The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1881-06-10
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

lfhs IAEhAy a ANAIAE5AA SANNNAAN-N----
shown that it is possible to telephone
500 miles.
THE huge hunting spiders of South
America and Ceylon have legs wlnch
cover a foot of ground.
NEARLY 5000 different species Of
birds have been exhibited and.classlhed,
and probably thousands more exist.
TAKING that of beef at 100, the total
solids or actual nutritive material III
different fishes vary from sixty-two to
163
EXPERIMENT has proved that sound
travels faster in water than in air-in
water at the rate of 4,07S feet per sec
ond.
THE acorn-barnacIe cements its fore
head to a rock and remains thus all its
f-fffe4wfvh IT'S fead downward and its
heels in the air, kicking its food into its
mouth.
AGAssIz once had an opportunity to
carefully measure a large jelly-tish as it
lay at the surface of the sea. Its disk
was seven feet in diameter and its ten
tacles 112 feet long.
THE house-spider's web Will last for
many weeks, while the garden-spider
must spin afresh or mend her web every
twenty-four hours. The former some
times lives from six to eight years.
IT is not generally known that there
Is such a thing as false eyebrows, yet
such is the case. They are made per-
fectly by the use Of hair lace and
would never be suspected as a counter
felt
Dr. NoRDENsKJoLD, the Arctic travel
er, has discovered that iron Is always 10
be found in snow, from which II may be
extracted by a magnet 1t Is supposed
that these particles of non are OF mete-
ORC origin.
THE bones OF the Archae plery, rare
fossil found in Germany, are very much
ike those of lizard, and its hind legs
are like those of n bird, and 1t was when
alive clothed with feathers. This WAS
really most wonderful link between
the birds and the reptiles. There can
be no doubt regarding the reptihan
affinities OF birds.
MACHINES in a watch factoy viii cut
screws with $50 threads TO the inch
the finest used III a watch has $50.
These threads are invisible to the naked
eve, and it takes IA. 600 of the screws
to make a pound. 4 pound of them Is
worth six pounds of pure gold. Lay one
upon piece of white paper and 1t looks
like tiny steel filing.
The name of the Deity is spelled with
four letters in almost every known Ian
guage. 1t Is in Latin, Deus; Greek,
Zeus Hebrew, Adon Syrian, Adad
Arabian, Ala; Persian, Syra; Tartar
ian, Idga; Egyptian, Aumn or Zeut
East Indian, Esgi, or Zeni japanese,
Zain: Turkish, Add; Scandinavian.
Odin; Wallachian, Zene Croatian, Dega;
Dalmatian, Rogt Tyrrhenian, Eher
Etuurian, Chur Morgarian, Oese; Swed-
ish, Codd Irish, Dich German, Gott !;
French, Dieu; Spanish, Dios Peru
Wan, Liam.
TIE speed at which some wings are
driven Is enormous. 1t Is occasionally
so great as to cause the pinions to emit
a drumming sound. To this source the
buzz of the fly, the drone of the bee and
the boom of the beetle are to bereferred.
When grouse, partridge or pheasant
suddenly springs into the air, the sound
produced by the whirring of its wings
greatly resembles that produced by the
contact of steel with the rapidly-revolv-
ing s,one of the knife-grinder. 1t has
been estimated that the common fly
moves its wings $50 times per second
/. e., 10, oOo llIueS per minute, ana tnat
the butterfly moves its wings nine times
per second, or $40 times per minute.
The explorations made of deep-sea
bottoms show a novel constituent of
such bottoms to be pumice dust, aris-
ing, it Is presumed, from submarine
volcanic action SO general Is it, in
fact, that it rarely fails to appear when
carefully looked for in any of the dredg-
ings, and it is believed to be the chief
origin of the deep-sea clays. An addi-
tional element, which appears to have
been detected at great depths, is 90 cos
mic DUST" or dust formed from aero
ites. Another interesting point In
these explorations Is the finding of man.
ganese peroxide in nodules inclosing or
ganic remains-sharks' teeth and pieces
of bone.