the slope. At one place I found that the crest of a ripple mark was cut by a small transverse channel draining the basin above the mark into the one below. Such a small channel must have been formed by an antecedent stream, that is, one in operation and maintaining its course across the rising fold as it emerged from the ocean. Such a river is the Green River described by Powell.

In a word we seem to have in these small ripple mark basins that I have described an epitome of the destruction of continents, of the formation of the continental shelf and the evolution of geographic form as brought about by subaerial denudation. The erosive work was particularly similar to that of an ordinary river because the water running down the slope was very slight in amount. The rills were not formed, as are ordinary rills, by the flowing back to the ocean of the water held in a considerable hollow of the beach. They were formed by the small amount of water held in the spongy material of the ripple marks and pulled down toward the hollows as the level of the water under the surface lowered with the receding tide. The amount of water thus being less than usual in the formation of rill marks, the process was slower and the result more delicate and more similar to ordinary subaerial erosion.

In was interesting to note that the erosion took place only on the seaward side of the ripple marks and the shoreward sides were left undissected. The reason for this seems to be that the water held in the sands was pulled vertically down by gravitative action and hence was drawn through between the particles of the beach deposit toward the next hollow on the seaward side. In this respect only, as far as I could see, did these small streams differ from the streams on a similar constructional slope in the more consolidated rocks of the continents.

It would seem from this instance and others that have been called to my attention from time to time that nowhere do we have such a chance to study dynamical geology in operation on a small scale as at the sea shore. Apart from the work of the ocean itself there are a large number of things similar to what I have mentioned above that are worthy of careful attention, even though they be small. One thing especially that can be studied to great profit at this time of the year is the shore work of frost and ice. I feel that our ocean shores have not been studied in sufficient detail in the past, and I am sure that no better place can be found to show erosive processes in their entirety than the sea shore at low tide.

separated in flakes. I had not time to look, but I presumed that they were moving away from a carcass which had been exhausted. A year later along the same road I noticed in the gully the body of a dog which was being consumed by maggots, but Í observed, when the food was exhausted, that they moved down the rocky gully not in a rope, but one by one, and scattered along, slender and emaciated, for a distance of perhaps fifty feet. WILLIAM HAYES WARD.

New York, Jan. 12, 1894.

SECRET LANGUAGE OF CHILDREN.

MR. OSCAR CHRISMAN'S article in Science of Dec. 1, 1893, recalls to my mind the "Hog Latin" that I and my school-boy companions used to use, and by means of which we were able to carry on conversations which were altogether unintelligible to our parents and teach

ers.

Our "Hog Latin" was formed by transferring the first consonant sound of a word to the end of the word, and then adding long a, as in the words doubt oubt-da, book = ook-ba, house — ouse-ha.

=

Long words were sometimes split up into syllables, and these syllables treated as shorter words, as: Language angla-agegwa, suspect us-sa-ect-spa. This language was defective in that it did not sufficiently disguise those words which begin with a vowel, as: Are are-a, either either-a, any any-a. We used to get around that by avoiding the word I; using me instead, or by placing the accent in the wrong place, as: Either-a, calling it ee-thra.

=

I remember that I learned to use the language in a day or two, and after a short time did not have to stop to think how to make a new word, but was guided by the sound entirely.

A couple of sentences will suffice to explain the lan

guage:

Where are you going this morning? Ere-wha are-a oo-ya oing-ga is-tha orning-ma?

When this language is spoken rapidly it is difficult for those not in the secret to catch what is said. En-wha is-tha ang-la-edge-gwa is-a oken-spa apid-ra-e-la it-a is-a iffi-da-ult-ca or-fa ose-tha ot-na in-a e-tha e-sa-et-cra oo-ta atch-ca ot-wha is-a ed-sa. D. T. MARSHALL. Metuchen, N. J.

NOTES ON WATER LILIES, Etc.

J. E. TODD in Science, No. 567, mentions a "miniature water lily." Another variety of a very small water lily grows at Hyannis Port, Mass., in a long abandoned mill pond. None other of the numerous ponds in that locality, where water lilies grow abundantly, possesses this small and beautiful variety. The blossom is an exact copy of Nymphea odorata, and is but one-half inch in diameter; the leaves also, in shape, color and venation, are like those of N. odorata, and are but one and a half inch in full diameter. I did not look up the plant last summer, but had found it for several years before, and will search for it when I return to the shore.

Several notes on "coon-cats,' etc., recalled to me a very large black and white tom cat, at Hyannis Port, a notable mouser, having the peculiarity of double fore feet. All the feet of this animal are particularly large and strong, and on the outer side of each fore foot grows a second paw more than half as large as the normal one. This cat was a vigorous digger; to effect entrance to a basement under my porch, he dug a large hole at an angle of 45° and about eighteen inches deep, passing under the boarding, and large enough for him to crawl

through, but smaller at the inner opening than the outer. Having entered by this means he seemed unable to increase the hole by digging from the inside upward and could not return as he came. When one hole was blocked up by stones, he dug from the outside another, but could never leave the basement unless the doors were opened for him.

In regard to "late blooming trees," I had a flowering almond which bloomed in April, then again in October, and again in April. It was a young shrub, and grew vigorously. I concluded that the October blooming was provoked by very mild, moist, showery, springlike weather, which continued long enough to develop the flower buds, and then hasten the growth of the next set of embryo buds, to a point where they were ready for blooming on the return of good growing weather. J. MCNAIR Wright.

BOOK-REVIEWS.

Handbook of Experiment Station Work. A Popular Digest of the Publications of the Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States. Bulletin No. 15. Washington, D. C., Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 1893, 411 p.

As mentioned in its title, this bulletin is a popular digest of the work of the experiment stations of the United States. That such a publication is a useful one and serves a very useful purpose is manifest when it is known that there are fifty-four different stations in the country, some maintained entirely by the general Government, some by the several States. These stations had during the year 1892 no less than $997, 244 at their disposal, and of this sum $689,542 was from the national treasury. That the stations have done some

good work cannot be denied; but that there has been a large amount of duplication without sufficient justifica

tion, and a large amount of useless expenditure also, cannot be denied. The Secretary of Agriculture in his last annual report very properly protests against the charging against the Department of Agriculture the sum of over $700,000 annually when the Department has nothing whatever to say in regard to its disbursment. "No detailed account," he says, "as to how the money has been expended, to whom, or for what it has been paid out, is required. Current rumor in some of the States and Territories, so universal, pronounced, accentuated, and vehement as to have secured great credence, indicates that some of the moneys appropriated for experiment stations have been diverted from legitimate public purposes and turned to those of a personal and not patriotic character." He rightly thinks that if the Department is to be charged with the sum it should have the supervision of its expenditure. There are about 500 persons employed in the different stations, and during 1892 alone there were published fifty-five annual reports and 250 bulletins. With such a mass of literature as this to cope with the necessity of some digest is at once evident.

The first regularly organized station was at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in 1875; but as a result of the law passed by Congress in 1887, giving $15,000 annually to every station organized, now every State and Territory except Montana and Alaska have stations, some States have two, and several have three substations.

The volume under review was originally designed as a part of the exhibit of the World's Fair at Chicago, but it has only recently been issued. The various subjects are arranged alphabetically, and while not pretending to be a manual or encyclopedia of agriculture it will at the same time serve as a ready means of ascertaining what has been done upon many subjects of importance in agriculture. Under each heading there is given a brief notice of the subject and at the end refer

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NEW METHOD OF PROTECTING BUILDINGS FROM LIGHTNING. SPARE THE ROD AND SPOIL THE HOUSE! Lightning Destroys. Shall it be Your House or a Pound of Copper?

PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING.

What is the Problem?

IN seeking a means of protection from ligh'ning-discharges, we have in view two objects, the one the prevention of damage to buildings, and the other the prevention of injury to life. In order to destroy & building in whole or in part, it is necessary that work should be done; that is, as physicists express it, energy is required. Just before the lightning-discharge takes place, the energy capable of doing the damage which we seek to prevent exists in the column of air extending from the cloud to the earth in some form that makes it capable of appearing as what we call electricity. We will therefore call it electrical energy. What this electrical energy is, it is not necessary for us to consider in this place; but that it exists there can be no doubt, as it manifests itself in the destruction of buildings. The problem that we have to deal with, therefore, is the conversion of this energy into some other form, and the accomplishment of this in such a way as shall result in the least injury to property and life.

Why Have the Old Rods Failed?

When lightning-rods were first proposed, the science of energetics was entirely undeveloped; that is to say, in the middle of the last century scientific men had not come to recognize the fact that the different forms of energyheat, electricity, mechanical power, etc.- were convertible one into the other, and that each could produce just so much of each of the other forms, and no more. The doctrine of the conservation and correlation of energy was first clearly worked out in the early part of this century. There were, however, some facts known in regard to electricity a hundred and forty years ago; and among these were the attracting power of points for an electric spark, and the conducting power of metals. Lightning-rods were therefore introduced with the idea that the electricity existing in the lightning-discharge could be conveyed around the building which it was proposed to protect, and that the building would thus be saved.

The question as to dissipation of the energy involved was entirely ignored. naturally; and from that time to this, in spite of the best endeavors of those Interested, lightning-rods constructed in accordance with Franklin's principle have not furnished satisfactory protection. The reason for this is apparent when it is considered that the olectrical energy existing in the atmosphere before the discharge, or, more exactly, in the column of dielectric from the cloud to the earth, above referred to, reaches i's maximum valu on the surface of the conductors that chance to be within the column of dielectric; so that the greatest display of energy will be on the surface of the very lightningrods that were meant to protect, and damage results, as so often proves to be

the case.

It will be understood, of course, that this display of energy on the surface of the old lightning-rods is aided by their being more or is insulated from the earth, but in any event the very existence of such a mass of metal as an old lightning-rod can only tend to produce a disastrous dissipation of electrical energy upon its surface,-"to draw the lightning," as it is so commonly put. Is there a Better Mears of Protection?

Having cleared our minds, therefore, of any idea of conducting electricity, and keeping clearly in view the fact that in providing protection against lightning we must furnish some me-ns by which the electrical energy may be harmlessly dissipated, the question arises, "Can an improved form be given to the rod so that it shall & n this dissipation ? "

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As the electrical energy involved manifests itself on the surface of conduc tors, the improved rod should be metallic; but, instead of making a large rod, suppose that we make it comparatively small in size, so that the total amount of metal running from the top of the house to some point a little below the foundations shall not exceed one pound. Suppose, again, that we introduce numerous insulating joints in this rod. We shall then have a rod that experlence shows will be readily destroyed-will be readily dissipated - when a discharge takes place; an I it will be evident, that, so far as the electrical energy is consumed in doing this, there will be the less to do other damage.

The only point that remains to be proved as to the utility of such a rod is to show that the dissipation of such a conductor does not tend to injure other bodies in its immediate vicinity. On this point I can only say that I have found no case where such a conductor (for instance, a bell wire) has been dissipated, even if resting against a plastered wall, where there has been any material damage done to surrounding objects.

Of course, it is readily understood that such an explosion cannot take place in a confined space without the rupture of the walls (the wire cannot be boarded over); but in every case that I have found recorded this dissipation takes place just as gunpowder burns when spread on a board. The objects against which the conductor rests may be stained, but they are not shattered, I would therefore make clear this distinction between the action of electrical energy when dissipated on the surface of a large conductor and when dissipated on the surface of a comparatively small or easily dissipated conductor. When dissipated on the surface of a large conductor, a conductor so strong as to resist the explosive effect, - damage results to objects around. When dissipated on the surface of a small conductor, the conductor goes, but the other objects around are saved

A Typical Case of the Action of a Small Conductor. Franklin, in a letter to Collinson read before the London Royal Society, Dec. 18, 1755, describing the partial destruction by lightning of a church-tower at Newbury, Mass, wrote, "Near the bell was fixed an iron hammer to strike the hours; and from the tall of the hammer a wire went down through a small gimlet-hole in the floor that the bell stood upon, and through a second floor in like manner; then horizontally under and near the plastered ceiling of that second floor, till it came near a plastered wall; then down by the side o' that wall to a clock, which stood about twenty feet below the bell. The wire was not bigger than a common knitting needle. The spire was split all to pieces by the lightning, and the parts flung in all directions over the square in which the church stood, so that nothing remained above the bell. The lightning passed between the hammer and the clock in the above-mentioned wire, without hurting either of the floors, or having any effect upon them (except making the gimlet-holes, through which the wire passed, a little bigger), and without hurting the plastered wall, or any part of the bullding, so far as the aforesaid wire and the pendulum-wire of the clock extended; which latter wire was about the thickness of a goose-qu'll. From the end of the pendulum, down quite to the ground, the bull ing was exceedingly rent and damage 1. No part of the aforementioned long, small wire, between the clock and the hammer, could be found, except about two inches that hung to the tal of the hammer, and about as much that was fastened to the clock; the rest being exploded, and its particles dissipated in smoke and alr. as gunpowder is by common fire, and had only left a black smutty track on the plas tering, three or four inches broad, darkest in the middl, and faluter towards the edges, all along the ceiling, under which it passed, aud down the wail.' Dne hundred feet of the Hodges Patent Lightning Dispeller (mate under patents of N. D. C. Hodges, Editor of Science) will be mailed, postpaid, to any address, on receipt of five dollars ($5).

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