The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1885-04-01
. Scientific Miscellany.

Scientific Miscellany.
NATURAL OnEpl HARBoRs.- The an
ehorages of Nalfakal and Alleppy, in
India, are stated 70 be perfectly smooth
and quiet even when the sea outside is
tumbling in before strong southwesterly
gales. To explain this, DIR. w. King
mentions that analysis proves the exist
ence of oil in the muddy bottoms of these
anchorages, and BE supposes that there
are deposits of petroleum, either beneath
the sea-bottom or along the coast, from
which oil continually oozes up, and calms
the otherwise trQhbled waters.
Prof. Poleck, Of Breslau, finds that the
"house-fungus' herulius IdcrgDlans),
which is becoming extensively spread in
Europe, is very destructive to woods
containing most mineral matters and, as
such constituents are several times more
abundant in trees when in sap than in
the cold season. he recommends that
timber be cut late in winter
1t appears from Observations made in
France that the development of vegeta
BILE life is RETARDED by an average of near
ly four days for each additional one hum
hres yards of altitude The arrival of the
chimney swallow s delayed about two
days for each irefease of one hundred
yards in height
An interesting case of phosphorescent
snow has been observed by Philadel-
delphia geologist a mountain covered
with this snow shining in a dark night
as if illuminated bx the moon.
The forests of The United States COM
prise 4l2 species f .trees, belonging to
15S genera. OF those, forty-eight genera
and sixty species e5e peculiar to Florida.
A French investigator has detected
periodical variatiofs OF earth. currents in
direct relatioh w se tue me tcsneEt of tie
moon or tides.
THE SOLAR CoRoNA.-The most I'M
pressive feature of total eclipse of the
sun is the corona, the aureole of light,
at other times invisible, which surrounds
the hidden disc and sends out rays far
into space. DIR. w. Huggins, who has
succeeded in photographing the corona
without the aid of an eclipse, remarks
that it is variously explained as coming
from a gaseous solar atmosphere, from
matter elected by the sun, from a ring of
meteoric matter, from comets tails, and
from meteor streams travelling at dis
tance from the sun, but illuminated by
it. He concludes, however, that the
phenomenon is complete one, in the
production of which each of the suggest
ed causes may play some part. A very
thin gaseous atmosphere probably sur
rounds the solar globe, but the coronal
light must be reflected from the solid
particles in that atmosphere. The exist
ence of one particle in cubic mile would
account for the corona.
Experiments have been made in
France with electricity as an agent to
prevent the incrustation of boilers. The
passage of a current through the boiler
not only caused the impurities of the
water to settle as a loose' powder, but
detached the old incrustation.
An accident in Melbourne foundry
has led to the discovery that plunging
iron castings into mixture of treacle
and water softens the metal TO such
degree thatit can be punched, bored and
tapped as readily as wrought iron.
A botanical phenomenon was witness
ed last season on the shores of the Todos
Santos Bay, Lower California, where an
apple tree blossomed and bore large per-
feet fruit on its trunk, an inch from the
ground.
A January fog in London, lasting part
of one day, cost more than $25, 900 for
extra gas used in consequence,
LIFE OF ANCIENT AMERIcA.-The gi-
gantic animals which existed in the
western part of the United States during
the tertiary age, and which constitute an
order known to science as the Dinocerd-
ia, form the subject of an elaborate treat
Use by the Prof O. G. Marsh, of Yale
College. A basin in Wyoming Territory
drained by Green River, is the only To-
cality in the world where remains of
these creatures have been found This
basin, now from 6,000to 5000 feet above
the level of the sea, is the site of
an ancient lake, on whose borders the
great beasts, nearly equaling elephants
in size, roamed in great numbers, and in
which many of them were entombed. In
the same region ancestral forms of the
tapir, the horse and the pig fourished at
the same geological period and the lake
swarmed with crocodiles, tortoises,
snakes and fishes, while its shores were
fringed with palms and other plants
which are now characteristic of the trop-
les. Prof. Marsh believes the age of
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