the elevated, well-watered hills and low mountains, together with the east slope of the Rockies in South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.

2. The limitations of the supply.

It was estimated that about 69,600 million tons of water fall annually on the foot-hills within this drainage basin. Having limited the source to the foot-hills, it is clear that the limitations can be carried further. The water flowing through the Dakota sandstone must either (a) have fallen directly upon the area of outcrop, or (b) have sunk into it from streams flowing over it, or (c) have escaped into it at high altitudes from other strata.

(a) It is estimated by Professor G. E. Culver1 that about of the rainfall of the Black Hills falls directly upon the outcropping Dakota sandstone. If this outcrop forms the same proportion of other foot-hills, then about 966 million tons per annum would fall directly upon this; and, as it is estimated that one-third of the rain-fall is absorbed by the soil, 322 million tons would be poured directly into the artesian basin.

(b) As far as the writer knows, but one stream has been care. fully studied as to the quantity of water lost to the stratum in question. Below Great Falls, Montana, the Missouri River flows across the outcropping Dakota sandstone at an altitude of 2.800 feet. Col. E. S. Nettleton made careful gaugings of the river before and after crossing the sandstone and found that it lost "834 cubic feet per second," which would amount to 918 million tons per annum. The Yellowstone River, which is about as large

A ROW OF HIEROGLYPHS, CASA NO. 2, PALENQUE.

BY H. T. CRESSON, A. M., M.D., PHILADELPHIA, PA. THERE is a perpendicular row of three glyphs just above the child-like figure, upheld in the arms of the Ahkin (?), on the centre slab of the so-called "Group of the Cross," Casa No. 2, (Stephens), Palenque, and two hieroglyphs in the parallel line to the right of the perpendicular line just mentioned, which are exceedingly interesting, and all of them, except the upper-centre component of the glyph, just above the child-like figure, are in a fair state of preservation. The upper centre component of this glyph (Fig. 6) has been badly injured, if we may judge by a photograph of the slab from Casa No. 2, taken by Dr. Manuel Urbino, the learned conservator of the Muséo Nacional, at the City of Mexico It is a lucky circumstance that this masterpiece of the Maya scribe-sculptor's art has been cared for by the Mexican government, and it is to be hoped that they will protect other tablets at Palenque from the wanton destruction of the Mayas, who have been accused, by recent explorers, of chopping to pieces, with their machetes, the artistic productions of their ancestors.

It will be impossible, in this necessarily brief article, to consider the entire row of glyphs which have been indicated, we will, therefore, confine our remarks to that shown in Fig. 6 of the plate. If we compare this sketch, made from a photograph of the middle slab of the cross group (Casa No. 2, Palenque), taken by Dr. Urbino, it will be seen that it differs in certain respects from the

as the Missouri above their confluence, is said to flow across the Dakota sandstone and to lose a part of its volume. It is generally true that all streams flowing out of the foot-hills or away from the Rockies must, somewhere in their eastward course, cross the absorbing stratum. To estimate three times 918 million tons as the amount received from source (b) will probably fall much within the limits. That gives us an aggregate from (a) and (b) of 3,076 million tons per annum.

(c) The outcrop of the Carboniferous forms a much larger part of the foot-hills area than does the Dakota. At least one-third of the water which falls directly upon it sinks, while nearly all of the small streams flowing out of the central Archæan area of the hills sink completely into the Carboniferous, only a few of the largest streams emerge from the thirsty Carboniferous area. The amount of water entering the Carboniferous strata is many times greater than that entering the Dakota. Now it is possible for nearly all of the water which it absorbs to escape into the Dakota, which it would do any where between its source and the James River valley if either one of two things were true: (1) If the overlying stratum "pinches out," or (2) if it is fractured or faulted. Both, one, or neither of these things may be true. one has yet attempted to answer, conclusively, the question, "What becomes of the water which sinks into the Carboniferous limestone of the hills?" Until that question is answered, it will be impossible to determine the limitations of the water-supply of the artesian basin.

1 "Artesian and Underflow Investigation," Part III., p. 207.

2 "Artesian and Underfl w Investigation," Part II., p. 77.

No

drawing of Del Rio, Waldeck, Catherwood, and Charnay. Del Rio's rendition of this hieroglyph (Fig. 1) is absurdly incorrect, and has been suggested, we think, either by a slovenly impression of the centre bar of a cross (see Waldeck's Fig. 2), or else the artist drew upon his imagination and supplied the detail.

Waldeck's drawing (Fig. 2) in four of the small glyphs (composing the compound glyph) is not so far astray as one might expect, judging by the way his drawings have been condemned by some writers, and I find that in the perpendicular and the parallel row of glyphs of the Casa No. 2 tablet, to the right of the symbol of the days, four winds, and cardinal points (called by many the Cross), his work compares quite as well with the photograph as that of Charnay, who used the camera, and Cather wood, who used the camera lucida. So far as I can learn, Mr. Waldeck used no artificial aids to assist him in his work (?); if this be the case, his eye must have been an unusually correct one, considering the amount of work he accomplished, and the confusing details that he encountered, to say nothing of annoyances in the way of flies, mosquitoes, garapatas, and other insects. I think the truth of this assertion will be apparent to anyone who has attempted to make a careful drawing under difficulties of this kind, especially such intricate details as we find in ancient Maya architecture and hieroglyphs, well calculated to give an experienced draftsman the beadache and heartache. The centre-upper component of the hieroglyph, drawn by Waldeck, differs from that of Fig. 6, but I must not neglect to mention that the Urbino photograph indicates that this component of the glyph has been so injured that it is difficult, at present, to determine the details. The round incisions

are apparent, as in Fig. 6, but they differ slightly in their position when compared with Catherwood (Fig. 3).

Stephens mentions that, at times, those engaged in commercial ventures have reached Santo Domingo del Palenque, and proceeded thence to the ancient Maya ruins, called, for want of a better name, Palenque, after the village near which they stand.

We have represented in Fig. 5 a sketch made by Mr. William Robert Thompson, who visited the ruins of Palenque in December, 1852, and again at a later date. Engaged in commercial pursuits in northern Chiapas and other parts of Mexico and Guatemala, Mr. Thompson has examined many of the old Maya cities, especially Qurigia and Palenque, sketching, in leisure moments, such details as he found interesting, preserving them for his own gratification. In looking over his portfolio some years ago I was struck with the resemblance of his drawing (Fig. 5) to that of Waldeck (Fig. 2). Mr. Thompson having returned to Mexico, I wrote to him in 1882 requesting a copy of his sketch, and, with all due courtesy, he presented me with the original, accompanying it with an autograph letter. The letter and sketch I shall forward to the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, so that they can be preserved for future examination.

Comparing the Thompson sketch with that of Mr. Waldeck, it will be seen that the latter has omitted the small incised circles which are present in the former, on the bar of the cross and at its top and sides, which Mr. Thompson's letter especially mentions as present. Waldeck, in the cross-like glyph, to the right, gives

were present on its perpendicular and parallel bars. He has, in a recent conversation upon the subject, expressed the belief that this symbol of the winds has been mutilated intentionally, and that the two circles at the sides of the perpendicular bar are quite recent additions, made by someone trying to alter the glyph into the semblance of a face. Two small circles on either side suggest the eyes, and the upper portion of the perpendicular upright above being mutilated across, just beyond its point of junction with the parallel bar, thus produces a semblance to a nose, the parallel bar assuming somewhat the appearance of a mouth. This seems to be the case in the small Urbino photograph, but in the enlarged copy the mutilation of the glyph is more apparent, yet, as we have suggested, these matters can only be decided upon by a careful study of the original tablet.

A realistic drawing of the upper-centre component of this hieroglyph would be of great value for comparison with the photograph, as there are some details which the camera does not reproduce. If some of our artists visiting the Muséo Nacional, at the City of Mexico, would make a careful drawing of the Casa No. 2 tablet, it would be of great value to those engaged in the study of Maya palæography, and no doubt determine the question whether a cross and its dots (Fig. 5) are to be accepted as the true components of the glyph, or the details given in Fig. 6 of the plate accompanying this article. Until these doubts be settled, attempts at its interpretation are useless.

two small circles as its components, and Thompson gives three, which Charnay also indicates in Fig. 5, while both he and Catherwood omit the small round glyph with the incised circle, which is shown at the lower right-hand side in the Urbino photograph (Fig. 6), also in the sketches of Waldeck and Thompson. It is not surprising that so careful a draftsman as Catherwood should have omitted details in drawing this glyph, ill as he was with fever and subjected to annoyances which only those who have encountered thèm can appreciate.

All of the drawings of this (Fig. 6) glyph differ more or less; those of Waldeck and Thompson have four of the small glyphs represented with a fair degree of exactitude, accepting the photograph as our standard; Catherwood and Charnay have three details of the compound glyph which are, in a measure, correct. The fact that Messrs. Waldeck and Thompson both give a symbol resembling the symbol of the cardinal points as a component of the glyph which we are considering, suggests a probability that it existed and has been effaced. The surface of the glyph at present being so mutilated it would be best to examine the original tablet with care before deciding the matter, which I hope someone interested in palæography will have the opportunity of doing in the near future. The position of the three small circles in Fig. 6 correspond with the Thompson sketch (Fig. 5), even if the cross is absent, and, as Thompson gives an incised circle to either side of the cross at the top, it is not improbable that a series of dotted lines, or circles, at one time ran completely around the glyph, as we see a slight suggestion of this in Charnay's sketch (Fig. 4), and also in Catherwood's Fig. 3. Mr. Thompson asserts, positively, in his letter, that a cross did exist, and that the three incised circles

THE CSAGE RIVER AND ITS MEANDERS.

BY ARTHUR WINSLOW, OFFICE OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, JEFFERSON CITY, MO.

IN the remarks upon the Osage River in Missouri, which form part of his admirable notice of the topographic maps of the U. S. Geological Survey, published in Science of April 28, 1893, Professor Davis has, with great acumen, hit upon one of the most noticeable features of the drainage of the State, or, at least, of the southern part. The peculiar meandering of the deeply trenched Osage Valley around spurs of high upland country, as referred to by us in a recent report of the Geological Survey,' is a feature shared by nearly all of the principal streams of the Ozark region. The Meramec and the Gasconade Rivers, the Big Piney and the Bourbeuse Creeks of the northern slope have the same swinging course; as have also their tributaries and those of the Osage itself. White River, on the southern slope, in Missouri and Arkansas, is characterized by similar convolutions. The courses of Big River and of the St. Francois River in the southeast have a like aspect. In strong contrast to this are the streams of that portion of the State lying north of the Missouri River-the drift-covered area. Here the courses are, in a general way, straight, often parallel in groups, the meanders of the streams confined to their present flood plains; their channels apparently having originated in the mantle of glacial drift. They are comparatively of recent origir, the older drainage system which lies masked beneath the drift may have been more tortuous.

The suggestive explanation which Professor Davis offers for the sunken curved course of the Osage, i.e., that it has been developed, through elevation and corrosion, from the flood-plain meanders of the stream, originating during an earlier base-leveled condition of the country, seems a natural explanation and is in many respects satisfactory. Still we hesitate to accept it in the present stage of our knowledge on mere a priori grounds. We see that it calls for a previous base-leveling of the whole Missouri-Ozark region, if not of the contiguous or even remoter Arkansas territory. Further, the hypothesis has so intimate a bearing upon the problems of recent geologic history of this country, over and above its relation to the development of the topography, that we wish to see full test made of its sufficiency before we adopt it as an axiom.

According to the best light we have at present, we recognize that the Ozark area was uplifted in late Cambrian times and remained above water level, in part at least, probably until the carboniferous period; that, if entirely submerged during the Mississippian epoch, it was so only long enough to receive but a 1 "Report on Iron Ores," vol. ii, p. 89.

thin covering of the rocks of that formation; that these rocks were subjected to subareal erosion before and probably during the Pennsylvanian epoch and that coal-measure strata probably never covered the dome of the uplift; that since this time the region has been continuously above water level. According to this record the sculpturing of the topography must have been uninterruptedly in progress from the end of the Paleozoic to the present time.

Professor Davis sees evidence in the character of the relief that denudation progressed to such a degree that the present upland was a lowland-" well into Tertiary time, and that the new trenches of the Osage and its neighbors were begun in consequence of an uplift somewhere about the close of Tertiary time" -as opposed to this conclusion we have the fact that the Ozark plateau is at present much above the limits which we recognize Tertiary seas to have reached. The altitude of the Tertiary margin of the Mississippi embayment in southeastern Missouri is under 400 feet A. T. The summit of the Ozarks is, however, as much as 1,700 feet above sea level and the greater portion of the upland is over 1,000 feet, and was consequently at least 600 feet above the Tertiary sea level. Could a country having this altitude above contiguous seas be in a base-leveled condition? Further, another fact to reconcile with this hypothesis is the finding of certain chert gravels fringing the Osage and other valleys of the Ozarks, not very high above the present channels of the streams, which we provisionally correlate with the Orange sands

pect certain peculiar features of topography to prevail. Thus, with a stream not yet at base level we should look for its channel to constantly hug the hill on that side of the stream which is impinged by the current; here we should expect to find bluffs developed and maintained; conversely, on the "lee" side of the stream, we should expect to find such flat alluvial plains as exist, with comparatively gentle slopes thence to the uplands. Further we should expect to find the points or promontories of uplands which are nearly surrounded by the loops of the river sloping somewhat gradually towards their ends and not terminating in bluffs. These features are pronounced, in part at least, to a striking degree along the Osage. They are details which could not be brought out on the maps of the scale of those thus far made of the Osage country, but the constancy with which the stream clung to the bluffs on the impinging side was impressively seen during the recent trip along that river, while the form of the projecting uplands is well illustrated by the following copy of a portion of a map of Grand River, one of the tributaries of the Osage, recently surveyed by Mr. C. F. Marbut, of the Missouri Geological Survey. On the hypothesis advanced the precipitous slopes characterizing the upstream sides of the hills here shown are the result of the sapping action of the stream; the gradual slopes of the downstream sides are primarily a combined result of the lateral movement of the channel accompanying the expansion of the meanders, and of its downward movement by corrosion. It is true that similar features would result with the trench of

of the Mississippi, of probable late Tertiary age. These imply the existence of such valleys with approximately their present phases in late Tertiary times. Still, as the correlation of these gravels is as yet confessedly quite hypothetical, this consideration cannot claim much weight.

Another hypothesis which has been thought by us to suggest an explanation of the sinuosities of these streams, has gained some strength through the observations of a recent boat trip down the Osage River, from Osceola to its mouth. If we take the case of a stream with a slightly sinuous course and of considerable declivity, moderately incised in a nearly flat, or even in an undulating country of horizontal strata-such as might exist in a newly emerged land surface soon after its emergence- we can understand that meanders will tend to develop somewhat as they do in the alluvial plain of a stream which has reached base level. Where the current impinges sapping will increase the convexity and the sinuosities will become more pronounced Inasmuch, however, as the declivity of the stream is great, corrosion is still active and the channel thus sinks vertically at the same time that it moves laterally, and in this respect its development will differ from that of a channel in a base-leveled alluvial plain. As a natural result of this process we can see how the stream will eventually shape for itself a tortuous and steep-sided valley, with very narrow flood plains until the channel has reached base level, when corrosion will cease and lateral degradation will increase; then, swinging from bluff to bluff in a secondary system of sinuosities, the stream will sap its bordering hills and widen its flood plains. If this explanation be a true one we should ex

previously developed meanders in the manner suggested by Professor Davis; for we cannot conceive of a meandering channel sinking absolutely vertically. Lateral degradation and movement must always accompany corrosion and vertical lowering of the channel; if the meanders existed originally their shapes must have been modified to the present forms. Hence the effects cited would seem to be attributable to one of two causes, or to both combined. The question is whether one is not all sufficient; whether a previous base-leveled condition is a necessary assump

tion.

THE BOOM OF THE PRAIRIE CHICKEN.

BY T. A. BEREMAN, MOUNT PLEASANT, IOWA.

How many of your readers ever saw a prairie hen, or, as they are commonly called in the west, the "prairie chicken?" Doubtless many have seen dead ones, killed and shipped for the market, but I dare say that many of your younger readers, especially those living in the cities and towns, have rarely seen a live one. In 1945, when I came to Iowa, and for several years afterwards, they could be seen here in flocks of thousands together. But now there are only a few remnants of them left; here and there, in isolated fields, some dozen or two survivals have been permitted to remain. They are what is called the pinnated grouse of North America, and were formerly inhabitants of New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, and all the western prairie country.

But at present I only desire to call attention to the matinee songs of this wild bird of the prairie. Some morning in the

month of April, when the sun rises clear and the air is crisp and frosty, go out upon the suburbs of a prairie town, away from the usual noises of the village, and listen. In a few seconds, if you can recognize the sound, you will hear, above everything else, the male birds go "boom, boom, boom." This is not a sharp, shrill cry, but a round, full detonating cannon-like sound, which may be heard at long distances. It comprises three clear, distinct musical notes, corresponding with the "do, si, do" of the diatonic scale. The first two are quarter notes, and the last is drawn out to a full note, and even a prolongation of that. Probably some idea of it could be had from this representation:

This "booning" may be heard every spring along in March and April, and sometimes till May on clear frosty mornings about sunrise and for an hour or two afterwards; and for that reason I have sometimes from my own fancy called them "sun worshippers." It is worth an hour's walk to go out and see these birds when engaged in their booming orizons. As I have heard thousands of them booming at one time along in the forties and fifties, and have cautiously crept up to within a few yards of them when they were in plain view, let me try and describe them if possible.

The males have two neck tufts of feathers, two or three inches long, one behind each ear, and ordinarily they lie down close to the neck. Also on the sides of the neck and extending about two-thirds of the length of it, are two bare patches of skin capable of being inflated with air until they show out on either side as large as a small orange, and are nearly the color of an orange. Now, the proceeding is something like this: The bird stands unconcernedly among his companions for a minute or so, and then suddenly he spreads his tail to its fullest extent like a fan; his wings are spread and thrust down to the ground similar to a turkey gobbler's action; he walks around and about, rubbing his wing feathers upon the ground, his feet go patting alternately so rapidly you cannot count the motions, his head and neck thrust forward horizontally, the two tufts of feathers are erected like two great horns the bare skins on the sides of the neck are inflated and then comes "boom, boom, b-o-o-m." This is repeated every few minutes for one or two hours in the morning, when no more is heard until near sundown in the evening.

A SILK-SPINNING CAVE LARVA.

BY H. GARMAN, LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY.

In the Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Vol. XIII., 1891, I described a singular larva from Mammoth Cave, which was compared with larvæ of the Dipterous genera Sciara and Chironomous, to which it bears some resemblance. Since this larva was discovered a lookout has been kept for other specimens in hope of learning something of the adult but thus far no additional examples have been seen. My search has been rewarded, however, by the discovery of a second larva, very different from the first but in its way almost as strange Evidently it is a related insect. I take it to be the young of some cave-inhabiting fly.

Large examples measure 12.5 millimetres in length by 1 millimetre in greatest diameter. The body is composed of twelve somites bebind the head, very distinct from each other and gradually increasing in diameter from the first to the seventh, after which they remain constant to the twelfth, which is only about one-half the length of the preceding somite and not more than one-fourth its size. The bead is very small, and is enclosed in a smooth and shining crust of a pale yellowish brown color. The body ter. minates in a double finger-like clasping organ.

On a visit to a small cave near Lexington, Kentucky, some months ago my eye was caught by a glistening thread on the limestone forming the side wall of the cavity, about four feet from the floor. Thinking it was the trail left by a spider, I began to follow it carefully, expecting by this means to come upon the insect. Instead of a spider this larva was found,-a translucent

slender thing which might easily have been overlooked even when one was engaged in following the thread upon which it lived. A touch was sufficient to put it in motion, then a touch at the opposite extremity would cause it to move backward with equal address. But nothing would induce it to leave the thread, and I have since learned that the heat from a burning candle applied to its body and destroying its life leaves it clinging to this fragile object. Not even spiders show such tenacity in retaining possession of their egg-cases, or webs, when in danger, and I infer that the welfare of this larva is intimately associated in some way with the silken path it makes along the face of the rocks. The thread is always accupied by a single individual, and may be a foot or more in length. I have found no examples nearer the floor than three feet.

The larva clings to its thread by means of pads provided with very minute chitinous asperities. One such pad occurs at the anterior ventral margin of the second, and another in the same position on the third, som te. These form rather large transverse rounded folds of the skin, covered posteriorly with dark denticles in numerous short series. The fourth somite lacks the pad, but on the ventral side and anterior margin of each of the succeeding divisions is a pad of another form, these being broader but not extending so far up the sides. When creeping an undulatory motion passes along the body, the pads dragging it forward, the posterior appendage apparently aiding by seizing the thread.

The details of structure have not been thoroughly worked out. In a general way the head is like that of the larva described in the Bulletin in 1891, but the large ocellus-like smooth areas of the Mammoth Cave larva are not present in this, although I find smaller oval areas surrounded by black rims and accompanied by pigment spots, which appear to represent these structures. The mouth parts are much like those of larval Sciara. The palpi which project from the under side of the head spring from the maxillæ. In very young examples I can make out large ducts which convey a secretion of some kind (doubtless the material of which the silken fiber is composed) to the under side of the head. No outward trace of respiratory organs is apparent. Four darkbrown Malpighian tubules can be seen, through the body-wall, opening independently into the intestine.

On the dorsal middle line near the anterior margin of each of the somites 8 and 9 is a turret-shaped prominence, the nature of which I have not determined. The top is sometimes a trifle impressed as if there were an opening to a gland beneath the skin. They can not be stigmatal prominences, for these are always paired. A study of sections may yield an explanation of them.

The habit of living upon the side walls of the cave is probably a means of avoiding enemies. Few of the predaceous cave species would find the larvæ there. The only available food would seem to be occasional tallow drippings and the molds growing on them.

Silk spinning is not general among Dipterous larvæ, but the cave species is not peculiar in this regard. I suspect that the Mammoth Cave larva produces a thread also. Among ordinary Diptera the clover midge (Cecidomyia trifolii) occurs to me at this moment as an example of species which produce material in the nature of silk. It envelops itself in a rather tough papery cocoon when ready for pupation.

A VERY bright comet has suddenly appeared in the western sky, and is attracting attention from the unexpected manner in which it has presented itself. The object from present accounts was first seen on the 8th inst., by persons living in Utah and Wyoming. It is very bright about of the second or third magnitude, and has a tail that has been reported to be from five to twelve degrees in length. The comet is moving very rapidly to the east, and the only orbit at hand, at present, indicates that it is now passing away from the earth and will diminish very rapidly in brightness.

SCIENCE:

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A NEW ORTHOGRAPHY.

BY J. I. D. HINDS, CUMBERLAND UNIVERSITY, LEBANON, TENN.

THE orthography of the English language is distressingly had. A reform in spelling would relieve education of one of its heaviest burdens. The hardest task of the first six years of the child's school-life is the spelling lesson. Indeed, the labor never ends. The veteran school teacher dares not venture too far from his dictionary. None of the phonetic systems which have been presented have met with such favor as to pass into general use. Yet reform must be possible.

In the phonetic systems now before the world there are two barriers to their general adoption. In the first place, the change from the present spelling is too great and too abrupt. The human race is like a heavy body in motion. Change of direction must be effected gradually. In the second place, the proposed systems are too complicated, and present distinctions which are too nice to be generally appreciated. To be acceptable, a system must possess two leading characteristics: (1) It must make the least possible departure from that now in use, and (2) it must be so simple that it may be read at sight and that the little child can learn it understandingly.

I think such a system is within our reach and that it might be brought into general use in a few years. I suggest the following:

1. The present alphabet should be retained with as little change as possible. This is important, because new characters frighten the people and lay additional burdens on the printer. Besides, the language can be very well written with the characters which we have. The only deficiency is found with the vowels, and this can be supplied, as I sball show later.

2. Each character should have a fixed sound, and should retain the same sound in all its positions. In carrying out this rule, too much nicety must not be attempted. The vowel sounds are so variable that to represent all of them we should have to multiply characters almost indefinitely. We should thus have many words spelled differently in different positions and as coming from the mouths of different speakers. Every word should have a fixed form, and should retain this form in all its positions, though its pronunciation should vary. The written word is the symbol of an idea, and, at best, but approximately represents the spoken word. What we want is a compromise between the two which will do the least violence to pronunciation and afford the greatest ease in spelling. The mind tolerates a certain amount of ambiguity rather than endure too nice distinctions. This is illustrated in the varying sounds of the vowels as now used. Again, obscure sounds cannot be well represented phonetically. In syllables where they occur the vowel indicated by the etymology of the word should be retained.

3. Words should be spelled as they are pronounced, and each sound should be represented by its proper character wherever it occurs. Here, as before, too much nicety must not be attempted.

Let us have a judicious compromise. The great difficulty of English spelling does not depend upon the fact that each of the Vowels has several sounds. It is rather because each of these sounds is represented, not only by the other vowels, but also by a wonderful variety of combinations of vowels and consonants. For example, the long sound of a is indicated in at least twenty different ways, as in the following words: Bass, fate, pain, pay, dahlia, vein, they. great, eh, goal, gauge, champagne, campaign, straight, feign, eight, aye, obeyed, weighed, halfpenny. So there are twenty-four combinations expressing the long sound of e, twentysix for the sound of a in all, among which are augh in aught, ough in thought, and augha in Vaughan; and for the sound of short unaccented a Miss Soames finds no less than thirty-four letters and combinations. No wonder the child, when learning to spell, is ready to give up in despair.

Now all that is very desirable can be attained through our present alphabet by giving to each letter a fixed sound and supplying a few vowel sounds by the use of double letters. The names of the letters should be so changed as to give to each vowel and vowel combination the sound which it represents and to make the names of the consonants uniform. We will take the five vowels and give them the names which they have in the European languages, and let them, when written singly, represent the short sound of these vowels. Let the long sounds be indicated by doubling or adding the letter e. For the diphthongs retain the ordinary combinations. The vowel system will then stand as follows:

Examining this table, we see that the short vowels present no change from their present usage. The Italian a is expressed by doubling the letter. The long a really corresponds to short e, and there is a fitness, therefore, in representing it by ae. This is commonly done now, except that the e usually goes to the end of the syllable. The other long sounds are also appropriately indicated by adding e. The intermediate a is so little used that it hardly seems necessary to provide for it a separate character. Its sound The is usually suggested by the consonants which follow it. sound of u in bull is well represented by oo. The long u is really yu, and it is so indicated. The least satisfactory of all, perhaps, is the use of ei for the long sound of i. The combination ai would have been better, but this occurs now in so many words and its sound is so well fixed that it was not thought best to change it. As a compromise, the letter I may still be retained for the personal pronoun. When these double vowels are once in use, they will naturally, in the course of time, be combined into one char

acter.

Since the short vowel sounds do not occur in accented, open syllables, the lengthening e may be omitted in these, and the spelling thus further simplified. As an additional compromise, the letters in such positions might retain their present sounds.

With the consonants, we need have little trouble. We will obtain the name uniformly by adding to each letter and combination the long a. The sound being indicated by the name, it is not necessary to give sample words. With an approximate classification into surds and sonants, stops and continuants, they are as follows:Consonants. t, tae, k, kae, th, thae, sh, shae,

p, pae, ƒ, fae,

b, bae, v, vae,

c, cae (chae), 8, sae

j, jae,

r, rae,

z, zae, 7, lae,

m, mae,

d, dae,

g, gae,

dh, dhae (they), zh, zhae,

n, nae,

hw, hwae (whay)