The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-08-27

uOU HoCcoSdII1y pure WdCoI ally
more than cold air is always pure
air.
Sir William Turner has compiled
a table which shows that whale
of fifty tons weight exerts 40
horsepower in swimming twelve
miles an hour.
The eyes Of fish and birds are
round, with no angles at the cor
ners. The eyes Of birds that fly
by night are generally about
double the size of day birds.
Human life is in danger at an
elevation of twenty-five thousand
feet, and at a considerable lower
altitude bodily exertion becomes
almost impossible. Birds, on the
other hand, rise to an elevation Of
thirty thousand or forty thou
sand feet, and at such heights sus-
tain great muscular exertions for
an indefinite period. In that re-
spect, as in the matter of flight it.
self, they have manifest advan-
tage over the best of us.
The recent discovery of flint i'm
plements in Somaliland by Mr..
Seton Karr is regarded as an i'm
portant contribution to the evil
dence by means Of which men Of
science hope, eventually, to be
able to locate the cradle of the hu-
man race. The implements re-
ferred to are identical in form
with those found in northwestern
Europe and in India, and this fact
is thought to be an indication that
in the remote prehistoric times
called the Palseolithic age the in
habitants Of Asia, Africa and Eu-
rope belonged to a single race.
An ingenious device for testing
the purity of the air in workshops
and other crowded places is on ex-
hibition at Zurich A closed YES
sci filled with a chemical solution,
sensitive to carbonic acid gas,
sends out drop through glass
siphon every two minutes; the
drop soaks through a cord hang
ing vertically from the end of the
siphon. If the air is very bad the
drop changes it's natural color, red,
to white at once, at the upper end
of the cord. It keeps it's color
along the cord in proportion to
the purity Of the air, not chang
ing at all if the air is perfectly
pure. A graduated scale fixed to
the cord marks the degree of i'm
purity.
Recent researches made by DR..
Gill and Dr. Elkins at the Cape of
Good Hope have demonstrated
what the distance of Sirius
amounts to- 1t has been shown
that the rays from Sirius, travel
ing as they do with the stupen-
dous speed Of light, namely, at the
rate Of 10000 miles each second,
would nevertheless require not
less than nine years to traverse
the distance between that star and
our system. In other words, when
we are looking at Sirius tonight
we do not see the star as it is at
present, but we see it as it was
nine years ago. The light which
reaches our eyes tonight must, in
fact. have left the star nine years
before. We have already shone
that there is good reason for the
belief that there are stars which
are still visible in our great tele
scopes, Notwithstanding that they
are, one thousand times further
from Us than the brilliant Sirius.
Science says that many insects
can fly faster than birds. The
common house fly can ordinarily
fly twenty-five feet second. But
when it is alarmed it has been
found that it can increase it's rate
OF speed to over 100 feet per Sec
ond. If it could continue such
rapid flight for mile in a straight
line it would cover that distance
in exactly thirty-three seconds. It
is not an uncommon thing when
travelling by rail in the summer
time to see bee or wasp keeping
up with the train, and trying to
get in at one of the windows. A
swallow is considered one of the
swiftest of flying birds, and it was
thought until recently that no in
sect could escape it. A naturalist
tells Of an exciting chase he saw
between swallow and a dragon
fly, which is among the swiftest of
insects. The insect flew with in
,>>.- IL ]