Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/879

Rh are most various, so that the system by which some have been improved may fail entirely when applied to others. So with the plantations of eucalyptus, they succeed in one place and not in others. We know nothing precisely about the nature of the cultivation which should be adopted in order to produce in a given species of malarious soil a final modification of its physical conditions and chemical composition which shall render it incapable of producing the poisonous ferment. At present we are feeling our way, with the result that often we obtain useful results by means of high cultivation, and as often not." Dr. Tommasi-Crudelli recommends arsenious acid and the alkaline arseniates as the most efficient protective agents against malaria.

Changes at Niagara Falls.—A reference to the earliest published accurate account of Niagara Falls—that of Kalra, the Swedish traveler, in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for January, 1751—shows that changes are going on there more rapidly and on a grander scale than has been estimated. Kalm describes a fall of one hundred and thirty-seven feet, with "a series of smaller falls, one under another," for two and a half leagues below. Much of this series has now disappeared, and the main fall has been raised to one hundred and sixty feet. He describes the horseshoe as only slightly concave, and adds: "Above the fall, in the middle of the river, is an island, lying also south-southeast and north-northwest, or parallel with the sides of the river; its length is about seven or eight French arpents (an arpent being one hundred and twenty feet). The lower end of this island is just at the perpendicular edge of the fall. . . . The breadth of the island at its lower end is two thirds of an arpent (eighty feet) or thereabout." This can not be Goat Island, which is ten times as large, but must refer to Luna Island, which, if the description is correct, has been greatly reduced since it was written. Goat Island appears not to have been touched by the falls at that time.

Social Life in Masai Land.—Mr. Joseph Thomson states that the most remarkable distinctions characterize the various epochs in the life-history of the Masai people of East Africa. The boys and girls up to a certain age live with their parents, and feed upon meat, grain, and curdled milk. At the age of twelve with the girls and between twelve and fourteen years with the boys, they are sent from the married men's kraal to one in which there are only young unmarried men and women. There they live in a very indescribable manner till they are married. At this stage the men are warriors, and their sole occupation is "cattle lifting" abroad and amusing themselves at home; the young women attend to the cattle, build the huts, and perform other necessary household duties. Both sexes are on the strictest diet. Absolutely nothing but meat and milk passes their lips. Spirits and beer, tobacco, and vegetable food, are alike eschewed. So peculiar, indeed, are they in their notions, that they will not even eat the meat of any wild animal. Moreover, the meat and milk are never taken together. For several days the one is their sole diet, to be followed by the other after partaking of a powerful purgative. On killing a bullock, they drink the blood raw, which doubtless supplies them with the necessary salts. In eating meat they always retire to the forest in small parties accompanied by a young woman. So pleasant does the Masai warrior find this life that he seldom marries till he has passed his prime, and begins to find his strength decline. The great war-spear and heavy buffalo-hide shield, the sword and the knob-kerry, are then laid aside. For a month he dons the dress of an unmarried woman, and thereafter becomes a staid and respectable member of Masai society. He goes no more to war, but devotes himself to the rearing of a brood of young warriors. His diet changes with his mode of life, and he may indulge in vegetable food, drink beer or spirits, and smoke or chew tobacco. At death, the body is simply thrown out to the hyenas and vultures.

Underground Wires and Atmospheric Electricity.—M. Blavier remarks, in a note to the French Academy of Sciences, that while it is only in exceptional cases that the influence of storms is observed on underground telegraphic lines, there are nevertheless sometimes produced, in offices connected