Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/292

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280
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

for glimpses of Niagara. I could see that the movement for open spaces for public resort has vital relations to civilization, and has been instituted in response to a pressing need." In view of the changes in industrial conditions that are likely to take place under these circumstances, Mr. Harrison finds one resource which has received comparatively little attention of late—the soil, which in most of the shore towns appears to be much better than the popular estimate of it. "It has greater capabilities than are yet recognized. This is especially true of the Cape Cod country. The soil there is better than that of southern New Jersey; and I have seen many Massachusetts men in Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, trying, in great privation, to make a living in regions more forlorn and hopeless than any part of the shore country of the Old Bay State. ... I think these towns might yet support a great population by a highly developed agriculture and horticulture, and that owners of the land might wisely keep it and cultivate it."

Snow Effects in the Pamirs.—The region of the Pamirs, or the roof of the world, in central Asia, where the empires of Russia, India, and China corner upon one another, consists of a succession of long, broad, open valleys, running approximately parallel to each other in a general direction from northeast to southwest, and separated by low (for that region) ranges of mountains. The climate is very severe. The lowest point of the Pamirs is 10,300 feet above sea-level, and their usual average is from 13,000 to 14,000 feet. Hence the cold must be very intense. Captain Younghusband, while he had no experience of the winter weather, found temperatures at the end of October and beginning of November of 18° Fahr. below zero. Some interesting snow phenomena were witnessed by this explorer. He has looked at a mountain-peak, and then, a few moments later, seen it gradually disappear; and only by closer observation could he make out that it had been overshadowed by an imperceptible snow-storm. "The snow, indeed, in these mountains was often very fine, and almost like dust; and a very beautiful effect is, that it nearly always falls in perfect little hexagonal flakes, like little stars of lacework, each one quite distinct, and remaining intact until it reaches the ground; then, as it has fallen, the snow of course remains white on the surface, but, digging into it, appears of a beautiful delicate pale-blue color. Another effect of the snow is seen at the mountain-tops, when the peaks seem to be fading away, and vanishing off like clouds of whitened smoke. It is produced by the high wind blowing away the fine dust-like snow at the summits. Again, another almost similar phenomenon on the mountain-tops is that of long, level clouds, like streamers, flowing away from the peaks. The moisture-laden air from the plains of India has been condensed on the icy mountain summits, and the wind has blown the mist away in a long, thin streamer." Another effect of snow-particles glittering in the air in clear sunlight is also common among us on very cold winter days.

The "Down-below People."—The Havesu-Pai, otherwise known as the Koxoninos, or Cochnichnos, are a dying race of Indians, their numbers being estimated at less than two hundred souls, who were visited a few years ago by Mr. Benjamin Wittick. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, seeking for information about them, has found that very little is known concerning them, but was able to obtain two photographs taken by Mr. Wittick, illustrating their general appearance and the style of their huts. They exist in one of the grandest canons in Arizona, living along the banks of the stream that passes through it. Their name, which is given them by the Yumas, means the "down-below people," or a tribe or race that live down in the canon. They call themselves the "Ah-Supai." The canon in which they dwell is that of Cataract Creek, is forty-five hundred feet deep, and the stream tumbles by a series of cascades into the Grand Canon of the Colorado, fifteen hundred feet deeper. The Indians raise, according to Captain John G. Bourke, fine peaches and good corn and melons, and weave fine and beautiful baskets. They are great hunters, and live by trading off buckskins and sometimes mountain-lion pelts to the Moquis, Navajos, and Apaches. Mr. Frank H. Cushing describes their home as in a green, moist plain of sandy soil, nearly two miles long by half a mile at its greatest width, of which he could catch only occa-