Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1872-10-10

The Chief Signal Officer at Washing
ton is engaged in perfecting an appa-
ratus- by which the appearance and
forms of the clouds sunset maybe
recorded.
IT is proposed to tunnel the Straits
of Gibraltar in order to shorten the land
route from Western Europe to India.
A project for the purpose is said to have
been submitted to the Government of
Spain. '" "H f.: ''# D.
AN English gentleman propounds the
practicability and economy of using
chalk as a substitute for coal. He says
he has studied the matter, and that he
has discovered how chalk may be burnt
with Goals as fuel, the result being a
saving of thirty to forty per cent. of coal.
THE peculiar wedge, like form so
characteristic of the fight of hocks of
wild geese is assumed by the hocks of
cranes which cross the Mediterranean
Sea in their migratory wanderings. We
believe naturalists have never satisfac-
torily explained why certain birds al
ways fly in this manner.
Mr.. C. w. S1EMENs, President OF the
new English Society of Telegraph Engi-
neers, expresses the opinion that the
tending toward the construction of long
underground telegraph lines, like those
which were established on the continent
at an early date, and which had to give
way to the common suspended line wire
now in general use.
A POCKET instrument which can be
used as a level, and as an angle meas
urer-called clinometer--hasb been in
prif off
is exceedingly useful for determining
the angles of depression and elevation
and distant hill slopes, on surveying
expedition, for military reconnoisances,
and for mountain climbing. 1t was
used by the troops in the Abyssinian
war. --sr.s# =
THERE is wonderful tree found grow.
ing at New Batavia, Java, which pr
duces a curious combination of vege.
table and animal food. 1t is known to
the natives as the Tingkawang, and its
nuts, which they eat, when boiled pro
| duce fine tallow-like grease with which
| they prepare their food. The tree is
very large and beautiful, and the sale Of
| its tallow-or butter, as it is there called
at about twelve cents pound, will
become an important part of their com
| merce. 5-.s.. p. ..-- In! - l.
The summit of Mount Washing gton,, il
the White Mountains Of New Hamp
shire, is little over six thousand five
hundred feet above the level of the sea
The party of scientific observers wht
wintered there last year experiences
/ the severity of an Arctic climate yet
] according to Df.J.s W Foster, in the
American Naturalist, there is a..place callec
the Idaho Springs, in the Colorado
mountains, eleven hundred and forty
two feet higher, where cattle may pas
the winter without shelter.
The famous Maeltcrom, of which mos
of us have read such wonderful account
in our youth, has no existence in tn
form of terrible whirlpool such as
usually pictured to childhood. At leas
ships are not sucked in unawares by
treacherous and irresistible curren
which whirls them down the sides of a
ever diminishing circle to an awful fate
A recent English visitor to Norwa
writes of it az Every year hundreds G
our countrymen row-over- il, doubles
even bathe IN it; for except at certai
periods, and under certain condition
of wind and tide, it is comparativel
harmless.n IsiEFs Ee N !