Fort Wrangel news., 1898-09-07
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 Tn the very ancient skulls or Egyp- tlan mummles. thc teeth nre generally found greatly worn on their mnsfiea- ting surfaces. This. together with ths absence of decay. evidences that tho possessofs must have lived on food that required much mastlcatlon.
 \ German Inventor has contrived an attachment to Il bicycle. whereby tho rider. without extra effort may set n musical box In motion. and thus solace himself with popular or classic airs while trnyersing lonely stretches of roud. Possibly such Il eontriyance would find more admirers In Germany than In thls country.
 II Is not an uncommon sight fin lab oratory where experiments with llque- fled mir are being conducted, to see drops of air falling on a lecture table and running about, exactly like drops of water on hot stove. In fact. the table may be regarded as red hot in comparison with the temperature Of the liqucticd oxygen and nitrogen of which the drops consist.
 According to an agreement among scientific men and nayigators the world over, the day begins as the sun, moving westward. crosses an Imaginary line running from Behring Straits south, southwest, east and south in very arbitrary manner. So as San Francis CD is preparing to go to Led Monday night, New Zealand Is preparing to wake up on Tuesday morning.
 Dr. David Gill, whose measures of the parallaXes of the stars. by means of which their distances can be calcu- lated, are among the most accurate known, has recently deduced anew the results of his observations of Sirius, the dog star, which Is the brightest star in the heavens. He thinks we may now regard its parallax as satis- faetorily determined at 0.37 of q second of an arc. This makes the distance of Sirius in miles 51.G0D,o ,oO0, 100000. In other words, the dog star Is nearly i've hundred and fifty thousand times far ther from the earth than the sun is.
 At q recent meeting of the Anthrop- ological Society in Washington, Doc tor Matthews described the snake-wor- ship of the NayajOs. A Navajo, he said, never kills q snake. If he finds one coilcd in his path he gently lifts 1t with a stick and losses 1t aside. The Nnyajos think snakes are very wise, and understand the language of men. At the same time. they believe snakes are evil, and will employ the informa- ton they get by listening to men for their disadvantage. Accordingly, the Nayaios hold their most sacred rites and recite their myths only In winter, when the snakes are hibernating and cannot overhear them.
 A considerable increase in the ef- ficiency of the incandescent electric light Is claimed for an invention of Professor Nernst of Gottingen. He substitutes for carbon filaments such substances as chalk or magnesia, which are noted for the large propor- ton of visible rays In their radiation. He has to employ the alternating cur rent in order to avoid electrolytic ac- ton on the incandescent substance. As yet his experiments have not prog ressed to the point of practical applica- tion in producing lamps for ordinary use. but If the difficulties still in the way can be overcome. 1t Is said that the cost of incandescent lighting would