THE BOOMERANG.
Mr. A. W. Howitt, after many years' observation in Australia, reports that the boomerang, though a singular, is not the marvellous instrument which we are told of in some books of travel; especially does he deny it the power of continuing its flight after striking its object, and also the power of returning with exact aim to the thrower's hand. That might be in an instrument which was made with theoretical perfectness, but as it is the return flight is very wild. He had a trial made by several natives, one of them a boomerang thrower of great skill. The ground was good, and the only drawback was a light sea breeze. He found that the throws could be placed in two classes, one in which the boomerang was held when thrown in a plane perpendicular to the horizon, the other in which one plane of the boomerang was inclined to the left of the thrower.
In the first method of throwing the missile proceeded, revolving with great velocity, in a perpendicular plane for say one hundred yards, when it became inclined to the left, travelling from right to left. It then circled upward, the plane in which it revolved indicating a cone, the apex of which would lie some distance in front of the thrower. "When the boomerang in travelling passed round to a point above and somewhat to the right of the thrower, and perhaps one hundred feet above the ground, it appeared to become stationary for a moment; I can only use the term hovering to describe it. It then commenced to descend, still revolving in the same direction, but the curve followed was reversed, the boomerang travelling from left to right, and, the speed rapidly increasing, it flew far to the rear. At high speed a sharp whistling noise could be heard. In the second method, which was shown by 'bungil wunkun,' and elicited admiring ejaculations of 'ko-ki' from the black fellows, the boomerang was thrown in a plane considerably inclined to the left. It there flew forward for say the same distance as before, gradually curving upward, when it seemed to 'soar' up—this is the best term—just as a bird may be seen to circle upward with extended wings. The boomerang of course was all this time revolving rapidly. It is difficult to estimate the height to which it soared, making, I think, two gyrations; but judging from the height of neighboring trees on the river bank, which it surmounted, it may have reached one hundred and fifty feet. It then soared round and round in a decreasing spiral, and fell about one hundred yards in front of the thrower. This was performed several times. The descending curve passed the thrower, I think, three times.
"Another method of throwing was mentioned; namely, to throw the boomerang in such a manner that it would strike the ground with its flat side some distance in front of the thrower. It would then rise upward in a spiral, returning in the same. This was not attempted, as it was decided the boomerang was not strong enough. A final throw in a vertical plane, so that the missile struck the ground violently fifty or sixty yards in advance, terminated the display. It ricocheted three times with a twanging noise and split along the centre. My black friends said they should soon manufacture a number of the best constructed 'wunken' to show me. I observed that the spectators stood about a hundred yards on one side of the thrower, and when the boomerang in its gyrations approached us, every black fellow had his eyes sharply fixed on it. The fact stated by them that it was dangerous was well shown in one instance, where it suddenly wheeled and flew so close over us that I and Toolabar fell over each other in dodging it."
A WESTERN LAVA FIELD.
Lieutenant Ruffner describes one of the great lava outflows in the West in a way that serves to set before the reader the magnitude of the eruptions which have made America par excellence the volcanic continent. It is in New Mexico.
From the Conejos river, in Colorado, one continuous sheet of lava covers the face of the country to the south, for eighty miles unbroken; and then for fifty miles further is now exhibited in outlying areas and detached masses, separated from the main body by the exercise of the power of erosion through prolonged ages. One hundred and thirty miles in length, and perhaps thirty in breadth at its widest, the area of a principality lies swallowed up for ever. From craters existing probably in the San Antonio mountain and in the Ute Peak, near the boundary of Colorado, and possibly from other centres, this flood poured over the land. Reaching to the east, it was checked by the mountains of the Sangre de Cristo range; flowing to the west, the mountains and hills of the main divide, and the spur now between the Chama and the Rio Grande, limited its extent. To the south it was deflected westwardly by the spur of the mountains called the Picuris range, some fifteen miles south of Taos. Protected by this spur, we find the east bank of the Rio Grande for many miles free from the flux. Confined on the west by the slopes of the Jemez mountains, the breadth of the field is narrowed. But from the village of San Ildefonso to Pena Blanca, we find the lava on both sides of the Rio Grande, spreading to the east as far as the Santa Fé creek. Secondary centres in the Jemez mountains possibly contributed to this extension, but the main force of the eruptions was probably felt further to the north. However, in this vicinity the edges and extremity of the field have been reached, and there has been so much erosion in places since its deposition, that outlying masses, as in the bluffs to the west of San Felipe, alone remain. Throughout the whole region thus depicted, the lava field is the great and controlling element. The streams that have eaten their way through it with untold difficulty are found in narrow and deep cañons having no land for cultivation. A dangerous feat for man to descend these precipices, the passage by an animal of burden is almost impossible. The Rio Grande passes for eighty miles or more through its black abyss, with walls of seven or eight hundred feet in height, crowned with perpendicular cliffs of solid lava, two and three hundred feet high. Throughout the whole region there is no agriculture.
THE PRINCIPLE OF CEPHALIZATION.
In the last of a series of papers on cephalization (or brain development) as a fundamental principle in the development of the system of animal life, Prof. Dana says ("American Journal," October, 1876): "I would refer to the case among mammals for an illustration of the principle that the lowest forms are those having their locomotive functions located in the posterior parts of the body; and that in the higher the forces, or force organs, are more and more forward in the structure. For example, in the whale the tail is the propelling organ, and is of enormous power and magnitude, and the brain is very small, and is situated far from the head extremity in a great mass of flesh and bone furnished with poor organs of sense; a grade up, in the horse or ox, the tail or posterior extremity is no longer an organ of locomotion, and is little more than a caudal whip lash, and locomotion is performed by organs situated more anteriorly, the legs, and a well-formed head carries a brain which is a vastly higher organ of intelligence than that of the whale, but the legs are simply organs of locomotion, and the hinder are the more powerful; and higher up, in the tiger or cat, the fore legs—not the hind legs—are the organs of chief muscular force, and these have higher functions than that of simple locomotion, and further, the body is proportionately shortened, and the head is shortened anteriorly, or in the jaws, and approximates thus toward the condition of man. The existence or not of a switch-like tail, as in ordinary quadrupeds, has little bearing on the question of the degree of cephalization, since the organ is not an organ of locomotion, or one indicating a large posterior development of muscular bone. But, approaching man in the system of life, even this seems to have significance."