The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-02-08

II you will kick or pound on q
Telegraph pole or place your ear
against Que on windy day what
will the noise remind you Of? A
hive of bees? Precisely. So it does
the bears in Norway. Bears are
passionately fond of honey. and
when in one Of the wind districts,
Bruin hears the humming of the
wires be follows the sound to the
post where 1t Ia the loudest and be-
gins to tear away the stones heaped
round the poles in rocky soil to
steady them, in order to get at the
hive, which be ima2ines TO be there.
In his disappointment he generally
leaves savage marks Of his claws in
the wood. Nor il he the only VIC
tim of the wires. In the electric ex-
hlbItion at Paris, they show the top
of a thick pine telegraph post,
through which woodpecker has
drilled hole several inches in di-
ameter. The bird had apparently
perched on the pole and taken the
humming OF the wires for buzzing Of
a nest OF insects in the wood, aud
had set himself manfully-or bird
fully-to dig them out. Wolves
will not stay in Norway where =
telegraph line has been built. 1t
was formerly the custom to protect
farms by planting poles around
them strung with csius, something
like rabit suares, and gradually the
wolves car.e 20 respect these precau-
tons 20 that Il line stretched across
the neck of a peninsula would pro-
tect the whole district. The wolves
take the telegraph for a new and i'm
proved snare, and promptly leave
the country when line is built.
On our own treeless plains the buf-
falc halls the telegraph pole a. an
contrivance for bis own
benefit. Like all cattle, he delights
in scratching himself, and he goes
through the performance 40 ener-
geticaIly that he knocks down the
post. An early builder of telegraph
lines undertook to protect the posts
By inserting brad avis into the
wood, but the thick skinned buffalo
found the brad awl All improvement
as atiording him new sensation.
and scratched down more poles than
ever. In Sumatra the elephants are
Systematically opposed TO toteIegraph
lines, and at least twenty times
year make raids on them. In Nav.
1876, the elephants tore down tie
poles for distance OF several fur
ongs and hid the wires and iusula-
.ors III the cane jungle, and for three
nights in succession they repeated
he performances as regularly as the
'epsirers rebuilt the lines during
he day. The monkeys and apes
Ire about ~ formidable enemies, as
hey use the wires for swings and
aad carry off the glass in
'ulators as valuable prizes then
when the repairer goes to correct the
he may be pounced upon
'y tiger or driven up the post By
! mad buffalo. In Japan the spe-
'ial enemies Of the telegraph are the
piders. which grow TO an immense
ize and avail themselves OF the
vires as excellent frameworks fox
heir WEBB. So thick are the cords
he japanese spiders spin that often
especially when they are covered
With dew, they serve 10 connect the
Vires with each other or the ground
nd so stop them from working. In
he sea the wires are not any safer,
S the small worm has developed i;
elf since cables came into fashion,
Ehish bores its way through iron
Fires and gutta percha, lets in the
Fater, and so destroys line worth
nillions of dollars. When a great
torn comes on in the center Of the
cean and the cable breaks while it
) being laid, or threatens 70 bresk,
10 one is alarmed. They fasten the
able TO a buoy and come back az
erward and pick it up; or, if it is az
he bottom OF the sen, they drop
redge with a mile or two Of rope
nd fish out the precious thread, as
lrge as one of your fingers, almost
S easily as you would fish up
emmy from the bottom of tub Of
'ater with the tongs. But the little
'orm, no bigger than a needle, is
lore formidable than the elephant
n shore, or the great hurricane II
sa