Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/262

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

implements, for the memory of it lives in universal tradition among them. At no very remote date a Tubal-Cain appeared, and since his day the iron-headed hoe has found its way into the remotest hamlet, and the national ingenuity has found exercise in fashioning and ornamenting weapons of war. The improvements made in the manufacture of implements of husbandry and tools for the craftsman are insignificant compared with the advance in the manufacture of spear and battle-axe. The iron they smelt from its native ore by a primitive process of blast furnace, and then work and temper it much as was done by our country smiths two or three hundred years ago. I have seen spears of African manufacture, made by Baralong smiths, tempered so finely that it required a good Sheffield blade to turn their edge. This is, however, exceptional, and the vast majority of articles made are soft, and the iron coarse in texture when broken. In woodwork their progress has been slower, and beyond polishing spear-handles and the manufacture of musical instruments, pillows—a regular article of commerce—pipes, walking-sticks, and mallets, not much is done, the manufacture of canoes, their greatest triumph, being always excepted.—Journal of the Anthropological Institute.

[Concluded.]

THE BAY OF FUNDY TIDES AND MARSHES.

By FRANK H. EATON.

CONCERNING the Bay of Fundy the school-books generally note the single fact that "here the tides rise higher than anywhere else in the world." But so meager a reference to what is in itself an imposing exhibition of gravitational energy, helpful as it may be in a mnemonic way to the learner of geographical catalogues, gives no hint either of the extraordinary series of physiographical conditions which are the cause of this phenomenon or of those which it creates. The Bay of Fundy is remarkable not only for the grandeur of its tidal phenomena, but equally so for the exquisitely picturesque sculpturing of its coast line, and the diversity, range, and richness of geological evidence thereby revealed; for the unique character of the extensive alluvial tracts that skirt its head waters, and for the wealth of legend, tradition, and romantic incident embodied in the early history of the people that dwell about it.

What is the cause of the extraordinary height of the Bay of Fundy tides? What part have they played in the creation of the Acadian marshes? Whence have been derived the materials for this enormous alluvial deposit? And what is the source of its ex-