Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1882-08-20

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/ rent. we are flung away in some
nook of The universe chained to an ex-
4 hiring worId-a home that Is
already suffering encroachments
of polsr ice. We exist
! only by the heat of the sun. The real
| danger lies not in cOmetary downrush,
| lint i'm the fear that not enough meteors
| and comets will gravitate into the solar
| fires The longer comets can strike the
| sun the longer man can inhabit the
| eartb.u We though the province of
| science TO .dispel superstition and fear,
and least of all did we think that as
tronomy would be made Use Of as an
engine Of terror.
mysterious Tracks In Stone.
The discovery of tracks in the quarry
| at the State prison ut Carson, New,
| created quite a fiutter among the local
| scientists, and brought up several emf
| nent gentlemen from California to ex-
| anime them critically. DR.. Hardness
brought materials for taking photo
| graphs and also traces of them on can.
Vas showing their direction and mutual
relations. They will bepoured full OF
| plaster-of-paris and exact casts made
| of them, Prof. lie Conte, of the State
| University of California, spent some
| time in examining the tracks, and he
| informs the Reno Gazette that while
| thew are very interesting they teach no
| thing new. There are the tracks OF the
| mammoth and another track which he
| thinks is that of man. DE says some
| persons are entirely convinced that they
| are human, but he is more cautious:
While he believes them to be so, still
| there are doubts. The track Is so large,
| being nearly 20 inches, that it seems
| impossible that any human being ever
| lived with foot capable of making such
an imprint. If it was foot it was wrap
| ped up in something soft and pliable, or
| wore a sandal of some sort. The peculiar
| outline of the human foot is distinct.
| The curved outside, the heel bending
| inward. the broad ball and wide front,
| with the inward curve at the hollow on
| the inside of the foot, are still there.
| The Professor SAYS he looked carefully
| to see if it could be the footprint of
bear or some animal, but found no
marks of claws or toes, which would be
part of a bear track. He tried to
imagine an animal which stepped with
| his hind foot into the track Of its fore
foot and made such an impression, but
he found nothing to indicate 1t. Being
| asked if it might be foot wrapped III
bark or skins rs defense against colo,
he thought nor, because il it was cold
the mud would be frozen and there
would have been no impression. III coulu
hardly be that the foot WAS wrapped to
keep The body from pressing 1t into
the mud, ~ snow SHOES
are worn, for then the
outline of the foot would not be pre-
served. On the whole the human
track is puzzle. One thing remark
able about it is the distance between the
lines of the tracks made by the right
and left foot, 1.-THE straddle,) which IS
about rs inches. The length of the
stride is that of a common man, being
less than three feet, but the size OF the
foot and the distance between them
were those Of Il giant. 1t will he con-
sidered carefully by men OF science,
and no doubt more light will come.
The track Of the mammoth Is ABOUT
such a one as would be made by the
one in Prof Wards collection now on
exhibition in San Francisco. The
Professor thinks the prints were prob
ably made in the soft mud on the bank,
perhaps near the mouth of a river, and
soon after spring food came down
and spread LAYER of sand on them,
which was followed in years by the
large deposits which became the rock
now seen there. The Professor assigns
the tracks to a period at least as far
back as the glacial epoch, and thinks
perhaps they belong to the spliocenSe.
in the fact of finding human tracks
(if they are humanl with those of the
mammoth, because it has been long
known that man appeared on earth
before the mammoth became extinct.
Still, the discovery is very interesting
to science, and may lead to important
results.
AComet With Soda in IL.
Wells comet is now rapidly passing
out of sight. On August Sth it will be
in the neck Of Virgo, some a north oil
the celestial equator, setting Tin ouI
Iatitude) two hours later than the sun
Its brightness at that date ought, &C.
cording to calculation, to be just about
the same as ut its discovery. Although
the comet did not prove so magnificent
as was hoped, it has been very inter
esting object, especially as regards its
spectrum. With one or two rather
doubtful exceptions, all the comets
hitherto observed have shown one and
the same spectrum, abundantly identi'
fed in 1881 with that of hydro-carbon
vapor. This comet exhibited the same
spectrum very family; but it also showed
brilliantly the characteristic double line
of sodium. When the fact WAS first an.
nounced, some were disposed to think a
1 ;st, hnl nd hot he
yellow line was really the so-called u
line, so conspicuous in the spectrum Of
the solar chromosphere; but there was
VOgel, Won Koukoly, Copeland and
others are perfectly conclusive and as
T trouOmers now have to consider what
sodium has to do with comet and in
what condition or combination it car
, exist in such body. Mr.. Higgins also
obtained a photograph of its spectrum
in which, between + and III, five bright
bands appear; not so distinct or we'll
defined, however, as to permit an &C
curate determination of their places. A
German mathematician, Thraeu, has
computed an elliptical orbit for the
comet. He finds the difference from g
parabola to be practically insensible, the
calculated period coming out more tnaL
5000 years.
Submarine TeIegraphV.
London Post.
An appeal to the public is being
: m ade on behalf of Jacob Brett, one o
the original projectors of the submarine
telegraph. 1t is not generally known
that, although some experiments have
been made bv Prof. Wheatstone il
ENGLAND and Prof, Morse in America
with the view Of testing the possibility o
Messrs. Brett registered the first pat
ents for that object, and at their Owr
risk and cost obtained a concession
from the French government to Lay
down submarine line between Franc,
! and England; and it was through
their energy and perseverance that ;
scientific theory, disbelieved in by tn,
/ r. a