The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1895-12-26

De WIG, ana WDoQ tanned seems TO make
it the whole object of its existence to be
cuddled and petted, to sleep in peoples
laps and be carried about by children.
If it is put down, it rears up on it's lit
tie hind legs, puts its fore paws ON your
knees and dumbly beseeches to be taken
up, thrusting its jet black muzzle into
your hands like child and making lit
tie leaps upon its feet. 1t has a queer
way of turning in its toes when it
walks, and the bottoms of its fiat feet
are quite bare. 1t has whiskers like a
cat, only they are much thicker and more
numerous.
"Just imagine-this rolly poly pet of
a creature had great, great GRANDPA
Their that verify deserves to be called
any number of times great, for he was
really and truly larger than rhinoce-
ros. Here is a picture of the head of one
of these immense creatures, and also
that of little girl IL years old in ac-
curate comparative proportion, SO that
you can see the present dreadful falling
away in point of size in the wombat
family
In explanation of this call upon the
readers imagination, writer in Popu
lar Science News tells that the bones of
this great wombat, now in the Adelaide
museum in South Australia, were found
at place called Lake Mulligan, dis
NAL spot. The so called lake is no lake
at all, except after very heavy rains. It
is at all other times plain of black
mud, over which lies like snow an in
crustation of salt, treacherous cover
ing through which one is apt to break
and sink forever out of sight in the mire
beneath. The country surrounding it is
a vast stony desert void of life. Here
sandstorms occur terrible to think of,
and the midday heat is like that of a
furnace, Ill degrees-as our thermom-
eter registers-temperatu in the shade.
Yet here band of devoted men have
been hard at work for months at time,
and many new discoveries of great i'm
portance have been and are being made
of animals that lived many thousands of
years ago.
Gigantic kangaroos and the remains
of enormous birds are being found. The
scientific men in charge of the work
think the place the greatest discovery of
the kind in the century. More than 100
different extinct birds and mammals en-
tirely new to science have already been
represented in the bones found here.
Latest Product of the Electric Furnace.
When it was first proved that by heat
ing mixture of coal or lime or charcoal
and chalk in an electric furnace COM
pound resulted which upon being thrown
into water evolved acety lene, the gas
companies were naturally elated. They
looked upon the new discovery as a
cheap and easily procurable substance
for mixing with their own product, and
thus raising it's illuminating power.
According to the Chicago Record, acety-
1ene is, however. turning out to be an
even more extraordinary substance than
has been suspected. 1t has so many
strings to its bow that its exploiters are
presumably abandoning the problem of
enriching gas and are actively engaged
in onstrating that by means of it
the cheaper manufacture of innumera
BILE substances which are used in the
arts, but which up to the present have
been the products of pure chemistry, can
be achieved.
In brief, it is told that, by varying
processes, acetylene may be transmitted
into ben zine, aniline, carbolic acid, pic
rio acid, antefbrin, naphthaline, alco-
hol, prussic acid, oxalic acid and aide
hyde.
When, therefore, it is considered that
from acetylene can be derived whole sys-
TENS of dyes, medicines, essences, per-
fumes, poisons, explosives, not to men,
ton cheap whisky, it will be seen that
the latest product of the electric furnace
has utility out of all proportion great
er than that which can be derived from
its peculiar light giving powers.