The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-10-21

L GDOI SIIOOS LII lHO uIOII LII oiiO
French army played the mischief
in 1870.
The difference between the tall
est and shortest races in the world
is one foot four and a half inches,
and the average height is five feet
five and half inches
An even cubic foot of average
soil was weighed and analysed at
Cornell University. It was found
that the soil in one acre one foot
deepsweighed 20S2g tons.
The new tunnel through the
Cascade Mountains, which is to
reduce the elevation Of the Great
Northern railroad one thousand
feet, will be two and one-half
miles long.
Queen Victoria owns a dress
manufactured entirely Of spiders
webs. It was a present from the
late Empress of Brazil, who had it
specially prepared in her palace by
twenty native silk workers.
Wheat can be grown in the Alps
at an elevation of 5000 feet, in
Brazil at five thousand, in the
Caucases at eight thousand, in
Abyssinia at ten thousand, and in
Peru and Bolivia at eleven thous-
and.
The eyes of bees are made to see
great distances. When absent
from their hive they go up in the
air till they see their home and
then fly toward it in straight
line and with great speed. The
shortest line between two places is
sometimes called "bee- line
The tunnels of the world are es-
timated to number about 1142,
with a total length of 514 miles.
There are about one thousand
railroad tunnels, twelve subaque-
Gus tunnels, ninety canal tunnels
and forty conduit tunnels, with
aggregate lengths of about $50
miles.
The superintendent Of the green
houses of the Pennsylvania rail
road at Altoona has been in
structed to propagate one hundred
and fifty thousand ivy and Vir-
ginia creeper vines for use along
the lines of the railroad in embel-
fishing and ornamenting the rocky
and other cuts.
The bison, or buffalo, is now
practically extinct in the United
States, being only preserved in
small numbers in the Yellowstone
and other parks, public and pri-
vate. In Canada, however, va
riety, known as the wood bison,
still survives in an almost inacces-
sibIe region near Fort Chippeway,
south of Great Slave Lake
The fsh's belly is white and his
back green. because in swimming
about in the water the white belly
is the color of the light shining
through the water, hence protects
him from his enemy below. His
back being green makes him on
the other hand appear from above
as part of the green water, and is
his safeguard from hawks and
other enemies.
That bacteria may live and grow
in melting ice has been shown by
Foster. Putrefactive bacteria, once
gaining access to the household
refrigerator, live and contaminate
meat. butter, milk and other foods
kept therein. Wash and scald re-
frigerators often. A butchers re-
frigerator may become SO contain
mated as to faint his meats and
lose his customers
Professor Bilslik says that in
Australia there is a hotel where
rheumatic patients congregate.
Whenever a whale has been taken
the patients are rowed over to the
works in which the animal is cut
up, the whalers dig narrow grave
in the body, and in this the patient
lies for two hours as in Turkish
bath, the decomposing blubber Of
the whale closing around his body
and acting as huge poultice.
This is known as the whale cure
for rheumatism.
Among the superstitions Of the
Seneca Indians was this most
beautiful one: When a young
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