The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-16
Complied for The Arkansor TroueLer. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

In Europe thrifty trees and good crops of peaches have been secured from gratis on the hawthorn.
 An Edinburgh music teacher claims to augment the power of the voice by means of a mechanical contrivance fit- ting into the palate.
 An English farmer was lately awarded a prize for wasp's nest thirty inches in circumference, con- taining thousands of wasps.
 The secretary bird receives govern ment protection in Cape colony for it's services as a snake destroyer. The snakes, which form the chief food of these birds, are first disabled by severe blows with feet or beak, then carried high in the air and killed by being dropped on the earth.
 More than forty years ago Bjornst- jerna, a literary count of Sweden, suggested that, AS both poles must have reached suitable degree of cool ing at the same time, the earth might have been peopled from the north pole with it's white races, and from the south pole with its colored races.
 YELLOW FEVER RINocULATIoN.-The method of Dr. Freire, of Brazil, for preventing yellow fever by inocula- tion seems to be establishing a favor able reputation. The mortality is only about one per thousand for the inoculated, and one per cent for others. For the first time in thirty five years, Rio Janeiro has this year escaped an epidemic of yellow fever: but how much should be credited to Dr, Freire's system for this cannot be told.
 ANOTHER ExPLosIvE.-British au- thorities have been testing a new smokeless gunpodwer, the composition of which is secret. Among the claims of it's inventor are greater ve- locity, fiatter trajectory, less fouling and less recoil than with ordinary government powder while it will keep better, is safer to manufacture and to handle, and is lighter than the common powder. It is known as the Johnson Barland powder, and the ex- periments made are said to have fully justified several of these claims.
 CANINE ScENT.-Not long ago, MT. George J. Romanes showed that dog may recognize the peculiar odor of his master among crowd of other per sons, and in spite of the presence of powerful perfumes, even at a great distance. MT. W. J. Russell has sup plemented these experiments by others. in which small pieces of dry biscuit, to us almost odorless, were quickly scented out in large dining. room, even when hidden under newspapers, a cushion, boot, a fire shovel, or 8 foot-stool on which cologne had been poured.
 FIRES FROM METEoRs.-The remark able possibility that mysterious fires may have been set by sparks from other worlds than our own has been suggested to the Paris Academy of Sciences by Mons. Oh. V. Zenger. From study of statistics for several years, he learns that fires of unknown origin in woods, farmsteads, barns, mills, and even in villages and large towns, are extremely often coipcident with the periodical showers of shoot ing stars. He points out that during the first eighteen days of last August violent storms, rich meteoric displays and confagrations were of frequent occurrence.
 AN ASTRONOMERS PAvEMENT,-A newly patented pavement is said to have been suggested by the surface of an elephants tooth, which consists of lntermingled layers of hard and soft material, so that the process of wear ing always produces series of ridges upon the surface. The new system of paving is the idea of MT. Ranyar the Eng astronomer, and comprises the use of blocks having alternate hard and soft layers-such as Portland cement and a mixture of sand and cement-which are set upon edge, so that the edges of these lamine form a wearing surface. The blocks are made four inches high, and may be worn to less than an inch without becoming smooth like granite blocks.
 VARYING HEIGHT OF SEAs.-The surface of the Mediterranean has been found by accurate measurement to lie little below that of the ocean, it re- sembling somewhat shallow funnel with greatest depth coinciding with the region where the water is most salt. Variations in the apparent height ot the shores are now thought to be due to changes in the level of the water, especially marked near the apex of the funnel, where the recorded changes in the coast line reach twenty to twenty-th feet. Recent observ- CTS also attribute the supposed oscilla- tions iE the shores of the Baltic and Black Seas to changes in the volume of water caused by varying rainfall and overflow.