The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The population of Canada by the CEN
sus Of 1891 the last general census report
ed in the statesman Year Book" is T.
! 32i,8lO, the two largest provinces being On
tarlo, with 1882, and Quebec, with 1885,
/ OF. BY a curious coincidence, the present
! population of British AMERICA. at the time
when the independence Of the provinces is
| a much-mooted question, is not greatly
| different from that of the thirteen colonies
which afterward became the United States
at the time when they began the war of
independence.
The highest known solid is said to be
the pith of the sunfower, with a specific
! gravity of twenty-eight one thousandths.
or about one-eighth that of cork. The
| scntoWer is extensively cultivated in Cen
| tral Russia, and various uses are served
| by its different parts, the recent discovery
| OF the hghtness of the pith essentially in
| cIeasing the commercial value of the
! plant For life-saving appliances at sea
| cork Las buoyancy Of one TO five, while
! with the sunflower pith one to thirty-fiye
| is attained. About 500 cubic inches of it
would weigh as much as one cubic inch
of Iridium, the heaviest metal
What is termed modern macadam
road is being built at New Brunswick, N.
j., under the supervision of the depart
| meg of agriculture, the street treated be-
| ing College avenue. in the residential part
| of the city. The trap rock is crushed on
| the ground, spread by improved distribute
| ing wagons and laid to a depth of four
| inches. 1t is then rolled by a heavy steam
roller and treated with a covering of Gin
| ders and final coat of screenings. When
this road is completed 6G0-foot length of
| farmers macadam'' is to be built. This
road will be eighty feet wide and five
| inches deep.
Struggling the shoulders in cold wealth
er is probably the survival of an old in
| stinct, which prompts animals to put the
| skin of the back on the stretch, and so
erect the hairy covering of that part The
| hair is now reduced to a mere downy COW
ering, but the old instinct still remains,
| in common with others, the rule appar-
| emily being that all instincts which are
| harmless to their possessors are constant
in spite of any change of structure. All
| animals with long hair or feathers erect
| their coats in cold weather for the warmth
| of such a covering depends on the thick
ness and the amount of air it contains,
rather than on its bulk.
While steaming along the coast of Be-
luchistan he had been called from his cab
| in at night to observe the more common
| phenomenon of the milky sea, the water
| for miles around being singularly white
| and luminous. In the same locality the
| sea was for short periods as il putrid, the
| fish being destroyed in myriads, so that to
prevent a pestilence measures had to be
| taken to bury those cast up on the beach.
| This phenomenon was doubtless due to the
| outbreak of q sub-marine volcano and the
| liberation of sulphureted hydrogen. In
| these waters jellyfish were as large as
| foot balls and sea snakes of brilliant hue
| were met with in great numbers.
"A new French gas escape indicator re-
sembles a small aneroid barometer. The
bottom of the case forms disk of elias
| tic material covered with a porous sub
| stance, and the gas penetrating into the
| interior, acts upon the sensitive disk, caus-
| ing a reformation, which moves a needle
| on dial plate to indicate the atmospheric
variations. the dial scale being so con-
| structed that the figures correspond with
| the gas percentage. In a mixture of 100
| parts of gas and 800 of air the needle Will
! point to 10. Gas locks too minute to be
| detected by smell are thus indicated, and
| the point of leakage may also be discov-
| cred, as the nearer the instrument ap-
| proaehes the point of escape the more
| powerfully is the needle affected.
Peter, whom Roman Catholics count
as the first pope, was married; whether
| his wife was alive when he was pope we
4.
d. $50, was the son of St. Hormisdas, pope
| from 5l4 to 523; whether the wife of Hor-
misdas was alive during his pontifcate
| we do not known; she may have seen her
son pontif. Although there were many
| papal prohibitions against clerics marry
| ing, they were disregarded very generally,
| and not until Gregory WIS time, 1914, did
| ce.ibacy become law of the Roman Cath
Ole church. Who was the last pope to
| marry is not stated Regular priests
| members of the monastic orders-take the
| triple VOWS of poverty, chastity and obe-
| dience; secular priests-those not mem
bers of any order-are under the rule Of
| celibacy, and take a vow as we'll.
"A gentleman in Vladivostock. Sibe-
ria, thus describes the new ice breaker
| Hope that the Russian government has
| sent there: Imagine to yourself a Dutch
wooden shoe rugged out with two masts and
an enormous funnel and there you have
her shape She was built in Copenhagen
| and contracts to smash six feet of ice
without Winking. If the old ice breaker
| Selatch had one foot of ice to contend
with she was usually the party that got
smashed. She is of 800 tons and was built
! for a revenue cutter. The Hope is of 900
tons and was built for business. Her
method of procedure is, first, TO ram the
| ice; if it does not break she then gets up
and sits down on it, and if it still holds
its own water is pumped into a tank in
her bows until she is so heavy that the
ice has to break whether it wants to or
not"
The Persian gulf, it would seem, pre-
sents some curious phenomena, says Self
Culture. Recently, in an inaugural adj
dress as president of the Institution Of
Electrical Engineers, Sir Henry Nance. re-
ferring TO the development of oceanic tel
egraphy, said that in the Persian gulf
! one occasionally Witnessed natural phe-
nomena which to the untraveled might ap-
pear incredible. In the midst of the noun
tains near Mussendom he had seen during
a thunderstorm such displays of light
ming as baffied description. He had at
certain seasons of the year observed the
water in the bay-which was large enough
to hold all the fleets of the world-present
exactly the appearance of blood. Not many
miles from Mussendom he had witnessed
mysterious fire circles fitting over the sur
face of the sea a a speed of 100 miles an
hour-a phenomenon which no one had yet
been able to explain