The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1873-01-04
s0JEyTIFTC. NOTES.

at Bridgeport, Ct, which s,----zz---H.k =
the skull and upper jaw of some Is
tinct species of animal. They wer
found only four feet below the surface
The skull is large and has hole ol
each side as large as a mans fist. Th'
| jaw contains sockets for forty-eigh
| teeth of enormous size. A committee
of naturalists will do the post-mOrten.
! A PLANET BETWEEN MERCURY AND
THE SuS.--Mr. J. r. Hind, the astrono-
mer, shows that there is high probabii-
/ ity that a planet circulates between
Mercury and the Sun, having a period
of revolution of about nineteen days.
Mr.. Hind suggests that, on March "a
next, the suns disk should be watched,
as conjunction of this Hypothetical
planet with the sun will occur about 10
A. NJ. on that day.
THE weeping willow has a romantic
history. The first scion was sent from
Smyrna in box of figs to Alexandria
Pope. General Clinton brought a shoot
from Pope's tree to America, in the time
of the Revolution, which, passing into
the hands of John Parke GUSTS, was
planted on his estate in Virginia, thus
becoming the prOgenitor of the weep
ing willow III this country.
IT IS well known that for some time
various cases of poisoning from the use
of vanilla ice have been noticed and
published in Paris, Munich, Vienna and
other places. Dhe most careful investi-
cations have failed to discover the cause.
In few cases traces of lead, iron and
tin, from the vessels used, have been
found in the ice, but as no poisoning
has ever resulted from fruit ices pre-
pared in the same vessels, it can not be
due to that. NJ Schroff is of the
opinion that the vanilla beans are
poisoned by the natives of South
America and Mexico, who rub them
with Acaiou oil to make them smooth
and soft. This oil is not seldom con.
taminated with sharp substance which
cantharides. He thinks it less proba
/ y Aifci tlbNsa aasas;asal .affaets are due 7,
q. the vanilla bean-benzoic acid.
POLAR REGIONS. Intensely cold,
stormy and ice-bound, as all nature is
at the Arctic circle, there are evidences
in multiplied forms to prove that the
climate in those inhospitable abodes of
the white bear and walrus was once as
mild, warm and delightful as the Island
of Cuba Vegetable productions of the
soil, so ancient we have no data to
reckon from, are abundant. These
grew luxuriantly where is is almost i'm
possible to sustain either plants or ami
mails with all the appliances of art, and
from their structure are particularly
fitted for tropical climate. This state
ment requires no proof, since the ar
chives of geology verify them 10y pre-
served specimens in the rocks, the land
and caverns of the frozen North. What
forces produced the change from mild
to a terrific region of storms in their
most fitful exhibitions of resistless fury?
The polarity of the earth must have
been suddenly changed.
STRANGE BIRDs.-Australia abounds
in strange things, and particularly in
animal form, singularly deviated from
all other types on other continents.
Among them the bird called the eipoz,
4 mound builder, is truly remarkable
ON account of peculiar habits and in
stincts The male and female concur
in the construction of n mound of
leaves, grass, and materials that, III
their decay, generate heat. They seem
to know exactly when warmth will be
evolved by the chemical disintegration.
On the top they can excavate hole,
and into it an egg is dropped. Some of
the mounds are twelve feet in circum-
ference by three in height. Each egg,
to the number of eight, is artistically
lodged, and covered with loose sand.
ALI this is done in the darkness of night,
so that no eye of an enemy may know
where the treasure Is hidden. Both
parents then pursue AN earnest plan for
securing the propagation of a new
- 1owIskfoe Of .,s,'sc,sten, s.s,sI
natural laws. that inaDlY a
faculty. Thus the eggs are lnc'ifnoent /
without the detention of the mother
bird on the nest in climateehat wonld