Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 133.djvu/262

256 who work at the pearl-fishery, or indeed any other steady pursuit. When the coasting steamers pass between the mainland and one of the more southern islands off the Queensland coast, the passengers are sometimes puzzled to account for the black balls bobbing up and down on the waves. The explanation is that they are natives swimming off from the island to board the boat, and beg a passage to one of these northern ports. Three or four may contrive to catch the rope that is thrown astern; the remainder return to I shore, swimming, as before, the entire distance of four or five miles. Some of the fortunate ones are amongst the aboriginals to be found in Torres Straits with the pearl-fishers. The South Sea Islanders, however, or Kanakas, as it is the fashion to call them, make the best divers. In some of the boats may be found natives of the islands around New Guinea; gentlemen who, if report does not belie them, are not, at their own domestic hearths, insensible of the attractions of nicely-cooked human flesh.

 

  — Dr. H. Bolau, director of the Zoological Gardens at Hamburg; has recently had the fortunate opportunity of dissecting three gorillas preserved in spirit, with the viscera intact. His results are just published in the "Abhandlungen aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften" and they add much to our zoological information. The brain is figured by photography from three aspects, Dr. Ad. Pausch describing the convolutions. In all the specimens the liver exhibited the lateral fissures or incisions which are not found in man, the orang, the chimpanzee, or the gibbon, but in all the lower monkeys. This agrees with the descriptions given by Professors Huxley and Flower of the specimen in the museum of the College of Surgeons; and serves to separate off the gorilla from the rest of the anthropoid apes. The caudate lobe is minute, and the spigelian lobelet of fair size. As in man only among the primates, valvule conniventes, the transverse folds of the mucous membrane of the small intestine, so large in the Sumatran rhinoceros, are present, although they are not large. We hope to be able to enter more fully into the results arrived at by Dr. Bolau next week.

to reduce the week from seven days to five, and, further, to rename the days, comes to us from Australia. Mr. H. K. Rusden, the author of this scheme, enunciates his view in a paper on the week in the last volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Victoria, where he expresses the opinion that while reducing the number of the days in the week it would be a good opportunity to discard the present pagan names, and to substitute Oneday, Twoday, Threeday, and Fourday for them — Sunday to be called Goodday. The author is very sanguine as to the success of his proposal, and answers the plea of impracticability with the remark that "the week itself was actually altered by the Romans, Greeks, and many other peoples; and, in fact, as there is no record of any attempt to alter the week having ever failed, the allegation of impracticability is so far proved to be utterly baseless."

 

 