Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/440

428 the latter, from May to October, no rain falls, but the earth is occasionally moistened by the depositions from fogs. From November to April heavy showers of short duration prevail, and the water falls, in portions, sometimes as high as one hundred and two millimetres—about four inches—in two hours. Long, fine rains arc unknown. The country is visited by cyclones, but, while storms passing to the north of the station turned the vane in a contrary direction to that of the hands of a watch, those passing it to the south turned it in a direction corresponding with theirs. The natives burn the tall prairie-grass in the dry seasons, causing fires that last for a long time, and produce considerable meteorological effects. The air is constantly loaded with smoke, while cumulus clouds arc formed over the fires and emit lightning with thunder. One of the most remarkable meteorological phenomena of the region is the existence of a southwest wind, which, beginning at sunset, blows all night till sunrise with such force as to raise large and dangerous waves on the river.

An Affectionate Mother-Spider.—The Clubiorics are minute, grayish-yellow spiders with a dark brown stripe along their back, which build their nests among growing oats, generally using two or three stalks. M. Ernest Menault, a French naturalist, looked into one of their nests and found there a great number of little eggs in various stages of development. The mother-spider was frightened and much excited on observing his proceedings, and endeavored vainly to collect her treasures again. From another nest M. Menault tore away the protecting web, but the diligent mother soon set herself to work spinning a patch to cover exactly the breach he had made. lie repeated the experiment several times, and the spider as often came to repair the mischief. Another spider, the lycosa, gathers her eggs, as soon as they are laid, into a little ball, which she then wraps with a thin but compact and solid covering of silky tissue. This ball, stuck to her web, she drags after her wherever she goes. When pursued, she runs as quickly as the weight of the egg-ball will let her, but, if any attempt be made to seize the cocoon, she stops at once and tries to get it back, when she shows considerable courage and fighting capacity. If the cocoon is destroyed, the lycosa will retire into a corner, and in a short time die. When the eggs are hatched the mother-spider takes her young upon her back, and has them always with her. "It is impossible," says M. Menault, "to behold without emotion this little creature, naturally so quick and jerky in all her movements, acquire a motion so much gentler when carrying her treasures. She carefully avoids all dangers, only attacks easily won prey, and abandons all chance of obtaining anything the capture of which would necessitate a combat that might cause her to drop the young ones, which press and move by hundreds round her body." Bonnet tells of a lycosa whose egg-bag was captured by an ant-lion, which nevertheless refused to leave it, preferring to be swallowed up and share the fate of her eggs. When taken away by force, she persisted in returning to the scene of danger.

Race Characteristics of the Jews.—Dr. A. Neubauer read a paper recently, before the British Anthropological Institute, on "Race Topics of the Jews," the purport of which was to show that there had been considerable intermixtures in the Hebrew race from the time of Abraham down. Joseph married an Egyptian and Moses a Midianite; David was descended from a Moabitess, and Solomon was the son of a Hittite woman. So we read of the non-Jewish women in contact with the Israelites, and undoubtedly the proselytes increased the mixture of races by marrying Jewish women. Moreover, some quite marked differences prevailed in the middle ages, and still exist, between the Jews residing in different nations. Mr. J. Jacobs, in a paper "On the Racial Characteristics of Modern Jews," took a different view. Regarding only the Askenasian Jews, who form more than nine tenths of the whole number, he pointed out as among their characteristics fertility, short stature as compared with Europeans, and narrow chests, brachycephalic skulls, darker hair and eyes than those of any nation in Northern Europe (though nearly one fifth of the Jews have blue eyes, and they have nearly twice as many red-haired individuals as the inhabitants of the Continent), and a peculiar