swine, sheep, and, as I believe, of oxen and horses. Add to these pieces of plates of coarse delf-that can only have come from the Spaniards and the inference is unavoidable that the latter inhabited the ruins of Tula in the early days of the conquest, and that they have left us, mixed with Indian mementos, the tokens of their presence here.

This in no wise lessens the interest attaching to these ruins, only we have to distinguish between the relics, and to render to each that which to each belongs.

In any event, the work we have done is an important one. The palace we have unearthed covers a surface of one hundred and sixty-five square feet, and we have had to excavate and carry to a considerable distance three or four thousand cubic yards of soil.

One thing that leads me to think that these edifices have been inhabited by others besides their builders is the fact that, on examining them closely, we discover modifications of the original plan— here a passage blocked, there an annex that seems to be at variance with the whole plan of the building.

The palace included at least forty-three apartments, large and small. In a few days I will draw the plan, and give the heights of the walls. It will be seen that these buildings at Tula are totally different from any before known.

On my return to the city of Mexico, Señor del Cartillo, Professor of Zoology in the School of Mines, on examining the bones of animals found at Tula, pronounced them to be the remains of Bos Americanus, horse, Andes sheep, llama, stag, etc., and fossil! If his judgment is confirmed by that of the savants of Paris and the Smithsonian Institution, a new horizon is opened for the history of man in America. My victory will then be complete, as I shall have brought to light a new people, and a city unique in its origi nality, and shall have opened to the learned a new branch of natural history. Surely this were enough to satisfy the most ambitious investigator.

DÉSIRÉ CHARNAY.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF TIME.

FROM time to time during the last twenty years there have ap peared articles in the public prints which indicated an awakening and growing interest in the practicability of having wide sections of our country transact its business and govern its social duties by a common time. Within the last few years official reports from various observatories, departments of the Government, scientific societies, and the telegraph companies, have shown so considerable a progress in the introduction of uniform systems of time, and these systems have been so cordially received by the communities interested, that there can be no doubt that the country is ready to be divided into a few great sections, each of which shall be gov erned by its own standard, which shall bear some simple relation to the standards governing the neighboring sections.

The principal systems now in operation comprise the United States Naval Observatory system, which extends its distribution of Washington time to Chicago and the West; the Harvard and Yale systems, which distribute, respectively, Boston and New York time over New England; the Alleghany Observatory system, which is concerned chiefly with the Pennsylvania Railroad; and the more local services emanating from the observatories at Albany, Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. Unfortunately, except in New England, the distribution of the time of an observatory has not always resulted in the adoption of that time for general use, and it is often the case that the local jewelers who are the guardians of townclocks, and local time as well, will convert the time received by telegraph into their own local time, and thus make it inconveniently different from the time in use in any other city of their region.

A railroad may or may not secure the adoption of its own time in the cities along its route. It is generally a question as to which is the most important, the railroad or the town. But certain it is that there is not an important railroad in the country, outside of New

England, along which the commercial traveler may go without having to compute the discrepancy between his watch and the time kept by the business men at one half the stopping-places. Thus it happens that, even where cities are closely connected by large railroads, the people have been dictated to by their jewelers regarding their standard of time, when a little reflection shows that there is only a very questionable advantage arising from having a local time simply because the jewelers of the city insist on a time which shall appeal to the local pride of their customers.

On the other hand, the disadvantage of having the factory operatives begin work on railroad time and stop on local time, because they gain ten minutes a day by that sharp practice; the jostle and inconvenience in the commercial interchange between two neighboring cities, because the stock-exchanges, business offices and the banks, close with a difference of ten minutes; the thousand engagements broken by the discrepancies of time-all indicate the need of the adoption of such a common time as already exists in the European countries.

The writer has always felt that the railroads ought to be the most influential means in securing uniformity. They can be successfully appealed to for the financial support which any accurate system demands, because they have a direct and strong interest in the use of the same time at every office and by every employee of their roads. The superintendents, too, with whom the decision of such matters generally rests, are keenly alive to anything which lessens the risk of accident, and they at once appreciate the advantage of having the clocks of intersecting roads, and of the towns through which their roads pass, all indicate the same time. The control of a telegraph wire for railroad business gives them the means of transmitting time-signals, and in New England it is the railroads which have virtually caused the all but universal acceptance of the Boston and New York standards referred to. Outside of New England there has been scarcely any concert of action among the railroads, and there are about seventy different standards of time in use. The result of the experiment in New England fairly justifies the belief that, were the railroads in the rest of the United States approached on this question, they would combine to adopt the standards of time now used by a few of the great centers of population. Thus, while it was found quite impossible to unite the New England roads upon Boston time, and while it would have been equally impossible to cause the Boston roads to run on New York time, it has proved

highly satisfactory to allow the current of travel, which always drifts toward the nearest center of population, to decide the matter. To bring into use in a large section of the country two standards, where before there has been a dozen, is the first step toward uniting the two into one; and, in the writer's opinion, it is only by a gradual amalgamation of different local times that the final adoption of a few standards for the whole country can be effected. As a rule, railway corporations are more intelligent on this subject than the town councils which are elected by popular suffrage. They are also urged to encourage uniform time by their own interests. They are under the direct influence of State legislation, and the agreement of a number of railroads can be made to influence the communities of the regions traversed to use the railroad standard. Whether the pressure of State legislation ought to be used is an open question. It has been the writer's experience that the railroads are quite willing to do their part without recourse to any such means; and with the average railroad official the fact that a service is to be enforced by legislation prejudices him against it.

The difficulties in the way of introducing a new standard would still further be reduced if the observatories universally took care to distribute a time which should be as accurate as human art could make it, and use only such simple means of rendering it available as could allow of no vitiation of the message over the time-telegraph wires. By so doing the observatories would, so to speak, have a monopoly of the best article in the market, for no private jewelers could hope to furnish the local time with the precision obtained in a first-class observatory, where every means is taken to insure accuracy. There is, however, little use in trying to supplant a local time which is furnished by a respectable jeweler who takes good care of a good clock, and who has acquired the art of determining his time carefully, if the new system of signals is not to be relied upon within a single second. Unfortunately, the example set the time-services of the country, by that under the direction of the Naval Observatory at Washington, is not of the best; and, until it is realized by the proper officers that a division of responsibility in the charge of delivering time-messages results in the inaccuracy of the service to the public, the services organized under the control of universities will occupy the first place for accuracy.

The best, because the most unmistakable in its indications, of the means yet proposed for the distribution of a public time consists in the ordinary telegraph receiving-instrument, which is brought

into circuit with the observatory clock at stated intervals. The clock then automatically beats in such a manner as to indicate the beginning of the minute, or of the five minutes, which have been agreed upon for the reception of the time by telegraph.

Experience has shown that the average railroad employee or telegraph operator very quickly apprehends this method of transmission, and, since the clock effects the distribution automatically, if the signals are received at all they must be exact. The very tempting method of propelling the hands of clocks by electricity has never been successfully applied over extended areas; and the nearest approach to an accurate service from a distant observatory takes place when the pendulum of the clock at a distance from the observatory is moving in sympathy with the observatory clock, through the action of induced electrical currents. A very good example of this kind may be seen in the Treasury clock, at Washington, where one of the Observatory clocks controls it, beat by beat, through the intervention of a mile of telegraph-wire. In this system, which is commonly known as Jones's system, the interruption of the telegraphic circuit, by storms or otherwise, does not cause the controlled clock to stop, as in the systems above referred to; but one can never be sure, when the current is restored, that the controlled clock will not have deviated during the stoppage of its control; and this method has not proved successful where high accuracy is demanded, or the telegraph lines are liable to such interruptions as are common in our climate. This method, however, has found considerable favor in England, and the writer had little difficulty in using a clock, so controlled, at the end of a well-protected wire four miles distant from the Observatory of Harvard College. It was not, however, perfectly reliable, and errors of from two to ten seconds were sometimes found to exist in the controlled clock.

Of the new method, which originated, we believe, in Vienna, and has made its way as far westward as Paris, of setting clocks by means of pneumatic tubes, there can be a great deal said on the score of economy, when the system is applied to large cities. It certainly would be a popular idea to have the time laid on, as the water or gas is, from a small pipe passing the door. The special clock needed would be furnished and kept in order by the payment of a small annual rental. The expense would be trifling as compared with any system yet suggested of equal accuracy, and the field is so promising that it would be strange if attempts were not