Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/583

Rh Prof. Perry from the physical side, that, on the assumption that the earth is not homogeneous, as Lord Kelvin supposed, but possesses a much higher conductive and thermal capacity in its interior than in its crust, its age may be enormously greater than previous calculations have allowed.

Modoc Songs.—During his talks with Modoc Indians, Mr. Albert S. Gatchett has been able to record from dictation a number of curious songs which these people highly, appreciate, and frequently sing while at work and while sitting idly in their lodges. Only a few of them are lugubrious, but the majority are merry utterances of a mind free from care. There are erotic songs, dance songs, satiric and mythologic songs, all delivered in a way that is half spoken and half sung. Some, however, have attractive and elaborate melodies, which, if well arranged for the piano or string instruments, would doubtless produce a sensation in cultured communities. A specimen is given of a song which is introduced as sung or spoken by a prairie owl, which has the faculty of turning its head around and then turning it instantaneously to the normal position; while, when it draws its body up, it appears almost ball-shaped, and when traveling over the prairie seems like a light-colored ball rolling over the ground. The man singing the song is supposed, after throwing off his garments and limbs, to appear also as a head only, and rolls on for many miles, when he may be seen partaking of food inside of his subterranean lodge. He has a dog who faithfully tries to gather up his discarded appendages, and take them first to his master and then home. With this is coupled an idyl of a young man carrying his sister on his back to her bridegroom, and leaving her close to a pine tree. A cradle song describes the habits of the robin, which is seen earlier than other birds flying toward the cedar to pick at the bark in search of ants; the mothers tell their babes that robin redbreast sings this song to its young, and sometimes also to its grandmother. A third song has a satirical application to another town than that of the singers.

Uses of Science Teaching.—Dr. Michael Foster defines two uses for the teaching of science in schools. The first he calls the "awakening" use, and the second the more distinctly "educational" training use. The minds of the young being differently constituted, one mind is especially awakened by one branch of knowledge, another by another. Physiology serves as awakening knowledge to a large enough number to make it desirable to teach it. For this purpose it should be taught "as a new independent subject, not demanding any previous knowledge. It should be presented as a wholly new field, into which the mind may wander at will without any restrictions as to being qualified for entrance. It also follows that the teaching must be of a most elementary kind; that as much of chemistry or physics as is necessary for the comprehension of the physiological matters should be taught with the physiology, and, as it were, a part of it, the pupil being led into chemistry and physics by his interest in physiology, and not being compelled to learn the one, for which he or she perhaps does not, at present at least, care, before beginning the other. The instruction given, however elementary, should consist in part of demonstrations and practical exercises." In this way, Dr. Foster would have physiology very widely taught, but not made a compulsory study. As a distinctly educational study, as a training for the mind, he regards it as unsuitable for schools.

American Life Zones.—Six life zones of animals and plants are described by C. Hart Merriam, in his Ornithological and Mammalogical Report to the Department of Agriculture, as having been defined in this country north of the tropical zone. They may be grouped under the two heads of northern or boreal, and southern or austral. The Arctic or Arctic Alpine zone is above the limit of tree growth, is the home of the polar bear, arctic fox, reindeer, etc., and has no agricultural importance. The Hudsonian zone comprises the northern or higher parts of the great transcontinental forest, and is likewise of no agricultural importance. The woodland caribou and the moose are probably its most striking animals. The Canadian zone, comprising the southern or lower part of the great transcontinental coniferous forest, is the first zone, coming from the north, of any agricultural consequence. It has its