Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1897-12-02

At Il recent meeting of the lnstitu-
| ton of Civil Engineers in London, the
| opinion was expressed that the com
ing material for ship-building is nickel
steel. but that before it can be extern
sively used. further deposits of nickel
must be discovered.
Diving operations at Il great depth
! have proved successful off Cape FiniS-
terre. all the silver bars from the
steamer Skyro. which sunk in thirty
fathomS in 1891. having been brought
to the surface. The working depth for
the divers was never less than III feet
and WAS often more. Dynamite was
used 10 blow away the deck. The value
of the silver was $4,000.
Experiments have recently been
made by Eastern railways in s%prinkli9g
oil along the ground. beside their tracks
for h purpose of preventing he dust
from being swept up by the motion of
the cars. A. stretch of road II New
Jersey was sprinkled with crude oil for
a distance Of six feet on each side of
the track. This was found to lay the
dust successfully. and it is said that the
entire Pennsylvania system will be
thus treated.
People who like plain fishing with
anglewOrmS for bait will be Interested
in the best methods of procedure when
the weather is dry and the bait hides
deep in the ground. One way to cause
rhe angleworms to com out is to Sprin-
kle strong salt water. o. an infusion of
taHnin or of walnut husks. on the
ground. Another way recommended is
to drive sticks, or spades, deep into the
soil, and then shake them violently.
This operation, it is said, will frequent
ly call the worms from their retreats.
One would hardly look for new forms
OF animal life in a vast. dark cavern
like the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.
Yet as a matter of fact, no less than
seven such forms inhabiting that par
ticular cave. and hitherto unknown to
science, have recently been described.
The fact that these creatures are very
minute does not detract from heir sci
entitic interest, while. on the other
hand, it must increase our admiration
for the skill and industry of the natur-
alists who do not allow even micro
SCOPE life to cscape their ken, although
hidden in places where 40 ray of sun
light ever penetrates.
Perhaps the most marvellous Gene
terry known to science is The sheet of
chalk which seems ut IN time to have
covered the country from Southern En-
gland to Central Asia beyond the Sea
OF Aral. having an area about 5000
miles long by 1000 miles broad. This
enormous bed was formed entirely Of
the microscopic remains of minute sea
animals. Isolated patches of the great
sheet now remain. that of England be-
ing more than 1000 feet thick, and COW
ering the island southeast of a line eX-
tending diagonally from the North Sea
at Marlborough Head to the coast OF
the English Channel in Dorset.
A Russian journal calls attention to
the fact that for some twenty years
past the inhabitants of a malarial local
ity in the government of Kharkov have
used powdered crabs with great sue
cess in the case of fevers. The powder
is prepared in the following way: Live
crabs are poured over with the ordi-
nary whisky until they get asleep; they
are then put in a bread-pan in a hot
oven, thoroughly dried and pulveriZed,
and the powder passed through a fine
sieve. One dose, q t%easpoonful, is gen.
orally sufficient to cure the intermit-
tent fever; in very obstinate cases a
second dose Is required. Each dose is
invariably preceded by a glass of aloe
brandy. The powder is used in that
locality in preference to quinine.
Prof. Jules Amann, Of the University
of Lausanne, Switzerland, was recent |
ly called upon to apply scientific pho
Biography to a rather novel purpose. A
Swiss peasant woman who had saved |
by hard labor and economy a sum
equivalent to $40, having temporari-
ly TO cave her cottage u%ntenanted.
placed her money, in the form of bank !
bills, in a tin box, which she hid away |
in the oven Of her stove. During her |
absence her son came home and, not |
knowing what his mother had done.
started a fire in the stove. When the
poor woma returned, the bank bills
had been reduced to black cinders. She
was advised to apply for aid at the
laboratory OF the university, and Prof.
,Amann succeeded in SO photographing
the ~carbonized bills as to make their |
denominations, signatures, etc, de-
c~ipherable. Armed with these photo. |
graphs the woman recovered the value |
OF all the bills from the banks which
had issued them.
Queer Effects OF q Fall.