Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1897-10-13

A strong miscroscope shows the
single hairs of the head to be like
coarse. round rasps, but with teeth ex-
tremely irregular and Jagged.
The oyster is one of the strongest
creatures on earth. The force required
to open an oyster is more than nine
hundred times Its weight.
The sole Of the English coast when
placed over a gravelly bottom, will at
once assume that shade to remark
able degree. Placed In a white bowl
it becomes almost as white as the dish
The collection Of palms in Kew Gar
dens is truly magnificent. and probably
much exceeds In size any other In the
world, the total number Of species rep
resented In this collection being now
over four hundred.
Beamur says that each thread Of
what We call q 'spider web" IL COM
posed Of about FIVE thousand separate
fibres. and that 1t would take 27.GIS,
full-grown spiders a year to spin a
pound of such silk.
The summer coat of the polar fox
Is dark, in general harmony with the
ground of the rocky Arctic regions.
where the sun has melted of the snow.
In winter 1t is SO white that 1t can
hardly be seen as 1t runs over the snow.
More than six thousand species Of
plants are cultivated. and most OF these
have been broken up into varied forms
by the hand of man. Horticulturists
create new species, and show numbers
Of cultivated plants Of which no Gre
knows the original form.
The drill of the woodpecker's has
another tool inside, a sort Of insect
catcher. On the end Is a bOny thorn
with sharp teeth like barbs on fish
hook. As he works and finds an in
sect he opens the drill and sends out
| this barbed tongue and draws 1t into
his mouth.
At the beginning Of a recent thunder
shower. after a warm and windless
day, NJ. Maurice Despres. of Cordova,
Spain, noticed electrified drops that
cracked family on touching the ground
and emitted sparks. The phenomenon
lasted several seconds, ceasing as the
air became mOistened.
! The first use of the phonograph in
telegraphy seems to have been in Spain,
where receiving operators were unable
to take down rapidly enough messages
received by telephone and repeated the
messages into photograph. This re-
petition, being heard at the sending
j end, serves also as a control for the
correctness OF the message.
The towering Washington monu.
ment, solid as II Is, cannot resist the
heat of the sun, poured on Its southern
side on a midsummer's day, without d
slight bending Of the gigantic shaft
which is rendered perceptible by means
Of a copper wire, 174 feet long, hanging
In the center of the structure, and car
rying 4 plummet suspended In a yes
sci Of water. At noon in summer the
apex Of the monument, $50 feet above
the ground, is shifted, by expansion oi
the stone, q few hundredths Of an incl
toward the north. High winds cause
perceptible motions of the plummet
and in still weather delicate vibration
of the crust Of the earth, otherwise un
perceived, are registered by it.
Strange stories are sometimes tolt
Of the wonderful things that have fall
en- in rain-storms. Occasionally 1t Il
frogs, again it is splashes Of blood, o
some mineral, such as sulphur. Ere
Quently there Is a foundation for thrs
stories, and investigation furnishes al
explanation Of the phenomena. A
Bordeaux for many years, in April an
May, so-called rains Of sulphur" hav
been noticed, when the earth become
spotted with what seem to be patche
of sulphur brought down by the rain
This phenomeon was recently the sui
1ect of a scientific investigation, and
was shown that the supposed sulphu
was really the yellow pollen Of
species Of pine. large forests of whic
exist south and southwest Of Bordeaux
The rains referred to occur at the tim
Of the Towering of the pines, the pole
of which must be carried to . grea
height in the air.
Mr.. Ravenstein, of the Royal Geogrs
phical Society, estimates that the fel
tile lands of the globe amount to %
600, 900 square miles, the steppes to IA
600, 900 and the deserts to 1,0OO,0O
Fixing 2O7 persons to the square mil
for fertile lands, ten for steppes an
one for deserts as the greatest populi
ton that the earth could properly nou
ish, he arrives at the conclusion tbs
when the number of inhabitants reacl
es about 6,OOO. 600. 900. our planet wi
be peopled to its full capacity. At pre-
. ent 1t contains about one-Quarter {
that number. If the rate Of increas
o shown by recent census statistics shoul
be uniformly maintained, Mr.. Ravel
stein shows that the globe would
! fully peopled about the year 2O72. B'
= such calculations do not allow for n
= known sources Of error, and must n
t be taken too literally.
WHIPPED GUILTY AND INNOCEN
4 Singular Mode OF Fanishnel