illustrated in the history of our
science; for whenever these three functions of geology have been most
clearly appreciated and simultaneously energized by its leaders, geol-
ogy has shown forth with an especial and peculiar luster, and has won
the attention and regard of the world.
Those who came from all parts of Europe to attend the lectures of
Werner were drawn to him by his conviction that geology was one
of the most useful of trainings, not only for the men of the mining and
metallurgical world, but also for those who were interested in all that
concerns man’s relation to the earth in general. They listened with
delight and with profit to the brillant exposition of his far-reaching
ideas, not only because they felt the fascination of these ideas, but also
because they were impressed by his assurance of their material and
intellectual utility. The geological education which they received
from him they communicated in their turn to their own pupils, and
rapidly spread the benefits and influence of geology far and wide over
the economic and intellectual world of their time.
But we have even a more striking instance nearer home. I do not
think that it is too much to assert that no single geologist whose name
adorns*the long roll of the past members of this society secured at
one and the same time so far-reaching an influence upon the spread of
geological knowledge at large, so sincere a respect for our science
from the governments of civilized countries, and so kindly a regard
and affection for it from the mass of mankind, as Sir Henry De la
Beche. And I take it that all this was due to the fact that he, more
than any other British geologist before him or after him, had a clear
and well-balanced conception of the three functions of geclogy. He
was at once a scientist, a practical man, and an educationalist.
No one familiar with his Geology of Devon and Cornwall or with
his Geological Observer but will grant that he was, both from the
side of research and of theory, a scientist to the backbone. But he was
more than a scientist. He was a man whose: life work had convinced
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 379
him that the useful side of geology is as important as the intellectual
and, indeed, of the necessity there is for the constant union of science
and practice, or, as he puts it himself, **Science and practice are not
antagonistic; they are mutual aids.” And mainly, perhaps because
of this conviction, he was also a keen educationalist; for, as he himself
expresses it, as “‘some reason, right or wrong, is sure to be assigned
to every practice, it is most important for those connected with that
practice that they should possess the existing knowledge upon which
it rests.”
De la Beche devoted some of the best years of his life to the task of
convincing the Government and the people of this country of the
importance of the knowledge of the science and practice of geology
and its related sciences to the material and intellectual advancement of
the nation. He brought round the Government of the day to his
views, and the best minds of his time, from the Prince Consort down-
ward, became his enthusiastic supporters. He created the British
National Geological Survey, which has proved itself as beneficial to
the advance of pure geology as it has to the development of the min-
eral resources of the Kingdom, while it has been the prolific parent of
similar national geological surveys in almost all countries of the civi-
lized world. Ele founded the Museum of Practical Geology as a national
home for the collections made by geological research and for the illus-
trations of geology in all its practical applications, consecrating the
building, even in its title, to that idea of the combination of knowledge
and utility which justified the nation in its foundation and its main-
tenance. And more, he made that museum, through his genius and
his knowledge of men, a living and growing center of instruction in
geological science and its useful applications, selecting as the teachers
of that special education some of the highest intellects of his day.
What other scientific leader of the nineteenth century can show so
famous a roll of Leutenants? It is almost invidious to select names
from the list. But so long as natural science, pure or applied, shall
command the respect of men the names of Thomas Huxley, Lyon
Playfair, Edward Frankland, John Perey, Edward Forbes, and
Andrew Ramsay will be held in honored memory as those of men
whose life work in science, or in practice, or in education, or in all
three combined, place them in the front rank of the benefactors of
their day and their generation.
We might go on to point out how the suecess of De la Beche’s se Meme
caused it to outgrow rapidly the limits of its original home, for we are
most of us familiar with the fact that while the geological survey and
the national geological collections are still retained in the original
museum, the educational sections became developed into the Royal
School of Mines and eventually into the Royal College of Science,
which in its turn practically became the center of that widespread
380 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
’
scheme of national instruction known as the *‘ science and art depart-
ment.” But what especially concerns us here is that these results
demonstrate, on the one hand, the naturalness and fertility of
De la Beche’s conception of the necessary association of science, prac-
tice, and education and, on the other, the far-reaching influence that
geology and geologists have had on the extension and invigoration of
scientific practice and education in Britain.
GEOLOGY AND ECONOMICS.
It is almost an impertinence to point out to an assemblage of geolo-
gists like this the relationships of geology and its applications to the
material welfare of our fellow-countrymen; but those of us who are
absorbed in the charms of research are now and again tempted to look
askance at those who are engaged in advancing geology and the appli-
‘ations of geology from the side of economies. Yet for all that every
one of us is well aware that geology is bound up body and soul with
the development of the mineral wealth of our land—that mineral wealth
by means of which the enterprise of our people has placed our country
at the head of the manufacturing and commercial powers of the world.
Our science has not only the charge of the working out of all the
detailed phenomena, subterranean and superficial, of the great coal
fields and iron-ore fields which le at the foundation of our commercial
supremacy as a nation, but it works out the characters and fixes the
places of all the stony materials of which our cities and towns are
built, our humblest dwellings are constructed, and all our roads and
railways are made. It deals with the sources and the quantities and
characters of our water supplies, whether deep seated or superficial,
the nature and distribution of our soils, and indeed with everything
which we derive directly from the ground upon which we tread. Thus
a knowledge of the principles and applications of geology is indispen-
sable to the education of the miner, the mine owner, the prospector, the
land agent, the land owner, the agriculturist, the civil engineer, and
the military engineer.
GEOLOGY AND MAN.
It is as true now as it was in the days when Werner first drew his
far-reaching inferences before his charmed listeners that in the char-
acteristic phenomena and varying distribution of the grand mineral
masses of the rock formations almost all that concerns the relative
habitability of a land depends. Where the hard, intractable rock
formations rise boldly out we have our mountain regions—our uplands
and highlands——wild areas of pasture and scanty populations, it is true,
but the lands of refuge and of freedom in the past and of health and
holiday in the present. Where the soft, easily weathered rock forma-
tions spread out in gentle slopes or broad undulations we have the wide
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 881
plains of our great agricultural districts — the lands, it may be, of peace
and plenty, but where life is so easy-going and so monotonous that
there is little incentive or opportunity to vary the established order
of things, and the local country life remains much the same genera-
tion after generation. Between these two extremes lie the areas
floored by the gently inclined rocks of our great coal fields, the theaters
of an incessant and fierce industrial strugele—a struggle that has its
reflection and its effects in the restless energy and the determined
advance of their inhabitants.
What well-read geologist among us is not aware that every variation
in the contour of our country, as it rises from the encircling seas that
have guarded our freedom, is dependent upon its geology? Where
the hard rock formations reach the seaboard, project the bold head-
land and its cliffs. Where the soft rocks come down to the shore line,
open out the broad bays. Where the highly resistant rocks are lifted
up in broad mass and face the wild ocean, we find a shore land of
rugged cliffs and wild inlets, inhabited only by a few hardy fishermen.
Where the easily yielding rocks have been depressed in mass by geo-
logical movements, we have the long withdrawing estuary, alive with
the ships of commerce moving to and fro from the busy and populous
seaport at its head.
Or, turning inland and looking over the general aspect of the country,
we recognize everywhere not only the paramount influence of the
geological formations and geological conditions on the scenery and the
relief of the land, but we trace everywhere the persistent effects of
these conditions upon the past and present of the people. All the
‘activities of struggling humanity, in the contest for the bare necessi-
ties of existence, for mutual protection, for trade and for progress
have been limited and controlled by the natural bounds marked out by
the unvarying geological factors. The original sites of almost every
city and town, village and hamlet, ancient castle and modern mansion
were all determined practically by geological considerations. The
sites of the old fortresses were fixed by the places of the more or less
inaccessible cliffs and scarps, the position of the villages and hamlets
by the abundance of the springs, and the settlement of the lands by
the comparative richness of the soils. All down the long stream of
history the successive waves of invasion, the ebb and flow of con-
quering armies, the tracks of inland trade and communication, from
the time of the Roman ways, through the roads of the middle ages
and later, down to the main threads of the network of railways of the
present day, have all more or less followed the same general courses,
courses determined by the geographical phenomena consequent upon the
geological structure of the land.
It is idle to pursue these matters further or recall how all the
variations ‘n scenery and scenic beauty are dependent upon geological
.
382 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
causes, or how these causes determine the productiveness or the
healthfulness of a district. But it is impossible for us, to whom these
matters are as familiar as household words, to conceive that the educa-
tion of the geographer, the traveler, the man of commerce, the student
of hygiene, the artist, the archzologist, the historian, or even the
politician can possibly pretend to completeness unless that education
has shown him something of the wealth of facts and ideas that flow
even from an elementary acquaintance with a knowledge of these
things.
Here perhaps we may call to mind the fact that what gives character
and especial color to the science of geology is that it is the exponent
of the idea of continuous evolution. 1 had almost said the discoverer;
for ** he discovers who proves.” | Its widest conclusions are based upon
the assumption and proof of the efficacy of small causes to bring about
the greatest cumulative effects. There is probably no educational
gymnastic more captivating and invigorating than to work out and
fully appreciate the quietly cumulative effects of present natural
causes the sea waves gnawing away the shore, the slow sinking of
mud layer by layer on the sea floor, the quiet burying up of organisms;
next to trace these phenomena backward stage by stage through the rock
formations that mark the eons of the past, down to the very base of
the geological scale: and, thence returning, to climb back step by step
up the long ladder of life, and note the successive incoming of the
ascending types of the animate creation, rising higher and higher yet
in the scale of being to the crown of all—man_ himself—‘: the heir of
all the ages.” k
The discoveries which geology, in company with archeology and
anthropology, has made in aid of the solution of the great problem of
the antiquity of man are so revolutionary and so recent that they are
practically familiar to all.
To one who has gone through a geological training and appreciated
its meaning the idea of slow and continuous evolution becomes, as it
were, part and parcel of his mental constitution. He naturally carries
the same geological methods into the study of humanity in general—
always from the developmental point of view, always on the watch for
those simple natural causes that may have been capable of bringing
about the present known effects, and always in the hope of discovering
a slow and natural evolution. It is in this way that he studies the
races of mankind, the growth and relations of languages, the forms
and distributions of beliefs, the trends of political practice and
opinion, the origin and expansion of commerce. He is watching and
indeed, as it were, assisting in the development of a living thing grow-
ing up before his mental eyes. His interest is excited, his curiosity
piqued, and his emotions stirred; and while his imagination is allowed
full play, it is always safely confined within the logical bounds of
induction, deduction, and verification.
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 383
Surely some kind of knowledge and training of this kind is much
to be desired for the ordinary man of education and leisure, the lit-
erary man, the arts man, the mathematician. Only by some means
of this kind does it seem possible to restore the loss of balance due to
the self-absorptive and introspective tendency of much of the so-called
culture of the present day. Only by some means of this kind can
one attain to the needed breadth of outlook and freedom of opinion as
respects all that concerns the relation of man and nature.
III].—GroLoecy and EDUCATION.
We have seen that a knowledge of geology is indispensable to the
complete education of the miner, the prospector, the civil engineer,
and the military engineer, and that a first-hand acquaintance with at
least its elements is eminently desirable for the agriculturist, the
geographer, the traveler, and the biologist. Many may even be will-
ing to admit that the literdry man and the man of culture would be
the better for knowing something of its principles and its conclusions.
But as geologists it is our bounden duty to go much further than
this, and urge upon the educationalists of the day the necessity of
affording the rising generation such a full opportunity of instruction
in that kind of knowledge, of which geology is the keystone, as shall
enable our youth to understand and appreciate the more important
phenomena of the world at large and the bearing of these upon their
own life and surroundings.
Nothing, however, is further from my intention than to suggest
that all the youth of the country shall be instructed in the science of
geology as such or that geology shall be introduced as a special sub-
ject of education except into the higher classes of schools, colleges, and
universities. But what I have in my mind is that geology is the center
of that group of knowledges which are sometimes collectively referred
to as ‘*nature knowledge” and their study as ‘‘nature study.” The
more advanced educationalists have long since suggested and even
strongly advocated instruction in nature study for all our youth; but,
alas, they are not yet agreed as to what ‘* nature study ” shall include or
how it shall be taught. At the one extreme are those who apparently
would embrace within it instruction in and explanation of all such con-
crete facts and phenomena as can be brought before the notice of the
youthful pupil so as to direct his attention to external nature in general.
At the other extreme are those to whom this dwelling upon facts and
phenomena appears to be repugnant, if we may judge from the fol-
lowing extract, which I take froma recently published book catalogue:
‘To those who are striving to make nature study more vital and
attractive by revealing a vast realm of nature outside the realm of
science and a world of ideas above and beyond the world of facts the
384 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
pages following, giving the titles of books dealing with nature and
nature studies, are dedicated.” As geologists, however, we should
presume, I take it, that education in nature study is, in the words of
Huxley, ‘‘education in that diligent, patient, loving study of all the
aspects of nature the results of which constitute exact knowledge or
science.”
EDUCATION IN EARTH KNOWLEDGE.
However that may be, this at all events is clear: The branch of
nature knowledge with which geology and geologists have to do is that
which Huxley terms ‘‘erdkunde, or earth knowledge, or geology in
its etymological sense.” So impressed was Huxley with the general
need for instruction in this kind of earth knowledge that he practi-
cally founded for its study the educational subject. which he named
‘‘physiography.” Yet physiography has come to embrace much that
truly belongs to astronomy; and, indeed, a very large proportion of
the subject of physiography, as taught in many schools and colleges
in Britain at the present day, is essentially astronomical. But here we
have to bear in mind that of the two great divisions of nature that
of the outside universe which is proper to astronomy concerns indi-
vidual men but indirectly. The other half of nature, if we may call
it so—the world upon which we live and amidst whose phenomena we
move and have our being—is always with us and around us, and its
conscious systematic study, which we call ‘‘earth knowledge,” is, in
truth, only a methodizing and an extension of the unconscious and
unsystematic study that we call ‘*experience,” which we are always
making from the earliest dawn of our consciousness to the final dark-
ness of old age. This is the kind of nature knowledge—namely, earth
knowledge proper, or, in other wortls, ‘‘ geonomy ” as contrasted with
‘astronomy ”—of which our youth has the greatest need, and it is
instruction in this which it is one of the missions of geology to claim
for the rising generation.
The day has not yet arrived when it will be possible to define pre-
cisely what should be taught under the head of this earth knowledge.
But what I would understand by it is that it should embrace instruc-
tion which would direct the attention of the scholar not only to the
natural phenomena of the world at large, but also to those particular
phenomena of the world immediately around him. In its general inter-
pretation its central plane would be the surface of the earth, and from
this it would pass upward by proper stages to consider the distribution
of all the phenomena, organic and inorganic, above that surface; out-
ward to the study of the meaning and interaction of these phenomena;
downward to the study of their history, and onward to the study of
their evolution.
The teaching of this earth knowledge could begin in the elementary
classes of schools, be continued in rising grades through the higher
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 385
classes, and thence extended to the universities. Speaking theoretic-
ally, in its earliest stages it should be as simple as possible and cover
the ground which is familiar to daily experience or which is funda-
mental to several of the natural sciences. In its higher stages it should
become more specialized and include the facts and principles common
to the special group of sciences which will become of value to the
scholar in his later studies or in hisafter life. In the university it might
finally be restricted to the perfect knowledge of that one science which
the scholar has selected for his specialty and as much of the fellow
sciences as has an intimate bearing upon the science which he selects
as his own. At every stage a broad foundation should be laid for the
superstructure to be erected in the next stage of advance.
But, speaking practically, it is impossible at the present day to lay
down any general rules as to the order in which the subjects dealt
with under the head of geonomy should be taken up or as to the way
in which those subjects should be individually treated. For while it
is quite true that the aim should be to instruct in those generalities
which are common to many or all of the sciences, we should most
strictly guard ourselves from falling into the error implied by many
of the text-book writers:on physiography, who start with an opening
chapter on matter, energy, gravity, and the like—generalities in their
essence as yet hardly capable of conception even by the highest intel-
lects. And while it is quite true that the most vivid and lasting means
of education is by experiments and deductions carried out by the pupil
himself, we should as carefully avoid the equally fatal error of imag-
ining that instruction in a single experimental science, such as chem-
istry and physics, can do more for the pupil than give him a glimpse
of a corner of nature.
It is sometimes suggested that instruction in earth knowledge should
commence with the simplest facts and deductions and lead up, stage
by stage, to the highest philosophical conceptions and generalizations.
‘But this is not the way in which any branch of knowledge has grown
and developed in the past. The human mind is so constituted that it
can often appreciate the broadest generalizations in some directions
before it can interest itself in the most elementary facts and draw the
simplest conclusions in others. What must be done is to ascertain
from the study of the several branches of knowledge how they have
individually grown during their developmental history in past ages,
note the order of subjects which were earliest and most easily appre-
ciated by the human intellect, and give the successive phases’ of
education as nearly as may be in that order.
Again, it is sometimes hinted that the only fruitful education is that
which is purely experimental, the deductions and generalizations in
which shall be worked out by the scholar himself; and also that all
knowledge which is imparted by the didactic method is not true
knowledge and is comparatively infertile. But I firmly hold that
386 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
both methods are correct, each for itself, and should both be utilized.
There are unquestionably some things which are best taught by
experiment, and by that demonstration in which the pupil takes the
whole or the largest share. But, on the other hand, the facts of
science are so overwhelming in number, and some of its grandest
conclusions are so dependent on the highest extremes of knowledge,
that they must be communicated didactically and must be accepted by
the scholar more or less as an article of faith. Indeed, the younger
the scholar and the less his experience, the more certain is he to accept
as unquestionable truths the assertions of his instructors. It would
be the height of folly to neglect the advantages of all this side of a
youth’s education in those years of his life when he is most qualified
to profit by it.
The fact is that in the imparting of earth knowledge, as in any other
kind of instruction, both educational methods—didactic and experi-
mental, authoritative and original—should be utilized together. It is
aimatter for the educationalist to find out what sections of a subject
and what stages of a subject are best imparted by one method and
what by another. The only rule which can be laid down is that the
didactic and authoritative method is certain to have less and less effect
as the scholar grows older and his experience broadens, and the
experimental and original more and more. But there is no escape
from the conclusion that it is the common interest of the teacher and
the scholar to make use of both methods; for the knowledge of every
man—the genius, the scholar, the wise man, and the fool—is alike in
this, that it is the sum of that knowledge which is due to his own
individual experience and that portion of the collective knowledge of
humanity which is due to the antecedent experiences of his fore-
fathers and which he has received at second hand. It is not that the
present educational systems are wrong in laying stress on the memo-
rizing and the applying of what is already known, but that they are
defective in neglecting the individual and original half of a liberal
education.
As I have already pointed out, the central plane of geonomy is the
knowledge of the surface of the earth, whose present conditions
belong to geography, and whose past and evolution belong to geology.
3ut in the earlier phases of the education of the scholar there can and
need be no distinction in his mind between these two sciences; they
are rather combined in a geonomic stage—in a generalized organism,
so to speak—destined to evolve and differentiate later on. Yet in this
early stage the dominating section of the subject is essentially geog-
raphy. As such it presents two very different aspects—the general
geography, namely, that of the world and its surface as a whole; and
the local geography, namely, the geography of the home and the sur-
roundings of the scholar. The general geography must be taught di-
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 387
dactically, with the aid of such lecture illustrations as globes and maps;
and the instruction must be received by the scholar more or less as an
article of faith. The local geography, however—and by this I would
understand not only the topography of the district, but the geography
of the town or village, the playground, and the very schoolroom itself—
should be taught practically at first hand, the data being recognized,
collected, and classified, the experiments made, and the conclusions
drawn, as much as possible by the scholar himself.
MAPS AS MEANS AND SYMBOLS OF EARTH KNOWLEDGE.
It is along this local side of geonomy that some of the most impor-
tant advantages will accrue to geology, and not only to geology but to
all its associated sciences. One of the most necessary qualifications
for the geologist and the geographer, and indeed for all students of
those sciences and arts in which facts and phenomena have to be
arranged in their order of distribution, is a familiarity with the use of
maps and a knowledge of how they are constructed. But one of the
commonest results of the present modes of giving instruction in maps
and map making in most schools is to cause this kind of knowledge to
become distasteful to the learner. And the consequence is that for one
fairly well educated man who can read a good map of his own native
district, there are hundreds to whom this is impossible. A detailed
topographical map or a geological map is practically a mystery to the
average man, and yet the training which would have enabled him to
appreciate and enjoy them both might, if given properly in his early
years, have afforded him many a pleasant and interesting break in the
monotony of his ordinary school work. He has doubtless been shown
in his geographical classes the ordinary maps of the world, and those
of the continents and his own country; he has perhaps copied some of
them laboriously in manuscript and very probably passed examinations
in drawing them from memory. But they were always more or less
dead things to him, because they dealt with lands and districts which
he had never beheld and not with the familiar objects of the school and
the home. He has never seen them grow up before his own eyes,
built up from facts collected by himself and his fellows.
We should like to see the lower classes of all schools making a map
of their own schoolroom and playground. We should like to see
the scholars at a higher stage studying and exercised in the large scale
25-inch map of the locality, with the school in the center; those at a
higher stage engaged on the 6-inch map of the neighborhood, and so
on. Stage by stage the scholars might pass to the study of the 1-inch
map of the district or county. Then, when once these maps had
become familiar objects, the learners should be taken out on occasional
excursions into the country with the maps in their hands, and edu-
cated in some of the higher grades of that earth knowledge which can
388 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
only be seen and appreciated in the open air. Later on the scholars
might pass to the study of natural agencies, the origin and meaning of
landscape, to geology proper, and thence to the study of the intimate
relations of nature and man.
But it must be acknowledged that the present lack of this kind of
instruction is not to be wholly ascribed to the teachers. Good local
maps were until recently practically nonexistent. The Government
ordnance and geological surveys have now made these at great national
expense, but so hidden away are they that few except military and
civil engineers and surveyors use them freely, and very few have rec-
ognized their perfection and importance. Now, that these maps are
becoming completed, we are beginning to discover that they constitute
a most important educational engine. They are still, however, sold
at too high a price. When we bear in mind the important fact that
sxach member of a class should be provided with a fresh map at every
successive stage, the cost to parents and school managers of this
branch of geonomic training, as matters stand, would be considerable.
Yet we may be sure that this kind of instruction is certain to come
about. It becomes, therefore, a serious question whether the Govern-
ment departments concerned with the surveying of our country could
not be authorized to supply these maps to school classes, either as
part of the local Government grant or at a very cheap rate. The actual
surveying of the country and the preparation of the maps already
costs several thousands of pounds annually, which are ungrudgingly
paid by the nation. Surely an extra yearly grant of a few scores of
pounds to enable the Government map-making departments to supply
these maps to schools at a nominal price would_be so trivial, whether
compared on the one hand with the large grant already made for the
original production of these maps or on the other hand with their
educational value to the rising generation, that it would undoubtedly
be welcomed by ali.
And once our people became aware of the excellence of these national
maps, topographical and geological, the demand for them, which is
comparatively small at present, would certainly grow. As yet, how-
ever, the public are hardly aware even of their existence. A great
advance has been made of late by hanging up selected, but unfortu-
nately not local, portions of these maps in post-offices, with a notice
that the maps can be obtained from the local agent. But what are
really wanted in all post-offices are framed copies of the 1-inch and
6-inch maps of the locality, hung up so as to be available for reference
by all comers, and a copy of each of these and the other local maps
kept in stock, together with a simple catalogue of all the national
maps and memoirs, any one of which should be obtainable by return
of post. The post-offices are, in the very nature of things, the best
advertising places in the country, and they are in direct touch with
THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY. 389
the map-issuing departments of the Government. Once the people
become accustomed by means of their school teaching, and by constant
sight of these maps in the post-offices to regard them as a factor in
their daily life, that which is now a luxury for the learned and the
few will become more or lessa necessity for the general and the many,
and they will demand for themselves and their children a more inti-
mate acquaintance with that earth knowledge of which these maps are
a consummation in which the science of geology will benefit
a symbol
by no means last and by no means least.
CONCLUSION.
But to what extent instruction in that earth knowledge of which
geology is the soul and center will constitute an integral portion of the
general education during the present century must depend in part on
the efforts of geologists and in part on the enltghtenment and emanci-
pation of the educationalists themselves. As geologists, however, we
have the assurance, justified by unbroken tradition, that our views
will eventually be accepted simply: because they are inevitable.
In the direction of practice also we may look forward with equal
-confidence, especially to the spread of geological facts and principles
and to the extension of the applications of our science. The enormous
increase in the utilization of the mineral resources of our country
which is now going on, and the rapid opening up of the many mineral
districts throughout the world-wide possessions of the Empire, bring
day by day a larger array of students to our science from the side of
economics. ;
And turning to the side of research we are all of us aware that some
of the grandest and most difficult problems of our science still await
solution—problems as attractive, as stimulating, and as rich in prom-
ise as were any of those of the past. And if that past be a true index
of the future we may be well satisfied that there is no science which
need outstrip ours in its rate of progress. When we call to mind that at
the commencement of the great French Revolution, whose echoes have
as yet hardly died away, our science was just struggling into exist-
ence, and that in the short time which has since elapsed it has placed
itself abreast of the foremost, we have every incentive to push for-
ward and to emulate those great pioneers in the science, in the mighty
sum of whose conquests we rejoice and take a pardonable pride.
We have indeed abundant cause for pride, yet none for vainglory.
No science, it is true, has made so swift an advance as geology, but
certainly to none has ever been afforded so magnificent an opportunity.
The veil of ignorance and of traditional opinion which hid from the men
of the Middle Ages the wonders which geology has since re,ealed was
so dark and opaque that until the close of the eighteenth century no
390 THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY.
light could penetrate beyond. But so old and flimsy was it that when
once the strong hand of the geologist had torn it, it was soon rent
through from top to bottom, and in the flood of light which entered
what wonder that discovery followed discovery in almost endless
succession,
And we have deep cause for thankfulness in that these discoveries
have been of benefit not for our science alone, but for ali its fellow-
sciences; and more, that they have been from the first of supreme
importance to man himself, his industries, and his progress, and to the
study of his history, his origin, and indeed of all that binds him and
his fellow-creatures to the world on which he lives.
While, therefore, we move on confidently together in this dawn of a
new era, blazing forward the straight and narrow. trail of research
marked out up to this point by our geological forefathers——** the old
trail, the lone trail, the trail that’s always new ”—let us ever remem-
ber that our science is not only the interpreter of nature, but also the
servant of humanity.
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM IN ITS RELATION TO
GEOGRAPHY. ¢
By Capt. Errrick W. Creak, C. B., R.N., F. B.S.
Of the six distinguished nayal officers who have previously presided
‘over this section, four were arctic explorers; and therefore, possessing
personal experience in arctic regions, they naturally gave prominence
to the deeply interesting subject of the past and future of arctic dis-
covery in their addresses, while not forgetting other matters relating
to the geography of the sea. The remaining officers, from their imme-
diate connection with all that relates to the physical condition of the
ocean, in its widest sense, coupled with the great importance of giving
the fruits of their knowledge to the world, took that subject as their
principal theme.
Valuable as are contributions to our knowledge of the physics of the
ocean to the world in general, and especially to the mariner and water-
borne landsman, I propose to take a different course, and bring to your
notice the subject of terrestrial magnetism in its relation to geography.
In doing so I shall endeavor to show that much may be done by the
traveler on land and the seaman at sea in helping to fathom the mys-
teries connected with the behavior of the freely suspended magnetic
needle as it is carried about over that great magnet, the earth, by
observations in different regions, and even in limited areas.
I would, however, pause a moment to call attention to the presence
of several distinguished meteorologists at this meeting, who will surely
attract many to the consideration of matters connected with the impor-
tant science of meteorology, which already occupies considerable atten-
tion from travelers. I feel sure, therefore, that geographers will be
glad to accord a hearty welcome to the members of the International
Meteorological Congress now assembled in this town, and especially
to the foreign visitors who honor us by their presence.
Some one may ask, What has terrestrial magnetism to do with
geography? I reply, Excellent lectures on that subject of growing
importance have been given under the direct auspices of the Royal
«The president’s address to Section E (geography) at the Southport meeting of
the British Association. Reprinted after revision by the author from the Scottish
Geographical Magazine for October, 1903.
sm 1903 26 391
392 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
Geographical Society; one in 1878 by the late Capt. Sir Frederick
Evans, and another in 1897 by Sir Arthur Riicker. And I would here
quote the opinion of Doctor Mill, when defining geography, in my sup-
port: ‘*Geography is the science which deals with the forms of the
earth’s crust and with the influence which these forms exercise on the
distribution of other phenomena.’
We know now that the normal distribution of the sarth’s magnetism
for any epoch is in many localities seriously affected according as the
nature of the country surveyed be mountainous, or generally a plain,
1 the form of islands (or mountains standing out of the sea), and
ae land under the sea. There is also reason to suspect that the mag-
netism of that portion of the earth covered by the oceans differs in
intensity from that of the dry land we inhabit. A connection between
the disturbances of the earth’s crust in earthquakes and disturbances
of the magnetic needle also seems to exist, although the evidence on
this point is not conclusive.
MAGNETIC SURVEYS.
Previously to the year 1880 there were two periods of exceptional
activity on the part of contributors to our knowledge of the earth’s
magnetism, during which the scientific sailor in his ship on the track-
less ocean combined with his brethren on land in making a magnetic
survey of the globe.
The first period was that of 1843-1849, during which not only were
fixed observatories established at Toronto, Saint Helena, Capetown,
and Hobart for hourly observations of the movements of the magnetic
needle, but to use Sabine’s words, ‘*that great national undertaking,
the magnetic survey of the south polar regions of the globe,” the fore-
or of our present antarctic expedition, was accomplished by Ross
and his companions almost entirely at sea.
This antarctic survey was carried out during the years 1840-1845,
and the results given to the world as soon as possible by Sabine. The
results afterwards formed a valuable contribution when constructing
his maps of equal lines of magnetic declination, inclination, and inten-
sity for the whole world, a great work for the completion of which
Sabine employed every available observation made up to the year 1870,
whether on land or at sea.
Readers of these contributions can not fail to be struck with the
great number of observations made by such travelers as Hansteen and
Due, Erman and Wrangel, extending from western Europe to far
into Siberia.
The second period was that of 1870-1880, during which not only was
there much activity among observers on land, but that expedition, so
fruitful to science, the voyage of H. M.S. Challenger, took place.
During the years 1872-1876 we find the sailor in the Challenger doing
most valuable work in carrying out a magnetic survey of certain por-
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 393
tions of the great oceans, valuble not only for needful uses in making
charts for the seaman, but also as a contribution to magnetic science.
Prior to this expedition very little was known from observation of
the distribution of terrestrial magnetism in the central regions of the
north and south Pacific oceans, and Sabine’s charts are consequently
defective there.
Combining the Challenger magnetical results with those of all avail-
able observations made by others of Her Majesty’s ships and by colo-
nial and foreign governments, I was enabled to compile the charts of
the magnetic elements for the epoch of 1880, which were published in
the report of the scientific results of H. M.S. Challenger. 1 will ven-
ture to say that these charts give a fairly accurate representation of
the normal distribution of the earth’s magnetism between parallels of
70° north and 40° south. Beyond these limits, either northward or
southward, there is a degree of uncertainty about the value of the lines
of equal value, especially in the southern regions—an uncertainty
which we have reason to hope will be dissipated when we know the
full results obtained by Captain Scott and the gallant band he com-
mands, for as yet we have to be content with some eddies of the full
tide of his success.
Until the Discovery was built the Challenger was the last vessel spe-
cially selected with a view to obtaining magnetic observations at sea,
so that for several years past results obtained on land have been our
mainstay. Thus, elaborate magnetic surveys with fruitful results
have been carried out in recent years in the British Isles by Ricker
and Thorpe. France, Germany, Holland, and some smaller districts
in Europe have also been carefully surveyed, and British India par-
tially so, by Messrs. Schlagintweit in 1857-58. The latter country ts
being again magnetically surveyed under the auspices of the Indian
government.
On the American continent the coast and geodetic survey of the vast
territories comprised in the United States, which has been so many
years in progress, has been accompanied by an extended magnetic sur-
vey during the last fifty-two years, which is now under the able direc-
tion of Dr. L. A. Bauer. Resulting from this some excellent charts
of the magnetic declination in the United States have been-published
from time to time, and the last, for the epoch 1902, is based upon 8,000
observations.
There are other contributions to terrestrial magnetism for positions
on yarious coasts from the surveying service of the royal navy, and
our ships of war are constantly assisting with their quota to the mag-
netic declination, or variation, as sailors prefer to call it; and wisely
so, I trow, for have they not the declination of the sun and other
heavenly bodies constantly in use in the computation of their ship’s
position
394 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
This work of the royal navy and the Indian marine is one of great
importance, both in the interests of practical navigation and of science;
for hesides the equipment of instruments for absolute determinations
of the declination, dip, and horizontal force supplied to certain of our
surveying ships, every seagoing vessel in the service carries a landing
compass, specially tested, by means of which the declination can be
observed with considerable accuracy on land.
Although observers of many other objects may still speak of their
‘heritage, the sea,” as a mine of wealth waiting for them to explore,
unfortunately for magnetic observations, we can no longer say ** the
hollow oak our palace is,” for wood has been everywhere replaced by
iron or steel in our ships, to the destruction of accurate observations
of dip and force on board of them. Experience, however, has shown
that very useful results, as regards the declination, can be obtained
every time a ship is ‘*swung,” either for that purpose alone or in the
ordinary course of ascertaining the errors of the compass due to the
iron or steel of the ship.
As an example of this method, the cruise of the training squadron
to Spitzbergen and Norway in 1895 may be cited, when several most
useful observations were made at sea in regions but seldom visited.
Again, only this year a.squadron of our pins cruising together near
Madagascar separated to a distance of a mile apart and ‘*swune” to
ascertain the declination.
I would here note that all the magnetic observations made by the
officers of Her Majesty’s ships during the years 1890-1900 have been
published in a conyenient form by the hydrographic department of
the Admiralty.
The fact remains, however, that a great portion of the world, other
than the coasts, continues unknown to the searching action of the
magnetic needle, while the two-thirds of the globe covered by water
is still worse off. Among other regions I would specify Africa,
which, apart from the coasts, Cape Colony, and the Nile valley to lat-
itude 54° north, is absolutely a new field for the observer
Moreover, the elaborate surveys I have mentioned show how much
the results depend upon the nature of the locality. I am therefore
convinced that travelers on land, provided with a proper equipment
of instruments for conducting a land survey of the strange countries
which they may visit, and mapping the same correctly, can, with a
small addition to the weight they have to carry, make a valuable con-
tribution to our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism, commencing with
observations at their principal stations and filling in the intermediate
space with as many others as circumstances will permit.
ey)
ie)
On
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
Of the magnetic work of our antarctic expedition we know that
since the D/scovery entered the pack—and, as far as terrestrial mag-
netism is concerned, upon the most important part of ‘that work—
every opportunity has been seized for making observations.
Lyttelton, New Zealand (where there is now a regular fixed magnetic
observatory), was made the primary southern base station of the expedi-
tion; the winter quarters of the D/scovery, the secondary southern base
station. Before settling down in winter quarters, magnetic observa-
tions were made on board the ship during the cruise to and from the
most easterly position attained off King Edward VII Land in lati-
tude 76° south, longitude 1525” west, and she was successfully swung
off Cape Crozier to ascertain the disturbing effects of the iron upon
the compasses and dip and force instruments mounted in the ship’s
observatory.
Asa ship fitted to meet the most stormy seas and to buffet with the
ice, the Discovery has been a great success. Let me add another
tribute to her yalue. From Spithead until she reached New Zea-
land but small corrections were required for reducing the observations
made on board. The experience of Ross’s Antarctic expedition had,
however, taught the lesson that two wood-built ships, the Z7ehus and
Terror, with but some 3 to 4 degrees of deviation of the compass at
Simons Bay, South Africa, found as much as 56 degrees of deviation
at their position farthest south, an amount almost prohibitory of good
results being obtained on board.
How fared the Discovery? I have been told by Lieutenant Shackle-
ton—for whose return to England on account of his health we must
all feel great sympathy—that a maximum of only 11 degrees of devia-
tion was observed at her most southerly position. From this we may
look forward hopefully to magnetic results of a value hitherto unat-
tained in those regions.
At winter quarters, besides the monthly absolute observations of
the magnetic elements, the Eschenhagen variometers or self-register-
ing instruments for continuously recording the changes in the declina-
tion, horizontal force, and vertical force were established, and in
good working order at the time appointed for commencing the year’s
observations.
I may here remind you that some time previously to the departure
of the British and German Antarctic expeditions a scheme of coopera-
tion had been established between them, according to which observa-
tions of exactly the same nature, with the same form of variometers,
were to be carried out at their respective winter quarters during a
whole year, commencing March 1, 1902. Besides the continuous
observations with the variometers, regular term days and term hours
396 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
were agreed upon for obtaining special observations with them at the
same moment of Greenwich mean time. Both expeditions have sue-
cessfully completed this part of their intended work.
To cooperate in like manner with these far southern stations, the
Argentine Government sent a special party of observers to Staten
Island, near Cape Horn, and the Germans another to Kerguelen Land,
whilst New Zealand entered heartily into the work. In additon, similar
observations were arranged to be made in certain British and colonial
observatories, which include Kew, Falmouth, Bombay, Mauritius, and
Melbourne; also in German and other foreign observatories. _
We have all read thrilling accounts of the journeys of the several
traveling parties which set out from the Descovery, and of the immi-
nent dangers to life they encountered and how they happily escaped
them except one brave fellow named Vince, who disappeared over one
of those mighty ice cliffs, upon which all Antarctic voyagers descant,
into the sea. In spite of all this there is a record of magnetic obser-
vations taken on these journeys of which only an outline has yet been
given. Anticipations of the value of these observations are somewhat
clouded when we read in one report, that hills ‘**more inland were com-
posed of granite rock, split and broken, as well as weatberworn, into
extraordinary shapes. Phe lower or more outer hills consisted of
quartz, etc., with basaltic dikes cutting through them.” Conse-
quently, we have to fear the effects of local magnetic disturbances of
the needle in the land observations, while buoyed up with the hope
of obtaining normal results on board the ship.
Judging from some land observations which have been received it
appears that considerable changes have taken place in the values of
the magnetic elements in the regions we are considering, but when
making comparisons we have to remember the sixty years which have
elapsed since Ross’s time, and that he had nothing like the advantage
of steam for his ships, or of instruments of precision like our present
ship Discovery. His ships also were, as we have already remarked,
much worse magnetically, causing far more serious disturbance of the
instruments. Hence the changes we note may not be entirely due to
changes in the earth’s magnetism.
The observations made by the officers of the Southern Cross at Cape
Adare in 1899-1900 also contribute to this question of magnetic change.
THE MAGNETIC POLES OF THE EARTH.
I will now refer to those two areas on the globe where the dipping
needle stands vertically, known as the magnetic poles. The determina-
tion of the exact position of these areas is of great importance to
magnetic science, and I will just glance at what is being done to solve
the problem.
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 397
Let us consider the North Pole first, the approximate position of
which we know best from observation. If one were asked to say exactly
where that pole has been in observation times, whether it has moved,
or where it now is, the answer must be, ‘1 do not know.” It is true
that Ross in 1831, by a single observation, considered that he had fixed
its position, and I believe hoisted the British flag over the spot, taking
possession thereof; but he may or may not have set up his dip circle
over a position affected by serious magnetic disturbance, and therefore
we must still be doubtful of his complete success from a magnetic
point of view. Although eminent mathematicians have calculated its
position, and Neumayer in 1885 gave a place to it on his charts of that
year, we have still to wait for observation to settle the question, for
one epoch at least.
Happily, I am able to repeat the good news that the Vorwegian,
Capt. Roald Amundsen, sailed in June last with the express object of
making a magnetic survey of Ross’s position and of the surrounding
regions, in order to fix the position of the north magnetic pole.
Furnished with suitable instruments of the latest pattern, he proposes
to continue his investigations until 1905, when we may look for his
return and the fulfillment of our hopes.
As far as we can now see, the south magnetic pole can not be
approached very nearly by the traveler, and we can only lay siege to it
by observing at stations some distance off, but encircling it. We have
our own expedition on one side of it, and now with the return of the
Gauss to South Africa in June last we have learned that that vessel
wintered in latitude 66° 2’ south, longitude 89° 48’ east, a position on
the opposite side of the supposed site of the magnetic pole to that of
the Discovery. We may now pause to record our warm congratula-
tions to Doctor yon Drygalski and his companions on their safe return,
accompanied by the welcome report that their expedition has proved
successful.
In addition to the British and German expeditions, there are the
Swedish expedition and the Scottish expedition. Therefore, with so
many nationalities working in widely different localities surrounding
it, we have every reason to expect that the position of the south mag-
netic pole will be determined.
THE SECULAR CHANGE.
When, in the year 1600, Gilbert announced to the world that the
earth is a great magnet, he believed it to bea stable magnet; and it
was left to Gellibrand, some thirty-four years later, by his discovery of
the annual change of the magnetic declination near London, to show
that this could hardly be the case. Eversince then the remarkable and
unceasing changes in the magnetism of the earth have been the subject
of constant observation by magneticians and of investigation by some
398 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
of the ablest philosophers in Europe and America. Year after year
new data are amassed as to the changes going on in the distribution of
the magnetism of the earth, but as yet we have been favored by
hypotheses only as to the causes of the wondrous changes which the
magnetic needle records.
These hypotheses were at one time chiefly based upon a considera-
tion of the secular change in the declination, but it is now certain that
we must take into account the whole phenomena connected with the
movements of the needle if we are to arrive at any satisfactory result.
Besides, it will not suffice to take our data solely from existing fixed
observatories, however relatively well placed and equipped, and
valuable as they certainly are, for it now appears that the secular
change is partly dependent upon locality, and that even at places not
many miles apart differences in results unaccounted for by distance
have been obtained.
The tendency of observation is increasingly to show that the secu-
lar change of the magnetic elements is not a world-wide progress of
the magnetic needle moving regularly in certain directions, as if solely
caused by the regular rotation during a long series of years of the
magnetic poles round the geographical poles, for if you examine Map
No. 1,¢ showing the results of observations during the years 1840-1850,
as regards secular change, you will observe that there are local causes
at work in certain regions, whilst in others there is rest, which must
largely modify the effect of any polar rotation.
Allow me to explain further. The plain lines on Map No. 1 indicate
approximate regions of no secular change in the declination, and the
small arrows the general direction (not the amount) in which the north-
seeking end of the horizontal needle was moving during those forty
years. The foci of greatest change in the declination, with the approxi-
mate amount of annual change in the Northern Hemisphere, are shown
in the German Ocean and northwestern Alaska, in the Southern Hemis-
phere off the coast of Brazil, and in the South Pacific between New
Zealand and Cape Horn. The two foci of greatest annual change in
the dip are shown—one in the Gulf of Guinea, where the north-seeking
end of the needle was being repelled strongly upward; the other on the
west side of Tierra del Fuego, where the north-seeking end of the
needle was being attracted strongly downward.
It is remarkable that the lines of no change in the declination pass
through the foci of greatest change in the dip. If the needle be repelled
upward, as at the Gulf of Guinea focus, it will be found to be moving
to the eastward on the east side of the whole line of no change in the
declination from the Cape of Good Hope to Labrador; to the westward,
onthe west side. If the needle be attracted downward, as at the Tierr
@Originally prepared by the author for the ‘‘ Magnetical Results,’? H. M.S. Challenger.
‘
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 399
del Fuego focus, it will be found moving to the westward on the east
side of the whole line of no declination from that focus to near Van-
couver Island; to the eastward on the west side.
A similar result may be seen in the line passing through a minor
focus of the dip near Hongkong.
Judging from analogy, there should be another focus of change in
the dip in latitude 70° north, longitude 115° east, or about the posti-
tion assigned to the Siberian focus of greatest force. “
On Map No. 2 are shown lines of equal value of the declination —the
red lines for the year 1880, the black lines for the year 1895. From
these, when shown on a large scale, we may deduce the mean annual
change which has taken place in the declination during the fifteen
years elapsed.
In this map we are reminded of the different results we obtain in
different localities; for if a line be drawn from Wellington, in New
Zealand, past Cape York, in Australia, to Hongkong, little or no
change will be found in the neighboring region since 1840. Again,
the line of no change in the declination shown on Map No. 1, to be
following much the same direction as the great mountain ranges on
the west side of the American Continent, has hardly moved for many
years, according to the observations available.
On the other hand, let us now turn to an example of the remarkable
changes which may take place in the declination unexpectedly and
locally. The island of Zanzibar and the east coast of Africa were con-
stantly being visited by our surveying ships and ships of war up to
the year 1880, observations of the declination being made every year
at Zanzibar during the epoch 1870-1880. The results showed that from
Cape Town nearly to Cape Guardafui the annual change of that element
hardly exceeded 1’.
During the succeeding years of 1890-91 observations were made by
the Germans at Dar-es-Salaam and some other places on the neighbor-
ing coasts, with the result that the declination was found to be chang-
ing at first 3 minutes annually, and since that period it had reached 10
to 12 minutes at Dar-es-Salaam. Subsequent observations at the
latter place in 1896-1898 confirmed the fact of the great change, and
in addition our surveying ship on the station, specially ordered to
‘‘swing” at different places in deep water off the coast, generally con-
firmed the results. It is remarkable that while such great changes
should have taken place between Cape Town and Cape Guardafui,
Aden and the region about the Straits of Bab el Mandeb seem to be
comparatively unaffected.
«The results described in the four preceding paragraphs and given in Map No. 1
were also exhibited on a 12-inch globe with the addition of magnetic meridians for
the epoch 1880, terminating in the supposed positions of the magnetic poles. This
12-inch globe is now in the South Kensington Museum, London.
400 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
LOCAL MAGNETIC DISTURBANCE.
In Map No. 2 normal lines of equal value of the declination are
recorded, and as far as the greater part of the globe covered by water
is concerned we may accept them as undisturbed values, for we have
yet to learn that there are any local magnetic disturhances of the needle
in depths beyond 100 fathoms.
When, however, we come’ to the land, there is an increasing diffi-
culty in finding districts of only a few miles in extent where the
observed values of the magnetic elements at different stations therein
do not differ more widely than they should if we considered only their
relative position on the earth asa magnet. Take Ricker and Thorpe’s
maps of the British Isles and those of the United States, for example,
where the lines of equal value are drawn in accordance with the
observations, with the result that they form extraordinary loops and
curves differing largely from the normal curves of calculation.
From among numerous examples of disturbance of the declination
on land, two may be quoted. In the Rapakivi district, near Wiborg,
a Russian surveying officer in the year 1890 observed a disturbance of
180 degrees, or, in other words, the north point of his compass pointed
due south. At Invercargill, in New Zealand, within a circle of 30 feet
radius a difference of 56 degrees was found. Even on board ships in
the same harbor different results are sometimes observed, as our train-
ing squadron found at Reikiavik, in Iceland, and notably in our ships
at Bermuda.
It is hardly necessary to add that the dip and force are often largely
subject to like disturbance, but I do so in order to warn travelers and
surveyors that observations in one position often convey but a partial
truth; they should be supplemented by as many more as possible in the
neighborhood or district. Erroneous values of the secular change have
also been published from the various observers not having occupied
exactly the same spot, and even varied heights of the instrument from
the ground may make a serious difference, as at Rapakivi, before men-
tioned, and at Madeira, where the officers of the Challenger expedition
found the dip at a foot above the ground to be 48° 46’ north; at 34
feet above the ground, 56° 18’ north, at the same spot.
All mountainous districts are specially open to suspicion of magnetic
disturbance, and we know from comparison with normal observations
at sea that those mountains standing out of the deep sea, which we call
islands, are considerably so affected.
MAGNETIC SHOALS.
The idea that the compasses of ships could be affected by the attrac-
tion of the neighboring dry land, causing those ships to be unsus-
pectingly diverted from their correct course, was long a favorite
theory of those who discussed the causes of shipwreck, but it was ‘‘a
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 401
fond thing vainly invented.” I can hardly say this idea is yet exploded,
but from what has already been said about local magnetic disturbance
on land, it is not a matter of surprise that similar sources of disturb-
ance should exist in the land under the sea, for it has been found that
in certain localities, in depths of water sufficient to float the largest
ironclad, considerable disturbances are caused in the compasses of
ships. ,
An area of remarkable disturbance haying been reported as existing
off Cossack, northwestern Australia, H. M.S. Penguin,a surveying ship
provided with the necessary magnetic instruments, was sent by the
Admiralty in 1891 to make a complete magnetic survey of the locality,
with a view to ascertaining the facts and placing them on a scientific
basis.” An area of disturbance 3.5 miles long by 2 miles broad, with
not less than 8 fathoms of water over it, was found lying in a north-
east by east and southwest by west direction. At one position the dis-
turbing force was suflicient to deflect the Penguin's compass 56 degrees;
in another—the focus of principal disturbance—the dip on board was
increased by 29 degrees, and this ata distance of over 2 miles from
the nearest visible land, upon which only a small disturbance of the
dip was found.
This remarkable area of disturbance was then called a ** magnetic
shoal.” a term which at first sight hardly appears to be applicable. We
have, however, become familiar with the terms ‘* ridge line, valley line,
peak, and col,” as applied to areas of magnetic disturbance on land;
therefore I think we may conveniently designate areas of magnetic
disturbance in land under the sea ‘‘ magnetic shoals.”
This year His Majesty’s surveying ship esearch has examined and
placed a magnetic shoal in East Loch Roag (island of Lewis), but as
all our surveying ships are practically iron ships, it was impossible
from obseryations on board to obtain the exact values of the disturb-
ing forces prevailing in this shoal. The reason for this is that,
although we may accurately measure the disturbing forces of the iron
of the ship in deep water, directly she is placed over the shoal mdue-
tion takes place, and we can no longer determine to what extent the
observed disturbances are due to the ship’s newly developed magnet-
ism, or to what extent the shoal alone produces them.
We can, nevertheless, even in an iron ship, accurately place and
show the dimensions of a magnetic shoal and the direction in which a
ship’s compass will be deflected in any part of it by compass observa-
tions only. Is it not, therefore, the duty of any ship meeting with
such shoals to stop and fix their position ?
The general law governing the distribution of magnetism on these
magnetic shoals is that in the Northern Hemisphere the north point of
the compass is drawn toward the focus of greatest dip; in the Southern
Hemisphere it is repelled. The results at East Loch Roag proved an
exception, the north point of the compass being repelled.
402 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM AND GEOLOGY.
T have already referred to the question of local magnetic disturbance
as one of great importance in magnetic surveys. The causes of these
disturbances were at one time a matter of opinion, but the evidence of
the elaborate magnetic surveys I have alluded to, when compared with
the geological maps of the same countries, points clearly to magnetic
rocks as their chief origin.
Magnetic rocks may be present, but from their peculiar position fail
to disturb the needle; on the other hand, as Riicker writes in his
summary of the results of the great magnetic survey of the British
Isles conducted by Thorpe and himself, **the magnet would be capable
of detecting large masses of magnetic rock at a depth of several miles,”
a distance not yet attained by the science of the geologist.
Again, Doctor Rijckevorsel, in his survey of Holland for the epoch
1891, was convinced that ‘tin some cases, in many, perhaps, there
must be a direct relation between geology and terrestrial magnetism,
and that many of the magnetic features must be in some way deter-
mined by the geological structure of the underground.”
During the years 1897-1599 a magnetic survey was made of the
Kaiserstuhl, a mountainous district in the neighborhood of Freiburg,
in Baden, by Dr. G. Meyer. Exact topographical and geological sur-
veys had been previously made, and the object of the magnetic survey
was to show how far the magnetic disturbances of the needle were con-
nected with geological confirmations. Here, again, it was found that
the magnetic and geological features of the district showed consider-
able agreement, basaltic rocks being the origin of the disturbance.
This was not all, for in the level country adjacent to the Rhine and
near Breisach unsuspected masses of basalt were found by the agency
of the magnetic needle.
More recently we find our naval officers in Hl. M.S. Penguin, with
a complete outfit of magnetic instruments, making a magnetic survey
of Funafuti atoll and assisting the geologist by pointing out, by means
of the observed disturbance of the needle, the probable positions in
the lagoon in which rock would be. most accessible to their boring
apparatus.
Leaving the geologist and the magnetician to work in harmony for
their common weal, let us turn to some other aspects of the good work
already accomplished and to be accomplished by magnetic observers.
MAGNETIC CHARTS.
Of the valuable work of the several fixed magnetic observatories of
the world, I may remark that they are constantly recording the never-
ceasing movements of the needle, the key to many mysteries to science
existing in the world and external to it, but of which we have not yet
learned the use. Unfortunately, many of these once fixed observatories
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 4038
have become travelers to positions where the earth can carry on its
work on the needle undisturbed by electric trams and railways which
have sprung up near them, and it is to be hoped they will find rest
there for many years to come.
Of the 42 observatories which publish the values of the magnetic
elements obtained there, 32 are situated northward of the parallel of
30 degrees north, and only 4 in south latitude; and it is a grief to
magneticians that so important a position as Cape Town or its neigh-
borhood does not make an additional fixed magnetic observatory of the
first order.
Thus, as far as our present question of magnetic charts and their
compilation is concerned, the observatories do not contribute largely,
but we should be very grateful to them for the accurate observations
of the secular change they provide which are so difficult to obtain else-
where.
Of the value of magnetic charts for different epochs I have much to
say, as they are required for purely scientific inquiry as well as for
practical uses. It is only by their means that we can really compare
the enormous changes which take place in the magnetism of the globe
as a whole; they are useful to the miner, but considerably more so to
the seaman. Had it not been for the chart; compiled from the results
of the untiring labors of travelers by land and observers at sea in the
field of terrestrial magnetism during the last century, not only would
science have been miserably poorer, but it is not too much to say that
the modern iron or steel steamship traversing the ocean on the darkest
night at great speed would have been almost an impossibility, whereas
with their aid the modern navigators can drive their ships at a speed
of 26.5 statute miles an hour with comparative confidence, even when
neither sun, moon, nor stars are appearing
s°
Of the large number of travelers by sea, including those who embark
with the purpose of increasing our geographical knowledge of distant
lands and busying themselves with most useful inquiries into the geol-
ogy, botany, zoology, and meteorology of the regions they visit, few
realize that when they set foot on board ship (for all ships are now
constructed of iron or steel) they are living inside a magnet. Truly
a magnet, having become one by the inductive action of that great
parent magnet—the earth.
How fares the compass on board those magnets, the ships, that
instrument so indispensable to navigation, which Victor Hugo has
forcibly called ** the soul of the ship,” and of which it has been written,
A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass,
Will sway it from the truth, and wreck an argosy.
And if so small a thing as an iron nail be a danger, what are we to say
to the iron ship? Let us for a moment consider this important matter,
404 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
If the nature of the whole of the iron or steel used in construction
of ships were such as to become permanently magnetic, their naviga-
tion would be much simplified, as our knowledge of terrestrial mag-
netism would enable us to provide correctors for any disturbing effects
of such iron on the compass, which would then point correctly. But
ships, taken as a whole, are generally more or less unstable magnets,
and constantly subject to change, not only on change of geographical
position, but also of direction of the ship’s head with regard to the
magnetic meridian. Thus,a ship steering on an easterly course may
be temporarily magnetized to a certain extent, but on reversing the
ship’s course to west she would after a time become temporarily mag-
netized to the same amount but in the opposite direction, the north
point of the compass being attracted in each case to that side of the
ship which is southernmost.
Shortly, we may define the action of the earth’s magnetism on the
iron of a ship as follows: The earth being surrounded by a magnetic
field of force differing greatly in intensity and direction in the regions
from the north pole to the equator and the equator to the south pole,
the ship’s magnetic condition is largely dependent upon the direction
of her head while building and the part of that field she occupied at
the time; partly upon her position in the magnetic field she traverses
at any given time during a voyage.
For the reasons I have given, magnetic charts are a necessity for
practical purposes and in the following order of value: That of the
magnetic declination of variation which is constantly in use, especially
in such parts of the world as the Saint Lawrence and the approaches
to the English Channel, where the declination changes very rapidly as
the ship proceeds on her course. Next, that of the dip and force,
which are not only immediately useful when correcting the ship’s com-,
pass, but are required in the analysis of a ship’s magnetism both as
regards present knowledge and future improvements in placing com-
passes on board.
If astronomers have for a very long time been able to publish for
several years in advance exact data concerning the heavenly bodies, is
it too much to hope that magneticians will before long also be able to
publish correct magnetic charts to cover several years in advance of
any present epoch? If this is to be done within reasonable time, there
must be a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together of magnetic
observers in all lands, and accumulated data must also be discussed.
ON MAGNETIC INSTRUMENTS FOR TRAVELERS.
Travelers in unsurveyed countries, if properly instructed and
equipped, can do good service to science by observing the three mag-
netic elements of declination, inclination or dip, and force at as many
stations as circumstances will permit. Hence the following remarks:
TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM. 405
For the purpose of making the most exact magnetic survey the best
equipment of instruments consists of the well-known unifilar magneto-
meter, with fittings for observing the declination, and a Barrow dip
circle. To some travelers these instruments might be found too bulky,
and in some regions too delicate, as well as heavy to carry. :
Of suitable instruments made abroad, those used by M. Moureaux
in his survey of France may be mentioned, as they are of similar
type, but much smaller and lighter than the instruments above
mentioned.
Another form of instrument used for observing both the inclination
and total force is called an ‘‘L. C.” instrument. Originally designed
for observations on board ships at sea, where the ordinary magnetic
instruments above mentioned are unmanageable, it has also been found
to give satisfactory results in a land survey, where greater accuracy
is expected than at sea. Thus, during a series of observations extend-
ing from the north side of Lake Superior to the southern part of Texas
last year, comparisons were made between the results obtained with an
L. C. instrument and those of the regular unifilar magnetometer and
dip circle, when the agreement was found satisfactory.
I am therefore of the opinion that a traveler furnished with a the-
odolite for land-surveying purposes, but fitted with a reversible mag-
netic needle, can at any time he observes a true bearing obtain a
trustworthy value of the declination. Dismounting the theodolite from
his tripod, the latter will serve for mounting an L. C. instrument with
which to observe the inclination and force. Thus, by adding to his
ordinary equipment an instrument weighing in its box about 21 pounds
he can obtain valuable contributions to terrestrial magnetism and at
the same time give useful assistance to geological investigations.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Although a great subject like terrestrial magnetism, even to exhibit
our present knowledge of the science, can not be brought within the
compass of an address—for it requires a treatise of many pages—I have
brought some of the broad features of it before the section in order to
show its connection with geography.
I also entertain the hope that geographers will become more inter-
ested ina subject so important to pure science and in its practical
applications, and that it will become an additional subject to the instruc-
tion which travelers can now obtain under the auspices of the Royal
Geographical Society in geology, botany, zoology, meteorology, and
surveying.
There is a wide field open to observers, and where results often
depend so much upon locality we require to explore more and more
with the magnetic needle. To look over the great oceans and think
how little is being done for terrestrial magnetism is a great matter for
O
<>)
406 TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
regret. Yet even there we may begin to be more than hopeful, for
the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey authorities are making
arrangements to fit out its vessels with the necessary instruments for
determining the magnetic elements at sea.
We wish them all success; but I must again remind you that
although we can not compel observers to start, there is room for them
and to spare.
IT would fain make some remarks on the prevailing ignorance of
sound geography in many quarters and on the defective methods of
teaching the science; but I feel that the subject is placed in very able
hands and will be fully discussed in Section L during the present
meeting.
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AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY, AMERICA’S
HIGHEST MOUNTAIN.?
By Aurrep H. Brooks.
Alaska’s southern shore line makes a broad, crescentic sweep, embrac-
ing that part of the northern Pacific known as the ‘*‘ Gulf of Alaska.”
Of the many indentations which give this coast its jagged outline the
largest is Cook Inlet, a deep embayment in the western arm of the
crescent, which stretches northward for 150 miles from the headlands
marking its entrance. There it receives the turbid waters of the
Sushitna River, laden with the silt of glaciers which have their source
in the great, Alaskan Range lying northwest of the valley. (See map,
plate 11.)
This Alaskan Range curves in a rugged mass around the headwaters
of the Sushitna, forming the divide between the Cook Inlet drainage
on the south and the waters flowing into Bering Sea through the Kus-
kokwim and Yukon rivers on the north. The southern end of the
range lies in an unexplored region to the west of Cook Inlet, but
probably does not include any peaks over 7,000 or 8,000 feet high.
Toward the north its relief increases, culminating in Mount McKinley,
over 20,000 feet? in altitude, and the highest mountain on the North
American continent.
Strange as it may seem, though this mountain has been known to
white men for upward of a century—it is plainly visible from tide
water at Cook Inlet and from many points in the Yukon Basin—yet
until very recent years it did not appear on any map and was barely
referied to in literature. When the famous navigator Captain Cook
in 1778 spent a few weeks exploring the inlet which now bears his
name, the clouds hung low, or the mountain would not have escaped
his attention.
Vancouver, fifteen years later, while extending Cook’s surveys in
the inlet, probably also had no view of it, though he distinctly men-
tions the range. The Russians, who carried on their fur trade on this
“Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Geography, Chicago, Vol. Il, No.
9, November, 1903. Copyright, 1903, by E. M. Lehnerts.
> The final adjustment of surveys has not yet been made, so that the exact altitudes
can not now be given.
os 407
sm 1905 (
408 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
coast for over half a century, knew the mountain and called it ‘* Bul-
shaia,” which, like the native name *‘‘ Trolika,” signified ‘* high moun-
tain;” but Russian literature on Alaska, so far as we know, contains
no reference to this important geographical feature. Lieut. Henry T.
Allen, too, who, in 1885, made his hazardous exploration of the lower
Tanana, saw this peak, but at so great a distance that he was not spe-
cially impressed with its altitude.
Thus it was that explorers and traders did not seem to be aware that
they had sighted the highest peak on the continent. When,-in 1895,
scores of prospectors were attracted to Cook Inlet by the discovery of
gold, they, too, saw the mountain, but apparently gave it no thought
until the following year, when one of them, W. A. Dickey, recognized
its importance, and upon his return published a description of it and
proposed the name Mount McKinley. Though the mountain had been
known to white men for over a century, and though scores of others
had been as near it as this prospector, or nearer, he was termed the
discoverer of Mount McKinley. All honor to him for calling attention
to it, but let us not make the absurd blunder of crediting him with its
discovery.
Two years after the naming of the mountain, George H. Eldridge
and Robert Muldrow, of the United States Geological Survey, in the
course of their exploration of the Sushitna River, located it accurately
and determined its altitude at over 20,000 feet. Its height and posi-
tion were thus known, and something of the character of the southern
flank of the range above which it towers. The northern face of the
range and the base of the mountain remained to be explored, and this
was the task assigned to me as part of the general system of explora-
tory surveys undertaken by the Geological Survey in Alaska. I was
fortunate in having as associates in this enterprise Messrs. D. L. Rea-
burn and L. M. Prindle, as well as four able and enthusiastic camp
men.
On May 27, 1902, the vessel bearing our party steamed slowly up
Cook Inlet. Hardly a ripple stirred the water, and through the hazy
atmosphere we could barely discern the outline of the low coast, beyond
which, in a bank of clouds, lay the high mountain range which we
were to explore. At noon we dropped anchor at Tyonok, a small
native settlement on the west shore of the Inlet with one trading post
and a white population of half a dozen men. (See plate 111.)
We were forced to wait until the evening tide floated a large scow
destined to convey our horses to the shore. These, in spite of much
struggling and kicking on their part, were then unceremoniously hoisted
out of the hold and dropped over the side into the scow. The landing
was attended with some excitement, for the horses, restless after their
two week’s confinement, exhibited a strong desire to leave the narrow
gangway which reached the beach. One little brute satisfied his curi-
‘ASINIMOW LNNOW LY dQ SNINOO 7
‘| aLV1d *syOooIg—'eQ6| ‘Hoday ueiuosy}iWS
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Brooks.
SOT AY,
Sn, 2
U
a ws I
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2 Seas
ANN ©
SIMI,
loke Clavk
THE MOUNT MCKINLEY REGION, ALASKA, SHOWING THE ROUTE OF THE EXPEDITION.
From a sketch made by the author.
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 409
osity by leaping into the sea, but was promptly hauled out, and on
striking the beach took to his heels. After the entire outfit had been
dragged ashore by the infinite labor of all hands, the presence of great
numbers of Indians and dogs necessitated a guard, so I stood watch
while the others slept. The chilly night air made the employment of
chasing the Indian or ‘*Siwash” dogs, as they are called, not unaccept-
able. A relief was called at 5, and I turned in and slept as one only
can sleep who has been active for twenty-four hours.
The important question was which route should be chosen to the
base of the mountains, for the crossing of the swampy and _ heavily
timbered lowland area which intervened presented the most serious
difficulties. The agent of the trading company, who was first interro-
gated, was rather skeptical of the proposed plans; and well he might
be, for he had seen more than one exploring expedition start out with
high hopes only to return disappointed a few months later. Should
we go westward directly toward the mountains our northeasterly
course along the base of the range would be blocked by glaciers; should
we take a more northerly course we would become lost in a maze of
swamps and encounter a number of turbulent rivers. Such were the
stories told by the white men, and the Indians, who were assembled in
solemn conclave, were equally discouraging.
Through the medium of signs, eked out by a few Russian words, I
held a long parley with an old Indian chief over a map of his hunting
grounds which he drew for me, but when I pointed out my proposed
route far beyond the bounds of his knowledge he gravely shook his
head as if to say that I was attempting the impossible. Some of the
more experienced traders admitted that we might reach the base of
the range during the course of the summer, but when we unfolded our
plans for extending our journey to the Tanana, and even the Yukon,
they smiled knowingly and told us when we could catch the last steamer
in the fall, before the ice blocked Cook Inlet.
Asa matter of fact, the ‘‘zone of influence” of many of the long-
established Alaskan trading posts extends hardly aday’s journey from
the settlement, and many traders of long residence are astonishingly
ignorant of the ‘*‘ hinterland.” The Indian’s knowledge is always con-
fined to the hunting grounds of his tribe, and he is apt to regard the
region beyond very much as the old cartographer represented unex-
plored areas, as the abode of hideous monsters. He magnifies unknown
dangers, and this fact, together with his ignorance of the use of horses,
‘makes his advice in regard to routes of little value.
The party paid small heed to the stories of dire failure and disaster
which were recounted, for all but two of its members were veterans
of three or four years’ standing in Alaskan explorations and had made
more than one successful trip in the face of similar gloomy prophecies.
While some were reconnoitering to choose a route, the packers, Fred
410 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
and Von, were busy breaking in such of the horses as were unused to
packing—an operation which afforded great amusement to the natives,
who watched it from afar and promptly took to their heels if one of
the bucking brutes threatened to approach them.
Our observations finally prompted us to choose the northwesterly
route as the shortest, other conditions being about equal, or at least
equally impossible to foresee. To facilitate the crossing of the large
rivers which were known to lie athwart our route to the mountains, a
boat was sent ahead in charge of George Eberhardt and Louis Ander-
son, both experienced in frontier life and, as the event proved, emi-
nently reliable men. We decided not to use Indian guides, in spite of
the advice of the Tyonok sages, both because of the Indian’s igno-
rance of horses and for the reason that his insatiable appetite for
white men’s stores makes him an undesirable addition to a party when
the transportation of supplies is the difficult problem.
The adequate provisioning of a party like ours is the most important
feature of the preparation. If the allowance of food is insufficient,
the journey has to be curtailed or risk of starvation encountered. On
the other hand, if a greater quantity is taken than is necessary, it may
hamper the transportation facilities and result in failure to the expe-
dition. A proper variety of food is also imperative, for on this will
depend the health and strength of the party. The accumulated expe-
rience of five years of Alaskan travel enabled us to judge the propor-
tions to a nicety. Practically nothing but dried foods were chosen;
the staples—flour, bacon, beans, sugar, and evaporated fruit—were sup-
plemented by farinaceous foods, cheese, evaporated eggs and potatoes,
condensed soups, together with tea, coffee, and a few pounds of delica-
cies, such as macaroni and jelly. Our ration provided for 3 pounds
of food per man each day, an ample allowance if no canned goods are
taken.
The provisions, suflicient to feed seven men for one hundred and five
days, were packed in 50-pound waterproof bags. As for the rest of
the equipment, everything was chosen with a view to lightness, the
tents weighing only a few pounds and carbines being carried instead
of rifles. Sleeping bags were substituted for blankets because they
give a maximum of warmth for a minimum of weight. The entire
equipment weighed about 3,500 pounds, of which 1,000 pounds were
sent by boat and the rest distributed among the 20 horses.
As all our preparations were now completed and the grass was sufli-
ciently advanced to insure an ample supply of feed for the horses, we
set out from Tyonok on June 2.
At the outset our experience was ahard one. The horses were fresh
and some of them objected seriously to the heavy burdens. Again
and again they bucked their packs off and stampeded the entire herd.
Our baggage was scattered to the four winds of heaven, and the pieces
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 41]
had to be sought for carefully in the long grass which covered the
upper part of the beach; the natives, meanwhile, viewing our discom-
fiture with delight, as if it were an exhibition prepared for their special
benefit.
Beyond the town, where the route followed the beach between the
water on the one side and the steep gravel bluffs on the other, the
narrow space gave opportunity to control the fractious horses. (See
plate 11.)
The pack train was not without a certain picturesqueness. First
came Fred mounted on the lead horse, and behind him, in single file,
followed the other horses, their new white pack covers glistening in
the sun. The other men were on foot scattered along at intervals,
with George at the close of the procession, leading his small bay mare
with the cook stove on top of her pack. This stove was in George’s
eyes the most precious possession of the party, and for three months
he never allowed it to be out of his sight. It finally came to grief
700 miles inland, when both horse and stove rolled into the river.
At the mouth of the Beluga River, 20 miles from Tyonok, the boat
met the party, and a day was spent in crossing. The horses were made
to swim over at full tide, little relishing the plunge into the cold waters;
and they probably would have liked it still less had they known of the
score or more of icy rivers that would be traversed during the suc-
ceeding journey. Camp was pitched on the north bank while the boat
was utilized for a two days’ excursion up the Sushitna River.
Leaving the boat at an Indian town at the head of the delta, four of
us made our way to Mount Sushitna. A steep climb brought us to the
summit, and the broad lowland of the Sushitna Valley lay spread
before us, the dark greens of its spruce forests contrasting with the
lighter greens of the open marshes and the bright gleam of small lakes
or winding water courses. Beyond rose a range of highlands, and
then, forming the sky-line, snow-covered Alaskan mountains. From
our vantage point the rugged crest line seemed unbroken, and had we
not known that it was in fact cleft by passes we might have despaired
of finding a route through such a forbidding mountain mass.
As we gazed a mass of clouds hanging over what appeared to be the
center of the range broke and revealed two majestic peaks, Mount
McKinley and Mount Foraker, glistening in the slanting rays of the
afternoon sun. Far above the crest line they towered, enormous
mountains, even at a distance of 120 miles. Four years before, while
making an exploration down the Tanana with canoes, I had seen the
same peaks and at about the same distance, but from the opposite
direction.
The task before us was to find a route across the swampy lowland,
traverse the mountains, and, following their northern front, approach
from the inland slope as near the base of this culminating peak of the
a? AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
continent as conditions and means would permit; we must map the
country and incidentally explore a route which some time could be
used by that mountaineer to whom should falb the honor of first set-
ting foot on the summit of Mount McKinley.
At the Beluga River the course lay inland, and by good fortune an
Indian trail lightened the labor of the axmen to a great extent; but
it was designed for use in the fall and winter when the ground was
frozen, and its many bogs, which then only served to facilitate travel-
ing, now caused our horses one long struggle to wallow through it
with their heavy burdens. Almost continuously one or more of the
animals became mired, and often the entire strength of the seven
members of the party was required to drag them out.
A week after leaving tide water, we emerged from the lowlands into
a belt of foothills covered for the most part with tall grass, inter-
spersed with symmetrical spruces and open groves of poplar. The
landscape had a park-like appearance not unlike some of the farming
regions of the East. (See plate rv.) The many familiar wild flowers
added to the delusion, and it was hard to realize that we were in one
of the unexplored parts of the world, for it seemed as if every rise of
ground must bring us to the sight of a farmhouse, with its fields and
orchards. : = .
As we climbed higher we left all timber behind us except the omni-
present willow and alder thickets. The horses reveled in an abun-
dance of grass, while the camp larder was improved by the ptarmigan
which were shot along our line of march. Another glimpse of Mount
McKinley enabled Reaburn, our topographer, to determine our loca-
tion accurately.
The daily routine was now well established. All hands were called
at 5 in the morning, and while the packers drove in the horses the
others took down the tents. When the horses had been saddled and
breakfast had been eaten, we all took a hand in the packing. It was
no easy task to lift the 200-pound packs to the backs of the horses
and adjust them. Nearly all of the men were now fairly expert at
lashing them in place—‘‘ throwing the diamond hitch,” as it is called.
(See plate rv.) After two hours of hard work spent in this operation,
the march began. In a timbered region two or three axmen pre-
ceded the train, but in the open country this was not necessary.
Camp was made between 3 and 4, and after an early supper the geolo-
gist and topographer usually made an excursion to some neighboring
peak or valley.
In this foothill region we came in contact with our first bear. Fred,
while forging ahead of the party in search of a trail, came upon a
she bear and cub. The old one at once charged. Hemmed in by
alder thickets, with an ax as his only weapon, he faced his assailant
with what seemed, even to an old hunter like himself, hardly a fighting
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Brooks. PLATE III.
Fia@a. 1.—TYONOK, COOK INLET, ALASKA.
For location see map, Pl. II.
Fic. 2.—THE ROUTE ALONG THE BEACH BEYOND TYONOK.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Brooks. PLATE IV.
FiG. 1.—PACKING THROUGH AN ALASKAN MEADOW LOWLAND OF TALL GRASS.
FiG. 2.—PACKING A HORSE, PREPARATORY FOR A START—‘' THROWING THE DIAMOND
HITCH.”
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 413
chance for life. Fortunately, however, the Kodiak grizzly, though
larger, is not so ferocious as his Rocky Mountain brother, and Fred
made his escape, though the animal approached within a few feet of
him.
The good traveling came to an end all too soon, and we plunged into
the thick growth of timber covering the floor of the Yentna Valley.
When, on June 18, we reached the banks of that river, the turbulent,
silt-bearing waters, coursing through a score of channels, did not
look inviting, and we had grave doubts whether a crossing could be
made. It must be attempted, however, as it would save a week’s
time. Mounted on two of the stronger horses, from which the saddles
had been stripped, Fred and I managed to ford some of the streams,
though the horses barely kept their footing in the rushing waters,
which reached their shoulders. There still remained several of the
widest channels. The unwilling animals were urged into the first
of these, and in a moment were swept off their feet by the muddy
torrent, which for an instant engulfed both riders and horses and bore
them downstream at a terrific rate. By an almost instinctive move-
ment, we threw ourselves from the struggling brutes, seized them by
their manes, and swam alongside, thus at length guiding them back
to the bank. We dragged ourselves out, both we and the horses
shivering from our ducking in the icy waters. The plunge was but
one of many similar incidents of the journey before us, but it was
more significant, in that it showed the impossibility of making a cross-
ing at this point without taking serious risks.
So, perforce, we headed downstream and spent weary days cutting
a trail through the dense growth on the river bank; until on the fourth
day a welcome rifle shot told us that we were near the rendezvous
with the men and boat. With the aid of these we at last succeeded
in crossing the river. As it was, the passage occupied an entire day,
and was not without its dangers to the horses, who had to be towed
across behind the boat, in imminent risk of drowning in the 8-mile
current, which at times carried them under water. (See plate v.)
After agreeing upon a third rendezyous, the land party continued
its trail chopping and corduroy building. This was the most disheart-
ening part of the whole journey. The middays were sultry, and the
endless chopping, harassed as we were by clouds of mosquitoes, was
almost maddening. With our best efforts we could make barely 3
miles a day, and though nearly a third of our provisions were con-
sumed, we had completed hardly an eighth of our 800-mile journey.
Day after day we toiled on, fighting mosquitoes, dragging horses out of
mud holes, cutting our way through dense growths of alder. Occa-
sionally we would determine our position by compass sights from the
top of some tall cottonwood, and then we would lay a new course. At
last, having reason to believe ourselves near the Keechatna, we halted:
for a day to reconnoiter and rest the tired horses and men.
414 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
While exploring the route ahead I missed camp, which was hidden
in a broad, wooded flat, and spent a part of the night in the rain,
vainly attempting to snatch a few hours’ sleep in spite of the myriads
of mosquitoes, and my supperless plight. When I finally reached
camp, at 6 the next morning, we at once got under way. A day’s
march brought us to the banks of the Keechatna, and a signal smoke
euided us to where the boat and men awaited us. My thirty-six hours
of almost continuous tramping made my small tent seem very attractive.
The Keechatna was a less turbulent stream than the Yentna, and
with the aid of the boat a crossing was effected without difficulty.
We now parted with Eberhardt and Anderson, who returned to
Tyonok, taking the last letters we should be able to send out. Thence-
forth until we reached the Yukon, about three months later, we were
to be entirely cut off from the rest of the world.
The outlook was not encouraging, for we had nearly 700 miles of
practically unknown territory to traverse, and the incessant labor of
toiling through the swamp, added to the continual annoyance from
mosquitoes and horseflies, was haying a serious effect upon the strength
of our horses. Night after night we would hear the tinkle of the bell
horse as he led the band of horses, maddened by the insects, back and
forth. Though we blanketed them and built large fires as smudges,
they seldom got relief for more than two or three hours of the twenty-
four. It was terrible to see their suffering and be powerless to help
them. They would frequently crowd into camp as if to implore us to
relieve them from their misery.
The men, too, were becoming worn out by the mosquito pest, which
harassed them continually during the day, though they found relief
at night in the mosquito-proof tents. The soft blanket of moss,
usually saturated with moisture, which nearly everywhere covers the
face of the country, offers a breeding-ground for myriads of the
insects. They are ever active, both day and night; on the mountain
tops, far above timber, as well as in the lowlands. Five years of
Alaskan travel have convinced me that there is no hardship so dif_i-
cult to bear as this insect pest. I have seen horses, fairly maddened
by the torment, blindly charge through the forest, oblivious to the
trees and branches encountered, until they wore themselves out, then,
in utter hopelessness, drop their heads and patiently endure the suf-
fering. I have seen strong men, after days and nights of almost
incessant torment, when they were too weary to offer further resist-
ance to their relentless foes, weep with vexation. No part of an
Alaskan trayeler’s outfit is more important than his mosquito-proof
headdress and gloves. The former is made to fit closely around the rim
of his hat and to his shoulders, for the mosquitoes will find the smallest
opening. Unfortunately, the headdress has only too often to be dis-
carded. When pushing through the undergrowth, using a surveying
instrument, sighting a rifle, or chopping a trail, the traveler is at the
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Brooks. PLATE V.
—
cS
wax
SRG ares i Rae
FiG. 1.—TOWING HorSES ACROSS THE YENTNA RIVER.
For location see map, Pl. II.
; :
Fig. 2.—THE HEART OF THE ALASKAN RANGE.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Brooks. PLATE VI.
Fic. 1.—LOOKING TOWARD RAINY PASS, THE GAP WHICH LEADS TO THE
YUKON REGION.
ah
be enooee
, he peat San ‘ 5
FiG. 2.—CAMP IN THE COTTONWOODS, BELUGA RIVER.
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 415
mercy of the mosquitoes, which follow him in clouds. While every
other hardship of Alaskan travel is often grossly exaggerated, it is
hardly possible to do this one justice. Men capable of enduring heat
and cold, hunger and fatigue without murmuring, will become almost
savage under the torture. However, the story told me by an old
prospector of the days on ‘* Fortymile,” when he could wave a pint
cup over his head and catch a quart of mosquitoes, did seem somewhat
beyond the bounds of probability.
As we could not know but that the party might be forced to retreat
along the same line as the advance, we left an emergency cache of
provisions at this point—that is, we placed bags of bacon and flour in
the branches of a tall spruce out of the reach of wolves. There they
will remain until they decay, for a cache is sacred to an Indian, and he
will not molest it even if he be at the point of starvation.
On the 30th of June we started up the Keechatna River, taking
turns as axmen in the dense growth of alder and willow which clothed
the valley floor. Sometimes our trail lay perilously near the under-
cut river bank, and again it climbed along the valley wall to avoid
precipitous cliffs. The river seemed to have a strange fascination for
some of the horses, and more than once they deliberately jumped in.
A cry for help one day brought me to the rear of the pack train ona
run, and there was Prindle lying full length on a tree trunk which
overhung the water, clinging desperately to the halter of a horse
which the rushing current threatened to carry down. The loss would
have been irretrievable, for his pack contained nearly all the records
of the journey. A general alarm was sounded, and the united efforts
of seven availed at last to rescue the animal.
On another occasion Medicine, one of our most troublesome horses,
deliberately jumped into the river and became mired in a quicksand
20 feet from the bank. The horse following, known as ‘* Grand-
father,” to whose pack was intrusted the folding boat, plunged in
after Medicine, as if to the rescue. Both were dragged out, but at no
small danger of both horses and men being engulfed in the treacher-
ous quicksand.
One day the steep mountain wall closed in and forced us to ford the
river. This was not very wide, but its swift current tumbling over
huge bowlders looked anything but inviting. Climbing on top of a
pack, I essayed the first attempt, but my horse lost his footing and
rolled us both over in the icy waters. A second trial proving more
successful, the other horses followed one by one, with the men lying
flat on the tops of the packs. Odell, with characteristic recklessness,
had chosen the wildest one, which bucked him off in midstream, giv-
ing us a bad scare, but he managed to gain his feet and clamber
ashore.
416 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
After a week of this sort of thing we entered the foothills of the
range, and the conditions improved. The horses being now thoroughly
broken in and, in fact, almost devoid of spirit, three men could easily
manage them while the others explored the adjacent hills. Grass
was plentiful; and as the mosquitoes became less annoying after the
timbered region was left behind, most of the horses began to recover
strength.
The jaded horses now needed a day’s rest, and while they enjoyed
the abundant grass Reaburn and I climbed a neighboring mountain.
We found that we were well within a rugged range whose jagged
peaks arose on every hand and whose higher valleys were filled with
glacial ice. There were still no indications of the pass we sought, so
we again took up our march. (See plate v.)
On July 13 a convenient moose walked into camp, and a shot from
Fred’s carbine gave us a welcome supply of fresh meat. Poor Wild
Bill, who had been playing the part of an invalid for several days,
found himself under a load of 100 pounds, much to his disgust.
Fred, Prindle, and I now set out to explore the mountains ahead,
each taking a different direction. When we met again in camp after
a twenty-four hours’ absence, it was Fred who reported discovery of
the pass so essential to our further progress.
It was the middle of July when we threaded the narrow gap which
led us from waters flowing into the Pacific Ocean to those tributary
to Bering Sea. The fair weather we had encountered almost from the
beginning now gave place to storms, naturally suggesting the name
‘Rainy Pass” for the newly discovered gap. (See plate vr.) We
were now in high spirits, for we all felt that whatever the summer
might bring forth, we had at least located a route through this high
mountain barrier.
With this thought to encourage us we hastened to press on. Choos-
ing as guide a stream which headed on the north side of the divide,
we entered a beautiful mountain valley, whose steep slopes, clothed in
dark green spruce, ended above in abrupt cliffs. Here Fred’s ever-
ready carbine brought us our first mountain sheep. Farther on the
valley opened up into a broader one across whose level floor a mighty
river meandered with great, sweeping bends, and we recognized the
Kuskokwim, the second river of Alaska in size, which poured its
muddy waters into the Bering Sea a thousand miles away. Here we
came upon the trail of a previous exploring expedition and hailed the
half-obliterated ax marks with a sense of companionship, several years
old though they were.
While the pack train cut its way along the river bank, I climbed a
peak which proved to be a part of the valley wall. From this point
I could see the broad valley of the Kuskokwim stretching to the north,
opening out 30 miles below to a broad lowland whose limits were lost
in the distant haze. South of me rose the snowy peaks of the range
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. AL]
we had traversed, sweeping around to the northeast in an apparently
unbroken crest line, without a suggestion of Rainy Pass. Far to the
southwest distant snow peaks belonging to some unknown range com-
pleted the picture.
On my way down I kept along the ridge until I caught the glimmer
of white tents in the valley 5,000 feet below me, and then, noting the
course by my compass, I plunged down the mountain side without
further consideration. A cliff proved a temporary obstacle, then
another, and finally a succession of steep slopes which were merely
intervals between small cliffs. Once started it was impossible to turn
back; one minute I was sliding with a mass of loose talus, another cau-
tiously clambering down a cleft in a precipice, bracing myself against
either wall to maintain my scant foothold. Once a huge bowlder,
which I had loosened in my descent, whizzed past and crashed into
the timber a thousand feet below. It was with a deep sense of relief
that I reached the timber line and registered a silent vow never to
attempt anything so foolhardy again.
By the last week in July we reached the lowland which stretches
northwestward from the inland front of the Alaskan Range. Our
route now left the river, turning to the northwest. As we slowly cut
our way through the dense timber of the lower slopes of the valley
another horse gave out, and his load was distributed among the others.
Poor brute! Only six weeks before he had been tearing up the beach
at Tyonok, scattering his pack to right and left to the terror of the
Siwash dogs.
Coming shortly after into an open spruce forest, we were startled
by the discovery of a blazed trail, which was plainly not the work of
natives. No one accustomed to the frontier can ever mistake the scars
of an Alaskan Indian’s ax, for he has never learned to make a clean,
sharp cut. No; this chopping had been done by white men, in win-
ter, several years before. We followed the trail for some miles until
it turned off out of our course. Who were these lonely travelers
of this wild region? Whence had they come and whither did they go?
These are questions that may never be answered. That they belonged
to that class of Alaskan prospectors who have traversed the territory
from the almost tropical jungles of its southern coast to the barren
grounds which skirt the frozen sea on the north seems not unlikely.
Often these pioneers make journeys that would put to shame the
widely advertised explorations of many a well-equipped government
expedition. Were the results of their efforts commensurate with the
toil, danger, and suffering involved, geographical science would be
much enriched thereby. Unfortunately their ideas of where they
have been are often almost as vague as of where they are going.
Many a life has been lost on these hazardous journeys, and only too
often are bleaching bones the sole record of unproclaimed and unre-
rarded heroism. These adventurers have no high ideals, often no
418 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
thought beyond the desire of finding gold; but in the last three decades
they have been carrying civilization northward and converted an
unknown land into a populated territory which is now yielding millions
of gold.
From the forest we now entered a -belt of foothills, which formed
a northern spur of the main range, and once more obtained a clear
view of Mount McKinley, still almost as far distant as when we first
saw it from Mount Sushitna six weeks before. This was no cause for
depression, however, for then we were separated from our goal by an
apparently impenetrable swamp and a great, snow-covered range,
whereas now there seemed no serious obstacles to our achieving our
purpose.
Among these foothills, averaging a height of 3,000 or 4,000 feet,
dwelt large numbers of mountain sheep, their pure white color, which
in this region remains unchanged throughout the year, making them
conspicuous objects on the bare rocks or moss-covered slopes. In the
course of one morning’s roaming over the hills I counted more than
100 of these mountain dwellers. In fact, the abundance of sheep,
bear, moose, and caribou found along the north slope of the Alaskan
Range rank it as one of the finest hunting grounds in North America.
Our descent from the foothills brought us to a gravel-floored plateau
which abutted directly upon the base of the range. Its smooth, moss-
covered surface afforded such excellent footing and so few obstacles
to progress that for days we hardly yaried our direction a degree,
heading straight for Mount McKinley. That mountain and its twin
peak, Mount Foraker, now only 50 miles away, seemed to us to rise
almost sheer from the gravel plain. We passed many large glaciers
which debouched from the mountain valleys upon the plateau and dis-
charged roaring, turbulent, bowlder-filled rivers, which were our most
serious impediment.
The other members of the party seemed to have no dread of these
dangerous crossings, but for my part, I crossed every one we sighted
a dozen times before we reached it. Late in the day, after the glaciers
had felt the full influence of the sun’s rays, the streams would often
be so high as to be practically impassable, but morning would generally
find the water fallen 1 or 2 feet. The large rivers were always
reconnoitered on a horse stripped to the halter; then, if a crossing
proved feasible, each man would mount on the back of his favorite
horse and essay the perilous passage, guiding the unmanageable steed
as best he could. The feat was ever exciting, with the animal plunging
shoulder high in the muddy, surging water, swaying from side to side,
and occasionally slipping on some hidden bowlder. More than once
a horse was carried off his feet, and sometimes rolied quite over. Nor
was the ludicrous aspect entirely wanting, for often when the farther
bank was reached the horses would make a sudden leap for it anda
=
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 419
careless rider would be unceremoniously dumped over the animal’s
tail into the glacial water.
Since leaving the pass we had subsisted largely upon moose and
mountain sheep. Nota day was spent in hunting, but when the supply
of meat ran low an animal was shot near camp or on the march. Not
only was game plentiful, but so little did it know of man that it
regarded us rather with curiosity than mistrust. During our journey
across the piedmont plateau for days and weeks together we were
hardly out of sight of caribou. They had a curious way of approach-
ing, either individually or in bands, to within 50 yards of the moving
train, then galloping away to a distance and returning by a series of
large circles. Sometimes a lone buck would encircle our camp for
hours at a time, one minute standing erect gazing at us with rapt
attention, another flying across the smooth sod at a breakneck pace,
only to approach again from a different direction. Their curiosity
was apparently never satisfied, their wonder ever increasing at the
unfamiliar sight of the pack train or tents. Even the sharp crack of
the rifle did not frighten them. There was no sport in hunting such
innocently tame creatures, and we never molested them except when
we needed meat.
These were the happiest days of the summer. Cheered by the
thought that every day’s march was bringing us visibly nearer to our
goal, we lent ourselves readily to the influence of the clear, invigorating
air and the inspiration of that majestic peak ever looming before us,
the highest mountain of North America, which we were to be the first
to explore.
Yet our task was never an easy one; for the very fact that the pack
train was enabled to cover longer distances rendered it all the harder
to overtake it after the side excursions which were necessary to fulfill
the purpose of the expedition, and it was often dusk of the long arctic
day before the geologists and topographer reached camp.
George alone of the party was low-spirited. His great ambition in
life—to cook—had too narrow a scope in this land above the limit of
spruce trees, where there were only stunted willow and alder for fuel.
His spirits registered inversely to the barometer, rising as we went
down toward timber, falling as we climbed above it. Two long jour-
neys in the barren grounds of the north had not freed him from the
traditions of the Lake Superior woodsman, and he could never regard
anything as fuel that did not require splitting with an ax. Notwith-
standing, be cooked wonderful meals, as the following menu copied
from my diary will show:
Pea Soup.
Mountain Sheep a la George.
Rice. Potatoes.
Mince Pie. Stewed Apricots.
Johnny Cake. -
Tea. Cocoa.
420 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
ameal that no city cook need be ashamed of, yet it was prepared in
one of the most inaccessible points on the continent, with only green
willow as fuel. George was ever faithful to his task, ready at any
time of night or day with a hot meal for those who returned late.
Our camp of August 1 was pitched in a grove of cottonwoods near
the foot of a glacier which flowed down from the névé fields of Mount
Foraker. ‘This we called the *‘ Herron Glacier,” in honor of Capt.
Joseph S. Herron, our predecessor in the exploration of the upper
Kuskokwim Basin. <A short scramble through the underbrush brought
me to the front of the moraine, which stretched like a cyclopean
wall across the valley. Climbing to the top, I surveyed the mass
spread out before me, very like the preliminary dumping ground
of a railway excavation. It was a striking scene and an unusual one,
for a newly formed moraine is the exception in land forms. Nature
in her sculpturing delights in rounded and symmetrical outlines, and
it is only when the forces of erosion have not had time to do their
molding that such a crude, unfinished surface is exposed to view. It
is, so to speak, the raw material which streams and rains will carve
into beautifully rounded topography, and then vegetation, nature’s
decorative artist, will clothe with greens of various hues.
Two days later we made our nearest camp to Mount McKinley ina
broad, shallow valley incised in the piedmont plateau and drained by a
stream which found its source in the ice-clad slopes of the high moun-
tain. We had reached the base of the peak, and a part of our mission
was accomplished, with a margin of six weeks left for its completion.
This bade us make haste, for we must still traverse some 400 miles of
unexplored region before we could hope to reach even the outposts of
civilization. Notwithstanding all of this, we decided to allow our-
selves one day’s delay, so that we might actually set foot on the slopes
of the mountain. The ascent of Mount McKinley had never been part
of our plan, for our mission was exploration and surveying, not
mountaineering, but it now seemed very hard to us that we had neither
time nor equipment to attempt the mastery of this highest peak of the
continent.
The next morning dawned clear and bright. Climbing the bluff
above our camp, I overlooked the upper part of the valley, spread
before me like a broad amphitheater, its sides formed by the slopes of
the mountain and its spurs. Here and there glistened in the sun the
white surfaces of glaciers which found their way down from the peaks
above. The great mountain rose 17,000 feet above our camp, appar-
ently almost sheer from the flat valley floor. (See plate vir.) Its
dome-shaped summit and upper slopes were white with snow, relieved
here and there by black areas which marked cliffs too steep for the
snow to lie upon.
A two hours’ walk across the valley, through several deep glacial
streams, brought me to the very base of the mountain. As I approached
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AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 491
the top was soon lost to view; the slopes were steep, and 1 had to
scramble as best I could. (See plate 1.) Soon all vegetation was
left behind me, and my way zigzagged across smooth, bare rocks and
talus slopes of broken fragments. My objective point was a shoulder
of the mountain about 10,000 feet high, but at 3 in the afternoon I
found my route blocked by a smcoth expanse of ice. With the aid
of my geologic pick I managed to cut steps in the slippery surface,
and thus climbed 100 feet higher; then the angle of slope became
steeper; and as the ridge on which the glacier lay fell off at the sides
in sheer cliffs, a slip would have been fatal. (See plate vu.) Con-
vinced at length that it would be utterly foolhardy, alone as I was, to
attempt to reach the shoulder for which I was headed, at 7,500 feet I
turned and cautiously retraced my steps, finding the descent to bare
ground more perilous than the ascent.
I had now consumed all the time that could be spared to explore
this mountain, which had been reached at the expense of so much prep-
aration and hard toil, but at least I must leave a record to mark our
highest point. Ona prominent cliff near the base of the glacier which
had turned me back I built a cairn, in which I buried a cartridge shell
from my pistol, containing a brief account of the journey, together
with a roster of the party.
By this time I was forcibly reminded of the fact that I had forgot-
ten to eat my lunch. As I sat resting from my labors I surveyed a
striking scene. Around me were bare rock, ice, and snow; not a sign
of life, the silence broken now and then by the roar of an avalanche
loosened by the midday sun, tumbling like a waterfall over some cliff
to find a resting place thousands of feet below. I gazed along the
precipitous slopes of the mountain and tried to realize again its great
altitude, with a thrill of satisfaction at being the first man to approach
the summit, which was only 9 miles from where I smoked my pipe.
No white man had ever before reached the base, and I was far beyond
where the moccasined foot of the roving Indian had never trod. The
Alaskan native seldom goes beyond the limit of smooth walking and
has a superstitious horror of even approaching glacial ice.
Returning to camp I found Reaburn had worked all day over his
plane-table board sketching the topography of the mountain, which-
was plainly visible from his station. His map will undoubtedly serve
as a guide to him who first reaches the summit. Prindle had spent
the day making an excursion into the mountains to the south of my
route, and had come back burdened with geological and botanical
specimens; Von and Fred had been shoeing some of the horses, while
George had cooked a meal worthy of the occasion.
Our immediate goal was the Tanana River. Hoping to reach this
by the valley of one of its tributaries, the Cantwell, which we believed
to head in the northern part of the Alaskan Range, we continued our
422 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
course northeastward along the front of the range. The character of
the country remained unchanged for 100 miles, and we pushed for-
ward as rapidly as our surveys and investigations would permit, the
long moves of the party often making it difficult for Reaburn and me
to reach camp before dark. More than once we were forced to make
a lonely bivouac under some spruce tree until the return of daylight
enabled us to find camp. These irregularities annoyed George, who
liked to see each man get a full meal three times a day. He regarded
it as a kind of bad habit which we had fallen into, and when Reaburn
was gone from camp for two nights in succession remarked, ** When
a man once takes to the spruce you can’t do nothing with him.”
On one occasion, after an all-day tramp, I sighted camp from a
mountain top 6 miles away, its location marked by a cloud of smoke,
our usual method of signaling. Crossing valleys, ridges, and low-
lands, from every high point I could see the column of smoke. Dark-
ness finally overtook me 2 miles from camp, but 1 held my course by
sighting a star and thus made my way, breaking a passage through
the thick maze of alder, stumbling over fallen logs, wading streams,
and even plunging through a river whose opposite bank I could dis-
cern only in dim outline. Suddenly from the top of a ridge I saw a
pillar of fire shoot toward the sky. The boys had heard my pistol
shot and were putting fire into spruce trees. Thus guided by the
cloud of smoke during the day and the pillar of fire by night, I finally
stumbled into camp, weary, with clothing torn, and face and hands
scratched by the underbrush encountered in the darkness.
About the middle of August we turned to the-south again into the
mountains and shortly reached the forks of the Cantwell, where two
former exploring expeditions had been forced to turn back. (See
plate 1x.) On the following day we made what proved to be our
last difficult crossing. When I saw the waters surging around the
shoulders of the big horse on which I led the way I had serious fears
for the smaller animals. All crossed in safety, except that Von, who
had chosen a wild mount, was tossed off in shallow water, much to his
disgust and the amusement of the others.
On its way to the Tanana the Cantwell cuts a deep canyon through
-aminor range which lies athwart its course. Finding this canyon
apparently impassable for horses we began to fear that we had
encountered a check; fortunately, however, a short search was
rewarded by the discovery of a pass. The numerous old camps and
caches showed us that this route had long been in use by the Indians,
but we were the first to essay it with horses.
We came out upon the northern side of the range into the narrow
valley of a stream, and from the ridge above I obtained a view over
the broad lowland beyond. Far across the expanse of spruce timber
and open swamp I could see the bright ribbon of water which revealed
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Brooks. PLATE |X.
Fia. 1.—AT THE HEAD OF THE CANTWELL RIVER.
Fig. 2.—TORTELLA ON THE TANANA.
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 423
the position of the Tanana. Meanwhile the pack train had continued
down the valley below me into a rock-walled canyon, through which
the stream tumbled over huge bowlders. From my point of vantage
I could see through the glasses the horses climbing up the valley slopes
one by one, like flies crawling up a wall. It seemed impossible that
they could extricate themselves, but twenty years of mountaineering
in Montana had taught Fred to take horses where no other man could.
That night we camped on the Tanana side of the range and our moun-
tain climbing was over.
Two days later the signals made to bring me to camp did not have
that result, for I was miles away seeking shelter from the driving rain
under a spruce tree. The rifle shots did, however, attract a band of
Indians and a white prospector. The former were out on a hunting
trip from their village on the Tanana. The white man, traveling
alone, except for two large dogs which he had burdened with packs,
was on one of those wild-goose chases after gold which are so common
in Alaska. We hailed these visitors with joy, for since leaving tide-
water three months before we had seen no human beings, and only
once had we indication of their existence, by a smoke sighted miles
away across the flats of the upper Kuskokwim.
The Indians were hungry, as is usually the case with Alaska natives,
and had to be regaled. They rewarded our hospitality by information
of a trail across the swampy lowland to their village on the Tanana.
This was of material assistance to us, for by its aid we were enabled
to cover the ground rapidly, and three days later emerged from the
spruce-clothed flats on the banks of the Tanana at the native settle-
ment called Tortella. (See plate rx.)
I reached the village some distance ahead of the party. Great was
the astonishment of the natives at my sudden appearance from the
forest. White men had visited them before, but always by water, in
large parties and with abundant supplies. Who was the lone stranger
whose baggage consisted solely of his revolver, field glasses, and ham-
mer, and where did he come from? One boy knew some English, and,
drawing a map in the sand by way of illustration, l explained my route,
greatly to their bewilderment. One old man had made the trip to
Cook Inlet years ago, but he had gone by the direct route from the
head of the Cantwell, and they knew nothing of the roundabout route
we had followed.
The village consisted of a score of low structures built of spruce logs,
each containing two or more families. The fire was built in the center
and a hole in the roof served in lieu of a chimney. At night the occu-
pants lay on either side of the fire with their feet toward it, warmly
covered with caribou skins. Their clothing consisted chiefly of articles
procured from the trading post on the Yukon 100 miles away, impart-
ing an aspect that was ludicrous rather than picturesque. The old
sm 1903———28
494 AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY.
chief gravely stalked around, peering out from under the visor of a
policeman’s helmet, which was so large for him that is rested on his
ears.
When the horses arrived their delight and somewhat childish terror
were laughable. Losing no time, we bargained with the Indians for
a boat and began the crossing. After one horse had been towed over,
the rest were driven in and swam across to join their mate. Thus by
nightfall we were camped on the north bank.
It was now the Ist of September and we were still 100 miles or
more from our goal on the Yukon. The Indians implored us not to
attempt to make the journey by land, declaring the country impassa-
ble for horses. As my interpreter stated the case, ‘‘ Plenty water;
plenty stick [thick timber]. No good! No good!” But we were not
to be deterred from completing the exploration we had planned, though
we could have shot the horses and easily reached the Yukon by core.
The next morning a delegation of our friends visited our camp to give
us a final warning: *‘No good! No good! By and by come back.
Maybe so.”
Here we abandoned all except the most necessary part of our outfit,
for the early frost was killing the grass and the stock was beginning
to show the effects of insufficient nourishment. The light packs were
quickly adjusted, and without cutting a trail, to the astonishment of
the Indians, we let the horses crash their way through the underbrush.
For two days we followed a ridge leading to the notin along the east-
ern edge of a broad timbered flat dotted with innumerable lakes and
crossed by many sluggish water courses. This it was that the Indians
had said was impassable. Finding that the route around it threatened
to protract our journey 100 miles or more, we boldly headed straight
across it.
It was a route beset with difficulties. Now we were chopping our
way through a dense tangle of small growth; now building corduroy
over swamps and streams; now rafting rivers too wide to bridge. All
worked with energy born of the consciousness that our provisions were
getting low and it was only a matter of days before our horses would
begin to play out. In one eorees we succeeded in rafting five rivers
and built bridges over six more. More than once our temporary
bridge gave way, and then we had the heartrending toil of dragging
the poor, weak animals up on the bank. The traveling was not all of
this character, for occasionally there would be a stretch of several
miles where we would thread our way through open forests of white
birches. The glistening white trunks and yellow autumnal foliage
presented a gayety of Calon which was in strong contrast to the somber
spruce forest we had been traversing for so many miles. The small
lakes were covered with wild fowl congregating for their southward
migration.
AN EXPLORATION TO MOUNT McKINLEY. 495
We finally left the lowland and entered an upland region, where we
kept for the most part above timber. The poor horses, even under
the lightened loads, began to fail. Overtaking the pack train one day,
I found Prindle and George laboring with Rabbit, who refused to take
another step. Both were very fond of the little mare—always a pet
with the party—and wanted to save her life. We worked with her a
whiie, but it was no use—her heart was broken; and drawing my
revolver, I sent a bullet through the brain of the poor beast who had
served us so well. After this a horse was shot nearly every day.
Leaving the party one morning, I took a long side trip, expecting
to pick up their trail and follow it into camp that night, but they had
misunderstood my directions, and at midnight I again sought shelter
from the rain under a large spruce. I roasted a ptarmigan which I
had shot, and this, together with a few hard-tack, constituted my sup-
per and breakfast. The next day I was forced to go back to the old
camp to pick up the trail. A dead horse marked the spot, and a
search through his pack revealing a bag of rice, I cooked a meal of
this with the aid of an abandoned butter can and started on the trail.
On the mountain side lay another dead horse with some bacon left in
his pack, which I took for an emergency. Nightfall found me not yet
in camp, and this time I dined and breakfasted on bacon and another
ptarmigan which had fallen to my revolver. Late in the afternoon I
reached camp, after an absence of two nights and nearly three days,
to find Reaburn very anxious and scouts out in various directions.
This camp was ona trail which led from the then newly discovered
gold diggings known as Glenn Creek to Rampart, on the Yukon.
The next morning we packed for the Jast time, abandoning most of
the outfit and feeding the last of our flour to the horses to strengthen
them for the final march. I took a route across the hills and at night-
fall joined the party camped in the town of Rampart. Many were the
questions asked us, but few of the questioners, I think, really believed
that we had made the journey from Cook Inlet.
Thus ended the longest cross-country exploration ever attempted
in Alaska. Our plans had been carried out from start to finish; we
had traversed 800 miles of the roughest part of Alaska in one hundred
and five days. While cooking our breakfast next morning, a river
steamer whistled, the last to make the journey down the Yukon before
it was locked in the winter ice. Leaving our breakfast cooking on
the fire, we hastily gathered up our more precious belongings, chiefly
notes and specimens, and scrambled on board. The boat swung out in
midstream, and with a farewell salute to the crowd of Indians and
prospectors on the bank we rapidly steamed away, once more headed
for civilization and home.
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NORTH POLAR EXPLORATION: FIELD WORK OF THE
PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
By Commander R. E. Peary, U. 8. Navy.
INTRODUCTION.
-In January, 1897, I promulgated before the American Geographical
Society of New York City my plan for an extended scheme of arctic
exploration, having for its main purpose the attainment of the North
Pole. During the spring of 1897 Morris K. Jesup, now president of
the Peary Arctic Club, became interested in the matter and suggested
the idea of this club. His example was followed by other prominent
men, and late in May, through the persistent personal efforts of Charles
A. Moore, backed by letters from these and other influential men, five
years’ leave of absence was granted me by the Navy Department. to
enable me to carry out my plans.
It being too late that season to get the main expedition under way,
the summer of 1897 was devoted to a preliminary trip to the Whale
Sound region to acquaint the Eskimos with my plan for the coming
year and in setting them to work laying in a stock of skins and meat.
These objects were successfully accomplished, and, in addition, the
great **Ahnighito” meteorite of Melville Bay, the largest known mete-
orite in the world, was brought home. In December, 1897, while in
London, the schooner yacht Windward, which had been used in his
Franz Josef Land expedition, was tendered to me by Alfred Harms-
worth, who offered to have her re-engined and delivered to me in New
York. This generous offer I accepted. In the spring of 1898 the
Peary Arctic Club was organized, Morris K. Jesup, Henry W. Can-
non, H. L. Bridgman, all personal friends of mine, forming the nucleus
about which the rest assembled. In May the Windward arrived, but to
iny extreme regret and disappointment she still retained her antiquated
and puny engine (the machinists’ strike in England prevented the
installation of new ones), and was practically nothing but a sailing craft.
The lateness of the season was such that nothing could be done but
“From manuscript, as read before the Peary Arctic Club, by courtesy of the National
Geographic Society.
427
428 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
make the most of the Windward as she was. But her extreme slow-
ness (34 knots under favorable circumstances) and the introduction of
a disturbing factor, in the appropriation by another of my plan and
field of work, necessitated the charter of an auxiliary ship if I did not
wish to be distanced in my own domain. The Windward sailed from
New York on the 4th of July, 1898, and on the 7th I went on board
the Hope at Sydney, Cape Breton, and sailed just as the first two-line
cablegram came of the battle of Santiago.
1898-99.
Pushing rapidly northward and omitting the usual calls at the Dan-
ish Greenland ports, Cape York was reached after a voyage uneventful
except for a nip in the ice of Melville Bay which lifted the //ope
bodily and for a few hours seemed to contain possibilities of trouble.
The work of hunting walrus and assembling my party of natives was
commenced at once; the Windward soon joined us, after which the
hunting was prosecuted by both ships until the final rendezvous at
Etah, from whence both ships steamed out on August 13, the Wend-
ward to continue northward, the //ope bound for home. The W7nd-
ward was four hours forcing her way through a narrow barrier of
heavy ice across the mouth of Foulke Fjord. Here the //ope left us,
straightening away southward toward Cape Alexander, and the Wind-
ward headed for Cape Hawkes, showing distinctly beyond Cape Sabine.
At 4 a. m. Sunday we encountered scattered ice off Cape Albert.
About noon we were caught in the ice near Victoria Head, and drifted
back several miles. Finally we got round Victoria Head into Princess
Marie Bay at 6 p.m. The bay was filled with the season’s ice, not yet
broken out, while Kane Basin was crowded with the heavy, moving
polar pack. Between the two, extended northward across the mouth
of the bay, was a series of small pools and threads of water, opening
and closing with the movements of the tide. At 11.30 p. m. on the
[sth the W/ndward had worried her way across the bay to a little patch
of open water close under Cape D’Urville. Here further progress
was stopped by a large floe, several miles across, one end resting against
the shore and the other extending out into the heavy ice. While cross-
ing the bay the more important stores had been stowed on the deck
in readiness to be thrown out upon the ice in the event of a nip.
Pending the turning of the tide, when I hoped the big floe would
move and let us proceed, I landed at Cape D’Urville, deposited a
small cache of supplies, and climbed the bluffs to look at the conditions
northward.
August 21.—I went ona reconnoissance along the ice foot to the head
of Allman Bay and into the valley beyond. The night of the 21st
young ice formed which did not melt again. On the 28th I attempted
to sledge over the sea ice to Norman Lockyer Island, but found too
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 429
many weak places, and fell back on the ice foot. The night of the
29th the temperature fell to 13° F., and on the 31st the new ice was
+ inches thick. On this day I went to Cape Hawkes and climbed to
its summit, whence I could see lakes out in Kane Basin, but between
them and the W/ndiward the ice was closely packed—a discouraging
outlook. Only a strong and continued westerly wind would give me
any chance. The uncertainty of these two weeks was very annoying
tome. Had I been sure that we could not get away from here I could
have been making an inland trip. As it was I could not leave the
ship for fear an opportunity to advance would occur in my absence.
September 2.1 started on a sledge trip up Princess Marie Bay.
At Cape Harrison the strong tidal current kept the ice broken, so I
could not round it, and the ice foot was impracticable for sledges. I
went on foot to the entrance of Copes Bay, surveying the shore to
that point, then returned to the ship after four days’ absence. During
this trip I obtained the English record from the cairn on the summit
of Norman Lockyer Island, deposited there twenty-two years ago.
This record was as fresh as when left.
September 6.—1 left the ship to reconnoiter Dobbin Bay, the head
of which is uncharted, returning three days later. During this trip
the first real snowstorm of the season occurred, 54 inches falling.
September 12.—One-third of my provisions, an ample year’s supply
for the entire party, was landed at Cape D’Urville, my Eskimos sledg-
ing loads of 700 to 1,000 pounds over the young ice. The night of
the 13th the temperature dropped to —10° F., and all hope of farther
advance was at an end.
September 15.—The boiler was blown off and preparations for win-
ter commenced.
On the 17th I broached my plans for the winter campaign as
follows:
The autumn work was simple enough and outlined itself. It com-
prised two items—the securing of a winter’s supply of fresh meat for
the party and the survey of the Buchanan Strait-Hayes Sound-Princess
Marie Bay region. In spite of the peculiarly desolate character of
that part of the Grinnell Land coast immediately about the Windward,
and the apparent utter absence of animal life, I felt confident of
accomplishing the former. Various reconnoissances thus far on the
north shore of Princess Marie Bay had given me little encouragement,
but I knew that the Eskimos had killed one or two musk oxen in
years past on Bache Island, and that region looked favorable for them.
As regards the survey, a presentiment that I must get at that at the
earliest possible moment had already led me to make attempts to reach
the head of Princess Marie Bay.
As to the spring campaign, I could not be reconciled to the idea of
losing a year fzom the main work of the expedition, and proposed to
430 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
utilize the winter moons in pushing supplies to Fort Conger, then
move my party to that station early in February, and on the return of
the sun start from there as a base, and make my attempt on the-Pole
via Cape Hecla. I might succeed in spite of the low latitude of my
starting point, and in any event could be back to the ship before the
ice broke up, with thorough knowledge of the coast and conditions
north of me.
September 18.—I left the ship with two sledges and my two best
Eskimos, with provisions for twelve days, for a reconnoissance of
Princess Marie Bay.
September 20.—I1 reached the head of a small fjord running south-
west from near the head of Princess Marie Bay, and found a narrow
neck of land about 3 miles wide separating it from a branch of
3uchanan Strait. Bache Island of the chart is, therefore, a pen-
insula, and not an island. From a commanding peak in the neigh-
borhood I could see that both arms of Buchanan Strait ended about
south of my position; that the ‘*strait” is in reality a bay, and that
Hayes Sound does not exist. On the 21st and 22d I penetrated the
arms of Princess Marie Bay, designated as Sawyer and Woodward
bays on the charts, and demonstrated them to be entirely closed.
September 23.—W hile entering a little bight about midway of the
north shore of Bache Peninsula, | came upon two bears. These my
dog chased ashore, and held at bay until I could come up and_ kill
them.
September 25.—1 crossed Bache Peninsula on foot with my two men,
from Bear Camp to the intersection of the northern and southern
arms of Buchanan Bay. Here we found numerous walrus, and could
command the southern arm of the large glacier at its head. Compara-
tively recent musk-ox tracks conyinced me of the presence of musk
ox on the peninsula. The next day I returned to the Windward to
refit and start for Buchanan Bay via Victoria Head and Cape Albert,
in the quest of walrus and musk oxen: Henson, in a reconnoissance
northward during my absence, had been unable to get more than a few
miles beyond Cape Louis Napoleon, sea ice and ice foot being alike
impracticable. A day or two after my return I started him off again
to try it.
September 30.—| started for Buchanan Bay. Between Victoria
Head and Cape Albert found fresh tracks of a herd of musk oxen and
followed them until obliterated by the wind. Reached the walrus
grounds in Buchanan Bay late on October 4, and the next day secured
a walrus, and the remainder of my party arrived. The following day
everyone was out after musk oxen, but, finding it very foggy on the
uplands of the peninsula, I returned to camp and went up to Buchanan
Bay in search of bears, the tracks of which we had seen. Returning
to camp, I found that one of my hunters had killed a bull musk ox.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Peary. PLATE II.
FiG. 1.—LANDING SUPPLIES AT CAPE D’URVILLE.
Fic. 2.—WINTER QUARTERS AT CAPE D’URVILLE, 1898-99.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Peary. PLATE III.
CTRL ee,
Fic. 2.—CAPE Louis NAPOLEON.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 431
On the 7th of October I sent two men to bring out the meat and
skin, while I went up Buchanan Bay again. Returning to camp, I
found it deserted. A little later some of my party returned, reporting
a herd of 15 musk oxen killed. The next two days were consumed in
cutting up the animals, stacking the meat, and getting the skins and
some of the meat out to camp. The latter had to be dragged to the
top of the bluffs and thrown over.
October 10.—We started for the ship, which was reached late on the
i2th. The ice in Buchanan Bay was very rough, and a snowstorm on
the 11th made going very heavy. Five days later, October 17, I
went with two men to locate a direct trail for getting the meat out to
the north side of the peninsula, but found the country impracticable,
and returned to the ship on the 2ist. The sun left on the 20th.
The following week was devoted to the work of preparation for the
winter. A reconnoissance of Franklin Pierce Bay developed nothing
but hare tracks, but Henson came in from Copes Bay witha big bear,
killed near the head of the bay. This marked the end of the fall cam-
paign, with our winter’s fresh meat supply assured, and the Bache
**TIsland”-Buchanan ‘‘ Strait”-*‘ Hayes Sound” question settled.
The next step was the inauguration of the teaming work, which was
to occupy us through the winter. [already had my pemmican and some
miscellaneous supplies at Cape Louis Napoleon, and two sledge loads of
provisions at Cape Fraser. The rapidly disappearing daylight being
now too limited for effective traveling, I was obliged to wait the
appearance of the next moon before starting for a personal reconnois-
sance of the coast northward. On the 29th I left the ship with Henson
and one Eskimo. The soft snow of the last two storms compelled me
to break a road for the sledges with my snowshoes across Allman Bay
and along many portions of the ice foot, but in spite of this delay we
camped at Cape Louis Napoleon after a long march.
The next day we reached Cape Fraser, having been impeded by the
tide rising over the ice foot, and camped at Henson’s farthest, at the
beginning of what seemed an impracticable ice foot. It was the only
possible way of advance, however, as the still moving pack in the
channel was entirely impassable. The following day I made a recon-
noissance on foot as far as Scoresby Bay, and though the ice foot was
then entirely impracticable for sledges, I was convinced that a good
deal of earnest work with picks and shovels, assisted by the leveling
effects of the next spring tides, would enable me to get loaded sledges
over it during the next moon. From Cape Norton Shaw I could see
that by making a detour into Scoresby Bay the heavy pack could be
avoided in-crossing. This stretch of ice foot from Cape Fraser to
Cape Norton Shaw is extremely Alpine in character, being an almost
continuous succession of huge blocks and masses of berg’s and old floes,
432 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
forced bodily out of the water and up onto the rocks. At Cape John
Barrow a large berg had been forced up on the solid rock of the cape,
until one huge fragment lay fully 100 feet above the high-tide level.
Returning from my reconnoissance, I camped again at Camp Fraser,
building the first of my snow igloos, which I intended should be con-
structed at convenient intervals the entire distance to Fort Conger.
The next three days were occupied in bringing the supplies at Cape
Louis Napoleon up to Cape Fraser, and on the 4th of November I
returned to the ship. The time until the return of the next moon was
fully occupied in making and repairing sledges, bringing in beef from
the cache on Bache Peninsula, and transporting supplies and dog food
to Cape Hawkes, beyond the heavy going of Allman Bay. During
much of this time the temperature was in the —40°’s F.
November 21.—Henson and 3 Eskimos left with loads, and on the
22d I followed with a party of 8 to begin the work of the November
moon. This work ended just after midnight of December 4, when the
last sledges came in. It left 3,300 pounds of supplies and a quantity
of dog food at Cape Wilkes on the north side of Richardson Bay.
These supplies would have been left at Cape Lawrence had it not been
for the desertion and turning back of one of my men, discouraged with
the hard work, while crossing Richardson Bay. Knowing it to be
essential to prevent any recurrence of the kind, I pushed on to Cape
Wilkes, camped, and turned in after a twenty-five-hour day, slept three
hours, then started with empty sledge, 8 picked dogs, and an Eskimo
driver, to overtake my man. He was found at Cape Louis Napoleon,
and after receiving a lesson was taken along with me to the ship.
My party was left with instructions to bring up supplies which the
wrecking of sledges had obliged me to cache at various places, assemble
all at Cape Wilkes, and then, if I did not return, reconnoiter the ice
foot to Rawlings Bay and return to the ship. The distance from Cape
Wilkes to the Windward was 60 nautical miles in a straight line (as
traveled by me along the ice foot and across the bays, not less than 90
statute miles), and was covered in twenty-three hours and twenty min-
utes, or twenty-one hours and thirty minutes actual traveling time.
Temperature during the run, —50° F. Every sledge was more or less
smashed in this two weeks’ campaign, and at Cape John Barrow
sledges and loads had to be carried on our backs over the ice jams.
The mean daily minimum temperature for the thirteen days was —41.2°
F’., the lowest, —50° F., which occurred on four successive days. The
experience gained on this trip led me to believe that the conditions of
travel from Cape Wilkes northward, as far at least as Cape Defosse,
would not differ materially from those already encountered and enabled
me to.lay my plans with somewhat greater detail. With the light of
the December moon I would proceed to Cape Wilkes with such loads
as would enable me to travel steadily without double banking, advance
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 433
everything to Cape Lawrence on the north side of Rawlings Bay, then
go rapidly on to Fort Conger with light sledges, determine the condi-
tion of the supplies left there, that 1 might know what I could depend
upon, and thus save transportation of unnecessary articles, then return
to the ship.
In the January moon I would start with my entire party; move my
supplies from Cape Lawrence to Fort Conger; remain there till the
February moon, the light of which would merge into the beginning of
the returning daylight; then sledge the supplies for the polar journey
to Cape Hecla, and be in readiness to start from there, with rested and
well-fed dogs, by the middle of March. In pursuance of this plan,
the two weeks intervening between the departure of the November
moon and the appearance of the December one were busily occupied
in repairing and strengthening sledges, and making and overhauling
clothing and equipment, to enable us to meet this long and arduous
journey in the very midnight of the ‘‘great night.” During this
interval the temperature much of the time was at —50° F. and below.
December 20.—In the first light of the returning moon I left the
Windward with my doctor, Henson, 4 Eskimos, and 30 dogs, all that
were left of the sixty odd of four months previous. Thick weather,
strong winds rushing out of Kennedy Channel, heavy snow, and an
abominable ice foot in Rawlings Bay delayed me, and it was not until
the 28th that I had all my supplies assembled at Cape Lawrence, on
the north side of Rawlings Bay.
Cape Lawrence presented the advantage of two possible routes by
which these latter supplies could be reached from Conger, one through
Kennedy Channel, which I was about to follow, and the other via
Archer Fjord and overland. Inspite of the delays, I felt on the whole
well satisfied with the work up to the end of the year. I had all my
supplies halfway to Fort Conger, and had comfortable snow igloos
erected at Cape Hawkes, Cape Louis Napoleon, Cape Fraser, Cape
Norton Shaw, Cape Wilkes, and Cape Lawrence.
December 29.—1 started from Cape Lawrence with light sledges for
Fort Conger, hoping to make the distance in five days. The first
march from Cape Lawrence the ice foot was fairly good, though an
inch or two of efflorescence made the sledges drag as if on sand. The
ice foot grew steadily worse as we advanced, until after rounding Cape
Defosse, it was almost impassable even for light sledges. The light of
the moon lasted only for a few hours out of the twenty-four, and at
its best was not sufficient to permit us to select a route on the sea ice.
Just south of Cape Defosse we ate the last of our biscuit, just north
of it the last of our beans. On the next march a biting wind swept
down the channel and numbed the Eskimo, who had spent the previ-
ous winter in the States, to such an extent that to save him we were
434 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
obliged to halt just above Cape Cracroft and dig a burrow in a snow-
drift. When the storm ceased I left him with another Eskimo and 9
of the poorest dogs and pushed on to reach Fort Conger.
The moon had left us entirely now, and the ice foot was utterly
impracticable, and we groped and stumbled through the rugged sea
ice as far as Cape Baird. Here we slept a few hours ina burrow in
the snow, then started across Lady Franklin Bay. In complete dark-
ness and over a chaos of broken and heaved-up ice we stumbled and fell
and groped for eighteen hours, till we climbed upon the ice foot of the
north side. Here a dog was killed for food. Absence of suitable
snow put an igloo out of the question, and a semicave under a large
cake of ice was so cold that we could stop only long enough to make
tea. Here I left a broken sledge and 9 exhausted dogs. Just east of
us a floe had been driven ashore, and forced up over the ice foot till
its shattered fragments lay 100 feet up the talus of the bluff. It
seemed impassable, but the crack at the edge of the ice foot allowed
us to squeeze through; and soon after we rounded the point, and I was
satisfied by the ‘‘ feel” of the shore, for we could see nothing, that we
were at one of the entrances of Discovery Harbor, but which one I
could not tell. Several hours of groping showed that it was the east-
ern entrance. We had struck the center of Bellot Island, and at mid-
night of January 6 we were stumbling through the dilapidated door of
Fort Conger. A little remaining oil enabled me, by the light of our
sledge cooker, to find the range and the stove in the officers’ quarters,
and after some difficulty fires were started in both. When this was
accomplished, a suspicious ‘* wooden” feeling in my right foot led me
to have my kamiks pulled off, and I found to my annoyance that both
feet were frosted. Coffee from an open tin in the kitchen, and biscuit
from the table in the men’s room, just as they had been dropped over
fifteen years ago, furnished the menu for a simple but abundant lunch.
A hasty search failing to discover matches, candles, lamps, or oil, we
were forced to devise some kind of a light very quickly before our oil
burned out. Half a bottle of olive oil, a saucer, and a bit of towel
furnished the material for a small native lamp, and this, supplemented
by pork fat and lard, furnished us hight for several days, until oil was
located. Throwing ourselves down on the cots in the officers’ rooms,
after everything had been done for my feet, we slept long and soundly.
Awakening, it was evident that I should lose parts or all of several
toes, and be confined for some weeks. The mean minimum temperature
during the trip was —51.9° F., the lowest —63° F.
During the following weeks our life at Conger was pronouncedly a
la Robinson Crasoe. Searching for things in the unbroken darkness
of the “Great Night,” with a tiny flicker of flame in a saucer, was
very like seeking a needle in a haystack. Gradually all the essentials
were located, while my 2 faithful Eskimos brought in empty boxes
»
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 4385
and barrels and broke them up to feed the fire. The dogs left on
Bellot Island were brought in, but several died before they got used
to the frozen salt pork and beef, which was all I had to feed them.
The natives made two attempts to reach and bring in the 2 men left
at Cape Cracroft, but were driven back both times by the darkness
and furious winds. Finally, some ten days after we left the dugout,
they reached it again, and found that the 2 men, after eating some
of their dogs, had started for the ship on foot, the few remaining
dogs following them.
On the 18th of February the moonlight and the remaining twilight
afforded enough light for a fair day’s march in each twenty-four hours;
we started for the Windward. My toes were unhealed, the bones were
protruding through the raw stumps on both feet, and I could hardly
stand fora moment. I had 12 dogs left, but their emaciated condi-
tion and the character of the road precluded riding by anyone but
myself. Lashed firmly down, with feet and legs wrapped in musk-ox
skin, I formed the only load of one sledge. The other carried the
necessary provisions.
On the 28th we reached the Windward, every one but myself having
walked the entire distance of not less than 250 miles in eleven days.
Fortunately for us, and particularly for me, the weather during our
return, though extremely cold, was calm, with the exception of one
day from Cape Cracroft south, during which the furious wind kept us
enveloped in driving snow. The mean ininimum daily temperature
while we were returning was — 56.18° F., reaching the lowest, — 65°
F., the day we arrived at the Windward.
March 3.—\ started one of my Eskimos for Whale Sound with a
summons to the hunters there to come to me with their dogs and
sledges. Between the 3d and 14th a party of Eskimos coming unex-
pectedly, the last of the musk-ox meat on Bache Peninsula was
brought to the ship, and another bull musk ox killed.
March 13.—The final amputation of my toes was performed. Pend-
ing the arrival of more natives, I sent a dory to Cape Louis Napoleon
to be cached and had dog food and current supplies advanced to Cape
Fraser.
March 31.—A contingent of 5 natives and 27 dogs came in. My
messenger had been delayed by heavy winds and rough ice, and the
ravages of the dog disease had made it necessary to send to the more
southerly settlements for dogs.
Apri 3.—Henson left with these natives and 35 dogs, with instruc-
tions to move the supplies at Cape Lawrence to Carl Ritter Bay, then
push on with such loads as he could carry without double banking to
Fort Conger, rest his dogs and dry his clothing, and if I did not join
him by that time to start back.
436 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY AROTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
April 19.—My left foot had healed, though still too weak and stiff
from long disuse for me to move without crutches. On this day I
started for Fort Conger with a party of 10, some 50 dogs, and 7
sledges loaded with dog food and supplies for return caches.
April 23.—1 met Henson returning with his party at Cape Law-
rence. From there I sent back my temporary help and borrowed
dogs, and went on with a party of 7, including 5 natives.
April 28.—We reached Conger. |
May 4.—Having dried ail our gear and repaired sledges, I started
for a reconnoissance of the Greenland northwest coast. I should have
started two days earlier but for bad weather. Following a very ardu-
ous ice foot to St. Patricks Bay, I found the bay filled with broken
pack ice covered with snow almost thigh deep. From the top of Cape
Murchison, with a good glass, no practicable road could be seen. The
following day I sent 2 men with empty sledges and a powerful team of
dogs to Cape Beechy to reconnoiter from its summit. Their report
was discouraging. Clear across to the Greenland shore, and up and
down as far as the glass could reach, the channel was filled with
upheaved floe fragments, uninterrupted by young ice or large floes,
and covered with deep snow.
Crippled as I was, and.a mere dead weight on the sledge, I felt that
the road was impracticable. Had I been fit and in my usual place,
ahead of the sledges breaking the ice with my snowshoes, it would
have been different. One chance remained—that of finding a passage
across to the Greenland side at Cape Lieber.
Returning to Conger, I sent Henson and one Eskimo off immediately
on this reconnoissance, and later sent 2 men to Musk Ox Bay to look
for musk oxen. Twodays afterward they returned reporting 16 musk
oxen killed, and Henson came in on the same day, reporting the con-
dition of the channel off Capes Lieber and Cracroft the same as that
off Capes Beechy and Murchison, and that they had been unable to
get across. I now gave up the Greenland trip, and perhaps it was
well that I did so, as the unhealed place on my right foot was begin-
ning to break down and assume an unhealthy appearance from its
severe treatment. As soon as the musk-ox skins and beef were
brought in, the entire party, except myself and one Eskimo, went to
the Bellows and Black Rock Vale for more musk oxen. Twelve were
killed here, and the skins and meat brought to Conger. Not believ-
ing it desirable to kill more musk oxen, and unable to do any travel-
ing north, I compieted the work of securing the meat and skins
obtained; getting the records and private papers of the United States
International Expedition together; securing, as far as possible, collec-
tions and property; housing material and supplies still remaining
serviceable, and making the house more comfortable for the purposes
of my party.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 437
May 23.—We started for the ship, carrying only the scientific records
of the expedition, the private papers of its members, and necessary
supplies. I was still obliged to ride continuously. Favored with
abundant light and continuously calm weather, and forcing the dogs
to their best, the return to the ship was accomplished in six days,
arriving there May 29. During my absence Captain Bartlett had
built at Cape D’Urville, from plans which I had furnished him, a
comfortable house of the boxes of supplies, double roofed with canvas,
and banked in with gravel.
June 1.—I sent one sledge load of provisions to Cape Louis Napoleon,
and four to Cape Norton Shaw.
June 6.—1 sent three loads to Carl Ritter Bay and two to Cape
Lawrence. On the 25th of June the last of these sledges returned to
the Windward, and the year’s campaign to the north was ended. The
return from Carl Ritter Bay had been slow, owing to the abundance of
vater on the ice foot and the sea ice of the bays, and the resulting sore
feet of the dogs.
June 28.—<A sufficient number of dogs had recovered from the effect
of their work to enable me to make up two teams, and Henson was
sent with these, four of the natives, and a dory, to make his way to
Etah and communicate with the summer ship immediately on her
arrival, so that her time would not be wasted even should the Windward
be late in getting out of the ice.
June 29.—1 started with two sledges and three natives to complete
my survey of Princess Marie and Buchanan bays, and make a reconnois-
sance to the westward from the head of the former. My feet, which I
had been favoring since my return from Conger, were now in fair
condition, only a very small place on the right one remaining unhealed.
Traveling and working at night and sleeping during the day, I
advanced to Princess Marie Bay, crossed the narrow neck of Bache
Peninsula, and camped on the morning of July 4 near the head of
the northern arm of Buchanan Bay. - Hardly was the tent set up
when a bear was seen out in the bay, and we immediately went in
pursuit, and in a short time had him killed. He proved to be a
fine large specimen. While after the bear I noticed a herd of musk
oxen a few miles up the valley, and after the bear had been brought
into camp and skinned, and we had snatched a few hours’ sleep, we
went after the musk oxen. Eight of these were secured, including
two fine bulls and two live calves, the latter following us back to
camp of their own accord. The next three days were occupied in
getting the beef to camp. I then crossed to the southern arm of
Buchanan Bay, securing another musk ox. Returning to Princess
Marie Bay, I camped on the morning of the 14th at the glacier which
fills the head of Sawyer Bay.
438 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
During the following six days I ascended the glacier, crossed the
ice cap to its western side, and from elevations of from 4,000 to
4,700 feet looked down upon the snow-free western side of Ellesmere
Land, and out into an ice-free fjord, extending some 50 miles to the
northwest. The season here was at least a month earlier than on
the east side, and the general appearance of the country reminded me
of the Whale Sound region of Greenland. Clear weather for part of
one day enabled me to take a series of angles, then fog and rain and
snow settled down upon us. Through this I steered by compass back
to and down the glacier, camping on the 21st in my camp of the 15th.
The return from here to the ship was somewhat arduous, owing to the
rotten condition of the one-year ice and the deep pools and canals of
water on the surface of the old floes. These presented the alternative
of making endless detours or wading through water often waist deep.
During seven days our clothing, tent, sleeping gear, and food were
constantly saturated. The Windward was reached on the 28th of July.
In spite of the discomforts and hardships of this trip, incident to
the lateness of the season, I felt repaid by its results. In addition to
completing the notes requisite for a chart of the Princess Marie-
Buchanan Bay region, I had been fortunate in crossing the Ellesmere
Land ice cap and looking upon the western coast. The game secured
during this trip comprised a polar bear, 7 musk oxen, 3 oogsook, and
14 seals. .
When I returned to the Windward she was round in the eastern side
of Franklin Pierce Bay. <A party had left two days before with dogs,
sledge, and boat, in an attempt to meet me and supply me with pro-
visions. Three days were occupied in communicating with them and
getting them and their outfit on board. The Windward then moved
back to her winter berth at Cape D’Urville, took the dogs on board,
and on the morning of Wednesay, August 2, got under way.
During the next five days we advanced some 12 miles, when a
southerly wind jammed the ice on us and drifted us north abreast
of the starting point. Early Tuesday morning, the 8th, we got another
start, and the ice gradually slackening, we kept under way, reached
open water a little south of Cape Albert, and arrived at Cape Sabine
at 10 p. m.
At Cape Sabine I landed a cache and then steamed over to Etah,
arriving at 5 a.m. of the 9th. Here we found mail, and learned that
the steamship Yana, which the club had sent up to communicate with
me, was out after walrus. Saturday morning the Yana returned, and
I had the great pleasure of taking Secretary Bridgman, commanding
the club’s expedition, by the hand.
Though the year had not been marked by any startling results, it was
a year of hard and continuous work for the entire party. During the
year I obtained the material for an authentic map of the Buchanan Bay,
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 439
Bache Peninsula, Princess Marie Bay region; crossed the Ellesmere
Land ice cap to the west side of that land; established a continuous
line of caches from Cape Sabine to Fort Conger, containing some 14
tons of supplies; rescued the original records and private papers of
the Greely expedition; fitted Fort Conger as a base for future work,
and familiarized myself and party with the entire region as far north
as Cape Beechy.
With the exception of the supplies at Cape D’Urville, all the pro-
visions, together with the current supplies and dog food (the latter an
excessive item), had been transported by sledge.
Finally, discouraging as was the accident to my feet, I was satisfied,
since my effort to reach the northwest coast of Greenland from Conger
in May, that the season was one of extremely unfavorable ice condition
north of Cape Beechy, and doubt, even if the accident had not occurred,
whether I should have found it advisable, on reaching Cape Hecla, to
attempt the last stage of the journey.
My decision not to attempt to winter at Fort Conger was arrived at
after careful consideration. Two things controlled this decision: First,
the uncertainty of carrying dogs through the winter, and, second, the
comparative facility with which the distance from Etah to Fort
Conger can be covered with light sledges.
After the rendezvous with the Diana, | went on board the latter
ship and visited all the native settlements, gathering skins and material
for clothing and sledge equipment and recruiting my dog teams. The
Windward was sent hunting walrus during my absence. The Dana
also assisted in this work.
August 25.—The Windward saited for home, followed on the 28th
by the Dana, after landing me with my party, equipment, and
additional supplies at Etah.
1899-1900.
The Diana seemed to have gathered in and taken with her all the
fine weather, leaving us a sequence of clouds, wind, fog, and snow,
which continued with scarcely a break for weeks.
After her departure the work before me presented itself in its own
natural sequence as follows: Protect the provisions, construct our win-
ter quarters, then begin building sledges and grinding walrus meat
for dog pemmican for the spring campaign.
During the first month a number of walrus were killed from our
boats off the mouth of .the fjord; then the usual Arctic winter settled
down upon us, its monotony varied only by the visits of the natives,
occasional deer hunts, and a December sledge journey to the Eskimo
settlements in Whale Sound as faras Kangerd-looksoah. In this nine-
days’ trip some 240 miles were covered in six marches, the first and
the last marches being 60 to 70 miles. I returned to Etah just in time
sm 19083——29
440 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY AROTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
to escape a severe snowstorm, which stopped communication between
Etah and the other Eskimo settlements completely until I sent a party
with snowshoes and a specially constructed sledge, carrying no load,
and manned by double teams of dogs, to break the trail.
During my absence some of my natives had crossed to Mr. Stein’s
place at Sabine, and January 9 I began the season’s work by starting
a few sledge loads of dog food for Cape Sabine, for use of my teams in
the spring journey. From this time on, as the open water in Smith
Sound permitted, more dog food was sent to Sabine, and as the light
gradually increased, some of my Eskimos were kept constantly at
Sonntag Bay,some 20 miles to the south, on the lookout for walrus.
My general programme for the spring work was to send three
divisions of sledges north as far as Conger, the first to be in charge of
Henson, while I brought up the rear with the third.
From Conger I should send back a number of Eskimos, retain some
at Conger, and with others proceed north from there either via Hecla
or the north point of Greenland, as circumstances might determine.
I wanted to start the first division on the 15th of February, the
second a week later, and leave with the third March 1, but a severe
storm, breaking up the ice between Etah and Littleton Island, delayed
the departure of the first division of seven sledges until the 19th.
The second division of six sledges started on the 26th, and March 4
I left with the rear division of nine sledges. Three marches carried us
to Cape Sabine, along the curving northern edge of the north water.
Here a northerly gale with heavy drift detained me for two days.
Three more marches in a temperature of —40° F. brought me to the
house at Cape D’Urville. Records here informed me that the first
division had been detained here a week by stormy weather, and the
second division had left but two days before my arrival. I had
scarcely arrived when two of Henson’s Eskimos came in from Richard-
son Bay, where one of them had severely injured his leg by falling
under a sledge. One day was spent at the D’Urville house drying
our clothing, and on the 13th I got away on the trail of the other
divisions with seven sledges, the injured man going to Sabine with the
supporting party.
I hoped to reach Cape Louis Napoleon on this march, but the going
was too heavy and I was obliged to camp in Dobbin Bay, about 5
miles short of the cape.
The next day I hoped on starting to reach Cape Fraser, but was
again disappointed, a severe windstorm compelling me to halt a little
south of Hayes Point, and hurriedly build snow igloos in the midst of
a blinding drift.
All that night and the next day and thenext night the storm con-
tinued. An early start was made on the 16th, and in calm but very
thick weather we pushed on to Cape Fraser. Here we encountered
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 441
the wind and drift full in our faces and violent, making our progress
from here to Cape Norton Shaw along the ice-foot very trying.
The going from here across Scoresby and Richardson bays was not
worse than the year before; and from Cape Wilkes to Cape Lawrence
the same as we had always found it. These two marches were made
in clear but bitterly windy weather.
Another severe southerly gale held us prisoners at Cape Lawrence
foraday. The 20th was an equally,cruel day, with wind still savage
in its strength, but the question of food for my dogs gave me no choice
but to try to advance. At the end of four hours we were forced to
burrow into a snow bank for shelter, where we remained till the next
morning.
In three more marches we reached Cape von Buch. . Twomore days
of good weather brought us to a point a few miles north of Cape
Defosse. Here we were stopped by another furious gale with drifting
snow, which prisoned us for two nights and a day.
The wind was still bitter in our faces when we again got underway
the morning of the 27th. The ice-foot became worse and worse up to
Cape Cracroft, where we were forced down into the narrow tidal joint
at the base of the ice-foot; this path was a very narrow and tortuous
one, frequently interrupted, and was extremely trying on men and
sledges. Cape Lieber was reached on this march. At this camp the
wind blew savagely all night, and in the morning I waited for it to
moderate before attempting to cross Lady Franklin Bay.
While thus waiting, the returning Eskimos of the first and second
divisions came in. They brought the very welcome news of the killing
of 21 musk oxen close to Conger. They also reported the wind out
in the bay as less severe than at the cape.
I immediately got underway and reached Conger just before mid-
night of the 28th, twenty-four days from Etah, during six of which I
was held up by storms.
The first division had arrived four days and the second two days
earlier. During this journey there had been the usual annoying delays
of broken sledges, and I had lost numbers of dogs.
The process of breaking in the tendons and muscles of my feet to
their new relations, and the callousing of the amputation scars, in this,
the first serious demand upon them, had been disagreeable, but was, I
believed, final and complete. I felt that I had no reason to complain.
The herd of musk oxen so opportunely secured near the station,
with the meat cached here the previous spring, furnished the means
to feed and rest my dogs. A period of thick weather followed my
arrival at Conger, and not until April 2 could I send back the Eski-
mos of my division.
On leaving Etah I had not decided whether I should go north from
Conger via Cape Hecla, or take the route along the northwest coast of
442 ¥IELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
Greenland. NowIdecided upon the latter. The lateness of the season
and the condition of my dogs might militate against a very long
journey, and if I chose the Hecla route and failed of my utmost aims
the result would be complete failure. If, on the other hand, I chose
the Greenland route and found it impossible to proceed northward
over the pack, I still had an unknown coast to exploit, and the oppor-
tunity of doing valuable work. Later developments showed my decis-
ion to be a fortunate one.
I planned to start from Conger the 9th of April, but stormy weather
delayed the departure until the 11th, when I got away with seven
sledges.
At the first camp beyond Conger my best Eskimo was taken sick,
and the following day I brought him back to Conger, leaving the rest
of the party to cross the channel to the Greenland side, where I would
overtake them. This I did two or three days later, and we began our
journey up the northwest Greenland coast. As far as Cape Sumner
we had almost continuous road making through very roughice. Before
reaching Cape Sumner we could see a dark water sky, lying beyond
Cape Brevoort, and knew that we should find open water there.
From Cape Sumner to Polaris Boat Camp, in Newman Bay, we cut
a continuous read. Here we were stalled until the 21st by continued
and severe winds. Getting started again in the tail end of the storm,
we advanced as faras the open water, afew miles east of Cape Brevoort,
and camped. This open water, about 3 miles wide at the Greenland
end, extended clear across the mouth of Robeson Channel to the Grin-
nell Land coast, where it reached from Lincoln Bay to Cape Rawson.
Beyond it to the north and northwest as far as could be seen were
numerous lanes and pools. The next day was devoted to hewing a
trail along the ice foot to Repulse Harbor, and on the 23d, in a violent
gale accompanied by drift, I pushed on to the ‘‘ Drift Point” of Beau-
mont (and later Lockwood), a short distance west of Black Horn Cliffs.
The ice foot as far as Repulse Harbor, in spite of the road making
of the previous day, was very trying to sledges, dogs,and men. The
slippery side slopes, steep ascents, and precipitous descents wrenched
and strained the latter, and capsized, broke, and ripped shoes from the
former.
I was not surprised to see from the ‘‘ Drift Point” igloo that the
Black Horn Cliffs were fronted by open water. The pack was in motion
here, and had only recently been crushing against the ice foot, where we
built our igloo. I thought I had broken my feet in pretty thoroughly
on my journey from Etah to Conger, but this day’s work of handling a
sledge along the ice-foot made me think they had never encountered
any serious work before. A blinding snowstorm on the 24th kept us
inactive. The next day I made a reconnoissance to the cliffs, and the
next day set the entire party to work hewing a road along the ice foot.
KIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 443
That night the temperature fell to —25° F., forming a film of young ice
upon the water. The next day I moved up close to the cliffs, and then
with three Eskimos reconnoitered the young ice. I found that by
proceeding with extreme care it would in most places support a man.
With experienced Ahsayoo ahead constantly testing the ice with his
seal spear, myself next, and two Eskimos following, all with feet wide
apart, and sliding instead of walking, we crept past the cliffs. Return-
ing we brushed the thin film of newly fallen snow off the ice with our
feet for a width of some 4 feet, to give the cold free access to it.
I quote from my diary for the 27th:
At last we are past the barrier, which has been looming before me for the last ten
days, the open water at the Black Horn Cliffs. Sent two of my men, whose nerves
are disturbed by the prospect ahead, back to Conger. This leaves me with Henson
and three Eskimos. My supplies can now be carried on the remaining sledges.
Still further stiffened by the continuous low temperature of the previous night, the
main sheet of new ice in front of the cliffs was not hazardous as long as the sledges .
kept a few hundred feet apart, did not stop, and their drivers kept some yards away
to one side. Beyond the limit of my previous day’s reconnoissance there were areas
of much younger ice, which caused me considerable apprehension, as it buckled to a
very disquieting extent beneath dogs and sledges, and from the motion of the outside
pack was crushed up in places while narrow cracks opened up in others. Finally,
to my relief, we reached the ice-foot beyond the cliffs and camped.
The next day there was a continuous lane of water 100 feet wide
along the ice foot by our camp, and the space in front of the cliffs was
again open water. We crossed just in time.
Up to Cape Stanton we had to hew a continuous road along the ice-
foot. After this the going was much better to Cape Bryant. Off
this section of the coast the pack was in constant motion, and an almost
continuous lane of water extended along the ice foot. A little west of
Cape Bryant I killed 2 musk oxen, the flesh of which my dogs highly
appreciated. A long search at Cape Bryant finally discoverd the
remains of Lockwood’s cache and cairn, which had been scattered by
bears. At 3.30 p.m. the Ist of May I left Cape Bryant to cross the
wide indentation lying between Cape Bryant and Cape Britannia.
Three marches, mostly in thick weather and over alternating hum-
mocky blue ice and areas of deep snow, brought us at 1 a.m. of the
4th to Cape North (the northern point of Cape Britannia Island).
From this camp, after a sleep, I sent back 2 more Eskimos and the 12
poorest dogs, leaving Henson, 1 Eskimo, and myself with 3 sledges
and 16 dogs for the permanent advance party.
From Cape North, a ribbon of young ice, on the so-called tidal crack
which extends along this coast, gave us a good lift nearly across Nor-
denskjéld inlet. Then it became unsafe, and we climbed a heavy rubble
barrier to the old floe ice inside, which we followed to Cape Benet and
camped. Here we were treated to another snowstorm.
444 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
Another strip of young ice gave us a passage nearly across Mascart
Inlet until, under Cape Payer, I found it so broken up that two of the
sledges and nearly all of the dogs got into the water before we could
escape from it. Then a pocket of snow, thigh and waist deep, over
rubble ice under the lee of the cape stalled us completely. I pitched
the tent, fastened the dogs, and we devoted the rest of the day to
stamping a road through the snow with our snowshoes. Even then,
when we started the next day, I was obliged to put two teams to one
sledge in order to move it.
Cape Payer was a hard proposition. ‘The first half of the distance
round it we were obliged to cut a road, and on the last half, with 12
dogs and 3 men to each sledge to push and pull them, snow-plow fash-
ion, through the deep snow.
Distant Cape was almost equally inhospitable, and it was only after
long and careful reconnoissance that we were able to get our sledges
past along the narrow crest of the huge ridge of ice forced up against
the rocks. After this we had comparatively fair going on past Cape
Ramsay, Dome Cape, and across Meigs Fiord as far as Mary Murray
Island. Then came some heavy going, and at 11.40 p. m. of May 8
we reached Lockwood’s cairn on the north end of Lockwood Island.
From this cairn I took the record and thermometer deposited there by
Lockwood eighteen years before. The record was in a perfect state
of preservation.
One march from here carried us to Cape Washington. Just at mid-
night we reached, the low point, which is visible from Lockwood Island,
and great was my relief to see, on rounding this point, another splendid
headland, with two magnificent glaciers debouching near it, rising
across an intervening inlet. I knew now that Cape Washington was
not the northern point of Greenland, as I had feared. It would have
been a great disappointment to me, after coming so far, to find that
another’s eyes had forestalled mine in looking first upon the coveted
northern point.
Nearly all my hours for sleep at this camp were taken up by obser-
vations and a round of angles. The ice north from Cape Washington
was in a frightful condition, utterly impracticable. Leaving Cape
Washington, we crossed the mouth of the fiord, packed with blue-top
floe bergs, to the western edge of one of the big glaciers, and then over
the extremity of the glacier itself, camping near the edge of the second.
Here I found myself in the midst of the birthplace of the ** floe bergs,”
which could be seen in all the various stages of formation. These
floe bergs are merely degraded icebergs—that is, bergs of low alti-
tude, detached from the extremity of a glacier, which has for some
distance been forcing its way along a comparatively level and shallow
sea bottom.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Peary. PLATE IV.
. Shy
fe ee
[ie estas Re
e 2 bs <
yes i
Roe SN 5 : Sie
pa sh i , a
a
& [Fs
- rs
Fig. 2.—LATERAL RIVER OF BENEDICT GLACIER.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Peary. PLATE V.
Fic. 1.—MUSK OXEN NEAR CAPE JESUP.
Fic. 2.—Musk OXEN, BUCHANAN BAY.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 445
From this camp we crossed the second glacier, then a small fiord,
where our eyes were gladdened by the sight of a polar bear, which a
couple of bullets from my carbine quickly transformed into dog meat
for my faithful teams. The skin of this bear I have brought back as
a trophy for the club.
It was evident to me now that we were very near the northern
extremity of the land, and when we came within view of the next point
ahead, I felt that my eyes rested at last upon the Arctic Ultima Thule
(Cape Morris Jesup). The land ahead also impressed me at once as
showing the characteristics of a musk-ox country.
This point was reached in the next march, and I stopped to take
rariation and latitude sights. Here my Eskimo shot a hare, and we
saw a wolf track and traces of musk oxen. <A careful reconnoissance
of the pack to the northward, with glasses, from an elevation of a
few hundred feet, showed the ice to be of a less impracticable charac-
ter than it was north of Cape Washington. What were evidently
water clouds showed very distinctly on the ¢horizon. This water sky
had been apparent ever since we left Cape Washington, and at one
time assumed such a shape that I was almost deceived into taking it
for land. Continued careful observation destroyed the illusion. My
obversations completed, we started northward over the pack, and
‘amped a few miles from land.
The two following marches were made in a thick fog, through which
we groped our way northward over broken ice and across gigantic,
wave-like drifts of hard snow. One more march in clear weather
over frightful going, consisting of fragments of old floes, ridges of
heavy ice thrown up to heights of 25 to 50 feet, crevasses and holes
inasked by snow, the whole intersected by narrow leads of open water,
brought us at 5a. m., on the 16th, to the northern edge of a fragment
of an old fioe bounded by water. A reconnoissance from the summit
of a pinnacle of the floe, some 50 feet high, showed that we were on
the edge of the disintegrated pack, with a dense water sky not far
distant.
My hours for sleep at this camp were occupied in observations, and
making a transit profile of the northern coast from Cape Washington
eastward.
The next day I started back for the land, and having a trail to
follow, and no time wasted in reconnoissance, reached it in one long
march, and camped.
Leaving this camp on the 18th, as we were traveling eastward on
the ice foot an hour later, I saw a herd of 6 musk oxen in one of the
coast valleys, and ina short time had secured them. Skinning and
cutting up these animals and feeding the dogs to repletion consumed
some hours, and we then resumed our march, getting an unsuccessful
shot at a passing wolf as we went.
446 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
Within a mile of our next camp a herd of 15 musk oxen lay fast
asleep; I left them undisturbed. From here on, for three marches, we
reeled off splendid distances over good going, in blinding sunshine,
and in the face of a wind from the east which burned our faces like a
sirocco.
The first march took us to a magnificent cape (Cape Bridgman),
at which the northern face of the land trends away to the southeast.
This cape is in the same latitude as Cape Washington. The next two
carried us down the east coast to the eighty-third parallel. In the
first of these we crossed the mouth of a large fjord penetrating for a
long distance in a southwesterly (true) direction. On the next, ina
fleeting glimpse through the fog, I saw a magnificent. mountain of
peculiar contour which I recognized as the peak seen by me in 1895
from the summit of the interior ice cap south of Independence Bay,
rising proudly above the land to the north. This mountain was then
named by me Mount Wistar. Finally, the density of the fog compelled
a halt on the extremity ofa low point, composed entirely of fine glacial
drift, and which I judged to be a small island in the mouth of a large
fjord.
From my camp of the previous night I had observed this island (7%)
and beyond and over it.a massive block of a mountain, forming the
opposite cape of a large intervening fjord, and beyond that again
another distant cape. Open water was clearly visible a few miles off
the coast, while, not far out, dark water clouds reached away to the
southeast.
At this camp I remained two nights and a day, waiting for the fog
to lift. Then, as there seemed to be no indications of its doing so,
and my provisions were exhausted, I started on my return journey at
3.30 a. m. on the 22d of May, after erecting a cairn, in which I depos-
ited the following record:
Copy or REcoRD IN CAIRN AT CLARENCE WYCKOFF ISLAND.
Arrived here at 10.30 p. m. May 20, from Etah via Fort Conger and north end of
Greenland. Left Etah March 4. Left Conger April 15. Arrived north end of
Greenland May 13. Reached point on sea ice latitude 83° 50’ north May 16.
On arrival here had rations for one more march southward. Two days dense fog
have held me here. Am now starting back.
With me are my man, Mathew Henson; Ahngmalokto, an Eskimo; 16 dogs, and
3 sledges.
This journey has been made under the auspices of, and with the funds furnished
by, the Peary Arctic Club of New York City.
The membership of this club comprises Morris K. Jesup, Henry W. Cannon,
Herbert L. Bridgman, John H. Flagler, E. C. Benedict, James J. Hill, H. H. Bene-
dict, Fredk. E. Hyde, E. W. Bliss, H. H. Sands, J. M. Constable, C. F. Wyckoff,
E. G. Wyckoff, Chas. P. Daly, Henry Parish, A. A. Raven, G. B. Schley, E. B.
Thomas, and others.
(Signed ) k. E. PEARY,
Civil Engineer, U. S. N.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 447
The fog kept company with us on our return almost continuously
until we had passed Lockwood Island, but, as we hada trail to follow,
did not delay us so much as the several inches of heavy snow that fell
in a furious arctic blizzard, which came rushing in from the polar
basin and imprisoned us for two days at Cape Bridgman.
At Cape Morris K. Jesup, the northern extremity, I erected a
prominent cairn, in which I deposited the following record:
Copy or RrEcorp In NortTH CAIRN.
May 13, 1900—5 a. m.—Have just reached here from Etah via Fort Conger. Left
Etah March 4. Left Conger April 15. Have with me my man, Henson; an Eskimo,
Ahngmalokto; 16 dogs, and 3 sledges; all in fair condition. Proceed to-day due
north (true) over sea ice. Fine weather. I am doing this work under the auspices
of, and with funds furnished by, the Peary Arctic Club of New York City.
The membership of this club comprises Morris K. Jesup, Henry W. Cannon,
Herbert L. Bridgman, John H. Flagler, EK. C. Benedict, Fredk. E. Hyde, E. W. Bliss,
H. H. Sands, J. M. Constable, C. F. Wyckoff, E. G. Wyckoff, Chas. P. Daly, Henry
Parish, A. A. Raven, E. B. Thomas, and others.
(Signed ) R, E. PEasRy,
Civil Engineer, U. S. N.
May 17.—‘‘ Have returned to this point. Reached 83° 507 north latitude due north
of here. Stopped by extremely rough ice intersected by water cracks. Water sky
to north. Am now going east along the coast. Fine weather.”’
May 26.—‘‘ Have again returned to this place. Reached point on east coast about
north latitude 83°. Open water all along the coast a few miles off. No land seen’
to north or east. Last seven days continuous fogs, wind, and snow. Is now snow-
ing, with strong westerly wind. Temperature 20° F. Ten musk oxen killed east of
here. Expect to start for Conger to-morrow.”’
At Cape Washington, also, I placed a copy of Lockwood’s rec-
ord, from the cairn at Lockwood Island, with the following indorse-
ment:
This copy of the record left by Lieut. J. B. Lockwood and Sergt. (now colonel)
D. L. Brainard, U. 8. Army, in the cairn on Lockwood Island, southwest of here,
May 16, 1882, is to-day placed by me in this cairn on the farthest land seen by them,
as a tribute to two brave men, one of whom gave his life for his Arctic work.
May 29.—¥or a few minutes on one of the marches the fog lifted,
giving us a magnificent panorama of the north coast mountains.
Very somber and savage they looked, towering white as marble with
the newly fallen snow, under their low threatening canopy of lead-
colored clouds. Two herds of musk oxen were passed—one of 15
and one of 18—and two or three stragglers. Four of these were
shot for dog food, and the skin of one, killed within less than a mile
of the extreme northern point, has been brought back as a trophy for
the club.
Once free of the fog off Mary Murray Island we made rapid prog-
ress, reaching Cape North in four marches from Cape Washington.
448 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
Clear weather showed us the existence of open water a few miles off
the shore, extending from Dome Cape to Cape Washington. At Black
Cape there was a large open water reaching from the shore northward.
Everywhere along this coast I was impressed by the startling evi-
dences of the violence of the blizzard of a few days before. The
polar pack had been driven resistlessly in against the iron coast, and
at every projecting point had risen to the crest of the ridge of old ice,
along the outer edge of the ice foot in a terrific cataract of huge
blocks. In places these mountains of shattered ice were 100 feet or
more in height. The old ice in the bays and fjords had had its outer
edge loaded with a great ridge of ice fragments, and was itself cracked
and crumpled into huge swells by the resistless pressure. All the
young ice which had helped us on our outward passage had been
crushed into countless fragments, and swallowed up in the general
chaos.
Though hampered by fog, the passage from Cape North to Cape
3ryant was made in twenty-five anda half marching hours. At 7
a.m. of the 6th of June, we camped on the end of the ice foot, at the
eastern end of Black Horn Cliffs. A point a few hundred feet up the
bluffs commanding the region in front of the cliffs showed it to be
filled by small pieces of old ice held in place against the shore by pres-
sure of the outside pack. It promised at best the heaviest kind of
work, with the certainty that it would run abroad at the first release
of pressure.
The next day, when about one-third the way across, the ice did begin
to open out, and it was only after a rapid and hazardous dash from
cake to cake that we reached an old floe, which after several hours of
heavy work allowed us to climb upon the ice-foot of the western end
of the cliffs.
From here on rapid progress was made again, three more marches
taking us to Conger, where we arrived at 1.30 a. m. June 10, though
the open water between Repulse Harbor and Cape Brevoort, which
had now expanded down Robeson Channel to a point below Cape
Sumner and the rotten ice under Cape Sumner hampered us seriously.
In passing I took copies of the Beaumont English records from the
cairn at Repulse Harbor, and brought them back for the archives of
the club. They form one of the finest chapters of the most splendid
courage, fortitude, and endurance, under dire stress of circumstances,
that is to be found in the history of Arctic explorations.
In this journey I had determined conclusively the northern limit of
the Greenland Archipelago or land group, and had practically con-
nected the coast southward to Independence Bay, leaving only that
comparatively short portion of the periphery of Greenland lying
between Independence Bay and Cape Bismarck indeterminate. The
nonexistence of land fora very considerable distance to the northward
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 449
and northeastward was also settled, with every indication pointing to
the belief that the coast along which we traveled formed the shore of
an uninterrupted central polar sea, extending to the Pole, and beyond
to the Spitzbergen and Franz Josef Land groups of the opposite
hemisphere.
The origin of the floe bergs and paleocrystic ice was definitely
determined. Further than this, the result of the journey was to elim-
inate this route as a desirable or practicable one by which to reach
the Pole. The broken character of the ice, the large amount of open
water, and the comparatively rapid motion of the ice, as it swung
round the northern coast into the southerly setting East Greenland
current, were very unfavorable features.
During my absence some 33 musk oxen and 10 seals had been
secured in the vicinity of Conger; caches for my return had been
established at Thank God Harbor, Cape Lieber, and Lincoln Bay, and
sugar, milk, and tea had been brought up from the various caches
between Conger and Cape Louis Napoleon.
July was passed by a portion of the party in the region from
Discovery Harbor westward via Black Rock Vale and Lake Hazen,
where some 40 musk oxen were secured.
During August and early September various other hunting trips of
shorter duration were made, resulting in the killing of some 20 musk
oxen.
1900-1901.
The middle of September I started with Henson and 4+ Eskimos to
Lake Hazen to secure musk oxen for our winter supply, it being evi-
dent that my ship would not reach us. Going westas far as the valley
of the Very River, by October 4, 92 musk oxen had been killed.
Later 9 more were secured, making a total of 101 for the autumn
hunting.
From the beginning of Noyember to March 6, the greater portion
of the time was passed by my party in igloos built in the vicinity of
the game killed in various localities from Discovery Harbor to Ruggles
River.
April 5.—I left Conger with Henson, 1 Eskimo, 2 sledges, and 12
dogs for my northern trip. At the same time the remainder of the
party, with 2 sledges and 7 dogs and pups, started south for Capes
D’Urville and Sabine to communicate with or obtain tidings of my
ship. On reaching Lincoln Bay, it was evident to me that the condi-
tion of men and dogs was such as to negative the possibility of reach-
ing the pole, and I reluctantly turned back.
Arriving at Conger, after an absence of eight days, I found the
remainder of my party there. They had returned to Conger after an
absence of four days, having proceeded one-third of the distance across
Lady Franklin Bay.
450 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
Fortunately, the night before I arrived, one of the Eskimos secured
several musk oxen above St. Patricks Bay, which enabled me to feed
my dogs before starting south, which I did with the entire party on
April 17.
April 30.—At Hayes Point I met the party from the Windward
attempting to reach Conger, and received my mail, learning that the
Windward was at Payer Harbor with Mrs. Peary and our little girl
on board. After a rest at the D’Urville box house, I went on to the
Windward, arriving May 6.
After a few days’ rest the work of establishing new caches along the
coast northward toward Conger was commenced, and continued until
the middle of June.
Then the preparing of Payer Harbor for winter quarters was car-
ried on till July 3, when the Windward broke out of the ice and
steamed over to the Greenland side.
July was devoted to killing walrus, and 128 were secured and trans-
ported to Payer Harbor.
August 4.—The Erik, sent wp by the club in command of Secretary
H. L. Bridgman to communicate with me, arrived at Etah.
The usual tour of visits to the Eskimo settlements was then made,
and both ships pressed into the work of hunting walrus until August
24, when the Windward proceeded southward, and the “77k steamed
away to land me and my party and the catch of walrus at Payer
Harbor.
A large quantity of heavy ice blocking the way to Payer Harbor, I
requested Secretary Bridgman to land me and my party and walrus
meat in a small bight, some 12 or 15 miles’ south of Cape Sabine, from
whence I could proceed to Payer Harbor in my boats or sledges when
opportunity offered. This was done, and on the 29th of August the
Erik steamed away.
1901-2.
On the 16th of September I succeeded in reaching Payer Harbor,
crossing Rosse Bay partly by sledge and partly by boat, and going
overland across Bedford Pim Island.
Soon after this my Eskimos began to sicken, and by November 19,
6 of them were dead.
During this time I personally sledged much of the material from
Erik Harbor to headquarters, and Henson went to the head of Buchanan
Bay with some of the Eskimos and secured 10 musk oxen.
The winter passed quietly and comfortably. Two more musk oxen
were secured in Buchanan Bay, and 6 deer at Etah.
January 2.—Work was begun in earnest on preparations for the
spring campaign, which opened on the 11th of February. On this
day I sent off 6 sledges, with light loads, to select a road across the
PLATE VI.
FiG. 2.—ALONG THE ICE FooT.
Smithsorian Report, 1903 —Peary PLATE VII.
craw
Fic. 1.—CAPE ALBERT.
FIG. 2.—CROSSING PRINCESS MARIE Bay.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 451
mouth of Buchanan Bay, and build an igloo abreast of Cape Albert.
On the 12th I sent two of my best hunters on a flying reconnoissance
and bear hunt in the direction of Cape Louis Napoleon.
On the 13th 8 sledges went out, taking dog food nearly to Cape
D’Urville. On the 16th my two scouts returned with a favorable
report, and on the 18th 10 sledges went out loaded with dog food to
be taken to Cape Louis Napoleon. This party returned on the 22d.
On the evening of the 28th everything was in readiness for Henson
to start the next day, it being my intention to send him on ahead with
three picked men and light loads to pioneer the way to Conger, I to
follow a few days later with the main party.
A northerly gale delayed his departure until the morning of March
3, when he got away with 6 sledges and some 50 dogs. Two of these
sledges were to act as a supporting party as far as Cape Lawrence.
At 9a. m. of March 6, 14 sledges trailed out of Payer Harbor and
rounded Cape Sabine for the northern journey, and at noon I followed
them with my big sledge, the ‘* Long Serpent,” drawn by a team of 10
fine grays. Two more sledges accompanied me. The temperature
at the time was —20° F. The minimum of the previous night had
been —38° F.
We joined the others at the igloos abreast of Cape Albert, and
camped there for the night. Temperature —43° F.
The next day we made Cape D’Urville in temperature from —45°
to —49° F.
Here I stopped a day to dry our foot gear thoroughly, and left on
the morning of the 9th with some supplies from the box house. Two
sledges returned from here. Camped about 5 miles from Cape Louis
Napoleon. The next march carried me to Cape Fraser, and the next
to Cape Collinson. During this march, for the first time in the four
seasons that I have been over this route, I was able to take a nearly
direct course across the mouth of Scoresby Bay, instead of making a
long detour into it.
One march from Cape Collinson carried me to Cape Lawrence, on
the north side of Rawlings Bay.
The crossing of this bay, though more direct than usual, was over
extremely rough ice. Learning from Henson’s letter at Cape Law-
rence that I had gained a day on him, and not wanting to overtake him
before reaching Conger, I remained here a day, repairing several
sledges which had been damaged in the last march. Five men, with
the worst sledges and poorest dogs, returned from here.
Three more marches took us to Cape von Buch, on the north side
of Carl Ritter Bay, temperature ranging from — 35° to — 45° F.
Heavy going in many places.
Two more marches carried us to the first coast valley north of
Cape Defosse. I had now gained two days on the advance party.
452 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
The character of the channel ice being such that we were able to
avoid the terrible ice foot which extends from here to Cape Lieber,
and my dogs being still in good condition, I made a spurt from here
and covered the distance to Conger in one march, arriving about an
hour and a half after Henson and his party.
I had covered the distance from Payer Harbor to Conger, some 300
miles, in twelve marches.
Four days were spent at Conger overhauling sledges and harness,
drying and repairing clothing, and scouting the country, as far as The
Bellows, in search of musk oxen. None were seen, but about 100
hares were secured in the fourdays: Temperature during this time from
—40° to —57° F. Seven Eskimos returned from here, taking with
them the instruments of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition and other
items of Government property abandoned here in 1883.
On the morning of the 24th I started north with nine sledges. We
‘amped the first night at ‘‘ Depot B.” The next march I had counted
on making Lincoln Bay, but just before reaching Wrangell Bay a sud-
den, furious gale, with blinding drift, drove us into camp at the south
point of the bay. Here we were storm bound during the 26th, but
eot away on the morning of the 27th and pushed on to Cape Union,
encountering along this portion of the coast the steep side slopes of
hard snow, which are so trying to men and sledges and dogs.
Open water, the clouds over which we saw from Wrangell Bay Camp,
was about 100 yards beyond our igloo, and extended from there, as I
judged, northward beyond Cape Rawson, and reached entirely across
the channel to the Greenland coast at Cape Brevoort, as in 1900,
Fortunately, with the exercise of utmost care, and at the expense of
a few narrow escapes and incessant hard work, we were able to work
our sledges along the narrow and villainous ice-foot to and around
Black Cape.
The ice foot along this section of the coast was the same as was
found here by Egerton and Rawson in 1876 and Pavy in 1882,
necessitating the hewing of an almost continuous road; but a party of
willing, light-hearted Eskimos makes comparatively easy work of what
would be a slow and heart-breaking job for two or three white men.
Beyond Black Cape the ice foot improved in character, and I pushed
along to camp at the Aleré’s winter quarters. Simultaneously with
seeing the Alerts cairn three musk oxen were seen a short distance
inland, which I went away after and secured. The animals were very
thin, and furnished but a scant meal for my dogs.
One march from here carried us to Cape Richardson, and the next
under the lee of View Point, where we were stopped, and driven to
build our igloo with all possible speed, by one of the common arctic
gales. There were young ice, pools of water, anda nearly continuous
water sky all along the shore.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 4538
As the last march had been through deep snow, I did not dare to
attempt the English short cut across Fielden Peninsula behind Cape
Joseph Henry, preferring to take the ice-foot route round it.
For a short distance this was the worst bit of ice foot I have ever
encountered. By the slipping of my sledge two men nearly lost their
lives, saving themselves by a most fortuitous chance, with their feet
already dangling over the crest of a vertical face of ice some 50 feet
in height.
At the very extremity of the cape we were forced to pass our sledges
along a shelf of ice less than 3 feet in width, glued against the face
of the cliff at an elevation which I estimated at the time as 75 feet
above the ragged surface of the floe beneath.
On the western side of the cape the ice foot broadened and became
nearly level, but was smothered in such a depth of light snow that
it stalled us and we went into camp. The next day we made Crozier
Island.
During April 2 and 3 we were held here by a westerly storm, and
the 4th and 5th were devoted to hunting musk oxen, of which 3 were
secured, 2 of them being very small.
From here I sent back 3 Eskimos, keeping Henson and 4+ Eskimos
with me.
During this time reconnoissances of the polar pack northward were
made with the glasses from the summit of the island and from Cape
Hecla. The pack was very rough, but apparently not as bad as that
which I saw north of Cape Washington two years before. Though
unquestionably a hard proposition, it yet looked as though we might
make some progress through it, unless the snow was too deep and soft.
This was a detail which the glasses could not determine.
On the morning of April 6 I left Crozier Island, and a few hours
later, at the point of Cape Hecla, we swung our sledges sharply to the
right, and climbed over and down the parapet of the ice foot onto the
polar pack. As the sledges plunged down from the ice foot their
noses were buried out of sight, the dogs wallowed belly deep in the
snow, and we began our struggle due northward.
We had been in the field now just a month. We had covered not
less than 400 miles of the most arduous traveling in temperatures of
from —35~ to —57° F., and we were just beginning our work—i. e.,
the conquest of the polar pack, the toughest proposition in the whole
wide expanse of the arctic region.
Some two miles from the cape was a belt of very recent young ice,
running parallel with the general trend of the coast. Areas of rough
ice caught in this compelled us to exaggerated zigzags, and doubling
on our track. It was easier to go a mile around onthe young ice than
to force the sledge across one of these islands. The northern edge of
the new ice wasa high wall of heavily rubbled old ice, through which,
454 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
after some reconnoissance, we found a passage to an old floe, where I
gave the order to build an igloo. We were now about 5 miles from
the land.
The morning of the 7th brought us fine weather. Crossing the old
floe we came upon a zone of old floe fragments, deeply blanketed
with snow. Through the irregularities of this we struggled, the
dogs floundering almost useless, occasionally one disappearing for a
moment, now treading down the snow around a sledge to dig it out of
a hole into which it had sunk, now lifting the sledges bodily over a
barrier of blocks, veering right and left, doubling in our track, road
making with snowshoe and pickax. Late in the day a narrow ditch
gave us a lift fora short distance, then one or two little patches of
level going, then two or three small old floes, which though deep with
snow, seemed like a godsend compared with the wrenching work
earlier. Camped in the lee of a large hummock on the northern
edge of a small but very heavy old floe. Everyone thoroughly tired,
and the dogs utterly lifeless, dropping motionless in the snow as soon
as the whip stopped.
Ve were now due north of Hecla, and I estimated we had made
some 6 miles, perhaps 7, perhaps only 5. A day of work like this
makes it difficult to estimate distances. This is a fair sample of our
day’s work.
On the 12th we were storm bound by a gale from the west, which
hid even those dogs fastened nearest to the igloo. During our stay
here the old floe on which we were camped split in two with a loud
report, and the ice cracked and rumbled and roared at frequent
intervals.
In the first march beyond this igloo we were deflected westward by
a lead of practically open water, the thin film of young ice covering it
being unsafe even fora dog. A little farther on a wide canal of open
water deflected us constantly to the northwest and then west, until an
area of extremely rough ice prevented us from following it farther.
Viewed from the top of a high pinnacle this area extended west and
northwest on both sides of the canal, as far as could be seen. I could
only camp and wait for this canal, which evidently had been widened
(though not newly formed) by the storm of the day before, to close up
or freeze over. During our first sleep at this camp there was a slight
motion of the lead, but not enough to make it practicable. From here
I sent back two more Eskimos.
Late in the afternoon of the 14th the lead began to close, and hastily
packing the sledges we rushed them across over moving fragments of
ice. We now found ourselves in a zone of high parallel ridges of
rubble ice covered with deep snow. These ridges were caused by
successive opening and closing of the lead. When after some time
we found a practicable pass through this barrier, we emerged upon a
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Peary. PLATE VIII
FiG. 1.—BRINGING OUT THE GREELY RECORDS.
FiG. 2.—FORT CONGER.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Peary. PLATE |X.
OVERLAND ACROSS ELLESMERE LAND.
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY AROTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 455
series of very small but extremely heavy and rugged old floes, the
snow on them still deeper and softer than on the southern side of the
lead. At the end of a sixteen-hour day I called a halt, though we
were only 2 or 3 miles north of the big lead.
During the first portion of the next march we passed over frag-
ments of very heavy old floes, slowly moving eastward. Frequently
we were obliged to wait for the pieces to crush close enough together
to let us pass from one to the other. Farther on I was compelled to
bear away due east by an impracticable area, extending west, north-
west, north, and northeast as far as could be seen, and just as we had
rounded this and were bearing away to the north again we were
brought up by a lead some 50 feet wide. From this on one day was
much like another, sometimes doing a little better, sometimes a little
worse, but the daily advance, in spite of our best efforts, steadily
decreasing. Fog and stormy weather also helped to delay us.
I quote from my journal for April 21:
The game is off. My dream of sixteen years is ended. It cleared during the
night and we got under way this morning. Deep snow. Two small old floes. Then
came another region of old rubble and deep snow. A survey from the top of a pin-
nacle showed this extending north, east, and west, as far as could be seen. The two
old floes over which we had just come are the only ones in sight. It is impracti-
cable, and I gave the order to camp. I have made the best fight I knew. I believe
it has been a good one. But I can not accomplish the impossible
A few hours after we halted, the ice to the north commenced like
the sound of heavy surf, and continued during our stay at this camp.
Evidently the floes in that direction were crushing together under the
influence of the wind, or, what was perhaps more probable, from the
long continuation of the noise, the entire pack was in slow motion to
the east. A clear day enabled me to get observations which showed
my latitude to be 84° 17’ 27” north, magnetic variation 99° west. I
took some photos of the camp, climbed and floundered through the
broken fragments and waist-deep snow for a few hundred yards north
of the camp, gave the dogs a double ration, then turned in to sleep, if
possible, for a few hours preparatory to returning.
We started on our return soon after midnight of the 21st. It was
very thick, wind from the west, and snowing heavily. 1 hurried our
departure in order to utilize as much of our tracks as possible before they
were obliterated. It was very difficult to keep the trail in the uncertain
light and driving snow. We lost it repeatedly, when we would be
obliged to quarter the surface like bird dogs. On reaching the last lead
of the upward march, instead of the open water which had interrupted
our progress then, our tracks now disappeared under a huge pressure
ridge, which I estimated to be from 75 to 100 feet high. Our trail
was faulted here by the movement of the floes, and we lost consider-
able time in picking it up on the other side. This was to me a trying
sm 1903——30
456 FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902.
march. I had had no sleep the night before, and to the physical strain
of handling my sledge was added the mental tax of trying to keep the
trail. When we finally camped it was only for a few hours, for I
recognized that the entire pack was moving slowly, and that our trail
was everywhere being faulted and interrupted by new pressure ridges
and leads in a way to make our return march nearly if not quite as
slow and laborious as the outward one. The following marches were
much the same. In crossing one lead I narrowly escaped losing two
sledges and the dogs attached to them. Arrived at the ‘‘ grand canal,”
as I called the big lead at which I had sent two Eskimos back, the
changes had been such as to make the place almost unrecognizable.
Two marches south of the grand canal the changes in the ice had
been such, between the time of our upward trip and the return of my
two men from the canal, that they, experienced men that they were
in all that pertains to ice craft, had been hopelessly bewildered and
wandered apparently for at least a day without: finding the trail.
After their passage other changes had taken place, and as a result I
set a compass course for the land and began making a new road. In
the next march we picked up our old trail again.
Early in the morning of the 22d we reached the second igloo out
from Cape Hecla and camped in a driving snowstorm. At this igloo
we were storm bound during the 27th and 28th, getting away on the
29th in the densest fog, and bent on butting our way in a ‘*‘ bee-line”
compass course for the land. Floundering through the deep snow
and ice, saved from unpleasant falls only by the forewarning of the
dogs, we reached Crozier Island after a long and weary march. The
band of young ice along the shore had disappeared, crushed up into
confused ridges and mounds of irregular blocks.
The floe at the island camp had split in two, the crack passing
through our igloo, the halves of which stared at each other. across the
chasm. This march finished two of my dogs, and three or four more
were apparently on their last legs. We did not know how tired we
were until we reached the island. The warm foggy weather and the
last march together dropped our physical barometer several degrees.
As we now had light sledges, I risked the short cut across the base
of Fieldin Peninsula, and camped that night under the lee of View
Point. Four more marches carried us to Conger, where we remained
three days drying clothing and repairing sledges, and giving the dogs
a much-needed rest. Leaving Conger on the 6th of May, 11 marches
brought us back to Payer Harbor on the 17th of May. A few days
after this I went north to complete the survey of the inner portions
of Dobbin Bay, being absent from headquarters some ten days. Open
water vetoing a trip which I had planned for June up Buchanan Bay
and across to the west coast of Ellesmere Land, the remainder of the
FIELD WORK OF THE PEARY ARCTIC CLUB, 1898-1902. 457
time was devoted to assiduous hunting, in order to secure a supply of
meat for the winter in the contingency of no ship arriving.
On the 5th of August the new Windward sent north by the club,
and bringing to me Mrs. Peary and my little girl, steamed into the
harbor. As soon as people and supplies could be hurried aboard her,
she steamed across the sound to the Greenland side. Here my faith-
ful Eskimos were landed, and after devoting a week or so to the work
of securing sufficient walrus to carry them in comfort through the
winter, the Windward steamed southward, and after an uneventful
voyage arrived at Sydney, C. B., on the 17th of September, where I
had the pleasure of meeting Secretary Bridgman of the club, and for-
warding through hima brief report of my movements during the past
year.
THE FIRST YEAR’S WORK OF THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC
EXPEDITION.¢
By Sir Ciements R. Marxaam, K. C. B., F. B.S.
We must all, I think, feel that this is a great occasion. We have
received news of the splendid work done by our countrymen in the
far south, and we are assembled to acquire some idea of the nature of
that work, and of the general results. We shall effect this object by
means of Mr. Skelton’s photographs, and of the best map we have been
able to construct with the materials that have reached us. Wedo not
intend to discuss or to describe the scientific results of this work. We
have not the means. All that is reserved for the grand day when we
welcome the return of Captain Scott and his fellow-explorers to this
country. To-night should rather be devoted to an endeavor to under-
stand and to appreciate the bigh qualities, the indomitable energy, the
strict sense of duty, the courage and hardihood which enabled our
countrymen to make the extensive discoveries which are shown on the:
map. They represent an achievement which is quite unsurpassed in
my time.
Before following the memorable voyage, I must say a very few
words on the subject of the arrangements for the expedition in this
country. When the two societies approached the Government with a
view to obtaining assistance in June, 1899, Mr. Balfour spoke in the
strongest terms of the importance of such an expedition, both from a
scientific and a national point of view, and he was told that it would
be necessary to build a ship specially adapted for the service, among
other reasons for the sake of the magnetic observations. An estimate
was submitted to him amounting to £100,000 if the expedition lasted
for three years, or £90,000 if for two years. It was decided that the
expedition should be for two years. Mr. Balfour promised a parlia-
mentary grant which amounted to £45,000. The public subscribed
the other moiety, this society giving £8,000. The Discovery was
launched, and has proved most admirably adapted for the work. It
has been said that she is the most expensive vessel that was ever built
in this country for scientific purposes. It is equally true that she is
the cheapest. For she is the only vessel that was ever built in this
“Read at the Royal Geographical Society, June 10, 1903. Reprinted from The
Geographical Journal, London, July, 1903, Vol. XXII, No. 1, pp. 13-20.
459
460 THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
country for scientific purposes. She has been a great success, and she
will bea great success even if she has to be abandoned in the antarctic
ice. The famous voyage performed in her, the vast and important
scientific results achieved through her means, will remain forever as
the record of her success, even though the staunch old Discovery leaves
her ribs in the far south. But this will not be if human help, guided
by no ordinary ability and skill, can avail. For if the ship is strong
and adapted to her work, still stronger and still better are her crew.
No more striking proof of this is needed than the way they have ral-
lied round their beloved commander. Captain Scott’s deeds speak for
themselves, and he was supported by such officers as Armitage, Royds,
Skelton, Shackleton, and Barne; by Koettlitz, Wilson, Bernacchi,
Hodgson, and Ferrar; and by 26 seamen and marines, all good men
and true. Alas that one of the best of all, the devoted and chivalrous
Shackleton, is no longer with them! The Admiralty has lent the men,
without whom the work could not have been done; but we must always
remember that we owe this to the good offices of our lamented asso-
ciate, Admiral Sir Anthony Hoskins. We owe much more to his
memory than even that.
One word with regard to the management of the business of the
expedition. Since December, 1900, a joint finance committee,
appointed by the councils of the two societies, of which I have been
chairman, has transacted all the business. The three other members
are the treasurers of the two societies and a distinguished official of
the treasury appointed with the approval of Mr. Balfour; these three
business men have conducted the affairs of the expedition on business
principles. Effciency has been secured without waste or extravagance,
and most especial care was taken with regard to the examination of the
provisions by an expert under official supervision. The committee
has worked and is still working harmoniously, and there has scarcely
been a difference of opinion among its members. As a test of its
business capacity, we have the fact that the expedition is well within
the estimate, and that the committee had a balance of £7,000 to meet
all further expenditure, if the two ships had returned this year in
accordance with the instructions. Captain Scott sat on the committee
from its commencement until the departure of the Discovery.
Under such auspices the expedition left New Zealand on Christmas
eve, 1901, and entered the antarctic ice. Her objects were to study
the nature of Ross’s great ice barrier; if possible, to discover land to
the eastward; to secure various scientific results during the voyage
and in winter quarters; and from winter quarters to explore the
volcanic region, and to make discoveries to the south and inland to the
west. Most thoroughly and completely have the explorers carried
out these instructions. Their deeds have far exceeded all that I had
hoped or even conceived possible. Let us now follow their proceed-
THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 461
ings, and endeavor to get some notion of their Surroundings with the
help of Mr. Skelton’s photographs.
On reaching safe winter quarters, the great work of sledge traveling
was commenced with some autumn journeys. The severity of the
weather was intense, both from low temperature—42- to even 57”
below zero—and from the furious gales; but the journeys were of
great use, both for obtaining information respecting the lay of the
land and for the acquisition of experience. There was one fatal acci-
dent, which is admirably described by Captain Scott:
Mr. Barne reached the crest of the hills at about noon on March 11, and camped
for lunch, during which meal the wind sprang up very suddenly, bringing a heavy
drift; the temperature fell, and the party, not experienced in such conditions, suffered
much from frostbites and general discomfort. In these circumstances, and imagining
themselves closer to the ship than they actually were, they decided to leave the
sledges and make for her. Soon after their start the gale increased, and they were
enveloped in a whirl of drifting snow and entirely lost their bearings. Mr. Barne
did his best to keep the party together, the more so when when it became evident
that the slope on which they stood was affording a less and less secure foothold.
Before long, however, one of the men, Evans, slipped and disappeared from sight.
After shouting and receiving no reply, Mr. Barne, cautioning the men to remain
where they were, decided to follow, and very deliberately started to slide down the
slope himself. He was firmly under the impression that the slope was one well
known to usall close to the ship, and that after making certain he would be easily able
to regain the summit and bring the menon. After waiting for some time another of
the men (Quartly) decided to follow Mr. Barne and was immediately lost to sight.
The experience of these three was identical; after the first start they were soon going
at a speed which left them absolutely no control of their movements, and this con-
tinued for some 400 or 500 yards, until they were suddenly brought up in a patch of
soft snow within 15 feet of a sheer drop into the sea.
Meanwhile, of the party above, one, Hare, had decided to go back to the sledge to
change his footgear, and the remaining five, after a long wait, proceeded along the
slope, as they supposed, toward the ship, led by an able seaman (Wild). Luckily,
Wild had nails in his boots, for, after traveling some distance, he suddenly and
without warning (so thick was the snow) found himself within an ace of stepping
over the cliff into the sea. He had the presence of mind to shout to the others’ to
stop, which they were all able to do except poor Vince, who missed his footing, shot
past Wild, and was immediately lost to view. Vince was a thoroughly good man,
always cheerful and bright, and popular throughout the ship. With great difficulty
the remaining four men succeeded in retracing their steps, and eventually reached
the crest of the hill, from whence, taking a more easterly course, they fell on some
landmarks and found their way to the ship.’ Great credit is due to Wild for the
manner in which he conducted and kept together the small party.
A large search party was immediately dispatched on their return to the ship, and
the siren was kept going. With-some difficulty the search party succeeded in find-
ing the sledges, and in the vicinity they found Mr. Barne, Evans, and Quartly half
frozen and wholly dazed; they did not know how they had again reached the sum-
mit of the hill. No trace was found of Hare or Vince. <A further prolonged search
was made on the following day, a roped party descending the slope with crampons,
but without result. On the third day I got up steam on the bare possibility of find-
ing an ice-foot below the ice cliff over which Vince had fallen, and while we were
preparing to weigh Hare was seen descending the hill opposite the ship. He was
462 THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
quickly brought on board, and found to be neither frost-bitten nor in any way hurt
by his exposure; he had turned to find the sledges, failed to do se, wandered aim-
lessly about, and finally lost consciousness; thirty-six hours later he awoke, to find
himself buried in snow and only a trifle stiff. He imagined it to be the morning after
the accident, and was astounded to learn that he had slept through a whole day.
On taking the ship around to the scene of the accident we found an ice-foot, and
it was evident that Vince must have fallen directly into the sea from a cliff 150 to
209 feet in height.
When Captain Scott addressed the ship’s company in a few words
after service on the following Sunday, there was scarcely a dry eye.
All mourned the loss of their comrade, George Vince, a cheerful and
popular messmate and an excellent seaman.
The winter passed cheerfully. There were plenty of amusements,
but there was also plenty of hard work. Mr. Bernaechi tended his
magnetic instruments with zealous care, and took regular observations
with the electrometer. The temperature and salinity of sea water at
various depths were ascertained. Mr. Hodgson was indefatigable in
all weathers, keeping holes open in the ice for his nets and fish traps.
Doctor Wilson’s work, as regards vertebrates, is exceedingly valuable,
and I am assured that the biological collections are most important
and will form one of the great features of the expedition. The
meteorology is under the charge of Lieutenant Boyds, and nothing can
exceed his care and diligence. A series of meteorological observations
for two years in 77° 50°S., more than 500 miles farther south than
any ship has ever wintered before, will be most valuable.
As the sun began to return, the magnificent range of mountains to
the westward began to appear in surpassing grandeur. The glow of
the sun when it was still below the horizon just caught them, and the
sides facing the north were lit up with a pinkish-orange tint, the other
sides being dark and shadowy. In September the early spring travel-
ing commenced, when the cold was even more intense than in the
autumn. Royds and Skelton were the chief explorers of the volcanic
island on which Erebus and Terror rear their giant cones. With four
men they were away twenty-one days, with the thermometer always
— 40°, and once as low as — 58°. This cold is too intense for sledg-
ing, and in addition they encountered a furious gale, which lasted for
five days. In spite of the weather, Skelton and two men found a way
over the big ice ridges of the barrier down to the sea edge, using
crampons and ice axes, and being roped together. A close examina-
tion was thus made of the position where the barrier abuts upon the
land at Cape Crozier. In a subsequent journey Royds found the post
cairn at this point and deposited a notice for the relief ship.
There were several sledging journeys for short distances conducted
by the scientific staff, chiefly with the object of geological investiga-
tions, but the great results were to be obtained from the southern and
western parties.
THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 4638
Captain Scott established a depot 60 miles to the south in a journey
of ten days,from September 23 to October +, when there was a heavy
gale, and the thermometer fell to —51°. On November 1 he started
with 18 dogs, accompanied by Lieutenant Shackleton and Doctor
Wilson. A supporting sledge under Lieutenant Barne went as far as
the first depot. At first all went well, but after a fortnight-the dogs
got weaker and weaker, and a long tract of soft snow had to be
crossed, which occupied them for thirty days, bringing the sledges up
in relays. Practically the dogs became useless. The explorers had to
do all the work themselves. But, nothing daunted, the gallant men
pushed onward, lightening the weight by leaving a depot in 80° 30'S.
They reached 82° 17’ S. On their return Lieutenant Shackleton
broke a blood vessel, and was only just able, owing to his extraor-
dinary pluck, to keep up with the sledge; while Scott and Wilson,
suffering from snow-blindness and hunger, dragged the sledge back,
240 pounds each, and reached the ship on February 4, after an absence
of ninety-four days.
I calculate that they must have gone over 981 statute miles. The
story will be told by Scott himself—a story of heroic perseverance
to obtain great results; a story which is unmatched in polar annals.
It will tell us, too, of new geographical facts and deductions of intense
interest: of a new and hitherto unknown world in the far south,
reached with such extreme difficulty—
Yet even here Britannia’s flag has thrown
Her shadow on the ice, and hailed the land her own.
The achievement of the great western party, dragging sledges over
mountains and glaciers, with such leaders as Armitage and Shackleton,
is only second to Scott’s memorable journey. They were dragging
240 pounds per man; first over 29 miles of sea ice, and then for 19
-miles up a snow-filled valley to the foot of the mountains. They also
had to work by relays. Crampons, blocks and tackles, ice axes, and
crowbars were needed; and so they climbed the ice slopes with loaded
sledges, and traveled many miles over bare blue glacier amidst mag-
nificent scenery, reaching an elevation of 9,000 feet, at a distance of
142 statute miles inland from the ship as the crow flies. They were
fifty-three days away.
The loss of the dogs was felt as a great calamity, because each dog
was given in charge to a man, who became much attached to it. There
are, however, several puppies.
Another calamity was the loss of all the boats, which during the
winter got frozen into a mass of solid ice. After hacking at this ice
for months, it was found impossible to extricate the boats.
But now all the traveling parties had returned, and the longed-for
relief ship Morning hove in sight on the 23d of last January.
464 THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
The meeting is acquainted with the history of the relief ship; how
she was bought, fitted out, equipped, and dispatched last year by the
Geographical Society, with funds subscribed almost entirely by our
fellows. We all know the great dangers of polar navigation, and that
a ship in those regions may be in need of succor after the first
winter. Consequently, annual communication has been the rule with
all government expeditions since the Franklin disaster. We were
bound to follow this example, and the necessity for our action has
since been proved.
The Morning, titted up with provisions, including a good supply of
frozen meat, and coals for the Discovery, left Lyttelton, New Zealand,
on December 6, and crossed the Antarctic Circle on Christmas Day.
She is commanded by Captain Colbeck, a very able and capable ice
navigator, who has under him zealous officers and a good crew. In
about 67° 40’ S. an interesting discovery was made of a new island,
of which several excellent photographs were taken. A landing was
effected and a survey was made; it was named Scott Island.
Outside the pack the J/orning encountered a heavy southeast gale,
bergs and heavy floe pieces being a source of continual danger, and the
ship was subjected to a most severe straining. At one time she could
show no canvas. ‘The season was very late and the navigation difh-
cult. But Captain Colbeck followed up his clew, found the record at
Cape Crozier, and finally sighted the D7scovery’s masts.
It was found that several miles of ice intervened between the two
ships, and it was not long before it became clear that the ice was not
likely to move during that season. All hands at once went to work
to transfer stores and provisions on sledges, and before it became
necessary to depart the Jorning bad supplied 14 tons of stores and
provisions and 20 tons of coal. But there was barely time.
The arrival of the J/orning was most providential, but she leaves
the Discovery with only provisions to last until next January, and 80
tons of coal.
In returning, the J/orning was in some danger of being detained.
She was beset, but was saved by her skillful ice navigation, aided by :
strong southwesterly gale. Her detention would have been a terrible
calamity. She, however, returned safely to Lyttelton, New Zealand,
last March.
Captain Colbeck deserves high commendation for the skill and ability
with which he conducted a very arduous and difficult voyage; for his
excellent judgment in finding the winter quarters of the Déscovery, his
rapid transfer of stores, and the seamanlike qualities which enabled
him to work his vessel safely out of the ice under circumstances of no
ordinary difficulty. The officers worked under him with zeal and
intelligence, and the conduct of the men was excellent throughout the
voyage,
THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 465
It will be seen that a second voyage of the J/orning is absolutely
necessary for the safety of our gallant countrymen. There are 37 souls
in the Antarctic ice, consisting of 5 naval officers, 1 officer of the naval
reserve, 5 members of the scientitic staff, 24 naval seamen and marines,
and 2 other good men. We have a balance of £7,000. Only a small
additional sum is needed, namely, £12,000. Without it those heroes
who have done so much for science and their country’s credit will be
in grave peril.
We must provide for wages for both ships; we must send out the
means of blasting and forcing the /scovery out of her icy prison ; we
must repair the Morning, so terribly strained and knocked about ; we
must store her with coal and provisions.
There are difficulties and dangers yet, but the chief dangers are
financial. Our gallant Colbeck and his people will overcome the rest.
Meanwhile, the heroic Discoverers are still working for us at their
numerous observations under increasing hardships caused by the small
stock of coal. They have full faith in us, and that the needful funds
will be found by us. Look once more at your maps. Look at their
discoveries. Do not these men deserve well of their country 4? Will
not their country recognize their services? I feel sure that it will,
and that we shall yet welcome them all here after one of the most
successful and glorious achievements that have ever adorned our
geographical annals.
Note oN THE ANTARCTIC SKETCH-MAP.—As the complete charts showing the results
of the surveys made by Captain Scott and the officers serving under him have not
yet been received, the map of the Antarctic regions which accompanies this paper
must be considered as only provisional. It has been prepared from all the informa-
tion at present available, including the report which Captain Scott has addressed to
the presidents of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society. A rough
sketch of the winter quarters of the Discovery by Lieutenant Barne, and another of
Erebus and Terror Island by Lieutenant Royds, have furnished the basis for the
enlarged inset plan, but the remainder of the new work has been drawn from letters
and reports, in which are, however, given the latitudes and longitudes of several
positions. The track of the Morning has been approximately laid down, from a pre-
liminary chart on a small scale, by Lieutenant Evans and sent home by Captain
Colbeck. Lieutenant Shackleton has, since his return, looked over a proof of the
map and made several corrections, but until the complete charts, based upon
numerous observations and careful surveys, arrive, it is, of course, impossible to
give anything more than an approximate idea of the geographical work of the
expedition. Upon the present map the newly discovered land is shown in red,
while the remainder of the coast line has been principally taken from the Admiralty
charts and other material.
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SKETCH MAP
Showing
The first year's work of
THE NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION se
a i6s"E \ | to iilustrate the paper by
SIR CLEMENTS MARKHAM, K.C.B
Scale of Miles
190
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THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION 2
By Orro NoRDENSKIGOLD AND OTHERS.
I. SumMaRY oF EVENTS.
By the Eprror or THe GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL.
We print below a summary of the scientific results of the Swedish
Antarctic Expedition of 1902-8, kindly communicated to us by Doctor
Nordenskidld. It is necessary, however, to preface this by an outline
of the course of the expedition from the time when the Antarctic
steamed north, on February 21, 1902, after leaving the leader and his
five companions in the inhospitable neighborhood of Snow Hill, on
the eastern side of the northward-pointing land mass known as Louis
Philippe Land. The first business which engaged the attention of the
explorers was the erection of houses and observatories, after which an
attempt was made to explore the neighborhood by means of a boat
excursion. It was soon found that the season was too far advanced
for work of the kind, the movements of the pack placing the boat in
frequent danger. Enough was done to show that Seymour Island, as
well as that on which the winter station had been established, was
divided from the mainland by a channel representing the supposed
Admiralty Inlet; but further exploration had to be postponed until
the sea should once more be frozen over. The terrific gales experi-
enced during the winter and the work done during that trying period
are spoken of in Doctor Nordenskidld’s paper, and we may therefore
pass on to the first important sledge expedition, which was begun on
September 30, the leader being accompanied by Lieutenant Sobral
and the sailor Jonasen. Of the two sledges taken, one only could be
pulled by the dogs, the numbers of which had sadly diminished by
this time. Progress was therefore somewhat slow. It soon proved
that the outer fringe of islands was backed by a continuous mainland,
connecting Louis Philippe Land with King Osear Land farther south.
The space between the islands was occupied by ice plains, terminating
in a precipitous ice wall, and apparently resembling the surface of
«Reprinted from The Geographical Journal, London, Vol. XXIII, No. 2, Feb-
ruary, 1904.
467
468 THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
Ross’s famous barrier in the vicinity of Victoria Land. The surface
was generally smooth, but, as was found by the British explorers in
the opposite hemisphere, the approach to the land was barred by
formidable crevasses, rendering it impossible to obtain seal meat for
the dogs, so that it became necessary to begin the return journey on
October 21, or earlier than had been anticipated, the station being
again reached on November 4.
During the summer the gales ceased almost entirely, and little
change in the ice occurred, this being the reason for the failure of
the Antarctic to reach the station to take home the explorers. The
second winter which they were thus forced to spend at the station
proved far better than the former as regards the gales experienced,
but the renewal of sledge expeditions, apart from some minor trips,
was again reserved for the spring. On September 29, Doctor Norden-
skiold started, with the sailor Jonasen as his only companion, intend-
ing to examine the channels northward in the direction of Erebus Gulf.
This was reached on October 12, when the explorers unexpectedly met
with Doctor Andersson and Lieutenant Duse, who had spent the winter
in that locality without any suitable equipment, having left the Avnf-
arctic at the end of 1902, in order to try to reach the winter station
overland. They had since heard nothing of the ship. Returning in
company to the winter station, they arrived in time to greet the
appearance of the Argentine gunboat Uruguay (Captain Irizar), which
arrived on November 8, still without news of the Antarctic. ‘The
very same night their fears for the safety of the crew were set at rest
by the arrival of Captain Larson and four men, who had made their
way from the spot where the crew had wintered after the loss of the
ship, the fate of which was thus for the first time made known to the
other parties. .The catastrophe had occurred when the Antarctic was
about 20 miles south from Dundee Island, the ship having been
crushed by the ice pressure caused BY a violent gale on January 10,
and finally abandoned on February 12, the crew making their way
amid great difficulties to Paulet ee The various parties being
happily reunited on the arrival of the Uruguay at the last-named
island on November 11, the homeward voyage was commenced.
Il. Screntrric Work AT THE WINTER STATION.
By Dr. Orro NoRDENSKIOLD.
We arrived at the place selected for our winter station, at the foot
of Snow Hill, in Admiralty Inlet, on February 12, 1902, and on Feb-
ruary 21 our ship, the Antarctic, finally left us, not for some months,
as we expected, but never to return. The members of the winter
party, besides myself, were Doctor Bodman, meteorologist and magne-
tician; Doctor Ekel6f, physician and bacteriologist; Lieutenant Sobral,
THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 469
of the Argentine navy, assistant meteorologist, and two sailors. As
soon as possible the observations were started, and the scientific work
was carried on without interruption until November 8, 1903, the day
of the arrival of the Argentine relief expedition, -commanded by
Captain Irizar.
In the preliminary plan of the expedition the meteorological obser-
vations are entered as one of the most important parts of our work.
But it is not only their intrinsic interest that makes me, in trying to
give a general view of the physical geography of the region, begin
with a discussion of our meteorological observations. In fact, not only
is the climate of that region of specially great geographical importance,
but there are some rather unexpected features that seem to lend that
section of our results a peculiar interest.
The principal meteorological features of the region appear in the
following table, communicated by Doctor Bodman, and comprising the
approximate monthly means of temperature, barometic pressure, and
velocity of the wind:
Temper- | Barome-| Velocity of
| ature. ter. wind.
s | Inches. | Ft. per sec.
- 90 29, 25 30. 84
38 29. 31 23. 95
| 29.12 36.74
29. 34 36. 74
| 29.29 36. 09
f 28.96 28. 54
Septembent seeame see secon nee See anes Nae So SAUER fs ae eee ne ee | 6. 26 29.10 =| 26°25
WCCODE Ete te eae oe a Saoe tee Lara eine aretese teen papoose 9.14 | 28. 99 30. 51
INOVember ai. jj. 26 be eie Se os eee ala an Serco aie on Saree araeae de Seo else eee 17.42 29. 28 24. 61
WR CEMUID CT ac cbcis seccle tee aoe oe ae tee rete ee ieee etree aeons 28.40 29. 26 13; 12
1903 |
RU ELTUU SY ee ose iS ie toh is stake Rte = re orerao oto nie Sic te inal elo naa ee 30.38 29. 28 19. 69
1 KE} OV cL CTT an oR eS Sree eee saree ee epi eae ey ar 25.70 29. 05 22.97
SIV ireare ce Tae SSE FS Fak teks CR Cone Ba) Si ORS aE eee oy We oe ee eT ee | 11.48 28. 96 44,29
Goya se aR oR CDR M ig eI EGER) Soo eS lie LER er cee fe | 6.44 29.07 26, 25
IML ANY) SCE Ea cesc ce Se oe mic eres oc See oe acre ere ESS ae no aeee s suis kena — 2.92 29.18 19. 69
liga ea A eat ee ee se Roe Seta ae Soon eee an aa = 6534) 29/18 19. 69
TUL ype eA cree Ss oe eR te Ney NE es see ae as Spr sae . 86 28. 95 26. 25
7.5) 0¥ 91 0)) eae Peel ne ee Re Sana I en A Pe he ne 2.48 29.12 27.89
SeptemPers coseek Aare ss er tats wom arses cee ical sealers oe teens Bee seas 1.22 2OMLS al eee ee eee
QETOD CT eee ee ee eo oe a ee en es 20.48 ZO OD! || jn .e se a ltiateretets
Maneh; 902—Kebruarye 903s tasccocmee se wichic sen scien cee aemaee one. 10. 04 29.19 27.56
The minimum for the whole time was in August, 1902, —42.16°;
the maximum in the same month of August, 1903, 48.74°.
As other meteorological questions will soon be discussed more
extensively by Doctor Bodman, I here restrict myself to those most
important for the climate, viz, the temperature and the velocity of the
wind. The first thing shown by this table is the unexpectedly low
mean temperature. According to approximate calculations of our
astronomical observations, the situation of the winter station was in
64° 22’ south and 57° west. The nearest places where meteorolog-
ical observations have been carried out during a time of sufficient
length are at Cape Horn and in the region where the Belgica wintered,
and from the results thus obtained we might have expected to find
470 THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
here a yearly mean of about 20° or 25° Fahrenheit. Instead of this
we obtained for the first year +10.04° Fahrenheit. Though it is
possible that this temperature is somewhat lower than general, as the
summer was undoubtedly exceptionally cold, and even the mean for
the eight colder months (March—October) was in the first year 2.3°
Fahrenheit, but in the second 4°, it does not seem probable that the
difference from that general mean temperature should be even so great
as between the two winters. A mean temperature of 10° Fahrenheit
at the same distance from the pole is in the northern hemisphere found
in the environs of Hudson Strait, and in Siberia, in the region of
Yakutsk, still one or two degrees farther south. In both cases we
see the influence of the extremely low winter temperatures of a con-
tinental climate, while for a thoroughly marine climate the tempera-
ture is unexpectedly low. It must be left to the discussion of the
observations of the other expeditions contemporaneous with ours,
including the Scot¢a expedition, to discover whether there exists an
especially cold area on the east coast of Graham Land, or even south
of the Atlantic Ocean.
The difference in temperature between summer and winter is, of
course, not so great as in the regions mentioned, and, notwithstanding
that the temperature of the three winter months was during the two
years as low as —4° Fahrenheit, the winter could not be called very
cold if it was not for the wind. The great violence of the wind in all
antarctic regions is a well-known fact, but I doubt if a violence such
as that during our first winter has ever been experienced in an arctic
or antarctic climate, and even the average for the whole time must
be considered unexpectedly high.“ However, the table shows that
the differences between different seasons, and also between different
years, are very great.
The factor that really determines the climate is the direction of the
wind. The situation of the station, on the shore of a strait, may par-
tially account for the predominance of the winds from the southwest
and northeast quadrants. Besides this, there is a high percentage of
‘alm, or nearly calm, weather. The southwest winds are by far the
most common and the strongest, and because they are also the coldest
all the really bad weather is to be ascribed to them. The calm hours
are not much warmer, but of course their influence on the general
feeling is absolutely different. The real northeast winds are compar-
atively strong and cold; but, besides them, there is another class of
winds which are, if not as common as the others, still exceedingly
characteristic of the climate. They are the winds from north or even
north-northwest, and when once started they are very strong and very
«The only similar observations from the Antarctic hitherto published are those
by the Borchgrevink expedition (preliminary), the mean being considerably lower
than ours.
‘
THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. AT1
long continued, and bring the warmest weather. It is these differences
that bring outanother characteristic of the climate—its great variability.
The variations from day to day are in winter time greater, as in most
other regions of the world, and, as far as our short experience goes,
it is quite probable that this also holds good from year to year.
Though the mean temperature of these two winters is nearly the same,
the difference between the two is.very great. In the first year the
southwest storms were absolutely overwhelming, alternating with
periods of calm, warmer weather. Inthe second year the calm periods
were generally colder, and, at least during the first part of the winter,
very common and long continued, and to this cause during the second
half were due long periods of warm northerly winds.
In the closest connection with that state of the weather stand the ice
conditions. After the winter of 1902, with its southwest storms, came
a summer that was not only the coldest hitherto known in any region
of the world, but also, and that to our bad luck, marked by an accu-
mulation of ice such as never has been seen in that region. It was in
the battle with that ice that the Anturctice was lost, but it may be said
that we on the station had really no reason for uneasiness, as never,
except perhaps for two or three days, was the sea in our neighborhood
so free from ice as to render the arrival of the ship probable. On the
other hand, even in the middle of the winter, the north and northwest
winds would cause large openings in the ice, and after the strong gales
in August to October, 1903, the second summer started with an almost
clear sea, and probably this year is of the same type as the summer of
1893-4, when Larsen made his well-known voyage south.
During our stay I brought together rich material from investiga-
tions on the ice, both sea ice and land ice, and especially that typical
Antarctic ice cap of Snow Hill—its temperature compared with that of
the sea ice and the soil, its movement, surface structure, and stratifica-
tion. Interesting is the great accumulation of snow during the sum-
mer 1902-3, which is important for explaining the formation of such
ice caps and their great extension in those regions; a few years such
as this would cover the whole region with snow.
Because of this accumulation the land ice forms at all seasons an easy
traveling road, and only where there are large crevasses it might be
difficult to pass in summer time. On the contrary, just as in the north,
so also here the sea ice js during the summer to a great extent covered
by water, making the traveling very difficult. But even if this had
not been the case we could not have used the first summer for distant
sledge traveling, as we had then to wait for the return of the Antarctic,
and later to provide ourselves with the supplies necessary for another
wintering. All sledge work, therefore, was mainly during the two
springs. Its results have been the survey of the coast with its outly-
ing islands from the end of Louis Philippe Land to our southernmost
sm 1903 BL
4A? THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
point in 66> south, 62> west. The accompanying rough sketch-map,
compiled by Lieutenant Duse, gives an idea of the general geography
of the region rather different from older maps. As a matter of fact,
the whole mainland from Louis Philippe Land past King Oscar Land
forms a narrow strip of high mountainous land, the continuation of
Graham Land. Farther on in the same direction, Joinville Island
seems really an archipelago of islands. East of the mainland we find
two other island groups, divided by the wide gulf extending between
Snow Hill and Robertson Island.
The northern archipelago is divided from the mainland by a broad
channel studded with islands. It consists of two groups, divided by
Admiralty Sound, with its two islands, Cockburn and Lockyer.
Inside of this strait the principal mass of land is divided by a narrow
winding channel into two large islands, the largest of which, with
Mount Haddington for its highest point, I propose to call, after its
discoverer, James Ross Island. Though in cold summers the ice in
those channels and straits does not break up, it is probable that there
is in other years much open water.
Very different is the aspect of the southern ‘‘ archipelago.” No
real islands exist here; even the mildest summer will not melt away
the ice so as to allow a boat to come round any of the islands. All
visible land consists of nunataks rising out of a high, extensive mass
of ice. Still, 1 believe it is very probable that should once there come
a change toa warmer climate, then the ice would be found to rest for
a great part in a shallow sea, and not only on the land, forming in
reality a connection between the mainland anda group of outlying
islands. The mainland, so far as known, is composed of crystalline
rocks, mostly granites, and also porphyries, and, as shown by Doctor
Andersson, though perhaps to a less extent, of folded sedimentary
rocks of pre-Cretaceous age. On the contrary, in all parts of the
eastern archipelago, young volcanic rocks are in predominance, while
granitoid rocks are entirely wanting. What is found is mostly basalt,
and toa great extent tufaceous rocks, sometimes belonging to types
of great petrographical interest. I need not state that, as a conse-
quence of this geological difference, the mountain forms and the whole
aspect of the country show very marked contrasts.
Among the southern nunataks I have only observed volcanic rocks.
Besides those, there occurs in the northern region, around our station,
another far more interesting series of rocks. Those are the fossilifer-
ous sedimentary rocks, generally sandstones, that are to be found
cropping out at the foot of the hills below the volcanic series in most
parts of Ross Island, and also on Cockburn Island, and which form
the whole of the two large outlying islands, Snow Hill and Seymour
islands. The study of those rocks and their fossils will be of great
interest for the knowledge of the conditions of those regions in former
THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 473
times, though it is, of course, impossible at this time to go further
into the matter. The whole formation is generally very rich in rather
well-preserved fossils, belonging to numerous groups of marine forms.
In the lower part ammonites are common, and the age must be con-
sidered as Mesozoic; higher up those are wanting, and it is not
improbable that the strata here pass into the Tertiary.
It is in those upper strata that I found numerous plant remains, and
also remains of some vertebrate animals, showing not only that in a
period geologically not very distant, land has existed in this region,
but also that the climate was at that time mild, and the land covered
by vegetation and inhabited by animals. There is in all this, in the
whole configuration of the country as well as in its geology, a very
marked analogy to Patagonia, and further studies may prove the
resemblance to be still greater. Even the inner channels are interest-
ing, because of their analogy with the great plains and the lakes on
the eastern side of the Cordillera. But it seems undeniable that there
are great differences in the structure of the southern Cordillera and the
Antarctic mountain chain, and more investigation is necessary to deter-
mine whether it is possible to consider this part of Antarctica as a con-
tinuation of the South American continent or not.
Of our other investigations I will here only mention the bacterio-
logical work. Just as in the Arctic regions, bacteria are also here
scarce; but Doctor Ekeléf has made the interesting observation that
in the upper layers of the soil there is to be found a comparatively
rich flora.
Our studies came to rather an abrupt end with the arrival of the
Argentina relief expedition, as we thought we had reasons to expect
that we should have a good deal of the summer at our disposal. Still,
the time has been long, and undoubtedly it has been an advantage that
the scientific work could be continued two years instead of one.
Ill. THe SctentTiric OPERATIONS ON BOARD THE ANTARCTIC IN
THE SUMMER 1902-1908.
By Dr. J. GUNNAR ANDERSSON.
On November 5, 1902, the Antarctie left Ushuaia for the south.
The ship had been thoroughly equipped for the coming cruise in the
Antarctic sea; a full supply of coal was taken on board, together with
some additional provisions in case of having to winter. A plan for a
relief expedition was sent to Sweden and to the Scandinavian general
consulate in Buenos Ayres.
As I had been told that coal had been recently discovered in Teke-
nika Bay, in the southern part of the Fuegian Archipelago, I so arranged
our route southward that we stopped two days in this bay to survey
the coal-bearing formation. This led toan unexpected result. Instead
A474 THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
of what I had expected to meet here, an isolated patch—like that in
Slogget Bay—of the Tertiary formation, with plant fossils and lignite,
which is widely distributed in northern Tierra del Fuego, and, in my
opinion, more recent than the folding period of the Fuegian cordillera,
I found a strongly folded sedimentary series, chiefly a conglomerate,
with marine shells and trunks of driftwood. The sedimentary beds
were traversed by eruptive dikes. Unfortunately my collections from
this place were lost with the Antarctic. For this reason I can not give
any definite opinion as to the age of the sedimentary beds nor the
petrological character of the eruptions traversing them. Moreover,
I have decided to return to Tekenika Bay to survey in detail this
locality, as it will evidently contribute to deciding the unsettled age
of the Fuegian cordillera.
Late in the evening of November 7 the Antarctic crossed the latitude
of Cape Horn to the west of Hermit Island, and in the night of the 9th
to 10th of the same month, in latitude 59° 30’ south, longitude 66° west,
we passed the first water-worn floes of drift sea ice, the first iceberg
having been sighted the previous day. As soon as we had entered the
region of drift ice, I started regular observations on the frequency and
size of sea ice and icebergs. These running observations were carried
on by me up to my departure from the ship on December 29, and after
that they were continued by Mr. Skottsberg.
On November 11-12 we met the dense pack in latitude 61° south,
and only after ten days’ hard work did Captain Larsen force a way to
the open coast water outside the South Shetland Islands. Between
Smith Island and Snow Island we entered Bransfield Strait, practically
free from ice. November 23-24 we visited Deception Island, but
found its crater covered by unbroken ice. From here we steered for
the eastern end of Livingstone Island, where a short landing was made.
During all this time the weather was fine.and clear. On the opposite
side of the broad strait we distinctly sighted the snow-clad plateaus
and lofty peaks round the Orleans channel—the old Trinity Land.
But nothing was to be seen of Middle Island, which is marked on the
charts as situated in the middle of the strait between McFarlane Sound
and Astrolabe Island; on the following day (25th) we crossed the
position of the nonexisting island, and here dropped the lead in 800
fathoms. On the previous day, in a sounding between Deception and
Livingstone islands, in 534 fathoms depth, we had found a remarkably
low-bottom temperature of 29° Fahrenheit. An examination of the
intermediate depths at the sounding station of Middle Island, gave
the result that Bransfield Strait repeats the typical hydrographical
condition of all ice-bearing parts of the ocean—a superficial layer and
a deep-water mass, both characterized by low temperature, and
between them a body of relatively warm water. But this section
shows two remarkable features; the intermediate warm current is
THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 475
here faintly developed, and in consequence a very large part of the
section is occupied by the bottom water, the temperature of which is
only 29.66° to 29° Fahrenheit, the latter at the bottom itself. This
bottom temperature is somewhat below the minimum deep temperature
hitherto observed in the ocean (the Norwegian Sea, bottom tempera-
ture 29.3° Fahrenheit), and it is quite exceptional in the south polar
regions, the bottom temperature of the Antarctic Ocean being about
31° Fahrenheit. Evidently Bransfield Strait is an isolated basin,
separated from the open ocean by submarine shelves, which admit only
a very limited renewal of the warm water. Later on in the summer
we got more sections and single soundings in Bransfield Strait. The
maximum depth observed was 826 fathoms, near to Bridgeman Island.
In January of the same year (1902), before establishing the winter
station, Doctor Nordenskidid, with the Antarctic, made a two days’
excursion along the coast of Graham Land southwest from Astrolabe
Island. As a result of this visit he was convinced that here runs
a continuous coast line, and that the Orleans channel of Dumont
d@’Urville and the Belgica (later Gerlache) Strait of the Belgian expe-
dition form parts of the same far-extending channel. But the ques-
tion was in some principal points unsettled, because of the difficulty
of reaching an incontestable connection with the Belgian chart. Now,
we had to clear it up decisively, and in the time—November 26 to
December 5—Lieutenant Duse carried out a survey on the scale of
1:300,000 of the region between Astrolabe Island and Cape Murray
(Cape Neyt of the Belgian chart). During this time the hard-working
cartographer arranged the course of the ship so as best to suit his sur-
vey, we other scientists taking the chances thus offered for our own
work. At every landing that Mr. Duse made to get bearings and
astronomical observations he was followed by the botanist and the
geologist; Mr. K. A. Andersson, in the meantime, with trawlings
from the ship, making collections of the luxuriant marine fauna.
These days in the Orleans channel we remember as a most happy
time of full and profitable activity, the only regret being that the
larger mass of its rich collections no longer exists.
On December 5, the survey of the Orleans Channel being finished,
we headed for the sound between the mainland and Joinville Island in
order to proceed to the winter station. Cheerfully we spoke of the
approaching meeting with Nordenskiéld and his comrades, and prepa-
‘ations were made for their reception on board, but events turned out
far otherwise than we expected and many a lonely day had to pass
before we reached our friends on Snow Hill. The sound inside Join-
ville Island we always found filled with heavy, hummocky drift ice;
and Erebus and Terror Gulf,as far as we could sight it from the sound,
looked like a dazzling white plain without a single space of open water
476 THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION.
visible. Here all efforts to penetrate the pack would evidently be use-
less, at least for the next few weeks, and Captain Larsen determined to
try outside of Joinville Island. On the northern coast of this island
we again met the edge of the dense pack, which we followed in a
northerly direction, eagerly looking for an opening to the east and
south. South from the Elephant Islands the Antarctic got caught by
the ice and drifted with it in a northeasterly direction. On December
15 (latitude 61° 35’ south, Jongitude 53° west) we had drifted outside
the Bransfield basin, as was proved by a sounding at 892 fathoms, a
bottom temperature of 31.28° F., the normal deep temperature of
the open Antarctic Ocean. Two days later, the ice having slackened
so as to permit the ship moving, Captain Larsen made his way back
westward to open water. We now returned to the sound inside
Joinville Island, only to find the ice conditions here unaltered. The
chances of reaching the winter station with the ship at this time
seemed very bad, and we sought to realize a plan that had been under
preparation during the last two weeks. On December 29 Mr. Duse,
Sailor Grunden, and I were landed on the west side of the sound to
try sledging round the gulf to get into communication with Snow Hill.
The movements of the Anfarct7c from this day to the final disaster will
be reported by another hand.“ The only thing that remains to tell
here is the fate of the scientific materials on board at this time.
The most valuable part of our collections of earlier times by the
expedition had been sent home from Port Stanley and Ushuaia.
Before we left Port Stanley the last time (September, 1902), I had left
another large part of our collections in charge of the Colonial Govern-
ment and of the Falkland Island Company. All zoological, botanical,
and geological material that could, if wanted, be worked out by foreign
hands was deposited here. My private geological notebooks, as well
as all the materials in charge of Mr. Duse (meteorological and hydro-
graphical journals, cartographical material), were kept on board to be
worked out in the course of the voyage. We are highly indebted to
Captain Larsen and the two scientists remaining with him on board
for saving all the notebooks, journals, etc. Only the cartographical
material from South Georgia could not be found by them, and it was
consequently lost with the ship. The collections made on the second
visit to Tierra del Fuego were kept on board, and the most of these,
as well as most of the collections obtained during that last summer’s
work in the south, had to be left on board when the sinking ship was
abandoned. But it is much to the credit of Messrs. K. A. Andersson
and Skottsberg that they, in the days when the fate of the ship was
already evident, selected the most valuable, portable parts of their
collections, which they took to Paulet Island, and thus saved them.
a@See above.
=I
THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 4
IV. Tue SLEDGE EXPEDITION FROM THE ‘‘ANTARCTIC.”’
By Dr. J. GuNNAR ANDERSSON.
When, in the middle of December, we had found that the impene-
trable pack in every direction stopped the ship in its passage toward
the winter station, I determined to try to reach Snow Hill by a sledge
voyage round Erebus and Terror Gulf. Mr. Duse instantly expressed
his desire to take part in the proposed trip, and also the third member
wanted, Sailor T. Grunden, joined voluntarily.
Without any special equipment for sledge traveling, and starting
along an unknown coast, we evidently entered on a rather doubtful and
hazardous undertaking, but the situation required everything possible
to be tried. As soon as the necessary preparations were made, we
landed in a bay on the mainland (west) coast of the sound inside Join-
ville Island where a depot of provisions was erected. Before the
departure the following was agreed with Captain Larson: That (1) if
the sledge party reached the station, we should wait there for the
Antarctic until February 10, but after that date bring Nordenskiédld
and his comrades out to our starting point. In this case Larson had to
pick us up at the place agreed on between February 25 and March 10.
(2) If the Antarctic reached the station, and we did not appear there
by January 25, Larson had to look for us at our depot.
On the night following our landing, we started in a south-southwest
direction across the inland ice, and on the second day we made an
unexpected discovery. Having reached an ice shed we faced a broad
sound with scattered islands. This sound we had to cross to reach
a snow-covered land lying some 22 miles distant in a southerly direc-
tion. The sea ice was at this season in a very miserable state, covered
with large fresh-water pools. These were getting deeper and formed
a regular network as we approached the last-named land, which we
reached (January 3, 1903) only after a desperate wading and with all
our effects thoroughly wet. After having climbed to the top of the
gently sloping inland ice, we got a free view all round that cleared up
our position. The land where we were standing formed in reality a
large island on the north side of the water called by Sir James Ross,
Sidney Herbert Bay, which in fact runs far inland and joins our island
inside with the broad water that we had just passed. Sidney Herbert
Sound was all over a bluish surface of water-covered ice, quite similar
to that on which we had just had a narrow escape, and along the shores
there were in some places broad spaces where the ice was entirely gone.
As we could not think of crossing this sound, we could only give up
our plan and return to the depot, which we reached on January 13.
Here the weeks passed without the Antarct/e reappearing, and in the
middle of February we began to make preparations for the chance that
we might be forced to winter here. On March 10, the time to expect
478 THE SWEDISH ANTAROTIC EXPEDITION.
the ship was due, and the following day our stone hut was ready for
use. The depot had been established only for the time until the ship
should return, and was thus insufficient for wintering. Some hundred
penguins were killed to supply us with fresh meat, and seal blubber
was used as fuel.
The winter passed without accident, but with a complete lack of
intellectual employment. On September 29 we started again for the
station on Snow Hill, were stopped for three days ina violent snow-
storm, and then went on slowly in unsettled weather. On October 12,
traveling along the coast of the above-mentioned island, we, by a
strange coincidence, unexpectedly met with Nordenskidld, who had
reached this region through a large interior channel just then discovered
by him. Loading our effects upon his dog sledge, we continued the
journey pleasantly through Sidney Herbert Sound and outside Mount
Haddington. After four days’ traveling in splendid weather, we
reached Snow Hill on October 16.
Our sledge party was dispatched from the Antarctcc to fulfill a duty
that we failed to carry out in face of natural obstacles which we could
not master. The scientific results of our undertaking are very limited.
Living during the winter in a misery of dirt and darkness, and want-
ing also the simplest instruments, we were unable to make any kind of
observations. Still, our time was not spent totally in vain. We
entered a virgin area, where Duse made a survey that forms a neces-
sary link between his chart of the Orleans Channel and the extensive
‘artographical work executed by Nordenskidld and Duse together
farther south on the east coast. ,
In the Orleans Channel I collected some facts, adding to the evidence
brought forward by Mr. Arctowski, and proving that the large chan-
nel was once filled by an immense glacier moving in a northeast direc-
tion. Near to our wintering place I found some other and very striking
traces of an earlier wider extension of the glaciers. This material will
soon be published, in combination with my observations from South
Georgia, the Falkland Islands, and Tierra del Fuego.
On the geological survey of the vicinity of the bay where we
wintered, I made another noticeable find —well-preserved plant fossils,
cycadas, conifers, and ferns, a flora of apparently Lower Mesozoic age.
A smal! selection of this material was brought with us on the sledge
to Snow Hill, but the great mass was left at our winter place, and
afterwards picked up by the Argentine relief ship.
Our involuntary wintering brought also a certain practical result.
By force of circumstances, living principally on the products of sur-
rounding nature, and, like Nansen and Johansen in Franz Josef Land,
in many respects following the mode of life of the Eskimo, we,
together with the party wintering on Paulet Island, accumulated an
THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. A479
experience, new for the Antarctic regions, which, when once fully
described, might be of service to future explorers in distress during
the survey of the desolate and stormy southern lands.
To me it was of special interest to get intimate around our wintering
place with a nature so different from the now well-surveyed region
round the station on Snow Hill. Instead of its unfolded table-land
surrounded by a shallow sea, we have here a deep sound with fjord-
like bays swarming with a rich fauna, and a land with numerous edged
nunataks rising through the inland ice—a folded region with such a
variety of sedimentary and eruptive rocks that the find of a rich
Mesozoic flora is only to be regarded as a first hint of the possibilities
of a future more extensive exploration. In the lonely winter months
I sometimes amused myself with sketching in detail a survey of the
geology and biology of this region--a plan that, I hope, will not wait
long for its realization.
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FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.@
By O. F. Coox,
U. S. Department of Agriculture.
Agricultural science so generally appears as a borrower from
physies, chemistry, botany, or zoology that it has not been expected
to furnish facts of use in other lines of investigation. Thus, although
it has been known since the sixteenth century that the same primitive
food plants were cultivated throughout the tropics of both hemis-
pheres, the significance of this remains unappreciated, and there is
still doubt and speculation regarding prehistoric communication across
the Pacific. Alaskan Jand connection, Buddhist missionaries, stranded
Japanese junks, and other possibilities of a northwestern contact have
been eravely and minutely discussed, while unequivocal evidence of
tropical intercourse lay only too obviously at hand. The cultivation
of the same seedless plants, such as the yam, sweet potato, taro, sugar
cane, and banana by the primitive peoples of the islands of the Pacific,
as well as by those of the adjacent shores of Asia and America, indi-
cates, with attendant facts, not only an older communication but an
intimate contact or community of origin of the agricultural civiliza-
tions of the lands bordering upon the Pacific and Indian oceans. Con-
crete biological data need not be disregarded because the peopling of
America by the lost tribes of Israel and other equally fanciful con-
jectures are discredited.
THE CULTIVATED PLANTS OF THE PACIFIC ISLANDS.
Notwithstanding the immense distances by which the tropical islands
of the Pacific are separated from the continents and from each other,
European discoverers found them already occupied by an adventur-
ous, sea-faring people who knew enough of the stars, trade winds, and
currents to navigate their frail canoes in those vast expanses of ocean
without the mariner’s compass. The agriculture of the Polynesians
vas, however, no less wonderful than their seamanship, and was cer-
tainly not less important to them, since the coral islands of the Pacific
are not only deficient in indigenous plants and animals suitable
for food, but the natural conditions are distinctly unfavorable to
agriculture.
@ Revision of article on The American Origin of Agriculture, in Popular Science
Monthly, October, 1902.
451
482 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA,
‘** The whole surface of these flat coral islands is like the clean white
sanded floor of an old English kitchen. The cocoanut tree springs up
everywhere, but in the spots where yams and taros are grown the sand
is hollowed out and a pit formed, from 100 to 200 yards long and of
varying width, into which decaying cocoanut leaves and refuse are
thrown till a rich soil is formed.”
‘*The position occupied by the Polynesian races as tillers of the soil
has hardly had sufficient attention given to it, although it may be
doubted whether any people ignorant of the uses of the metals ever
advanced so far as they have done. * * * Let any one read the
account given by the first visitors to New Zealand—especially Cook—
respecting the Maori cultivations of those days—the care that was
taken to keep them free from weeds; the labor expended in convey-
ing gravel to hill up the kumara plantations; the trouble taken to
protect them from the strong winds by means of temporary screens
or fences; the months employed in building houses (often highly
varved and decorated) in which to store their crops; the amount of
patient care and selection required in raising new varieties.”
The agricultural achievements of the Polynesians become even more
impressive when we reflect that so many of their cultivated species
were not propagated from seeds but from cuttings... These must have
been carefully packed, kept moist with fresh water, and protected
against the salt spray, to survive the long voyages in open canoes.
A list of 24 species of plants believed to have been brought to the
Hawaiian Islands by prehistoric colonists is given by Hillebrand.¢
This number, however, must be greatly increased, since there were
many varieties of the sweet potato, taro, sugar cane, and banana.
Moreover, the Hawaiian group is scarcely more than subtropical in
climate, and lacks numerous seedless sorts of the breadfruit, yam, taro,
and other plants of the equatorial belt of islands, so that a complete
enumeration of the species and varieties carried about by the early
Polynesians among the islands of the Pacific would include nearly 100.
There are many indications to be drawn from the people themselves,
as well as from the abundance of ancient ruins, that the archipelagoes
«Moresby, Discoveries and Surveys of New Guinea, p. 73, London, 1876. The vol-
canic islands of Polynesia have, of course, rich soil, but they shared the deficiency
of native food plants, so that nonagricultural people could scarcely have secured a
permanent food supply.
It is certain, moreover, that among the Polynesians the cocoanut is a cultivated
plant no less than the yam, taro, sweet potato, sugar cane, banana, breadfruit, and
numerous other species found in use throughout the tropical islands of the Pacific.
An especial interest attaches to the cocoanut in that there are adequate botanical
reasons for believing that it originated in America, the home of all related palms.
See The Origin and Distribution of the Cocoa Palm, Contributions from the U. §.
National Herbarium, Vol. VII, No. 2, Washington, 1901.
bCheeseman, Trans. New Zealand Inst., 33:307-308. 1901.
¢ Flora of the Hawaiian Islands, Introd.,. p- Xvi, 1888.
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 483
of the Pacific were the scene of a former civilization much more
advanced than that found by Europeans. Seamanship, like other arts,
had declined, and communication with the remoter islands like Hawaii,
Easter Island, and New Zealand had been interrupted for several
centuries, perhaps as a result of an intermixture of the so-called
Melanesians, the native black race of New Guinea and neighboring
islands of the western Pacific, peoples inferior in agriculture, seaman-
ship, and social organization. In spite of the richer native flora of
the Melanesian islands, no cultivated plant of importance seems to have
been domesticated there, no species being reported as in cultivation
among the Papuans which is not shared with the Malays to the west
or with the Polynesians to the east, and in nearly all cases with both.
The primitive agriculture of all the Pacific islands may be viewed,
then, as a connected whole, and a detailed study of the origins, present
distributions, native names, agricultural methods, and domestic uses
of the numerous species and varieties of cultivated plants may be
expected to vield the most definite information now obtainable regard-
ing the origins and migrations of the ancient agricultural peoples of
the Tropics.“ At present we have only incomplete and scattered data
collected incidentally by missionaries, travelers, and professional bot-
anists who did not appreciate their opportunities from the agricultural
point of view. But even these miscellaneous facts are often of unex-
pected interest. Thus, we know that in Central America the use of
leguminous shade trees in cacao plantations was adopted by the Span-
ish colonists from the natives, who furnished even the name, ** mother
of cacao,” by which the species of /rythrina and other leguminous
shade trees are still known in Spanish America. The Indians, of
course, were not aware that the roots of the leguminosze developed
tubercles for the accommodation of bacteria able to fix atmospheric
nitrogen in the soil, and thus increase its fertility. They believed
that the ‘madre de cacao” supplied water to the roots of the cacao,
a fanciful idea still credited by many planters, and not much improved
upon by the current notion that shade of large trees is beneficial to
cacao and coffee. In the Pacific we encounter a similar fact with ref-
erence to the yam bean (Pachyrhizus), a leguminous vine with a fleshy
edible root. The natives of the Tonga Islands no longer cultivate
Pachyrhizus for food, but they nevertheless encourage its growth in
their fallow clearings in the belief that it renders them the sooner
capable of yielding larger crops of yams. Such anticipations of the
results of modern agricultural science are of extreme interest, but it
is still uncertain whether similar knowledge exists in other archipel-
agos of the Pacific, or on the American continent where Pachyrhizus
“Even the cosmopolitan tropical weeds are worthy of careful study from this
standpoint. After excluding aquatic, swamp-land, and strand species, Seeman found
64 genuine weeds in Fiji, of which 48 were common to America, while only 16 were
heid to be Old World species.
484 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCEENT AMERICA.
probably originated. The botanists report it as ‘‘a common weed
in cultivated grounds,” and we learn further that, in the absence of
better material, the people of Fiji use the fiber for fish lines, and that
the plant sometimes figures in an unexplained manner in their religious
ceremonies, an indication of greater importance in ancient times.
Our knowledge is far from complete regarding even the present dis-
tribution of the principal tropical food plants, but the need of further
investigation should not obscure the striking fact that several of the
food plants with which the Spaniards became acquainted in the West
Indies were also staple crops on the islands and shores of the Pacific
and Indian Oceans, and even across tropical Africa.
How this very ancient agricultural unity of the Tropics came about
may be unexplainable by history or tradition, but it is scarcely more
mysterious than that so significant a fact should have been disregarded
so long in studies of primitive man. Our attitude, even yet, seems to
be that of the medizval Europeans, who believed with Columbus that
the newly discovered ‘* Indies” of the western Atlantic were the same
as those of eastern Asia. Nearly a century elapsed between the dis-
covery of America and the realization that it was indeed a new world
and not merely an eastern prolongation of Asia, so that the community
of food plants in regions separated by more than half the circumfer-
ence of the globe did not at first appear remarkable. Modern geogra-
phy has proved the remoteness of the localities, but modern biology
vives no less definite testimony that the same plant does not originate
twice, and makes it plain that varieties dependent everywhere for their
very existence on human care must also have been distributed by human
agency.
THE AGRICULTURE OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
The most important food plants of the Polynesians were seven in
number—the taro, yam“, sweet potato, sugar cane, banana, breadfruit,
and cocoanut—of which six, or all except the breadfruit, existed in
pre-Spanish America, and of these, five, or all except the cocoanut,
were propagated only from cuttings.
Except with the banana, botany gives us much evidence for and
none against the New World origin of the food plants shared by
ancient America with Polynesia and the tropics of the Old World,
« Numerous species of true yams ( Dioscorea) are cultivated, and the roots of many
wild species are collected for food in various parts of the Tropics. The present refer-
ence is to D. alata, the most widely distributed of the domesticated species and not
known in the wild state.
“The Haitian name of the Dioscorea alata is axes or ajes. It is under this denomi-
nation that Columbus describes the igname in the account of his first voyage; and it
is also that which it had in the times of Garcilasso, Acosta, and Oviedo, who have
very well indicated the characters by which the aves are distinguished from batates.’’—
Humboldt, Kingdom of New Spain, vol. 2, p. 355. Trans. by Black, New York,
1811.
FOOD PLANTS -OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 485
though few of them are known under conditions which warrant a
belief that they now exist anywhere in atruly wild state. The partial
or complete seedlessness attained by several of the important species
also indicates dependence upon human assistance in propagation for a
very long period of time, and precludes all rational doubt that their
wide dissemination was accomplished through the direct agency of
primitive man.
Ethnologists will not deny that in the Old World this distribution
was the work of the remote ancestors of the Polynesians, traces of
whose presence have been found distributed over the area included
between Hawaii, Easter Island, New Zealand, Formosa, Malaya,
Madagascar, and even across the African continent.“ We have not
been provided, however, with any explanation of the existence of
these food plants in America, for ethnologists do not admit that the
eastward migrations of the Polynesians reached this continent, but hold
that the tribes, languages, customs, and arts of the American Indians
are of truly indigenous development, not imported from Asia or else-
where, as so frequently and variously conjectured.
**T maintain, therefore, in conclusion, that up to the present time
there has not been shown a single dialect, not an art nor an institution,
not a myth or religous rite, not a domesticated plant or animal, not a
tool, weapon, game, or symbol, in use in America at the time of the
discovery, which had previously been imported from Asia or from any
continent of the Old World.”?
If this conclusion be adopted it is obvious that the food plants com-
mon to the two hemispheres must have been derived from America.
This alternative seems not to have been canvassed with the standpoint
and methods of modern ethnology, but it is safe to say that in Asia no
“Frobenius, Zeitsch. der Gesellsch. fir Erdkunde zu Berlin, Bd. 33, 1898. Report
of the Smithsonian Institution for 1898, pp. 637-650.
» Brinton, D. G., in Memoirs of the International Congress of Anthropology, p.
151, Chicago, 1894. The same argument has been stated somewhat less radically by
Payne, but with no more adequate appreciation of the significance of the facts of
tropical agriculture:
“Tf advancement was at some remote time imported from the Old World into the
New, how happens it that at the discovery all the domesticated animals and nearly
all the cultivated food plants of the Old World were either wanting or existed only
in a wild state in the New World? * * * Pulse [the bean] was the only culti-
vated plant common to America and the Old World. * * * Civilized immigrants
from Asia would naturally strike the New World in British Columbia or Oregon;
and the doctrine of imported advancement finds its most decisive refutation in the
fact that from the most remote until recent times agriculture was here absolutely
unknown.’’ Payne, Hist. of the New World called America, Vol. II, p. 340-347.
It is possible that there were no Old World cultivated plants in America except
the banana, which evidently arrived late. That Asiatic agriculture was not intro-
duced into America is, however, far from proving that American agriculture was not
introduced into Asia.
486 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
such arguments can be made as in America against the exotic origin
of the earliest civilizations. It is a simple zoological fact, also freely
admitted by ethnologists, that the straight-haired Malayoid peoples
are not the original inhabitants of southeastern Asia and the neighbor-
ing islands, since throughout these regions there are isolated remnants
and traces of earlier curl-haired types, such as the Negritos, Anda-
manese, Papuans and Ainus.@
If it be reasonable to suppose that the food plants which the Poly-
nesians shared with the tropical peoples of both continents were
varried by them across the Pacific, it is also reasonable to seek the
origin of these widely distributed species on the continent which gives
evidence of the oldest and most extensive agricultural activity, and to
the question in this form there can be but one answer. The agricul-
ture of the Old World tropics is adequately explainable by the supposi-
tion that it was brought by the Polynesians, since the root crops of the
Polynesians were also staples of the Old World tropics. This proposi-
tion would not apply to America, where, in addition to the sweet
potato, yams, yam-bean (Pachyrhizus), canna and taro, which crossed
the Pacific, the aborigines also domesticated a long series of root crops
confined to America at the time of its discovery. Such are: Manihot
(cassava), JMJaranta (arrowroot), Calathea (leren), Solanum (Irish
potato), Xanthosoma (several species), Oxalis (oca), Sechium (chayote),
Tropwolum, (massua’), UVucus, Arracacia, and Helianthus (Jerusalem
artichoke) ¢ all of considerable local importance.
The simplest of cultural methods, propagation from cuttings, was
applied to these root crops and has been inuse for so longa period that
several of them have become seedless. With equal uniformity the
distinctively Old World root crops are grown from seed. And as all
the Asiatic and European species are of temperate origin and have not
been greatly modified from their wild ancestral types, it is reasonable
to beheve that they were domesticated by peoples already accustomed
to the planting.of cereals, which are correctly viewed as the basis of
temperate agriculture. Root crops of American origin belong to at
least twelve natural families, and the only important Old World addi-
tion to the series is the mustard family, a distinctly temperate group,
the cultivated members of which have not been greatly modified in
domestication, and are still known in the wild state.
This apparent superfluity of American root crops is explainable by
the fact the different plants were independently domesticated in differ-
@Science, N. S., 15: 928-932. 1902.
»Mr. W. E. Safford notes that the word ‘‘masoa’’ means, in the Samoan language,
sticky or starchy and is applied to the Polynesian arrowroot ( Tacca pinnatifida) a root
crop of the Pacific islands. See Pratt, Samoan Dictionary, p. 211, 1893.
¢ All these root crops were propagated from cuttings except Pachyrhizus, Canna, and
Sechium. Other seed-grown cultivated plants common to the two hemispheres were
the cocoanut, bean, cotton, gourd (Cucurbita), and bottle gourd (Lagenaria).
-
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 487
ent localities, which means also that conditions favorable to the develop-
ment of agriculture were very general among the natives of America.
That most of these plants are not known in the wild state testifies also
to the great antiquity of this agricultural tendency, while archeology
shows the same antiquity and diversity of prehistoric civilizations in
America. From the mounds of Ohio to the equally remarkable ruins
of Patagonia, the American continents and islands are, as it were,
dotted with remains of rudimentary civilizations which must have
required centuries and millenniums to rise from surrounding savagery,
culminate, and perish. The constructive arts by which the existence
of these vanished peoples is made known took the most diverse forms;
some made mounds, some expended their energies upon huge carvings
on high, inaccessible rocks, some dug devious underground passages,
some set up monoliths and carved statues, and some built massive
platforms, terraces, pyramids, temples, and tombs, while still others
are known only from their pottery or their metal work. In civiliza-
tion, as in agriculture, the tropics of America stand in striking con-
trast to those of the Old World. Here men of the same race showed
great diversity of plants and arts; there races are diverse, while arts
and staple food plants are relatively little varied. The early civiliza-
tions of the eastern world resembled some of the primitive cultures
ot America more than these resembled each other.
The American origin of agriculture is thus not doubtful, since not
merely one, but several, agricultures originated in America. The
same can not be claimed for Asia and Africa, where only root crops
shared with America attained a wide distribution, an indication that
they reached those continents before the uses of the similar indigenous
plants had been discovered.
POISONOUS ROOT CROPS.
The domestication of so many root crops in America indicates, as
has been intimated, a widespread use of food of this kind before agri-
culture began, and many savage tribes still have recourse to wild roots,
either as a staple article of diet, or in times of scarcity. It is evident,
however, that the culture of the principal root crops of America was
not begun as a simple and direct transition from the use of fruits,
which are commonly supposed to have been the food of primitive man.
The more ancient and more important of the Old World root crops,
the onions, leeks, garlics, carrots, and radishes are eaten, or are at
least edible, in the raw state, but in America there seems to be no indi-
cation that the natives used any root crop in this way. Some of them,
such as the sweet potato, the artichoke and the ‘*sweet cassava,” can
be eaten raw, but throughout the tropics of America the Indians, like
the Chinese, prefer everything cooked. This habit must have been
sm 1903
B2
488 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
adopted very far back to make possible the ancient domestication of
Manihot (cassava), Colocasia (taro) and Xanthosoma (yautia), since the
fleshy underground parts of these plants contain substances distinctly
deleterious and extremely unpalatable until disintegrated and rendered
harmless and tasteless by heat. The same may have been true of the
sweet potato,” since the fleshy roots of its uncultivated relatives are
strongly purgative. Several of the yams, both wild and cultivated,
are also poisonous in the raw state.
That these poisonous root crops were the most popular, widespread
and ancient would seem to afford sufficient proof that the discovery of
‘the use of fire in cooking preceded the development of the art of agri-
culture, though further support may be derived from the very practi-
cal. consideration that without fire the primitive savage with his
stone ax would make little headway in the work of clearing away
the forest,, which is everywhere the first preliminary of tropical
agriculture.
To be able to utilize as nourishing food the natural supplies of
starchy roots, which to other tribes were poisonous, would give the
primitive fire users an important advantage over their neighbors, and
would greatly conduce to the adoption of a settled existence in dis-
tricts where the plants were plentiful. Cassava, yams, taro, sweet
potatoes, and others of the primitive series of root crops often grow
freely and without care from rejected fragments or pieces of stem, so
that the digging of the roots and trampling down of the vegetation
would not exterminate the wild supply, but would afford, on the
contrary, abundant opportunity and encouragement for the gradual
increase of cultural efforts.
A third important step in the domestic economy of primitive man
was the making of dry meal or starch from roots, accomplished in the
tropics of both hemispheres by similar processes of grating, soaking
in water, boiling, or treating with alkalis to destroy their poisonous
properties: Seu from the sugars and other readily soluble sub-
aX oe Ww men may be he rr Fede form of the sweet no is a common
weed in the Coban coffee district of eastern Guatemala. The absence of the sweet
potato from Samoa, Fiji, Guam, and the Philippines may have inclined some to doubt
its prehistoric distribution in the Old World west of Hawaii and New Zealand, but
according to Bretschneider it is recorded in Chinese books of the second or third
century of the Christian era, and there are many varieties with native names in trop-
ical Africa, both east and west, and legends indicative of its presence in early times.
“It is told me as truth, that before the Portuguese came to this coast (Guinea),
the negroes subsisted themselves with these two fruits (yams and sweet potatoes)
and a few roots of trees, they being then utterly ignorant of Milhio (maize), which
was brought hither by that nation.’’ (Bosman’s Guinea (1698) in Pinkerton’s
Voyages, vol. 16, p. 459. )
Cheeseman records two varieties of the sweet potato as existing in Rarotonga
before the arrival of Europeans, and believes that the plant has been cultivated
there ‘“‘from time immemorial.”? (Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., 2 ser., 6:289, 1903.)
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 4&9
stances which retain or absorb moisture, the starch of the taro, cassava,
arrowroot, canna, and other root crops can be quickly and thoroughly
dried, and will then keep indefinitely. In the absence of cereals this
simple expedient might well be deemed an epoch-making discovery,
since it rendered possible the accumulation of a permanent, readily
transportable, food supply, and thus protected man from the vicissitudes
of the season and the chase. That the resulting economic difference
appeared striking to the hunting tribes of Guiana is apparent in the
name they gave to their agricultural neighbors, whom they called
‘* Arawacks” or ‘‘eaters of meal.”
Cassava in the raw state carries a deadly charge of prussic acid and
begins to decay in a few hours after being taken from the ground, but
properly prepared it furnishes the starch which keeps best, and which
in the form of tapioca our civilization is tardily learning to appre-
ciate as a wholesome delicacy. In spite of its unpromising qualities
when raw, cassava seems to have been the first and only root crop
used by many South American tribes who plant nothing else except
the so-called peach palm (Gu7/éelia), a species which gives suggestive
evidence of a cultivation much older than that of the date palm, since
it is generally seedless, and is not known in the wild state. The
farinaceous fruits are made into meal and baked into cakes in the same
manner as the cassava, to which recourse is necessary during the
months in which the single harvest of palm fruits is exhausted.”
Cassava is, indeed, so distinctively the best, as well as the most
generously and continuously productive, of the tropical root crops, that
it could hardly have been known in the regions in which the others
were domesticated. Ever since the Spanish conquest put an end to
the isolation of the native peoples of tropical America the use of
cassava has been slowly extending at the expense of similar crops; it
has also found a footing in the Malay region and other parts of the
East.
THE DOMESTICATION OF THE BANANA.
In further support of the suggestion that the use of the starch-
producing root crops is a distinctively American development of primi-
tive agriculture is the fact that the tropics of the Old World contributed
no important cultivated plant of this class, and none which give evi-
dence of long domestication. On the other hand, such regions as
Madagascar and East Africa, where Polynesians are now supposed by
ethnologists to have settled in ‘* remote prehistoric times,” continued
«Some of these tribes are extremely primitive and, in the absence of all domestic
implements, grate their cassava on the exposed spiny roots of another native palm
(Iriartea exorhiza). Some Indian tribes of Guianaare similarly dependent upon still
a third palm (Mauritia), from the pith of which they secure starch in a manner
strongly suggestive of that used with the sago palm of the Malay region.
490) FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
the culture and differentiation of the varieties of the taro and the
sweet potato, and were agriculturally mere outposts of the American
tropics.
The presence of the banana might be thought to explain the rela-
tively small importance of root crops in the Old World, sinee it furnishes
with far less effort of cultivation and preparation a highly nutritious
and palatable food. It appears, however, that the use of root crops
must have preceded the domestication of the banana, for, although the
seed-bearing wild bananas are worthless as fruits and hence would not
have been domesticated as such, nevertheless more species of them
than of any other genus of food plants were brought into cultivation.
The clue to this paradox is afforded by the fact that bananas are still
cultivated as root crops in the Old World tropics, particularly in New
Caledonia and Abyssinia.?4
That the varieties used like vegetables or root crops are as old or
older than those grown for fruit is indicated by the fact that, like the
sweet potato, taro, sugar cane, and ginger, they seldom produce flowers.
Furthermore, among all savage tribes the varieties valued by civilized
peoples as fruits are relatively little used, far greater popularity being
enjoyed by the so-called ‘* plantains,” not edible in the raw state, even
when ripe, though nearly always cooked and eaten while still imma-
ture, or before the starch has changed to sugar. They are also in
many countries dried and made into a meal or flour often compared to
arrowroot.
In dietary and culinary senses the breadfruit also is as much a veg-
etable as the taro or the sweet potato; as a fruit it would be no more
likely to be domesticated than its distant relative, the osage orange.
The farinaceous character of the breadfruit also probably explains its
relatively greater importance among the Polynesians than in its orig-
inal Malayan home, as shown by the propagation of numerous seedless
varieties. The popularity of the breadfruit among the Polynesians was
“The suggestion that the primitive culture race which domesticated the banana
came from America also receives definite support from the fact that an American
plant (Heliconia bihai), somewhat similar to the banana but without an edible fruit,
reached the islands of the Pacific in prehistoric times. Though no longer cultivated
by the Polynesians, it has become established in the mountains of Samoa and in
many of the more western archipelagoes. In New Caledonia the tough leaves are still
woven into hats, but the Pandanus, native in the Malay region, affords a better
material for general purposes and has displaced Heliconia in cultivation among the
Polynesians. In the time of Oviedo the natives of the West Indies made hats, mats,
baskets, and thatch from the leaves of Heliconia, and the starchy rootstocks were
eaten.
Professor Schumann, of Berlin, has recently recognized the prehistoric introduc-
tion of Heliconia bihai from America to the Pacific Islands.
“Originally native in tropical America, but extensively naturalized since very
ancient times (wralten Zeiten) in Polynesia and Malaysia.’’ (Schumann und Lauter-
bach, Die Flora der Deutschen Schutzgebiete in der Sudsee, 224, 1901. )
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 491
further extended by the discovery that the fruits could be stored in
covered pits, the prototypes of the modern silo.
In Abyssinia the tender heart of the banana, there cultivated as a
root crop, is fermented in a similar manner and then baked into
cakes.“
FROM ROOT CROPS TO CEREALS.
If the domestication of the banana is to be ascribed to cultivators of
root crops, the same reasoning applies with even greater propriety to
cereals. Tribes accustomed to subsist on mangoes, dates, figs, or
similar fruits which require no grating, grinding, or cooking, and are
eaten alone and not with meat, would not develop the food habits and
culinary arts necessary to equip primitive man for utilizing the cereals.
Wild bananas and their botanical relatives are natives of the rocky
slopes of mountainous regions of the moist tropics, where shrubs and
trees prevent the growth of ordinary herbaceous vegetation. The
commencement of the culture of cereals by fruit-eating natives of
such forest-covered regions is obviously improbable, but would be a
comparatively easy transition for the meal-eating cultivators of root
crops, since the grasses and other plants domesticated for their seeds
are exactly those which flourish in cleared ground and are prompt to
take advantage of the cultural efforts intended for other crops. Thus
the Japanese have by selection secured a useful cereal from the com-
mon barnyard grass (Panicum crus-galli), just as they have made a
root crop of the burdock. Accordingly, we should look to some taro-
growing tribe of southeastern Asia as the probable domesticators of
rice, sesame, and Guinea corn. ‘That root crops preceded cereals in
America was inferred above partly from the fact that root crops were
not there grown from seeds, and there is a corresponding indication
that the knowledge of cereals preceded the domestication of the seed-
grown temperate root crops of the Old World, since none of these is
anywhere dried, made into starch, or otherwise prepared for storage
as the basis of a permanent food supply of primitive tribes.
Without the winter protection which primitive man could not sup-
ply, the culture of cassava and other tropical root crops is confined to
strictly tropical climates, so that increase of latitude and altitude
would bring to starch-eating peoples the necessity of a change of food
plants. Indeed, altitude seems to have played a larger part than lati-
tude in this transformation which brought about the adoption hy
primitive American peoples of Indian corn, ** Irish” potato, arracacha,
oca, and other crops of the temperate plateaus of South America.
Without reasonable doubt, maize is the oldest of cereals. The large
soft kernels which distinguish it from all other food grasses would
render it easily available among the meal-eating aborigines of America,
«Warburg, in Engler, Deutsch Ost-Africa, Nutzpflanzen, 100. 1895. In the lake
regions of Central Africa the rootstocks of the fruit-bearing varieties of the banana
are also pounded, dried, and made into meal, especially in times of scarcity.
499 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
and everywhere in tropical America maize is still prepared for food
by methods adapted to root crops, and not ground dry and made into
bread as a cereal, as among the Europeans who have colonized America. —
The rough stone slab (metate) against which the primitive Indian had
rubbed his cassava and other farinaceous roots to a paste served also
for maize, which is first softened by soaking in water with lime or
ashes. The metate and the tortilla still hold their own in tropical
America.
Like other species cultivated in the highlands of tropical America
most varieties of maize do not thrive in moist equatorial regions of
low elevations,” so that it did not supplant the root crops, though
having a far wider distribution than any other plant cultivated by the
aborigines in pre-Spanish America. Nor did the utilization of maize
mark the limit of cereal cultures in America, though no small-seeded
crop of the New World compares in popularity with rice, wheat, barley,
rye, and oats. Even in Mexico, the supposed home of maize, the
seeds of Amaranthus and Salvia (chia) attained considerable economic
importance. In addition to their use as food, the latter were made to
furnish a demulcent drink and an edible oil valued as an unguent and
in applying pigments, a series of functions closely parallel to those of
sesame, perhaps the most ancient of Old World herbaceous seed crops.
Wild seeds of many kinds were collected by the Indians of the United
States and Mexico, including wild rice (Z/zania) and Uniola, another
rice-like, aquatic grass of the shallow shore water of the Gulf of
California. In Chile there existed also several incipient cultures of
small-seeded plants, such as J/adia, while the people of the bleak
plateaus of Peru and Bolivia had developed a unique cereal crop from
a pigweed (Chenopodiuin quinoa), another of many evidences of a
general tendency to agricultural civilization in ancient America.’
«The varieties of maize cultivated, for example, by the Indians of Guatemala and
Peru are closely adapted to their different altitudes, only a few sorts yielding good
crops in the tropical lowlands.
»**Tt has been erroneously stated that maize was the only species of grain known
to the Americans before the conquest. In Chile, according to Molina, the mager, a
species of rye, and the tuca, a species of barley, were both common before the
fifteenth century, and as there was neither rye nor barley in pre-Spanish America it
is evident that if they were common, even after the conquest, and not European
grain, they were indigenous. In Peru the bean (two or more species) and quinua
were common before the conquest, for I have frequently found them in the huacas,
preserved in vases of red earthenware.’’ (Stevenson’s Travels, Vol. I, pp. 856-367. )
There are, however, many indigenous species of barley (Hordeum) in South
America, some seventeen being listed as valid in the Index Kewensis. It is not
impossible that some of these were cultivated, or at least utilized, before the coming
of the Spaniards. It might have taken very little time for such a crop to be replaced
by barley brought from Europe.
Quinua, like the root crops, is inedible when raw. It contains an extremely bitter
substance which has to be removed by long cooking, during which it is customary
to change the water eleven or twelve times.
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 493
As long recognized by historians and ethnologists, maize was the
most important factor in the material progress of ancient America, and
the American civilizations remained on a much more strictly agricul-
tural basis than those of the Old World, a fact not without practical
significance to modern agriculture, since it undoubtedly conduced to
the more careful selection and improvement of the many valuable plants
which we owe tothe ancient peoplesof America. Subordinate only to
maize from the agricultural standpoint was the domestication of the
beans, while the materials for a developed culinary art and a varied
and wholesome diet were furnished by a variety of minor products, like
the Cayenne pepper, the tomato, the tree tomato (Cyphomandra), the
pineapple, several species of the strawberry tomato ( Physal7s), the paw-
paw (Carica), the granadilla (Pass/flora quadrangularis), the gourd,
the squash, and the peanut. American fruit trees, such as the cus-
tard apple and related species of Annona, the avocado (Persea), the
sapodilla, Mammea and Lucuma, afford retreshing acids, beverages,
relishes, or salads, but do not furnish substantial food like the banana.
Contrary to the opinion of De Candolle there is every probability that
the banana reached America from the west long before the arrival of
the Spaniards, but it evidently did not come until after the agriculture
and cultivated plants of America had spread into the Pacific.
NO PASTORAL PERIOD IN AMERICA. ;
Relying on the traditions of the peoples of western Asia and the
Mediterranean region, many writers have assumed that animals were
domesticated before plants, and that a pastoral stage marked the first
step of primitive man from savagery toward civilization. There are,
however, no indications of such a period in the agricultural history of
the ancient peoples of America, nor among the *‘ oriental” nations of
the Asiatic shores of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The straight-
haired men of both continents were primarily domesticators and culti-
rators of plants. The Chibcha people of the interior of Colombia
attained a considerable degree of advancement without adopting a
single domestic animal. The Peruvians and Chinese learned to use
beasts of burden and animal fibers and skins, but their pastoral efforts
were merely incidental to agriculture; they remained essentially vege-
tarians, eating little meat, other than fish, and never taking up the use
of milk.
A settled agricultural existence made it practicable, however, to
tame animals, and it may well be doubted whether any animal, with
the possible exception of the dog, was domesticated by wandering
savages. The lack of useful domestic animals in ancient America has
been discussed by Payne“ and other historians as an evidence of the
a History of the New World called America, Vol. II.
494 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
inferior intelligence and resourcefulness of the aboriginal peoples, but
it seems that one tribe or another had domesticated all the American
animals likely to be of value to civilized man; certain it is that Euro-
peans, with three centuries of opportunity, have not added to the num-
ber or uses, or extended the range of any American animals, except
the turkey and guinea pig. On the other hand, the American Indians
have not failed to appreciate the superiority of the domesticated ani-
mals brought by Europeans, and the more enterprising tribes have
adopted the hen, cat, pig, goat, sheep, cow, and: horse. Indeed, even
nonagricultural Indians of our Western States have taken kindly to
the keeping of herds of sheep and cattle, and have thus assumed the
pastoral state, illustrating, perhaps, the manner in which, in ancient
times, domesticated animals spread more rapidly than cultivated plants
from the agricultural East into the Mediterranean region.
Nomadic hunters or fruit eaters would not be likely to domesticate
anything themselves, but offered the choice of plants or animals already
thoroughly tamed and improved by selection, they are more likely to
take the animals first as requiring a less radical change of food and
habits of life. The milk and flesh of their herds would still be sup-
plemented by the game, honey, wild fruits, and other edible plants
which might be encountered in searching for pasture for their flocks,
after the manner of the patriarchs of the Old Testament. Dates, figs,
and other fruit trees mignt receive some attention from such wander-
ers, but the more successful they might become as shepherds the less
likely they would be to take up the planting of cereals or of other her-
baceous crops, which, in the absence of fences, would be appropriated
by their animals before the owners could make even an initial experi-
ment. It is accordingly significant that the origin of the agricultures
and civilizations of the valleys of the Nile and Euphrates is no longer
sought by ethnologists with Semitic shepherds or more northern peo-
ples, but with a seafaring race which has been traced to southern
Arabia, and whose language has been found to have analogies with
the primitive Malayo-Polynesian tongue of Madagascar.“
OTHER INDICATIONS OF TRANS-PACIFIC COMMUNICATION.
The American origin of agriculture could ask for no more striking
testimony from Old World archeology and ethnology than the recently
discovered fact that the primitive culture race of Babylonia, which
brought ‘‘ letters, astronomy, agriculture, navigation, architecture, and
«Keane (Man, Past and Present, p. 250 et seq.) considers the language of Mada-
gascar to be Polynesian rather than Malayan, and holds that the similarities between
Madagascar and Arabia are not due, as has been supposed, to a recent contact
during the Mohammedan period, but date back to the ancient Minzeans and Sabzeans,
maritime peoples who had commerce with India, and who are now supposed to have
worked the prehistoric mines of the South African ‘‘Ophir.”’
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. = A495
other arts,” was ‘‘a short, robust people, with coarse, black hair;
peaceful, industrious, and skillful husbandmen, with a surprising
knowledge of irrigating processes.” “
It is a long reach from Babylonia to tropical America, but the com-
munity of ancient food plants will prevent biologists, at least, from
passing as a meaningless coincidence the fact that these early agricul-
tural civilizations of Asia differed in no essential respect from those of
our own so-called New World, not even in the physical characteristics
of the people, so that the same words describe both equally well. If
it be found that the same taro plant was in reality cultivated in ancient
Egypt, Southern Arabia, Hindustan, Polynesia, and America, ancient
human communication between these remote parts of the world is as
definitely established as though coins of Alexander the Great had been
dug up. It is no empty fancy, but the most direct and practical
explanation of concrete facts, to believe that the robust, straight-haired
‘ace may have brought from America some of the plants they culti-
vated in Asia. It was among such men that agriculture, navigation,
and other arts of civilization reached high development in America at
a very remote period. The ancient cultures of the Old World left
traces of no such infancy and gradual growth as those of America.
Egypt and Babylonia arose suddenly to civilizations further advanced
than those of Mexico and Peru.
That the Aztec and Inca empires were comparatively recent political
organizations has caused many writers to forget that they incorpor-
ated much more ancient culture. For centuries still unnumbered the
Andean region of South America supported crowded populations.
On the western slopes of Peru every inch of irrigable land was culti-
vated—houses, towns, and cemeteries being relegated to waste places
to save the precious soil. Irrigation was practiced with a skill and
thoroughness unexcelled in modern times, though by methods closely
duplicated in ancient Arabia, even including the boring of deep tun-
nels for collecting subterranean water.
To claim that the Polynesians, Malays, Phcenecians, Egyptians,
Hindoos, or Chaldeans came from America would be a careless anachro-
nism, to say the least, for the very terms of the problem place its
solution far beyond the period in which these peoples, nations, and
languages were differentiated. It is doubly unreasonable to expect
any very close resemblance of languages or arts in the Tropics of Asia
and America at the time of their discovery by Europeans, since change
and diversification had continued on both sides of the Pacific. To
accomplish the dissemination of the tropical food plants there was
necessary only a primitive people with the skill in agriculture and
navigation possessed by the Polynesians and Malays. It has long been
“ Keane, Man, Past and Present, Cambridge, 1899.
496 FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA.
admitted by ethnologists that the remote ancestors of these races did
overrun all the Tropics of the Old World, and the latest investigations
warrant the belief that they made their influence felt also along the
shores of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where the civilization of
the Mediterranean countries was formerly thought to have originated.
It can not be declared impossible, of course, that this primeval
migration from America took place at a time when there was more
land 1 in the Pacific than now, as Belt and other geologists have held
that there was, some thousands of years ago, but such Gonjectures are
rendered gratuitous in view of the highly developed seafaring talents
of the inhabitants of the Pacific islands and of the adjacent shores of
America, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. It is no farther from
America to the inhabited islands of the Pacific than from Tahiti to
Hawaii, a route traversed by the Polynesians.“ In ancient, as in modern
times, the sea was not a barrier, but the most open way of communica-
tion between distant regions; then, as now, the boat was the easiest
means of transportation known to man. In time and labor of travel
the islands of the Pacific were far nearer to Peru, for example, than
many of the inland regions conquered by the Incas of Cuzco. More-
over, the Peruvians told the Spaniards of inhabited islands in the Pacific,
or at least gave sailing directions which enabled Quiros to reach the
Low Archipelago. There was a tradition that one of the Incas had
made a voyage of two years in the Pacific and returned with black
prisoners of war. Apparently, too, they told the Spaniards that the
banana was brought from this quarter, for Acosta gathered from the
Indians that it was not a native of America but came from ‘* Ethiopia.”
These historical incidents have been overlooked or disregarded, perhaps
because such possibilities as an American origin of agriculture and a
trans-Pacific dissemination of food plants have not been considered by
writers on primitive man. The times, routes, and methods of travel |
are, of course, questions to be approached by detailed studies of many
kinds. For the present purposes it suffices to remember that the
actual introduction of plants by human agency discounts in advance
all objections on the ground of distances and difficulties of communica-
tion, and justifies the fullest use of biological or other data in tracing
the origin and dissemination of agricultural civilization in the Tropics
of both hemispheres.
The distribution and the uses of tropical cultivated plants support,
it is true, the belief of ethnologists in the truly indigenous character
of the peoples, agricultures, and civilizations of the western hemi-
sphere, but they also testify to a very early colonization of the islands
and coasts of the Looe ane Indian oceans from tropical America.
oThe Sunione of Bole nesian ¢ ee re tie aL ea America has been discussed
at length in Lang’s Polynesian Nation, Ellis’s Polynesian Researches, and Rutland’s
History of the Pacific.
FOOD PLANTS OF ANCIENT AMERICA. 497
Botanical evidence makes it plain that most of the plants shared by
the people of the two continents originated in America, like numer-
ous other cultivated species which remained limited to this continent.
The primitive culture peoples of the tropical regions of ancient America
were accustomed to the cooking, grinding, and storing of vegetable
food, and were thus prepared to appreciate and utilize the cereals by
agricultural experience lacking among the fruit-eating aborigines of
the Old World, where there seems to have been no tendency toward a
spontaneous development of agriculture. Civilizations have nowhere
developed without the assistance of the farinaceous root crops and
cereals, the use and cultivation of which are habits acquired by primi-
tive man in America and carried in remote times westward across the
Pacific, together with the social organization and constructive arts
which appear only in settled communities supported by the tillage of
the soil.
DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER.
By Frepertck V. Covi.ur.
A stranger left alone in a desert would die of thirst, and yet there
is water in all deserts, and both the native animals and the native
races know how to find it. This water is gathered and stored by
plants, which have built and filled their reservoirs for their own pur-
poses, but which yield it up, when required, for the use of the animal
world. 7
The extent of the root system in desert plants, by means of which
they absorb their water from the soil, is often astonishingly great.
In the Mohave Desert of California a branching cactus (Opuntia
echinocarpa) 48 centimeters (19 inches) in height was found to have a
network of roots extending over an area of ground about 5.5 meters
(18 feet) in diameter.” The roots lay near the surface, at a depth of 5
to 10 centimeters (2 to 4+ inches), a situation which enabled them to
take advantage of a single substantial downpour and, before the pre-
cipitation had been again absorbed into the parched air, to suck up a
supply of water sufficient, if need be, for a whole year’s use. Other
desert plants send their roots deep into the ground for water, and a
certain shrubby species of acacia found about Tucson, Arizona, pos-
sesses, according to Professor R. H. Forbes, a double-root system, in
which one series of roots spreads out horizontally, close beneath the
surface, and a second series, sharply defined, goes directly downward
into the soil. Such an arrangement enables the plant to seize upon
water either from light precipitation or when deeply percolating under
‘dry stream beds.
While the devices for absorption in desert plants are unusual, the
mechanical contrivances by means of which these plants are enabled
to retain the moisture they have absorbed are still more remarkable.
Other factors being equal, the amount of water transpired, or evapo-
rated, from a plant is proportional to the area of its green surface,
which, in ordinary plants, is a foliage surface. A specimen of coffee
plant (Coffea arabica) weighing 20.5 grams is found to have a leaf
surface computed at 164,476 square millimeters, which gives a ratio of
@Coyille, Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, Vol. IV
(Botany of the Death Valley Expedition), pp. 46-7, 1893.
499
500 DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER.
1 to 8,023. A specimen of bisnaga or barrel cactus (/chinocuctus
emory?), in the conservatories of the Department of Agriculture at
Washington, weighing 77,000 grams (170 pounds) and without leaves,
has a green stem surface of 1,032,320 square millimeters, with a ratio
of 1 to 13.4 (fig. 1). Thus for each gram of tissue the coffee plant,
representing the ordinary vegetation of a humid climate, has a green
surface 599 times greater than that
representing a gram of tissue in the
cactus; or in physiological terms,
the coffee plant, other factors being
equal, is provided with means for
the transpiration of 600 times as
much water as the cactus.
Not only is the green surface of
desert plants very much restricted
in extent, but it has such a strue-
ture as greatly to reduce the amount
z of moisture transpired through it.
Fic. 1.—Bisnaga or barrel cactus (Echinocactus The structure of an ordinary trans-
OT ees eee a piration pore in a plant of humid
habitat is shown in fig. 2. Through the courtesy of Dr. R. E. B.
McKenney the structure of a pore of Lchinocactus emory?t is presented
for comparison (fig. 3). It is to be noted that the cuticle of the latter
is excessively thickened. Beneath the epidermis is a deep layer of
hypodermis with very thick walled cells and small cell cavities. It
can searcely be doubted that, except at the pores, the epidermal struc-
ture is impervious to moisture eyen under the extreme desiccating
conditions of the desert. Beneath the minute
opening of the pore is an air chamber, the
lower contracted end of which is made up of
the walls of the green, moist interior cells of
the plant. The portion of the walls of this
chamber which lie within the hypodermis,
Doctor McKenney has discovered, are cuti- Fie. 2—rTranspiration pore of
nized, so as to be. impervious to moisture. ?7adescantiavinginica-” a, Bp
‘ fee 2 idermis; b, outer wall of epi-
The cushion of air in the chamber is therefore dermal cell, d, cavity of epi-
slowly receiving moisture at its lower end ermal cell 7, greem intenor
: : : é tissue; g, guard cells of the
from the interior water supply of the plant — transpiration pore: nh, trans-
and slowly giving it off into the outer air when- Bess pea
ever the two guard cells open the narrow slit Bot <a ea
between them. The whole structure is evidently well adapted to tbe
maintenance of a transpiration current at an exceedingly attenuated
rate adapted to the plant’s limited supply of moisture. |
The interior of the plant consists chiefly of water-storage cells (fig.
4). These are globular in form, devoid of green coloring matter,
and with walls somewhat thickened but possessing thinner sieve-plate
DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER. 501
areas which permit the ready transfer of water from one cell to
another throughout the interior. Doctor McKenney has made a
determination of the water in a sam-
ple of this storage tissue and finds
the astonishing amount, by weight,
of 96.3 per cent. The plant when
filled to its capacity is almost a tank
of water.
That animals which live in a desert
would have difficulty in securing a
regular supply of water is evident.
But it is a matter of fact that many
of these animals go without water
for months at a time, deriving all
their moisture from the watery tis-
sues of plants; and there is conclusive
evidence that some animals never
drink water, apparently not knowing
what water is, and never eat even
ordinary herbage, but subsist on dry
seeds alone. D. W. Carnegie records
the statement” that while traveling
across the desert of southwestern &
Australia, his band of 9 camels went F!¢- 3:—Transpiration pore of Echinocactus
$ ‘ emoryi. a, Epidermis; 6, outer wall of epi-
without water from July 29 to August — dermal cell; ¢, cuticle; d, cavity of epidermal
f0,1896, a, period of twelve days, on. vel: % bypedermis, 7; green interior: tissue,
: : g, guard cells of the transpiration pore; h,
the latter date taking a full drink transpiration chamber. Much enlarged.
averaging 17 gallons each; while 2 of —*!%" McKenney.
his camels performed a still more wonderful feat of abstinence in
traveling for a period of thirty-seven
days, from August 22 to September
28, 1896, on only 13 gallons of water
each, which they drank as follows:
August 29, after seven days, 2 gal-
lons; September 8, after ten days
more, 8 gallons; September 18, after
an additional ten days, 3 gallons.
Bands of Merino sheep grazing on
the tender annual vegetation that
springs up on the desert near Phoe-
nix, Arizona, after the winter rains,
Se ee Sage Heid) eee Somenmes Gril. no wuler Lor a. pe-
emoryt. a, Water-storage cells; b, intercellu- , 3
lar spaces; ¢, sieve plates, face view; d, sieve riod of forty to sixty days. In the
peice itt cross secion-, Stier McKenney) desert. plain obj oonora, Mexico, west
of the railroad station of Torres, are isolated rocky hills in which
aD. W. Carnegie, Spinifex and Sand, pp. 194, 261. 1898.
502 DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER.
peccaries live for months at a time without possible access to natural
water. It isevident from their habit of rooting in the ground like the
domestic hog, that they derive some of their requisite moisture from
the underground portions of plants, while another source of moisture
is the fruit of opuntia and other cactuses.
Mr. T. S. Van Dyke, in an article on the mule deer,” says:
When on this food [cactus] deer not only can go without water, but often go
without it when it is perfectly convenient. On the great Mexican desert known as
the Bolsor. de Mapimi, I hunted for several weeks in 1884, stopping at a railroad
station 25 miles from anywhere, and known to be 25 miles from any other water.
Several hundred feet from the station the leakage from the water cars of the railroad
made a shallow pond some 50 feet long and a dozen wide. To the leeward of this
fresh tracks of deer could be found almost any morning, all near enough to smell
the water, but not one of them going to it. I had plenty of other most positive
proof that the deer there, as well as the antelope, did not go to water, though the
days were hot enough to make a man want water as much as in midsummer. For
many a league there was no green feed except some of the varieties of cactus, and
every deer and antelope that I opened in this vicinity was filled with it. The same
is true in parts of Sonora and in much of Lower California.
This statement is confirmed by Mr. E. W. Nelson, the American
naturalist most widely experienced in Mexican travel and observation,
to whom similar instances are well known.
Various authentic records exist regarding the almost incredible
abstinence of some of the small desert rodents of the southwestern
United States. Mr. Vernon Bailey, of the United States Biological
Survey, informs me that he kept a desert jumping mouse (J//crod7po-
dops megacephalus) for more than a month, during which period it ate
only dry seeds and grain. After it had become very tame he placed
water before it, but it would not drink. When the dish was elevated
until the water touched the end of its nose, the animal showed every
sign of ignorance of the liquid and even repugnance to it. Mr. F. Ste-
phens, of Santa Ysabet, California, has recorded the statement’ that he
had a pet of the gray pocket mouse (/erognathus fallax) which drank
no water in the six months during which it had been in his possession;
that it would not touch water and did not seem to know what water was,
and that it would not eat green food. He states also that Mr. W. G.
Wright, of San Bernardino, California, had a captive specimen of the
tuft-tailed pocket mouse (Perognathus penicillatus) which had no drink
and no food save dry grain for more than two years. Dr. J. A. Allen,
of the American Museum of Natural History, states’ that a pocket
mouse from western Texas (Perognathus merriam?) had been kept for
nearly three years without water, his food during that period consist-
ing exclusively of dry mixed birdseed. The domicile of the animal
«In The Deer Family, by Theodore Rooseyelt and others, pp. 193-194, 1902.
b West American Scientist, Vol. VII, p. 38, 1890.
eBulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. VIII, p. 58, 1896;
American Naturalist, Vol. XX XII, pp. 583-584, 1898.
DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER. 5038
was a tin box 10 by 20 by 14 inches, open at the top, but with a thick
layer of earth at the bottom. Doctor Allen summarized his experience
with the animal in the statement, *‘As no water and no fresh vegeta-
tion have been given him for nearly three years, it is evident that the
only moisture required for his sustenance is derived wholly from dry
birdseed.” A water content determination of dry mixed birdseed,
made in Washington, December 31, 1903, shows 11.75 per cent of
moisture. Freshly matured wheat grains in the climate of the arid
portions of California have a water content of only 6 to 8 per cent of
their weight. It is impossible that these rodents, performing their
functions of respiration, digestion, and secretion, can subsist on this-
amount of moisture. The subject is one that deserves precise quanti-
tative measurement as well as anatomical investigation. Is it possible
that these animals possess some apparatus by means of which they can
abstract moisture from the air hygroscopically and condense it for
their own use? Or do they manufacture the water they require by the
chemical dissolution of starch?
However this may be, it is clear from some of the cases cited that
the water supply of many desert animals, either for long periods or
during their whole lives, comes not from natural water, but from that
stored in the tissues of plants. It is an old established fact that ani-
mals do not possess the power to manufacture their food out of the
raw mineral constituents of the soil, but that these constituents must
first be elaborated into starch or other food products by plants. To
this fundamental dependence of animal upon vegetable life may be
added, in the case of many desert animals, their further complete
dependence on plants for their supply of water.
Under certain conditions this dependence of desert animals upon
plants for their water is extended even to the human race. The rain-
fall of the desert of Sonora is so small and so irregularly timed that
periods of prolonged drouth occur, during which many of the cus-
tomary sources of water supply, always few and far between, fail
utterly. To two of the native tribes, the Seris and Papagos, such a
condition is not necessarily serious, for they betake themselves to the
water stored in cactuses.
Some of the largest cactuses, such as the saguaro, or giant cactus
(Cereus giganteus), the pitahaya (Cereus thurber7), and the sina (P7/o-
cereus schotti7), are not available as a source of drinking water, for
their juice is bitter and nauseating. But the juice of certain species
of the genus Echinocactus, notably /. emory? and FE. wislizeni, is sweet
and palatable. These cactuses, the Mexican name of which is bisnaga,
are known by all natives of the desert region as a potential source of
drinking water. In February, 1903, the writer, in company with Dr.
D. T. MacDougal, while seeking a location for a desert botanical labo-
ratory for the Carnegie Institution, found an opportunity to observe
sm 1903 33
504 DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER.
the extraction of water from a bisnaga according to the primitive
process and by one of the aborigines themselves. The locality was in
the State of Sonora, Mexico, at a point about 12 kilometers (8 miles)
west of the railroad station of Torres. Upon request a Papago Indian,
the guide of the party, exhibited the operation. The cactus used was
a specimen of bisnaga (/chinocactus emory?) with which the region
abounds.
The plant selected was about 1 meter (33 feet) high and 0.5 meter
(20 inches) in diameter. Its top was first Sliced off, exposing the white
interior (pl. 1). It was evident that this was saturated with water,
but the structure of the tissue was such that the water did not exude
of its own accord. The Indian cut a stake of palo verde (Parkinsonia
microphylla) about 7.5 centimeters (3 inches) in diameter at the larger
and blunt end, and with this proceeded to mash the white flesh of the
‘actus intoa pulp. As the churning progressed a bowl was formed
in the top of the cactus, and when a suitable quantity of pulp had
accumulated in it the Indian, taking this up handful by handful,
squeezed out the water into the bowl, throwing the rejected pulp upon
the ground.
From the upper 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) of the cactus about
3 liters (8 quarts) of water was obtained. Its flavor may be described
as very slightly salty and somewhat herbaceous. Any really thirsty
traveler would have drunk it without hesitation, and our Papago,
although he had had plenty of water from the supply we carried,
drank the cactus juice with evident pleasure (pl. 1).
A bisnaga of approximately spherical form furnishes a more pala-
table water than the cylindrical specimens many years older, and care
is taken to use for a masher a wood which has no bitter, resinous, or
poisonous qualities. No deleterious effect is caused, our Indian stated,
through drinking a quantity of the water, unless one subjects himself
immediately afterwards to violent physical exercise. The natives use
the cactus water, if need be, for mixing bread, and evidently it could
be devoted to any camp use.
An interesting correlation is to be noted between the palatable flesh
of the bisnagas and their effective protection against grazing animals
through their impenetrable armor of hooked and rigid spines. With-
out such protection the bisnaga would be doomed to early extinction
by such animals as required a continual supply of moist, herbaceous
food. Other cactuses, on the contrary, which have a bitter and nause-
ating juice, often have only a very imperfect protection by spines, as
the giant cactus (Ovreus giganteus) and the sina (Pilocereus schottii).
One cactus, the peyote (Lophophora williams), has no spines what-
everat maturity. In appearance it is as plump and juicy as an apple;
yet, as is demonstrated by its abundance in certain localities, it is amply
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Coville. eM Aare It
PAPAGO INDIAN PREPARING A BISNAGA (ECHINOCACTUS EMORY).
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Coville. PLATE Il.
PAPAGO INDIAN DRINKING FROM A BISNAGA (ECHINOCACTUS EMORY!I).
DESERT PLANTS AS A SOURCE OF DRINKING WATER. 505
protected against the depredations of animals by its bitter and poison-
ous juice.
Another notable feature in the mechanical construction of the bis-
naga is the fluted character of its surface. Between the times when
its body is fully distended with water from the absorption following
a heavy rain and other times when its interior tissues are far shrunken
aftera prolonged drought, the plant, if ordinarily constructed, would
be very liable, from the repeated wrinkling and stretching of its hard
skin, to injury by cracking. What form could be more admirably
suited to accommodate the bisnaga to this feature of its existence than
the fluting of its surface, each fluting or rib becoming thick by the
absorption of water and thin by its loss?
Strenuous are the conditions to which the plants of the desert are
doomed; many and remarkable are the devices with which these con-
ditions are met, and rich are the opportunities for research where
such phenomena exist. It is a matter for congratulation that to the
United States belongs the credit of first establishing a botanical labo-
ratory in the midst of the desert. Such a laboratory has been founded
near Tucson, Arizona, by the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
and we may confidently expect to learn from time to time of results
which shall excite our wonder and which shall constitute new contri-
butions to the sum of human knowledge.
A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. ¢
By A. Dasrre.
Nearly half a century has elapsed since the appearance of Darwin’s
work On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. It is
unnecessary to recall the commotion which that publication produced
and the effects which followed. It was the signal for a profound revo-
lution affecting the natural sciences, secondarily other sciences, and
even the mental attitude of individuals. The idea of the evolution of
living forms, of their descent, or rather of their transformation,
already advanced by Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was rescued
from the oblivion or the indifference in which it had hitherto remained
and was imposed, in a manner, on almost the whole scientific world.
At present it is accepted with but slight opposition. It is, to be sure,
only an hypothesis; but, as it is the only one that has any rational
basis, it becomes, because of that fact, almost a necessity. As M.
Yves Delage says:
If there were a scientific hypothesis other than descent by which the origin of
species could be explained, a number of naturalists would abandon, as insufficiently
demonstrated, the opinions which they now hold.
This may be true, but there is no other scientific hypothesis, and
the naturalists of to-day, willing or not, are transformists—that is to
say, they are persuaded that living forms are not unrelated to each
other, invariable, isolated, brought into existence by special acts of
creation, and without any bond of union between them, but that they
are, on the contrary, related—that is to say, derived one from the other.
Darwinism did not, however, consist merely in an affirmation of
transformism, for this had already been advanced prior to Darwin.
Transformism certainly arose from the application to the natural
sciences of the idea of ‘‘continuity” introduced into science by the
mathematicians of the eighteenth century. We may thus explain the
course taken by that idea as well as the variations which it assumed.
The mathematicians passed it on to Buffon, who was originally a
geometrician and who entered the Academy of Sciences as such; he in
turn transmitted it to Lamarck, who was one of his intimate friends,
and from him it passed to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. It was, however,
« Translated from the Revue des Deux Mondes for July 1, 1903, pp. 207-219.
507
508 A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
the illustrious English naturalist who first explained the mechanism
by which, according to him, the transformation of one species into
another might be effected, thus producing a continuity of living forms.
This mechanism is natural selection.
Now it appears that, while Darwin succeeded in establishing the
idea of the continuity of living forms by means of generation—that is to
say, transformism, he was much less successful as regards the means
which he proposed. To speak plainly, he failed. There-are but few
naturalists at the present time who attribute to natural selection any
role whatever in the filiation of species. As has been remarked by
Herbert Spencer, it is not in this way that truly specific characters
can be acquired. Besides, when once acquired, they could certainly
not be fixed by heredity. It is some ten years since anyone has held
to the fixed heredity of characters acquired by a living being in the
course of its existence, or at least during ten years past that idea,
formerly admitted without opposition, has been fiercely attacked and
denied by naturalists of great standing, such as Weismann, Pfliiger,
Naegeli, Strasburger, Kolliker, His, Ray-Lankester, Brooks, Meynert,
van Bemmelen, and others.
A Dutch naturalist, Hugo de Vries, who has a wide reputation
among the botanists of our time, has just given the finishing stroke to
the theory of natural selection, already much shaken, and has pro-
posed in place of it another hypothesis which he calls ** the theory of
mutation.” The name in itself is not very significative and needs to
be explained. We shall do that presently. The doctrine is founded
on observation and experiments which by the sagacity, long and
patient effort, and careful criticism of their author deserve to be ranked
with the admirable observations of Darwin. On the other hand, it
has been most favorably received by many naturalists. For these two
reasons the scientific public is obliged to take it into consideration,
and, at least, to become acquainted with it.
L
Every new being resembles the ones from which it ascended, con-
sidering those in the widest sense. We say—and it is only a form of
speech—that it owes this resemblance to heredity. Heredity, then, 1s
simply the name by which we express the fact that an offspring
resembles its parents. On the other hand, the resemblance is not
absolute. For example, two animals of the same litter or two plants
of the same sowing are never identical. We apply the term ‘‘ varia-
tion,” individual variation, to such divergences or to the tendency
which produces them. It is, then, a fact that in new generations there
appear new characters which it is impossible to attribute to a reversion
to ancestral features—that is to say, they are truly new and unde-
scribed hitherto. It is only as to the extent and importance of such
characters that discussion arises.
A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 5O9
We can not deny that variation exists. Living forms have not the
rigidity of stone; they vary incessantly, and these variations have
been used by breeders for the creation of races. Modifications of this
kind are restricted, however, within certain limits. Their amplitude is
restrained by three conditions, as follows: Generally they are not per-
manent and they disappear at the same time as do the circumstances
under which they are produced; they are not transmissible by gener-
ation to descendants; and finally, the modified beings have not lost the
aptitude of crossing with those that have not been modified. This is
what is meant by declaring that these individual variations can not
create a new species; for these three defects found in the modified
being are exactly those which define a species.
Up to the present time no one has ever seen an animal or vegetable
species engender another or transform itself into another. In other
terms, no one, except perhaps Hugo de Vries, has perceived a living
form arising from another form, yet differing from it by features hay-
ing the value of those which distinguish species, and showing itself
inapt for crossing with the parent, although capable of maintaining
and preserving itself by generation. Sucha profound transformation
can not be accomplished in a moment or by a single effort.
Darwin supposed that such a transformation could be accomplished
by degrees. According to his view the cumulative repetition of certain
small variations might effect a more considerable transformation. In
order to do this it would suffice that they should always be produced
in the same direction during a long course of generations. Breeders
effect this by reproducing and maintaining the conditions of the origi-
nal transformation and breeding together the individuals which present
such transformation. This is ‘‘artificial selection.” It is a judicious
and methodical exercise of the two properties of heredity and of variation
practised for the interest and advantage of man.
The supposition of Darwin is equivalent to admitting that nature,
personified, acts like man, heedful of consequences and with a method,
by ‘‘natural selection” having in view the interest and advantage of
species. Certain slight variations appearing under diverse influences,
for example, under a change in the environment, will constitute an
advantage for individuals. Such individuals are thus better adapted
to these new circumstances and have a better chance of survival; these
are the ones which will pair and by heredity preserve the advanta-
geous variation, fix it, accumulate it, until there is formed a race, a
variety, and finally a new species. This automatic play of the best
adaptation favoring certain individuals, permitting them to survive
and to reproduce themselves, has here, in natural selection, the same
providential role as the breeder plays in artificial selection. It is the
best adaptation which designs and chooses the useful variation; it is
that which favors the individuals that possess it; it is that, in fine,
510 A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
which degrades the others in the concurrence, either direct or indirect,
which exists between animals and plants, in that sort of struggle for
existence whose importance was perceived already by A. de Candolle
and Lyell, and which results in the disappearance of the vanquished
species and the effective triumph of the new one.
It may be noted that natural selection is not a single hypothesis; it
is a linking together of three hypotheses. If we separate the links of
this chain we can show that not one of them will stand test. The first
hypothesis is that of the advantage in the struggle for existence which
is given to an animal by the possession of a small, adaptive variation;
the second is that of a preservation, by transmission, of this acquired
character; the third is the progress, always in the same direction, of
these profitable variations, which, accumulating, finally create a spe-
cific character. None of these hypotheses will support a searching
examination.
In the first place, as to the benefit of a small, adaptive variation, it
may be observed that it would be, in itself, too insignificant to give
rise to selection. Let us take for example the transformation of an
ungulate quadruped into a giraffe according to the Darwinian theory.
In this system an increase of some centimeters in the length of the
neck would be a fayorable adaptive variation; it would allow the
animal, in case of famine, to browse upon the verdure of trees some
inches higher than his companions could. But with Mivart, Naegeli,
Delage, Osborn, Emery, Cuénot, and others, we may affirm that in
‘ase of actual famine this advantage would amount to nothing and
would not assure the survival of its possessor. The individuals who
would die would be the youngest or the oldest, or, ina general way,
the feeblest. The variation must be considerable in amount in order
to constitute a real advantage and in order that the process of selec-
tion may be applied to it.
The second hypothesis is, then, to imagine that this variation,
admitted, for the moment, as useful, may be preserved and trans-
mitted by generation. We have stated above what naturalists think
at the present time concerning the transmission of acquired characters.
The least that one can say is that it is very much controverted.
The third hypothesis, grafted upon the first two, is the repetition of
the variation. Even if we disregard the objections made to the pre-
vious hypotheses there are still others which present themselves here.
It is, indeed, necessary that the variation should continue to be pro-
duced in the same direction during a great number of generations in
order that it may be recognizable, since it is minute each time it occurs;
many additional elongations would be needed in order to produce the
neck of a giraffe from that of an ungulate. Lamarck, by placing the
‘ause of variation in external conditions, makes this continual addition
of effect plausible. The permanence, or better, the repetition of the
A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Delia
processes of variation, will perpetuate itself as long as these external
conditions are kept up. For example, in attributing the elongation of
the neck of a giraffe to the habit of browsing upon the high leaves of
trees and the effort of the animal to reach those which are still higher,
Lamarck accounts for the definite and sustained course of variation.
But it is exactly this resource that Darwin took away, since he did not
accept the ideas of his illustrious predecessor as to the causes of varia-
tion. Decidedly, selection appears to be a process more adapted for
preserving a state of things than for creating a new one. It is more
conservative than revolutionary.
Besides, this is not the only objection, not even the most serious
one, which affects this third hypothesis of Darwin. The principal
difficulty with it is that it attempts to account for the considerable
change which creates a new species by too slow an accumulation of
inappreciable changes. When the Darwinists are pressed closely they
demand time—much time; too much time. They require indefinite
series of generations in order that the smallest species may be formed.
Their adversaries have reproached them with haying made our globe
too old; this is also the opinion of Lord Kelvin.
In reality it must be that there is not so much delay in the creation
of a new species. This is exactly what Hugo de Vries contends. He
denies the gradual transformation of species by the addition of inap-
preciable variations; or, at least, he aflirms that they may be produced
by a process that is rapid, precipitate, sudden. The new species
whose development he has observed have arisen abruptly, as one muy
say, explosively. This is what the Dutch naturalist calls ** spasmodic
progress.”
iG
The main idea of the doctrine of Hugo de Vries is the abrupt muta-
tion of living forms. The eminent naturalist does not advance it as an
a priori proposition; he deduces it from his experiments, and he is
not afraid of sharply opposing it to the universal view which accepts
slowly acting causes. In the course of the nineteenth century, geology
was tossed from the cataclysms of Cuvier and his geological revolutions
to the slow causes of gradual evolution pointed out by Sir Charles
Lyell; and at the present time it is swinging back with Suess toward
sudden transformations. It is interesting to note that a similar move-
ment is occurring in biology; the attempt of de Vries is one of its
manifestations. ;
A great number of zoologists, botanists, and paleontologists are
inclined to adopt this notion of sudden changes as consonant with the
teachings of experience. We may cite in this connection the well-
known argument of Agassiz. This celebrated naturalist called atten-
tion to the simultaneous appearance, in the first fossiliferous strata.
ple? A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
of a mixed fauna comprising representations of all the grand divisions
of the animal kingdom. This is shown in the Upper Silurian or
Devonian horizon in which the vertebrates make their appearance in
the form of fish. In the most ancient fauna, and that which has
become known most recently (that of the Lower Silurian or Cambrian),
all the grand divisions are still found, except that of vertebrates, each
represented by quite high types. It is a question to be decided
whether, lower down, in the sedimentary rocks hitherto considered
as azoic, there is really a living population, more widely scattered,
and reduced to the most rudimentary animals and plants—that is to
say, to protophytes and protozoans, as appears from the researches of
MM. Barrois, Bertrand, and Cayeux. Yet it is none the less certain
that the very important remark of Agassiz is true, and that, in the
Cambrian horizon, all the principal types appear simultaneously. We
perceive here a sort of explosion of universal life.
In consequence of this the transformists are obliged to admit that
in the short space of time that corresponds to the deposit of the most
ancient fossiliferous rocks the first living beings must have undergone
all the evolutions necessary for passing from the state of a simple mass
of protoplasm to that of types characteristic of all the grand divisions,
the vertebrates only excepted. We are authorized to conclude that
the time during which the most ancient fossiliferous rocks were
deposited was short, because we can judge of it from their thickness,
which is much inferior to that of the subsequent strata. Therefore,
but a comparatively short space of time was required for the modifica-
tions by virtue of which the first living forms produced the principal
grand divisions. The Lower Silurian epoch was one of rapid trans-
formations, of active morphogenesis, of intensive mutations. If we
wished to suppose that these were caused by the Darwinian mechanism
of slow accumulation of minute variations, we would be obliged to
throw back the origin of life into an epoch inconceivably beyond the
most ancient geologic epoch now known.
In the same way, as other paleontologists have observed, among
whom is Dr. Charles A. White, the extraordinary flora of the Carbon-
iferous epoch developed abruptly. We know nothing or but very
little of the floras that preceded it. Its appearance and its extinction
were sudden.
We might multiply these remarks relative to the abrupt explosions
of creation in living things. Here is another. The dinosaurian
lizards that abounded throughout the secondary epoch, forming,
indeed, the dominant animal type, show an extreme variety taken
from any point of view. There were some gigantic ones, like Bron-
tosaurus, having a mass that wes certainly equal to that of four or
tive elephants, others of small stature not larger than a domestic fowl.
The group included carnivora and herbivora, aquatic species and
A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. ales
terrestrial species, quadrupeds, and bipeds quite similar to birds,
except as to the faculty of flight. By the variety of their types of
organization they form, as aptly stated by Frederick A. Lucas, a sort
of epitome of the class of reptiles. Now, their appearance and differ-
entiation were comparatively abrupt and sudden phenomena. It does
not seem probable that they were formed by the mechanism of natural
selection and that they were destroyed because of their inferiority to
other species in the struggle for existence.
We arrive at similar conclusions from an examination of the first
placental mammals. They appeared abruptly at the beginning of the
Tertiary period; they assumed a variety of forms almost as numerous
as those of the mammals of to-day, and they finally disappeared.
Besides the paleontologists, many naturalists have pointed out the
existence, in animals of our own time, of abrupt variations that pro-
duce a new type that becomes fixed as soon as it appears, and that has
the value of a species distinct from that from which it was derived.
Mivart and Huxley, Clos, Camerano, and Bateson have called atten-
tion to the existence of such discontinuous variations, which may afford
an explanation of the discontinuity of species. Yet the greater num-
ber of the examples adduced by these authors may be referred to the
category of monstrosities or teratogenic variations which have suc-
ceeded in becoming fixed. This is the case with species of Asterias
having numerous arnis, with crinoids having three or four divisions,
with a certain number of levogyrate gastropods. However, abrupt
transformations have been noted by entomologists under perfectly
normal conditions. Standfuss, to whom we are indebted for some
extremely interesting experiments on the heredity in butterflies,
speaks of *‘explosive transformation,” thus expressing the richness in
new forms suddenly produced from a single parent stock.
JOU
The origin of the new theory of Hugo de Vries must be sought for in
this mass of observations, facts, and theoretical ideas relative to the
abrupt variation of species in opposition to the Darwinian idea of
slow variation. The Dutch naturalist has, in a manner, worked over
all these ideas and codified them into a coherent system. This system
already existed in embryo in the well-known little work which he
published in 1889 on intracellular paingenesis. His views were, at that
time, purely theoretical, for he had then only just begun his experi-
mental verifications. Since then, however, some of his experiments
have succeeded in an astonishing manner. To-day, therefore, it is the
views that have been scrutinized and verified which the celebrated
botanist presents to the scientific public in his work on the Theory of
Mutation, recently published at Leipzig.
514 A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
His doctrine consists, as might be anticipated from what we have
said, in the denial of gradual transformation and the affirmation of
abrupt transformation. Species in general do not enjoy that per-
fectly uniform and monotonous existence which has been assigned to
them by naturalists of the school of Linnzeus and Cuvier. Paleontol-
ogy teaches us that they have a commencement and an end and that,
during their term, they present periods of two kinds, periods of muta-
tion and periods of equilibrium, times of calm and times of revolution.
The observation of existing species confirms this view.
Ordinarily the principal ** period of mutation” is found at the earliest
stage of the species, at the time of its birth, but this is not absolute.
However, the phase, or the entire group of phases, of plasticity, is
more or less brief in comparison with the rest of its existence. It is
only at these epochs that the living being is susceptible of mutations
of a specific character; it is unchangeable for the rest of the time, that
is to say, during the greater part of its term. Because of this the
period of plasticity or of mutation usually escapes attention and we
observe the greater number of species exactly at the moment when
they have become really invariable—that is to say, susceptible only of
those small, secondary modifications which may, at most, conduce to
the formation of varieties and races.
When, on the contrary, the species is in the period of mutation it
offers an abundance of specific variations, distinct in character from
the small, individual ones. They are, in fact, abrupt, clearly marked,
permanent, fixed, and hereditary as soon as they appear, and the new
forms are infertile when crossed on the parent stock. In a word they
accomplish a transgression of the limits of a species.
Such is the new hypothesis of mutation. Before detailing the exper-
iments on which it is founded, and furnishing the justification of its
accuracy, it would be well to establish its signification, its scope, and
its consequences.
This theory is a sort of rehabilitation of the idea of species. It does
not, however, consider species as the fixed entity, the special and
immutable category of the Creator’s thought, conceived by the natural-
ists who followed Linneus. It is truly a transformist doctrine; it
admits the possible existence of an infinite number of species derived
one from the other. Nevertheless it must not be denied that it confers
on species an objective existence, a sort of reality that is foreign to
the conception of the transformist school. ‘* Species appear,” says
Hugo de Vries, ‘‘ like invariable unities, such as are necessary in a
systematic classification. Their existence is real, like that of individ-
uals. A species is born, has a short period of youth during which it
is subject to specific mutation, is maintained in an adult condition
during a period which may be of great length, then finally disappears.”
The doctrine of Hugo de Vries is opposed to that of Darwin in
A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. DES
almost every point. The Darwinian theory has for its corner stone
individual variation; the new theory, specific mutation.
Individual variations are progressive, usually guided by adaptation
to the environment in a direction determined by the ‘‘survival of the
fittest.” They are continuous—that is to say, they are produced at all
periods. Mutations are quite different. They are metamorphoses,
not determined by adaptation; they are produced in various ways,
without any direction; they are sometimes injurious, sometimes profit-
able, sometimes indifferent to the individual—they appear only at cer-
tain periods of the life of the species. Besides, both of these transfor-
mations occur from the action of causes which are determinate but
whose nature is unknown. The first affect, more or less pro-
foundly, all parts of the organism; the others affect in a special way
the function of reproduction. In the Darwinian theory the first form
is separated from that which differs from it specifically by a long suc-
cession of generations. According to Hugo de Vries the first form
which engenders another, and, ordinarily, many others, coexists side
by side with this daughter species. It is only after its formation that
the latter enters into competition with the species from which it
sprang, and circumstances decide which shall survive and which shall
disappear. Here the struggle for existence and selection suppresses
species but it does not create them. In brief, the most characteristic
feature of mutation is that it is a manifestation of a physiological
character, connected by special conditions with the function of repro-
duction.
In one point only the two doctrines agree, viz, that very marked
differences in organization are the effect of the disappearance of inter-
mediate links. In the case of mutation the new form, although quite
markedly distinct from the parent one, does not necessarily show great
divergence from it. Its differences may sometimes be anatomically
very slight, although they are physiologically very marked, since they
inhibit any crossing. Great morphological divergences always result,
as in the theory of Darwin, from a series of repeated mutations. These
changes are, however, crowded together in a time relatively short,
since newly formed species are, at the very moment of their formation,
in their phase of plasticity, in their crisis of mutation.
IDV
We have now to state the evidence in favor of this doctrine and the
foundations on which it rests. We may count in its favor the advan-
tage of its reconciling the transformist hypothesis, which is neces-
sarily logical, with the immutability of species, which is, according to
de Vries, a proved fact. It succeeds in doing this, as has been seen,
by supposing that there is in the life of the species a period of crisis,
so to speak—a temporary period of mutation which interrupts for
516 A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES.
a quite brief period the habitual invariability. In this it harmonizes
with Darwin to a certain extent.
Hugo de Vries considers that the existence and invariability of species
are facts supported by daily observation. He refers to the memorable
experiments of Jordan and his followers, who made thousands upon
thousands of sowings of vegetable species and never observed the
passage of one into another—that is to say, a true vegetal mutation;
they only obtained differences now classed under the head of indi-
vidual variations. These, as is well known, are of such a nature that
if we avoid artificial isolation, segregation, and selection, the forms
revert to the primitive type. It is vain for transformism to deny this
remarkable fixity and to replace it by an hypothesis of changes so
slow, so minute, and so gradual that they become evident only after
the lapse of centuries, and inevitably escape our observation at the
moment.
Another fact that accords with the theory of mutation is the exist-
ence, in certain genera, of animals and plants of a great number of
species that differ from each other but little anatomically. Botanists
are aware that most Linnean species are groups of living forms that
are constant, hereditary, and usually infertile when crossed; that is to
say, they are specifically distinct. Yet they differ so little in their
aspect that many naturalists mistake them or confound them with each
other. It would appear as if, at a given moment, in a crisis of muta-
tion, the parent stock had become resolved into a multitude of sec-
ondary species which have persisted. For instance, the group of roses
contains more than a hundred wild species so similar to each other
that the most experienced connoisseurs make mistakes in their deter-
minations. The thorn bushes, the willows, and the Alpine gentians
are other examples of the same peculiarity, as are also the pansies and
the sunflowers. In the animal kingdom many genera of insects pre-
sent the same phenomena.
These, however, are merely agreements. H. de Vries has not con-
tented himself with noting them; he has sought direct proofs of his
hypothesis. The best one would be to find a plant that was actually in
its period of mutation and that might beget, by means of seeds, a
number of daughter plants in which there should abruptly appear the
characters of a new species. We may readily apprehend the principles
which would guide him in his researches. It would be necessary to
experiment with genera of wild plants that have a large number of
closely related species. Jordan has, indeed, established the fact that
the greater number of wild species now found in Europe are specifically
immutable. Yet it is possible that they may not all be so and that
some may, at the present time, be undergoing a crisis of mutation.
There would be more chance of finding such among the species that
present a great many subspecies, this being a sign of plasticity leading
A NEW THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Dei
to the presumption of mutation. H. de Vries, therefore, experimented
with 100 plants that satisfied this condition—centauries, asters, cyno-
glossi, carrots, etc. He chose seeds from those which were distin-
guished by some peculiarity or deviation, like fissuration of the leaves,
ramification of the spines, ete. He arranged for the sequestration of
the plant as soon as the peculiarity appeared, and before flowering. In
order to avoid hybridization he enveloped the floral beds with bags of
transparent parchmentand fertilized the flower withitsown pollen. The
greater number of his attempts failed. Only one fully succeeded, that
which related to the onagra of Lamarck, the Oenothera lamarckiana.
This plant is well known as the biennial onagra, or ass’s herb,
brought from Virginia to Europe in 1613. It is a tufted, herbaceous
plant about a meter in height, with simple leaves bearing some resem-
blance to an ass’s ear, whence the name of the plant. It has handsome
flowers, usually yellow in color. Its red tap root (red rampion) is
edible. Introduced into Holland, it became acclimated and is culti-
vated there; it also grows there in a wild or uncultivated state, escaped
from gardens and from cultivation.
One species of this genus, the onagra of Lamarck (QOenothera
lamarckiana), was especially abundant around the little city of Hil-
versum. Now, in 1875 it was noticed that in this district this species
showed unusual vigor and a remarkable power of multiplication and
dispersion. Varieties were multiplied in profusion, and there was,
therefore, reason to suppose that the plant was in its plastic crisis, in
its period of mutation. H. de Vries cultivated it in his experimental
beds at the botanical garden of Amsterdam, not for the purpose of
favoring the production of organic forms by means of culture, but
because by this means such forms could be preserved, aided, protected,
and given more chances of maintaining themselves. The sowings were
continued and the plants were observed during a period of fourteen
years, from 1886 to 1900. In 1887 a new type made its appearance.
In 1888 there were already two new species. In 1900, after eight gen-
erations, H. de Vries had obtained, from 50,000 plants produced from
his several sowings, 800 new individuals belonging to 7 undescribed
species. There are, then, 800 individuals in 50,000 that are under-
going specific transformation. The activity of the mutation which this
plant exhibits is, therefore, expressed by 14 per cent.
The new species do not at all resemble the varieties of the parent
stock. They appeared suddenly, without preliminary or intermediate
forms. The care devoted to these experiments gives them a value
which must attract the attention of naturalists. Their result furnishes
a new and powerful argument in favor of the theory of mutation.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.¢
3y M. ANTHONY.
If it were possible for us to turn back some thousands of centuries
and find ourselves. with our present form and intelligence, suddenly
transported to a geologic epoch long since passed away, and into the
midst of the fauna of the Middle Tertiary epoch, we would be unable
to restrain our curiosity or moderate our astonishment.
We should see, gamboling and sporting upon the plains, the ances-
tors of our present ungulates, and we may well believe that in the
deep forest shades we should encounter, together with great carnivora,
beings similar to the anthropoids that live to-day in the forests of
equatorial Africa and Malaysia, covered with hair, with prehensile
feet, prominent mandibles, and uttering inarticulate cries.
We should doubtless pass them by without supposing that they
could possibly be in any way related to ourselves.
How could we suppose, indeed, that beings so different from our
present form could be the ancestors of man, whose intelligence has
finally enabled him to bring under subjection the rest of the animal
world?
Nevertheless, the recent progress in comparative rational anatomy,
as well as in embryology and paleontology whose results continually
tend to supplement and confirm those of that science, enables us to say
that it is no longer absurd to suppose that our ancestors lived upon
trees, that they were covered with hair, and lacked the faculty of
speech. We no longer have to rely upon our imagination alone to
support the doctrine that there was a common arboreal ancestor from
which sprang both man and the anthropoids, and who must have
immediately preceded Pithecanthropus upon the earth. Although
this ancestor has not yet been placed before us by paleontological
discoveries, Heckel has, in anticipation, named it ** Prothylobates.”
We have every reason to think that he must have been very much like
existing anthropoids; similarly adapted, without doubt, to an arboreal
life, in which direction the anthropoids have improved; like them,
therefore, he must have had a prehensile foot and the bestial face
which prominent jaws combined with a relatively small brain would give.
What necessity has intervened to cause a modification of these forms?
How was the adaptation to terrestrial locomotion effected? What
“A Broca lecture given before the Société d’ Anthropologie. Translated from the
Revue Scientifique (Paris) for January 31, 1908, pp. 129-139.
sm 1903 B+ 519
520 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
course did it follow? What organ preceded the others and led to
their gradual modification? Such are the questions that arise, and
we may readily see that they deal with a very complex problem. The
researches made during the last few years in comparative anatomy,
though they may not enable us to give a final answer to these ques-
tions, at least permit us to form serious hypotheses, and I think that
we are now authorized to suppose that, in the series of successive
modifications, the foot and the lower limbs have played a predominant
part. We may, then, according to the opinion expressed by M. Man-
ouvrier in his remarkable studies on the Pithecanthropus, consider
that the following were the successive steps of this evolution:
Impelled by a necessity whose causes we can not now determine,
and which were, perhaps, due to changes in the fauna, the flora, or the
climate, our ancestors must, apparently, have descended by insensible
degrees from the trees and become accustomed to live on the ground.
In order to effect an adaptation to this new kind of existence, the
pelvic limb was naturally the first to be moditied; the mobility of the
toes had to be diminished, the great toe to become less and less oppos-
able. It was also necessary that the knees should become straighter;
that the movement of the joints should be amplified and, at the same
time, that the distal insertions of the ischio-tibial muscles should be
shifted to a higher position; it was necessary that the femur should
be lengthened, should acquire force. These modifications in the pelvic
limbs, which put them in advance of the rest of the organism, had at
the same time the advantage, as M. Manouvrier also remarks, of allow-
ing the thoracic limbs to become adapted in a more perfect manner
to the functions of prehension and to become gradually transformed
into those highly improved organs that we now possess; they also
permitted the head to be raised and moved about in every direction,
opening a way in brief to all the other modifications.
By this series of modifications it resulted that, at the end of the
Tertiary, during the Pliocene epoch, our arboreal ancestor was trans-
formed into an animal presenting, from certain points of view, vague
resemblances to the gibbon of the present day, and which seems to be
represented, according to the opinion of the most competent anato-
mists, by Pithecanthropus erectus, that form whose remains were found
in Java afew years ago. Even a superficial examination of the femur
of this creature shows that it was no longer a climber, but already a
walker in the full sense of the term, although it must have possessed,
more than the men of the present day, features of resemblance to its
arboreal ancestor.
The passage from this ancestral type to man was easy, and it was
probably effected either at the end of the Pliocene or the beginning of
the Pleistocene.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. Del
Such seems to me to be the origin and course of the evolution of our
species in its later stages.
In order to prove to you the former arboreal condition of man, by
placing before you some of the vestiges of his past that he still retains,
I have thought that I could not do better than to choose the compara-
tive study of the skeleton of his foot, that organ which was so pro-
foundly modified at the time of the transition from an arboreal to
a terrestrial life, and whose modifications seem to have determined
all the others. I propose to give
you the results of the most recent
researches.
The skeleton of man’s foot contains
acertain number of bones, which should
be classified as follows:
Tarsus: Calcaneum, astragalus, scaph-
oid, first, second, and third cuneiform,
cuboid.
Metatarsus:; First, second, third,
fourth, and fifth metatarsal.
Phalanges: Hallux (2), second digit
(3), third digit (8), fourth digit (8),
fifth digit (3).
If we follow, from the beginning of
anatomical science, the work that has
been done on the osteology of the foot
of man and of the primates generally,
we shall find that, at the end of the
eighteenth century, the study of the
human foot was already advanced,
owing to the work of the anatomists ;
- é 2 = Fic. 1.—Constituent elements of the Euro-
of the middle ages and of the begin- ~ pean human foot (upper surface). I, Tar-
ning of the modern period; the foot ‘us. 1, Metatarsus. MHI, Phalanges. 1,
Bs ; i II, III, IV, V, digital rays. 1, Astragalus;
of the monkey, the only animal that 2, Caleaneum; 3, Scaphoid; 4, cuboid; 5,
could olive us an approximate idea of 6, ids first, second, and third cuneiform
b=) bones; XX!, Anatomical axis of the foot.
our arboreal ancestors, was, on the con-
trary, almost unknown, and all comparison was therefore impossible.
Daubenton and Camper were the first who took it up in a methodical
manner, although it seems that Linneeus, who in his celebrated elassi-
fication of the animal kingdom grouped the monkeys with man in the
same order of primates, had already recognized the similarities that
occur between the simian foot and our own.
It was, however, with Cuvier that the era of comparative and sys-
tematic anatomical studies really opened, and in his works we begin
529 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
to find most important information regarding the foot of primates
other than man.
Still, giving to the anatomical facts which he had observed a false
interpretation, he thought that he was authorized to change the old
Linnean classification, disrupting the order of the primates and
creating from part of it the order quadrumana, comprising the
monkeys or four-handed animals, contrasting with them the bimana,
comprising man, who alone is possessed of two hands and two feet.
It was an unhappy innovation, seeming to place man in a class apart
from the animals that most closely resemble him and which really form
with him a natural group.
After the work of Cuvier we should cite that of Meckel and De
Blainville, who followed the road marked out by the master, then
Vrolik, whose Treatise on the Anatomy of the Chimpanzee (1841) con-
tains a comparative study of the foot of the higher primates.
This author gives information as to the much less solid structure of
the tarsus of the anthropoids, the relative length and inclination of
the astragalus, the more or less oblique direction of the articular facet
of its head. He mentions, also, the special resemblance which exists
between the caleaneum of the gibbon and that of man, and it is very
interesting to note that he ventures to point out how defective, by
reason of the confusion it creates, is the appellation quadrumanna,
generally current at that time.
In 1853, Burmeister began the study of the foot of the races of
man. Itis about this time that a strong impulse was given to com-
parative anatomy by the transformation hypothesis. This naturally
affected the history of the osteology of the foot, and, in 1863, Huxley,
in his famous work, Man’s Place in Nature, expressed very clearly
his objections to the term quadrumana, and restored man to his place
in the order of primates. At the same time Wyman discovered that
in the human embryo the great toe, instead of being parallel to the
others, makes, at a certain period of development, an angle with
them, as in the monkeys, an observation which, as one may well
believe, was specially calculated to break down the theory that the
lower extremity of monkeys could not be compared with that of
man; the same peculiarity was later noted by Leboucq.
It was at this time that our illustrious founder, Broca, published his
Discourse Concerning Man and Animals. He there specially insisted
on the existence, in apes, of a veritable foot, and-in 1869 he treated
definitely in his Order of Primates the question of the hand and the
foot, finally replacing man in a position beside the anthropoids, the
place which belongs to him, in spite of the arguments.of Luce, who
still thought that the denomination bimana should be preserved.
In Germany the study of the comparative anatomy of the foot was
On
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. 523
continued, and it is worthy of note that, in 1878, Aeby showed that
the astragalus of the newborn child is intermediate between that of
an adult man and that of a gorilla.
Since that period the German anatomists have followed a new road.
MM. Bardeleben, Pfitzner, and Thilenius have interested themselves in
the study of the supplementary and accidental bones of the tarsus
which the older anatomists erroneously considered as sesamoids, show-
ing their significance by noting their presence in other types of ani-
mals, thus opening to their successors a fecund mine of new researches.
Finally, among the most recent. works, there remain to be cited
those of Schoffhausen, who, in 1884, studied the foot of the savage
races of men; of M. Sarazin, who made remarkable studies of the foot
of the Veddahs, those ancient inhabitants of the island of Ceylon, who
seem, from all points of view, to be the men who most nearly approach
the anthropoids of to-day; of MM. Manouvrier, Topinard, and Testut,
authors of many studies of the skeletons of prehistoric men.
One of our most learned colleagues, M. Volkov, has attempted a
monographic study of the skeleton of the human foot. He wished to
reach a final solution of the problem, and to show how, by investi-
gating a single organ, judiciously chosen, it would be possible to prove
the arboreal habits of our ancestors, and he seems to have succeeded
perfectly. His work is still unpublished, but he has been good enough
to place at my disposal his manuscript and his remarkable collection
of drawings and photographs, permitting me thus to give you the
earliest glimpse of his work.“ Iam going to give you the results of
his researches and to tell you, supporting myself on the arguments he
has furnished and upon his measurements, how we should regard the
human foot at the present time.
The study of the human foot, undertaken for the purpose of throw-
ing light upon the problem of the origin of man, seems to me to be
rationally divisible into three parts:
First. A part relating to comparative anatomy, in which the foot of
man in general, or that of men of different races in particular, is
examined and compared with that of other animals in order to deter-
mine the characters by which they resemble each other.
Second. An embryological part, in which the foot of man is exam-
ined during a period of its development in order to ascertain whether,
at any particular stage, it resembles the foot of animals.
Third. A paleontological part, in which the foot of men of prehis-
toric races is examined in order to determine whether it possesses any
@ All drawings reproduced here are after the photographs or sketches of M. Volkoy.
In the greater number of cases I have confined myself to stating the facts without
giving measurements. These would not be suitable for a lecture, and, besides, M.
Volkoy will soon publish them in detail.
594 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
characters by which it resembles more closely the foot of animals than
does the foot of existing man.
If the foot of man presents marked resemblances to a foot adapted
Fic. 2.—Feet of Anthropoids (upper surface).—I, Orang.
II, Gibbon. III, Chimpanzee. IV, Gorilla.
for arboreal life, if these
characters are marked among
the inferior races, the fetus
or the child, and prehistoric
man, we have reason to think
that the human foot is derived
from the arboreal type. M.
Volkov treats only of the
comparative anatomy, merely
touching upon the embry-
ology.
The study of the human
foot taken as a whole, with-
out separating it into its com-
ponent parts, furnished M.
Volkov no important infor-
mation relative to the history
of its development.
Having established the fact
that climbers have generally
longer feet than walkers,
which is explained very well
by their being obliged to grasp branches, sometimes of large caliber,
he sought to ascertain whether men of the so-called inferior races
have, as might be expected, feet relatively longer than those of Euro-
peans, thus approaching in that character an ancestral, arboreal type.
He was unable to record any positive results in this
respect, the individual differences being more consid-
erable than the differences of races.
In the same way, having noticed that the feet of
arboreal living animals are narrower than those that
walk, in which the base of sustentation has to be as
solid as possible, he thought he might find that the
foot of the inferior races was narrower than that of
Europeans.
As a matter of fact, the contrary is the case, and
the greatest relative width of feet occurs among the
negritos, a circumstance explained by the very m:»ked
S
divergence of the great toe, one atavistic character es
masking another.
Fic. 3.—Feet of a negrito.
On the other hand, the human foot surpasses in relative height that
of the arboreal animals; he found that, in this respect, the foot of the
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. DO
negro occupied a position intermediate between the arched foot of the
European and that of the gorilla.
M. Volkov quickly realized that a study of the foot pursued in this
way would give him but meager results; without further delay he
immediately undertook a separate study of the different parts, bone
by bone. We will follow him in this investigation. Still, since our
time is limited, I will confine myself to the consideration of the three
most important elements of the tarsus—the calcaneum, the astragalus,
and the scaphoid—which will enable us to clearly understand the arch
which gives to the human foot its mechanical perfection and what we
are accustomed to call its beauty. My method of procedure will be
as follows: After having indicated to you the architectural features
that characterize an adaptation to arboreal life—that is to say, the fea-
tures of the simian foot—and those which characterize an adaptation
to the biped and plantigrade method of walking—that is to say, those
of the human foot—I shall show
you in what respects the feet of
new-born children and of men (]
of the inferior races possess in (e Oo
a higher degree than ours traits 1 2
of resemblance to the feet of
arboreal animals. These traits
of resemblance can only be ves-
tiges of our past, still persisting
in the lower ranks of our spe-
cies and which have disappeared
with us, our foot seeming to
have attained the maximum of
perfection for the function it is 7%: 4-Asreenl erange so uo show the sna
to fulfill. cephali. 2, Hylobates. 3, New-born European.
4, Negrito. 5, European adult; p, trochlea; ft, head.
Astragalus.—The total length
of the astragalus is less in the climbers than in the walkers. In man
its minimum length is found among the lower races. The same is
true as regards its height.
The most important character, however, that M. Volkov has studied
in the astragalus is the angle of divergence of its head. The cause of
this divergence, upon which it closely depends, is evidently the same
in all the pentadactylate vertebrates; it is the divergence of the first
cuneiform, the first metatarsal, and the great toe, which together form
a united whole. Now this divergence is, as is well known, considera-
ble among climbers in general, and in particular among monkeys,
whose feet are adapted for the function of grasping. In man, on the
contrary, adapted for biped locomotion, the first toe is placed against
the other toes; its mobility would impede walking, and the astragalus,
instead of being movable, as in the climbers, becomes the support of
526 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
the weight of the body, the keystone of the plantar arch. The angle
of divergence of the head of the astragalus is therefore but slight.
The newly born and the adults of the inferior races hold in this respect
a position intermediate between the gorilla and the European adult.
Average angle
in degrees.
Canidae | PUG) Pe ee Sepemreneccses SeeSce dsc scusesese 52. 0
yy ae \Webuses 22 sick ee ee ee
Sem opitineGus\ericell tis see 35. 0
sci Gee eal | OCEeT CY MOmMOl oust eae ee eee eee 30. 0
| ynocep halts }< 2.052227 eee eee 30. 0
Macacus syivantistas = aass== = eee ee eee eee ool)
Eylobates: 2255252 = ota ee ee 36. 0
Anthropoids ee Chimpanzee ee ee ee eS ae a tent et or re ier eh oo 0
Orang’ <se2.2 Sak ctiel one ose sti se ae ae so a ee Seas 33. 0
Giorillae = Soe ese aie.ct- Se ene ae one ata eee 30. 0
New-bor'm Huropeans 556244 22 aso see se et eres eee 29.0
N@stosO <.222 okt on dae dee ese ee sets eee eee ee eee 24. 0
Weddahs 0.42 2es2u2 2s nee ete eee ence sae eee epee eee 20. 0
Huropeans: |. s.soes 5s ses set secs Soe ee se See see oe eee ee 17.8
Besides its divergence, the head of the astragalus also shows a cer-
tain amount of torsion corresponding to the position of the first toe,
Fie. 5.—Astragali (anterior surface), showing the torsion of the head: 1, Magot. 2, Negrito. 3,
European; p, trochlear surface; t, head.
different, consequently, in the arboreal and the walking races; and in
this, too, the lower races of men hold an intermediate position.
Calcaneum.—The studies of M. Volkoy relating to the caleaneum
were particularly interesting. He first saw that the length of the cal-
‘aneum relative to that of the foot had a direct relation to the aptitude
for walking. It is markedly shorter in the climbers than in the walk-
ers, and among the monkeys it is those that sometimes walk, like the
macaques and the cyncocephali that have the longest caleaneum. As to
the anthropoids it increases in length from the orang, who does not walk
at all, to the gorilla, as follows: Orang, gibbon, chimpanzee, gorilla.
The orang has, indeed, a caleaneum shorter than any of the monkeys;
he is also, as is well known, more aboreal in his habits than perhaps
any other of the primates.
As to the races of man, it might have been foreseen that the primi-
tive ones would have a caleaneum shorter than the higher ones; that
is, in fact, what M. Volkoy has shown, and establishing for an index
the relation between the length of the caleaneum and that of the foot
“Tt is well known that the monkeys of the New World are more aboreal in their
habits than any others.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. 526
taken through the second toe, he obtained the following results, to
cite only the most characteristic:
Rerumians Oona. ener ne eee eens ere ae are es ces ToL. OO
Polynesians’ O. 222-soeeec sas ee eee eee RE eee See les SOLO,
ING RTOS OS 2S A ee eb ee eee re ee er ree oo noe Soe iss 33. 45
aro peans ©: 2 oS eee eee eee ey att peta sero heal
M. Volkov has also compared the posterior breadth of the caleaneum
with the length of the foot and of the caleaneum itself. This breadth
is proportionately less in climbers than in walkers, PN
the Pitheci surpassing the Cebid in this respect,
and man surpassing the anthropoids. When stud-
ied in the human species this ratio is found to be
relatively greater in Europeans than in persons
belonging to the primitive races. New-born Euro-
peans resemble in this respect the lower races, even
standing between the chimpanzee and the gorilla.
The lesser process of the calcaneum, the sus-
taining bracket of the walking foot, is broader in
monkeys that walk than in those that are exclu-
sively arboreal, among the Pitheci than among the
Cebide. Among the anthropoids the orang has
the smallest and narrowest process; he is also the
most completely arboreal of the entire class; he .... ¢ cajlcaneum to show
never walks. However this may be, the lesser the development of the
process of the caleaneum is always very long in Reap eyes
monkeys. In man, perfectly adapted to walking Negro. U1, European.
erect on two feet, it is, on the contrary, very short, because of the
formation of the arch, of which details will be given further on.- In
men of the inferior races it is much more developed than with us, and
reaches almost simian dimensions. Because of the formation of the
arch it is set farther up in man than in monkeys, and we see again
that the Melanesian, for example, has in this respect an intermediate
position between the gorilla and the European.
Fig. 7.—Calecaneum, showing the position and development of the lesser process. 1, Gorilla. 2, Negrito.
3, European: c, lesser process.
With regard to the length of the heel, its minimum width and its
relative height, we will only repeat what has been said above for the
other characters. These dimensions are greater in walkers than in
climbers, in man than in monkeys, and primitive man is again found
528 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
to bea transition between civilized man and the anthropoid. Regard-
ing.the height there is an interesting fact to which I desire to call
special attention, namely, that the height of the heel in Hylobates is
very near that of man. This fact, connected with certain others,
justifies us in giving special attention to the foot of the gibbon, an
animal which in many respects approaches man, and it led Dubois,
in his first memoir on Pithecanthropus, to compare the gibbon at once
to that ancestor. The gibbon even surpasses in this respect. the
Veddahs, the negritos, and the negroes, as well as new-born children
of our own race.
Another very important matter to which M. Volkov has directed his
attention is the angle of inclination of the caleaneum. This angle of
inclination, or rather the position of the calcaneum relative to the sur-
face of the ground, has considerable influence on the formation of the
arch, and consequently is
contributory to all the
variations just mentioned.
In the lower apes, as well
as in the anthropoids who
have no well-marked arch,
the calcaneum is placed,
as it were, flat on the
ground—that is to say, no
angle of inclination exists.
In the inferior races it is
very small, and its mini-
mum is reached in the
Veddahs (¢ = 3° —*9==
Fie. 8.—Skeleton of the foot (internal lateral surface). LO”) and the Wee ee (3
I, Negro. II, European (to show the angle of inclination = 6° — ) = 4°), In new-
of the caleaneum and the longitudinal arch). born Europeans it does
not exceed 5°; its maximum is attained in adult Europeans in whom
it is 14° for the male, 16° for the female. You will understand the
great importance of this character; the inclination of the caleaneum
is, 1 repeat, one of the principal elements of the plantar arch, the
characteristic of the plantigrade, walking foot. Desiring, for clear-
ness’ sake, to treat, while speaking of the arch, of other characteristics
of the calcaneum, I will examine only one more interesting feature of
this bone, that of the articular facets for the astragalus found on the
antero-internal surface. The older anatomists sometimes recognized
two of these facets, sometimes one only. In his Traité d’anatomie M.
Testut admits but one, which is sometimes, he says, divided into two
by a transverse furrow.
M. Volkoy has sought for the cause of this variation and has tried
to determine its ethnic value. Following Camper, who had already
remarked that the caleaneum of new-born children has always two
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. 529
antero-internal facets on the astragalus, M. Volkov showed that
monkeys possess the same peculiarity. In the chimpanzee and the
gorilla, however, there isa distinct tendency for these facets to become
united. The same tendency is observed in bears and all walking ani-
mals; finally in man, and especially in man of the so-called higher
races, it is not rare to find the two facets completely blended, a feature
less commonly found elsewhere. The separation of the antero-internal
facets should be considered an atavistic character.
Scaphoid.—As M. Volkoy has well remarked, the variability of this
bone essentially depends upon that of the astragalus and first cuneiform
which itself has a relation with the development, separation, and mobil-
ity of the first metatarsal and the first toe, which are, as is well known,
characteristic of the tree-dwelling animals.
In the American monkeys, whose foot is especially adapted to an
arboreal life, and who consequently have quite a mobile great toe, the
inner edge of the scaphoid is very thick. It is less so in the monkeys
of the Old World, who are even
surpassed in this respect by the
orang among the anthropoids. In
the lower races of man the inner
border of the scaphoid—that is to |
say, its tuberosity (whose real (
significance, We may say in pass-
ing, has been so well determined I] eal
by M. Volkov)—is markedly bet- I 2S Year
: z Fig. 9.—Scaphoid (posterior view). I, Gorilla.
ter developed than in Europeans, 1, Negro. I, European. §, tubercle of the
a character evidently depending = *“#phoid.
on the fact that with them the first toe, together with the head of the
astragalus, is much less divergent.
M. Volkoy has also directed his attention to the glenoid cavity by
which the scaphoid articulates with the astragalus. He saw very
clearly that this articular facet is, as one might expect, ovoid and
much elongated from without, inward, in climbers, square, on the
contrary, and slightly elongated in walkers. He established, for this
articular surface, an index which increases from the climbers to the
walkers, that is to say, among the monkeys from the Cebide to the
Pitheci. Among anthropoids the orang appears to present, in this
regard, an inexplicable anomaly; though he is the most arboreal of
his class he possesses an index higher than the others; this exception
is, however, easy to understand and even confirms, in my opinion, in
a remarkable way, the general rule above enunciated. The orang is,
indeed, the most arboreal of the anthropoids, and, on this account he
shows a marked tendency toward an atrophy of the first toe (the first
digit of the hand is likewise absent in a certain number of species of
the primates, notably in the Colobus, one of the most characteristic
arboreal Cebide). We are thus able to explain why the orang,
530 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
because of the very fact that he is arboreal to a supreme degree, pos-
sesses a reduced elenoid cavity; in man the primitive arrangement,
that is to say, the one which is analogous to that of the arboreal animals
is again found, as may be supposed, in negroes and the greater number
of negritos, and the arrangement adapted to plantigrade locomotion
belongs to the European.
It is strange to find that this peculiarity of the European foot, dis-
tinguishing it from that of the negro, recurs in certain rodents and
marsupials of a primitive type. This must doubtless have piqued the
curiosity of M. Volkov; he has, it seems to us, completely solved the
enigma. The animals of primitive types have an extra bone, the
external tibial, which in primates is fused with the scaphoid and forms
its tuberosity. This explains the greater transverse dimensions which
the scaphoid has in apes. In man, because of adaptation to walking,
the scaphoid is reduced, and though it still possesses, codssified with
it, the external tibial, it has assumed the reduced dimensions and the
appearance of the autonomous scaphoid of primitive mammals.
I shall content myself with this too rapid and incomplete examina.
tion of these three most important elements of the human foot, and
hasten on to a consideration of the foot as a whole, the real synthetic
portion of M. Volkoy’s work.
Considering as a whole the foot, not merely of man alone but of all
animals that walk upon their soles, such as the bear, for example, and
one of a very remote class, the armadillo, we see that it is greatly
differentiated from that of animals who use it but seldom, or not at
all, for walking. Among the latter the skeleton of the tarsus is
greatly lacking in solidity, the igaments are relaxed, and the bones
have rounded articular facets. denoting movements of considerable
amplitude. On the contrary, the tarsus of a plantigrade, such as man,
is formed of angular bones with nearly flat articular surfaces, bound
together by powerful ligaments, an arrangement indicating that its
movements are very restricted.
It is the same with the toes. In arboreal monkeys they are very
movable, the first is even opposable, while, in man, they remain bound
together.
In the most arboreal monkeys, as is remarkably well shown in the
orang, the metatarsals and the phalanges are bent, presenting a con-
‘ave surface on the plantar aspect, an arrangement adapted for
grasping branches; in man they are almost straight. Besides these
characters, the foot of man has another important peculiarity which
also assists In giving it the solidity required for plantigrade walking;
that is, its arched condition.
The monkeys not adapted for walking have a flattened foot, and, as
is well known, support themselves upon its outer border whenever
they attempt to progress along the ground.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. 581
In man, on the contrary, the foot is arched and rests flat on the
ground in standing and walking.
It is this arch which, acting as a sort of spring, enables the foot, as
may easily be understood, to support a considerable weight; it is,
then, an improvement made with a view to walking, therefore it is not
peculiar to man alone, and exists well developed in plantigrade animals
who have considerable weight of body in comparison with the surface
of the astragalus. The armadillo has a well-marked arch. M. Casse,
in avery good paper on the ontogenetic development of the foot,
compares the human foot to a tripod whose points of support would
be the calcaneum and
the heads of the first
and fifth metatarsal
bones, and whose
summit, a broad cur-
vilinear surface
arched in two direc-
tions, would be occu-
pied by the astrag-
alus.
It is the astragalus,
indeed, that transmits
the weight of the
body to the tripod.
In order that the sys
tem may be in equi-
librium it is evidently
necessary that this
astragalus should be
situated in the bisec-
tor of the angle whose
apex is formed by
Fig. 10.—Transverse arch (the foot is disarticulated in front of the
scaphoid and the caleaneum, and the anterior portion is here
the posterior point of shown). I, Gorilla. II, Negro. III, European. 1, first digital ray;
i +t CG TI On see 2, first cuneiform; 3, second cuneiform; 4, third cuneiform; 5,
suppol! is 1S cuboid. (The centers of figure of these bones are marked with
precisely what occurs dots, and a line drawn through these dots forms a curve which
3 % . . indicates the transverse arch.)
in man, whose foot 1s
perfectly adapted to biped, plantigrade walking. M. Volkov noted
that, among the primates, the development of this arch is in direct pro-
portion to the more or less perfect adaptation to plantigrade walking.
He studied separately the transverse arch and the longitudinal one.
First he calculated the value of the transverse arch by measuring and
comparing the actual breadth of the tarsus following its curvature
from without inward, with the same breadth taken by projection; he
“In fact the dimensions of the human foot are augmented in every direction when
it supports the weight of the body.
532 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
thus found that the weakest transverse arch is that of the orang, who
never walks. In man, too, the minimum is represented, as before, by
the men of the inferior races, the Australians and the negritos, the
average by negroes and the maximum by Europeans (see fig. 10).
For the longitudinal arch, whose value was obtained by measuring
the distance from the summit to the base of the arch, the foot being
placed flat on the ground, M. Volkov arrived at the same results; at
the bottom of the scale are the Veddahs, the negritos and the negroes,
and at the top the Europeans; the foot of the European having the
maximum of convexity.
M. Volkoy has also studied the evolution of this arch, investigating
how the flat foot of- the tree dweller became such a structure as M.
C Casse has described, and the morpho-
logical changes of its constituent parts
that have ensued because of the devel-
opment of the convexity.
One of the principal consequences of
A the formation of the arch has been the
inclination of the heel to the ground,
which we have already studied, and
which, as would be supposed, varies
directly as the degree of convexity,”
this modification also ovcasioning a dis-
placement of the insertion of the Achilles
tendon.
M M’ The differences in the position and
size of the lesser process of the calea-
x neum in man and anthropoids also vary
FIG. 11—Diagram. €, point of posterior according to the formation of the arch;
support. M, point of internal support. its setting, for example, and the restric-
M’, point of external support. CX, 5 Poet 3 é
anatomical exis A, pesition of the Won Of its dimensions, —-Ehesmankexe
EIDE for instance, whose foot is flattened and
normally turned inward, has, indeed, a long and solid lesser process
that sustains the astragalus; besides, by reason of the flattening of the
> ?
«1t follows from the inclination of the caleaneum that the length of the heel in
projection diminishes as the arch increases; this well-established fact explains the
apparent contradiction between these results and the opinion generally expressed
that the negroes have a longer heel than Europeans. As M. Volkoy has shown, the
men of the so-called inferior races haye in reality, anatomically speaking, the cal-
caneum as a whole (and the heel itself) about equal to that of the Europeans when
that bone is measured by itself and detached from its neighbors, but physiologically,
since, as every one knows, we ought always in mechanics to measure the arm of the
lever, it is longer in projection, which explains, as may be added parenthetically,
the reason why the gastrocnemius muscle is longer and slenderer in the negro,
shorter and thicker in the European. The well-known theory of M. Marey on this
subject is completely confirmed by the figures of M. Volkov.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. 2D)
foot, this lesser process is set very low, being almost a continuation of
the inferior surface of the caleaneum. The development of the arch
in man had for its first effect the raising of this lesser process and then
a reduction of its dimensions, the astragalus resting directly on the
body of the caleaneum because of the approach of the latter to the
anatomical axis“ of the foot. This approach is, in fact, another char-
acter that varies with the
development of the arch.
In the anthropoids the heel
is pushed strongly outward;
in European man its axis
coincides with the anatom-
ical axis of the foot, and
thus attains the position
mentioned above and rep-
resented in figure 12.
Corresponding with the
inverted position of the
foot, the axis of the poste- Fig. 12.—Skeleton of the foot (inferior surface). I, Gorilla.
rior surface of the ealea- II, Negro. III, European. c, Caleaneum; av, Anatomical
neum is in tree dwellers axis (to show the deviation of the caleaneum).
oblique from above downward and from without inward. As the arch
becomes more completely formed, this axis becomes more and more
perpendicular to the ground. It is not yet quite vertical in the Aus-
tralian, but is so in the European. Men of the inferior races and
new-born children have in this respect a position between the gorilla
aid the European adult, and in the arrangement of the different ele-
x
d
H
1
1
\
° ments of the foot all is so
Apert ae well correlated that this
I] deviation, more marked in
i SA is 8: anthropoids than in other
‘J apes, varies as does the
divergence of the head of
as the astragalus, which is
= itself controlled by the
at ach. freedom of movement of
TIT UT TY, Wii /////// the first toe, another char-
FIG. aoc oi the foot and lower leg, showing the acter of adaptation to arbo-
torsion of the heel. I, Gorilla. II, European. 1, Calca- a
neum; 2, Astragalus; 3, Tibia; 4, Fibula. real life.
The adaptation of the arboreal foot to plantigrade walking and the
development of the arch among the arboreals, also produced modifica-
tions in the astragalus both as to its position and to its form; we will
«The anatomical axis of the foot is the exact bisector of the angle C, correspond-
ing nearly to the line which joins the middle of the posterior surface of the caleaneum
with the space between the first and second toes.
5384 THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.
cite first the already mentioned diminution, in the arboreal apes, of
the angle which the body of the bone makes with its head, and we will
also cite that peculiar torsion of the head of the astragalus, the major
axis of which is in man directed from above downward and from with-
out inward, while it tends to become horizontal in arboreals with feet
having no arch, the apparent torsion in man being manifestly due to
the approximation of the great toe and the upward thrusting of the
lesser process of the calcaneum.
Another very important modification is one to which M. Testut had
the merit of first calling attention; that is, the displacement of the
axis of the trochlear surface of the astragalus. Since the arboreal
apes have an inturned foot they have an Scdnnealine whose trochlear
axis tends to occupy a position farther and farther from the anatom-
ical axis. {fn man, because the foot has changed to a position at right
angles to the limb, the axis of the trochlear surface tends to approach
the anatomical axis nearer and nearer; that is to say, to coincide with
the bisector of the angle C (fig. 11). By this character, too, the infe-
rior human races present, as
always, interesting features of
resemblance to the arboreal an-
cestors. Since the trochlea of
the astragalus fits, as is well
known, into the tibial mortise,
when its axis is displaced it must
necessarily involve modifications
in the position and form of the
Fig. 14—Lowerend ofthe tibia (a, rear view: Biviews tl DIa. which has ciorsthis reason
from below). I,Gorilla. II, Negro. III, European. guffered a certain torsion from
without inward, whose effects are shown even as far up as the femur
(see fig. 14).
To conclude, the position of the foot is modified by the develop-
ment of the arch—in climbers the sole is turned inward, inman it Is
flat on the ground. It follows that the inferior tibial mortise must.
look inward in the first, while in the two last it is horizontal, and here
again the negro stands between the European and the gorilla.
Ido not wish to abuse your patience longer, but, in terminating
this too long exposition, in which the great abundance of details, on
which | have been unable to expatiate, has, perhaps, been tiresome
and difficult to follow, I think it will be useful to recapitulate and to
sketch, in conclusion, what I understand to haye been the course of
development of the human foot.
The foot of monkeys, as you have seen, shows a number of charac-
ters, which may be summarized as follows:
It is turned inward, it is flat, its articulations are loose and mobile,
its first toe is mobile and separated. From these general characters
THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT. 535
it follows that the upper part of its calcaneum is turned outward and
the trochlear surface of its astragalus is likewise oblique and looks
outward; it also results from this that its caleaneum is flattened and
provided with a long lesser process set near the ground; these occa-
sion further modifications in the tibia, as we have just seen, and even
in the femur.
The foot of man, on the contrary, is placed at right angles to the
axis of the limb—it is arched, its articulations are almost immovable,
its first toe is closely attached to the others, all these arrangements
tending to give the organ the solidity and flexibility required for
biped locomotion. To these general features are added others of a
special character, the principal of which are: The shifting of the cal-
caneum and the trochlear surface of the astragalus into the anatomical
axis of the foot, and the torsion of the tibia above mentioned; the
first feature relates to the arboreal adaptation, the second is the result
of a gradual improvement with reference to biped and plantigrade
locomotion. The stages intermediate to these two conditions, which
we find so clearly marked in the foot of the inferior races of men,
prove incontestably that our foot is derived from an arboreal foot
analogous to that of the monkeys of to-day, our remote cousins,
which has left its traces’ in our species.
Our convictions in this regard are confirmed when we see that the
foot of new-born infants of our race reproduces the features of that
of men of the inferior races, often assimilating even nearer than that
to the arboreal, simian foot, especially to that of the gorilla, which
appears to be decidedly the most nearly related to the human foot.
The course of ontogeny here again reproduces that of phylogeny;
comparative anatomy and embryology once more agree.
In this investigation one chapter is yet wanting or, rather, may seem
to you insufficiently developed—that is to say, one in which there would
be investigated the feet of men belonging to the prehistoric races.
M. Volkov has not yet been able to undertake this investigation, but
it is probable that the results he may obtain by it will merely confirm
those already secured; we have a right to suppose this, especially
since M. Testut has found in the man of Chancelade a separated great
toe like that of the lower human races of to-day and almost as marked
as among the anthropoids.
The arguments derived from every line of research would then be
in substantial agreement.
Toward what does the foot of man at the present day tend? Does:
its arch tend to increase and its constituent parts to more firmly coal-
esce? The question is a difficult one; it seems, however, that in our
‘ace, particularly among the females of our own country, the foot has
attained the maximum of perfection for the functions required of it.
sm 1903——35
7
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Let 43 a "
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: %
THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED.¢
By THropore GILL.
One of the most natural of the polymorphic groups of the animal
kingdom is the class of mammals, but yet it was less than a century
and a half ago that it was recognized. It was, in fact, the fruit of
scientific research and logic and not of popular recognition. Popular
and scientific classifications of the animal kingdom, far from being
parallel or the one merely an extension of the other, have been often
directly opposed. From the earliest times, the Aryan and Semitic
peoples at least considered animals in aggregates with reference to
the functions exercised rather than with reference to agreement in
structural details; in the language of the naturalist, they segregated
them by physiological characters rather than morphological ones.
There was, too, a curious association with what were called the
‘*‘elements”—earth, water, and air. (Fire was without its animals,
unless the fabled salamander be regarded as one.) This association
was in olden times generally accepted. It appears in the Jewish tale
of creation given in Genesis (i, 1, 2, 7, 9, 20, 24); it appears in the
Roman mythology perpetuated in Ovid’s verse (Metam., I, lines 5-7,
91, 22, 72-75).
In popular natural history, the hairy quadrupeds were associated with
the scaly and naked ones as quadrupeds, the sea-dwelling cetaceans
were combined with the scaly fishes in another class, and the volant
bats were sometimes grouped with quadrupeds on account of their
obvious likeness to mice, except for theewings, and sometimes with
birds because they could fly. So all continued to be grouped through
the ages. Aristotle did no better, or at any rate little better, than those
preceding him and those following him for many centuries. The
assertion of Owen that Aristotle fully recognized the class of mam-
mals under the name Zootoca is without proper foundation. Long ago,
in the American Naturalist (VII, 458), I showed that different passages
in Aristotle’s book negatived such a statement and that the word
zootoka was never used as a substantive.
: a : : .
@Much of the present article was published in September, 1902, in the Popular
Science Monthly under the caption ‘‘The story of a name
Mammals.’’
= Le 4
oF
538 THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE @DEA EXPRESSED.
At last a very bright English naturalist, the greatest naturalist of
the seventeenth century, John Ray, was suggestive in this, as in many
other cases. Ray, in his Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadru-
pedum et Serpentini Generis (1693, p. 53), gave an ‘‘Animalium tabula
generalis” in which he bracketed the terrestrial or quadruped mammals
with the aquatic as vivipara, and contrasted them with the ovipara or
aves. The vivipara are exactly coextensive with what were later called
mammalia, but the word vivipara was used as an adjective and not as
anoun. This was a most happy suggestion, but it was long before it
was acted on or before anyone advanced as far in the appreciation of
the facts involved.
Linneus, the Swedish naturalist, published the first edition of his
Systema Nature in 1735, and in that and every succeeding edition up
to the tenth adopted the idea current for so many generations, so far
at least as the union of cetaceans with fishes was concerned. But in
1758 he at last caught on to the idea of Ray and for the first time
separated the cetaceans from the fishes and combined them with the
hairy quadrupeds in a special class. There was no name for that class;
for though Ray had suggested the grouping of the two together, he
did not propose a collective name. A new name, therefore, had to be
given, and that was ‘‘mammalia.” Some curious mistakes have been
made respecting this name.
In the great Century Dictionary, a deservedly esteemed work, and
which may generally be implicitly trusted, the etymology of mammalia
is given as ‘‘ NL. (se. anémalia), neut. pl. of LL. mammals (neut. sing.
as noun, mammale), of the breast: see mammal,” and, under mammal,
we have ‘ta. and 2. [=OF. mammal=Sp. mamal=Pg. mamal, mam-
mal=It. mammale, n.3 << NL. mammale, a mammal, neut. of LL.
”
°
mammalis, of the breast, < L. mamma, the breast]
All this is misleading, if not absolutely erroneous. The name
‘**mammatlia,” as just indicated, was first coined and used by Linnzeus,
and was formed directly from the Latin; it had nothing whatever to
do with French, Spanish, Portuguese, or Italian words. The concept
of which the Linnean word is the expression is as remote from a pop-
ular notion as could well be, and even the necessity for the word (or
an analogous one) can be appreciated really only by the educated or,
pro tanto, the scientifically educated. Buffon and Pennant, for exam-
ple, could not realize the reason for its use.
It is noteworthy that, in the Century Dictionary, even the very word
that might have given the clew to the formation of **mammal” is
cited, and yet the excellent professional etymologist who worked on it
was not guided into the right path. With the hint given to him, he
failed to see the point. Evidently, then, the etymology is not as
obvious as it might seem to be.
THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED. 539
Often, indeed, in looking over etymologies, one must be impressed
with the insufficiency of philological learning alone for the solution of
knotty questions. A living knowledge of the objects named, as well
as of their history, is often requisite for a full understanding of the
significance or aptness of the names.
It was one of the happiest inspirations of Linneus to segregate all
the mammiferous animals—the hairy quadrupeds, the bats, the sire-
nians, and the cetaceans—in a single class. No one before had appre-
ciated the closeness of the relations of the several types, and there was
no name for the new class (or concept) as there was for all his other
classes. A name, therefore, had to be devised. It was another happy
inspiration that led Linneus to name the class ‘“‘mammalia.” Those
who are familiar with the works and ratiocination, and especially the
nomenclature, of the great Swede may divine his thoughts and share
with him in the execution of his ideas, although he did not give
etymologies. For those ‘‘animalia” which are animals par excellence
he would coin a name which would recall that fact. (Animal, be it
remembered, is often used in popular converse in the sense of
mammal. )
The name in question was evidently made in analogy with animalia.
In animalia the principal component was cada, the vital principle, or
animal life. (Old Nonius Marcellus well defined and contrasted the
word—‘‘animus est quo sapimus, anima qua vivimus.”) The singular
of the word was animal. In mammalia the essential component is
mamma, breast: the singular should be mammal. The terminal
element (-al) was coincident with rather than derived directly from
the Latin suffix (-alis) which expressed the idea of resemblance or
relationship; anyway, it was used in substantive form, and the idea of
possession or inclusion was involved, as in the case of animal, capital,
feminal, tribunal—all well-known Latin words. In fine, a mammal is
a being especially marked by or notable for having mammze.
The truth embodied in the word was almost immediately appreciated
by most naturalists at least, and the class of mammals has been adopted
ever since the Linnean period by zoologists. Naturally the new
Latin name was to some extent replaced by names in the vernacular
tongues of most nations.
In the accommodating English alone the Latin word was adopted
with only a change in its ending, and thus the class name ** mammals”
was introduced, and the singular form—*tmammal]”—followed as a
matter of course, and by chance (or rather the genius of language)
exactly coincided in form with the singular of the Latin word.
Not only had the name nothing to do with the alleged derivative
Latin words—it was not admitted at all into the vernacular speech of
France, Spain, Portugal, or Italy. The naturalists and lexicographers
540 THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED.
of those countries failed even to appreciate its etymological aptness
and beauty. First, the French had to introduce a new word to cor-
respond—mammiféres, or the breast-bearers. The other Latin races
followed; the Spanish and the Portuguese with mamiferos, and the
Italians with mammiferi. None of the words quoted in the Century
Dictionary are even given as nouns in the ordinary dictionaries of
those languages—not even in the great dictionary of Littré. Littré,
however, has the words mammalogie, mammalogique, and mamma-
logiste.
Of course the Germans coined a word from their vernacular—
Siiugethiere, or suckling animals. The cognate nations imitated—the
Dutch with Zoogdieren, the Swedish with Digedjuren, and the Danes
and Norwegians with Pattedyrene.
But, although the English proved ultimately to be so ‘*accommo-
dating,” the full acceptance of a name in the vernacular speech was
long delayed. Very early the equivalent words had been cordially
welcomed in the continental languages, but the users of English were
chary in their admission of foreigners.
Even the English word in plural form—**mammals”—was grudg-
ingly admitted; the Latin form—‘*mammalia”—was long preferred.
The chief translators of the Régne Animal rendered mammiféres by
‘*mammalia;” Blyth alone substituted ‘*mammalians” in its place.
Owen, in his History of British Fossil Mammals, employed **mam-
malia” in the text more frequently than ‘‘ mammals,” and yet he used
the English form more than any of his contemporaries. Popular as
well as scientific writers avoided the English word as one alien to
the genius of the language. Some preferred the word ‘*mammifers”
when they would use an anglicized term.
By reason of the general ignorance of the etymology of the word
‘*mammalia,” and the dislike of it on account of the misapprehension
that it was an imperfect or clipped word, one of the French natural-
ists devised a substitute—‘*mammiféres”—and this early took root
and has been universally adopted by French writers. It was to some
extent adopted by English writers of the first half of the last century
under the form ‘*mammiters.” Robert Chambers, in his anonymous
Vestiges of Creation, frequently used it, and Hugh Miller, in his
antidotes to the heresy of the Vestiges, sometimes did. Miller, in
his Old Red Sandstone (1841), also accepted the singular form in his
statement (Chapter IV) that ‘tthe mammifer takes precedence of the
bird, the bird of the reptile, the reptile of the fish.” The use of the
word, nevertheless, was never general. The derivative adjective, how-
ever, was much more frequently adopted for a time.
Lyell, in his Principles of Geology, almost invariably used the
word **mammalia,” but accepted the adjective ‘‘ mammiferous” instead
of ‘‘mammalian” and even of ‘‘mammaliferous.” (He admitted
THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED. 541
‘“mammifers” in his Glossary, but did not otherwise use it.) This,
naturally, was an example which others followed. It was not until
the first half of the century had been past for some time that the
English word came generally into use.
In the most trivial fiction the Latin ‘‘ mammalia” was used instead
of the English ‘‘ mammals.” An example of this may be given, inas-
much as it will also serve to show how, by accident or design, a pos-
sible solecism was avoided. Edgar Allan Poe, the precursor of Conan
Doyle as author of ‘‘ detective stories,” in 1841 published a thrilling
story of The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The supposititious narrator
isan American resident in Paris, and has a French friend (M. Dupin)
notable for the acuteness of his analytical and detective faculty. An
unaccountable murder of two women was committed, and the police
as well as professional detectives of Paris had been unable to solve
the mystery. The amateur, M. Dupin, investigated, satisfied himself,
and explains to his friend his solution. ‘* Read, now,” says Dupin,
‘* this passage from Cuvier.” The American summarizes in his own
language: ‘‘It was a minute anatomical and generally descriptive
account of the large fulvous orang-outang of the East Indian Islands.
The gigantic stature, the prodigious strength and activity, the wild
ferocity, and the imitative propensities of these mammalia are suffi-
ciently well known toall. I understood the full horrors of the murder
at once.”
Now, as it was an American that gave the account, it was perfectly
right, at the time in question, to use ‘‘mammalia.” But if Poe had
put that word in the mouth of Dupin, or as emanating from the pen
of Cuvier, he would have done violence to French usage. The scien-
tific men of France as well as popular writers always used their ver-
nacular *‘mammiféres;” and if the American would have translated
to represent the French style he should have used **mammifers” or
‘‘mammals.” To have rendered it by ‘‘mammalia” (as many would)
would have been paraphrastic, but not translation of the spirit of the
French.
The first writer to use the English word ‘‘mammals,” at least to
any extent, was Dr. John Mason Good. In his Pantologia (Volume
VIII, 1813) he formally introduced the English name, under ‘* Mam-
malia,” in the following words: ;
66
In English we have no direct synonym for this term; quadruped or four-footed,
which has usually been employed for this purpose, is truly absurd, since one of the
orders have [sic!] no feet whatever, and another offers one or two genera that can
not with propriety be said to have more than two feet. We have hence thought
ourselves justified in vernacularizing the Latin term and translating ‘‘mammalia,”’
mammals, or breasted animals.
In Volume XII, in the articles ** Quadruped” and ** Zoology,” Good
also used the word ‘‘mammals” apropos of the classification of Lin-
549 THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED.
neeus, and in other places,“ and also in the article on **Quadruped,”
the adjective **‘ mammalian.”
The same Good, in The Book of Nature (1826) and in the second
lecture of the second series, ‘*On zoological systems,” again specif-
ically introduces it. Quadrupeds is not appropriate, ‘“‘and hence it
has been correctly and elegantly exchanged by Linneus for that of
‘mammalia,’” and he concludes, ‘* As we have no fair synonym for it
in our own tongne, I shall beg leave now, as I have on various other
occasions, to render ‘mammals.’” He repeatedly used the English
form elsewhere in The Book. I have been unable to find any use of
the word in its singular number, however.
The singular form, ‘* mammal,” has been indicated as rare or unusual.
One might look through many volumes on mammals, as well as on
general natural history, and not find it. As a matter of fact, however,
it may be frequently used. Let us go, for example, into a laboratory
when they are assorting a miscellaneous lot of bones gathered from
some fossil ossuary. Such expressions may be heard as ‘* that seems
to be a mammal bone;” ‘that 7s a mammal bone;” ‘‘that is a mam-
mal bone;” ‘*that is a mammal bone”—or the substantive ‘* mammal”.
alone may be used. Further, a whale may be alluded to as a gigantic
mammal or a mammal giant.
The earliest English author to use the singular form, so far as
known, was Richard Owen. In his History of British Fossil Mammals
and Birds (1846), for example, he alluded to a mastodon as *‘ this rare
British fossil mammal” (p. xxii), and asserted that he knew ‘‘of no
other extinct genus of mammal which was so cosmopolitan as the
mastodon” (p. xlii); he said that ‘‘the myrmecobius is an insecti-
vorous mammal, and also marsupial” (p. 40), and he claimed, condi-
tionally, that *‘ the Meles taxus is the oldest known species of mammal
now living on the face of the earth” (p. 111). Robert Chambers, in
editions of the famous Vestiges of Creation, published afterwards,
also used the singular number in several cases (e. g., Harper ed.,
pp. 110, 280), although in earlier editions (1844 et seq.) he used
‘‘mammifer” (e. g., p. 103). So, likewise, did Hugh Miller in his
later works. In an extension of the statement respecting the succes-
sion of the vertebrate classes already referred to, mammal is used
instead of mammifer. In the chapter on ‘final causes” in The Foot-
prints of the Creator (1847) it is claimed that an increase in size of
the brain in comparison with the spinal cord is correlative with the
succession of the animals; after the brains of the fish, reptile, and
bird, ‘Snext in succession came the brain that averages as four to one—
it is that of the mammal.” Elsewhere (Boston ed., p. 238) the singu-
lar is also used and the plural ‘‘ mammals” often.
“The volumes of the Pantologia are not paged, the alphabetical arrangement hay-
ing been thought to supersede pagination.
THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED. 543
But some English authors who were willing to use a vernacular
substitute for mammalia would have neither mammals nor mammifers.
The Rev. William Kirby, in 1835, in the once famous Bridgewater
treatise On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as manifested
in the Creation of Animals and in the History, Habits, and Instincts,
declined to accept either, but invariably used, as the English
equivalent of mammalia, ‘‘mammalians.” Chapter xxrv is entitled
‘‘Functions and instincts. Mammalians;” in this, it is explained,
‘the whole body, constituting the class, though sometimes varying In
the manner, are all distinguished by giving suck to their young, on
which account they were denominated by the Swedish naturalist
‘mammalians’” (II, p. 476). In a footnote to this statement, Kirby
adds, ‘*Cuvier calls them ‘mammifers,’ but there seems no reason for
altering the original term.”
We may cordially indorse the sentiment of Kirby, and, doing so,
refuse to follow him in action and to adopt his modification of ** the
original term,” and revert to the ge nuine original—mammals, or, in
the singular, mammal.
No instance of the use of the singular-- mammalian—has been found
in Kirby’s work or in any of his successors’, nor does the singular
form ‘‘mammal” occur in the Pantologia. There is, indeed, one
instance of its use in the Vestiges of Creation (Harper ed., p. 284);
but as it was followed by a plural verb, it was inadvertently used.
The science which treats of mammals had to be named. Mammal-
ogy was naturally thought of, but many objected to it. The French,
who would not tolerate mammal or mammaux, although they had
no objection to the analogous animal and animaux, on the whole
took kindly to ‘* mammalogie ” or ** mammologie.” Substitutes, it is
true, were offered; Desmarest proposed ‘* mastologie” and De Blain-
ville *‘ mastozoologie,” and the latter was admitted by Littré to his
ereat dictionary, but they did not secure a permanent foothold, and
‘*mammalogie” is the term now generally used.
The objection to ‘*mammalogy” was and is that it is a hybrid and
also a badly compounded and clipped word. It is formed of the Latin
mamma (a breast or teat) and the Greek suflix, -Aoyvéa; the apparent
meaning is a discourse on breasts rather than breast-bearing animals.
Greek nouns also generally have the vowel ‘‘o” rather than ‘‘a”
before the second component. There is no simple word Aoyéa in
Greek meaning discourse, and the suffix in question is connected with
the word Aoyos or, rather, the verb léy@. The only Greek word
Aoyia (occurring in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, xvi, 1, 2)
means ‘‘a collection for the poor,” and therefore Aoyéa is misleading
and has misled several to my knowledge. The Greek words ** diko-
logia,” ‘‘etymologia,” ‘*philologia,” and ‘*theologia,” of course are
544 THE NAME MAMMAL AND THE IDEA EXPRESSED.
good precedents for the English words ending in ‘‘-ology ” and conse-
quently we may use, as a suflix, -oyia (but not simply Adyéa) in
explanation of the etymology.
In view of all its faults, suggestions were made to correct the word
to ‘*mammology ” if not ‘*mammalology.” Others would compound
a name of two Greek constituents (470, a wild beast, and Novos).
Therology was the result. Dr. John D. Godman, in his American
Natural History (1824), entitled the first (and only published) part
‘*Mastology,” thus borrowing a word first used by Desmarest. The
writer of the long article on ‘* Mammalia” for the Edinburgh Eney-
clopedia (1819) coined the word ‘‘mazology” (aos, a breast, and
Loyos, discourse). None of these words has found general admis-
sion into the language. Notwithstanding the philological objections,
mammalogy ‘of late years has been generally accepted, and general
consensus establishes its right of being.
On a previous page it has been affirmed that ‘‘animal is often used
in popular converse in the sense of mammal.” One of the many cases
that might be cited is furnished by a justly esteemed author in a
recent number (March, 1904) of The Century Magazine. John Bur-
roughs, in an article ‘On humanizing the animals” (p. 779), has con-
trasted the word with birds. He says: ‘*There seems to be among
the birds something that is like what is called romantic love. The
choice of mate seems always to rest with the female, while among the
unimals the female shows no preference at all.”- As the present
article is intended only to show the use of words no comments are
necessary, save to add that Mr. Burroughs excepts from his generali-
zation ** certain birds of India and Australia.”
The word animal is made to do duty, in the same article, both as the
equivalent of the Latin ‘tanimalia” and ‘‘mammalia.” In the larger
sense it is used (p. 773) apropos of ‘‘the wariness of wild creatures”
and ‘*why flocks of birds, droves of beasts, and schools of fish act
with a common impulse.” To contrast with other classes, ** beasts” is
then the word used in place of ‘*tmammals.” How much better it
would be to use ‘*mammals” in eyery case where such are meant.
Ambiguity would be avoided; precision insured. There is need of
the word, and English-speaking peoples are as well entitled to its use
as all the other European nations are to employ analogous words.
EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF
ANIMALS. ¢
By N. Vascuipe and P. Rousseau.
Among the problems attacked by modern experimental psychology,
that of the mental life of animals has a prominent place, all the more
important because upon its solution depends, in a great degree, the
exactitude of our knowledge concerning the evolution of mental actiy-
ity in the scale of life.
We know very little about the minds or mental life of animals,
and the scanty knowledge we possess concerning their intelligence
is largely mingled with legend. Everyone who owns a dog thinks
himself a psychologist and that he has made exact observations on
animal mentality when he brings out a few simple phenomena that
he calls ‘*experiments.” These are the defenders of the old maxim
of the deep significance of simple observations.
In another field we note the remarks of professional people, meet-
ing everywhere with citations, after the manner of the illustrated
journals, of thousands of methods of capturing animals, methods
whose success is believed to indicate the possession by animals of a
well-developed imagination. It has even been supposed that we can
follow the complex processes of creative animal imagination!
In this article we will give an account of the experimental investi-
gations of the American psychologist, Mr. Edward L. Thorndike.
Animal psychology has, up to this time, remained in a somewhat
rudimentary state; those authors who have occupied themselves with
studies of that nature have a tendency to explain the mental life of
animals by associative processes. That life being essentially made up
of reactions to impressions arising empirically, produced either by
the influence of hereditary instincts or the personal experience of
each animal, it seems unnecessary to appeal to phenomena of abstrac-
tion and inference and to concepts in order to explain it. Our author
considers that this general tendency is good. It is not, however, so
regarded by all psychologists, and even those who hold it are still
«Translated and condensed from the Revue Scientifique (Paris), June 13 and Sep-
tember 12, 1908.
545
546 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
inclined to views that are too synthetical. We must study the for-
mation of associations ina more fragmentary and analytical manner.
We too easily content ourselves with words and vague formulas; it
is common sense, not the scientific spirit, the spirit of criticism and
analysis, that still makes laws in this very special domain of psychol-
ogy. I call my cat to give her a saucer of milk to drink. What is
the exact series of images developed in her mind from the moment
when the sound strikes her ear to that when she decides to obey? To
say that the animal has present in her intelligence a more or less com-
plex process of association is to be contented with very little. We
limit ourselves to saying that she does not reason—which appears
quite evident—and yet that her acts accord with elements other than
purely instinctive phenomena. To fix the meaning of the expression
‘process of sassociation” as applied to animals, to give it a positive
signification, to ascertain what processes of this kind can be formed in
their minds, and of what degree of complexity and delicacy, what
would be the duration of such processes and the conditions of their
formation—such is the problem, precise and clearly limited, that Mr.
Thorndike“ set himself to solve. He has given us a clear statement
of his method and a very complete illustration of it. Two qualities
are found united in his work: On the one hand, the faculty of making
us grasp the detail of his facts; on the other, that of bringing out
clearly the scope and interest that this question presents for general
and comparative psychology.
Strictly from the point of view of method the older or even con-
temporary psychology presents a number of grave defects. It tends
toward a perpetual eulogy of animals, as with Romanes, for instance.
Psychologists are too easily moved to astonishment and admiration.
This disposition, which tends toward puerility, ends by falsifying the
method itself, by leading to the choice of those facts only that excite
admiration or enthusiasm. A more objective attitude is necessary.
In the first place, most of the books do not give us a psychology, but rather an
eulogy of animals. They have all been about animal intelligence, never about
animal stupidity. Though a writer derides the notion that animals have reason, he
hastens to add that they have marvelous capacity of forming associations; that
human beings only rarely reason anything out; that their trains of ideas are ruled
mostly by association, as if, in this respect, animals were on a par with them. The
history of books on animals’ minds thus furnishes an illustration of the well-nigh
universal tendency in human nature to find the marvelous wherever it can. We
wonder that the stars are so big and so far apart, that the microbes are so small and
so thick together, and for much the same reason wonder at the things animals do.
Now, imagine an astronomer tremendously eager to prove the stars as big as possi-
ble, or a bacteriologist whose great scientific desire is to demonstrate the microbes to
be very, very little. Yet there has been a similar eagerness on the part of many
ciative processes in animals. Series of monograph supplements to Psychological
Review. Vol. II, No. 4, June, 1898.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 547
recent writers on animal psychology to praise the abilities of animals. This can not
but lead to partiality in deductions from facts and more especially in the choice of
facts for investigation. How can scientists who write like lawyers, defending
animals against the charge of having no power of rationality, be at the same time
impartial judges on the bench? @
Finally, even the writers who might have won valuable results have
contented themselves with arguing against theories of the eulogists.
They have not yet made investigations of their own.
Further, animal psychology has been hitherto too much derived
from anecdotes; authors cite only those facts that are exceptional,
extraordinary, or considered as such, instead of which the normal and
simplest cases should always be reported. Anecdotes also have the
disadvantage of being rarely given at first hand. Finally, by their
very definition they are unverifiable.
PM
.
The method adopted should be an exclusively experimental one,
and that alone is what Mr. Thorndike has used. It is essentially a
method of observation and experiment, submitted, as in all such cases,
to a certain number of constant precautions. It was necessary here
more than elsewhere to avoid making generalizations from the indi-
vidual to the species on observations of only a single case, to regu-
late in a precise manner the conditions of each experiment as far as
possible, and to use in these experiments only animals whose previous
history was known, all of which precautions seem to have been
ignored by preceding psychologists. This objective attitude once
adopted, there were still some details to be arranged. It was necessary
to formulate a plan—-to establish a certain number of constant points
which, in the whole series of experiments, would serve as guides for
the observer. Mr. Thorndike reduces these points to three, formu-
lated as the three following questions, which constitute the logical
structure of the method:
1. What is it the animals under observation do?
2. How do they do it?
3. What do they feel while they thus act ??
The theoretical aspect being thus settled, it became necessary to
determine the material and psychological conditions of the experi-
ments. The principle kept in view was to select an experiment or
series of experiments which should be at once simple and at the same
time significant. From a psychological point of view it was necessary
to manage so as to have only a restricted number of known psycho-
logical elements. Our author adopted the following ingenious strat-
agem: Using for his experiments cats, dogs, and chickens, he deprived
« Thorndike, pp. 3 and 4, 6 Thorndike, p. 5.
548 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
of food for some time—twenty-four hours, for example—the animal
which was to be the subject of the experiment; then he shut it in a cage
having a grating front; near by, on the outside, food for the animal
was placed. The door of the cage, set into the grating, was moved
by a mechanism which the animal had to operate in order to get out;
once free, he could satisfy his hunger. In general, the animal was
put into the box through a hole either in the back or the top. This
hole was then covered over by a board. The door in the various
cages could be opened either by a latch, a button, by pulling a cord,
or by stepping ona platform. Sometimes it was fastened by two or
three means, which had to be operated by the animal before its release
was effected. When our author used chickens he sometimes modified
his procedure. In place of having to open a door, the subject was
placed in a small inclosure and had to surmount successively a certain
number of obstacles—walk up steps, for example—to find its food
and companions.
The basis of the
principle remains
the same; the ani-
mal has, in all cases,
to form an associa-
tion between the
representation of
the interior of the
box presented by
his senses and the
series of movements
which release it.
hunger being the
F1G. 1.—General model of a box (Box K). excitant.
After the animal was shut up, its conduct was carefully observed.
A double precaution was taken; first, to note if the subject of the
experiment had or had not previously been subjected to the same or
some similar experience; finally, which was quite easy with the
arrangements adopted, to be quite sure that the animal was free from
any influence of the observer; the ‘* personal equation” connected
with the latter being entirely eliminated. It was only manifest in the
theoretical interpretation of the experiment. The animal’s behavior
was quite independent of any factors save its own hunger, the mechan-
ism of the box it was in, the food outside, and such general matters as
fatigue, indisposition, ete. Animals in doubtful health were not con-
sidered. In order to be sure as to the psychological motive involved,
the author, in the case of dogs and cats, did not experiment with them
until they were in a uniform state of absolute hunger. Asa general
rule, if the animal placed in the cage did not, after a certain time,
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 549
succeed in getting out, he was taken out, but not fed; shortly after
the experiment was recommenced with him. If, after a sufficient
number of trials he failed to get out, the case was considered a failure.
Enough animals were successively tried in each box to make it sure
that the results were not due to individual peculiarities. As chickens
could not be subjected to extreme hunger without danger of death,
the author used for them, as a psychological motive, the dislike of
loneliness, which is very great among those animals.
The associations which it is thus attempted to form are entirely
new to the animal; they are such as could hardly have been expe-
rienced by it in the course of its past life, still they are not too remote
from the ordinary course of its mental activities. They express the
connection of a certain act with a certain situation and the will that
results from that relation. The movements required by the act are
those habitual to the animal; we may therefore consider the experi-
ments as near as possible to the acts normal to the animal’s life. As
the acts required are near enough like those reported by the anecdotic
school, we may compare the results obtained by this method with
those furnished by that school. The results are
schematically expressed in a graphic manner
by curves which permit a rapid comparison of
many experiments or the following of them
through their different stages. The arrange-
ment of the method seems excellent; let us see
now its results.
IIL. —
A. Experiments concerning association.— Ne 3in A.
These have been directed with reference to" ?—Thormdike, P-I8, fg. 2
four principal inquiries: (1) How and under what conditions is asso-
ciation formed? (2) What are the psychological elements that com-
pose it? (3) What is the nature of the associations formed? (4) What
is their complexity, number, and duration 4 ;
38
First. How and under what conditions 7s association Jtormedt—The
experiments were made on 13 cats, whose ages varied from 38 to 19
months; on 3 dogs, of which one (No. 1) was 8 months old and the two
others were adults, all three being of about the same height; about 10
chickens were also used.
The behavior of the cats, with the exception of two, the oldest
(No. 18) and one of a naturally apathetic disposition (No. 11), was
always the same. All gave at first violent signs of discomfort when
put into the box, clawing and biting at the bars, thrusting the paws
out at any opening. These violent acts lasted eight to ten minutes.
All manifested at first a desire to escape; they did not pay very
much attention to the food placed outside. By dint of scratching
and biting they all at last succeeded in touching accidentally the
550 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
button or the string that opened the door; a connection thus tended
3
oz
Fic. 3.—Thorndike, p. 25, fig. 9.
to be established between the
act of opening the door and that
of going out; gradually all the
movements that did not result in
the delivery of the subject, not
being finally accompanied by the
feeling of pleasure resulting
from that deliverance, would be
stamped out. The impulse@ that
terminates in setting the subject
at liberty would be stamped in
by the resulting pleasure; this
particular quality would cause it
to predominate in the conscious-
ness of the animal in 2 more or
less exclusive manner; after many
successful trials the cat would,
when put into the box, immedi-
ately claw the button or the bolt
that closed its prison. <A pro-
gressive modification of its entire
attitude was produced. <A cat,
placed successively in two boxes,
manifested in the second one less
desire to attempt escape through
the bars; it almost ceased to mew;
if it got out of the first box by
scratching, it showed a marked
tendency to scratch when placed
in the second; there was shown
then, toa certain degree, an adap-
tation of movements to effect a
desired end.
Here are some figures: Cat
No. 12, from 4 to 6 months old,
placed in a box closed by a bolt,
first took 160 seconds to get out;
finally it did this in a minimum
of 5 seconds. The intermediate
figures show an almost regular
decrease: 160, 130.90, 605 1,28:
90, 30; 22, 11. 15, 20, 19. 14. 10, 8.8. 5, £028. 6: 6.7 seconds. |) Amiunter-
“The word ‘‘impulse,’’ as used by Mr. Thorndike, means the consciousness
accompanying a muscular innervation; it is the direct feeling of the doing as dis-
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 55 Ih
val of 24 hours separated the last two attempts. When the method of
closing the door was simple—if, for example, it was released by pulling
upon a cord situated outside the bars or by turning « button—100 per
cent of the cats succeeded. In cages having a more complicated method
of closing, irregularity began. Cat No. 2, from 5 to 7 months old, did
not succeed in getting out of the box marked ‘* kK,” which required
three acts to open it. The rapidity with which an association is formed
varies considerably. It may be considered as easily formed when it
passes from a maximum of 300 seconds to a minimum of 6 or 8 seconds
in five or six attempts; it is formed with difficulty when the same
result is attained only after 30 attempts. Observation of the conduct
of animals shows that the rapidity depends on the hereditary aptitudes
of the subject, on its past experience, on the attention which it gives
to the act. A cat may scratch without attending to any object in par-
ticular, but if it accidentally shoves back
the bolt its attention will be fixed upon
that movement and that particular ob-
ject. Finally, account must be taken of
the greater or less vigor and the more or
less abundant movements of the animal.
Attention is often correlated with a cer-
tain lack of vigor; the association in this
case is more easily formed; a less exag-
gerated display of activity, a greater
calm, allow the animal to be more con-
scious of what is necessary to do.
Among the 50 graphic tracings that
our author presents we notice the two
curves shown in figs. 2 and 38 relating to
eat No. 3, shut up first in box A, closing
with a bolt; then in box K, in which three cL 30
modes of closing were employed. The Fre. 4.—Cat No.3 in box A. Thorndike,
number of trials is carried on the line of ea a ees Sar
the abscissas, as well as the intervals that occurred between each
attempt; the duration of each attempt is carried on the ordinates,
each millimeter representing 10 seconds. The extreme difficulty
which the animal had in getting out of box K will be remarked.
The curve is interrupted twice, which indicates two failures. It is,
tinguished from the idea of the act done or to be done. It is not the motive that
leads the animal to do the act; it is the consciousness itself of the performance of the
act. There is in it a psychological element and a physiological element. The
‘““impulse’’ is the feeling which comes from seeing oneself move, from feeling one’s
body in a different position, ete.—a position which relates to the execution of a par-
ticular act and which characterizes it; it is the consciousness of the kinesthetic sen-
sations that result from that attitude. Equivalent expressions would be—the feeling
or consciousness of movement; the feeling of muscular effort.
sm 1903 36
Stay STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
besides, extremely irregular; after remaining low for some time it
suddenly rises at the end of the first series of experiments. The
curve carried on the same line of abscissas, showing the results of a
new series of attempts after quite a long interval, shows that associa-
tion was still far from being definitely formed; altogether it shows a
very decided agitation and disorder
of mind in the subject.
The behavior of dogs was ina gen-
eral way quite different from that of
cats.
A dog who, when hungry, is shut up in
one of these boxes is not nearly so vigorous
in his struggles to get out as is the young
cat. And even after he has many times ex-
perienced the pleasure of eating on escape
he does not try to get out so hard as a eat,
young or old. He paws or bites the bars
or screening and tamely. tries to squeeze
out. He gives up his attempts sooner than
the cat if they prove unsuccessful. Fur-
thermore, his attention is taken by the food, not the confinement. He wants to get
.to the food, not out of the box. So, unlike the cat, he confines his efforts to the
front of the box. It was also a practical necessity that the dogs should be kept
from howling in the evening, and for this reason I could not use asa motive the
utter hunger which the cats were made to suffer. In the morning, when the experi-
ments were made, the dogs were surely hungry, and no experiment is recorded in
which the dog was not ina
state to be willing to make
a great effort for a bit of
meat, but the motive may
not have been even and
equal throughout, as it
was with the cats.¢@
Fig. 5.—Cat No. 5in box K. (Thorndike, p. 22,
Formation of association. )
An examination of
the curves for these
experiments shows a
rapid descent, gener-
ally after the second
trial, sometimes after
the first. Above all,
there is recorded ina
much less degree the
sharp elevations indicating duration. In order to show the contrast,
we reproduce the curve relative to cat No. 10, from 4 to 8 months old,
and dog No. 1 placed in two similar boxes, C and C C, closed by a
button which had to be brought from a vertical to a horizontal posi-
tion in order to open the box. The same remarks apply to the curve
— ee ——
«Thorndike, pp. 32 and 33,
7
NG! 4o
Fic. 6.—Cat No. 3in box G. (Thorndike, p. 21, Memory.)
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 553
of dog No. 1 in box O, similar to box K in which was shut cat No. 3.
Apart from an abrupt rise in the curve followed by an immediate
descent, we see no such marked irregularity, and, in particular, we
see no interruption; that is to say, no failure.
The experiments made with chickens were arranged in a little differ-
ent manner. The subject was placed in a pen with two exits, one of
which led to the place where were the other chicks and food, the other
to a second pen from which there was'no issue. The number of these
false exits could be arbitrarily increased. There were other pens in
which an obstacle was placed in the chicken’s path, a few steps to
climb, a piece of stovepipe, 11 inches long, forming an inclined plane
which led the subject to an open platform from which the animal
could jump down among his companions. In other cases he could
escape by pecking at the door of the cage, by climbing up a spiral
staircase and out through a hole in the wall.
a: = et | yD;
Fie. 7.—Cat No. 10in box C. (Thorndike, p. 19, fig. 3.)
Everything being equal, and making allowances for the modifica-
tions due to the influence of heredity, the behavior of the chicks shows
the same general character as that of the cats. The subject first shows
extreme agitation. Its conduct appears to be governed by the law
which may henceforth be considered as having a universal application:
‘An animal shut up and isolated tends to execute, for the purpose of
getting out, all the acts which ordinarily give him his liberty under
analogous conditions.”” The alternation of successes and failures
produces a selection; it is the pleasure that attends the successful act
or series of acts that causes it to survive.
Chickens are, in general, slower in forming associations than the
animals previously considered. Our author explains this by a differ-
ence in their bodily organs and instinctive impulses. The anatomical
and physiological constitution of JE chicken is on a lower plane than
«**Tn scientific terms this hoe means that the Gace sie pened by
loneliness and confining walls, responds by those acts which in similar conditions in
nature would be likely to free him.’’ Thorndike, p. 36.
554 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
that of the dog and cat; its hereditary tendencies, derived from phys-
ical conditions, are less suited than are those of the dog or cat to per-
mit a prompt reaction to the definite impressions of these experiments.
On the other hand, it is not very easy to distinguish, in the behavior of
two species of animals, the part played by individual intelligence and
that taken by heredity, race, ete. We have not here any precise indi-
cations which would permit us to class, finally, these
animals in the scale of intelligence; the problem can
only be solved by complex researches upon the devel-
‘nee ee a, Opment of attention, memory, activity, etc. The
box CC. (Thorndike, Present experiments enable us to say, however, that
12 Es AEN) the chicken ranks below the dog and the cat and
that, as to these, the dog generally appears as the more intelligent.
Ve
ieperiments concerning imitation and the psychological life of ani-
To the question, *‘ Do animals imitate /” science has uniformly
answered, ‘* Yes.” But, put in this way, the question is too general;
there are several kinds of imitation, not a single species.
mals.
There are, to begin with, the well-known phenomena presented by the imitative
birds. The power is extended widely, ranging from the parrot who knows a hun-
dred or more articulate sounds to the sparrow whom a patient shoemaker taught to
get throughatune. Now,
if abird really gets a sound
in his mind from hearing
it and sets out forthwith
to imitate it, as mocking
birds are said at times to
do, it is a mystery and
deserves closest study. If
a bird, out of a lot of ran-
dom noises that it makes,
chooses those for repeti-
tion which are like sounds
that he has heard, it is
again a mystery why,
though not as in the pre-
vious case a mystery how,
he doesit. The important 4h
fact for our purpose is Fic. 9.—Dog No. 1 in box O. (Thorndike, p. 34, fig. 12.) Compare
that, though the imitation AACS en lat De SiS) ES
of sounds is so habitual, there does not appear to be any marked general imitative
tendency in these birds. There is no proof that parrots do muscular acts from hay-
ing seen other parrots do them. At any rate, until we know what sort of sounds
birds imitate, what circumstances or emotional attitudes these are connected with,
how they learn them, and, above all, whether there is in birds which repeat sounds
any tendency to imitate in other lines, we can not, it seems to me, connect these
phenomena with anything found in the mammals or use them to advantage ina
discussion of animal imitation as the forerunner of human. 4
«Thorndike, loc. cit., p. 47.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 555
Another sort of imitation ought also to be eliminated—that shown,
for example, in a flock of sheep. ‘The first ones leap over a barrier
which is taken away before all the flock have passed; the next sheep
jumps as if to get over a barrier, although it is not there, and five or
six others do the same. In appearance
but only in appearance —this
is a phenomenon of imitation. /n fact, the reproduction of the act
accomplished by the first animals may depend upon very special cir-
cumstances peculiar to animals that live in flocks. ** It is possible that
among gregarious animals there may be elaborate connections in the
neryous system which allow the sight of certain peculiar acts in another
animal to arouse the innervation leading to those acts, but that these
connections are limited. The reactions, according to this view, are spe-
cific responses to definite signals, comparable to any other instinctive or
associational reaction. The sheep jumps when he sees the other sheep
jump, not because of a general ability to do what he sees done, but
because he is furnished with the instinct to Jump at such a sight,
or because his experience of following the flock over bowlders and
brooks and walls has
got him into the habit
of jumping at the spot
where he sees one
ahead of him jump;
and so he jumps even
though no obstacle be
in hisway.* Thereis 7 2 %
present at the same Fig. 10.—Labyrinths used in experiments with chickens. (Thorn-
time a phenomenon of dike, p. 35.)
hereditary instinct and of personal experience. Primitively, the sheep
who now imitates did not jump unless the external elements calling
for that act were present and especially unless the obstacle was present;
now he jumps ‘* when only the nonessentials are present.”“ Besides,
‘these limited acts may be the primitive, sporadic beginnings of the
general imitative faculty we find in man.” In any case, the very fact
that diverse interpretations are possible obliges us to leave out of
consideration this kind of imitation in the present investigation.
The imitation which we are to study here must be imitation in the
precise and strict sense of the word, understood as the transfer to
one’s own personality of an association formed by another.
V.
1. Experiments with chickens.—Two chickens, Nos. 64 and 66, were
shut in a cage from which one could get out only by crawling under
the wire screening at a certain spot or by walking up an inclined plane
«Thorndike, loc. cit., p. 49.
DD6 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
and then jumping down. No. 64 had been previously taught to get
out at the hole. No. 66 had no experience with the two methods of
exit. After 9 minutes-20 seconds, No. 66 went out by the inclined
plane, although No. 64 had in the meantime crawled out under the
screen 9 times. It was impossible to judge how many times No. 66
really saw No. 64 do this. He was looking in that direction 5 times.
Similar experiments were made with other chickens, utilizing other
methods of exit indicated above—pecking at the door, jumping on a
little platform, etc. Certain ones especially may be mentioned which
were made with 8 chickens (Nos. 80 to 87) ranging in age from 16 to
30 days. Each was put in and left alone from 60 to 80 seconds, then
another was introduced who knew the means of exit. The experi-
ments were numerous. Chicken No. 80, for example, saw his com-
panion go,out 54 times; he failed completely, notwithstanding the
long duration of the attempt (60 minutes). There was but one excep-
tion, No. 82, who finally escaped at the end of 8 minutes 40 seconds;
the method of escape was effected by stepping upon a platform; and
the author considers that in this case the successful attempt was purely
accidental. The conclu-
sion reached, then, is that ¢
these animals do not imi-
tate. G
2. Experiments with
cats.—The box used for % (4
these experiments was
arranged in two com-
partments separated by a wire screen, The larger of these had a
front of wooden bars, with a door which fell open when a string
stretched across the top was bitten or clawed down. The smaller was
closed by boards on three sides and by the wire screen on the fourth.
The subject was placed in the latter compartment. The cat who was
to serve as guide was placed in the other. The subject could in this
way observe his guide, see him pull the string, go out, and eat the fish.
Record was made of the time during which the subject was looking at
his companion. The latter, at fixed intervals—48 hours, 24 hours—
repeated a certain number of times the act of going out. Then the
subject was in his turn placed in the large compartment from which
he was to attempt to get out. The time elapsing between his entry
and the moment of his pulling the string was noted. If he failed in
5 or 10 or 15 minutes to do so, he was released and not fed.
As regards their general behavior, it is to be noted that the cats
that here served as subjects behaved exactly as those did who were
put in the same position without ever having under their eyes a com-
panion as a model. They struggled as usual without ever noticing
the liberating string. The example of the cat used as a guide was of
Fig. 11.—Imitation in chickens.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. Rae
no utility; the association was formed in the same way as if each had
been placed alone in the box.
Besides, one would expect that if the association between the sight
of the string and the act which results from pulling it had been formed
by seeing the guide cat pull the string the subject would pull at the
string as soon as he saw it; or, if there was a slight hesitation, a little
indecision, such a period would be extremely short, at least it would
be nearly constant for all subjects. Now, none of these expectations
was fulfilled. No subject pulled the string on being placed in the
compartment. The only exception was merely an apparent one—No.
6, in the midst of irregular struggles to get out, chanced to hit the
string with its paw. The association between pulling the cord and the
act of getting out was so slight that he remained in the box for 16
seconds before he noticed that the door was open. Cats No. Tand No.
5 always failed, notwithstanding the fact that they fixed their atten-
tion upon the guide cat in an unmistakable manner 43 and 33 times,
respectively, and in a doubtful manner 111 times for No. 7 and 68
times for No. 5.
No. 3 alone sueceeded very promptly in getting out in three experi-
ments, and in 3 minutes and 30 seconds. He finally succeeded in 8 sec-
onds; but it should be noted that imitation was not necessarily a factor,
for this cat showed in the course of numerous experiments signs of a
much more lively intelligence than the others. He probably got out by
his own effort alone. Besides, when a subject gets out of the box, if
the success was due to imitation there ought to be a regular relation
between the time which he observed his guide and the time employed
in getting out; the latter should be in inverse proportion. Yet it is
the opposite that is observed—the longer the time of observation the
more time was lost in efforts to get out, or, indeed, the attempt ended
in complete failure.
Vi.
If the experiments are varied the same results are reached. For
example, two cats were placed in the same cage, one of which, unac-
quainted with the means of exit, sees the door opened and goes out and
is fed with him. The experiment is repeated a number of times, then
the subject is placed in the box alone. No modification of his behavior
is noted which reveals the influence of imitation; the association is
formed no quicker; the method employed was different from that used
by his companion. Cat No. 1 opened the door by pulling at a loop
with his teeth; cat No. 7, the subject, pulled it with his paw. In
another box which could, at the will of the animal, be opened in two
ways cat No. 3 pulled at a loop at the back of the box, while cat No. 5
pulled a string at the front.
558 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
3. Experiments with dogs.—¥ rom these, too, it appears certain * that
the animals were unable to form an association leading to an act from
having seen the other animal or animals perform the act in a certain
situation. Not only do animals not have associations accompanied,
more or less permeated and altered, by inference and judgement, they
do not have associations of the sort which may be acquired from other
animals by imitation.”” Imitation can not in the animal take the place
of reason, since it does not even exist. ‘*If a general imitative faculty
is not sufficiently developed to succeed with such simple acts as those
of the experiments quoted, it must be confessed that the faculty is in
these higher mammals still rudimentary and capable of influencing to
only the most simple and habitual acts or else that, for some reason,
its sphere of influence is limited to a certain class of acts possessed of
some qualitative difference other than mere simplicity which renders
them imitable.”’?
Another point in this question of imitation was brought out in the
experiments with dogs. It was wished to ascertain, not whether imi-
tation could facilitate the execution of an act which the subject could
have performed, though less easily, by himself alone, but whether
imitation could bring him to accomplish an act too difficult for and
superior to his personal resources.
Two dogs, Nos. 3 and 1, were placed in two identical boxes set face
to face opposite each other, so that No. 3, himself incapable of open-
ing his box, saw by what movement No. 1 let himself out. The result
was a complete failure. The experiments were repeated five times at
intervals of 1 hour, 24, and 48 hours. No. 3 certainly saw No. 1 go
out 66 times, and probably saw him 93 other times. Finally, left to
himself for 40 minutes, he could not accomplish the necessary act.
The conclusions derived from other analogous experiments are exactly
the same. Dog No. 1 had learned to release himself from a box by
jumping up and biting a cord. Dogs 2 and 3 were brought in. Like
him, they jumped and bit, scratched here and there with their claws,
but they never jumped after the cord. Dog No. 2 was tried with this
series of experiments 8 times; he saw No. 4 get out 70 times, yet he
never succeeded in imitating him. No. 3 was tried 9 times at intervals
of 1 hour, 24, and 48 hours; he certainly saw No. 1 bite the cord and
escape 75 times; his want of success was the same.
VIL
The conclusion finally reached, that animals no not imitate, seems
contrary to the opinion of certain animal trainers interrogated by the
author; but the facts appear to warrant this conclusion.
«Thorndike, pp. 61, 62. > Thorndike, loc. cit., p. 62.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. oS)
We give below some of the opinions of these trainers. They do not
all agree, and besides they do not in any way impeach the very precise
and scientific experiments of Mr. Thorndike.
Question 1. If you wanted to teach a horse to tap seven times with
his hoof when you asked him, ** How many days are there in a week ?”
would you teach him by taking his leg and making him go through
the motions
A answered, ‘‘ Yes, at first.”
B answered, *‘ No; I would not.”
C answered, ‘‘ At first, yes.”
D answered, ‘* No.”
Question 2. Do you think you could teach him that way, even if
naturally you would take some other way 4
A answered, ‘‘In time, yes.”
B answered, **I think it would be a very hard way.”
C answered, ‘‘ Certainly I do.”
D answered, ‘*I do not think I could.”
E answered, ‘‘ Yes.”
Question 3. How would you teach him?
A answered, **] should tap his foot with a whip, so that he would
raise it, and reward him each time.”
B answered, *‘I should teach him by the motion of the whip.”
C answered, ** First teach him by pricking his leg the number of
times you wanted his foot lifted.”
E answered ambiguously.@
Let us compare the investigations of Mr. Thorndike with observa-
tions made on the inhibition of instinets by habit.
This phenomenon, very frequent among animals, has been noted by
previous psychologists, and notably by William James in his Psy-
chology. In this the animal, being able to perform two acts, one of
which is simple and natural, the other imposed by habit, chooses the
latter. In the boxes which Mr. Thorndike used the hole by which
the animal was introduced was usually covered, so that it was obliged
to go out at the door. Yet, after the association was once formed,
even if the hole was left uncovered, the animal continued to go
out at the door, although the opening of the latter was more difficult
for it.
The influence of association upon the inhibition of instincts may be
exerted in two ways. Sometimes the instinct may wane by not being
used; sometimes it is inhibited for the moment by a contrary dispo-
sition. An instance of the former sort is found in the history of a
cat, which, when placed in a box like those we have indicated, learns
to open a door and escape. After enough trials, the board covering
«Thorndike, loc. cit., pp. 71, 72.
560 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
the entrance hole is removed. The cat will still continue to open the
door, but if at any time she happens to notice the hole she may make
use of it occasionally, but not invariably. An instance of the second
sort is that of a chick placed in a cage, A, separated by a wire screen
from a box, D, in which were other chickens and food. After picking
and seratching at the screen, the subject finally jumps to B, and, after
a similar process, to C, then reaching D. After seventy-five or eighty
trials the wire screen is removed. The chicken could now at will
descend from A to D, or from B to D, or from C to D. ' Now, this
singular phenomenon appears: He goes to the edge of A, looks down
upon his comrades, but does not jump down into D, although nothing
prevents him, and then goes into B, where he does the same. Finally,
in spite of the removal of the screen, the chicken traverses the long
route A, B:C, D. The instinct has been truly inhibited. The author
observed but one case in which, after the wire was removed, the chicken,
after looking over nine times to see his
A comrades, decided, after seven minutes,
to jump directly into D.
VIII.
D We can now attempt to make an out-
CN ine ot the conception of the psycholog-
Fic. 12.—Inhibition of instincts by cal life of animals as derived from these
SLT ME A investigations.
That life is, take it altogether, rather meager. The animal is not
endowed with reason; the faculties of comparison and conception of
similarity are wanting. He lacks ideas and tendencies which would,
as a whole, constitute an original and free intellectual life; he has no
memory of the past in the sense of a superior faculty by which he can
recall at will psychological states that have disappeared, for the pur-
pose of comparing or contrasting them with present states. The phe-
nomena of association that constitute his mental life, while presenting
a certain analogy with some human associations, remain very different
from what they are in man. _
The animal lacks entirely the power not only of correlating ideas
independent of a corporeal attitude and determinate exterior condi-
tions, but also of varying, of combining associations originally formed
under external influences. We should not, however, conclude from
these investigations that the three species of animals here experimented
with necessarily represent the totality of animals. It is especially
notable that Mr. Thorndike has been unable to investigate monkeys.
A similar study of these animals is much to be desired.
The experiments here cited may at least aid us in establishing a
criterium of the difference between animal and human intelligence.
According to a widespread opinion, held especially by Mr. C. L.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 561
Morgan, the difference between these two kinds of intelligence con-
sists simply in the greater complexity or simplicity of their associa-
tion. The superior animals are supposed to be capable of construct-
ing concepts more or less similar to our own, the association being the
same both in them and in man. The aptitude for forming rich and
complex associations constitutes intelligence, properly so called, as
opposed to reason defined as a faculty of analysis. From the point of
view of intelligence there is a regular gradation from man to the ani-
mal. That which distinguishes them is the presence of that rational
analytic faculty with which the faculty of speech is connected. We
also meet men in whom that analytic faculty is but slightly developed
and who nevertheless show a high degree of intelligence. In the
human species these individuals are those whose mental life most
closely approximates to that of the superior animals; there is an
almost direct transition from one to the other.
This theory can not be accepted. Human association is entirely
transformed by the intervention of inference, judgment, and com-
parison. It includes imitation, understood as a transferred associa-
tion. Its elements may exist in our consciousness in an isolated man-
ner, independently from the primitive association that united them,
ete. Our author says in plain terms that ‘‘man is no more an animal
with language than an elephant is a cow with a proboscis.Ӣ The
species or genera should be no more confounded from the psychological
than from the physiological point of view.
Progress from the psychological life of the animal to the mental life
of man has been effected by transforming the direct connections
between the terms of an association into indirect ones. It is essential
to understand that an animal has not a continuous and free mental life.
Its consciousness does not control the multiple series of associations
which his life obliges him to form. Living in the present, his mind
is powerless to grasp the past or to previse the future. He possesses
only a fragmentary consciousness whose various elements are inter-
connected only in a confused manner; at each instance of time the ego
of the anima] is made up of the consciousness of an association directed
with a view to an immediate practical action, an association whose
terms are directly united, under the pressure of exterior circumstances;
there is no continuity imposed from within. With man, on the con-
trary, the elements of an association may be dissociated and isolated
one from the other; they are not indissolubly bound up with the
excitation that caused their appearance in consciousness, and with the
reaction which responded to that excitation. There is thus a series of
terms, very variable in number, but always considerable in each indi-
vidual consciousness, which play freely, associating themselves with
“Thorndike, loc. cit., p. 87.
56Y STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
each other in an original and independent manner. By memory,
generalization, inference, etc., faculties properly human, the elements
of past associations intervene in the play of the present elements, and
this total may be organized with reference to a future action. An
important investigation for comparative psychology would consist in
attempting to find in the child and in the most elevated types of the
primates the first traces of this transformation of directly practical
association into a free and continuous mental life. We should thus be
able to ascertain, not the legendary account, but the real history of the
origin of our human faculty of association.
‘*Our work,” says Mr. Thorndike, ‘* has rejected reason, compari-
son, or inference, perception of similarity, and imitation. It has
denied the existence, in animal consciousness, of any important stock
of free ideas or impulses, and so has denied that animal association is
homologous with the association of human psychology. It has homol-
ogized it with a certain limited form of human association. It has
proposed, as necessary steps in the evolution of human faculty, a vast
increase in the number of associations, signs of which appear in the
primates, and a freeing of the elements thereof into independent exist-
ence. It has given us an increased insight into various mental proc-
esses.” It has convinced the writer, if not the reader, that the old
speculations about what an animal could do, what it thought, and how
what it thought grew into what human beings think, ‘‘ were a long
way from the truth, and not on the road to it.”
I believe that our best service has been to show that animal intellection is made
up of a lot of specific connections, whose elements are restricted to them, and which
subserve practical ends directly, and to homologize it with the intellection involved,
in such human associations as regulate the conduct of a man playing tennis. The
fundamental phenomenon which | find presented in animal consciousness is one
which can harden into inherited connections and reflexes, on the one hand, and thus
connect naturally with a host of the phenomena of animal life; on the other hand
it emphasizes the fact that our mental life has grown up as a mediation between
stimulus and reaction. @
Theoretical science may derive a profit from these conclusions; but
the author thinks also that from all these investigations some of the
results possess considerable pedagogical interest. The associative
process requires the immediate personal experience of the animal.
Why not apply this psychological proceeding to the education of the
child? There are young minds that have not, at first, the theoretical
intelligence for certain matters of knowledge that are taught, such,
for example, as mathematical operations; often the teacher’s theo-
retical explanation escapes them. Why not, in this case, have
recourse to practical and personal ‘‘ training?” Pedagogical methods
founded on imitation can not affect certain minds; for them the best
«Thorndike, loe. cit., pp. 108, 109.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 5638
method of learning long division, for, example, would perhaps be to
learn it in the form of numerous practical exercises. This method,
like that of animal trainers, is founded on the formation of associa-
tion by the repetition of the act. One of the essential laws of peda-
‘gogy ought to be that no restraint should be imposed upon children
that is not based upon the subjective laws that govern the personal
development of each child.
IX.
The method of investigation chosen by Mr. Thorndike has the great
advantage of including in the observation only known elements, che sen
in advance by the observer himself; it simplifies and makes clear the
data of the crude experiment; it facilitates the interpretaticn of facts.
Yet it is necessarily somewhat arbitrary; it neglects the actually exist-
ing complexity. In the investigations considered, one single element,
of a physiological rather than a psychological nature, dominated the
conduct of all the subjects—that is, hunger. But is that state of phys-
iological disturbance the most favorable one for studying the superior
psychological life of animals? In studying states of consciousness
closely associated with a physical need, has not Mr. Thorndike purely
and simply eliminated in advance an entire side of that intellectual life,
and precisely those forms, rudimentary without doubt, but perhaps
really existent, of an original and free psychological development 4
Everyone knows how much our own mental life may be disturbed
and upset by a disorder affecting an organic function. Notwithstand-
ing the authority of Pascal, we are generally but little inclined to
mathematical calculations while suffering with the toothache; poetic
revery 1s not a common preoccupation of a man who is hungry. Now,
other things being equal, was not this state of mental depression,
which is intimately allied to physical suffering, the state in which Mr.
Thorndike’s subjects, particularly his dogs and cats, were placed? A
single feeling engrossed their consciousness—the feeling of the distress
they suffered; it was like a state of mono-ideism which must disturb
the normal course of their psychological development. The procedure
of Mr. Thorndike appears to us very acceptable as regards the investi-
gation of the conditions of the formation and nature of association—
at least, in so far as he defines it—but it yet is necessary to complete
the investigation by a study of subjects, free, as regards physiological
necessities.
As to the investigations regarding imitation, they seem to us much
less conclusive. In the first place, Mr. Thorndike reasons as if the
time during which the subject looks at the model corresponded to a
time of real attention. Nothing could be less certain. Even when
the subject sees the cat or the dog taken as guide escape from the
cage, his own consciousness may be occupied by quite other matters
564 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
than the care of observing and retaining the movements accomplished
by that guide. It is then that the consciousness of physical discom-
fort becomes an obstacle to the development of psychological life.
Doubtless the subject could have but one desire, that of getting out as
soon as possible; but in order to give real attention to the acts of his
comrade, to organize them into precise memories, the animal should
be disembarrassed from the consciousness of physical suffering, which,
however, does not leave him for an instant. He should be capable of
the intellectual effort, anticipating the future and representing to him-
self the series of movements going on before his eyes as being the con-
dition of his own deliverance. If the time the animal takes to escape
does not, then, vary in inverse proportion to these supposed observa-
tions, it is not because the animal is absolutely incapable of imitating;
it is because he has given no real attention. In order to put out of
his consciousness the painful feeling of hunger that controls him and
to impress upon his mind the consecutive acts of his guide, he must
have a control over himself that is not possessed by any animals. It
would, above all, be necessary for the subject to comprehend that
these acts and movements were the only ones that lead to deliverance.
But can we ask of an animal such an effort of intelligence and foresight ?
Let us now consider the moment when, his guide having got out,
the subject is, in his turn, placed in that part of the cage. The state
of hunger that tortures it being present, what feeling can occupy its
mind? Mr. Thorndike takes for granted that if the animal imitates
he ought to execute in order the movements that he has seen accom-
plished by the other subject. But nothing could be more contestable.
The animal is already discontented from having been shut up; instead
of being out, his suffering is now prolonged; the changing of his
compartment has given him a momentary illusion of approaching
liberty; now here he is again with the doors all shut. He inevitably
becomes angry, and this new discontent is shown by the agitation,
sometimes quite excessive, which the author has noted. If the sub-
ject had at first some tendency to reproduce the acts of the model,
such tendency would be immediately obliterated by this brusque dis-
play of activity, the expression of his irritation. The cat and the dog
do not immediately open the door, not only because they are incapable
of judging as to the efficacy of their various movements, but also
because the memory of acts accomplished before them is not sufli-
ciently powerful to repress this overflow of useless action which arises
from their anger; and when that anger has passed, the memory of
these acts is already too distant to be utilized. This does not at all
prove, however, that under more favorable conditions imitation would
not take place; perhaps, indeed, the study of the play of animals
might lead to conclusions different from those of Mr. Thorndike.
STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 565
It also appears to us that Mr. Thorndike’s definition of imitation is
rather a narrow one; starting from this definition he concludes that
imitation does not exist among animals. According to him, in order
that there should be imitation the subject must exactly reproduce the
same movement, the same gesture that he has seen. So (see text) cat
No. 7 did not imitate cat No. 1, because the latter opened the door by
pulling a loop with its teeth, while No. 7 pulled it with its paw. It
seems to us, however, that the exact, complete reproduction of a
movement is an example of imitation that is relatively difficult and
quite complex; it is the perfect form of imitation, very common with
man, who possesses a developed imagination. There may be some
exaggeration in expecting to find it as perfect as this among animals.
The subjects of Mr. Thorndike have not reproduced the movements
of their model because they did not possess a sufficiently strong or
lively faculty of representation. The experiments cited by us may
likewise be interpreted otherwise than is done by the author. The
point was to see whether the animal, guided by the author, would
repeat the movement which the latter made him execute. It was
required to open the box CG, closed by a button. It was shown that
the subjects did not turn the button in the way they had been taught;
they did not repeat identically the act which it was desired to teach
them. But the essential matter is that there was formed in their con-
sciousness the notion, even though vague, of a relation between the
situation before them and the act of turning the button. Each subject
would then translate this relation in a manner personal to himself—
one would push the button with his nose; another would bite it, ete.
In brief, we would not have an exact reproduction of the movements
which had been taught—there would not be a perfect imitation; but
the question remains unaffected, whether the primary, rudimentary
form of imitation does not consist, in the experiments here cited,
merely in a connection between a given situation and a possible direc-
tion of movements. The button of the door does not appear to the
subject as the central point on which the action depends; progress in
imitation will consist in associating with the point the image of the
special inovements executed by the animal that served as model. We
must expect to find in them a trace of imitation, a tendency still vague
in its manifestations, rather than a clearly established habit. The
disadvantage of Mr. Thorndike’s method appears to us to be that he
has transported into the domain of animal psychology the notion of
imitation defined according to human examples. Unwittingly, Mr.
Thorndike has not escaped the prejudice that consists in observing
animals with preconceptions derived from the normal psychology of
man. In this very question of imitation the problem appears to us to
be that of seeking within the animal series to find what acts, what
566 STUDIES ON THE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS.
movements, may imply a tendency to imitation, what forms of imita-
tion are met with among the superior animals—not to seek to know
whether animals imitate as men do, or if they have the same imitative
processes that we have.
In spite of these few objections, the merit of these investigations
appears very great. The method which is here inaugurated and the
new views derived from them have already suggested other studies.
As to the author himself, this beginning is full of promise, and we
hope, in the interest of experimental psychology, that this promise
will bear more fruit.
ANIMALS THAT HUNT.2
By Henrt Coupin.
The nimrods who, armed from head to heel, are going forth in a
few days to contend with terrible partridge chicks and frightful rab-
bits may not be aware that their methods of hunting are in use among
animals. For the benefit of those who are perhaps ignorant regarding
this fact we will explain.
The toxote, for example, a fish in the rivers of Malaysia, has léarned
how to shoot at a mark and well deserves its name of the archer,
or the spitting-fish, which has been given it. Although aquatic it
feeds upon winged insects. When it sees on the plants on the bank a
silly insect gaping in the air it advances as near as possible to the
object of its desires, fills its mouth with liquid, and closes its gills.
Soon it raises its snout out of the water and, closing its jaws, shoots
upon the insect a long thread of water—a veritable shower bath—
which, falling back, washes the poor creature into the river, where
he has not long to wait to be devoured. The remarkable part of this
performance is the accuracy of the fish’s aim which very rarely misses.
In Java and the neighboring countries people often carefully pre-
serve the toxote in aquariums and amuse themselves by offering it
flies, holding them some distance off so that it will shoot at them with
its douche, to the great delight of the spectators.
To obtain food another fish, the chelinous, proceeds in the same
way with salt water, but he is less adroit, a fault which he possesses in
common with many hunters. Yet he is always persevering. ’ If he
misses his aim he tries again until he succeeds, unless the insect has
withdrawn out of reach.
Lying in wait for prey is practiced with great skill by a large num-
ber of animals who have learned that in order not to frighten away
the creatures which they wish to catch it is necessary to remain
motionless. This is notably the case with crocodiles, which wait
whole days without moving, hidden in the water or the grass on the
shore, until their prey, deceived by their apparent quiet, comes to
bathe or to slake his thirst. It is also the case with the python snake,
4Translated from the Revue Scientifique (Paris), August 29, 1903, pp. 274-277.
| ‘ ao ’ >] } }
sm 1908——37
568 ANIMALS THAT HUNT.
that waits hanging from the trees by his tail so immovable that he
can not be distinguished from the surrounding branches. When an
animal is about to pass he lets himself fall upon it. Various leeches
in Africa proceed in the same manner. In passing through virginal
forests only too frequently one hears a sudden noise like hail falling
on the branches. It is not falling hail, but leeches which hasten to
attach themselves to beasts of burden and to men, from whom they
‘hasten to suck the blood. They were watching their chance, perched
on the branches—-an odd dwelling place, by the way, for creatures
that are generally considered aquatic.
The bird of prey called the Pygargus sea eagle also waits till his
victim comes within range. Audubon has picturesquely sketched
him. ‘‘ Behold,” says he, ‘‘just at the bank of a great river the eagle,
perched upright on the last branch of the highest tree. His eye, glit-
tering with a somber fire, sweeps over a vast stretch. He listens,
and his subtle ear is open to every distant sound. From time to time
he casts a glance downward to the earth for fear lest even the light
step of the fawn may escape him. His female is perched on the oppo-
site bank, and if all remains tranquil and silent she admonishes him,
by a ery, still to be patient. At the well-known signal the male partly
opens his immense wings, bends his, body slightly downward, and
answers her with another cry like a burst of maniae laughter. Then
he resumes his upright position and again all is silent. Ducks of all
sorts, teals, scoters, and others pass before him in swift flocks and
descend the river, but the eagle does not deign to notice them; they
are not worthy of his attention. Suddenly like the hoarse note of a
clarion the voice of the swan resounds, still distant, but coming
nearer. A piercing cry comes across the river from the female, not
less active, not less alert than her mate. He shakes all his body vio-
lently, and by several shakes of his head, aided by the action of the
muscles of the skin, he in an instant arranges his plumage. Now the
white voyager is in sight. His long snowy neck is stretched forward;
his eyes are on the alert, vigilant as those of his enemies. His great
wings seem to support the weight of his body with difficulty, though
they beat the air incessantly. He seems so wearied in his movements
that his legs are even stretched out under his tail to aid his flight. At
the instant when the swan is about to pass the somber pair the male,
fully prepared for the chase, darts down uttering a formidable ery.
The swan hears it, and it sounds more terrible to his ears than the
report of the murderous gun. This is the moment to appreciate the
power which the eagle puts forth. He darts through the air like a
falling star, and swift as light swoops on his trembling victim, who
in the agony of despair tries by various evolutions to escape from the
embrace of his cruel talons. He pretends death, makes feints, and
would even plunge into the current. But the eagle prevents him; he
ANIMALS THAT HUNT. 569
has known too long that by this stratagem his prey could escape, and
he forces him to remain on the wing by trying to strike him from
beneath.” -
The beautiful bird that is known to all as the bee eater proceeds
like those hunters who, on the shores of the Mediterranean, watch for
game on its return from Africa. He posts himself near a nest of
wasps or bees and snaps up these little stiletto bearers as they come
out or return home.
The baudroie prefers to catch by decoy. This rather large fish
buries himself in the mud and lets only a sort of small flag appear,
which is fastened to his nose by the medium of a long filament which
floats as the water moves it. The little fishes in his neighborhood
hurry toward this flag, thinking they have to do with an easy prey.
When they are gathered in goodly number, disputing over this sweet
morsel, the baudroie opens his huge mouth and swallows them down
without further ceremony.
Other animals are more refined and, in the hunt by decoy, prefer to
use traps. It might be supposed that this method of hunting, which
demands a certain intelligence, would be practiced by creatures of
rather high organization. This is not so, since the humble insects
employ it. The larva of the ant-Jion digs on the surface of the sand
a large funnel, at the bottom of which he crouches; every insect
which tries to pass roils down into the funnel and reaches the bottom,
where at once it is snatched up by the larva. This is pit hunting.
Moreover, if the victim seems likely to escape, he shovels at him
quantities of sand which makes him fall still more quickly. The larva
of cicindela acts differently, but with equal craft, in order to obtain
the little insects necessary for his nourishment. He digs in the earth
a vertical hole, in which he props himself like a chimney sweep climb
ing up a chimney, in such fashion that his head, flattened and slightly
hollowed, exactly stops up the orifice of the opening on a level with
the ground. When a little creature is about to pass over this veri-
table living trap the larva sinks down, at the same time dragging
with him his victim, which he hastens to seize between his claws and
to devour.
Hunting with the aid of nets is, as we know, practiced with great
ability by spiders, who stretch their webs, which are sometimes irreg-
ular, sometimes of marvellous regularity, in our gardens and houses.
Some await their prey, keeping to the middle of the web. Others,
more prudent, hide in a little silken cell well concealed in a hole of
the wall. Most of them trust to the strength of their threads and to
the glutinous substance with which these are moistened. Whena
victim is taken, the spider often prevents it from struggling by
enveloping it with delicate threads. If it is small, however, he con-
tents himself with killing it and sucking it up on the spot or after
570 ANIMALS THAT HUNT.
dragging it into a corner. There exists in Madagascar a spider
which, for a long time, puzzled the naturalists. Its web is rather like
that of our Epeira diademis, but it is noticeable that at the center
there is a great thread of silver white, a veritable cable, bent in zig-
zag. What could possibly be the use of this? One could watch
the web for a long time without seeing the creature make use of it;
when a victim is taken, the spider is content to wind him about with
small threads. Yet the cable is undoubtedly of use to the spider,
for if it is removed he hastens to make another. M. Vinson at last,
after long observation, succeeded in solying the question. One day
when he was examining for the hundredth time the tricks and the
manners of the spider, he saw a great grasshopper jump into the
midst of the web. At the same instant the spider, darting upon the
cable, began with the greatest swiftness to wrap it about the insect.
The victim was too large to be held by the simple threads; the cable
was there to bind him securely.
The ant-eater depends less on the power of skill, and, like a child,
limes his game. He puts out his long sticky tongue and flattens it
on the ground; all the insects that pass stick to it, vying with each
other, and when the heap is sufficiently thick, the ant-eater draws his
long tongue in and swallows them all. At other times he plunges his
lingual appendix into ant-hiils and draws it back laden with ants.
Coursing is very frequent among mammals, notably among wild
dogs, wolves, and foxes. According to F. Houssay, wild dogs follow
their prey in immense packs. They excite one another by their bay-
ings at the same time that they frighten the game and half paralyze its
power. No animal is agile nor strong enough to be sure of escaping
them. They surround him and cut off his retreat in a most skillful
manner; gazelles, antelopes, despite an extreme lightness and swift-
ness, are overtaken at last; wild boars are quickly run down; their
rough defense costs some of the assailants their life, but these also
become the prey of the pack that falls upon the quarry. In Asia these
wild dogs are not afraid to attack even the tiger. Many, without doubt,
have their backs broken by a blow from his paw, or are strangled by
being seized by his jaws, but the death of comrades does not diminish
either the courage or the hunger of the surviving assailants. Their
number is such, moreover, that the great beast, overrun, covered by
agile enimies who cling to him and cover him with wounds, finally
succumbs.
Wolves likewise hunt in large packs. Their boldness, when hunger
presses them in the bad season, is well known. In time of war they
follow army corps to attack stragglers and devour the dead. In
Siberia they follow sledges on the snow with a redoubtable persever-
ance and the pack is not restrained by the corpses of their comrades
who are shot down. Aside from these fatal battles, wolves seem to
ANIMALS THAT HUNT. 571
have the power of combining for actual stratagems. Sometimes a
pair hunt together. If they meet a flock, knowing that the dog will
defend bravely the creatures intrusted to him, that he is vigilant, and
that his fine sense of smell will bring him upon them long before the
herdsman is aware of them, they attend first to him. The wolves
approach, warily keeping out of sight; then one of them abruptly
shows himself and attracts the attention of the dog, who rushes upon
the wolf and pursues it with such eagerness that he does not perceive
that, during this time, the second thief has seized a sheep and dragged
it into the wood. The dog finally gives up his attempt to vie in swift-
ness with the fugitive and returns to his flock. Then the two confed-
erates again meet and share their prey. In other cases a wolf will
hunt with his mate. When they wish to take a roebuck, one of the
pair—the male, for example—follows it and directs the chase so as to
make the prey pass near a place where the female is hidden. She
then springs forward and continues the chase while the male wolf rests.
It is a veritable organized relay race. Of necessity the strength of
the roe 1s exhausted, and he can not equal the ardor which his pur-
suer, quite fresh, displays in the chase. He is taken and put to death.
The male has meanwhile approached the place of the feast in a more
leisurely manner and comes to claim his share of the booty.
By what we have now said, it is clear how analogous to our own
methods of hunting are those which are in use among animals. That
the picture may be complete, 1t is necessary to cite the poachers, which
will not be difficult, for they are legion. I will only mention one of
them—the most audacious—the stercorarius, a sea bird that is often
seen on the seashore following gulls, sea mews, and terns as if he
would devour them. Such is not his purpose. If you follow him
with a glass you see him torment these unhappy birds unceasingly,
until they let fall into the sea a whitish, greenish mass, which he
seizes and swallows in an instaht. The early witnesses of this per-
formance imagined that this mass was nothing else than the dejection
of the sea bird, and therefore concluded that the stercorarius had a
singular method of alimentation (whence the name). But in reality
that is not the explanation. The mass rejected is a fish only just
swallowed by the bird, who is forced by the stercorarius to regurgi-
tate it; to this end the latter follows without rest and strikes his
quarry violently on the head until the booty is abandoned to him.
If the bird resists, which rarely happens, he strangles it and tears it
to pieces.
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FLAMINGOES’ NESTS. ¢
By Frank M. CHAPMAN.
Not very many years ago, so little did we know about the nesting
habits of the flamingo, it was commonly believed that the incubating
bird straddled the nest when hatching, letting her legs hang down on
either side! The observations of H. H. Johnston? and Abel Chapman ?
on the European species (Phewnicopterus antiquorum) and of Sir Henry
Blake* on the American species (P. ruber) proved the absurdity of this
belief by showing that incubating birds folded their legs under them
in the usual way, but we still know very little about the nesting
habits of these birds.
Largely with the object of studying the flamingo on its nesting
grounds I went to the Bahamas in April of the present year, accom-
panied by Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the well-known artist. At
Nassau we joined Mr. J. Lewis Bonhote, of Cambridge, England.
Mr. Bonhote was formerly governor’s secretary in the Bahamas, when
he acquired a knowledge of the islands which was of the greatest value
tous. He had already made a reconnoissance in search of flamingoes’
nesting retreats, and with the aid of one of the few natives who was
familiar with their whereabouts had succeeded in reaching a locality
on Andros Island, at which the birds had bred the previous year.
It is not my purpose to recount here the various adventures which
befell us while cruising about the Bahamas in a very comfortable
50-ton schooner, and I proceed ut once to a description of our experi-
ences with the flamingo.
Flamingoes are late breeders. It is not improbable that the time
of their nesting is dependent upon the rainy season, which, in the
Bahamas, begins about the middle of May. Consequently we deferred
our trip to the locality previously visited by Mr. Bonhote until the
middle of May. Then we anchored our schooner at the mouth of a
certain channel, and, loading our small boats with needed supplies,
rowed for the better part of a day, pitching our tents toward evening
on a low, slightly shelving shore with a background of dense, scrubby
eee Exploration of the surrounding country showed that it
yas regularly frequented by flamingoes in numbers during the nesting
«Reprinted, by permission, from Bird Tore. The Mac millan Company, Harris-
burg, Pa., and New York, Vol. IV, 1902, pp. 177-181.
>The Ibis, 1881, p. 173; 1883, p. 397.
¢ Nineteenth Century, 1887, p. 886.
574 FLAMINGOES’ NESTS.
season. Within a radius of a mile no less than eight groups of nests
were discovered. ‘They showed successive stages of decay, from the
old nests, which had almost disappeared before the action of the
elements, to those which were in an excellent state of preservation
and were doubtless occupied the preceding year. Some were placed
among young, others among fully grown, mangroves, and one colony,
probably inhabited in 1900, was situated on a sand bar 200 yards from
the nearest vegetation. All the colonies found contained at least
several hundred nests, and the one on the sand bar, by actual count of
a measured section, was composed of 2,000 mud dwellings. What an
amazing sight this settlement must have presented when occupied,
with the stately males, as is their habit, standing on guard near their
sitting mates!
Flamingoes in small flocks containing from 3 or 4 to 50 individuals
were seen in the vicinity, but it remained for Mr. Bonhote’s negro
assistant to discover the spot which had been selected by the birds for
a nesting site in 1902. Climbing a small palm, an extended view was
had of the surrounding lagoons, sand bars, and bush-grown limestone;
and he soon exclaimed, *‘Oh, Mr. Bonhote, too much, too much filly-
mingo!” Less than a mile away, indeed, was a flock estimated to
contain at least 700 of these magnificent birds, which Mr. Bonhote
approached so cautiously through the thick growth of mangroves,
that he was fairly upon them before they took wing. They had not
then begun to build, but the open spaces among the mangroves were
closely dotted with nests (see illustration), which apparently had been
occupied the preceding year and in some of which old eggs were seen.
Here, some days later, nests were found in the early stages of their
construction; but, to our great regret, circumstances compelled us to
leave before they were completed and we did not, therefore, see the
birds upon them. However, we learned some things regarding the
nesting habits of flamingoes which, in view of our comparative igno-
rance of the ways of these birds at this season, it may be worth while
recording.
In the first place, although the birds return to the same general
locality year after year, they apparently use a nest only one season.
This seemed proven by the nicely graduated series of groups of nests
which we found, each one of which, beginning with those best pre-
served, seemed about a year older than the other, and by the fact
that the birds were building fresh nests near numbers of others which
were seemingly as good as new.
The thousands of nests seen were built of mud, which the nests in
process of construction showed was scooped up from about their base.
In fact it is difficult to conceive of a flamingo carrying mud. In
selecting a nesting site, therefore, the bird is governed by the condi-
tion of the ground, which, to be serviceable, must be soft and muddy.
‘TT ‘Id Ul UMOYS ST ‘S}SoU Q0N0'Z JUOGB paulB}UOD YOIyA ‘AUOT[OD OATVUD OY] JO MOLA VY “OOGT UL pordnd90 Udeq DABY OF PoAdT[aq AUO[OD B JO WB
“SSOONINVIS SO SLSAN
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Panes)
6 lal Valict ‘uewdeyg— E96 ‘Woday ueluOsY}IWS
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Chapman. PLATE II.
* Se ee
FiG. 1.—COLONY OF ABOUT 2,000 FLAMINGO NESTS.
A section of this colony is shown in PI. I.
Fig. 2.—FLAMINGO NESTS AMONG MANGROVES.
Believed to have been occupied in 1901.
FIG. 3.—PART OF A FLOCK CONTAINING 37 FLAMINGOES.
Photographed with a 14-inch lens at a distance of about 250 yards. Enlarged 4 diameters,
(05)
FLAMINGOES’ NESTS. 5
For this reason, as I have suggested, the time of the breeding season
may be regulated by that of the rainy season; the heavy, tropical
downpours not only moistening the earth, but doubtless raising the
water sufficiently in this exceedingly low, flat country to slightly
flood large areas. While the birds, therefore, must build near, or,
indeed, in the water, they guard against complete submergence of
their home by building it high enough to protect the egg from possi-
ble danger. The popular conception of a flamingo’s nest makes it not
more than 6 or 8 inches in diameter at the base, whence it tapers to a
truncate, hollowed top nearly 2 feet in height. I saw no nest, how-
ever, over 12 inches high, and most of them were not over 8 inches
high. ‘The average basal diameter was about 13 inches, that of the
top about 10 inches.
It is possible that the height of flamingoes’ nests, like that of the
mid-chimneys to the burrows of fiddler crabs, may depend upon the
amount of rise and fall in the neighboring waters. This is a point to
be ascertained by subsequent observations.
Flamingoes are wonderful birds. Their brilliant coloring and large
size, habit of perching and flying in files, and the openness of the
country which they inhabit, all combine to make a flock of flamingoes
one of the most remarkable sights in bird life. Indeed, so far as my
experience goes, it is the most remarkable sight in bird life.
They are very shy and can be approached closely only when they
are unaware of your presence. Attempts to use a telephoto lens in
photographing birds about 200 yards away failed because of the force
of the trade winds over the mangrove flats. Even at this distance the
birds are large enough to make a strip of glowing color, in strong
contrast to the blue water before and the green mangroves behind
them. ‘This is near their danger line, and if one attempts to approach
more closely without cover there is a sinuous movement along the
whole line as the long, slender necks are raised and the birds regard
the cause of their alarm. Soon a murmur of goose-like honkings
comes to one’s ear; then the birds begin, in slow and stately fashion,
to move away step by step, and if their fears are not allayed the
leader will soon spring into the air and, followed by other members of
the flock, stretch his long neck and legs to the utmost and begin a
flight which usually takes them beyond one’s view. As the birds raise
their wings, displaying the bright feathers below, the effect is superb
beyond description, the motion showing their plumage to the best
possible advantage.
It is surprising how far, under the proper light conditions, even a
small flock of flamingoes may be seen. Long after one can distinguish
the individual in the waving, undulating line of birds, they show pink
against the sky like a rapidly moving wisp of cloud which finally dis-
solves in space.
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UPON MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN RHYNCHOTA AND
OTHER NONSOCIAL INSECTS.¢
By G. W. KirKa.py.
Since my brief note on this subject (Entom. 1902, vol. xxxv,
pp. 319-820) I have seen a lengthy paper by the celebrated J. H.
Fabre [5]? on ‘* Pentatomas,” in which he ridicules De Geer’s account,
and consigns the whole recital to the limbo of fairy tales.
I have therefore looked up the literature of the subject, and have
now summarized it, in the hope that some of the readers of The Ento-
mologist may be disposed to give the phenomena their attention during
the ensuing months.
ORDERS OTHER THAN RHYNCHOTA.
The earliest reference to parental care in nonsocial insects appears
to be that of Goedaert [9], who states that the mole crickets ((@7ry/lot-
alpa gryllotalpa Linn.) take particular care of their eggs, raising up
the nests in a hot. and dry season so that the young almost touch the
surface of the earth, and are thereby cherished by the sun’s heat; con-
trariwise they sink the nests down when the air is cold and moist.
They also act as unceasing sentinels round the nest. Résel [22] cites
the above account, and gives a colored sectional drawing of the nest
and eggs. Audouin [1] states that all authors agree in saying that the
mole cricket takes the greatest care of its young, but Goedaert is the
only author [ can trace who relates his personal observations.
The discovery of the maternal solicitude of the earwig (/orficula
auricularia Linné) by Frisch [6], confirmed and extended by De Geer
[S], Rennie [21], Kirby and Spence [14], Camerano [4], etc., is so well
known and authentically established by recent observations, that it is
not necessary to dwell uponit. Sharp [23] states that Labidura riparia
‘‘ is said to move its eggs from place to place, so as to keep them in
situations favorable for their development,” but I have not been able
to trace the original source of this statement. Burr [3] also notes
that ‘‘a certian entomologist [Colonel Bingham] once told me that in
« Revised by the author from The Entomologist, vol. xxxv1, May, 1903, pp. 118-120.
6 These numbers refer to the bibliography at the close of the paper.
577
Nits) MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS.
Burma, while sitting round the camp fire one night, they disturbed a
large earwig who was guarding a little batch of eggs. Her first care
was not for herself, but for her eggs. She showed great concern for
their safety.”
In the Hymenoptera I do not refer to the well-authenticated instances
of maternal providence inthe Sphegide and other families, this notice
being confined to actual personal and continuous care. A summary of
the former will be found in Sharp [24], page 111... Of the latter there
is one instance, viz, Perga lewis’i Westwood, a Tasmanian sawfly. The
habits of this tenthredinid were related [16 and 17] by R. H. Lewis,
who informs us that the eggs, in number about 80, are placed trans-
versely in a longitudinal incision between the two surfaces of a leaf of
a species of eucalyptus. On this leaf the mother sits till the eggs are
hatched. She follows the larve, ‘‘ sitting with outstretched legs over
her brood, preserving them from the heat of the sun, and protecting
them from the attacks of parasites and other enemies.” It should be
noted, however, that broods accidentally or purposely deprived of the
mother appeared to thrive just as well. These observations have been
briefly confirmed by Froggatt [7].
In the Coleoptera, the only instances known to me occur in the
Scolytide, among the Ambrosia beetles, and a consideration of these
scarcely comes within the scope of this notice, since they are not non-
social insects. The reader may be referred to Kirby and Spence [14]
and Hubbard [25].
Mr. R. South and Mr. L. B. Prout are not aware of any instance
among the Lepidoptera, and similar advice has been given me by Mr.
G. H. Verrall and Mr. J. E. Collin of the Diptéra and by Mr. W.
J. Lucas of the Neuroptera. Research on the literature of the Thy-
sanoptera, Anoplura, Thysanura etc., has failed to trace any such
records. ;
I must here also express my thanks to Messrs. W. F. H. Blandford,
C. O. Waterhouse, C. J. Gahan, W. F. Kirby, and Drs. G. Breddin
and D. Sharp for information and hints.
RHYNCHOTA.
The earliest Rhynchotal notice is that of Modeer [18]. In speaking
of * Cimex ovatus pallide griseus,” he distinctly affirms that the eggs
are laid in June on the common birch, in number from 40 to 50, so
that the mother can cover them when she sits over them. She does
not abandon them except for brief refreshment, and can not be
removed except by superior force. The eggs are hatched at the end
of June, and the maternal care is still exercised, for she protects
them against the male, whose attacks and the defense of the mother
are circumstantially related. The great De Geer [8] confirms and
expands the observations under the head of Cimew betule (he gives
MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 579
(. griseus Linné as a synonym!). Boitard [2], in his Curiosités
d’Histoire Naturelle—a work unknown to me—embellishes these
accounts, according to Fabre [5], by noting that when it rains the
mother leads her young under a leaf or under the fork of a branch to
shelter them, and covers them with her wings. Montrouzier [19]
observed the habits of Oceanian Scutellerinz, a subfamily not closely
allied to the Acanthosomatine (in which the birch bug is included).
His remarks have been recently translated in The Entomologist [15].
Montrouzier appears to have been unaware of the researches of
Modeer and De Geer. Douglas and Scott [20] quote a letter addressed
to the former by E. Parfitt, inclosing an adult female and young
ones indentified as Acanthosoma griseum. This letter circumstantially
verifies De Geer’s observations, which, so Parfitt states, were unknown
to the English entomologist. These habits were still further con-
firmed in great detail, in three notices [10, 11, and 12], by Hellins, a
well-known and most careful observer.
Last year I contributed to The Entomologist [15] a translation of
Montrouzier’s observations [19], and noted ‘*a species of Spudeus (?)”
sent by Doctor Willey from Birara (New Britain), of which I had
under my care for study alcoholic specimens apparently confirming
the generally accepted opinion. ‘These specimens belong to the Pen-
tatomine Coctoteris exiqguus Distant, a determination kindly confirmed
for me by the author of the specific name.
So far the five original observers—viz, Modeer, De Geer, Mon-
trouzier, Parfitt, and Hellins—agree that the female bug does show
parental affection during a comparatively considerable period, and the
first named declares that this is, in part at least, directed against the
assaults of the male; but in 1901 J. H. Fabre—the ‘‘immortal Fabre”
of Darwin, and one of the foremost of modern field observers—has
published a lengthy document [5], in which he declares De Geer” to
be mistaken. The gist of Fabre’s paper is as follows: The vray bug?
is rare in Fabre’s neighborhood. He found three or four specimens
which’ he placed under a bell jar, but they did not oviposit, though
eggs were laid by the green [== Palomena prasinus (Linné)]|, red and
black speckled [== Hurydema ornatus (Linné) |, and yellowish [sp. 4];°¢
and Fabre continues: ‘‘In species so closely allied, parental care in
one ought, at least in some details, to be discovered also in the others.”
It can not be too strongly expressed that the last three are not at all
closely related to the gray bug, for the last named belongs to the
“The Swedish master and Boitard are the only authors mentioned by Fabre, and
he appears to be unaware of the independent observations of Montrouzier, Parfitt,
and Hellins.
» Elasmostethus griseus (Linné)=Acanthosoma interstinctum of Saunders’s ‘‘ Hemip-
tera Heteroptera of the British Isles.’’
¢ Fabre calls these all ‘‘Pentatoma.”’
580 MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS.
Acanthosomatine, the other three to the Pentatomine, subfamilies
distinguished apart by considerable and important structural differ-
ences. Fabre declares that in these species ‘‘the mother paid no
attention to her brood; the last egg laid in its place at the extreme
end of the final row she left, careless of the trust; she no longer
busied herself with it, and returned no more. If the chances of
roaming bring her back, she walks over the heap and passes on,
indifferent. * * * This forgetfulness must not be considered as a
possible aberration due to captivity. In the full freedom of the fields
I have discovered divers broods, among which are found, perhaps,
that of the gray bug. Never have I seen the mother mounted over her
eggs, as she ought to, if her family required protection as soon as
hatched. The mother is of roving inclination and facile flight. Once
flown far from the leaf which received the treasure, how, two or three
weeks later, will she remember that the hour of exclusion approaches ?
How will she rediscover her eggs, and how again distinguish them
from those of another mother? It would be incredible—such prowess
of memory amid the immensity of the fields.
**Never, 1 say, is a mother surprised stationary near the eggs
that she has fixed on a leaf, and, more convincing still, the total
brood is divided into clutches scattered haphazard, so that the family
in its entirety is formed of a number of tribes lodged here, there, and
at distances sometimes considerable, but impossible to fix precisely.
To rediscover these tribes at time of hatching, earlier or later accord-
ing to the date of oviposition or the forwardness of the season, and
then to reassemble in one flock from the four corners of the universe
all the little ones, so feeble and moving so unsteadily—there are in
this evident impossibilities. Suppose that by chance one of the groups
is discovered and recognized and that the mother devotes herself to
them. The others must in that case be abandoned—and they do not
prosper the less. What, then, is the motive for this remarkable
maternal zeal with regard ‘to the care of one of the groups when the
majority are left? Such singularities inspire mistrust.
**De Geer mentions groups of 20. These would certainly not be
the complete family, but just a tribe resultant from a partial oviposi-
tion. A Pentatoma, smaller than the gray bug, has given me in a
single batch more than 100 eggs. A like fecundity ought to be the
general rule when the mode of living is the same. Beyond the 20
observed, what became of the others abandoned to themselves?
‘* Despite the respect due to the Swedish savant, the caresses of the
mother bug and the unnatural appetites of the father, devouring his
little ones, ought to be relegated to the same limbo as the childish
tales which encumber history. I have watched in an aviary (voliére)
as many hatchings as I wished. The parents were near at hand, under
the same roof. What do they all do in the presence of the young?
MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 581
Nothing at all. The fathers do not dash to drain the juices of their
brats. Neither do the mothers rush to protect them. One flits about
the latticework (treillis) |? metal gauze|, one settles down to refresh-
ment at the rosemary, while another walks over the groups of newly
hatched youngsters, which he tumbles head over heels, without any
bad intention, but without any discretion. ‘The little beggars are so
small, so feeble, that, passing by, he grazes them with the end of his
foot and overturns them. Like turned turtles, they vainly kick
about; no one heeds them.
‘During three months’ assiduous observations I have not noted the
slightest appearance of the maternal solicitude so celebrated by the
compilers. The newly hatched bugs, packed one against the other,
remain stationary for several days on the empty eggs; there they
acquire a firmer consistency and brighter coloring. Hunger comes;
one of the youngsters leaves the group in search of refreshment; the
others follow, happy in their mutual proximity, like sheep at pastur-
age; the first in moving sets in motion the whole band, who set out
for tender places where they may implant their beaks and imbibe;
then they all return to their natal place for repose upon the empty
eggs. Expeditions in common are repeated over an increasing radius,
till at last, somewhat strengthened, the society separates and breaks
up, never to return to its place of birth. Henceforth each one lives
in his own way. What, then, would happen if, when the troop moves
away, there should encounter them a mother of slow gait, a frequent
case among the sedate bugs? The young ones, I suppose, would confi-
dently follow this chance leader, as they follow those among them-
selves who are the first to take to the road. There would then be
some similarity to a hen at the head of her chickens. This casual
occurrence would lend an appearance of maternal cares in a stranger
heedless of her bundle of brats.
**The good De Geer appears to me to have been duped in some such
manner; a little color, involuntarily embellished, has completed the
tableau; and then are vaunted in books the family virtues of the gray
bug.”
Fabre has been led into error, first, by his ignorance of systematic
rhynchotology—as I have previously remarked, the form of bug which
De Geer had under observation belongs to a subfamily not closely
allied to that embracing the bugs watched by Fabre; secondly, by his
negligence of previous literature, except that of De Geer (and inci-_
dentally Modeer) and Boitard; yet we have an independent observer,
Montrouzier, ignorant, apparently, of all previous similar records,
who notes a like habit in yet another subfamily, more remote still
from either, and that almost at the antipodes of Europe. Moreover,
De Geer’s accounts are explicitly corroborated by two competent field
entomologists whose integrity and capacity have never before been
582 MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS.
questioned, and one of these (Parfitt) was by his own account ignorant
of any literature on the subject. So that Fabre’s gibe at messieurs
the compilers has failed to score. Boitard’s account may perhaps be
treated a little incredulously, and possibly also Modeer’s interpretation
of the paternal gymnastics. In my opinion, at least, it will be neces-
sary to have much more direct refutation of De Geer, Hellins, and
Parfitt than the observations of even Fabre on species of another
subfamily. |
With regard to Fabre’s asseveration that he never once found a
female ‘*Pentatoma” stationary near the eggs, this is cireumstan-
tially contradicted by the precise observations of Hellins and Parfitt in
Elasmostethus. Neither has the French author proved his theory,
upon which he establishes so large a part of his assumptions, that the
Pentatomide (or at least some of them) oviposit in more than one
place. It is to be regretted that be did not examine the oviducts of
one of the females observed by him. Moreover, it does not appear
that Fabre marked any of the female Pentatominz observed by him
so as to recognize them in the event of any ‘‘chance” returns to the
original spot. Fabre also says, ‘* A Pentatoma smaller than the gray
bug has given me in a single batch more than 100 eggs,” and insists
therefore that De Geer’s record of 20 in the gray bug could have
been only a partial laying!
This confines the subject entirely to the Rhynchota; now we have
also, as noted above at the beginning of this paper, records of the
devotion of the mother earwig (and of more species than one), records
as well authenticated as such could well be, not only in written litera-
ture, but from living observers who have not considered it worth
while to register what has always appeared as a thoroughly firmly
founded fact. The occurrence in Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa seems also
authentic, while the recent confirmation by Froggatt, after seventy
years’ interval, of Lewis’s observations on Perga lewis establishes
this remarkable case beyond doubt, and it is especially interesting to
note that in other Australian species of the same genus entirely differ-
ent larval habits are known to obtain; the latter is another argument
against Fabre. What is there of incredibility in the whole recital ?
What a limited demonstration of affection, or at least of intelligent
power, compared with that displaved by the social Hymenoptera and
Neuroptera! Fabre argues as if parental solicitude and the sense of
direction were unknown among the insecta, and his sneer at the inad-
equacy of the memory of the mother bug to rediscover the original
place of oviposition is remarkable enough from the historian of the
habits of the Hymenoptera.
To conclude, Fabre may prove to be right, and Goedaert, Frisch,
Modeer, De Geer, Kirby and Spence, Rennie, Montrouzier, Boitard,
Lewis, Parfitt, Hellins, Camerano, Froggatt, and Bingham, all, to a
MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 583
man, wrong; but even if so, Fabre has proved nothing at present
beyond the fact that the females of two or three species of Pentatom-
ine, not particularly closely observed by previous authors, did not
manifest any regard for their progeny during his observations. It is
perhaps not the ‘*good De Geer” who ‘*has been duped,” but Fabre,
who has been led astray by his ignorance of the systematics and bibli-
ography of the Rhynchota.
AppENDuM (March 30, 1904).—Since the above was published vari-
ous confirmatory evidences in support of my views have been found.
H. Schouteden [26] has noticed my paper at some length and men-
tions two papers previously unknown to me. He further relates an
sarly observation of his own on the gray bug in Belgium, where he
noted a female brooding over its eggs and holding on tightly, without
emitting any odor, when seized in the fingers.
Reiber and Puton [27] cite the case of a female of the same ‘sit-
ting on its freshly emerged young ones on a birch leaf.” The Abbé
Pierre [28] also cites ne experiences of this species, confirming the
foregoing accounts.
Miss Murtfeldt [29] describes the devotion of a membracine, Anty/ia@
senuata, from Central Missouri, feeding chiefly on Ambroséa (ragweed).
Her observations on this H/omopteron entirely accord with the previous
recitals.
Finally, my friend Mr. E. E. Green writes to me from Peradeniya,
Ceylon (May 29,1903). I take the liberty of quoting his words: ‘*The
female of feonil of the leaf-haunting reduviids—e. ¢., Hndochus cing-
alensis and allied forms—remain near their egg clusters until these are
hatched. The young are at first gregarious, and the parent may
usually be seen on the same leaf, watching over them like a hen with
her chicks. It seems possible that she may catch insects to provide
them with food, but I have no evidence of this.”
With regard to other insects, Barrett [30] writes: *‘The female of
the northern mole cricket (Gryllotalpa borealis) is said to care for her
young until they reach the second molt.” No reference is given.
Rennie [31] states that the eggs and young of the mole cricket ( Gry/-
lotalpa gryllotalpa) are *‘exposed to depredation, and particularly to
the ravages of a black beetle who burrows in similar localities. The
mother insect, accordingly, does not think her nest secure till she has
defended it, like a fortified town, with labyrinths, intrenchments, ram-
parts, and covert ways. In some part of these outworks she stations
herself as an advance guard, and when the beetle ventures within her
circumvallations she pounces upon him and kills him.” The raising of
the nests by Gryllotalpa is also mentioned by 8. S. Rathvon. (Ento-
mology in Rep. Coma. - Agr. U.S. for 1862 (pub. Is63); P- 379.)
« Unfortunate ae written Hutilia TheGeanle
sm 1903 38
584 MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS.
Outside Hexapodous Arthropoda, Mr. R. C. L. Perkins informs me
that the myriapod Scolopendrella (lucasi?) may often be seen in the
Hawaiian Isles, coiled round its young, protecting them; while Hux-
ley (Introduction to the Study of Zoology, Internat. Sci. Series,
XXvul, pp. 42 and 351-2) discusses the affection of certain crustacea
for their young.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ORIGINAL PAPERS, &C.
[1] 1885.—J. V. AupouIN, Historie naturelle des Insectes, ix, p. 196. (Quotes Goedaert on the
mole-cricket. )
[2] 1836.—P. BorrarD, ‘‘ Etudes d’ Historie: Réalités fantastiques.’’ <Musée des familles, iii, 338.
[8] 1897.—M. Burr, ‘‘Goodwill towards Earwigs” in Goodwill, a Monthly Magazine for the
People, iv, p. 114. (Mentions maternal affection in a Burmese earwig.)
[4] 1880.—L. CAMERANO, ‘‘ Note intorno allo syiluppo della Forficula auricularia, Linn.” in Bull.
Soe. Ent. Ital. xii, pp. 46-50. (Original observations. )
[5] 1901.—J. H. Fasre, ‘‘ Les Pentatomes,’’ in Revue des Questions Scientifiques, 1, pp. 158-76.
(Adverse criticism of De Geer.) (Reprinted 1903. Souvenirs Entomologiques, 8™e, série 66-87. 1
text fig.)
[6] 1730.—J. H. Friscu, Beschr. yon allerley Insecten in Teutsehland, &c., viii, pl. xv. (Notes on
the ‘*Ohr-Wurm.’’)
[7] 1901.—W. W. FrRoGGatt, ‘‘The Pear and Cherry Slug (Eriocampa limacina, Retz., generally
known as Selandria cerasi), with notes on Australian Sawflies,”’ in Agric. Gazette, N.S. W., xii, pp.
1063-73. (Confirms, pp. 1068-9, Lewis’s account of Perga lewisit, and figures the latter. )
[8]. 1773.—C. DE GEER, Mémoires pour servir a l’histoire des Insectes, iii, pp. 261-6 (extensive details
of the maternal behaviour of Cimex betulz), and iii, pp. 548-51 (the same of Forficula auricularia).
[9] 1662.—J. GOEDAERT, Metamorphosis et historia naturalis Insectorum, i, pp. 168-71, pl. lxxvi.
(Note on Gryllotalpa.) ;
[10] 1870.—J. HELLINs, ‘‘A fragment of a life-history of Acanthosoma grisea,” in Ent. Monthly Mag.
vii, pp. 53-5.
[11] 1872.—J. HELLINS, ‘‘Note on the habit of Acanthosoma griseum,” in op. cit., ix, p. 13.
[12] 1874.—J. HELLINs, ‘Additional notes on the egg-laying, &c., of Acanthosoma griseum in op. cit.,
xi, pp. 42-3.
[13] 1786.—J. F. W. Herest, ‘“ Fortsetzung der Ausziige aus den Schwedischen Abhandlungen,’’ in
Fuessli’s Neues Mag. fiir die Liebh. der Entom. iii, pp. 33-91. (An abstract of Modeer’s paper on, pp.
64-7, ‘‘ Modeer’s Merkwiirdigkeiten bey der Wanze,”’ &c¢.)
[14] 1828.—W. KrrBy and W. SPENCE, An Introduction to Entomology, 5th edit., i, pp. 359, 360, and
iii, p.101. (Summary of the question and original note on Forficula.)
[Ed. 6, 1843, vol. i, pp. 301-8; ed. 7, 1858, pp. 202-3. I have not examined the first four editions.]
[15] 1902.—G. W. KIRKALDyY, ‘‘On the parental care of the Cimicide, in Entom. xxxy, pp. 319-20.
(Translation of Montrouzier and reference to another probable instance. )
{16] 1836.—R. H. Lewis, ‘“‘Case of maternal attendance on the larva by an insect of the tribe of
Terebrantia belonging to the genus Perga, observed at Hobarton, Tasmania,’ in Trans. Ent. Soe.
Lond., pp. 232-4.
[17] 1889.—R. H. Lewis, Proc. Ent. Soe. Lond., i, p. xliv. (Confirmation of the above.)
[18] 1764.—A. Moprrr, ‘‘ Nagra miirkviirdigheter hos Insectet Cimex ovatus pallide griseus,
abdominis lateribus albo nigroque variis alis albis basi scutelli nigricante,’’ in Vetensk. Acad. Handl.,
XXV, pp. 41-57. (Abstract in German (1767) in same journal, xxvi, pp. 438-9, but I have not seen
either. (See No. 13.)
[19] 1855.—MonTROUZIER,@ ‘‘ Essai sur la faune de Vile de Woodlark ou Moiou,” in Ann. Sci. phys.
nat. agric. Lyon (2), vii, pp. 91-2. (Relates maternal affection in Scutellerine. )
[20] 1865.—E. PARFITT in J. W. DouGLAs and J. Scorr, The British Hemiptera, i, pp. 103-4 (Acan-
thosoma griseuwm).
[21] 1882.—[J. RENNIE], ‘‘ Maternal care of the Earwig,’”’ in Penny Magazine, p. 60.
[22] 1749.—A. J. RGseEL, Der monatlich herausgegeben Insecten Belustigung, ii, Heuschrecken
und Grillen, p. 92, pl. xiv.
[23] 1895.—D. SHarp, Cambridge Nat. Hist., vy, p. 214 ( Forficula auricularia and Labidura riparia),
and 517 (Perga lewisit).
[24] 1899.—D. SHARP, Cambridge Nat. Hist., vi, p. 546 (‘‘Acanthosoma griseum’’).
a1 donot know Montrouzier’s forename. Hagen cites it as ‘‘ P.”’ (Bibl. Ent. i, p. 547), but this is
merely an abbreviation for ‘‘ Pére.”’. He is indicated in his papers as ‘‘R. P,” and “ P. A.,’’ possibly
“ Révérend Pére”’ and ‘‘ Pere Abbé,”’
MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 585
The latest notices of Ambrosia beetles are found in—
[25] 1897.—H. G. HUBBARD, ‘‘ The Ambrosia beetles of the United States,’ Bull. U. S. Dept. Agric.,
new series, No. 7, pp. 9-30.
[26] 19038.—H. SCHOUTEDEN, La Sollicitude maternelle chez les Hémipteres. <Revue de l’Uniy. de
Bruxelles, viii, pp. 771-7. [Also separately issued, pp. 1-11.]
[27] 1877(?).—F. REIBER and A. PUTON, ‘‘Cat. Hémiptéres Hétéropterés INBSEC et Loraine. <Bull.
Soe. Hist. nat. Colmar for 1875-6, p. v.
[28] 1903.—PIERRE, *‘ Note sur les moeurs @’ Elasmotethus grieseus Linn. = interstinctus Reut.” (Bull.
Soc. Ent. France, 1903, p. 131-132.)
[29] 1887.—M. E. MuRTFELDT, ‘Traces of sofas affection in Eutilia sinuata Fabr.”’ <Entom.
Americ., ili, 177-8
[80] 1902.—O. W. BARRETT, *‘ The Changa, or Mole Cricket (Scapteriscus didactylus Latr.) in Porto
Rico.’ <Bull. Porto Rico Agr. Expt. Sta., 2, p. 9.
(81] 1830.—[J. RENNIE], ‘‘Insect Architecture,” ed. 2. <Library Entertaining Knowledge 244.
[Note on Gryllotalpa.]
There may be information in R. LATZEL, 1888, ‘‘Ueber die Brutppflege bei den arthropoden.”
<Ver. Verbr. Naturw. Vienutn. Wien.
[Anon.] 1833.—‘‘ Affection of Insects for their Young.’’ <Zool. Mag. or Journ. of Nat. Hist., 137-8
eo
Viger
THE PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND SOME OTHER
INSECTS. ¢
3y A. FOREL.
A fine example of the fact that complicated psychical combinations
require a large nerve center having under its control the sensory and
motor centers is afforded by the brain of the ant. An ant colony is
usually made up of three kinds of individuals—females (the largest),
smaller workers, and males, who are rather larger than the workers.
The workers have, more than any of the others, complicated instincts,
and with them intellectual faculties (memory, plasticity, etc.) are
readily demonstrable. The females have much less. The males are
incredibly stupid; they do not distinguish friends from foes, and
are unable to find their way to the nest. They have, however, well-
developed eyes and antenne; that is to say, the only two sense organs
that are connected with the brain or supra-esophageal ganglion, and
these enable them to successfully pursue the female in flight. No
muscle is innervated from the supra-esophegeal ganglion. This fact
makes very much easier the comparison of the organ of thought—
i. e., the brain (Corpora pedunculata)—in the three sexes. It is very
large in the workers, much smaller in the females, almost atrophied in
the males, though the olfactory and optic lobes are in the latter quite
large. The cerebrum of the ant workers possesses also a cortex
extraordinarily ricb in cells. Injury to the cerebrum in ants is fol-
lowed by results similar to those which occur in the pigeon.
Insects appear to possess sight, smell, taste, and touch. Hearing is
doubtful. It is possibly replaced by a tactile sense modified for deli-
cate appreciations of concussion. A sixth sense has never been
demonstrated. A modified photodermatic sense for perception of
light must be considered as a variety of the tactile sense, and occurs
among many insects. This is in no way an optical sense. In water
insects, smell and taste become somewhat blended (Nagel), for chemical!
substances dissolved in water are detected by either sense.
«Translited and condensed from the Proceedings of the Fifth International
Zoological Congress, held at Berlin, August 12-16, 1901, pp. 141-169.
587
588 PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS.
The vision of the retinal eye is especially directed to the detection
of movements—i. e., to the relative local changes in the retinal picture.
In flight it localizes large space areas, but defines contours of objects
less sharply than our eye does. The retinal eye gives but a single
upright image (Exner), whose clearness increases with the number of
facets and the convexity of the eye. Exner succeeded in photo-
graphing this image in Lampyris. The immobility of the eyes neces-
sarily makes it impossible for an insect at rest to see stationary objects
situated laterally from it. This is the reason why insects at rest are
so easily caught by slow movements. In light, insects orient them-
selves in space by means of the retinal eyes. By the displacement of
pigment many insects can adapt their eyes for use by day or by night.
Ants perceive the ultra-violet rays with their eyes. Bees and _ beetles
distinguish colors, though indeed not as the same tints that we do,
since they aré not attracted to those flowers that seem to us most
beautiful. Perhaps this comes from some mixture with the ultra-violet
rays not perceived by us.
The ocelli play a subordinate part and apparently serve only for
near vision in dark places.
The olfactory sense resides in the antennee, especially in their club-
like ends—that is to say, their pore plates and olfactory bulbs. Being
movable and externally situated upon the antennal tips, they impart to
the insect at least two attributes wanting to vertebrates and especially
to man:
(a) The ability to recognize the chemical qualities of an object by
means of direct contact (tactual smell).
() The ability to recognize and distinguish, by means of odor, the
shape and extent of an object, including also the form of its own
track, and in this way to establish associated memories.
The olfactory sense of many insects gives, therefore, definite and
clear relations of known space, and may serve very well to orient ani-
mals that move about on the ground. I have on that account named
this qualitative sense, quite differing from our smell in its specific
energy, topochemical olfaction. Apparently the pore plates serve to
detect odors at a distance and the olfactory bulbs for tactual smell,
yet this is only supposition. The removal of the antennz destroys
the power of distinguishing friend from foe and deprives the ant of
the ability to orient itself on the ground or to find its way, while
three legs and an antenna may be removed without essentially injuring
these functions. The topochemical sense enables the ant to distinguish
from each other the two directions of its trail, an ability which Bethe
considers to be due to a mysterious polarization.
The organ of taste is found in the mouth parts. The taste reactions
of the insect are very similar to our own. Will, having accustomed
wasps to seek honey at a definite place, then put quinine in it. The
PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 589
wasps noticed this immediately, showed symptoms of disgust, and did
not return. When he replaced the honey with alum they at first
came back, but after experiencing the unpleasant taste ceased to come.
It may be said, by the way, that this is also a testimony as to their
memory for tastes and their power of association.
Various organs for hearing have been described. The auditory
reactions do not change, however, after the removal of such organs,
which leads to the supposition that there is a sort of pseudo-audition
by means of a perception of delicate vibrations through the tactile
organs (Dugés).
The tactile sense has for its organs tactile hairs or tactile papille.
It reacts especially to delicate vibrations of the air or of the support.
Certain articulate animals, especially spiders, orient themselves pref-
erably by means of the tactile sense.
It may be demonstrated that insects are accustomed to combine their
various senses for the orientation and recognition of the outer world
according to the species and the needs of their life. Eyes and vision
are wanting in many species. Others, on the contrary, have a very
dull olfactory sense; certain forms lack tactual smell—for example,
most of the diptera.
The great power of orientation possessed by some aerial animals, like
birds (carrier pigeons), bees, etc., demonstrably depends upon vision
and visual memories. It is of enormous value in aerial flight. The
semicircular canals of the auditory nerves provide a sense of equilib-
rium and give sensations of acceleration and turning (Mach-Breuer),
but they do not orient the individual as regards the outer world. A
specific power of orientation, magnetic or otherwise, independent of
the other senses does not exist.
Taking these senses as elements, we have a basis for insect psy-
chology.
Domain of perception.—\t may be considered as established that
many insects (apparently all in some rudimentary degree) possess
memory, i. e., the power of storing up sense impressions in their brains
and turning them to account later. Bees, wasps, ete., will find their
way back to a concealed place, not visible from their nest, where they
had found some substance they liked, even after its removal and when
days and weeks have elapsed. They do this, too, by flight through
the air, during wind and rain which would remove every trace of odor,
and even after excision of their antenne.
~ The topochemical sense possessed by the antenne also gives excel-
lent evidence as to the possession of memory by ants, bees, ete. An
ant will make a difficult journey, sometimes as far as 30 meters, from
a nest that has been destroyed, and, finding there a place suitable for
building a new nest, will return (orienting itself with its antenne),
and seize a companion, which he rolls around himself and carries to
590 PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS.
the place he has found. Each of these then retraces the way and both
repeat the maneuver with other companions, ete. The recollection
that that place is suitable for building a nest must reside in the brain
of the ant. The slave-making ants (/olyergus) will undertake robber
raids, led by a single worker, who, days and weeks before, has dis-
covered the way to the nests of /ormica fusca. The ants often lose
their way, then stop and search for a long time until they again find
the topochemical trail, when they give to the others the right direction
for their farther journeying by sharply pushing them. The /Po/yer-
gus will take the pupe of the Formica fusca from the depths of the
nest and carry them off to put into their own nests (often as far away
as 40 meters or more). If the despoiled nest contains still more pup
the robbers return on the same day or the following day; otherwise
they donot return. Only the memory, i. e., the recollection that there
were still many pupe in the despoiled nest can lead to the return
thither. I have followed up a great number of such raids.
While the species of /ormica carefully and painstakingly go back
over their topochemical trail, they know the immediate surroundings
of their nest so well that even shoveling away the ground does not
disturb them, and they find their way immediately. This is not by
perceiving the odor from a distance. Certain ants can recognize their
friends after the lapse of months. Among ants and bees there are
very complicated olfactory combinations and mixtures, which Von But-
tel has quite justly distinguished as nest odor, colony (family) odor,
and individual odor. Among ants there is also a species odor, while
the queen odor does not appear to play such a part as it does among
bees.
From these and many other facts we conclude that the social
Hymenoptera store up in their brains visual and olfactory (topochem-
ical) impressions, and combine them to form perceptions or something
similar; that they associate these perceptions, even those of different
senses—especially those of sight, smell, and taste—so as to obtain
conceptions of space.
These animals, by the frequent repetition of an act of traversing the
same way, etc., acquire a rapidity and a celerity in their instinctive
performances. Habits are formed by them with great rapidity.
Habit, however, implies secondary automatism and previous plastic
adaptation. Bees who have never flown away from the hive (although
they may be older than many others who have so flown) do not find
their way back at all, even if the hive is only a few meters distant, if
they can not see it directly, while other bees know the entire neigh-
borhood, often within a range of 6 or 7 kilometers.
From the accordant observations of experts we therefore conclude
that among the social insects sensation, perception, association, deduct-
PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 591
ive power, memory and habit fellow in general the same elementary
laws as they do in vertebrates and in man.
On the other hand, inherited automatism greatly preponderates with
them. The abilities just mentioned are very weak indeed outside the
range of instinctive automatism peculiar to the species.
An insect is extraordinarily stupid and unadaptable for everything
that does not relate to its instinct. I once taught a Dytiscus mar-
ginalis (water beetle) to eat upon my table. In doing this he always,
by stretching out his fore legs, made an awkward movement which
brought him upon his back. He indeed learned to continue to eat
while in that position, but not to abstain from this movement. On
the other hand he tried to spring out of the water (no longer to flee to
the depths of the bucket) as soon as I entered the room, and gnawed
quite familiarly at the tip of my extended finger. This was certainly
a plastic variation of instinct. In the same way the large Algerian
ants which I transferred to Zurich, learned in the summer months
how to close up the wide opening of their nest with balls of earth,
because they were followed and annoyed by our small Las/us niger.
In Algiers I always saw the nest openings widely open.
That ants, bees, and wasps communicate to each other information
which is understood is so well attested that it is unnecessary to waste
a word upon the subject. The observation of a single robber raid of
Polyerqgus would suffice to show this. Yet this is not speech in the
human sense. There is no corresponding abstract conception attached
to these signs. We are dealing with inherited, instinctive, automa-
tized signs (pushing with the head, rushing at each other with open
jaws, vibrating the antenne, disturbing the ground with the body, and
many others). Imitation also plays a great part—ants, bees, ete.,
imitate and follow their companions. It is therefore an entire mis-
take (in this Wasmann, Von Buttel, and myself are entirely agreed) to
think that this insect speech indicates anything like human delibera-
tion and human power of apprehension. It is even somewhat doubtful
whether a so-called general notion (for example, the notion ‘‘ant,”
‘Senemy,” “‘nest,” ‘‘pupa”) can arise in the brain of the ant. The
matters about which we are sure are certainly interesting and impor-
tant enough in themselves. They give us a glimpse of the cerebral
life of these animals.
A good example will illustrate what has been said better than all
generalities:
Plateau has stated that if one covers dahlia crowns with green leaves
the bees still return to them. He first covered his dahlias incompletely
(only the outer or ray flowers), afterwards completely, but still scan
tily, and concluded from the result that bees are attracted by odor and
not by sight.
592 PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS.
In a dahlia bed much frequented by bees and comprising about 43
crowns of various colors I covered with vine leaves certain of the
crowns as follows:
(a) First, 17 and afterwards a total of 28 were completely covered
by bending the leaves about them and fastening them with pins.
(6) In 4 only the yellow heart was covered.
(c) In 1 this was reversed, the outer colored rays being covered
and the heart left free.
So many bees visited the dahlias that there were often several on
the same crown.
PResult.—The bees immediately ceased to visit the completely cov-
ered crowns. Dahlia ¢ was soon revisited like those that had been
left uncovered. Bees often flew to the / dahlas but immediately left
them. <A few, however, succeeded in getting under the leaves and
reaching the hearts.
As I removed the covering of a red dahlia the bees at once flew back
to it. Soon a badly covered dahiia was discovered and revisited by
them. Later an exploring bee discovered how to reach a covered
dahlia either below or from the side. From that time on these bees,
and only these, came back to those covered dahlias.
Yet various bees were apparently searching for the vanished dahlias.
About 5.30 p.m. a few had discovered the covered crowns. From
this time on they were quickly imitated by the others, and in a short
time the covered crowns were freely visited. When a bee discovered
my device and the entrance to the covered crown he in his succeeding
journeys flew without delay to the lower concealed entrance of the
vine leaf. As long as one bee alone had found the entrance he was
not regarded by the others, but if there were several (usually 4 or
5 at least) they were followed by the others.
Plateau’s experiment therefore was a bad one and led to false con-
clusions. The incompletely covered dahlias were still seen by the
bees. When he completely covered them from above the bees were
already aware of his trick and still saw the dahlias from the side.
Plateau had not reckoned on the memory and watchfulness of the bees.
On September 13 I made some rude imitations of dahlias by stick-
ing yellow heads of hieracium into petunia flowers and placed these
under the dahlias. Neither the petunias nor the hieracium were visited
by the bees; yet many bees and bumble bees flew at first to my arti-
facts, quite as many as to the dahlias. They left them immediately,
however, apparently noting the error by the smell. The same occurred
with a dahlia whose heart had been replaced by the heart of a hier-
aclum. ;
Asa counter experiment I placed a fine fragrant dahlia heart among
the white and yellow chrysanthemums neglected by the bees and situ-
ated at the border of the dahlia bed. For half an hour all the bees
PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 5983
flew over this heart without noticing it; then there came a single bee
which chanced to be followed by a second. From this time on this
dahlia heart, situated in the line of flight, was visited like the others,
while on the other hand the petunia-hieracium artifacts were no longer
regarded because they were now recognized as fraudulent.
Plateau showed that artificial flowers, although they might be very
good imitations (for us), were disregarded. I placed such flowers among
the dahlias. They were in fact completely unnoticed. Perhaps, as I
have already pointed out, the bees could distinguish the chlorophyll
colors from our artificial colors by a mixture of ultra-violet rays or in
some similar way. As, however, Plateau imagines that the artificial
flowers repel the insects, I made on September 19 the following
coarsely cut paper flowers:
a, a red flower.
f, a white flower.
y, a blue flower.
0, a blue flower with a yellow heart made out of a yellow leaf.
é, a rose-colored piece of paper with a dry dahlia heart.
e-
¢, a green dahlia leaf (unaltered).
It was 9a. m. I placed a drop of honey on each of the artifacts
set under the dahlias. For a quarter of an hour numerous bees flew
quite near to my artifacts without noticing the honey, therefore with-
out smelling it. I went away for an hour. When I returned the
artifact 6 had no honey, therefore had apparently been discovered by
a bee; all the others were completely intact and had remained dis-
regarded.
I now took pains to place @ quite near a bee that was sitting upon a
dahlia. The attention of the bee was, however, so engrossed by the
dahlias that I bad to repeat the attempt four or five times before I
succeeded in bringing the honey directly to his proboscis. This one
now immediately began to suck the honey from the paper flower. — |
marked him on the back with a blue color in order to recognize him,
and repeated the experiment with # and ¢, whose bees I marked with
yellow and white. The blue bee flew away, but soon after returned
from the hive and went directly to a, at first hovering uncertainly
here and there, then to 6, where it fed, then back again to a, but not
at all to the dahlias. Later the yellow bee returned to and fed,
then flew to a and 6, where it also fed, and did not trouble itself about
the dahlias any more than the blue one had.
Now came the white bee, looked for ¢, did not find it immediately,
and fed in some dahlias. Yet he tarried in each dahlia but a moment,
as if the impelling idea of the honey was vexing him. He came
back to the artifacts, whose appearance he seemed not yet to fully
associate with the remembrance of the honey, but finally found a sep-
arated and somewhat depressed portion of € and sucked honey in it.
594 PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS.
From that time on the three marked bees, and those alone, regu-
larly returned to the artifacts only, paying no further attention to the
dahlias. It is a very important fact that those marked bees, entirely
of their own accord, doubtless because of an instinctive analogical
conclusion, discovered the other artifacts as soon as they became
mindful of the honey that one of the same contained, and, indeed,
in spite of the fact that the artifact was somewhat distant from the
others and was differently colored. The dahlias which they previously
visited were also of different colors. In this way the blue bee flew to
a, 6, y, and 6; the yellow one to f, a, 6, and vy; the white one to ¢,
a, #,and 6. For half an hour this went on. The concealed green ¢
was not found, apparently because it was not distinguished from the
green foliage.
At last a bee, who had apparently noticed the other three, came of
his own accord to 6 and fed. I colored him carmine. He then flew
to a and drove away the blue bee. Another bee was conducted to €
and colored with cinnabar. Still another bee came of its own accord
to # and was colored green. It was 12.20 p. m.; the experiment had
therefore lasted over three hours, and only 6 bees knew the artifacts,
while the great multitude yet resorted to the dahlias. Now, however,
the other bees began to notice the ones that visited the artifacts.
One, then two, then three and more new ones followed and colors
failed me for marking them. Every moment I had to renew the
honey. Then I went to dinner, returning at 1.25 p. m. At that
moment there were 7 bees in /, 2 in a, 1 in y, 3 in 6, the white one
alone in €; more than half of them new, unmarked followers. From
now on a perfect swarm of bees assailed the artifacts and sucked up
the last trace of honey. Now, at last, one bee out of the swarm dis-
covered the artifact €, which had, although full of honey, remained
thus far unnoticed on account of its color.
Like a pack of hounds attacking a bare skeleton, the swarm of bees,
quite diverted from the dahlias, threw themselves upon the artifacts,
now totally destitute of honey, and searched every corner of them in
rain for honey. At 1.55 p. m. the bees began to disperse and return
to the dahlias. I replaced @ and #, respectively, with pieces of white
and red paper that not a trace of honey had touched, consequently
devoid of its odor. In spite of this, these pieces of paper were visited
and searched by many bees, their brain yet occupied with the impell-
ing idea of the taste of honey. The white bee, for example, searched
the white paper in the most careful manner for three or four minutes.
There can here be no question of an unknown force or of an attraction
by means of smell or by the beauty of the flowers. These facts can
only be explained by recollections of space, form, and color associated
with recollections of taste.
PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 595
I took all the artifacts away, carrying them in my left hand. Two
or three bees followed me, flying about my left hand and seeking to
settle upon the empty artifacts. The space picture was changed, so
the color and form of the object alone suffices bees for recollection.
At 2.20 p.m. all of my bees, even the colored ones, had returned
to the dahlias.
On the 27th of September—that is to say, eight days later—I wished
to make the same bees distinguish, by color alone, slips of various
colors placed in different places on a long, graduaded scale of shades
painted on a large sheet of paper and passing from white through
gray to black. I wished first to train one bee as to one color. I had,
however, reckoned without considering the memory of. the bees,
which spoiled the whole thing for me. Hardly had I laid my paper
and my slips on the meadow near the dahlia bed, set one or two bees
upon blue slips and painted them, when they began to fly about to all
the red, blue, white, black, and other slips, whether provided with
honey or not, and to thoroughly search them. After a few moments
other bees came from the dahlia bed, and in a short time a whole
swarm descended upon the paper slips. Naturally the slips that had
honey upon them were more frequented, because the bees remained
there, but those that were entirely free from honey were stormed and
searched by groups of bees following one after another in flight, and
then again abandoned. The bees even stormed the color box, among
them one whose antennz I had cut off. He had already taken honey
from blue slips and had flown back from the hive. He sought the
blue cake of color in the color box.
In short, my experiment failed because all the bees still had in
their heads the former particolored artifacts associated with honey,
and therefore investigated all slips of paper similarly colored. The
association “*taste of honey and paper slip” was again awakened by
the perception of the latter and obtained a standing, as well as rapid,
powerful imitation, because honey was really found upon certain
of the slips. Ability to perceive and associate implies ability to
deduce analogically from individual experiences simple, instructive
conclusions, without which the work of perception and memory would
be nugatory. We have just given an example of this. I have related
in a previous paper that humblebees whose nest I had transferred to
my window often mistook for that other windows in the same facade
and examined them carefully for a long time before they righted
themselves. Lubbock relates similar instances. Von Buttel shows
that bees who have become accustomed to a room and a window
learned from that to look for a room and a window in other places
(other houses). When Pissot covered over the entrance to a wasp’s
nest with a net whose meshes measured 22 millimeters, the wasps,
checked at first, went below around the bottom, ete. Soon, however,
596 PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS.
they learned to fly directly through the meshes. The sense of vision
in flight is peculiarly adapted to this kind of experiments, which,
however. can not be made with ants. Yet the latter doubtless arrive
at similar conclusions by means of the topochemical sense residing in
their antenne. The finding of booty or other nourishment upon a
plant or near any object leads them to search similar plants or
objects, ete.
There are,on the other hand, very stupid insects, such as male ants,
diptera, and day flies, with scanty brains, who are unable to learn
anything, unable to combine sense perceptions so as to produce any-
thing higher than merely automatic acts, in whom a retention of mem-
ory impressions is hardly demonstrable. These respond hardly at all
to anything but sense stimuli, but their life is adapted to extremely
simple relations. It is here that the difference is best seen, and this
demonstrates in the clearest manner, by comparison and contrast, the
greater intelligence that the more gifted insects possess.
Domain of the will.—The conception of the will as opposed to that
of the reflexes presupposes, between the sense impression and the
movement conditioned by it, a certain time as well as an intervening
and complicated cerebral process. During the performance of instine-
tive, purposeful automatisms, which disengage themselves in a certain
succession, there is also, as in the will, an interval of time occupied
by the interior dynamic processes of the brain. There are, therefore,
no pure reflexes. They may be for some time broken off and then
again resumed. Yet their execution involves for the most part a
linking together of complicated reflexes, which are obliged to follow
each other in a definite order and not otherwise. Therefore the
expression automatism or instinct is justified.
In order to be able to predicate will in the narrow sense we must
establish individual resolves which can be directed according to circum-
stances—i. e., can be modified—which have the faculty of lying for a
certain time in the brain, then to be again brought forward. This
will is usually far below the complex human will, which consists of
enormously complicated components long prepared and combined.
Ants show both positive and negative will phenomena, which should
not be confounded. In this the species of Hormica L. excels, as it
especially illustrates in the clearest manner individual psychical activi-
ties. In the changes of nest mentioned above we may very well recog-
nize the individual plans of a worker adhered to with the greatest
tenacity. An ant will work for hours at some difficult matter in order
to attain an end it has proposed for itself. This end is not exactly
prescribed instinctively, as many possibilities may be involved, and
therefore it often occurs that two ants work against each other. To
the superficial observer this may appear stupid. Yet it is provided
for in the plastic quality of the intelligence of ants. For some time
PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 597
the two animals will destroy each other’s work. At last, however,
they notice this and one gives way and retires or helps the other.
Nest and road making give the best opportunities to observe this—
for example, among the wood ants (/ormica rufa) and, still better,
among Formica pratensis. To fully elucidate this it is necessary to
follow them up for hours at a time.
We may also recognize in the wars of ants very definite purposes
of action, especially in what I have called *‘combats a froid” (chronic
fights). After two opposing parties (two colonies that have been
brought together) have concluded a peace, single ants are often seen
to follow up and maltreat certain individuals of the opposite party.
They often carry them far away in order to separate them from the
nest. If these excluded ants return and are found by their pursuers,
they are again packed off and carried still farther. In one such case
it happened that the persecutor brought his victim to the edge of my
table. He then stretched out his head and let his enemy fall to the
ground. It was not accident, for he repeated the act twice afterwards
when I had brought his vietim back upon the table. From the various
individuals of his former enemies but present allies he had concentrated
his antipathy upon this one, and sought to make it impossible for him to
return. One must have strong prepossessions to say that in such and
many similar cases ants do not form and execute resolves. It is true
that these acts are confined to the paths along which the instincts of
the species work and that the various steps in the execution of a
resolve are performed instinctively. Further, I especially protest
against ascribing to the will of the ant human considerations and
abstract conceptions. Nevertheless, we must candidly confess that,
reversing the positions, we men when executing our resolves con-
stantly allow the intervention of inherited as well as secondary
automatisms. While I am writing this my eyes are working with
automatisms that are partly inherited and my hand with secondary
automatisms. It is of course understood that the complication of my
innervations and the accompanying abstract deliberations are such as
are peculiar to the human brain.
It may be said-in passing that we can explain in a similar manner
the relative independence of the spinal cord and the subordinate cere-
bral centers with reference to the cerebrum in the lower vertebrates
(also in lower mammals) as compared with the close interdependence
which those organs and their functions have in the mighty brain of
man and to some extent in that of apes. The latter separate and con-
trol their automatisms (divide et impera).
While success visibly increases both the audacity of the ant and the
pertinacity of its will, continued failure or sudden surprise by power-
ful enemies may occasion an inhibitive despondency leading to the
neglect of the most important instincts, to cowardly flight, the eating
598 PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS.
or casting out of its own brood, the neglecting of work, etc. There
may be a chronic increasing despondency in degenerate colonies and
acute despondency occasioned by a lost battle. In the last case one
may see a troop of large, strong ants fleeing, without any attempt at
defense, before a single small and weak enemy who is following them
up. Half an hour before these fugitives would have killed the enemy
by afew bites. It is remarkable how quickly the victors note this dis-
position and avail themselves of it. Discouraged ants are accustomed
to collect after flight and soon regain their willand courage. Still they
offer but feeble resistance to a renewed attack of the same enemy if it
is made, for example, on the following day. - Even an ant’s brain does
not quickly forget a defeat.
In embittered conflicts between two approximately equal colonies
the obstinacy of the struggle increases and with it the will to conquer,
until one colony or the other is completely overcome. In the domain
of the will imitation plays a great part. Arrogance and despondency
are also uncommonly contagious among ants.
Domain of the emotions.—Most of the emotions of insects are closely
hound up with instincts. This is the case with the jealousy of the
queen bee who kills her rivals, and the anxiety of the latter who are
yet in their cells; also with the rage of fighting ants, wasps, or bees,
with the just-mentioned despondency of ants, the love for the brood,
with the self-sacrifice of the working bees, who let themselves die of
hunger in order to feed their queen, and with many more. There are
also individual affections not necessarily conditioned by instinct, such
us the desire of some ants to maltreat certain opponents, as we have
stated. As the reverse of this, friendly services (feeding) may, as I
have witnessed, be exceptionally offered to an enemy, a mutual feel-
ing of sympathy and finally alliance may take place even between ants
of different species. Also with ants sympathy, antipathy, and anger
are heightened by repetition and by the acts corresponding to them,
as is the case with other animals and with man.
The feeling of social duty is instinctive among ants, and it varies
very much according to individuals, times, and occasions, which argues
a certain plasticity.
Psychical correlations.—1 have hastily outlined the three chief
domains of the psychology of ants. It is, of course, understood that
here, as elsewhere, there is no sharp division between them. The
will consists of the central resultants of the sense perceptions and the
emotions, but reacts powerfully upon both of them.
As long as bees are collected on only one species of flowers they
overlook all other species and even other flowers of the same species.
If their attention is directed to honey that they had previously over-
looked, then they have eyes for that alone. An intensive emotion,
like swarming among bees (Von Buttel) makes these insects forget all
PSYCHICAL FACULTIES OF ANTS AND OTHER INSECTS. 5o9
enmities and even their old parent hive, so that they return to it no
more. If, however, the hive was painted blue and the swarm is
broken up by taking away the queen, the bees remember the blue
color of their old hive and fly to hives that have been painted blue.
In a swarm of restless, angrily buzzing bees who have lost their queen
two emotions often conflict—that of enmity to strange bees and that of
a need for a new queen. If astrange queen is now artificially intro-
duced, they will maltreat or kill her, because the former emotion at
first prevails. The bee keepers therefore give them a strange queen
confined in a cage of wire gauze. The stranger odor then excites
them less because it is more distant, and they can not maltreat the
queen. Thereupon they soon recognize the specific queen odor and
can feed the strange queen through the meshes of the wire with their
trunks. This suffices to immediately quiet the hive. Therefore the
second emotion quickly prevails, the workers soon become accustomed
to the stranger odor, and after three or four days the queen can be
freed without danger.
Among ants the love for dainties may be made to conflict with the
sense of duty by allowing a colony of invading enemies to attack and
then strewing honey in the path of the defenders that come streaming
out. I did this with Lormica pratensis. At first the ants tasted the
honey quite a little, but only for a moment. The sense of duty con-
quered and all, without exception, hastened to the battle, for the most
part to death. Here the higher resolve or instinct prevailed over a
lower inclination.
I must to-day again maintain a thesis which I first advanced in 1877
at the time of my installation as privat-docent in the Munich school
for higher instruction:
All the peculiarities of the human soul can be derived from the peculiarities of the
souls of the higher animals.
I will now add to this the following: ‘*And all the peculiarities of
the souls of higher animals can be derived from those of lower ani-
mals.” In other words, the doctrine of evolution is just as applicable
in the psychical field as in the other fields of organic life. Through-
out all the variety of animal forms and their conditions of existence
the psychical functions of the nerve elements yet appear in all cases
to obey certain elementary laws, even where the differences are so
great that this would be least expected.
sm 1903——39
MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY.¢
By Juu. Scur6rr,
Director of the Zoological Garden in Copenhagen.
The musk ox is undoubtedly one of the most interesting of the
ruminants. Intermediate in form between the sheep and the ox, he is
able, even better than the reindeer, to withstand high degrees of cold
and to exist upon the scanty resources of the polar regions. In doing
this he scorns lichens, the chief winter sustenance of the reindeer, ana
which were formerly erroneously considered as his principal food.
“It has been settled, especially through the investigations of Professor
Nathorst, that the musk oxen of the arctic fields live upon grasses and
other plants which to some extent keep fresh and green throughout
the long polar winter, so that the animals have merely to paw away
the snow in order to get fodder. During the winter they are also
nourished by the reserve of fat accumulated during the summer, when
in protected valleys the fruitful earth spreads out a rich carpet of
grass.
The hairy coat of the musk ox is warmer than that of any other
mammal. Under the long, dark-brown outer hair there grows during
the autumn a thick coat of fine, soft wool, which remains until the next
summer, when it falls off in large flocks, the long, smooth outer hair
remaining. Formerly the musk ox lived in all the countries lying
about the north pole and was found much farther south than at pres-
ent. Its fossil remains have been found in Siberia and England, as
well as in Denmark, and even in Germany, about to the limit to which
the ice of the glacial period extended. Yet it certainly was never
abundant in our hemisphere, and, at any rate, it has not survived the
glacial period, as has the reindeer, which extended farther north.
At the present time it is found only in the most northerly regions
of the Western Hemisphere, both upon the continent and upon large
circumpolar islands, especially in the northern and northeastern por-
tions of Greenland.
Since the time when the great Hudson’s Bay Fur Company was
founded (1670) the skin of the musk ox has been known in Europe,
“Translated from Der Zoologische Garten (Frankfurt A. M.), 1903, pp. 305-317.
601
602 MUSK OXEN IN CAPITVITY.
and its flesh is very much esteemed by the fur traders, Indians, and
Eskimos. The English naturalist, Pennant, published a very correct
description and picture of the animal in his work Arctic Zoology
(1784-1787), but there had previously been published quite a good pic-
ture in a German illustrated work, Die Siugethiere in Abbildungen
nach der Natur, Erlangen, 1778. The short, stubbed build of the ani-
mal, its white lees, thickly covered with hair, its square rump, the
light spot on the back, its whitish muzzle covered with hair, as well
as the strong horns characteristic of the male, and which in adult ani-
mals reach down toward the ground, are there conspicuously shown.
The curvature of the horns is, however, not quite accurate. Cer-
tainly the model for the drawing was only a stuffed one; yet natural-
ists had the opportunity of observing the living animal in its native
home, first in the numerous polar expeditions which had for their aim
the discovery of the ‘* Northwest Passage,” and then in those which
Fic. 1.—Sketeh of a musk ox in the year 1778.
were sent out later to map the lands about the north pole and to reach
the pole if possible.
The first polar expeditions that went through Baffins Bay found
both sides of Smiths Sound—that separates Grinnell Land from north
Greenland—inhabited by musk oxen.
When Peary reached, with sledges, the north coast of Greenland and
proved that it was a large “len he likewise found musk oxen there.
In the year 1869-70 the German expedition under Koldewey found
them in east Greenland, although not farther south than 73° north
latitude, and in greater numbers northward as far as 77°.
Later, in the year 1892, the Ryders expedition met with them in
Scoresbys Sound at abont "12, and farther south than that they have
not been seen.“ Professor Nathorst notes, however, that neither
“Nore BY TRANSLATOR.—The writer doubtless refers here to their southern range
in Greenland. On the continent they range as far south as 60°.
MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY. 6038
Scoresby, who visited this fiord in 1822, nor Clavering and Sabine,
who were in that region in 1823, saw any musk oxen. Nathorst shows
that these animals must have migrated quite slowly from the north-
west side over Smiths Sound into Greenland, and then along the north
and east coasts until they finally reached the deeply cut inlet of
Scoresbys Sound.
It was also noted that they were followed by polar wolves that
took from them many of their small calves. This is the most natural
explanation of the fact that so few calves are seen with the herds
observed. ‘‘In August, 1900,” says the zoologist, Séren Jensen, ** the
Amdrup expedition saw in the regions north of Scoresbys Sound
about 400 musk oxen, of which only 13 were calves.” When we take
into account the slaughter effected by the hunters who land when the
ice permits it can be easily understood that the species is in danger
of extermination.
It was not until the year 1899 that anyone succeeded in capturing a
musk ox and bringing it alive into civilized countries. Even upon
the continent of North America this was very difficult, because it was
usually necessary to transport the animals upon sledges over long and
trackless Jand journeys. Adult animals could hardly be utilized,
firstly, because of their untamable disposition and also because it was
with great difficulty that they could become accustomed to new kinds
of food. It therefore became necessary to look for calves.
Finally, in the autumn of 1899, a Norwegian arctic hunter brought to
Troms6 two calves, which he had captured at Clavering Island, on the
rast coast of Greenland. They were born in May of the same year, and
while on the way he fed them partly on the arctic willows and grasses
collected on the spot where they were taken, but chiefly on ship’s
biscuit. He knew very well the value of his captives and asked for
the two calves 22,000 marks. He had, however, to be contented with
10,000 marks, which were paid him by the wealthy Duke of Bedford
who has a large zoological garden at Woburn, in the south of England.
One of the animals, however, was somewhat weakened and died soon
thereafter; the other, a male, died a short time ago, in July of this
year. It was very wild and on that account was kept in a strong
inclosure where it could not easily be seen.
This profitable capture led all the Norwegian seal hunters to think
of giving up the capture of whales and seals and devoting themselves
wholly to that of musk calves. At any rate, some of these hunters
undertook such captures during the summer of 1900.
The Swedish expedition under Kolthoff, which was sent out to make
zoological researches in the arctic regions, now undertook to get musk
calves for acclimatization in northern Sweden. Also the Danish
expedition to eastern Greenland, under Amdrup, undertook, among
604 MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY.
other things, to capture musk oxen, and empowered the author, as
director of the zoological garden, to send with it assistants for this
purpose.
The summer was a very favorable one, as the ice rarely prevented
the vessel from approaching the coast. As a result of all the efforts
there was a total of 13 calves obtained. The Danes got a male calf,
captured on the 12th of August and which arrived at the zoological
garden at Copenhagen on the 7th of October. Here it is still living,
and the photographs reproduced herewith show the progress of its
development. The Swedes obtained two calves, a male and a female,
which were put in a large inclosure in Norrland, where they thrive
excellently. The Norwegians relied upon expert hunters, so that they
obtained no less than 9 calves, together with 1 male of 1899. It is
not quite clear how they made this capture. The Danes, I am sorry
to say, used the violent method of shooting down the whole herd of
adult animals in order to obtain a calf or calves. It is stated that
some of the Norwegians used a better method—namely, that of kill-
ing only the mother. Then when the calf took flight with the herd
they did not follow it, but secreted themselves near the dead cow. If
the calf came back later to the body, they then captured it without
much difficulty.
The male of 1899 mentioned above was brought to Hammerfest.
Unfortunately during the struggle that occurred at its capture it lost
its left horn. It was sold to Carl Hagenbeck and by him disposed of
to the Berlin garden, where it is still to be found. Its left horn has
grown again, but the tip is wanting.
Two brothers from Aalesund brought in no less than 5 calves, which
they sent to the Antwerp garden. These, however, were so weak or
so badly nourished that they died, either on the way or shortly after
arrival. The remaining 4 arrived in Tromsé. Informed of the mat-
ter by Professor Nathorst, C. F. Liljevalch, a wealthy Swede, pur-
chased them and brought them-to Medstugan, in Jemtland, in order to
attempt to acclimatize them, as Nathorst thought that, on account of
their fine wool, they would make valuable domestic animals. Unfor-
tunately one of these had a wound on its back which, being under its
thick coat, was not observed. It inflamed, and the animal died. The
3 last (1 bull and 2 heifers) throve very well until the bull and one
heifer succumbed on August 30 of last year to a contagious skin
disease which carried off a large number of domestic cattle in that
region, both last year and the present one. The remaining cow is
believed to have been taken to Norrland and placed with the 2 from
the Kolthoff expedition.
There are, therefore, at the present time (summer of 1903) living
in Europe 5 musk oxen—3 in Sweden, 1 in Berlin, and 1 in Copenha-
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Schioit. PLATE I.
Fic. 3.—Musk OX IN COPENHAGEN, 1 YEAR OLD, May, 1901.
Fic. 4.—Musk OX IN COPENHAGEN, 15 MONTHS OLD, AuausT, 1901.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Schiott PLATE Il.
FIG. 5.—MUSK OX IN COPENHAGEN, AsouT 20 MONTHS OLD, FEBRUARY, 1902.
Fi@. 6.—Musk OX IN COPENHAGEN, 2 YEARS OLD, MAY, 1902.
MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY. 605
gen.” Unfortunately the two last are both males; it is, however, not
impossible that the attempt may succeed that is being made at Copen-
hagen to cross the musk ox with the somewhat nearly allied yak of
Tibet. With his usual kindness and interest in scientific matters Carl
Hagenbeck has placed at our disposal two small, hornless yak cows.
Our readers will find herewith a reproduction of a photograph of
the smaller of these cows, which is hardly as large as the musk ox.
Near by stands a white calf, which was 14 days old and was born from
another white and somewhat larger cow. Lydekker (Royal Natural
History, vol. 11, p. 188) says that this hornless, dwarf race has arisen
by crossing with the ordinary Indian cattle (dwarf zebu’). Yet noth-
ing in the structure of this animal indicates a hybrid. Hornless,
dwarf races of domestic cattle are indeed quite common. At the same
time there will be placed with the musk ox a giant Frisian sheep, and
then we shall see to which species he gives the preference. As regards
the musk ox himself our pictures will sufficiently show how excellently
he has developed. The first autumn (1900) was very rainy and there-
fore very unfavorable for him. He was uncomfortable and damp in
his inclosure and could not move about sufficiently. As rheumatism
began to affect his legs, he was removed to another pen, made to move
about daily, and later walked about freely in the snow-covered garden
every day.?
As in the spring of 1901 his horns began to grow and his disposi-
tion became less friendly, he was placed in a spacious inclosure situated
on a northerly slope. There an open veranda was built to his stall,
and with this he was obliged to content himself in rainy weather.
As all gregarious animals need society he was provided with compan-
ions. After unsuccessful attempts with Shetland ponies and a buffalo
calf, he was given a chamois and an old goat. To the latter he soon
showed a great liking, a sentiment that has continued since that time.
The chamois likewise made court to the goat, and this rivalry, together
with daily squabbles at the feeding trough, made the musk ox and the
chamois sworn enemies. This enmity has grown greater and greater
and has had the most favorable effect upon the welfare of the musk
ox. In order to follow and fight his quick-footed enemy he has to
run, and thereby gets the necessary daily exercise. The chamois as
a rule attacks, like a robber, from behind. In this way he succeeded
in the autumn of 1901 in butting his enemy, inflicting a bloody wound
upon his hind leg. As a punishment both of the horns of the chamois
were tipped with sheaths, which, however, have now become unneces-
“ Besides these there were brought into Tromsé, since the 26th of August, 1903,
by a Norwegian hunter, 5 more calves of 1903—1 male and 4 females—which are at
present (September 23) thriving well, but are held at a high price. See also the
postscript at the end of this article.
>See Der Zoologische Garten, 1901, p. 166 et seq.
606 MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY.
sary, as in the spring of 1903 the chamois attacked his companion so
boldly and vigorously that he broke off the tips of both horns, and yet
he is just as warlike as ever.
Originally the ground within the inclosure was partly overgrown
with grass and partly covered with gravel. The hoofs of the musk
ox were not sufficiently worn upon this soft ground, and they had
to be cut and trimmed. The last cutting took place on September 24,
1901, when the animal was about sixteen months old. Each time he
had to be bound and thrown down, and as the projecting horns might
be injured and such violent measures also made the animal yet more
untamable, quite sharp stones were spread upon the surface of the
inclosure in order to make it similar to that of east Greenland. This
was apparently a good method, for, since then, the hoofs have been
worn off sufficiently and in a natural manner by daily moving about
upon the hard ground. Our pictures (pl. rv, figs. 1, 2) show the last
cutting, September 24, 1901. In the first picture the musk ox is seen
with a noose about his nose and his legs tied together. A keeper
holds his head down by grasping his right horn. To the left stands
Professor Sand, of the veterinary school, with a knife in his hand.
In fig. 2 the professor is seen bending over the animal while busy
cutting the hoofs.
The food of the musk ox consists of ground oats and wheat bran,
with a very little white bread cut in pieces, besides hay (grass in sum-
mer) and willow and elm branches throughout the year. He eats not
only the leaves, but is especially fond of the bark, which he strips from
even quite small branches, less than a centimeter in diameter. Tannic
acid is as necessary for the digestion of the musk ox as it is for the
moose. His droppings are globular, like those of deer, goats, and
sheep.
Che quantity of food taken can not be determined because the
chamois and the goat are fed together with him. Yet he takes care to
preserve for himself his favorite parts—that is to say, the branches.
The musk ox does not drink much and is in the habit of putting his
feet into the drinking water; possibly inherited from a habit of cool-
ing the feet in melting snow water.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean the famous arctic explorer
Greely captured 4 musk calves as long ago as 1881-1884, at Lady
Franklin Bay north of Great Bear Sea. It was, however, impossible
for him to provide food for them and take them with him.
In March, 1898, Mr. C. J. Jones fitted out a small expedition to the’
barren lands, a portion of arctic North America, for the purpose of
capturing musk calves. He succeeded in taking 5 of them, which he
and his white companions drove southward. For two days and two
nights they were obstinately pursued by arctic wolves, who wished to
snatch their booty from them. When at last they got rid of the
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Schiott. PLATE Ill.
Fia. 7.—Musk OX IN COPENHAGEN, 3 YEARS OLD, JUNE, 1903.
Fig. 8.—YAK COW AND CALF.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Schiott. PLATE IV.
Fi@. 9.—PREPARING TO CUT HOOFS OF MUSK Ox IN COPENHAGEN, SEPTEMBER 24,1901.
FIG. 11.—TWO-YEAR-OLD Musk Ox, NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, AUGUST, 1902.
MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY. 607
wolves they fell asleep, exhausted, and when they awoke they found
that some Indians had killed all their calves, having the superstitious
fear that all the musk oxen would leave the country, following after
their stolen comrades.
These two fruitless attempts had considerably diminished the interest
taken by the Yankees in these animals when it was again excited by
the news of the fortunate capture made by the Norwegians.
During the winter of 1900-1, an American whaler, Capt.. H. H.
Bodtish, was forced to pass the winter on the North American coast of
the Arctic Ocean. In March, 1901, he sent ashore a part of his force,
accompanied by Eskimo hunters. Ata distance of 30 English miles
from the coast they encountered a herd of musk oxen with 4 calves.
They succeeded in capturing all 4, but unfortunately 2 of them were
almost immediately killed by the sledge dogs. The two surviving
ones were tied fast upon two sledges, taken to the coast and got safely
on board ship. The dogs succeeded, however, in killing still another
and only the last one, a heifer calf, survived. It was fed with ship’s
biscuit, willow twigs, and grass collected on the coast, and at last it
was safely brought to San Francisco. The owner asked $3,000 for it
(about 11,000 kroner or 12,000 marks), but found no purchaser at that
high price. Concerning this matter so many telegrams were exchanged
that the shares of the Western Union Telegraph Company straight-
way rose in value! Finally a wealthy man purchased the calf and pre-
sented it to the New York Zoological Park. On March 12, 1902, one
year after it was taken, it arrived there. A short time after it was
photographed, and our picture shows how it appeared when about 2
years old. Its horns then measured 10 inches (24 centimeters) taken
along the curvature.
It is remarkable that this cow, taken from the western part of the
continent, has itself a light spot upon its forehead, the specific charac-
ter that Lydekker has assigned to the so-called Ovbos ward, and that
is especially thought to distinguish the musk oxen of east Greenland
from those of the continent, which are not usually so marked. This
specific character does not, therefore, appear to be constant. It has
long been known that the size and character of the light spots on the
foreheads and backs of individuals of the same region and the same age
are subject to much variation. This has already been placed beyond
doubt by the experienced Danish zoologist, Herluf Winge, in his
excellent work on the mammals of Greenland. In connection with
this there may also be mentioned Dr. J. A. Allen’s article in the
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
I am sorry to say that the New York Zoological Park did not long
enjoy this rare animal. In August he was taken with an inflammation
608 MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY.
of the lungs, and, after an illness of a week, died in spite of all the
efforts of the veterinary surgeons.
A month later Peary brought to the park a small calf which he had
captured in northeast Greenland. It died three weeks afterwards
because of an abscess on the back, which had doubtless arisen from a
small wound unobserved under the thick fur. We have here a case
similar to that of one of the calves brought to Jemtland in 1900.
But our antipodes on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean may con-
sole themselves with the reflection that they possess the only musk
oxen that are at present living ina wild state upon the globe. We
rightly say at present, for how long will this self-supporting animal
be able to prolong its life and propagate its race, even in the desolate
and inhospitable regions to which it has been driven? How long,
indeed? The insatiable enemies of the musk ox, the arctic wolf and
man—the most ravening wolf of all creation—follow on his tracks
and incessantly thin his ranks. Unfortunately, the ice does not always
protect the east coast of Greenland against the landing of hunters as
well as it did in 1901 and 1902.
We hope that the attempts at acclimatization which are now being
made in Sweden, at the instance of Professor Nathorst, will be
crowned with success. That excellent naturalist and unwearied arctic
explorer conceived the idea that the musk ox might be domesticated
and his extraordinarily fine wool utilized. The impetuous temper of
the animal will, however, probably make such an undertaking very
onerous; at any rate, much patience and the work of several genera-
tions will be required for its success.
Posrscript.—Professor Nathorst states, April 7, 1904, that of the
pair caught by Kolthoff the cow died in the autumn of 1903 of a liver
complaint (intestinal worms), upon which the bull was taken to
Jemtland to be bred swith the cow left there. Together with this
decrease of the number of musk oxen in Europe we can report an aug-
mentation, as the Norwegians have been successfulagain. Capt. Johan
Thjeldson, of the steamer Laura, belonging to Magnus K. Gicever,
brought home to Tromsé at the end of August, 1903, 5 live musk
calves. These were all caught in east Greenland. The first one was
caught in the Musk Ox Bay, where Kolthoff in 1900 had found a num-
ber of oxen, and where now they met with only half a score. At Cape
Graah they came across a flock with 3 calves. Having destroyed the
adult animals, they caught the calves in nets. One of them, however,
had been grazed in the belly and died a few days after. At Mackenzie
Bay they caught 2 more calves. These 5 animals (1 bull and 4 heifers)
were placed in a paddock at Tromsé6. One of them was smaller than
the others and rather delicate. She died in November, whereas the
others were getting on well. Unfortunately, one of the heifers strangled
itself later on in an attempt to get out of the paddock. The young
MUSK OXEN IN CAPTIVITY. 609
bull’s legs are said to be bad, possibly from rheumatism, owing to the
moist climate. The musk ox in Copenhagen also suffered from that
the first autumn. He is getting on splendidly, but has not shown
the slightest sign of interest in any of the females (yak cow and
Frisian sheep) proffered him.
One of the surviving heifers from Tromsé is now (July 15, 1904) in
the garden at Copenhagen, having been secured at a cost of 3,000
kroner, so that at present the garden has the unique distinction of
possessing a pair of these animals. Unfortunately the female is yet
too young for breeding. The other heifer is in the zoological garden
at Hamburg.
From recent information it appears that there remains in Sweden
but one specimen, a cow born in 1900, and that the bull in Norway
has also succumbed.
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.¢
By O. F. Herz.
[About the middle of April, 1901, the Imperial Academy of Sciences
of St. Petersburg was informed by V. N. Skripitsin, governor of
Yakutsk, of the discovery of a mammoth in an almost perfect state of
preservation frozen in the cliff along the river Berezovka, the right
tributary of the river Kolyma, about 200 miles northeast of Sredne-
Kolymsk (about 800 miles westward of Bering Strait and some 60
miles within the Arctic Circle).
Thanks to the courtesy of Finance Minister Witte, 16,300 rubles
were assigned for the prompt dispatch of an expedition to examine
and secure this valuable find.
O. F. Herz, a zoologist of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, was
appointed chief of the expedition; E. V. Pfizenmeyer, a zoological
preparator of the same institution, and D. P. Sevastianoff, a geolog-
ical student of the Yuryevck University, his assistants. The expedi-
tion started from St. Petersburg on May 3, 1901, and its chief reached
the mammoth region on September 9. On August 28 the expedition
was joined by Mr. Horn, a police official from Sredne-Kolymsk. |
August 31-September 5.—Upon reaching Mysova, on the Kolyma
River, I was informed that the Cossack Yavlovski had but a few days
previously gone to the mammoth region, about 85 miles distant, hav-
ing understood that the academy expedition would not reach Sredne-
Kolymsk before winter, and that upon his return, in three or four
days, I should be able to continue the journey. Yavlovski arrived on
September 3, and though the tidings he bronght were somewhat dis-
couraging, there was yet hope for success. He had intended to visit
the mammoth region in the spring, but had been hindered by serious
illness, from which he only recently recovered. Were it not for this
mishap he would have covered the find with stones and earth, and thus
prevented it from injury by rain and beasts of prey. Owing to
«Extracts translated from report of O. F. Herz, chief of the expedition of the
Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, to the river Berezovka for excaya-
tion of frozen mammoth. Entire report in Russian in Bulletin of the Imperial
Academy, St. Petersburg, April, 1902 (fifth series, vol. xv1, No. 4). All dates are
in old style.
611
GED FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
unfortunate circumstances, Yavlovski tells me that rains during the
summer had washed a mass of earth down the slope in which the mam-
moth lies, so that bones were torn from the hind part of the body,
the entire back was exposed, and most of the head skin was devoured
by bears and wolves. At the first examination the trunk was already
gone. Yayloyski reported that he had collected all the bones lying
about, placed them on top of the animal, and covered all with earth
and stones, so that no more damage would be likely to result before
my arrival. As he saw no hair or wool on the exposed parts, he
thought that either there had been none or else it had been washed
away by the rains.
I am very sorry I could not see the Lamut, S. Tarabykin, who dis-
covered the mammoth, but he was absent at this time. I can therefore
give the details of the discovery only as related to me, as follows, by
Yavlovski: About the middle of August, 1900, while the Lamut
Tarabykin was chasing a deer, he found a mammoth’s tusk, weighing
about 166 English pounds, a little above the present find, and continu-
ing the search soon discovered the well-preserved head of a second
mammoth protruding from the ground, upon which, however, there
was but one tusk. On account of the superstitious fear that the
Lamuts have of whole mammoth bodies, whose excavation they believe
produces sickness, Tarabykin returned to his tent, about 15 miles dis-
tant, and told of his discovery to the two Lamuts, M. Tapchin and
V. Dietkovy. These two men visited me twice at the place of discovery,
and after persistent inquiry informed me that at the time of finding
the animal the skin upon its head had already partly decayed, and
that there was no trunk, or ‘‘ nose,” as they described it. The Lamuts
said that at the part where they chopped off the tusk, on the day fol-
lowing the discovery, there was left only a small piece of decayed skin.
They believed that the head had been exposed for about a year before
they found it, but insisted that they had never seen it before, as it was
the first time they had visited the place, and that in general they had
never before in their lives seen a mammoth. We must observe that
the Lamut Tapchin was over 90 years old.
At the end of August, 1900, all three Lamuts repaired to Kolyma,
where they sold the two tusks to Yavlovski, telling him that the
smaller tusk, weighing a little over 63 pounds, belonged to a mam-
moth which was probably still in the ground in a good state of
preservation, but which they dared not touch. The Cossack Yay-
lovski, being the more intelligent man, understood the importance of
this discovery and agreed to meet them on the 1st of November and
go with them to see the mammoth. He told the Lamuts that if what
they related was true he would report it to the Emperor, which might
result in the fitting out of an expedition to transport the entire animal
to St. Petersburg. This satisfied the Lamuts, but it is to be regretted
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 613
that Yavlovski did not then instruct them to cover the mammoth with
earth.
Early in November, 1900, Yavlovski, accompanied by the Lamuts,
visited the mammoth. He cuta piece of skin from the head, a similar
piece from the left thigh, and secured a small portion of the stomach,
with its contents, and brought these, together with the tusk, to
Sredne-Kolymsk as proofs of the discovery, giving them to the assist-
ant police commissioner, N. L. Horn, who decided to convince himself
of the importance of the find and then to report the matter to the
governor of Yakutsk. The parts mentioned were therefore forwarded
to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, where they
were due after our departure.
“In the middle of December, Horn and Yavlovski together examined
the mammoth and reported the matter to the governor of Yakutsk,
who in turn forwarded Horn’s report to St. Petersburg.
September 11, 1901.—It was so warm to-day that the soil became
loose and easily handled, and I was able to begin the work of excava-
tion. The mammoth is located a third of a mile from our tents and
35 meters above the present level of the water, on the left bank
of the river Berezovka. The body lies in a cliff that faces east and
extends fora mile in a semicircle. The demolished portion of the cliff
inclines toward the river at an angle of 35° from the upper layer of
earth, over which extend the ‘‘taiga,” or Siberian marshy forest.
The surface of the cliff is 113 meters wide and 55 meters high. The
body of the mammoth is 62 meters back from the bank of the river.
According to measurements I took in different places the upper strata
of earth, covered with a layer of moss, is 30 to 52 centimeters thick.
Beneath this isa loamy mass, one-third loam and two-thirds earth,
averaging 2 meters in thickness, though in some places more than
4 meters thick, mixed with stones, roots, and pieces of wood, with
lamellar plates of ice, 15 to 18 centimeters thick, stretching through
the mass. Underneath this alluvial layer there is a vertical wall of
ice, which stands free for a distance of 5 meters, and in some places
even 7 meters above the mammoth. This ice wall probably inclines
to the river at the same angle as the entire cliff region. I intend to
investigate this wall later. Upon this supposed ice incline are huge
shapeless earth masses and mounds, evidently moved downward dur-
ing heavy rains by the gradual thawing of the ice wall, as well as by
the water which falls from the upper ‘‘taiga” and from the hill, 120
meters high, that rises in the rear of the wall about a sixth of a mile
from the river bank. According to the Lamut natives of the region,
the head of the mammoth was exposed two years ago by this down-
ward movement, or by the breaking away of a considerable mass of
earth; the rest of the body was exposed only at the end of August,
1900.
614 FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
After taking some pictures I commenced to open up the mammoth
mound. The skull was soon exposed. Unfortunately most of the
head skin had been devoured by carnivorous animals during the past
summer. To my greatest surprise I found well-preserved food frag-
ments between the teeth, which serves as proof that our mammoth,
after a short death struggle, died in this very position. The fact that
what we found was food and not substance carried in recently was
later proved by comparing it with the stomach contents.
Upon the left half of the bone between the jaws I could see marks
of the ax which the Lamuts used in chopping off thetusk, and could
thus determine definitely that the tusk that I had seen in Sredne-
Kolymsk was from this particular mammoth, for I had carefully
measured and studied the cuts upon it. The right tusk evidently had
fallen out long ago, for I could find no traces of its forced severance
from ‘the head. The lower jaw. which was fast in the ground, lay
upon a large piece of skin, which appeared later to belong to the
upper part of the chest.
I first gave orders to carefully remove the mound of earth about
the mammoth, beginning with the head. At a depth of 68 centi-
meters we found the left fore leg, still covered with hair on all sides
up to the humerus. The epidermis had apparently completely rotted,
but on account of the moist earth the hair still clung to the skin. In
a frozen condition we may perhaps succeed in getting it to St.
Petersburg.
So far as a preliminary examination can determine, the hair on the
tipper part of the left fore leg consists of a yellowish-brown crumpled
under coat 25 to 30 centimeters long, with a thi¢k upper bristle-like
coat, the hairs of which have ragged ends, are rust-brown, and 10 to
12 centimeters long. The left fore leg is bent, so that it is evident
that the mammoth tried to crawl out of the pit or crevice into which
he probably fell, but apparently he was so badly injured by the fall
that he could not free himself.
Further excavation exposed also the right fore leg, which had
become turned almost horizontally under the abdomen during the
animal’s fall. Only a very insignificant portion of the upper bristly
coat was preserved upon this leg, while the yellowish-brown under
coat was preserved in several places. Upon the left hind leg I also
found portions of decayed flesh, in which the muscular bundles were
easily discernible. The stench emitted by this extremity was unbear-
able, so that it was necessary to stop work every minute. A thorough
washing failed to remove the horrible smell from our hands, and yet
we were obliged to perform part of our task with bare hands.
September 12.—After we removed the earth from under the left leg
the thick hair on the under side came to view, especially that on the
foot joint. Some of this hair fell off with the earth, but the larger
“GNNOY SVM HLOWWYV|A) SHL SYSHM “YSAIY VNAOSSYAG SHL AO MNVG 3HL NO T1IVAA JO
‘| aLV1d ‘ZI9H—' E061 ‘Hoday ueiuosyyIWS
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Herz. PLATE II.
o¥,
Gavin. “wee
THE POSITION OF THE BODY OF THE MAMMOTH (HEAD AND ForRE LEGS) ON THE CLIFF.
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 615
part will be saved by bandages. In the midst of the yellowish-brown
under wool, which in color resembles the summer coat of a young
camel, there are very thickly set hairs of the bristly coat 10 to 12
centimeters long. The color of this hair on the under side of the leg
may best be described as roan, while that on the outer and inner side
up to the middle of the forearm is dark brown, somewhat lighter at
the ends. Five hoof-shaped blunt nails could also be seen at the end
of the digits.
The wool of the left hind leg, varying in color from rust-brown to
roan, was not so thick as upon the fore leg, judging by the loosened
remains of the hair, and the yellowish-brown under coat was here a
little shorter. The length of the ragged end hairs varies from 4 to 12
centimeters. The roots of the hair had rotted away together with
the epiderimis.
After midday we dug away the mound of earth to a depth of 2.4
meters on the right side of the mammoth. In the mound, lying
between the upper layer of earth and the vertical ice wall, roots and
other parts of trees and also bowlders were found lodged. Under
this layer of earth, 24 meters thick, I first struck water ice 18 centi-
meters thick, caused by a thaw; then a thin layer of earth; under this
again another layer of ice, and then the right fore leg of the mammoth
came to view. The wool that had probably covered the upper side of
this leg was entirely gone, most likely torn away by the sliding masses
of ice and earth. The same was true of the wool on the other sides of
the animal.
The right fore leg was so placed as to indicate that the mammoth
after falling had supported himself on this leg while attempting to
step forward with the left one. We concluded that while in this stand-
ing position he became exhausted and died on this very spot, and that
he had by no means been washed there by the water from elsewhere.
The presence of a thick wool shows that the animal was well adapted
to endure cold, and it is improbable that he died from hunger, for a
large quantity of fragments of food was in his stomach. His head
faces south.
September 13.—To-day we took photographs. I searched the vicinity
for bones of other animals and found horns of the northern deer lying
about everywhere.
September 14.—In an effort to find remnants of the trunk, I ordered
that the mound be opened up farther south and southeastward, but I
did not find them. This part was no doubt exposed before the rest
and had long ago either decayed or been devoured. I examined every
shovelful of earth, but I found only indefinite fragments of very brit-
tle hair, and that was all.
A bone found 1.82 meters to the south of the right cavity was sub-
sequently determined to be a part of the skull of a northern deer,
sm 1903 40)
616 FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
After dinner I began clearing the ice away from the right side. Near
the outside of the right fore leg the ice was brownish in color, with
bubbles, and 23 centimeters thick, and 27 centimeters thick over the
sole of the right fore foot, which also faced the south, as did the left
hind leg. Beneath both legs there was a layer of ice 3 centimeters
thick, which, after the final loosening of the animal, was found to
extend beneath the entire body. From the right hind leg northward,
in the direction of the highland, the ice ran thicker, being at first 54,
centimeters, while 86 centimeters from the sole it was 71 centimeters
thick; then came the earth layer. The ice layer, 71 centimeters at its
thickest part, extends to the middle of the right side of the abdomen,
where it becomes 10 centimeters thick.
A very interesting discovery was made at a distance of 13 centime-
ters from the upper edge of the sole of the right hind foot, namely,
the very hairy end of the tail, which was subsequently thawed out and
examined. (See September 21.)
September 15.-—The snow has completely disappeared off the cliff.
I stopped further excavation, however, in order to resume it when
my companions, who were left behind, shall arrive and Mr. Sevas-
tianoff can make the geological survey. In order to be able to dis-
member the mammoth after severe cold weather has set in, I am dis-
posed to build over the animal a structure that can be heated, and for
this purpose I will order, one of these days, the cutting and planing
of timber. Meanwhile I covered the animal with tarpaulin to protect
it from possible snowing under.
September 16.—During clear weather I made a trip to the top of
the hill eastward of here and brought from there some specimens of
mountain flora. I append a sketch of the Berezovka as seen from
there.
September 17.—The cliff region extends along the loop made by the
Berezovka and along the deep channel of this river a half mile farther
south, where it gradually becomes lower. During spring high tide
masses of earth are detached from the cliff.
Further geological research will determine how the cliff region was
formed, and yet, although I am not a geologist, I regard it my duty to
here express my personal views. According to my opinion, the entire
cliff region rests upon a glacier, which was disintegrating and in which
there were deep crevices. The water that flowed down from the
**taiga,” or from the neighboring hills, mixed with earth, stones, and
pieces of wood, gradually filled these crevices. The whole was later
covered with a layer of soil, upon which a rich flora doubtless devel-
oped that served as excellent food for mammoths and other animals.
Whether this flora was identical with the present flora can be deter-
mined only when the food fragments found in the mouth and stomach
of the mammoth shall have been examined and compared with the
NOILVAVOXY AVILYVd YSLIY HLOWNVIN SHL 4O MGSIA AGIS
"HHI AaLV1d ‘ZIQGH— E061 ‘Moday uRluosyyWS
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‘A| alvid ‘ZI2H—' E061 ‘oday uRIUOSsY}ILUS
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 617
plants I collected on the cliff. The upper layer of earth was at that
time probably not yet everywhere firm enough to support the weight
of mammoths, and. probably our specimen broke through into a
erevice, which would account for his position and for the fracture of
such heavy bones as the pelvis and the right forearm. After falling,
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Fic. 1.—Map of the region where the mammoth was found. 1. The river Kolyma. 2. The settle-
ment of Mysova. 38. The river Mysovka. 4. Asmall stream. 5. First night quarters. 6. Mount
Blindo. 7. Hill, 420 meters above sea level. 8. Second night quarters. 9. Hill, 375 meters above
sea level. 10. Third and fourth night quarters. 11. River Beresovka. 12. River Siver. 13. Place
of finding the mammoth. 14. River Kuchurata. 2-13. Route from Mysoya to the place of finding
the mammoth—about 85 miles. The dotted line marks the return route.
the mammoth no doubt tried to crawl out, the position of both fore
legs being peculiarly like that of an animal making such effort, but
the injuries were so serious that his strength gave way and he soon
perished. The pit, 4 meters square, dug with the spade after the
mammoth was removed, showed that the ice wall must be quite deep,
618 FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
probably reaching below the channel of the river. Ata depth of 1.7
meters in this pit I found ice similar to that of the upper part of the
ice wall.
About 100 meters north and even lower than the mammoth’s grave
there is an ice cliff covered by a layer of earth 25 meters thick and
structurally identical with the upper wall. The exposed ice is brown-
ish earthy in color and contains numerous air bubbles, some of them
elongate, averaging 2 to 5 millimeters in length; others spherical,
averaging 1} to 2 millimeters in diameter. Among the bubbles,
which are often connected, there are thin layers of sand or clay that
in places form small lumps. Deeper down in the cliff the ice becomes
more solid and transparent, in some places entirely white and brittle.
After remaining exposed to the air even fora short time this ice again
assumes a'yellowish-brown color and then looks like the old ice. The
ice, on the other hand, which is formed from melted ice and snow is
always transparent, white, and hard, and on account of the longer
vertical air bubbles, which attain a length of over 20 millimeters,
assumes a streaked appearance.
That the ice wall was formed from snow I regard as unlikely,
because the entire mountain faces directly east, and throughout sum-
mer is subjected to the sun’s rays to such an extent that a considerable
portion of the snow must have been melted by these rays as well as
by the heated mass of stones of the neighboring mountain crest. Do
we not see here before us primitive or, as Baron Toll puts it, stone ice,
which resulted from the previous glacial period
It is difficult to presume here the formation of a glacier valley that
could have attained a height of 50 meters, for such a damming of the
water as would cause the formation of a valley can not be admitted
when the depth of the Berezovka is taken into consideration.
September 18.—To-day we moved from the tents into the new
winter house, built under my instructions in the woods, in a place pro-
tected from the northern winds. Toward evening we succeeded in
establishing ourselves and felt quite comfortable, supping near the
fireplace in a well-warmed room.
September 19.—In several pits in the earth I found well-preserved
parts of Betula nana, which no longer grows upon elevated places,
though in well-protected spots one occasionally finds stems about as
thick as a man’s arm.
The timber asssigned for the building of a house over the mammoth
is already cut and prepared and we can commence putting it up as
soon as our fellow-travelers arrive.
Despite the fact that the mammoth is in a frozen condition, the
stench emitted is very disagreeable.
September 20.—At the exact hour of my prediction Mr. Pfizenmeyer
arrived this afternoon with the rest of the transport equipment. To
HL33a, YVIOW SJHL NASML3G (/) SLNVNWAY GOO4 HLIM HLOWWV|A) ZHL SO TINS
a
“A aLvid ‘Z19H— ' E061 HodsaYy UBIUOSUILUS
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Herz. PLATE VI.
LEFT FOR SOOT OF MAMMOTH.
Smithsonian Repert, 1903.—Herz. PLATE VII.
Fig. 1.—RIGHT HINDFOOT OF MAMMOTH.
Fig. 2.—LEFT FOREFOOT OF MAMMOTH.
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 619
my surprise, Mr. Sevastianoff was not with him, as he returned from
Mysova to Sredne-Kolymsk, together with Mr. Horn.
September 21.—To-day, in the winter house, we. began to thaw out
the tail end, which we found on the 14th instant, but soon stopped the
work as all the hair threatened to fall off. This tail end is 22 centi-
meters long and the hairs at the extremity, penetrating an icy-earth
mass, are 10 centimeters long. The hairs stand in bunches around
the end of the tail. When warmed, however, these separate from the
skin, together with the epidermis, only at the very end. Part of the
hair is still fast in the skin. The hairs on the basal end of the tail and
a little farther down are dirty yellow ocher in color, while those at the
distal end are black. The thin ends of the hair are partly broken off.
The hairs at the middle of the tail end are a very few centimeters
longer than the others, and their color is ocher at the base, then black,
and at the very end passes into whitish.
September 25.—Vhe building over the mammoth is fast advancing
toward completion. As we proposed to build this structure below
the upper wall of the skull, we removed the latter, after which we
could take out the remnants of food from between the molars on the
left side. These remnants appear masticated and apparently do not
contain parts of pine needles or larch, but only fragments of various
grasses. The imprint of the tooth crenations is well preserved upon
the food bits. There is also a small quantity of food upon the well-
preserved tongue, but I can secure this only when the lower jaw is
removed.
The most devoted mother could not carry her child more carefully
than I carried these fragments of antediluvial fauna to our winter hut.
When the Lamuts discovered the mammoth they could not see the
fragments of food, for the lower jaw was then still in the ground.
This was confirmed by Tarabykin’s companions, whom I questioned
closely on this point.
September 26.—To-day 1 took the principal measurements of the
mammoth as they are given in the accompanying drawings. I also
collected the plants that are partly under the snow.
September 28.—TYo-day we finished the roof of the house over the
mammoth.
September 30.—To-day we made the first experiments in heating
the house, and the arrangement appears to be excellent. However,
we have yet to build a wooden partition, so that the animal may not
be exposed directly to the fire, however low it may be. But in order
that the mammoth should not freeze it is necessary to keep a steady
fire day and night.
October 1.—As it was found too dark in the house, a second open-
ing was made near the door. To serve as window panes we placed
pieces of ice in both openings and hung an elk’s skin over the door.
620 FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
October 2.—We began this day to clear the earth away from the
occiput and back. Doing this we exposed several broken ribs. We
also dug up several lumbar vertebree which had been torn out by wild
beasts or else forced out by the sliding earth.
Under the right middle part of the abdomen, which was still covered
with earth, we found a yellowish-brown underwool 20 to 30 centi-
meters long, which, however, was so crumpled and mixed with earth
that we saved only a small portion of it.
We also collected and deposited in a bag the underwool and bristles
from the right cheek. The latter are 20 centimeters long and-broken
N
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Fic. 2.—View of mammoth from the South, Sept. 25, 1901, distance 4.5 meters. a—b=1.29 M.;
e—d=0.52 M.; e—f=0.28M.; b—g=0.44 Mm. (sole of foot); h—i=0.37 m. (sole of foot). 1. The
left foreleg and hair. 2. The left hind leg. 3. Right fore leg. 4. Right hind leg. 5. Left tooth
cavity. 6. Right tooth cavity. 7. Ax incision. 8. Part of cheek skin. 9. Eye. 10. Under skull
epidermis. 11. Skin.
off at the ends; the color varies from black to pale blonde; the black
hairs predominate, and are lighter toward the ends.
October 3.—After removing the last layer of earth from the back,
the remains of food in the stomach were exposed. The latter was
badly decayed. We could not continue our work here owing to the
solidly frozen condition of everything. After dinner we removed
the right side of the abdomen in order to permit the access of heat
from the eee into the interior of the body.
October 4.—Before noon we removed the left shoulder blade and
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 621
part of the ribs, and then cleaned part of the stomach, which contained
an immense quantity of food remnants. The walls of the stomach
first exposed were dark coffee-brown, almost black in color, and were
badly decayed and torn, even where they were not injured mechan-
ically.
In the afternoon we severed the left fore leg between the shoulder
and forearm in hopes of saving the wool, which still clung to the leg,
and which might have fallen away during subsequent thawing.
Besides, this amputation was made necessary by the left side of the
abdomen.
October 5.—To-day we first skinned the left side and exposed several
ribs, which were mostly very well preserved. The stomach with its
contents is becoming more and more exposed, while the other organs
are destroyed. Then we skinned the head, of which the following
parts were preserved: The cheeks, the right eyelid with the deep eye-
lash fold, part of the skin from the sinciput, three-fourths of the
upper lip, and the very well-preserved under lip. This latter was also
beset by scattered spines or bristles, which, however, adhered to the
ground and were mixed up with other hair, so that it was impossible
to pick them out. The skin from the head, which was already decayed
in several places, we immediately treated with alum and salt.
In the afternoon we removed the left shoulder, upon which, how-
ever, we allowed the tendon and muscular fibers to remain.
The flesh from under the shoulder, which is fibrous and marbled
with fat, is dark red in color and looks as fresh as well-frozen beef or
horse meat. It looked so appetizing that we wondered for some time
whether we should not taste it, but no one would venture to take it into
his mouth, and horseflesh was given the preference. The dogs cleaned
up whatever mammoth meat was thrown to them.
The layer of fat beneath the skin is 9 centimeters thick. It is
white, odorless, spongy, and readily cut. The flesh between the ribs
and skin, as well as the membrane under the ribs, could easily be pulled
off in separate layers without special effort.
The skin on the left shoulder is 19 millimeters thick, and on the
right side 23 millimeters.
The big bunches of hair that stuck in the frozen ground near the
lower lip, and which belonged to the chin and chest, are 36 centimeters
long, torn as they are. Estimating the broken-off ends to be one-
third the entire length (based on the thickness of the hair at the break),
we may assume that these hairs were approximately 50 centimeters
long. The bristly hairs which stuck in the ground immediately
behind the lower lip are black, while those pointing to the fore legs
are ash-blonde in color. In view of the fact that it is impossible to
pick out these hairs uninjured, I shall save the entire clod of earth in
a frozen state.
622 FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
Of length similar to that of the above-mentioned hairs is the hair
shed from the outer side of the left shoulder blade, which I removed.
Judging by the remnants of the separate hard bristle-like hairs that
I observed on the skin, they were of the same length, extending per-
haps along the back. Beginning with the destroyed epidermis, up to
the very ends, these hairs are ashy or pale bionde in color. The
shoulder bore the longest hair found thus far, and is probably what
has been erroneously called the mammoth mane. The applicability of
this name will be possible only when it shall be proven that no other
part of the mammoth was covered with such long hair.
The hairs upon the belly are reddish-brown at the base, chestnut-
blonde in the middle, and yellowish at the ends.
The hairs on the left cheek are 23 centimeters long, partly chestnut-
brown to black, partly blonde. The under wool is not so thick as on
the other parts of the skin, the hairs being yellowish as everywhere
else, and 35 centimeters long.
The bristle-like hairs of the spine retain their elasticity so long as
they remain in the fresh air, but in the temperature of our winter
house they hardened instantly and became very brittle. I keep every-
thing, therefore, in the fresh air.
October 6.—We bandaged the left fore leg, packed it in hay, then
wrapped it in sackcloth, so that all the wool will probably remain
intact. In Sredne-Kolymsk we shall, in addition, sew all these things
up in skins, of which I have not enough here.
From the stomach we removed about 27 pounds additional of food
remains. We then amputated the right fore leg above the shoulder
blade, cut it open down to the forearm and removed the shoulder
bone, which was broken in the middle, evidently injured when the
mammoth fell. We would gladly have transported the leg intact, but
for its too great weight for one dog sled. The flesh and fat are well
preserved and will be packed for shipment. No hair was found on
the outer and anterior sides of the right fore leg, and from the under
side of this leg I sueceeded in saving only what I found in beautiful
layers in the ice.
I collected bits of blood, which resembled small pieces of potassium
permanganate. When melted, these bits turn into dirty dark-red
spots, which are easily washed off. To the touch they resemble
coarse dry sand. Similar blood occurs also between the stomach and
the sternum, whereas blood that was taken from above the sternum
and the shoulder blades had a bright clay-yellow color, and to the
touch felt like chalk. Separated by a layer of cotton, I put these
two kinds of blood in a bag.
The stench is not near so intolerable as during the first two days,
possibly because we have grown accustomed to it.
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 623
October 7.—To-day we first packed up the right leg and then
resumed the cleaning of the stomach. Those parts of the stomach that
were exposed to the air for any length of time tear even when most
cautiously touched, exactly like the membrane beneath the ribs. I
succeeded, however, in removing from the body a considerable portion
of the stomach with its contents, which I take with me in a good state
of preservation.
In the afternoon we succeeded in exposing that part of the body
which we could not reach before, and which lay all the time in the
frozen ground. This part was 9 centimeters lower than the left fore-
arm, and 13 centimeters lower than than the sole of the left hind foot,
and proved to be the protruded male genital, 86 centimers long above
and 105 centimeters long below; 10 centimeters above the urinary
meatus; the diameter of the flattened-out penis is 19 centimeters.
October 8.—The more the hind part becomes free the more difficult
becomes the work. The left side of the broken pelvis was removed.
The flesh beneath the pelvis is still frozen and hard as stone, just like
the flesh about the shoulder blades. Near the stomach there is a lump
of ice which we must remove little by little. The cross bone or sacrum
was found intact.
October 9.—This morning we cut off the left hind leg and the right
hind one this afternoon. The thigh bones, which were severed with
great difficulty from the frozen meat that surrounds them, were so
strongly connected with the tibia that it was necessary to cut all these
bones out together and dismember them the next day.
The color of the hair of the right hind femur varies from rust-
brown to black. Best of all preserved was the hair in the skin fold
between the genital and the left hind leg. The crumpled hair of the
under wool is 30 to 35 centimeters long; the bristly hair is 32 centi-
meters long. I saved some pathological growths from the right shoul-
der bone, also some layers of hair with exact descriptions as to their
position on the body.
October 10.—After removing about 270 pounds of flesh we started
the raising of the abdominal skin, which turned out to be still quite
bulky and which we had decided must be cut up. After raising the
piece of skin, which weighed about 470 pounds, we discovered, to
our greatest joy, the entire tail of the mammoth, and by means of it
explained the other puzzling point. The joy that possessed us at this
new discovery was so great that, lowering the skin to the ground
again, we gave three loud cheers. We could not decide to cut up
the still intact piece of skin, as we wished to be able to bring this
interesting object intact to the academy.
The tail is short, and consists evidently of 22 to 25 caudal vertebre.
It is not as long as the drawing made under Von Brandt’s supervision,
624 FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA.
and more nearly resembles the tail drawn by Boltunoff, though it
defective in other respects.
The hard bristly hairs, which are broken off to about one-third thei
length, indicate that the end of the tail was covered with long hair
that became fastened in the layer of ice underneath the entire body
These hairs were drawn out of the ice, however, with great care
They are 20 to 25 centimeters long, and, like the bristly hair on th
W
kere ees ead:
Fic. 3.—Side view of mammoth from the east. a—b=1.90 M.; b—c=0.41 M.; d—e=2.04M.; f—g=2.85 m.:
h—i=0.85 M.; h—k=0.52 m.; 1—k—m=0.42 M.; m—n=0.13 M.; n—o=0.32. 1. The left fore leg and
hair. 2. Right hind leg. 3. Under wool. 4. Abdominal fold. 5. Left-tooth cavity. 6. Incision
ofthe ax. 7. Molarteeth. 8. Food remnants. 9. Tail. 10. Shoulder. 11. Ribs. The upper dot-
ted line indicates the edge of the skin on the right side. The lower, the position of the skin of the
abdomen and tail. The tail lies 41 centimeters lowerthanb. 1.9 meters below the tail was pure ice.
anterior side of the left fore leg, rust brown in color, their somewhat
darker color being due to deterioration under the influence of dam p-
ness. Some of the hairs are half a millimeter in diameter at the base
of the tail. On the under side of the tail they stood closer at the
very end and sides. The length of the tail, measured on the under
side, is only 36 centimeters, while its circumference at the base is 32
centimeters.
"GNNO4 SVM
LI HOIHM NI NOILISOg 3HL NI GALONYLSNOOAY 'OYNESUALAd “LG NI WNASNW IWOINO1O0Z 3H1L NI VMAOSSYSG WOUF HLOWW VIA
“WA SLV1d ‘T1aH— €06| ‘}oday UelUOsYyIWS
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Herz. PLATE IX.
FRONT VIEW OF MAMMOTH SKELETON FROM BERESOVKA, MOUNTED IN THE ZOOLOGICAL
MUSEUM IN ST. PETERSBURG.
FROZEN MAMMOTH IN SIBERIA. 625
The width of the anal opening is 28 centimeters, and the length of
the somewhat drawn-out skin extending between the base of ne penis
and that of the tail is 1.32 meters.
The base of the tail, together with the anus, were located 41 centi-
meters lower than the under side of the left hind tibia.
The reason that Boltunoff, in his drawing, figured excrescences on
the fetlocks, which indicate the presence of rudimentary metacarpal
or metatarsal bones, is explained by the fact that the mammoth he
saw in all probability had just such a mass of hair at the bend of the
leg as this mammoth found on the Beresovka.
October 11.—To-day we performed the last operations on the mam-
moth, after which all the parts were brought into the winter house
and securely packed away for transportation.
A SUMMARY OF GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE
SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.¢
By Emite G. Racovirza.
To avoid repetition in the description of the habits of the different
species which we have observed, I propose to group in this chapter a
certain number of ideas relative to the life of the whales in general.
There is much yet to be done on this subject. Many questions have
not been answered, many even have not been asked. It will there-
fore be useful-to sum up in the following pages what is known on
this subject and what I have been able to observe myself, and to group
the questions systematically.
Whales are terrestrial mammals that are modified for an exclusively
aquatic life. The whale seeks its food in the water, but is obliged
to breathe in the air. From these two facts springs all the very
special biology of these creatures, as well as the characters of their
organization.
My most numerous and, I believe, most novel observations have
had for their principal object the necessary respiratory movements of
whales. These movements are very regularly performed and very
characteristic for each species. The greater part of this chapter will
be devoted to them; the remainder will comprise a description of some
other movements which have no bearing on respiration. 1 have
entirely neglected their reproduction and manner of taking food,
because I have had no personal experience on these matters.
RESPIRATORY MOVEMENTS.
The respiration of land mammals is accomplished by means of in-
spirations and expirations succeeding each other at obviously regular
intervals; but when a land mammal plunges into the water its respira-
tory rhythm changes. To aseries of rapid inspirations and expirations
there succeeds a very deep inspiration; then the respiration is sus-
pended during immersion. Upon returning to the surface the diver
makes a long expiration, succeeded by a series of rapid inspirations
«Translated by Frederick W. True from the Zoology of the Voyage of the Belgica,
Cetology, 1903, pp. 5-19.
627
628 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
andexpirations. This respiratory rhythm, which land mammals utilize
only accidentally, forms the normal rhythm of the respiration of the
whales, and, I may add, of all terrestrial vertebrates which are modi-
fied for an exclusively aquatic life (for example, the leatherback turtle,
the water snakes, etc.).
The whale, having returned to the surface after a long immersion,
emits then a prolonged expiration, makes a short inspiration, dives a
little, reappears to breathe, dives again, and thus many times in suc-
cession; then he makes a long inspiration and plunges into the depths
for a considerable time. I will now analyze successively all these
movements.
ee
A.—EXPIRATION, OR ‘* SPOUT.”
This is the only part of the act of breathing which has attracted the
attention of the whalers, and they have given to it the special name of
‘* souffle” in French, or ‘* blow” or ‘‘spout” in English.
1. The moment at which the ** spout” ts produced.—Expiration is
produced exactly at the moment when the summit of the head, on
which the blowhole is placed, arrives at the surface. Therefore, in
general, it is the protuberance of the blowhole which indicates the
presence of the animal. It is, moreover, at this moment the most
prominent part of the body, because whales have the faculty of pro-
truding this part of the blowhole. (I have proved this for the whale-
bone whales, and it is probably true of the toothed whales.) The
movement of the protuberance of the blowhole is very rapid, and
Buchet (1895) is the only one who has pointed this out. Whalers told
him, indeed, that when a whale blows ‘*‘the blowhole forms a very
large protuberance,” which disappears when the animal is dead.
In Balenoptera musculus L. (the sulphurbottom) the median region
of the back often appears before the protuberance of the blowhole.
In the sperm whale that which appears first is the dorsal [hump],
according to the opinion of Beale (1839), who appears to have care-
fully observed these animals. As to the porpoises and the ziphioid
“whales, it is possible that their blowhole is not extensible, but it is also
the top of the head which appears first above water.
2. Duration of the spout.—The duration of the spout is variable and
depends on the size of the whale. The large whales spout longer than
the small ones, and the first spout after sounding is much longer than
the intermediate spoutings. I have estimated it at five or six seconds
for Balenoptera musculus L. (the sulphurbottom) and at three or four
seconds for the humpbacks. Beale (1839) mentions six seconds for the
sperm whale. As to the porpoises, the duration of their spout does
- not exceed two seconds. Whatever the length may be, the spout
always lasts longer than the inspiration. I will return to this subject
in connection with the second part of the respiratory act,
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 629
3. Noise of the spout.—The noise produced by the spout is also very
variable in intensity, in accordance with the size of the animal.
Scarcely perceptible in Delphinus delphis Li. (the common dolphin)
and its allies, it becomes very loud in the small finbacks, louder still
in the right whales and the humpbacks, and of a force truly extraordi-
nary in a Balenoptera musculus L. (sulphurbottom) of great size.
This sound has been compared with good reason to the noise made
by steam escaping from a pipe under pressure; from a brass pipe,
I may add, because very often the spouts of the finbacks possess
remarkable sonorousness. It is not a true emission of voice, because
whales have no vocal cords, but a simple vibration caused by the expul-
sion of air under pressure. The effect is often produced even in man
when the nose is for any reason obstructed by foreign substances.
It is not rare, indeed, to observe whistling sounds which, with a due
allowance for difference in proportions, are of the same nature as the
more or less musical sounds produced by whales. It is in this way
that I explain the bellowings so often described as occurring among
cetaceans. I ought, moreover, to mention that among certain por-
poises it may be that there are special dispositions of parts which
produce noises in a constant manner.
4. Form and appearance of the spout.—The form and appearance of
the spout depend much on the force with which the air stored in the
lungs is expelled; they depend also on the rapidity of motion of the
animals and the state of the atmosphere. Among small whales the
spout is invisible, or very little visible, and the whale must exceed at
least LO meters before its spout will be visible.
The appearance of the spout is that of a mass of white and pearly
vapor. When it is calm and cold and when the whale is quiet or
moves gently, the spout rises vertically in the air in a column more or
less slender according to the species. The right whales emit a very
large spout and the finbacks a small one. As the upper part of the
column becomes enlarged the spout takes the form of a very much
elongated cone, but before the end of the expiration the summit of
this elongated cone spreads out, its outlines become vague, and the
terminal part is transformed into a sort of cloud. At the end of the
expiration the spout detaches itself from the blowhole, rises gently in
the air, and the lower part disappears; it seems to gather itself together
into the upper cloud, and finally the upper cloud also dissolves. This
is noticed especially in the case of the first spout after sounding,
which is always more forceful.
On the other hand, in expirations during the intervening appear-
ances at the surface the column formed by the spout is less high, the
cone which it forms is much less elongated, and its duration in the air
is much less. When the wind blows or when the animal is in rapid
630 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
motion, the column inclines backward and takes on the appearance of
a glass tear. ;
Ancient authors often figured the spouting of different species of
whales, but these figures are as naive as false. One sees that these
venerable cetologists believed that the whales threw up water through
the blowhole, because their figures reproduced conscientiously the
appearance of jets of water and fountains gushing. Baer (1864) was
the first to give a figure obviously exact of the spout of a finback
and of its transformations. He has, nevertheless, drawn it too eylin-
drical. In reality its form is distinctly conical. Henking (1901, figs.
1 and 2) has perfectly given the appearance of the spout of a Bale-
noptera physalus I. (common finback), and the inclination which he
has given it is certainly due to the rapid progression of the animal.
The highest spout is that of Balenoptera musculus L. (the sulphur-
bottom), in spite of what Rawitz (1900) says, who only attributes to it
| meter. All the eyewitnesses agree on this subject, and I estimate
further on the height of the spout of this animal at favorable times at
15 meters (49 feet).
The largest spout is that of Balena mysticetus Li. (bowhead). The
right whales, finbacks, and humpbacks throw up vertical spouts in
‘alm weather, the sperm whale spouts inclined forward at 135° (Beale,
1839), and the large porpoises a very short spout, also inclined.
One reads often in authors that the spout of the finbacks and the
right whales is double, but if one goes to the sources—that is, to the
writings of eyewitnesses and not to those of compilers—one sees that
nothing is in general less proved. Beale (1839) declares plainly that
the spout of the sperm whale is simple and is distinguished on that
account from the spout of the other whales, which is double, but this
seems to apply only to the right whales. Thiercelin (1866, vol. 1),
who seems to have been a conscientious author, declares expressly that
the southern right whale throws ‘ta double column of white vapor,
more or less thick, which rises in the form of a V, of which one branch
is shorter than the other.” Other observations seem to confirm this.
It is otherwise with J/egaptera (humpbacks) and Balenoptera (tin-
backs). Baer (1864) declares that he has observed that the spout of
Balenoptera is simple, and that, moreover, one only sees it double in
looking at the animal from in front. Rawitz (1900) has also seen the
spouts of the humpbacks and of Balenoptera musculus and physalus
single. Henking (1901) also figures it single in B. physalus. I have
always seen it simple, although humpbacks and finbacks have spouted
very near to me, both front view and in profile.
It seems to me that we have to do here with an a priori idea, sug-
gested by the fact that these whales have two openings in the blowhole.
But as these openings are very near together, and as the diameter of the
column formed by the spout is relatively considerable, it seems to me
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 631
difficult to believe that the spout of each orifice can preserve its indi-
viduality. It is not possible, then, to see them separately, even when
one observes the animal from in front, the only position in which one
can theoretically distinguish this duality.
5. Nature of the spout.—The greatest uncertainty has reigned for a
long time as to the nature of the substance thrown out by the whales
when spouting. Aristotle (History of Animals, viir, 2) declares that
‘Sat the same time that it (the dolphin) takes in the water and ejects
it through its blowhole it has a lung, through which it receives the
air and breathes.” The real nature of the cetaceans was thus estab-
lished at this early day, but at the same time also the idea that these
animals throw out water through their blowholes. Pliny (Natural
History) did much to cause this last belief to be adopted by citing
some definite cases. He shows the ‘ physeter * * diluviem
quandam eructans.” (Liber rx, cap. tv.) He even mentions having seen
a killer whale fill and swamp a boat with his spout,—‘* quorum unum
(navigium) mergi vidimus, reflatu belluz oppletum unda.” (Liber rx,
pap. VI.)
Although this idea is absolutely false, it was adopted without dis-
cussion, and only at the beginning of the nineteenth century was the
notion abandoned, not, however, without contest and without its reap-
pearance from time to time. Thus F. Cuvier (1838) still admitted it.
And actually even Bruce (1896), who was the naturalist of the Balena,
maintained it, and Dahl (Henking, 1901, p. 3, note 7) is said to have
established it very recently in the case of a cetacean which he believed
to be a sperm whale.
So far as I know, it was Fabricius (1780), the conscientious observer,
who first expressly said that whales expel only air charged with
vapor, and, following him, I will mention, among those who are
authorities in cetology and have themselves observed cetaceans,
Scoresby (1820), Baer (1826 and 1836), Beale (1839), Bennett (1840),
Holboll (Eschricht, 1849), Baer (1864), Thiercelin (1866), Brierly,
Haglund, Torrell (Lilljeborg, 1866), Seammon (1874), and all recent
cetologists. :
The proofs that whales do not expel water through the nostrils,
but air saturated with vapor, like all mammals without exception, are
many and of different kinds. I will give a brief summary of them,
taking notice of those already given by cetologists and adding those
derived from my own observations.
The spout has neither the form nor the appearance of a jet produced
by water escaping under pressure, but very much the flocculent
appearance of a cloud. It is seen that this cloud is blown along by
the wind, like ordinary vapor; it is seen to spread out and dissolve
in the air and not to fall in a cascade as it would if it were water. It
is absolutely impossible for a conscientious observer to doubt the
sm 1903 41
632 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
reality of these evidences, however little he has witnessed whales blow-
ing close at hand. An observation of this kind alone should suffice to
decide the question, but I have another proof furnished by a more
direct observation. On January 28, 1898, the Belgica was in Charlotte
Bay (Gerlache Strait). We were surrounded by a great school of
humpbacks, and I located myself with the photographic apparatus on
a stage which projected about 2 meters over the gunwales of the ship.
One of the humpbacks came up suddenly under the stage to spout, and
I was entirely enveloped in the animal’s expiration. Under these con-
ditions I was well situated to know whether the humpbacks eject water
or air. I can assure Dahl, Bruce, and all who persistently remain
followers of Aristotle and Pliny that there was not the least bit of
water in the expiration of this whale. I was struck in the face by a
warm and humid wind of a fetid odor, to the consideration of which I
shall return later on.
The anatomical structure of the larynx, of the back of the buccal
cavity, and of the blowhole prohibits the expulsion of water. We
know, indeed, that among all the cetaceans the extremity of the
larynx is prolonged into a very long appendage, which, penetrating
deeply into the canal of the blowhole, completely fills the cavity.
This arrangement is a marvelous adaptation to the necessity which
there is for whales to swallow their prey under water.. The respira-
tory organs are thus completely separated from the digestive organs
in the back of the buccal cavity, the food passing into the esophagus
on each side of the larynx, while the water or the substances with
which it is filled are not able to penetrate into the larynx. This being
established, it is not easy to see how the water can be expelled
through the blowhole, which is completely closed. On the other hand,
one asks in vain what may be the force which could project this water
to such considerable heights as are observed in the case of some spouts.
How is the whale able to produce the necessary pressure in its mouth?
The conformation of this cavity does not permit, in fact, a complete
closing of the mouth even among the toothed whales; on the con-
trary, it is formed in such a manner as to allow the passage of water.
The whalebone whales have in the corners of the mouth veritable
gutters, which are especially well developed in the humpback and are
useful to these animals in expelling the water in which their food
floats.
Thus, in order that the water may be thrown out through the blow-
holes to a great height, it is necessary that it be previously held in the
lungs. I believe that even the most fervent partisans of Aristotle’s
ideas would recoil before such a supposition.
But there is one case in which a liquid is thrown to a considerable
height through the blowholes. That is when the whale is wounded in
the lungs. In this case a jet of blood is often thrown to great height.
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 633
This phenomenon is not peculiar to whales; it is presented by all ani-
mals whose lungs are torn or for any reason filled with blood.
Many conscientious observers, however, think they have proved
that the spout sometimes falls in drops of water. Baer (1864) says
that Captain Kotzebue has seen a whale spout so near the ship that
the spout spread out over the deck, which was covered with little
drops, but these drops were never sufliciently numerous for the water
to collect in a stream. Thiercelin (1866, t. 1) relates that from the
spout of the right whale there fall some small drops of ‘‘ oily matter”
and a certain quantity of water. Lilljeborg (1866) cites Haglund,
who has seen drops of water fall from the lower part of the cloud
formed by the spout, and Torrell, who declares that a little water fell
from a spout onto the deck of the ship, the water probably produced,
he adds, by condensation of the vapor.
All these observations, and others which I have not cited, have been
made in the polar regions, where the temperature of the air is very
low. They could therefore be explained easily by the very rapid
condensation of the water contained in the spout.
Many other explanatory hypotheses have been put forward. It is
claimed that the animal having blown before the protuberance of the
blowhole is completely emerged, the spout draws with it a part of the
surface water and vaporizes it. Baer (1864) does not admit this view.
He observes, very justly, that whales do not spout until the blowhole
is out of the water. On the other hand, the results of an experiment
which he made appeared to him conclusive. He blew under water
with a curved tube and proved that the water was not carried up
except when the orifice of the tube was very close to the surface.
It seems to me that the experiment of Baer demonstrates just the
opposite of what he claims. He has, indeed, demonstrated experi-
mentally that water can be drawn up under certain conditions, and one
can hardly suppose that these conditions are never realized; on the
contrary, it is very probable that they may be sometimes realized.
Baer himself figures a killer which draws up some little drops of
water with the spout. I believe, then, that such occurrences are
possible.
But many authors, and Baer among others, have proposed a differ-
ent explanation. They also believe that the small drops of water
which fall from the spout are from water drawn up, but derived from
that which accumulates in the depression of the blowhole. Rawitz
(1900) combats this view at length with arguments based on the
obliquity of the orifice of the blowhole, which is in the form of a slit,
and on the inclination of the protuberance of the blowhole. I am of
the opinion of Rawitz, but for a reason which seems to me better than
his, because it is unanswerable. We have seen above that the blow-
hole of the whalebone whales is drawn out during the spout into a
634 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
conical projection, which does not present the least depression in which
water could accumulate.
Other authors have attributed the origin of the little drops of water
to that which penetrates into the tube of the blowhole. I do not see
any impossibility in this in principle, but would simply remark that
the seals and penguins that I have observed close at hand never exhib-
ited this phenomenon. «I do not see why the nostrils of the cetaceans
should be less well organized than the nostrils of these animals. I
hardly need say that this last explanation is merely an hypothesis which
is not based on direct observation.
The belief of earlier authors that the whales spout water is certainly
based on defective observations and on the blind credence which was
accorded to all the stories of Aristotle and Pliny. It seems to me
that it is not the same as regards modern authors. I believe. that
with a part of these at least the influence of an a priori idea has been
determinative. To explain the visibility of the spout of the large
whales in the polar regions is an easy matter. It is only necessary to
show that it is common to all the mammals which are found in those
regions and that the phenomenon is observed in winter even in tem-
perate regions. The condensation of water vapor contained in a state
of saturation in the warm expired air produces a ‘‘cloud” (buée)
upon contact with the cold air. It is then natural to associate the
spout of a whale with a normal ‘‘cloud,” only that it is larger, on
account of the size of the animal.
This explanation will not suffice, however, in the case of cetaceans
whose spout is visible even in high temperatures. It is well known
that the sperm whale is found in the tropical seas, where the tempera-
ture of the air is often 30° C., and yet the spout of these animals,
although less considerable than that of the large polar whales, is,
nevertheless, perfectly visible. It is this difficulty of explaining the
visibility of the spout of the large whales in high atmospheric tem-
peratures which has led some authors to affirm that the spout is liquid.
There is also another difficulty which presents itself when one
attempts to go to the root of the matter. It may be asked why the
spout is not visible among the smaller whales if it is a simple ‘* cloud”
(buée).
Rawitz (1900) seeks the explanation of the visibility of the spout in
tropical regions in the high temperature which the cetaceans are said
to possess. He sayson page 94: ‘‘The temperature of the blood of the
large whalebone whales—I believe Kiikenthal or Guldberg has made
the observation—surpasses the highest fever temperature of man.”
But this reference is altogether erroneous. It was Guldberg (1900)
who published the work to which Rawitz referred, and from this
memoir it appears very evident that the temperature of the cetaceans
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 635
is inferior to the normal temperature of man. Indeed, muscular
or rectal temperatures have quite indisputably given 35.4° C. for
Balenoptera musculus Comp. (common finback), according to Guldberg,
and 35.6° C. for Delphinus delphis Cuvier (common dolphin), accord-
ing to Richard and Neuville, and the temperature of the liver (the
warmest organ of the body) 37.8° C. in Phocena communis (harbor
porpoise), according to Davy. Guldberg states on page 69: ‘* We
may therefore regard a temperature of from 36° to 37° C. as the
normal temperature of the cetaceans rather than 38° to 39° C.” He
means the temperature of the liver, which is certainly higher than
that of the lungs and of the air which is contained in them.
If, therefore, the temperature of the cetaceans is sensibly inferior
to that of man, it is much lower than that of the majority of land
mammals, which have a temperature varying around 39° C. This
agrees perfectly with what I have found for the seals and penguins
(Racovitza, 1900, p. 206), animals in all points comparable from a
physiological point of view.
I would therefore place in opposition to the assertions of Rawitz
this general law: The temperature of mammals and birds modified for
an aquatic life, in which the body is surrounded by an insulating layer
of fat, is inferior to the temperature of their terrestrial allies. These
aquatic animals do not produce more heat wherewith to counteract the
cold of the medium which they inhabit, but they lose less. The fat
which envelopes them prevents the loss of heat to such an extent that
a seal which has been dead for twenty-four hours and exposed to a
temperature of —20° C. has the viscera still warm (Racovitza, 1900, p.
207), and a Balenoptera sibbaldi (sulphurbottom) three days after
its death gave 34° C. in the muscles and the blood (Guldberg, 1900).
I would remark here that the fat in cetaceans, seals, and penguins
is not reserve matter, as in terrestrial mammals, but a veritable organ
of defense against cold, and I shallsupport with proofs, in a memoir
which I have in preparation on seals and penguins, this opinion, which
seems a veritable paradox—that aquatic animals which have been
almost exterminated on account of their fat are lean animals.
The explanation given by Rawitz is, therefore, at fault, and, further-
more, if it were true it would not explain why the spout of the small
cetaceans is not visible, since the difference between the temperature
of their body and the external temperature in the intertropical
regions would be sufficient, according to his hypothesis, to produce
condensation.
My friend, Doctor Portier, chief of physiological investigations at
the Sorbonne, has suggested an explanation which seems to me a
good one. The effects of confining gases are known by well-estab-
lished physical experiments. All gases under pressure which are
suddenly liberated undergo an instantaneous reduction of tempera-
636 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
ture, and it is certain that the phenomenon of the expiration of ceta-
ceans can be compared from every point of view with the phenomena
presented by gases under constraint. There is, in effect, a vast pul-
monary reservoir inclosed in a powerful thoracic cage, communicating
with the exterior by an orifice much reduced in comparison with the
capacity of the lungs, and this orifice is opened suddenly at the
moment of expiration. The proof that the air is expelled under strong
pressure is that the spout rises to a very great height and especially
that its emission produces a harsh sound, so characteristic that all
authors have compared it to the escape of steam under pressure.
This idea of Portier’s seems to me to explain admirably all the
peculiarities of the spout; thus, the spout of the small whales is not
seen because their muscular power is feeble and the air escapes under
a minimum pressure. The expiration which follows the first appear-
ance of the whale after sounding is more forceful than the others,
because the animal at the moment of diving has expanded its lungs
more strongly than for ordinary immersions and consequently the air
is under a more considerable pressure.
I do not wish to maintain that the refrigeration consequent upon
the phenomenon of restraint is the sole reason of the visibility of
the spout. It is necessary to make a distinction. In the Tropics it is
certain that the condensation of the vapor is due solely to refrigera-
tion caused by restraint, but in the polar regions the phenomenon of
the buée complicates the causes of this appearance.
6. Odor of the spout.—As 1 have already remarked in another
place (p. 632), the odor of the spout of the humpback is nauseating,
and confirmation of this observation will be found in Baer (1864),
Lilljeborg (1866), Jouan (1882), and other authors whom it is unneces-
sary to cite here. Jouan (1882, p. 12) remarks, indeed, that this is
observed especially among the large species of cetaceans, and that the
spout of the sperm whale is particularly fetid, as it provokes nausea
and ‘* produces the effect of a blister on the skin.” I leave to this
author the entire responsibility of this last assertion, and would recall
simply that the fetidness of the spout is habitual in the large whales
and is not peculiar to the humpbacks.
I have attributed this bad odor somewhat rashly to the bodies of
the animals which have decomposed in the whalebone of the baleen
whales, a fact often observed. Fishes found in the mouth of Bale-
noptera physalus (common finback) in process of decomposition have
been cited, but in addition to the fact that this hypothesis can not be
applied to the sperm whale, which is without whalebone, it is also
incompatible with the arrangement of the respiratory canal, which is
completely isolated from the cavity of the mouth. It is necessary,
therefore, to look for the source of infection in the respiratory appa-
ratus itself.
THE SPOUTING. AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 637
B.— INSPIRATION.
Inspiration is effected immediately after expiration, without an
interval. The protuberance of the blowhole is always the only part
which appears at the moment on the surface, but its form is now quite
different. . The orifice in the whalebone whales, instead of being situ-
ated on the conical eminence as it is during expiration, is now wide
open and the protuberance of the blowhole is so much flattened as to
be confounded with the regular contours of the head. This disposi-
tion is very clearly shown in the photographs [not here reproduced].
In the toothed whales the modification is less, but the orifice of the
blowhole must be wider open than during expiration.
The duration of the inspiration is always less than that of expira-
tion, which can be readily understood. During expiration the orifice
of the blowhole is small, and the air, though projected, it is true, with
violence, is expelled in a column of small diameter. During the
inspiration, on the contrary, the orifice is wide open that the air may
be taken in suddenly. The whale has probably acquired this faculty
of very rapid inspiration in order that it may be exposed for a less
time to the penetration of water into the respiratory apparatus.
I have been able frequently to confirm this extreme rapidity of
inspiration in the finbacks, the humpbacks, and the porpoises, and
many accurate writers have noted it as well as myself. Thiercelin
(1866, vol. 1) states that among all the cetaceans ‘‘the expiration is
very much longer than the inspiration,” and again, ‘* but in all cases,
as soon as this operation has ceased, the blowhole appears to sink so
much that it is necessary to know that the animal needed to inspire in
order not to suppose that it confined itself to the first phase of its
function [of breathing].”. Henking (1901) has observed among the
sulphurbottoms (LB. musculus) that ‘*the inspiration plainly follows
[the expiration] with extraordinary rapidity, and the sounding of the
whale occurs very quickly after the projection of the spout.” Beale
(1839) says that immediately after the sperm whale has blown the
inspiration takes place very quickly, because the snout descends.
Kiikenthal (1903) also maintains from theoretical considerations, on
which I do not wish to insist, that the inspiration must be very short.
But Rawitz (1900, a) compels us to give attention anew to his
statements. He asserts that the inspiration is longer than the expira-
tion and deeper. On what does this author rely as the basis for this
statement? It can only be his own observations, but one can con-
vince oneself as regards their accuracy by running over the lines I
have devoted to the humpback. .And what is the meaning of an
inspiration deeper than an expiration? Does Rawitz imagine that,
everything considered, the whale introduces a larger volume of air
into its lungs than it rejects? He denies also the enlargement of the
638 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
orifice of the blowhole during inspiration, a negation more unfortu-
nate as the fact is undeniable, and he accompanies this opinion. with
an argument which can not be admitted. He says, in effect, that this
enlargement of the blowhole can not serve to accelerate the inspira-
tion in any considerable degree since the nostrils remain always very
narrow compared with the quantity of air inspired. Thus, according
to Rawitz, the difference between the volume of air which can be
taken in by a narrow orifice and that taken in by an orifice ten times
as wide is inconsiderable! I leave to him the responsibility for such
a conclusion.
The entrance of the air into the lungs of the large cetaceans as well
as the expirations produces a certain sound, which is not a *‘ voice,”
but simply a sound produced by the strongly inspired air passing
through the relatively narrow orifice. Sometimes, however, the noise
is more harsh, resembling a dull whistle, and with proper allowance it
resembles that produced sometimes in the nasal canals of terrestrial
animals which are clogged with mucus or any foreign matter.
It is unnecessary to say that the cetaceans breathe air alone, and
that they are as much inconvenienced as any land animals when the
water penetrates into their respiratory organs.
C.—THE INTERMEDIATE IMMERSIONS.
When a cetacean has respired, as seen above, it dives, executing a
rotating movement indicated by the curvature of the body more or
less extended, and thereupon continues to advance under water. There
is seen, then, at the surface after respiration, which has been indicated
by the presence of the protuberance of the blowhole, the slight con-
cavity which marks the rudimentary neck in these animals, then the
back always convex for a distance approaching the posterior extremity
more or less, according to the species. Thus the right whales show a
large part of the back, extending posteriorly beyond the point where
the dorsal fin is located in those cetaceans which possess this part. In
the humpback the back is also shown to a point behind the dorsal fin.
In the finback the dorsal fin is not shown, but the sperm whale shows
its dorsal hump and the porpoises their dorsal fins.
The immersion of the animal proceeds from in front backward,
always ina curved line, and the cetacean disappears without having
shown its tail in any case.
The period of disappearance is longer or shorter, according to the
species, but never exceeds a few minutes. Then the protuberance of
the blowhole reappears, the whale respires, shows its back, and disap-
pears again. The number of these intermediate immersions before
sounding varies according to the species. In general, the whalebone
whales execute but few, the toothed whales very many. In all ceta-
ceans, however, they are characterized by the following: (1) The
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 639
expiration and inspiration, respectively, are shorter than the first expi-
‘ation after sounding and the last inspiration before sounding, and
these respiratory actsare less deep; (2) the interval between reappear-
ances is very short; (8) the animal dives only to a slight depth, a few
meters at most, and generally it keeps immediately below the surface;
(+) the posterior part of the body is always invisible; (5) the whale
during the time it remains under water progresses quite rapidly,
usually in a straight line, but sometimes in a circle when in a narrow
bay where space is limited.
The object of these movements is easy tounderstand. ‘The cetacean
does what all diving animals do. Before plunging, for a very long
time, it makes many rapid respirations, which permit it to reoxygenate
its blood, which has become more or less carbonated since the last
sounding; it also permits the animal to surcharge its blood with oxy-
gen for the succeeding immersion. It follows that the cetaceans which
make the greatest number of ordinary inspirations before sounding
are those which should be able to dive deepest, or at least those which
should be able to remain longest under water. In thisregard it is the
sperm whale which appears to hold the record, for its divings inter-
mediate between soundings are very numerous—60 or 70, says Beale
(1839)—and it is also the whale which remains submerged longest, an
hour and ten minutes to an hour and twenty minutes, or rarely an hour
in the case of large males. The long submersion should be very
important for this whale to enable it to procure its food, which con-
sists of large cuttle-fish, animals living at a great depth, the pursuit of
which must be long and arduous.
The habits of the bottle-nosed whales (//yperoddon) are similar to
those of the sperm whale, and the number of immersions intermediate
between two soundings is very large among them also, as will be seen
later.
D.—SOUNDING.
When the animal has its store of oxygen, it makes a very deep
inspiration in order to carry with it as large a quantity of air as
possible. In this also, the cetaceans are not exceptional, but follow
the course of all diving animals. The back of the whale is shown
immediately, much higher above the surface than in intermediate
immersions. The curve formed by the dorsal line is very convex, the
rotating movement more pronounced, and the back disappears from
the anterior part to the posterior part. What follows is character-
istic for each species. The right whales, the humpbacks, and the
sperm whales show their flukes above water; at this time the head
is directed downward and the axis of the body obliquely. The flukes
are waved in the air two or three times and the animal disappears.
The finbacks do not show their flukes, but describe a strong curve
640 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
approaching a circle. The porpoises jump out of the water and
describe an elongated curve in the air, descending head foremost, with
the body extended.
The whale dives at once obliquely and disappears for a time longer
or shorter, according to the species, but rarely for less than a quarter
of an hour. It reappears and spouts very powerfully and long.
The sounding is characterized, then, among all cetaceans by the fol-
lowing peculiarities (1) It commences with an inspiration deeper than
any other, and ends with an expiration which is also very strong; (2)
the posterior part of the body executes special movements; (3) the
whale dives to a great depth; (4) it remains there very long before it
appears again.
E.—THE TRACK.
Every time a large whale disappears below the surface, it leaves
behind it a slick (grasseur), which is especially plain when the water
is but little agitated. This ‘‘slick” is unquestionably an extremely
thin layer of oil, which spreads on the surface of the water and gives
it the well-known mirror-like appearance. This fact has been observed
and recorded many times already, and there can be no doubt as to its
interpretation.
It is difficult, however, to understand the origin of this oily sub-
stance which the whale leaves behind, for anatomists who have studied
the skin of the cetaceans (Delage, 1885; Kiikenthal, 1889; Rawitz,
1899, among others) have proved the complete absence of sweat
glands or sebaceous glands. The oil can not, then, be derived from
secretions of the skin. Inthe common doJphin, a species which I have
examined in this particular, the skin is entirely without a trace of oil;
it is perfectly dry and does not leave any mark on a well-cleaned glass.
It follows, therefore, that this oil must have some other origin. The
following observations may, perhaps, put us on the track of the truth.
Thiercelin (1866, vol. 1) says regarding the southern right whale: ‘‘Some
little drops of oily matter drop from the spout.” If this observation is
veritied—for it can not be admitted without hesitation—it gives us
the source of the ‘‘ slick” mentioned; but another observation which
I made in Gerlache Strait appears to me to supply a more plausible
explanation. I noticed at the surface of the water, among the fin-
backs and humpbacks of the strait, some irregular masses of a red
color surrounded by ‘‘ slicks.” They were without doubt the excre-
ments of these animals. The seals and penguins had similar excre-
ments, the color of which is explained by the fact that the food of
these animals consists of Huphausia (a small thysanopod crustacean),
which is abundantly provided with red pigment. The Huphausia, like
all planctonic animals, possesses numerous small globules of oil in its
tissues, which must serve as floats in animals which pass their lives in
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 641
the water. This being so, the waste products of digestion of the
mammals and birds which feed upon them must contain oil. It is
therefore possible that the large whales excrete small quantities of
oily matter, which may be the origin of the ‘‘ slicks” observed.
VARIOUS MOVEMENTS EXECUTED BY CETACEANS.
The movements thus far analyzed are the habitual movements, and,
so to speak, permanent in the normal life of the whales, but there are
others which these animals execute under certain conditions which are
special, or exceptional in their lives, and which we must now analyze.
A, Leaps and gambols.—These movements are observed among
many cetaceans, but especially among certain species, in connection
with which they constitute a genuine specific character. The hump-
back is especially prone to leaping out of water, which will be described
in detail in a subsequent chapter. The finbacks do not appear to
indulge in these gambols, but they enter into the habits of the sperm
whale (Beale, 1839). American and English whalers have coined a
word to designate the action of leaping out of water among large
whales. They call it ‘* breaching.” The small porpoises spring out
of water and are known to follow vessels under way and to outstrip
them in speed. Large finbacks are also mentioned which have fol-
lowed boats for a very long time (Rodler, 1888).
L. Resting on the surface.—Right whales and humpbacks have the
habit of remaining motionless at the surface of the water. The
whalers pretend that it is for the purpose of sleeping, but this asser-
tion needs to be confirmed.
It appears from the published observations that this resting on the
water is but rarely observed. I only saw it once during three seasons
which I passed in Gerlache Strait, when our vessel was constantly
surrounded by humpbacks. It has never been observed with certainty
among the finbacks or porpoises. This seems to me to indicate that it
can not be interpreted as a function so normal and periodic as sleep.
But it properly may be asked whether whales sleep at all. I am
inclined to answer this question negatively. During our sojourn in
Gerlache Strait and among the icebergs we heard the whales blow at
all hours of day and night, confirming Jouan’s observation of 1882.
I often observed porpoises following the boats at night, while on the
other hand, Delphinus delphis Li. (common dolphin) caused havoe in
the fishing apparatus used for taking anchovies and sardines at all
times and at all hours of the day and night.
Rodler (1888, p. 274) reports that a steamer was followed by the
same school of cetaceans from Cape Horn to Liverpool, and Moseley
(1892, p. 9) declares that a humpback (J/egaptera) followed the Cha/-
lenger many days. During these voyages the whales must have swum
642 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES,
actively, which excludes the possibility of sleep, even if we admit
that the necessary movements of respiration could be automically per-
formed, as Jouan supposes (1882), for it is not possible to maintain
that the whales could follow automatically a ship the course of which
is variable. ;
It is possible to form three hypotheses regarding the sleep of
whales. One can suppose, first, that they sleep at the bottom of the
sea. Buchet (1895) is of this opinion, and believes what the fishermen
told him on this subject, for he says: ** They [the whales] often emerged
suddenly all around the ship without having been seen at a distance.”
This applies to the heavy whales and the porpoises which would sleep
at night. The fact which Buchet reports as a proof of the correctness
of his opinion is explained in quite another manner. It is not a mat-
ter for astonishment to see animals suddenly appear, which swim as
much as 12’miles an hour (Scoresby, 1820) and can remain under water
more than half an hour.
The opinion of Buchet can not be accepted for many reasons. Ceta-
ceans could sleep but poorly at the bottom of the sea, since they are
obliged to ascend to breathe. When they inhabit deep seas they could
not sleep, for the cetaceans do not dive to a great depth. Their skin
is so delicate that the contact with the bottom would be injurious to
them. I do not believe, therefore, that this first hypothesis can be
maintained.
I will note here merely for reference a curious work of Barkow
(1802) which is connected with the hypothesis which I am about to
examine and which contains the following conclusions: ‘*‘The summer
life of the whalebone whales is preéminently the life of the mammals
depending on atmospheric lungs; their winter life preéminently a sub-
marine life, depending on the abdominal vessels (Darmgefiissleben).”
This author therefore considers the cetaceans as hibernating animals,
which pass a part of their existence at the bottom of the sea. He
reaches this strange deduction as a result of erroneous conclusions,
regarding which I will not enter into details here.
The second hypothesis that can be put forward is also improbable,
namely, that the cetaceans sleep at the surface. It is well known,
indeed, that the cetaceans, which are heavier than the water, could not
maintain themselves at the surface except by swimming. The genus
Balena makes the single exception—the right whales float, but they
float on the back (which is very much heavier than the belly) if they do
not maintain themselves actively in the natural position. This brings
matters to the same point as in the case of the heavy cetaceans—in the
one instance as in the other the blowhole would be below the surface.
The third hypothesis is much more plausible. In sleeping whales
execute automatically the movements necessary to respiration. It is
well known that horses in harness can sleep perfectly well while pull-
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 643
ing a wagon, and that even a man can sleep while marching. There is
nothing, therefore, which, a priori, could prevent our accepting this
hypothesis, but we have seen that the observations cited at the begin-
ning of this paragraph tend rather to cause us to hold that the
cetaceans do not sleep at all. If I dwell on this subject, it is merely
to show its interest and the small amount of data we possess for the
solution of the problem.
C. Migrations.—Cetaceans have often been seen in the open sea,
traveling straight ahead, without sounding; in these cases they are
following a course in search of a new feeding place, or perhaps for
the needs of reproduction.
CONCLUSIONS RELATIVE TO MOVEMENTS.
From this brief inquiry relative to the movements of cetaceans, it
results that these movements vary according to the species. It is this
point which seems to me especially important from a practical point
of view, and in the chapters which follow I shall demonstrate, with
suitable proofs, that it is certainly so, for the species I have been able
to study. I lay down the principle, therefore, that the movements of
cetaceans in the water are specific. In combining the results derived
from observation of movements, with data supplied by dimensions,
form, and color, one becomes able to recognize readily every kind of
whale withas much certainty as if one had the animal at one’s disposal
to dissect—an opportunity which presents itself but rarely.
THE DEPTH TO WHICH CETACEANS DIVE.
I will pass in closing this chapter to the consideration of a funda-
mental question in the biology of the Cetacea—the depth to which
they dive. There are no direct observations for the solution of this
problem and those cetologists who mention it incidentally content
themselves with assertions without proofs. All give very high fig-
ures, and Kikenthal (1900, p. 197) pretends even that cetaceans can
dive more than 1,000 meters (3,281 feet), but without mentioning on
what he bases this assertion. I donot believe that this depth can ever
be attained by these animals; on the contrary, I believe that they can
not exceed a maximum depth of 100 meters (828 feet). Let us examine
into what takes place when a cetacean dives.
First.—The pressure of the water: It is necessary not to forget that
the cetaceans have an aérial respiration—that their pulmonary cavities
are filled with air. On the other hand, we know what takes place when
a mammal is submitted to a pressure of several atmospheres; the gases
dissolve in large quantities in the blood, and when the pressure is
relieved suddenly the surplus of dissolved gas can not be eliminated
by the lungs; the gaseous bubbles form in the capillaries, which
arrest the circulation of the blood and cause death. For man, the
644 THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES.
limit of depth to which he can venture without danger is 30 meters
(98 feet)—that is to say, the pressure of three atmospheres. No mam-
mal confined under nine atmospheres and suddenly released has sur-
vived this treatment; therefore, 90 meters (295 feet) is a limit which
no terrestrial mammal can reach. It may be admitted, however, that
the whale is accustomed little by little to depths more and more. con-
siderable, and in his case to increase the depth he can reach, but it is
not possible to believe that he can annihilate entirely the physical law
of solution of gases in liquids proportional to pressure, nor that he
can prevent the disengagement of these gases when the pressure ceases.
Therefore, in giving to the cetaceans, in view of this supposed adapta- -
tion, a power three times as great as that of the human organism, we
must be close to the truth. I believe, indeed, that this limit of 100 ~
meters which I have assigned to the cetaceans is rather exaggerated.
Second.—The weight: The density of the body of the cetaceans is
less than that of the sea water in the right whale and the sperm
whale; it is a very little superior in the other cetaceans, which sink
when killed. To go down, therefore, it is necessary that the whale
should swim to the bottom. Furthermore, the living cetacean carries
an enormous quantity of air in its lungs, which tends to make it rise
to the surface. :
That being so,.one can imagine the effort required of a cetacean to
plunge to 1,000 meters. It is an effort so enormous that it certainly
surpasses the animal’s muscular power. One should not forget that a
man, whose body is much denser than that of a whale, has to load
himself with a very considerable weight when he wishes to dive into
the sea to depths which exceed a few meters. .I recall that the cos-
tume of a diver weighs 80 kilograms. This is another consideration
which prevents me from believing in the 1,000 meters of Kiikenthal.
Third.—Light: We know that the light of day does not penetrate
deeper than 300 meters (984 feet) and that, furthermore, at this depth
only the chemical rays of the spectrum make their effect felt. One
may say, indeed, that practically, for the eye of a mammal, the illumi-
nated zone does not. pass 50 or 60 meters. If sight is unnecessary. to
the cetaceans which feed upon the plancton, it must, on the contrary,
be indispensable to those which feed on fish and cephalopod mollusks.
What would they do, then, in the depths beyond the limit of illumi-
nation that can be utilized?
fourth.— Food: Whales do not dive for pleasure, they dive in search
of food. But what could they find at 1,000 meters? The fishes on the
banks scarcely inhabit great depths, and the zone where the plancton
is very abundant—that in which the crustaceans live which serve as
food is the zone of the diatoms, that is, the illuminated zone—extends
to about 100 meters, That there is plancton below this zone is not
THE SPOUTING AND MOVEMENTS OF WHALES. 645
doubtful, but why should the cetacean dive down there if it finds what
it needs with less exertion?
Fifth.—The fishing ground: The cetaceans seek in general the
proximity of the coasts, and very often they are seen preferably in
places of little depth. In these places they execute their movements
as usual; they remain under water as long as when in the open sea,
and if they remain there so long it is not in order to have time to
reach great depths, as has been said, but simply because they require
this time to procure food.
These, then, are the considerations which cause me to reject entirely
the ideas of those who believe that the cetaceans can dive to great
depths. I believe, on the contrary, that the cetaceans dive some
dozens of meters, and 100 meters seems to mea limit which can hardly
be exceeded.
The only direct observation that I have been able to find which is
worthy of confidence confirms this opinion. The Japanese take whales
in nets, and in a book on the whale fishery, dating from 1829 (Mobius,
1893), I find the following passage: ** Whales which dive deeper than
18 hiro (27.4 meters) can not be taken in nets except where the bot-
tom does not exceed this depth, but as the Semikoujira (Balena
japonica, right whale of Japan) does not dive below this depth it can
be captured in nets at all depths.”
We see, then, that the right whale does not dive below 28 meters.
The right whale is the one whose density is the least, so that when dead
it floats; the others dive below 28 meters, but does anyone suppose
that the difference can be so great between animals so closely related,
having the same habits and the same structure, as to permit that one
can not exceed 28 meters while the other can exceed 1,000 meters ¢
PROBLEMS ARISING FROM VARIATIONS IN THE DEVEL-
OPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.?
By Prof. Jounson Symineton, M. D., F. R.8., F. R. 8. E.
It is now nearly twenty years since anthropology attained to the
dignity of being awarded a special and independent section in this
association, and I believe it is generally admitted that during this
period the valuable nature of many of the contributions, the vigor of
the discussions, and the large attendance of members have amply
justified the establishment and continued existence of this section.
While the multifarious and diverse nature of the subjects which are
grouped under the term anthropology gives a variety and a breadth
to our proceedings which are very refreshing in this age of minute
specialism, I feel that it adds very considerably to the difficulty of
selecting a subject for a presidential address which will prove of gen-
eral interest.
A survey of the recent advances in our knowledge of the many
important questions which come within the scope of this section would
cover too wide a field for the time at my disposal, while a critical
examination of the various problems that still await solution might
expose me to the temptation of pronouncing opinions on subjects
regarding which I could not speak with any real knowledge or experi-
ence. To avoid such risks I have decided to limit my remarks to a
subject which comes within the range of my own special studies, and
to invite your attention to a consideration of some problems arising
from the variations in the development of the skull and the brain.
Since the institution of this section the development, growth, and
racial peculiarities of both skull and brain, and the relation of these
two organs to each other, have attracted an ever-increasing amount of
attention. The introduction of new and improved methods for the
study of the structure of the brain and the activity of an able band of
experimentalists have revolutionized our knowledge of the anatomy
and physiology of the higher nerve centers.
The value of the results thus obtained is greatly enhanced by the
consciousness that they bear the promise of still greater advances in
« Address by the president to the anthropological section of the British Association
at the Southport meeting, 1903. Reprinted from Report of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, 1903.
647
sm 1903——42
648 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
the near future. If the results obtained by the craniologist haye been
less marked, this arises mainly from the nature of the subject, and is
certainly not due to any lack of energy on their part. Our cranio-
logical collections are continually increasing, and the various prehis-
toric skulleaps from the Neanderthal to the Trinil still form the basis
of interesting and valuable memoirs.
While the additions to our general knowledge of cerebral anatomy
and physiology have been so striking, those’ aspects of these subjects
which are of special anthropological interest have made comparatively
slight progress and can not compare in extent and importance with the
advantages based upon a study of fossil and recent crania. These facts
admit of a ready explanation. Brains of anthropological interest are
usually difficult to procure and to keep, and require the use of special
and complicated methods for their satisfactory examination, while
skulls of the leading races of mankind are readily collected, preserved,
and studied. Hence it follows that the crania in our anthropological
collections are as numerous, well preserved, and varied as the brains
are few in number and defective, both in their state of preservation
and representative character. It may reasonably be anticipated that
improved methods of preservation and the growing recognition on the
part of anthropologists, museum curators, and collectors of the impor-
tance of a study of the brain itself will, to some extent at least, remedy
these defects; but so far as prehistoric man is concerned we can never
hope to have any direct evidence of the condition of his higher nerve
centers, and must depend for an estimate of his cerebral development
upon those more or less perfect skulls which fortunately have resisted
for so many ages the corroding hand of time.
I presume we will all admit that the main value of a good collec-
tion of human skulls depends upon the light which they can be made
to throw upon the relative development of the brains of different races.
Such collections possess few if any brains taken from these or corre-
sponding skulls, and we are thus dependent upon the study of the
skulls alone for an estimate of brain development.
Vigorous attacks have not unfrequently been made upon the cranio-
metric systems at present in general use, and the elaborate tables,
compiled with so much trouble, giving the circumference, diameters,
and corresponding indexes of various parts of the skull, are held to
afford but little information as to the real nature of skull variations,
however useful they may be for purposes of classification. While by
no means prepared to express entire agreement with these critics, I
must admit that craniologists as a whole have concentrated their atten-
tion mainly on the external contour of the skull, and have paid com-
paratively little attention to the form of the cranial cavity. The outer
surface of the cranium presents features which are due to other factors
than brain development, and an examination of the cranial cavity not
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 649
only gives us important information as to brain form, but by affording
a comparison between the external and internal surfaces of the cranial
wall it gives a valuable clew to the real significance of the external
configuration. Beyond determining its capacity we can do but little
toward an exact investigation of the cranial cavity without making a
section of the skull. Forty years ago Professor Huxley, in his work
On the Evidence of Man’s Place in Nature, showed the importance of
a comparison of the basal with the vaulted portion of the skull, and
maintained that until it should become *‘an opprobrium to an ethno-
logical collection to possess a single skull which is not \bisected longi-
tudinally” there would be ‘‘no safe basis for that ethnological
craniology which aspires to give the anatomical characters of the
crania of the different races of mankind.” Professor Cleland and Sir
William Turner have also insisted upon this method of examination,
and only two years ago Prof. D. J. Cunningham, in his presidential
address to this section, quoted with approval the forcible language of
Huxley. The curators of craniological collections appear, however, to
possess an invincible objection to any such treatment of the specimens
under their care. Even in the Hunterian Museum in London, where
Huxley himself worked at this subject, among several thousands of
skulls, scarcely any have been bisected longitudinally or had the
cranial cavity exposed by a section in any other direction. The
method advocated so strongly by Huxley is not only essential to a
thorough study of the relations of basi-cranial axis to the vault of the
cranium and to the facial portion of the skull, but also permits of
rasts being taken of the cranial cavity, a procedure which, I would
venture to suggest, has been too much neglected by craniologists.
Every student of anatomy is familiar with the finger-like depressions
on the inner surface of the cranial wall, which are described as the
impress of the cerebral convolutions; but their exact distribution and
the degree to which they are developed according to age, sex, race,
etc., still remain to be definitely determined. Indeed, there appears
to be a considerable difference of opinion as to the degree of approxi-
mation of the outer surface of the brain to the inner surface of the
cranial wall. Thus the brain is frequently described as lying upon a
water bed, or as swimming in the cerebro-spinal fluid, while Hyrtle
speaks of this fluid as a ‘‘ligamentum suspensorium” for the brain.
Such descriptions are misleading when applied to the relation of the
cerebral convolutions to the skull. There are, it is true, certain parts
of the brain which are surrounded and separated from the skull by a
considerable amount of fluid. These, however, are mainly the lower
portions, such as the medu la oblongata and pons Varolii, which may
be regarded as prolongations of the spinal cord into the cranial cavity.
As they contain the centers controlling the action of the circulatory
and respiratory organs, they are the most vital parts of the central
650 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
nervous system, and hence need special protection. They are not,
however, concerned with the regulation of complicated voluntary
movements, the reception and storage of sensory impressions from
lower centers, and the activity of the various mental processes. These
functions we must associate with the higher parts of the brain, and
especially with the convolutions of the cerebral hemispheres.
If a cast be taken of the cranial cavity and compared with the brain
which had previously been carefully hardened in situ before removal,
it will be found that the cast not only corresponds in its general form
to that of the brain, but shows a considerable number of the cerebral
fissures and convolutions. This molding of the inner surface of the
skull to the adjacent portions of the cerebral hemispheres is usually
much more marked at the base and sides than over the vault. Since
the specific gravity of the brain tissue is higher than that of the
cerebro-spinal fluid, the cerebrum tends to sink toward the base and
the fluid to accumulate over the vault; hence probably these differ-
ences admit of a simple mechanical explanation. Except under abnor-
mal conditions, the amount of cerebro-spinal fluid between the skull
and the cerebral convolutions is so small that from a cast of the cranial
cavity we can obtain not only a good picture of the general shape
and size of the higher parts of the brain, but also various details as
to the convolutionary pattern. This method has been applied with
marked suecess to the determination of the characters of the brain
in various fossil lemurs by Dr. Forsyth Major and Prof. R. Burck-
hardt, and Prof. Gustav Schwalbe has made a large series of such
casts from his craniological collection in Strassburg. The interesting
observations by Schwalbe” on the arrangement of the ‘* impressiones
digitate ” and ‘*juga cerebralia,” and their relation to the cerebral
convolutions in man, the apes, and various other mammals, have
directed special attention to a very interesting field of inquiry. As is
well kuown, the marked prominence at the base of the human skull,
separating the anterior from the middJe fossa, fits into the deep cleft
between the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, and Schwalbe
has shown that this ridge is continued—of course in a much less
marked form—along the inner surface of the lateral wall of the skull,
so that a cast of the cranial cavity presents a shallow but easily recog-
nized groove corresponding to the portion of the Sylvian fissure of the
brain separating the frontal and parietal lobes from the temporal lobe.
Further, there is a distinct depression for the lodgment of the inferior
frontal convolution, and a east of the middle cranial fossa shows tke
three external temporal convolutions.
We must now turn to the consideration of the relations of the outer
surface of the cranium to its inner surface and to the brain. This
@Uber die Beziehungen zwischen Innenform und Aussenform des Schiidels,
Deutsches Archiy fiir klinische Medicin, 1902.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 651
question has engaged the attention of experts as well as the **man in
the street” since the time of Gall and Spurzheim, and one might
naturally suppose that the last word had been said on the subject.
This, however, is far from being the case. All anatomists are agreed
that the essential function of the cranium is to form a box for the sup-
port and protection of the brain, and it is generally conceded thax
during the processes of development and growth the form of the
cranium is modified in response to the stimulus transmitted to it by
the brain. In fact, it is brain growth that determines the form of the
cranium, and not the skull that molds the brain into shape. This
belief, however, need not be accepted without some reservations.
Even the brain may be conceived as being influenced by its immediate
environment. There are probably periods of development when the
form of the brain is modified by the resistance offered by its cover-
ings, and there are certainly stages when the brain does not fully
occupy the cranial cavity.
At an early period in the phylogeny of the vertebrate skull the
structure of the greater part of the cranial wall changes from mem-
branous tissue into cartilage, the portion persisting as membrane
being situated near the median dorsal line. In the higher vertebrates
the rapid and early expansion of the dorsal part of the forebrain is so
marked that the cartilaginous growth fails to keep pace with it, and
more and more of the dorsal wall of the cranium remains membranous,
and subsequently ossifies to form membrane bones. Cartilage, though
constituting a firmer support to the brain than membrane, does not
possess the same capacity of rapid growth and expansion. The head
of a young child is relatively large, and its skull is distinguished from
that of an adult by the small size of the cartilaginous base of the
cranium as compared with the membranous vault. The appearance of
topheaviness in the young skull is gradually obliterated as age advances
by the cartilage continuing slowly to grow after the vault has practi-
cally ceased to enlarge. These changes in the shape of the cranium
are associated with corresponding alterations in that of the brain, and
it appears to me that we have here an illustration of how the conditions
of skull growth may modify the general form of the brain.
Whatever may be the precise influences that determine skull and
brain growth, there can be no doubt but that within certain limits the
external form of the cranium serves as a reliable guide to the shape of
the brain. Statements such as those by Dr. J. Deniker,¢ ‘‘that the
inequalities of the external table of the cranial walls have no relation
whatever with the irregularities of the inner table, and still less have
anything in common with the configuration of the various parts of the
brain,” are of too general and sweeping a character. Indeed, various
observers have drawn attention to the fact that in certain regions the
“The Races of Man, p. 53.
652 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
outer surface of the skull possesses elevations and depressions which
closely correspond to definite fissures and convolutions of the brain.
Many years ago Sir William Turner, who was a pioneer in cranio-
cerebral topography, found that the prominence on the outer surface
of the parietal bone, known to anatomists as the parietal eminence,
was situated directly superficial to a convolution of the parietal lobe
of the brain, which he consequently very appropriately named ‘the
convolution of the’ parietal eminence.” Quite recently Prof. G.
Schwalbe has shown that the position of the third or inferior frontal
convolution is indicated by a prominence on the surface of the cra-
nium in the anterior part of the temple. This area of the brain is of
special interest to all students of cerebral anatomy and physiology,
since it was the discovery by the illustrious French anthropologist
and physician, M. Broca, that the left inferior frontal convolution
was the center for speech, that laid the scientific foundation of our
present knowledge of localization of function in the cerebral cortex.
This convolution is well known to be much more highly developed
in man than in the anthropoid apes, and the presence of a human
cranial speech bump is usually easily demonstrated. The faculty of
speech, however, is such a complicated cerebral function that I would
warn the ‘‘new” phrenologist to be cautious in estimating the loquac-
ity of his friends by the degree of prominence of this part of the
skull, more particularly as there are other and more reliable methods
of observation by which he can estimate this capacity.
In addition to the prominences on the outer surface of the cranium,
corresponding to the conyolutions of the parietal eminence and the
left inferior frontal convolution, the majority of skulls possess a shal-
low groove marking the position of the Sylvian point and the course
of the horizontal limb of the Sylvian fissure. Below these two other
shallow oblique grooves indicate the line of the cerebral fissures which
divide the outer surface of the temporal lobe into its three convolu-
tions, termed ‘‘superior,” ‘‘middle,” and ‘‘inferior.” Most of these
cranial surface markings are partially obscured in the living body by
the temporal muscle, but they are. of interest as showing that in
certain places there is a close correspondence in form between
the external surface of the brain and that of the skull. There are,
however, distinct limitations in the degree to which the various cere-
bral fissures and convolutions impress the inner surface of the cranial
wall, or are represented by inequalities on its outer aspect. Thus
over the vault of the cranium the position of the fissure of Rolando
and the shape of the cerebral convolutions in the so-called motor area,
which lie in relation to this fissure, can not usually be detected from
a cast of the cranial cavity, and are not indicated by depressions or
elevations on the surface of the skull, so that surgeons in planning the
seats of operations necessary to expose the various motor centers have
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 6538
to rely mainly upon certain linear and angular measurements made
from points frequently remote from these centers.
The cranium is not merely a box developed for the support and pro-
tection of the brain, and more or less accurately molded in conformity
with the growth of this organ. Its antero-lateral portions afford
attachments to the muscles of mastication and support the jaws and
teeth, while its posterior part is liable to vary according to the degree
of development of the muscles of the nape of the neck. Next to the
brain the most important factor in determining cranial form is the con-
dition of the organs of mastication—muscles, jaws, and teeth. There
is strong evidence in favor of the view that the evolution of man from
microcephaly to macrocephaly has been associated with the passage
from a macrodontic to a microdontic condition. The modifications in
the form of the cranium due to the influence of the organs of mastica-
tion have been exerted almost entirely upon its external table; hence
external measurements of the cranium, as guides to the shape of the
cranial cavity and indications of brain development, while fairly reli-
able in the higher races, become less and less so as we examine the
skulls of the lower races, of prehistoric man, and of the anthropoid
apes.
One of the most important measurements of the cranium is that
which determines the relation between its length and breadth and thus
divides skulls into long or short, together with an intermediate group
neither distinctly dolichocephalic nor brachycephalic. These meas-
urements are expressed by an index in which the length is taken as
100. If the proportion of breadth to length is 80 or upward, the skull
is brachycephalic; if between 75 and 80, mesaticephalic; and below
75, dolichocephalic. Such a measurement is not so simple a matter
as it might appear at first sight, and craniologists may themselves
be classified into groups according as they have selected the nasion, or
depression at the root of the nose, the glabella, or prominence above
this depression, and the ophryon, a spot just above this prominence,
as the anterior point from which to measure the length. Ina young
child this measurement would practically be the same whichever of
these three points was chosen, and each point would be about the same
distance from the brain. With the appearance of the teeth of the
second detention and the enlargement of the jaws, the frontal bone in
the region of the eyebrows and just above the root of the nose thick-
ens, and its outer table bulges forward so that it is now no longer par-
allel with the inner table. Between these tables air cavities gradually
extend from the nose, forming the frontal sinuses. Although the
existence and significance of these spaces and their influence on the
prominence of the eyebrows were the subject of a fierce controversy
more than half a century ago between the phrenologists and their
654 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
opponents, it is only recently that their variations have been carefully
investigated.
The frontal sinuses are usually supposed to vary according to
the degree of prominence of the glabella and the supraorbital
arches. This, however, is not the case. Thus Schwalbe “ has figured
a skull in which the sinuses do not project as high as the top of
the glabella and supraorbital prominences, and another in which
they extend considerably above these projections. Further, Dr.
Logan Turner,” who has made an extensive investigation into these
cavities, has shown that in the aboriginal Australian, in which this
region of the skull is unusually prominent, the frontal sinuses
are frequently either absent or rudimentary. The ophryon has been
selected by some craniologists as the anterior point from which to
measure the length of the skull, under the impression that the frontal
sinuses do not usually reach above the glabella. Dr. Logan Turner,
however, found that out of 174 skulls in which the frontal sinuses were
present, in 130 the sinuses extended above the ophryon. In 71 skulls
the depth of the sinus at the level of the ophryon varied from 2 to 16
millimeters, the average being 5.2 millimeters, while in the same series
of skulls the depth at the glabella varied from 3 to 18 millimeters, with
an average depth of 8.5 millimeters. It thus appears that the selection
of the ophryon in preference to the glabella, as giving a more accurate
clue to the length of the brain, is based upon erroneous assumptions,
and that neither point can be relied upon in the determination of the
anterior limit of the cranial cavity.
The difficulties of estimating the extent of the cranial cavity by
external measurements and the fallacies that may result from a reli-
ance upon this method are especially marked in the case of the study
of the prehistoric human calyaria, such as the Neanderthal and the
Trinil and the skulls of the anthropoid apes.
Statistics are popularly supposed to be capable of proving almost
anything, and certainly if you allow craniologists to select their own
points from which to measure the length and breadth of the cranium
they will furnish you with tables of measurements showing that one
and the same skull is dolichocephalic, mesaticephalic, and brachy-
cephalic. Let us take as an illustration an extreme case, such as the
skull of an adult male gorilla. Its glabella and supraorbital arches
will be found to project forward, its zygomatic arches outward, and
its transverse occipital crests backward far beyond the anterior,
lateral, and posterior limits of the cranial cavity. These outgrowths
are obviously correlated with the enormous development of the mus-
cles of mastication and those of the back of the neck. In a specimen
«Studien iiber Pithecanthropus erectus,’’ Zeitschrift fir Morphologie und Anthro-
pologie, Bd. 1., 1899.
>The Accessory Sinuses of the Nose, 1901.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 655
in my possession the greatest length of the cranium, i. e., from glabella
to external occipital protuberance, is 195 millimeters, and the greatest
breadth, taken between the outer surfaces of the zygomatic processes
of the temporal bone, is 172 millimeters, giving the marked brachy-
cephalic index of 88.21. The zygomatic processes, however, may
reasonably be objected to as indicating the true breadth, and the side
wall of the cranium just above the line where the root of this process
springs from the squamous portion of the temporal bone will certainly
be much nearer the cranial cavity. Measured in this situation the
breadth of the cranium is 118 millimeters, which gives a length-breadth
index of 60.51, and thus represents the skull as decidedly dolichoce-
phalic. The transverse occipital crests and the point where these
meet in the middle line to form the external occipital protuberance
are much more prominent in the male than in the female gorilla, and
the estimate of the length of the cranium in this male gorilla may be
reduced to 160 millimeters, by selecting the base of the protuberance
in place of its posterior extremity as the posterior end measurement.
This raises the index to 73.75, and places the skull near the mesati-
cephalic group. At the anterior part of the skull the prominent
glabella is separated from the inner table of the skull by large air
sinuses, so that on a median section of the skull the distance from
the glabella to the nearest part of the cranial cavity is 36 millimeters.
We have here, therefore, another outgrowth of the cranial wall which
in an examination of the external surface of the skull obscures the
extent of the cranial cavity. Accordingly the glabella can not be
selected as the anterior point from which to measure the leneth of the
cranium, and must, like the zygomatic arches and occipital protuber-
ance, be excluded from our calculations if we desire to determine a
true length-breadth index. The difficulty, however, is to select a
definite point on the surface of the cranium to represent its anterior
end, which will be free from the objections justly urged against the
glabella. Schwalbe suggests the hinder end of the supraglabellar
fossa, which he states often corresponds to the beginning of a more
or less distinctly marked frontal crest. I have found this point either
difficult to determine or too far back.” Thus in my male gorilla the
posterior end of this fossa formed by the meeting of the two temporal
ridges was 56 millimeters behind the g@labella, and only 24 millimeters
from the bregma, while in the female gorilla the temporal ridges do
not meet, but there is a low median frontal ridge, which may be con-
sidered as bounding posteriorly the supraglabellar fossa. This point
is 22 millimeters from the glabella, and between 50 and 60 millimeters
in front of the bregma.
I would suggest a spot in the median line of the supraglabellar
fossa which is crossed by a transverse line uniting the posterior bor-
656 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
ders of the external angular processes of the frontal bone. 1 admit
this plan is not free from objections, but it possesses the advantages
of being available for both male and female skulls. In my male skull
the selection of this: point diminishes the length of the cranium by 25
millimeters, thus reducing it to 137 millimeters. The breadth being
calculated at 114 millimeters the index is 83.21, and hence distinctly
brachycephalic. The length of the cranial cavity is 118 millimeters
and the breadth 96 millimeters, and the length-breadth index is thus
the brachycephalic one of 81.36.
I have given these somewhat detailed references to the measure-
ments of this gorilla’s skull because they show in a very clear and
obvious manner that from an external examination of the skull one
might easily be misled as to the size and form of the cranial cavity,
and that in order to determine from external measurements the pro-
portions of the cranial cavity, skull outgrowths due to other factors
than brain growth must be rigorously excluded. Further, these
details will serve to emphasize the interesting fact that the gorilla’s
skull is decidedly brachycephalic. This character is by no means
restricted to the gorilla, for it has been clearly proved by Virchow,
Schwalbe, and others that all the anthropoid apes are markedly round-
headed. Ever since the introduction by the illustrious Swedish anthro-
pologist, Anders Retzius, of a classification of skulls according to the
proportions between their length and breadth, great attention has
heen paid to this peculiarity in different races of mankind. It has
been generally held that brachycephaly indicates a higher type of
skull than dolichocephaly, and that the increase in size of the brain in
the higher races has tended to produce a brachycephalic skull. When
the cranial walls are subject to excessive internal pressure, as in hydro-
cephalus, the skull tends to become distinctly brachycephalic, as :
given extent of wall gives a greater internal cavity in a spherical than
an oval form. In estimating the value of this theory as to the evolu-
tionary line upon which the skull has traveled, it is obvious that the
brachycephalic character of the skulls of all the anthropoid apes is a
fact which requires consideration.
Although an adult male gorilla, such as I have selected, presents
in an extreme degree outgrowths from the cranial wall masking the
true form of the cranial cavity, the same condition, though to a less
marked extent, is met with in with the human subject. Further, it is
interesting to note that the length of the skull is more liable to be
increased by such growths than the breadth, since they occur espe-
cially over the lower part of the forehead and to a less degree at the
back of the skull, while the side walls of the cranium in the region of
its greatest breadth generally remain thin.
Few if any fossils have attracted an equal amount of attention or
given rise to such keen controversies as the ‘‘ Neanderthal” and the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 657
*Trinil” skulleaps. According to some authorities, both these skull-
caps are undoubtedly human, while others hold that the ‘* Neanderthal”
belongs to an extinct species of the genus Homo, and the **Trinil” is
the remains of an extinet genus—P/thecanthropus erectus of Dubois—
intermediate between man and the anthropoids. One of the most
obvious and easily recognized peculiarities of these skullcaps is the
very marked prominence of the supraorbital arches. The glabella-
occipital length of the Neanderthal is 204 millimeters, and the greatest
transverse diameter, which is over the parietal region, is 152 milli-
meters—an index of 74.51—while the much smaller Trinil calvaria, with
a length of 181 millimeters and a breadth of 130 milimeters, has an index
of 71.8. Both of these skulls are therefore slightly dolichocephalic.
Schwalbe has corrected these figures by making reductions in their
lengths on account of the frontal ‘‘ outworks,” so that he estimates the
true leneth-breadth index of the Neanderthal as SO and that of the
Trinil as 75.5. These indices, thus raised about 5 per cent, are con-
sidered to represent approximately the length-breadth index of the
cranial cavity. A comparison of the external and internal measure-
ments of many recent skulls with prominent glabelle would, I suspect,
show a greater difference than that calculated by Schwalbe for the
Neanderthal and Trinil specimens. In a male skull, probably an
aboriginal Australian, with a cranial capacity of 1,227 cubic centi-
meters, I found that the glabella-occipital length was 189 millimeters
and the transverse diameter at the parieto-squamous suture 127 milli-
meters, which gives an index of 67.20 and makes the skull decidedly
dolichocephalic. The length of the cranial cavity, however, was 157
millimeters and the breadth 121 millimeters (an index of 77.07 and a
difference of nearly 10 per cent), so that while from external measure-
ments the skull is distinctly dolichocephalic, the proportions of its cavity
are such that it is mesaticephalic. It is probable that many skulls
owe their dolichocephalic reputation simply to the prominence of the
glabella and supraorbital ridges. An excessive development of these
structures is also liable to give the erroneous impression of a retreat-
ing forehead. In the Australian skull just mentioned the thickness of .
the cranial wall at the glabella was 22 millimeters. From this level
upward it gradually thinned, until 45 millimeters above the glabella
it was only 6 milliméters thick. When the bisected skull was placed
in the horizontal position the anterior surface of the frontal bone
sloped from the glabella upward and distinctly backward, while the
posterior or cerebral surface was inclined upward and forward. In
fact, the cranial cavity in this region was separated from the lower
part of the forehead by a wedge-shaped area having its apex upward
and its base below at the glabella.
The cranial wall opposite the glabella is not appreciably thicker in
the Neanderthal calvaria than in the Australian skull to which I have
658 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
already referred, and the form of the cranial cavity is not more masked
by this prominence in the Neanderthal than in many of the existing races.
Although the Neanderthal skull is by no means complete, the base
of the cranium and the face bones being absent, still those parts of
the cranial wall are preserved that are specially related to the portion
of the brain which subserves all the higher mental processes. It
includes the frontal, parietal, and upper part of the oecipital bones,
with parts of the roof of the orbits in front, and of the squamous
division of the temporal bones at the sides. On its inner or cranial
aspect there are markings by which the boundaries between the cere-
brum and the cerebellum can be determined. In a profile view of
such a specimen an inioglabellar line can be drawn which will corre-
spond very closely to the lower boundary of the cerebrum, and indi-
cate a borizontal plane above which the vaulted portion of the skull
must have contained nearly the whole of the cerebrum.
Schwalbe“ has devised a series of measurements to illustrate what
he regards as essential differences between the Neanderthal skullcap
and the corresponding portion of the human skull. From the inio-
glabellar line another is drawn at right angles to the highest part of
the vault, and by comparing the length of these two lines we can
determine the length-height index. According to Schwalbe, this o
40.4 in the Neanderthal, while the minimum in the human skull is !
He further shows that the frontal portion of the vault, as eae
by a glabella-bregmatic line, forms a smaller angle with the base or
inioglabular line, and that a vertical line from the posterior end of
the frontal bone (bregma) cuts the inioglabella farther back than in
the human subject. Professor King, of Galway, attached special
importance to the shape and proportions of the parietal bones, and
more particularly to the fact that their mesial borders are shorter than
the lower or temporal, whereas the reverse is the case in recent man.
This feature is obviously related to the defective expansion of the
Neanderthal vault, and Professor Schwalbe also attributes considerable
significance to this pecularity.
Another distinctive feature of the Neanderthal skull is the relation of
the orbits to the cranial wall. Schwalbe shows that its brain case takes
a much smaller share in the formation of the roof of the orbit than it
does in recent man, and King pointed out that a line from the anterior
inferior angle of the external orbital process of the frontal bone, drawn
at right angles to the inioglabellar line, passed in the Neanderthal in
front of the cranial cavity, whereas in man such a line would have a
considerable portion of the frontal part of the brain case anterior to it.
From the combined results of these and other measurements,
Schwalbe arrives at the very important and interesting contueien that
a PWeber die spec agtashen Merkmale ae Nendo unalone 2 Vornaeall ie
anatomischen Gesellschaft in Bonn, 1901.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 659
the Neanderthal skull possesses a number of important peculiarities
which differentiate it from the skulls of existing man and show an approx-
imation toward those of the anthropoidapes. He maintains that in rec-
ognizing with King” and Cope? the Neanderthal skull as belonging to a
distinct species, lomo Neanderthalensis, he is only following the usual
practice of zoologists and paleontologists, by whom specific characters
are frequently founded upon much less marked differences. He main-
tains that as the Neanderthal skull stands in many of its characters
nearer to the higher anthropoids than to recent man, if the Neanderthal
type is to be included under the term //omo sapiens, then this species
ought to be still more extended, so as to embrace the anthropoids.
It is interesting to turn from a perusal of these opinions recently
advanced by Schwalbe to consider the grounds on which Huxley and
Turner, about forty years ago, opposed the view, which was then
being advocated, that the characters of the Neanderthal skull were so
distinct from those of any of the existing races as to justify the recog-
nition of a new species of the genus Homo. Huxley, while admitting
that it was ‘tthe most pithecoid of human skulls,” yet holds that. it
‘is by no means so isolated as it appears to be at first, but forms in
reality the extreme term of a series leading gradually from it to the
highest and best developed of human crania.” He states that ‘it is
closely approached by certain Australian skulls, and even more nearly
by the skulls of certain ancient people who inhabited Denmark during
the stone period.” ‘Turner’s’ observations led him to adopt a similar
view to that advanced by Huxley. He compared the Neanderthal
ralvaria with savage and British crania in the Anatomical Museum of
the University of Edinburgh, and found among them specimens
closely corresponding to the Neanderthal type.
While yielding to no one in my admiration for the thoroughness
and ability with which Schwalbe has conducted his elaborate and
extensive investigations on this question, I must confess that in my
opinion he has not sufficiently recognized the significance of the large
cranial capacity of the Neanderthal skull in determining the zoolog:.
ical position of its owner, or made sufficient allowance for the great
variations in form which skulls undoubtedly human may present.
The length and breadth of the Neanderthal calvaria are distinctly
greater than in many living races and compensate for its defect in
height, so that it was capable of lodging a brain fully equal in volume
to that of many existing savage races and at least double that of any
anthropoid ape.
A number of the characters upon which Schwalbe relies in differ-
entiating the Neanderthal skullcap are due to an appreciable extent
“The Reputed Fossil Man of the Neanderthal, Journal of Science, 1864.
>The Genealogy of Man, the American Naturalist, Vol. XX VII, 1893.
¢The Fossil Skull Controversy, Journal of Science, 1864,
660 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS.
to the great development of the glabella and supraorbital arches.
Now these processes are well known to present very striking variations
in existing human races. They are usually supposed to be developed
as buttresses for the purpose of affording support to the large upper
jaw and enable it to resist the pressure of the lower jaw due to the con-
traction of the powerful muscles of mastication. These processes, how-
ever, are usually feebly marked in the microcephalic, prognathous, and
macrodont negro skull, and may be well developed in the macrocephalic
and orthognathous skulls of some of the higher races. Indeed, their
variations are too great and their significance too obscure for them to
form a basis for the creation of a new species of man. Both Huxley
and Turner have shown that the low vault of the Neanderthal calvaria
can be closely paralleled by specimens of existing races.
If the characters of the Neanderthal calvaria are so distinctive as to
justify the recognition of a new species, a new genus ought to be
made for the Trinil skullcap. In nearly every respect it is distinctly
lower in type than the Neanderthal, and yet many of the anatomists
who have expressed their opinion on the subject maintain that the
Trinil specimen is distinctly human.
Important and interesting as are the facts which may be ascertained
from a study of a series of skulls regarding the size and form of the
brain, it is evident that there are distinct limits to the knowledge to be
obtained from this source. Much additional information as to racial
characters would undoubtedly be gained had we collections of brains at
all corresponding in number and variety with the skulls in our museums.
We know that asa rule the brains of the less civilized races are smaller
and the convolutions and fissures simpler than those of the more
cultured nations; beyond this but little has been definitely determined.
As the results of investigations in human and comparative anatomy,
physiology, and pathology, we know that definite areas of the cerebral
cortex are-connected with the action of definite groups of muscles, and
that the nervous impulses starting from the organs of smell, sight,
hearing, and common sensibility reach defined cortical fields. All
these, however, do not cover more than a third of the convoluted sur-
face of the brain, and the remaining two-thirds are still toa large
extent a terra incognita so far as their precise function is concerned.
Is there a definite localization of special mental qualities or moral
tendencies, and if so, where are they situated? These are problems of
extreme difficulty, but their interest and importance are difficult to
exaggerate. In the solution of this problem anthropologists are
bound to take an active and important part. When they have col-
lected information as to the relative development of the various parts
of the higher brain in all classes of mankind with the same thorough-
ness with which they have investigated the racial peculiarities of the
skull the question will be within a measurable distance of solution.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE.
By A. B. MryeEr.@
The descriptive images of the lion by the earliest Greek author,
Homer,? are so realistic and true to nature (compare especially in the
Tliad, x1, 544 sqq.), that they must be ascribed to direct observation,¢
yet this does not prove the existence of that animal in Greece in
historic time. Aside from other possibilities, it is uncertain whether
the passages in question originated as late as the entire Homeric epic
on the soil of Asia Minor (Zolia, Ionia), or whether they belong to
earlier continental (Thessalian) collections of hymns. Herodotus,
from about 484 to about 430 B. c., records, in volume vi1, pages 124—
126, of his history, that there are many lions between the Achelous
River in Acarnania and the Nestus, which flows through Abdera, and
this he mentions in connection with the description of Xerxes’s expe-
dition through Macedonia in 480 B. c., when lions killed some draft
camels. This passage is often cited. Aristotle (884-322 B. c.), in
Hist. anim., vit, 28, gives the same range, but seems to have taken
it only from Herodotus.”
On this G. C. Lewis’ remarks:
The scientific character of Aristotle’s researches in natural history gives great
weight to his testimony. As he was a native of Stagira and had resided in Mace-
donia, he may be supposed to have had opportunities for verifying it; and we can
not assume that he blindly followed the account of Herodotus, although at an
interval of about a century he defines the range of the lion by the same two rivers.
«Translation of A. B. Meyer’s ‘“‘Bis wie weit in der historischen Zeit zuriick ist
der Lowe in Griechenland nachweisbar?’’ Reprint from Der Zoologische Garten,
vol. xiv, 1903, pp. 65-73.
>The most important passages among ancient authors who refer to the lion have
been brought together in an interesting manner by H. O. Lenz, in ‘‘Zoologie der
Alten Griechen und Romer,’’ pp. 126-140, Gotha, 1886. Compare also O. Keller,
Tiere des klassischen Altertums, Innsbruck, 1887, and L. Meyer, Handbuch der
griechischen Etymologie, vol. tv., p. 498 sq., Leipzig, 1902.
¢Thus already Pictet, Les origines indo-européennes, vol. 1, p. 422, Paris, 1859,
and O. Schade, Altdeutsches Worterbuch, 2d ed., vol. 11, p. 548a, Halle, 1872-1882.
@ According to Pausanias (second century A. b.), v1, 5, 3, lions sometimes came
down as far as Mount Olympus. The famous athlete (pancratiast) Polydamos,
without shield or weapon, is said to have there slain a large and powerful lion.
Comp. Lenz, Zoologie der Griechen und Romer, p. 84, note 78, 1856.
eThe Lion in Greece; Notes and Queries, second series, vol. vir, p. 82, 1859.
- 661
662 THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE.
Further, arter calling attention to the fact that Aristotle corrected
a nonsensical statement of Herodotus on the act of parturition of the
lion, he adds:
* * * Jt seems very unlikely that Aristotle should have been able to correct
the historian’s account of the parturition of the lioness but not have thought it
worth his while to verify the more obvious and patent fact of the occurrence of the
lion in northern Greece.@
And on page 59 he says:
It is very improbable that * * * he should in two places (i. e., also v1, 31)
have repeated so important a statement as that of the presence of the lion in the
whole of northern Greece, from Abdera in Thrace to the confines of Aolia, without
verification and upon the mere credit of Herodotus, whom he elsewhere designates
as a fabulist and whose errors in natural history he points out and rectifies in several
places.
All this, though not cogent, is so obvious that it 1s easily understood
when the philologist and the historian do not question Herodotus’s
“account, so definitely presented and twice repeated by Aristotle, a
native of that region.”? Nay, J. Beloché even adds: ‘‘That it [the
lion| once spread over the whole peninsula (1. e., also over middle
Greece and the Peloponnesus) is shown by the myths of the Nemean
and Citheronian lions.”“ On the part of philology there is thus
apparently no ground to doubt the ancient tradition that even in
historic time, about 500 B. c., there were lions in a part of Europe
situated near Asia.
Turning from the ancient tradition to the domain of linguistic facts,
«Loe. cit., vol. rx, p. 56, 1860.
’QO. Schrader, Reallexikon der indo-germanischen Altertumskunde, vol.-1, p, 508
1901.
¢Griechische Geschichte, vol. 1, p. 37, note 1, 1893.
“The same was already maintained by Lewis, loc. cit., 1860, and Dawkins and
Sanford have adopted it, as we shall see below, in 1869.
¢Compare, in the first place, W. Schulze, Queestiones epic, p. 70 et seq., Gueter-
slohae, 1892; so already Th. Benfey, Griechisches Wurzellexikon, u, 1, Berlin,
1842; F. A. Pott, Etymologische Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Indo-German-
ischen Sprachen, 2d ed., u, p. 1261, Lemgo, 1867; F, Kauffmann, in Paul und
Braune’s Beitriigen, vol. x1, p. 210, 1887 For the Celtic forms see W Stokes,
Urkeltischer Sprachschatz, edited by A. Bezzenberger (=A. Fick, Vergleichendes
Worterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., yol. 1), p. 242, Gottingen,
1894; for the Slavo-Lettonian, J. Kartowiez (V. Jagic) in the Archiv fiir Slavische
Philologie, vol. 1, p. 364 1877, and A. Briickner, Die Slavischen Fremdwéorter im
Litauischen, pp. 103 and 105, Weimar, 1877; for the old high German, besides O.
Schade, Altdeutsches Worterbuch, 2d ed., vol. 1, p. 547 sq., Halle, 1872-1882; also
O. Bremer in Paul und Braune’s Beitriigen, vol. x1. p. 384-387, 1888, against F
Kauffmann, ibid., vol. xt, p- 207-210, 1887, and H. Palander, Die althochdeutschen
Tiernamen, vol. 1, p. 46 sq., Darmstadt, 1899. Schulze (loc. cit.) considers the Greek
name as the fina! source of all the other European designations, as a genuine Greek
word, while L, Meyer (Handbuch der griechischen Etymologie, vol. 1v, p. 499,
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE. 663
alleled in European Indo-Germanic languages, and this antiquity of
the name makes it probable that it originally denoted an indigenous
animal which could not have been other than the lion. But the
existence of that animal in historic time is not thus proved, and the
fact that philological studies leave us uncertain as to whether the name
originally designated an indigenous animal leads us now to turn to
zoology “ for a possible solution of the problem.
Likewise, if we search among the place names for traces of the |
existence of the lion we gain nothing. True, the word \é@yv (leon)
occurs as the name of a cape near Eretria and Lebena? in Crete, but
these names certainly do not refer to the animal as native to the region,
but merely indicate that the rock suggests a lion in shape.“ What,
then, 1s the attitude of zoologists and paleontologists toward this
question 4
C. I. Sundeyall” expresses himself as follows: *‘ From all this it
becomes very probable that in 330 B. c. lions were still encountered in
Macedonia, though very rare.” It is as little doubted by A. Newton,’
Dupont, Nehring, von Zittel (see below), and others. Dawkins” also
refers, in agreement with Lewis, 7 to Xenophon” (from about 428 until
after 355 B. c.) in regard to the occurrence of the hon in historic time
in South Thracia, and adds: ‘‘It may have extended far over the
Balkan Range into the valley of the Danube within the historic period
of Greece.”’ Flower and Lydekker’ follow Dawkins and Santord
without reserve.
1902) thinks it possibly a word borrowed from a non-Greek linguistic sphere. The
primitive relationship between the European Indo-Germanic lion names is of late
upheld particularly by O. Schrader (Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte, p. 362 sq.,
Jena, 1890, comp. Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 1, p.
508 sq., Strassburg, 1901). I am indebted for the linguistic references to Dr. Oswald
Richter, assistant in the Royal Ethnographical Museum at Dresden.
« As did already Forstemann, Zeitschrift fiir vergleichende Sprachforschung, 1852,
vol. 1 p. 495.
»Lebena itself, which was a Phoenician colony, is named after the cape. Com-
pare Hebrew labi, “‘lion;’? comp. J. J. Egli, Nom. geogr., 2d ed., p. 531, Leipzig,
1898, and H. Lewy, Die semitischen Fremdworter im Griechischen, p. 7, Berlin,
1895.
¢Philostratus expressly mentions Aé@v as well asépakwv among the playsof nature:
* Nature causes mountains and mountain peaks to resemble animalsas . . . the
Cretan lion . . .’* Comp. A. Fick in Bezzenberger’s Beitriigen, vol. xx1, p. 265,
1896.
“ Die Tierarten des Aristoteles, p. 47 sq., Stockholm, 1863.
eOn the Zoology of Ancient Europe, p. 7, London, 1862.
‘ British Pleistocene Mammalia, pt. A, p. xxxiv, 1878.
9 Loe. cit., vol. vit, p. 82, 1859.
4 Cynegaticus x1, 1.
‘See also Dawkins and Sanford, British Pleistocene Mammalia, pt. iii, p. 166, 1869.
J Introduction to the Study of Mammals, p. 504, 1891.
sm 1903——43
664 THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE.
If bones of the recent lion have not yet been found in Greece, it
should be remembered that the limited researches made in that country
render negative evidence of little account. On the other hand, fossil
lion bones are found. Thus only recently, as Dr. T. Kriiper at
Athens informed me, Doctor Skuphos found such a skull. The fossil
cave lion was spread all over Europe during the Diluvial period.
**In Diluvial bone caves of Europe,” says von Zittel,“ *‘the cave lion,
which does not differ from the lion now found in Africa and western
Asia, occurs in solitary examples. In historic time it still inhabited
southern Europe.” Nehring has recently proved the existence of the
Diluvial lion (/e/és spelea Goldf.) in the province of Brandenburg,’
and previously also in Thuringia, Westphalia, Brunswick, Hanover,
and the province of Saxony.° He remarks on that occasion: ‘*As
regards the question of the contemporaneousness of man with /e/7s
speleea, | can not help affirming it on the basis of my excavations in
the gypsum quarry of Thiede (Brunswick).” We may expect an
elaborate treatise by Professor Nehring on the Diluvial lion. He
thinks, as he informed me, that about 20,000 years ago, during the
steppe period, the cave lion roamed in Germany as far north as Bruns-
wick. Dupont considers such fixing of dates impossible, and thinks
that for the present we must be content with establishing the succes-
sion of forms (loc. cit.). He has variously proven the existence of
Felis spelea in Belgium.” Its occurrence in England has been fully
discussed by Dawkins and Sanford,’ who say that it completely dis-
appeared at the end of the Post-Glacial or Quaternary period, and that
no finds of prehistoric time have been made. ‘The same investigators
discuss’ its occurrence also in France, Belgium, Germany, the Car-
pates, Italy, and Sicily. In the latter territory it is supposed (accord-
ing to Falconer) to have existed contemporaneously with man. Thus,
according to paleontological indications, the lion was once spread over
almost entire Europe.
This fossil lion of Europe is, in the opinion of most investigators,
identical with the lion of the present. Such identity was already
asserted by D’Orbigny / in 1858-1861, and, later, Dawkins and Sanford,
in their already quoted work,” in which they treated of the /e/zs
spelea with the utmost completeness and care, arrived at the conclu-
sion ‘‘that there is not one character by which the animal can be dis-
tinguished from the living lion. It must therefore be admitted that
“ Handbuch der Paliontologie, vol. 1v, p. 676, 1892.
” Sitzungsberichte der Gessellschaft Naturforschender Freunde, Berlin, 1899, p. 71 sqq.
¢ Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Verhandlungen, vol. xxv, p. 407, 1893.
“T/ homme pendant les Ages de la pierre, 2d ed., 1873, pp. 80, 89, 114, 118, ete.
€ Loe. cit., pp. 151-160.
J Loe, cit., p. 160-161.
7 Diction hist. nat. (1858-1861), vol. 11, p. 429.
“The British Pleistocene Mammalia, pt. iii, p. 150, 1869,
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE 665
Felis spelxa is specifically identical with the lion now living on the
face of the earth.” For practical reasons they recommend the use of
the designation /¢//s /zo var. spelwa to denote that variety which dur-
ing the Post-Glacial period inhabited the caves of north and west
Europe. In 1890 Nehring” declares, following the opinion of most
modern investigators, that the cave lion, /¢//s spel, is ** nothing else
than a northern variety of the lion [evidently provided with a warm,
shaggy skin] analogous to the northern variety of the tiger which
oecurs at present in south Siberia.” Dupont? likewise observes: ‘* The
lion, the reindeer, and the stag of the Quaternary epoch, in the remains
which have been preserved to us, as much resemble those which live
at present as the ibis which was embalmed thousands of years ago
resembles the ibis which embellishes the shores of the Nile. The
American F?/7s atrow Leidy is also, according to Dawkins and Sanford,
identical with #° /eo var. spelzea, so that its range extended over Europe,
through Russia and north Asia, and, by way of Bering Strait, into
America as far south as Mexico (loe cit., p. 163).
All the deposits in which the bones of the cave lion have been found
in the countries mentioned above are either Post-Glacial or Quater-
nary. But Dawkins and Sanford think it would be rash to, a priori,
exclude the occurrence in the Pliocene time. They also point out that
Aristotle calls the lion ‘* rare,” while Herodotus, one hundred and fifty
years before, could still say there were ‘** many,” and they think that it
decreased during that interval. They then further observe, follow-
ing Lewis,’ that Dio Chrysostomus, 80 or 100 4. D., speaks of the
complete extinction of the lion, so that within four hundred years after
Aristotle it disappeared from Europe.” Lastly, they lay stress upon the
lion in the folklore of the Balkan peoples because this permits the
conclusion of the simultaneous occurrence of the lion with man. This,
too, is based chiefly on the data brought together by G. C. Lewis in
his two extremely readable essays.‘
Whatever weight may be given to the accounts or legends of the
ancients or to the views of modern naturalists on the simultaneous-
ness of man with the cave lion, there is at all events a connection
between the former and present range of the lion, and since lions still
roam not far from Greece its gradual retreat before man and civiliza-
tion to the present limit of its range is not only not unlikely, but, on
the contrary, most probable.
“Tundren und Steppen, 1890, p. 193.
¥La chronologie géologique, Bull. Acad. R. Belgique, 3d series, vol. vit1, No. 12,
1884, p. 18 of the separate copy.
€Loe. cit., vol. vir, p. 83, 1859.
4 See also Dawkins, Die Héhlen und die Ureinwohner Europas, German transla-
tion by Spengel, 1876, p. 62.
¢ Notes and Queries, 2d series, vol. vit, pp. 81-84, 1859, and vol. 1x, pp. 57-59, 1860,
\
666 THE ANTIQUITY OF 'THE LION IN GREECE.
' According to the Old Testament, the lion was common in the Leba-
non region and even on the Jordan. It occurred in Palestine until
the twelfth century (the time of the Crusaders).“ In Syria its exist-
ence can be traced from the earliest historical times to the present
day. According to Perrot and Chipiez,? Amenophis III (1400 x. c.)
is proved to have chased the lion in northern Syria on a large scale.
Only twenty years ago, according to Tristram (loc. cit.), the body of
a lion was brought to Damascus. In Egypt proper, lions but rarely
occurred,’ while in northern Syria they must have been quite numerous.
Ancient writers also— Xenophon, Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny, and others—
speak of lion hunts in Syria and in Arabia. The lions in the latter
country are said to have been more powerful and numerous than in
Lybia. Tristram states that in Mesopotamia the lion is at present
common. Layard, in the middle of the last century, heard its roaring
not far from Bagdad. In the north it occurs on the Tigris as far as
Kalaat Schergat, on the Euphrates as far as Bir,“ and, lastly, in Persia,¢
where the lion is especially found ‘‘tn the forest slopes of the Zagros,”
the chief mountain region of Persia. Abbott mentions the lion
among the animals of Khorasmia.’ On its occurrence in northwest
India, see Blandford (loc. cit.) and Dawkins.”
Considering all this, I hold it not well to be doubted, from reasons
of natural science, that in Herodotus’s time lions still lived in the
regions named by him, and I hold it not impossible that the ancient
lion representations in Greece, such as a lion chase upon a Mycenean
“H. B. Tristram, The Survey of Western Palestine, 1884, p. 17. Comp. also his
Natural History of the Bible, 7th ed., 1883, p. 116 sq.
> Geschichte der Kunst im Altertum: Aegypten, German translation by R. Pietsch-
mann, p. 862, 1884.
¢“The artists of the new empire were encouraged to a frequent representation of
the lion above all through the renewed acquaintance with the animal itself, and one
might think that this Asiatic lion possessed their imagination when they depict lions
either with a very ight mane or with none at all, if both varieties did not appear at
Beni Hassan. At all events the lion with heavy mane is the more original type in
Egyptian art... Only very rarely do the forms of the lion in Egyptian represen-
tations indicate the Assyrian type. The heraldic use of animals upon shields and
pectorals is also of Asiatic origin, appearing in the second Thebean empire in pictures
which exhibit gryphons, jackals, and lions.’’ (Perrot and Chipiez, loc. cit.) Thus
there occur upon Egyptian monuments both the Egyptian and the Asiatic types of
lions (both wild and tamed), with a noticeable difference, which is worth considera-
tion also in other parts of ancient archzeology, as, for instance, in the study of the
Greeks.
@ Nineveh, vol. 11, p. 48, 1849.
¢ Eastern Persia, vol. 1, Zoology and Geology, by W. T. Blandford, 1876, p. 29,
and W. Geiger, Grundriss der Iranischen Philologie, vol. u, pt. 3, p. 382, 1897.
J Narrative of a journey from Heraut to Khiwa, London, 1843, vol. 11, p. 25,
supplement.
gComp. Pictet, Les Origines indo-europ., 2d ed., vol. 1, p. 529, Paris, 1877.
h Die Hohlen, etc., 1876, p. 312.
THE ANTIQUITY OF THE LION IN GREECE. 667
dagger, were made from nature, viz, at a time when the animal still
occurred there ina wild state. Lewis is of a different opinion, and
says:” ** The lions on the gate of Mycene are of great antiquity, but
the occurrence of this animal in works of early art can not be con-
sidered as evidence of his presence in the country. Sculptured lions
occur more than once in connection with Etruscan tombs, and there
is no reason to believe that the lions ever existed in Italy * * *.”
But can this last objection be considered valid?? Besides, not all non-
naturalists are of this opinion, as, for instance, Perrot and Chipiez:¢
‘**Unless we assume—and we have no ground whatever for so doing —
that it was an object imported from without,’ we must admit, not-
withstanding all that has been said to the contrary, that the lion in
those remote times still haunted the mountains of the Peloponnesus
and central Greece, and that the engravers and sculptors, when they
portrayed that animal, were able to do so from nature.” Thus in the
discussion of the earliest historic time more or less subjective opin-
ions come into play, and natural science likewise can consider the
question as solved only when the discovery of recent lion bones under
incontestable circumstances gives positive proof. Of this, however,
there seems little hope. At all events it might be suggested that in
future excavations all animal bones be conscientiously collected and
submitted to experts for examination.
@Loe. cit., vol. vit, p. 81.
> Prof. P. Herrmann, of the Royal Sculpture Collection at Dresden, writes me:
““The view of Lewis, which is based on the lion representations in Etruscan art, and
quoted by you, is absolutely untenable. These Etruscan monuments are a thousand
years younger than the Mycenzean and have, besides, their parallels in the contem-
porary art creations of the Greeks. No archeologist has maintained or will main-
tain of either of them that the lion images appearing on them were made from direct
observation of nature. They are obyiously borrowed from Asia. This shows itself
clearly enough in the absence of the refined and free realism which characterizes the
Mycenzean representations in such a high degree.’? Compare also the chapter
‘“The lion and the lotus,’ in William H. Goodyear’s The Grammar of the Lotus,
London, 1891, pp. 205-211, with plates xxix and xxx (add. 1904).
«Hist. de Part dans Vantiquité. La Gréce primitive, art mycénien, vol. 6, p.
823-826, figs. 402 and 403, 1894.
“1 can not think that the idea of introducing captive lions which may have served
as models for the artists should so lightly be rejected.
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THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
By Prof. Dr. A. WIrEDEMANN. @
The traveler from Cairo ascending the Mokattam mountains sweeps
his gaze westward and his vision is presently arrested by the great
pyramids looming upward in rigid conventional forms on the table-
land across the Nile as reminders of that old civilization of which they
are the best known surviving memorials. In ancient days they must
have been much more imposing than at present, for besides the few
structures now visible, there stood on the opposite elevation more than
100 pyramids, as well as numerous temples and monumental tombs,
while below them on the plain, where only isolated villages are now
seen, there spread out one of the largest cities recorded by ancient
history, Mennefer, ‘‘the beautiful place,” Memphis of the Greeks.
The ‘‘city of the dead.” to which for nearly four thousand years the
inhabitants of this great city were carried to their last rest, is marked |
by the pyramids. The width of this necropolis was not great, scarcely
exceeding 2 kilometers, but its length has been estimated at 30. kilo-
meters. The size of the ‘‘city of the living” was in proportion to
the great necropolis, and under modern European conditions this
would indicate an enormous city, surpassing in extent even the
city of London (about 22 kilometers). We must not forget, how-
ever, that we are in the Orient where the crowding of buildings
together is little in vogue, groups of houses being followed by
broad gardens and fields, then other clusters of houses, or wide
desert tracts, in checkered succession, so that a city is really
nothing more than a collection of several separated localities. Ori-
ental cities also frequently change their location; some portions are
abandoned or become insignificant suburbs, while new quarters spring
up by their sides. Such was the development of Cairo, where, by the
side of the important city of Babylon-on-the-Nile of the old Egyptian
and the Greco-Roman periods, arose old Cairo, which soon surpassed
it. Then, farther north, was developed the modern Cairo. Old Cairo
has to a great extent gradually disappeared, while Babylon, as a small
“Translated from Die Ausgrabungen zu Abusir, von Prof. Dr. A. Wiedemann, in
“Die Umschau,’’? Wochenschrift ueber die Fortschritte auf dem Gesamtgebiet der
Wissenschaft, Technik, Litteratur und Kunst. H. Bechhold, Frankfort-on-the-Main.
Vol. vir, No. 26 (June 20, 1903), pp. 501-504, and No. 27 (June 27, 1903), pp. 532-536.
669
670 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
place, inclosed by the walls of a Roman fortress, survived it. Ancient
Memphis likewise experienced a shifting of its principal center, the
change of position being traced by the locations of the pyramids, for
the Pharaohs liked to build their homes not far from their future
burial places. Thus, at Thebes, the royal palace of Amenophis ITI
was within the precinct of the necropolis, and the same custom was
also observed at Memphis, as proved by the discovery of the remains
of a royal palace beneath the foundations of a temple in the grave-
yard city. From the location of the pyramids and the succession of
their builders it can be inferred that Memphis as a rule spread from
north to south, though occasionally for a brief period the course was
in the opposite. direction. The site of the principal temple alone
remained unchanged, though lesser sanctuaries to the same god might
elsewhere, be erected. Thus the temple of Ptah, the local divinity
of Memphis who was widely believed to have created and to rule the
world, lay between the Nile and the village of Sakkarah, while other
sanctuaries, dedicated to the same god, arose in other parts of the city.
Near the present villages of Gizeh and Sakkarah lie the two necrop-
olis districts of Memphis which have been most assiduously investi-
gated by modern explorers and whose monuments produce a most
imposing impression. A visit to these places is part of the stated
programme of most travelers in Egypt. One frequently gets also a
view of other monuments of the graveyard city that are situated
more to the north and the south, between the above localities. Those
to the north belong to the oldest remains of the kings resident in Mem-
phis, while to the south are buried the rulers of the twelfth dynasty,
who lived about a thousand years later. In the pyramids of Gizeh
mummies of princes of the fourth dynasty were interred, while in those
of Sakkarah they were chiefly of the sixth dynasty. The pyramids
of Abusir, between Gizeh and Sakkarah, were constructed under the
fifth dynasty and for a long time were believed to offer little reward
to the visitor; for although a few isolated and beautiful graves were
found in their neighborhood, they had become covered again by the
sand, so that tourists found here little worth seeing. This circumstance
was an advantage to the necropolis, for absence of strangers means
also freedom from that petty plunder of antiquities dependent on
daily sales which is, on the-whole, more fatal to the monuments than
the wholesale removal of plundered objects to be sold at a distance.
Asa result little excavating has been done here by the Arabs, and as
the connections with Cairo are inconvenient, not much scientific explo-
ration has been carried on. And yet such a work would have been
profitable, as proved by the results of the excavations made by the
Germans in the field of ruins during the last few years and which are
briefly described in the following pages.
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT: 671
The attention of the first scholars who visited the graveyard of
Abusir was attracted by the ruins on its northern end, near the open-
ing of a shallow desert valley into the arable country. It gave the
impression of a pyramid which, from a casual investigation, was
ascribed to King Ra-en-user, of the fifth dynasty. Superficial excava-
tions, especiaily those of Villiers Stuart, the English member of Par-
liament, brought to light temple remains buried underground. ‘Thus
matters stood untilabout 1898, when it was found that Arabian antiquity
traders had here discovered a series of reliefs, which came to the
Museum of Berlin. The subjects and the execution of these reliefs
were interesting enough to make scientific excavations on that site
desirable before all the antiquities there buried should become the
prey of the natives and scattered to all quarters of the compass. The
Berlin Museum undertook the work, for which Dr. Freiherr von Biss-
Fic. 1.—Reconstruction of sun sanctuary, (From Borchardt.)
ing furnished the necessary funds, and during the winters of 1898 to
1901 Drs. L. Borchardt and H. Schiifer brought the excavation
work to a conclusion. There is as yet no final publication giving the
completed results of their investigations, but from the preliminary
reports it is possible to obtain an accurate survey of the essential
achievements.
At the rear end of a rectangular walled inclosure, 75 meters wide
and 100 meters long, there rose a pyramid with a blunted top, from
the center of which projected an obelisk. (See fig. 1.) Within the
court stood an altar constructed of gigantic alabaster blocks, and
near it on one side were sunken channels, leading to alabaster basins,
evidently to carry off the blood of the victims from the immediate
vicinity of the altar. Behind the channels were numerous storerooms,
while the east and south sides were occupied with passages whose
672 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
walls were once faced with slabs of limestone decorated with reliefs
partly still preserved. Opposite the altar a gateway led into the large
inclosure. An inclined pathway led to the gate, and thus connected
the plain with the elevated sanctuary. The lower end of the pathway
terminated in a monumental gateway which stood within another
walled inclosure. The latter inclosed a quadrangular space about
300 meters square, which, with much exaggeration, was called a
‘city,’ though in reality the only residences here were those of the
priests and officers stationed in the building. In addition to these
3orchardt discovered outside the sanctuary, toward the south, brick
masonry beside which lay remnants of decayed wood. As may be
concluded from the form of the entire find, there once stood here a
larve wooden sacred bark resting upon brick foundations.
The reliefs just mentioned represent, first of all, some of the cere-
monies accompanying the founding of an Egyptian sanctuary. The
king and the goddess of the right measure determine the axis of the
temple, make the opening for the foundation, offer the sacrifices of
the corner stone, ete. Then the celebration of the Sed festival is
depicted as it is also seen in the reliefs of numerous temples of the
classical period of Egypt. The king sits upon a throne, then he
descends the steps leading to the throne and is carried about on a
chair. The people fall down before him; priests and officials follow
him. Then he appears in various festal robes, his feet are washed,
the royal children are brought in sedans, rows of sacred animals are
led by, ete. Every representation of this festival formerly existed in
duplicate, the Pharaoh performing these ceremonies on one side of
the temple, being decorated with the insignia of a king of Upper
Egypt, while on the other side he wears the vestments of a king of
Lower Egypt. It is regretted that so far no explanation can be given
of the object of the Sed festival, though it is so often mentioned in
the inscriptions. In most cases the king appears to have celebrated
the festival for the first time thirty years after his appointment as
Pharaoh or crown prince, and then repeatedly at shorter intervals.
It was at all events combined with religious solemnities, especially
with the erection of obelisks, and it may be that the sanctuary
described above was established on such an occasion.
Still more interesting than these reliefs are others representing the
divinities of the Egyptian seasons in human form and behind them
the images of the objects characteristic of each season. Plants and
trees are depicted; birds flutter about or rest in their nests; fishes
swim in the water; animals beget and bring forth young; men are
2?
engaged in fishing and fowling; they construct and use boats, till the
soil, harvest figs and honey, brew beer, hunt in the desert, and raise
cattle. Similar representations occur in the tombs of the so-called old
Empire of Egypt (about 3000 B. c.) as pictures of the daily life in the
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT. 6738
valley of the Nile, but those of our sanctuary are marked by greater
unity of arrangement and completeness of grouping. Only a few of
the ordinary customs of life appear in the decoration of temples of
later times. It is evident that in ancient times daily life was held to
be more worthy of preservation, while in later periods only the sublime
objects, rather than the doings of every day, were deemed worthy of
representation on reliefs in the house of God.
From what has been said it can readily be inferred that the strue-
ture described was not a pyramid tomb, but rather a sanctuary in
whose inclosure sacrifices were offered upon an altar erected in the
open court. Such altars in the open air belonged to the sun god.
This deity was first of all embodied in his planet in the sky, whence he
could look down upon the gifts and where he could receive the smoke
of the burnt offerings. Buta god afar off did not satisfy the ancient
Egyptians in their worship. The god must be near the altar, where
he could have the full benefit of the sacrifices, and usually this object
was attained by having close at hand the sacred animal or the statue
or emblem serving as the embodiment of the god, and which actually
became to them the very god himself. This was the case in Abusir.
The pyramid obelisk, before which the altar stands, is the sun god in
the form in which he dwelt in the holy of holies of the temple of his
most holy city of the valley of the Nile, named for him Heliopolis,
**the city of the sun.” Behind sealed doors, opening only to the elect,
there stood a conical stone as divinity. Such a form of deity is often
met with among the Semitic tribes, but whether their influences intro-
duced it into Heliopolis or whether the natives of the valley of the.
Nile had similar conceptions of the sacredness of stones is still unde-
termined. All that is known is that from most ancient times the deity
was here represented in this manner, but that in the course of centu-
ries there arose an uncertainty as to the exact form of the conical
stone, it being once conceived as a pyramid, then as an obelisk, and
later, as at Abusir, as a combination of both. Near the god there
stood in the temple two sacred barks used by the sun god for his jour-
ney across the heavenly ocean. One in the forenoon bore the newly
resurrected sun, while the other in the afternoon carried the dying
planet as it descended from the zenith. Similar to this was the group-
ing of the sacred objects at Abusir. The remnants of one of the barks
was discovered during the recent excavations, but the other is still
covered by the desert sands.
In the district of Memphis, however, the sun god was a stranger.
Originally there reigned here Ptah, the god of Memphis, and Sokaris,
the god of the adjoining district of Letopolis, the sparrow-hawk-
headed prince of the realm of the dead, who gave his name to Sak-
karah. When the fifth dynasty, whose members claimed descent from
the sun god, ascended the throne, the kings endeavored to introduce
674 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
the worship of their heavenly ancestor also into the district of their
capital. He could be sure here of a ready reception, for the Egyptian
gods were not exclusive and were always ready to make room fer
other heavenly powers in the sanctuaries as long as their own cult
was not prejudiced by it. The inscriptions teach us that gradually
several pyramid obelisks were erected in the vicinity of Memphis.
According to the Egyptian view, at the moment when the image of
a god was completed in the prescribed form there came into existence
a new god, and in the study of these structures this belief is of funda-
mental importance. The new god was equipped with all the rights
and duties of the original divinity who was imitated by the image.
He lived as long as the image lasted, and after its destruction passed
away as a dead god into the other world. On this account old images
of gods were occasionally buried in order to give the corpse of the
god a proper resting place. The logical contradiction appearing in
the juxtaposition of numerous similar divinities, as shown by the
multitude of divine images, disturbed the Egyptians no more than did
the many other unlogical elements which the sun-god religion presents
to modern critics. The object of worship in the edifice of Ra-en-user
was accordingly the representation of the sun god newly created by
the King; for him were intended the sacrifices which were offered
upon the large altar. From the platform upon which the sanctuary
stood the god could look down upon the worshipping multitude as it
approached him. The discovery of this god image and its place of
worship was the achievement of the excavations just described.
From what has been said it follows that the northernmost large
mound of ruins at Abusir did not contain the tomb of King Ra-en-
user. Succeeding investigations made it clear that this must be some-
what south of the sanctuary beneath a shapeless heap of débris, about
thirty meters high, the remains of a pyramid adjoined on its eastern
side by a large field of ruins. The excavations of the German Orient
Society, under the direction of Dr. L. Borchardt, have since 1901 been
devoted to this site. In the pyramid, which had already been opened,
little of importance could be expected, but the adjoining field of ruins
that covered the mortuary temple of Ra-en-user was more promising.
Sanctuaries serving the same object had already been discovered near
other pyramids. The temple recently examined made it possible to
follow up, with their aid, the development of beliefs in the relation
of the living to the dead in the early times of Egypt.
The tomb was at first nothing but a hole in the desert sand, into
which the earthly remains of the dead were laid either in parts or the
entire body, as skeleton or mummy, with or without a coffin. By
their side were placed some pots and bowls with food and drink for
the deceased, whose physical needs were the same in the other world
as in this. Gradually it became the custom to furnish the graves
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT. 675
more elaborately, until the gifts were so numerous that the simple
grave could no longer hold them. Other rooms were then added, and
the grave became a storehouse in which the gifts were placed either
whole or broken into fragments. In the former case it was assumed
that the deceased would himself use them in the grave which formed
his dwelling place ; in the latter case it was believed that he sojourned
in the other world in an abode which was the counterpart of his
grave. The new body corresponded to the corpse, and in the same
manner the fragments had their real counterparts. In place of real
offerings plastic imitations were frequently substituted, especially in
later times, or their images were merely painted on the walls of the
tomb, and aided by magical formula the dead could give them real
existence. Such pictorial offerings were less costly and were less
exposed to decay than real objects, and could afford the necessary basis
for the constant renovation of the food articles and other needful
things.
These tomb structures at first lacked a place of worship. As no
offerings were found in the earth above the grave to indicate that
ceremonies were observed after the inter-
ment, it is inferred that in the most ancient
time the obligations of the survivors ended
with the burial, so that the deceased could
afterwards claim no more gifts. This con-
ception, however, gradually underwent a
change, and it was considered requisite for
the welfare of the departed that from time to ¢&—zsereu \
time new sacrifices should be consecrated to pre, 2—sun obelisk, from a con-
him and gifts be presented at his resting temporary relict,
place. Rooms separate from the graye chamber became desirable, and
such rooms indeed appear in Egyptian tombs from about the time of
the pyramids until the passing away of the old religion. These are
above the earth, separate from the inaccessible grave, and are open to
visits from the living.
In the pyramids the grave proper was in the closed interior of the
structure, where the offerings were placed next to the coflin, or, since
the fifth dynasty, were painted on the walls. In front of the pyra-
mid there was sometimes erected a mortuary temple. The oldest edi-
fice of this kind known was at the pyramid of King Snefru, a ruler
during whose reign the transition from the later stone age to that of
the strictly historical dynasties in its various directions was accom-
plished. This building is unfortunately for the most part destroyed,
there remaining only a covered winding path that led to a small room
containing an altar and adjoining the pyramid. At the temple of the
pyramid Chefren, which is in a better state of preservation, a straight
passage leads between storerooms to the sacrificial hall, while in the
676 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
temple of Mycerinus storerooms lie to the right and left of the holy
of holies. The importance given to storage places in these build-
ing plans shows the old significance of the tomb as a repository for
the dead, the place of worship being only a secondary consideration.
In the later mortuary temples of the period following from about
2000 B. c. this relation isreversed. It is true they still have storerooms
for the treasures of the sanctuaries, but they are of less importance
in the general plan. The temple has here become essential. Such a
change was made necessary by the development of the Egyptian
religion, for no longer was it the real gift or action that was impor-
tant, but the magical formula. If one wished to convey something to
the deceased, he was more certain of success by pronouncing the pre-
scribed magical words than by the offering of real objects.
This transition from the old temple with storerooms to the later cult
temple, which heretofore had only been surmised, is now made clear by
the excavations at Abusir. Here is found a complete temple with the
usual arrangement of later times. In the rear rises the holy of holies
not far from the pyramid. In front of it isa broad, covered room cor-
responding to the later covered court and leading to the open court,
around which a covered passage runs. Its back wall is formed by the
terminating masonry of the temple, while its front rests on tastefully
shaped columns carved with papyrus designs. Inthe middle of the court
a rain basin is sunk, from which an outflow leads outside the court.
This construction proves that the middle part of the court was from
the first intended to be uncovered, and it also refutes the still
frequently repeated assertion that no rain fell in ancient times in
Egypt. At a more recent period the Egyptian temple terminated
with such an open court, its entrance forming a monumental, fortress-
like gate, the so-called ** pylon,” but at Abusir this was not yet the case.
A simple door here leads into the court and a long passage leads up to
it from the opposite direction. To the right and left of the passage
are storerooms that have their continuation in still other passages
surrounding the entire building and even extending to the north of
the temple in front of the pyramid. At the end of the main passage
is the entrance door, which was reached from the plain of Memphis
by a slanting, inclined path. The storeroom plan is thus still retained,
but it is only externally, not organically, attached to the cult rooms,
which on their part have become an independent temple.
The temple just described is not located before the center of the
pyramid, but before the southern part of the east side. In the course
of the excavations at Abusir it turned out that the storerooms of the
temple extended northward on the east side of the pyramid, and that
between them and the center of the pyramid there was a large struc-
ture which on the front side of the pyramid was shut off by a large
blind door, This building was not the holy of holies, or sanetum, of
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT. 677
the pyramid temple, as it was supposed; for the sanctum—the room
in which the solemn sacrifices were performed-—was in Egypt, as else-
where, an organic part of the temple. It seems to me probable that
the blind door was to serve as a passage for the deceased when he
wished to leave the pyramid, his tomb. It had thus the same object
as the blind doors frequently painted or sculptured upon the Egyp-
tian coffins or tomb walls. The departed king could pass through this
door to the building near the sanctum, and from there assist at the
sacrifices, listen to the prayers, and inhale the odor of the offerings.
It thus served the same purpose as the so-called ‘tserdab” or narrow
vaulted chamber found in the private tombs, the so-called ‘* mastaba,”
alongside of the cult room, with which it occasionally communicated
by a narrow opening. In this serdab there was usually placed a statue
of the dead, in which he could embody bimself and participate in the
sacrifices offered in his honor.
This door also served the dead pharaoh as passage when he wished
to revisit the earth and as specter to remind the living of the obla-
tions to be offered to him, and to manifest upon earth the divine posi-
tion to which he attained by dint of the magical formula. It may
seem strange that this outlet for the deceased led not directly to the
grave temple, but to a structure lying aside from it. The reason of
this arrangement, also found in the mastaba, is probably to be sought
in the belief of the Egyptians, of which numerous indications are found
in the texts, that the souls of the dead, when not receiving a sufficient
amount of offerings, and consequently in want of nourishment, would
crowd at the gates of the locality searching the garbage heaps for food
and attacking and robbing passers by. For this purpose they would
also gather before the temples and the entrances to the tombs, whither
offerings of food were brought and refuse dropped. It was therefore
dangerous for the occupant of the tomb to pass such hungry preda-
tory souls. The blind door located off the temple was to enable the
dead to pass from the grave into the open unseen by the hostile souls,
and thus escape the danger of being attacked by them. Thus also this
find at the pyramid of Ra-en-user harmonizes in an excellent manner
with what we otherwise know of the old Egyptian religious views.
The walls of the edifice are adorned with reliefs that in part corre-
spond to the usual representations in the tombs of the valley of the
Nile. We find here the killing of the sacrificial animals, the leading
them up in procession, the long rows of women who, as representatives
of the possessions of the departed, offer gifts. Alongside of them
stand images which usually are seen only in temples—adoration of
various gods by the king; the massacre of captured enemies whom the
ruler kills with an uplifted club, ete. In these two kinds of pictures
the twofold object of the edifice, that of tomb and temple, finds a
distinct expression. In this connection it is interesting to observe
678 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
that the manner of presenting these groups, just as in the reliefs of
the sanctuary of the sun god at Abusir, discussed above, corresponds
almost exactly to the mode of presentation shown in the temples of
the flourishing period of Egypt one or two milleniums later. The
same characteristics are found in the architectural forms, the columns,
cornices, and other features. It is therefore concluded that the view
of the older investigators, that the art of the old empire of Egypt did
not differ in principle from that of the later periods, was correct.
The art of the later periods shows comparatively insignificant differ-
ences, due to the progressive development of the people. This coneclu-
sion, however, has of late been frequently disputed. Monuments
whose inscriptions indicate very early time, but that exhibit peculiari-
ties known only in later periods, have been declared to be in reality
products of these later periods artificially given an archaic appearance;
but the finds at Abusir show that these conclusions are erroneous and
that such monuments are really as old as the names of the kings that
they bear.
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The mortuary temple of King Ra-en-user is as little finished as most
old Egyptian edifices of this kind. The king died before the last
hand was put on the work, and his suecessors had so much to do with
their own buildings that they felt no inclination to spend time and
strength on the foundations of their predecessors. But this pharaoh
left endowments on the income of which priests were appointed to
exercise his cult of the dead, and centuries later these functionaries
are still mentioned, though the temple was in process of decay, for
graves of that time have been found dug into ruin heaps above the
temple floor. Shortly afterwards the cult, too, ceased, the walls of
the temple were torn down, and the stones used for other buildings;
high heaps of débris accumulated, common graves for the poor were
made there, and a mound of ruins soon covered the entire site.
On the occasion of these excavations tombs of widely separated
epochs of Egyptian history were opened in the neighborhood of the
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Wiedemann. PLATE lI.
OBELISK OF HELIOPOLIS AT MATARYEH, EGYPT.
“WIopus[[OW-ZITMOUTIBIT AA Aq ‘snaddvgq-sooy,OUL |, dod wor
‘| NNN109 ‘SNYAdVd SNSHLOWI |
“|| SLV1d ‘yuRWwapelAA—'eQ6| ‘Hoday uviuosyzius
THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT. 679
tenrple described above. There were mastaba tombs of the old empire
with the statues of their former occupants, and nonviolated tombs of
the middle empire (2500 8. c.) with all the paraphernalia which those
left behind had once placed for the departed in his grave. The tombs
of the flourishing period of later Egypt were very poorly fitted out,
and it is only with the Greek settlements in the country that costly
interments again come to light.
- THE TIMOTHEUS PAPYRUS OF THE PERSAI.
In one of the graves of this Greek period at Abusir was discovered,
on February 1, 1902, a papyrus roll containing a large portion of the
poem Persai of Timotheus. The papyrus was found in a wooden
coffin still containing its corpse, together with a pair of sandals, a
broken leather bag, a piece of rust-eaten iron, and a fragment of
burned wood. All these objects are now at the Royal Museum of
Berlin, and the papyrus has been published with a transcription, para-
phrase, comments, and a facsimile reproduction in heliogravure, by
Prof. Dr. Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff.“ The papyrus meas-
ures 18.5 centimeters in height and when unrolled has a length of 1.11
meters. It is inscribed with six columns of varied width and unequal
number of lines in archaic Greek characters, resembling the style of
monumental inscriptions, so that in the opinion of Professor Wilamo-
witz this papyrus’ represents the oldest book known, antedating the
founding of the library of Alexandria and the establishing of the
Alexandrian book trade. The four last columns are on the whole
well preserved, while the first column, not protected by cover-
ing, is crumbled into minute fragments, and of the second column
the lower half is for the most part destroyed. A narrow margin
on the first column, showing traces of having been cut through,
proves that only part of the scroll had been deposited in the grave.
We have, therefore, in this papyrus only the latter portion of
the work. The fact, however, that Timotheus names himself as
its author and that it treats of the naval defeat of a Persian
king suflices to establish its identity with the Persai of Timotheus,
which celebrates the naval victory of the Greeks over Xerxes, the
King of Persia, in 480 B. c. at Salamis, which was one of the decisive
battles in the Greeco-Persian wars. Timotheus is known to have been
a celebrated poet and musician, born at Miletus, Asia Minor, and died
at an advanced age about 357 B. c. He was especially distinguished
as a composer of the so-called ‘‘nome,” an ancient song or ode in the
epic style, consisting of a narrative interwoven with speeches of
«Der Timotheus-Papyrus: Wissenschaftliche Veroeffentlichungen der Deutschen
Orient-Gesellschaft, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 15, 4to., with 7 plates; and Timotheus, Die
Perser, aus einem Papyrus von Abusir. Im Auftrage der Deutschen Orient-Gesell-
schaft herausgegeben, Leipzig, 1903, pp. 126, 8vo., with 1 plate,
sm 1903——44
680 THE EXCAVATIONS AT ABUSIR, EGYPT.
introduced characters, and sung to the accompaniment of the lyre by
the poet himself on festival occasions in honor of some god. He is
also recorded to have increased the number of the strings of the lyre
to eleven, by which innovation he incurred the displeasure of the
Spartans, who considered it to be a corruption of music. But of the
numerous compositions credited to him by later writers only a few
fragments survive“, and of the Persai only three verses were known.
The Persai is also in the form of a nome and was first recited at the
Panionion festival in honor of Poseidon, about 398 B. c. The part of
the nome contained in this papyrus begins with the principal section
of the poem, the omphalos, comprising the narrative. The ships are
fitted out; the battle begins; the vessels dash against each other;
lances fly about; firebrands whir in the air, setting the ships afire,
from the glare of which the *‘smaraged” sea is reddened. The Persian
fleet is put to flight; one rich follower of the Persian king battles
with the waves, cursing the treacherous sea, and at last sinks while
professing his hope for the victory of his king. Other Asiatics cling
to rocks in the sea and bewail their imminent fate of death or cap-
tivity. At last panic seizes also the royal headquarters, and the king,
under lamentations, orders a general retreat of his motley army. The
victorious Greeks erect a trophy to Zeus and celebrate their victory
with dance and song. In the epilogue the poet refers to himself,
defending his innovation in music against the reproof of the Spartans,
and invokes Apollo to ** give the people peace and blessing resting on
the observation of the law.”
Of the details of the old Egyptian grave finds a better estimate may
be formed when the results of the digging still in progress become
available.
The excavations of the German Orient Society on the soil of the
ancient Valley of the Nile have not received the same consideration
from the great public as the diggings of the same society in Baby-
lonia. To the latter attention was directed by the lectures of Fried-
rich Delitzsch, although their contents were but loosely connected
with the excavations. The Egyptian work has not received the same
treatment. Considering the real scientific results of the excavations
in themselves, it can not be denied that the Egyptian explorations of
the society, directed by Borchardt, have at least been crowned with as
great a success as the Babylonian. It is to be hoped that the con-
tinued interest of the Government, as also the increasing number of
members, will place the society in the condition to pursue its explora-
tions with equal vigor in both of these countries whose civilization
dominated early antiquity and likewise to extend its research to the
countries lying between them, Palestine and Syria.
“Collected by T, Bergk in his Anthologia Lyrica, 3d edition, Leipzig, 1883, pp.
340-343,
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THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
By Dr. Leopotp MesserscHMripr. @
In addition to the two great spheres of ancient culture found in
western Asia, the Egyptian and the Babylonian, we meet in the north,
chiefly in Asia Minor, a third element which we are accustomed to call
the Hittite civilization. We have as yet comparatively little knowl-
edge of this people and their history, for only in one or two places
have there been thorough excavations. The Hittite inscriptions them-
selves have not been deciphered, and the Egyptian and Assyrian inscrip-
tions give only such meager items as records of warfare required. The
Old Testament, to which until now our acquaintance with the name of
the Hittites has been chiefly due, is too remote from the events in time
and place and too indefinite in details to be of much service. Although
our knowledge of the Hittites is thus, in many respects, so incomplete,
yet we are able to construct a somewhat connected picture of the
development of their civilization.
Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions tell of warfare from about 1500
to about 700 B. c., with various peoples in North Syria, North Mesopota-
mia, Cilicia, Cappadocia, and Armenia. ‘These peoples were neither
Semites nor Indo-Europeans, yet they must have been interrelated as
parts of a great group of peoples or common race. In favor of this
view, the names of persons and gods come down to us which by their
identical formation bear evidence of relationship and it is moreover
improbable that entirely distinct races would at about the same period,
and partly mingled, advance in the same direction and toward the same
regions. Onthe other hand, it is self-evident, and proven also by
certain facts, that these individual peovles, notwithstanding their gen-
eral connection, were really distinct from one another in culture and in
dialect, a phenomenon well known among the Semitesas well as among
the Indo-Europeans.
One of these peoples, known through Egyptian inscriptions as the
Cheta, or Chattiaccording to Assyrian inscriptions, must be mentioned
at once, since the name is significant, for we are accustomed to desig-
nate the entire group as ‘* Hittites,” their individual names being
“Translation of Die Hettiter, von Dr. Leopold Messerschmidt. Part 1 of vol. 1v
of Der alte Orient. Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, second enlarged edition, 35 pp., 8vo,
1903,
681
682 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
unknown. Consideration must therefore be given in each case as to
whether the name Hittites denotes the individual Chatti people or the
entire race.
In the regions where the Egyptians and Assyrians were at war with
the Hittites there has been discovered during the last decade a com-
plete series of remarkable monuments, with and without inscriptions,
which doubtless bear witness to a pecular and independent civilization
alongside of the Egyptian and Babylonian culture. The places of the
finds, and particularly the agreement between subjects pictured and
traditional evidence, lead to the assumption that we have here to do
with monuments of the Hittite peoples. Similar monuments have
been found seattered through the whole of Asia Minor, as far as
Smyrna on the coast of the A¢gean Sea, more numerous in the east, less
frequent in the west. Keeping the above in mind, added to informa-
tion derived from the Assyrian inscriptions, we must consider Asia Minor
as the home of the ‘* Hittites” and of their civilivation, from which
country they advanced in successive movements southward and south-
hence they immigrated into Asia Minor, whether
from the west, which indeed is very probable, can not yet be positively
determined. .
The historical development of the Hittite race, its rise and disap-
pearance, has been described in a former paper,” and will therefore
here be but merely briefly repeated, with some additional information.
The beginning of Hittite civilization on the soil of Asia Minor dates
back to the third millenium before Christ, when Syria and Mesopo-
tamia were under Babylonian rule. We assume an advance of Hittite
peoples toward Syria and Mesopotamia about 2000 B. c., in the
course of which they wrested these countries from Babylonian domi-
nation, for at the period when our documents begin to speak—that is,
in the Tell el-Amarna letters,’ in the fifteenth century B. c.—we find
that peoples of the Hittite race had for a long time been in possession
of these regions.
The first stratum of the Hittites which through the above-mentioned
letters enters our horizon is the Mitani people,’ but whether they
were really the first of the Hittites to advance as far as Syria, or, what
is more probable, whether they were preceded by others, none of our
documents answers with certainty. But the kingdom of the Mitani,
under their king, Tushratta, meets us at once as a great power equal
to Babylonia and Egypt, comprising Melitene and the territories to
the southeast of it, then northern Syria and northern Mesopotamia,
with Nineveh, which was later the capital of Assyria. Still, the power
of this kingdom is evidently strongly on the wane. It must formerly,
«Der alte Orient, vol. 1, part 1, 2d ed., pp. 18-28.
> Der alte Orient, vol. 1, part 2, 2d ed., p. 3
¢ Der alte Orient, vol. 1, part 2, 2d ed., p. 14 ff.
£.oae
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 68é
probably in the sixteenth century, have extended far southward into
Syria to Mount Lebanon, as we have evidence that the language of
the Mitani was spoken in Dunip (= Heliopolis = Baalbek). And the
unnamed power against which Thothmes I, about 1500 B. c., and
Thothmes III carried on war in Naharina was probably the Mitani
kingdom.” But soon after the Amarna period, already in the four-
teenth century, rising Assyria overthrew the Mitani kingdom and
took possession of Mesopotamia.
While the Mitani must have advanced toward the south, in the
seventeenth or sixteenth century B. c., we see the Chatti, or individual
people of the Hittites, just at the Tell el-Amarna period, in the
fifteenth century B. c., invading Syria from their native country,
Cappadocia, and continually advancing southward. Through the
weakness of Egypt, and for a time also the waning power of Assyria,
the Mitani in the course of the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries
subjected entire Syria to themselves as faras Mount Hermon. At
the acme of their power, in the twelfth century, they meet the read-
vancing Egyptians under Ramses I] in various battles, one of which, the
attack of the Egyptians on the city of Kadesh on the Orontes, became
well known, as the subject of a great Egyptian poem which extolls
King Ramses in an extravagant manner. From these times dates also
the oldest surviving example of a treaty between nations. This treaty
vas concluded between Ramses II and Chattusar, the king of the
Chatti. The original was inscribed ona silver tablet in Babylonian
script and language, as is now clearly established, and shows that
Babylonian was even then, about 100 years after the Amarna period,
still the international language of diplomacy.’ But it is only the
{gyptian translation which the Pharaoh caused to be engraved in the
Temple of Karnak, that has come to us. On this occasion the royal
seribe added an introduction, according to which the question was of
a conclusion of peace which the Hittite king had entreated from
Ramses. Asa matter of fact it is Chattusar who draws up the treaty
nor are there any fixed conditions of peace. The treaty rather con-
tains general assurances to abstain from hostilities against one another,
probably thus meeting a mutual need, and in addition there is
the conclusion of a defensive alliance against internal and external
enemies. ‘The interesting contents of the document justify its pres-
entation here in nearly complete form after the latest translation.¢
@ Der alte Orient, vol. 1, part 2, 2d ed., p. 31.
>Der alte Orient, vol. 1, part 2, 2d ed., p. 4.
¢ By W. Max Mueller: Der Buendnisvertrag Ramses IT und des Chettiterkoenigs.
Mitteilungen der Vorderasiatischen gesellschaft. 1902.5. For the changes made in
the interest of clearness I was kindly supported by the Egyptologist, Dr. Moeller.
The text of the treaty is, in its present condition, not without gaps. The exact form
of the proper names is difficult to establish.
684 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
INTRODUCTION OF THE EGYPTIAN SCRIBE. @
In the year 21,” on the 21st of the winter month (Tybi), under the majesty of the
king of upper and lower Egypt, Ramses II.¢ It was on that day that his majesty
was at the city ‘‘house of Ramses II,’’ doing what his father Amen-Ra/ approves.
When there came the royal messenger and * * * and the royal messenger
* * * (before the majesty of the king) Ramses II (with the messenger of Chatti
Tar) tesob and * * * whom the great prince of Chatti, Chattusar, had sent to
the Pharaoh to implore peace of the majesty of the king, Ramses IT.
Copy of the silver tablet which the great prince of Chatti, Chattusar, caused to
be brought to the Pharaoh by his messenger Tartesob and his messenger Ramses@
to implore peace from the majesty of the king, Ramses IT.
TRANSLATION OF THE ORIGINAL TABLET. e
Treaty, which was prepared upon a silver tablet by the great prince of Chatti,
Chattusary the mighty, son of Morsar, the great prince of Chatti, the mighty, grand-
son of Sapalulu, the great prince of Chatti, the mighty, for Ramses IT, the great
King of Egypt, the mighty, son of Seti I, the great King of Egypt, the mighty,
grandson of Ramses I, the great King of Egypt, the mighty, the beautiful treaty of
peace and alliance, which establishes (between them beautiful) peace (and beau-
tiful alliance) for all eternity.
REMEMBRANCE OF FORMER GOOD RELATIONS AND THE NECESSITY OF TREATIES.
Formerly, in very ancient times—as regards the relation of the great King of
Egypt with the great prince of Chatti, the god did not allow any enmity to arise
between them (and this happened) through a treaty. But at the time of Mutallu,
the great prince of Chatti, my brother, he carried on war with (Ramses IT) the
great King of Egypt. Henceforth, however, from to-day on, behold, Chattusar,
the great prince of Chatti (has caused to be drawn up) a treaty which determines
the relation of the land of Egypt to the land of Chatti as Rag created and as
Sutechy created, that no enmity arise between them forever.
THE ALLIANCE IS CONCLUDED ANEW.
Behold, Chattusar, the great prince of Chatti, enters from to-day on into a treaty
with Ramses II, the great King of Egypt, that it be a beautiful peace and a beau-
tiful alliance between us in eternity. He is allied with me, he is in peace with me;
Tam allied with him, I am in peace with him forever.
After Mutallu, the great prince, my great brother, had followed his unhappy fate,”
and Chattusar? sat upon the throne of his father as the great prince of Chatti—
behold, I agreed with Ramses II, the great King of Egypt, that we (arrange) our
«The headings are not in the original, but are here inserted for convenience in
reading.
b That is, of the reign of Ramses IT.
¢The bombastic and scarcely intelligible titles that follow here are omitted.
d An Egytian, as the name shows.
¢The translation was made by the Egyptian so pedantically literal that in many
respects he writes un-Egyptian. But in such passages the Babylonian of the
original is the more transparent.
J All these titles of the Hittite, as well as of the Egyptian, are Babylonio-Assyr-
lan, and not indigenous.
gName of a god.
The Egyptian rendered here the Babylonian expression literally. It means, to
fulfill his fate; to die.
?Chattusar speaks here for a while in the third person of himself.
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 685
(2?) peace and our (?) alliance. It is better than the peace and the alliance which
existed before. Behold, (as) I, the great prince of Chatti, am in beautiful peace
and beautiful alliance with Ramses II, the great King of Egypt, so shall the chil-
dren’s children of the great prince of Chatti be in alliance and peace with the
children’s children of Ramses II, the great King of Egypt. They shall be like us
in a peace and alliance relation, and (the land of) Egypt (be) allied with the land
of Chatti in peace, as we are, forever. No enmity may arise between them forever.
The great prince of Chatti may never invade the land of Egypt, in order to rob it
of anything, and Ramses, the great King of Egypt, may not forever invade the land
of Chatti in order to rob it of anything.
ALLIANCE AGAINST ATTACKS FROM THE OUTSIDE.
The lawful (?) treaty which was in force at the time of Sapalulu, the great prince
of Chatti, as also the lawful (?) treaty which was in force at the time of Mutallu,¢
the great prince of Chatti, my father, I firmly stand by. Behold, Ramses, too, the
great King of Egypt, firmly stands by it (we both keep it) together, from to-day on
we hold it firmly and act after this lawful (?) manner.
HITTITE AID FOR EGYPT.
If another enemy? goes to war against the lands of Ramses II, the great King of
Egypt, and the latter writes to the great prince of Chatti: ‘‘Come to my assistance
against him,’’ the great prince of Chatti (will come to his assistance), and the great
prince of Chatti will kill hisenemy. But if the great prince of Chatti should not
wish to set out himself, he will send his troops and his charioteers, and will slay his
enemy.
ASSISTANCE AGAINST EGYPTIAN REBELS.
Or, if Ramses II, the great King of Egypt, is angry against * * * subjects,
because (?) they have committed an offense (?) against him and he sets out to kill
them, the great prince of Chatti will act in common with Ramses II, the Lord of
Egypt.
EGYPTIAN ASSISTANCE FOR CHATTI.
In the same manner the great prince will act if another enemy sets out against the
lands of the great prince of Chatti, * * * [What follows is mostly destroyed,
but with corresponding changes it was similar to the above. ]
ASSISTANCE AGAINST HITTITE REBELS.
But if subjects of the great prince of Chatti commit an offense against him, * * *
[The same as above. ]
TREATY OF EXTRADITION.
[The beginning is destroyed.] If nobles flee from Egypt and come to the coun-
tries of the great prince of Chatti, whether from a city (or from a country district [?])
of the countries of Ramses II, the great King of Egypt, and they come to the great
prince of Chatti, he shall not receive them. The great prince of Chatti shall cause
them to be brought back to Ramses II, the great King of Egypt, their lord.
Or when one or two people who are not prominent (?) flee from the country of
Egypt and come into the Chatti land in order to become subjects of another, they
will not be allowed to remain in the Chatti land, but will be brought back to Ramses,
the great King of Egypt.
Or when a noble flees from the Chatti land [continues same as above, with corre-
sponding changes].
@ An error of the Egyptian seribe for ‘‘ Morsar.”’
» Doubtless awkwardly rendered by the Egyptian for ‘‘another one as enemy.”
686 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
FORM OF OATH.
Of these words of the treaty of the great prince of Chatti with Ramses, the great
King of Egypt, written upon a silver tablet, a thousand gods, male and female, of
the Chatti land, together with a thousand gods, male and female, of those of Egypt,
are witnesses. * * *
[Follows a list of the gods who shall watch as witnesses. Adjoining it is read:]
Whosoever will not keep these words, which are written upon a silver tablet, for the
land of Chatti and the land of Egypt, the thousand gods of the Chatti land, together
with the thousand gods of the land of Egypt, shall punish him, his house, his land,
and his subjects. But whosoever shall keep the words which are written upon the
silver tablet and not neglect them, whether of the Hittites or of the Egyptians, the
thousand gods of the Chatti land, together with the thousand gods of the land of
Egypt, will preserve him in health and give him life, together with his offspring, his
country, and his subjects.
POSTSCRIPT TO THE TREATY OF EXTRADITION—HOW TO RECONCILE WITH IT THE RIGHT
OF ASYLUM.
‘
If one, or two, or three people flee from the land of Egypt and come to the great
prince of Chatti, the great prince of Chatti shall have them seized and returned to
tamses, the great King of Egypt. No accusation shall be made against the man
who is thus brought to Ramses on account of his offense; his house, his wives, or
children shall. not be punished; he shall not be killed, nor shall his eyes, his ears,
his mouth, or his feet be mutilated; in short, no charge whatever shall be made
against him on account of his offense.
In the same way, if one, or two, or three ean have fled from the land of Chatti
* * * [The same as above, with corresponding changes. ]
DESCRIPTION OF THE SILVER TABLET.
On the obverse of the tablet is shown a figure of Sutech,® who embraces the figure
of the great prince of Chatti, surrounded with an inscription which says: ‘‘Seal of
Sutech, the King of Heaven, seal of the treaty which Chattusar, the great prince of
Chatti, the mighty, son of Morsar, the great prince of Chatti, the mighty, concludes.”’
Within the bordering of the sculpture is the seal * * * (supply, ‘‘of the great
goddess?”’ ).
On the reverse isasculpture, afigure of * * * (supply, ‘‘the great goddess?’’ )
of Chatti, who embraces the figure of the great princess of Chatti, surrounded with
an inscription which says: ‘‘Seal of the sun god of the city of Arenena, the lord of
the earth, (and?) seal of Rutuchipa, the princess of the Chatti land, daughter of the
country of Kizawaden, the (lady?) of the city of Arenena, the lady of the land, the
worshiper of the god(?).’’ Within the bordering of the sculpture is the seal of the
sun god of Arenena, the lord of all lands.
This treaty of alliance and extradition is, accordingly, the renewal
of a former one, one party to which was Sapalulu, the grandfather of
King Chattusar.
Subsequently the Kingdom of Chatti goes rapidly to ruin, partly
through the inrush of a wave of Aramean peoples, partly through the
advance of new Hittite Pees from the north and northwest, with
oe already in 1100 B. egies Pileser I came in conflict,
aB y Sica the Beaten Paes the names ei ah sean gods. It is not the
name of a Hittite god.
THE ANCLENT HITTITES. 687
although Carchemish (Jerabis) on the Euphrates (west of Carrhar), a
Chatti state, for a couple of centuries keeps up the appearance of
independence by the ready payment of tribute to the suzerain of the
time until in 717 that region also became an Assyrian province.
Another stratum of the Hittite peoples is met with during the
fifteenth century in western Asia Minor in the Lukki, who, according
to the Tell-Amarna letters, carried on piracy on the southern coast
of the Peninsula and as far as Cyprus. The provinces of Lycia and
and Lycaonia are named after them, and we assume that they overran
the whole of western Asia Minor.
A couple of centuries later we see new Hittite peoples advance and,
availing themselves of a period of weakness of Assyria, settle in
northern Mesopotamia on the Euphrates. They were the Kummuch,
who gave their name to the later province of Commagene. Tiglath-
Pileser I (see above) joins with them in battle in 1100 B. c. on the
Euphrates and subjugates them, but at the same time on the borders
of the Kummuch meets other peoples of the same race, the Muski, who
were not yet permanently settled, but still advancing, and farther back
he meets the Kaski and Tabal. He repulses them. The Muski very
probably retreated back of the Halys and settled there, for in 700 pr. c.
their name is employed as an old historical territorial designation of a
new kingdom, which was of the same character and extent, but Indo-
German. King Midas of Phrygia is called in the Assyrian inscriptions
**Mita of Muski.” The Tabal settle in Cappadocia, the Kaski north
of itin Armenia Minor. In addition to these are also mentioned the
Kumani, who occupied the mountains of the province of Melitene and
have given Comana its name.
A little later we meet another branch of the Hittite group in the
Chilakku as heirs of the Lukki. The Assyrians came across them in
Cappadocia, though their name remained attached only to Cilicia, the
country south of the Taurus.
All the peoples above mentioned maintained for centuries a con-
stantly changing attitude toward Assyria. Whenever the Assyrian
armies were far away, or Assyria was weakened through external
or internal upheavals, they withheld allegiance and stopped paying
tribute, but at the approach of the Assyrian armies they immediately
again sent tribute and declared their submission. Tired of this con-
stant change, the Assyrians at last embodied a part of these peoples
as provinces into their empire, Carchemish, in 717 B. c. (see above);
Tabal, with Chilakku and Kur (with the capital Tarsus), that is, Cap-
padocia and Cilicia, under Sargon (722-705 B. c.); then Kommanu
(with Comana) as the province of Tulzarimmu in 712 B. c.
The last shoots of Hittite state organization are most probably to be
looked for in the Lydian and Cilician Kingdoms.
688 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
Soon after 700 B. c. the Indo-German Kingdom of Midas of Phrygia,
disappeared through the shock of the Cymbrian immigration. The
Lydian Gyges, perhaps a lege man of Midas, took advantage of the
confusion to establish upon the ruins of the Phrygian Kingdom, as
successor to its power, a Lydian Kingdom, which again was most
probably Hittite. East of it, in Cappadocia and Cilicia, we see during
the last years of the Assyrian Empire, from about 660 B. c. down, the
gradual formation of anew Kingdom of Chilakku (= Cilicia, but extend-
ing much farther north than the later province), which soon after the
fall of Nineveh, in 606 B. c., appears under Syennesis, at the time of
Nebuchadnezzar, as the fourth great power of the Orient alongside of
Lydia, Media, and Babylonia, and together with Nebuchadnezzar
mediates, in 585 B. c., the peace between Alyattes of Lydia and
Kyaxares of Media. Judging from the names of the kings, we should
also consider this Kingdom of Chilakku as Hittite. It was only the
conquest of Asia Minor by the Persians under Cyrus that put an end
to this and to the Lydian Kingdoms, and thus also to the last Hittite
state formations ona large scale.
This is the development on the western stage. But we also meet
Hittite States farther eastin Armenia. Shalmaneser I (in 1275 B.c.) and
Tiglath-Pileser I (in 1100 B. G.) came across a series of peoples in the
mountains of Armenia, west and south of Lake Van, which we must
consider as Hittites, since the Kummuch (see above) are among them,
and agreements in the names also support thisassumption. At first we
meet here aseries of isolated tribes. From 850B.c., however, probably
in consequence of new immigrations, a great empire is being formed
around Lake Van, which for two centuries was a dangerous rival of
Assyria. The Assyrians call it Urartu, the native inscriptions Biaina.
Its center is the city of Thuspa (modern Van) on the eastern coast of
Lake Van. Inthe times of its greatest power it extended from the
Araxes to Melitene, Syria, and southeast to Lake Urmia. Its power,
broken by Sargon, was annihilated through the Indo-Germanic immi-
gration in the seventh century B. Cc.
As meager as is our acquaintance with the history of the Hittite
peoples, so also is our knowledge of their civilization, for accurate
knowledge results almost exclusively from comprehensive and careful
excavations. But as regards the territory under consideration, exca-
vations by the German Orient committee have been made only at
Senjirli, in North Syria, a few days’ journey from the Bay of Isken-
derun. The English have made excavations east of the point men-
tioned, at Carchemish (at present Jerabis) on the Euphrates, and the
French at Boghazkeu and Ueynek, in the interior of Asia Minor, in
Cappadocia, while excavations have been made by the English, Ger-
mans, and natives in Armenia, on the eastern coast of Lake Van.
What other monuments of Hittite civilization have become known to
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 689
us have been found either on or near the surface, or may still be seen
on the rocky walls of Asia Minor. Special mention should be made
of two finds in the ruins of Babylon—a stone bowl and a stone image of
the Hittite storm god—the latter on the occasion of the present exca-
vations of the German Orient Society—as also of one in the ruins of
Nineveh, because they were found at such a distance from the settle-
ments of the Hittites, and must have come there through contact either
in war orin peace. At Nineveh there came to light eight small pieces
of clay on which seals were impressed with Hittite characters, serving
to verify some documents or other objects to which they were attached
by means of cords.
The sites of the finds of the monuments extend over entire Asia
Minor as far as Smyrna and over North Syria and Armenia, but are
most abundant around the Bay of Iskenderun, in Cappadocia, Cilicia,
and North Syria. Although the number of the products of civiliza-
tion from all these places
‘an not be termed incon-
siderable, and is, more-
over, Increasing with
each year, the circum-
stances mentioned above,
that they were all discov-
ered casually on the sur-
face of the earth and that
the accompanying in-
scriptions are still unin-
telligible, makes it, as
yet, impossible to assign
the monuments—with _. zoe tess aeete ate
the exception of the Ar- Fic. 1.—Stone inscription in bas-relief. Found at Hamath, Syria.
menian finds —to the single peoples which meet us in history, to fix
them in time or to construe a history of the development of Hittite civi-
lization and art. It would also be unwise to represent the undeniably
existing points of contact with the Egyptian and Assyrian art monu-
ments as loans on the part of the Hittites. A description of the Hittite
civilization must for a long time be limited to the presentation of facts.
The writing of the Hittites” (see fig. 1) is pictorial script. It
shows human and animal heads; also whole animals, such as hares and
birds; then hands, feet, and claws, besides a large number of images
of objects, of which only a few, such as the sword, are as yet intelli-
gible. While on the probably older inscriptions these pictures are
executed in detail, the more recent ones exhibit a transformation of
«To obviate misunderstandings, it may be explicitly pointed out that in the fol-
lowing, if the contrary is not expressly stated, the entire group of peoples, not the
single population, is meant.
O90 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
many of them into simpler, more conventional forms by merely out-
lining them. With this is combined another mark of progress. The
signs of the older inscriptions are cut in relief; whether there are
exceptions to this custom can not be determined with certainty.
Those of the more recent are intaglio. This grouping of some inscrip-
tions as older, others as more recent, can not yet be supported by their
contents, but is based upon the following peculiarity: A close study
of the inscriptions shows that the direction faced by the signs (notice
especially the faces) varies. In figure 1, line 1, the face is turned
toward the right; in line 2, on the other hand, toward the left. Since,
according to the process of the Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions and
the unmistakable indications of the Hittite inscriptions themselves, the
writing is always’ to be read in the direction of the faces, it follows
that line 1 runs from right to left, line 2 from left to right, and line 3
again from right to left. The inscription terminates with two-thirds
of line 3, and the fact that the left third, not the right, remains blank
shows that our arrangement is correct. Within the lines there stand
several signs below one another which are to be arranged from top to
bottom. Those inscriptions which by reason of the form of the char-
acters had been above designated as the older ones, with a few excep-
tions resulting probably from special circumstances, always begin on
the right-hand top and strictly maintain this direction throughout.
On the other hand, in many of the inscriptions which, on account of
the cursive form of their signs are estimated to be of a later period,
it can be observed not only that they begin on the left-hand top, but
also that some signs no longer follow the right direction demanded by
the course of the lines. This may probably be accounted for by the
lack of practice in the use of picture writing, caused by the fact that
in daily life, as in Assyria and Babylonia, another simpler system—
perhaps the Aramaic phonetic writing—was already employed. In
addition, it should be noted that the later an inscription appears to be
by other indications the more apparent becomes the division of the
words by definite punctuation marks. “There had probably already
arisen the need of punctuation marks to facilitate the reading and
arrangement, just as in the case of an Egyptian, who wished to learn
the cuneiform writing, divided up the words with red lines on the clay
tablet which he was studying. (See Der alte Orient, vol. 1, pt. 2, 2d
edie pies)
There have so far been found about 35 larger inscriptions, and to
these may be added a great number of inscriptional fragments and of
short inscriptions on seals, ete. Besides, hardly a year passes without
new inscriptions coming to light. It can, therefore, be easily imagined
that the desire to know what these inscriptions contain becomes
more and more lively. But all efforts to decipher them made since
1870, when the inscriptions of this sort for the first time aroused
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 691
close attention, have been in vain. ‘The cause of failure is the meager
or indefinite information concerning the Hittites on the part of their
neighbors or successors, and the puzzling complications of their sys-
tem of writing. It is approximately estimated that there are already
known more than 200 signs in their system, and this number is increas-
ing with each new inscription. As far as can be inferred from the
inscriptions and from other writing systems of western Asia, some
single signs stand for entire words which in reading are either to be
pronounced, or are merely explanatory, to indicate the notional sphere
into which a preceding or following written-out word belongs;“ some
denote a syllable, others again merely a sound. The mingling of
all these signs naturally renders the system very obscure, since one
and the same word can be written in an entirely different manner. In
the uniform writing systems of the Egyptians and Babylonians,
inscriptions which presented the same content in different parallel
scripts and languages, one of which was known or easy to make out,
smoothed the difficulty of decipherment. It is true that we have
also for the Hittite writing system such an
example, which naturally has been much
discussed. It is the bilingual inscription of
‘Tarkudimme” (fig. 2). But, unfortunately,
it is too short and presents in itself too many
riddles to be of any use. The object made
of silver, in form something like a hollow
hemisphere, formed the upper part of a dag-
ger handle and was to serve as a seal. The
convex surface is engraved with a figure and re. 2.—Imseription of the Tarku-
writing. On the edge runs a cuneiform EOIROS Oise:
inscription reading: ‘‘Tarkudimme, King of the country of Erme
(? or Me ?).” In the center, to the right and the left of the figure of
the King, is a Hittite inscription twice repeated. The distribution of
the content of the cuneiform script over these six signs presents so
many difficulties that one is compelled to suppose that the Hittite
inscription either contains only a portion of it or something entirely
different.
The Hittite hieroglyphic writing has become the parent of a series
of partly alphabetical writing systems which in later times meet us on
the soil of Asia Minor. To these belongs the script used on the isle
of Cyprus, a syllabic writing, where nearly every sign denotes a
syllable (consonant and vowel). A large number of Greek inscrip-
«Such a sign is that for ‘‘God’’—consisting of an oval with a crossbar in it—the
only one thus far interpreted with certainty without, however, knowing how it 1s to
be pronounced. The first sign in figure 1—a head with an arm and the hand point-
ing to the face—which stands at the commencement of many inscriptions, very
probably means ‘‘I am,’ or (NN...) ‘‘speaks.”’ But here, too, the pronuncia-
tion is unknown.
692 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
tions are written in this script. The fact that such complicated script
was employed alongside of the Greek attests to the great predomi-
nance of pre-Grecian civilization in Cyprus. The Lycian, Carian,
Pamphylian, and other scripts of Asia also trace back, at least in part,
to the Hittite.
Although the hieroglyphic inscriptions are thus still unintelligible
to us, we have some examples of the Hittite dialects in Babylonian
script. Among the clay tablets of Tell el-Amarna (see Der Alte Orient,
vol. 1, pt. 2) are found a couple of letters in cuneiform writing, but
in Hittite language, of the Kings Tushratta, of Mitani, North Meso-
potamia (ibid., vol. 1, pt. 2, 2d ed., p. 14), and Tarchundaraba, of
Arsapi or Arzawa (ibid., p. 5). Clay tablets in the same language
were found at Boghazkeu, in Cappadocia. The largest number of
monuments, however, was furnished by the soil of Armenia. There
were discovered numerous rock inscriptions, of historical and religious
content, which in the characters of cuneiform script speak to us in the
language of the ancient Hittite people. They are usually designated
after the capital of this people, Van, as the Van inscriptions. Of this
language, as also of the Mitani language, which is clearly related to
it, we already understand something, so that the documents can in
part be translated. But we do not gain by that a clear idea of the
structure of these languages, nor are we in condition to affirm with
certainty a relationship with other known languages. Still, there
seems to be these points of contact with the languages spoken in the
Caucasus, especially with the Georgian.
The personal appearance of the Hittites on their monuments is very
peculiar, even if allowance be made for what may be lack of skill in the
representation. Anthropological investigations, such as measurements
of the skulls of the present inhabitants of western Asia, in whose midst
remnants of older races can be discerned, have made it probable that
the Hittites, the modern Armenians, and a part of the Jews” belong
to one and the same race. Their characteristics are strikingly short
heads (bracychphaly), dark eyes and hair, and large curved noses. The
latter is most conspicuous on the monuments. The EKeyptian repre-
sentations depict the Hittites with oblong, slightly curved noses,
strongly receding foreheads, prominent cheek bones, beardless, with
short, round chins, and with fair skin. The hair is long and thick and
fails upon the shoulders in two strings. On the Hittite monuments
only one queue, and that braided, is seen, and, besides, a large number
of the men wear beards. The arrangement of the hair of the women
is the same as that of the men.
“Which is, accordingly, not Semitic by race, though haying a Semitic language.
Race affinity and linguistic affiliation do not coincide. The true Semitic type is,
according to the same investigations, preseryed among the Bedouins in the desert,
and is characterized as dolichocephalic.
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Messerschmidt. PLATE I.
FiG. 1.—HITTITE REPRESENTATION OF A MEAL. SENJIRLI.
Fic. 2.—HitTITE WarRRIOR. FROM SENJIRLI, 1888.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Messerschmidt. PLATE Il.
ee ee
Fia. 1.—DIvINITY EMBRACING A KING Fig. 2.—DIVINITY WITH HEAD GEAR DECOo-
OR PRIEST. BOGHAZKENI. RATED WITH HORNS. FOUND IN JERABIS
(ANCIENT CARCHEMISH).
Fig. 3.—RELIGIOUS SCENE. BOGHAZKENI.
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 693
The dress of the men consists chiefly of a coat with short sleeves
reaching to the middle of the upper arm, closed around the neck, and
reaching only to something above the knees, the lower edge being fre-
quently lined with fringes or a thick border. It is held together,
around the hips, by a broad belt beneath which there is indicated a
slit, slantingly running downward. Whether and how the legs were
clothed can not be definitely determined from the reliefs. In place of
this short coat there is less frequently found a long one, reaching to
the feet, likewise with short sleeves, closed around the neck and girdled
about the hips. Sometimes the belt seems to run, in an unexplainable
way, partly under, partly over the ccat. This dress is common to
men and women. With the latter it seems sometimes to fall down
underneath the belt in
perpendicular folds. In
a few cases it is lined
with points and fringes.
Distinguished from it is
a long cloak which evi-
dently is worn over
the short coat described
above, as it seems, only
by persons of impor-
tance
It apparently consisted
of a long piece of cloth
thrown over one shoul-
der and drawn around
the chest so as to form
a fold for one arm while
leaving the other free
and falling down on the
back. From the repre-
sentations it is supposed
that this garment was made of artistic textures. The dress of the
women, described above, was sometimes supplemented by aepiece of
cloth thrown over it, which can hardly be anything else than a veil.
It was in some manner fastened to the head gear, falling over it to the
feet and covering the entire back. The edge of the veil is ornamented
with fringes.
The head gear of the men is generally a pointed hat, probably of felt
or leather and of cone shape. At the lower edge is a rim turned
upward. Occasionally it is decorated with perpendicular stripes, not
satisfactorily explained, and sometimes also with circular ornaments.
A variety of this pointed hat is one that terminates in the form of
a ball. Quite peculiar is the head gear of the women, consisting of a
priests or kings.
Fig. 3.—Sepulchral monument, found at Marash, North Syria.
694 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
kind of cylinder. While it usually has a rim bent upward and is
without ornaments, those on the reliefs of Boghazkeu exhibit perpen-
diculay stripes, are notched at the top and lack the rim. In this form
it is the starting point for the head gear of later representations of the
goddess Cybele, termed the *‘mural crown.” A head gear common to
both sexes is a round, closely fitting cap, sometimes ornamented with
perpendicular stripes, horizontal rows of rosettes, or with small
rosette-shaped settings on the front which perhaps consisted of pre-
cious stones. In isolated cases there is also found, as head gear for
men, a cap with a tassel, just like the modern Turkish fez.
The foot gear of the Hittites is a shoe with turned-up tips. It is
found among many mountain inhabitants, as the turned-up point pro-
tects the toes better than the straight shoe. In several cases the
figures wear sandals, consisting of a flat piece of leather held by
thongs under the foot, the heel being provided with a cap for better
protection.
Few ornaments can be discerned upon the monuments. Wrists
and ankles are occasionally adorned with rings. Earrings frequently
occur as ornaments also of men. In one case a necklace is seen on a
woman. Women are usually represented with a mirror in one hand,
while the other hand holds either an object required by the situation
portrayed or something resembling a pomegranate or a spindle. The
men carry a staff as a mark of dignity. The priestly or royal mark
of special dignity seems to have been the crook, carried with the
curved end downward.
The army of the Hittites was composed of foot soldiers and chari-
oteers, horsemen being of rare occurrence on the reliefs. The foot
soldiers wear, as far as can be ascertained, a short coat, pointed cap,
and boots. The chief arms are bows and arrows. By their side are
also seen a long lance, club, double-edged axe, single and double
edged sword, and a sickle-shaped sword. The handle of the common
sword terminates at the upper end in a globular knob. On the native
monuments no helmet can be recognized. But the Egyptian repre-
sentations of Hittite nobles and charioteers exhibit a low morion,
round on the top, with a hair tuft. The shield is either quadrangular
or of the form of the so-called Pontian Amazon shield, approaching
the outline of an 8. The war chariot is a low box, open in the rear,
resting upon two wheels, and drawn by two horses. On each side is
a quiver, while the rear part holds the lance. The Egyptians empha-
size the fact that each Hittite chariot had three warriors—the chari-
oteer, the shield-bearer, and the bowman, because it differed from
their own custom. Upon the Hittite representations the shield-bearer
is lacking. This, however, is accounted for by the circumstance that
they all depict hunting and not war scenes.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Messerschmidt. PLATE III.
Fic. 1.—HITTITE GOD OF THE CHASE, HOLDING HARES.
SENJIRLI, ASIA MINOR.
Fig. 2.—HITTITE KING, WITH SCEPTER AND SPEAR. Fia. 3.—HITTITE WINGED DIVIN-
SENJIRLI, ASIA MINOR. ITY, WITH HEAD OF GRIFFON.
SENJIRLI, ASIA MINOR.
Originals in Royal Museum, Berlin.
Smithsonian Report,
1903.—Messerschmidt.
ry
Fic. 1.—STORM GOD TESHuP. Fig. 2.—HITTITE STORM GOD, WITH
FROM BABYLON. HAMMER AND LIGHTNING.
x
Liber
+
~
Fia. 3.—HITTITE Warrior, FIG. 4.—HITTITE SUPPLIANT.
WITH AX AND Sworpb. BOGHAZKENI, ASIA MINOR.
SENJIRLI, ASIA MINOR.
Originals in Royal Museum, Berlin.
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 695
The war chariot was also employed for the chase. The animals
hunted are represented as the lion, the deer, and the hare. The first
was chased with dogs. On one of the gate slabs of Senjirli the god
of the chase is represented with human body and the head of a lion.
He holds in one hand a hare, in the other a boomerang, which, accord-
ingly, must have been used in hunting. On each of his shoulders is
a bird, evidently a faleon, which already in ancient time was trained
for the chase.
This peculiar god image, a mixture of man and beast, leads to a
consideration of the religion of the Hittites. Here, too, the meager-
ness and obscurity of tradition, and the failure to decipher the inscrip-
tions is to be regretted. Only scattered details can, therefore, be
culled. With which of the Hittite peoples originated the names of
the gods in Asia Minor which the Greeks transmitted, and whether
their form is the correct one, can not yet be determined. More relia-
ble, but scanty, is the information of the cuneiform inscriptions. Some
knowledge can also be derived from personal names, as in the Orient
they are frequently composed with the names of gods. The pictorial
representations also teach us to a certain extent concerning the nature
of the gods.
Everywhere in Asia Minor and northern Syria tradition places in
the foreground the worship of a goddess which is sometimes desig-
nated as the ‘“‘great mother.” At Komana in Cappadocia she was
worshiped under the name of Ma. She wears upon the head the
so-called mural crown. Innumerable priests and priestesses served
her. The latter were called Amazons, and from the Greek legends
are known as warlike priestesses. The former, who were eunuchs,
bear the name of Galls, and constitute a peculiarity of Asia Minor
cult: (Comp. Der alte Orient, vol. m1, part 213, 2d ed., p. 61, note 1.)
The festivals of the goddess, to which large multitudes are said to
have flocked, were celebrated with wild songs ana dances accompanied
‘by noisy music, the priests on such occasions being thrown into such a
frenzy as to emasculate themselves. To be sure, this is related of the
cult of the great goddess at Hieropolis-Bambyke in northern Syria,
but this is the same goddess, even though she bears another name.
She is called Semiramis. Her sacred animal is the dove. In this
connection it is worthy of notice that the name-group of this goddess,
distinctly recognized in the pictorial inscriptions, though it can not yet
be read, contains the image of a bird. For an understanding of the
legend of her killing each of her lovers in succession reference may be
made to the man-hating Ishtar, and the legend of her concealing her
sex suggests the bearded Venus of classical antiquity. (Der alte Ori-
ent, zb7d., pp. 61 to 68.) Besides this goddess are mentioned Dionysos
and an unspecified god who doubtless corresponds to her beloved,
Adonis-Tamuz (77d., pp. 61, 62), as yearly a pyre is erected anda
sm 1903 45
696 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
dirge recited in his honor. For Lydia we have the names Heracles
or Sandon and Omphale transmitted, they are the sun and moon gods.
The former is said to have been worshiped also in Cilicia under the
name of Sandon. The chief act in his cult there is said to have been
the erecting of a pyre (see above). In addition to Ma and Semiramis
the name of Cybele is also found for the ‘* great mother,” especially
in Phrygia. Like Ma she also wears upon her head the mural crown.
Combined with her is Attis, her beloved, corresponding to Adonis-
Tamuz. Rhea, another form of the great mother, was attended by
the Dactyles or deities considered as the inventors of metallurgy. As
the moon god worshiped in Asia Minor, the name Men is transmitted
to us.
From the cuneiform inscriptions and from the personal names it can
be concluded that among the western Hittites, the god at the head of
their pantheon bore the name Tarku, while among the eastern Hittites
it was the storm god Teshup. Both names, but especially the latter,
are of comparatively frequent occurrence. Teshup is represented
(pl. tv), at least on the soil of northern Syria, as a warrior, holding in
one hand a bundle of three lightning forks, with the other swinging
the hammer, the symbol of fertility. (Compare Tor with the hammer
Mioelnir.) In Cilicia a god Sanda, among others, was worshiped.
Among the Mitani we meet besides Teshup, the goddess Shaushkas,
corresponding to the Babylonian Ishtar, and perhaps a god Shimigi.
The so-called Van inscriptions (see p. 692) contain a large number of
names of gods, but we are little informed concerning the nature of most
of these deities. The god Teshup was probably received by the people
of the Van inscriptions from an earlier people belonging, however, to
the same race, for though he is often mentioned in their inscriptions,
the first place is held by the god Chaldis, who is scarcely wanting inany
of the incriptions. We also frequently meet with a triad of gods as
the most important ones, Chaldis and the storm god Teshup or, as he is
valied is this dialect, Teishebas being joined by the sun god Ardis.
Rarely is the moon god Shelardis mentioned. Concerning the sacri-
fices to be offered to the gods on various occasions the inscriptions
contain detailed statements which, however, are not yet fully intelli-
gible.
The monuments themselves present a series of religious scenes, the
most important being found at Boghazkeu—probably the ancient
Pteria—in Cappadocia. The living rock forms there in one place, in
a general manner, a rectangular room, without ceiling, one broad-
side of which, open in its entire width, forms the entrance. The stone
walls in the interior are perpendicular. On these walls a large relig-
ious scene is sculptured composed of about 70 persons advancing
ove behind the other. Upon the rear wall, facing the entrance, is the
principal group (pl. 1m) forming the center of the whole. Toward
co)
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Messerschmidt. PLATE V.
FiaG. 1.—HITTITE LION CHASE. SAKTCHEGOZN.
a
ae Res
a te, SS
FiG. 2.—HITTITE WARRIORS. BOGHAZKENI, ASIA MINOR.
Originals in Royal Museum, Berlin.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Messerschmidt. PLATE Vi.
Fia. 1.—HITTITE WINGED SPHINX, WITH DOUBLE HEAD OF
MAN AND LION.
Fi@. 2.—HITTITE WINGED SPHINX, WITH HUMAN HEAD.
Originals from Senjirli, Asia Minor, in Royal Museum, Berlin.
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 697
it advance from the left side wall a procession almost exclusively of
male figures, one behind the other, and in the same manner from the
right side wall one of female figures. The persons represented on the
rear wall who stand partly upon mountains, partly upon human fig-
ures, partly upon animals, are doubtless to be considered as divinities.
The god at the head of the male procession who stands upon the heads
of two persons, probably priests, and has by his side an animal with a
pointed cap upon its heady is represented as a warrior. He turns with
outstretched hand toward a goddess advancing from the opposite
direction who stands, with a mural crown upon her head, upon a pan-
ther and has likewise by her side an animal with a pointed cap.
Behind her is a god standing upon a panther, the only male in the
female procession. We therefore see in him the ‘‘ beloved” of the
great goddess. The entire scene has received the most divergent
interpretations, the most probable of which sees in it a representation
of the spring myth, though the interpretation does not solve all the
difficulties. The meeting of the sun god and the moon goddess—for
this is the likely interpretation of these divinities—each at the head of
a solemn train, seems to symbolize the vernal constellation of sun and
moon. The male procession on the left side ends with twelve per-
fectly identical personages who carry sickle-shaped swords and seem
to advance in a kind of trot. In this may be seen a representation of
the dancing with arms by the priests which is said to have taken place
in the festivals of Ma. Many of the figures have in front and above
their heads groups of hieroglyphics that evidently contain names of
gods and establish the sculptures as Hittite.
Upon a rock wall, near the one just described, is found the relief of
pl. u. The representation, besides being absolutely unique in itself,
attains a special value from the circumstance that a short explana-
tion of it is preserved to us from antiquity itself in the description
of the seal of the chief Hittite god, given at the conclusion of the
Hittite treaty (see p. 686). Our relief evidently exhibits the same
representation as that of the seal: The god, represented as a warrior in
heroic size, embraces a Hittite prince or priest. The name of the god
is unknown, as the Egyptian has inserted the name of the Egyptian
Sutech in place of the Hittite. The agreement of the relief with the
inscription is important, also, for the reason that it enables an approxi-
mate dating of the Boghazkeu sculptures, which some would refer as
far back as 700 B. c. But as this unique representation is thus far
met with only twice, the tendency is to combine both cases of its
occurrence, i. e., to refer them to about the thirteenth century, the
time of the Hittite treaty, although it must be admitted that the artis-
tic execution seems to favora later date. But as we know as yet
almost nothing of the art development of the Hittites, this circum-
stance must not*be given too much importance,
698 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
At Fraktin, in Cappadocia, south of Czesarea, a Hittite sacrificial
scene is represented upon a rock. To the left stands a god,in the garb
of a warrior, holding in one hand a crook over his shoulder. Before
him is an altar, which in its ground form is a pillar, somewhat taper-
ing upward, with a thick plate placed horizontally over it. Before
it stands a man, perhaps a priest, in the dress of a warrior, turned
toward the god and with his right hand pouring a libation from a ves-
sel. To the right is another identical scene, only that here a priestess
in long dress offers the libation to a seated goddess. Upon the altar
here a bird is sitting. This is worthy of notice. The type of aseated
goddess with a mirror or flower in the hands and occasionally a bird
sitting upon the altar or upon a table before her, meets us often on
the Hittite sculptures. We may safely recognize in it Semiramis, to
whom the dove was sacred, or, as she is also named, Ma of Comana,
etc. At Irviz, on the border of Cilicia and Cappadocia, there is seen
upon a rock in a lovely and fertile region a king or priest in adora-
tion before a god of fertility. The god is marked as such by having
in one hand a vine with many clusters, in the other a cornucopia from
which water is streaming.
As unique creatures of religious fancy may be mentioned the sphinxes
and gryphons. The formeriare fantastic beings with lion bodies and
human heads, and generally winged. Upon one relief the sphinx is
given even two heads, one of a lion in natural position and the other
of a man placed perpendicularly upon the neck. The gryphon has
the body of a man, but the head of a vulture, and also has wings.
The examples of Hittite architecture remain for the most part still
buried. Only in one place, at Senjirli, North Syria, have extensive
excavations been made, to be described in a future publication, uncover-
ing the site of an ancient city. The city was surrounded by a double,
nearly circular, wall protected by towers. Within this large circle
was the citadel proper, raised upon an elevated site. It was inclosed
by a second wall, likewise provided with projecting towers, and on
the south side was a large gate of a characteristic plan, for the wall
was not merely cut through to effect an opening, but considerably
thickened at the gate, so that it has two passages, in front and in the
rear. The space between the passage within the wall on both sides
is partly unfilled, so that a large quadrangular court is formed. On
either side of the outer door large towers project. All the walls are
of extraordinary thickness, even several meters thick, and consist, in
the lower portion of uncut stones, to keep off moisture, and the
upper part is of unburnt bricks. Clay is employed as building mate-
rial through the entire Hither Asia, even where other material is
available, and the custom dates back to Babylonian influence. The
inner walls of the gate and palace rooms were faced with stone slabs,
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 699
1 to 14 meters in height, adorned with reliefs. The edifice in its
simplest form was of a quadrangular ground plan with colossal walls
and had varied chambers. The front showed two large towers, which,
however, were not an organic part of the building. Between them an
open vestibule with columns formed the entrance, to which a few
steps led up. The columns must have been of wood, as nothing
is left of them excepting the stone bases, which were formed of single
or pairs of sphinxes.
A gate very similar to that of Senjirli was found at the village of
Veynek, in Cappadocia. Part of the large stone slabs used as wall
dressing, upon which are representations of sacrificial scenes, as also
two large sphinxes which flanked the gate passage, are still in place.
At Boghazkeu, also, numerous wall remnants of an extensive ancient
city are found. In the northern part of it are still discerned the
foundation walls of a large palace of quadrangular ground plan, with
many rooms. The walls are preserved to the height of about a meter,
and consist, like those of Senjirli, of rough, uncut stones. From this
circumstance it may be inferred that here, too, the upper part of the
wall consisted of unburnt bricks. To the excavations at Jerabis, on
the Euphrates, on the site of the ancient and oft-mentioned Carchemish,
we owe our knowledge of the wall slabs with reliefs, which until now
represent the high-water mark of Hittite artistic development in sculp-
ture (see pl. m1), in which, however, Assyrian influence is distinctly
discernible. It shows itself in the position and carriage of the figures
and in the care applied to the reproduction of ornamental details.
Worthy of notice is the remarkably high relief employed in some of
the Jerabis sculptures. The reliefs, accompanied by inscriptions,
evidently form the decoration of the entrance to a Hittite palace.
The subjects of the Hittite sculptors, so far as can be understood,
are chiefly religious, and have been largely referred to above, but
special mention may be made of a unique work upon a rock at Boghaz-
keu. It has a human head with a pointed cap upon it, while the entire
body is composed of four lions. Of two of them only the fore parts
are represented; they form the breast. Their bodies, to the right and
the left, are turned outward, and appear at a distance like arm
stumps. The two other lions represented in full are bent with their
heads downward and turn their backs to the right and the left out-
ward. They represent the body of the figure. Im place of legs,
which are not indicated, there are perpendicular straight lines, which
unite at the bottom. ‘The frequently occurring double eagle (fig. 3,
pl. 11) is also remarkable as a second instance of the composition of fan-
tastic figures of animals, but especially because it forms a directly
connecting link between modern times and Hittite antiquity, for the
Austrian double eagle is borrowed from the latter. It was first
700 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
adopted in the Orient by the Seljuk sultans (in 1217 a. D.), and from
them descended through the German emperors, its first appearance on
their coat of arms being in 1345.
Among nonreligious sculptures, tombstones will first be mentioned.
Fig. 3, page 693, and probably fig. 1, pl. 1, are such representations.
They are stone slabs of human size, provided at the bottom with a stone
peg to fit into a socket to keep it in an upright position. Upon the
fore side the dead is invariably represented sitting at a meal, alone or
with another person. Before him or, in the latter case, between them,
is seen a table with crossed legs, resembling our camp stools, upon
which food and drink are set. Fig. 3 shows two women, each hold-
ing in one hand a pomegranate (or a spindle? ), while in the other hand
one woman has a mirror, the other woman a bowl which she carries
to the mouth. Besides these we have the lower parts of two human
statues, provided with inscriptions. The execution is very stiff and
shows only feeble attempts at reproducing the folds of the drapery.
Of animals, the lion is most frequently represented. Head and chest
stand out free from the stone slab, while the body is merely in relief,
as the work was for a gate ornament, and had to be represented with
one half of the body fitted into the wall.
Regarding the character of the Hittite sculptures, that is, those thus
far known, they must be considered as rude, childish, and stiff, though
improvements and efforts to enliven the figures can not be denied. As
we are not able to read the inscriptions on the sculpture no date can
be assigned to the work, and we are therefore unable to describe the
historical development of Hittite art. A conelusion from purely
artistic view points, considering the manifold circumstances which
influence civilized life, would easily lead astray. Thus sculptures
found in two different places, some of which may be very rude, while
others point to a considerably higher degree of art, may belong to the
same period. The explanation of this would be that the former dec-
orated the palace of a petty unimportant prince without the means to
engage the best artists of his time, while the latter come from a con-
temporaneous, but powerful and rich ruler. Only when productions
of different art degrees are found in the same place is a chronological
arrangement of them to a certain extent justified. This is the case at
Senjitli. Here were found at the southern gate of the city wall sculp-
tures which are certainly older than those of the southern gate of the
citadel wall. But the material is too meager for establishing a develop-
ment in detail.
Most of the sculptures are executed in low relief. In the crudest
the representation is a simple outline, within which muscles, drapery
folds, and other details are merely indicated by awkwardly incised
lines, so that the legs or wings of animals sometimes appear as merely
mechanically attached to the body. This line drawing betrays metal
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. FOL
work as the starting point of stone sculpture, for figures in metal are
driven from the back of the plate to the front, and the muscles and
other details are then indicated by reversing the process in the respec-
tive parts of the metal. The writing of the Hittites also indicates such
origin for their art, the oldest inscriptions showing the characters cut
in relief, which is much more difficult than intaglio work to produce
in stone.
The primitive sculptures also show an utter lack of proportion.
The lower part of the human body is usually much too small in pro-
portion to the upper part, or the arms are two thin and too short.
Animal bodies are either excessively drawn out or are shortened. But
while these faults are less evident in the better sculptures, there is
common to all an almost entire absence of perspective. Of objects
with some depth only the fore side is represented. Thus in fig. 3 and
pl. 1, table and chairs seem to have only two legs each, and the plate
of the former is merely a line. The toes on the feet of human figures
and the claws of lions are generally piled one upon another instead of
being entirely or partly spread out, while the old artist always has
endeavored to show as much as possible. In pl. rv the chest of the
god who advances to the right is completely turned about so that it
appears in a front view. Both shoulders, besides being too much
drawn up, are not shortened. The artist evidently desired to bring
the emblems of the god into clear view, but was not equal to the task
of combining it with a natural attitude of the body; and he probably
also hesitated about hiding the face by the arm and hammer. The
existence of such a principle among artists of western Asia is evi-
denced by numerous Assyrian reliefs, upon which the bow and bow-
string are simply omitted when they would cover the face or chest.
The unnatural position of the arm of the god or goddess (pl. 1) is
probably to be explained in the same way. In order that the vessel
might not obscure the drapery, evidently executed with much care,
the artist extended the arm far to the front. Upona relief at Ueynek,
which depicts a person ascending a ladder, the ladder is represented
with a front view, but the person with a side view, so that he seems to
climb upon the cross beam of the ladder. On this as on other sculp-
tures the artist tries to do justice to the laws of perspective by short~
ening the figures in the background, but does not maintain a propor-
tion as regards their breadth or in relation to the other figures. Thus
on a relief from Marash a warrior is considerably larger than the horse
which he leads by the bridle. Frequently also rear figures are placed
on the same level as front ones, giving the appearance of adults and
children, although judging from the above characteristic this is not at
all intended. Where several rows of figures ranged one behind the
other are to be represented, as upon the Marash relief mentioned
above, they are placed, as on steps, one above the other, because the
TO2 THE ANCIENT HITTITES.
artist could not conceive and reproduce a picture in its entirety, but
could only take each group separately in view.
The attitude of the body is conventional. The personages are rep-
resented as walking by placing one foot in front of the other. One arm
is extended to hold or carry a staff, a vesseJ, or an ornament and simi-
lar objects, the other is bent at a right angle and placed against the
chest. There seems to be no attempt at individualizing. Even where
several personages or animals appear, each figure, almost without
exception, is moving in the same attitude as the other. The eye is
always drawn with a front view and is generally too large. Profile
representation is the rule. The only example of drawing with front
view is upon a relief found at Carchemish representing a winged
goddess, which is certainly due to Babylonian influence, as the goddess
Ishtar very often appears in that attitude on seal cylinders of that
country. The lifeless monotony of Hittite art is enhanced where
only a single personage is represented, which is mostly the case.
The cooperation of several personages on the same tasks is seldom
observed, even where a larger sculpture series is found. For even
here each figure generally seems to be so little influenced by the action
of its neighbors that its absence would not be missed. Battle scenes
are until now entirely wanting. On the other hand we have the rep-
resentation of a lion hunt, accompanied by a Hittite inscription, which
belongs to the better productions of this art. Upon a war chariot,
supposed to be drawn by two horses, although only one is sketched,
while the other must be imagined as covered by it, there stands by
the side of the charioteer a bowman in the act of shooting an arrow at
a fleeing lion. The lion, already hit by an arrow and infuriated by it,
rears high upon his hind legs and with terrific roaring turns the upper
body, with raised fore claws, toward the bowman. Under the horse a
dog is represented in a rapid run. A very similar representation of a
deer chase, evidently coming from the same place, has recently been
discovered.
As regards technology the Hittites seem to have been quite skillful
in working metals. The mountains between Cilicia and Cappadocia
are rich in silver, and silver mines were found which must have been
worked in very ancient times. And, indeed, among the few remnants
of Hittite industry that have come to us there are several objects of
silver such as the sword knob in figure 2 and some seals. In one of
them, artistically executed, the several parts are held together with
silver alloy. The Hittite treaty, described on a previous page, was
engraved upon a silver tablet. Bronze works have been discovered
in the excavations on the soil of the Kingdom of Van. One of these
is a bronze votive shield, wpon which rows of walking lions and bulls
in repoussé are represented in concentric circles around the center of
THE ANCIENT HITTITES. 708
the shield. Besides there were found arm rings, belt buckles, parts
of artistic thrones and statues of bronze. The statues and animal
figures had been covered with very thin gold plate and set with gems,
the gold plates being fastened to the bronzes by narrow bent edges
sunk into cuts in the bronze.
The excavations in Van brought to light a unique floor mosaic com-
posed of black, white, and red stones combined with bronze. Around
a bronze rosette the colored stones are grouped in eoncentric rings.
Other figures of the same material are worked into rhombic forms.
38
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
3y Cyrus THOMAS.
The Mayan tribes of Yucatan, Chiapas, Guatemala, and western
Honduras had reached at the time of the ** discovery ” the highest stage
of native culture found in North America, except possibly in political
organization, in which the ancient Mexicans, or Aztecs, excelled.
This advance is shown by their architecture, as seen in the ruins of
stately stone structures found throughout the region indicated, by
their sculptures in stone and wood, by their complicated calendar
system, by their arithmetical computations, and, above all, by the
near approach they seem to have made to alphabetic writing, their
system falling apparently but a step behind that of the ancient
Keyptians. They engraved their peculiar hieroglyphic characters on
stone tablets, on great sculptured monoliths, and on the walls and
lintels of their buildings, painted them on plastered surfaces and
on pottery, and wrote them in books. As most of these glyphs have
rounded outlines, early authors imagined they resembled somewhat a
section of a pebble, and the term ‘‘calculiform characters ”—from the
Latin calculus, ‘‘a pebble”—was for a time applied to them; but this
is no longer in use, the term ‘‘hieroglyph,” or simply ‘‘ glyph,”
having replaced it. Where inscribed on stone or wood (for they are
carved on both, but chiefly on the former) they are made to stand out
in low relief, as may be seen in plate 1; but occasionally they were
scratched or incised on shells and pottery, in which cases the glyphs are
generally quite rude,
Inscriptions composed of these peculiar hieroglyphs bave been
found in the ruins of temples and of other structures in the States
of Chiapas and Yucatan, Mexico, and in Guatemala and western
Honduras. They are found in different situations, some of them on
stone slabs set in the inner side of the walls of the temples, one of
which, from Palenque, Chiapas, is among the collections of the Smith-
sonion Institution. A very extensive inscription is on the inside wall
of the structure at Palenque, named by Stephens the ‘*Temple of
Inscriptions.” At Copan, in western Honduras, and at Quirigua, in
astern Guatemala, the more important ones are on the sides and
backs of the great stone statues which stood, and, in part, are yet
standing, in what the native priests considered sacred precincts. The
705
706 CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
lintels of the temple doors and, in a few instances, even the steps lead-
ing up to these edifices were utilized for this purpose. Casts and
excellent photographs of most of these inscriptions have been made,
thus bringing them in reach of students for investigation and study.
Most of the ruins are found covered with a heavy forest growth, which
has to be removed before exploration can be carried on. ‘The present
condition of one of the ruins at Chichen Itza, in Yucatan, named by
Prof. W. H. Holmes the ‘‘Temple of Tables,” is shown in plate n,
where the growth has been partially removed.
The glyphs of the inscriptions, which were carved so as to stand out
in low relief, are, as seen in plate 1, somewhat square in outline, vary-
ing from 35 to 4% or 5 inches square. Each of these squares, which
are as a rule in straight columns or lines, constitutes a hieroglyph or
glyph, but they are usually composed of several elements or parts.
This characteristic, which can not be easily explained in words, will be
readily understood by reference to plate 1. Some of these elements,
as will be observed, consist of lines and dots, mostly at the left side
or on the top of the glyphs. These are of special importance and will
receive further notice. Some of the glyphs consist chiefly of an oval
figure surrounded by a rim, as in the Egyptian cartouch. These
inclosed characters, with probably a single exception, are symbols of
Maya days. It is by means of these day symbols and the month
symbols, which are also given in the inscriptions, that students ascer-
tain that Maya people were the authors. Diego de Landa, a Spanish
bishop, who went to Yucatan as a missionary in 1540, when persons
were still living who could read the symbolic writing of the codices,
has preserved in his work (De las Cosas de Yucatan) the forms of
these symbols, each with its proper name attached, and this is the
initial point of later investigations. As these names are those of the
Mayan days and months, and the ruins are in the regions inhabited,
so far as known, only by Mayan tribes, the remains as well as the
inscriptions are attributed to these tribes.
However, Maya scribes were not limited in their symbolic or hiero-
elyphic writing to stone or wood, but wrote or painted their characters
in manuscripts. Four examples of these manuscripts, or codices, as
they are usually termed, remain. These are the Codex Troanus and
Codex Cortesianus, thought by some authors to be parts of the same
book, which are at Madrid; the Codex Peresianus, whicn is in Paris,
and the Codex Dresdensis, the most important of the sc cies, which is
in the Royal Library at Dresden.
The first two strongly resemble each other, and were probably
written in Yucatan, as they follow the calendar systeri of that region.
The Codex Peresianus differs in some respects frora all the others.
The Dresden codex, which is of chief importance in studying the
PLATE |.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Thomas.
Fla. 1.—PALENQUE TABLET (IN SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION).
PLATE Il.
Fig. 2.—TEMPLE OF TABLES, CHICHEN ITZA.
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. 707
written glyphs, agrees closely with the temple inscription in essential
points, and was probably written in Chiapas or Guatemala.
These manuscripts are on a kind of paper made of the Maguey plant.
A description of one is substantially a description of all, though the
size and the number of pages vary. The Troano codex, which will be
taken as an example, consists of astrip of maguey paper about 14 feet
long and 9 inches wide, both surfaces of which were first covered with a
white paint or varnish. The two faces were then divided into spaces
about six inches wide by black or red lines across the strip, in which
spaces the characters and figures, in black, brown, red, and sometimes
blue, were painted... The strip was then folded back and forth, like a
pocket map, into 35 folds corresponding with the cross lines, repre-
senting, when pressed together, the appearance of an ordinary octavo
volume. The glyphs and figures cover both sides of the paper, form-
ing 70 pages, the writing and painting having been done apparently
after the folding, as the folds do not interfere with it. A page is
shown in facsimile in plate 11.
The order in which this writing—if it may properly be so termed—
is to be read was for many years a subject of discussion, some authors
contending for one direction, as from left to right, or from the top
downward, while some thought that the reading should be in the oppo-
site direction. The proper order in which the inscriptions and the
text, in part, of the manuscripts is to be read was first pointed out
by the writer in 1882.¢
In the inscriptions, which usually consists of two, four, or six col-
umns, the columns are to be taken by twos or pairs from left to right,
and the glyphs in each pair of columns are to be read from left to right
and from top to bottom, in the order of the letters in the diagram
(fig. 1). Where there is a single column the ;-— Sea
reading is from the top downward, and in sin- ie Q
gle horizontal lines it is from left to right. e 5
The order in which the glyphsin the codices are | ~~~ cag rs
to be taken, where there is a regular arrange- :
ment, is substantially the same. Although the g h
columns may consist of but two lines in depth
they are read in the order a, 6, c, d in the dia-
gram, at least in the Dresden, Troano, and Cortesian codices. In
the Dresden codex, however, the numeral and time series, some of
which are quite long, are in some cases to be read from right to left
by lines across the page, the lines following one another from the
bottom upward. Usually there are in the inscriptions, besides the
elyphs, figures of priests and deities, and symbolic representations.
A considerable portion of almost every page in the codices consists of
Fig. 1.
@Study of the Manuscript Troano,
708 CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
pictographic representations such as are seen in the spaces below the
text or lines of glyphs in plate 1.
An important class of characters consists of those which as is now
known denote numbers. These are of two quite distinct types; one,
which is the usual form, found in both the inscriptions and the codices,
but more abundantly in the
latter, consists chiefly of
dots and short lines. Thus.
(one dot) signifies 1; .. (two
dots) signify 2, and so on
up to 4; 5 is indicated by a
single short straight line,
thus —; 10 by two similar
lines, and 15 by three similar
lines. To represent 6 the
Maya scribes used a straight line and one dot + ; for 7 a straight line
and two dots, and so on to 9. Eleven was denoted by two straight
lines and a dot; 12 by two straight lines and two dots, and so on
to 19, which was represented thus **~*
FG. 2.—Symbols for number 20.
= The lines and rows of dots
are usually horizontal in the codices, the dots above as shown here,
but in the inscriptions, where they are always attached to glyphs, are
mostly perpendicular
and placed at the left
side, as at T17 and U
17, plate 1 (the columns
in the figure being de-
noted by letters at the
top and the horizontal
lines by figures at the
side as in a reference
map).
The numeral sym-
bols of this type do
not appear to have
been used fora greater
number than 19, other
characters and relative
position also, as willbe @ @D<p Dail LDP SP Z>Kp}
shown, being used for 4
higher numbers. Line
and dot numerals of two colors are quite common in the codices, the one
class black, the other red; but the red characters are not used (except in
a single unexplained instance) to denote a number greater than 13, and
refer almost exclusively to the numbers given to the days, as explained
ona subsequent page. This is one instance, at least, in which color
Fig. 3.—Symbols for 0, or full count.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Thomas Plate Ill.
storey
al?
»
(>)
+
5
Caer irc
7 Wile
S
Copy of Plate XXIX, Codex Troano
(Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Edition)
o*
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. 709
has special significance in these native manuscripts and suggests the
probability that the different colors of the dots used to denote num-
bers in the Aztec codices in the time counts have a specific meaning,
though this has not as yet been determined.
The number 20 is represented by several different forms, as shown
in fig. 2. Those marked a, 4, ¢, d, and e are found only in the codices;
those marked 7, g, 4, and ¢ occur chiefly in the inscriptions and are
attached to the left side of the glyphs. Naught (¢ )) 1 is also represented
in the inscriptions by characters numbered 1 to 10 in fig. 3, those num-
bered 1 to 8 being placed at the left side or on top of the glyph when
used. Numbers 9 and 10 of the figure are used chiefly in double-face
characters, as those seen in fig. 6. Number 11 of fig. 3 shows the
characters for naught (0) used in the Dresden codex. The use of these
symbols for naught is interesting, as it manifests a very strict adher-
ence to mathematical steps in the representation of numbers, no blanks
being allowed.
The Maya scribes were capable of carrying their numeration to a
high number, and this they did in the codices, not with new or different
symbols from those mentioned, but by relative position, on the same
principle that we denote higher numbers than the Arabic digits by the
position of these digits. Thus we increase the value of a number ten-
fold in our decimal system at each step to the left, while in the vigesi-
mal system, used by the Maya scribes, the numbers increased twenty-
fold at each step, to indicate which they placed their digits, if we may
so call them, in a column increasing from the bottom ean, so that
a line and dot, mentioned above as denoting 6 if placed at the bottom,
as seen in the margin of the page, would denote 6, ; =
but if placed. one step upward would denote 120, or - equal 2, 160
6 by 20, and one step higher would, according to |. equal 120
their regular vigesimal system, be equal to 2,400, or - equal 6
6 by 20 by.20, but in their time counts, ne th are ati esha
the only numeral series in the third place, or third order a units,
would be 6 by 20 by 18, ene 2,160. ee other sepe upward
increase uniformly twentyfold. As ‘hee rise att SS
high as the sixth step the value of the unit in ie 6th order — 2,880,000
Sub ec 5th order 144,000
several steps or orders of units would be as shown ne 2 = ONG
: B ) order Tee
in the column at the margin, As the day was the | 34 order 360
primary unit, a single dot in the sixth step or | 2d order 20
order would denote 2,880,000 days. A single | Ist order 1
dot in the fifth order would denote 144,000 days, ar
and two dots in that place would denote twice that amount; three dots,
three times that amount, and so on up to 19. This applies to each of
these orders, except that in the second, where 18 is the multiplier.
The highest number that can be inserted is 17. They are the same in
principle as our compound denominate numbers—as pounds s, shillings,
710 CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
and pence—the highest number given in the pence place is 11, as 12
would be 1 shilling; and 19 the highest number to be given in the
shilling place, as 20 would be £1. These series, or units of the various
orders, can be reduced to the lowest denomination—which is days—in
fhe same way that pounds, shillings, and pence are reduced to pence.
Some of the numeral series in the Dresden codex amount when
reduced to over 12,000,000 days.
As an example of their use of large numbers, one numeral series
from plate Lx1x of the Dresden codex is presented here, the num-
bers indicated by the numeral characters being placed at the left in
parentheses and the equivalents in days at the right. The names
placed at the extreme left (great cycle, cycle, etc.) are those adopted
by Mr. Goodman for the respective orders:
’ Days.
(great cycles) (4)... . equal 11,520,000
(cycles) (5) equal 720, 000
Bg (katuns) (GS) 6 6 co Geiue! 136, 800
(ahaus) (13)... equal 4, 680
(chuens) (12) .. equal 240
(days) (8)... equal 8
Rotaless cee aes ae 12, 381, 728
That is to say, 4 great cycles (or 4 units of the sixth order or posi-
tion) equal 11,520,000 days; 5 eycles (or 5 units of the fifth order)
equal 720,000 days; 19 katuns (or 19 units of the fourth order) equal
136,000 days; 13 ahaus (or units of the third order) equal 4,680 days,
and so on.
The total amount expressed by this series is over 12,000,000 days.
This is a large number to be handled by a pre-Columbian native, yet
it can be demonstrated by actual count that the Maya scribe used this
number correctly in a calculation.
Writers of the present day have adopted the simple method of
expressing these numeral series thus (using the above example), posi-
tion indicating the orders of units 4-5-19-13-12-8, ascending toward
the left just as we may express £4, 12 shillings, and 6 pence, thus —
412-6.
A knowledge of the Maya numeral system and method of counting
and expressing numbers, as given above, is absolutely necessary in the
attempt to decipher the glyphs. It is also necessary to give here a
brief notice of the Maya calendar, as a knowledge thereof is another
requisite in deciphering. The process with the Maya glyphs, so far
as it has been carried, is wholly different from the method pursued in
deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and the cuneiform inscriptions of
Assyria. There the phonetic value of the characters being ascertained,
the combinations to form words can be followed and tested by the
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. (a
result. In the Maya, with the few exceptions which will be mentioned
later, the glyphs, so far as determined, are to a large extent symbols
(not phonetic characters), used to denote numbers, days, months, ete.
Hence the only means so far discovered by which to test an interpre-
tation is the demonstrable relation of one character to another, thus:
Having a symbol known to be that of Monday, another to be that for
7, another to be that for the month of March, and another for the
number 120, and finding them placed in an inscription in the order:
Monday, March 7, 120, and this followed by twoimperfect or unknown
characters and 5, thus Q ?5, and having ascertained that the
intermediate numbers, as the 120 in this case, indicate the number of
62
CK)
Kankin. Muan.
Se
Gane
Kayab. Cumhu. Uayeb.
Fic. 4.—The symbols of the months.
days from the first date to a second, we count 120 days from Monday,
March 7, which brings us to Tuesday, July 5. This gives us Tuesday
and July as the two unknown or doubtful characters of the terminal
date. Just as it is necessary, in the example given, to understand, in
part at least, our Gregorian calendar, so is it necessary to understand
the Maya calendar in attempting to decipher the Maya hieroglyphs.
The Maya years consisted uniformly of 365 days, no reference to or
evidence of bissextile years (corresponding to our leap year) having
been found in the codices or inscriptions. They were divided uni-
formly into 18 months of 20 days each, and a supplemental month of
5 days following the 18th. Each of these months had a name and a
sm 1903 46
lord
~
—
©
Z CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
symbol as shown in fig. 4. They always followed one another in the
same order, the year uniformly beginning with Pop. The 20 days
were also named, each haying its appropriate symbol as shown in fig.
5. The order in which they followed one another was uniform, though
the year did not always begin with the same day, the 5 in the supple-
mental month carrying the count-forward 5 dayseach year. Although
the days had their month numbers, as 1, 2, etc., to 20, as we say the
Iie Akbal. Kan. Chiechan. Cimi.
G oho
° 3
Manik. Lamat. Mulue. Oe. Chuen.
Eb. Ben.
Ezanab.
Ahau. Ahau. Ahau. Ahau. Ahau.
Fig. 5.—The symbols of the days.
fifth, sixth, and seventh day of the month, there was another number-
ing which applied to the days only. This, however, was from 1 to 13,
beginning again with the unit. These numbers were prefixed to the
days and followed in regular succession, no day being without its num-
ber. It follows from this method that a day bearing both the same
name and the same number will not recur until 13 months have passed.
This gives a cycle or period of 260 days, which appears to have been
CENTRAL AMERICAN. HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. 713
more in use as a ceremonial or religious period, both among the Mayas
and Mexicans, than the secular year of 365 days.
The order of the days and their numbering passed on from month
to month and from year to year without a break or change in the reg-
ular succession. There is one series of 312 years in length in the
Dresden codex, in which there is not a break in the succession, nor
an indication of a bisextile year. In the series given above, also
from the Dresden codex, which covers 34,059 years, 9 months, and 13
days, the date of the commencement and of the ending being given,
which calculation shows to be correct, this is evidence that there can
be no break or change in the succession of days, day numbers, or
months. In this regularity of succession lies the possibility of deter-*
mining the time series of the inscriptions and the codices.
In order to show what advance has been made in deciphering: this
ancient American writing, it is necessary to present examples from
the codices and inscriptions that the reader may have the glyphs
referred to before him, for words alone can not describe them so as
to be understood. Beginning with the inscriptions, which appear to
be older than the codices, attention is called to plate 1, showing the
inscription on the Palenque tablet in the Smithsonian Institution. As
a means of identifying the individual glyphs, a letter is placed over
each column and a number at the side opposite each line, as in refer-
ence maps. R,S, T, U, V, W, X have been selected because they
are the letters used for these particular columns in Doctor Rau’s
scheme. @
The column R being separated from the others, and a single col-
umn, it must be read from the top downward. Passing by this,
attention is called to the other six, which are to be read two and two,
beginning with the two at the left, going from the top downward,
taking the glyphs alternately in the left of the two columns and then
in the right, thus: First glyph, S 1 then T 1; next, S 2, T 2; then S 3
and T’ 3, and so on to the bottom. Then columns U and V are to be
taken in the same order, and after these columns W and X. As it
would require a somewhat extended study of the subject to follow
out understandingly a complete explanation of the steps in the process
of decipherment, an outline only of what has been accomplished in
this direction can be given.
Reading down columns S and T in this manner, the first glyph
which has been determined, or rather could be determined if unin-
jured, is T 2 (or the second in the T column), which, from the sur-
rounding border or band and the number attached is known to be the
symbol of a day, but on account of the imperfect markings or weath-
ering of the face, is not indentifiable with certainty. Here, however,
is an instance where a knowledge of the Maya calendar system
# Palenque Tablet, in Sm. Cont. Knowl., vol. xxu, p. 61.
raw! CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
becomes important, as it enables us to limit the investigation to one
of four out of twenty days. As the next glyph which follows—that
is, S 3 (or the third in the S column)—is the symbol for the month
Pop (see fig. 4), the first month of the Maya year, and has attached
to the left the symbol for 20 (similar to that shown at 7 fig. 2), it is
evident that the day at T 2 is the 20th day of the month. As there
are but four days (Ik, Manik, Eb, Caban—see fig. 4) in the calendar
system used in the inscriptions that can fall on the 20th, it is evident
that it must be one of these. The reader will observe by inspecting
this glyph in the figure that there are two short perpendicular lines
and a dot at the left; these denote that it is the day 11—?
Passing on to S 10, T 10, we find another date, the glyph S 10,
being the symbol for the day 11 Lamat, and glyph T 10, the symbol
for the month Xul with the numeral character for 6 at the left. For
the days mentioned reference can be made to fig. 5 and for the months
to fig. 4. However, for the illustration the names of the days and the
months are not essential, but are added here to avoid using blanks.
It will be observed that above and below the little dot in the numeral
characters at the side of each of these glyphs is a little semicircle or
crescent. These, which might be mistaken for number dots, have no
significance, but are used to fill out the space or to guard the dot.
To be able to say that certain glyphs denote days, others months,
and others numbers is one step in the process of decipherment, but
the step is a comparatively short one unless their relation to one
another and the object of their introduction into the inscription can be
ascertained. This relation has been determined in part through inter-
mediate number series. For example, by passing on to glyphs 5 12
and T 12, we find the number series 9 days, 3 chuens (or units of the
second order), and 13 ahaus (or units of the third order)—or 15-3-9—
which, reduced to the lowest denomination, gives 4,749 days. Count-
ing this number of days, according to the Mayan calendar, from 13
Lamat, 6 Xul, the date given in S 10, T 10, and mentioned above, we
reach the date 2 Caban, 10 Xul, which is the date given two lines
below at S14 and T14. That is to say, the number in the numeral
series is the exact time included between the immediately preceding
and the immediately following date. This is proof positive that there
is a connection between the date at S 10 and T 10 and that at S 14,
T 14. Nor does the connection series end here. Glyph § 15 is a
short-number series of 123 days which connects the date 2 Caban, 10
Xul, of glyphs S 14, T 14, with the date 1 Ahau, Zip of glyphs T
17 and U 1; or, omitting names, it connects the last preceding with
the next following date.
Dropping from consideration the names of the days and months,
introduced to avoid blanks or explanatory phrases, the important fact
-
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. HAS)
remains that there is a connection between date glyphs that stand some
distance apart. )
It has been stated above that the Maya writing included two types
of numeral characters. One of these, consisting of dots and short
iines and the use of position, has been explained. The other type con-
sisted of face characters, some of which are shown in fig. 6. In order
=
‘Stages
im YS
Nite
2 (9)
Semmes)
Symbol of calendar rounds.
Fic. 6.—Face characters representing numbers.
to show how these are used, attention is called to fig. 7, which repre-
sents part of the inscription on the east side of Stela (or statue) F, at
Quirigua, Guatemala, as designated by Mr. Maudslay, from whose
great work (Biologia Centrali-Americana, ‘‘Archeology”), part x1,
pl. 40, our figure is taken.
716 CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
As seen in this illustration (fig. 7), there is at the top or beginning a
large quadruple glyph, below which follow, in the order of the num-
bers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 at the sides, six double glyphs, each composed
of two faces. There are other
ee double-face glyphs below, but the
igus ta six will suffice for illustration.
Omitting from present consider-
ation the large character at the
top, attention is directed to these
six glyphs, from which we may
Co == ne something of the mistakes
ae Sane made in the attempts at decipher-
rt a 41 ment. A little ae than : dee-
PLAGE Ghee Copy ade ago there was almost univer-
sal agreement among students of
the Maya hieroglyphs that these
face characters, especially those
in commencing series, as shown
in fig. 7, were symbols of deities.
ee investigation, how-
ever, has shorn them of their
sacred character and reduced
them to mere symbols represent-
ing numbers. The left face of
each of these six double glyphs
is one of the smaller numbers (1
to 19), which we have designated
‘*Mayan digits;” for instance, the
left face in glyph number 1 de-
notes 9; that in glyph 2 stands
for 16; that in 8 for 10; that in
4 for 0 (naught), and that in 5
also stands for 0 (naught). These
are the numbers prefixed respec-
tively to the symbols of the orders
of units in the inscription repre-
sented. The right face of num-
ber 1 denotes the cycle or fifth
order of units; adding the prefix
|} 9, the double glyph will signify 9
nS Se a eee ae copy cycles or 9 units of the fifth order.
ee wir The right face of glyph 2 is the
katun or fourth order of units; that of 8 the ahau or third order of
units, ete. Glyph 6 is the day (1 Ahau) and glyph 12 the month
(3 Zip), forming together the terminal date of the seriés.
“fei ka ae!
a a a a
J
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. WON
Briefly stated, this series (fig. 7) and all those of like character are
made up of numbers and dates, and not of deities, as was formerly
supposed.
The differences in these face characters, by which their respective
values are determined, have not in every instance been so clearly
ascertained that they can be determined by inspection alone. In the
left face of glyph 1 the circle of dots on the cheek forms the distin-
guishing characteristic for 9, but peculiar markings of others are less
distinct. The face characters representing the orders of units, as the
cycle, katun, ete., can be determined by position alone.
The great quadruple glyph at the top is the symbol for the sixth
order of units (Goodman’s *‘ great cycle”), which seems to have repre-
sented the limit of Mayan time counts, although according to Doctor
3rinton their numeration in the regular Maya number system was
carried a step higher; and Goodman intimates that their time counts
reached an additional step in the scale, amounting at the extreme to
280,800 years or 102,492,000 days. This large so-called ‘‘ great cycle
symbol,” with the number characters and the immediately following
date, form what Maudslay has termed an ‘‘ initial series,” as the large
glyph is never found except at the commencement of an inscription.
The month symbol which helps to make up the date in this instance
is somewhat distant from the day symbol, five compound glyphs inter-
vening; nevertheless there is numerical evidence that the two are con-
nected and that the date is part of the ‘‘initial series.” There is also
evidence that the initial series in the inscriptions at Copan, Quirigua,
and some other localities where the number of cycles is 9,as in this
case, start with the same date (4 Ahau 8 Cumhu), this date being
apparently the beginning of an era with the priests and scribes of
those sections. As this is but one instance of a number where the
count in these initial series gives the proper terminal date in the
inscription, the proof that they have been correctly interpreted seems
to be complete. This conclusion necessarily carries with it the accept-
ance of the interpretation given the glyphs and also the calendar sys-
tem as above explained, though the native priests appear to have pur-
posely used characters which would be understood only by their own
class.
The codices, as will be seen by referring to plate m1, which is a
facsimile of three of the four divisions of plate xx1x of the Codex
Troano, contain a much larger proportion of pictographic representa-
tion than the inscriptions. Besides the pictures there are two classes
of hieroglyphs; first, the ordinary numerals represented by dots and
short lines, which are of two colors, black and red. The latter, which
do not exceed 13 in value, are the numbers attached to or belonging to
the days—the day, where the symbol is omitted, as in the lines of the
alternate black and red numerals in this instance, being understood.
718 CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING.
The column at the left side of the lowest division consists of the symbols
of 5 days, which form the basis from which the count by the black and
red numerals is made. The day columns for the two upper divisions
are in a preceding plate, the line of numerals running through more
than one plate.
The two lines of black glyphs running across the upper part of each
division forms what may be termed the ‘* text.” These are read in this
instance by groups of four, considering them two short columns, as
those over the bird and personage in blue at the left side of the middle
division, the order being the same as a, >, c, d in the diagram, fig. 1.
But little progress has as yet been made in deciphering this so-called
“text.”
So far as the writer is aware, but three characters of the text of this
plate have been determined save in the manner mentioned below,
These are the symbols of three of the cardinal points, and are the first,
third, and fifth glyphs in the upper line of the upper division, counting
across from the left.
That the text in most instances contains reference to the figures
below is quite evident. This is shown in plate mm by the fact that some
feature of the pictures is represented by one of the four glyphs which
stand above it, as in the middle section the bird’s head forms one of
the glyphs over the figure in which the bird appears; and likewise
the dog-like animal and worm in the same division are represented in
the glyphs of the text above. These would therefore seem to be
simple abbreviated pictographs or conventionalized figures and not in
any sense phonetic characters. In the lower division of the same figure
the three persons to the right are holding in their hands something like
the symbol for the day Ik (fig. 5) (which signifies ‘‘ wind” in the Maya
language); the same symbol appears in the text above the head of each,
but its signification in these places is unknown. We may surmise if
we like, but the proof is wanting. P
As the glyphs in the middle division of the figure, on which the per-
sons and other forms are sitting, appear to represent something out of
which plants can grow and has the elements of the symbol of the day
Caban (see fig. 5), it is possible they denote earth (cab in Maya signifies
‘earth ”). In the upper division the Kan-like symbols (one of which
a bird is pecking and another is bitten by a little quadruped) prob-
ably represent grains of corn, supposed to be in the ground, the two
to the right throwing out sprouts. If this interpretation be correct,
this entire plate probably has reference to the cultivation of corn and
the dangers it is subject to. However, from what has been stated, the
reader can judge as to the portion of this codex that has been deter-
mined with certainty, which is but little, and as to what is as yet but
theoretical. Of the text proper, scarcely anything, as before stated,
has been absolutely determined. This failure to decipher is attribu-
—
eS ee
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. (OG)
table in part to the fact that where the suggested signification may be
absolutely correct, no means, except where numbers come into play,
has been found to verify the conclusion.
From what has been stated and the examples presented from the
inscriptions and codices, it is apparent, notwithstanding the number
of glyphs whose signification has been ascertained, that practically no
progress has been made in determining the phonetic equivalents of these
characters. In other words, no satisfactory evidence has yet been
presented to show that any of these glyphs are phonetic, although
there is sufficient evidence that the language used was Maya. The
nearest approach to proof on this point is in regard to a few symbols,
such as that for the month Tzotz (fig. 4). The usual form of the
elyph is the conventionalized head of the leaf-nosed bat, and in one
instance (Stela D, Copan) the full form showing the wings and body
is introduced as the symbol of the month. As tzotz is the Maya word
for bat, it is possible the word relates tothe symbol. Pop, the name of
another month, signifies in Maya literally a mat, or rug, the refer-
ence being apparently to the structure, and the chief feature of the
symbol for the month consists usually of interlacing like basket
work. These and a few other instances of similar character consti-
tute the strongest indications of phoneticism that have been observed,
but as the elements of these glyphs found where the character can not
be determined by other means furnish no aid in decipering them the
inference of phoneticism is doubtful. It is possible that some of the
characters are phonetic, yet it must be admitted that no satisfactory
proof thereof has yet been presented, although the author, with others,
thought but a few years ago that continued investigation would soon
produce this evidence.
The general purport of the inscriptions has not been ascertained
with certainty, yet the fact that half of them belong to the classes
heretofore described—the numeral symbols, calendar symbols, ete.—
leads to the conclusion that they contain little, if anything, relating to
the history of the tribes by whom they were made.
The indications that the Maya priests, by whom these inscriptions
were doubtless designed, if not carved, recognized a prime or ruling
era from which a large portion of the initial time series are counted,
are so strong that most recent authorities who have devoted attention
to the subject have concluded to adopt the theory, at least tentatively.
We might hope that further research will prove that this has some
relation to Maya history were it not that the beginning was placed
about four thousand years prior to the time when the inscriptions
were made—a date so remote as to preclude the supposition that it
related to any noted event in the history of the tribes.
720 CENTRAL AMERICAN HIKFROGLYPHIC WRITING.
The progress made in deciphering the text of the codices is less than
that made in interpreting the inscriptions, as the number of numeral,
time, and other symbols in the former which have been determined
is less in proportion to the whole than in the latter. However, this
proportion is limited to the text of the codices and does not include
the accompanying numeral and day series. Nevertheless, the aid fur-
nished by the figures which are introduced, together with the relation
a large portion of the time series bear to the text and figures, often
furnish some indication of the general purport of the plates, but all
attempts to give the details have thus far failed, from the lack of means
of verification. Two or three of the plates of the Dresden codex are
devoted entirely to a single numeral series. These can be followed
throughout and the obliterated characters in most cases restored; in
fact, some of them seem to be little else than the steps of the caleula-
tion made by the original scribe. Possibly their relation to adjacent
series may yet be ascertained and their signification determined.
This has been accomplished in regard to the series running through
plates 46-50 of the Dresden codex.4
A brief answer to the question, What has the progress thus far
made in deciphering this hieroglyphic writing added to our knowledge
of the ancient history, life, and attainments of the Maya people? may
properly close this brief article.
That it has shown a greater advance in culture along particular lines
than was previously known is certainly true. Much has been ascer-
tained from the remains of stone structures and the sculptured designs
thereon in regard to the advance of the Mayas along certain lines of
art and their ability to form and to carry out comprehensive plans
and designs; but the study of the hieroglyphs has brought to light
evidence of mental capability and attainments of a higher grade in
some respects than has been shown elsewhere. It would be some-
what difficult for anyone at the present day, except a mathematician,
to calculate back 84,059 years 9 months and 13 days from a particular
day in the present year, using our Gregorian calendar, and determin-
ing the exact month, day of the month, and day of the week that will
be reached. Yet this was accomplished by the Maya priests according
to their calendar and with their cumbersome vigesimal system. Not
only was 1t necessary to reduce the several orders of units (cycles,
katuns, etc.) to the lowest denomination, but the sum had to be
changed into years, months, and days. The modern mathematician
has his books of tables, and his paper, ink, and pen and pencil, and a
numeral system that is simple and easy to handle. How did the
Mayan scribe solve the same problem with the means he had at hand?
The study of the glyphs has brought these facts and this question
before us.
“The Maya Year, by Cyrus Thomas, Bureau Am. Ethn., 1894.
CENTRAL AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHIC WRITING. TA
The steps which have been made in decipherment have made it
evident that the Mayan priests had an understood era or a well-under-
stood point of departure in their time counts. They also indicate
that the inscriptions at Copan and Quirigua were carved in substan-
tially the same period, the range, judging by the terminal dates of
the initial series, being comprised in two hundred years. But the
attempts to connect. the dates in the Mayan inscriptions and codices
with dates in the Gregorian calendar have failed, though greater suc-
cess has attended the efforts in this direction with the Aztec count.
Another fact made prominent by the study of these glyphs is the
uniformity in the system, art, and culture, along the lines indicated,
in Chiapas, Guatemala, western Honduras, and with slight exceptions
in Yucatan. The collection of hieroglyphs from the inscriptions of the
latter section are not sufficient to determine whether they follow the
Troano and Cortesian codices or the system of the inscriptions of
Chiapas and Guatemala.
The study of the inscriptions and codices has made it evident that
no adjustment between the Maya year and the solar year was made in
any way that appears in the record or interfered with the calendar
count. Although the efforts at interpretation have succeeded in few
if any instances in tracing the connection throughout long inscrip-
tions, they have made it evident that there is connection, or, in other
words, that these inscriptions (with possible exceptions) are continu-
ous records from the initial glyph to the end, though it may consist of
little else than number series and time counts. Both inscriptions and
codices evidently relate very largely to ceremonies and priestly duties,
more particularly the latter.
Another result of the study of the hieroglyphs is the clear distine-
tion it has established between the Maya and the Aztec symbolic
writings.
The Maya writing has been studied to a greater or less extent by
Leon de Rosny, Hyacinth de Charencey, and Brasseur de Bourbourg,
of France; P. Schellhas, E. Forstemann, and Eduard Seler, of Ger-
many; A. P. Maudslay, of England; Charles Rau, Edward Holden,
D. G. Brinton, J. T. Goodman, Marshall H. Saville, Cyrus Thomas,
G. B. Gordon, and C. P. Bowditch, in the United States.
i
Pea
is
TRACES OF ABORIGINAL OPERATIONS IN AN IRON MINE
NEAR LESLIE, MO.¢
3y W. H. Houmes.
Early in April, 1903, a communication was received by the Bureau
of American Ethnology from Dr. 8. W. Cox, of Cuba, Mo., stating
that evidences of ancient mining operations had been discovered in an
iron mine operated by him near Leslie, Franklin County. This report
was confirmed by Mr. D. I. Bushnell and other St. Louis archeologists,
and the present writer, who is especially interested in the quarrying
and mining industries of the aborigines, repaired at once to Leslie to
make a study of the interesting phenomena.
It was found that the miners had encountered a body of iron ore,
of unknown depth and horizontal extent, lying immediately beneath
the surface of the soil on a gentle slope reaching down to the banks of
Big Creek, a branch of Bourbois River, and that they had removed
the ore from a space about 100 feet wide, 150 feet long, and to a depth
at the deepest part of between 15 and 20 feet, as shown in plate 1.
In beginning the work traces of ancient excavations were observed
penetrating the soil which covered the surface of the ore body toa
depth of from 1 to 5 feet, and as the work progressed it was found
that the ore had been fairly honeycombed by the ancient people, the
passageways extending even below the present floor of the mine, as at
the right of the figure in the plate. There were many partially filled
galleries, generally narrow and sinuous, but now and then larger
openings appeared, two of these being of suflicient dimensions to
accommodate standing workmen.
In the débris of the old excavations many rude stone implements
were encountered, and upward of 1,000 of these had been gathered
by the miners into a heap on the margin of the mine. (PI. 11.)
These sledges are exceedingly rude, consisting of hard masses of
stone or hematite weighing from 1 to 5 pounds, and roughly grooved
or notched for the attachment of withe handles, no trace of the latter
remaining, however. The great number of these implements made
it certain that extensive operations had been carried on by the ancients,
nae with Bagioee from the ence fGriengea neice vol. Nor 13;
July—-Sept., 1903.
724 ABORIGINAL OPERATIONS IN AN IRON MINE.
but the exact nature of the work was not readily determinable. The
first impression was that the compact masses of hematite were sought
for the purpose of manufacturing implements such as were employed
by the mound-building tribes in many parts of the Mississippi Val-
ley, but examination revealed few traces of the shaping of this
material, save that it had been used in making the rude sledge heads
or hammers found in the mine. In breaking up the ore the white
miners encountered small, irregular seams and masses of flint, but
these were too limited in extent and too brittle in texture to have
been utilized successfully in the manufacture of implements. Some
workable flint was observed in the vicinity of the ore body, and flakes
and rejectage of blade making, as well as a number of well-finished
spearheads, arrow points, and leaf-shaped blades were intermingled in
the filling of some of the superficial pits, but this flint shaping appears
to have been an incident only of the work on the site. The evidences
of this shaping work are not sufficient to warrant the conclusion that
the extensive tunneling was cafried on for the purpose of obtaining
material for that purpose. Besides, this flint is found in large bodies
in many sections of the general region and could readily have been
obtained in quantity by the Indians.
It was observed, in approaching the mine, that the exposed surfaces
of the ore and the ground about were everywhere a brilliant red. The
workmen were red from head to foot, and anyone venturing to handle
the ore soon found his hands smeared with red oxide, repeated wash-
ing being required to remove it. The prevalence of the red color sug-
gested at once the idea that the site had been an aboriginal paint mine
and that the red and yellow oxides were mined and carried away to
be used as paint—an article of utmost importance in the aboriginal
economy.
As the charges of dynamite used by the miners broke down the
walls of the mine it was observed that the deposits were of irregular
hardness, that certain portions of the ore were very compact and flinty,
containing much quartz, and of dark-bluish or purplish hue, while the
larger part was so highly oxidized as to be easily broken up. Extend-
ing through the ore body in all directions were pockets and seams of
soft red and yellow oxides, and in places there were irregular open-
ings and partially filled cavities. Two of these openings are shown
in plate 111, a view of the face of the mine taken by Mr. Clark McAdams,
of St. Louis. The miners would drill with great difficulty through
the hardest of ore, to have the drill drop suddenly into a cavity of
unknown depth. This occurred at the spot shown in plate rv. It
was difficult to discover just which of these openings and cavities were
artificial, or whether or not they had been penetrated by the ancient
workers, as changes are constantly taking place in such ore bodies.
Percolating waters fill up or clear out the passageways. Generally,
Ud
‘youysng “fd Aq yde.
“SANIIA| LNSIONY SHL 4O SONINSdO HLIM LHOIY AHL LV AGOgG AYO 3HL SO 3O0V4 3HL ONIMOHS ‘ANI NOY] S3HL 40 MSIA IWH3SN35
7
mas
Pa~zw:
*saLUu[OH €06| ‘Hoday ueiuOsYy}iWS
“| aLlvid
PLATE II.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Holmes.
HEAP OF STONE SLEDGE HEADS, ABouT 1,200 IN NUMBER, COLLECTED ON THE MARGIN OF THE MINE.
Photograph by D. J. Bushnell.
ABORIGINAL OPERATIONS IN AN IRON MINE. (25
however, as the walls were broken down by our miners the open-
ings were found to connect with the superficial pittings, as indicated
in plate v.
It appears certain that the larger tunnels or galleries in which the
sledges were found had been opened up or enlarged by the ancient
miners and that, in the search for other bodies of the desired product,
they had followed weak lines and partially filled passageways, removing
the projecting masses of hard ore, where these interfered with the
work, by means of the sledges. Sketches of these rude implements
are shown in fig. 1, and the specimensappear on plate vr. It is appar-
ent that the sledges could have had no other function than that of
crushing and breaking up the solid masses of ore to be used in the
manufacture of implements or in opening new passageways through
the ore body. Although these sledges were made in the main of com.
Fic. 1.—Sketches of the rudely shaped mining implements.
pact bits of the ore and of the flinty masses associated with it, they
correspond very closely in general characteristics with the bowlder
sledges used in such great numbers in the copper mines of Lake Supe-
rior. Nearly all appear to have been hafted for use, and the majority
show the rude grooving or notching necessary for the attachment of
the withe haft. It would seem that in the narrow passages of the
mine the use of hafted implements would be inconvenient if not
entirely impracticable, and we are left to marvel at the feat accom-
plished by the ancient workmen of penetrating a compact ore body in
dark, sinuous passages hardly roomy enough to admit the body of a
man, with the aid of rude bits of stone held in the hand. The char-
acter of these openings is indicated clearly in plate m1, which shows
the face of the mine as freshly exposed by the mining operations; and
plate v indicates somewhat imperfectly the manner in which the tun-
nels 6r borings penetrate the ore body connecting with the superficial
G
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26 ABORIGINAL OPERATIONS IN AN IRON MINE.
pits and extending to unknown depths beneath the present floor of the
mine. Three of these borings are seen in the wall of the mine shown
in plate vir. One is exposed at the right of the right-hand figure,
and a second occurs beyond this, extending from the stump on the
margin of the mine down to and beneath the feet of the man whose
back is turned toward the observer, and a third passes down from the
second stump, being the same opening as that shown at d d in plate v.
Numerous examples of the implements found and specimens of the
ore in its various phases, together with a large mass of the compact
ore, one surface of which shows the markings of the mining tools of
the aborigines, were presented to the U.S. National Museum by the
proprietor of the mine, Dr. 5. W. Cox.
I have now examined mines and quarries of the aborigines in twelve
distinct materials, and each new example has added to my former high
estimate of the enterprise and perseverance of the native peoples when
engaged in the pursuit of their normal industries.
‘SONINSdO SANIW LNSIONY SHL 4O SNOILOSSG ONIMOHS ‘AGO 3YO SHL JO 30V4
‘Il ALV 1d "SAW/OH —'E 06] ‘Hoday UviuOsYyyiIWS
PLATE IV.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Holmes
WORKMEN ON THE OUTER MARGIN OF THE MINE DISCOVER OPEN GALLERIES BENEATH.
*AGOg 3YO SHL SLVYLANSd SONIYOG YO SSINSTIVS LNSIONY S3HL HOIHM NI YSNNVI) SAL ONILVOIGN| NOILOSS
pas
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SSScvo
SWS
‘A 31vV1d “saUjOoH— e06| ‘Hodey uRluosy}IWIS
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Holmes. PLATE VI.
STONE SLEDGE HEADS, HAMMERS, AND RUDE PICK FROM THE ANCIENT GALLERIES.
ONE-THIRD ACTUAL SIZE.
“SULBPVOW YIBlDM “AW AG Ydvasoioyg
"AGOG 3YO SHL HONOYHL NMOQ YONIGNSLXZ ‘STANNOAL LN3SIONY AHL 40 SHOVYHY] DNIMOHS ‘TIVAA ANIA SHL SO MSlA
€06| ‘oday uelUuOsYyIWS
"HA aLvid nee
**
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.¢
By G. Ts. TsyBiKkorr.?
After a journey of twenty-two days over the sparsely populated
north Tibetan plateau, our caravan of pilgrims camped July 19,¢ 1900,
on the banks of the San-chu, at the northern foot of the Bumza
Mountain. The caravan had been formed at the Kumbum monastery
in Amdo, and started April 24 on the way to Lhasa. There were
about 70 persons in the party, almost all of them Amdo and Mongo-
lian Lamas, and were quartered in 17 traveling tents. About 200 mules
transported men and baggage.
We here first met inhabitants of Central Tibet. Close to the road
was a great black tent in which lived the local soldiery, an advance
post on the lookout for foreigners. They had special orders to watch
during the present year for P. K. Kosloff’s Russian expedition, of
which the authorities at Lhasa had received information as early as
April.
The guards immediately approached our camp, but seeing that it
was an ordinary caravan of pilgrims, the men were soon busied in
making trifling exchanges to supply their wants, our men keeping a
watchful eye on articles that might readily be stolen. After four
short marches from here we reached the Nakchu monastery, the resi-
dence of two governors of the local nomads, appointed’ by the central
government of Tibet. One of them belongs to the clergy and is called
a ironsieted fon ine a estia ae Ae ine ial ae ssian iGeocmpincal Syn St.
Petersburg, vol. xxx1rx, 1903, part m1, pp. 187-218.
b‘“*M. Tsybikoff is a Buriat by birth, and a Lamaist by religion, who finished his
education at a Russian university, and, after having prepared himself for this journey,
went quite openly, like so many other Buriat pilgrims, to Lhasa. There he remained
more than twelve months, making an excursion to Tsetang (or Chetang) and visiting
some of the most venerated monasteries, after having previously stayed, during his
journey to Lhasa, in the Mongol monasteries of Labrang and Kumbum. During
his stay at Lhasa he made, moreover, a most valuable collection of books, written by
all the most renowned Lama writers during the last nine centuries. This collection
represents 319 yolumes on philology, medicine, astronomy and astrology, history,
geography, and collections of ku-rims (praises, prayers, and incantations, and so on).
It has eee presented by the Russian Geographical Society to the Academy of
Sciences.’’—The Geographical Journal, London, January, 1904.
¢The dates in this paper are old style, or twelve days behind the Gregorian
calendar.
sm 1903——47 727
028 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
‘* Khambo,” the other is a civilian, called ** Nansal.” They supervise
the collection of taxes and decide important matters that arise between
the natives; and also control the government stations between Nakchu
and Lhasa. It also devolves upon them to stop Europeans bound for
Lhasa and immediately to notify the central government about them,
as well as about all suspicious persons. I was halted as belonging to
the last category, due to the chief of our caravan, who, out of friend-
ship to the Tibetans and possibly to shift responsibility from himself,
reported that there were Buriats in the party. Although the Buriats
had of late been freely admitted, yet we were each obliged to pay 5
taels (about $4), which at once excluded us from the suspicious class
and opened our way to Lhasa.
The Nakchu monastery serves also as a custom-house. Here all pil-
grims are obliged to pay a tax on each tent, the revenue being used
for keeping the local pastures in grass. No penalty is imposed upon
those who refuse to pay the toll, although an indirect punishment is
inflicted by prohibiting the local residents from having anything to do
with delinquents.
After losing half a day here, the caravan left the monastery, situ-
ated on the left bank of the small river Dre-chu,¢ and 7 miles away
approached the left bank of the Nakechu. In the rainy season, when
the river runs deep and swift, it is impossible to cross without
boats, which evidently the native nomads can not build. Thence the
caravan reached the broad Sun-shan Valley, bounded on the north by
Mount Samtan Kansar. From this valley, across the low crest of
Chog-la, the road enters the Dam Valley, inhabited by descendants of
Mongols brought into Tibet by the Khoshot Gushi Khan in the
middle of the seventeenth century. They are at present practically
assimilated with the Tibetans, although some still use Mongol felt
tents, and have not forgotten how to milk the mares and to make
kumys. Mongol words have disappeared from their language,
except official titles and some special technical terms. The Dam
Mongols are subject to the Manchu Amban, who resides at Lhasa.
Their occupation is cattle raising.
From Dam across Lani-la, or ‘‘double range,” we enter a pass
where we come to the first agricultural settlement of Central Tibet.
It is more civilized here. The Pondo-chu is crossed by pedestrians
over a bridge. In the rainy season baggage is taken across in skin
boats, while animals ford the stream. On the right side of this swift
river stands the castle Pondo-dzong.
Twenty-seven miles farther on the journey we reached Penbu, or
Penyul, one of the most thickly populated regions of Tibet. Cara-
vans have from here a choice of two roads—one, without crossing the
ridge, along the right bank of the U-chu, and the other, straight
@Chu = river in Tibetan.
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 129
across the high ridge of Go-la. About ten miles from the top of the
ridge lies the capital of Tibet, Lhasa, which we entered August 3,
1900, after three month’s journey from Kumbum.
Central Tibet—that is, the two provinces of U (Wei) and Tsang—has
not been visited by Europeans since 1845, at least the principal part
of it, although the literature on Tibet in general has increased every
year. No Russian traveler entered the country either before or
certainly after the prohibition. But for the last thirty years Tibet
has been annually visited by Buriats and Kalmuks, who are Russian
subjects. = Many of these pilgrims made notes on Tibet, but thus far
only the report of Zayaetff (eighteenth century), and the diary of the
Kalmuk Baza-bakshi have been published.
It must be borne in mind that having penetrated a forbidden country
in the guise of an ordinary pilgrim, obliged to pose before the natives
as one in search of salvation in the holy land, and constantly in danger
of suspicion as other than a pilgrim, the amount of information gath-
ered under such circumstances could not have been great. I was well
aware that several years ago an Indian penetrated Central Tibet and
established connections with a certain ecclesiastic in Tashilhunpo,
that through this lama’s servant he received books at Calcutta, and
that both lama and servant were executed at Lhasa for daring to allow
the admission of a foreigner.
Tibet is truly a land of mountains, and the natives aptly call it
‘*Snowland.” In the region we traversed while in Tibet there are two
snow mountains, Samtan-Kansar on the eastern end of the Nyan-chu-
tangla and the crest of Kar-la on the southwestern side of the circular
lake, Yamdok. The mountains that did not reach the snow line were
nearly all treeless and their tops bare.
The upper lands of the river valleys are narrow and unfit for culti-
vation, but the middle and lower portions are wider and enable the
industrious Tibetans to grow cereal crops. The steep and rocky
mountains are the source of many swift streams during the rainy
season, but most of them dry out when the rains cease. Many
streams and springs, however, collect water at each rainfall in numer-
ous irrigating ditches that keep the water mills busy.
The year may be divided into two seasons, rainy and dry. In 1900
the dry season commenced in Lhasa on September 13, when the last
rain of the year fell. October and November were entirely dry.
The first snow fell December 7, but melted the next day. It snowed
once in January, in February three times, in March four times. The
first thunder was heard on March 14, and twice in April. The snow
melted in the valleys immediately after falling, but remained for a
time on the mountains. The first considerable rain fell on May 5,
then on May 7, June 8, July 17, August 13, and twice early in Sep-
tember. These rains were generally late in the evening or at night,
730 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
in squalls and large drops, and in May and June were frequently
accompanied with hail. The clouds generally moved from west to
east. g
‘Temperature observations were recorded at dawn, 1 p. m., and 9
p.m. for two hundred and thirty-five days. The average morning
temperature was 41.45° F.; 1 p. m., 58.33° F.; 9 p. m., 48.65° F.
December was the coldest month, with an average morning tempera-
ture of 18.3° F.; noon, 34.5° F., and evening, 26.8° F; and June was
the warmest month, with average morning temperature 58.6° F.;
noon, 73° F., and evening 63.3° F. The large rivers are entirely free
of ice in winter, but the small ones are covered by a thin crust. The
soil freezes only at the surface.
The total population of Tibet has been estimated from the fantastic
33,000,000 down to 38,500,000, or even 2,500,000. The most reliable
evidence indicates that Central Tibet has not more than about 1,000,000
inhabitants. Reliable statistics of the whole population were not
obtainable, but it is certainly not very great, for the many narrow
river valleys between high, rocky mountains are unfit for agriculture
and could not sustain many inhabitants. Besides, the numerous
unmarried ascetic ecclesiastics of both sexes, and epidemics of small-
pox and other fatal diseases against which the Tibetans are almost
defenseless, not only retard an increase, but would appear to gradu-
ally decrease the country’s growth. More than 10 per cent of the
population of Lhasa and neighboring monasteries died of smallpox in
1900. Further evidence of the limited Tibetan population appears
from the fact that only about 20,000 monks from all the monasteries
in the vicinity gather at the so-called ‘‘great Monlam of Lhasa.”
This, remember, in the center of Lamaism, where the principal sane-
tuaries and the higher Tszanite schools are located, which to a consid-
erable extent are supported by the government! The native Tibetans
call themselves Bo(d)-pa, and it is also customary to refer to people
according to the names of particular regions. Thus the inhabitants
of Tsang are called ** Tsang-pa,” ete. The floating population of the
cities is composed of Chinamen, Nepalese, Kashmiris, and Mongols.
Most of the Chinamen, especially the emigrants from Sst-ch’uan, are
employed in the garrison camps of the large cities, while those engaged
in commerce transact their small trade with the local inhabitants,
principally the women * * * .
The Nepalese and Kashmiris, about equal in numbers, are merchants
almost exclusively, though a few of the former are artisans. Accord-
ing to tradition the Nepalese were for a long time the architects of the
temples, the sculptors of the Buddha statues, and the ikon painters of
Tibet, and they are still the most expert cloth dyers, and are skillful as
gold and silver smiths, from small trinkets to the gilt roofs of temples.
The Buddhist Nepalese, in distinction from the ruling caste, Gurka, in
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. ek
their Kingdom, are called Bi(l)-bo. They avoid marriage with Tibe-
tans, for such ties mean death in their native land, and they therefore
remain permanently in Tibet. The Kashmiris, on the contrary, always
marry Tibetans, whom they first convert to Mohammedanism, and rear
their children in that religion.
In administrative matters the Chinamen are responsible directly to
the Amban. who resides and officiates at the southwest end of the city,
near the ruins of the old city wall. The Nepalese and Kashmiris are
subject to their elders, who serve as deputies in affairs before the
central government of Tibet, with its jurisdiction. The Mongols,
about 1,000 of them, are all monks, and only temporary residents,
about 15 per cent of their number changing annually. They are dis-
tributed over the various monasteries according to their parishes.
The Russian subjects among them in 1900 numbered 47, being Buriat
Lamas from the region across the Baikal, with one Kalmuk from the
Astrakhan government. They are subject to the monastery regulations.
The social classes are the nobility, the clergy, and the peasantry.
The nobility consists of the descendants of former rulers of separate
principalities and descendants of the fathers of Dalai Lamas and Pan-
chens, who are invested by the Manchu court with the rank of prince
of the fifth degree.
The princes, together with the monasteries and their parishes, are
large landowners, and the peasants are serfs to them. The central
government, or the Dalai Lama, owns, of course, more land and serfs
than the classes named.
There is apparently no distinct military caste. Military service
accompanies the privilege of special land grants, but we could not
secure detailed information about it.
The houses are of stone or unburnt brick, cemented with clay.
Most of those in the villages are one story high, while in the cities
they are of two or three stories. The windows are without panes, or
hung with cotton curtains, though in winter oiled native paper serves
as protection from the cold. Fireplaces are used only for cooking.
The houses have no chimneys, the smoke escaping as best it may
through doors and windows, except that houses with upper stories
have roof openings that somewhat alleviate the smoke nuisance, though
equally a discomfort during rain. The principal fuel is dry manure
of horned cattle and yaks. The clothing is of special design, made
from native cloth in various colors. The poor classes wear white, the
cheapest color; the richer people red and dark red, the soldiers dark
blue, and yellow is used by higher dignitaries and princes. Women
prefer the dark-red cloth. Of course, other colors are also met with.
In proportion to their means, the Tibetans dress rather elegantly.
Their jewelry is of gold, silver, corals, diamonds, rubies, pearls, tur-
quoise, and other stones.
G2 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
Tsamba, or roasted barley flour, mixed with either tea or barley
wine, is one of the principal foods. The commonest vegetable is the
radish. The favorite dish among all classes is ‘*tsamtuk,” a soup
made by boiling zamba in water and flavored with bits of radish.
Tsamtuk is best when made into broth with crushed bones, but it is
comparatively expensive, and only the well to do can afford it every
day.
The Tibetans are fond of raw meat, and when entertaining they
serve meat either raw or not fully cooked. The principal meats are
yak, mutton, and pig. Beef is not considered good, and ass and horse
meat are not used at all. The poor classes also eat fish. We did not
see the Tibetans use fowl as food, although they keep chickens for the
egos. Butter is much used, serving principally to whiten or flavor
tea, and melted butter is burned in lamps before the idols. Sour milk,
prepared also as thib-sho, is regarded as very noble food, and in poetry
indicates something pure white.
Both sexes of all classes are very fond of barley wine, and owing to
its cheapness and slight intoxicating properties it constitutes the prin-
cipal beverage of the poor. The men are heavy smokers of leaf
tobacco in pipes, and the monks, while avoiding the pipe, consume no
less tobacco in snuff. Because of the high cost of tobacco, and to
reduce its strength, the laymen mix it with the leaves of the plant
**shol,” and the monks use the ashes of ram and goat dung for that
purpose.
The principal characteristics of the Central Tibetan may be described
as stupidity and flattery, doubtlessly explained by the economic and
political conditions of the country. They are also pious through fear
of losing the protection of the gods or of angering them. On this
account they have frequent sacrifices, bowing and circling before their
sanctuaries. They are very impressionable and superstitious, and at
sxach new episode in their lives they seek explanation from Lama seers
and prophets, and when sick they prefer to take barley grains blessed
by Lamas and prophets, or to have curing prayers read to them, rather
than resort to medicine, which, by the way, is less developed in Cen-
tral Tibet than in Amdo or Mongolia. Despite all, the Tibetans seem
to be inclined to joviality, which manifests itself in song and dance
during their frequent sprees and public holidays.
In their family life polyandry and polygamy exist, and the marriage
of several brothers to one woman or of several sisters to one man are
regarded as ideal relations. * * * Women enjoy perfect freedom
and independence and take an active part in business affairs, often
managing extensive enterprises entirely unaided.
Agriculture is the chief occupation of the settled population. Bar-
ley is the standard crop, from which tsamba is prepared; then comes
wheat, for wheat flour; beans for oil, and peas, used by the poorer
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 733
class in form of flour, or crushed for horses, mules, and asses. The
field work is done principally by ‘‘dzo” (a cross breed of yak and
ordinary cattle), yaks, and asses. The principal beasts of burden are
the small, hardy asses, and to some extent the ordinary horned cattle.
Inhabitants of the highland regions are engaged in cattle raising,
breeding yaks, sheep, and some horses. They use yaks for burden,
and sheep in some places. The horse and mule are, to a certain
extent, a luxury to the Tibetan, and are therefore kept only by the
well to do. The native horses and mules are very small and homely,
so that the rich people use only those imported from western China.
In the stables of the Dalai Lama and Panchen there are blooded horses
from India.
Commerce consists in supplying the cities and monasteries with
agricultural products in exchange for articles of insignificant local
manufacture and foreign import. The excess of domestic products is
exported. The Tibetan has very few wants, chiefly limited to neces-
sities, although some inclination toward objects of luxury, expensive
ornaments, objects of cult and home adornment may be observed.
The standard money is a silver coin valued at about 10 cents.
The unequal distribution of wealth and the subservience of poverty
to wealth are conspicuous. There is such little commerce that labor is
very cheap, the most expert weaver of native cloth receiving about 8
cents and board per day, while an unskilled woman or man laborer
earns only 2 or 3 cents. The highest salary is paid to the Lamas, the
prayer readers, who receive 10 cents a day for incessant reading. A
house servant almost never receives pay beyond food and meager
elogiest eo eer °%
I will now describe the more or less prominent cities and monasteries
visited in Central Tibet. Chief of all, of course, is the capital,
Lhasa. sometimes called ** Kadan” in literature, but both names have
almost the same meaning—‘‘ the land of gods,” or ‘*fullof gods.” Its
origin dates from the time of Khan Srongzang-Gambo, who lived in the
seventh century, A.D. Itis said that this khan had among his wives
one Nepalese and one Chinese queen, each of whom brought along a
statue of the Buddha Sakyamuni, to whose worship temples were
erected in Lhasa, and he settled on Mount Marbo-ri, where the palace
of the Dalai Lama now stands. Lhasa is situated on a broad plain,
bordered on one side by the river U-chu and on the other by high
hills. If we disregard the Potala, or palace of the Dalai Lama, the
city is nearly round, with a diameter of about a mile. But the
numerous orchards in the southern and western parts, the proximity
of the Potala with the adjacent medical college, the court of Datsag-
hutuktu, and the summer residence of the Dalai Lama led to the
belief that it was about 25 miles in circumference. Asa matter of
fact, the circular road along which the pious make their marches on
134 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
foot or in prostrate bows is about 8 miles long. When these bows are
faithfully performed the circle is completed in two days, making about
3,000 bows a day.
The orchards and trees in the outskirts of the city are admired by the
natives, and give the place a very beautiful appearance, especially in
the spring and summer, when the gilt roofs of the two principal tem-
ples glisten in the sun and the white walls of the many-storied build-
ings shine among the green tops of the trees. But the delight of the
distant view at once Fates upon entering the city with its crooked
and dirty streets. * .* *
A temple in which there is a large statue of Buddha marks the
center of the city. The building is 140 feet square, three stories
high, with four gilt roofs of Chinese design. The entrance gate
faces the north. Each floor of the temple, with its blind external
walls, is divided into numerous artificially lighted rooms, wherein
stand various statues of Buddha. In the middle room on the east side
stands the principal object of worship, Buddha Sakyamuni, under a
sumptuous canopy. This bronze statue differs from the usual repre-
sentations of the Indian sage in its head and chest ornaments of
wrought goid set with precious stones, with a predominance of tur-
quoise prepared and placed upon it by the famous founder of yellow-
hat teachings, Tsongkapa. The face of the statue ever since the days
of that same Tsongkapa has been kept painted by devout worshipers
with gold powder dissolved in liquid glue. Upon-long tables before
the god, melted butter, offered by the worshipers, ever burns in
golden lamps. Two other statues in the temple command almost
equal respect—the 11-faced bodisattva Avalokiteshvara, of which
the Dalai Lamas are regarded as incarnations, and the statue Pal-
Lhamo, the protectress of women. * * * Under the latter statue
barley wine is being incessantly sprinkled and grains are freely seat-
tered. Abundance of food and snug hiding places in the folds of the
clothing of the statue have attracted numerous mice, that are here
considered hely.. *** *
Besides the principal court of the temple there are two additional
courts, in which the gatherings of the clergy of the neighboring
monasteries are held.
Another small statue of Buddha stands in a temple in the northern
part of the city and is called ‘*Jovo-ramozhe,” but both temple
and statue are inferior in proportions and ornaments to the main tem-
ple, and there is a noticeable difference in the reverence of the
worshipers.
Within the city limits of Lhasa there are four courts or quarters of
eminent Hutuktu incarnates, who were once Tibetan khans. They are
the best buildings in the city, and as each has a certain number of
pupils of the Lamas they are really small monasteries. ‘Then, each
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LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. (35
of the eminent incarnates has his own inherited house. All other
buildings belong either to the central government, or to the various
communities of the neighboring monasteries. Buildings owned by
private individuals are few and are mainly in the outskirts of the
city.
All these buildings are under the control of the palace of the Dalai
Lama, Potala,about two-thirds of a mile west of the city, and built upon
a rocky height. The foundation of the palace, tradition says, was laid
by the above-named Srongzang Khan during the seventh century, but
it was remodeled, with the addition of the main central portion, called
-“ Pobrang-marpo” (the red palace), during the life, and even after the
death, of the fifth eminent Dalai Lama. It is evident that the palace
and additions were planned to serve as a means of defense, and from
this point of view Potala looms up as one of the old castles, of which
many ruins abound in Tibet, and in the sad fate of which Potala played
the preeminent réle by subjecting them to itself.
The palace is about 1,400 feet long and about 70 feet high in
front. The front and two sides are surroundéd by a wall, the rear
portion extending into the hill. In the construction of this palace the
Tibetans displayed their highest architectural skill. Here are found
the most precious treasures of Tibet, including the golden sepulchre
of the fifth Dalai Lama, which is about 28 feet high. The treasures
and apartments of the Dalai Lama are in the central portion of the
temple palace, which is painted a tawny color and known as the ‘‘ red
palace” —Pobrang-marpo. The remainder of the building serves as
quarters for various attendants or followers of the Dalai Lama,
including a community of 500 monks, the so-called ‘‘ Namegyaltsan,”
whose duty it is to pray for the welfare and long life of the Dalai
Lama.
Near the hill are the mint, the house for the Dalai Lama’s subjects,
the prison, and other structures. Upon the continuation of this hill
stands the convent Miinbo-datsang, where 60 monks devote themselves
to the study of medicine at the expense of the Dalai Lama. A little
farther north is the idol temple of the Chinese Buddhists, and at the
northwest foot of the hill is the palace of the fifth eminent hutuktu
Kundu-ling, and about two-thirds of a mile west of the latter is the
summer palace of the Dalai Lama.
There are in Lhasa two temples where mysticism is taught, with an
attendance of 1,200 men.
The civilian population of Lhasa scarcely exceeds 10,000 persons,
about two-thirds of them women, although the number may seem
greater on account of the proximity of two large monasteries, the
many transient visitors, and the gatherings of worshipers from lama-
ite countries. As the political and religious center of Tibet, its sanc-
tuaries an attraction for numerous worshipers, Lhasa becomes an
736 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
important business place, as well as the connecting link in the com-
merce between India and northern Tibet and China with the East.
The market place is located around the central or temple section,
where all the ground floors of buildings and open spaces in the streets
are occupied by stores and small exhibits of merchandise. Women
are preeminently the sales people, although in the stores of the Kash-
miris and Nepalese men do the selling.
About the town stand the principal monasteries of Tibet, Sera,
Brebung, and Galdan, known under the common name Serbre yesum.
Brebung, the largest, is about 7 miles northwest of Lhasa; next comes
Sera, about 2 miles north of the city, and last, Galdan, about 20 miles
distant to the left of the river U-chu, on the incline of the steep
mountain Brog-ri. They belong to one ruling sect of Tsongkapa and
were organized during his lifetime, at the beginning of the fifteenth
century.’ The Dalai Lama is regarded as the head of them all. There
are 15,000 to 16,000 monks in all, of which 8,000 to 8,500 are in
Brebung, 5,000 in Sera, and 2,000 to 2,500 in Galdan. In the Galdan
monastery there is a vice-Tsongkapa, under the name, the ‘* Galdan
golden throne,” a position established immediately after the death of
the organizer, at the suggestion of his pupils and disciples. In olden
times that office was filled by the choice of the Galdan monks, but
on account of the confusion that followed elections the present method
of installation was instituted, and the position is now filled in six-year
terms by two Lamas, or, more correctly, wandering ecclesiastics,
‘*Chzhuds,” in the order of their service in the higher positions of
their temple. The present incumbent is the eighty-fifth superior
since Tsongkapa, or the eighty-sixth superior of Galdan, counting the
reformer as the first.
Each of the monasteries has its laws and its own land, and they are
thus independent of one another. The Brebung monastery is the most
influential, because of its wealth and numbers, which are both the cause
and the effect. Much of this superiority is also due to the fact that
Brebung monks were elevated to Dalai Lamas, to whose lot it soon fell
to be at the head of the spiritual and civil government of Central
Tibet. The lamaiste monasteries are now not so much places of refuge
for ascetics, as schools for the clergy, beginning with the alphabet and
reaching to the highest theological knowledge.
It is true that the public school begins the instruction in religion,
but the elementaries as well as the domestic occupations of adults
are taught by private teachers chosen by the pupil. Nevertheless,
every one, be he a boy five or six years old or a mature and even old
person, is regarded as a member of the congregation and receives
maintenance by becoming subject to the monastery laws. The prin-
cipal subject taught is theological philosophy, which consists of five
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Smithsonian Report, 1903,—Tsybikoff. ; ; PLATE IV.
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LHASA. POTALA, THE PALACE OF THE DALAI-LAMA FROM THE SOUTH.
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. ow
sections of dogma, compiled by Indian pundits and translated into
Tibetan. After the Tsongkapa reform, commentaries were made by
various learned men upon those sections, which, according to the
Lamas, do not differ in substance, all the commentaries adhering to
the general idea of the teachings of the famous reformer. In the
monasteries mentioned religion is taught from commentaries of six
scholars in seven editions, each of which has a separate faculty. Three
of these are Brebung and two each in Sera and Galdan.
Beside these religious faculties the first two monasteries have a fac-
ulty called ‘‘Agpa,” to perform the mystic rites and to pray for the
welfare of the monastery. The clergy is very unevenly divided in
the various faculties. In Brebung, for instance, there are 5,000 men
in one faculty and only 600 in the other.
It must be admitted that the monastic communities seem more con-
cerned in securing ‘* daily bread” than in the education of their mem-
bers. Honors and degrees are conferred only upon those who endow
the community in some practical manner. High positions, too, are
encumbered with an obligation to distribute gifts among the members
of the community. The principal source of endowments comes from
the incarnates; that is, the incarnates of the soul of some predecessor.
Whosesoever soul he may incarnate, he is recognized in the community
as such only after he has distributed a certain amount of money and
food. On the other hand, howsoever learned a monk may be, he
receives the degree only after he has made endowments. Conse-
quently charity and scholarship are measured by the amount of gifts
to the monastery communities.
Each monastery has some special characteristic. Thus Brebung is
famous for its prophets, Sera for its cells for the ascetics, and Gal-
dan for various old curios.
The cult of the prophets or oracles is in its turn based upon the cult
of the so-called ** Choichong,” or the guardians of learning. Judging
by historical tradition it may be presumed that Buddhism, introduced
into Tibet in the seventh century A. p., could not be rapidly developed
because of difficulty in conquering the native gravitation toward their
former deities, to which the people were accustomed and which were
dear to them because they were their own creation. Besides, the
sorcerers or priests were no doubt defenders of the old cult. On the
other hand, however, Buddhism was protected by the rulers of Tibet
and was bound to spread, and in the hard struggle popular supersti-
tion was granted some concessions. This compromise between Bud-
dhism and sorcery was made, we are told, by a preacher of the ninth
century, Padma-Sambava. He compelled the former local spirits to
swear that henceforth they would defend Buddhist learning only,
for which they were promised honors, rendered in the form of sacrifice
of wine, barley seeds, etc. The highest of these spirits, which were
7388 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
imported from India, are called ‘*Idma,” while those of lower rank
are called simply ‘*‘Choichong,” or ‘*Choisrung.” The Choichong
speak with the lips of the prophets whom they inspire. Only
Choichong of lower degrees thus descend to prophets. As pro-
tectors and defenders of the faith the people imagine them to be
horrible monsters in warriors’ outfit. On this account the prophet,
before the descent of ‘*Choichong” upon him, dons a helmet and
arms himself with spear, sword, or bows and arrows. The sense of
the descent is contained in the fact that the spirit guardian of
learning becomes incarnated in the chosen prophet for the sake of the
living beings. Of such spirit guardians there are many, and the
prophets are correspondingly numerous. The superior among them
is the one confirmed by the Chinese Government—the Prophet Nai-
chung-Choichong, whose gold-crowned temple and church suite is in the
shady garden southeast of the monastery of Brebung. He is appealed
to for prophecies, not only by ordinary mortals, but by all the higher
clergy, including the Dalai Lama. Their mutual relation is as follows:
Lama is ‘‘the abode of learning,” and Choichong, its ‘‘ euardian,”
having sworn to defend the religion vigilantly, will be honored of all
for it. The Lama, therefore, honors—that is, brings sacrifices to—the
Choichong, and the latter forestalls all that threatens the religion and
the Lama, its representative. They constitute a check on each other
and are allies at the same time. In this role of defenders of the faith
the Choichong—or, more correctly, their prophets—wield a powerful
influence over all classes. Their power is so great that even the Dalai
Lama and the highest Hutuktu must reckon with them; they endeavor
to incline all toward themselves. * * *
The ‘*ritods,” who are particularly numerous at Sera, are ascetic
monks, who have retired from the world and buried themselves in
meditation, which is regarded as one of the six means of attaining
holiness—its origin based on Gautama’s abdication of kingly luxuries
in search of truth. The later ascetics choose obscure nooks in dense
forests or dark caves in the rocks as places for meditation. More
recently they haye concerned themselves not only about their own
attainment of holiness, but about the good of others, and their peaceful
existence became distracted by the care of enlightening fellow-men.
The silence of the cell for solitary meditations was broken by the
cries of those hungry for knowledge, and to the lot of the ascetics fell
the new care of their spiritual and material satisfaction. Then the
idea of worldly vanity and comfortable quarters enticed the ascetics,
and the cells were converted into comfortable dwellings, with quarters
for pupils. The ascetic was thus transformed into the full master and
ruler of his servants. Later on, with the appearance of the incarnates,
the ritods become the inheritable property of the incarnates of the
organizer, and several are transformed into separate monasteries.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Tsybikoff. PLATE V.
Fic. 1.—LHASA. POTALA, FROM THE WEST-NORTHWEST.
Fia. 2.—LHASA. POTALA, FROM THE NORTH-NORTHEAST.
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WAYS vad "yyoylghs | —"E06] ‘Moday uriuosuzWS
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. (39
However, the people still revere the ritods, and the tombstones of
some of them are coveted last resting places for the dead; upon them
the corpses are cut up for the distribution of the flesh and bones
among the griffin-vultures.
The relic curios, in which Galdan is rich, show us to what an extent
His successor after his death sought memorials of the existence of
the dear teacher, not content with his works. He did not believe that
a, teacher could pass away leaving no footprints, and search was made
for these everywhere about the monastery he established—where he
passed his last years. His searches did not end in failure, and in
various groves and among the rocks he saw traces of the wonder of
the teacher, and explained them by one or another incident in his
biography, and, conversely, with his biography explained those traces.
Frequently meditating about his idolized teacher, he drew and chis-
eled his image upon rocks, and the images of the Buddhas, his pro-
tectors. In course of time all these signs and statues made by the
closest of pupils of Tsongkapa under the known influence of supersti-
tion began to be taken for wonderful relics and each worshiper began
to venerate them.
It is characteristic that such relics are being discovered up to the
present time. Thus the present Dalai Lama obtained from a rock a
treasure, consisting of a hat and other articles, ascribed to Tsongkapa.
He deposited the treasure in a special chest and placed it for safe-
keeping at the sarcophagus of Tsongkapa and on its place erected a
monument.
We will now briefly describe the other prominent monasteries and
cities we visited. They are Tashilhunpo, and the cities of Shigatsze,
Gyantsze, Samyé, and Tsetang.
The monastery of Tashilhunpo is about 170 miles west of Lhasa, to
the right of the river Brahmaputra, on the south side of a mountain
peak that forms an arm between that river and its tributary, the
Nyangchu, and was established in 1447 by a pupil of Tsongkapa, Ge-
dun-dru, who is regarded as the first incarnation of the Dalai Lama.
There are about 3,000 monks within this place, divided into three
religious and one mystical faculties. The head of the monastery
is the incarnation of ‘* Panchen erdeni,” who maintains the monks
there. Five stone idols and gilt roofs in Chinese style constitute the
ornaments of the monastery.
About two-thirds of a mile northeast of Tashilhunpo, upon a sep-
arate rock, stands the castle Shigatsze, at the foot of which grew up
a city of the same name, with a population of scarcely above 6,000
or 7,000. Here are stationed small Chinese and native garrisons.
The castle itself is well known from the fact that during the conquest
of Tibet in the middle of the seventeenth century by the Mongol
740 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
Gushi-khan it served as the residence of the governor of Tibet,
Tszangbo, who, after a long resistance, was conquered and killed. The
castle is now in a semideserted condition, and prisoners sentenced to
die are thrown from its roof to the rock below.
About 50 miles from Shigatsze, in the valley of the Nyangchu, lies
one of the old cities of Tibet, Gyantsze, which is a very convenient
place on the commercial road to India from Lhasa and Shigatsze.
From the religious standpoint it is famous for its great religious
structure, Cho(d) den-gomang, five stories high, with many rooms
and various objects of interest, especially ancient statues of Buddha.
Commercially the city is known for the manufacture of rugs and
cloths.
Up to the recent past the Tibetans made rugs of only one-colored
wool in narrow strips, but now they weave, according to Chinese sam-
ples, continuous rugs with designs, which are much inferior in elegance
to the Chinese, but in firmness much superior to them, as they are
made of pure wool. We must assume that rug manufacture in Tibet
could be considerably developed on account of the cheapness of labor
and of sheep’s wool.
The monastery of Samyé is on the left bank of the river Brahma-
putra, about 65 miles southeast of Lhasa. It is the oldest of Tibetan
monasteries, having been established at the beginning of the ninth
century A. D. by the famous preacher of Buddhism in Tibet, Padma
Sambava, and the Khan Tirsong-detszan. Its conspicuous feature is a
five-story temple, a mixture of Tibetan and Indian architecture. The
latter is evident by the fact that the top story is without columns, a
feature so prominent in Tibetan style. This monastery, with its 300
monks, is maintained at the expense of the Dalai Lama treasury, and
the idols are distinguished for their comparative cleanliness and care
in the make-up.
About 20 miles east of Samyé, on the right bank of the river Brah-
maputra, at the mouth of the fruit-producing valley Yarlung, lies the
city of Tsetang (or Chetang), famed for the production of cloths, knit-
ting, and the yellow monk hats. According to tradition, the first
ruler of Tibet, Niatri-tszangbo, was found in the vicinity of this city
and set upon the throne. The place occupies a favorable point on the
road from Bhutan to Lhasa, as it enters the valley of the river Tszang.
On the border of Bhutan lies the city of Tszona, where there is a
market each spring that attracts many merchants from Lhasa.
Passing now to the government of Central Tibet, the dependence
upon China is made evident by the Peking Court appointment of a
Manchu resident to manage the higher government. At the head of
the local self-government stands the Dalai Lama as the spiritual and
secular head of Central Tibet.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Tsybikoff. PLATE VII.
Fia. 1.—THE MONASTERY GALDAGN IN TIBET.
Fig. 2.—THE MONASTERY TASHI-LHUMPO IN TIBET.
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 741
The Dalai Lamas attained their spiritual importance at the time of
the Lama Gedun-Gyamtso, the superior of the Brebung monastery,
who lived from 1475 to 1542. He was the superior simultaneously
of the two monasteries Brebung and Sera, and during his life ac-
quired such fame that he began to be regarded as the incarnation of
his countryman, the famous organizer of the monastery of Tashi-
lhunpo, Gedun-dru. But the custom of finding incarnates in youths
begins after his death, and one officer of the castle proclaimed his
son as this prophet’s incarnation. This is evidently the first instance
of the proclamation of an incarnate, and when he succeeded to the
rights of his predecessor it was his fortune, worshiped almost from
the cradle, to be invited by the Mongol, Altan-Khan, who gave him
the title ‘* Vajra-dara dalai-lama,” which was sanctioned by the ‘‘ Ming ”
Emperor of China. The significance of the Dalai Lama in Tibet, how-
ever, was at first not very great, which explains the recognition of
the son of a Mongol prince as the fourth incarnate, who, it is true,
was killed in the twenty-eighth year of his life in Tibet. The Mon-
gols claim that the Tibetans killed him out of race hatred, and that
they even cut him open as the Mongols kill sheep. His successor,
Ag-vang lo-sang-Gyamtso, now called simply ‘* Na-va-chenbo”—that
is, the Fifth, the great—succeeded in acquiring the secular power,
which at first was still only nominal. This Dalai Lama, in combina-
tion with the first ‘* banichen,” did not hesitate to invite Mongol arms
to his country in order to conquer the detestable secular governors.
Although they succeeded in accomplishing it, Tibetan affairs began to
be interfered with either by Mongol princes, or those recognizing the
superiority of the Manchu dynasty, or those who struggled for inde-
pendence. After the death of the fifth Dalai Lama, for a period of
forty years, the Dalai Lamas became the pretense of political intrigue
of various power lovers until a series of historical events destroyed
the power in Tibet of the Mongol and native princes, and until finally
in the year 1751 the Dalai Lama was accorded the dominating power
in matters religious and secular. The election of the Dalai Lama,
up to the year 1822, the year of the election of the tenth incarnate,
was based upon the prophecies of the highest Lamas and decision of
the prophets, which is equivalent to an election by influential persons.
But when the tenth incarnate was elected the system of the Emperor
Tsien-lung, the casting of the vote by means of the so-called ‘* serbum,”
or ‘the golden urn,” was first applied. In this system the names of
three candidates, determined by the former arrangement, are written
upon separate tickets and placed in the golden urn. This urn is set
before the statue of Jovo-Sakyamuni, and services are held there by
deputies from the monasteries, praying for a righteous election. It
is then carried over to Potala, to the palace of the Dalai Lama, and
(a LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
there in front of a board upon which the Emperor’s name is inscribed,
in the presence of the highest authorities of Tibet and a deputation
from the principal monasteries, the Manchu Amban, by means of two
chopsticks, draws out one of the tickets. He whose name is written
upon the ticket is placed upon the Dalai Lama throne. The election is
confirmed by imperial decree, and the fortunate or unfortunate young-
ster is brought into the place with great honors. From this time on
he is accorded appropriate honors and worshipers flock to him. In his
youth he is taught reading and writing under the guidance of a special
teacher—ioiu-tszini—selected from among the most learned famous
Lamas. Then he is given a purely religious education, following the
above-mentioned five sections with all their seven commentaries. For
practical disputes one learned Lama is detailed from each of the theo-
logical faculties of the three principal monasteries. These instruc-
tors are called Tszang-skab-khanpo. Our Buriat countryman, Agvan
Dorchzheyev, was one of these with the present Dalai Lama.
After finishing the course of instruction he receives the highest
degree in theology in the same manner as the other Lamas, but, of
course, with a more liberal distribution of money to the monasteries
and more careful questions on the part of the learned Lamas who dis-
pute with him and who are appointed in advance. After this, when
21 to 22 years old, the Dalai Lama enters the ripe and independent
existence. Since 1806 five Dalai Lamas have reigned. ‘The present
incumbent, the thirteenth, Tubdan-Gyamtso, was born in 1876, so that
now he is 27 years old. About six or seven years ago he had a
struggle with his regent, most famous of Tibetan hutuktu, ** Demo,”
and came out yictor, which no doubt saved him from the fate of his
four predecessors, who perished at various ages, frequently the result
of violence inflicted by regents or representatives of other parties that
were striving to remain longer close to the ‘‘power.” The present
Dalai Lama accused Demo of organizing plots against his life, confis-
cated his immense wealth, and placed him under a rigid home arrest
in a separate room, where Demo was discovered suffocated one beauti-
ful morning in the autumn of 1900. The Dalai Lama assumed the
head rule of Tibet, and one of his conspicuous acts is the abolition of
capital punishment, which was practiced extensively by the regents.
It seems in general that he is very energetic, and inclined to be a good
man, with considerable love for knowledge.
The second person of the lamaist hierarchy is the Panchen-Erdeni,
who lives in a monastery in the provice of Tashilhunpo Tsang. The
first Panchen-Erdeni was the Lama Lobzang Choigyi-Gyaltsan, who
was born in 1570. This earnest Lama was the instructor of the
fourth and fifth Dalai Lamas, when he played an important réle in
political affairs, which served to enhance the power of the Dalai Lama.
The official title, Panchen-Erdeni, and the imperial diploma and seal was
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. 7438
granted only the third Panchen, Pande-yéshé, in 1870 at an audience
at Peking. At present the sixth incarnate lives; he was born in 1882,
and is therefore 20 years old.
The Panchen is next to the Dalai Lama in official capacity, but in
the supervision of the lamaists he is considerably above him, because
of his holiness. Especially is he regarded as the future king of the
holy world ‘‘Shambala,” in which he will be the principal leader.
It is customary to call the Dalai Lama also *‘Chyab-gong tham-
chiid-mkhen-pa” (the omniscient—the object of faith), but the Tibetan
applies this name to every eminent Lama incarnate he respects, since
the charm of the Dalai Lama, as a holy individual, is less effective
upon the religious feeling simply because of his distance than that
of a Lama more easily approached, to whom be can appeal more often
with inquiries relative to his religious requirements. The Dalai Lama,
therefore, is known at places distant from Lhasa only as the principal
ruler of Tibet, while the religious sentiment of the laymen is directed
toward their patron, regardless of the sect to which he belongs.
The teachings of Tsongkapa now reign supreme in Central Tibet, but
after the struggle during the first period of their introduction they
are now entirely reconciled and to a certain extent are indifferent
toward other sects. The contemporary lamaist in general and the
Tibetan in particular regard the objects of faith of the various sects
with exactly the same reverence. Even the central government of
Tibet, with the Dalai Lama at its head, frequently bows before the
representatives of the old red-hat sect (the yellow-hat sect predomi-
nates now). The laity does this, of course, out of ignorance and super-
stition, but such explanation does not apply to the higher representa-
tives of the yellow-hats, who are guided by Tsongkapa’s way of look-
ing at the world and possess a knowledge of the difference in the
views of other sects. We believe that the conduct of these men
toward other sects is inspired by political motives, the desire to satisfy
the superstitious requirements of the populace, and to be vindicated
in case of popular suffering and unfortunate political events.
The central government of the land is in the hands of a council pre-
sided over by the Dalai Lama, called ‘*deva-dzung.” The principals in
this council are four ‘‘ kalons,” or dignitaries, appointed by the Chinese
kmperor, and their meetings are held in a special office—*t kashag,” or
executive house. They are appointed from prominent aristocratic
families, three of them civilians, the fourth a clergyman. For the
local administration governors are sent from the ** deva-dzung,” usually
two in number with equal powers—one a clergyman, the other a civil-
ian. Districts are frequently leased, the lessee ruling according to
established custom, being obliged to pay into the treasury a certain
sum of money or to pay in kind. Usually these lessees are members
sm 1903——48
744 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
of the higher administration, and they send their own representatives
into the districts.
Of late the central government has apparently begun to strive to
accumulate land, for which purpose it takes away strips of land from
the monasteries under various pretenses or makes purchases on
installment from the annual income.
The affairs of Tibet in general are ruled by the hereditary aristoc-
racy, whether it be the son who inherits his father’s rights or the
incarnate who inherits the rights of his predecessor. As the born
aristocracy lives in strict isolation, not mingling with the common
people, the central government, despite its deliberative character, may
be called an aristocratic oligarchy.
We stated that the Dalai Lama is the head of the central govern-
ment. The question arises, Who takes his place in the interim
between his death and the election of a new incarnate and until the
latter becomes eligible? This question arose for the first time in
1757, after the death of the seventh Dalai Lama, and was solved by
the appointment of a regent by the Chinese Emperor under the official
name ‘*the director of the Dalai Lama’s treasury,” with the title
**nomun-khan.” In writing, the Tibetans refer to him as ‘* the Khan’s
viceroy’ and in their daily conversation simply ‘the Tibetan khan.”
The first man appointed to the regency was the very eminent hutuktu
‘**Demo,” after whom other hutuktu were appointed.
The tribunal and, in general, all administrative affairs are based on
bribery, court examinations, on torture by means of lashes and
similar methods, cauterization by means of burning sealing wax being
regarded as the most severe. The punishments are execution by
drowning, imprisonment, banishment with giving away into slavery,
blinding, amputation of the fingers, lifelong fetters and foot stock,
and lashes.
The permanent army, maintained by the treasury, consists of 4,000
men. Its armament consists of spears, matchlock guns, and bows.
For the protection of the body they have a helmet ornamented
with feathers, a small plaited shield, and some wear armor. ‘They
are officered by ‘‘daipons,” appointed from the higher aristocracy.
The soldiers usually live in their homes in the villages and only peri-
odically gather at posts, where they are inspected and taught to fire
blank charges, and the use of the bows. The army is divided into
cavalry and infantry. Despite the tendency of the Tibetans in the
eastern provinces to indulge in pillage and highway robbery, the
central Tibetan dislikes to make war; he is much more peace loving
and more inclined toward peaceful labors, on account of which he
regards military duty as superfluous and interfering with domestic
pursuits. One frequently sees soldiers on the way from an inspection
spin wool, stitch shoes, turn a prayer wheel, or repeat their chaplet.
LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET. TA45
Speaking about the East Tibetan robber tribes, we must say they
try to prey upon the goods of others without bloodshed, threatening
only the cowards. As soon as they see that the intended victims are
determined to show serious resistance, they escape to their quarters.
If one band of robbers strips a victim of everything, another band
will clothe him and supply him with food.
The monasteries are governed by their own laws, administered by
their own elders, the highest of which in the principal monasteries are
appointed by the Dalai Lama. Discipline and the whole régime is
based on ‘‘ the fear of the governors.” This fear must be manifested
even on the street: a monk must not show himself before them on the
street. When, on very exceptional occasions, he does meet them, he
must lie down, wrap his head in his hood, and lie motionless as if dead.
Justice is also based principally on bribery, and the punishment is
banishment from the monastery with a fine of money and lashes. The
material condition of plain monks in Tibet is so bad that the convicted
always prefers the punishment of the lash to fines.
The foreign relations of Tibet are conducted with British India
through Bhutan; with Kashmir through Ladak, and directly with
Nepal, China, and Mongolia.
Tibet imports from India, English materials, principally cheap
cloths, enameled vessels, teapots, plates, and cups; objects of luxury,
as coral, amber, brocade; medicine and dye stuffs; and various Eng-
lish trinkets, such as mirrors, beads, jars, matches, penknives, ete.
All these articles are imported by native Bhutanese, Nepalese, Kash-
miri, and Chinese merchants. In general, the Tibetans are of late
becoming more and more fond of English products; the English rupees,
too, are beginning to compete with the local coinage. The things
exported to India are yak tails, sheeps’ wool, borax, salt, silver and
gold, yaks to a certain extent, and horses and mules brought over
from northern China.
From China the Tibetans import tea, which they love so well, china-
ware, cotton and silk fabrics. From northern China, mules and horses
are imported, and, to a limited extent, breeding asses.
For use by the Chinese, Tibet exports little, and the considerable
amount of native manufactured articles, together with those imported
from India, that are exported there go to satisfy the demands of the
Mongol lamaists.
The articles exported are various objects of cult, as small statues,
painted images, religious books, and prints made from carved wooden
blocks, incense candles, ribbons, peacock feathers, leaf-shaped seeds
**tsampaka,” and similar articles that bring high prices only because
of the piety of the Mongol lamaist and his reverence for holy things
from Tibet. The more famous the person that produces these articles
746 LHASA AND CENTRAL TIBET.
the more eagerly they are purchased and the higher is the price
paid. But Tibet also has a trade in cloths, in knit goods, and in
the yellow hats of the ecclesiastics, and this class of traflic, which
depends upon the religious sentiment of the purchasers, as is the case
with presents to Tibetan lamas, attains a considerable sum annually.
The commerce in ordinary merchandise, however, scarcely exceeds
$60,000.
Since objects of cult are exported to Mongolia and since only the
treasuries of incarnates and monasteries possess capital, the commercial
caravans are fitted out exclusively by the treasuries of the Dalai Lama
or other rich incarnates and by monastery communities. The respon-
sible officers of the caravans are called ‘*tsonpons.” The ‘* tsonpons”
sent out by the Dalai Lama must double the original capital in three
years’ time, which capital is estimated at a very inflated appraisal of
the goods. Each succeeding ‘‘tsonpon” is the auditor of his prede-
cessor—that is, he sees that the contract is fulfilled.
Here and there the merchants in Mongolia, besides their commercial
operations, make collections of contributions for one or another enter-
prise of a monastery or an incarnate. If we add to this those immense
sums that are being collected by famous and infamous lamas, whether
they be invited to Mongolia or are there of their own accord, we can
safely say that Mongolia to a considerable degree enriches Tibet.
Up toa very recent period there were no relations between Tibet
and Russia, although Buriats, who are Russian subjects, have for a
long time made secret pilgrimages to Tibet, fearing oppression from
the Russian administration, and entered Tibet under the assumed name
of ‘* Khalkhas” Mongols, fearing exclusion as foreigners. About
fifteen years ago ** Khalkhas” and Buriats belonging to one community
in Brebung quarreled for some reason, and the former called the latter
‘*Oros,” or Russians. The matter reached the highest authorities, and,
thanks to the able management of the affair by the Buriat lamas, it
was established that, although the Buriats are Russian subjects, they
are followers of the yellow-hat religion. The Khalkhas who raised
the matter, having lost the trial, was obliged to leave the monastery,
and the others received warning that they would be fined 5 lans (about
$4) every time they call the Buriats ‘‘ Oros.” Russia can hardly hope
to obtain a profitable market for her goods in Tibet, but it will pay
her to establish relations with Tibet because it is the center of lamaism,
to which are chained the thoughts of contemporary Mongols, of whom
there are about half a million, under the names of Buriats and Kalmuks,
who are Russian subjects.
A JOURNEY OF GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHEOLOGICAL
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.¢
By M. A. Stern, Ph. D.,
Indian Educational Service.
In June, 1900, the government of India placed me on a year’s special
duty in order to enable me to carry out a long-cherished plan of
archeological explorations in the southern portion of Chinese Turke-
stan and particularly in the region of Khotan. Many previous antiqua-
rian tours in Kashmir, the Punjab, and on the fascinating ground of the
northwest frontier of India, had taught me the necessity of close topo-
graphical observation as an important adjunct of historical research
in those fields toward which, as an Indian archeologist, I felt most
attracted. It was hence clear to me that the task awaiting me in
Chinese Turkestan would have to comprise also surveying operations,
such as are required for the accurate fixing of the position of ancient
sites, and generally for the elucidation of the historical topography
of the country. But in addition I was anxious from the first to avail
myself of the opportunities the journey might offer for geographical
work of a more general character in regions that had so far remained
without a proper survey or altogether unexplored.
The generous aid accorded to me by the Indian survey department
made it possible to carry on a continuous system of surveys, by plane-
table, astronomical observations, and triangulation, throughout the
course of my journey. Its results have been embodied in maps which
are shortly to be published by the trigonometrical branch of the
survey of India. These maps, as well as the detailed report of my
explorations on which I am at present engaged under the orders of the
India government, will, I hope, show that I have spared no efforts to
utilize the opportunities offered to me in the interest of geographical
science. In the meantime, it is asource of sincere gratification to me
that Iam enabled, by the courtesy of your council, to place this suc-
cinct account of my journey and labors before the Royal Geograph-
ical Society, which, since the days of those great scholars, Sir Henry
Rawlinson and Sir Henry Yule, has done so much to clear the way for
the critical study of the ancient geography of India and Central Asia.
# Read before the Royal Geographical Society, June 16, 1902. Reprinted from The
Geographical Journal, London, yol. xx, No. 6, December, 1902, pp. 575-610.
747
748 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
The plan of archeological explorations about Khotan, and of the
journey that was to lead to them, was first suggested to me in the spring
of 1897, by a series of remarkable antiquarian acquisitions from that
region. Among the papers left behind by that distinguished but ill-
fated French traveler, M. Dutreuil de Rhins, there were found frag-
ments of ancient birch-bark leaves, which had been aequired in the
vicinity of Khotan, and which proved to contain a Buddhist text in an
early Indian script and language. On publication they were soon ree-
ognized as the oldest then known Indian manuscript, going back to
the first centuries of our era. About the same time the ‘* British col-
lection of Central Asian antiquities,” which had been formed at Cal-
cutta with the assistance of the government of India in the foreign
department, and under the care of Doctor Hoernle, the eminent indol-
ogist, received from the same region very notable additions consisting
of manuscripts, ancient pottery, and other remains. These objects —
had been sold to the political representatives of the Indian govern-
ment in Kashgar, Kashmir, and Ladak, as finds made by native ‘‘ treas-
ure seekers” at ancient sites near Khotan and in the neighboring
portions of the Taklamakan Desert. A curious feature of these acqui-
sitions was that, besides undoubtedly ancient documents in Indian and
Chinese characters, they contained a large proportion of manuscripts
and ‘*blockprints” in a surprising variety of entirely unknown scripts.
While the materials thus accumulated, no reliable information was
ever forthcoming as to the exact origin of the finds or the character
of the ruined sites which were supposed to have furnished them.
No part of Chinese Turkestan had as yet been explored from an
archeological point of view, and, however much attention these dis-
coveries attracted among competent European orientalists, it was
evident that their full value for the ancient history and culture of
Central Asia could never be realized without accurate researches on
the spot. The practicable nature of such investigations was proved
hy the memorable march which Dr. Sven Hedin had made in the win-
ter of 1895-96 through the Taklamakan Desert northeast of Khotan,
and of which the first accounts reached me in 1898. It had taken the
famous Swedish explorer past two areas of sand-buried ruins, and,
though his necessarily short halt at each had not permitted of any
exact evidence being secured as to the character and date of the ruins,
this discovery amply sufficed to demonstrate both the existence and
comparative accessibility of ancient sites likely to reward excava-
tion.; Hae Sees
By the middle of April, 1900, I was at last able to leave steamy and
overcivilized Calcutta for Kashmir, where I completed the outfit and
transport arrangements needed for my camp. The many tours I had
made during previous years through the mountains in and about
Kashmir had furnished me with sufficient practical experience to enable
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 749
me to anticipate with fair accuracy the conditions of transport and
supplies ona great part of the travels before me. The government
of India had granted me permission to use the route through Gilgit
and Hunza for the journey to Kashgar, which was to form my proxi-
mate goal. By the end of May the snow on the mountain ranges
between Kashmir and Gilgit had melted sufficiently to make the
attempt of crossing the passes with laden animals just practicable.
By that time, too, the subsurveyor’s little party, and another Turki
servant sent by Mr. Macartney, the British political agent in Kashgar,
had joined me, and all requisite stores and equipment had been duly
collected and packed. Owing to the quantity of scientific instruments,
photographic glass plates, etc., to be carried, and to the provision
that had to be made for stores of all kinds in view of the distances
likely to separate us thereafter from civilized *‘ bases of supply,” my
caravan numbered 16 baggage animals when it set out on the morning
of May 31 from Bandipur, the little port on Volur Lake and the
starting point of the ‘* Gilgit Transport Road.”
Though the snow still lay deep and the weather was trying, the Trag-
bal and Burzil passes (approximately 12,000 and 13,000 feet above the
sea, respectively) were crossed without mishap. Pushing on by rapid
marches through the Dard valleys of Astor, imposing in their barren
grandeur, and across the rock-bound bed of the Indus near Bunji, we
reached the Gilgit cantonment on June 11. Fresh transport arrange-
ments necessitated a short halt at this last outpost of Anglo-Indian
civilization. Thanks to the kind offices of Capt. J. Manners Smith,
V.C.,C. 1. E., then political agent at Gilgit, I was there able not only
to make good various small defects in the equipment of my caravan,
but also to collect interesting information concerning the customs and
traditions of the Dard population inhabiting these valleys. The Dards
deserve, indeed, to be treated with respect by the historical student
and ethnographist, for their tribes have clung to this forbidding
ground of bleak rocky gorges and ice-crowned ranges ever since the
days of Herodotos. Ancient, like the mountains themselves, looks
the race, with its sharply defined ethnic characteristics and language.
On June 15 I started from Gilgit filled with a grateful recollection
of the kind help and hospitality which I had enjoyed among the last
British officers I was to see for some time. Marching round the mighty
buttresses of Mount Rakiposhi(with its highest needle-like peak soar-
ing to an elevation of over 25,000 feet) and through mountain scenery
that under a sky of dazzling clearness looked as grand as any I have
ever seen in the Himalaya, we passed on the third day into the terri-
tory of the chiefs of Hunzaand Nagir. Close to the hill fort of Nilth,
famous for the brilliant little campaign of 1891, I visited with interest
the deep-cut gorge descending from a glacier of Rakiposhi, where
Captain Manners Smith climbed the most precipitous cliffs with his
750 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
handful of Gurkbas and Dogras, and, finally breaking the resistance of
the Kanjuti hill men, won his Victoria cross. It was pleasant to note
that the brave mountaineers who were vanquished here looked back
upon this daring exploit of their quondam foe and conqueror with
almost as much pride as if it had been performed by their own side.
A short distance higher up the valley, near the village of Thol, I
noticed a well preserved little stupa, a monument of those early cen-
turies when this secluded valley, like the rest of the difficult hill tracts
farther west, held a population attached to Buddha’s faith. Was it
the same small Kanjuti race, puzzling by its complete isolation in
regard to language and ethnic origin, which now occupies Hunza?
At Aliabad, near the capital of the Hunza chief, I spent two days
busily occupied with the rearrangement of all loads for transport by
coolies; for the difficult mountain tracks by which alone the Tagh-
dumbash Pamir ean be approached during the summer months, from
the side of Hunza, are absolutely impassable for any beast of burden.
Acting on the instructions kindly sent in advance by the political agent
at Gilgit, Wazir Humayun, the energetic chief adviser of Mubammad
Nazim, the present Mir of Hunza, had made ample preparations for
the trying route ahead. It was difficult to realize that this little
mountain chieftainship was, until ten years ago, by reason of the free-
booting and slave-raiding expeditions which it sent forth—and Wazir
Humayun himself had led more than one successful raid of this kind—
the terror of all neighboring regions.
On June 20 I moved my camp to Baltit, where I paid a return visit
to the Mir in his old and highly picturesque castle. I was interested
to note in the carved woodwork of mosques and other structures dec-
orative elements of ancient Indian type, while in the furniture and
fittings of the Mir’s residence modern central Asian and Chinese influ-
ences were plainly discernible. On the following day we commenced
on foot the series of trying marches up the gorge of the Hunza River.
The winter route, which crosses the river bed at frequent intervals,
had become wholly impracticable, owing to the melting snows and the
swollen state of the river. The precipitous mountain spurs and the
great glaciers descending to the left bank of the river had daily to be
crossed by tracks which may rightly be described as a succession of
Alpine climbing tours of a decidedly tiring nature. They often led
over narrow rock ledges and by rough ladder-like galleries (rafik) along
the faces of cliffs, where the carrying of loads would be nervous work
for any but such extraordinarily sure-footed and active hill men as the
people of Hunza. Frequent enough were the places where even my
little fox terrier, accustomed to rough climbs from many a tour with
his master, had to be picked up and carried.
Toiling along these precipices, amidst scenery truly inspiring in its
rugged splendor, I was often reminded of the vivid accounts which
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. rey
Fa-hien and other ancient Buddhist pilgrims from China have left us
of their experiences on the journey through the gorges of the Indus.
From Ghulmit, the second stage onward, the scanty settlers occupy-
ing the few patches of cultivated ground in the valley proved to be of
Iranian origin, speaking a Wakhi dialect closely allied to that which
is used by the Wakhan immigrants found in Sarikol. Thus, in this
part of the Hindukush, too, the line of contact between the great areas
of the Indian and Iranian families of language does not completely
coincide with the geographical watershed.
After six days spent in more or less continuous climbing, Misgar,
the northernmost hamlet of Hunza, was reached, where I was able to
discharge the hardy hill men who had carried our impedimenta without
the slighest damage over such trying ground. On June 28 at last I
crossed, by the Kilik Pass (cire. 15,800 feet above the sea), into Chinese
territory on the Taghdumbash Pamir, using the yaks of the Sarikoli
herdsmen, who, by Mr. Macartney’s arrangement with the Chinese
authorities, had awaited me at the southern foot of the pass.
From K6kt6rok, our first camp on the Taghdumbash, at an elevation
of over 14,000 feet, we commenced our plane-table survey, on the
scale of 8 miles to the inch. Throughout our travels in the mountains
I endeavored to supplement it, as far as my limited time permitted, by
photogrammetric work, for which I used the excellent Bridges-Lee
photo-theodolite kindly lent tome by Mr. Eliot, the head of the Indian
meteorological department. Systematic triangulation by theodolite
was started at the same time with the help of the points supplied by
the surveys of the boundary commission and Captain Deasy, while
regular astronomical observations for latitude were made by Babu
Ram Singh from here onward at all camps, the exact determination of
which possessed topographical interest. The constant and direct super-
vision which I exercised over the plane-table work enabled me to pay
special attention to the local nomenclature. A good deal of philo-
logical and historical interest attaches to the latter in regions like the
Pamirs and a considerable portion of Chinese Turkestan, over which
have passed the waves of great ethnic migrations. I believe, there-
fore, students interested in this part of central Asian geography will
derive some advantage from the pains I took to correctly ascertain and
to record with phonetic accuracy all local names throughout the terri-
tories covered by our surveys.
From the height of the Khushbel peak, the first ‘hill station” of
our survey (close on 17,000 feet above the sea), I could simultaneously
see the ranges which form the watershed between the drainage areas
of the Indus, the Oxus, and the Yarkand rivers, and which politically
divide the territories of British India, Russia, and China, Afghanistan
(pl. 1). Pressed for time, as I necessarily was in regard to all that
(D2 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
touched my topographical interests, I could not resist the temptation
of pushing westward, at least as far as the Wakhjir Pass, which leads
from the Taghdumbash Pamir to the headwaters of the Oxus. Camp-
ing close to the summit of the Wakhjir Pass (cire. 16,200 feet), I visited
on July 2 the head of the Ab-1 Panja Valley, near the great glaciers
which Lord Curzon first demonstrated to be the true source of the
river Oxus. It was a strange sensation for me in this desolate moun-
tain waste to know that I stood at last at the eastern threshold of that
distant region, including Bactria and the upper Oxus Valley, which, as
a field of exploration, has attracted me ever since Iwas a boy. It was
the threshold only I had reached, and T knew that this time there was
no entrance for me into the forbidden land. Notwithstanding’ its
great elevation the Wakhjir Pass and its approaches, both from the
west and east, are comparatively easy. Comparing the topographical
features with the itinerary indicated by Hiuen Tsiang, the great Chi-
nese pilgrim, Iam led to conclude that the route which he followed
when traveling, about A. D. 649, on his return from India, through
the valley of Pa-mi-lo (Pamir) into Sarikol, actually traversed this
pass.
As I marched down the gradually widening valley of the Taghdum-
bash Pamir toward Tashkurghan, the chief place of the Sarikol dis-
trict, | fully realized the contrast which its expanses of comparatively
rich grazing offer to the rocky destitution of the Hunza gorges.
Increasing numbers of nomadic herdsmen, both Kirghiz and Wakhi,
now frequent the valley, which was an utterly deserted waste, and
rarely used, even as a route, while there were Hunza raiding parties
ready to swoop down from the mountain fastnesses southward.
I also felt glad to be once more on the track of Hiuen Tsiang, whose
footsteps I had traced to so many a sacred Buddhist site of ancient
India. ‘The position and remains of Tashkurghan were found to agree
most closely with the description which Hiuen Tsiang and the earlier
Chinese pilgrim, Sung-yun, give of the capital of the ancient Kie-pan-to.
The identification of the latter territory with the modern Sarikol, first
suggested by Sir Henry Yule, was thus fully established. The ruined
town, which extends round the modern Chinese fort of Tashkurghan,
and still shows a quadrangular inclosure of crumbling stone walls,
‘rests on a great rocky crag, and is backed by the river Sita” (i. e.,
the Yarkand River), on the east, exactly as the pilgrims describe it.
As a striking instance of the tenacity of local tradition, it deserves to
be mentioned that I found the curious legend which Hiuen Tsiang
relates of the princess imprisoned in ancient days on a rock fastness
still clinging to the identical locality of this valley.
I believe that Tashkurghan, as an historical site, has claim to even
greater antiquity than that implied by the notices of Hiuen Tsiang
and Sung-yun. Nature itself has plainly marked it not only as the
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 753
administrative center for the valleys of the Sarikol region, but also as
the most convenient place for trade exchange on an ancient and once
important route connecting great portions of Central Asia with the
Far East and West. Judging from local observations, everything
tends to support the view first expressed by Sir Henry Rawlinson that
Tashkurghan, ‘‘the stone tower,” retains the position as well as the
name of the Az@zvos TUPY OS, which Ptolemy and, before him, Marinus
of Tyre, the geographer, knew as the emporium of the extreme
western frontier of Serike—1i. e., the Central Chinese dominions. From
Tashkurghan the road lies equally open to Kashgar and Khotan, and
thus to both the great trade routes which led in ancient times and
during the Middle Ages from Turkestan into the interior of China.
At Tashkurghan, also, the two best lines of communication across the
Pamirs converge, the Taghdumbash Valley, which gives access to the
upper Oxus, being met here by the route which leads over the Naiza-
Tash pass toward the **Great Pamir” and thence down to Shighnan.
In order to extend our survey over ground that was geographically
interesting, I chose for our further march to Kashgar the route which
passes through the high valleys between the Russian Pamirs and the
western slopes of the great transverse range of Muztagh-Ata. On
July 13 1 had reached the shores of the ‘* Little” Karakul Lake, at the
northern foot of the ‘‘ father of ice mountains,” and about 11,000 feet
above sea level, where I found a fairly large encampment of nomadic
Kirghiz. The ample supply of sturdy yaks which we obtained from
them greatly facilitated transportarrangements. It thus became pos-
sible within the comparatively short time available to establish a series
of excellent survey stations on various high spurs descending from
Muztagh-Ata. They enabled us to extend the triangulation brought
up from the Taghdumbash to the great g@lacier-crowned ranges facing
Muztagh-Ata from the north and northeast and overlooking the ‘* Lit-
tle” Karakul Lake. (PI. 1.)
Their main peaks, though rising to over 23,000 feet, remain below
the elevation of Muztagh-Ata. Yet these mighty walls of ice and
snow, stretching their crest line of dazzling whiteness for a distance
of at least 24 miles, and streaked by numerous great glaciers, appeared
perhaps even more awe inspiring than the grand ice-girt dome of
Muztagh-Ata itself (pl. m). Our stay in the midst of this mountain
world fell in what was probably the most favorable season; yet the hours
when any considerable portion of the panorama was clear of clouds:
and driving rain or snow were few indeed. Notwithstanding the rapid
changes of the atmospheric conditions and the difficulty of working a
delicate instrument on heights ever exposed to cutting winds at tem-
peratures that readily fell below freezing point, the Bridges- Lee photo-
theodolite proved very useful for recording topographical details.
From the rounds of phototheodolite views which were secured by me
154 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
ata series of excellent survey stations, Lieutenant Tillard, R. E., of
the trigonometrical branch office of the survey of India, succeeded in
constructing a map of the Muztagh-Ata region on the enlarged scale
of 4 miles to the inch, which shows much additional detail. It will be
published along with the general map embodying our survey. But
both the taking of the phototheodolite views and the working out of
the results has absorbed a great amount of time and labor, and refer-
ence to the plane-table sections has, I believe, often been found indis-
pensable in plotting.
For the purpose of the phototheodolite survey, and also in order to
gain some closer personal experience of the ‘* father of ice-mountains,”
I made on July 18-19 two ascents on the western slopes of the central
mass of Muztagh-Ata. The route chosen lay up the ridge which flanks
the Yambulak glacier from the north, and, as seen from below, seemed
to ascend unbroken to the northern of the twin peaks of the great
mountain. It was by the same route that Dr. Sven Hedin, in the course
of his explorations of 1894, had reached his highest point. But since
the visit of the great Swedish traveler, the physical conditions on the
surface of the ridge seem to have undergone a considerable change for
the worse. At the time of his ascents the ridge appears to have been
bare of snow up to-an elevation estimated at over 20,000 feet, and
consequently it had been possible to use yaks both for riding and
transport. I found the ridge from about 15,500 feet upward enveloped
by heavy masses of snow, which seem likely to transform themselves
gradually into a mantle of ice, such as lies over the other elevated
slopes of the mountain. Only on the very edge of the precipitous
rock wall by which the ridge falls off toward the Yambulak glacier
small patches of rock protruded here and there from the deep snow.
Above 17,000 feet even these disappeared, and at about the same
height it was necessary to leave behind the yaks, which, foundering
constantly in the deep snow, had become useless.
On the opposite side of the glacier the. southern wall of rock is
topped by athick layer of ice to a far lower point, and consequently
little avalanches would be seen gliding down from it as the day wore
on. Luckily, on our side the glittering snow sheet over which we
ascended seemed to rest-as yet firmly on the rock. The weather was
by no means favorable, and on the second day we had to contend with
frequent gusts of violent wind, and with occasional showers of snow.
The maximum elevation I then reached was, by the evidence of the
hypsometrical readings, within a few feet of 20,000 feet. It had taken
nearly eight hours of constant toil to attain it from my camp, pitched
at an elevation of over 15,000 feet. The couple ef Kirghiz who
could be induced to set out with us were, curiously enough, first
seized by mountain sickness, and had to be left behind with their yaks.
At an elevation of about 19,000 feet, Ram Singh, the subsurveyor,
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Stein. PLATE I.
Fic. 2.—Icy RANGES NORTH OF MUZTAGH-ATA, SEEN FROM LITTLE KARAKUL.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Stein. PLATE II.
Fig. 3.—MUZTAGH-ATA, SEEN FROM LITTLE KARAKUL.
(e
pet
Fig. 4.—PEAK * KUEN-LUEN No. 5” (oR “*MUZTAGH”’), SEEN FROM NORTHWEST,
WITH RANGES ABOVE YURUNGKASH GORGE ON RIGHT.
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 755
was obliged to stay behind, overcome by headache and lassitude. Next
Ajab Khan, the active Puniali, who had accompanied me as an orderly
from Gilgit, fell out, and ultimately only the two splendid men of the
**Hunza levies,” who had been selected for me by the Mir of Hunza,
and had proved most useful as guides, plodded on with me.
The previous day, while engaged in phototheodolite work, I had
sent them ahead to reconnoiter the ridge. Excellent climbers as they
are, they had then reached a point apparently about 2,000 feet higher
up. Their progress was there stopped by a sheer precipice of impass-
able rocks descending to what I conclude to be a transverse glacier
previously hidden from view, separating the great ridge we followed
from the main mass of the northern summit, and communicating north-
ward with the Kampar-kishlak glacier. Owing to the threatening
aspect of the weather, I had to forego the attempt, which our bodily
condition would have otherwise well permitted, of reaching this farthest
accessible point of the ridge. I was thus unable to judge with my own
eyes of the true mountaineering difficulties that would have to be faced
in the event of a systematic effort being made to climb the northern
summit from this side. An ample allowance of time, a good Swiss
guide or two, and a sufficient number of hardy Hunza mountaineers
to carry loads, would seem to me indispensable provisions for such an
effort.
As we descended, the clouds lifted toward the west and revealed a
panorama vast and impressive beyond description. It extended prac-
tically across the whole breadth of the Pamir region. Far away to
the southwest it was bounded by glittering pinnacles, in which I could
recognize the mountain giants that guard the approach to the Indus
Valley. They had worthy rivals to the north in some towering masses
of ice and snow, which I could not fail to identify with Mount Kauf-
mann and other great peaks of the trans-Alai range.
The night, which I passed uncomfortable enough in my tent, pitched
with difficulty at an elevation of about 16,500 feet, brought fresh snow
with driving gales, and after vainly waiting next day for a change, I
was forced to descend once more toward Lake Karakul. Before
leaving this inhospitable, yet so fascinating, neighborhood, I had the
satisfaction to ascertain that the Kirghiz legend of a hoary saint (Pir)
mysteriously residing on the inaccessible heights of the great ice moun-
tain, still retains distinct features of the ‘told story” which Hiuen
Tsiang heard of the giant Buddist hermit who was seen entranced ** on
a great mountain covered with brooding vapors,” evidently identical
with Muztagh-Ata.
On July 23 I started down on to the plains of Kashgar by the route
of the Gez defile. Owing to the collapse of one of the bridges in this
remarkably narrow and difficult gorge, I was obliged to make a con-
siderable detour, which entailed the crossing of the huge Koksel or
756 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
Sarguluk glacier descending northward from the great range we had
surveyed before from the side of Lake Karakul. ‘The lower portion of
the defile was rendered altogether impassable by the summer floods of
the glacier-fed Yamanyar River. So] had to take to the difficult track
known as Tokuz-Dawan, ‘‘ the Nine Passes,” and barely passable for
laden animals, which crosses a series of steep transverse spurs descend-
ing from the little-known eastern slopes of the great snowy range
behind Muztagh-Ata. Leaving the sub-surveyor and heavy baggage
to follow by easier stages, I pushed on by rapid marches, and after a
finishing march of some 50 miles from Tashmalik, on July 29 arrived
at Kashgar.
There, under the hospitable roof of Mr. G. Macartney, C. I. E., the
political representative of the Indian Government, the kindest recep-
tion awaited me. After fully two months of fatiguing and almost
incessant travel in the mountains I felt the need of some bodily rest
before I could set out again for Khotan, the proper goal of my explo-
rations. But my four weeks’ stay in Kashgar was mainly accounted
for by other and more pressing considerations. In view of the wide
extent of the area that was to be covered by my travels within a period
practically limited to one autumn and winter, the careful organization
of my caravan was a matter of much importance. In this respect the
experienced advice of Mr. Macartney and the practical assistance of his
establishment were of great value to me. It was essential to limit the
baggage with a view to rapidity of movement, and at the same time to
insure that all stores and equipment required during prolonged travels,
and under widely varying conditions, should be kept readily available.
I found that, including riding animals for myself and followers, 8
camels and 12 ponies would be needed for my caravan. ‘The trouble
taken about their selection was amply repaid by the result; for, not-
withstanding the fatigues entailed by our subsequent travels, which
covered an aggregate of over 3,000 miles, none of the animals I brought
from Kashgar ever broke down. In the same way the number of fol-
lowers was kept down to the indispensable minimum, the party includ-
ing 2 camelmen, 2 pony attendants (one of whom had to act also as
Chinese interpreter), a cook, and a personal servant for myself. Apart
from the subsurveyor’s Rajput cook, who had accompanied us from
India, all the men came from Kashgar or Yarkand.
An important object of my stay at Kashgar was to familiarize the
provincial Chinese Government with the purpose and character of my
intended explorations. Mr. Macartney’s efforts in this direction were
entirely successful, owing mainly to the great personal influence and
respect he enjoys among all Chinese dignitaries of the province. The
result showed that from the Tao-tai, or provincial governor, down-
ward, all Chinese officials I came in contact with were ready and
anxious to render me whatever help lay in their power. I look back
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. fasy
to their invariable kindness and attention with all the more gratitude,
as it was shown at a time when, as they knew well, the conflict with
Kuropean powers was convulsing the Empire in the East.
Such imperfect explanations and illustrations as, with an interpreter’s
help, I could give of the historical connection of ancient Indian culture
and Buddhist religion with Central Asia, probably helped to dispel any
doubts and suspicions which might otherwise have been roused by the
intended excavations, etc. In this respect I found my references to the
Si-yu-ki, the records of Hiuen Tsiang’s travels, singularly helpful.
All educated Chinese officials seem to have read or heard legendary
accounts of the famous Chinese pilgrim’s visit to the Buddhist king-
doms of the ‘‘ western countries.” In my intercourse with them I
never invoked in vain the memory of ‘‘the great monk of the Tang
dynasty (Tang-Sen),” whose footsteps I was now endeavoring to trace
in Turkestan, as I had done before in more than one part of India.
Busily engaged as I was during my stay at Kashgar with practical
preparations, I managed also to survey a number of instructive ancient
remains, chiefly ruins of Buddhist Stupas, in the vicinity, and to con-
tinue my studies of Turki. On September 11 I finally set out on the
journey to Khotan. Choosing for the first portion of the march the
track which crosses the region of moving sands around the popular
shrine of Ordam-Padshah, I was able to fix the position of that curi-
ous pilgrimage place more accurately than is shown in existing maps.
From Yarkand onward I followed the ordinary caravan route, which
leads along the southern edge of the great desert, and mostly through
barren, uninhabited wastes of sand or gravel, toward Khotan. For
me it hada special historical interest; a variety of antiquarian and topo-
graphical observations which I was able to make proved beyond doubt
that we were moving along the identical great thoroughfare by which
in earlier times the trade from the Oxus and the Far West passed to
Khotan and on to China.
It is impossible to refer here in detail to any of this evidence. But
I may briefly mention at least the curious patches of ground frequently
passed on the route beyond Guma, where the eroded loess is thickly
strewn with fragments of coarse pottery, bricks, slag, and similar
refuse, marking the sites of villages and hamlets long ago abandoned.
Such débris areas, locally known as ‘‘tatis,” are to be found in many
places beyond the present limits of cultivation in the whole Khotan
region; in some places they extend over whole square miles. They
exhibit everywhere most striking evidence of the powerful erosive
action of the winds and sand storms which sweep over the desert and
its outskirts for long periods of the spring and summer. The above-
named fragments rest on nothing but natural loess, either hard or more
or less disintegrated. Having alone survived by the hardness and
weight of their material, these fragments sink lower and lower as the
758 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
erosion of the ground beneath proceeds, while everything in the shape
of mud walls, sun- burnt bricks, timber, etc., as used in the construe-
tion of Turkestan houses, has long ago decayed or been swept away.
On October 12 I reached Khotan town, the present capital of the
territory which was to form the special field for my archeological
explorations. I had entered the oasis on the preceding day with some
feeling of emotion; for even before the discoveries that rewarded my
labors there was much to suggest the important part played by this
little kingdom in that most fascinating chapter of ancient history which
witnessed the interchange of the cultures of India, China, and the classi-
‘al West. 1 lost no time before commencing the local inquiries which
were to guide me as to the sites particularly deserving exploration.
Apprehensions about possible forgeries, which experience proved to
have been fully justified, had prevented me from sending in advance
information as to the object of my journey. I now found that some
time would have to be allowed for the collection of specimens of antiq-
uities from the various old sites which Khotan ‘‘ treasure seekers” were
in the habit of visiting. I was glad to utilize the interval for a geo-
graphical task which I Knew to possess special interest.
That portion of the Kuen-luen Range which contains the headwaters
of the Yurung-kash or Khotan River had never been properly sur-
veyed, the only available information being contained in the sketch
map of the route by which Mr. Johnson, in 1865, had made his way
from Ladak down to Khotan. Colonel Trotter had already, in 1875,
expressed the belief that the headwaters of the Yurung-kash were
much farther to the east than shown in that map, and probably identi-
cal with a stream rising on the high plateau south of Polu. Captain
Deasy, working from the side of Polu, in 1898, succeeded in reaching
the sources of this stream at an elevation of close on 16,000 feet, but
was prevented from following it downward. Thus the true course
of the main feeder of the Yurung-kash, together with most of the
orography of the surrounding region, still remained to be explored.
On October 17 I started with the lightest possible equipment for
the mountains. Pan-Darin, the amban of Khotan, had, during the
few days of my halt, done all that was needed to facilitate my arrange-
ments for transport and supplies, and to assure me local assistance.
Subsequent experience showed that I had found in this amiable and
learned mandarin a true and reliable friend, thoroughly interested in
my work, and ever ready to help me with all that was in his power.
I feel convinced that without his active cooperation, and subsequently
that of his Keriya colleague, neither the tour through the mountains
nor the explorations in the desert could have been accomplished.
The valley of the Yurung-kash becomes impassable within one march
of its debouchure. There, near the small villages of Jamada and
Kumat, the precious jade is dug, from which the river takes it name—
7
Jt
9
~
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
‘** white jade.” Hence the route to Karanghu-tagh, the southernmost
inhabited place, leads over a series of more or less parallel ranges that
separate side valleys draining from the east. These outer ranges,
rising in a succession of plateaus fissured by deep winding ravines,
exhibit in a most striking form the results of that extreme disinte-
eration which is the characteristic feature of the whole mountain sys-
tem. Nothing but loose earth, gravel, or conglomerate in the last
stage of decomposition is to be seen on the surface of the hillsides;
while their high elevation and the dryness of the climate prevent the
growth of any but the scantiest vegetation in rare patches of low,
tough grass. The effects of the dust haze which rises so constantly
over the desert plains were still sufficiently marked to prevent any distant
view being obtained from the Ulugh Dawan, by which we crossed
the Tikelik Rangeatan elevation of about 12,000 feet. But fromthe next
‘ange, between the valleys of Buya and Pisha, a very extensive pan-
orama opened out before us.
In a grand mountain mass raising its glacier-crowned head in solitary
splendor to the southeast, it was impossible to mistake the ** Kuen-luen
peak, No. 5,” already triangulated from the Ladak side (pl. 1). Behind
this great mountain, for which the tables supplied by the survey depart-
ment indicated a height of 23,890 feet, to the south and southeast
there was to be seen a magnificent line of high snowy peaks marking
the watershed toward the westernmost portion of the Aksai-chin
plateau of Tibet. It soon became clear that the Yurung-kash has cut
its way between the main range and the great mass of ** K5,” or Muz-
tagh (‘the ice mountain,” Kaz’ éSoynv, as it is called by the few
Taghliks of these valleys). Its course is indicated by a gap between
the stupendous spurs which descend from Muztagh, and from the
almost equally high peaks on the watershed range, and could, in the
remarkably clear atmosphere that favored us, be made out for a con-
siderable distance to the southeast. It was found to run exactly in
the direction where Captain Deasy had traced the real source of the
river. In other respects, too, the orographical features actually before
us differed strikingly from those which the above-mentioned sketch
map had led me to expect.
The next outer range, which was crossed at an elevation of close on
14,000 feet, offered a still better view of this magnificent panorama.
But vainly I searched the crest line for other peaks which could be
identified with points already triangulated from the Ladak side, and
which would thus secure to us the eagerly sought connection with the
Indian trigonometrical system. The descent which followed, of some
6,000 feet, to the deep rock-bound gorge of the Yurung-kash, was by
its steepness and ruggedness an experience long to be remembered,
especially as night overtook us. The track was almost impracticable
sm 1903 49
760 SXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
for our baggage ponies. Fortunately it was possible to replace them
by yaks at Karanghu-tagh, a small settlement of herdsmen which,
owing to its inaccessibility, is also used as a penal station for select
malefactors from Khotan. ‘* Karanghu-tagh” literally means ‘* moun-
tain of blinding darkness”—a fitting enough name for this terribly
bleak place of banishment. The Kash River, on which it lies, is fed by
a series of great glaciers on the main range to the south, and joins the
Yurung-kash a few miles below the hamlet.
Leaving the ponies and whatever of baggage could be spared at
Karanghu-tagh, I endeavored to follow up the gorge of the Yurung-
kash as faras possible toward the head of the river. The hillmen
knew of no track beyond a point known as “ Issik-bulak,” from its
hot-spring. There the river, unfordable even late in the autumn, fills
completely the narrow passage it has cut round the mighty southern
buttresses of ‘*‘ Kuen-luen No. 5,” and progress becomes impossible,
even for yaks. Accompanied by Ram Singh and a couple of Taghliks,
I penetrated, on October 27, a few miles farther into the gorge,
climbing with difficulty along the precipitous cliffs which face the
frowning ridges on the south. But no track could be discovered prac-
ticable for load-carrying men, and ultimately I had to turn back. It
was impossible for me to wait for the chance of the river getting com-
pletely frozen. Even then I doubt whether a practicable passage could
be secured, considering the rigors of the winter and the masses of
fallen rock likely to be encountered. It is from the high but com-
paratively open ground near the sources far away to the southeast
that the uppermost portion of the river course will have finally to be
explored.
From Karanghu-tagh we proceeded to the northwest by a difficult
route, which forms the only connection of the valley with the outer
world besides that we had come by. It required a good deal of nego-
tiation and ‘*demiofficial” pressure before the surly hillmen of
Karanghu-tagh would supply guides and yaks for it. The inhospitable
mountain tract into which it took us had so far remained wholly
unexplored.
Over a succession of high transverse ranges we crossed into the yal-
leys of Nissa and Chash. By camping close to the passes we managed
to climb to some excellent survey stations, particularly on the Brinjak
ridge, some 15,300 feet above the sea. The views I obtained there
will show, better than any description could, the weird grandeur of
this mountain scenery. Belowa glacier-clad crest line, of an approxi-
mate height of 20,000 feet, there rise in all directions fantastically
serrated ridges, with deep gorges between them, like the waves of an
angry sea. Exceptionally clear weather favored us; but the increasing
cold and the exposure inevitable on such elevated ground made survey
work, especially with the phototheodolite, very trying. (PI. m1).
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 761
Beyond the Yagan-Dawan Pass, by which I crossed into the drainage
area of the Kara-kash (‘‘ black jade”) River, I had ample opportunity
to observe the extraordinary results produced by erosion on mountain
formations subject to excessive disintegration (pl. m1). It appeared to
me that only the erosive action of water could have produced that
perfect maze of deep-cut arid gorges through which we had to wind
our way. Yet in this very region the fall of rain and snow is now
very scanty, and the consequent absence of water is a serious obstacle
for the traveler. Luckily, we could overcome it by the transport
of ice.
I had almost despaired of connecting our survey work with the
Indian triangulation, when unexpectedly the last range we had to
cross toward the plains revealed a view more extensive than any
before. Among the many high snowy peaks visible southward, and
also beyond the upper Kara-kash River, two more triangulated points,
besides ** Kuen-luen No. 5,” could be identified with certainty. It
thus became possible to determine our position on the Ulughat-Dawan,
close on 10,000 feet above the sea, by theodolite and to measure angles
to all prominent heights of the ranges within view. To the north
there extended, boundless like the sea, the vast plain of the desert.
The light dust haze covering it looked beautiful as it reflected the
brillant moonlight of that first night I spent on the pass waiting for
the arrival of water. The dinner for which it was needed, did not get
ready till2 a.m. I knew that a wind raising the haze would eftec-
tively stop further survey work. So I hurried to reach another high
ridge farther east, with an equally extensive view, that would allow
us to complete the triangulation. It was successfully climbed after a
great detour that cost us two days, and just in time. As the work
Was approaching completion, a strong wind sweeping over the desert
carried up a thick dust haze, and for weeks effaced all distant views.
Some prominent peaks in the outer range of hills, which are visible
from Khotan town when the atmosphere is clear, have been fixed by
our work. With the help of these points it will be possible to connect
Khotan with the Indian trigonometrical system, and finally to verify
its longitude. But such occasions of dust-clear weather are rare, and
of the only one which occurred during my subsequent short stay in
Khotan, in April, full advantage could not be taken by myself.
Thus this task is still left to a future traveler, who will be able to
afford time for patiently awaiting his opportunity at Khotan.
By the middle of November I had returned to Khotan, where, after
our rough and rapid marches through the mountains, I was elad to
allow my men and animals a well-earned short rest before starting
once more for the winter’s work in the desert. I myself was busy at
work with the examination of the antiquities which the prospecting
parties, sent out a month earlier, had brought back from various sites
762 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
in the desert. I also made a series of excursions for the purpose of a
close survey of the old localities within the Khotan oasis itself. This
enabled me satisfactorily to settle numerous questions bearing on its
ancient topography, and in particular to locate almost all the sacred
Buddhist shrines which are described to us by the early Chinese pil-
erims. Their positions were invariably found to be occupied now by
Muhammadan Ziarats, or Saints’ tombs, which form the object of
popular pilgrimage. Local worship can thus be shown to have out-
lived the great change in religion consequent on the Muhammadan
conquest. Its tenacity has indeed proved quite as useful for the study
of the ancient topography of Khotan as it had proved to me before in
Kashmir and other parts of India.
I must restrict myself here toa few remarks only concerning the
most interesting of those old localities—the site of the ancient capital.
Its débris layers, which have furnished by far the greatest portion of
the Khotan antiquities, such as terra cottas, seals, coins, etc., acquired
by former travelers, he buried deep below the fields of the little vil-
lage of Yotkan, some 7 miles to the west of the present town. Gold-
washing operations, originating from an accidental discovery of gold
some thirty-seven years ago, have gradually led there to the excava-
tion of an area over half a mile square. The careful examination of
the banks thus laid bare showed me that the ‘‘culture strata,” as I
should call them, of Yotkan are composed of the rubbish that gradu-
ally accumulated during the centuries while the site continued to be
occupied by houses, from about the commencement of our era until
after the advent of Islam (in the eleventh century of our era). These
*Sculture strata,” themselves 5 to 14 feet thick at various points, are
covered by a layer of pure soil from 9 to 20 feet in thickness. This
layer, which shows no sign of stratification, is manifestly due to silt
deposit, the necessary result of intensive and long-continued irrigation
such as prevails all over the oasis. Owing to the disintegrated condi-
tion of the soil, all the water that is brought down from the mountains
by the Yurung-kash and Kara-kash rivers, and subsequently distrib-
uted by innumerable irrigation channels, carries an excessive quantity
of sediment. The silt thus deposited over all cultivated areas is amply
sufficient to account for the gradual burying of the rubbish layers of
the ancient capital and for other curious observations I have made as
to the gradual raising of the ground level throughout the oasis. All
antiquarian and physical evidence combines to oppose the assumption
of a great flood or similar catastrophe, such as some earlier Kuropean
visitors of the site have suggested.
Among: the ancient sites in the Taklamakan Desert which are fre-
quented by Khotan ‘‘ treasure seekers,” and which the prospecting
parties sent out by me had visited, none seemed to offer better oppor-
tunities for systematic excavations than the one known to them as
PLATE III.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Stein.
Fig. 6.—ERODED RANGES TO SOUTHEAST OF YAGAN-DAWAN.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Stein. PLATE IV.
Fig. 7.—STuCCO SCULPTURES AND FRESCOES IN BUDDHIST TEMPLE CELLA EXCAVATED
AT DANDAN-UILIK.
Fi@. 8.—ROOM OF ANCIENT DWELLINGS (FIRST FIND PLACE OF INSCRIBED TABLETS),
NiyA River SITE, AFTER EXCAVATION.
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. KGe
Dandan-Uilik. Turdi, an old and, as experience showed, reliable
member of that fraternity, had brought me from there some interest-
ing relics, including fragments of Buddhist sculptures, an inscribed
piece of fresco, anda small but undoubtedly genuine scrap of paper
with ancient Indian Brahmi characters. Further inquiries made it
certain that Dandan-Uilik was identical with the ruined site which
Dr. Sven Hedin had seen on his march to the Keriya Darya, and
which in the narrative of his travels is spoken of as ‘‘the ancient city
Taklamakan.”
After hurriedly completing in Khotan the preparations for our
winter campaign, I started on December 7 for Tawakkel, a small oasis
on the outskirts of the forest belt which accompanies the Yurung-kash
on its course through the desert. Thanks to the stringent orders
issued by Pan-Darin, the kindly amban of Khotan, I speedily secured
there the 30 laborers I wished to take with me for purposes of exca-
vation, as well asa four-weeks’ food supply. Owing to the reluc-
tance of the village cultivators to venture far into the desert, it would
otherwise have been difficult to obtain sufficient labor, especially in
view of the rigors of the winter. The ponies, for which the desert
offered neither sufficient water nor food, were sent back to Khotan,
while we set out on foot, the heavily-laden camels carrying the food
supplies, together with the indispensable baggage. Marching in the
drift sand was slow work, though the dunes amidst which we passed
as soon as we had left the east bank of the river nowhere rose above
15 feet. Within five days Turdi had safely guided us through the
sandy waste to the area where the trunks of dead poplars, rising
shriveled and gaunt from between low dunes, indicated the vicinity
of ancient cultivation. On the following day (December 18) I had
my camp pitched in the middle of the ruins I was in search of.
I soon found that the structural remains of the site consisted of
isolated groups of small houses scattered over an area about 1$ miles
from north to south and three-quarters of a mile broad. The walls,
constructed throughout of a wooden framework covered with plaster,
were either broken down within a few feet from the ground, if exposed,
or, where covered by low dunes, could be made out by the wooden
posts of the framework sticking out from the sand. The structures
left more or less exposed had already been searched by native ‘‘ treas-
ure seekers.” Their operations repeated in successive seasons had,
together with the erosive action of the wind, caused great destruction
among these ruins. But the scanty remains left on some walls of
frescoes representing Buddhas, or Bodhisattvas, showed at once plainly
that the ruins belonged to the Buddhist period, and that some of them
must have served as Buddhist places of worship.
Luckily the native ‘‘ treasure seekers” are prevented by the diffi-
culty of carrying sufficient supplies from stopping longer than a few
764 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
days, hence they had never been able to attack the ruins more
deeply covered by the sand. Thus, when I commenced with my little
force of laborers the systematic excavation of structures half buried
by low dunes, most interesting archeological results soon began to
reward me. From the cellas of little Buddhist shrines there came to
light in large numbers stucco images and relievos, frescoes and painted
wooden tablets, all showing representations of saints and legends of
sacred Buddhist lore (pl. tv). In style and technical treatment they
exhibit a close resemblance to that period of ancient Indian art which is
best known to us from the latter Ajanta cave paintings. Wherever
protected by the dry desert sand, the colors have survived in remarkable
freshness. Here, then, were rising from their tomb long-lost relics
of that Indian art which had found a second home in Buddhist Central
Asia before spreading farther into the Far East.
Great was my joy when, on excavating what must have been the
ground-floor room of a small monastic dwelling place, the men came
upon the first leaves of paper manuscripts. Carefully extracted with
my own hands and cleared, they proved to contain portions of a Budd-
hist canonical text in Sanskrit. Judging from the paleeographic char-
acter of the writing, these and subsequent finds of fragmentary
Sanskrit manuseripts from Dandan-Uilik ruins may approximately be
assigned to the sixth or seventh century of our era. In addition to
such texts in the classical language of India, the literary discoveries
of this site include a considerable number of manuscript folia and of
detached documents on paper, written in Indian Brahmi characters,
but in a non-Indian language. Taking into account that the same
strange language appears in inscriptions affixed to some frescoes, it
seems probable that we have here records of the indigenous tongue
actually spoken by the Khotan people of that perioa. Only the close
study of all these documents—a task which may take years—is likely
to lead to a decipherment, and thus to a solution of this interesting
question.
In the meantime it is fortunate indeed that the discovery of Chinese
paper documents in other small monastic dwellings permits us to
determine with accuracy the period when the settlement represented
by the settlement of Dandan-Uilik was finally abandoned. Among
the neatly folded small paper rolls containing letters, records of loans,
petitions, and similar matter, there are three at least which already,
on preliminary examination at Kashgar, proved to be dated with pre-
cisicn, the Chinese years indicated corresponding to the years 778,
782, 787 of our era. There are good reasons for assuming that these
petty records do not precede by any great length of time the date
when the dwellings were abandoned. We thus obtained the end of
the eighth century as the approximate chronological limit for the
existence of Dandan-Uilik as an inhabited locality. This dating is
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 765
entirely supported by the evidence of the numerous old Chinese coins
I found at the site, the latest bearing the symbols of the dynastic
period which corresponds to the years 713-741 A. D.
The three weeks I spent in continuous excavations, from the early
morning until daylight failed us, enabled me to explore all ruins trace-
able under the sand. It was a happy time for me personally, though
the physical conditions were trying. The severe winter of the desert
had already set in when I started from Khotan. During my stay at
Dandan-Uilik the temperature at night usually went down to a mini-
mum of about 10° F. below zero. In the daytime it never rose above
freezing point in the shade. The weather was cloudy, but luckily
there was very little wind. Its absence is an essential condition for
all prolonged work in the desert. The dead trees of the little orchards
which once surrounded most of the scattered groups of shrines and
dwellings supplied fuel in plenty. Yet the men suffered from the
exposure as well as from the badness of the water, the only available
supply coming from a brackish well they had succeeded in digging in
a depression of the ground over a mile from the main ruins. My own
little tent, brought from India, though provided with an extra serge
lining, was a bitterly cold abode at night. When the temperature had
once gone to about 6° below freezing point, writing or reading became
impossible, and I had to take to my bed, however anxious I might
have been to study the manuscript finds of the day, ete. But, from
long experience, life ina tent seems the one most congenial to me,
and, with such fascinating work to occupy me, the four and a half
months spent in the desolation of the desert were indeed an enjoyable
time.
During my stay at Dandan-Uilik, Ram Singh had again joined me
from the direction of the Keriya River. I had dispatched him a
month earlier on an independent survey of the high range which
extends between ‘* Kuen-luen No. 5” and the mountains eastward
where connection could be obtained with Captain Deasy’s work about
Polu. On comparing my own plane-table fixing for Dandan-Uilik
with his, a gratifying surprise awaited me. Notwithstanding that we
had brought our survey from entirely different directions and over
great distances of such deceptive ground as sandy planes and dunes, |
found that Ram Singh’s position differed from my own by only about
a mile in latitude and a half mile in longitude.
My detailed survey of the Dandan-Uilik site, together with other
observations of a semitopographical, semiantiquarian nature which
gradually accumulated during my explorations at this and other sites,
make it very probable that the lands of Dandan-Uilik were irrigated
from an extension of the canals which had, down toan even later date,
brought the water of the streams of Chiraand Gulakhma to the desert
area due south of the ruins. I must reserve for another occasion a
766 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
discussion of the archeological evidence as to the causes which led to
the abandonment of this advanced settlement. There is every reason
to believe that this abandonment was a gradual one, and in no way con-
connected with any sudden physical catastrophe. The Sodom and
Gomorrha legends heard all over Turkestan about ‘*old towns” sud-
denly submerged under the sand dunes are more ancient than the ruins
of Dandan-Uilik themselves and interesting as folklore. But where we
have plain historical and antiquarian evidence to the contrary, scien-
tific inquiry can have no concern with them.
On January 6 1] dismissed my Tawakkel laborers who had worked
so valiantly, and after a three-days’ march over truly forbidding
ground, struck the Keriya Darya. ‘The successive ridges of sand,
rising to heights of about 200 feet, were the most formidable I ever
crossed. A four-days’ march along the hard-frozen river brought us
to the oasis and town of Keriya, where Khon-Daloi, the amban,
accorded me the heartiest welcome. There I first heard of the exist-
ence of ‘tan old town”—kone shahr, as all ruins are popularly called
in Turkestan—in the desert north of the well-known pilgrimage place
of Imam-Jafar-Sadik. The information was very scanty, and the dis-
tance great. But certain indications pointed to a site of special inter-
est; so I decided to set out for it after a few days’ halt needed to rest
my followers.
At Niya, which is the easternmost permanently inhabited place of
the district, just as in the days of Hiuen Tsiang, who notices it under
the name of Ni-jang, I received most encouraging proof that I was on
the way to a site far older and hence more important than any I had
examined so far. Owing to its great distance, the Khotan ‘* treasure
seekers” knew, luckily, nothing of it. An adventurous young vil-
lager from Niya was the only man who in recent years had visited the
ruins. From one of the ruined houses he had picked up two small
wooden tablets. When they were brought to me I noticed at once
that the writing they contained was in the ancient Indian script known
as Kharoshthi, and of a type that chronologically belongs to the first
and second centuries of our era. I hid my delight as well as 1 could,
and pushed on still more rapidly, after securing a sufficient number of
laborers and the needful supplies for prolonged excavations. After a
three days’ march through the belt of thick jungle which lines the
winding course of the Niya River through the desert, the curious
shrine of Imam Jafar Sadik was reached. There the river finally
loses itself in the sands, and as water can not be obtained by dig-
ging, we had to depend for our further progress on what could be
varried along from that locality. Fortunately the intense cold still
prevailing through this and the following month (on January 26 I reg-
istered a minimum of 12° F. below zero) permitted its convenient and
regular transport in the form of ice.
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 767
After a march of about 30 miles through the desert northward, I
arrived on the evening of January 27 at the southern edge of the
wide area over which are scattered the ruins I was in search of. The
subsequent explorations showed that it extends for over 11 miles from
north to south, with a maximum breadth of about 43 miles.
Pitching my camp near a small stupa half buried in the sand, I pro-
ceeded next morning to the ruined house where Ibrahim, the young
Niya villager already mentioned, had unearthed his inscribed tablets.
He declared he had left more in situ. It was a moment of cheerful
excitement when I approached the timber débris, rising like the
remains of a wreck from the eroded ground around it. On the sandy
slope I found at once some tablets actually exposed, and many more
scattered about undera slight layer of drift sand within the small room
where Ibrahim had originally unearthed them (pl. tv). The house
which contained it had, like the rest of the buildings at this site, been con-
structed of a wooden framework of massive beams and posts. Between
the latter rose the walls of hard plaster, strengthened internally by thick
mattings of rushes. These walls had completely decayed where not
actually covered by sand, but the posts, now blanched and splintered,
still rise high above the surface. In the building first explored, the
sand, which during former centuries must have protected it, had largely
driftedaway. The remarkable state of preservation in whichmany of
the - inscribed tablets were found was hence all the more surprising.
Over 100 were cleared from the little room already mentioned, and
the excavation of a large room of the same building, on the day fol-
lowing, more than doubled that number. Unfortunately the protect-
ing layer of sand was here only about 2 feet deep, and in consequence
all materials not lying quite flat on the floor had decayed completely.
The present condition of this ruin, which originally appears to have
been used as a monastic building, illustrates strikingly the destructive
effect of erosicn on this and other structures of the site. The actual
remains of the building occupy a small plateau raised now 12 to 15
feet above the immediately surrounding ground. The lower level of
the latter is the unmistakable result of erosion. While the strip of
ground actually protected by the débris of this and similar structures
retains the original level, the open surface near by, consisting of mere
loess, has been gradually lowered by the action of the wind. The
drift sand carried along this portion of the desert is not sufficient at
present to fill the depression thus created. From the geological point
of view, not less than from the archeological, it would be interesting
to study the exact conditions under which the power of the desert
winds asserts itself in its two main lines of action—erosion and the
movement of drift sand. But Iam convinced that it will take years
of minute and systematic observation before any safe conclusions can
768 EXPLORATION IN -CHINESE TURKESTAN.
be arrived at as to the rate at which the work of these forces proceeds
in various parts of the Taklamakan. And even then there will be lit-
tle to guide us as to the corresponding conditions prevailing during
sarlier historical periods.
While most of the buildings of this important site had suffered from
erosion, there were others where parts at least were still buried under
deep sand (pl. v).. From some of these my excavations brought to light
many very interesting objects illustrating the industrial arts of the
period. The articles of ornamental wood carving, which include elab-
orately worked chairs, small architraves and other achitectural pieces,
etc., show decorative motives familiar to us from the relievo sculp-
tures of the ruined Buddhist monasteries on the northwest frontier of
India, the ancient Gandhara. The date thus indicated fully agrees
with the chronological evidence of the Kharoshthi writing on the
wooden tablets, apparently memoranda and lists, found Scattered in
various rooms of the same dwellings. Broken pieces of arms, house-
hold implements, a musical instrument and similar objects of domestic
use, all of wood, help vividly to bring before our eyes the conditions
of everyday life of this distant region in the first centuries of our era.
It was difficult for me to realize fully that so many centuries had
passed since these dwellings were deserted while I traced the plan and
arrangement of the orchards and gardens once surrounding them.
tows of fallen poplars, some 50 feet in length, half covered by the
sand, showed the position of avenues, such as are planted to this day
everywhere along the roads and canals of Turkestan oases. The rush
fences used then, as now, for the inclosures of gardens could be seen
sticking out from the sand. A little digging along them often revealed
small heaps of dry leaves that must have accumulated there while the
trees, now reduced to blanched and withered trunks, were still thriving.
Among these my diggers had no difficulty in distinguishing various
fruit trees, such as the peach, plum, apricot, mulberry, ete., with the
wood of which they are familiar from their own homes.
The character and conditions of the articles found within the houses
plainly showed that they had been cleared by their last inhabitants,
or soon after their departure, of everything that possessed value.
Luckily, there were left behind the rubbish heaps to reward me with
finds of the greatest antiquarian interest. The richest mine of this
sort was struck in a small and much-decayed building, one room of
which proved to contain a consolidated mass of refuse, lying fully
4 feet above the original floor. Among the layers of broken pottery,
rags of felt and of woven fabries, pieces of leather and other rubbish,
I discovered there over two hundred documents on wood, of all shapes
and sizes. Besides tablets with the Indian Kharoshthi writing, which
form the great majority, there came to light numerous narrow pieces
of wood bearing Chinese characters, and two dozen Kharoshthi docu-
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Stein. PLATE V.
Fig. 10.—COVERING TABLETS OF ANCIENT KHAROSHTHI DOCUMENTS ON WOOD, WITH
CLAY SEALS (2).
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Stein. PLATE VI.
Fig. 11.—RELIEVOS AT OUTER SOUTHEAST CORNER OF QUADRANGLE OF RAWAK
STUPA CouRT.
FIG. 12.—COLOSSAL STATUES ON INNER SOUTH WALL OF RAWAK STUPA CouRT.
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 769
ments on leather—a material one could hardly expect to find among a
Buddhist population with an Indian civilization.
Many of the Kharoshthi tablets unearthed are in excellent preserva-
tion, and still retain the original clay seals and strings with which
they were fastened (pl. v). Weare thus able to study exactly the tech-
nicalities connected with the use of wood as a writing material. This
is not the place to discuss such details, but I may mention at least that
sach document intended as a letter or record of some importance,
whether wedge-shaped or oblong, is provided with a carefully fitted
covering piece or envelope bearing the address or ‘‘docket” entry.
An ingeniously designed system of fastening with a string and a neatly
inserted clay seal, prevented unauthorized inspection of the contents.
The remarkable series of clay seals discovered on these tablets is of
exceptional interest, because it furnishes most convincing evidence of
the influence which classical western art has exercised even in distant
Khotan. <A frequently recurring seal, probably that of an official,
shows the figure of Pallas Athene, with shield and ewgis, treated in
archaic fashion. Another fine seal is that of a well-modeled naked
figure of pure classical outline, perhaps a seated Eros. On others,
again, appear portrait heads showing classical modeling, though bar-
barian features, ete. We know well how classical art had established
its influence in Bactria and on the northwest frontier of India. But
there was little to prepare us for such tangible proofs of the fact that
it had penetrated so much farther to the east, to halfway between
western Europe and Peking. I may note here, as an interesting dis-
covery made while these pages are passing through the press, that
Professor Karabacek has traced the remains of a Greek legend, appar-
ently a magic formula, impressed on the edge of one of the clay seals,
containing in its center the figure of Athene Promachos.
From the contents of the documents themselves we may confidently
expect much fresh light upon a chapter of Central Asian history and
civilization which until now has seemed almost entirely lost. Owing to
the great number of the texts, the cursive character of the script, and
peculiar difficulties connected with the nature of the records, their
complete decipherment will require much time and labor. But it is
already certain that, as I recognized in the course of my first examina-
tion on the spot, the language of the documents is an early form of
Indian Prakrit, with a large admixture of Sanskrit terms. It is highly
probable that most of them contain official orders, such as safe con-
ducts, correspondence, etc., as well as private memoranda and records.
Religious texts, prayers, etc., may be suspected in some of the long
tablets found in what seem to be shrines or monasteries. Many of
the documents bear exact dates, in which the years are indicated with
reference to the reigns of named rulers. These will enable us probably
to restore a portion of the historical chronology of this region.
770 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
But whatever revelations of interesting detail may be in store for
us, one important historical fact stands out clearly already. The use
of an Indian language in the vast majority of these documents, when
considered together with the secular character of most of them, strik-
ingly confirms the old local tradition recorded by Hiuen Tsiang that
the territory of Khotan was conquered and colonized about two cen-
turies before our era by Indian immigrants from the northwestern
Punjab. It is a significant fact the Kharoshthi script used in our
tablets was peculiar to the very region of ancient Taxila, which the
above tradition names as the original home of those immigrants. It is
strange, indeed, that the ruined dwellings of a settlement far away
in the barbarian north, overrun by what Hindu mythology knew as
the ‘‘great sand ocean,” should have revealed to us, after nearly two
thousand years, the oldest written documents (as distinguished from
inscriptions), and of a type of which ancient specimens have never come
to light as yet in India proper. It is equally strange, and yet easily
explained by the historical connection of Khotan with China, that we
should find buried along with them what are likely to prove the oldest
written Chinese records actually extant.
There is ample evidence to show that this remarkable site must
have been deserted already within the first few centuries of our era.
Apart from the Kharoshthi writing of the tablets and leather docu-
ments, which agrees closely in its paleographic features with the
Kharoshthi inscriptions of the Kushana kings of the first and second
centuries, there is the eloquent testimony of the coins. The very
numerous finds, extending over the whole area, which were made dur-
ing my stay include only copper pieces of the Chinese Han dynasty,
whose reign came toa close in A. D. 220. The use of wood as the
only writing material, apart from leather, is also a proof of great
antiquity. The use of paper for writing purposes is attested in Chi-
nese-Turkestan from at least the fourth century A. D. onwards; yet
among all the ruined houses and ancient rubbish heaps not the smallest
scrap of paper was discovered.
After three weeks of almost incessant excavation work I left this
fascinating site which had yielded such rich antiquarian spoil in order
to visit, farther to the east, ruins I had heard of at Niya. A march of
about 100 miles through the desert, due east of Imam Jafar, brought
us to where the Endere stream is lost in the sands. After a day’s
march farther to the southeast I found a ruined Stupa, and at some
distance from it a small circular fort filled with sand-buried buildings.
My excavations at what proved to be a Buddhist temple, situated in
the very center, brought to light some interesting stueco sculptures,
and, besides, a considerable quantity of manuscript leaves on paper.
They belong to a variety of texts in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and the
unknown language written in Indian characters, already referred to in
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. TO
connection with Dandan-Uilik. The Tibetan leaves, containing, as
Mr. Barnett of the British Museum has ascertained, portions of a
translation of the Salisthambasutra, a Buddhist canonical text,
undoubtedly are the oldest written remains of that language as yet
discovered. It was curious to note how the folia which originally
belonged to a fairly large manuscript had been cut up and separately
deposited, manifestly as votive offerings, at the pedestals of various
images. A pious visitor of the shrine had evidently endeavored to
propitiate with his text as many divinities as possible. To other curi-
ous discoveries made there, such as Tibetan and Chinese Seraflitti,
small votive offerings of elaborately woven fabrics in silk and cotton,
etc., I can only allude here. But asa point of chronological impor-
tance it may be mentioned at least that in one of the Chinese Seraflitti,
of which I brought away photographs, Professor Douglas has since
read a date corresponding to A. D. 790.
The proofs of Tibetan occupation showed me that I had reached at
Endere the easternmost limits of the territory with the archeological
exploration of which I was concerned. So, on February 26 I could
turn back with a good conscience toward the west, where several sites
yet remained to be examined. The journey to Keriya, a distance of
over 180 miles, was covered in seven forced marches. The energetic
assistance of Khon-Daloi, the Amban, who had followed my moye-
ments with the friendliest care and interest, allowed me to set out at
once with fresh laborers, transport, and supplies for Karadong, the
ancient site in the desert, some 150 miles north of Keriya, which Dr.
Sven Hedin had first visited.
This so-called *‘ancient city” proved to contain little more than the
ruins of a roughly built quadrangular structure, which probably had
served as a fortified sarai, or post, on the ancient route leading along
the Keriya Darya toward Kuchar in the north. My excavations at
this desolate spot were carried on under considerable difficulties. The
height of the dunes which covered the interior of the great quadrangle
was considerable, and daily we were visited by sand storms of varying
degrees of violence. The finds, which were scanty, as I had expected,
curiously enough included small quantities of remarkably well-
preserved cereals, such as wheat, rice, pulse, etc., found embedded in
the floor of what evidently was an ancient guard room.
A series of hurried marches brought me back once more to the
vicinity of the present inhabited area. Various antiquarian and topo-
graphical considerations made me look out in the desert north of the
oasis of Gulakhma for the remains of the town of Pi-mo, which Hiuen
Tsiang visited on his way from Khotan to Niya, and which is probably
mentioned also by Marco Polo under the name of Pein. After a search,
rendered difficult by the insufficiency of guides and the want of water,
I succeeded in tracing it in an extensive débris-covered site known as
172 EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
**Uzun-Tati” (*‘the distant Tati”), in the desert north of the oasis of
Gulakhma. Far-advanced erosion and the operations of treasure
seekers from the neighboring villages have left little of structural
remains, but the usual débris of broken pottery, glass, china, ete., was
plentiful.
A close inspection of the conditions under which cultivation is carried
on in this vicinity, along the edge of the desert, was very instructive
from the point of view of historical topography. I found that, owing
to a difficulty of conducting the irrigation water sufficiently far, some
villages of this oasis had, within the memory of living men, been shifted
as much as 6 to 8 miles farther to the south. The crumbling ruins of
the old village homesteads, stripped of all that could be of use, are
still to be seen. Over miles of ground, which the desert sand is slowly
overrunning, the lines of empty canals, embanked fields, ete., can be
made out with ease. It was the best illustration I could have of the
process which many centuries ago must have followed the abandonment
of ancient localities like the Niya River site and Dandan-Uilik.
Increasing heat by day and recurring dust storms warned me that
the season was close at hand when work in the desert would become
impossible. So, as soon as I had returned to the outskirts of Khotan
on April 5, I set out for the ancient sites which still remained to be
examined in the desert northeast of the oasis. There a discovery of
tnexpected importance awaited me; for when, after examining Aksipil
and other débris areas, I arrived at Rawak, of which Turdi, my hon-
est old guide, had spoken merely as ‘‘an old house,” I found before
me a large Stupa, forming, with its inclosing quadrangle, by far the
most imposing of all extant ruins of this region. The excayations I
at once commenced along the massive walls of the great stupa court
revealed a remarkable series of colossal statues in stucco, representing
Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, with many smaller relievos between them
(pl. v1). The walls were further decorated with elaborate plaques
forming halos, as well as with fresco paintings. The whole of the
relievo work had originally been painted.
The careful excavation of this wealth of sculpture was a difficult
matter. The interior framework of wood, which once supported the
masses of stucco, had rotted away, and, deprived of this support, the
heavy images threatened to collapse when the protecting sand was being
removed (pl. v1). The risk was considerably increased by the Burans,
which were blowing with more or less violence during the whole of
my stay. Extreme care was needed in clearing the statues, and their
lower portions had to be coyered up again as soon as they had been
photographed. An attempt to remove the larger sculptures was quite
impracticable owing to the extremely friable condition of the stucco
and the difficulties of transport. But of the smaller ones and of pieces
EXPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN. 7738
found already detached I succeeded in bringing away a considerable
number without mishap.
The Rawak relievos show in style and most details of execution the
closest affinity with the so-called Greco-Buddhist sculptures of the
ruined monasteries and shrines on the northwest frontier of India.
This makes their close study, with the help of the numerous photo-
graphs I secured, a matter of great historical and artistic interest.
Though no epigraphic or manuscript remains have come to light, the
evidence of the numerous coins I found, deposited as votive offerings,
goes far to prove that the sculptures of the Rawak Stupa belong
approximately to the same period as the ruins of the ‘*Niya River
site.” ‘
The daily sand storms, together with the increasing heat and glare,
had made the work of excavation at Rawak trying to the men as well
as myself. So I was glad when the completion of this task permitted
us to withdraw from the desert. On my return to Khotan I was busy
with arranging my collections of archeological finds and repacking
them for their long journey to London. While thus engaged I sue-
ceeded in clearing up the last doubts as to the real nature of the
strange manuscripts and ‘block prints” ‘tin unknown characters”
which had, during recent years, been purchased from Khotan in such
remarkable numbers, and which had found their way not only to Cal-
cutta but also to great public collections in London, Paris, and St.
Petersburg. The grave suspicions which my previous inquiries had
led me to entertain as to the genuineness of these supposed ** finds”
had gradually been strengthened almost to certainty by the explora-
tions of the winter. Ample and varied as the manuscript materials
had been which rewarded wy excavations, | had utterly failed to trace
the smallest scrap of writing in *tunknown characters.” The actual
conditions of the sites explored also entirely differed from the condi-
tions under which those queer manuscripts and prints were alleged to
have been discovered. There was good reason to believe that Islam
Akhun, a native of Khotan, from whom most of those purchases had
been made during the years 1895-1898, was directly concerned in the
forgeries.
After my return to Khotan I expressed to Pan-Darin a wish for a
personal examination of this interesting individual. Some days later
he was duly produced from a village of the Keriya district, where he
had recently been practicing as a ‘*medicine man.” Islam Akhun’s
examination proved a lengthy affair. He readily acknowledged his
guilt in various recent frauds (including one practiced on Captain
Deasy), for which he had received due punishment from local Chinese
justice. Butin the matter of the ‘told books” heat first protested com-
plete innocence. His Cefense, however, collapsed in the course of a
(74 <XPLORATION IN CHINESE TURKESTAN.
prolonged cross-examination, and ultimately he made a full confession.
The detailed explanations he then furnished of the circumstances which
had first led to the conception of these forgeries, and of the methods
and materials employed in their manufacture, were interesting enough,
and proved, on comparison with the record which had been kept at
Kashgar of the purchases, remarkably accurate. Notwithstanding the
ingenuity displayed in starting these forgeries, Islam Akhun and his
factory *‘ hands” had never succeeded in producing a text exhibiting
consecutively the characters of any known script. Also, in other
material respects, it is easy now, in the light of the experience gained
through my explorations, to distinguish between his fabrications and
genuine ancient manuscripts. ‘There is, therefore, little fear that the
forgeries of this clever scoundrel will ever cause deception thereafter.
On April 28 I bade farewell to Khotan town, and May 12 saw me
once more at Kashgar, under the hospitable roof of my friend Mr.
Macartney, the British representative. Since my departure, eight
months earlier, Mr. Macartney had lost no opportunity to facilitate
my labors. The assistance of the Chinese officials, which was essential
for the success of my explorations, had been secured mainly through
his influence and unfailing care. For ali the help thus accorded to me
I wish to express here my feelings of sincere gratitude. * * *
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FROM THE SOMALI COAST THROUGH SOUTHERN
ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.¢
By Oscar NEUMANN.
In the spring of 1899 Baron Carlo von Erlanger asked me to join
an expedition to Somaliland which he intended to undertake for the
sake of sport and ornithological research. I agreed on condition that
the journey should not be confined to Somaliland, but should also
extend to the countries of southern Ethiopia. The preparations took
nearly half a year. Meanwhile the revolt of the ‘*Mad Mollah” had
broken out, and the western route proposed by myself proved to be
the only one possible, as the foreign office was forced to recall its per-
mission to penetrate the hinterland of Berbera, and we were therefore
obliged to set out from Zeila by the old caravan route to Harar. The
members of the expedition were Baron Carlo von Erlanger, Dr. Hans
Ellenbeck as physician, Mr. Johann Holtermuller as cartographer, Mr.
Jarl Hilgert as taxidermist, and myself.
We started from Zeila on January 12, 1900, but an accident to Mr.
Carl Hilgert, who nearly killed himself with a small Flaubert gun,
stopped us at the wells of Dadab, only three marches from the coast,
so that we did not arrive at Harar until the beginning of March.
In the desert Baron Erlanger and myself preceded the caravan in
order to meet Mr. Alfred Ilg, the foreign minister of the Emperor
Menelik, who was on his way to the coast, and to whose valuable help
a great part of the success of our expedition is due. But in the first
place we have to thank the Emperor Menelik, that intelligent ruler
and restorer of an ancient and great Empire, for his help and permis-
sion to pass through his country. In the second place our thanks are
due for the kind assistance afforded by Major (now Lieutenant-Colonel)
Harrington, H. B. M., agent in Abyssinia; Major Ciccadicola, the
Italian envoy, and Mr. Muhle, postmaster and chief engineer of the
telegraph and telephone lines between Adis Abeba and Harar.
From Harar we made an excursion to the mountains of Gara Mulata,
situated about three days to the southwest and not visited by any
European since the time of Captain Hunter. The western slopes of
« Read before the Royal Geographical Society, June 9, 1902. Reprinted from The
Geographical Journal, London, Vol. xx, No. 4, October, 1902,
50 (79
~~)
sm 1903-
-~]
76 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
this range are covered with thick forest, and therefore the fauna, as
well as the flora, here contrast sharply with that which we had found
in the dry Somali desert between Zeila and Jildesa, situated at the foot
of the Harar Mountains. Returning to Harar, the first thing we
found was a prohibition to continue our journey to the south, as the
countries of the Ennia and Arussi Galla were said to be ina state of
rebellion, excited by that of the Somal; and only after a solemn decla-
ration on our part to the effect that the Emperor Menelik should not
be held responsible for our safety, and thanks to the great assistance of
Major Harrington, did we receive permission to continue our journey.
Unfortunately we were again obliged to put off our departure, as a
great many of our camels, which during our sojourn in Harar had been
left at a place in the Erer Valley, had died there from the results of
eating poisonous herbs and it was impossible to obtain new animals for
some time. We therefore made a temporary camp at Gandakore, in
the country of Argobba, to the south of Harar.
It is remarkable that, in spite of their proximity to Harar, next to
nothing was known of the interesting Argobba people and their old
stone buildings. The remains of this probably once powerful nation
dwell on the eastern slopes of the Hakim, a mountain ridge situated
to the south of Harar. Their houses were built of stone, had high
watchtowers in the center, and were surrounded by strong walls.
They are now mostly fallen into decay and are only partly inhabited,
The old ruins overlooking the Erer Valley resemble medieval castles
and present a picturesque appearance. Scattered amongst them are
the straw huts of the Ala Galla, who form the greater part of the
population of to-day. Mysterious reports as to the Argobba exist
among the Harari and the Galla. It is said that at certain festivals
they devour human flesh. It is certain that these reports are untrue,
as the Argobba are strict, even fanatical, Mohammedans, but they seem
to prove that the nation is of quite a different origin to the inhabitants
of Harar.
On May 22 we set off southward from Gandakore, and on the next
day we passed the village of Biaworaba. The Austrian explorer
Paulitschke had pushed as far as this place in the year 1884, but since
that time no European had reached it or explored farther south, as the
Abyssinian Government had strictly forbidden any European to enter
that country. South of Biaworaba we entered the country of the
Ennia. This people is a mixed race of Galla and Somal. They speak
a Galla dialect, but have followed the nomadic manner of living of the
Somal. For one or two years they build for themselves square huts
of cow dung, much resembling those I found during my journey in
East Africa in use by the sedentary Masai, the so-called Wakwafi.
Besides these, they build for their cows and sheep peculiar huts, 7 to 8
feet high, resembling a sugar loaf, likewise of cow dung. Sometimes,
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. CCE
but seldom, they cultivate small tracts of land. These people are
rather poor, and they are therefore mostly left in peace by the Abys-
sinians. At the time of our visit they were in extremely poor cir-
cumstances, as different parties of the Ogaden Somal had crossed the
river Erer some months before and had carried off many of their cattle.
On the whole, the country is a high plateau, thickly grown with bush
and intersected by two tributaries of the Wabbi, the Gobele and the
Moyo, which have cut deep, canyon-like clefts in the tableland. On
the banks of the Moyo we found some beautiful grottoes, and I must
also mention the remains of some old towns which we passed during
this part of the journey. Here was formerly situated the Ethiopian
frontier province of Daroli, which was devastated in the year 1528 by
Mohammed Granye, the Sultan of Tajura—the ‘Attila of Africa,” as
he has been called. I must also note, at this point, that the river
Shenon, marked on former maps, was not to be found, and was not
even known by name to the Ennia people. And further, we discoy-
ered at several places between Harar and the Wabbi, especially near
Harrorufa and Achabo, strata of Jurassic age containing numerous
fossils, mostly ina splendid condition. On June 10 we were able to
cross the river called Wabbi by the Galla, but better known by the
Somali name Webi Shebeli—that is to say, the Leopard River.
On the farther bank of the Wabbi an event occurred which might
have proved fatal to the success of our expedition. Our Somal, or a
great part of them, had made up their minds to strike, as they feared
our expedition would keep them too long from home. Perhaps they
intended to go straight east and to join the revolting Ogaden tribes.
By good luck Larrived just in time to stop the party from crossing the
river with their rifles. They were afraid to return without them, and
so, after a day’s consultation, they agreed to go farther west with us.
We were now in the country of the Arussi, a large and once much-
feared section of the Galla tribe. Near a place called Gurgura we
struck the route of Dr. Donaldson Smith, the first explorer of these
countries, and followed it as far as the holy Mohammedan town of
Sheikh Husein. Here, on the southern banks of the Wabbi, the bush
was not so dense as on the north, and game was in some places abun-
dant. We often found the fresh tracks of elephants, and near a place
called Luku there were large herds of zebra (Zyguus grevy/), oryx and
‘oerenuk” (Lithocranius Sclateri), and plenty of the lesser kudu.
‘The town of Sheikh Husein is well known from the wonderful deserip-
tion given in Dr. Donaldson Smith’s book. When you approach it
you already see from afar the white tombs of the sheikhs glistening
in the sun. There are about twelve tombs altogether. In the middle
there is a cemetery containing the tomb of the Mohammedan saint
who is said to have founded the town, and whose name it bears. The
inhabitants tell many stories of the miracles he did—for instance, he is
778 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
said to have piled up in one night a small mountain situated southeast
of the town. The faces of the inhabitants show clearly that they are
descended from old Arab colonists. Their chief is the Imam, a direct
descendant of Sheikh Husein. The Christian Abyssinians, who for
about ten or twelve years have been masters of these countries, treat
the Mohammedans here and their traditions with much respect. Every-
thing in and near Sheikh Husein is holy, and belongs to the dead
sheikh. It is not permitted to cut wood near the town, no cattle are
sold, and we were asked not to shoot birds. One of my Somal having
caught two bats with a butterfly net in the holy tomb, a large assembly
was held and the poor fellow and myself were cursed by the Imam
until 1 gave him some dollars to appease the wrath of the dead sheikh.
I will simply mention that, besides the tombs, there are other stone
buildings in Sheikh Husein which, in my opinion, are perhaps of a
pre-Islamatic origin, such as a wall about 2 feet thick surrounding
a small lake near the town.
Prior to our arrival we had received messages from the Abyssinian
dejasmach (General of the Center), Wolde Gabriel, the governor of
these countries, ordering us, in the name of the Emperor Menelik,
to proceed straight to Adis Abeba. Meanwhile we had lost so many
‘ramels by the rough roads in the Ennia and Arussi lands that we
were compelled to leave here about half our stores. Directly west
of Sheikh Husein there was no road practicable for camels, so we had
to proceed two days in a southwesterly direction, crossing the beau-
tiful and forest-clad chain which Dr. Donaldson Smith has called the
Gillet mountains. ‘The forests here show nothing of the character of
a tropical African forest. Looking at the tall fir-like juniper trees,
among which, in some places, the barley fields of the Arussi are
scattered, the traveler might imagine himself in the Black Forest
or in the forests of Tyrol. West of the Gillet mountains is an
isolated mountain called Abunas, or Gara Daj, by the Arussi, which
we ascended after some quarrels with the Abyssinian chief whom
Wolde Gabriel had sent us as escort. This fellow seemed to be afraid
that we might run away on the other side of the mountain. On the
top of the Abunas there are ruins of a sanctum probably of pre-
Islamitic age. The view here is splendid, and boundless on every side
except the north, where Mount Abulkassim, about 900 feet higher
than Abunas, is situated. From the summit we descended to the
Wabbi, recrossed the river to the north, and camped about halfway
up Mount Abulkassim, the holy mountain of the inhabitants of Sheikh
Husein.
This mountain, already seen from a very far distance fifteen years
ago by the Italian explorer Ragazzi, had never before been visited by
any European. There is a good way leading upward to a high preci-
pice, in which are about a dozen caverns, at some seasons of the year
THROUGH. SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. T7179
inhabited by Mohammedan pilgrims. In one of these we found a
stool, a mortar with pestle, and a wooden pillow. Not far off is the
grave of Sheikh Abulkassim, a descendant of Sheikh Husein, made in
an artificial bower situated in a wonderful tropical forest full of lianas
and palms. The grave is covered with glass beads and ornaments of
copper and brass. Similar ornaments are also to be seen on some
trees in the forest, and no visitor would dare touch these holy objects.
Round the mountain there is no settlement whatever.
From Abulkassim we proceeded west for about three days on the
hills situated on the northern bank of the Wabbi. Near a place called
Jaffa we were stopped by a large body of Abyssinians sent by the
dejasmach Lulsagit, through whose countries we had now to pass. It
took us some trouble to get permission to proceed farther, as the
dejasmach had had no notice of our arrival. Here we had to ascend
the last step of the plateau, and found ourselves on a large grass-
covered expanse, absolutely flat and without any trees, called Didda by
the inhabitants. On old maps this plain is called the Arussi plateau.
The Northwestern Arussi, who live here, are a pure Galla tribe, show-
ing no mixture of Arab blood, as do the inkabitants of the Sheikh
Husein district. The sight of these dirty, long-bearded men gallop-
ing their small ponies, covered with brass and iron rings, over the
wide plain, reminds one of Mongolian or Tartar tribes rather than of
an African people. Their huts are scattered in small groups of three
to five all over the plain. They do not cultivate much ground, but -
have large herds of fine cattle. Just as we arrived here the rainy sea-
son broke out with terrible vehemence, and the plain was soon changed
into a large swamp, so that we here lost nearly half our camels. The
crossing of this plain took us twelve days, after which we descended
into the valley of the Hawash, which had overflowed its banks and in
some places changed the valley into a large lake. I will here mention
the church Georgis, in the district Sire, which was formerly a Moham-
medan mosque, but is now changed into a Christian church by the
Abyssinians. It might have been supposed that the country between
the Hawash and the Abyssinian capital was absolutely known, as many
explorers, including the Italians Traversi and Ragazzi and the German
Stecker, had visited it. We were all the more surprised to find here
a magnificent waterfall unknown before. The river Modsho, a small
northern affluent of the Hawash, which is here about 500 feet broad,
falls over a precipice 40 feet in height... We called this waterfall,
which I consider to be one of the most beautiful in northeastern Africa,
Menelik Falls. Passing by Lake Buchoftu, one of a group of five
small crater lakes called the Adda lakes, we arrived in Adis Abeba on
August 14.
The Emperor Menelik promised us free permission to travel in his
countries, and any assistance we might require. Owing to the fact that
780 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SODAN.
our journey from Zeila to Adis Abeba had taken us nearly double the
time we had at first calculated, Baron Erlanger and I came to the con-
clusion that it was impossible for us to accomplish together all our pro-
posed programme. We therefore decided to divide our caravan, in
order to explore as large an extent of unknown ground as possible.
Jaron Erlanger proposed to return by another route to Sheikh
Husein, and to strike thence to Lake Rudolf by a new route, while I
made up my mind to first penetrate the highlands of Shoa proper,
and afterwards to find a new route somewhere westward to the Sudan.
For the moment traveling was out of the question, it being the
height of the rainy season; but as soon as the rain began to slacken
I formed a small caravan and started for the unknown part of Shoa
which lies between the rivers Guder and Muger, two large southern
affluents of the Blue Nile. Two days from Adis Abeba I passed the
place Ejere, then a smal! village, but soon to become the new residence
of the Emperor Menelik under the name of Adis Halem—that is to
say, the ‘‘new world,” the scarcity of wood near the old capital Adis
Abeba (‘new flower”) becoming each year more and more, apparent.
Near Ejere, and still more in the district of Cheracha, there are mag-
nificent large forests. After passing these I came to the district of
Kollu, and stopped some days near_a village called Aveye, as the place
was noted for the presence of lions. I found some fresh tracks, but
did not get a chance of seeing one. Here I found the source of four
small rivers not previously known, the Urga, Gora, Taranta, and Bus-
siyo, which afterwards unite under the name Taranta to form a rather
large river, which then flows westward to the Guder. The Bussiyo
forms the frontier between Kollu, belonging to Shoa proper and the
province of Gindeberat, which belongs to Gojam, the land of the since
deceased king Tekla Haimanot. I will here mention the interesting
basalt mountain called Badattino, on the top of which there are a vil-
lage and a church. From here to Abuye, an Abyssinian fort situated
on the edge of the plateau, the country has the character of a beauti-
ful English park. I had to leave the bulk of my caravan at Abuye,
as the road thence down to the Blue Nile was not practicable for fully
laden mules, and descended with only seven men anda small tent. The
difference in height between Abuye and the Blue Nile is about 5,800
feet. The river was now in flood and turbulent, making it quite
impossible to cross to Gojam. Great heat prevailed in the valley, and
we were terribly bitten by mosquitoes. 1 therefore gave quinine to
all my men, and it was interesting to find that one who refused to
take it got an attack of malaria after six days. Having reascended
the plateau, I returned by the same way to Badattino, and thence
took another route straight eastward.
Near a village called Adaberga I arrived to witness the end of a
religious ceremony of the Galla. The Galla are split up into some
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Neuman. PLATE I.
Fig. 2.—MENELIK FALLS.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Neuman. PLATE Il.
Fla. 1.—FIRST VIEW OF THE BLUE NILE NEAR ABUYE.
Fic. 2.—THE SUKSUK RIVER.
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. 781
large divisions, and these again into smaller tribes, which are at the
same time religious communities. Each of these tribes has its high
priest, or Gallan, who resides near a sacred grove. On certain days of
the year the Gallan shuts himself up in his house, and after working
himself into a state of ecstasy makes inspired communications to the
people standing around. The Christian Abyssinians are forbidden by
their priests to attend these ceremonies; nevertheless, they believe in
the mysterious power of the Gallan, whom they hold to be in league
with the devil. The Gallan here was an interesting-looking man,
standing over 6 feet high, with long hair and beard. From Adaberga
I went to Falle, a place given by the Emperor Menelik to Mr. Ilg, and
here I stopped some days to observe and collect specimens of the black
Jellada baboon, a species not previously met with, which lives on the
rocks of the steep precipices leading to the Muger River. After four
weeks’ absence I returned to Adis Abeba, and now prepared for my
expedition to the Sudan.
The route I chose did not lead directly westward, because the
chain of lakes situated in the northern part of the great East African
rift valley seemed to offer some interesting geographical problems, as
the existing maps on that part published by the Italians Traversi and
3ottego, by the Frenchman D’ Aragon, by Donaldson Smith, by the
late Captain Wellby, and a new one published by Count Leontieff,
which came into my hands just before starting from Adis Abeba, could
not be brought into agreement with each other. By the different
position assigned on these maps to the lakes situated between Lake
Zwaj and the large Lake Abaya, called Lake Margarita by Bottego,
I calculated that there ought to be one or even two lakes in that region
not yet known. This calculation was afterwards confirmed by the
discovering of Lake Langanna or Korre and the double Lake A basi.
I left Adis Abeba on November 14, and at Mount Zekwala met the
caravan of Baron Erlanger, who had started some days previously.
The Hawash was now so low that we easily marched through it. From
here to Lake Zwaj the country is covered with typical acacia bush, in
the middle of which I found the grass and moss-covered ruins of an
old Abyssinian settlement. Round Lake Zwaj, and on down the whole
of the rift valley, as far as I followed it, game was plentiful. On the
hills and mountains bordering the valley we have the large kudu, while
farther south, at Lake Abaya, there is the lesser kudu. We saw on
the plains the Kast African zebra (Aqguus grant7), hartebeest (Lubalis
swayner), and Grant’s gazelle; in the forests, elephants and rhinos.
The reeds bordering the lakes are inhabited by large herds of water-
buck and reed-buck.
The region near Lake Zwaj is very interesting from a geological
point of view. We are here at the northern end of the great East
African rift valley, which extends south to the middle of German
782 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
East Africa, finishing near Mount Gurui. The mountains bordering
the valley at this northern part consist mostly of obsidian and other
volcanic vitrified rocks. Some smaller rocky hills standing out in
some parts of the valley also consist of the same material. The river
Suksuk joins Lake Zwaj with the more southerly situated Hor:
Shale. Lake Hora, as it was called by the late Captain Wellby, is
wrong, for Hora means “Salt Lake;” Hora Shale, ‘‘ Pelican Salt
Lake.” South of it is the Hora Lamina, the water of which, as we
were told by the Galla, has the same salty properties as has the Hora
Shale. There is only a small neck of land between these two lakes,
in the middle of which lies Mount Fike, a voleano of the typical
horseshoe form, with its opening turned northward. Southeast of
Lake Zwaj les the Alutu, a mountain which consists in its upper
parts almost entirely of a greenish-black obsidian-like rock. I made
the ascent and saw from the top, east of Hora Shale, a lake previously
unknown, which was called by the Arussi who accompanied us Hora
Langanna, or Hora Korre. This is the most beautiful of the lakes,
as the southern slopes of Mount Alutu fall in picturesque contour into
the water. There is a connection between this lake and Hora Shale,
which is called Daka by the Arussi. I reached the Hora Korre on the
next day. Its waters are only slightly brackish. South of Hora
Korre I found the most magnificent euphorbia forests I ever saw in
Africa. Near a great market place called Alelu I marched for about
five or six hours, hardly seeing any other tree. Arriving at Lake
Abassi (which, although seen by d’ Aragon, is not to be found on any
recent map, probably because it was considered identical with the
Lake Lamina of Captain Wellby) my caravan and that of Baron
Erlanger were stopped by the Balambaras Abite, a subchief of the
Dejasmach Balcha, the Abyssinian governor of these countries. In
spite of the permission given in the Emperor Menelik’s letters, we
had to send messengers ahead to the dejasmach in order to ask his per-
mission to come to his residence. It took them five days to return.
T used that time in making investigations of the hot springs which
are situated at the eastern corner of the lake. Some of these had
formed hills of tuff 10 feet high. The substance is about the same as
that of the Karlsbad-Sprudelstein. The hot water bubbles out at the
summit.
Here we entered a new ethnological region, that of the Sidamo peo-
ple. The Sidamo form one group with the Jamjam, Walamo, Borodda,
Kosha, and Malo people on the banks of the Omo River. This is a
group of a probably very remote origin, but more or less mixed with
conquering Galla tribes. Ascending from the north we had to pass
wonderful forests covering the western slopes of a high mountain
chain, till we reached the plateau covered with alpine marsh and bam-
boo forest on which Abera, the ‘‘ Katama,” or residence of the Dejas-
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. 783
mach Balcha, is situated. Abera lies about 10,000 feet above the sez
level and is three hours north of the old capital Daressa, visited by
(VAragon. Looking northward one has good views back as far as
Lake Abassi; looking westward you have glorious views of Lake
Abaya or Margarita, with the mountainous countries of Walamo,
Borodda, and Gamo on its western shore.
The reception the dejasmach had prepared for us was most magnifi-
cent. Hundreds of horsemen dressed picturesquely came out to meet
us. Between our camp and the bamboo palace of the dejasmach there
was a double line of Abyssinian warriors in full attire, dressed with
silk skirts interwoven with gold or silver, or covered with lion and
leopard skins. Hundreds of shields, covered with gold and silver
ornaments, glistened in the sun. The dejasmach wished us to con-
tinue our journey by the great Abyssinian road running south along
the ridge of this large mountain chain, but I intended to descend to
Lake Abaya, in order to have some shooting, and to visit one of the
large islands in the lake. It was long before the dejasmach would
give permission for this. He told us dreadful stories of the bad roads,
the absence of food near the lake, and the number of people killed by
lions there. The reason for these stories probably was that he was
afraid that we would shoot too many elephants, of which we after-
wards found large herds on the shore of the lake. Descending I
passed the country of the Gudji, or Uata Dera, who in their physiog-
nomy reminded me very much of the Wandorobo tribe of East Africa.
Quite a different population called Gidicho live on the largest island
of the lake. The Gidicho have good-looking, Somali-like faces. My
Somal found, to their great astonishment, that a great part of the
Gidicho expressions were almost identical with their own; as, for
instance, the words for the various parts of the body and for the best-
known animals, such as lion and leopard. I consider this discovery to
be of great importance from an ethnological point of view, as the
Somal were always thought to be the last intruders in Northeast
Africa, and here we find an isolated tribe surrounded by a population
of an apparently older origin. The boats of the Gidicho are very
interesting. They are rather rafts in boat form, being made of the
very light wood of a species of ambach. The bow is often ornamented
like that of the Venetian gondolas. Formerly there were constant
quarrels and wars between the inhabitants of the islands and those of
the shore, but now. under Abyssinian rule, all live in peace with each
other.
At Lake Abaya my caravan separated from that of Baron Erlanger,
who had to return to Abera and Sheikh Husein. South of Lake
Abaya lies Lake Ganjule, whose water has a wonderful dark azure blue
color, and may be compared to the most beautiful lakes of Switzer-
784 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
land. I had resolved to pass along the eastern shore of Lake Ganjule,
in order to solve the problem of the sources of the river Sagan, the
largest affluent of Lake Stefanie, which was supposed to flow out of
Lake Ganjule. This I found to be not the case. The sources of the
Sagan lie east of the south end of Lake Abaya. But there is a broad
channel connecting Lake Ganjule with the Sagan. The bed of this
channel was dry at the time, but there were some large and small
water pools scattered over it. When the water rises in Lake Ganjule
for about 5 inches, which will probably take place every year at the
beginning of the rainy season, a large river will run from Lake
Ganjule to the Sagan. On the upper Sagan I again found some hot
sulphurous springs. It was impossible to follow the course of the
Sagan, as it runs at some places through densest forest, the haunt of
rhinos and buffaloes, the tracks of which were to be seen everywhere.
I went round the south corner of the lake and ascended the mountains
of Gardulla, which I reached in the second week of January, 1901.
The Gardulla were the first people of Bantu stock that I met. The
difference can be seen at first glance in their heavier and stronger built
figures and their nearly black skin. While working in the fields the
men go quite naked, in the villages they wear skins and cotton stuffs.
Cotton is the principal cultivation of Gardulla and of most countries
northward to Kosha and Konta, while farther north Kaffa and Jimma
are the first coffee lands of Africa. As the hills of Gardulla are very
stony, the inhabitants range the stones in terraces, so that a Gardulla
hill has the aspect of a vineyard onthe Rhine. They have their houses
and the walls surrounding them made of broad, plain planks, and on
the top of the reed roof there is as ornament a red earthenware vase.
The land was formerly under a queen, who still lives in a place called
Gidole. The Abyssinians still allow her to exercise her authority in
petty affairs, but she has no further influence whatever. The true
ruler of the land, the Futarari Wolde, is a subchief of Futarari Afta
Georgis, to whom the Emperor Menelik gave these countries when
conquered, but who prefers to remain in Adis Abeba. The Gardulla
wear broad necklaces of brass or copper. ‘The women wear bracelets,
necklets, and rings round fingers and toes, made of small red and blue
beads. In Gardulla I saw the first camels since my departure from
Adis Abeba. Futarari Wolde has a large herd of these animals,
obtained from the countries of the Bovana and Tertale, near Lake
Stefanie, which are kept in a place at the foot of the mountains.
Westward of Gardulla there is a large uninhabited plain, called by the
Abyssinians ** Adoshebai.”
The spirit Adoshebai of the Abyssinians combines the qualities of a
devil and patron saint of the hunters. They call upon Adoshebai when
they have killed a lion, elephant, rhino, giraffe, or buffalo, and even a
game. I may here
2
poor Shankala—that is to say, any of their large
7
OO
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. foXd)
mention that the Abyssinians call Shankala not only the tribe called
Beni Shongul by the Arabs, living on the western banks of the river
Dabus, but all the Sudanese and black people living in the countries
round Lake Rudolf and near the Omo. That is all dark-colored people
with the exception of the Somal and the Galla.
There is a legend that, when the Abyssinians conquered this country
about seven years ago, two elephant hunters were descending from the
** Katama” Gardulla to the large plain to the west. They had the luck
to kill one of the large pachyderms near a small hill, and called on
their patron saint, when suddenly the hill began to dance and sing.
‘**Adoshebai, Adoshebai.” So they now look upon the plain as the home
of this spirit. The Abyssinians had also told me of a dangerous disease,
which would killall our mules and horses, by which this plain is haunted.
Nevertheless, I determined to cross it, as otherwise I should have had
to follow hence, as far as the.Omo, the route taken by Captain Bottego.
But I marched straight on without spending much time in hunting the
game, which was abundant here. Elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, large
herds of zebras, and hartbeests of a species new to science, were
seen. In the night we were disturbed by the roaring of the lion.
After two days’ marching we came to a river called Shambala by
the Abyssinians of our escort. On the other side we saw natives run-
ning away from their cotton fields in terrible fright. We were here
in the country of the Male, which may be identical with the Mela
mentioned by Donaldson Smith. The Male are not yet absolutely
subjected by the Abyssinians. I gave presents to some old men and
women, who were not quick enough to run away, and sent them back
to their fellows, but I was not able to have any intercourse with the
people, as the next day nobody appeared. Here I found, for the first
time, bows and poisoned arrows, while in all the countries passed before
the spear and sword were the only arms. Crossing the Barsa, another
river flowing, like the Shambala, into Lake Stefanie, we came to Uba,
a part of the equatorial province given by the Emperor Menelik to the
Abyssinian count and Dejasmach Leontieff. There is a good fort in
Uba, built by the brothers Seljan, now officers of Count Leontieff,
formerly musicians and professional pedestrians. Neither of the two
brothers were here, as they were recalled to Adis Abeba by the
Emperor on account of some differences they had had with the natives.
In Uba the illness which the Abyssinians had feared in the plain of
Adoshebai broke out among the mules. I had thought before that it
might be the tsetse fly disease, but it now became clear that it was the
elanders. ‘This disease seems to be endemic on all the northern affluents
of Lake Stefanie, as is shown by the experience of the late Captain
Wellby, who lost most of his animals after passing the same region. — |
descended into the beautiful valley of the river Zenti, covered with
786 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
thick forest and magnificent palm trees, which separates Uba from
Gofa. The Zenti runs northward into the Omo.
Every day more of my mules and horses became afflicted with the
disease, and many of them died. The representative of Dejasmach
Lamma, the governor of Gofa, who was at the time in Adis Abeba,
sent me native porters, who helped me to carry the baggage up the
mountains of Gofa, which reach an altitude of about 10,000 feet above
sea level. Ataplace call Gadat, near the capital Jala, I stopped for two
weeks, and, in order to master the disease, isolated the sick animals
and divided the others into small bodies. After that time I had saved
about 25 out of 60. Meanwhile I had sent my Abyssinian headman with
a small escort to Adis Abeba, with orders to buy new mules and horses
there, and to come back as quickly as possible to Anderacha, the cap-
ital of Kaffa, which I had designed to be my starting point for the
unknown lands in the west. From Gofa to Kaffa the expedition went
on very slowly, because I was now dependent on native porters, whom
I got by order of the Abyssinian governors from the smaller native
chiefs, and who had to be changed when we came into the land of
another chief, which was always after one or two days’ short march.
Crossing the rather bare valley of the Ergino, another affluent of the
Omo, I came to the eountry of Doko.
The Uba and the Gofa, through whose countries I had passed, until
here belong to the Wallamo tribe. ~The Doko are typical Bantu, and
seem to be nearly related to the Gardulla. The men walk about abso-
lutely naked, the women wear an apron made of cut banana leaves.
They know how to weave cotton stuffs well, but seldom use them
themselves. North of Doko is the country of Malo, inhabited by a
Wallamo tribe. Hence, I descended to the Omo, which I managed to
cross within two days, on rafts resting on inflated goatskins. In this
region there is not much forest on the shores of the river, as the banks
consist of gigantic gneiss blocks. At no place in Africa have I seen
so many hippos as here. Walking down the banks I saw in half an
hour more than a hundred heads appearing above the surface of the
water. Every stony bank in the river was occupied by a family of
these clumsy animals. They are not hunted here, and therefore not
at all shy.
North of the river lies the country of Kosha. Kosha and the neigh-
boring Konta are the only provinces I found in Abyssinia where the
slave trade isin fullswing. At the large weekly markets you can see—
besides cotton, coffee, flour, goats, and sheep—children sold in small or
large lots. It is probable that this trade is due to the great famine
by which these countries have been stricken during the last two or
three years, and the children all seem to be quite happy at becoming the
property of richer men, with whom they will be better fed. The
houses of the Kosha chiefs are very interesting. They are long barn-
Smithsonian Report, 1903—Neuman. PLATE III.
Fia@. 2.—LANDSCAPE IN GARDULLA.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Neuman. PLATE IV.
Fig. 2.—Omo RIVER BETWEEN MALO AND KOSHA.
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. (87
like structures, about 15 feet high and 50 to 60 feet long, entirely
covered in with grass. Here the rainy season was ushered in by
terrible tempests, and for the next two months we had thunderstorms
nearly every day. Near a place called Dereta we passed the ‘** Kella”
or gate of Kaffa.
These south Ethiopian kingdoms—Kaffa, Jimma,Gera, and Enarea—
of which we have still but an imperfect knowledge from the journeys
of the Italian Cecchi and the Frenchmen d’Abbadie and Borreli, are
separated from each other by an interesting system of fortification.
Where the countries are not bounded by high mountain chains, diffi-
cult to cross, they are surrounded by deep ditches and strong fences,
which can only be passed by means of a guarded gate called the
**Kella.” The Abyssinians, after having taken these countries, retained
this system of fortification and the custom duties between the different
countries. The export of slaves is absolutely forbidden, that of cattle
only allowed by permission of the governor. The whole south of
Kaffa is one large forest; there is a broad road leading from the Kella
to Anderacha, the new capital. It is absolutely impossible to pene-
trate the forest which borders the road without using axes or bush
knives. Seattered in clearings in the forest are the villages and coffee
plantations of the inhabitants, the Kaficho. These are said to be the
descendents of the.old Ethiopians, who were isolated when Mohammed
Granye, Sultan of Tajura, smashed the old Ethiopian Empire, in the
years 1528-43. It is a fact that most of the Kaficho were Christians
when the Emperor Menelik conquered Kaffa, about five yearsago. Also
the ** Gez,” the ecclesiastical language of the Abyssians, was still in
use, but the language used by the Kaficho of to-day has noaftinity what-
ever with the modern Abyssinian. Kaffa was formerly ruled bypower-
ful independent kings, to whom also nearly all the countries west of
the Omo were subject. The last king, Savo Teheno, who had sub-
mitted some years ago to Menelik, revolted, was defeated by the
Abyssinians, and brought as prisoner to the old Abyssinian capital
Ankober, where he still lives. Kaffa and all the countries south of
the Gojeb and west of the Omo were given to Ras Wolde Georgis, one
of the favorites of Menelik. Kaffa was formerly the principal coffee-
producing land in Africa, but when the Abyssinians took the country
many of the plantations were destroyed, and it is now inferior in that
respect to the Kingdom of Jimma. The national dress of the Katficho
formerly consisted. of long capes of reed, grass, or hemp. The men
wear hats made of goat and colobus monkey skins; the women conical
hats of bast. These national costumes are now seldom seen in Kafta,
where the inhabitants dress like the Abyssinians, but they are still
exclusively used in the tributary land of Gimirra, in the west.
My headman reached Anderacha ten days after my arrival, and
brought with him some new men and some mules; but now my most
788 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
terrible time began. Nearly all the Abyssinians, and also my 13
Somal, struck and refused to proceed to the unknown countries
westward, where they said they would all be killed. They went to
the Abyssinian chiefs swearing that they had only been engaged up to
Kafla. The small Abyssinian chiefs (Ras Wolde Georgis and his chief
officials being in Adis Abeba at the time) sympathized with my men,
as, in spite of the Emperor’s permission, they were afraid to let a
European go out of the country. Much patience, much money, and
many promises were needed to persuade my Somal and about half of
my Abyssinians to remain with me. As I was, therefore, in want of
new men and also new mules and horses, I had to make an excursion
to Jimma, adjoining Kaffa on the northeast, and separated from it by
the river Gojeb, an affluent of the Omo. Approaching the Northern
Kella of Kaffa, I found everywhere evidences of the last war with the
Abyssinians. Near the road I saw strong fences and deep ditches,
while the forest was virtually honeycombed with holes about 10 to 12
feet deep, with a pointed stake in the middle of each.
Jimma is almost the richest land of Abyssinia. The inhabitants are
pure, well-built Galla. They are nearly all Mohammedans, as well as
their king, Aba Jifar, a very clever man, who at the right time sub-
mitted to Menelik, and therefore retained his country. King Aba
Jifar, who helped the Abyssinians very much in conquering Kaffa, is
now in great favor with the Emperor. The capital of Jimma is Jiren,
the most important market place in Abyssinia. I estimate that the
Thursday market in Jiren is visited by nearly twenty to thirty thou-
sand persons. From all the countries bordering the river Omo, and
even from Adis Abeba, and other lands in southern Ethiopia, the
Nagadis or Abyssinian merchants meet in Jiren to sell their wares.
All the products of southern Ethiopia are sold there, in many double
rows of stalls about a third of a mile long.
Having enlisted 20 strong men and bought some dozens of mules
and horses, I returned to Anderacha and started thence in the first
week of April. Gimirra, which we reached first, is a tributary land
to Kafla; the people seem to be Kaficho, perhaps with a mixture of
Nilotic blood. Their old king, Chotatu, and some of his companions
are nearly 65 feet high. They wear the national dress of Kaffa,
already described. The men often wear necklaces, with a string of
Hyrax teeth hanging down their chest. In Gimirra is the last Abys-
sinian post.. The people of Binesho, which we passed next, are in
friendly relations with the Abyssinians, who will probably soon take
possession of the country; the people of Shekho, which lies west of
Binesho, are only another branch of the Binesho, but are absolutely
independent, and the land is often plundered by Abyssinian razzias.
The Binesho and the Shekho are of the Bantu stock, but are, per-
haps, the most interesting tribes I ever met. Their language is hard
Sm thsonian Report, 1903.—Neuman PLate V.
Fic. 1.—PART OF JIREN MARKET (DJIMMA).
Fi@. 2.—SCHEKHO HurT.
bs
Md
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. 789
and sharp sounding. Their figures are broad and muscular; they have
different kinds of tattooing on the chest and on the back, but their
most interesting tattooing is on the forehead, in which they cut verti-
cal slits, which gives them the aspect of wearing a horn. They often
wear capes made out of grass, like those of the Gimirra, and also
capes made of cut bark, and, to my great astonishment, I also found
clothes wovenof bark, similar to those worn in Uganda and Usoga. I
never saw a woman, either in Shekho or in Binesho, probably because
they are first placed in safety as the object most desired by the Abys-
sinians. I had to be very much on my guard here, as the Shekho
were always lurking in the bushes, trying to cut off my men and kill
them singly. Once they speared one of my horses while grazing,
nevertheless I succeeded in avoiding any actual fighting.
In Shekho I found a large river running westward. I believed
this river to be the Gelo, discovered near its junction with the Ajuba
by the Italian Bottego, an opinion which was confirmed afterwards.
Traveling became very difficult here. The western slopes of the South
Ethiopian plateau are cut by many deep ravines; the roads therefore
were narrow and bad, and many of my mules became wounded and
useless. As it flows westward, the river Gelo is lined on both sides
by the densest forest. I could march only about 2 or 8 miles each
day, and to cover that distance the men had mostly to cut the way
with axes and bush knives from morning: till noon, after which the
caravan was able to proceed. The inhabitants of this forest are the
Mashango, who were very seldom seen, but we often found large
traps made for hippos and water bucks, and loops made of creepers
for monkeys and other small animals going to the water. Already in
Gimirra I had seen, far away to the west, a long mountain chain run-
ning from north to south, called by the Galla ‘* Gurafarda”—that is to
say, ‘* horse’s ear,” from a sharp double peak in the middle. It took
more than three weeks from Gimirra to reach the point where the
Gelo pierces the mountains, forming magnificent cascades. Some
days after passing this gap, I saw from a bamboo-covered hill in the
west a boundless bush and grass-covered dead flat, the plain of the
Sobat and the beginning of the Sudan. Only a few granite hills are
scattered over it. Ascending one of these, I saw, far away, a large
lake—Lake Tata—through which the river Gelo runs. Here we
found the first villages of the Jambo, or Anyuak, who were the first
true Nilotic people I met. They are a division of the great Shilluk
tribe, which is spread over the whole eastern Sudan, and extends
southward to the east shore of Lake Victoria. The few samples I
obtained of their language show that it is scarcely distinguishable
from that of the Kavirondo people on the east shores of Lake Victoria,
whose country I passed on my first African journey in L894,
790 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
The land now became more and more swampy. .The Anyuak,
poverty stricken through many Abyssinian razzias, live hidden away
on small islands in these swamps. A large part of the people have
migrated westward, and live in a state of eens ery under the pro-
tection of the more powerful Nuar near the Egyptian fort of Nasser, on
the Sobat. Approaching Lake Tata, the swamps became so numerous
and deep that I turned south and marched to the Akobo, or Ajuba, which
river I reached near the village Gneum, where I struck Bottego’s route.
The attempt to march along the northern bank of the Ateebe failed,
because we stuck fast in the swamps, where I lost many of my mules;
so, after two days, I marched back to Gneum and crossed the Akobo.
The country on the left shore of the river, which had here a north-
westerly direction, was drier.
As at that time I had only the maps of Bottego and Wellby, I
concluded that the Akobo of Bodttego and the larger Ruzi of Wellby
must be one and the same river. I therefore hoped to get from here
to Nasser dry-shod, but, instead of turning to the north, as I expected,
the course of the river after a few days took a due westerly direction,
winding in and out over an immense grassy plain. I was now ina
very bad plight; my cattle and flour had been a long time exhausted,
the country was nearly uninhabited, and game, whic h had been plenti-
ful on the first days on the river Akobo, became scarce. Glanders had
broken out again, and every day more of my animals succumbed.
Suddenly I reached the right bank of a slowly flowing river, full of
crocodiles. It was now apparent to me that this was the eee of
Wellby, or, as it is called by the Nuar, the Pibor. It was impossible
to cross the Pibor without boats; so I recrossed the smaller Akobo in
the hope that, marching on the right bank of the Pibor, I might find
villages with boats. My situation became now desperate; out of 65
animals with which I had left Gimirra, I had only 13 mules, 2 horses,
and 2 donkeys left.
All the stores not absolutely necessary were thrown into the river.
The same was done with all the tents except my own, as well as with
my books and clothes, the only part of my belongings which I con-
trived to bring safely home being my collections, photographs, diary,
and route books. The day after we had passed the Akobo, I had
already dug a hole in which to hide an object which for the moment
- was only a useless weight—the tusks of an elephant I had shot in the
Gurafarda Mountains—and I was just looking round my tent to see
what more I could dispense with, when suddenly a great tumult arose
in the camp. I snatched up my rifle, as 1 thought an elephant ora
giraffe had come near the camp, but my chief Somali jumped in, ery-
ing, ‘‘ Marka, marka.” @ Aby ssinians, cele and Somal were scream-
«**Steamer, steamer,’
THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN. (ou
ing, crying, dancing, and firing their guns, all looking down the river.
There was a steamer in sight, slowly approaching and filling nearly half
the river bed. The Egyptian flag was flying from the mast and two
Europeans stood at the bow. The steamer stopped alongside our
‘amp and I welcomed the first of the Europeans in English, but on
hearing my name he answered me in pure German. It was Sir Rudolf
Slatin, and the other gentleman Colonel Bluett, the mudir of Fashoda.
J went on board and everything was soon explained. Slatin Pasha and
Colonel Bluett had come on a journey of inspection to Fort Nasser, on
the Sobat, and thence they had had to proceed toa village called Kara-
dong, on the Pibor, in order to settle some quarrels between two influ-
ential Nuar chiefs. On arriving here they had heard that a European
was approaching with a large caravan and had decided to steam up the
river in order to bring me assistance if required. ‘They had found me
when I was just at the last extremity. Had I come two or three days
later I should have been forced to make my way to Nasser by land,
which would have been a difficult task, considering the diseased state
of my mules and the probable hostility of the Nuar, who had formerly
been robbed by the Abyssinian raiders. There are still the ruins of a
large Abyssinian fort near the junction of the rivers Akobo and Pibor.
As one of my Somal had the day before shot a large bull giraffe, and
my men had therefore provisions for four days, Slatin Pasha was kind
enough to take me on board, with all my men and my collections.
The surviving mules were given to the Nuar of Karadong.
The next day the steamer passed the point where, on the map of this
region published by Major Austin in the Geographical Journal, 1901,
the river Gelo joins the Pibor, but it was apparent that the small river
flowing in here could not bring all the waters of the mighty river along
which I had marched for four weeks. The Gelo probably divides after
having passed Lake Tata; the northern branch, which is possibly the
largest, running northward to the Baro, and the southern again divid-
ing into two rivers, which flow to the Pibor.
Passing the small Egyptian fort Nasser and the famous Fashoda,
one of the sorriest-looking places in Africa, we steamed down to
Khartum. Broad green, fertile plains alternated with acacia-covered
scrub steppes. On the banks of the river we saw villages of the Nuar,
the Dinka, and the Shilluk, with their large rounded huts. Every-
where we saw absolutely naked women and men, the latter mostly
painted white, boisterously greeting the steamer. There were large
herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, and in the Arab districts of the lower
White Nile, camels, horses, and donkeys. A picture of peace and
plenty is the Egyptian Sudan of to-day. We arrived at Khartum on
June 15, and I there enjoyed the charming hospitality of the sirdar,
Sir Reginald Wingate. Here, also, I had the pleasure of again seeing
sM 1905 dL
792 THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA TO THE SUDAN.
Captain Harold, who had given us much help in starting our caravan
from Zeila eighteen months before. My Abyssinians were sent by
steamer up the Blue Nile to Roseires, in order that they might return
thence to Adis Abeba by way of Famaka. My thirteen Somal accom
panied me to Cairo, and returned thence to Aden. * * * [Here
follows a review of the purely scientific results of the journey. |
SMITHSONIAN PLATE Vi. _
Re Ie
molp os Donde
o
SNe en
+ i]
TCH MAP e
the Journey of Ne
.R NEUMANN,
ral FROM
| SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA. te
TO, a
PRER NIEE- :
| (00-1901.
le of Miles.
40 80 80 190
Conical Projector.
ute
—==—— aaa
42
THE NORRIS PETERS CO. PHOTO-LITHO. WASMINGTON. D ¢
:
on
SMITHSONIAN REPORT, 1903—NEuMANN. ,
SMTHSe —————_———$—- ee PLATE VI.
EGYPT LAN
Mt Abunease) :
gp
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Sheikh Mohamtied
*Jour
SKETCH MAP
Showing the Journey of
M® Oscar NEUMANN,
FROM
ZEILA THROUGH SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA.
TO
THE Upper NILE.
1900-1901.
—<——
Soale of Miles -
60
20 1 2 Ow 80 190
Secans, Conical Projector
Route — me
THE NOMAYS PETERS CO PHOTOLITHO WARMINOTON OC
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(a
PRIMEVAL JAPANESE.¢
By Capt. F. BrinkKLey.
There are three written records of Japan’s early history. The
oldest? of them dates from the beginning of the eighth century of the
Christian era, and deals with events extending back for fourteen hun-
dred years. The compilation of this work was one of the most
extraordinary feats ever undertaken. The compiler had to construct
the sounds of his own tongue by means of ideographs devised for
transcribing a foreign language. He had to render Japanese pho-
netically by using Chinese ideographs. It was as though a man
should set himself to commit Shakespeare’s plays to writing by the aid
of the cuneiform characters of Babylon. A book composed in the
face of such difficulties could not convey a very clear idea of contem-
porary speech or thought. The same is true, though in a less degree,
of the other two’ volumes on which it is necessary to rely for knowl-
edge of ancient Japan.
It might reasonably be anticipated, arguing from the analogy of
other nations, that some plain practical theory would exist among the
Japanese as to their own origin; that tradition would have supplied
for them a proud creed identifying their forefathers with some of the
renowned peoples of the earth, and that if the progenitors of the nim-
ble-witted, active-bodied, refined, and high spirited people now bid-
ding so earnestly for a place in the comity of great nations had
migrated originally from a land peopled by men possessing qualities,
such as they themselves have for centuries displayed, many annals
descriptive of their primeval home would have been handed down
through the ages. There are no such theories, no such annals, no
such traditions.
«Reprinted, by permission, from ‘‘Japan. Its History, Arts, and Literature.’’
Vol. I. Chapter II. Published by the J. B. Millet Company, of Boston and Tokyo.
Copyright, 1901, by J. B. Millet Company.
> The Koji-ki, or annals of ancient matters.
¢ The Nihon-gi (history of Japan) and the Koga-shu (ancient records).
794 PRIMEVAL JAPANESE.
When the Japanese first undertook to explain their own origin
in the three books spoken of above, so unfettered were they by genuine
reminiscences that they immediately had recourse to the supernatural
and derived themselves from heaven. Reduced to its fundamental
outlines, the legend they set down was that, in the earliest times, :
group of the divine dwellers inthe plainsof high heaven descended to a
place with a now unidentifiable name, and thence gradually pushing
sastward, established themselves in the *‘ land of sunrise,” giving to
=—
ita race of monarchs, direct scions of the goddess of light (Amate-
rasu). Many things are related about these heaven-sent folk who
peopled Japan hundreds of years before the Christian era. They are
things that must be studied by any one desiring to make himself
acquainted with the essence of her indigenous religion or her pictorial
and decorative arts, for they there play a picturesque and prominent
part. But they have nothing to do with sober history. Possibly it may
be urged that nations whose traditions deal with a Mount Sinai, a pil-
lar of cloud and fire, and an immaculate conception, have no right to
reject everything supernatural in oriental annals. That superficial
retort has, indeed, been made too.often. But behind it there undoubt-
edly lurks in the inner consciousness of the educated and intelligent
Japanese a resolve not to scrutinize these things too closely. Whether
or not the ‘tage of the gods”—kami no yo—of which, as a child, he
—
reads with implicit credence, and of which, as a man, he recognizes
the political uses, should be openly relegated to the limbo of absurd-
ities; whether the deities had to take part in an immodest dance in
order to lure the offended sun goddess from a cave to which her
brother’s rudeness had driven her, thus plunging the universe in dark-
ness; whether the god of impulse fought with the god of fire on the
shores of the Island of Nine Provinces; whether the procreative divini-
ties were inspired by a bird; whether the germs of a new civilization
were carried across the sea by a prince begotten of the sunshine and
born in the shape of a crimson jewel—these are not problems that
receive very serious consideration in Japan, though neither a Colenso
ner a Huxley has yet arisen to attack them publicly. They are
rather allegories from which emerges the serviceable political doc-
trine that the Emperors of Japan, being of divine origin, rule by
divine right. It is-the Japanese historian’s method, or the Japanese
mythologist’s manner, of describing an attribute claimed until very
recently by all occidental sovereigns, and still asserted on behalf of
some. As for the foreign student of Japan’s ancient history, these
weird myths and romantic allegories have induced him to dismiss it as
a purely imaginary product of later-day imagination. The transcen-
dental elements woven into parts of the narrative discredit the whole
in his eyes. And his scepticism is fortified by a generally-accepted
hypothesis that the events of the thirteen opening centuries of the
PRIMEVAL JAPANESE. 795
story were preserved solely by oral tradition. The three yolumes
which profess to tell about the primeval creators of Japan, about
Jimmu, the first mortal ruler, and about his human successors during
a dozen centuries, are supposed to be a collection of previously unwrit-
ten recollections, and it seems only logical to doubt whether the out-
lines of figures standing at the end of such a long avenue of hearsay
can be anything but imaginary. Possibly that disbelief is too whole-
sale; possibly it is too much to conclude that the Japanese had no kind
of writing prior to their acquisition of Chinese ideographs in the fifth
century of the Christian era. But, there is little apparent hope that
the student will ever be in a position to decide these questions con-
clusively. He must be content for the present to regard the annals of
primeval Japan as an assemblage of heterogeneous fragments from the
traditions of South Sea Islanders, of Central Asian tribes, of Manchu-
rian Tartars, and of Siberian savages, who reached her shores at vari-
ous epochs, sometimes drifted by ocean currents, sometimes crossing
by ice-built bridges, sometimes migrating by less fortuitous routes.
What these records, stripped of all their fabulous features, have to
tell is this:
At a remote date a certain race of highly-civilized men—highly ciy-
ilized by comparison—arrived at the islands of Japan. Migrating
from the south, the adventurers landed on the southern island, Kiu-
shiu, and found a fair country covered with luxurious vegetation and
sparsely populated by savages living like beasts of the field, having
no organized system of administration and incapable of offering per-
manent resistance to the superior weaponsand discipline of the invaders,
who established themselves with little difficulty in the newly-found
land. But on the main island two races of men very different from
these savages had already gained a footing. One had its headquarters
in the province of Izumo and claimed sovereignty over: the whole
country. The other was concentrated in Yamato. Neither of these
races knew of the other’s existence, Izumo and Yamato being far apart.
At the outset the immigrants who had newly arrived in Kiushiu imag-
ined that they had to deal with the Izumo folk only. They began by
sending envoys. The first of these, bribed by the Izumo rulers, made
his home in the land he had been sent to spy out. The second forgot
his duty in the arms of an Izumo beauty whose hair fell to her ankles.
The third discharged his mission faithfully, but was put to death in
Izumo. The sequel of. this somewhat commonplace series of events
was war. Putting forth their full strength, the southern invaders
shattered the power of the Izumo court and received its submission.
But they did not transfer their own court to the conquered province.
Ignorant that Izumo was a mere fraction of the main island, they
imagined that no more regions remained to be subjugated. By and
by they discovered their mistake. Intelligence reached them that far
796 PRIMEVAL JAPANESE.
away in the northeast a race of highly-civilized men, who had origi-
nally come from beyond the sea in ships, were settled in the province
of Yamato, holding undisputed sway. To the conquest of these colo-
nists Jimmu, who then ruled the southern immigrants, set out ona
campaign which lasted fifteen years*and ended, after some fierce fight-
ing, in the Yamato ruler’s acknowledging their consanguinity with the
invader and abdicating in his favor.
Whether Jimmu’s story be purely a figment of later-day imagina-
tion, or whether it consists of poetically embellished facts, there can
be no question about its interest, since it shows the kind of hero that
subsequent generations were disposed to picture as the founder of the
sacred dynasty, the chief of the Japanese race. The youngest of four
sons, he was nevertheless selected by his ‘‘divine” father to succeed
to the rulership of the little colony of immigrants then settled in
Kiushiu, and his elder brothers obediently recognized this right of
choice. He was not then called ‘*Jimmu;” that is his posthumus
name. Sanu, or Hiko Hohodemi, was his appellation, and he is repre-
sented in the hyht of a kind of viking. Learning of Yamato and its
rulers from a traveler who visited Kiushiu, he embarked all his avail-
able forces in war vessels and set out upon a tour of aggression.
Creeping along the eastern shore of Kiushiu, and finally entering the
Inland Sea, the adventurers fought their way from point to point,
landing sometimes to do battle with native tribes, sometimes to con-
struct new war junks, until, after fifteen years of fighting and wan-
dering, they finally emerged from the northern end of the Inland Sea
and established themselves in Yamato, destined to be thenceforth the
imperial province of Japan. In this long series of campaigns the
chieftain lost his three brothers. One: fell in fight; two threw them-
selves into the sea to calm a tempest that threatened to destroy the
flotilla. Such are the deaths that Japanese in all ages have regarded
as ideal exits from this mortal scene—deaths by the sword and deaths
of loyal self-sacrifice. To the leader himself, after his decease, the
posthumous name of Jimmu, or ‘‘the man of divine bravery,” was
given, typifying the honor that has always attached to the profession
of arms in Japan. The distance from this primitive viking’s starting
point to the place where he established his capital and consummated
his career of conquest can easily be traversed by a modern steamer in
twice as many hours as the number of years devoted by Jimmu and
his followers to the task. That the craft in which they traveled were
of the most inefficient type may be gathered from the fact that the
viking’s progress eastward would have been finally interrupted by the
narrow strip of water dividing Kiushiu from the main island of Japan
had not a fisherman seated on a turtle emboldened him to strike sea-
ward. henceforth the turtle assumed a leading place in the mythol-
ogy of Japan—the type of longevity, the messenger of the marine
PRIMEVAL JAPANESE. T97
deity, who dwelt in the crystal depths of the ocean, his palace peopled
by lovely maidens. The geddess of the sun shone on Jimmu’s enter-
prise at times when tempest or fog threatened serious peril, and a kite,
circling overhead, indicated the direction of inhabited districts when
he and his warriors had lost their way among mountains and forests.
How much of all this was transmitted by tradition, written or oral,
to the compilers of Jimmu’s history in the eighth century; how much
was a mere reflection of national customs which had then become
sacred, and on which the political scholars of the time desired to set
the seal of antique sanction, who shall determine? If Sanu and his
warriors brought with them the worship of the sun, that would offer
an interesting inference as to their origin. If the aid that they
received from his light was suggested solely by the grateful homage
that rice cultivators, thirteen centuries later, had learned to pay to his
beneficence, then the oldest written records of Japan must be read as
mere transcripts of the faiths and fashions of the era when they were
compiled, not as genuine traditions transmitted from previous ages.
But such distinctions have never been recognized by the Japanese.
With them these annals of their race’s beginnings have always com-
manded as inviolable credence as the Testaments of Christianity used
to command in the Occident. From the lithographs that embellish
modern bank notes the sun looks down on the semidivine conqueror,
Jimmu, and receives his homage. From the grand cordon of an order
instituted by his hundred and twenty-seventh successor depends the
kite that guided him through mountain fastnesses, and on a thousand
works of art the genius of the tortoise shows him the path across the
ocean. If these picturesque elements were added by subsequent
writers to the outlines of an ordinary armed invasion by foreign
adventurers, the nation has received them and cherishes them to this
day as articles of a sacred faith.
The annals here briefly summarized reveal three tides of more or
less civilized immigrants and a race of semibarbarous autochthons.
All the learned researches of modern archeologists and ethnologists
do not teach us much more. It is now known with tolerable certainty
that the so-called autochthons were composed of two swarms of
colonists, both coming from Siberia, though their advents were
separated by a long interval.
The first, archeeologically indicated by pit dwellings and shell mounds
still extant, were. the Koro-pok-guru, or ‘‘cave men.” They are
believed to be represented to-day by the inhabitants of Saghalien, the
Kuriles, and southern Kamschatka.
The second were the Ainu, a flat-faced, heavy-jawed, hirsute people,
who completely drove out their predecessors and took possession of
the land. The Ainu of that period had much in common with animals.
They burrowed in the ground for shelter; they recognized no distine-
798 PRIMEVAL JAPANESE.
tion of sex in apparel or of consanguinity in intercourse; they clad
themselves in skins; they drank blood; they practiced cannibalism;
they were insensible to benefits and perpetually resentful of injuries;
they resorted to savagely cruel forms of punishment—severing the
tendons of the legs, boiling the arms, slicing off the nose, etc.; they
used stone implements, and, unceasingly resisting the civilized immi-
erants who subsequently reached the islands, they were driven north-
ward by degrees, and finally pushed across the Tsugaru Strait into the
island of Yezo. That long struggle, and the disasters and sufferings
it entailed, radically changed the nature of the Ainu. They became
timid, gentle, submissive folk; lost most of the faculties essential to
survival in a racial contest, and dwindled to a mere remnant of semi-
savages, incapable of progress, indifferent to improvement, and pre-
senting a more and more vivid contrast to the energetic, intelligent,
and embitious Japanese.
But these Japanese—who were they originally? Whence did the
three or more tides of immigration set which ultimately coalesced to
form the race now standing at the head of Oriental peoples? Strangely
varying answers to this question have been furnished. Kampfer per-
suaded himself that the primeval Japanese were a section of the build-
ersof the Tower of Babel. Hyde-Clarke identified them with Turano-
Africans who traveled eastward through Egypt, China, and Japan.
Macleod recognized in them one of the lost tribes of Israel. Several
writers have regarded them as Malayan colonists. Griffin was content
to think that they are modern Ainu, and recent scholars incline to
the belief that they belonged to the Tartar-Mongolian stock of Central
Asia. Something of this diversity of view is due to the fact that the
Japanese are not a pure race. They present several easily distinguish-
able types, notably the patrician and the plebeian. This is not a
question of mere coarseness in contrast with refinement; of the degen-
eration due to toil and exposure as compared with the improvement
produced by gentle living and mental culture. The representative of
the Japanese plebs has a conspicuously dark skin, prominent cheek
bones, a large mouth, a robust and heavily boned physique, a flat nose,
full straight eyes, and a receding forehead. Tbe aristocratic type is
symmetrically and delicately built; his complexion varies from yellow
to almost pure white; his eyes are narrow, set obliquely to the nose;
the eyelids heavy; the eyebrows lofty; the mouth small; the face oval;
the nose aquiline; the hand remarkably slender and supple.
Here are two radically distinet types. What is more, they have
been distinguished by the Japanese themselves ever sinve any method
of recording such distinctions existed. For from the time when he
first began to paint pictures, the Japanese artist recognized and repre-
sented only one type of male and female beauty—namely, that dis-
tinguished in a marked, often an exaggerated, degree by the features
PRIMEVAL JAPANESE. 799
enumerated above as belonging to the patrician class. There has been
no evolution in this matter. The painter had as clear a conception of
his type ten centuries ago as he has to-day. Nothing seems more nat-
ural than the supposition that this higher type represents the finally
dominant race of immigrants; the lower, their less civilized opponents.
The theory which seems to fit the facts best is that the Japanese are
compounded of elements from Central and Southern Asia, and that
they received their patrician type from the former, their plebeian
from the latter. The Asiatic colonists arrived via Korea. But they
were neither Koreans nor Chinese. ‘That seems certain, though the
evidence which proves it can not be detailed here. Chinese and
Koreans came from time to time in later ages; came occasionally in
great numbers, and were absorbed into the Japanese race, leaving on
it some faint traces of the amalgamation. But the original colonists
did not set out from either China or Korea. Their birthplace was
somewhere in the north of Central Asia. As for the South-Asian
immigrants, they were drifted to Japan by a strange current called
the ‘* Black Tide” (Auro-shiwo), which sweeps northward from the
Philippines, and bending thence toward the east, touches the promon-
tory of Kii and Yamato before shaping its course permanently away
from the main island of Japan. It is true that in the chronological
order suggested by early history the southern colonists succeeded the
northern and are supposed to have gained the mastery; whereas among
the Japanese, as we now see them, the supremacy of the northern
type appears to have been established for ages. That may be
explained, however, by an easy hypothesis—namely, that although
the onset of the impetuous southerns proved at first irresistible, they
ultimately coalesced with the tribes they had conquered, and in the
end the principle of natural selection replaced the vanquished on their
proper plane of eminence. But this distinction, it must be observed,
is one of outward form rather than of moral attributes. Neither
history nor observation furnishes any reason for asserting tbat the
so-called *‘ aristocratic,” or Mongoloid, cast of features accompanies a
fuller endowment of either physical or mental qualities than the vul-
gar, or Malayan, cast. Numerically the patrician type constitutes
only a small fraction of the nation, and seems to have been lacking in
a majority of the country’s past leaders, as it is certainly lacking in a
majority of her present publicists, and even in the very creme de la
creme of society. The male of the upper classes is not generally an
attractive product of nature. He has neither commanding stature,
refinement of features, nor weight of muscle. On the other hand,
among the laboring populations, and especially among the seaside
folk, numbers of men are found who, though below the average
Anglo-Saxon or Teuton in bulk, are cast ina perfectly symmetrical
S00 PRIMEVAL JAPANESE.
mold and suggest great possibilities of muscular effort and endurance.
In short, though the aristocratic type has survived, and though its
superior beauty is universally recognized, it has not impressed itself
completely on the nation, and there is no difficulty in conceiving that
its representatives went down before the first rush of the southern
invaders, but subsequently, by tenacity of resistance and by fortitude
under suffering, recovered from a shock which would have crushed a
lower grade of humanity. ;
Histories that describe the manners and customs of a people have
been rare in all ages. The compilers of Japan’s first annals, in the
eighth century, paid little attention to this part of their task. Were
it necessary to rely on their narrative solely for a knowledge of the
primeval Japanese, the student would be meagerly informed. But
archeology comes to his assistance. It raises these men of old from
their graves, and reveals many particulars of their civilization which
could never have been divined from the written records alone.
The ancient Japanese—not the Koro-pok-guru or the Ainu, but the
ancestors of the Japanese proper—buried their dead first in barrows
and afterwards in dolmens. The barrow was merely a mound of earth
heaped over the remains, after the manner of the Chinese. The dol-
men was a stone chamber. It had walls constructed with blocks of
stone, generally unhewn and rudely laid, but sometimes hewn and
carefully fitted; its roof consisted of huge and ponderous slabs. It
varied in form—sometimes taking the shape of a long gallery only,
sometimes of a gallery anda chamber, and sometimes of a gallery and
two chambers. Over it was built a mound of earth which occasionally
assumed enormous dimensions, covering a space of 70 or 80 acres,
rising toa height of as many feet, and requiring the labor of thousands
of workmen. The builders of the barrows were in the bronze age of
civilization, the constructors of the dolmens in the iron age. In the
barrows are found weapons and implements of bronze and vessels of
hand-made pottery; in the dolmens, weapons and implements of iron
and vessels of wheel-turned pottery. There is an absolute line of
division. No iron weapon nor any machine-made pottery occurs in a
barrow, no bronze weapon nor any hand-made pottery in a dolmen.
Ave the barrow builders and the dolmen constructors to be regarded
as distinct races or as men of the same race at different stages of its
civilization? Barrow and dolmen bear common testimony to the fact
that before the ancestors of the Japanese nation crossed the sea to
their inland home they had already emerged from the stone age, for
neither in barrow nor in dolmen have stone weapons or implements been
found, though these abound in the shell heaps and kitchen middens that
constitute the relics of the Koro-pok-guru and the Ainu. But, on the
other hand, barrow and dolmen introduce their explorer to peoples
who stood on different planes of industrial development.
PRIMEVAL JAPANESE. SOL
The progress of civilization is always gradual. A nation does not
pass, in one stride, from burial in rude tumuli to sepulture in highly
specialized forms of stone vaults, nor yet from a bronze age to an
iron. It is therefore evident that the evolution of dolmen from bar-
row did not take place within Japan. The dolmen constructor must
have completely emerged from the bronze age and abandoned the
fashion of barrow burial before he reached Japan. Otherwise search
would certainly disclose some transitional form between the barrow
and the dolmen, and some iron implements would occur in the bar-
rows or bronze weapons in the dolmens. If, then, the barrow builder
and the dolmen constructor were racially identical, it would seem to
follow that the latter succeeded the former by a long interval in the
order of immigration and brought with him a greatly improved type
of civilization evolved in the country of his origin.
The reader will be naturally disposed to anticipate that the geo-
graphical distribution of the dolmens and the barrows furnishes some
aid in solving this problem. But though the exceptional number
found on the coasts opposite to Korea tends to support the theory that
the stream of Mongoloid immigration came chiefly from the Korean
Peninsula via the island of Tsushima, there is not any local differenti-
ation of one kind of sepulture from the other, and, for the rest, the
grouping of the dolmens supplies no information except that their
builders occupied the tract of country from the shores opposite Korea
on the west to Musashi and the south of Shimotsuke on the east, and
did not penetrate to the extreme northeast or to the regions of moun-
tain and forest in the interior.
Here another point suggests itself. If the fashion of the Japanese
dolmen was introduced from abroad, evidences of its prototype should
survive on the adjacent continent of Asia. If the numerous dolmens
found on the coasts of Kiushiu and Isumo facing Korea are to be taken
as indications that their constructors emigrated originally from the
Korean Peninsula, then Korea also should contain similar dolmens,; and
if an ethnological connection existed between Japan and China in pre-
historic days, China, too, should have dolmens. But no dolmens have
hitherto been found in China, and the dolmens of Korea differ radi-
cally from those of Japan, being ‘‘merely cists with megalithic cap-
stones” (Gowland). It has been shown, further, that dolmens similar
to those of Japan are not to be found in any part of continental Asia
sastward of the shores of the Caspian Sea, and that western Europe
alone offers exactly analogous types. In short, from an ethnological
point of view, the dolmens of Japan are as perplexing as the dolmens
of Europe, and the prospect of solving the riddle seems to be equally
remote in both cases. All that can be affirmed is that the dolmens
offer strong corroborative testimony to the truth of the Japanese his-
torical narrative which represents Jimmu as the leader of the last and
802 FRIMEVAL JAPANESE.
most highly civilized among the bands of colonists constituting the
ancestors of the present Japanese race. Thus the ‘‘ divine warrior,”
after having been temporarily erased from the tablets of history by
the modern sceptic of the West, is projected upon them once more
from the newly opened graves of the primeval Japanese. It is true
that there is an arithmetical difficulty. It has been supposed that the
dolmens do not date from a period more remote than the third century
before Christ, whereas Jimmu’s invasion is assigned to the seventh.
But no great effort of imagination is required to effect a compromise
hetween the uncertain chronology of the Japanese annals and the
tentative estimates of modern archeologists.
Some of the burial customs revealed by these ancient tombs resem-
ble the habits of the Scythians as described by Herodotus. The Japa-
nese did not, it is true, lay the corpse of a chieftain between sheets of
fold, nor did they inter his favorite wife with similar pomp in an
adjoining chamber; but they did deposit with him his weapons, his orna-
ments, and the trappings of his war horse, and in remote times they
followed the barbarous rule of burying alive, in the immediate vicin-
ity of his sepulcher, his personal attendants, male and female, and
probably also his steed. To the abrogation of that cruel rule is due
much information about the garments worn In early epochs, for in the
century immediately preceding the Christian era a kind-hearted
emperor decided that clay figures should be substituted for human
Victims, and these figures, being modeled, however roughly, in the
guise of the men and women of the time, tell what kind of costumes
were worn and what was the manner of wearing them. Collecting all
the available evidence, the story shapes itself into this:
Prior to the third, or perhaps the fourth century before the Chris-
tian era, when the dead were interred in barrows, not dolmens, the
Japanese, though they stood on a plane considerably above the gen-
eral level of Asiatic civilization, did not yet understand the forging of
iron or the use of the potter’s wheel. They were still in the bronze
age, and their weapons—swords, halberds, and arrowheads—were
made of that metal. Concerning the fashion of their garments not
much is known, but they used for purpose of personal adornment,
quaintly shaped objects of jasper, rock crystal, steatite, and other
stones. Then, owing probably to the advent of a second wave of
immigration from the continent, the civilization of the nation was sud-
denly raised, and the country passed at once from the bronze to the
iron age, with a corresponding development of industrial capacity in
other directions, and with a novel method of sepulture having no
exact prototype except in western Europe. The newcomers seem to
have been, not a race distinct from their predecessors, but a second out-
growth of colonists from the same parent stem. Where that stem had
its roots there is no clear indication, but it is evident that, during the
PRIMEVAL JAPANESE. 803
interval between the first and the second migrations, the mother country
had far excelled its colony in material civilization, so that, with the
advent of the second band of wanderers, the condition of the Japanese
underwent marked change. They laid aside their bronze weapons and
began to use iron swordsand spears, and iron-tippedarrows. A warrior
carried one Swordand, perhaps, a dagger. The sword had a blade which
varied from 25 feet to over 3 feet in length. These were not the
curved weapons with curiously modeled faces and wonderful trench-
ancy which became so celebrated in later times. Straight, one-edged
swords, formidable enough, but considerably inferior to the admirable
katana of medieval and modern eras, they were sheathed in wooden
scabbards, having bands and hoops of copper, silver, or iron, by means
of which the weapon was suspended from the girdle. The guards
were of iron, copper, or bronze, often coated with gold, and always
having holes cut in them to render them lighter. Wood was the
material used for hilt as well as for scabbard, but generally in the
former case and sometimes in the latter a thin sheet of copper with
gold plating enveloped the wood. Double barbs characterized the
arrowhead, and as these projected about 4+ inches beyond the shaft, a
bow of great strength must have been used, though of only medium
length. Armor does not seem to have been generally worn, or to
have served for covering any part of the body, except the head and
the breast. It was of iron, and it took the shape of thin bands of
metal, riveted together for casque and cuivass. Neither brassart,
visor, nor greavyes have been found in any dolmen, and though sole-
rets of copper are among the objects exhumed, they appear to have
been rather ornamental than defensive. As to shields, nothing is
known. No trace of them has been found, and it seems a reasonable
inference that they were not used. Horses evidently played an impor-
tant part in the lives of the second batch of immigrants, for horse
furniture constantly appears among the objects found in dolmens.
The bit is almost identical with the common *‘snaflle” of the Occident.
Made of iron, it has sidering or cheek pieces of the same metal, elab-
orately shaped and often sheeted with gilded copper. The saddle was
of wood, peaked before and behind and braced with metal bands, and
numerous ornaments of repoussé iron covered with sheets of gilt or
silvered copper were attached to the trappings. Among these orna-
ments a peculiar form of bell is present, an oblate hollow sphere, hay-
ing a long slit in its shell and containing a loose metal pellet. Stirrups
are seldom found in the dolmens, and the rare specimens hitherto
exhumed bear no resemblance to the large, heavy, shoe-shaped affairs
of later ages, but are rather of the Occidental type.
The costume of these ancient Japanese had little in common with
that of their modern descendants. They wore an upper garment of
woven stuff fashioned after the manner of a loosely fitting tunic, and
804 PRIMEVAL JAPANESF.
confined at the waist by a girdle, and they had loose trousers reaching
nearly to the feet. For ornaments they used necklaces of beads or of
rings —silver, stone, or glass; finger rings, sometimes of silver or gold,
sometimes of copper, bronze, or iron, plated with one of the precious
metals; ring-shaped buttons; metal armlets; bands or plates of gilt
copper, which were attached to the tunic; earrings of gold and tiaras.
Not one item in this catalogue, the tiara excepted, appears among the
garments or personal ornaments of the Japanese since their history
and habits began to be known to the outer world. No nation has
undergone a more radical change of taste in the matter of habiliments
and adornments. The earring, the necklace, the finger ring, the brace-
let, and the band or plate of metal attached to the tunic—all these
passed completely out of vogue so long ago that, without the evidence
of the contents of the dolmen, it would be impossible to conceive the
existence of such things in Japan. One of the most noteworthy
features of the people’s habits in medieval or modern times is that,
with the solitary exception of pins and fillets for the hair, they eschew
every class of personal ornament. Yet the dolmens indicate that per-
sonal adornments were abundantly, 1f not profusely, employed by the
ancestors of these same Japanese in prehistoric days. Indeed, the
only features common to the fashions of the Japanese as they are now
known and the Japanese as their sepulchers reveal them are the rich
decoration of the sword hilt and scabbard and of the war horse’s
trappings.
As to the food of these early people, it seems to have consisted of
fish, flesh, and cereals. They used wine of some kind, though of its
nature there is no knowledge, and their household utensils were of
pottery, graceful in outline, but unglazed and archaically decorated.
Whether or not they possessed cattle there is no evidence, nor yet is
it known what means they employed to produce fire, though the fire
drill appears to be the most probable.
That they believed in a future state is evident, since they buried
with the dead whatever implements and weapons might be necessary
in the life beyond the grave; that ancestral worship constituted an
important part of their religious cult is proved by the offerings period-
ically made at the tombs of the deceased; and that idolatry was not
practised or superstition largely prevalent may be deduced from the
complete absence of charms or amulets among the remains found in
their sepulchers.
THE KOREAN LANGUAGE.@
By Homer B. Huperr.
The Korean language belongs to that widely disseminated family to
which the term Turanian has sometimes been applied. This term is
sufliciently indefinite to match the subject, for scholarship has not yet
determined with any degree of exactitude the limits of its dispersion.
At its widest reach it includes Turkish, Hungarian, Basque, Lappish,
Finnish, Ouigour, Ostiak, Samoiyed, Mordwin, Manchu, Mongol (and
other Tartar and Siberian dialects), Japanese, Korean, Tamil, Telugu,
Canarese, Malayalam (and the other Dravidian dialects), Malay and a
great number of the Polynesian and Australasian dialects reaching
north along the coast of Asia through the Philippine Islands and
Formosa and south and east into New Guinea, New Hebrides, and
Australia.
The main point which differentiates this whole family of languages
from the Aryan and Semitic stocks is the agelutinative principle,
whereby declension and conjugation are effected by the addition of
positions and suffixes and not by a modification of the stem. In all
these different languages the stem of a word remains as a rule intact
through every formof grammatical manipulation. That Korean belongs
to this family of languages is seen in its strictly agglutinative char-
acter. There has been absolutely no deviation from this principle.
There are no exceptions. Any typical Korean verb can be conjugated
through its one thousand different forms without finding the least
change in the stem. A comparison of Korean with Manchu discloses
at once a family likeness and at the same time a comparison of Korean
with any one of the Dravidian dialects discloses a still closer kinship.
It is an interesting fact that not one of the Chinese dialects possesses
any of the distinctive features of this Turanian family. There is more
similarity between Chinese and English than between Chinese and any
one of the Turanian languages. In other words, China has been even
more thoroughly isolated linguistically than she has socially; and the
“Reprinted from The Korea Review, Seoul, Korea, Homer B. Hulbert, editor,
Vol. I, 1901, pp. 483-440.
805
806 THE KOREAN LANGUAGE.
evidence goes to prove that at some period enormously remote, after
the original Chinese had effected an entrance to the mighty amphi-
theater between the Central Asian mountains on the one hand and the
Pacific on the other, they were surrounded by a subsequent race who
impinged upon them at every point and conquered them not once or
twice, but who never succeeded in leaving a single trace upon her
unique and primitive language. This surrounding family was the
Turanian, and Korean forms one link in the chain. Korean bears
almost precisely the same relation to Chinese that English does to
Latin. English has retained its own distinct grammatical structure
while drawing an immense number of words from the romance dialects
for the purposes of embellishment and precision. The same holds
true of Korean. She has never surrendered a single point to Chinese
grammar, and yet has borrowed eagerly from the Chinese @lossary as
convenience or necessity has required. Chinese is the Latin of the
Far East, for just as Rome, through her higher civilization, lent thou-
sands of words to the semisavages hovering along her borders, so
China has furnished all the surrounding peoples with their scientific,
legal, philosophical, and religious terminology. The development of
Chinese grammar was early checked by the influence of the ideograph,
and so she has never had anything to lend her neighbors in the way
of grammatical inflection.
The grammars of Korea and Japan are practically identical; and
yet, strange to say, with the exception of the words they have both
borrowed from China their glossaries are marvelously dissimilar. This
forms one of the most obscure philological problems of the Far East.
The identity in grammatical structure, however, stamps them as sister
languages.
The study of Korean grammar is rendered interesting by the fact
that in the surrounding of China by Turanian peoples, Korea was the
place where the two surrounding branches met and completed the cir-
cuit. Northern Korea was settled from the north by Turanian people.
Southern Korea was settled from the south by Turanian people. — It
was not until 193 B. c. that each became definitely aware of the pres-
ence of the other. At first they refused to acknowledge the relation-
ship, but the fact that when in 690 a. p. the southern kingdom of
Sil-la assumed control of the whole peninsula there remained no such
line of social cleavage as that which obtained between the English and
the Norman after 1066, shows that an intrinsic similarity of language
and of racial aptitude quickly closed the breach and made Korea the
unit that she is to-day.
Korean is an agelutinative, polysyllabie language whose deyvelop-
ment is marvelously complete and at the same time marvelously syim-
metrical. We find no such long list of exceptions as that which
entangles in its web the student of the Indo-European languages. In
THE KOREAN LANGUAGE. 807
Korean as in most of the Turanian languages the idea of gender is very
imperfectly developed, which argues perhaps a lack of imagination.
The ideas of person and number are largely left to the context for
determination, but in the matter of logical sequence the Korean verb
is carried to the extreme of development.
The Korean’s keen sense of social distinctions has given rise toa
complete system of honorifics, whose proper use is essential to a
rational use of the language. And yet numerous as these may be their
use is so regulated by unwritten law and there are so few exceptions
that they are far easier to master than the personal terminations of
Indo-European verbs. The grammatical superiority of Korean over
many of the western languages is that while in the latter differences
of gender, number, and person, which would usually be perfectly clear
from the context, are carefully noted, in the Korean these are left to
the speaker’s and the hearer’s perspicacity and attention is concentrated
upon a terse and luminous collocation of ideas; which is often secured
in the west only by a tedious circumlocution.
The genius of the language has led the Korean to express every pos-
sible verbal relation by a separate modal form. The extent to which
this has been carried can be shown only by illustration. Besides
having simple forms to express the different tenses and the different
modes, indicative, potential, conditional, imperative, infinitive, it has
simple forms to express all those more delicate verbal relations which
in English require a circumlocution or the use of various adverbs.
tingency, surprise, reproof, antithesis, conjunction, temporal sequence,
logical sequence, interruption, duration of time, limit of time, acqui-
escence, expostulation, interrogation, proiwwise, exhortation, impreca-
tion, desire, doubt, hypothesis, satisfaction, propriety, concession,
intention, decision, probability, possibility, prohibition, simultaneity,
continuity, repetition, infrequency, hearsay, agency, contempt, ability,
and many other relations. Each one of these ideas can be expressed
in connection with any active verb by the simple addition of one or
more inseparable suffixes. By far the greater number of these suffixes
are monosy|lables.
To illustrate the delicate shades of thought that can be expressed by
the addition of a suffix, let us take the English expression ‘*I was
going along the road, when suddenly !’ This, without anything
more, implies that the act of going was interrupted by some unfore-
seen circumstance. This would be expressed in Korean by three
little words na-ga=‘'I,” kil-e=‘‘along the road,” ka-ta-ga=‘' was
going, when suddenly ——.” The stem of the verb is ka and the sud-
den interruption of the action is expressed by the ending ta-ga; and,
what is more, this ending has absolutely no other use. It is reserved
sm 1908——52
SO8 THE KOREAN LANGUAGE.
solely for the purpose of expressing succinctly this shade of thought.
The little word kal-ka of which ka is the stem, meaning ‘‘ go,” con-
tains all the meaning that we put into the words **I wonder now
whether he will really go or not.” Someone asks you if you are going,
and all you need to say is ‘*ka-na” to express the complete idea of
** What in the world would I be going for? Absurd!”
Another thing which differentiates Korean from the languages of
the west is the wide difference between book language and spoken
language. Many of the grammatical forms are the same in both, but
besides these there is a full set of grammatical endings used in books
only while at the same time there are many endings in the vernacular
that could never be put in print. The result is very unfortunate, for
of necessity no conversation can be written down verbatim. It must
all be changed into indirect discourse, and the vernacular endings
must largely be changed to the book endings. This must not be
charged up against the Korean, for it came in with the Chinese, and
is but one of the thousand ways in which their overpowering influ-
ence, in spite of all it has done for Korea, has stunted her intellectual
development. We would not imply that these literary endings are
borrowed from the Chinese, for such is rarely the case; but as Korea
has little literature except such as has grown up beneath the wing of
China, it was inevitable that certain endings would be reserved for the
formal writing of books while others were considered good enough
only to be bandied from mouth to mouth. It is of course impossible
to say what Korea would have accomplished had she been given a free
rein to evolve a literature for herself, but we can not doubt that it
would have been infinitely more spontaneous and lifelike than that
which now obtains.
From a linguistic standpoint the Koreans are probably far more
homogeneous than any portion of the Chinese people lying between
equal extremes of latitude. There is in Korea no such thing as dia-
lects. There are different ‘‘ brogues” in the peninsula, and the Seoul
man can generally tell the province from which a countryman comes
by his speech. But it would be wide of the truth to assert that
Koreans from different parts of the country can not easily understand
each other. To be sure there are some few words peculiar to indi-
vidual provinces, but these are mutually known just as the four words
‘*ouess,” “reckon,” ‘‘allow,” and ‘‘ calculate,” while peculiar to cer-
tain definite sections of the United States, are universally understood.
A word in conclusion must be said regarding the laws of Korean
euphony. No people have followed more implicitly nature’s law in
the matter of euphony. It has not been done in the careless manner
that changed the magnificent name Caesar Augustus to the slovenly
Saragossa, but the incomparable law of the convertibility of surds
and sonants which is characteristic of the Turanian languages is
THE KOREAN LANGUAGE. SO9
worked out to its ultimate end in Korean. The nice adjustment of
the organs of speech whereby conflicting sounds are so modified as
to blend harmoniously is one of the unconscious Korean arts. Who
told them to change the labial surd ‘*p” of Ap-nok to its corresponding
labial nasal *‘m” before the following nasal, which leaves the eupho-
nious word annok: or to change the lingual nasal ‘‘n” of in-pi to its
corresponding labial nasal ‘‘m” before the labial surd ** p,” giving the
phonetically correct impi/ The evidence goes to show that the
euphonic tendency in Korea has not broken down the vocabulary as
is sometimes the case. Prof. Max Miller speaks of the law of pho-
netic decay; and rightly so, when the romance languages are under
discussion, but in Korea this law would better be called one of phonetic
adjustment. When rough stones are put together to form a roadbed,
if they are of good quality they work. down together, get their cor-
ners knocked off, and form a solid and durable surface; but if the
stone is poor the pieces will mutually pulverize each other and the road
will be worthless. The former of these processes represents phonetic
adjustment while the latter represents phonetic decay. The compar-
ative virility of French and Italian speech, in spite of phonetic decay,
is brought about by the compensating law of dialectic regeneration, but
the Portuguese language, for instance, shows no such vitality. Cross-
breeding is as necessary to the vitality of a language as grafting is to
the production of good fruit.
Another feature which specially characterizes Korean speech is the
great number of mimetic words, or, as they are sometimes called,
onomatopoeia. As Korean colors are drawn directly from nature, so
a great number of its words are phonetic descriptions. And the rea-
son why such primitive nature-words are still found intact in a lan-
guage so highly developed as the Korean is because the principle of
reduplication, common in all the Turanian languages, is carried to the
extreme in Korean. A reduplicated mimetic word carries on_ its
very face its mimetic quality, and consequently the very conspicuous-
ness of this quality has prevented change. Its very raison d’etre
being its phonetic description of the object or the act, a change in the
sound is rendered very unlikely. For instance, the Korean word
tul-btuk ttl buk means precisely what an English or an American boy
would express by the word ‘‘ker-splash!” which is itself keenly
mimetic. In Korean the syllable ttl, and in English the ‘* ker” rep-
resents the sharp spat with which a heavy body strikes the surface of
tbe water, and the Korean bik represents the heavy sound which fol-
lows when the water comes together over the object. In English the
splash represents rather the spray thrown up by the impact of the
water. It will readily be seen that the reduplication of the ttl-btk
would tend to secure permanency in the pronunciation. Mimetic
words in English have so often lost their evident mimetic quality; as
810 THE KOREAN LANGUAGE.
in the word ‘*sword,” which was originally pronounced with the ‘tw,”
in imitation of the sound of the weapon sweeping through the air, but
having lost the w sound it now has no phonetic significance. One
hardly needs a dictionary to learn the meaning of Korean onomato-
poeia. What could **jing-geu-rting jing-geu-ring” mean but the
jingle-jangle of bells or of the steel rings on the horses’ bridles? So
again mulsin mulsin means soft to the touch, based on the same idea
as our word ‘*mellow” in which the softest sounds of human speech,
**m” and ‘*l.” are used. On the other hand bak-bak means hard,
stiff, unyielding, after the analogy of our word ‘brittle,’ which
is doubtless mimetic. The Korean word whose stem is ch’i means to
strike or hit, and is the phonetic equivalent of our vulgar word
‘*chug,” whose mimetic origin can not be doubted. One must con-
clude that the prevalence of mimetic words in all languages forms a
serious obstacle to the study of philology, for attempts on the part of
widely separated people to producea phonetic description of an object,
quality, or act that is common to them both is most likely to result in
similar sounds. And these, later, form dangerous traps into which
the eager and unwary philologue is prone to fall.
It may be asked whether the Korean language is adapted to publie
speaking. We would answer that it is eminently so. For, in the
first place, it is a sonorous, vocal language. The Koreans say that in
any syllable the vowel is the ‘‘mother” and the consonant is the
**child,” showing that they have grasped the essential idea that vowel
sounds form the basis of human speech. The sibilant element is much
less conspicuous in Korean than in Japanese and one needs only to
hear a public speech in Japanese and one in Korean to discover the
vast advantage which Korean enjoys. Then again, the almost total
lack of accent in Japanese words is a serious drawback from the point
of view of oratory. So far as we can see there is nothing in Korean
speech that makes it less adapted to oratory than English or any other
western tongue. In common with the language of Cicero and Demos-
thenes, Korean is composed of periodic sentences, by which we mean
that each sentence reaches its climax in the verb, which comes at the
end; and there are no weakening addenda, such as often make the
English sentence ananticlimax. In this respect the Korean surpasses
English as a medium for public speaking.
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.?
By Prof. Wm. H. Burr,
Of the Isthmian Canal Commission.
The youngest of the American republics has almost the oldest history.
The Caribbean coast line of Colombia and of Panama was one of the
earliest localities visited by the old Spanish navigators. One of them,
Alonzo de Ojeda, visited a number of places along this coast in 1499
and 1501, while Columbus visited Porto Bello, 25 miles northeast of
Colon, and other places in 1502, during his last voyage. From those
dates onward all this portion of the Spanish main was constantly visited,
explored, and apportioned among Spanish officials. Many expeditions
of discovery were made inland, until all that northwesterly portion of
South America which has so long been known as Venezuela, Colombia,
and Ecuador was completely explored and a fair knowledge of its
resources, mineral and otherwise, obtained.
One of the most important incidents in these exploring expeditions
occurred when Vasco Nunez de Balboa, governor of the province in
Darien, first set out southward from his capital, Santa Maria de la
Antigua, prompted by what the Indians had told him, and from an
elevation on the divide north of the Gulf of San Miguel, discovered
the Pacific Ocean on the 25th day of September, 1513. Many of the
earliest historical events of the Republic of Panama are associated with
this intrepid explorer. He was on the Isthmus but a short period,
but his restless energy was ever prompting him to new enterprises of
exploration and aggrandizement of territory for his home government.
His remarkable career was cut short in 1517 by his execution at Acla,
on the Caribbean shore of the Gulf of Darien, by a jealous governor
of the province, who feared that Balboa’s fruitful enterprises might
give him sufficient éclat to make him the head of the new Spanish
territory in place of himself.
The Spanish discoverers found all this country, like others of South
and Central America, peopled with large numbers of Indians.
The territory constituting the present Republic of Panama, as well
as the northwesterly portion and west coast of South America, was
carefully scoured in search of the precious metals of which fabulous
«Reprinted by permission from The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. xv
No. 2, February, 1904.
?
811
812 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
stories were related by the natives, many of which were justified by
subsequent results. Balboa himself visited the Pear] Islands in the Bay
of Panama. These operations of the early Spaniards involved fre-
quent crossing of the Isthmus, and even before the death of Balboa
it became evident that the most practicable line of transportation was
that which is now known as the Panama route.
Many attempts were made to find other practicable routes across
the Isthmus between the Atrato River, emptying into the Gulf of
Darien, and the Chagres River, emptying into the Caribbean Sea 8
miles west of Colon, but the advantages of the Panama route were
promptly recognized by the Spaniards.
A territory, consisting largely of the present Panama, Colombia,
and Venezuela, was formed into the province of Tierra-firma. It was
the governor of this province, Pedro Arias de Avila, who, to
strengthen his authority, brought charges against Balboa, and after a
form of trial executed him at Acla. By the middle of the sixteenth
century large numbers of Spaniards had migrated to this country and
created flourishing centers of trade. About this time, in order to
secure amore suitable government for his colony, the Spanish emperor
created the presidency of New Granada, which was subsequently
raised to the rank of a viceroyalty in 1718, then including not only
Colombia and Venezuela but Ecuador also. The territory of the
Isthmus formed the northwestern arm of this Spanish appanage.
Like that of most Spanish colonies, the government of the country
was corrupt, being administered largely for the benefit of the favored
few in authority; but on the whole the country flourished, the popula-
tion increased, and trade extended along the lines of production of the
country.
THE REVOLUTION AGAINST SPANISH AUTHORITY.
The course of affairs in the viceroyalty continued without much
change until 1811. Many features of the Spanish rule had long borne
heavily upon the people and aroused such feeling that at last they broke
out into an insurrection against the home government. A continuous
war against the Spanish forces sent to put down the insurrection con-
tinued until 1824, when Spanish authority disappeared. Meantime
the Venezuelan patriot, Simon Bolivar, born in the city of Caracas in
1783, made his way into prominence in national affairs, and in 1819
completed a union of the three divisions of the country into the first
Republic of Colombia. This republic was short lived. Venezuela
withdrew in 1829 and Ecuador in 1830. The creation of the Republic
of New Granada followed in 1831, but its constitution was not formed
until 1832. Under it the territory was divided into eighteen provinces.
The president of the new republic held office four years. The course
of affairs was much disturbed, and a civil war broke out after one or
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 813
two presidential terms and did not close until 1841. In 1840 the proy-
ince of Cartagena seceded from the new republic, and immediately
thereafter the neighboring provinces of Panama and Veragua took the
same step. This was the first period of independence of the Isthmus
of Panama. The revolting States were soon reunited under a consti-
tution reformed in 1843. The Republic of New Granada enjoyed little
tranquillity, being subject to domestic disturbances of greater or less
magnitude almost continuously, but various measures signifying gen-
eral advancement in civilization were adopted from time to time.
Among those was one by which slavery was entirely abolished in
1852.
An important alteration of the constitution took place in 1853,
under which the provinces were merely federated into the Republic,
each being granted the right to assume its independence at any time.
This right under the constitution was asserted by Antioquia and
Panama in 1856 and 1857, this being the second independence of the
Province of Panama. Stormy times followed these national upheavals,
and the independence of the provinces was not long undisturbed. A
congress at Bogota established a republic under the name of the
United States of Colombia in 1861, adopting a new federal constitu-
tion for the purpose of including all the territory hitherto held by
the Republic of Colombia, including the Isthmus of Panama. The
opposite party, however, victorious in the western portion of the
country, declined to acknowledge the authority at Bogota. Internal
disturbances of all degrees, including the assassination of leaders and
bloody battles, constituted the programme until 1862, when the oppos-
ing parties came to terms to a sufficient extent to permit the appoint-
ment of a provincial government and the drawing up of a constitution.
At this time another attempt, not successful, was made to reestablish
the former Republic of the three countries—V enezuela, Colombia, and
Ecuador—but under the constitution adopted May 8, 1863, the Republic
of Colombia was erected, and it has endured to the present time. Insur-
rections and internal disorganizations prevailed for a number of years,
and the history of the Republic has been accentuated by frequent
revolutions, many of which have taken place in Panama.
EXTENT OF THE PRESENT REPUBLIC.
This brings us to the consideration of the Republic of Panama as it
now stands, having declared its independence on November 3, 1903.
The Republic of Panama is identical in territorial limits with the
Department of Panama of the Republic of Colombia. This Depart-
ment extended from Costa Rica on the west toa line drawn first nearly
due south from Cape Tiburon at the southern limit of the Gulf of
Darien, then southwesterly to a point on the Pacific coast a short dis-
tance southeast of Punta Cocalito. This last or eastern limit of the
814 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
Department of Panama is almost entirely along the divide between the
Atrato River and the watershed draining into the Gulf of San Miguel.
The Republic of Panama lies between the parallels of 7° 15’ and 9~
north latitude, and also between 77> 15’ and 82° 30’ longitude west
from Greenwich. Approximately speaking, therefore, its extreme
length east and west is about 350 miles, and its extreme width north
and south 120 miles. Its population is not well determined, but. it
probably does not exceed 300,000. This population is largely com-
posed of people of Spanish descent, but there are also large numbers
of negroes, who have come chiefly from Jamaica during the construct-
ine work conducted by the old Panama Company. A few Chinamen
have also found their way to the Isthmus and become permanent resi-
dents. The native Indians are also occasionally seen on the zone of
population between Panama and Colon. These races have been min-
gled in all conceivable proportions, so that the features or racial
characteristics of one or more, or even all of these various national-
ities, may be traced in the face of a single individual. Some of the old
Spanish families have still retained the purity of their blood and are
among the prominent people of the Isthmus. Its entire area is about
31,600 square miles, or about the area of the State of Indiana.
The Cordillera forming the main mountain ridge extending from
South to North America and constituting the continental divide runs
through the entire length of the Republic of Panama, in the eastern
portion the divide being much nearer the Caribbean Sea than the
Pacific Ocean, while in the western portion its location is more nearly
central. The low notch or saddle in the Cordillera near the city of
Panama, with a summit elevation about 300 feet above sea level, the
lowest throughout the Central American Isthmus except at Nicaragua,
affords the railroad location built upon nearly fifty years ago and the
recommended route for the Isthmian ship canal.
Not less than one-half of the entire territory of the Republic is
mountainous and covered with luxuriant tropical vegetation, including
heavy forest trees, some of which are among the highly valuable woods.
These forests are practically trackless. Tribes of Indians, not in large
numbers, live along the Caribbean coast between Panama and Darien,
and also on the southern slopes. Some of these Indians preserve
jealously their isolation, and have never acknowledged the sovereignty
of any government.
PANAMA RAILROAD.
The most prominent feature of the Republic of Panama is the
Panama Railroad and the partially constructed canal, with the adjacent
strip of territory, including the cities and towns, with their aggregated
business or industrial centers, along the line from Colon to Panama.
This railroad, a single-track line of 5 feet gauge, was built nearly
fifty years ago. It is but 49 miles long! and it is conducted practically
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 815
as an American railroad corporation, although it is owned by the new
Panama Canal Company. The principal offices of the company are in
the city of New York. This company does not confine itself wholly to
railroad business, but owns and conducts the line of steamers running
between the ports of New York and Colon under the name of. the
Panama Railroad-Steamship Company.
The railroad forms a line of land transportation to which converges
marine commerce from many widely separated ports of the world.
On the Pacific side steamship lines plying up and down the west coast
of South America, and the Pacific mail steamships touching along the
North and Central America coast from San Francisco southward,
together with otber ships approaching from the Pacific Ocean, have
made Panama their terminal port for many years. The port of Colon
has an equally extensive ocean shipping business, with not less than
nine or ten steamship lines from Spain, France, England, Germany,
Italy, and the United States, making it either a terminal port or port
of call. In addition to these ocean steamship lines there is a little
coasting trade of a local character on both sides of the Isthmus carried
on in small sailing vessels.
The Panama Railroad has always been a prominent transportation
line, along which currents of commerce and streams of passenger traf-
fic, fed by the steamship lines on the two oceans, have continuously
flowed.- Latterly a considerable banana trade has also sprung up along
the railroad line.
RELATION OF THE ISTHMUS TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.
The location of the Isthmus is markedly central to that portion of
she through commerce of the world which would be served by the
Panama Canat. It is practically a halfway station between the ports
of eastern Asia, Australia, and the islands between and the ports of
Europe. It is believed that the opening of the canal will create a
highly stimulating influence upon the trade between the west coast of
South America and the ports of the United States—a business which
has hitherto been developed chiefly with foreign ports. The geograph-
ical relation of the Republic of Panama to some of the principal ports
of the world is shown by the following statement of the distances in
nautical miles to be sailed by steam vessels on the respective trips
indicated:
Miles.
Bromeban amartonsals eran CisCOhese aoe aan eae oe ee see Renee Cee a ALA
Brom Anam avtoO ze Ono les See oa ee enn ye en ee 4, 665
irom hanam a, tom woke hamames se 6 yas ae es Seek ee Se ee 8, 065
HVOMM LAN AMA TONS ae haga ere N ae rie ene ert Steen ee es | eS 8, 985
Bromsi@olonwton Ne waworkse = spe eee ones beh ee eh ees es ee os 1, 981
KromsGolonsto) livenpoolwcee sepa ese oe ee ee ee oP as Ra 4,720
Brom'ColonstoyNews Orleans year aoe en ee ee eh ee 1, 380
816 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
RESOURCES OF THE REPUBLIC.
The mineral resources of the Republic of Panama are practically
undeveloped, although it is known that there are considerable deposits
of coal of fair quality —perhaps of excellent quality—not far from the
‘railroad and Canal Zone. The precious metals are found in small
quantities at many points, with indications of greater value; but these
resources, like many others of the new Republic, are in such an unde-
veloped stage that no definite statement can be made as to their poten-
tial value.
The agricultural resources of the country are greater than ordinar-
ily supposed. There is excellent grazing land near Colon, along the
Panama Railroad, and within a few miles of the city of Panama.
Farther west, in the Chiriqui district, and on the Pacific side of that
portion of the Isthmus, there are extensive stretches of country well
adapted to agricultural purposes, both for grazing and for the raising
of all those tropical products which grow in such luxuriance through-
out the fertile portions of Central America and the Isthmus. Fine
grades of stock in substantial numbers are already found on some
portions of the Isthmus, and dairy farming is already conducted in the
vicinity of Panama.
Large stretches of native forests of valuable timber, such as mahog-
any, both light and dark, and other similar woods are found throughout
the Republic, but are yet practically undeveloped. Such valuable
tropical products as cacao, bananas of all kinds, sugar cane, indigo,
cotton, tobacco, vanilla, corn, rice, and other similar products grow
in abundance, and conditions of systematic industry only are needed
to develop them into sources of great wealth to the country. Under
the encouraging influences of a stable government, where life and
property are respected, the national resources of the Republic of
Panama will be productive of an amount of wealth which, if stated in
a quantitative way, would now bé incredible, in view of the crude and
depressed conditions of industry which have prevailed from the begin-
ning of its history to the present time.
COMMUNICATION.
There are pract‘cally no roads found in the Republic except those of
a crude and ill-kept kind near to the cities or towns along the line of
the Panama Railroad Company between Colon and Panama. The only
marked exception to this statement is the old so-called Royal road
built between Cruces, on the upper Chagres, to Panama, a distance of
about 17 miles. This old road, formerly a crudely paved way, was
traveled by passengers crossing the Isthmus before the construction
of the Panama Railroad. This traffic found its way up the Chagres
River to the small native town of Cruces, now containing a few scores
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 817
of people, and then passed overland from that point either on foot or
horseback, or by such crude vehicles as the country afforded, to Pan-
ama. It was by this route that many people went to California during
the gold excitement of 1849 and the years immediately following.
This road has been abandoned for many years, as has the ancient road
from Portobello to Panama.
The greater portion of the territory of the Republic is of small
elevation, with many large marshes along the seacoast. Even the
mountainous portions east and southeast of the railroad, forming the
Darien country, are not high, probably in no case exceeding an eleva-
tion of 2,800 feet. The arable Jand on either side of the Isthmus is
mostly grcund of low elevation.
CLIMATE.
The climate of the Isthmus is thoroughly tropical in character, but
it is by no means entitled to the bad name which is so frequently given
to it. In speaking of this climate, all business and social activity in
the Republic of Panama 1s so centered in the vicinity of the railroad
line, which is also practically the proposed canal route, that observa-
tions as to climatic or other conditions apply strictly to this vicinity,
although they are practically the same for other parts of the Republic.
At Panama the Isthmus is scarcely more than 40 miles wide. The
proximity of the two oceans necessarily affects the climate in a marked
manner. The continental divide at this location is low, rising to an eleva-
tion but little more than 300 feet above mean sea level. Winds there-
fore blow across the entire Isthmus almost unobstructed. Under the
tropical sun the evaporation from the two oceans is rapid, and the conse-
quence is an atmosphere highly charged with aqueous vapor at nearly
all times. The high temperature of the tropical climate is therefore
accentuated with great humidity, which is eneryating to a marked
degree to those who have been bred in a temperate climate.
The temperature at Colon, on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus, not
often rises above 90° F., although it occasionally reaches 98~ or even
a little higher, as in December, 1885 (98.2°), and January and March,
1886 (98.2°), the latter year being an unusually hot one. The mean
of the maximum monthly temperature that year was 95.2° F. The
usual maximum monthly temperature ranges from about 85° F. to
about 91° or 92> F. The minimum monthly temperature usually
ranges from about 60> F. to about 75° F., the mean minimum monthly
temperature being but little under 70° F. The mean temperature
throughout the year is not far from 80° F. The interior points of the
Isthmus, such as Gamboa and Obispo, about halfway across the Isth-
mus on the railroad line, generally experience maximum temperatures
perhaps 2 or 3 degrees higher than at Colon, and minimum tempera-
tures perhaps 3 or 4 degrees lower than at that point. On the Pacitic
818 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
side the temperature may run a degree or two higher than at Colon.
For all ordinary purposes it may be stated that there is no sensible
difference in temperature on the two sides of the Isthmus, nor in other
climatic conditions except the rainfall, which differs sensibly. On the
high ground at Culebra, where the canal and railroad lines cut the
continental divide, and where the elevation is from 200 to 300 feet
above sea level, the air is cooler and dryer than at either seacoast.
These figures show that the ruling temperatures on the Isthmus are
not so high as those shown by the hottest weather of a New York or
Washington summer; but the temperatures, such as they are on the
Isthmus, continue without material abatement.
The low latitude of the Isthmus of Panama, the farthest point north
lying in latitude 9°, brings the sun at the zenith twice during the year,
once at noon on April 13 on its journey northward, and the second
time at noon on August 29, on its return southward toward the win-
ter solstice. At the summer solstice its elevation above the north
horizon is 75> 41’ and 57° 24’ above the south horizon at the winter
solstice. These conditions introduce an approach to uniformity in the
temperature of the varying seasons, as they also produce opposite
prevailing winds in different portions of the year. As the direct rays
of the sun tend to cause the hot air to rise vertically under it during
those portions of the year when the sun is north of the zenith, the
prevailing winds are southerly or southwesterly, but when it is south
of the zenith the same causes make the prevailing winds from north
or northeasterly. It is in this portion of the year when at rare inter-
vals the northers blow into the harbor of Colon with such severity as
to require ships found in it to put to sea for their safety.
The year on the Isthmus is divided into the dry season and the wet
season. The dry season covers the four months of January, Febru-
ary, March, and April, during which little or no rain falls. The wet
season is composed of the remaining eight months of the year, the
wettest portions being usually in May and in October. The rainfall
on the Caribbean side—i. e., at Colon—is considerably greater than
either in the interior or on the Pacifie side, its annual amount usually
ranging from about 85 to nearly 155 inches, with an average of about
125 to 130 inches. In the interior, as at Gamboa or Bas Obispo, the
annual precipitation varies ordinarily from about 75 to nearly 140
inches, with an average of 90 to 95 inches. The total precipitation at
Panama, however, may vary from about 45 to about 85 inches per
annum, with an average of about 66 to 67 inches. As the average
annual precipitation in New York or Washington may vary approxi-
mately from 40 to 50 inches, it is seen that the wet season in the
Republic of Panama exhibits relatively high rainfall, although not
more than about one-half of that which occurs at Greytown, in
Nicaragua.
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 819
During the wet months there are some phenomenal downpours,
with the effect of turning rivers into torrents, and this is particularly
the case with the Chagres River, the principal river of the Republic,
which empties into the Caribbean Sea about 8 miles west of Colon.
Passing up this river from its mouth, its general course lies southeast
for a distance of nearly 30 miles to Obispo. Still passing upstream,
its course at this point turns sharply to the northeast. From Obispo
for a distance of about 23 miles downstream the course of the Panama
Railroad and the line of the proposed canal follow the Chagres River
to the lowlands adjoining the Caribbean coast. In the other direction,
however, both the railroad and the canal leave the river at Obispo and
cut through the continental divide toward Panama, the Panama end of
the canal being about 20 miles from Obispo.
VARIOUS PROJECTS FOR A SHIP CANAL.
At the present time the greatest interest centering on the Republic
of Panama, aside from the remarkable unanimity with which the
people of the Isthmus as a unit declared and secured their independ-
ence through a single, effective, but bloodless effort, is that which
attaches to the proposed ship canal connecting the two oceans practi-
cally along the line of the Panama Railroad. The project of an
isthmian ship canal is almost as old as the discovery of the Isthmus,
for it is nearly 400 years ago that the Spaniards themselves seriously
discussed this enterprise. As early as 1520 the Spanish monarch,
Charles V, directed a survey to be made for the purpose of determin-
ing the feasibility of an isthmian ship canal. From that time until
this the project of a ship canal across the Isthmus has been actively
discussed, although as a result of that early survey the Spanish gov-
ernor declared ** that such a work was impracticable, and that no king,
however powerful he might be, was capable of forming a junction of
the two seas, or of furnishing the means of carrying out such an
undertaking.” The followers of the Spanish governor were less
easily discourged than he.
The ship-canal enterprise gathered advocates from one century to
another, until, during the nineteenth century and the first years of the
twentieth, many careful surveys of possible routes across the Isthmus
were made. | The principal of those lying in the Republic of Panama,
beginning with the most easterly, are the Caledonia route, the San
Blas route, and the Panama route. The Caledonia route has at times
attracted much attention on account of the highly colored but abso-
lutely false accounts rendered of it by one or two early explorers.
The northern extremity of this route, at Caledonia Bay, is about 165
miles east of Colon, and crosses the Isthmus in the main in a south-
westerly direction. The surveys of the Isthmian Canal Commission
showed that the elevation of the divide at this point and the heavy
820 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
work to be done along its line were far too great to permit its feasi-
bility being considered in comparison with that of the Panama route.
The San Blas route, the Caribbean end of which is on the Gulf of San
Blas, is about 60 miles east of Colon. This route has the distinguish-
ing characteristic of being located on probably the shortest line
between the tide waters of the two oceans on the Isthmus, this distance
being scarcely 30 miles. The short length of this line has secured for
it a number of earnest advocates. It also was subject to survey by
the engineering parties of the Isthmian Commission. The elevation
of the divide at this crossing is so great as to necessitate the consider-
ation of a ship tunnel from 5 to 7 miles long, the canal being planned
as a sea-level waterway. The great cost of a canal on this line and
the hazards attending such a construction as a ship tunnel rendered
this route, like the Caledonia line, neither practicable nor feasible,
compared with the Panama route.
Many surveys and examinations have been made at different cross-
ings of the Central American isthmus between Tehuantepec, in Mex-
ico, and the eastern limit of the Republic of Panama. As earnest and
as enthusiastic as the supporters of other routes have been, the most
complete and exact surveys and estimates have shown that the Panama
route embodies the greatest number of advantages of any line ever
considered for a ship canal between the two oceans. It is a tribute to
the sagacity and good judgment of the old Spanish explorers that they
also settled upon practically this route as the most feasible and prac-
ticable for the same purpose.
The proposed Panama line, favorably reported upon by the Isthmian
Canal Commission and now adopted as the basis of the treaty being
negotiated between the United States and the Republic of Panama,
begins at Colon and extends in a southeasterly direction to a point on
the bay of Panama near the city of that name, and has a total length
of 49.07 miles between the six-fathom curves in the two oceans. At
the present time the city of Colon has a population of probably about
3,000 people, while the city of Panama has a population of perhaps
25,000 people. The population scattered along the line of the railroad
may add 10,000 to 15,000 more, making a total of perhaps 40,000 to
45,000 people in the 10-mile strip of territory between the two oceans
within which the railroad is found and the canal will be built.
THE PLAN OF DE LESSEPS.
This canal route is that which was adopted at the International
Scientific Congress convened in Paris in May, 1879, under the auspices
of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the concession for the canal having been
obtained from the Republic of Colombia in the preceding year by
Lieut. L. N. B. Wyse, a French naval officer. This congress not only
selected the Panama route, but also decided that the waterway to be
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Burr. PLATE I.
Fic. 1.—ONE OF THE HOSPITAL BUILDINGS ON THE HILL BACK OF PANAMA.
Bid. ay 7
a hg
- eseh es
hat
Fia. 2.—LOW TIDE IN THE HARBOR OF PANAMA.
The range of tide at Panama is 20 feet, and at Colon only 1 foot.
Smithsonian Report, 1903 —Burr PLATE Il.
bie ©
POPP “eden Me eee, or oo :
‘Z : ae oe oy
Se, 8 % me ray
Fig. 2.—THE CULEBRA CUT.
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 821
constructed should be a sea-level canal. A company entitled **Com-
pagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique,” and commonly known as
the Old Panama Canal Company, was immediately organized to con-
struct the work. After various efforts it financed the enterprise and
began work, which was prosecuted until May 15, 1889, when the com-
pany went into bankruptcy, and its effects were put into the hands of
a liquidator—an officer of the French court corresponding closely to
the American receiver.
Prior to the bankruptcy of the old company the project for a sea-
level canal was temporarily abandoned in the hope that the funds
available might be sufficient for the construction of a lock canal.
After various vicissitudes the new Panama Canal Company was organ-
ized on the 20th of October, 1894. Work was resumed on the canal
immediately thereafter, and has been continued until the present time,
the force employed, however, being small. The old company raised
by the sale of stocks and bonds not far from $246,000,000, and it has
been stated that the number of persons holding the securities was over
200,000. .
When the concession for building the Panama Railroad was secured -
from the Colombian Government, control of all available transporta-
tion routes across the Isthmus in the territory of the present Kepublic
of Panama was covered by it. The construction of the ship canal by
the old Panama Canal Company was, therefore, subject to the rights
conveyed in the Panama Railroad concession. In order to control this
feature of the situation, therefore, the old Panama Company purchased |
nearly the entire stock of the railroad company, which thus became a
part of the assets of the new Panama Canal Company.
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE ISTHMIAN COMMISSION.
When the Isthmian Canal Commission made its first visit of investi-
gation of the canal routes four years ago, it found a large amount of
excavation and other work done along the line of the canal, as well as
a large amount of land, buildings, structures, and many plans and
papers, all constituting a part of the property of the new Panama
Canal Company. All this property was situated on the Isthmus,
except a mass of plans and papers in the office of the canal conipany
at Paris. The Commission, in its report under date of November 16,
1901, recommended, in case of selection of the Panama route, payment
of $40,000,000 to the new Panama Canal Company for all its property,
rights, and concessions connected with the unfinished canal. That
offer, as made by the United States Government, has since been
accepted by the French company.
The Isthmian Canal Commission adopted the French line for its
estimates, but made some material changes in the plans for the work.
The canal as planned by the Commission is a lock canal, its typical or
822 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
standard section for firm earth having a bottom width of 150 feet, a
minimum depth of water of 35 feet, and a top width of 269 feet. This
section is suitably modified for harbor sections, for sections in soft
ground, for sections in rock and in lakes and wherever required by
unusual conditions. These adopted sections would afford ample water-
way for the greatest ships afloat at the present time, as required by
the law creating the Commission.
The locks for this canal are great masonry constructions, having a
usable leneth of 740 feet with a clear width of 84 feet, more than
large enough to accommodate any vessel now afloat or planned to be
built.
Beginning at the 6-fathom curve in the harbor of Colon, the canal
is planned to be excavated for a distance of 7 miles through the low,
marshy grounds in that vicinity to Gatun, where the line meets the
Chagres River. From that point to Bohio, about 17 miles from Colon,
a little east of south from the point of starting, the canal would be
excavated generally along the marshy lowlands through which the
Chagres River flows in that vicinity, cutting the course of that river
four or five times. This 17-mile section of the canal is a sea-level
section, but at Bohio is found a comparatively narrow place in the
valley of the Chagres River with rock outcroppings on one side and
at which a dam may be built. At this point it was the purpose of the
French company also to build a dam, but the Isthmian Canal Com-
-mission provisionally located its dam at a site nearly half a mile
downstream from that of the French dam, and proposes to build it
materially higher.
GREAT DAM AT BOHIO.
This dam would retain behind it the waters of the Chagres River at
an elevation varying from 85 feet to 90 or 92 feet above mean sea level,
thus forming what has been called Lake Bohio. It would back up the
water of the Chagres River for a distance of about 20 miles, through
about 14 of which the course of the canal would be laid. Lake Bohio
would constitute the summit level of the canal, and would be reached
by two great masonry locks built together, i. e., in series near one
end of the dam at Bohio, the lift of each one of these two locks being
45 feet asa maximum. These locks would be built as twin structures,
so that if an accident should happen to one side the other side would
still be available for use, and thus save the operation of the canal from
being broken. A great ledge of rock affords an excellent site for the
construction of these locks.
The building of this great dam at Bohio, with its top nearly 100
feet above the water in the river in its normal condition, is one of the
great works of the entire canal construction. As the safety and oper-
ation of the canal would depend entirely upon the stability of this
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. $23
dam, the Commission recommended a plan of construction by which a
masonry core wall 30 feet thick at the bottom and 8 feet at the top
would be built up from the rock beneath the bed of the river to the
top of the dam, thus efficiently preventing all leakage of water through
the porous sand and gravel, of which large portions of the substrata
beneath the river bed are composed.
As the top of this dam would have an elevation of 100 feet above
the sea, and as the highest water in Lake Bohio would be 8 feet lower
than that elevation, no water would ever overflow this dam, but the
surplus of flood waters of the Chagres River would be discharged over
a masonry spillway about 3 miles from the dam. The spillway weir
would be of masonry and about 2,000 feet long. Its location is ina
notch or depression in the ridge between the headwaters of a small
tributary of the Chagres called the Gigante and the valley of the Cha-
gres River. The crest of this 2,000-foot-long overflow would be 85
feet above sea level. It is estimated that with the greatest flood pos-
sible in the Chagres River the depth of water on the overflow weir
would not be greater than 7 feet. During a great flood, therefore,
the river would discharge into this lake, and its waters would accumu-
late there until deep enough to run over the masonry spillway. With
the flood in a rising stage, the amount flowing over the spillway would
increase up to the greatest flood height, after which the rate of dis-
charge over the spillway would decrease. This regulation of the
Chagres floods, therefore, takes care of itself. It requires no atten-
tion. After discharging over the spillway, the flood waters would
flow through an artificial channel down into the Chagres River beyond
any of the canal works and where no damage would be done.
About 10 miles up the Chagres from Obispo, at a point called Alha-
juela, there is an excellent site fora dam. It has been proposed to
build at this Alhajuela site a great masonry dam for the purpose of
impounding flood waters of the Chagres River to the extenf of the
storage capacity behind the dam, and so reduce the flood effects in
Lake Bohio. This storage reservoir would also act as a source of feed
water for the canal, should the traffic on it in the future become so
large as to require this additional supply.
CULEBRA CUT.
From Obispo, 30 miles from Colon, the canal line runs toward the
southeast through the continental divide in a direct course toward
Panama, and for nearly 7 miles from Obispo a great cut has to be
made through the high ground forming that divide. Fora distance of
about 5 miles from Obispo this is known as the Emperador Cut,
beyond which les a mile anda half known as the Culebra Cut. The
greatest depth of this cut at Culebra is about 250 feet, and the amount
of material to be removed in this stretch of 7 miles of canal excaya-
-o
vo
sm 1903
824 ; THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
tion is about 43,000,000 cubic yards. It is the greatest single feature
of the entire canal construction.
The summit of Bohio Lake level ends ata point called Pedro Miguel,
about 14 miles southeasterly of the Culebra Cut and 38 miles from
Colon, where is located a flight of two locks arranged in twin plan like
the others, each one of the pair having a lift varying from 27 to 31
feet, according to the varying height of water in Lake Bohio. By
means of these two locks the water surface in the canal is brought
down to an elevation about 28 feet above sea level. The last lock on
the line is at a point called Miraflores, a little less than a mile and a
half from the Pedro Miguel locks. From Miraflores to the end of the
canal, at a point called La Boca on the Bay of Panama, is less than 5
miles, and this portion of the canal constitutes what may be called the
Pacific section or level. :
The water of this Pacific section of the canal rises and falls coinci-
dentally with the tides in the Bay of Panama, and as the range of tide
in that bay is about 20 feet, the Miraflores lock is largely a tidal lock.
Its minimum lift, therefore, at high tide, is 18 feet, while the maxi-
mum lift at low tide is 38 feet. It is obvious from these tidal condi-
tions that if the canal were constructed as a sea-level canal a tidal lock
would be needed at or near its Pacific end. That part of the canal
line between Miraflores and the Bay of Panama is located closely along
the course of the Rio Grande, which is mainly a tidal- river, its two
principal tributaries above Miraflores being Rio Pedro Miguel and ©
Rio Caimitillo, both being small and insignificant streams.
The length of the canal between the shore lines is about 44 miles,
although the length between the 6-fathom curves on the two sides of
the Isthmus, as has already been stated, is 49 miles, 13 of which le in
the artificial Lake Bohio. The creation of Lake Bohio would necessi-
tate the relocation and rebuilding of the railroad between Bohio and
Obispo, throwing it back upon higher ground.
_No canal with locks can be operated without provision for the water
used in taking boats through the locks, for evaporation, for seepage,
and for other purposes incident to the maintenance and operation of
the canal. At each lockage on the Panama Canal a lock full of water,
representing a volume nearly 750 feet long, 84 feet wide, and 45 feet
deep, would be used in the Bohio locks and about two-thirds as much
in the Pedro Miguel locks. This requires a large supply of water,
which the Isthmian Commission computed for all purposes to be 1,070
cubic feet per second for an annual traffic of 10,000,000 tons passing
through the canal. This water supply is afforded by the Chagres
River, and without it ox its equivalent the canal would not be possible.
In view of the complete system of self-control of the Chagres floods
by the Gigante Spillway, the Chagres River, instead of being an insur-
mountable obstacle to the construction and maintenance of the canal,
THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA. 825
as has at times been apprehended, is actually a gracious feature of the
canal environment, and by that automatic control it has been changed
from a sinister agent toa friendly power. Furthermore, while the
average discharge of the Chagres River is nearly three times the
quantity required for feeding the canal, there are times in the dry
seasons when the discharge of the river is not more than two-thirds of
the quantity required for that purpose. This deficiency is abundantly
made up by the storage in Lake Bohio until the traffic exceeds
10,000,000 tons annually. At that time the storage in the Alhajuela
reservoir will give an additional supply for an increase of traffic three
or four times as great as the volume which can be accommodated by
the storage in Lake Bohio.
ABOMINABLE SANITARY CONDITIONS.
The sanitary conditions of the Isthmus are at the present time
wretchedly bad. Neither Colon nor Panama has either a system of
water supply or a sewer system. The water used in Panama for
potable purposes is brought into the city in casks mounted on wheels
and drawn by mules from some more or less polluted source outside
of but near the city, or caught in cisterns from the rain water flowing
from roofs during the wet season, or in some other crude and usually
insanitary way.
There are a few drains in the city of Panama, constructed imme-
diately under the surface of the streets, with little or no regard to
grades. The water or sewage and decaying matter collecting in the
low portions of these drains and remaining there under the high tem-
perature of the climate make them far worse than no drains at all.
The lack of care and proper disposal of household and other refuse
creates the most unsanitary conditions imaginable. Those observations
may be emphasized for the smaller towns and villages between Colon
and Panama. As a consequence, yellow fever is probably always
present, and at times assumes epidemic form. Malarial fevers and
other similar diseases are also continually present under aggravated
forms. These conditions, however, are completely remediable by
means well known and available at the present time.
The entire Isthmus can be placed in a completely sanitary condition
so that its healthfulness shall be assured by resorting to methods and
means which have now become practically standard in the sanitation
of cities and towns. It is absolutely essential that waterworks, sup-
plying potable and wholesome water, be established for the cities and
larger towns, and concurrently therewith there must be established
suitable sewer systems with rational and sanitary disposal of sewage.
All these results are now perfectly practicable of attainment without
unreasonable cost or material difficulty. It will be imperative, how-
ever, that sanitary regulations be created, enforced, and maintained
826 THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA.
with the rigor of military discipline. Under such reasonable sanitary
conditions as it is entirely practicable to attain, and with proper
quarantine regulations, there is no reason why the Isthmus may not
be maintained entirely free of vellow fever or from other tropical
epidemics.
COST OF THE CANAL.
The United States Government has entered into a provisional
agreement to purchase the entire property of every description
and the rights of the new Panama Canal Company for the sum of
$40,000,000. The cost of completing the Panama Canal under the
plan of the Isthmian Canal Commission is estimated by that Commis-
sion at $144,233,358. The sum of these two amounts—S184, 233, 358—
represents the total cost of the construction of the Isthmian ship canal
by this rotite, to which should be added such additional costs as are
required to be incurred in securing the additional rights and con-
cessions necessary to enable the United States Government to enter
upon the Isthmus and begin the work.
The consummation of this great work is apparently close at hand.
The creation of the Republic of Panama has solved the difficulties
which had gathered about the negotiations of the requisite treaty, and
it will probably be but a short time before this, the greatest engineer-
ing work of the world, will be undertaken and carried to completion.
This achievement will not only create new lines of ocean commerce
and stimulate some of the older lines into new life, but it will also
bring the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the United States into much
closer communication than before, thus strengthening those bonds of
mutual interest and natural sympathy which lie at the foundation of
best national life. In this part of the world’s development the new
Republic of Panama becomes the center of the material activities
through which these great results will be accomplished, thus attaining
the fruition of four hundred years of effort. She is to be congratulated
in marking her entrance among the nations of the earth by opening
the way to the attainment of this world improvement and giving the
work the impetus of her national sanction.
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.¢
By F. H. Newe.t.
In charge of the Hydrographic Branch and Chief Engineer of the Reclamation Service,
U. S. Geological Survey.
Congress, in the spring of 1902, following the recommendations
made by President Roosevelt in his first message, took up the matter
of the reclamation of the arid West and on the 17th of June, a day
celebrated in American history, the President signed the bill known
as the reclamation law, setting aside the proceeds from the disposal
of public lands in thirteen Western States and three Territories for
Fic. 1.—Map showing arid, semi-arid, and humid regions of the United States.
. . . I * . =
the construction of irrigation works. At that time the matter
attracted little attention other than from those who were interested in
the measure. It was thought to be simply a western scheme which
had been successfully lobbied through against the opposition of the
« An address before the National Geographic Society, November 6, 1903. Reprinted
after revision by the author, from The National Geographic Magazine, Washington,
Vol. xv, No. 1, January, 1904.
827
828 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.
leaders of both parties. As time has gone on the people of the coun-
try have begun to appreciate more and more the importance of the
law not only to the West but to the country asa whole. It is now
appreciated that if that law is well administered it will mean much to
the future development of our country, and a complete change in some
physical and economic features.
As geographers we are interested in the development of the country
and in the changes that take place, and as citizens of the United States
we are concerned in seeing that every resource is put to its best use,
and that the country is developed to the fullest possible extent. The
object of the reclamation law is primarily to put the public domain
into the hands of small land owners—men who live upon the land,
support themselves, make prosperous homes, and become purchasers
of the goods manufactured in the East and the cotton raised in the
113° 109° 105°
T T
T
INCHES
IN
4 DEPTHS 7137
O—10
Fig. 2.—Map showing mean annual rainfallin the United States.
‘South. At the same time this is to be done in such a way that it will
not become a burden to the taxpayers.
The money for the reclamation fund is from the disposal of public
lands in the West. This money is returned again to the fund by
repayment by the persons who are directly benefited. This matter of
refunding is one of the most essential features of the law. Many con-
sidered this provision as trivial, but the more the effect of the law is
studied the more thoroughly is it demonstrated that this repayment is
one of the best safeguards of the law, keeping the administration
clean and business like. The requirement that each project must be
worth what it costs is a safeguard both in public and in private
undertakings.
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 829
Attacks upon the law have been made under the misconception that
the eastern farmer is taxed to make western farms valuable, and that
the Government will be victimized by the lands passing into the hands
of great corporations. These attacks would not be made if the men
who utter them would read the law. It is carefully guarded in every
respect, putting the lands into the hands of small owners and refund-
ing to the treasury the cost of reclaiming the land.
This matter of irrigation and of western reclamation is by no means
new. It has been discussed most thoroughly and persistently by one
of our prominent members now gone before, John Wesley Powell.
‘The Major,” as we all called him, in his early years made extensive
explorations in the West, studying its topography, geography, geol-
ogy, and ethnology. In the course of those researches he became
Fie. 3.—Map showing arid regions of the world—the humid regions shown in black.
greatly impressed with the great opportunities for development of this
western arid land. He talked this matter in season and out of season,
and many of his friends have said, ‘‘ Now, Major, if you will only
stop this irrigation talk we will do anything you want, but we can
not have that.” We are glad that he lived to see this law passed, and
though it was not exactly on the lines he sketched in his original
thesis, yet it follows his ideals. His report, written in 1876, is still
one of the classics to which all refer. “
BROAD PROVISIONS OF RECLAMATION LAW.
The reclamation law is short and quickly read; its terms are general
and it commits to executive discretion nearly all of the details which
“Lands of the Arid Regions, ete.
830 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.
make a law a success or a failure. It sets up a few large and impor-
tant safeguards, and says in effect to the Secretary of the Interior,
‘*Here is this money; take it and spend it for this purpose; get it back
in the Treasury and do the best you can with it.” That is unquestion-
ably the ideal condition, and the men who are working under it must
make it a suecess. They have no excuse fora failure. Congress has
been liberal, has given the Secretary wide discretion, and we have no
apparent excuse for not obtaining the best results which the conditions
will permit.
I have spoken of two or three of the large safeguards imposed,
namely, the putting of the land into the hands of small owners who
will live on it and cultivate it, and the refunding of the money to the
Treasury, the money to be used over and over again in a revolving
fund. When the law was passed the matter did not seem very impor-
tant. The‘amount of money involved did not seem large and the
opponents of the bill had little appreciation of the situation. It coy-
ered into the Treasury funds for the year 1901 and succeeding years,
as follows: For 1901, $8,000,000; for 1902, $4,000,000 more, and for
1903 about $8,000,000; in all, now about $15,000,000. The fund at the
present time is increasing rapidly.
y
5
THE RECLAMATION SERVICE.
The Secretary of the Interior, to whom the whole matter is com-
mitted, in commencing the work, decided to put it in the hands of a
man and an organization in whom he had and has confidence. Hon.
Charles D. Walcott, Director of the United States Geological Survey,
is the man whom the Secretary holds responsible for this work. He
in turn is assisted by several men who since 1888 have been measuring
the streams of the West, studying the water supply, and making an
examination to ascertain how the lands can be reclaimed by irrigation.
The Geological Survey has for years been making a topographic
map of the United States, and on that map are shown the streams, the
reservoir sites in or near the mountains, and many other facts which
are essential to a practical knowledge of the subject.
~ In addition to the topographic branch, the hydrographic division
has been measuring the waters which may be used or stored in these
reservoirs. It was practicable at the beginning of the work to take
experienced men out of the corps existing in the Geological Survey
and to add to these from time to time, through civil-service examina-
tions, men who are experienced in the actual construction and opera-
tion of irrigation systems. Now, there is an engineer corps of about
200 men, mostly young and active. A few have obtained age and
maturity of judgment and will hold these younger men in check. The
men are grouped in districts. At the head of each district is a man of
experience who has been State engineer, as in the case of Idaho, or
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 831
has had large practice in irrigation work. To him are assigned men
who have had more or less technical training. The plans made by
these engineers are submitted to a board of consulting engineers,
comprising men of wide experience and national repute.
The work extends over thirteen States and three Territories. These
sixteen political divisions comprise the largest of the United States
excepting Texas. Texas came into the Union as an independent
republic, owning its vacant lands, and hence the land laws of the rest
of the States are not applicable, nor is the law of June 17, i902. All
of the large western States are included. Thus the development of
nearly half of the United States is resting upon the best execution
of this law.
The problems are not merely those of engineering and constructing
great works. It is not sufficient to build canals and bring the water
where the people can get it; but, more than this, there are an infinitude
of problems to be solved, and great tact must be used with people.
When it comes to the question of dealing with water, men may be good
citizens, but they can not be implicitly trusted when it comes to the
question of water distribution. In Idaho they have the term ‘* winter
friendship.” During the summer every man is at war with his neigh-
bor over the division of water, but in the winter these troubles are
forgotten and everyone is on friendly terms. Summer is the time of
storm and strife in water affairs. So, in everything having to do with
water and its distribution, engineers must have not only knowledge
but good sense, tact, and firmness. To deal with the interests which
are concerned in the distribution of water and the reclamation of land,
it is necessary to organize the people into associations. These asso-
ciations under the law must ultimately control and operate the works;
through them the Secretary of the Interior can deal directly with a
body of people, and they can divide the water among themselves
and settle minor matters as best they can. The reclamation of the
West is not only a scientific problem, but, for ultimate success, involves
great tact and skill in administration.
THE PUBLIC LANDS.
The public lands are of many kinds, from densely forested areas
extending far up on the slopes of the high mountains of the Rockies
down to the vast low plains and wide spreading, trackless deserts.
Particular interest is attached to these high mountains and the forested
slopes, for upon these depend to a large extent the future prosperity
and the utilization of the agricultural lands of the West.
The extent of the forests is shown by diagram 5. In northern Cali-
fornia and along the Pacific coast in western Oregon and Washington
are the greatest forests remaining in the United States. Around the
832 THE RECLAMATION -OF THE WEST.
Yellowstone National Park and in the Rocky Mountain region in gen-
eral are other important forests. In considering any question con-
cerning the forests we must bear in mind that the word forest com-
prises a great variety of tree growth. In the East it usually means :
dense growth. Out in Colorado or Wyoming you can sometimes see
a half mile through what is called a forest. Thus, when we discuss
forests on the public lands there must be some explanation of what
kind of a forest we are talking about, if we are to be correctly under-
stocd
Railroad and wagon grants | RE disposed of Yj Indian reservations = Forest reservations
I'iG. 4.—Map showing location of vacant public lands.
A little serubby growth of cedar or pifon may have great value to
the pioneer, although it is not merchantable timber. These small
trees furnish the poles and the posts which are so necessary to the
settler. Even the small bushes and dwarfed junipers or mesquite may
supply the fuel which he must have for his home.
The present distribution of the public lands is exhibited by diagram
4. In black are the lands which have been taken up by individuals.
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 833
Much of this public land is now used for grazing, but there are many
thousand acres which with water will support hundreds of prosperous
homes.
Examining the map it is seen that on the eastern edge the black dots
representing settlements gradually thin out in western Nebraska, west-
ern Kansas, and eastern Colorado. Here is a vast extent of fertile but
Fig. 5.—Map showing location of forests and woodlands of the West—forests in black, woodlands
dotted,
dry country, where much of the land is in public ownership and the
remainder is held largely by mortgage or loan companies in the East.
This wonderfully attractive and in many ways rich country may
be called the famine belt. In it many attempts have been made, in
834 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.
vain, to secure permanent settlement, and thousands of industrious and.
hard-working settlers have been forced to leave by starvation. This
is due to the fact that the rains are erratic in character, and, on an
average, are just sufficient to produce good crops. In one year, or
series of years, large crops may be raised, and the report is widely
spread that here is the ‘‘ promised land;” no sooner has settlement
been established than the rains decrease slightly, or come at the wrong
season, crops are lost, and the settlers are forced to migrate.
This is also called the country of the ‘‘rain belters,” the phrase
originating from a popular belief that by the building of railroads, the
stringing of telegraph wires, the breaking up of the sod, and by other
human agencies the belt of permanent rainfall is extended westward.
This popular delusion has ensnared many emigrants, and even now it
is repeated by those whose hopes lead them to the belief that the rain-
fall is actually becoming more stable.
AREA WHICH CAN BE RECLAIMED.
The area of land which can be reclaimed by irrigation is relatively
small. If 2 or 3 per cent of the vast extent of arid lands of the United
States are ultimately reclaimed and put under cultivation it will
mean a population in the western half of the United States almost as
vreat as that now in the eastern half of the country. Figure 6 shows
the areas where it is probable that irrigation can be carried on, or
where it is now being carried on, and where it can further be extended.
If the West is developed to the extent that all these patches indicate
we will have a wonderful change in the social and commercial relations
of the United States as a whole.
The comparatively regular distribution of these irrigable lands in
‘ach State is notable. The entire extent of irrigation development
in each State is, of course, very small, but, if Iam correctly informed,
the proceeds from the small irrigated area in Colorado are already
ereater than from the mines.
The vacant lands of the arid West may be considered under three
distinct categories: (1) The irrigable land, which always will be rela-
tively insignificant as regards area, but of first importance as to
values; (2) forested areas, where the land has relatively little value
for agriculture, but is of great importance in producing perpetual
crops of wood or timber, and in protecting the water supply—this area
comprises probably from 10 to 20 per cent of the arid West; (8) the
great body of arid land which would be productive with water, but for
which an adequate supply can never be had—this includes 80 per cent
of the entire West, and is commonly spoken of as ‘‘ desert,” although
nearly every acre has some value for stock-raising purposes at one
time or another.
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 835
The irrigable land is being utilized through individual or corporate
enterprise, and through the reclamation law. ‘The forested areas are
being protected by the activities of the Bureau of Forestry, but there
remain the great tracts of grazing lands whose proper handling and
control is still a matter of doubt.
A thorough knowledge of the location, extent, and capabilities of
this vast grazing area must be had, and on the basis of this knowledge
wise statesmanship must be shown in either holding this land perpet-
ually, under suitable regulations, as an open commons for grazing or
of disposing of it to individuals in such a way as to form permanent
settlements and to create the largest number of homes. The grazing
problem is the third and last of the great public land questions, the
one which is still unsolved, and which, when satisfactorily settled,
will lead to increased prosperity for the entire country.
THE RECLAMATION FUND.
The reclamation fund comes from the disposal of lands in 13 States
and 3 Territories, and the amount is widely different in the different
States. The law provides that so far as practicable the amount shall
be spent in the State where it originates, but in fact the available
funds are almost always inversely apportioned to the needs of any
one State.
From Nevada, the State having the largest opportunity for develop-
ment, the amount of money is represented by a small amount, while
from North Dakota there has come an enormous fund. In the latter
State there is little possibility of general development by irrigation
because of the difficulty of finding irrigable lands and an adequate
water supply. North Dakota and Oregon and Oklahoma have large
funds. In Oklahoma, with its subhumid climate, there is little need
of irrigation, and in fact it is almost impossible to find any reclamation
project of considerable magnitude in that Territory.
PRESENT RECLAMATION WORK.
Examinations leading to construction are being carried on widely.
At the points where dams may be erected for water storage the
foundations must be studied, and for this purpose diamond drills are
used to ascertain the character of the bed rock. Work of construction
has been begun in two localities—one in Nevada and the other in
Arizona. In Nevada the work in hand is that on a canal to take water
from Truckee River into lower Carson reservoir site. Lake Tahoe,
at the head of the Truckee River, is the highest large lake in the
United States and in many respects is an ideal reservoir site, and its
waters, if wisely used, will go far to promote the prosperity of Nevada.
836 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.
In California, over the State line from Nevada, are opportunities for
water storage. In the mountains are little valleys in which water can
be held. It is impossible for Nevada, as a State, to utilize these reser-
voir sites, as it can not go across the State line. The National Goy-
ernment is alone capable of doing this work.
A dam put across Carson River near its lower end will flood back
the water and make an immense reservoir capable of supplying sey-
Fig. 6.—Map of irrigated and irrigable lands—irrigated areas in black, irrigable areas dotted.’
eral hundred thousand acres of land which is now absolutely desert
and almost impossible to cross.
The interstate character of these problems of reclamation is exceed-
ingly complicated. The Rio Grande, rising in Colorado and flowing
through New Mexico, forms the boundary between Texas and Mexico:
the Arkansas rises in Colorado and flows through Kansas, Oklahoma,
Indian Territory, and Arkansas; the South Platte and North Platte
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 3 837
flow from Wyoming into Nebraska; the headwaters of the Colorado
rise in Wyoming and Colorado, flow through Utah, and form the
boundary between Arizona, Nevada, and California. Nearly all the
important rivers of the arid West rise either in Colorado or Wyoming,
in the mountain ranges crossing these States, and flow out from these
areas, furnishing water for adjoining States. This interstate charac-
ter of the streams has been held as one of the reasons for Federal
CUM aT
So
Fic. 7.—Map showing approximate location and extent of open range in the United States.
The stock raising or grazing industry will always occupy 80 or 90 per cent of the arid lands of the
West.
intervention in reclamation, as well as the fact of Federal ownership
of the vacant lands. .
In Colorado the largest project now in construction is that of tak-
ing the Gunnison River into the Uncompahgre Valley. This river
flows in a narrow canyon 2,000 feet deep. This canyon has been
regarded as impassable, but Mr. A. L. Fellows, one of the engineers
of the reclamation service, and an assistant went through in 1902 at
the risk of their lives. The attempt had been made a number of
times to go down it by boats, but without success. These men did it
8388 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.
by means of swimming and by using a pneumatic mattress or rubber
bed as a raft. They put in small rubber bags the necessary food and
a little underwear. In ten days, by floating, swimming, and climb-
ing, they succeeded in getting through and locating the point at which
may be placed the headworks to take the water out by a tunnel into
Uncompahgre Valley.
The tunnel, heading in the steep cliffs, passes under the mountain
to the valley beyond, a distance of nearly 5 miles. Careful surveys
and examinations are being made, and it is believed to be feasible to
build the tunnel, if enough irrigable land can be found to justify the
undertaking.
Another project which has been under examination is that in south-
ern Wyoming on the North Platte River, at what is known as the
Devils Gate, on Sweetwater River, a short distance above the point
where it enters North Platte River. Unfortunately the amount of
water available at this point is small, and after careful examination
there is now being considered another reservoir site known as the
Pathfinder, at a lower point, where there is ample water for storage
purposes. This is on North Platte River itself, below the mouth of
Sweetwater River.
The water stored in the Pathfinder reservoir in Wyoming will be
turned down North Platte River to a point near Guernsey, where it
can be diverted and taken out upon land in what is known as the
Goshen Hole, in eastern Wyoming, adjacent to Nebraska. It is prob-
able that the canals can be extended to cover broad areas in western
Nebraska on both sides of the river.
In northern Wyoming there is another reclamation project, that on
Shoshone River, which here flows through a granite range. Surveys
are being made to demonstrate the practicability of diverting this
river and carrying it out to the broad plains of the Big Horn basin
east of the town of Cody.
One of the greatest works in the United States is the utilization of
the great Colorado River of the West. The headwaters come from
Wyoming and Colorado, flow through Utah and northern Arizona,
and the river finally enters the Gulf of California. Along this stream
are lands capable of high cultivation, as the soil is rich and the climate
semitropical.
The rank growth on the bottom lands shows that wherever water
is found the vegetation is extremely dense. It is, in fact, almost
impossible to push one’s way through this vegetation. The illustration
shows some of the broad bottoms that can be reclaimed.
The river itself is constantly changing, shifting over a very broad
extent of channel. Last Christmas a party of us took a trip down the
river in a boat. We floated, paddled, and at times waded for 400
niles down that stream, under the most delightful climate in the
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Newell. PEATE Il
Fiag. 1.—AN ABANDONED HOUSE ON AN UNIRRIGATED PLAIN.
The picture illustrates the impossibility of establishing homes on the public
domain without first providing methods of irrigation.
Fia. 2.—ONE OF THE METHODS OF OBTAINING A
WATER SUPPLY.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Newell. PLATE Il.
Fia. 1.—FLOATING THROUGH GUNNISON CANYON, USING A RUBBER
BED AS A RAFT.
Fic. 2.-TOP OF TORRENCE FALLS, GUNNISON CANYON.
Attempts to go down Gunnison Canyon by boats haying been unsuccessful,
Mr. Fellows, an engineer of the reclamation service, and an assistant, by
floating, swimming, and climbing for ten days succeeded in getting
through and locating the site of the tunnel.
THE RECLAMATION OF: THE WEST. 839
United States. It was a rare experience. We would be sailing under
a good breeze at an exhilarating rate, and everybody would be gay,
when suddenly we would slide up on a mud bank; then all would go
overboard to tug and finally push off into deeper water, and then on
until we brought up in another mud bank.
Plate tv shows where it will be possible to build dams similar to
those built by the British engineers on the Nile. The river, although
a quarter or a half a mile wide above, here becomes narrow, hardly
wide enough for a steamer to pass, and at this point it would be possi-
ble to erect dams holding back the water. The great difficulty is the
fact that the mud carried by the river would fill the reservoirs very
rapidly.
Another project under consideration is in Arizona, on Salt River.
This dam, if constructed, will be one of the greatest in the world,
being 230 feet from foundation to top. The lands to be reclaimed
~along the Salt River are in the vicinity of Phoenix and are capable of
a high degree of cultivation, producing crop after crop throughout
the year. There are sometimes as many as seven crops a year raised.
In southern Idaho are vast tracts of desert land, to which water
may be brought from Snake River. At the head of this river is
Jackson Lake, situated at the foot of the Grand Tetons. By closing
the outlet of this lake all the water can be held, storing a sufficient
supply for tens of thousands of acres along Snake River, in Idaho.
Under present conditions the water supply in Snake River dwindles
to such an extent that during the summer the channel is dry at points
along its course. This river, which appears to be inexhaustible, is,
asa matter of fact, nearly dry at points in eastern Idaho for several
months when the water is most needed.
In a portion of the course of Snake River in southern Idaho it has
been found practicable to divert the water upon vast tracts of fertile,
level land. Here, near the railroad station of Minidoka, it is pro-
posed to build across Snake River a substantial masonry dam and take
out water on both sides with gravity canals, irrigating the sagebrush-
covered plains. A large amount of water can be allowed to pass
through or over the dam, and it is proposed to generate power, util-
izing this to pump water to some of the higber lying tracts which can
not be reached by gravity.
A great project under consideration is that of taking water out of
some of the tributaries of the Columbia. Millions of acres suscep-
tible of irrigation are below the level of the headwaters of Columbia
River, but in order to convey these waters to the dry lands it is neces-
sary to traverse mile after mile of steep side slopes. The cost of the
project runs up into the millions of dollars; so that while the Govern-
ment may execute it in the future, the project of reclaiming the great
sm 1903-— 54
840 THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST.
arid lands of the State of Washington is one which is almost impos-
sible for the present time.
In the region of the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming
are numerous small projects. Many streams flow outwardly from the
hills through narrow canyons. By closing these gaps it is possible to
hold water in various places around the Black Hills. Beyond are vast
stretches of rolling country susceptible of reclamation. In the north-
ern part of the region is one of the largest and best bodies of public
lands to which it is practicable to take water. Here on Belle Fourche
River are many thousand acres of public land which may be irrigated.
In New Mexico the problems of reclamation are quite difficult, owing
to the character of water supply and the large extent of the old
Spanish land grants, taking in much of the best land of the Territory.
The principal stream is the Rio Grande, a perennial river in the north-
ern part of the Territory, but in the southern part a dry, sandy channel
throughout much of the year. Its waters must be stored, and to do’
this problems of silt must be successfully solved. In the eastern part
of the Territory is Pecos River, a stream flowing througha vast extent
of country underlaid in part by soluble gypsum, and here the con-
struction of storage reservoirs is rendered difficult by the waters per-
colating through the gypsum and finding channels of escape through
underground passages.
In Utah the central State of the arid region where irrigation devel-
opment has proceeded very rapidly, the problems are extensive and
far-reaching. The well-distributed streams coming from the moun-
tains have enabled the Mormon farmers to build up extensive commu-
nities, but the small irrigating systems are not always economical of
water, and there remains to put in practice a large, comprehensive
system which, through better water conservation and distribution, will
enable an extension of the irrigable area. Utah Lake seems to offer the
greatest opportunity, for here, in this broad, shallow depression, four
or five times as much water is lost by evaporation as is utilized in culti-
vating the soil. By reducing the area of this lake the extent of culti-
vated lands may be accordingly increased. Bear Lake, also on the
northern boundary of the State, affords similar opportunities for
conserving water.
In the far northern part of the arid region, in Montana, in the broad
valley of Milk River, are opportunities of storing the short, intermit-
tent floods of that stream. It is proposed to reenforce these, if practi-
rable, by water held in the glacial lakes at the foot of the Rocky
Mountains and put to use the streams which now flow northerly into
Canada.
In Oregon, the Umatilla River, which flows into Columbia River,
may be utilized by the construction of a large canal, catching its floods
ee
“paMIBpOod JL UOHRATIN [sry JO o[qudvo JOATY OpRIo[ON oy) #uoyR purl wo} 0q Your Jo saytut oavnbs Auvui ore a9 YJ,
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Smithsonian Report, 1903,—Newell. PLATE IV.
RED CANYON OF THE COLORADO RIVER.
Where the United States may build a great storage dam, similar to the great dams at Assiut and
Asswan in Egypt.
THE RECLAMATION OF THE WEST. 841
and taking them out into suitable basins where they can be held until
they are needed on the broad extent of arid land south of Colorado
River. In the eastern part of the State, on the Malheur River, are
other localities where the floods may be stored and where thousands of
acres of arid land can be converted into small farms sufficient to sup-
port a family in comfort.
The theory of reclamation is to conserve the flood waters that other-
wise go to waste and hold them until such time as they are needed.
There remains in the various States a vast extent of arid lands to
which the flood waters can be carried and which, when watered, is
capable of producing large crops and furnishing homes for prosperous
farmers.
Smithsonian Report, 1903.—Durand PLATE I.
ROBERT HENRY THURSTON, 1839-1903.
ROBERT HENRY THURSTON.
By Prof. W. F. Duranp.
The splendid legacy of material civilization which the nineteenth
century has bequeathed to the twentieth is due in principal measure to
the achievements of the engineer and the scientist, and among those
whose names and influence are written large on the practice and the
achievements of the latter part of the last century, the name of Prof.
Robert Henry Thurston will hold an assured and abiding place. Suce-
cess as a scientist or engineer is a complex result of many factors,
natural capacity, industry, devotion to high ideals, persistence, faith,
with some measure of opportunity. These and others might be speci-
fied, and all of them in high degree were joined in the character and
personality of Professor Thurston.
Robert Henry Thurston was born in Providence, R. I., October 25,
1839; son of Robert L. Thurston, one of the pioneer steam engineers
of the country. He spent much time in his father’s engine works,
Thurston, Green & Co. and Thurston, Gardner & Co., where he became
acquainted with the engineering practice of the day, especially in rela-
tion to the design and construction of steam boilers and engines, and
in general power-plant practice.
At the age of 16 he entered Brown University, where he graduated
in 1859 with the degrees of Ph. B. and C. E., and later received from
the same institution the degrees of A. M. and LL. D., and from
Stevens Institute the degree of doctor of engineering.
He first entered business with his father’s firm at Providence and
was later their representative in Philadelphia, where he was located
at the outbreak of the civil war in 1861. At this time, when the ques-
tion of duty to country was pressing in upon the hearts and thoughts
of all serious men, he decided early in the summer to offer himself
for service in the Engineer Corps of the Navy, believing that in this
braneh of the national service he would find the best scope for his
natural genius and personal tastes, and would furthermore thus be
able to render service in which his previous experience might be of
some ready value. In reply to his letter to the Secretary of the Navy
he was ordered to report for examination to the naval examining
843
844 ROBERT HENRY THURSTON.
board, then in session at Philadelphia. This he did on July 9, 1861,
and was in due course examined on July 25 and found well qualified
for the naval service. His first commission as third assistant engineer,
U.S. Navy. was made out under date of July 30, 1861, but it was not
until about a month later,.or on August 25, that he was called into
active service and ordered to the U.S. S. Unadilla, fitting out at the
Brooklyn Navy-Yard for service on the southern blockade. The ship
was put into commission September 30 and sailed October 18 for Port
Royal, 8. C., where she was attached to the squadron under Rear-
Admiral Dupont. After active service in these waters for about a
year the Unadilla was ordered North to New York for repairs, return-
ing again to her station in October, 1862. During the following
winter the Princess Royal, a valuable merchant steamer, was taken as
a prize, and due to the skill and valuable help rendered in connection
with securing this prize, Assistant Engineer Thurston was ordered
home in her, in charge of the engineer’s department. The prize was
taken North to Philadelphia, and after turning over his department
at the navy-yard, Assistant Engineer Thurston was detached and
ordered on February 11, 1868, to examination for promotion to the’
rank of second assistant engineer. This examination was passed suc-
cessfully, and he was then placed on waiting orders, where he remained
till the following June, when he was ordered to the Chippewa at Port
Royal, S. C., in charge of the engineer’s department. He remained
on duty in this capacity for about a year, when the ship returned
North to Philadelphia, and he was detached and placed on waiting
orders. On July 11, 1864, he was ordered to the Maumee, which was
fitting at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, but a few weeks later was detached
and ordered to the Pontoosuc for more immediate service, this vessel
having been assigned to duty as consort to a Pacific mail steamer en
route to Aspinwall and return. On October, 18, 1864, he was detached
from the Pontoosuc and ordered to the Dictator, then fitting out and
making preliminary trials in New York Harbor. This ship, contain-
ing machinery of Ericsson’s design, had experienced great difficulty
in meeting on trial the conditions specified in the contract, and it was
feared that without extended change in the design and installation of
the machinery she would be unable to satisfactorily meet the contract
requirements. Assistant Engineer Thurston threw himself into this
problem with his accustomed insight and zeal, and with minor changes
and under his charge, the requirements were fulfilled to a point which
formed the basis of a settlement satisfactory to the Government on
the one hand and the designer on the other.
On June 6, 1865, he was ordered to examination for promotion to
the grade of first assistant engineer, and received his commission as
such the following month. Shortly after, the war being over, he was
detached from the Déctator and placed en waiting orders, and in the
a eS a eee ee
Otte ae
ite tn
ROBERT HENRY THURSTON. 845
following December was ordered to the Naval Academy as assistant
professor in the department of natural and experimental philosophy.
He remained on this duty for the next five years, actively occupied in
his duties at the Academy and in developing his invention of a type of
magnesium lamp intended for use ina proposed system of military
and naval signals. ;
In 1870 he was invited by President Morton, of Stevens Institute, to
take part, as professor of mechanical engineering, in the organization
of that newly founded educational enterprise. It was here that Pro-
fessor Thurston, on broad and practically independent lines, first
entered on his career as an engineering educator, and in which he
won so large and enduring a place in the modern development of tech-
nical education. There were then existing no technical schools to
serve as guides or precedents, especially in higher engineering work,
and these early developments were largely pioneer in character. In
all of the early work of organization and development Professor
Thurston took a leading part as head of the department of mechanical
engineering. He early organized a laboratory of mechanical engi-
neering, the first of its type in the country, and thus sounded a new
keynote in higher technical education. Now every technical school
of approved standing has its engineering laboratory, and work of this
character is yearly assuming an increasing importance in all lines of
technical education. His early plans for such a laboratory were first
published in 1871 and later amplified in 1875. In Europe work of
this character had been inaugurated in a few institutions in 1870 and
1871, or only slightly earlier than the initial organization by Pro-
fessor Thurston. He has said that the need of such a laboratory and
of opportunities for such instruction had been strongly impressed on
his mind when a boy in his father’s workship, and during his entire
career as an educator he gave much prominence to such work and much
time and effort to the constant improvement and extension of the
equipments of the laboratories over which he exercised supervision.
In addition to his work in Stevens Institute, Professor Thurston
found time during these years to serve on several important commis-
sions and juries. He was a member of a United States commission
on boiler tests; was* member of an international jury and United
States Commissioner at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, and edited the
report of the commission on that exhibition, comprising four large
volumes, and writing one of them, on manufactures, as his own con-
tribution. He was also an active member of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, and in the proceedings of that society reported fre-
quently the results of his investigations on the strength of materials.
In 1875 he was appointed member of the United States board for the
testing of iron, steel, and other metals, and took for many years a
leading part in the work of that board.
S46 ROBERT HENRY THURSTON.
The tremendous drain of energy required for the work accomplished
between 1871 and 1876 was more than his physical strength could
safely be called on to furnish, and for the next three, or four years he
was in poor health, and on duty only a part of the time. In 1880,
however, his health was again restored, and from that time for the next
twenty-three years he enjoyed, in the main, excellent health, and lost
no time due to serious illness.
In 1885 he was invited by the trustees of Cornell University to
undertake the work of organizing and developing a college of mechan-
ical engineering on the foundation provided by Sibley College, which
had been founded at about the same time as Stevens, but had devel-
oped on less distinctively engineering lines. Professor Thurston
brought to this work all his native enthusiasm and force of character,
with the experience he had acquired during the preceding fifteen
years in similar work at Stevens Institute. The results of the organi-
zation which he brought about, and of the new life which was thus
instilled into the work of the college, were speedily seen in a gen-
eral elevation of the quality of instruction-and of the student
body at large, and in a rapidly increasing number in attendance. On
taking charge, in 1885, the total attendance in all classes was about 60,
with a total teaching force of 7, while at his death, in 1903, these
figures were, respectively, 960and 43. Professor Thurston saw clearly
the possibilities of a great engineering school at Cornell University
and labored unceasingly for its development and perfection along these
lines. Mn his ideal he included a system of schools of engineering and
of the mechanic arts, offering in the fundamental departments expert
instruction in the foundations of all principal departments of industry,
and laying a broad foundation for successful work in all lines of
industrial activity; joined with these a system of schools of the indus-
tries in which the use of the essential apparatus and equipment of these
industries should be exhibited by expert teachers and discussed with
reference to their fundamental principles and their relation to broader
and more fundamental principles; again, a system of schools of the
constructive professions of engineering, and then, correlated with all,
a department of experimental research, in which the many problems
which arise in these various lines of engineering and industrial activity
might receive careful study at the hands of expert investigators, and
wherein the student might gain that vital contact with the actual
materials of engineering construction, and with the various mechan-
isms which he is to construct or employ, which alone can give him
the actual knowledge that the successful prosecution of his professional
work will demand.
Naturaily, not all of this ideal has been attained. Lack of funds has
prevented more than the blocking out of a part of the work, and that
on broad lines, and in developing some few of the special lines which
ROBERT HENRY THURSTON. 847
seemed most timely. Sibley College as now organized, and as thus
expressing the purposes of Professor Thurston so far as he was able
to realize them, comprises a general line of undergraduate work cov-
ering the foundations and the broad middle ground of mechani-
cal engineering work, together with three departments in which is
given the essential characteristic instruction related to three special
fields of engineering practice—namely, electrical engineering, marine
engineering and naval architecture, and railway mechanical engineer-
ing. Many other special branches had long been in the programme,
but the necessary limitations of space and funds have so far pre-
vented the extension of the development beyond the extent specified.
Throughout the eighteen years of his work in Cornell his own
teaching was in the subject of thermodynamics and steam engineering
and in the economics of power generation and of manufacturing estab-
lishments. In the first subject a required course was given for two-
thirds of the year, while in the latter two elective courses were given
during the remaining one-third.
His policy regarding organization was distinctively generous in
relation to the various heads of department. He believed in giving
to each head of department a large measure of independent initiative
and in holding him responsible for results. Rarely did his supervision
extend to any control over details of internal department administra-
tion, and thus each head was left to work out his own problems
in accordance with his special environment and to administer his
department in detail as he might judge best.
In addition to his regular work in the university, Professor Thurs-
ton found time while at Cornell to serve on several important boards,
among them the New York State commissions on voting machines and
on the selection of a firearm for the National Guard, and the United
States commissions on postal-pneumatic service and on safe and vault
construction.
He also made during these years his most important contributions
to the literature of engineering, and in particular wrote his exhaustive
works on the steam engine and steam boiler.
In addition to his books, Professor Thurston prepared and published
avast number of papers on a wide range of engineering subjects. His
papers on the materials of engineering and on thermodynamics and
steam engineering are especially numerous and important, and much
of his best thought and effort has gone into the preparation of these
monographs and shorter publications.
A list of his larger works, written both at Stevens Institute and at
Cornell, shows that his activities may be grouped under three different
heads. The first one of these is made up of works on the materials of
engineering, the second of works on the steam engine and the steam
845 ROBERT HENRY THURSTON.
boiler, and in the third we find publications more purely philosophical,
historical, and biographical.¢
In the field of invention Professor Thurston has made several con-
tributions to engineering art, the more important being lamps burn-
ing magnesium, navy signal apparatus, autographic testing machines
for iron, steel, and other metals, testing machines for lubricants, and
improvements in steam engines and inscientific engineering apparatus.
He also did much work in scientific research and in the investigation
of important engineering problems, among which may be mentioned:
The determination of the useful qualities of the alloys of copper and
tin, copper and zinc, and copper, tin, and zine.
Studies of boiler explosions.
Researches regarding the laws of friction and lubrication.
Laws of variation of engine wastes and studies in the economy of
the steam engine.
Professor Thurston was a member of the leading engineering and
scientific societies of this country and of Europe. He was the first
president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and suc-
ceeded himself for the following term as well. He was three times
vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, vice-president of the American Institute of Mining Engineers,
and Ofticier de Instruction Publique de France.
Professor Thurston possessed to a remarkable degree the capacity
for rapid and intensive work. This was due in no small measure to
« The following is a list of the larger works, grouped as indicated above:
The Materials of Engineering, J. Wiley & Sons.
Part I.—Nonmetallic Materials of Engineering and Metallurgy.
Part I1.—Iron and Steel.
Part I11.—Alloys and Their Constituents.
The Materials of Construction, J. Wiley & Sons.
Treatise on Friction and Lost Work in Machinery and Mill Work, J. Wiley & Sons.
Stationary Steam Engines, J. Wiley & Sons.
Development of the Philosophy of the Steam Engine, J. Wiley & Sons.
A Manual of the Steam Engine, J. Wiley & Sons.
Part 1.—History, Structure, and Theory.
Part I1.— Design, Construction, and Operation.
A Manual of the Steam Boiler, Design, Construction, and Operation, J. Wiley &
Sons.
A Handbook of Engine and Boiler Trials, and the Use of the Indicator and the
Prony Brake, J. Wiley & Sons.
Steam Boiler Explosions in Theory and in Practice, J. Wiley & Sons.
History of the Steam Engine, D. Appleton & Co.
Heat as a Form of Energy, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat, J. Wiley & Sons.
Life of Robert Fulton, Dodd, Mead & Co.
The Animal as a Machine and Prime Mover, J. Wiley & Sons.
ROBERT HENRY THURSTON. 849
his powers of concentration and to an excellent memory filled asa
storehouse, either with facts or with the location of facts and where
successful search for them might be made. These powers joined to a
sympathetic nature led him to cover an unusually broad field of actiy-
ity with his professional writings, and to show an aggregate result of
astonishing magnitude. It is,not in his books and papers, however,
that his chief monument is to be found, but rather in his direct educa-
tional work, and particularly in the organization and development of
Sibley College, and in the men who have gone forth into the various
fields of active engineering practice so largely indebted to him either
for direct personal instruction or inspiration, or for the opportunities
which came as the result of the organization and administration of the
college under his direction.
Personally Professor Thurston was sympathetic, warm hearted, and
optimistic, and an inspiring friend and leader. He was never dis-
couraged by an appearance of failure and believed steadfastly that the
great purposes which he was directing and which he was endeavoring
to shape to his ideals would all one day work out to the best and
highest uses of mankind. Asa rule he was rapid in his judgments on
matters of a scientific or engineering character, but when the human
element was involved, and on matters of broad policy, he was more
slow in forming a final judgment, but, once formed, was tireless in
carrying it forward to realization.
Professor Thurston died suddenly on the evening of October 25,
1903, on his 64th birthday, in the midst of his great work in Sibley
College, in the full possession of his normal strength and mental
activities, and with apparently many years yet of fruitful labor before
him.
While it may be too soon to estimate with exactness his place in the
galaxy of the great minds which the nineteenth century produced, yet
among those whose work adorned the latter part of this century the
name of Robert Henry Thurston will have an assured and abiding place.
As an engineer, a scientist, an educator, a writer, an investigator, an
expert and counsellor, as a public servant in many capacities, and
as a man and good citizen; all of these fields of activity have been
enriched with his labors and with his unswerving spirit of devotion to
scientific truth. He has left to the new generation a rich legacy in
work actually accomplished and the example of a scientific man and
engineer faithful and true to the highest principles and standards of
life.
THEODORE MOMMSEN.?
By Emit ReIcu.
On November 1 (Sunday), at 8.45 in the morning, Mommsen died,
and in him the world of erudition has lost one of its very greatest rep-
resentatives. It is no exaggeration to say that what Joseph Scaliger
was to the world of scholars at the end of the sixteenth and in the
beginning of the seventeenth century Mommsen was to all the students
of Roman antiquity in our own time. The name ‘‘ Roman antiquity ”
must be taken in its widest sense. Mommsen made personal and inde-
pendent researches into every aspect of Roman civilization, history,
law, and private life. In a series of works, which already in 1887
counted 949 numbers, representing 6,824 folio pages, 1,402 quarto,
and 19,319 octavo pages, the great scholar investigated all the prob-
lems of Roman political history, chronology, numismatics, law, reli-
gion, ete. In fact, of him it may have been said what with less justice
was said of Justus Lipsius: ** Felicem hominem, qui per ea que rep-
perit que disposuit que scivit, et vixit antequam nasceretur, et ita
natus est ut nunquam sit moriturus.”
Mommsen’s life was as simple, and with few exceptions as unevent-
ful, as that of most scholars. He was born November 30, 1817, at
Garding, in the Duchy of Holstein. His father was the vicar of the
place and had destined him for the study of philology and law. From
1844 to 1847 Mommsen, aided by a stipend from the Berlin Academy,
made an extensive archeological journey through France and Italy.
In 1848 he received a call as professor of law to Leipzig. However,
on account of his participation in the revolutionary movement of the
time, he was dismissed from his post. Two years later, in 1850, he
became professor of Roman law at Zurich, and in 1854 he taught
Roman law at the University of Breslau. Finally, in 1858, he was
appointed professor of ancient history at Berlin. Within a year or
two before his death he continued to teach ancient history at the first
University of Prussia, and he must, at the lowest calculation, have
«Reprinted by permission from Monthly Review, London, No. 39, Dee., 1903.
pp. 74-84.
851
852 THEODORE MOMMSEN.
delivered over 10,000 lectures to the students of Berlin. In his mar-
ried life he was eminently successful, and his very numerous children
(he bad 14, we believe) caused him no particular trouble. Recognized
as the head of the great historical school of Roman antiquity in Ger-
many, honored and venerated, not to say worshiped by sovereigns,
princes, scholars, and men of the world alike, he passed the last thirty
years of his life in a position of exceptional dignity and influence.
Even in his conflict with the Iron Chancellor he conducted his trial
in person and with success. The courts finally acquitted him of the
political crime imputed to him by Bismarck. He traveled exten-
sively, and especially in the last twenty-five years of his life he devel-
oped a perfect passion for the hunt of manuscripts. Printed books
seemed to have lost their charm for him. What delighted him was a
manuscript. He was a very frequent guest at the Bodleian and the
British Museum, at the Bibliotheque Nationale, and at the great libra-
riesin Italy. Even manuscripts of the early Middle Ages—that is, man-
uscripts reflecting only the last dim rays of the sunset of antiquity—
excited his interest ina very high degree; and the number of authors
that he edited with the minutest care was very considerable. His mind
was influenced chiefly by the aims and methods of the philologist and
the attitude and ability of the student of law. Now that we may
clearly overlook the whole career of that extraordinary man, it becomes
more and more manifest that, although Mommsen is known to the
general reader only or preéminently as the historian of Rome, as the
author of a famous history of Rome, yet, on impartial and closer
examination of the case, it will be found that Mommsen in reality had
neither the passion nor the highest capacity of the historian proper.
His was the genius of analysis rather thanof synthesis. He excelled
in monographs very much more than in works putting together in
their final expression a vast array of facts. This seems to be in utter
contrast to the fact that Mommsen has published great treatises both
on Roman public or constitutional law, on Roman chronology, and on
Roman criminal law. However, applying to Mommsen the strictest
measure of criticism, we cannot but see that every one of those great
treatises is rather a collection of monographs than a work giving a
direct and full insight into the working principles of Roman institu-
tions. Mommsen classifies, shelves, labels, and numbers both neatly
and well; he enlightens but little.
The danger of a man like Mommsen is the false impression under
which thousands of scholars, and through them the general public,
have been about the real problems and the real importance of Roman
history. The massiveness of Mommsen’s information, the mere bulk
of the works-he has published to almost the last day of his lite, the
tone of finality and strict formality pervading every line he ever pub-
lished, has naturally engendered the idea that he has not only furnished
ee
THEODORE MOMMSEN. 853
the vastest amount of material, but also the only method and the only
guiding apercus in the study of ancient Rome. It is time to say that
while he has done the former he has not done the latter. He has,
indeed, through the publication of the Corpus of Latin inscriptions,
and similar very useful collections of material, very much increased
our means of studying Roman history, more especially of writing more
numerous books thereon. It is, however, equally true that his
influence, the undoubted authority that he enjoyed both in and out of
the Fatherland, has in a measure sterilized the study of the history of
Rome. Thus in the last twenty odd vears exceedingly few independ-
ent and elaborate works on the ensemble of Roman history have
appeared either in England or on the Continent. The scholars of the
world seem to be under the ban of Mommsen. To abandon his
method, to doubt the essential correctness of his Roman constitutional
law (Roemisches Staatsrecht) seemed, and still seems, to be not only
impossible but indecent. In England, if we except a few short works,
more particularly the brilliant and suggestive study on Roman history
by Mr. T. M. Taylor, no attempt has been made to rewrite the history
of the great empire-nation, which in so many ways is so essentially
similar to the Britons. In fact, it is part of the irony of things that
the English have so far devoted great attention and great industry to
Greek history rather than to Roman, although they are, from the
nature of their own history and modern constitution, less apt to seize
and clear up the factors and powers that made Greece; while they are
‘eminently adapted for clearing up some of the most difficult problems
of the history of Rome. Using expressions somewhat untechnical, yet
precise, we may say that Greek history ought to be written by the
French, and Roman by the British. In modern Great Britain alone
can we still see institutions, the essential identity of which with those
of the institutions of Rome ought to suggest to Britons in the first
place, or to such as are intimately acquainted with Great Britain, some
of that insight into the real nature of ancient Rome without which all
study of history is blind.
It is almost impossible for a German scholar living in Germany to
find any of those modern analogies to events and institutions in Rome
without which we moderns are absolutely excluded from a real knowl-
edge of Roman history. Mommsen’s Roman History has accordingly
very much more charm than real insight. Mommsen was a great
artist; his style, like that of a few other North-German writers, is
both compact and fluent, clear-cut, plastic, and packed with infor-
mation. It flows on majestically and resembles one of the Roman
aqueducts; perhaps in more senses than one. There can be no hesita-
tion in saying that, as a mere piece of reading, Mommsen’s history is
by far the best book ever written on Roman history. Mommsen—
who shared all the passions and ideals of the revolutionary period in
854 THEODORE MOMMSEN.
Germany, and who viewed Roman events in the light of the events he
had lived to see in Germany in the forties and fifties of the last
century—Mommsen was almost driven to write a Roman history both
intensely interesting and essentially un-Roman. For the Roman world
within the times of the Republic or in the times of the Empire was so
utterly different from anything that had developed or grown up in
Germany, that no diligence in research nor any philosophical effort
of the self-sustained mind could enable a German to write up events
utterly different in character and drift from those of his own country
and time. It is well known how bitterly Mommsen has fallen foul of
Cicero; how in the passages relating to the great orator and statesman
Mommesen tried to excel in that Schnodderigkeit or caddishness with
which great men of letters who were also statesmen have always been
treated by the recluse scholar. Lord Bacon, Edmund Burke, Adolphe
Thiers, and others are naturally hateful to the politisirenden Philolo-
gen, as Mommsen himself called them. No Frenchman or Englishman
could have committed such an absurdity. Boissier in Franee and
Professor Tyrrell in Dublin, the latter in his magnificent edition of
Cicero’s letters, the former in his exquisite book, Cicéron et ses Amis,
have long shown the inaccuracy and falsehood of all that Drumann
and Mommsen had said about Cicero.
Both the British and the French scholar had from the history of
their own countries been well acquainted with historical types not
unsimilar to that of Cicero. The German had no such type to
enlighten him. And as in this case, so in cases of far greater impor-
tance. Take, for instance, Mommsen’s historic judgment on the most
important institution of Rome—on the tribunate.
It is well known that the tribunate is at once the strangest and the
most important institution of ancient Rome. The strangest, because
no modern nation has at any time thought of investing any magis-
trate, whether a pope, a king, a minister, or a judge, with powers as
extensive, as comprehensive, and dangerous as the Romans did with
regard to their tribunes. The tribune was enabled, if unchallenged
by one of his nine colleagues, to stop any wheel of any part of the
Roman State machinery. The senate as well as the assembly, the law
courts as well as the religious institutions were, as it were, at the
mercy of an irresponsible tribune. This, it must be admitted, is posi-
tively incomprehensible, and such of us as want to derive from the
study of history more than a mere mass of names and dates, can not
but approach the Roman history of Mommsen with the hope and
expectation to find some reasonable explanation of the fact that the
tomans, that is, an eminently practical and sober nation, permitted
their tribunes to wield a power greater and more irresponsible than
that commanded by even the mightiest pope of the middle ages. ,
4
THEODORE MOMMSEN. 855
This is how Mommsen disposes of the problem of the tribunate.
He calls that institution a strange magistracy (seltsame Magistratur);
and the introduction thereof he calls a foolhardy experiment (ver
wegenes Experiment) or a pis aller (Nothbehelf).“ In other words,
Mommsen disposes of the whole problem by sneering at it. In spite
of the immensity of his studies of Roman constitutional law, he has
never so much as approached the only question that is both interesting
and instructive for us moderns. If the tribunate be so strange,
abnormal, inorganic, as Mommsen, Schwegler, L. Lange, and all the
other German writers declare it to have been, why then was it the
only one of the institutions that even Sulla, in spite of the boundless
power he wielded, did not dare to abolish? Why did the tribunate
not become obsolete by the middle of the fourth century B. C., when
the plebeians had obtained practically ail the rights that the tribunes
had been introduced to protect? To all this Mommsen does not vouch-
safe us the slightest reply. The reason is that Mommsen, absolutely
unacquainted with magistracies whose powers are remotely similar to
that of an ancient Roman tribune, could not possibly rise to a real
grasp of that central institution of ancient Rome. In England alone,
of all modern countries, there has been in the last three or four
hundred years a magistracy whose power and character are essentially
that of Roman magistracies. The great difference between modern
constitutions and that of the Romans is the simple fact that we mod-
erns attach the greatest importance to and invest with the greatest
powers the members of the national assembly, whereas the Romans
attached the greatest importance to and invested with the greatest
powers the incumbents of a few high magistracies. Or, to put it
even more shortly, the whole Roman constitution was based on per-
sonality. In England alone we find a similar principle at work,
not indeed in every department of the British constitution, yet in
the department of law. Law in England, that is, common law, was
intrusted to a few great judges who both administered and made it.
When in the times of the Tudors, and probably before them, the
incumbents of those great law offices abused their powers, it became
natural to check and combat them by the introduction of a counter
judge, likewise invested with unbounded power. The power of the
justices of common law being purely personal and practically irre-
sponsible, it became inevitable to check them by the establishment of
the lord chancellors as judges, who likewise created the law of equity
of their own good will, and practically without any responsibility.
Lord Ellesmere, chancellor under James I, ‘‘ plainly claimed power
to determine new cases on new principles, even against the law, and to
legislate on individual rights.” (Kerly, D. M., ‘* Historical Sketch of
aR, G., p. 276 (8th edition).
sm 1903 DD
856 THEODORE MOMMSEN.
the Equitable Jurisdiction,” p. 96.) The same relation, then, that we
‘an follow and observe between the lord chief justices and the lord
chancellors in. England; the same relation was on a wider scale and
more comprehensively that of the tribune to the other magistracies
in Rome. Just as the chancellor was the naturai complement and
check to the lord chief justice, and not an abnormal or inorganic
institution in the system of English law; just as John Selden’s (per-
haps good-natured) sneer at the chancellor’s law is based on a total
misconception of the real and inevitable function of that English
magistracy, even so Mommsen’s sarcasms and sneers at the Roman
tribunate only prove his total misconception of this the most important
institution of ancient Rome. The tribunate, far from being ‘* abnor-
mal” or ‘‘inorganic,” ‘‘strange,” or a ‘pis aller,” was the most
natural, the most organic, the most inevitable of all Roman institu-
tions. It stood in the domain of Roman public law in the same rela-
tion to the other magistracies as does in the domain of Roman private
law a res facti to a res juris; or as does in the system of Roman private
law the interdictum to the actio, or any Preetorian legal institution to
an institution of the jus civile.
On taking a broad view of Roman history and assuming, as ali of us
do, that a study of that famous nation ought to be not only attractive
but also instructive, we soon see that there are especially three points,
in Roman history that appeal more particularly to our interests.
These points are, in the first place, the marvelous political and military
success of the Romans, in virtue of which they became the conquer-
ors and rulers of an empire such as had never been before and has
never been after—an empire consisting of the most civilized nations in
the world; secondly, the surprising fact that the Romans, who held
trade and commence in disdain, should have succeeded in building up
a system of law which, especially in its sections dealing with trade and
commerce, has proved to be of the same surpassing excellence that we
admire in Greek art; and, thirdly, the Roman political constitution,
which both from the success of ancient Rome and from the imitation
of that constitution by the mightiest body politic of medizeval and
modern times—by the Catholic Church—ealls upon our closest atten-
tion and awakens our deepest interest.
If, now, we turn to Mommsen to obtain from him light on these
three subjects, we are disappointed in every one case. The problem
of Roman law he dismisses with another sneer, saying, literally, that
there is nothing amazing in the fact that ‘‘a sound nation had a sound
law,” although he himself points out that the Romans did not excel in
criminal law, in spite of their ‘‘soundness.” As to the second problem,
the military and political success of the Romans, we derive little, if
any, light from the treatment of Mommsen. We still stand before -
the Fortuna Romanorum as before the Sphinx, and we do not even
THEODORE MOMMSEN. 857
know whether the decrepitude of the nations conquered was not greater
than the fortitude of the Romans. Weare still ignorant of the strange
connection of facts which permitted every single nation of antiquity
to defeat the Romans in more than one pitched battle, and yet in the
end be compelled to submit to the Roman yoke. Westill inquire won-
deringly into the great problem why the Romans alone not only trans-
mitted their own idiom to the conquered nations, but also rapidly
promoted what the Greeks or Byzantines in the East could never do—
the rise of neo-Roman languages.
When at last we try to obtain some real insight into that Roman
constitution which Mommsen in his series of volumes has tabulated,
formulated, classified, and systematized, we get from him indeed a
number of useful schedules similar to the official lists or annuaires
published by modern governments, enlivened by much juristic and
legal formulation. It is not denied that the Roman officials and
magistracies may rightly and legitimately be formulated from juristic
standpoints, such as we apply in canonical law to the officials of the
Catholic hierarchy. The juristic person of a bishop or an archbishop
is a great, important, and interesting subject. However, it is equally
certain that the most refined legal systematization of the Catholic or
the ancient Roman hierarchy or magistracy does not advance us at all
with regard toa true insight into the historic life and political drift of
those officials. What is wanted is historic systematization, and not
juristic. It is like in church history—we must not mix up dogmaties
with church history. What Professor Mommsen has done to Roman
constitutional history is precisely what his colleague, Harnack, of the
Berlin University, has done to the history of Christian dogmatics.
While Harnack’s work is deeply engaging and learned, it advances
only little our insight into the church history proper. Mommsen’s
book would have been an inestimable manual for the officials of the
first century of the Roman Empire, but it does not help us very much
in the comprehension of the Roman constitution as a product of living
history.
The preceding remarks, no doubt, appear both harsh and ungrate-
ful. However, a little further consideration will show that it is, we
take it, necessary to say, and to say very frequently, what many a
serious student outside Germany has long felt to be the case. We
mean the overestimation of German Wissenschaft, of German meth-
ods of research, more especially of German ways of writing history.
This overestimation is not likely to be felt as such unless it is shown
up, especially in cases where German scholars have done real and
great services to the interests of knowledge. The greater the real
merit, the greater the danger that the merit will be exaggerated.
Just because Mommsen has done so much, and has laid all students
of Roman history under an obligation hard to overrate, we must
858 THEODORE MOMMSEN,.
try to get at a Just appreciation of his more constructive work, of the
thought of his historical work, lest by considering it in the same light
of unconditional admiration as we do his work as a collector of material
we fall into an unjustifiable attitude of uncritical adoration. The
Germans chiefly lack what many a British and French scholar is amply
vrovided for—experience with the realties of life. If it be true that
. knowledge in the first place must come from our senses, although in
the latter stages our sense impressions are worked up to concepts, it
is undeniable that of past events, such as Roman history, we can no
longer haye any sense-impressions proper.
The only way to replace those impossible sense-impressions is to
study modern and contemporary institutions rather than events that
have a real and essential analogy with those of ancient Rome. By the
careful selection and study of those analogies alone we may hope to
derive suggestions if not solutions toward a right and living under-
as)
a
standing of Roman institutions. The Germans being practically
excluded from this, the only method of supplementing the study of
the Roman and Greek sources and of arriving at a true comprehen-
sion of ancient history, we can not possibly admit that their innumer-
able theses, monographs, essays, handbooks, etc., advance our real
knowledge of Roman history beyond what any British historian might
very well do by selecting and studying carefully the undoubted analo-
gies in British life and in the British constitution with Roman life and
the Roman constitution. Surely we are all grateful to Mommsen and
his rare idealism, his combination of the charms and power of the
artist with the learning and indefatigable industry of the true scholar,
are models for all the world, especially for the younger generation.
On the other hand, it is impossible to suppress a voice of warning
against the overestimation of methods of historical study, of which
Theodore Mommsen has been the most illustrious representative, and
which, we hold, increase the number of books of a purely archeolog-
ical interest rather than augment the amount of real historical
knowledge.
ENG Dex.
A.
Page.
Hore CaGr ongunhe N-rays oll. Blondlots- a os44--< esse eee eee eee 207-214
TRNOMUL Oil AN Arojolonysverl Qoseryeniowry —— 5-265 s5555555c5 cn55se 76-84
solar eclipse expedition of 1900.........-....-..--- 95
A Dott lliamuleen collectlonSmromissssss 2 se2= as see eee ese 18, 26, 27, 30, 93, 94
Aboriginal operations in iron mine near Leslie, Mo............-.--..------ 723-726
NDSOLPUOMIOlsolarrays Changer. ase eee a= Sea ae eee eee 22
PNUSInam Loo GmexCanulONsral bam =. aan ae 35 qcsntents comes ciecie a SER 669-680
NchimMoOmeterereseanchespwilblestrasem a= sto sk oseeace tac ceeeeee eee 80
Adams, Robert, jr., member of committee on powers of executive committee. Xxvut, 3
Recentomunermnshiiitione ess seperti eee XIV, XV, XVI, 4
GCtSM ING TIMACHINE Bin > 5 A~ ciclis 5 sco oe Sane ese os eee sod sede coueeeeee 178
INGler CO vnissmeport Onellbranye--o. = 5 assoc 12 <n. oe nese eta eee 85-88
NA MMIS trap OnPSeCretabys Sere pOlt OMe se <a Hens eee Sees aes ee eae : 4
Nenalmnavmicationnbaden-kowellyonyss-o5--s2e- = -2ose2 see seen one 90, 173-181
ANeronauticallexperiments by Wihieht)..2--.---.----.22---2-5.22-5-e see ste ot 90
LON beige eel btaiayed (oh; Soe ge sere a ers ee ae XVI, 7,179
NAGS II PAU RC CL Lymer ty res RR oa ys ay ees PEE abo Se Ae ee 29
Ie xa pINCO MCOMPOSILIONVOLE =a sa0 + see= 2 a= o as fcc 2 = oe no Se be alee ee meses 89
Queabconpimomandremisstoniolee sss" ase oaoseee eect ee ae ee eee eee 89
AMP SLMS, ORO RARE Wal OY Sec aooe ce otes bes ee aa asenene ee ssen Sanoc oslo. 167-171
/Megikh, Sxetoys aeve Tink ee ee ee es eee ear Se ee 92
PAANIIL CoT ewe) RRA er tty ese rege a ey er ey et ah eS 3c bapa oe a 7 31
AMC CAneH TM OlOg ya ap propniavOn tOLe == esse o> oy. 426 ae ee ee eee eee XXIV, Lil
Expenaubunes Ona some, <a eee eee eee XXIV
NEPORbON Cs se nese so Sec cise see ose nee sees eee 18, 34-48
American Historical Association, publications of ...-...........--.------- 15, 96
ANTES, QUE ECS gp eh eA ae eee eA SR ieee teen Sane ye peep eee ee pe 31
Anderson, Tempest, report on eruption of the Soufriére .........-..-.----- 91
Andersson, J. Gunnar, on Swedish antarctic expedition. ...........--.---- 473
FATT GRE NU SoG Lette] CSV h esti oe eer tes se Ors rare ore, ope ae Aes Siar ya Ne ers Seen 96
NICE Wiss allacex@ e-wililll Giese Sere eee eee wee aS orien cee Sete KWeee
Angelle james, bp: herent, of the Institutions: <. 252. .-.-2-4e-cceon-=2 XIV, Xv, 4
Ate OAs CLCOLOLOPICAl OOSEnVaiMONS tee eaee eee = seme ee eee eee eee eae 147
AN OMINTE ISA OE hd ODI t a S ES GEE Orman ee ee eae iets ee ee RS 567-571
Antarctic expedition, national, first year’s work of the..............._---- 459-465
MACE LC AW. O LEGO leet ee ere ee 395
SWEGIS Ines 2 ee ee eee nes moines Tenant ae 467-479
ATIGOOMVA EN eRe VOLINLOLNOn Tae una O Osa oem asa eae eee anes 519-536
Anthropological collections received by Museum ........:..........-.---- 26
museum, classification and arrangement of exhibits of an-- 92
specimens, instructions to collectors of .........-...-..--- 95
860 INDEX.
Page.
Amitiquitycof the sliom snl; Gre ee eee eset eee eee 661-667
Ants, psychical faculties of 20.2 2225-2. 3 ab sae ease ee ee aoe ae ee eee 587-599
Apes, anthropold,<cramlology ol. 222. ses <a asin Se ee ees 91
Appropriations, statement of... ..--.-- apotheosis eee ee XV, LV-LXI, 6
Aquarium at, National’Zoolesical Bark. | 2 25. 455-- see eee 67
Archeological collections received by Museum ........---.----5.------2:- Dy
exploration in: Chinese Turkestan. 72222022. 5- 222222 ose ee 7
field work in northeastern Arizona, by Hough .---..------- 92
WOnksOl Bureaulot Lbhnol On yaar = saeae ae eee 18, 34-48
Arctic ‘collection received joy-Vhuseum ee). ese eee eee ee eee bl
Arctic explorations: by, Pearyct- 32 tesa 5 eee Sees ee = eee 427-457
Avgon; discoveryiOf.2 22 os252 see. Soros ae 2 eaters aia ae el ee ee 89
Armstrong; JOhM. tle. ck ee ee ecco te ea ae Sees Saree See eee 38
Astronomy, relationioleceolomyatom esse sen = oa eee eee see = 364
Astrophysical Observatory, appropriation for ........------.---------- XLIV, LILI, 6
; expenditures for ==). 222327. sea aaa eee XLV
investications*Dy..2-5 se ses ee eee eee eee 78
publications Ot-<2*=- 2 e tes eee eee 76, 95
reportsby, Abbot On ssea-=ee ee eee ea ee sees 76-84
report on eclipse expedition of 1900 _......--.- 14
resultsoMmobservatlonsaes os aee- eae eee 22, 83
Secretary Ss TepOrbiONssse ens ke eee ee 22
Atmospheri¢-absorption, researches! ieee aoc 2s eee oS ee eee rere 80
actinometry 2:52.25 22 oe te nk ooo tet ae: aoe eceee eee Sere eee 89
ELANSIMISS/ONs- researches ainee ween 4 aes See oer en eer 79, 80
Atomic theory.. Hawi Clarkeso mls sees eee eee alegre eee ere 243-262
Atoms scurrent Ome pt long @ lessee ere re atte eee ne 274
B.
Baden-Powell, B. F. S., on aeronautical progress ....--'..-.-..--------- 90, 167-171
Dot nb owe) Dan cs Snes mes Sa Berr an het At ae eee ey Be Aeserd Sa sea base 42
Baker, Frank, report on National Zoological Park -...--.--------- eee 65-75
Jaldwins-Simeon Hove so.8 Tis oo. So ae Sa ee ee eee 96
Baldwin-Ziegler arcticexpedition. 4.2 22.5222 tase 22 ee eee ee 3l
Balloon: experiments 2 22 322 oss 2a cee een go oe ee ee ee eee 167-173
Bangs Outram, collection trome= 520s ae eset eee aoe e eee eee 28
Banks, Nathan, list of spiders collected in Arizona by Schwarz and Barber- 93
Baoussé-Roussé, anthropological explorations at ......-..----.------------ 91
Bardeen: (©. Hi: at, Smudhsontans Naples Mable ass sss-4 esse see eee 10
Barker; Eugene ‘C)o. - 22 32.252 ooo eee ane Se eee erteres 296
Barker; ‘George F =. 922 2 fed ones Nos adeee on eee eae aise ae eee es 31
Barnett, (Fv Mi. sence Sea oe See eee ee Cee ee ae ee eee 46
Barometers Use Ol) 1msw, Eat Were MO TE CAs [lim apa ae ee 157
Barton’s'balloom.s5. cs acc ee are ee es 171, 176
Bartseh;, Pauls aid in’ Museums =: aoe see eee ee 26
Barus; Carl, ionized air expernimentsi byes se-ee a eee eee eee ee eee 89
onstructurelol themucleisnoeeoneeee eee e eee ee eee Ee eee eeeeee fe Wal 38)
15227: 1-] (o) alae 2 a ee eer UN RS Re ee a ewodoauStcedesaccocess 30, 94
Bateson, W., problems of heredity and their solution ........------..----- 92
Beadle, Gr Was. oe cee Sc eo ee re Se en ee Bill
Bean, Bi vA. o2see oon see cee coe ce ee ee ee 30
Beck, Re Ho s3. onc b sees: Sopa eee eee 29
—
INDEX. 861
Page
Becquercley enn; on radio-actiyity, of matter... sss s-e2 soe see a eee ee 91
TAG ib haay Exe] KS GOATS ON none es ase Soceoe Ss sbacee nes see 200
TIPAMIUMIMEGIS COVCRICSED yam aee ee anon ee eee eee eee 187
IBeedllesballl Oona eee sae see oe Se oe Sec Bee ee See Ills UH
[BSETIVTUTAES) OM TO NO|OYeAe ONY io Soe AROS OeR SECO aces oo soSSeaUeeaeeeosee. 338-361
Bell, Alexander Graham, introduces resolutions for appointments - .------- 4
member of executive committee.......--.-.----- XIV
Regent of the Institution..........---..--- Xiv, XV, XVIII
removal of remains of Smithson by..-.-.--------- 4
tetrahedral kite experiments by--------------=-- 183-185
Benedict, James E., new species of crustaceans of the family Galatheide- - - 94
Bennet, A., experiments on heat radiation by............---------------- 115
Seeia tein, ONT: ] Se ce os et ee ne Pe PR Ae = 45
SS TbOTIM pe ee titers peepee ee ee Sn oe Soe ore hie atosclens tied aioe See EES HO.
iBeroeyen DEE TOnecomposiionot expiredtain= s\222--52osm eeae eee eee 89
iberubolleimsmeseanchesioniWehts 2. scene Sse wees Siac |e oes Soe Soe -e eae 349
Bilinede SsvoOnscoMmposioniotexpined airs] .25422-.2-52ee~scee eso 89
BiOlleveme Collec onsinoml= a= eae ease ee eos. eR ee oe 28
PiMlory are lAnlOMvOl COOlOLY tOue -. 226 ae os ta siess ee be cde cses coeeaste 371
BinGscollections mecelviedsbye Miseumy a= 5552-0 - ee eee eae eee 27, 93
Birds of North and Middle America, Ridgway on-..-.-...-.--------------- 32, 95
Black, Joseph, on salts of silver in photography ----......--..------------ 309
TPO vaGUI SY NUE, TY aVEY NST Ah 10) Os os ee a PS ee oe ee se eres ee 207-214
ROpS, JAMA aa ooh es da See ees ee Se ae ee eye ee 40, 96
BoLostap bichwork on Astropbysical Observatory sees 2 aee oes eee ee 22,78
BolionwHeCrapibliocrapmyotmchemistry Dyies=4----- eles] See a eee 14, 90
[BomlnOtere or mue wi Seema yo Setar ar ne Se or set pct eye een Be 573
BOMUCAKG BAG ECOL eChONSumOMpaee == fay me tm see ine Seri seers See 27
IRR WTS, SEC N ROL Cy So Als tit cp ee te 97
iBromleyeandy sherman mcollechlontnom= ==. 522 -6en secs elas ae are oee 28
ibmicey, HL Ou pElmMe Vali ApANCSe sooo. =< = Ses os eos sso bie one eee cone aioe 7953-804
Brooks, Alfred H., an exploration to Mount McKinley by -....----------- 407-425
IBTO Wile eaCOll CChlONalt OMe names = ce )ss mc seRisieaors os oes ae eee es 28
SUG Kame) Wie ey ey ee ee ne ne SO ae Sr cee Be oti ta eee 38
Budi National Museum, repairs tO. -.::'.2s-5 6.522252. sens abs 22 25
BilLsineeplansMorme wy National Museum 2252552 555-5 252562 25--- eee 17, 25
tno Secretary s Teport: Ol 2. Skee osetia od ooo see nosas eo eee 28S. 5
Bureau of American Ethnology, appropriation for........---.------------ 6
collectionsimadesby-=s=—ee- eee eee eee 43
publications of25.2.5 25-25 er See 44, 95
ME OLS AMNZ Al ONO ys apes eet eee ere 4
Treporb-On Worksok.2 2325. 352s aes eee 3448
NeCrelaryAs reportiOnle oe as ee-=- 2 eee 18
BUM eeeon ranamearoutedora ship) Canale... see-== sees eee 92
Onthe Republiciotimanamasssesosse= see Saas se ee 811-826
Busck, August, descriptions of new species of American moths. -...-.------ 94
Cc:
Cecconi, Giacomo, snakes from.......------ Wo nega tat atad sSae et ae 28
Central American hieroglyphic writing.-.....-..--..-...------- Scape en ee 705-721
Ghamberiainweacehee ss —< see tess ae oe eer ena oras cmecie Susie = - 42
Chanute © oniaenial Nay ea ON eases ee aes are eee are ee AL es eee 173-181
862 INDEX.
Page.
Chapman, E. M.; coin collection\drom= == 222-2222. 2es— Bo Roe Gabe onasooss 27
Chapman,;-Frank Mls. bekss sn secon saan coe cee seo Seen en a ae ees eee 31
on flame oes! Nests)2sceee eee eee ee ee eae 573-575
Charpentier’s experiments with: N-rays\ 2 22. -23a822 5252 25-542 sn ss eee 211
Chase) Salmon 2 correspondencelot saae=s4 24s s see ees eee 97
Chemistry,-Bolton’s bibhography of 220 23522222 3222 ose eee eee 14, 90
Chesnut, -V~ -Ke. Sapo 5 2 2 eee eens fo seem ee ee e Oeeeeeeere 33
Child Ci Me at Smithsonian Naples lo cea a ee ere 9
Clark: Ay Howard seditonsirepont Dyeree tenn eeer eee ot ee eee ee eee 89-97
Clark, (CharleseMe vonitelpherace sss -ee- secre Gr ae ae eee eee eee eee 91
Clark; Hubert Liymancs.2 S25 952 oe oe eee eee eee eee 31
Clarke: FS} Wey onttheatomicstheoryassss eae eee alee eee ree oe eee 243-262
Cockrell, Francis M., Regent of the Institution -........---.------ XIV, XV, XVItI, 4
Cockerell, D> Aq scollection fromiss 2.22228 32 sea ane eee eee 28
Coelostat; improvedformvotsss2525 Vas ea ee ee eee 23
Cold aud the absolute zero, Dewar’s history of -.--..-.--..----.-------2= 91
Collins: (GitN je n2e sce sree ea Ee et Ree el eee ee 33
Cometary theory, application of radiation pressure to.......---.---------- 132
Comets’ tallses4 2,02 24222220 220 eS et ee 90, 134
Congress, acts and resolutions of, relative to Institution. ......---...------ LV—LXI
Congress-of Aimenicanists te 2592 Soe eee aaa ee ee eee ees 16
Onientalista: <2. ao2sy30rs Pe ee eee 16
Contributions tonkmowledees smithsoniantesse =e sss se en ceee ee eee eee ee 11, 89
Cook; (Oss ue sys Ss ee eye se Fe SN aay Nn ee oa 33
on food plants! ofancient "America 2255.2 = eee 4 See ee 481-497
Coquiliet, D. W., on new diptera from North America. ---.----- SoA ek pale 93
Coral Rouleion naturalshistonyioless-— eee eee aoe eee ee eee eee eee eee 92
Cortelyou, George B., member of Smithsonian establishment .---...-.-.-- xin, 12
Coulter». Mb 2252 e pnd .ct ee dae Sa eoe eee ne ee ee ee 33
Coupin, Henri; on animals that hunts323s 2225 fen oe ee ee 567-571
Coville; BscV 22 32225288 sence See a es ee ee Se eee 37
on desert plants as a source of drinking water -_...-----.----- 499-505
Cox, John, on comets’ tails, corona and aurora borealis. ..........-.-.---- 90
Crania, acquisition ohcastsjols == 329 sa esse. ee eee ee eee eee 27
Craniolosy, of maniandsanthropordeapess ass oes eae eee 91
Creak, Ettrick W., on terrestrial magnetism in its relation to geography -.. 391-406
Crookes, Sir William, on modern views on matter_........-=.....---.--:- 229
. Tadium apparatugiole=- sese ee = eae eee eee 190
Cross; W hitman, fossils fire riers ys eee ae ee ea eee 30
Crustacean fauna of Nickajack Cave, Tennessee, observations on ....--...- 93
region about Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, by W. P. Hay- 95
Crustaceans from Cuba, Hay’s paper on a collection of.............-.----- 94
Culin, Stewart). 42 2 Jla5- sos 5 ee ee ee ee 39, 42
Cullom, 8. M., member of committee on powers of executive committee _.. xv, 3
Recent ofthe psins titulo ree see eae XIV, Xv, 4
Cunningham, EB. S:.5.0 22 ee ee ee ee eee 69
Curie,-E:; On radium. 32. 5530s ee 187-198
Currie, Rolla: P 2...22.0 526 32 oe ee 30
@ushine. Ps oss eels 6. oo ce ares See ogee ee ee 43
INDEX. 86é
dD.
Page.
Dy RAV ln cir SET Poser se Sesser cn at Ae ee See ee | ake Pe SS eyes ee ah 33
donations to National Museum library..--........-------- 15, 87
OHESiWOpsisrol tamnnliva Wiener iC eyes ns eee eee enna 94
Dalla, UO. ehoiMe OVO Oleoes cence soseoees sencos see doese saonescon 243
WanvwinenGeorveontidal movements 22.) 4522s esse ese een enee | s5 eee eee 105
* Dastre, A., on a new theory of the origin of species..........-------.----- 507-517
omen o hari abe aye ver oye ey ae 8 cot ee pane ae ey es BY erp CNT 91
Daughters of the American Revolution, report of ........-.-.---.-------.-- 15
Davenport: Cab: cat smithsonian Naples Mablev sos 225-5 sse esse eee saee 9
Davenport. omer, collection from’ 422. S254 ssi 2222-25 ee ee eee 28
Webrerne wVeachinalmMTdISCOMeRIes Dyjesss 225-545 25 22 ene eae ee i aS 28 187
Wepb rads kaya alll Oompa mae eer cere One aie eine Seo eee eee 176
MeimardseEphraimscollectionsmirom: saesee. s ee ee eeeee eee en ee 26
Dentomes Dupuy. balloontexperiments by 22-2: 2------- + secs ee seo eee ilyfe3
[Dyexaiikstayay, (CxS gee Soe Ae ese ay aso ee a eee ee eo of
Derkeysters John atismadonablonsybye- a5 -22 25-6 eoeee a] oe eee 15, 86
Wesertyplantsiassarsourceol drinkinoewateree es eee aoe eee eee 499-505
[Davyrse) alts} logulloyorahs 3 5 se as aes See SI ee Oe ee ae ey eae a 168, 176
Devonie and Ontaric formations of Maryland, Schuchert’s paper on ..----- 94
DeMies suc smutation bneory Olesen. so2 2. ces. se 2s eee e one eee ee ae 507
Dewar Jamessonncoldvand thevabsoluterzero==. +22 s62 2s ss seeeee ee ne 91
Michonany<olMn Gini. (IDES, cots ct et eect oh chet te eco ecoeeeees 20
Miese dota eh beer ere ee eee ea etc ee ag aed Sp ee 45
Dinsmore, Hugh A., member of committee on powers of executive commit-
LeGmeeee tee ose eee cena tee cee tan cctines Soe kOMIIINS
RegentoteiewimMsiititionliss som seees seo = =e XIV, XV, XVIII, 4
IONISOia; AVON OKC LP Be = aes BS AN ee ee ea ee a eee 40, 42
Douelaeamesscollectiommnomie eee see ee eee ee eee eee 29
Draper, Henry, on construction of silvered glass telescope-_--.------------- 13
Duclauxesh + sonatmosphercachmometrye== sees - 26 6- sols e eee eee 89
Diuniontoantos sballoonrexperiments by 225- .4-=+ --—- 4 seeceses ee eee 167, 168, 175
Wiminayes Cy dexAn cushist a Sep on. eae ee so 5 See ee ee eee eee 96
ID yormiaays,. WYTHE ae Be ee ie RN eines fet Need SAE ice Se rhe 96
Durand, W. F., biography of Robert Henry Thurston by -..----.--------- 843-849
Darel AIS ONS Gamers Samaras ee Rosie = = Sc Rises Sees Sesee was eee 30, 32, 93, 95
KE.
elimscrexpedioonaotelQ0Otreponwommer seca seer sees aac sea eeeeoe ae eee 14, 75, 95
Heconomicss nel amoncOlnceOlOmyatOsemee esse] ae nee aoe een eee eee eee 380
SOWiROM-S WE Doris 53S Gob omec uns oe CEOs BBS ees Seeee ose cee oes eer 89-97
Bidueartonesnelation ol CeologyslOme ee 6 eee eee ee. noeee eee ee ae 383
Giang sea @ cing ot epee. ee Ee eS ele a Se a Nate pee 31
Plechricturmaces~ Wrote. sence e so ae ec Se eer oe See ee eee 295-310
imbenuin pant railway sw.2 Ae ae er, Sete Se ee Jo tena Pe Se See 311-321
Melly dyasehall Spine Gre Ln AM ae ey ee NS ee ee ee pete ee 323-331
1 BVI Toy, 1 DLC ae ar lle i eee BE SS ie ne ee ee ee ee 31
Rm M ONS + Gem lenCOlleChlONSH ON ae eee as eee ee eee seh eee 26
IOOVERA AYA. MUON PERT) 00 (One gees cre Sees Rte ey op a Ie eer eee ye 263-293
TYLA SUIT C1 C 10GS gare ee ar peeing Seay ee ee aN Ee oe ee 128
(AN SOnMAV ONTO Lea eraN tO Mee ene ee ae ee 271
Entomological collections received by Museum...-.......----------------- 28
hibranyspresented: tom Vitise tian = =e ye ee ee 33
864 INDEX.
Page
Hstevolbis|ouooreinqey syaovtdovsopeveenay, Joaveroloferqs| ON 555 0554 55ccesoncesgonesoscosocesee sat. Il
Estimates. for fiscalsyear 1904.22 225-22 eee cna eee ene eee 6
Ethnology. (See Bureau of Ethnology. )
i vainis Vator lie c ays oe eye ea a ee ee 69
ld\yersacemaval, Ian WW. fos soap en se sasac Maye ten date ie. Oa ee 33
notes on tishesi irom’ HOTM Osa) sass eee 93
Bvolutionsof theyhumanttoote: 2-5 sseeee= seen e ee eee eee eee 519-536
Excavations at, Albusin, Wey ptr ss) ease see a eee eee ae ae 669-680
Hxecutive:commiuttee, powersiok=-se+ se sees ee ee eee ee eee XVIII
TEPOrtl Obes ee aS ee ee ee ee ee XV, XXI-LIII
Experimental studies on mental life of animals..........-----------.----- 545-566
Hxplorations, Bureau of iE thnolocy 23see sea =e see ee ee nee 30-41
National: Museum: 2 4-7. 2-6 aoe eee eee eee ee eae eee 30
Secretary's: report.on)<.2.-. doss.coe- eee sce Sern eeee cee eee 10
fall: EL. .G., collection: from £35. 23522 ~.o 2 Sek ae seem eee See eee 28
Farrand: Dayinestomeiy 225 = fe noe eee ee ae ee ee eS 42
Bermald Cota. Se eee aoe Sc Hee eee Ben oe ee ee eee 95
Bewiles: Js: Walter 6230222 ~ 2 aes eo ere ae eas eee 27, 30, 36, 42, 43, 96
Himnances; executive commuttee’s reporbionis] see see sees eee eee ee XXI
Secretary ’s'report,Ons: 2425s cca ee a eee eo eee ere 5-6
Fish, Pierre A., on the cerebral fissures of the Atlantic walrus.-..-...--..-- 95
Fisher, Walter K., on new procelsterna from Leeward Islands. .--...------ 94
Hishes. collectionsimecetveds by Museums = assess a oee eae nen eee eee 28
titles:of papers On. 6 os us. cxsnec cee See betes ee ee ee eoeeene 93
Flamingoes? meats: « bajomnam. Ono ae oe 9 eee ee 573-D75
Fletcher, Migs Alice Cs: Ace o2 S22 Sooke Zones ee eee eee ee ee pera ere 42
Flett, Jes: report. onveruption of phe; soul Creme =.. eae eee 91
Flint implements and fossil remains from Afton, Ind. T..--.-------.------ 92
Hlying machine experimen tee sees oases ree ee ert 7, 177-181
Food plantsofancient Americas p= ee =) ae see eee eee eee eee ee 481-497
Hoote; Warren M., specimen from!=. == soas5ose eee eee eee eee 29
Ford; “Worthington: @.. -<.225 ss. es soe Seen Sees ee eee eee 97
Horecastinge tihesweatiher metho sia tee sea ee 151-165
Forel, A., on psychical faculties of ants and some other insects -..--------- 587-599
Forstemann,, Bik.s2shoe.cee beeen oe rae ee eee 45
Hossill birds; iweasion osteologysolsseeseeee eeee eee eae eee eee eee 94
human remains near Lansing, Kans -.--- Slee Re Ss Se eee 30, 91
Foster, William T., Oberholser’s list of birds collected in Paraguay by ---.-- 93
iHowkesGerand@essscesseeeeee Stepan on thee Soe Oe See Meera: Sees ane 27, 30, 35, 43
Fowler; Henry. W..,;.papers: by 2... <2 a-<22 o- ae ee oe eee eee eee 93, 94, 95
French, navigable balloonsi2s2 2. cscsoses ee oe eee aeer See Oe eee eee 176
Hrozen mammothmnyslberian seco sses ere ae eens ee 611-625
Fryeé, ‘William? .:~26.2 Soca ences eee eae ee eee ee ee XIV, XV, XVII, +
FulhamesiMirs!> researches ‘ontcoloning ses -—e a. =e ee eee eee 300
Fuller, Melville W., Chancellor of the Institution ........---...--- XIV, XV, XVIII, 4
member of committee on powers of executive com-
Mittee-s0.d¢.200 shea een ot eee eee eee eee ee XVII, 3
member of Smithsonian establishment..-.-. -.-...---- xi 2
Fusus, Grabau.on phylogeny of -..65- 2-2 0402s csem ee eens 22 eee 14, 90
INDEX. 865
G.
Page
Galvanometer atpAstropiysicali@bservatorya- 22+ ee eee ee eae ee eee ee 78
Cannes chomas;onimounds imimorthern Honduras) 2520222250222 sees see 96
CrannISON | CeOLO Crease ears Bote eens ee eee ee ee 97
Gatschet-eAllbenrtios sUMoUIStIG WOLK. Dycena-soe a sae eo eee ee 39
(Caucnye Al berin Onpne we hUmMane type ane anne fee ase oie eens St ee oe 91
Geographical exploration in Chinese Turkestan ............-.-----..----- 747
knowiled ses pnosresstOlms.9 So 6c.) eee oe eee eres ae 91
Geography, relation of terrestrial magnetism to .........-..1.....-----2=- 391-406
RElAtOMeO ie GO; COLOR ye se sae ye oe ce oe hse eee De te me eee rae 373
Geclacied aAcciiions toe VMUSeMIMs. L255. 22. 2. 2 eee Le ee ee 29
Geology. Lapworth on the relations/of |... 2... .Jsces,o.5n52 ce tec gaceeee 363-390
Gibson, George H., on high-speed electric interurban railways ..---------- 311-321
CHOC, VOM 2RHoe Ss as SA en ee eR eae ee See 38
(GHEE SI HOIS A OMA KOLOR Ms & Seas A See Sees SR RE et Ree ee ee adn eS 173
Gallente Coulee lancalianepoOnrpolsey trons = oo en. a = esia ss ae a= eee 27
GilibenieaGrakebiocraphivaOtdk: WieeoOwell byes == =.= 4522-2 seen eee 92
Grillo Wyo a SE ee oan oe lee Se ee eer 77
ColeDeltanceymullustratin oswOtkeby 7 -es---<se<2--ooeeoe fase ce eases 43
Gill, Theodore, on the name mammal and the idea expressed ___...-.----- 537-044
on use of name torpedo for electric catfish --.-..-.-..----- 95
Codard lows steatmapropelledsballloomecss:. -2- 4-5 2- -o5--4--5 55.55 eoee 176
(GO hia, TS Wissen ee ook ees 2 Re ee ee ee eee eae aes 21, 68
Coole Gas brOwlOnusclence ilrPAImM eT Cale se sos 5 See ee eee 14
“OE ROVC SITS SYes Fav Ou gS 0) 22 be Yel (2 17 ae ey ee ea TE 91
Grabau, Amadeus W., on phylogeny of Fusus and its allies...--...-------- 14, 90
Gradenwitz, Alfred, on the Marienfelde-Zossen high-speed electric railway
(HAPOIS 5 SSR eb USE Sad bese cele emcees SO OE See eee eRe eee ears eae 323-331
Grant, Frederick D., personal relics of General and Mrs. Grant, from--~---- PU
Grave George; slvegent.on thesimstibublions. 2224 --s--2--.5----+s-2-2 56 XIV, XVIII, 4
Gray knomas somitnsonianspliysicalitabless.—- <-122---4-- 5-4-4255 seer see 90
Green, Bernard R., in charge of construction of new Museum building -.. xrx, 4, 17
iCRecorye WK. ONsa MATING MMIVCUSIbY.2= =< .< -<s)on Sain ne ae ase 92
Grosvenor Gilbert re sonsreimdeerimyAlaska; -- 5555. 22-2 seen aseeeeee es 92
Gugmeand is people. iby Wiha Sallords «<< So. nsee ae anne acto kas ot
H.
label Simeon shequestiO laces. ce ae Saae sa Se ee wise See ee see Seee OIA
inale; George ED nonistellarevolution ==: 2.--.---s4.-29-546-- 5-55 easeeee 90
evenly ee OMe CWARO ar sGll COM prc series ia = oe Se 2 eae ee eee ei 4 ee 90
amoilton vam ess beqUeStiOl acer yee teers Saree ge a er sin eaitaae ersisioajue See XX1, 5,15
flenrrd its brews (0 tasers ert eee eee rant Si oe a RR ere Sr ee 3
Elancibim Cn Vig ab omlthsoman Naples lables =. sas. 2. 22s ea= eens s - = eee 9
fFaliers alin sh, CMV LOSwheloes men eye Oe ms ee eer eM ee Nae eee gk Se 96
Haupt, Paul, delegate to Congress of Orientalists .-....-.....---...------- 16
Hawaiian crabs, descriptions of new species of ......-.-.-.---------.----- 94
naxoulursl estan xopant.d ited ay (Ovoyaobantssi(oyol eee ae = eee he 28
Hay, John, member of Smithsonian establishment .-...-....-----.-.----- XIII, 2
Mav llliam. Perry sonncrustaceans sa. 22 2c. nse aoe eae 4 oc: ee aces ee 93, 94
ELC WexPeLIMNEN tsp PLO CU GON Olesen eae as oe eee 205, 206
Henderson, John B., member of executive committee ..............------ XIV
Rerentiomthes inst guiniOne 2— esse sae XIV, XV, XVIIT, 4
Lal@ie SME EB he A See A a 8 Oe ce i eaeeet Se TS er eae het ee eet 28, 41
866 INDEX.
Page
Heraldy of Kiowa Indiango5 2.2 si sees s Sates see eee ae oe see 37-38
Herbein; He J. specimeneirom = eee 2 nee noe sey ee a eee ee ereeeree 30
Heredity;* problems. of .22253. 25 Sassen ee see ee eee eee ee ee 92
Herschel, William, on discovery of invisible heat rays ................-..- 353
HerO> Keon irozennm amin Ot hain Oe his eee ee ee 611-625
Herzer: He collection trommn = ase eo oce ose oe ee eee ee eee eee 30
Hewat. Ji0Ns. Bi eee = eee eee ee creat teense eee eee eee 38, 42, 44
Hieserly phic writincan Central Amend 2 se. sees aee ee eee eee 705-721
Fligegas Bryan sonratonnrculiypOthesisiaeae me sem eee eee ee 246
Bolderwh. Ee vanthropolosicaltcolleciions\biyesseeee eae eee eee 26
Hinds, Warren Elmer, on insects of the order Thysanoptera inhabiting
North America £0. 32 ee: cece eee eee ae ee eee 94
Eustoricalicollections received @ny, Mise umm s sees ee eee 27
Hitchcock, Ethan Allen, member of Smithsonian establishment..........- xiii, 2
Hitt, Robert R., member of executive committee. ........_...._.........-- XIV
, Regent of the Institution.............- eee Se XIV, xvii, 4
Etittites: theranclenteee 2 sae = so eee ee eee eee ee re 681-703
PLGA ge; Wy Wisc as ee ee eee es oe cn Sear tee cee etree ee ree ee a 38, 41, 42
delegate to Congress of Americanists.................-...---- 16
report on International Exchanges by ©22-2:-22-.-2252.--4--2 49-64
Efodp kins fund ei 5 ie eee sere ayer leral ee etc eer a XVI, XXI, 9
orants for Tesearchesiia.caeme sat to eee eee 7
publications cl ergs steers eee arene feet ee 89
Holbrook’s salamanders, Stejneger on rediscovery of .............-.------ 94
Holdich, T. 8., on progress of geographical knowledge ...........-.....-- (SIL
folimes: * Wrlliiainy Ee ee ee ae a eo nop ak yee eer Xvil, 32, 33, 42, 43
anthropological explorations by 222-22 -2-2.- 22-22 27, 30, 35, 92
chief/of Bureau of Ethnology = 21-2 eee 3, 18, 26, 34
classification and arrangement of exhibits of an anthro-
OMG EKCM MUSEO 32 te ooosebobosausuebspousds seuss 92
instructions to anthropological collectors ..........---- 95
on fossil human remains found near Lansing, Kans. --- ol
report on Bureau of Hthnology by-.:2-------- 2.2222: 34-48
report on exhibit of National Museum at Pan-American
Exposition co 5550 Sees oe en oe eee 92
on traces of aboriginal mining operations in Missouri... 723-726
Hough; Walters S555 2c 525 yee a eee cee ae ere ee ee 42, 92
Howes, G. B., the morphological method and recent progress in zoology. - - 92
Howland Sa SsenCOll ect omiehro rine eee 26
ELrdlickas Ae eassistamit. curate Teese eee eee 26
hub band’s GiGi si. ee ee ee eee ne 33, 87
Hulbert, Homer B.; on the’Koreanjlanguace. = 520 se ee ee ee 805-810
Hull, G.F:; ‘on the pressure:due to radiationeeson fee ee se se eee 115-138
Hulst;'GeorgeD i. 2 3... ee ee apr eer e 95
Hyatt; Alpheus. 22.1 See eee ee 31
it
Indian texts) transl aria rl of ese se seas eee are 38, 39
tribes; dictionary Of sooo ee ee ee 20, 38, 41
tribes of Purtis River; ‘Brazil; narrative of visit toc 422+. eae eee eee 92
Insects; psychical staeullities i ie meee psa ers ere ee 587-599
species of the order Thysanoptera inhabiting North America ._-_-.- 94
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature .......-..-.--2---.-------- 15, 87
INDEX. 867
Page.
International Exchanges, acting curator’s report on...........-.---------- 49-64
fi MAA CESRO lessee Rais ee ee es ey eae LO-duiie Wie (93
mie En Od SiO hae Ease ay eee ee Ree AG eee 90
Secretanygs rep Onto l= =e 20
ima -avomicchemicaltreactions:s. 2. -- 22st Jee ea case see nee eee 279
Vieiteed Uc ONMIGCECT ONO ype ere saree raoe ae er Ne te oe ee aren 263-293
Meer duaimnescarches by DArUs: .<) S2s.6. aceite Sees ee ee oe so eceee ee 89
Iron mine near Leslie, Mo., aboriginal operations in-..............--.---- 723-726
iste Oscar biography, of Rudolph. Virchow 222.52. s-se=- 22-2 seeeeeno-e o2
Ae
Jacob, Georg, on Oriental elements of culture in the Occident .........---- 92
aMmesoure) Olan ham Kime ae arta ery oe ane cele se eee a 96
a pAWesetapElMN eC Vallipers stepe essa ee ae eis 2 noes a NelGemeo ne see Soe oe ee 793-804
fishes, Jordan’s note on certain specimens of ...........-..-.--- 95
fishes and new species of Aboma, Jordan and Fowler’s notes on - 93
loaches, Jordan and Fowler’s review of ..-...............------ 95
stalk-eyed crustaceans, Mary Rathbun on...................--- 94
Venki Owe scollechoneirom sees ae oe ok 2 Sao e co ee oe aoe 28
chm, ARNT) SEE 3 ke ey Pear ec Se tee 40, 96
Jesup Moris ke president Peary Arctici@luby---2--- os. ++ sce 5 eo. ee eee 427
Johnston, Sir H. H., on pygmies of Great Congo Forest.............-..--- 91
Jomes} Waillleins IbinmS Ke AOA ion oeaneeaeeseooSessssooesseeseasosoos= 40
Meornclayans ID real Syed A nee A Sale ai a ea ne See ae ee eI aR Aro - Boss
collectionshromimnc cuss seieoe meen. oe reece nes oe eee 28
HITLES OfMPAMersMWWaacetee er Sete areas here ee Ss eee 93, 94, 95
Jouet, Cavalier H., index to literature of thorium by ........-.....-.-..-- 14, 90
K.
iKeasbeyep lem dl cya Vibe resets Seah a eae Senn moose Scere ieete ee 96
Kincaideeirevoracollectionsiromt 2 ot es caae ee oe tere ae ane eee 29
Kiowaslndianssnresearches amon Citas eee eee ee eee cece eee o7
JIVE» AIGSISEY & 2s i See yea ee eee een wee oD AO rape yy) ponte © 39
Kirkaldy, G. W., on maternal solicitude in rhynchota and other nonsocial
TMS (SGI ets es Oc ia ene ar epee eR et ead 577-585
iitesaGrahaniebellusptetrawednale] co aasscse ne occa eee oe eee eee cee 183-185
ilaceomineamncollection-tromls secs === Sen oaemas2e eae meee eee ee 28
Kloss, C. B., birds collected in Andaman and Nicobar islands by...------- 93
Knox, Philander C., member of Smithsonian establishment.............-- rails Y
Koreantlancuac cer eer mee ssemter nee f5 ce tan Sees, sense mane eee moe 805-810
INTRO OS Ey avo tel RY ae ROMET CE MOO te eee ee ras AuoS ea aae aeons Goes Sea eee meee 174
VERT OYE SYS a Nae eet ALR a oe a Pegi a gina ARE e Ee yea at eee 40, 42
L.
an ole yar S tke COOGLSCCIN GS ae See eae eee a ele eae ee mee Slee 91
mechanical flightexperiments by --.---25222---.--- FAVS Mo lliisy 17)
MOUECOMEN=TaySiOueN- LONG Oleee eee ene ete ae oon ae one eee 207
report on solar eclipse expedition of 1900................-- 95
represents Regents in new Museum construction -..-.-.-.-- ade AY
mecretary of the, institutvone:- 22s 22-2 eco. 2.css52 5: 5 SOs 2Oi5 Raya
Onitem perature. immOOMese. - seer eeaee soon see eee eee 108
Lapworth, Charles, on the relations of geology_...--.--- Pts oe e te te LS 363-390
Ley yiGiTe ESSE Io) ala 1 Cees ahem ee es ere re a ys SR i gl 96
868 INDEX.
Page.
Lebandy?s balloon vt. << 2... semen Se ea aaa ner 169, 176
Lebedew, Peter, investigations on pressure of light by ......-.-.-.---.----- 90
Le Bon, Gustave, on intra-atomic energy. 222 esses es ee a ee 263-293
Leland Stanford Junior University, collection from--.-.--.-.-------------- 28
Lepidoptera, North. American, Dyar’s listiol 25-23-2027 a oes eee 32, 95
Lewis, William; photographic investigations! by 2. s-5-----o-- 2 eee 344
Lhasa and Central: Tibet 222 S22 bs Scere cs ares See eee (se ee 727-746
Librarian, reportiok 23. 3202s Soe sie ee nee eerie rte ts rere eer 85-88
Lbibraries, sectional, in.Nationall Museum)ees= sen ssee= = eee eae nea 88
Library, accessions t0's. 3-07-42 2u5 hes ee eee ee eee eee 85
Bureau. of Ethnology: i232 es2e- sere se eee eee eee eee 46
Nationale Miuseume accessions. tOnseee eeeeeer eee reese eee =) 335 om
of Congress, (Smithsoniamrdeposibh im 222e5 26 —e=— ee 15, 85
Secretary's veportionas-c.caac. ese Se eee ee een ee ee 15
Life‘of matter; Dastre on: 2222 2222 ce eset a eee eo oe ee are 91
Light, Lebedew’s investigations on pressure of.........---:.-----------+-- 90
Lilienthal: Otfo; aeronautical researches bys 2oes=se5 4-2 =e ee 180
Linguistic researches by Bureau of Ethnology -.....---------------------- 40
lanton; Hawi, ‘collection troms222- -ssem- 22s sae eee ee een eae 29
Lodge, Sir Oliver, on modern: views’ on matter: 2-22- J- sees ee eee 215-241
doomis, Henry, collection irom 0222. = ee ne ee ee ae ee 28
oper, 'S:, Wards;collectionsirom 22222. 22) o.set—s see aa eee eee 30
I-oulsianaseurchaseelixppOsitiom! ae oer, see tae eee ys eee ta ee eee 16, 33, 42
Tou@asy Wh: gAss Sas 2 ao Soe seer etd sie we Sie ele eye etre aarti el eee 30, 94
umimer: (O; ron ratio ol spevitic heath est ee ase a eee eee eee ee 89
Lyon, Marcus Ward, jr., observations on young bats. ...:--.-..----------<- 94
M.
MacDonald, “William s:2 22 s<= 220-2. cae Sceetae ee fe see ee ee ee 96
MacFarland, F. M., at Smithsonian Naples Table....-.----.----.--2------ 9
Macnamara, N. C., craniology of man and anthropoid apes...--...-------- 91
MeCarthiy,/Charles=- 222 oe n = esse oe eae nee Be se ee nS eee ree 96 |
McCormick; Ji. 'Hi<.2: 3 22322 ae ee ee eee ee 42
MeGees Woda oe oa Ee are ee ne oe oe 34, 35, 96
MeGuire, Joseph: Ds 22.232. Sin 2 ee eee eae eee 42
McKendrick, John Gz, ,experimental phoneticss=22—-eo5 9 ee eee ee 91
Mckinley, Mountaniexplorationi tomes —- = eee eee ee ee 407-425
Meliaughliny He s2ss52 25555 Soe er a a ee 69
MicMurrich, Je Play fam note ontsearanemoOne aes = ese ae ae eee 94
Madagascar; ‘fossilere trom 22222 5.S5555 2 Soe ae eo eee 28
Magnetic charts 52: os. SS 52s 5 Se ee 402
instruments fortravelerse=s-s-s2eeee seco eae eee eee 404
poles ofthe earths 255 22s stan eee Se ne ee 396
shoals....- 2.25 See ok Se a See eee eee eee 400
SUPVCVS: 2 2.23 so 520 2 See oe oe eee eee 392
Magnetism, terrestrial: 2.2. 2seeR eee ee ee 391-406
Mahan, Alfred Thayer: 2.222222 2602 See ee ee eee oe eee
Maiden, Joseph Henry, on eucalyptus from the Philippines. ...-.-.-------- 95
Malay Peninsula: wild ‘tribestof-=-- eee eee en ere eee eee 91
Mammal, Gill on idea expressed by the name!-522222--22=- -25--)-22--—-2—= 537-544
specimens received! by, Museums sess eeee ener eee ae 27
Mammals collected by W. L. Abbott in Sumatra, Miller’s paper on ....---- 94
Mammoth in:Siberias. 2-22 ee ee ee ra 611-625
INDEX. 869
Page.
Manuscript collection of.Bureau of Ethnology -..---.------.-------------- 43
Maps as means and symbols of earth knowledge ---.----..---------------- 387
Marienfelde-Zossen high-speed electric-railway trials..........-..-.----.-- 323-33
Marine invertebrate collections received by Museum.-.....--......------- 27, 28
Mamie mMaiyeTsityeaiovaaVemies Cane COTY Ame ye fes ee afee oe erase see Nome eee 92
Markham, Sir Clements R., on first year’s work of national antarctic
E3549 CNG © Most reer Saye es ser a Se eye an Pape Iie cai alana eee go be ae Set 459-465
iMeymalovalllle \wye id Bee rsrente above Eibre(s hb ae lessees eee Pere Sires tere PSE eee eae eat Le 26
Meantinignes meport-olenrupbons ath. ---—-o4] 552s" - a2 yee eee ce eee e 91
Maso, EMR sae esacetaeeem aes oe Eee Sie ec eS ee te ae ee 26, 32, 42, 95
Maternal solicitude in rhynchota and other nonsocial insects -....-.-..-_-- 577-585
Matte, Key Ones asel a ARB a eee ene eee Lee Sete Senn ae ae age 2 9]
MOC CLUMeVvile WiSEO Dyers eee oe Steer hs re oso Syn pe 215-241
NIDA ONT Shs VOR OMINeO eereiss aco ce bebe te eae eee eS aoa eee oe 42
WeavermmVillicam ys none wirelessitelesraphive e252 4. - eee see a oe eeee 91
Maxim, Sir Hiram, experiments with flying machine...................-- 178
Wepxom, \Willient Se as See oo eee seen eee ser sae iee eee eee hee 29, 33
REMC LIONATY Sha 2k ne bes footer Oe MG See hate eee os acse cone 4]
iMiehyaiMeCalen GaTssySUCTNS ser xste aes aye Seer eer rere ns Sate 96
WUE STS, aie 6 Ie ISS ts es ee a ee gg oe re eee eee 3
Means, Thomas H., on the Nile reservoir dam at Assuan.._............--- 92
BISA S spree A ee SP ea a ect he toy rape ee ee cS at) te ey op ses 27, 29, 93
Nira Sl COmAMNM AMS a 252 San Fo Soest sooo eos eee se SEE 2 eos one 545-566
Nr rll CONRCM ae see Se nee cick sos ose one com Sec ReE ec e es cace oor 33, 92
Messerschmidt, Leopold, on the ancient Hittites .....................--.- 681-703
Mefeoric specimens received by Museum: .-..22--:..--222222-22-0.---5.-- 29
Meteorites hassinvon the CasasiGrandes=- soo. © ses. cee eee ee wee 93
INeteorol aotcalumebhod stem aes py fee sO a ee eee 151-165
Meverek-b:, Ol anwugquity of the lion in Greece... 02 fs.-c5222 2-255 e 661-667
Michelson, Albert A., spectroscopic measurements by...------------------ ~ 89
IWinlieie, (GretealiiSys Ses sees Seas aoe Gata es ee ee ee Pel ae ee, 30, 94
Mindeleff, Cosmos, on localization of Tusayan clans........--.------------ 96
Mineralogyenel anlOonOmCeOlOry LOk = o-se4- 22 ese ccomie cer eae ee eee aes = 370
MinoiCas wah omltbnsonians Naples Mable 22-525 .55 55.55. 5-26 eae eee 9
Miscellaneous Collections, Smithsonian quarterly issue of.......-----.----- 14
Secretary ¢s: Teport ONeoes ee eine Ses ee eee 13
Witches ssa eu ncollectionm toms. - i. so Ace: eee nce ese snes Sec eee ee 28
GNECOMpOsibion OL expIned sale as sees se ee eee 89
MOM ETIEMLO WStONM IMA LCn a ian aera ee See ht eo Se eines ve Se wie icre 215-241
Shelia, Ankrhiye) t= 2 See See SS Oe eee ne tener eee 4]
NVWvos liars ea aif etree Meee seen oo wo cies as aS ten a ete I pan eich 33
Monmnacenshbeodores blopraphy. Ole ~ 2-52 cities ost ae ener e ees eee oe 851-858
Miro a) Shams beta eae a ge ee Seas re Ry are Ale Sys ney Rea eh cle 727
Moody, William H., member of Smithsonian establishment. ..-.....------ xr, 2
Moon scomparisonorteatunes of canthvandi=oe= 24 - Sae eae ee oe ee 89
SEMELAGeSGrIPUGMeOlabhCvseee Meee cers eee oaae cee Seana ane 1038-113
PLOpOsed publicationion photographs Ofse---5-— ease see eee aoe 13
Ricchey7s po tograp hele seer seer a een aoe ee ee ee ae 13
VEO OM ere AIC) tes yey Se a arr ee ce ea oe ee reeds ee 37, 41, 42, 96
Witonem@ Mar lespA ea Spek ae cer eR els ane 0 Pan 2 ed Soe 427
INTVOU Tete en G ks Wik seers eset eae £ Rye be ete ney eet eee ee th 97
MI OOTE re Grae Deer CUSLOU Ae Sat er oe See ERS SE ares eS AE pe es 26
Mosman, 1... E.. atwsmithsonian Naples Table.-.-2s-22.--- 2-2 -22225- 2.3.45 9
870 INDEX.
Page.
Morgan, IT) Hi. on Naples Table advisory committee==2e2—- 29a ee ae 10
Morley, Edward W., on densities of oxygen and hydrogen..._.........--- 89
Morphological method and recent progress in zoology.-.--..-------------- 92
Moths; Americans: 2256 2. 352 See Sac eee eee eee ee eee 93, 94
Mounds.in northern; Henduras =o: 252.55 - eee ae a eee 96
Mowbray, Juouis, specimen fromm <= 22h. 225 oat eae ee 28
Muskioxen in captivity +.2 60. hc2 eee ec a eee 601-609
Mutation theory, DewV ries. 3.2 ss ee oe ese ee eee oe ee 507
N.
Naples zoological station; Smithsonian tabletat. 2: -22222--5--5--2----seeee 8-10
NEIGH Shonika loys ALDEN ON 5 oe ne adoeoseosaonsccseaseeeseosSscas 96
National antarctic expedition, first year’s work of the ..........-..--.---- 459-465
Ever barium: accessions (lees see sense Seer ee eee ee 29
Conti butionssemiaee see eee eee eee eee 33
National NuseumsaccesstonsitOmesreeeeneee er eee terse eee ae ~-. 18,25, 26
; APDPLOpHations tomes aee os ee eee ee eee ee XXVI, LI, 6
assistantisecretary’s reporton, 2-22-8252 eee ee 25-3:
estimate for. 2 22 eb soa ae i ee ee 6
exchanges by = 22-9 eee ee ee eee 31
exhibitiatist. Wouists-s-c le sees sree he ee eee 33
exhibitionvhalls"olee os ies ate sae eee 31
expendiiurestoret reacts oes eres eee ee eae XXVI
library: 0 Beet ies Ue eee naa ee Ree ee ery 15, 33
meetings andilecturesini 265: poset ae ee 32
new, buildine = t2ie52 oe eet cece eee eee ee ee 4,16, 25
OTgani Zab lOmMpal CYS tate eee ere rea ee 26
publications Ofte 24 eet ek eee a eee 32, 92
report of special committee on needs of ............---- XVII
Secretary Ss reporviom 2 oa ee see ee ee ee ee 16-18
VISILOTS GO: Seacer cae ots Senet soe eee ne 32
National)Zoological) Parkewaccescions ton eeee eee ee earn eee eee 68
ATMO Sri ea ae ee ee ree 21, 70
APPLOPLMablOnMONe a eee ee eee XLVI, L111, 6, 65
estimate for S222 oe eo ee eee ee 6
expenditures {Or 2.2.2. See ee ee XLVI
improvements at: a2. -eaes esses ee eee eee 65-68
SISOREUBIAY SING) VOI Ole = escosoacbcusoscssodsseus 21
Superintendentis report ones sss 65-75
Navy Department, mod elsiofiyesselsstromseseere-eeeeee ee ae eeeee eee eee 27
Needham, James G., genealogic study of dragon-fly wing venation.-----.-- 95
Neumann, Oscar, through southern Ethiopia to the Sudan _........-..---- 775-792
Newell i. He onthe reclamationrotathenViestess. seeeee ee eee eee 827-841
Newhouse, Sethi 22 2s. 55 ee ee a nee er ee 38
Nichols ES F2s on the pressure duestosr ci aitl @ lee epee eee 115-158
Nile reservoir dam:‘at*Assuam: so: 5 usc eeee osteo ere Sees eee eee 92
Nordenskidld, Otto, on work of Swedish antarctic expedition.......------- 467-479
Nordmann, Ch., on the sun-spot period and temperature of the earth ....-- 139-149
North: polar exploration, “Peary oms== > iss o25 sete eee oe ee eee 427-457
Nerays of :M: ‘Blondlotec2 =i222.sese te ee eee ee eee 207-214
Nucleus, structure of22 [2.3 Se os ee ee eee 7,11, 89
Numerical systems of Mexico and Central America ~..--.::.-...-.-.-.----- 96
Nutting; C:-@s.52 ges Sates ceteuke 7 ee ere 31
—— eee
INDEX. 871
O.
Page
(ls aval Gils ern wig leahe ciel OF Ses eo eae oe a A ee ee er ee ene a ne 93
Beso ncns.\ Viearme s paperon 2,2. 5222s see Se ce ae ae aa eee wee es 93
Olorovcsevirss DoS collection: tom ..<22c2e2clat oe a2 aoe eee Sees 28
Olney-ehichards Resentiot the Imstitutions=--. 2 sss. 22-2. s5 see se RLV MV
Oological collections received by Museum.................--------------- 28
Oriental elements of culture in the Occident-.-... 22-222. b2e- 2k 2 eee ae ee 92
Prgms pecies, We Vries theory of the... .22.+-2 2226022 5--=oee see ee 507-17
CDecoarel, lalerd overt hel Ot 2B eek ee eee ey a eee ee Selene 2 1h ee 96
Osteological collections received by Museum ................--.----+--- oe 29
Pearenrand HyOrosen .densiges,OL 25-2. 2622-2 ssn setee wast ee eeee ee 89
P:
eres tay aim WVRUSeUnh: sere 3 22 Pk 5 De he ee 26
Paleontological collections received by Museum ....---------.----..------ 29
IP amanmianmunCekvepul op ll@ Olas a. = asin ete Ss oui Se ce ee eee Se 811-826
Reine REO REIN CAN Me meee ae ee pte oT a a ee Se A eee oe
Pan-American Exposition, True’s report on exhibit at................._-- 92
Ranken Ver ey entomolccarnpide TUunnace!s 22-285 4255... jo 5s5 yee See ass ee 298
RaGhitinelia Ne collectionsirOM = -52 22 Seen ose. 5 cee ee! see acceee 29
Ea cum ne lee ea = heen Sel ee ye ee Gee. a eee 40
Payne, Henry C., member of Smithsonian establishment ..............--- XIII, 2
Peary, Commander R. E., on field work of Peary Arctic Club ........._--- 427-457
er KoMoeme a ICS als nec Keeees apes Spee Fe Set eee Se ee tie tesa a oe eee 96
BeMMinemineomMrlihtCes LOpOUO OL. 2. sus = 2.2 Sa. San a exces on ode scle een XVI
Pernter, J. M., methods of forecasting the weather .....-...........------ 151-165
Eemomocicalnideiss Mealliongevoluionmiol.2=-422-222.2.5202- scseee ele ocee 91
Philippine bureau of agriculture, collection from.........-...........----- 29
EOMCIEMeScAanChes Dy SCMipvules.= oo Meo S552 o6 occ Seas wo os re nee oS 58 8
Eoucdes experimental, by Mek endrick. 2.2.22 2 25-2205. 52. 2. eee 91
PioMetap iy bbe beCimmMines Ol 2/2 5.222o5.252 26 f2.2 6. 2 ese ee ese ee 333-361
Physical tables; Smithsonian, second edition of.........2......-2......-..- 14, 90
JE PSS Saye BUNT oa) 0 i pF aye.t =: 0) C0) ae ea a ey eT SSS 37
Puchene zeronatitical experiments -.- =... 22. 6/2s2 = 2.02 <- 26 -eeecn seen 180
SPS Ne OL etn ce NN fet a eaten ye eee en ree 69
Eats scollectionsireceived by Museum ..---...-.-2-.-.------5------..¢2 30
CiMrCMe Gln Cua se m8 eee Ue oN eee eee 22. l Se 481
Platt, O. H., member of committee on powers of executive committee —__-- XVII, 3
ReseninoMmines mshi UbONeasse a -= ss ose see ee oe XIV, XV, MV, +
TEOMA MSpCelal COMMUNITEE Le eA. Veet CM ee RE el oe 2
Ene Ch Aw rayne eeu eeieah eet Pere on ces. me 2 Aen ke s 69
EAOISOU OUSOOL COPS seers eek aor ter: Cee Se Nik eee ee Eye ape ha os 487
[Roo lle ohne NWesle ve se= at Se oe oe Oi ee ee xvu, 34, 44
biopnamliynotes tes sci cice ey ee cre re sete cee ome Se 18-20, 92
CGAL O ete = a ee me ere ee Ree ct erie Reem ome 3, 47
nineteenth annual’report on Bureauof Ethnolozy~.-- 95
IETentiss Ona), ab SmlthsoniameNaples: Table sie22-2 9. — o2- 8. se ose eee 8
Eesencratie: CO PaniAnON a ee Neen cere men ke Ae PE Ge Oe eo ee eae 115-138
Pmesiesy:, Joseph, researches OW Mipht. -— 60.502. ols c cs See cle eee acse 346
Parmiine mmm oers, by icGeer. 202. <2o5 Se 2 kee ee ee se ae wee cash ewan 96
PMO SM eMMeMe CALI OLOLSeCHIC MEALS oa Mines eens eee ee Se ees 89
Problems arising from variations in the development of skull and brains... 647-660
sm 1903 56
872 INDEX.
Page.
Psychical faculties of ants and some other insects_-...-.........---------- 587-599
Psychological hie. of. animals... - 2a. -ce0us- cee sso Sen es ee ee 5d4
PRublieations. AmericanskistoreslAscociationes == a= =e === ene 96
Astrophysical Observatory. a2 = - ssc e- See ee 95
Bureau ofibthnology.: e222 sae eee ee ee eee 44, 95
FIdltOr S-TeportOns. S255 ssc et ee aoe ee ee ee 89-97
National Museum. -2 421s oeeae Sash aoe ee ene 32, 92
Secretary S'irepoOrtion 2.6.2 eee ee eee eee ae ee 11-15
Simi hsommiam® wees ais txO Lees seers ee ee 90
Pygmies of Great/Congo: Forest 2-2-6 5a see ees oe 91
Pyrheliometer, researches “withiss 222 se vaces- os assoc eee 80
Q.
Quarterly issue of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections ....-.--..----.-- 14
R.
‘
Racovitza, Emile G., observations on spouting and’movements of whales... 627-645
Radiation; pressure.due ‘to 2-2 22 sae ae eee ee ne ee eee 115-138
SOlan se eA Be ae See eo ee eee ne eee ee eee ae eee 78-84
1 Revehemnvoyats) Gyeapeelibuno —— 2 2 ee ee Se es Dae ke ae a er 188
Radio-active:emisslons: a226 =< 54 -2oe ee ee a en ee ee 263, 265
QNETPY: - a5 een so Sees at sos Se ee ae ee eee 267
Radio-activity, experiments by Ramsey and Soddy-....---...--.---------- 203-206
of matter. Beequenell Of= =< 5.345262 S58 eee eee 91
Radium, disenveryotts s< Se se eee ae a eee 197
iH; Curie Oniimicteos eae eee eens Boat See eS oe eee 187-198
heatiemitted/iromn 2 2. Soe So saa ee eee eee 193
J. J's7Bhomsomson2 222 se Stes a2 2 oy Se eee ee ee eee 199-201
source of energy: of: ~ ste gas fe eae ee ee ee eee eee 199
Rairden,. B.'S:, specimens frome s+: == seen eee eee eee 27
Ramsay, Sir William, argon discovered by ----.---------- aSirene SSapeeraeetse 89
experiments in radio-activity by..----.:=----------> 203-206
RathbunsMary-J- 2.202 csee Sas oe es soe ae ee ee ee eee ee eee 94
Rathbun; Richard, assistantisecretanyeses= => =e ee XIII
reporijonsNationallVitnse nme ee 25-33
Rayleigh; Word;-argon: discovered) py-——-- 2] a2 eee ee ee ee §9
Reclamation(of the, Westas2-== 24 ae 55 (ee ee ee a eee 827-841
Reed), E:C;, collectionstrom.5 .22 2s 5s oe aoe eee z8
Regents, additional: meetingsiol 222-2452 ae ee ee XVUI; 3
organizationrol BoardampliQ032ee—=——eeee eee ee 4
proceedings of meetimg Oh. yse = a ae eee Xv—xiIx, 2, 90
Rehin§, Ji Ave Gis. 2 sc sk RI pe ea ee oe 31
Reich) Emil on Lheodore Momimcen=ss=se eee eee 851-858
Reid; AddisonT., ibequestioficej32c6 eee eee ee ee ee KV
Reindeer in Alaska,- by Grosvenob- 4. sessesaa 2 oe ee 92
Relations:of geology, Lapworth on. 5-455), s6 55 oe ee 363-390
Renard and Krebs’s balloon. 25222 4555-2 esse ee ee ee eee eee 174
Reptiles, collections received. bys Vimsetum aise: =s5ee sete s =e ee 28
of the Huachuca MounitainsssAniz ona eee ae ee 93
Rhees, William Jones, list of Smithsonian publications by......----.------ 90
Rhynchota, maternal solicitude imi: 3.5250 = 55 Sere 577
Rice gatherers of the Upper Lakes: 25222255 92-255 22 sat eee 96
—_—
ee
INDEX. . 873
Page.
Richardson. Harriet, on mewaspecies lol isopodiaes =5-sse2e- sae ce eee ae ae 93
Acar Ta 1 Cl ed (6) PY Te SSN pene See ta Ss 2 a aS eo es aoe eee 93, 94
TIGL, SIERO Ss cle sere earls ke acy cd eee aren ey eae eRe lige 32, 33, 95
LETS, GS U1E Di spine eet nee = ste agen a a ya ge 97 es 30
ie tevan Grn WE spHOLoeraphs Ob moons DYyae=s=eese se ceeee ee oe eee eee 13
acer eden Vene GIScOVery OLUltra-WiOle@bmays) a= ase se ee ecco see 393
ea MINOT CAT nC Ollechl ONet@ miley ee mye a iy Se Sees eae Sac Sh cece 29
Roosevelt, Theodore; animals presented by =-2- 3222-2. =52--2---=-----2----- 69
member of Smithsonian establishment......-..----- aoe dL
Root, Elihu, member of Smithsonian establishment.............-.-.------- Say
INOS) dig INC Soa Saes sa ee ee a ee ean en eee eee Bi}, BH//
Ose weer tvannaLanw yall OOM sane meee Ss sce beta S22 Saceies Sass sec ec ase ees 75
owe weOuIsenatinall hn stonyaomeoralle ee sees se sees aoa. see eae eee 92
Rousseau, P., experimental studies on the mental life of animals --..-.---- 545-566
Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, collection from ~-------------+2+--------- 29
Royal Natural History Museum of Stockholm, exchange with -.......-.---- 28
TRTERSSUIL,. VERO he Be end eee eS ae ee ere Sey ee eee 26, 39, 42, 43
Russell, Israel C., on voleanic eruptions on Martinique and St. Vincent ---- Syl
HMGMeTOrdssraAGiIMeexsperiMmMents —-----so.c=ssoccees oasne ee oesc ees ses 195, 196
S.
Ha tOrdnm i etre ONaG AMANO TtsepeOPlees s=acee- acne = =o bse eie esac ee 91
Pandan, Lenry. painting donated by =. 22-- Lie. 2224 sass tee sot se 3S. 16
SD Opa@ ry, Cana eS AG AS ee A ca a eo eee as A ae ee ee ae 45
Scheele, Carl Wilhelm, researches on air and fire.................--..--.- 347
Slave dN oa Sp, VELEN ae A oe a a ee eee ee 45
Semildaebswcollectron@inan wes eee ae ns ae nes See cetaers Ser oe ae Aenean A 28
Sela, dil, Wm THUS Oxia VGN on Gaooe paseo menese Sess secenococ 601-609
Se lnere tenting © ale CSeee ye aps es eine SD eres pe ino A tare ete ic Sc eee ee 30, 94
Schumann, Victor, on absorption and emission of air-..--.--.------------- 89
researches withyspectograph: =2-2<22--.-22252-22--seeeee 210
resultsiof spectrum researches: .. 22.2: 222-28 s225225255- 7
SCH CUn Zam ae ACN een oe eee See Se ey ts oe eee 33, 87
presents library on American coleoptera....-....-----+------ 15
Schwarz and Barber, jist of spiders collected in Arizona by -.------------- 93
SEMUALZ Me alll G Glib seyetn Stee aS tao ope sie lo seals abit 2d Seine Sees isie sieiSie, are 174
Scripture, E. W., phonetic researches under Hodgkins grant -.......-.----.- 8
Stalkers, LECH AIRE SS Fs Se ee tn ee en eee ees 45
Nenepiers ean researches onlight<¢ 5: .2s2.2 222 coos osc 2s sees seb = ese 348
SevCLOMpAOOMM mera men ete ae wes os sccke socceemass cscs s eae cose ee 176
Shaler, N. S., on comparison of features of earth and moon....-.-.-------- 13, 89
reneral description olbhemmoon)-= = -2.---2-22-=-seseeeen se -= 103-113
Shaw, Leslie M., member of Smithsonian establishment--..--..----.-.----- Xin, 28
Shenmanandsbrimley-collectionMrom=-=- sos. -ss2-. 25-66 -=42 22525 eee 28
SHEL MOOG CANOE W set aera so aHe Sek ae as sod Sas bos eae eee sk eee ee ee 29
Siena hozebamamm Obie eases tools aes cu ctae St ge have See eee es 611-625
Sidebottom sd collectionsirouns sss. 5s aseee ss ocleee ssc ese sese= lees 29
Siemens, Sir William, experiments on electric are furnace..-.-...--------- 296-298
Simmson,-Charles) f2.2 <5. 22 555.25 ssh ssscccnsns sos en sesesceas Hse 26
Sjostedt: wneve-<collection trom s52ssc.c-s5 seeee se ses k saa oos nace cee ees 28
Seo NVA eee wal detribesOleNaladv as sss sp ccss nasa eee tee otc sees 91
Skull and brains, variations in the development of ..---.---...--------.-- 647-660
Smith, John B., on new species of North American moths .--....--...---- 93
S74 INDEX.
Page.
Smith John Wonnell Seollec to ms is.o ine ee ener eee ae ee 29
Snaith, ‘Theodore Coo... sat oe oases eee ee see tee oe oe eee Sees 97
Smithson, James, bequest iol 2 2es i= eee. ssa en ee 0.05 42)
remoyal OL memaimns Ol 22 Sse ee a ee x1x, 4
Smithsonian depositun Milbrany. of Congeresseaa. se =e eee LV, 1
Smithsonian Institution, compilation of laws affecting the. ................ XIX
fim'anCesOhys SA = eae ea eee eee XXI-LI1, 5-6
MeetingOlMRes ents a= =n ee eee RV, Vee
members: of-establishnient).< 2s 552-2. 7 eee 2
organization of Board of Regents -..........----- 4
publicationsjof f. 2s sae eee ae ee eae 11, 89-97
researches! yi. Si6.1c.s See ye oe ee ii
Secretary s:report Onis. 2252 e eee fey eee 1-97
Smithsonian Reportademandiior= ss 22s cess ee eee eee 14
Snyder, John: Otterbeimes232. ees ee eee eee ee eee 93
Soddy, Frederick, experiments in radio-activity.-..-.-..--.------=--- 196, 203-206
Solar-constant,cohservallonsione= sees seer ae eee ee ee 78-84
Solameclipseexpedition of 19005reporti ones sees eee ae eae eee 95
GNETOYCUNVE So 5u% sun Se sibed Baerdtes Se eet oc ss re ee eee areata 83
TAadiahioOns mivEesheallOoneiNne =.=. 2 Seer esas eae ee oe eee eee 78-84
rays; change in absorption Of%.05- =. ca-Jostees Lee te eee eee 22
theory; Halim’ s\ paper Onis cscs see oe eee eee ee ee ee eee 30
Somali coast through southern Ethiopia to the Sudan._--.---...---------- 775-792
Souitieres Andersontand lett onseruptiom Of-se-s.-" eee] ee eee eee 91
Sparks, Edwin rle:s..25 25. 2. 2 Sksesb seed oe See eee eee ee 96
Species, De Vrriésisitheorysof thexonieim ol as a - eee a eee 507-517
Spectroscopic measurements, application of inference methods to ...------- 89
Spectrum vesearchesie S34 eee) oe. ae eee yee ee ees 22
byasemMimannias. 2 Not lose c cee Lee eee eee ell:
Speneer; Stanley, -balloontbuilttby. S355 -sseeee = eee a eee 168, 176
Spouting of whales)... 2-5.2= 5.552 oe de Se eee ee eee 627
Stanley's dir shipise esses se sce eee ee ee ee eee eee Gal
Starker divine Chapime,. S224 ase ee oe fo ee eee eee eee 93, 94, 95
St: Clair? EL. die: 2S. he eee ee ee ee ee 40
Steere, J. B., narrative of visit to Indian tribes of Purtis River, Brazil -_--- 92
Stein, M. A., geographical and archzeological exploration in Chinese
Turkestan: =2 233. oe eteese bc bi Setees: Ba eae eee ee et eee (47-174
Stejneger; Leonhard. 5-245. -)522-2< tose. oes. sae eee ee eee 33, 93
Stellan evolution; Halejsmesearches'on-s-— se. eee eens ee 90
Stevenson Mins Mi: G's Epes NE ee ai Tee Ree i i el eee ee 36, 42, 43, 45
Stonle; <-Witmaen e: 2 oc. Se Se ae ee ee ne eee ee 31
St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences, collection from .-.--..------ 28
St; Vincents -volcanic.eruptlonstaters: —s ee eee a oF
Sullivan; James... sc.-35.oosecc25e 2s. se ee ee 96
Sulphur-bottom whale; skeletomjotesa. 52-2) = eo ee nee eee eee ee eee 30
Sun, Nvays from the: 22-202 ee ee eee 209
Sun-spot period i202 2:3 lk se Se eye ae ee ee 159-149
Sun spots, stud yf. 22.65 es cee ae eer ee eee 23
Sun; ‘temperature of 2... 225s) so se te eee eee 23
Swanton, John Rss e558 ee 39, 42
Swedish antarcticexpedition 3: 22.2555 5. 22 = ee 467-479
Swingle, WT: custodian. 525. 5 ee ee eee 26
Symington, Johnson, variations in the development of skull and brains---. 647-660
————
INDEX. 875
De
Page.
MASSIMeWaArtis On the! Casas! Grandes meteorite #2255-4-+-s5+se-sscese ss aeee 93
Reale anna evolution om perrolopicaluideass: fe =a 2sies a aes ee 91
Telescope, horizontal, at Astrophysical Observatory ..........------..-.-- (7
Metwheraces Clan kro mere ress teria eee mae aera eee eee ee oe is Be 91
emiperatuneohthereanrthwast = sear see aaa ae nea see Shee cease oat ee 139-149
eGrestnalemacnelicniranicds SeOlOm yan mae = eee oe ae icsticee te ten eee. 402
iOS TRSleM MONA 110) MCOARNO MG aoe sea asdes se eee Jee eeeee 391-406
Teste te HE ES Ses peer ee OEE Ss eR ge ae eee 183-185
Pero Mie WEI CMeSCALCh ess Dime MRaVersere so eens = aee See ee Seige ese coon i
“TU none sy, (CARNES BSE Siac re eee eS Se 38, 42
on Central American hieroglyphic writing.............-..- 705-721
One vayan CalendameyeteM Sa. 22 Asean. ec. oo cipaee ener eine 96
on numerical systems of Mexico and Central America..---- 96
MOMAS) CSSiCube eee een ees Sy eee CS Ae a Ye Re onsen 41,47
‘TRO TTM SONATA Gls ORANG MO NTO ess ee Pa Ee ee eet as eee ET ee 199-201
MTOM Ce xevOpliie ra tune Oke ee see co eee ete, See eae ey 14, 90
MhuIstonewobertv lenny, Mlopraphiy Of - 2.25 B02. 2-8 see. = sos ese eee ean 843-849
siiranbeseeet ery Geena oe een Pe AE Ls ie eh a Sete 97
SEM oyey ee, GUS VETS a Oe eS a es ee ee 127-147
Ramerseis pap ynusOmine lersaliern ao! s5 sss ae occ 25 een steesie ceise So sts 679
UNSER NING LTE) CIEOTTEG THING OTE SS eed et ea oe ee ee ee ee 174
Travers, Morris W., researches on low temperatures .............--..----- 7, 14, 90
TUTE, DERBY LEVON Le” NY se I ee ee oe ee ee , oF
Louisiana Purchase Exposition representative.........- 16
on whalebone whales of western Atlantic...........-.- 13, 89
report on exhibit of National Museum at Pan-American
JOPTOOISIUTTO TIN Sa es oer ee OPE Se es 92
rom bull wamesstanamoends Natickidichonary,.-22:--.-s252----+2-22-2 5-5 96
SRstnachiniametexts Wve OASte = se ae eee ease ico Se oe cece cas at eee 96
SOKO Gomis OnlUnasaandlGentnalMlMibet=- = 2-2. -sines es eee 727-746
Turkestan, geographical and archeological exploration in-..--....-...---- 747
UGE PTT SHG ING COLD SS nei ee ey ees wen 2 Sete 96
UU;
Wilke wlenry,; list of beetles of District of Columbia ..2. 22.2222 22-222 -.2.:2 93
Osis Cline Oe eter Seka ax We ARs Se ee See SAGE Nm nee SSeS 29
V.
Rerncivee Wie gle aeOMP ELON! DROME Aloe ct hayes tea ye = 2 No nce ayets are se cielo 28
Vaschide, N., experimental studies on the mental life of animals --.--...--- 545-566
Wexneana i mew bnumlanvbypeece-. = ssesc ls] oe oc Sec foe tee erection cece 9
Nainicemare Ola Leanbiny acre Mewe ne eacc ease Sn aes coe cle eee eat as 2 96
Vairchow,, Rudolph, biography by Oscar Israel .:...-..-.2:.----s22-0-+--- 92
Volcanic eruptions on Martinique and St. Vincent....-.....-------------- 91
W.
Wrealkasntt, Cimeyales: IDS. on sere ieee Une ew Lene aire he oe Ue me en 30, 93
Walrus, Atlantic. on the cerebral fissures of the: ........--<..-..-.------- 95
War Department, mechanical flight experiments under ........-.--------- XVI
MULOGLe ROC AMMOmmO Nes Amare ae elas sla ees Ho eee PH |
ANY GUAT ORM a oly Ia Sees Sette a chee ae a 29
»OH
Waterhouse, J:, the beginnings of photography ......-.-..--.------------ 333-361
876 INDEX
Page.
Wave length.of Nwayss0 35-382 ee in-ear pe eee eee eee 210
Weather forecasting’ 5523. 23Sc es ome Steet eee e ee eee rise eee ee ee Eae 151-165
Wedgewood; Thomas; workin photesraphiy,.-=---2o-ce---) see oe 334, 357
Weeden Walliami Bisse faa2 Stic eee ee eye ie eee lee n ae eee eee 96
WellssHaG= sonkciscoverycolethesurttine sae es === ae ee 91
Wiestiindiéssemplorationssinis===s=seeresceo esses ae ae aee ee ee eee ae 36
Wihalebonéawihalestotawesternsattlamttc ies s== == ee ee ee 89
Whales, summary of general observations on the spouting and movements of. 627-645
Wihites Andrews Ds. sReremtrote thie Ins tituib tomes sry ar XIv, 4
Wiedemann Ave rexCAVvattOns) cite Alo ISITE] Ovi timer ne eee rae ae 669-680
Wild tribestof= Malay: Penimsulajsscaencssetaa = sees ae eaias eee eee 91
Williston ss W ice sno Sess es Sete re rr aan eee rae en 31
Walson;Charlég Biz s2se 222 st coca cceee a Bote oe Sec oe ee eeen ores 31, 94
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