The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-12-05
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 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY,

shown that explosion is transmitted thro,,A trains of dynamite at the rate of 20 900 to ..- GOO feet per second.
 A list of the plants of Japan has been publi,hed at Tokio in three lapEuaess-I,n. anese, Chinese and Latin. More than .,oo plants are enumerated.
 A sample of preserved tomato exam. ined by French chemist seemed to h. chiefly composed of carrots and pumpkin, colored with some aniline dye.
 A colossal plant spe imen exists in tb. garden of Mir. ]. B. Tory, at Sunninsdal. England. It is vine or tree of Wistaria which covers wall nine feet high for s dis. tance of 34o feet.
 Few countries are as greatly interested in science as Norway. At Bergen, an asso. ciatisn for the advancement of science ha, just been established, with membership of one hundred persons.
 l The esparto grass of Spain has been extensively exported to England for pape, making, It has now been successfully intro duced into 'outh Australia, where it is ex. pec'ed to become profitable product The painstaking researches of Prof S. P. Langley have caused him to reject tord Rosse's assumption that the temp+ rature of the mooa's surface rises to 200 or 400 degrees Fahrenheit during the lunar day, and fails about as far below zero in the lunar nieh, Prof. L. finds that the temperature can never rise above a point where everything-per- haps even the gases-is frozen solid. Durability of Woods Recent tests with small squares of wood buried one inch Tn the ground have given these results: Birch and aspen decayed in three years vii. low and horse che stnut in four years; maple and red beech in five years; elm. ash. horn. beam and Lombardy poplar, in seven years; oak, scotch fir and Weymouth pine decayed to the depth of half an inch in seven years; and larch, juniper and aroor viie were unin. jured at the end of seven years.
 A Study of Cancer.-A committee of eminent physicians has been appointed by the International Medical Congress. which lately met in Copenhagen, to inquire into the caus of cancer, aud to investigate par,ica- larly the supposed association between the disease and the use of certain foods. the in- 6uence of worry and depressed state of the health in produ cing the malady, and the ex- tent to which it is hereditary. A report is to be made at the Washington met ting of the congress in 1887.
 Telpherage The telpherage system of 'yrton and Perry, the Erg'ish electricians, ha f0r ifS 0hi he af of goods divisible into parcels of two hundred weight at speed of four or five miles an bour. The motive power is electricity, which drives the cArrying buckets along a cable suspended on posts. A telpher line has just been established at Glynde, in Sussex, and the system has proven a success from scientific point of view, the commercial value of such means of carrying light freight re- maining to be proved.
 A Map of Lost Atlantis From Central America Mir Meyer. distinguished archa- olegist. reports remarkable discovery. Some forty feet beneath the surface of an an- cent cemetery on the island of Zapatera he came upon figured rock and two stone tab lets. The former seemed to be a record of
  of the tablets bore a representation of the world, including continent which is sup posed to be the lost atlantis of certain old authors. Inscriptons-partly Phenician- were cut on the other tablet.
 Land and Sea.-The continents, &C., cording to Mir. John Murray of the great Challenger expedition, have an average ! hoto <f C. occupy five six,eenths of the earth's surface. The seas'" abyssmal regons " occupy about half of the earth s surface, and have an aver age depth of three mi es. In the Pacific the greatest depths are to the south and east of Japan, where there are abysses Of over five miles; and in the 'tlantic the gre ltest depres- sion of a little over four miles is to the north of the Virgin Islands. The great ocean ba- sins-once so dark and mystefious-have been rapidly becoming familiar to man dur ing the last twenty years.
 The Staff of Life-No date can be as- signed to the first bread, specimens having been found among the remains of the mys- terious people who lived on the Swiss lakes before the dawn of history. The bread of the lake dwelers was made from wheat. bar ley and even poPpy-seeds, and was baked be tween red-hot stones. By Chinese writers Cning- Noung is reputed to have been the first who taught men-about aooo B. C.-tbe art of husbandry, and the method of making bread from wheat, and wine from rice. The baking of bread was known in patriarchal ages-see Exodus xii I5-and became pro- fession at Rome in I7o B C. 8arlev-bread was used in England in the time of lanes l. potato bread is neR eaten in Ireland, and powdered codfsh is made into bread in Ice land.
 Iadia's Iconoclast.-A curious destroy er of human works in india, according to pr. R. F. Hutchinson, IS the p~epal tree. This is a kind of fl which uritinliss hsvond fhe