Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-21
SALT CRYSTALS AND OTHERS.
Some Of the Curious Results of Natures
HandiwOrk.

Some Of the Curious Results of Natures
HandiwOrk.
There was formerly some dispute as to
whether it was the sea that sailed the Goldfish
or the Goldfish that sailed the sea.
This problem has happily been solved by the
scientific investigation of recent years. 1t has
been decided that neither il the case. The
fact has been settled and determined that the
water OF the rivers gives the ocean its sadness.
This seems curious, because the finest chemi-
cal analysis cannot detect in the water of the
streams which flow through the land the slight.
est particle of salt. Nevertheless. these streams
do erode the rocks over which they course
carrying away from them the small percent
ages of chloride of sodium-anglice salt
which they contain.
In this way the salt is carried continually by
the river waters out into the great ponds called
oceans, which have thus become more and
until now their liquid is useless for drinking
purposes. Even the fishes. which have be-
come accustomed to this aqueous condition
are not able to get along comfortably in water
that IL fresh, though they can be gradually
| transferred. the fish commission here thinks
| of trying to do with the mullet and other
fihny creatures which would be valuable in the
lakes and streams encouragement for such a
| project il obtained from the example of the
sea fishes. such as the shsd and the salmon
which make themselves at home in fresh water
during their spawning seasons.
The great salt beds of the west were once
| the bottoms of seas which are now extinct
One OF these seas of a vanished epoch was
much bigger than Lake Superior. Now it is
| only vast salt deposit, with here and there
pond.
THE SALT CRYSTAL.
Whv ahnnl1 ~ a,1< II, L.
feet cube? 1t is question that science today
10 unable to answer. We're you to try it You
would find it very difficult to carve out of any
material a six-sided solid with each of its faces
an absolute square. Yet nature makes such
forms by myriads off-hand. Let a cupful of
| salt and water cooperate slowly in a cool
place and the residue will shape itself into an
aggregation OF as perfe2a cubes as ever were
conceived by the mathematician. Such cubes
are often found three inches or more on q side
DIFFERENT FORMS.
Every mineral has its own forms of CRYSTAL
LIKING. One will invariably take the shape of a
hexahedrOn. another of an octohedron another
of a decahedron, and 80 on. each assuming the
outline which belongs to it and none other In
phenomena of this sort the mathematics of ma
ture are most wOndrously displayed. Water
has its crystalline forms like any other mineral
Few people know that water il a mineral
though such is the fact. Ice is as much a rock
as granite. though it becomes fluid at a much
lower temperature.
THE COMMON roRx
The cube is one Of the most common forms
Of crystals. That shape is taken by gold, as il
is found, unless the eight-sided bodies have
been squeezed into amorphous masses by
pressure. SO 1t is also with all the important
metals-sllver, copper. lead and Others All of
them crystalline as cubes: The diamond
crystaiizes on the cubical system. like
graphite. OF which the so-called lead in PEN
ellis is composed. In fact, graphite and the dia-
mOnd are precisely the same things in different
forms, both Of them being absolutely pure car
bon. Pure charcoal is very nearly pure car
bon, but not quite. 1t is believed that graphite
and diamond are OF vegetable origin though
this theory has never been finally proved.
CRYSTALS OF pYRrrEs.
Some Of the most beautiful crystals in nature
are those Of pyrites which is sulphate Of iron,
chiefly useful for making sulphuric acid and
the copperas of commerce. Many a pros
pector has mistaken it for gold and deluded
himself with vain belief that he was a million-
are. when iron and not gold was his find. He
might distinguish between the two. however.
by scratching the metal with his knife. II
pyrites it will be hard. but if gold II will be
so1t' ana the knife Will leave shining mark.
CURIOUS mutations
Not rev crystals are most curiously imita-
tive. One, of iron sulphide or shale, is ant to
resemble wild rose so closely that YOU can
not but imagine the flower to be actually petri-
fled. Crystals of oxide of titanium are reeu-
larly gathered in the fields, after heavy rains.
by the children of Alexander countv. n. q
They are shipped to the cities and are used to
give the proper yellowish color to artificial
teeth.
IN THE MUSEUM
There is o single crystal of beryl in the Ma
tional Museum which weighs 1.O2O pounds. 1t
is only not an emerald through a difference of
coloring matter SO small that the finest chemi-
cal tests can hardly distinguish it. Also YOU
can see there an interesting specimen of that
crystalline lime formation known as 'land-
scape marble" The example shown is a won
derful picture, made by nature, with road in
the foreground, q stream, trees and UNDER
brush on the bank, house, and even turkey
buzzard on the roof tree. as wildly represented
| as possible Among the out-of-the-way things
you may hnd In the collection some blue salt
from Austria, which il not blue because Of any
coloring matter it contains, but by reason Of
the fact that its structure is such as to absorb
all the light rays except the azure ones.
II have just heard that my family physician
is dead; just think he was scarcely thirty
years old"