T. WT.
Fire Unknown (Vol. iv., pp. 209. 283.).
—At the time when Leibnitz wrote, curious references to accounts of savages were not infrequent. All your readers will remember Locke's reference to some account of savages who had neither idea of God nor of being superior to man. It may be that narratives of tribes who did not use fire, who lived on dried flesh or fish, for instance, may have given rise to an idea of their not knowing fire. I think I remember to have seen it stated that some of the savages of Australia did not know fire. On this, five-and-twenty years ago, I made a note from Mr. Barron Field's Collection of Geographical Memoirs of New South Wales. Two wrecked Englishmen passed some time among the natives, and found they had no knowledge that water could be heated; but the very story seems to show that they knew of fire. On boiling some in a tin pot,
"The whole tribe gathered round them, and watched the pot till it began to boil, when they all took to their heels, shouting and screaming, nor could they be persuaded to return till they saw them pour the water out and clean the pot, when they slowly ventured back and carefully covered the place where the water was spilt with sand."
These two Englishmen were treated with great attention by the natives, they were painted twice a day, and it was quite their own faults that they did not have their noses bored and their bodies scarified.
Plant in Texas (Vol. iv., p. 208.).
—The following is an extract from a periodical of 1848 or 1849:
"According to the Medical Times, Major Alvord has discovered on the American prairies a plant possessing the property of pointing north and south, and has given it the name of Sylphium laciniatum."
G. P***.