The herald., 1898-03-20

LHc lIltSl SpluCI Wcbo WOulu reach dTOunu
the world.
Four of the Montana willows, with one
from the island of Unalaska are the
smallest shrubs Of Salicacene in the world
One of these growing often only half an
inch high, is believed to be the smallest
species of willow ever known.
The beautiful and delicate colors OBJ
served on the eggs of birds are not very
fast to light, more especially when they
belong to the lighter class of color.
Since the beginning Of the ninteenth CEN
tury, the number of English speaking peo-
pie has grown from $4,000 900 to 125, 900, ,0OO
One inch of rain falling upon one square
mile is equivalent to about II, 500 900 gallons
of water.
At a meeting of the Torrey Botanical
club, recently, the president described
some remarkably small pine trees which
he had found growing on the top of a
precipice in the Shawangunk mountains,
at an altitude of 1900 feet. These trees
| although they had perfectly developed
| cones. were only six inches in height.
If we place two clocks on the same shelf
and adjust their pendulums to swing in
exact unison and set one of them to rum
ming. in the course of time the other will
start up in sympathy, says Prof. Gray in
the Chicago Times-Hera1d. Each sound
impulse caused by the vibration Of the PEN
dulum Of the clock that is running is COM
municated to the other pendulum. Each
successive impulse adds to the swing of the
sympathetic pendulum, which began in an
exceedingly small way at the very first
stroke Of the other pendulum and this goes
on until the sympathetic pendulum is maxi
ing its full stroke. So with the sympa-
thetic tuning forks. Each air wave that
Is sent out by the initial fork strikes the
other fork and causes at first a slight vi
bration which accumulates, because each
successive air wave strikes the sympathetic
fork just at the end of its swing and works
in harmony with the natural tendency
of the fork to vibrate. The result is CO.
operation. Each helps the other. How
much better it would be for the world If
men would take pattern after this law of
physics.
1t is curious fact that while enormous
sums of money and property of great value
have been appropriated and used in ex-
ploring the more northerly portions of
this globe, little or no attention has been
given to the extreme southern part. OF
late, however, the eyes of explorers have
been turned Antarcticward, and expedi-
tions are being sent out to determine va
rious debatable questions that have arisen
concerning this country. No human foot,
as far as known, has ever approached
nearer to the South Pole than 720 miles
The ice Is said to far exceed that found in
the North Pole, and greater difficulties
are apprehended than Arctic explorers
have ever encountered. Vegetation ceases
at about IS degrees, no man has yet been
met with south of Sc degrees, and the
country is destitute of land animals south
Of 68 degrees. Mountains with towering
peaks have been discovered, and volcanoes
are numerous. Whether the intense heat
of the latter may exert any influence upon
the climate in their vicinity is a question
of interest to the scientific world.
Volcanic action on a stupendous scale
seems to have convulsed our globe at the
end of the Cretaceous and beginning of
Tertiary times. It was at this period
that were deposited the immense lava
sheets Of the Deccan Of India, which cover
some 2O0.0 square miles. or an area great
Ter than that of New England and the
middle states combined. which have been
regarded as the grandest example of the
work of volcanoes in the world. Lava de-
posits even more vast are now believed
by Newton and Teall to have been made
in the northern hemisphere at the same
period. From the geological collections of
the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition, 1t
appears that Franz Josef Land is formed
Of fragments Of an ancient basalt plateau,
which, from the distribution of similar
volcanic rocks. is supposed to have once
included Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, Iceland
Greenland, the Earoes, the Hebrides and
North Ireland in one continuous area of
lava-made land, most of which has since
sunk in the North Atlantic ocean.
The New York State Agricultural Ex-
pertinent Station has been experimenting
to discover the source Of fat IN milk. A
recent bulletin says that a COW was fed
for ninety-five days upon food containing
less than two ounces daily of fat, and upon
this diet she not only gave milk as rich
as that produced by her while on ordinary
foods, but seemed to grow fat From
food containing only 81 pounds of digesti-
BILE fat, she secreted milk containing 62.9
pounds Of fat and gained At pounds in
weight. The experiment seems to prove
conclusively that part, at least, Of the
fat in milk is formed from the carbohy-
drates of the food.
Mexico is richly endowed with precious
stones. The opals ofQueretaro, San Juan
del Rico and TequisQuapan are famous
for their changing fires. They are found
in crusts on the calcareous rocks, which
are easy to work, and also in the granite,
which has to be blasted, and this often
breaks the gems The opals beds are sell
bonn more than ten or twelve feet below
the surface.
The legend of Romulus and Remus being
sucked by a she wolf passes for a fable,
but the researches of naturalists lend II
color. In India, native children have
been nursed by wolves and lived with
them. Negroes aver that anthropoid apes