Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/295

Rh of the age of the present geysers by observation of the rate of deposit of sinter indicates a great antiquity for them—over twenty-five thousand years for "Old Faithful." Our accurate knowledge of them only began in 1871. The number of geysers, hot springs, mud-pots, and paint-pots scattered over the park exceeds thirty-five hundred, and the addition of the fumaroles and solfataras would make the whole number of actual vents double that.

Mound-Builders and Indians.—"Some Popular Errors in regard to Mound-Builders and Indians" are reviewed by Mr. Gerard Fowke, in the "Ohio Archæological and Historical Quarterly." The high civilization ascribed to the mound-builders is denied, because they have left no evidence that they could use stone-dressing tools, could carry earth only in baskets or skins, and have left no indications of having possessed a written language or domestic animals, etc. Against the assumption that they possessed a great population, it is shown that while the construction of all their works in Ohio did not require an amount of labor equal to that used in the excavation of certain modern works, there is nothing in the way of their having had an indefinite time in which to perform it. While "there is sufficient accuracy in some cases to make one wonder that the builders could have done as well as they did, no evidence appears of any 'calculation' beyond the mere sighting and measuring possible to any one." The supposed evidences of the great antiquity of the mounds and of the extensive commerce of the builders are assumed to be insufficient or fallacious; minor errors, concerning the distance from which the earth used in building the mounds had to be brought, concerning the size of the builders, the soundness and other peculiarities of their teeth, and the supposed artistic excellence of their work, are corrected; and the questions whether there is anything in their work that the Indians could not have executed, and whether the Indians had knowledge of them, are taken up. Traditions exist among the Indians of Michigan and Wisconsin of tribes who built mounds, and of definite occasions when mounds were built. A certain tribe were called by the Sioux Ground-House Indians, because they lived in houses covered with earth. The chronicles of De Soto's expedition describe the houses of the Cherokees as being built upon mounds, and the French give a similar description of the house of the king of the Natchez. Certain earthworks in western New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are conceded to have been built by the Iroquois and adjacent tribes. The Indians of the Ohio Valley may have been ignorant of the subject, because they were a comparatively recent arrival. It is objected that the Indians could not have built the mounds, because the builders must have been a settled and agricultural people, while the Indians live by hunting and fishing. But it is a historical fact that, before they were disturbed by the whites, the Indians also were agriculturists, raised good crops, and stored their grain, so that they were able to supply the expeditions that came among them. We can not judge of what they were from what they are, after having been ruined by their contests with the whites and their vices. The race that produced a Logan, a Corn Planter, a Red Jacket, a Tecumseh, and other men of like genius, might also have developed men competent to construct all the works that now puzzle us. Some of Mr. Fowke's assertions are traversed and shown to be erroneous in the "American Antiquarian," which, while it admits that the Indians built mounds, holds that there were other and more extensive mound-builders before them.

Experiments in Germination.—A series of testings of the influences of certain conditions on the sprouting of seeds, described in a bulletin of the experiment station at Cornell University, indicates that variations of temperature are an important factor in the matter, and that a constant temperature gives quicker results than an ordinarily variable one of which that is the mean. The mean employed in most of the experiments was 74°; but there is probably a tolerably well-defined best temperature for each species of plant, the limit of which is not closely determined for most garden seeds. Soaking the seeds does not appear to influence the total amount of sprouting; nor does it seem to hasten the sprouting, if the planting-time is reckoned from the moment of putting