Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/876

858 that this is because there is more dust in them to obscure the view in summer than in winter; but there is no reason why this should be, while the disturbance by convection currents is necessarily much greater in the warm season. M. Spring does not interpret his theory as excluding any of the others, but as supplementing them.

At the Head Waters of the Niger.—In the expedition to the sources of the Niger, of which Colonel J. K. Trotter recently gave an account before the Royal Geographical Society, the first station of importance mentioned after leaving Freetown was Kruto, where the chief collected his people and organized a dance in honor of his visitors, himself leading and brandishing an elephant's tail. From a place called Kurubundo, reached several days afterward, there was no road farther on, and the chief set his people to work the whole night to cut a path to a village which the party reached the next day. Descending from the heights at the eastern limits of the British sphere to the Tembi, the travelers entered French territory. The guides here regarded their task as ended, and declined to point out the source of the Tembi, averring that it was the seat of the devil, whom they had no anxiety to meet, though they were devil-worshipers. They believed that any one who looked at the Niger source incurred the wrath of the devil and would die within the year, and they regarded the water as poisonous. Their views concerning the water seemed to be confirmed, but the agency of the devil was not made evident. A marked difference was observed in the aspect of the country in the river valley and outside of it. The part outside of the regular valley was covered with canebrakes ten feet high, yellow and sun-scorched. The moment the valley was reached the bush was green, the foliage abundant, and the trees were covered with creepers and trailers which constituted formidable obstacles. Such differences are characteristic of West Africa. The commission were disappointed at not finding the elevation of the Niger sources higher, 3,379 feet being the maximum recorded. The adjacent country was, however, distinctly mountainous, though none of the summits exceeded six thousand feet. The people in whose country this part of the journey lay exhibited a great love of music. The majority of them were pagans. Occasionally a Mussulman town was passed, and it was remarkable to observe how far the Mohammedans were in advance of the pagans in wealth, comparative civilization, and intelligence. The author regarded all the natives of the west coast, in spite of their defects, which are easily apparent and are in general those of a low order of civilization, as very tractable and quite ready to obey the direction of the Europeans. Their best point is their light-heartedness, which indeed he thinks is the bright spot of West Africa. It is a country where the worst jokes never fail to be appreciated, and where one is certain of bringing down the house without any claim to being a wit.

The Wastes of Civilization.—Improvident Civilization was the subject of the chairman's address by Prof. R. T. Colburn, in the Section of Social and Economic Science of the American Association. Touching the currency question, the speaker observed that when we speak of value, equivalency, wealth, risk, trust, distrust, panic, prosperity, we are dealing not with concrete substances like gold pieces, but with states of mind. Yet these ideas lie at the foundation of commercial exchanges and monetary science. "Have any of you ever imagined what would happen if some modern Rosicrucian should succeed in the turning of base metals cheaply into gold?. . . Such a discovery would introduce into the world of commerce, and indeed into all fiscal relations of men, an appalling confusion: first, by a general rise of prices; and, second, by a dislocation of fixed payments of interest, salaries, and otherwise. Among other curious results we should witness would be a change of side s and tunes between the advocates of the gold and silver standards. . . . The same thing would happen, only more slowly, if a vast deposit of gold were unearthed; and if, after gold was thus discredited by a practically inexhaustible supply, the attempt were made to put silver in its place (the price of which would be enormously enhanced), this state of things would be liable in its turn to be upset by similar discoveries." By precipitating the necessity of inventing some more efficient tool of exchanges, a scientific and more