Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 44.djvu/297

 fisb-hatcheries in North America (sixty-six in the United States and fourteen in Canada and Newfoundland) produced in the year of their last report 1,616,027,192 fish hatched; and four hundred and sixteen hatcheries in Europe, 277,973,016 young fish. The North American hatcheries are all governmental; most of those in Europe are in private hands. The average production of one hatchery is 668,000 in Europe and 13,400,000 in North America. In Europe the largest amount of money for fish-cultural works is spent in Germany—the most by the Deutsche Fischerei Verein. France, which has contributed more than any other nation toward the development of piscicultural work, now ranks behind several other countries. Italy has recently begun piscicultural work under the control of the Government. The appropriations for this work by the Government of the Netherlands are small, while none are made by Austria-Hungary. The appropriations of the British, Russian, and Swedish Governments are also small. "When," says Mr. Borodine, "we compare the total amount of $37,032 spent for piscicultural work by all European countries with the appropriations of North American countries, we shall not be surprised at the enormous difference in the amount accomplished in the Old and New Worlds. Europe originated and developed the methods of fish culture, but it has become an industry only in America."



Primitive Woman as a Poet was the subject of a paper at the American Association by Prof. A. F. Chamberlain. Lullabies, the author said, are known in every land, and the folk poetry of all people is rich in songs whose text and whose melodies the tender mother has herself imagined and composed. But not alone cradle-songs are the product of the genius of the woman. As in modern so in primitive times maidens inspired by love have vented their feelings in song. We find such poetesses among the Arabs and Bedouins of the desert, in Polynesia and Australia, Madagascar, etc. Women improvisators are known among the American Indians, among the African tribes, etc. The share of woman in the transmission of song and story from generation to generation is very great. Indeed, among some of the tribes of Guiana the bards of ancient times are represented as old women. Among the Bedouins as elsewhere, women and girls have special songs which are never imparted to the men, and it is very difficult, often impossible, for a traveler to obtain the text of such songs.

a paper on Indian Migration, read at the American Association, C. S. Wake endeavored to trace the migrations of the tribes from their traditions. An examination of these traditions, the author said, showed that besides the Algonkins, Iroquois, and the Cherokees, the people of the Sioux-Dakota stock also dwelt at an early date near the St. Lawrence. Probably all the people thus brought together in the neighborhood of the Eastern lakes had a common origin, the place of which may have been north of the St. Lawrence. The primitive long-headed Indians of North America spread originally over the continent from some part of the northwest coast, or the foreign element to which they owe their special characteristics was introduced there. This element has its nearest representative on the American continent in the Eskimo. The Eskimo skull approximates the type found among the Caroline islanders, the Fijians, and the aborigines of Australia. The long-headed tribes of North America may thus find their oldest allies among the islanders of the Pacific.

has found, from his continued studies of animal locomotion by means of instantaneous photography, that the modes of progression of the viper and the eel are much alike; that the postures of batrachians in water (after they have acquired their limbs) are much like those of men swimming, and that lizards trot like horses.

of catbirds having built a nest in a honeysuckle vine on the house of Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, he took the pains to observe their nesting habits. The first egg was laid twenty-four hours after the nest was built, and three others on three succeeding days, all very nearly at the same hour in the morning (between 9.15 and 10.35). For the first few days the mother bird sat on the eggs at irregular intervals, leaving them often for an hour or more, but finally gave them her undivided attention. On the fourteenth day from the first laying there were no birds hatched at dark, but on the next morning there were three; and the fourth egg was hatched during the next night. On the twenty-fifth day all the birds left the nest together; but not going away, the young were easily caught. They were put in a cage and hung under the roof close to the nest. Here the parents faithfully fed them through the cage wires for three days, when they were let loose in some dense underbrush, to the great joy of the parents.

report of the managers of the Observatory of Yale University says that while only a small percentage of the thermometers sold are sent there for certification, it is 