The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-01-03

equipped with delicate driving roc,
have afforded data sufficient Tor pre-
dictions several months earlier than IN
former years. Incidentally the lndla
bureau seems likely to shed valuable
light upon the long and hitherto fruit
less controversy as to the influence oA
| sun spots on the weather, and whether
observations of the latter can be MADE
of practical utility in weather Iore-
( casting. That some relationship does
exist is plain group of tables showing
| that in the period from 1864 to 1884 the
rainfall of India has been deficient IN
| epochS of minimum SunSpOt activity,
and in excess of the mean in epochs
of maximum activity. Other apparent
and interesting relationships have been
! observed. 1t is impossible to more than
! indicate here the actively wide range
and the remarkable results of the In
dian n eteorologists, but it is sufficiently
/ clear that a bureau which is success
! fully predicting seasons of drouth or
rainfall, and the general state of wind
and weather four and six months IN
/ advance, is doing a work very different
from anything that is being done in
/ this country.
Oceanic Levels and the Assumed De-
preston of the Mediterranean.
Two peculiarities have for many
years been assumed for the Mediter-
ranean basin; that it was practically
deficient in tide, and that its surface
was depressed a metre or more below
! that of the Atlantic ocean. The first
( supposition has had seemingly only
! careless or imperfect observation for
/ its basis, as it is now well known that
/ the tidal oscillations of the water are
considerable and we'll marked at many
localities. The assumed depression of
! the water level was seemingly ground
ri n OF
different times. and was confirmed by
Bourdaloue. who in 1860 was charged
by the French government to carry
series of levels through France for the
purpose of establishing datum lines in
the interior directly refefable to the
mean level of the sea at Marseilles. a
confirmation Of the difference of levels
was thought to be found in the steady
inflow of surface water through the
Straits of Gibraltar, a condition that
is well known to be antagonized By
the counter currents which are found
at no great depth beneath the sur
face. The cause Of this low-lying level,
as compared with the level of the At
lantic ocean. was considered to be the
excess of evaporation over precipitation
| and inflows due to a uniformly dry
and hot climate, and the passage across
the basin of notwithstanding winds
coming from the super-heated African
desert.
Through the use of instruments of a
higher degree of precision than had
formerly been employed, especially the
medimaremetre, a differential regis
tering continuance devised by NJ Lalle-
mand, the present head of the level
ing commission" of France-it has re-
Gently been determined that the diff
ference IN level which has so generally
been accepted and long figured as a
teaching of all textbooks of geography.
does not. in fact, exist. In other words
the Mediterranean sea holds the same
level as the Atlantic ocean: further
more, the concurrent results of obser-
vations made at different parts of the
littoral Europe and Africa, as on the
Danish, Italian and African coasts.
would seem TO indicate that an abso-
lutely Cor very nearly that uniform
level IS maintained over nearly all parts
Of the European seas.
Who Invented the Alphabet.
Working in the island of Crete.
where he has made q series of discov-
cries which have shed new light on the
origin of European ciViliza ton, Arthur
j. Evans, the eminent English archa-
Giogist, has discovered fragments of an
inscription which carries back the dis
covery of writing for centuries beyond
the date hitherto assigned. Not merely
this, but the home of the invention
commonly awarded to the ingenious
Phoenicians, is transferred to another
race, the mysterious and prehistoric
Mycenaeans, whose remains now con-
stitute the most interesting problem of
antiquity.
A year ago at the Oxford meeting of
the British association, Evans demon
strated the existence of a prehistoric
Cretan script, evolved by gradual sim
plihcation and selection from an earlier
picture writing akin to that of
Egypt and Babylon. This script is first
found in association with the curious
seals and scarabs which the ancients
were fond Of carving. and which have
themselves served to trace the ad-
vancement of art and prOXimately the
history of these early people. Succeed
ing this primitive script came another
more conyentiOnalized and often linear
revealing the progress made in the art.
In his last exploring tour, however.
Evans brought 10 light an inscribed
historic relic, far surprising these in
interest and Importance. It consists OF !
q fragment of what may be described |
as steatite, or scapstone table of
offerings to Zeus. bearing a part of
what appears to be a dedication of nine |
letters, with two punctuation marks. |
answering to the same early Cretan |
script found in the seals. It was found /
in the lowest level of Mycenaean STRAIT |
un. containing numerous native OBJ |
Jects. in the great cave of Mt. Dikta /
which. according to the Greek legend /
was the birthplace of Zeus
This early script precedes. by CEN
turtles, the most ancient records of Pho |
encian writing, and supplies very close |
analogies to what may be supposed to |
have been the pictorial prototypes of /
several Of the Phoencian characters. |
II stands, on the other hand. in direct |
relation to the syllable characters used /
at later date by the Greeks in Cyprus
About half the characters used by the |
Cretans are believed to be represented |
in the fragment, and if this be true. |
the PhoencianS, who borrowed this AL /
phabet, added but little to it. since their
own contained but 16 characters. In
the succeeding Improvement, through
Homeric times. the number was in
creased with some changes and the ad-
dition of signs for the vowels. so that
the alphabet of classical Greece |
energies with % to "a characters, sub /
stantially that which is used by the
European race today. It is now alto
gether probable that other relics will
be found, showing the Cretan script in
its entirety, though the great step in
the history of the art of writing. i'm
piled in the evolution of symbols of
phonetic value from primitive picto-
graphs tpicture writings) has now been
conclusively show to have taken place
on European soil, and been accom-
plished by a European, and not an
ASiatic or Semetjc rare But Tho -