The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1883-12-07
SCIENTIFIC MIRcELLANY.

t'ols de Boulogne, In the enVlronS ol
Paris, have brought to light the re
mains of a like dwelling. They con
sist of piles and a great quantity ane
variety of bones.
The new meteorological observatory
on The summit of the Ben Nevis In
Scotland is 1906 feet above sea-level
and is much higher than any other in
the British Isles. America has two
elevated weather stations - that of
Pixies Peak being ID. ISL feet high,
and that of Mt. Washington $3.50 feet;
while France claims four, ranging from
$3.50 10 Ia.1eo feet; and J.aly has
three, of which the highest is 1886,
and the lowest is 1857 feet. Russia
has one as high as 37S7 feet; and
Switzerland maintains one at a height
Of 75o5 fee, and another at eS75 feet.
On the Devonshire coast in Eng
land a sea grass { (PorbAyra aeintata)
is collected, and made into bread by
cleansing, boiling, chopping, mixing
with small proportion of oatmeal,
and baking. This bread keeps from
four to eight days. Most of it is sent
to the Welsh town OF Swansea. where
tie poorer people are fond of it.
Mr.. T. +. C. E. Peek states that
there are important differences In the
composition of the hot springs Of Ice
land and of New Zealand. The hot
mud wells Of Iceland contain SO much
copper that several companies have
been formed TO woik them CONNER
cially; while the New Zealand mud
springs are SO full Of infusotia hat in
times of famine the ma ives sustain life
on a diet consisting chiefly Of mud.
A bureau of CONNIE cial science has
been Instituted in France. It's pur-
pose is 10 bring together Information
bearing on commerce foreign indus
tries, etc.
A remarkable modification of :he
microscope has been perfected by Mr..
J. Letter, of Vienna. 1t has received
the name of 5as;roscope, and 1t is to
be used Tor viewing The ioierior Of the
human stomach. 1t consists o? a
meta tu0e about 26 inches long and
half an inch thick, bent at an anye of
80 degrees al about one-four,h of lis
Ieng h from the lower end. At It's
1--we. e..,:er,iiy is an incandes ent
elec,;ic lamp for lighting up the
stomach, and microscope objective.
Pisms are srraoged 70 reject the
:nage-bea ing pencil ofligit along the
lube and ps-st ,be bend to the eye
piece. . DIVISION is made for a ciTc,,-
la'ion Of water about the lamp to pre-
vent inconvenienl bea,iag.
From measurement of the bright
ness OF The suns corona made during
the toai eclipse of last May, Mons.
Jansen. the emi..eut French asirono-
mer, es, mates It's light to be some
what greater than that of the full
moon.
The returned comet of 1872, which
a*-oaomers are now watching with
much interest, has shown a singular
variability in. brightness. One OBJ
server Iepoi;s that powerful telescope
failed 10 reveal it on the night of Sep
tember 2Sd, but on the next night it
was easily seen in very small ins.ru.
ment, while after that time ii again be,
came a very difficult object to detect.
In removing the foundation of an
old bridge built by Charlemagne, Ger
man engineers have found the piles SC
well preserved, although nearly 11oc
years old, that the wood can still be
us d in building. The iron rivited &c
the posts is practically uninpaised
1t has been thought that the fteez
ing of The sap causes trees to expane
in cold weather. Prof. Thomas Nee
han finds, however that such is no
the case, as the v-ees contract to {
considerable extent.
''The seleetive power of roo5s," say:
Mr.. Robert Erown in a paper upor
TIE food Of plants, as in reality the
primary cause why nations spread nat
urally over The world. They mus
have land to cultivate their crops; ano
before artificial methods of renewing