The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-01
OOnaptEed for TAs Ark0sasaW zFoueEsr. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

sells at ten or twelve dollars per 1000.
 The director of the Brussels Mu- seum of Natural History reports that the Congo basin contains vast quan- titles of easily reduced iron ore.
 MT. s. E. Peal, of Sibsagar, Asam, supposes the moon to be entirely cov- cred with snow, with frozen and fioe- covered seas, and thus accounts for the chief features of the lunar landscape, including theabsence of water.
 A French microscopist has made a new application of photography. Being unable otherwise to examine the structure of heated steel, he pho- tographed the white-hot metal, and then placed the negative under the microscope.
 A primary battery of light weight has been devised by M. Renard for working balloons. Its positive elec- trode is a plate of platinized silver and it's negative electrode very thin plate of non- amalgamated zinc, the exciting fluid being a mixture of hy- drochloric and chronic acids.
 The manufacture of counterfeit im- plements of the stone age seems to be becoming quite an industry. A re- cent deception, detected at the Smith, sonian institution, consisted in chip ping away parts of genuine spear or arrow heads, and selling the muti- lated dints at greatly increased price as rare and curious.
 Many stock-raisers in southern Rus sia have been ruined by the Siberian cattle plague, which has caused loss of more than 3,000,000 roubles in a single province. Pasteur's system of preventive inoculation has been ap- piled to 100 merino sheep at Odessa, with such promising results that it is hoped the evil may soon be overcome.
 A RARE FLowER,-The blossoming of palm tree, Brosonto Arszo, con- stituted quite an event the other day at the Imperial palace of Schon- brumn, the spectacle having been wit messed only once before in Europe. The tree blossoms only once in fifty years, and the bloom lasts only forty eight hours. The other time the flowers were seen was in June, 1851, in the duke of Norfolk's conservatory at Chiswick.
 ANOTHER CIVILIsED AILMENT.-A curious affection is paradoxical deaf ness. Dr. Boucheron, in note to the Paris Academy of Sciences, lately stated that the patient is deaf for speech in the silence of retired room, yet hears the same in the midst of noise, as in moving carriage or rail- way train, or in the street, The dis order, which is grave, progressive and sometimes hereditary, is caused by compression of the labyrinth of the ear.
 A SUGGESTION TO BUILDERS. - A variety of materials-such as sawdust, dry ashes, cork-chippings, etc. .,-have been used under floors for deadenine noise. A late French suggestion is the use for this purpose of wood- shavings which have been dipped in thick whitewash. It is claimed that this substance has the advantages of being quite incombustible, an excel lent non- conductor of sound, mex pensive, and of light weight when de- sirable to disinfect the space between floor and ceiling, as in hospitals, chloride of zinc may be used to satu- rate the shavings or added to the whitewash.
 ELECTRICITY AT SUEz.-Since March, 1887, when night traffic was first per- mitted, some 800 vessels have passed through the Suez canal by the aid of the electric light. A little over 800 of these have carried their own light ing plant, while the others have hired the apparatus on the spot. Two com- panies supply everything necessary. Each has station st either end of the cana, the machinery being put on board the vessel as it enters the canal, and left at the other end, in readiness to be taken back by the next vessel passing in the opposite direction. The cost of this service including, all at- tention to the lights, is fifty dollars each passage.
 AN ARCTIC TowN.-The Siberian town of Werchojansk, the coldest spot ever found by man, lies in the valley of the Jana, about nine feet above the river and $50 feet above the sea, in latitude sixty seven degrees thirty -four minutes north, and longi- tude one hundred and thirty three degrees fifty -one minutes east. Dr. Ham states that an average tempera- ture of fifty eight degrees below zero Fahrenheit is recorded for the month of December even, while minima of seventy-six degrees below zero are usual for the three winter months, and have been observed in March. In January, 1885, the extraordinary tenn perature of eighty nine degrees below zero was noted. In addition to it's winter attractions, the town enjoys