Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/881

Rh dark. It is becoming more and more evident that molecular features of growth, and the relation of this process to correlative forces and those of the environment, are hardly at all determined.

United States Railway Statistics.—Advance sheets of the Tenth Statistical Report of the Interstate Commerce Commission are authority for the following statistics: The total railway mileage in the United States on June 30, 1897, was 184,428.47 miles, there being an increase of 1,651.84 miles, or 90 per cent, during the year. The total number of locomotives in service on June 30, 1897, was 35,986, the increase in number as com. pared with the preceding year being 36. The gross earnings of the railways of the United States for the year ending June 30, 1897, as reported for an operated mileage of 183,284.25, were $1,122,089,773. In comparison with the preceding year this amount shows a decrease in gross earnings of $28,079,603. The number of men employed by the railways of the United States on June 30, 1897, as reported, was 823,476. A com. parative summary is presented in the report of the average daily compensation of the different classes of employees for the years 1892 to 1897. Another summary is given in the report which shows the total amount of compensation reported as paid to railway employees during the fiscal years 1895 to 1897. It covers the compensation of over 99 per cent of railway employees for the several years. Regarding the year ending June 30, 1897, it appears that the aggregate amount of wages and salaries paid was $465,601,581. This amount represents 61.87 per cent of the total operating expenses of railways, or $2,540 per mile of line. The total compensation for 1896 was $3,222,950 greater. The total number of casualties to persons on account of railway accidents for the year ending June 30, 1897, was 43,168. Of these casualties 6,437 resulted in death, and 36,731 in injuries of varying character. Of railway employees, 1,693 were killed and 27,667 were injured during the year. The total number of passengers killed during the year under review was 222; injured, 2,795. Ninety-three passengers were killed and 1,011 injured in consequence of collisions and derailments. Other than employees and passengers the total number of persons killed was 4,522; injured, 6,269. Included in these figures are casualties to persons classed as trespassers, of whom 3,919 were killed and 4,732 were injured. From summaries showing the ratio of casualties, it appears that 1 out of every 486 employees was killed and 1 out of every 30 employees was injured during the year. With respect to train men, including engine men, firemen, conductors, and other train men, it appears that 1 was killed for every 165 employed, and 1 injured for every 12 employed. One passenger was killed for every 2,204,708 carried, and 1 injured for every 175,115 carried. Basing ratios upon the number of miles traveled, it appears that 55,211,440 passenger miles were accomplished for each passenger killed, and 4,385,309 passenger miles for each passenger injured.

Remains at Carnac, Brittany.—The name of Carnac in Brittany, the site of one of the most famous megalithic monuments in the world, is Breton for "the place of the cairn." As it IS described by Mr. T. Cato Worsfold, just outside the town is a tumulus twenty-five feet high, evidently artificial, and surmounted with a grove of trees. This mound was excavated a few years ago; the first remains come to were Roman; then, deeper down, Celtic pottery, etc, were found, and finally flint and granite arrowheads and celts, the finds reminding one of the hill of Hissarlik, with its layers of deposits. Close alongside the mound have been found the remains of a Roman villa, with hypocaust, etc., as usual, the owner of which, living about eighteen hundred years ago, must have been an archæologist, as some flint arrowheads, celts, and prehistoric pottery were found carefully placed on shelves in one of the rooms excavated. The megalithic monuments consist of numbers of great monoliths, from twelve feet to twenty-five feet in height, dolmens, or "table stones," great flat stones laid on a number of small menhirs and forming a chamber; and the alignments or rows—eleven in number and about two miles in length—of monoliths running from west to east, and terminating in a quaint chamber at the east end. The alignments—in three divisions, meaning severally the place of incineration, the place of mourning, and the