It is to him that the banking fraternity owe the convenience of country-house clearing. The financial brethren and the common outsider have both

SENATOR GEORGE F. HOAR

From a photograph by Elmer & Chickering, Boston

recognized his eminence in this branch in various ways. He has been president of this and that, sat on one and the other commission, and the list of his various appointments and posts held in this connection at various times is about as long as the Cromwell Road, and as dry as the same in sum

mer.

To the general public Sir John Lubbock is not, however, known as a banker. He is popularly supposed to have invented the Bank Holiday, but, as a matter of fact, the Bank Holiday Act passed in 1871, largely through his instrumentality, merely added on two additional to two already existing statutable Bank Holidays. The "plebs" owe him Whit-Monday and the Monday in August as holidays. Easter-Monday and Boxing Day existed before. The inhabitants of London may also gratefully recollect that he endeavored to do something to regulate street noises, and especially to enable the householder to get rid of the itinerant organgrinder if he desired to. The movement, however, in spite of Sir John Lubbock's valuable support, has not been destined as yet to obtain success.

Perhaps it is in connection with animals and insects that Sir John Lubbock is most widely known. The "Lubbock beetle" has become almost a household word to many who have not the remotest idea of its meaning. "Go to the ant-like Sir John Lubbock," might be a nineteenth-century version of the proverb. His work on Ants, Bees, and Wasps

ran through five editions in less than one year. Of course this is nothing to the record of his Pleasures of Life, which has exhausted thirty editions. The Ant book is full of good stories, and exhibits the ant-folk as not only hardworking, but also very hard-hearted, tyranically disposed, cruel, exceedingly rude and unpleasant to "foreigners," and inclined to fight to the death over any unimportant as well as important matters -in short, not at all unlike many human beings.

Sir John Lubbock does not agree with Mark Twain in the definition that the ant is is a pretentious humbug, but on the contrary, thinks him a very clever fellow. It must be confessed that his cleverness is very often exhibited in rather unamiable ways-as, for instance, by the ants who enslave other races of ants after the fashion of the Soudanese Arabs.

When he is down at his place, High Elms, near Down, in Kent (of which county he is Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace), Sir John has excellent opportunities of studying the ants, for he has about two score of their nests under glass so the insects can be observed with ease.

The story of Sir John and the intelligent poodle is not only good as a dog story, but has the rarer merit of being true. Sir John gradually, by using extraordinary patience and perseverance, taught the poodle to distinguish words written on cards, and express

its wants by taking the right card in its mouth. mouth. In this story a collie plays the part of dunce, who looks on and learns nothing. John Lubbock first stood for parliament in 1865,

when he offered himself at West Kent as a Liberal and was rejected. In 1870, however, at a by-election he succeeded in capturing Maidstone. He was elected again in 1874, but in 1880 the Conservatives were too strong for him in his old constituency. It was then that London University first welcomed him as its representative, and has re-elected him at every general election since.

Long before that, Sir John Lubbock's name (he succeeded to the baronetcy in 1865) had become a household word. His Bank Holiday work made him famous as early as 1871. In 1875 his eminence was recognized by Oxford University, which conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. Sir John had not had much to do with Civil Law in his time, but this degree is a regular form of honor for distinguished men, and the gown is a gorgeous one of scarlet cloth with crimson silk sleeves.

In 1881 his scientific attainments caused Sir John to be appointed President of the British Association. He presided, therefore, at its jubilee, which

W. B. PRICE

See page 230

was held at York, and his address on that occasion was a masterly "Review of the last fifty years of Science."

In 1883, Cambridge bestowed upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., and further appointed him. Sir Robert Rede's lecturer in 1886. Edinburg followed suit with an honorary degree in 1884. Finally, the German University of Würzburg has welcomed Sir John as an Hon. M.D.

In 1886 Sir John stood for London University as a Liberal Unionist at the general election of that year. Mr. Frederic Harrison, the philosophic writer, was put up against him, but Sir John won the seat very easily. It was admitted at the time that he owed at least as much to his personal influence as a "local man" and a national worthy, as to other considerations. In 1890 his services to the Unionist cause were recognized by his elevation to the rank of Right Hon., when he was admitted as a member of the Privy Council. From time to time Sir John has been interested in projects of municipal reform.

A very efficient test of the precociousness of

[EDITORIAL NOTE-In the New England Magazine for July ('97) may be found the particularly lucid article from which the following is reduced to about half the original length. Oddly, the new zest for "nature" literature has called forth comparatively little from geological scholars to reveal those wonders and charms which, through their science, lie open to popular interpretation in our most familiar landscapes.

There was a time when the surface of New England was unmarked by lakes. Eastern Massachusetts had been reduced from a previous much higher altitude to a gently rolling country, possessing occasional elevations rising perceptibly above the general level. This period is variously estimated by geologists at from six thousand to thirty thousand years ago, probably not over the latter. The character of the country at that time was not unlike that of parts of the South to-day. For ages the processes of chemical decomposition had been going on, and the solid rocks were decayed to a depth of hundreds of feet in particular areas where streams had not removed the material as fast as it came into a condition capable of becoming prey to floods and torrents-the condition of the more protected parts of the South at the present time.

At about this stage in the history of our continent the conditions which determined the precipitation of snow in what is now British North America were so changed that the amount of snow falling in winter was not dissipated by the next summer's heat. By the presence in summer of a residual mass of snow and ice, the approach of cold weather the succeeding winter was hastened; and this process continued with a constant cumulative effect until the winter's precipitation of snow was not appreciably lessened by the next summer's warmth, and a glacial period was begun. The old snow acted as a nucleus for the increased precipitation the following winter. As time went on, the snow became deeper and deeper, and was finally consolidated into ice toward the bottom by the pressure of its own weight. Before the ice became many thousands of feet thick the pressure of the mass caused it to flow horizontally in the direction of its thinnest part, or toward the south. This is not mere speculation; all of us know that the Swiss glaciers move at a varying but slow rate down the Alpine valleys, and that the continent of Greenland is swept over by an immense ice sheet at the present time.

The accumulation continued at the north, and gradually the ice sheet or glacier attained the dimensions of a continent and slowly moved southward, covering the upper part of the United States from Montana eastward and extending south, with a broad curved front, as far as northern Kentucky. All of our highest mountains were covered, the grooves and scratches on the solid rocks attesting the power of the ice, which acted like a giant rasp, with its embedded rocks and stones, as it moved over the surface of the country. To have mantled over Mount Washington required a thickness of over one mile. The power of this moving conti

Mr. Whittle, formerly a member of the United States Geological Survey, and now engaged in the profession of mining engineer, is the author of a number of practical scientific papers, among them an article on Ancient and Modern Highways, about to appear in the same magazine to which we are here indebted, as already stated, for the article which follows.]

nent of ice was prodigious. From the north came the enemy that rudely interrupted the harmonious conditions which existed here prior to its arrival. I have already said that no lakes existed in New England at that time. The streams, by long custom, had established a perfect and uninterrupted drainage system. No obstructions occurred along their courses to dam up the water-producing lakes and ponds; and waterfalls had ceased to exist. But with the advent of the glacier all this was changed. As the ice advanced over the country, it forced the great thickness of decayed rock into ridges along its front-moraines. Part of the morainic material was finally overridden. The ice advanced and retreated, and gravel, sand and rocks were transported here and there and deposited in extreme irregularity, both as regards locality and amount, all over the glaciated area. With the glacier, huge rivers carrying material worn away and loosened by the ice added to the confusion by depositing great quantities of sand and gravel whenever the ever varying conditions were favorable for their accumulation, as sand plains or irregular knobs.

Once more the conditions which produced glaciation changed, and the ice gradually retreated to the north and abandoned New England. But what havoc it had wrought in the old stream courses of the country! In place of established river systems, the water, seeking always the lowest places, was detained behind irregular barriers of drift which had been indiscriminately dumped along the river courses, giving rise to countless lakes and ponds. Here, high on some mountain slope, occurs a beautiful little lake, celebrated for the purity and transparency of its waters, placed here by the fortunate disposal of a mass of gravel and clay which was accidentally deposited across the headwaters of some tiny mountain brook. There, along some old valley, once again the course of a river, may be seen a chain of narrow lakes often separated from one another by only a still narrower barrier of land, forming something like an orderly arrangement. But anything like a systematic disposition of the lakes is exceptional. They burst upon the view of the traveler in the most unexpected places, presenting an ever-increasing diversity of form, size, and surroundings. Some are shallow and are bordered with a fringe of fir balsams and spruces; others are long and deep and occupy the floor of some narrow valley; not a few are mere bogs, which are old lakes that have been encroached upon by a thick mantle of sphagnum moss, often nourishing a growth of tamaracks and firs near the shore. Sphagnum moss plays an important part in Nature's economics.

Through its love for water, it gradually works its way out over the surface of our shallow lakes, dying at the bottom and ever renewing at the top. Wind-blown soil and dust are caught in its thick embrace, small marsh plants soon obtain a foothold, and before long there is a heavy network growing upon all the surface of the lake, capable of carrying the weight of several people, but often moving along in front of them with a tremulous, wave-like motion, more alarming than dangerous. The old channels becoming filled, the water was forced in most instances to seek new courses, and the streams are today busily engaged endeavoring to straighten out the tangle for which their arch enemy, the Arctic glacier, was alone responsible. In many instances success has attended their efforts; but, as a rule, the streams now reach the ocean only by flowing over steep declivities, in narrow gorges cut by their resistless energy or through numerous bodies of water placed along their new courses.

The old, pre-glacial red and yellow clay, which resulted from the chemical alteration of the rocks, and which under present conditions serves to discolor the majority of the streams south of the glacial line, was all swept away during the ice period, and consequently our New England streams to-day are free from this displeasing feature. The time since the close of the ice age has been relatively so short that clays of this nature have not had time to form in sufficient quantities to affect the color of our streams.

Among the many labors of the rivers is that of filling these lakes which occur so plentifully. Let any one carefully observe the condition of many of our small ponds. It will usually be found that a small discolored stream enters them at their upper end, but that the water that escapes at their lower end is free from all visible matter, animal or vegetable. In the quiet waters of the pond all the sediment held in the streams, sustained by virtue of the water's motion, has been dropped. One will also see that the upper part of the pond is muddy, and that a small marsh exists there, extending up stream some little distance. Further search will show that there are all stages between completely filled ponds or meadows and open lakes. Lake Cayuga, one of the celebrated finger lakes of central New York, has been filled so fast by this process that steamers cannot make their docks within a mile of their old point of landing sixty years ago. It would be a matter of little difficulty to determine from the data there accessible the time when this lake will cease to exist. The filling of lakes takes place not only at their upper ends,

where the permanent stream enters, but during the springtime and periods of excessive rains torrential waters, although of transient duration, deposit large quantities of sand and clay at various points along the shore.

We recognize in our meadows examples of old lakes, which, owing to great shallowness, small size, or a more rapid deposition of sediment, have been more quickly filled than their neighbors. Such old lake-beds can be easily detected by their flat surfaces and the lazy stream, discolored by

vegetable matter, which pursues its meandering course across them. By the cutting down of the dam which holds back the water, still more of them are wholly or partially drained.

Such has been the history of many of our lakes, and such will be the ignoble end of all those that exist in New England at the present time. None of us will be here to record their passing; but generations of people yet to be born will not fail to note that many bodies of water to-day celebrated for

their beauty or associations have no place on the maps of that period.

A common form of New England lake occurs in valleys through which flowed rivers prior to the glacial period. During the last stage of that period tongues of ice moved along such valleys, and, where the front remained stationary (a condition brought about by the rate of advance just equalling the rate at which the ice melted), frontal moraines were deposited. Upon the disappearance of the ice, such moraines acted as dams to the streams which would reoccupy their old courses. An example of this type of lake is seen in the accompanying illustration, a view looking down a valley. This is the picture of a Colorado lake, but the process is even better illustrated than by a New England photograph, because, through the absence of trees and foliage, so completely unmasked. In the middle foreground the morainic dam may be seen on the farther side of the lake. Bodies of water of this kind are particularly perishable, as they exist usually along the courses of large and torrential streams which bring in vast quantities of sediment, thus rapidly filling them up; or they may be drained by the action of the escaping stream in cutting down the dam. The remains of the winter's snow may be observed in the immediate foreground, and may be taken to represent the thin ice margin at the time this valley was being abandoned by the glacier.

There are many modifications of this type of lake, but their origin is glacial in each case. An ice stream moving down a narrow valley with close, confining walls takes on a new form (not illustrated here, for lack of space), when, for example, it moves out upon a broader transverse valley or plain. Ice under pressure flows much like cold molasses, and leaving its confining walls, spreads out in a fanshaped manner, depositing, during successive halts, a series of lobed-shaped moraines often of considerable height and continuity. Back of this barrier there may be found the conditions for the accumulation of a similar lobed-shaped body of water whose lower end has its configuration determined by the shape of the moraine and its sides by the character of the valley walls.

The auditing department of a great American railroad corporation rivals, in respect of its records and transactions, a Government department. The earnings of all the lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad system in a year average about $130,000,000, and the gross earnings of the Vanderbilt system amount to rather more-$45,000,000 from the New York Central, $21,000,000 from the Lake Shore, $10,000,000 from the West Shore and Nickel Plate, $33,000,000 from the Chicago and Northwest, $13,000,000 from the Michigan Central, and about $15,000,000 from collateral lines or systems. These figures are large, but they appear still larger when they are compared with items of Federal revenue. The total receipts of the United States Government from customs during the fiscal year ending 1896 were $150,000,000, and from internal revenue taxes $146,000,000. The two together made up $296,

000,000 of public revenue for the Government of the affairs of a nation of 75,000,000 inhabitants, but the two railroad systems referred to represented together receipts of $275,000,000, and if a third big railroad system were added the receipts of the Federal Government would be exceeded.

The accounts of big railroad corporations require care and much hard work, and the system of precise bookkeeping in railroad accounts (now a special branch of accounting) has been carried close to the point of perfection by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which, for instance, gives to the fraction of a cent the expenses incident to the construction of a car or a locomotive. There are 30,000 passenger cars and 8,000 baggage, mail and express cars in actual use on the railroads of the United States, and the ordinary passenger car costs anywhere from $4,000 to $5,000, the difference representing added improvements in furnishing.

There has recently appeared a detailed statement of the cost of constructing, at the Altoona shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad, a sample first-class, modern, up-to-date, luxurious passenger car, and some of the items are of interest: The wheels and axles represent a cost of $332.35; the trucks upon which the car rests cost $533.62; the air brake represents $131.75; the seat fixtures-twenty-five in numbercost $50.50; the three bronze lamps, $13.50; the two gas tanks, $84; the chandeliers, $50.72, and the item of screws, which might not appear to be an important one, $51.88. For the building of a car like the one taken in illustration, 2,480 feet of poplar wood, 3,434 of ash, 1,100 of white pine, 2,350 of yellow pine, 450 feet of hickory, 400 of cherry, 700 of Michigan pine, 500 of oak, and 439 of maple veneer were required. To build the car there was required, in addition, 13 gallons of varnish, 45 pounds of glue, and nearly 3,000 pounds of iron, exclusive of 800 pounds of iron castings. For the furnishing of the car there were required 69 yards of scarlet plush, 44 yards of green plush, 61 yards of sheeting, and 243 pounds of hair. The springs on the car seats cost $43.17. The basket racks cost $77.35, the sash levers $42, the bronze window lifts $24.40, and the gold leaf for the embellishment of the woodwork, $14.58. For the window fasteners $15.47 worth of material was required, two stoves cost $77.56, and the tin used on the roof of the car, $41.44. The labor in the construction of the car represented a cost of $1,263.94, bringing up the expenditure to more than $4,400.

A LEGEND OF HAWAII * KELEA, THE SURF-RIDER OF MAUL...........ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH

Kelea was the sister of Kawao, King of Maul. A beautiful girl, she was petted by her brother and admired by the most noble of his court. She scorned all suitors for her hand, however, preferring to gambol in the surf than to frolic with any of her lovers. Indeed, the music of the waves was sweeter to her than the adulations of the courtiers, and when her brother mentioned marriage to her she laughingly answered that the sea was the only lover she would embrace.

But even then a suitor was in search of her. His

* Condensed from King Kalakaua's book.