The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-11
POPULAR SCIENCE.


by which white wood is rendered so
tough as to require cold chisel to split
it, consists in steaming the wood and sub
hitting it to an end pressure.
In the last volume issued by the Geo.
graphical survey of India is an account
of fiery eruption from one of the mud
volcanoes on Cheduba island. A body
of flame 600 feet in circumference is said
to have at one time reached an elevation
of 2,400 feet, petroleum being the
cause.
From some experiments made at the
university of Kansas it appears that the
average person can taste the bitter of
qulnine when one part is dissolved in
152, 900 parts of water. Salt was de-
tected with one part in $40 of water.
sugar in 2SS of water, baking soda in 48
of water. In nearly all cases females
could detect smaller quantity than
males.
Rheem, of the Smithsonian institute,
has contradicted much of the popular
belief concerning snakes. The veno-
nous hoop snake. which takes its tail in
its mouth and rolls along like hoop,
and the blow snake, the breath of which
| is deadly, exist only in the Imagination.
The idea that serpents sting with the
tongue is erroneous. An impression pre-
walls that the number of poisonous snakes
is great, but in North America there are
| but three spccics-the rattlesnake, the
| cOpperhead or moccasin, and the coral.
Snakes do not jump; they reach sud
denly forward, perhaps half the length
| of their bodies
| The use of water in connection with
blasting in mines and quarries is rapidly
extending in this country and in Europe.
| A tube filled with water is inserted in
the bore hole next the powder cartridge,
the tube being of thin plate, or even OF
paper. The usual tamping follows, and
when the explosion occurs the tube con
| tainlng the water is burst, the explosive
violence being increased by the presence
| of water and extended over the enlarged
interior of the bore hole, due to the space
occupied by the water-tube. A much
larger quantity cf the material to be
mined or quarried is thereby brought
down or loosened with asmallcr quantity
of explosive used, while the heat of the
| explosion converts portion of the water
| water, extinguishes the flame and alb.
oOlOo aHl uCuCIdllLCS Guc SitSCS duO
smoke generated.
The disappearance of animal life from
earth must always be regarded with in
terest and concern. Apprehension is now
beginning to be felt that we are now
looking upon the final struggle for exis-
tence of all the larger mammalia-the
elephant, the giraffe, the bison, the
whale, the seal, and many others which
must soon be extirpated unless protected
from being hunted to death. An inter
estlng case of animal extinction is found
in ''Steller's sea-cow," lately referred to
by Mr.. Henry Woodward before the
London Geological society. This great
animal. which has been variously classed
with the whales, with walruses and seals
and with elephants, was a toothles!
vegetable feeder, living along the shore
in shallow water, and often weighing
three OF four tons. It was seen alive anc
described in 1741, but in 1880 it ap
peared to have become entirely extinct
This creature belonged to the orde
"Sirenia," and Mr.. Woodward looks
upon it as last surviving species of tn,
great group of Sirenians which lived il
the tertiary age of geology.