Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/794

714 Of a crayfish studied thus, she reported: "It has eight arms and two legs and a tail and two eyes, it has an body, it lives in the water. The body is hard and the arms and the legs are not strong, they are soft." Tommy Stringer came to the kindergarten department feeble, inert, exhibiting few signs of intelligence, and seemingly devoid of most of the impulses of children. He is now full of eager curiosity concerning the world about him, enjoys life, and is bright, affectionate, and extremely fond of fun. He is at the head of his class in some of his studies. He is remarkably interested in matters of housekeeping and domestic economy. He has a strong bent toward zoölogical study. In a talk about fish his attention was drawn to the backbone. He felt it carefully from end to end, and then passed his fingers up and down his own backbone to show the correspondence. "On discovering the eyes, mouth, nostrils, etc., of the frog, he pointed to similar features of his own; and when he found joints in the frog's hind legs, he immediately began looking for the joints of his own body and found nearly all." No seeing boy's portrait is more animated in expression than his.

Glaciation in High Latitudes.—In his Glacial Studies of Greenland, Mr. T. C. Chamberlin regards the effect of latitude on glaciation merely in the light of such results as may be attributed to the constancy of the sun above or below the horizon, the low angle of incidence of its rays, their impact from all points of the compass, and similar features. A partial means of determining what these are is found by comparison between the glaciers of Disco Island, only a little within the Arctic Circle, and those of Inglefield Gulf, eight and a half degrees farther north. The Disco glaciers seem to have all the familiar characteristics of glaciers south of the Arctic Circle, while the Inglefield glaciers take on habits significant of their high latitude. The feature which is likely first to impress the observer on reaching the glaciers of the north is the verticality of their walls. Southern glaciers terminate in curving slopes, and the Disco glaciers have the same habit; but the margins of the Inglefield glaciers rise abruptly like an escarpment of rock, a hundred or a hundred and fifty feet or more. The layers of ice are cut sharp across, exposing their edges. This, however, is not quite universal, as sloping forms occur here and there. Occasionally a glacier presents both aspects. These abrupt terminal walls turn toward all points of the compass. Next to verticality, the most impressive feature is the pronounced stratification of the ice, which is vastly more evident than in ordinary glaciers. The ice is almost as distinctly bedded and laminated as are sedimentary rocks. The movement of these glaciers is in most cases exceedingly slow, and many of the ordinary signs of movement are absent; but a few glaciers at the head of the gulf which produce large icebergs are notable exceptions to the rule. Several of the glaciers observed show evidence of retreat. One was seen overriding its terminal moraine in one portion and retreating within it at another, a fact indicating that it had been stationary for a considerable period. The combination of various evidences leads the author to regard the inference as unavoidable that the ice in Greenland, on its western slope at least, has never in recent geological times advanced very greatly beyond its present border. "This," Mr. Chamberlin adds, "carries with it the dismissal of the hypothesis that the glaciation of our mainland had its source in Greenland."

Indians of Piedmont Virginia.—The earliest accounts of the Indians of the Piedmont region of the South Atlantic States are given by Lederer, who explored the country in 1670, and Beverley. According to Beverley, as quoted by Mr. James Mooney in his paper on the Siouan Tribes of the East, each Virginian tribe had a particular tribal mark—such as one, two, or three arrows arranged to point upward, downward, or sidewise—painted on the shoulders, by which its members could be distinguished when away from home. The Virginia Assembly found these marks useful in the recognition of friends, and had badges made and distributed among the tribes, without which no Indian was allowed to come to the settlement. For counting, these Indians used pebbles or bundles of short reeds or straws. Heaps of stones indicated the number of persons killed on a battle ground or of emigrants to some