Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-25

260 miles in circumference, and roughened
BY the winds of the wild North Sea, with
which it is connected, has been frozen
several times, a circumstance that could
only occur through intense and long-con-
/ tinued cold.
But even this sort OF weather must in some
respects be considered temperate when it is
remembered that In the year 402 the Black
Sea was frozen over, which means level of
ice $50 miles wide and 700 in length, COM
prising 172, 900 square miles of surface. An
idea of the magnitude OF this phenomena
may be obtained by comparison with our
Lake Superior, which has never to our
knowledge been nearly frozen, and yet 1t is
scarcely one-ffth the size of the Black Ses,
besides being close to the 50th degree n.
latitude, while the other is on the 10th par
allel or within ten degrees of the southern
limit of snowfall.
Among the other severe seasons recorded
was that from October 763, to February,
764. during which the seas at Constantinople
were frozen 100 miles from shore. In 1868
the Thames river was frozen for IA weeks;
again for two months ending 1854, and in
1716. 1740 and 1914. The winter OF 1854 was
exceptionally severe, the people of London
plying their trades on the Thames ice as
upon regular thoroughfare. In 1928, 1902
and 1850 the Baltic Sea was frozen over.
The above are the most important in
stances of extraordinarily cold winters re-
corded, but considerable of such a subject
would not be complete without reference to
the terrible winter of 1872, SO destructive to
the French army of Napoleon, causing a
loss to that individual OF no less than 400, 900
men in his disastrous retreat from Moscow
and his ultimate downfall, for, though the
Man of Destiny lived for Waterloo, he never
regained the power lost in the winter
campaign of 1872
Apropos of the Bering Sea muddle, 1t
might be interesting to relate here the curl
Gus story of the discovery of the Alaskan
home of the seal. For nearly 100 years
Russian seamen have been visiting the
waters of the North Pacific and Bering Sea
insearch of the fur-5earing animal that
| frequented those regions. Alaska, Kams-
| chatka and Aleutian Islands had been dis
covered and trading stations established in
| such numbers that 1t was feared that the
! offers and other commercially valuable ami
mails would become extinct. In the mean
while it was noticed that the Aleutian
channels fairly swarmed with seals going
| northward in the spring and the opposite
| direction in the fall. aud, no matter how
| they persevered, the hunters could not learn
| that the animals stopped for single hour
on any of the lands thereabouts. Even the
natives did not know where the seals went
| ashore to breed, although they had tradi-
| tion, that it was on some land in the far
| North, which had never been visited by
| human beings.
Many attempts were made to locate this
| land but without success, the vessels of the
searcbers coming back as empty as they
| went, and at last the hunters began to desert
| those SEAS as the business was getting to be
/ Improbable. At this time there was an old
seaman named Gerassum Pribylov, serving
| as mate on one of the Russian ships, who,
| having heard from an Aleutian patriarch
that the seals frequented certain islands in
the Bering Sea, determined to investigate
Securing a vessel, the old fellow set forth in
the spring of the year, having as convoy a
myriad of seals, all going in the direc-
tion he was taking; but they gradually
disappeared and he cruised about in the cold
Northern seas the entire season, until COM
| PEELED to- return at last empty handed.
Nothing daunted he tried again the following
year, and went through exactly the same
experience. For the third time he went
forth in 1856, determined to esta blish the
truth of the patriarch's story. For weeks
he sailed about without the slightest success
until one day, while moving along in a
dense fog, he heard family the roaring and
rumbliug peculiar to seals. Guided by the
noise, he in a snort time. ran right into an
island, along the shores of which were mill
ions of seal, and he lost no time in filling
his ship with skins and returning to Un-
alaska, his headquarters.
Pribylov first named the islands after Mr.
Sulov, one of the owners of bis vessel, but
this was in time changed to that of the vet
eran explorer. The islands are fully 200
miles from any other land, and are appar-
emily right at the spot where the warm Pa
cifc currents meet those from the Arctic
Ocean, which results in the interesting phe-
nomena of continuous fogs throughout the
summer, and an endless storm of driving
snow and ice in the winter. This peculiar
ity of the region has no doubt drawn the
seals to this place for centuries. The
islands are difficult to approach on account
o: the mists; vessel sometimes being in the
vicinity for ten days before locating them.
Investigation shows that none Of the
dictionaries contain the word "cloture, -
made so prominent in recent Congressional
debate. 1t appears, however, in some
works, under the heading CLOSURE"
'Cloture" Is a French word, meaning the
termination of debate. The universal Ian
guage OF this country is so continually pick
ing up foreign words and phrases, without
the slightest warning or explanation there
for, that the time will perhaps come when
one will not know where the home-bred
article ends and the foreign begins.
A stack of bills is before our Legislature
and none Is more timely than the one look
ing to the preservation of birds. How
many sweet and beauti nj warblers' lives
may be spared if this. bill passes and its
provisions are strictly carried out? A re-
cent inquiry showed that no less than 70, 600
dead birds were sent from one village in
New York State. for millinery purposes, in
one season. In three months South Caro-
lima furnished the New York market II, 600
bird skins, and one professional sportsman
prided himself on having killed 10000 white
egrets; 10000 terms were slain at Cape Cod
for the same purpose in one year; 1000, 600
bobolinks near Philadelphia in one month,
and at one time, season ago, New York
house had no less than 200, 600 bird skins on
hand. All honor to old John Borroughs,
who said: 81 can pardon a man who wishes
to make collection for his own private use,
though he will find 1t much less satisfactory
and less valuable than he imaginss, but he
needs but one bird and one egg Of kind;
but the professional nest robber and skin
- L .k1 l.