Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1883-07-25
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The d scoyery recently reported
from the coal-mincs of Bully-Grenay
France, seems to be Il most Important
one in its relation To the antiquity Of
man. In piercing new gallery o
cavern was broken open, which dis
closed the fossil remains offive human
beings fairly preserved, together with
fragments Of arms, utensils OF petri-
fed wood and of stone, and remains of
animals and fishes. A second sub
terranean chamber contained the re-
mains of eleven human bodies, several
animals and, alarge number ofvarious
objects, with some precious stones.
The human bodies were of large
size, aman from the first chamber
measuring about seven feet, and
woman six and one-half feet. Draw
ings representing men lighting gigan-
tic animals adorned the walls of the,
cave. A third chamber found was
believed to be empty, but was not
explored. If the find proves to be
what it at first appears, it is a re-
markable relic of prehistoric people.
The French Academy prizes for 1888
number seventeen and amount to q
total of more than 10000 frances, the
largest being one of "a, 900 frances Co.,
OO0J for satisfactory remedy against
diphtheria.
In a paper read before the Royal
Society of Canada MIR. Robert Bell
has attributed the fertility of the vast
productive tract of the Canadian north
west territories-stretchi from the
Red River valley to the Sirad River
largely to the work of burrowlng an
imals. The mole and ground-squirrel
are singulary active in the autumn,
and in the burrowing bury immense
quantities of grass and othes vegetable
matter, which are thus confined in
the soil and have gradually produced
a rich mould.
A committee of Vienna physicians
found in Moravia thirty-seven per cent
of rats examined trichinous; in Vienna
and its immediate neighborhood, ten
per cent and in Lower Austria, about
four per cent. a late writer insists
that it is we'll established fact that
swine owe their infection with
trichinae entirely to the eating of
flesh and eXcrement of rats.
At the three stations in northern
Europe from which special attention
was given last winter to studies ofthe
aurora bOrealis efforts were made to
photograph the phenomenon, but no
impression on the sensitive plates
could be secured.
GAS quick as tightening" is a phrase
we'll chosen to illustrate an lncOnce1V-
able rapidity, but of those who use
the expression probably very few ap-
preciate it's full meaning for Sir
Charles Wheatstone has shown that a
flash of tightening lasts less than a
millionth part of a second. This is
vastely more rapid than our per-
ception of the flash, as at least one
tenth of second must elapse-accord-
ing to Prof Swan-befOre our sluggish
sight can take in the full effect of the
light On account of the slOWness of
our perception we never see the light
at its real intensity. Prof. TAFT has
suggested that the full brilliancy must
be in SEINE degree comparable with
the sun, at Wheatst0ne's and. Swans
data prove that the apparent bright
ness of the landscape as lit up by a
tightening fash is less than one hum
dred thousand part of what it would
be were the lightning permanent.
The apparent brightness, it should
be mentioned, was shown by Swan to
diminish in about the ratio borne by
the length of time the flash lasts to
the time required for us to perceive it.
In North America, the Mississippi
River drains land area of about >
81 900 square miles the Mackenzie,
AZ, 900 and the st. Lawerance, 1885,
600. In South America, the Amazon
drains 1854 900 square miles and the
La Plata, $4,000. In Europe, the
drainage area of the Volga is 397 eco
square miles of the Danube, 234, 0G0 !;
of the Rhine, IS 900 and of the Elbe,
$4,000. In Asia, the Obi draws its
water from 925, 900 square miles the
Yenesie, 7S5, 900 the Lena, $4,000 !;
the Amur, 583 900 !; the Yang-tze-l ling
54S, 600, the Hoang-ho, 537 900 the
Ganges, 432, 900 and the indus, 49,
600. In Africa, the Nile receives it's
water-supply from $40, 900 square miles
of territory. Volume of water The
rivers carry to the sea is very far froia
being porportinate to their respective
drainage areas. The dischage of the
Amazon exceeds that of the eight
principal rivers of Asia together, and
is five times that of the Mississippi.
In his experiments at SkerryvoTe,
off the west coast of Scotland, SteV IL
son found the average force of The
waves for the five summer months to
be Gil pounds per square foot, a2d
for the six winter months 2,0S6 pounds
He mentions that the Bell Rock
lighthouse, 1872 feet high, is sometimes
buried in spray from ground-sW%Iis
when no wind is blowing, and that
on Nov. 10Th, 1927, the spray Was
thrown to hight of III feet-equivalent
to wave-pressure of nearly three
tons per square foot j; while during a
gale in March, 1915, his dynamometer
registered a pressure of sos pounds
per square foot. He has also recorded
that rock of AZ tons on one of the
Herbridges was gradually moved
five feet in storm. Hagen has re-
ported the moving by waves of block
of concrete weighing probably l25 tons.