The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1866-10-13
Editorial Brevities.

and Jersey City by placing in the bed
OF the river a cast iron tube, FIVE feet in
diameter. The pneumatic process will
De employed in transporting freight
through it to subterranean depot. If
this plan can be carried out with sue
cess, revolution will take place in GER
tain branches of commerce.
NJ. ScHEIBLER has spent many years
in watching the bees, and tried a num-
Der of interesting experiments. These
insects always labor in perfect darkness
and carefully observe the glass windows
that are sometimes attached to their
hives. 1t has been ascertained that the
light causes the pure honey to crystal
ize, or, in plain language, converts it
into sugar Their young could not de-
YOUR this hard article, and instinct
teaches the bees to preserve the liquid
lty OF the syrup in order that they may
use it as food.
The Folsom Telegraph publishes let
ter from a member of an exploring
party, which has been going over the
White Mountains in Arizona. The
Apaches troubled them to such an ex-
tent that it required ten men to guard
each miner. The prospects of placer
dlggings are very rich, and large COM
pany will return in the ensuing spring
to protect themselves against the at
tacks of the Indians and grasp part of
the golden treasures. They travelled
through land in which the white man
is stranger, and were engaged in many
skirmishes. Some died of thirst, others
were killed, and, upon the whole, they
suffered many hardships.
A PRIZE FIGHT for the so-called cham
pionship of America occurred on the
Goth ult., in st. Louis, between Will
liam NJ. Davis and Michael Nc
Coole. Both of these individuals are
sons of Erin and have won considerable
notoriety in the pugilistic arena. The
combat lasted through. thirty-seven
rounds, and Davis threw up the
sponge" McCoole received slight pun
ishment, and, after the termination of
the affair, ran to the beat at a rapid
pace to show that he was himself
again Davis was severely injured
and greatly dispirited by the unexpected
result.
IT is one of the first lessons in geog-
raphy that Lake Superior is the largest
body of fresh water on the globe. Its
area is 1900 square miles, and, al.
though it's surface is 600 feet above the
level of the ocean, it's bed is 200 feet be.
low the gigantic tides A writer assures
US that the lake cannot be drained OF
its aqueous contents unless the land is
depressed. If the barriers that stand
between it and the Atlantic should be
swept away to the ocean level, 200 feet
depth of limpid waters would remain
to tell the traveller where they had
washed the beaches.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Brooklyn
Union of the Sth ult. gives an interest.
ing description of the copper mines in
what is known as the Lake Superior dis
trict Veins of this metal traverse vast
trap-dykes, and the native copper is
found in quantities or masses which vary
from a few ounces to many tons in
weight. The work never ceases during
the twenty-four hours that constitute q
day, and some of the mines are eleven
hundred feet in depth. In such an abode
the residents are too remote from the
surface of the earth to be affected by the
changing seasons, and the temperature
does not deviate two degrees during the
year. About quarter of a century ago
the mining of copper was first suggested
by the discovery that an ancient race
had derived from this section large
supply. Who these mortals were, and
to what purposes they applied these met
ais, are problems which the best informed
historian cannot solve. Millions Of dol
lars have been invested in the mills, and
for long time Boston monopolized the
market. The uncertainty that acccmpa
nies the extraction of wealth from quartz
is apparent in the results of copper mines
Some of them pay enormous dividends
while in others the unlucky stockhold
ers are compelled to put their hands in
their pockets and meet frequent assess
ments.
| THE. Stockton Independent contends
that shade trees reduce the heat of sum
mers, and that the absence of yerdure il
the most serious charge that can be en-
tered against the seasons in California
Trees and cranes should be cultivated
to improve the soil and protect it agains
the burning rays of the sun. In the colo
latitudes, men remove the timber for tht
purpose of securing light and heat. Ii
humid regions, like the lower valley o
the Mississippi, malaria is generated il
the shade, but in a climate like that o
California, another law governs. Clouds
and rain do not often fill the skies from
May to December, and the people natu
rally " prefer darkness to light" TIL.
cultivation of orchards, gardens and vine
yards on what were arid volcanic hill,
in 1866 and 1856, has affected the sum
mer temperature to g. remarkable ex
tent. In some of these places the ther
mometer seldom ranges over ninety-twt
degrees. while it showed a hundred ant
eight or ten degrees about ten years ago