< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu
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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.
efforts to get out. A woodcut representing this strange belief will be found in an old cosmography in our library."

Meteorological and earthquake disturbances of the past year are noted; and, with an account of the voyage of the Challenger and the important results attained by it, Judge Daly passes to the progress of geographical work in Europe, and gives an instructive account of the drainage of the Zuyder Zee now undertaken by the people of Holland, who have become masters of hydraulics by necessity, as their whole country lies twelve feet below the level of the sea. They drained the Haarlem Lake, twelve miles long, seven miles wide, and fourteen feet deep, and covered it with thriving farms and villages, and were so pleased with the speculation that they have now undertaken to drain off the Zuyder Zee, which embraces an area of 759 square miles, and by which they propose to add six per cent, of fertile land to the total area of the country. It is a dull waste of half-navigable waters with low, marshy borders. They are first to construct an immense dike 164 feet wide at the bottom of the sea, and rising to a height of twenty-six feet above it, making a total length of wall, near the narrow opening of the sea, twenty-five statute miles. The inclosed area will be divided into squares, and pumped out at an expense of $48,000,000, or about $100 an acre. Our Yankees, who are being drowned by the score in the overflow of their ponds, might learn something about dams from these Dutchmen.

The president next attacks Asia, and gives us a great deal of valuable information of the results of geographical inquiry in various portions of its immense area, of which the following has a very human interest:

"Mr. Bond, of the Indian Trigonometrical Survey, discovered two of the wild dwarfish race who live in the hill-jungles of the Western Galitz, to the southwest of the Palini hills, a race which, though often heard of, no trace of had previously been found by the survey. A man and a woman were discovered The man was four feet six inches high, and. 26¼ inches about the chest. He had a round head with coarse, black, woolly hair and dark-brown skin, a forehead low and slightly retreating, the lower part of the face projecting like that of a monkey, with thick lips, protruding about an inch beyond his nose; a comparatively long body for his size, with short, bandy legs, and arms extending almost to his knees. The hands and fingers were so contracted that they could not be made to stretch out straight and flat. The palms and fingers were covered with a thick skin, particularly the tips of the fingers, the nails being small and imperfect, and the feet broad and thick-skinned all over. He had a grayish-white, scanty, coarse mustache like bristles, but no beard. The woman, who was about of the same size, was of yellow tint, with long, black, straight hair, and features well formed as contrasted with those of the man, there being no difference between her appearance and that of the common women of that part of the country. She had an agreeable expression, was well developed and modest. Their simple dress was a loose cloth, and, though they ate flesh, they lived chiefly on roots and honey. They have no fixed dwelling-places, but sleep between rocks, or in caves, near which they happen to be at night, when they light a fire and cook what they have collected during the day, maintaining the fire during the night for warmth, and to keep off wild animals. Their religion, such as they have, is the worship of certain local divinities of the forest. This is a new pygmy race, resembling the African Obongos of Du Chaillu, the Akkas of Schweinfurth, and the Dokos of Dr. Krapf, in their size, appearance and habits."

Africa is, however, now the great point of assault by geographical explorers, and there come the most wonderful revelations regarding the fertility and beauty of various of its extensive regions, with curious descriptions of its government and peoples. Dr. Nachtigal, describing Wadai, in Northeast Africa—

"Fixes the population of the country at about two and a half millions, and says that the surface elevation of the land is from west to east, with an elevation of from 1,000 to 1,500 feet above the sea-level. Numerous small streams flow from the eastern heights, falling into the two principal rivers, the Kafa and Poaka. The country is divided
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