THE COLLEGE SIGNAL

AMHERST, MASS., NOVEMBER 19, 1902.

Published Fortnightly by Students of the Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Students and Alumni are requested to contribute. Communications should be addressed. COLLEGE Signal, AMHERST, MASS. THE SIGNAL will be sent to all subscribers until its discontinuance is ordered and arrears are paid. Subscribers who do not receive their paper regularly are requested to notify the Business Manager.

We sincerely regret that any unpleasantness has arisen over the prospective sophomore-freshmen foot- disappointment has been prevalent about college. It ball game. The question of playing "varsity" men is ever a cause for ill feeling but if the greatest fairness is to be shown to both classes it seems mani

has done. Hard, consistant practice and faithful train-hundred years later, we find the Dutch of the Cape ing has marked the entire season. Coach Jennings purchasing the land from a native chief. The Dutch has been supported by his men in a way which reflects as the Portuguese did nothing to develope their newly the upmost credit to the college. Our defeats have acquired property. Not until 1825 was any European only illustrated the fortunes of football. Every team settlement of any kind established, when some Enghas its ups and downs." Every team has its mis-lish adventurers and hunters, attracted by the mystifortunes and its "slumps" at critical moments. If a cal and somewhat elaborate tales of sailors, entered

team is not consistent in its practice, and plays a loose the country and traded for ivory and game, with the half-hearted game or if it goes upon the field to win Zulu king, Chaka. Ten years later Durban was laid by foul play it is then that it has reason to be censured out, and in 1848 Natal was made a British colony, but we can state with pride that such a state of cir-ruled by a Lieutenant-Governor appointed by the cumstances has not marked the work of the team sent | crown. From this time on the colony began to grow. out by Massachusetts. In the schedule which our In England emigration was urged upon the people manager arranged we had every reason to expect with satisfactory results. The great problem that defeat yet with the exception of the games with Tufts now confronted the new people was how to arrange University and W. P. I. in which we showed unexcu-things satisfactorily with the native tribes around sible weakness, we have shown that, although vitally them. The chief menace, that of the Zulu military handicapped by the loss of men, we were equal to our power hung like a dark and forboding cloud on the opponents in every department of the game. We have demonstrated that with a student body numbering less than 150 men and with a squad of but 19 players that a team could be placed upon the field which would command respect from the largest colleges in New England. In no better way has this fact been demonstrated than by the highly respectful treatment which we have received at the hands of these colleges and by the ease with which our schedules are arranged from year no year. To the men who have so steadfastly strove for the honor of Massachusetts during the past two months the college as a whole owes a debt of gratitude and to those men the SICNAL offers its congratulations.

A GLIMPSE OF NATAL.

horizon. Ever and a-non low rumblings could be heard in the distance, as of some mighty power held in check and but awaiting a chance to wreak its vengeance. At last, in 1879, the storm broke, for a little while raging fiercely in the intensity of its pent up fury. and then, subsiding, with nothing but its memory left. The colonial government provided reserves for the natives, but did little to interfere with the customs of the Zulu people, placing little restraint upon them. The tribal system was continued but each chief was held responsible for the actions of his people. In 1892 Natal was granted by the crown the privileges of responsible government. This was a great step in advance and has meant much in the progress of the colony. The last event of note was that of the Boer war. Many brave men died in the cause they believed to be right. Nothing need be told of the war. All have read of it in the papers and periodicals that fill our shelves and bookcases.

With the hasty review of the few facts which we have, let us now proceed on the journey we have commenced.

If possible let your imaginations go with me on a journey to a far off land where the jeweled Southern Cross shines in sparkling splendor in the cloudless blue of Natal's bright sky. But before our minds have wandered far towards the land to which they have turned, let us go over briefly, the historic facts which time has chronicled during the years gone by. After a presumably comfortable voyage, we find On Christmas-day in the year 1497, but five years ourselves in Durban. The custom house is safely after the discovery of America, Vasco de Gama passed, baggage attended to, and then we are ready to sailed around the Bluff, which forms the harbor of do a little sight-seeing. We turn down West street the present city, Durban, the only anchorage of Natal, the principle thorougfare of this city of twenty-seven and claimed the land for Portugal. But the Portu- thousand people and are somewhat surprised to see, guese did nothing to colonize the country, so two where a few years before were only huts and sand

dunes, the stately buildings that line each side, the many rivers whose swift, shallow and treacherous street cars, the fashionably dressed people passing by, waters are lined with reeds among which the iguanas and the many different signs of advance everywhere. and other reptiles, most of which are harmful, make But what claims our attention the most are the "kaf- their nests. Once in a while we pass close enough firs" and 'coolies." The former dark brown or to the shore to see the sands-bars which block the black men of splendid physique are seen drawing mouths of most the Natal streams; to see the coast jinrikishas in bright liveries. Some we are told are with its rocks and sand against which the deep blue "kitchen boys" while others we can see are raw- waves of the Indian Ocean hurl themselves in towerkaffirs, straight from the kraal. These stand on the ering masses in a vain endeavor to break their bounds. sidewalks, gazing into the shop-windows at the white Moving on we pass heavily loaded wagons with nine man's goods, wonder and awe printed on every feat- and ten yoke of oxen straining at the chain, to the ure, entirely unconcious of our curious scrutiny and harsh cries of the driver and crack of the whip. not to be suppressed laughter at their dress. And Twenty-four miles a day we are told, is good travelling such dress! It would be hard for the make-up artist of the vaudeville stage to imitate it. Law compells the natives to wear European dress in the towns on the government roads, so the combinations contrived are fantastical to say the least. The ignorant fellows are seen with trousers inside out, and backside front. ladies' jackets and bonnets on or partly so, and many other ridiculous forms of dress. The whole effect is heightened with the adornment of the paint and beads of their savagery. We learn, however, that these same men make good servants and are only undesirable in that they will never stay long in service. The coolies on the other hand are a wiry people of medium height and vary from a dark brown to the color of the Anglo-Saxon. A large number are indentured servants working for Europeans, but in the cites they are as a class venders, and their shrill cries and Oriental costuming attract us to them and persuade | Indian or the shining patent leather boots of the tony

us to spend a "bob" or two, on some plantains and loquats. As we have time we haggle over the price for half an hour; all wise persons do in Natal. The rest of our time in Durban is spent in visiting the parks, the museum and the Boerea.

for an ox team. The bush country around us is strange to us with its clumps of thick vegetation here and there, while the solitary cactus trees seem to stand like sentinels over the brown and seared hills. Now we are in Stanger, where we stay a few hours, looking at the stone fort converted into the county prison, after which we make arrangements to "do" the hills on horse-back.

[To be continued]

HOW INSECTS ARE CLOTHED. What a diversity of vestment does a traveler find among the different races of men as he goes from country to country and comes in contact with the various fads and fashions of the peoples of earth! In the way of foot wear he finds a various assortment from the sandals of the Hindoo to the moccasins of the

Englishman. Headgear, what confusion! Here is the turban of the bloody Turk and there a sleek black derby; here the rough seal-skin cap of the Esquimau and there the light straw hat of your sporty young man at the sea shore. And between these extremities, what variety! Behold it as they pass: your sedate, civilized Englishman with conventional dress of dark coat and gray trousers, your Arab with his shalvars, your canny Scotchman in short kilts.

We now decide to take a coast survey of the country. We take the train for Stanger, a town about seventy miles northeast of Durban, As the train takes about seven hours on the way, we have plenty of time to see the country. We pass by large sugarcane fields which are planted in the aluvial soil of the river-banks. On higher ground are tea and coffee plantations, while around the one-story houses of the colonists are fruit trees of many kinds. Lucious tropical fruits they are, which tantalize our senses as we move farther away. We pass over occupations.

And it is not necessary to compare different peoples and nations to find marked difference in clothing. Man's and woman's clothing is, in nearly every nation and tribe, absolutely unlike and different members of the same family even are obliged to make their habilaments conform to the necessities of their various

But, great as is this variety, there are little beings all about us which, to those who study them, are a continual source of astonishment in this respect as they are in many others. The insects are not even out classed by the birds in the beauty or variety of their vestments. And this is by no means a surprising fact when we remember that they comprise in numbers more than four-fifths of the animal kingdom. As with men, insect habiliments vary not only in different tribes, genera, and species but even in the same species, there are variations according to individual and sex. And it not infrequently happens that the female has the gayer covering.

In the human family clothing has three principal uses. In the first place it serves as a protection to the body; second, as adornment; and third, as a moral necessity. The uses of the clothing of insects may also be classed under three main heads: first protection, second adornment, and third special uses. By far the most important of these three uses, however, is the first, namely, protection. We might therefore, without great error, speak of the clothing of insects as their armature.

some larvae are barbed and easily detached from the body and, if they come in contact with a persons skin, have the power of burrowing underneath and causing great irritation. The Brown Tail Moth caterpillar and certain of the limacodid larvae may be cited as examples of this.

In adult insects there are four general kinds of armature which, of course, are greatly varied according to order, tribe, genus. and species. Probably the most common form of insect armature met with is made up of setae, hairs, or bristles. As in worms, the hairs of insects are processes of the cuticle arising from certain of the hypodermal cells. They arise either from a ring-like pit or from a minute tubercle. While the setae are usually simple there are notable exceptions. The hairs of most bees, for instance, are nearly all either spinulose, plumose, or twisted. The use of these modified hairs in the bees is evident when we remember that, as these insects walk over flowers, the pollen grains adhere to the vestiture.

The second kind of insect armor, while not clothing in any strict sense of the word is, nevertheless, a very efficient means of protection. It consists of the hard, horny integument of the body which, in some insects,

its greatest development among the beetles and the true bugs. It is usually combined more or less with one or another of the other kinds of insect vestment. This thickened integument forms a protecting coat for the insect which in comparison is fully as strong as the armor of the armadillo.

Nearly all insects have an armature of some kind. Those which have the least are usually, like the May-is greatly thickened. This kind of insect clothing has flies, soft-bodied and short-lived. In insects with a complete metamorphesis, many of the larvae even are provided with armatures. The common Salt Marsh caterpillar and the Isabella Tiger Moth caterpillar are striking examples of this. In some larvae the armature which usually consists of spines, has become so developed as a protective organ as to be almost a weapon of offense. As an example of this state of affairs the Io Moth caterpillar is the most prominent. the prick of the spines of which is venemous. These poisonous spines and hairs of various caterpillars have a special structure. It is very much like that found in the hairs of the feet of flies and in the tenet hairs of the feet of Callembola. Here the hairs are fine, hollow setae from which exude perhaps through pore canals of extreme fineness, droplets of a clear watery or plasmalike sticky fluid. As found in the feet, they serve to give out a sticky fluid enabling the insect to walk on smooth surfaces. The poisonous spines of caterpillars are hollow and filled with a poisonous secretion formed in specialized hypodermal cells situated near the base of the spine. The spines of

The third kind of insect clothing is made up of broad scales. They are usually borne on the integument, overlapping and more or less in rows like the shingles on a roof. This kind of armature is found only among the butterflies, moths, caddice flies, snout beetles, and some mosquitoes. In very rare cases the hairs of caterpillars are flattened and scale like and this passage in the same insect of cylindrical hairs into flattened scale like ones shows that the scales are only modified hairs. In the butterflies and moths it is the structure of these scales that gives the insects their brilliant and beautiful colors. In this case the scales are crossed by many fine lines or impressions close to each other. The butterflies and moths use this covering as a protection in many curious ways. It is, of course, a naturally direct protection to the body, but the indirect uses tc