Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-04-28
QUEER FACTS.

en- of a dog that had been carried seven
hundred miles somewhere at the West /
but not liking the place, alone, guided
by a faculty quite unknown to man, he
footed his way to his old loved home
without making inquiries, consulting a
guide board, or travelling out of the way,
at the rate Of nearly hundred miles
each day.
An old horse, purchased of farmer
in Vermont, many years since, was ship
ped at Seabrook, Conn, with others, to
the West Indies, for grinding cane. A
storm occurring in Long Island Sound,
the deck horses were washed overheard
and supposed to have been lost. The
old Vermonter, however, reached land
in the darkness of a stormy night, and
finally was found standing at the barn
door of his old home. The horse had
never been far from the town till sold,
therefore could not have been familiar
with the way.
Carrier pigeons perform feats as swift
messengers through the air because they
are in a hurry to reach home. Howev-
er far they may be carried confined in
baskets, they invariably speed their way
without resting on the voyage till they
reach the place dear to their affections.
In 1919, with view to ascertain their
speed, a pigeon was carried from Ant
werp to London and there liberated. The
bird was at its cote, having flown one
hundred and eighty miles in straight
line, in just six hours.
Horses. mules, dogs, cats, and all the
migrating birds find their way as unerr-
ingly as the carrier pigeon does; but
how they do it is beyond our ken. Some
imagine birds see telescopically one or
two hundred miles when high in the air,
and over the tops of mountains. But
the theory throws no light upon the
movements of the mule that found his
home in Brazil, hundreds of miles over a
region where man could hardly move,
having neither path to follow nor a
companion to lead the way. Science,
therefore, has something more to do to
clear up this mystery.
A writer in the Quarterly Review adj
vances the theory that "they have GER
tain sense of the magnetic currents, suf-
fcing to afford them a sort of internal
mariners compass marking the direction
in which they travel. We know that
the magnetic currents affect the needle,
and the hypothesis that they may also
affect living frames with special organi-
cations seems no way incredible; while
the fact that a dog, who can find his
own way for hundred miles in the oper
country, may lose it in FIVE hundred
, yards in town, seems to point to the
multitude of streets turning at right
angles as the cause of confusion to {
sense which simply indicates straight
direction. ~ Y. Commercial Adcer
tsSer.
The twenty-five engines on the Pas
sumpsic Road during the six months
: ending December 81, had run total O
e 29O,590 miles, the largest run, 1916;
E miles, being made by albert Knight,
t and the smallest, 5,726 miles, "B. P
Cheney" some months under REPAIRS
). The total number of miles run by freigh
engines was l26,643, and the passenge
y engines 1876 3O7. The amount of wooC
t used by the engines during the time wa
a 1927 cords. Total amount of oil use,
S 1890, IA gallons. One pint of oil, &C
t cording to the general average, run
y single engine 81 Ito miles. The cos
IS of repairing the engines during the sam
It time was S12,01359, or four cents an
g two mills per mile. The pay of engir
|. GERS and fremen who run the engine
!. during the distance above mentioned wa
n Sl6,6S4.66, and of cleaners $3,6S6.9C
! showing cost of seven cents and tw
mills per mile for engineers and clear
h ers. Total cost per mile run for engir
It GERS, fremen, cleaners and repairs, ele1
h en- cents and five mills. In the repa
d bill is reckoned the cost of repairing tn
y engines which collided below St. John
. bury Center last fall, which on the Oh
e ney amounted to S2,793.9O, and on til
Reyes $3,15l.21.-Lyadon Union.