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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 32.djvu/730

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

which his experience, his scientific knowledge, and the great works of this kind he has undertaken and always succeeded in, naturally pointed him out beforehand as my assistant. That is the whole story. So, it is the future tide-level ship-canal at Panama that will continue to be dug; it will be laid out in a way to accommodate the traffic of the world, and be continued and completed much sooner than is supposed, although the traffic of seven and a half million tons calculated by the International Congress is actually more than ten million tons. The profits will soon be great enough to enable the canal to be finally completed with little delay, and at no further expense, as it will pay for itself."

Opinions about the Mound-Builders.—In explaining the methods of the Bureau of Ethnology in mound-exploring, Dr. Cyrus Thomas mentions three plans on which the work might be done that are worthy of consideration. The first is the systematic plan, under which all the ancient works should be surveyed and mapped, and then thoroughly explored and investigated; the second is the local plan, which begins with a limited locality and confines operations to it until the investigation of it is completed; and the third is the comprehensive plan, or plan of general study, in which the chief objects are to search for and study the various forms and types of the works and minor vestiges of art, and to mark out the different archæological districts as disclosed by investigation. This plan permits the carrying on of operations at various points simultaneously, or removal from place to place as the types and forms of a section are satisfactorily determined. The first of these plans is regarded as the most systematic and scientific, and the second as next so. Yet circumstances have made it expedient for the Bureau to adopt the third, which promised to yield the results that were most immediately demanded, more expeditiously and at less cost than the others. The question most prominently kept in view was that whether the mound-builders were Indians. From the data so far obtained, the conclusions appear to be justified that the mound-builders, in the area to which especial attention has been given, consisted of a number of tribes or peoples bearing about the same relation to one another and occupying the same culture status as the Indian tribes inhabiting the country when it was first visited by Europeans; that nothing trustworthy has been discovered to indicate that these tribes belonged to a highly civilized race, or that they were a people who had attained a higher culture status than the Indians; that the links discovered directly connecting the Indians and mound-builders are so numerous and well established that there should be no longer any hesitancy in accepting the theory that the two are one and the same people; that the statements of the early navigators and explorers as to the habits, customs, circumstances, etc., or the Indians when first visited by Europeans, are largely confirmed by what has been discovered in the mounds and other ancient works of our country; that the evidence obtained appears to be sufficient to justify the conclusion that particular works and the works in certain localities are to be attributed to particular tribes known to history; that the testimony cf the mounds is very decidedly against the theory that their builders were Mayas or Mexicans; and that evidences of contact with Europeans are frequent and authentic enough to make it probable that a goodly number of the mounds were built subsequently to the discovery of the continent by Europeans.

Some Advantages of a Fruit-Diet.—"Fruit and Fruit-Culture, as related to Health," was the subject of an address by Professor H. W. Parker before the Iowa State Horticultural Society, in which working among fruit and living with it are commended to a population who become bilious on excess of meat. In temperate zones, the author says, "the dire experience of almost universal disease, and the evidence of those who have freely used fruit, point to this as a most needful article of diet; and when we come to the tropics we find that men must confine themselves mostly to fruit-diet, a practice that should be largely followed in our long, hot summers; yes, with our present habits of unwholesome living, especially in respect to confined air and cooking, must be observed in winter as well. In the warm temperate climates there are enough exam-