Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1857-02-06
CURIOUS FACTS OF NATURAL HIS
TORY


A single female house fly produces in one
season 20,Os0,320
Some female spiders produces nearly 1000
eggs.
Dr. Bright published a case Of an egg pro-
ducing an insect 80 years after it must have
been Laid.
A wasps nest usually contains $4,000 or
l 5000 cells.
Tho Atlantic Ocean is estimated at three
miles, and the Pacific at four miles deep
There are six or seven generations of gnats in
a summer, and each lays $50 eggs.
There arc about 5000 cells in a square foot
of hcney-comb. 5000 bees weigh pound
A swarm of bees contains from 10000 to
90 900 in a natural state, and from 80, 900 to
40, 900 in hive.
The bones of birds are hollow, and filed
with air instead of marrow.
Fish are common in the seas of Surinam
with four eyes two Of them on horns which
grow on the tops of their heads.
Two thousand nine hundred silk-worms
produce one pound of silk but it would re-
quiro 27,000 spiders, all females, to produce
one pound of web
Capt Beaufort saw near Smyrna, in 1871,
cloud Of locusts 46 miles long, and 500
yards deep, containing, as he calculated, 169
billions.
With view to collect their webs for silk,
1000 spiders were once obtained, but they
soon killed each other. Manufactures and
war never thrive together.
Spiders have four paps for spinning their
threads, each pap having 900 holes, and the
fine web itself the union of 1000 threads.
No spider spins more than four webs, and
when the fourth is destroyed they seize on
the webs of others.
A pound Of cochineal contains 10000 in
sects boiled to death, and from 100000 to
700, 900 pounds are annually brought to Eu-
rope for scarlet and crimson dyes.
queen-bee win lay 500 eggs daily for so
or 80 days, and the eggs are hatched in three
days. single queen bee has been stated
to produce 1000 bees in season.
The quantity of water discharged into the
sea by all the rivers in the world, is estimated
at sc cubit miles in day; hence it would
take above 5000 years to create circuit of
the whole sea through clouds and rivers.
River water contains about % grains of
solid matter to every cubit foot. Hence, such
river the Rhine carries to the sea every
day l45,Os0 cubt feet of sand or stone.
Mole hills arc curiously formed by an outer
arch impirvious to rain, and an internal plat
form with drains and covered ways on which
the pair and young reside. The molcs live
on worms and roots, and bury themselves in
any soil in few minutes.
Few insects live more than a year in their
perfect state Their first state is the egg and
the catapillar, then the crysalis of pupa, and
finally the procreative form. But in these
changes there arc infinite degrees and varie-
tics Of transition, all of which constitute the
pleasing and very instructive study of Ento-
mology.
Insects generally must lead a truly jovial
life. Think what il must be to lodge in
lily Imagine a palace of ivory and pearl,
with pillars Of silver and capitals Of gold, all
exhaling such perfume as never arose from
a human censer Fancy again the fun of
tucldng themselves up for the night in the
folds Of rose rocked to sleep by the gentle
sigh of the summer air, nothing to do when
you awake bat wash yourself in a dew-drop.
and fall to and eat your bed-elothes.
IRRIrABLE CHRrsTIANs.-'.Ther was a
Clergyman who often became quite vexed at
finding his little grandchildren in his study.