San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-12-14
THE MIGRATION OF THINGS AND
OF MEMORIES

In the minds of some students. saws
Prof. .. II. Mason, in Science. the
question of migration of forms is fire.
quently COMPOUNDED with that of the
| migration of tribes. 1t must not he
forgotten by those who are carefully
studying the origin of Industrial forms
on the western world that there were
daily mails dlivered ON the American
shore from the eastern continent from
the remotest antiquity. The United
States navy have been dropping hot.
ties overheard in the Atlantic ocean
at the Azores, in deep water along the
coast of Spain and from the Madeira
and the CanarieS couthward along tbe
coast of Africa. All of these bottles
that have been recovered have bpen
found on the coast OF South America
on the Antilles, and some of them as
far west as the mouth of the Rio
Grande. 1t can be Inferred from this
therefore, that every buoyant object
which has been dropped into the ocean
during the present geological epoch by
prehistoric or historic Spanirds. Portn-
guese, or Africans has found its wav
to America and been stranded some
where between the tenth parallel
south and the thirteenth parallel
north.
In the northern part of the Atlantic
ocean the currents run the other wav.
and the mails have been delivered
from America to Europe. In tho pa
clfc ocean the daily mails delivered
on the west coast of America from
Mount Saint Elias southwark have
nrnRAn1n1 oh
parallel north, in the vicinity of the
Malay PENINSULA and Archipelago,
thence have Travelled through the Chi
ia sea and the western hemisphere.
In the southern hemisphere the mails
travel the other way, and materials
consigned to the ocean current com
pany were taken from Chile and Peru
TO be delivered upon the Eastern
Island and the various groups of
Polynesia, some of them reaching as
iar as Melanesia. In addition to
the2e great mail services of the Pa
cinc, There was a narrow strip of SER
wee vice called the ''counter-cur-
rent. between the equator and the
tenth parallel north. the articles con-
signed TO it being delivered on the west
coast of Central America.
In the Arctic ocean the mails pro-
coed from west to east. passing nm
through Behring Strait, across the |
pole. and finding their way first To |
East Greenland and then around |
cape Farewell to the southwestern
shores of that great island. The Are |
tic current from Baffin Land and
northward brought the mails from the |
Eskimo area southwark even as far
as Charleston, South Carolina. The |
of such uninterrupted |
cannot be overestimat- |
ed. All who have studied the arts |
OF primative races known how quickly /
their plastic minds respond to n CON |
genial suggestion. 1t would not even
DE necessary for Chinese or Jan
anese vessel to bring a single living |
teacher to take part in the pedagogic |
work OF 1nstructing the west coast |
trlDes III eastern ASiatic arts.
Inc recent example of throwing a |
Suck which drifted from Port Clar- |
ence, south of Behring Strait. and was
picked up on the shores of West |
Greenland by DIR. Rink, is one of |
those great mailing stations and an
other. A second element in technical
pedagogy has not been emphasized by |
any modern writer, and yet it cannot
be overlooked; and that is the surviv-
al OF industrial processes and produc- /
tons in the myths and traditions of |
wandering tribes; so that one of them.
having passed over long area where
a certain kind of activity was not de-
manded, and coming again to a place
where the conditions are favorable TO i
It's revival, changed a song or an an
cient tribal memory into an actual
fact again,-Scientific American.