rds of the most precious
character are still to be found there in public archives and in private
hands, the descendants perhaps of common soldiers of Cortes's army, who
were quite likely to send home during and after the Conquest things that
were odd and quaint to them and which would be invaluable to us now. As
it is, the time of the Nancy Congress of Americanistes has been too much
occupied with efforts to make the ancient inhabitants of this country a
tag to one of the numerous Asian migrations. All such attempts have been
failures, for the simple reason that we do not have facts enough to
prove _any_ theory. Still they have done some good work, and though the
subject is not of the most importance, we can but think that M.
Comettant's paper on "Music in America" before its discovery by Columbus
must have been as correct in purpose as it appears daring in subject.

* * * * *

Some seeds will germinate when placed between pieces of ice and kept at
a freezing temperature; and it is thought that, this method will afford
an easy means of selecting varieties of seed which will bear a cold
climate.

* * * * *

The explosion in the coal mines at Jabin, Belgium, last February, was
due to the ignition of fine coal powder suspended in the air.

* * * * *

A Vienna lady, who had been maid of honor to the Empress Maria Theresa,
lately died in that city at the age of one hundred and nineteen years.
That is certainly a well established case of longevity extending beyond
a century.

* * * * *

The rare metal vanadium is worth 13,000 francs ($2,600) per pound; about
eight times as much as gold. And yet vanadium is, as Dr. Hayes has
shown, a very widely diffused metal. It forms, however, only a mere
trace in most rocks.

* * * * *

W. Siemens has lately determined velocity of propagation of electricity
in suspended iron telegraph wires, and finds it to be between 30,000 and
35,000 miles per second. Kirchhoff had determined it at 21,000 miles and
Wheatstone at 61,900 miles.

* * * * *

Prof. Forel of Switzerland has proved that the water of lakes oscillates
almost constantly from one bank to another, and this not only from end
to end, but also from side to side. Thus the Swiss lakes have two
_Seiches_, as they are called, in opposite dire