The Ottawa free trader., 1847-04-02
to rise or sink in tie water till they
find their temperatnre.

II II they wish 10 SINK, they COM
press it; then down they 20. Some
times the fish, in sinking, makes too
strong an effort to compress il; then
down he goes to the bottom, and
there remains for the rest Of his life.
Founders and some other fish, have
no air bag, and so they are never
found floating on the surface, but
must always be caught at the bot.
tom.
In this way are the principles Of
science applied to almost every
thing. You wish to know how 10
pack the greatest amount of bulk in
the smallest space. The form OF
cylinders leaves large spaces be-
tween them, Matlcmaticians la Z.
bored hard for long time to fnd
what figure could be used SO as to
lose no space; and at last found,
that it was the siX-sideI figure, and
also that three-plane ending in a
point, formed the strongest roof or
door. The honey bee discovered
the same things good while ago
Honey comb is made up of six-sided
figures, and the roof is built with
three plane surfaces coming to a
Ipoint.
If a flexible vessel be emptied Of
air, its sides will be almost crushed
together by the pressure of the sur
rounding atmosphere. And If tube
partly filed with fluid, be emptied
Of air, the fluid will rise to the top.
The bee understands this, and when
he comes to the cup Of the tall hon
ey-suckle, and finds that he cannot
reach the sweet matter at the bot
tom, he thrusts in his body, shuts up
the flower, and then exhausts the
air, and so possesses himself Of the
dust and honey of the flower. The
feet of flies, and lizards are con-
structed on a similar principle, and
they thus walk with ease on glass or
ceiling,-Their feet are so made as
to create vacuum beneath them,
and so they have the pressure Of the
atmosphere, fifteen pounds TO tho
square inch, to enable them to hold
on. The cat has the same power to
less extent.
Plants require the sunlight, pnd
some flowers turn themselves To-
wards the sun, as it travels round
from East to West. The sunhower
does this, and so does field Of clo-
) ver. The facts, though we have not
yet got at the reason of them, arc
, still extremely interesting.
The Virginia creeper throws oft
9 tendrils in the form of foot with
five toes; each toe has large num-
Der of hairs or spines, which enter
ing the small opening of brick or
a lime, swell and hold on; but when
: decaying, they shrink and the plant
falls off. The vanilla plant Of the
West Indies exhibits similar con-
! struction, except that it winds itself
u around other objects.
3 The gastric juice is worthy of re.
mark. 1t is tasteless, colorless,
: inodorous, limpid fluid like water,
: and is adapted, in different animals,
d to different purposes. In the hycna
: and other carnivorous animals, it
o will dissolve dead lesh.-The crea.
lures then live upon other animals,
and even bones are soluble in their
c gastric juice, while it will not dis
n solve vegetables at all. On the 9TH
err hand, some animals live entirely
on vegetables, and their gastric juice
will not dissolve animal food.
: Man cannot alter the nature of an
} animal by changing lis food; it still
II belongs to the same family. In this
I particular, bees are better instruc-
ted. When they lose their queen
bee--which is an entirely different
animal from the working beef you
{ present another to them within ,wen-
Il 'y-four hours, they vii! not acccp,
', Of her nor obey her, They prefer
= taking an ordinary grub, before il
has become flyer, and feeding il
d with particular kind of food, and
It treating it in particular way--and
; when it leaves the grub state it be-
t comes a queen bee, and they always
n suffer themselves 10 be governed by
II her.
g In some insect species the males
y have wings, while the females have
none. This is the case with the
p, glow worm and the female has the
e property Of emitting a phosphores-
= cent light, and were It not for this,
!, the glow worm would never find its
:. mate.
Il Auxiliary stsam.