St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-04-13
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

PREHISTORIC SEwING.--The art of sewing
has been known from very remote period,
as is shown by the fact that bone needles
have been found among the Oldest remains
of the Swiss lake-dwellings and in the caves
of France and Great Britain which were fire.
quented by man during the reindeer age.
Some of these early needles were perforated
in the middle which was the thickest part
and others were pierced at the larger end.
a French cavern has yielded needles mucn
superior to those of the ancient Gauls ana 10
the ivory needles of the modern Esquimaux,
especial skill having been applied TO the DOR
ing of the eyes, which must have been done
with fine flint drill. The Swiss lake-dwell-
ers used linen thread or bark fiber for sew
ing, and made garments from woven fabrics
of linen and bark as well as from the skins
of animals. The cave people employed
thread made from split tenders and perhaps
strings of gut and the ineness of some of
their needles has suggested the probability
that they performed some more delicate work
than the sewing of skins.
LAVA RIvER.-Mr. Geo. II. Barton
states in science that the lava stream which
burst from the side of the Hawaiian volcano
of Mauna Loa on the 9th of November, 1850,
continued to flow slowly down the mountain
and across the country for more than nine
months, at the end of which time it had ex-
tended over distance of about 45 miles.
part of its course passed through forest,
where the lava became sufficiently solid be-
fore the large trees were burned, to retain
complete moulds of their trunks, and from
these perpendicular moulds the lava was
found to average twenty feet in thickness at
this point. Mr.. Barton roughly estimates
the quantity of lava emitted at something
more than 500, 900, 600 cubic yards. The
rapid cooling and solidifying of the surface
of the lava while the interior was still flowing
caused considerable part of the stream to
take the form of tunnel.
AFRICA's NATIVE Voices IN GERMANY
FIR. Zintgraff is about to take a speaking
photograph into the interior of Africa for
the purpose Of fixing the speech and melo-
dies of hitherto unknown tribes, If success
full, he will forward the indented phonograph
plates to Berlin, where German scientific
men viii place them upon duplicate instru-
ment and cause them to re-emit the sounds
| received, thus reproducing in the seats of
European learning the utterances of simple
| savages who have never left the heart of the
dark continent" AS this will be the first
experiment of the kind ever made, the re-
suit will be awaited with much interest.
EARTH CHANGES IN ALGERIA.-Near Bona
the Jebel Naiba, an isolated mountain about
900 feet high, is evidently sinking, and as
it sinks considerable cavity is being
~, Ior -, fI.
vicinity has undergone considerable
change in height within few centuries. In
Lake FeZzara, which now covers about 80, 900
acres, the remains of a Roman town have
been found, showing that the lake did not
exist at the time of the Roman occupation,
and that the town has probably sunk in the
same manner as the mountain is now sink
ing.
An English writer states that the Than
Shan range of mountains in Central Asia is
twenty-five times as large as the Swiss Alps,
covering an area equal to France and Spain
in extent, and forming protuberance upon
the earth's surface considerably greater than
the aggregate of all the mountains of Europe.
This remarkable range is supposed to have
no less than 5000 glaciers, and it has snow
bridges mile in length and more than a
hundred feet in thickness.
RED SUNSETS HALF CENTURY AGO.
Mons. Angot having drawn the attention
of the French Academy of Sciences to the
fact that series of brilliant twilights was
observed in Europe in 1881, Mons. Tissan-
der has pointed out that the effects were pre-
coded, as in 1888, by great volcanic erup-
ton, which occurred in the Sicilian Sea and
IF fnn 10 no
thrown high into the air.
The government geologist of Australia
gives an instance of apparent suicide by
venomous black snake which had been
wounded and was irTitated by ants. The
reptile bit itself twice, and died from the eff
fects of its own venom. He states that one
of his men has assured him that a venOmous
Australian adder will invariably bite itself
and die if it is pinned to the ground by
forked stick.
DR.. Percy Pope, an English physician,
maintains that diptheria is produced by some
influence of the soil, as he finds that it chief
ly occurs among jewellers on clay. He thinks
that observations which have been made in
dictate that the clay may foster germ which
will cause the disease.
AS a result of his extensive experience in
building compressed air locomotives for Eu-
ropean mines, Col. Beaumont states that one
cubic foot of air under pressure of 1000
pounds to the square inch will convey load
of three tons distance of one mile on any
of the colliery tracks.
Mons. Villermoz, French horticultur-
ist, has met with a remarkable success in
treating sickly plants with warm waterr 1t
is supposed that the warm water washes GER
tain injurious acid substances away from the
roots, thus removing the cause of the weak
ness of the plants.
Captain Fondacara of the Italian navy, is
organizing the first expedition for seeking
the north pole which has been fitted out in
Italy for several centuries.
CTTRTnTTS TuVNGS