Evening star., 1938-01-06

the liquor. II the same wine afterward
grows hot in the air it is because the
fire in the air is fluid which has a ten
dency to enter whatever is offered to 1t.
mo doubt you would be glad to con-
ceive how the dissolution of salt can
render liquid colder. The most salts
factory account can give YOU upon that
head. is, that water, having no other
action and fluidity but what it receives
from the fire spreading in its pores so
soon as that action shall begin to COM
munlcate itself to the salt, and reduce
them also into liquor. the water neces-
sarily loses by their division. 1t loses the
more, because 1t is the property of salt
to imprison fire closely, and as it were,
to chain it up. And the ground of this
Is, that the little laminae of salt are
more impenetrable by fire than any other
element. The loss which water suffers
Of that fire which is dispersed and cap
tivated between the laminae Of salt, is
so great that 1t often times is followed
by perfect congelation. Nay, canful
OF salt and snow mixed together. and
applied on the outside of bottle is suf-
f1cient to rob the water it contains of all
its fire. and to imprison it so far as to
make the water of the bottle freeze, even
in the middle Of the summer
Two ancient North American cultures
are linked in pottery fragments found
by DR.. Waldo r. Wedel, Smithsonian
Institution archeologist, at site near
Kansas City this summer.
First is that of the mound builders.
the prehistoric people who constructed
ft@ dc iv, ,N,e
Nobody knows who they were or where
they came from. There was no tradi-
ton concerning them among the In
dians inhabiting the area when the first
white explorers arrived.
During the last few years pottery of
a design characteristic of these mound
builders has been found in Louisiana.
This design is diagnostic. No other an
cient people had anything closely re-
sembling it. The Southern mound
builders were apparently at lower cul-
tural level than those of the Midwest.
They may have migrated northward
along the Mississippi, advancing in cul-
ture as they went on. 1t is possible.
however, that the Northern mound
builders went South and deteriorated
along the way. The sites cannot be
QaGeQ RoOlORlCdlly
Second is the culture Of the sedentary.
agricultural people who once inhabited
Nebraska and Kansas long before the
coming Of the nomadic. hunting tribes
encountered by the white men, They
were farmers, believed to have been
driven from their lands by successive
droughts similar to those of the last few
years. Everywhere through the region
their remains are found at the lowest
archaeological level, indicating that they
were the earliest settled inhabitants of
the area.
Their pottery also is characteristic,
chiefly because of their use Of paddle
wrapped with cord in shaping 1t. This
practice apparently was general for the
whole region.
At the Kansas City site DR.. Wedel
found mixed together pottery frag-
ments Of both designs and some in which
combinations of both occur on the same
pieces. The implication is clear that
there was a mound builder-Western
farmer Iaison.
There is no means of telling. Mr.. Wedel
said, which came first or from what di-
rection the meeting took place. There
is also no indication of the relationship
between the two peoples and it may
have been either friendly or hostile.
More evidence will be needed for valid
Interpretation, but the find promises to
be Of considerable Importance In
strengthening the tangle OF North Amer.
hcas prehistoric past