Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/149

Rh objects of beauty. The quiver is largely of the region. The material out of which each example is made must be furnished by Nature: hence it is of sealskin in one place, of cedar wood in another, of soft pelt in another, and in the south land is frequently made of some kind of soft basketry. "Among several of the mountain tribes the squaw lavished all her skill upon her husband's quiver. The costliest beaver, marten, otter, and mountain-lion pelt was invoked. It was lined with soft buckskin, or in after times with red strouding. Beads of every imaginable color were worked upon the border of the arrow case and upon the lining of the long pendant therefrom. Strips of fur, daintily cut in fringes, were sewed about the bottom of the bow case, and every spot capable of rich decoration received it. Between this and the plain salmon-skin capsules into which the Eskimo thrust his arrows there are many gradations of quivers."

Prof. Sergi's Human Classifications.—In studying the varieties of the human species, Prof. Giuseppe Sergi, as he is quoted in a paper by Dr. D. G. Brinton, finds that hybridism is a syncretism or propinquity of characteristics belonging to many varieties; that these do not modify the skeletal forms as do individual variations; and that hybridism may affect different parts of the skeleton, constituting characteristics in themselves distinct. The stature, the thoracic form, the proportion of the long bones may be united with external characteristics differing from each other, as well as from different cranial structures. The cranial form may be associated with different facial forms, and inversely. It happens, however, that the structures taken separately remain in part unvaried in the hybrid constitution. The face preserves its own characteristics in spite of the union of different cranial forms; so also the cranium preserves its structures, associating them with different facial forms. The stature preserves its own proportions in spite of its association with different cranial and facial types, and in spite of the different coloration of the skin and form and color of the hair. All this may be affirmed, particularly of much larger human groups which, according to external characteristics, may be considered much nearer than they really are in geographical position, as the so-called white races in Europe, the negroes in Africa, in Melanesia, and so on. Seeking a criterion of classification, the author finds that external characteristics can not be relied upon. Regarding the internal or skeletal characteristics as presenting greater stability, he chooses the cranium, as at the same time the most important and most useful. He thus impliedly accepts the brain in its various forms. He finds sixteen varieties of the human species, without considering that he has exhausted the number, and fifty-one sub-varieties.

A Monkey's Caprices.—The last of the famous group of pets which Frank Buckland collected at his house died January 17th. It was the monkey, Tiny the second, of the species Cercopithecus mona. She was a beautiful and graceful creature, covered with a thick coat of handsomely shaded hair, and had been under Mrs. Buckland's care seventeen years and a half. She had the lifelong reputation of being exceedingly mischievous, and was an accomplished thief. She led a gray parrot, which had been an inhabitant of the house for twenty-five years, a terrible life; and when she was let out of her cage she played havoc with her master's papers and manuscripts. She would dash about the room, make a clean sweep of the table, and fill her pouches with anything that appeared especially nice. Her two later companions were a gray parrot and a thoroughbred dachshund, Olga. Every morning Tiny and the dog had a game of romps that invariably ended in the discomfiture of Olga. The dog would run round the monkey's cage, barking loudly; Tiny, inside the wires, would run round also, and when opportunity occurred would seize the dog's ears and keep pulling at them till Olga released herself. Notwithstanding these little disagreements, the dachshund appeared to miss Tiny, and went about the house as if seeking her. The parrot, too, seemed to regret the loss of the monkey, and efforts were made to cheer her drooping spirits, if possible.

Qualities of the Acetylene Light.—The method of producing acetylene, one of the most brilliant constituents of illuminating