The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1897-07-22
Facts Worth Knowing.

Facts Worth Knowing.
Samuel Adams first originated
the idea of declaring the Amer
lean colonies independent of Great
Britain.
Carthage was destroyed 146
BIC. It was twenty-four miles
in circumference, and is said to
have been burning seventeen days.
Peacocks have been known for
many hundred years. They are
mentioned in the Bible; Job men,
tions them, and they are men,
toned too in l. Kings, X.
Over three hundred thousand
specimens of fossil insects have
been collected from various parts
of the world. OF these, butterflies
are among the very rarest, as less
than two specimens all told have
been found.
Scarcely stream issues from
the lower slope of the Andes, Ell
Their to the Amazon on the east
or the Pacific on the west, the
sands Of which are not auriferous.
The amount of gold in the country
must be almost fabulous.
Mr. Sherwood declares that the
stories about frogs or toads living
for years or centuries entirely en-
closed in growing trees or in solid
rock are fables. They will live
long time without nutrition, he
says, but they must be surrounded
by conditions otherwise favorable
or they soon die.
The cry of the so-called tree
toads is heard from the tops Of
trees around the edges of woods
and from isolated trees and Or
chards. Soon the tree-toads re-
pair to the neighborhood of water
to breed. They are common from
British America to Florida and
Texas. They are really frogs.
Experiments show that light
of one candle power is plainly Wis
ible at one mile, and one of three
candle power at two miles. A ten
candle power light was seen with
a binocular at four miles, one of
twenty-nine at five miles, though
family, and one of thirty three
candles at the same distance with
out difficulty. On an exception
ally clear night a white light of
80 candle power can be distin-
guished at three miles, one Of Sc
at four and one of twelve at five
miles.
Biologists account for the dis
tinct groups of wild flowers on
mountain peaks on the theory that
during the glacial period, when
the ice-cap moved over the sur
face Of the northern part of North
America, flowers were carried from
the north with the moving ice.
These were stranded after the ice
cap receded and survived on the
mountain sides; and, as the eli
mate became warmer, they grad
ually withdrew higher up the
mountains, where the climate is
still congenial to them.
William H. Dali Of the Smith
sonian Institution says, in Science,
that during the early days of the
whale fishery, several well-attested
instances occurred of whales struck
in one ocean, as the Atlantic, be-
ing afterwards killed in the North
Pacific and vice versa" This is
indication that some whales are
great travellers, for to get from
the Atlantic to the North Pacific
they would have to go many thou
sands Of miles passing either
around Cape Horn, or around the
northern end of North America
and through Behring Strait.
About the simplest barometer
that one can have, and one Of the
most efficient, is made Of two bot
ties and some water. One Of them
should be an ordinary, wide
mouthed pickle jar, filled with
water to near the top. The other
should be long, slim flask, which
will go into the neck of the jar.
This should be inverted and
plunged into the jar, so that it