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 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
their stead eftsoones placed English men, who possessed all their
lands, and did quite shut out the Irish, or the most part of them:"
and how "they [the Irish] continued in that lowlinesse untill the time
that the division betweene the two houses of Lancaster and York
arose for the crowne of England; at which time all the great English
lords and gentlemen, which had great possessions in Ireland,
repaired over hither into England. . . . . . Then the Irish whom
before they had banished into the mountains, where they only lived
on white meates, as it is recorded, seeing now their lands so
dispeopled and weakened, came downe into all the plaines
adjoyning, and thence expelling those few English that remained,
repossessed them againe, since which they have remained in them,"
etc.

It is most probable, then, that it was during that early period of

refuge in the mountains that the wild tracts we have alluded to were
cultivated by the Irish; and it is worth remarking that when, in
Spenser's own time, the English recovered a portion of the plain at
the foot of Slieve Bloom, in the O'Moore's country, of which the Irish
had been for several years in quiet possession, they were surprised
at the high state of cultivation in which they found it.

{555}

The ancient Irish ploughed with oxen, as appears from many

unquestionable authorities--among others, from a reference to the
subject in the volume of "Brehon Laws" recently published by
Government, page 123; but in subsequent times they were brought
so low, that in some places, and among the poorest sort, the
barbarous practice prevailed of yoking the plough to a horse's tail! It
is a mistake to suppose, on the one hand, that this was a mere
groundless calumny on the people; or, on the other, that it was
anything like a general national custom. The preamble to the Act of
the Irish Parliament (10 and 11 Charles I., chap. 15) passed in 1635,
to prohibit the practice, says: "Whereas in many places of this
kingdome there hath been a long time used a barbarous custome of
ploughing. . . . and working horses, mares, etc, by the taile,
whereby (besides the cruelty used to the beasts) the breed of horses
is much impaired in this kingdome, to the great prejudice thereof;
and whereas also divers have and yet do use the like barbarous
custom of pulling off the wool yearly from living sheep, instead of
clipping or shearing of them, be it therefore enacted," etc., etc.

That this Act, as well as the subsequent Act, chap. 15, "to prevent
the unprofitable custom of burning of corne in the straw," instead of
threshing out the grain, was regarded as a popular grievance,
appears from the fact, that the repeal of these Acts was made one
of the points of negotiation with the Marquis of Ormond during the
Civil War; but they remained on the Statute Book until repealed, as
obsolete, in 1828, by 9 Geo. IV. c. 53.

Boate, writing about Ireland, more than two hundred years ago,
labors to show that the soil and climate are better suited for grazing
than for tillage. "Although Ireland," he quaintly observes, "almost in
every part bringeth good corn plentifully, nevertheless hath it a more
naturall aptness for grass, the which in most places it produceth very
good and plentiful! of itself, or with little help; the which also hath
been well observed by Giraldus, who of this matter writeth--'This
iland is fruitfuller in grass and pastures than in corn and graines."
And farther on he continues: "The abundance and greatness of
pastures in Ireland doth appear by the numberless number of all
sorts of cattell, especially kine and sheep, wherewith this country in
time of peace doth swarm on all sides." He remarks, that, although
the Irish kine, sheep, and horses were of a small size, that did not
arise from the nature of the grass, as was fully demonstrated by the
fact that the breed of large cattle brought out of England did not
deteriorate in point of size or excellence.

Sir William Petty states that the cattle and other grazing stock of
Ireland were worth above £4,000,000 in 1641, at the outbreak of
the civil war; and that in 1652 the whole was not worth £500,000.
John Lord Sheffield, in "Observations on the Manufactures, etc., of
Ireland," Dublin, 1785, writes that Ireland, "which had so abounded
in cattle and provisions, was, after Cromwell's settlement of it,
obliged to import provisions from Wales. However, it was sufficiently
recovered soon after the Restoration to alarm the grazing counties of
England; and in the year 1666 the importation of live cattle, sheep,
swine, etc, from Ireland was prohibited. . . . . Ireland turned to
sheep, to the dairy, and fattening of cattle, and to tillage; and she
shortly exported much beef and butter, and has since supplanted
England in those beneficial branches of trade. She was forced to
seek a foreign market; and England had no more than one fourth of
her trade, although before that time she had almost the whole of it."

{556}

Arthur Young, whose "Agricultural Tours in Ireland in 1775, etc.," did

so much for the improvement of this country, always advocated
tillage in preference to grazing. Referring to the former, he says:
"The products upon the whole [of Ireland] are much inferior to those
of England though not more so than I should have expected; not
from inferiority of soil, but from the extreme inferiority of
management. . . . Tillage in Ireland is very little understood. In the
greatest corn counties, such as Louth, Kildare, Carlow, and Kilkenny,
where are to be seen many very fine crops of wheat, all is under the
old system, exploded by good farmers in England, of sowing wheat
upon a fallow and succeeding it with as many crops of spring corn as
the soil will bear. . . . But keeping cattle of every sort is a business
so much more adapted to the laziness of the farmer, that it is no
wonder the tillage is so bad. It is everywhere left to the cotters, or
to the very poorest of the farmers, who are all utterly unable to
make those exertions upon which alone a vigorous culture of the
earth can be founded; and were it not for potatoes, which
necessarily prepare for corn, there would not be half of what we see
at present. While it is in such hands, no wonder tillage is reckoned
be unprofitable. Profit in all undertakings depends on capital; and is
it any wonder that the profit should be small when the capital is
nothing at all! Every man that has one gets into cattle, which will
give him an idle lazy superintendence instead of an active attentive
one."

How much of this is just as applicable to the state of things in our

own times, as it was eighty or ninety years ago! Young would appear
to be describing accurately the state of agriculture in Ireland just
before the last destructive famine; but happily he would find at the
present moment a considerable improvement. One change, however,
which he would find would not be much to his taste. He would see
even the humblest tenant farmer, as well as the large land occupier,
placing almost his whole confidence in pasturage, and compelled to
abandon tillage by the uncertainty of the seasons, the low price of
grain, and the increasing price of labor.

[ORIGINAL.]
 CLAIMS.

Nay,--claim it not, the lightest joy that throws

Its transient blushes o'er the beaming earth
Or the sweet hope in any living thing
As thine by birth.

No precious sympathy, no thoughtful care,

No touch of tenderness, however near;
But watch the blossoming of life's delight
With sacred fear.

Have joy in life, and gladden to the sense

Of dear companionship, in thought, in sight;
But oh! as gifts of heaven's abounding love,
Not thine by right.

{557}
 From The Month.

SEALSKINS AND COPPERSKINS.

Captain Hall, unconvinced by the evidence published by Captain

M'Clintock in 1859, undertook his expedition in search of the
surviving members of Sir John Franklin's crew, (if such there were;)
or in the hope of clearing up all doubt about the history of their end,
in the event of their having perished. He was baffled in his attempt
to reach the region in which he hoped to find traces of the objects of
his search, by the wreck of the boat which he had constructed for
the enterprise; and his ship being beset with ice in a winter which
set in earlier than usual, he spent more than two years--the interval
between May, 1860, and September, 1862--among the Esquimaux
on the western coast of Davis's Strait, in order to acquire their
language and familiarize himself with their habits and mode of life.
He is at present once more in the arctic regions, having returned
thither in order to prosecute his enterprise. He is now accompanied
by two intelligent Esquimaux, whom he took back with him to
America; and who, having now learnt English, will serve him as
interpreters as well as a means of introduction to the various
settlements of Esquimaux whom he may have occasion to visit in his
travels. The results of his present expedition will probably be more
interesting than those of his first. If we test the success of his first
voyage by the discoveries to which it led, these were confined to
correcting the charts of a portion of the western coast of Davis's
Strait, and to proving that the waters hitherto laid down as
"Frobisher's Strait" are in fact not a strait, but a bay. As a voyage of
discovery, its importance falls far short of that undertaken for the
same object in 1857 by Captain M'Clintock. Captain Hall, however,
was enabled, by comparing the various traditions among the
Esquimaux, to arrive at the spot where Frobisher, in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, attempted to found a settlement on "Kodlunarn"
[that is, "White man's"] Island, (the Countess Warwick's Island, of
English maps,) where he found coal, brick, iron implements, timber,
and buildings still remaining. This success in tracing out, by means
of information supplied by the natives, the relics of an expedition
undertaken more than three centuries ago, makes him confident of
obtaining a like success in unravelling the mystery in which the fate
of Sir John Franklin and his companions is still wrapped, by a similar
residence among the Esquimaux of Boothia and King William's
Island, which were the last known points in their wanderings. This is
the region he is now attempting to reach for the second time. But
the real value of his present volume is the accurate and faithful
record it gives of the author's impressions, received from day to day
during a residence within the arctic zone, and the details it gives of
the habits and character of the Esquimaux.

The origin of this people is, we believe, unknown. Another arctic

traveller has suggested that they are "the missing link between a
Saxon and a seal." They are rapidly decreasing in numbers; yet, if
measured by the territory which they inhabit, they form one of the
most widely-spread races on the face of the earth. Mr. Max Müller
might help us to arrive at the ethnological family to which they
belong, were he to study the specimens of their language with which
Captain Hall supplies us. Judging from the physiognomy of two of
them, whom the author has photographed for his frontispiece, we
should say that {558} they certainly do not belong, as M. Bérard
and, we believe, Baron Humboldt have supposed, to those Mongol
races, which, under the names of "Laps" and "Finns," inhabit the
same latitudes of the European continent. They seem rather to
approach the type of some of the tribes of the North American
Indians; and the resemblance of their habits of life and traditions
points to the same conclusion. They are small of stature, five feet
two inches being rather a high standard for the men, but of great
strength and activity, and they have a marvellous power of enduring
fatigue, cold, and hunger.
The name "Esquimaux," by which we designate them, is a French
form of on Indian word, Aish-ke-um-oog (pronounced Es-ke-
moag)--meaning in the Cree language, "He eats raw flesh;" and in
fact they are the only race of North-American savages who live
habitually and entirely on raw flesh. In their own language they are
called Innuit that is, the people par excellence. Formerly they had
chiefs, and a sort of feudal system among them; but this has
disappeared, and they have now no political organization whatever,
and no authority among them, except that of the husband over his
wives and children.

Their theology--so far as we can arrive at it--teaches that there is

one Supreme Being, whom they call "Anguta," who created the
material universe; and a secondary divinity, (the daughter of
Anguta,) called "Sidne," through whose agency he created all living
things, animal and vegetable. The Innuits believe in a heaven and a
hell, and the eternity of future rewards and punishments. Success
and happiness, and benevolence shown to others, they consider the
surest marks of predestination to eternal happiness in the next
world; and they hold it to be as certain that whoever is killed by
accident or commits suicide goes straight to heaven, as that the
crime of murder will in all cases be punished eternally in hell. They
seem hardly to secure the attribute of omnipotence to their
"Supreme Being;" for, in their account of the creation of the world,
they affirm that his first attempt to create a man was a decided
failure--that is to say, he produced a white man. A second attempt,
however, was crowned with entire success, in the production of an
Esquimaux on Innuit--the faultless prototype of the human race. A
tradition of a deluge, or "extraordinary high tide," which covered the
whole earth, exists among the Esquimaux; and they have certain
customs which they observe with religious reverence, although they
can give no other reason or explanation of them except immemorial
tradition. "The first Innuits did so," is always their answer when
questioned on the subject. Thus, when a reindeer, or any other
animal, is killed on land, a portion of the flesh is always buried on
the exact spot where it fell--possibly the idea of sacrifice was
connected with this practice; and when a polar bear is killed, its
bladder must be inflated and exposed in a conspicuous place for
three days. And many such practices, equally unintelligible, are
scrupulously adhered to; and any departure from them is supposed
to bring misfortune upon the offending party.

Though the Esquimaux own neither government nor control of any

kind, they yet yield a superstitious obedience to a character called
the "Angeko," whose influence they rarely venture to contravene.
The Angeko is at once physician and magician. In cases of sickness
the Esquimaux never take medicine; but the Angeko is called, and if
his enchantments fail to cure, the sick person is carried away from
the tents, and left to die. The Angeko is also called upon to avert
evils of all kinds; to secure success for hunting or fishing
expeditions, or any such undertaking; to obtain the disappearance of
ice, and the public good on various occasions; and in all cases the
efficacy of his ministrations is believed to be proportioned to the
guerdon which he receives. Captain Hall {559} mentions only two
instances, as having occurred in his experience, of resistance being
made by Esquimaux to the wishes of the Angeko; and in both cases
the parties demurred to a demand that they should give up their
wives to him. Though more commonly they have but one wife,
owing to the difficulty of supporting a number of women, polygamy
is allowed and practised by the Esquimaux. Their marriage is without
ceremony of any kind, nor is the bond indissoluble. Exchange of
wives is of frequent occurrence; and if a man becomes, from
sickness or other cause, unable to support them, his wives will leave
him, and attach themselves to some more vigorous husband. For the
rest, the Esquimaux are intelligent, honest, and extremely generous
to one another. When provisions are scarce, if a seal or walrus is
killed by one of the camp, he invites the whole settlement to feast
upon it, though he may be in want of food for himself and his family
on the morrow in consequence of doing so. They are very
improvident, and rarely store their food, but trust to the fortunes of
the chase to supply their wants, and are generally during the winter
in a constant state of oscillation between famine and abundance.
The Esquimaux inhabit the extreme limits of the globe habitable by
man, and they have certain peculiarities in their life consequent on
the circumstances of their climate and country; but in other respects
they resemble the rest of the nomad and savage races which people
the extreme north of America. In summer the Esquimaux live in
tents called tupics, made of skins like those used by the Indian
tribes, and these are easily moved from place to place. As winter
sets in, they choose a spot where provisions are likely to be plentiful,
and there they erect igloogs, or huts constructed of blocks of ice,
and vaulted in the roof. If they are obliged to change their quarters
during the winter, either permanently or temporarily, they build fresh
igloos of snow cut into blocks, which soon freeze, and in the space
of an hour or two they are thus able to provide themselves with new
premises. The only animals domesticated by the Esquimaux are their
fine and very intelligent dogs. They serve them as guards, as guides,
as beasts of burden and draught, as companions, and assist them in
the pursuit of every kind of wild animal. The women have the care
of all household affairs, and do the tailor's and shoemaker's work,
and prepare the skins for all articles of clothing and bedding--no
unimportant department in such a climate as theirs: the men have
nothing to think of but to supply provisions by hunting and fishing.
Sporting, which in civilized society is a mere recreation and
amusement, is the profession and serious employment, as well as
the delight, of the savage. And we find in the rational as well as in
the irrational animal, when in its wild state, the highest development
of those instincts and sensible powers with which God has endowed
it for its maintenance and self-preservation, and which it loses, in
proportion as it ceases to need them, in civilized society or in the
domesticated state.

The arctic regions, though ill-adapted for the abode of man, teem
with animal life. The seal, the walrus, and the whale supply the
ordinary needs of the Esquimaux. In the mouth of their rivers they
find an abundance of salmon; various kinds of ducks and other
aquatic birds inhabit their coasts in multitudes; reindeer and
partridges are plentiful on the hills; while the most highly prized as
well as the most formidable game is the great polar bear, whose
flesh affords the most dainty feast, and whose skin the warmest
clothing, to these children of the North.

Captain Hall lived, for months at a time, alone with the Esquimaux.
He acquired some proficiency in their language and shared their life
in all respects. He became popular with them, and even gained
some influence over them. He experienced some {560} difficulty in
his first attempt to eat raw flesh, (some whale's blubber, which was
served up for dinner;) but on a second trial, when urged by hunger,
he made a hearty meal on the blood of a seal which had just been
killed, which he found to be delicious. After this, cooking was
entirely dispensed with. Those who have visited new and "unsettled"
countries will be able to testify how easily man passes into a savage
state, and how pleasant the transition is to his inferior nature. There
is a charm in the freedom, in the total emancipation from the
artificial restraints, the feverish collisions, and daily anxieties of
civilized society which is one of the most secret, but also one of the
most powerful agents in advancing the colonization of the world.
Captain Hall's enthusiasm, which begins to mount at the sight of
icebergs, whales, and the novelty and grandeur of arctic scenery,
reaches its climax when he finds himself in an unexplored region,
the solitary guest of this wild and eccentric people, and depending,
like them, for his daily sustenance on the resources of nature alone.

The Esquimaux are sociable and cheerful, and, in Greenland and the
neighboring islands, hospitable to strangers; but those of their race
who inhabit the continent of America have a character for ferocity,
and are the most unapproachable to Europeans of all the savage
tribes of America. Even Captain Hall himself expresses uneasiness
from time to time lest he should become an object of suspicion to
them, or give them a motive for revenge. They are one of the few
peoples of the extreme north with whom the Hudson's Bay Company
have hitherto failed to establish relations of commerce. Many
travellers and traders have been murdered by them on entering their
territory, and the missioners of North-America regard them as likely
to be the last in the order of their conversion to Christianity. Skilful
boatmen and pilots, perfectly familiar with their coasts, with great
intelligence in observing natural phenomena, and knowing by
experience every probable variation of their inhospitable climate, as
well as the mode of providing against it, they formed invaluable
assistants to an expedition for the scientific survey of a region as yet
imperfectly known to the geographer. Their sporting propensities
were the chief hindrance to their services in the cause of science. No
sooner were ducks, or seals, or reindeer in view, than all the objects
of the expedition were entirely forgotten till the hunt was over. No
motive is strong enough to restrain an Esquimaux from the chase so
long as game is afoot:

"Canis a corio nunquam absterrebitur uncto."

Seals are captured by the Esquimaux in various ways. Some are

taken in nets. At other times they are seen in great numbers on the
ice, lying at the brink of open water, into which they plunge on the
first alarm, and much skill is then required in approaching them. In
doing this, the Esquimaux imitate the tactics of the polar bear. The
bear or the savage, as the case may be, throws himself flat upon the
ice and imitates the slow jerking action of a seal in crawling toward
his game. The seal sees his enemy approaching, but supposes him
to be another seal; but if he shows any signs of uneasiness, the
hunter stops perfectly still and "talks" to him--that is, he imitates the
plaintive grunts in which seals converse with one another. Reassured
by such persuasive language, the seal goes to sleep. Presently he
starts up again, when the same process is repeated. Finally, when
within range, the man fires, or the bear springs upon his victim. But
the Esquimaux confess that the bear far surpasses them in this art,
and that if they could only "talk" as well as "Ninoo," (that is,
"Bruin,)" they should never be in want of seal's flesh. When the
winter sets in, and the ice becomes thick, the seal cuts a passage
{561} through the ice with his sharp claws with which its flippers are
armed, and makes an aperture in the surface large enough to admit
its nose to the outer air for the purpose of respiration. This aperture
is soon covered with snow. When the snow becomes deep enough,
and the seal is about to give birth to its young, it widens the
aperture, passes through the ice, and constructs a dome-shaped
chamber under the snow, which becomes the nursery of the young
seals. This is called a seal's igloo, from its resemblance to the huts
built by the Esquimaux. It requires a dog with a very fine nose to
mark the bathing-place or igloo of a seal by the taint of the animal
beneath the snow; but when once it has been discovered, the
Esquimaux is pretty sure of his prey. If an igloo has been formed,
and the seal has young ones, the hunter leaps "with a run" upon the
top of the dome, crushes it in, and, before the seals can recover
from their astonishment, he plunges his seal-hooks into them, from
which there is no escape. If there be no igloo, but a mere breathing-
hole, he clears away the snow with his spear and marks the exact
spot where the seal's nose will protrude at his next visit, an aperture
only a few inches in diameter; then with a seal-spear strongly
barbed in his hand, and attached to his belt by twenty yards of the
thongs of deer's hide, he seats himself over the hole and awaits the
seal's "blow." The seal may blow in a few minutes, or in a few hours,
or not for two or three days; but there the Esquimaux remains,
without food, and whatever the weather may be, till he hears a low
snorting sound; then, quick as lightning, and with unerring aim, he
plunges the spear into the seal, opens the aperture in the ice with
his axe till it will allow the body of the seal to pass, and draws it
forth upon the ice. The mode of spearing the walrus is more
perilous. The walrus are generally found among broken ice, or ice so
thin that they can break it. If the ice is thin, they will often attack
the hunter by breaking the ice under his feet. In order to do this, the
walrus looks steadily at the man taking aim at him, and then dives;
the Esquimaux, aware of his intention, runs to a short distance to
shift his position, and when the walrus rises, crashing through the
ice on which he was standing only a moment before, he comes
forward again and darts his harpoon into it. Ordinarily the
Esquimaux selects a hole in the ice where he expects the walrus to
"vent," and places himself so as to command it, with his harpoon in
one hand, a few coils of a long rope of hide, attached to the
harpoon, in the other, the remainder of the rope being wound round
his neck, with a sharp spike fastened at the extreme end of it. As
soon as the walrus rises to the surface, he darts the harpoon into its
body, throws the coils of rope from his neck, and fixes the spike into
the ice. A moment's hesitation, or a blunder, may involve serious
consequences. If he does not instantly detach the rope from his
neck, he is dragged under the ice. If he fails to drive the spike firmly
into the ice before the walrus has run out the length of the line, he
loses his harpoon and his rope.

But the sport which rouses the whole spirit of an Esquimaux

community begins when a polar bear comes in view. "Ninoo" is the
monarch of these arctic deserts, as the lion is of those of the South.
The person who first shouts on seeing "Ninoo," whether man,
woman, or child, is awarded with the skin, whoever may succeed in
killing him. Dogs are immediately put upon his track, and, on coming
up with him, are taught not to close with him, but to hang upon his
haunches and bring him to bay. The men follow as best they can,
and with the best arms that the occasion supplies. The sagacity and
ferocity of this beast make an attack upon him perilous, even with
fire-arms; but great nerve, strength, and skill are required, when
armed {562} only with a harpoon or a spear, to meet him hand to
hand in his battle for life,

"Or to his den, by snow-tracks, mark the way,

And drag the struggling savage into day."

The polar bear it amphibious, and often takes to the sea. Then if
boats can be procured, it becomes a trial of speed between rowing
and swimming, and an exciting race of many miles often takes place.
In the open sea "Ninoo" has a poor chance of escape, unless he gets
a great start of his pursuers; but the arctic coasts are generally
studded with islands, and, when he can do so, he makes first for one
island, then for another, crossing them, and taking to the water
again on the opposite side, while the votes have to make the entire
circuit of each. The sagacity of these animals is marvellous, and
proverbial among the Esquimaux, who study their habits in order to
get hints for their own guidance. When seals are in the water, the
bear will swim quietly among them, his great white head assuming
the appearance of a block of floating ice or snow, and when close to
them he will dive and seize the seals under the water. When the
walrus are basking on the rocks, "Ninoo" will climb the cliffs above
them and loosen large masses of rock, and then, calculating the
curve to a nicety, launch them upon his prey beneath. When a she-
bear is attended by her cubs, the Esquimaux will never attack the
cubs until the mother has been despatched; such is their fear of the
vengeance with which, in the event of her escaping, she follows up
the slaughter of her offspring by day and night with terrible
pertinacity and fury.

The Esquimaux stalk the reindeer much as we do the red deer in the
Highlands of Scotland; but the snow which lies in arctic regions
during the greater part of the year enables them to follow the same
herd of deer by their tracks for several days together.

Such, then, are the life, the habits, the pursuits of the Esquimaux.
Pagan in religion, the stand in need of that phase which alone is able
to save their race, now perishing from the face of the earth. Their
life is a constant struggle with the climate in which they live and the
famine with which they are perpetually threatened. A hardy race of
hunters, they exhibit many natural virtues, considerable intelligence,
and a strong nationality. The true faith, if they embraced it, while it
secured their eternal interests, would at the same time be to them,
as it has been to so many savage races, the principal of a great
social regeneration. At present they are wasting away as a race, and
will soon become extinct. Polygamy has always been found to cause
the decrease and decay of a population; and any human society,
however simple, will fall to pieces when it is not animated by ideas
of order and justice.

The Esquimaux occupy the extremities of human habitation in North

America; and if we pass from their territory to the south, we enter
upon that vast realm called "British America"--a region sufficient in
extent and resources, if developed by civilization, to constitute an
empire in itself. Of this vast territory the two Canadas alone, on the
north bank of the St. Lawrence River and the chain of mighty lakes
from which it flows, have been colonized by European settlers. The
remainder is inhabited by the nomad tribes of Indians and the wild
animals upon which they subsist, the British government being there
unrepresented except by the occasional forts and stations
established by the Hudson's Bay Company as centres for the traffic
in furs, which the Indians supply in the greatest abundance and
variety.

The French, who were among the first to profit by the discovery of
Columbus and to settle as colonists in the new hemisphere, have in
their conquests always planted the cross of Christ side by side with
the banner of France. Though they have failed to retain the
dominion of those colonies {563} which they founded, yet, to their
glory be it said, their missioners have not only kept alive that sacred
flame of faith which they kindled in their former possessions, but
have spread it from one end of the American continent to the other,
beyond the limits within which lucre leads the trader, and even
among the remote tribes who as yet reject all ordinary intercourse
with the white man. Monseigneur Faraud, now Bishop of Anemour
and Vicar-Apostolic of Mackenzie, has published his experiences
during eighteen years of missionary labor as a priest among the
savages of the extreme north of America, [Footnote 123] with the
view of giving information to future missioners in the same regions,
and inspiring others to undertake the conversion of this portion of
the heathen world. The proceeds of the sale of his book will be
devoted to founding establishments for works of corporal and
spiritual mercy among the tribes of Indians in his diocese. The
narrative of his apostolic life is highly interesting. Born of an old
legitimist family in the south of France, some of whose members had
fallen victims to the Reign of Terror in 1793, and carefully educated
under the eye of a pious mother, he offered himself to the service of
God in the priesthood. Being of a vigorous constitution and of an
enterprising spirit, he was drawn to the work of the foreign missions,
and at the age of twenty-six he started for North America. Landing
at New York, he passed through Montreal to St. Boniface, a
settlement on the Red River, a few miles above the point where it
discharges its waters into the great Lake Winnipeg. Here he fixed his
abode for seven months, studying the language, and acquiring the
habits and mode of life of the natives. At the end of this time the
Indians of the settlement started on their annual expedition at the
end of the summer to the prairies of the west to hunt the buffalo--an
important affair, on which depends their supply of buffalo-hides and
beef for the winter.

[Footnote 123: "Dix-huit Ans chez les Sauvages. Voyages

et Missions de Mgr. Faraud dans le Nord de l'Amérique
Britannique. Regis Ruffet et Cie. Paris, 1866."]

For this expedition, which was organized with military precision and
most picturesque effect, one hundred and twenty skilful hunters
were selected, armed with guns and long couteaux de chasse,
and mounted on their best horses. A long train of bullock-carts
followed in the rear, with boys and women as drivers, carrying the
tents and provisions for encampment, and destined to bring home
the game. The priest accompanied them, saying mass for them
every morning in a tent set apart as the chapel, and night-prayers
before retiring to rest in the evening.

In this way they journeyed for a week, making about thirty miles in
the day, and camping for the night in their tents. Let the reader, in
order to conceive an American "prairie," imagine a level and
boundless plain, reaching in every direction to the horizon, fertile
and covered with luxuriant herbage, and unbroken except by
swelling undulations and here and there occasional clumps of trees
sprinkled like islets on the ocean, or oases on the desert. After
marching for a week across the prairie, they came upon the tracks of
a herd of buffaloes. The Indians are taught from childhood, when
they encounter a track, to discern at once to what animal it belongs,
how long it is since it passed that way, and to follow it by the eye, as
a hound does by scent. For two days they marched in the track of
the buffaloes, and the second night the hunters brought a supply of
fresh beef into camp--they had killed some old bulls. These old bulls
are found single, or in parties of two or three, and always indicate
the proximity of a herd. Accordingly, on the following morning the
herd was discovered in the distance on the prairie, like a swarm of
flies on a green carpet. The hunters now galloped to the front, and
called a council of war behind some undulating ground about a mile
and a half {564} from the buffaloes, who, in number about three
thousand, were grazing lazily on the plain. All was now animation. It
would be difficult to say whether the keener interest was shown by
the men or the horses, who now, with dilated eyes and nostrils, ears
pricked, and nervous action, pawed the ground, impatient as
greyhounds in the slips and eager for the fray. The plan of action
was soon agreed upon--a few words were spoken in a low tone by
the chief, and the horsemen vanished with the rapidity of the wind.
In about a quarter of an hour they reappeared, having formed a
circle round the buffaloes, whom they now approached at a hand-
gallop, concentrating their descent upon the herd from every point
of the compass. The effect of this strategy was that, though they
were soon discovered, time was gained. Whichever way the herd
pointed, they were encountered by an approaching horseman, and
they were thus thrown into confusion, until, massing themselves into
a disordered mob, they charged, breaking away through the line of
cavalry. Then began the race and the slaughter. A good horse, even
with a man on his back, has always the speed of a buffalo; but the
skill of a hunter is shown (besides minding his horse lest he gets
entangled in the herd and trampled to death, and keeping his
presence of mind during the delirium of the chase,) in selecting the
youngest and fattest beasts of the herd, in loading his piece with the
greatest rapidity--the Indians have no breech-loaders--and taking
accurate aim while riding at the top of his speed. In the space of a
mile a skilful buffalo-hunter will fire seven, eight, nine shots in this
manner, and at each discharge a buffalo will bite the dust. On the
present occasion the pursuit continued for about a mile and a half,
and above eight hundred buffaloes were safely bagged. When the
chase was over, there was a plentiful supply of fresh beef, the hides
were carefully stowed on the carts, the carcasses cut up, the meat
dried and highly spiced and made into pies, in which form it will
keep for many months, and forms a provision for the winter. The
buffalo (which in natural history would be called a bison) is the
principal source of food and clothing to the Indians who live within
reach of the great western prairies. But the forests also abound with
elk, moose, and reindeer, as well as the smaller species of deer, and
smaller game of other kinds, and the multitudes of animals of prey
of all sizes which supply the markets of Europe with furs. The
abundance of fish in the lakes and rivers is prodigious. The largest
fish in these waters is the sturgeon. This fish lies generally near the
surface of the water: the Indian paddles his canoe over the likely
spots, and when he sees a fish darts his harpoon into it, which is
made fast by a cord to the head of the canoe; the fish tows the
canoe rapidly through the water till he is exhausted, and is then
despatched. Besides many other inferior kinds of fish, they have the
pike, which runs to a great size in the lakes, and two kinds of trout--
the smaller of these is the same as that found in the rivers of
England; the larger is often taken of more than eighty pounds in
weight. The Indians take these with spears, nets, and baskets; but a
trout weighing eighty pounds would afford considerable sport to one
of our trout-fishers of Stockbridge or Driffield, if taken with an
orthodox rod and line.

A fortnight was devoted to the chase; and between two and three
thousand buffaloes having been killed, and the carts fully laden, the
party returned to St. Bonifice. The settlement of St. Bonifice was
founded by Lord Selkirk, who sent out a number of his Scotch
dependents as colonists, and induced some Canadian families to join
them. It was originally intended as a model Protestant colony; but
the demoralization and vice which broke out in the new settlement
brought it to the verge of temporal ruin. Lord Selkirk then called
Catholics to his aid, {565} and three priests were sent there.
Religion took the place of fanaticism, and ever since this epoch the
colony has never ceased to flourish and increase, and has become
the centre of numerous settlements in the neighborhood of friendly
Indians converted to the faith. This is one of many instances which
might be quoted in which the noxious weed of heresy has failed to
transplant itself beyond the soil which gave it birth. St. Boniface has
been the residence of a bishop since 1818, and is now the resting-
place and point of departure for all missioners bound for the
northern deserts of America. It was here that Mgr. Faraud spent
eighteen months studying the languages of the northern tribes of
Indians. Lord Bacon says that "he that goeth into a strange laud
without knowledge of the language goeth to learn and not to travel."
This, which is true of the traveller, is much more true of the
missioner, as Mgr. Faraud soon found by experience. He made
several essays at intercourse with neighboring tribes, like a young
soldier burning with zeal and the desire to flesh his sword in
missionary work. But the reception he met with was most mortifying,
being generally told "not to think of teaching men as long as he
spoke like a child." He applied himself with renewed energy to
acquire the native language.

The dialects of most of the tribes of the extreme north of America

(with the exception of the Esquimaux) are modifications of two
parent languages, the Montaignais and the Cree. By acquiring these
Mgr. Faraud was able to make himself understood by almost any of
these tribes after a short residence among them. Eighteen months
spent at St. Boniface served as a novitiate for his missionary work,
at the end of which time he received orders to start, early in the
following month, for Isle de la Crosse, a fort on the Beaver river,
about 350 leagues to the N.W. of St. Boniface. On his way thither he
was the guest of the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, at
Norway House, where he was most hospitably entertained. Mgr.
Faraud bears witness to the liberal and enlightened spirit in which
the authorities of the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as the
government officials in Canada, render every aid and encouragement
in their power to the Catholic missioners; and he quotes a speech
made to him by Sir Edmund Head (then Governor of Canada)
showing the high estimation, and even favor, in which the Catholic
missioners are held by them. Whatever permanence and stability our
missions possess in these vast deserts is owing to the protection and
kind assistance rendered to them by the British authorities; while, on
the other hand, it would be hardly possible for this powerful
company of traders to maintain their present friendly relations with
Indian tribes, upon which their trade depends, without the aid of the
Catholic missioners.

After five months spent at Isle de la Crosse, and three years after his
departure from Europe, Mgr. Faraud left for Atthabaska, one of the
most northerly establishments of the Hudson's Bay Company,
whither the various tribes of Indians, spread over an immense circuit
400 leagues in diameter, come twice in the year, early in spring and
late in the autumn, to barter their furs, the produce of their winter
and summer hunting. This was his final destinatibn and field of
apostolical labor, it is often said that it is the happiness of the Red
Indian to be totally ignorant of money; and this, in a certain sense is
true. But money has no necessary connection with the precious
metals or bank-notes; and any medium of circulation which by
common agreement can be made to represent a determined value
becomes money, in fact, if not in name. Thus the market value of a
beaver's skin in British America varies little, and is nearly equivalent
to an American dollar. The Hudson's Bay Company have adopted this
as the unit of their currency, and the value of other furs {566} is
reckoned in relation to this standard. The following are some of the
prices given to the Indians for the furs ordinarily offered by them for
sale:

The skin of a black bear values from six to ten beavers; the skin
of a black fox, about six beavers; the skin of a silver fox, about
five beavers; the skin of an otter, from two to three beavers; the
skin of a pecari, from one to four beavers; the skin of a martin,
from one to four beavers; the skin of a red or white fox, about
one beaver, and so forth.
Twice in the year the steamers and canoes of the company, laden
with merchandise, work their way up the lakes and rivers to these
stations, where the Indians assemble to meet them, and receive an
equivalent for their furs in arms, ammunition, articles for clothing,
hardware, and trinkets.

Two of our countrymen, Viscount Milton, and Dr. Cheadle, have

lately published an account of their travels in British America, of
which we give a notice in another part of this number. [Footnote
124] The description they give of the privations they endured and
the difficulties they had to overcome in merely traversing the country
as travellers, furnished as they were with all the resources which
wealth could command, while it reflects credit on their British pluck
and perseverance in attaining the object they had in view, gives us
some idea of the obstacles which present themselves to a missioner
in these regions, who has to take up his abode wherever his duty
may call him, and without any means of maintaining life beyond
those which these districts supply. The object of these gentlemen
was to explore a line of communication between Canada and British
Columbia, with a view to suggesting an overland route through
British territory connecting the Pacific with the Atlantic--a most
important project in a political point of view, upon which the success
of the rising colony of Columbia appears eventually to depend. The
territory administered by the Hudson's Bay Company, reaching as it
does from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the coasts of Labrador on
the N.E., to Vancouver's Island on the S.W., contains an area nearly
equal to that of the whole of Europe.

[Footnote 124: "The North-West Passage by Land." By

Viscount Milton, M.P., and W. B. Cheadle, M.D. London.
1865.]

Mgr. Faraud remained fifteen years at Atthabaska. He found it a

solitary station-house, in the midst of deserts inhabited by idolatrous
savages; it is now a flourishing mission, with a vast Christian
population advancing in civilization, the capital of the district to
which it gives its name, and a centre of operation from which
missioners may act upon the whole north of British America, over
which he now has episcopal jurisdiction. Such results, as may be
supposed, have not been attained without labor and suffering. In the
commencement the mission was beset with difficulties and
discouragements. His first step was to build himself a house with
logs of wood, an act which was accepted by the savages as a pledge
that he intended to remain with them. A savage whom he converted
and baptized soon after his arrival, acted as his servant and hunted
for him; while with nets and lines he procured a supply of fish for
himself when his servant was unsuccessful in the chase. In this
manner he for some time maintained a life alternately resembling
that of Robinson Crusoe and St. Paul. He soon made a few
conversions in his neighborhood, and in the second year, with the
aid of his catechumens, built a wooden chapel, ninety feet long by
thirty broad. He was now able, when the tribes assembled in the
spring and autumn, to converse with them, and preach to them.
They invited him to visit them in their own countries, often many
hundreds of miles distant; and these visits involved long and perilous
journeys, in which he several times nearly perished. In the fourth
year he began building a large church, surmounted by a steeple,
from which he swung a {567} large bell, which he procured from
Europe through the agents of the company. It was regarded as a
supernatural phenomenon by the savages when "the sound of the
church-going bell" was heard for the first time to boom over their
primeval forests. As soon as a savage became his catechumen, he
taught him to read, at the same time that he instructed him in
religion. The soil was gradually cultivated, crops were reared, and
cows and sheep introduced. In the tenth year a second priest was
sent to his aid, who was able to carry on his work for him at home
while he was absent on distant missions.

There are thirteen distinct tribes inhabiting British America, and Mgr.
Faraud devotes a chapter to the distinctive characteristics of each.
But a general idea of these savages may be easily arrived at. Most of
us are familiar with the lively descriptions of the red man in the
attractive novels of Mr. Fenimore Cooper; and, though the stories are
fiction, these portraits of the Indians are drawn to the life. We have
most of us been struck by their taciturnity, their profound
dissimulation, the perseverance with which they follow up their plans
of revenge, the pride which prevents them from betraying the least
curiosity, the stoical courage with which they brave their enemies in
the midst of the most horrible sufferings, their caution, their cruelty,
the extraordinary keenness and subtlety of their senses. The Indian
savage is profoundly selfish; gratitude and sympathy for others do
not seem to enter into the composition of his nature. The same
stubborn fortitude with which he endures suffering seems to render
him indifferent to it in others. Intellectually he is slow in his power of
conception and process of reasoning, but is endowed with a
marvellous power of memory and reflection. He has a great fluency
of speech, which often rises to real eloquence; and there is a gravity
and maturity in his actions which is the fruit of meditation and
thought. Cases of apostasy in religion are very rare among the
Indians. A savage visited Mgr. Faraud soon after his arrival at
Atthabaska. He had come from the shores of the Arctic Ocean,
where his tribe dwelt, a distance of above six hundred miles, and
asked some questions on religious subjects. After listening to the
priest's instruction on a few fundamental truths, "I shall come to you
again," he said, "when you can talk like a man; at present you talk
like a child." Three years afterward he kept his promise; and
immediately on arriving he presented himself to the priest, and
placed himself under instruction. On leaving after the first
instruction, he assembled a number of heathen savages, at a short
distance in the forest, and preached to them for several hours. This
continued for many weeks. In the morning he came for instruction;
in the afternoon he preached the truths he had learned in the
morning to his countrymen. Mgr. Faraud had the curiosity to assist
unseen at one of these sermons, and was surprised to hear his own
instruction repeated with wonderful accuracy and in most eloquent
language. In this way a great number of conversions were made;
and the instructions given to one were faithfully communicated to
the rest by this zealous savage. The name of this savage was
Dénégonusyè. When the time arrived for his tribe to return to their
own country, the priest proposed that he should receive baptism.
"No," he said; "I have done nothing as yet for Almighty God. In a
year you shall see me here again, and prepared for baptism."
Punctual to his promise, he returned the following spring. In the
mean time he had converted the greater portion of his tribe; he had
taught them to recite the prayers the priest had taught him; and he
brought the confessions of all the people who had died in the mean
time among his own people, which he had received on their death-
beds, and which his wonderful memory enabled him now to repeat
word for word to the {568} priest, baking him to give them
absolution. Dénégonusyè was now told to prepare for baptism; but
he again insisted on preliminaries. First, that he was to take the
name of Peter, and wait to receive his baptism on St. Peter's day--
"Because," he said, "St. Peter holds the keys of heaven, and is more
likely to open to one who bears his name and is baptized on his
feast;" secondly, that he was to be allowed to fast before his baptism
forty days and nights, as our Blessed Lord did. On the vigil of St.
Peter's day he was so weak that he walked with difficulty to the
church; but on the feast, before daybreak, he knocked loudly at the
priests door and demanded baptism. He was told to wait till the
mass was finished. When mass was over, the priest was about to
preach to the people; but Dénégonusyè stood up and cried out, "It
is St. Peter's day; baptize me." The priest calmed the murmurs
which arose from the congregation at this interruption, and the eyes
of all were suddenly drawn to the figure of this wild neophyte of the
woods standing before the altar to receive the waters of
regeneration. A ray of light seemed to play round his head and rest
upon him, as though the Holy Ghost were impatient to take up his
abode in this new temple.

Cases are not unfrequent of "half-caste" Indians reared in the woods

as savages claiming baptism from the priest as their "birthright."
They have never met a priest before, nor ever seen their Catholic
parent. They are not Christians, and do not know even the most
elementary doctrines of the church. Yet they have this strange faith
(as they say "by inheritance") through some mysterious transmission
of which God alone knows the secret. One of these "half-castes" met
Mgr. Faraud one day as he was travelling through the forest, and
asked him to baptize him. "I have the faith of my father," he said,
"and demand my birthright." Then, inviting him to his house, he
added: "My wife also desires baptism." The priest accompanied him
to his hunting-lodge, and was presented to his wife, a young savage
lady of some twenty years. She was a veritable Amazon, a perfect
model of symmetry of form and feminine grace; there was a savage
majesty in her gestures and gait; she was a mighty huntress, tamed
the wildest steeds, and was famed far and near for her prowess with
the bow and spear. She welcomed the stranger with courtesy, and
immediately presented him with a basket full of the tongues of elks
which had been the spoil of her bow in the chase of the previous
day. But as soon as she learned the errand on which he had come,
her manner changed to profound reverence, and, throwing herself
on her knees with hands clasped in the attitude of prayer, she asked
him for a crucifix, "to help me in my prayers," she said. The Indians
do not pray. Her husband did not know one article of the creed. Who
taught her to pray?--to venerate a priest?--to adore the mystery of
the cross?--to desire baptism, and yearn for admission to the unity
of God's church?

The three principal difficulties in the missioner's work among the

Indians are to "stamp out" (to use a recently-invented phrase) the
influence of their native magicians, and the practices of polygamy
and cannibalism--though several of the tribes are free from the last-
named vice. The magician, as we might expect, is always plotting to
counteract his advances and to revenge them when successful.
When a man has been possessed of half-a-dozen wives, and perhaps
as yet barely realized to himself the Christian idea of marriage, it is a
considerable sacrifice to part with all but one, and sometimes
perplexing to decide which he will retain and which he will part with.
Then the ladies themselves have generally a good deal to say upon
this question, and combinations arise in consequence, which are
often very serious and oftener still very ludicrous.
At Fort Resolution, on the great Slave Lake, the missioner met with a
{569} warm reception from the neighboring tribes of Indians; and as
the greater part of them embraced Christianity, he set himself to
work in instructing them. He explained to them that Christian
marriage was a free act, and could never be valid where it was
compulsory, and that in this respect the wife was as independent as
the husband. This was quite a new doctrine to the savages, with
whom it was an inveterate custom to obtain their wives either by
force or by purchasing them from their parents. The doctrine,
however, was eagerly received by the women, who felt themselves
raised by it to equal rights with their husbands. The men were then
instructed that the Christian religion did not permit polygamy, and
that as many of them as had more than one wife must make up
their minds which of them they would retain, and then part with the
rest. It would be difficult to explain the reason why marriage, which
is a serious and solemn contract, and which in mystical signification
ranks first among the sacraments, is the subject of jests, and
provokes laughter in all parts of the world. The savages were no
exception to this rule; and while they set themselves to obey the
commands of the church, they made their doing so the occasion of
much merriment. The following morning a crowd of them waited
upon the priest, each of whom brought the wife with whom he
intended to be indissolubly united. After an exhortation, which dwelt
upon the divine institution, sacramental nature, and mutual
obligations of matrimony, each couple was called up to the priest
after their names had been written down in the register. The first
couple who presented themselves were "Toqueiyazi" and "Ethikkan."
"Toqueiyaza," said the priest, "will you take Ethikkan to be your
lawful wife?" "Yes," was the answer. "Ethikkan, will you take
Toqueiyazi to be your lawful husband?" "No," said the bride, "on no
account." Then turning to the bridegroom, who shared the general
astonishment of all present, she continued, "You took me away by
force; you came to our tent and tore me away from my aged father;
you dragged me into the forests, and there I became your slave as
well as your wife, because I believed that you had a right to make
yourself my master: but now the priest himself has declared that
God has given the same liberty to the woman as to the man. I
choose to enjoy that liberty, and I will not marry you." Great was the
sensation produced by this startling announcement. A revolution had
taken place. The men beheld the social order which had hitherto
obtained in their tribe suddenly overthrown. The women trembled
for the consequences which this daring act might bring upon them.
For a moment the issue was doubtful; but the women, who always
get the last word in a discussion, in this case got the first also; they
cried out that Ethikkan was a courageous woman, who had boldly
carried out the principles of the Christian religion regardless of
human respect; and what she had done was in fact so clearly in
accordance with what the priest had taught, that the men at length
acquiesced, and the "rights of woman" were thenceforward
recognized and established on the banks of the great Slave Lake.

In one of his winter journeys through the snow, attended by a party

of Indians and sledge drawn by dogs, Mgr. Faraud was arrested by a
low moaning sound which proceeded from a little girl lying under a
hollow tree covered with icicles. Her hands and feet were already
frostbitten, but she was still sufficiently conscious to tell him that her
parents had left her there to die. It is a common practice with the
savages to make away with any member of the family who is likely
to become a burden to them. The priest put the child on the sledge,
carried her home, and, with proper treatment, care, and food, she
recovered. She was instructed and baptized, receiving the name of
Mary. This child became the priest's consolation and joy, {570} a
visible angel in his house, gay and happy, and a source of happiness
and edification to others. She was one of those chosen souls on
whom God showers his choicest favors, and whom he calls to a close
familiarity with himself. But after a time the priest was obliged to
leave on a distant mission, having been called to spend the winter
with a tribe who wished to embrace Christianity, and whose territory
lay at a distance of several hundreds of miles. What was to be done
with Mary? To accompany him was impossible--to remain behind was
to starve. There was at that time, among his savage catechnmens,
an old man and his wife whose baptism he had deferred till the
following spring. This seemed to be the only solution of the difficulty.
They had no children of their own; they would take charge of Mary,
and bring her safe back to "the man of prayer" in the spring. Bitter
was the parting between little Mary and the priest; but there was the
hope of an early meeting in the following spring. The spring came,
and the priest returned; but the old savages and Mary came not. For
weeks the priest expected them, and then started to seek their
dwelling, about fifty miles distant from his own. He found their
house empty, and the man could nowhere be discovered. But in
searching for him through the forest, he descried an old woman
gathering fuel. It was his wife. Where was Mary? The old woman
made evasive replies until the sternness of the priest's manner
terrified her into confession. "The winter had been severe"--"they
had run short of provisions"--"and--and--" in short, they had eaten
her.

But if the difficulties, disappointments, and sufferings of the

missioner in these American deserts are great, requiring in him great
virtue and an apostolic spirit, his consolations are great also. The
grace of God is always given in proportion to his servants' need; and
in this virgin soil, where spurious forms of Christianity are as yet
unknown, the effects it produces are at time astounding. The
missioner is alternately tempted to elation and despair. He must
know, to use the words of the Apostle, "how to be brought low, and
how to abound." Monseigneur Faraud has now returned to his
diocese to reap the harvest of the good seed which he has sown,
and to carry a Christian civilization to the savages of the extreme
north of America. He has left his volume behind him to invite our
prayers for his success, and to remind those generous souls who are
inspired to undertake the work of evangelizing the heathen, that in
his portion of the Lord's field "the harvest is great and the laborers
few."
 MISCELLANY.

The Zoological Position of the Dodo. --At a meeting of the

Zoological Society on the 9th of January last, Professor Owen read a
paper on the osteology of the Dodo, the great extinct bird of the
Mauritius. Our readers will remember that this bird has given rise to
a good deal of discussion from time to time as to its true affinities.
When Professor Owen was Curator of the Royal College of Surgeons'
Museum, he classed the Dodo along with the Raptorial birds. This
arrangement led to the production of the huge volume of Messrs.
Strickland and Melville, in which it was very ably demonstrated that
the bird belongs to the Columbae or pigeon group. It is highly
creditable therefore to Professor Owen that upon a careful
examination of the specimens of the dodo's bones which have lately
come under his observation, he has consented to the view long ago
expressed by Dr. Melville. {571} The materials upon which Professor
Owen's paper was based consisted of about one hundred different
bones belonging to various parts of the skeleton, which had been
recently discovered by Mr. George Clark, of Mahéberg, Mauritius, in
an alluvial deposit in that island. After an exhaustive examination of
these remains, which embraced nearly every part of the skeleton,
Professor Owen came to the conclusion that previous authorities had
been correct in referring the dodo to the Columbine order, the
variations presented, though considerable, being mainly such as
might be referable to the adaptation of the dodo to a terrestrial life,
and different food and habits.--Popular Science Review.

Native Borax. --A lake about two miles in circumference, from

which borax is obtained in extremely pure condition and in very
large quantity, has recently been discovered in California. The borax
hitherto in use has been procured by combining boracic acid,
procured from Tuscany, with soda. It is used in large quantities in
England, the potteries of Staffordshire alone consuming more than
1100 tons annually.

Fall of the Temperature of Metals. --At the last meeting of the

Chemical Society of Paris, Dr. Phipson called attention to the sudden
fall of temperature which occurs when certain metals are mixed
together at the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere. The most
extraordinary descent of temperature occurs when 207 parts of lead,
118 of tin, 284 of bismuth, and l,617 of mercury are alloyed
together. The external temperature being at +170° centigrade at the
time of the mixture, the thermometer instantly falls to--10° below
zero. Even when these proportions are not taken with absolute rigor,
the cold produced is such that the moisture of the atmosphere is
immediately condensed on the sides of the vessel in which the
metallic mixture is made. The presence of lead in the alloy does not
appear to be so indispensable as that of bismuth. Dr. Phipson
explains this fact by assuming that the cold is produced by the
liquefaction at the ordinary temperature of the air of such dense
metals as bismuth, etc., in their contact with the mercury.

Greek and Egyptian Inscriptions. --The discovery of a stone

bearing a Greek inscription with equivalent Egyptian hieroglyphics,
by Messrs. Lepsius, Reinisch, Rösler, and Weidenbach, four German
explorers, at Sane, the former Tanis, the chief scene of the grand
architectural undertakings of Rameses the Second, is an important
event for students of Egyptology. The Greek inscription consists of
seventy-six lines, in the most perfect preservation, dating from the
time of Ptolemy Energetes I. (238 B.C.) The stone is twenty-two
centimetres high, and seventy-eight centimetres wide, and is
completely covered by the inscriptions. The finders devoted two
days to copying the inscriptions, taking three photographs of the
stone, and securing impressions of the hieroglyphics. Egyptologists
are therefore anxiously looking forward to the production of these
facsimiles and photographs.
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