The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-06-09
CURIOUS, USEFUL AND SCIEN-
TIFIC.

An English party will be sent to observe
the total solar eclipse of August p at the
island of Grenada, off the coast of South
America Prof w. II. Pickering, of the
Massachusetts, Institute of Technology, is
also expected TO 90 10 the same neighbor-
hood with one or two assistants. The
eclipse there will begin early in the morn
ing, before the sun is very high, but the
weather prospects are more promising than
on the coast of Africa, and of course the risk
to health is smaller.
There is a salt deposit in Lincoln County,
Nevada, two miles long. half mile wide and
of unknown depth, though in places il is
shown to be sixty feet thick. 1t has been
traced nine miles on the surface. 1t is of
old formation, covered in some places by
basaltic rock and volcanic tufa. There IS
another great deposit of rock salt in Churchill
County, and the great Humboldt salt field is
some fifteen miles long by six wide. Soda,
borax and other valuable minerals also exist
in large quantities near these localities.
A natural lron-paint mine, of lnexhausti-
BILE quantity, has been discovered i'm the
town of EPSON, y. H. The deposit begins
at the very grass roots, and is fifteen to eight
cen feet deep. There is large and valuable
deposit of ochre of various colors, from a
beautiful crimson to gray, by the side of the
Southern Railroad, 2I miles north of
Somerset, Ky. The New Hampshire paint
is said to he as good as Italian sienna. Per-
haps that of Pulaski County, Ky, is also.
The former requires no grinding or working
over.
There is danger in some Of the patent hair
dyes, and hence the Scientific American of
fers what is known as the walnut hair dive
The simplest form is the expressed juice of
the bark or shell of green walnuts. To pre-
serve the Juice little alcohol is commonly
added to it with few bruised cloves, and
L.. Ill al II
agitation, Tor week or fortnight, when the
clear portion is decanted and, if necessary
filtered. Sometimes a little common salt is
added with the same intention. 1t should
be kept in a cool place. The most con-
venient way OF application is by means of
sponge.
No very complete analysis of the poison of
the scorpion has yet been made. The best
on record are those by Jousset presented to
the French Academy in 1870. He gives no
definite statement of the chemical constitu-
ton of the venom, but does state the mode
of its action upon the blood, by which in
severe cases 1t causes death. 1t affects the
red corpusoles paraly zing them so that they
cohere one to another, thus becoming agglu-
donated until they are unable to pass
through the cappilliaries and may cause
fatal obstruction. So far as known, there is
no chemical antidote which can neutralize
the poison.
Palm wine, or lakmi, is made from the sap
of the date palm. Trees in full vigor are
selected for tapping. The juice escaping from
the wound is conducted by a reed into an
earthenware pot, and may amount to two
gallons daily at first, gradually sinking to
about half that quantity toward the end of
the tapping, which is seldom allowed to ex-
coed month. Much of the 'wine" is drank
fresh, when it resembles sparkling cider, but
lecomes insipid after losing its carbonic
acid. Its colors is opalescent and milky.
After undergoing ALCOHOLICS fermentation it
contains So per cent of alcohol, 22 carbonic
acid, and $50 of mannite.
Three years after date the floating islands
Of pumice thrown up and into the sea by the
stupendous volcanic eruption at Krakatoa.
in the Java seas, are found to have drifted
along the Indian Ocean in the last twelve
months GO miles in a direction west and
south from where they were one year ago,
or about five miles day. This accidental
lelp to photographers, and all who study
tcean currents and drift, is pr badly the
hest they have ever had, because the origin
Of the pumice is well known, I re floating
,xpanse of it is so large that it ca alOt escape
notice, and the dates and other Particulars
about it are all matters of record.