of water, and sends a river to each. The northward
flowing one is the Ivallo and the southward the Kititui. We are glad to
welcome so enthusiastic and thorough a student to this country. It is
precisely work like his that is needed in America, and the time for
accomplishing it is rapidly passing away. We have too much theory and
too little real investigation in American ethnology, and while the men
of hypotheses are talking about the origin of the Indians, and
endeavoring to trace them to Asiatic stocks through the medium of
language, the race is fast losing its purity by intermarriage, as it
has already lost the most distinctive of its peculiarities by
intercourse with the whites.

* * * * *

BALLOONING FOR AIR CURRENTS.

It is well known to meteorologists that the wind vanes as ordinarily
placed near the surface do not give a true indication of the wind. Even
when the vane is not over a city or town where the air currents near
the earth are affected by the direction of the streets, the varying
character of the surface in respect to radiation and absorption of heat
will modify them. It is therefore for good reasons that vanes are
perched up on high flagstaffs fixed on the roofs of buildings. Some of
these are more than a hundred feet above the ground, but recent
observations in Paris show that this is not enough. Small India-rubber
balloons a foot in diameter and with an ascensional force of about one
ounce were sent up, and as they rose slowly, at the rate of twelve feet
per second, the effect of the air currents upon them could be easily
marked. This was found to be very variable at heights of less than one
or two hundred metres (300 to 600 feet). The conclusion was that no
observations at lower levels were trustworthy.

* * * * *

THE GREATEST OF RIFLES.

In spite of the familiarity with great cannon which the advances in gun
construction of late years have produced, the experiments with the
100-ton gun of the Italian government have not failed to awaken general
interest and wonder. It fires a 2,000-pound shell, and a charge of 240
pounds of powder is but a portion of what the gun will bear. These
light charges have to be used if the penetrative effects of the gun
under unfavorable conditions are to be studied, for with its full
charge the weapon simply destroys anything that is put before it.
Comparative results cannot be obtai