Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/594

574 for an increase of temperature of 1° Fahr., exceptional gradients, both higher and lower than this, have been obtained in some places. Measurements were computed in five mines having depths running from six hundred and seventeen feet to nineteen hundred and fifty feet, with distances between rating stations in each about one hundred feet less than the total depth of the mines. The results obtained show that the thermic gradient in this region—the average of the five mines giving ninety-nine feet to the degree—is one of the lowest that has ever been noted. A view to the cause of the low gradient is indicated by the variations between the different mines. Keweenaw Point is a tapering peninsula extending some seventy miles toward the middle of the lake. None of the mines are, consequently, very far from the water; and those nearest to the lake-shore have the lowest gradient, while those farther away have the higher or more rapid rate of increase. Considering the magnitude of Lake Superior, and the fact that only its surface waters change in temperature, while the great body of its deep waters remains at the temperature of maximum density, or about 39' Fahr., the lake appears to act "as a great cold blanket," giving the general coolness to the rocks which has been observed in the region, and preventing the rapid rise of temperature within the depths to which the mines have penetrated, which occurs under normal conditions.

The Mounds of the Canadian Northwest.—In a paper read before the British Association, Mr. F. N. Bell, of Winnipeg, described the sepulchral mounds of the Canadian Northwest. He pointed out that a continuous line of mounds may be traced from the mound-centers of the Mississippi River to Lake Winnipeg. Human remains, much decayed, were found in them, all buried by being placed on the surface under heaps of earth, in which patches of charcoal and ashes frequently occur. One mound had a burned-clay and bowlder floor, similar to the "sacrificial mounds and altars" of Ohio. Ornaments of sea-shells, which must have been fully twelve hundred miles from their native waters, had been found in these mounds. In addition, the author had discovered an ancient camp on the bank of Red River, near a group of mounds. The mounds from Lake Winnipeg down to the Gulf of Mexico were of the same character, and were probably made by one race. Though whites had found great diversity of mortuary customs prevailing among Indian tribes inhabiting that great tract of country, little exploration had yet been made in the Canadian Northwest, which offered a wide and productive field to archæologists. The mounds were very ancient, and were situated in what were the best game districts.

Some Parrot-Stories.—An English paper publishes a number of interesting and some amusing parrot stories. One of them might help to illustrate the proverb, "When the cat's away, the mice will play." A young couple went away from home for some weeks, leaving the house in charge of the servants and a parrot. After their return, the parrot would repeat, from time to time, "Let's have another bottle—there's no one here to know!" accompanying its words with the sound of the appropriate "plop!" Another story is not unlike it. A Yorkshire gentleman had a fever, and his parrot was taken from the dining-room to the kitchen. During its abode there, of several weeks, it stole the raisins intended for a plum-pudding. The cook in anger threw some hot grease at it and scalded its head. When the master got better, the parrot's cage was taken upstairs again, and the bird, seeing the gentleman's newly shaven head, said, slowly, "You bald-headed ruffian, so you stole the cook's plums!" Some of the stories may throw light on the question whether or not the parrot adapts its remarks to the circumstances. There was a cockatoo that never asked for potatoes except when dinner was on the table, and never said, "Oh, you are a beauty!" except to a child. Dean Stanley, when Canon of Canterbury, had a parrot which, one morning at breakfast-time, got up into a tree and attracted the attention of all the servants, who gathered around it. The canon then came out, when the parrot looked down at him and said in a low but distinct voice, exactly like Stanley's, "Let us pray." It was evidently reminded of the assembling of the servants at morning prayers. A gray parrot was stationed in a nursery, where his