Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/588

572 weight up to the age of fifty years, but it appears to have no definite relation to the curve of stature. The strength of males increases rapidly from twelve to nineteen years, and at a rate similar to that of the weight; more slowly and regularly up to thirty years, after which it declines at an increasing rate to the age of sixty years. The strength of females increases at a more uniform rate from nine to nineteen years, and more slowly to thirty, after which it falls off in a manner similar to that of males. The curves of strength for the two sexes are not parallel: at eleven years females are weaker than males by twenty-two pounds, at twenty years of age by thirty-six pounds. The fact that man continues to grow in stature up to his fiftieth year contradicts the popular notions on the subject, according to which he ceases to grow before he reaches half that age.

The Extinct Volcanoes of the Pacific Slope.—"According to the "Notes" furnished by Messrs. A. Hague and J. P. Iddings, of the United States Geological Survey, to the "American Journal of Science," the series of extinct volcanoes on our Pacific coast extends northward from Lassen's Peak, near the fortieth parallel, at intervals, for nearly five hundred miles, and follows in general the axial lines of the Sierra and Cascade Ranges. The more prominent peaks of the chain are Lassen's Peak and Mount Shasta, in California; Mount Pitt, Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson, and Mount Hood, in Oregon; and Mounts St. Helen's, Adams, Rainier, and Baker, in Washington Territory. Mount Rainier is the grandest one of the number, and forms the most prominent topographical object in Washington Territory. The surface features of the western part of the Territory have been greatly modified by the lava-flows of the volcano, and four of the important rivers of the region rise among its glaciers. Snow and ice cover its top, reaching downward for five or six thousand feet, while with the most marked contrast the broad base of the mountain supports a dark, dense, grand forest vegetation. The summit is formed by three peaks, the chief of which, a circular cone, with a crater about a quarter of a mile in diameter, rises to 14,444 feet above the sea. Mount Hood is situated directly on the crest of the Cascade Range, about twenty-five miles south of the Columbia River, and is 11,225 feet high. Its summit is a single peak" a portion of a rim of an ancient crater. The crater is about half a mile wide from east to west, and its encircling wall, for three fifths of the circumference, rises 450 feet above the snow and ice that fill the basin. Mount Adams and Mount St. Helen's, on the north side of the Columbia River, form, with Mount Hood, a triangle, the area of which has been the center of great volcanic activity. None of the volcanoes along the belt occupy so comparatively isolated a position as Mount Shasta, which stands upon an open plain with the neighboring hills and ridges many thousand feet lower. Its altitude is given as 14,440 feet, and, as the neighboring ridges rarely attain an altitude of over 3,000 feet, the volcano presents an imposing spectacle surpassed by few mountains in the world. As seen from the west, it presents a double cone, the smaller built upon the flanks of the larger one, and about 2,000 feet lower. Around the broad base of the mountain numerous lesser cones have broken out, one of which, Little Shasta, rises to more than 3,000 feet above the neighboring valley. Seventy miles southeast of Mount Shasta, near the boundary between Nevada and California, is Lassen's Peak, which, though it is about 10,500 feet high, is by no means so conspicuous an object as many of the volcanoes, because it is surrounded by other peaks of considerable elevation. It is a broad, irregularly shaped mountain, with four prominent summits, and bears on its slopes abundant evidence of comparatively recent extrusions of lava.

Science and Jack-Puddings.—"Mr. R. A. Proctor, in "Knowledge," notices the single abusive utterance that was made against Mr. Herbert Spencer while he was in this country, and which came, not from a corner saloon, but from a pulpit, and remarks of it that it is difficult to say whether the terms used by the preacher "are more strikingly contrasted with the teaching and method of the writer he attacks or with those of the intelligent, well-trained, and well-educated clergymen who have, indeed, dissented from