The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1881-11-16
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

Our Of every 100 inhabitants OF the
United States sixteen live III cihes,
A LOCOMOTIVE drinks fortyilve gal
Ions Of water every mile it travels.
Tue finest thread in a spiders web is
composed of no less than 1000 strands
WHEN an orang-outang dies the others
cover up the body with great branches
of trees.
NJ. LE GUAr saw in Java female
chimpanzco that made her bed very
neatly every day, lay upon her side and
covered herself with the clothes.
The heat on the Colorado desert ~
terrific. At Yuma the thermometer frc'
qucutly registers 125 degrees and tho
air IS so rarcicd that objects 100 miles
distant appear very near
lr is noted as n curious fact that no
President, from Washington to Garfield,
was born in city, and that only 'ho
second Adams was even nomlnally
resident Of city when elected.
SOME beetles, wlon counterfeiting
death, will suffer themselves to be grad
uaIly roasted without moving single
joint 81 have pierced spiders with
pins, says Mr., Smellie, "and torn them
to pieces without their indicating the
slightest marks of pain.
The water hoatmen, among tho most
agile OF water insects, row themselves
along under-sido uppermost. Their
habit of moving upside down Is OF
grcnt' use to them i'll feeding, for many
Of their victims have hard backs, so tho
watcr-bOatmcn dive down and come up
under their prey, thus attacking them
on their soft side.
The unicorn still exists in the interior
of Thibot II is there called the one
horned tso-po. Its hoois are divided
it is about twelve or thirteen hands
high it is extremely wild and fierce,
yet associating in large herds. Its tail
is shaped like that of Il boar, and its
horn, which is curved, grows out of its
forehead. 1t is seldom caught alive,
but the Tartars frequently shoot it, and
use its flesh for food.
The equatorial diameter of the earth
is greater than the polar by some thirty
four miles. While the center of gravity
remains as now the polar and equatorial
regions will remain substantially tho
same but if from any cause the polar
shall prcpondelnte, then change in
polarity will ensue. Such, without
doubt, was the case when the tropical
elephants were incased in the icebergs
of Nova Zembla and Spitzbergen.
The paintings OF the ancient Egyptians
show that we cannot mix paints as we'll
MS they. In manufacturing metals they
were our superiors. They made asword so
exuuisitely that itcould be put in sheath
coiled up like snake without breaking.
They had the steamboat and canal 5000
years ago. and they had the art of NOV.
ing immense masses of rock, weighing
| 900 tons each. The pyramid built 500
wears b. G. employed 360, 900 men for
twenty years. Twelve billions, seven
hundred and sixty millions pounds of
granite were used i'll its construction,
and in dimensions it was AGO feet high.
ASTRONOMERS say that the average
number of meteors that traverse tho at
mospherc, and that are large enough to
be visible to the naked eye ut one place,
if the sun, moon and stars would per-
nit, is forty-two in an hour, or 1000
daily. The apparent size of meteors is
greatly magniiied by irradiation. Some
OF them have been computed to have u
diameter of 100 or 200 feet, and others
Loo up to 5000 or 5000; but this
must be regarded as the diameter OF the
blaze of light which surrounds the
meteor. The meteor itself, before II
takes fire, may have diameter of only
few feet, or perhaps only fraction OF
an inch. The mean distance OF meteors
jrom tho observer is about l05 miles,