, 1898-12-30

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Some Egyptian boats made of cedar,
| probably in use 1900 years ago, have
been found buried near the banks of
the Nile, and furnish an interesting
proof of the power of that wood to
withstand the rayages of time.
1t has been found that the moss of the
tamarack swamps in Minnesota is as
good as that of the South for uphol-
sterers' use, and there is promise of an
extensive Industrial development in
the preparation of the new commodity.
The great sequoia trees of the Yo-
semitic valley, California, are exceeded
in size by the mammoth gum trees of
Australia, which are believed to be the
largest in the world. What is thought
to be the loftiest tree growing is the
eucalyptus regnum. One of these trees
in the Cape Otway range measured,
when felled, 415 feet in length.
A very pretty line,of experiments is
carried out by floating bicycle balls in
mercury and bringing strong magnet
near them. They arrange themselves
symmetrically under the influence of
the stresses, and assume very curious
positions, varying with their number
and the intensity of magnetism. 1t is
a variation of an old experiment known
as Meyers needles, In which needles
were floated in water by bits of cork,
and were subjected to the influence of
a magnet.
A strange instance of like curing like
Is found in a memoir recently present
ed to the Paris Academy of Sciences by
NJ. ]. Hauser, in which that gentleman
urges the use of infusorial earth as a
perfect means of fltering liquids and
separating from them the most minute
organisms or particles of matter. The
earth is first of all calcined at a high
temperature, after which 1t is powder
ed and mixed to a creamy consistence
with water. The mixture is then left
to throw down a deposit on any suit
able support, such as asbestos cloth or
glass wool, and is then ready to act as
a filter.
The beautifully rounded and smooth.
cd pot-holes which abound along the
rocky shores of Lake George, and
which, biologists say, were formed by
the boring action of hard boulders
driven round and round in water ed
cred the Adirondack region were melt
ing away, are called by the country
people Indian kettles" 'They think"
says Cuyler Reynolds, thai the In
dams followed out these holes, which
vary from a foot to several feet in
diameter and der to cook soup in.
f6e heat, they assert, was produced
by dropping red-hot stones into the
holes. While the Indians did not make
the holes, 1t is not impossible that they
may occasionally have utilized them in
the way described"
Many readers may be surprised t.
learn that large areas of land in the
Southern States that formerly seemed
to be untitled for vegetation have, with
in the past ten years, been covered
with an abundance of grasses, which
now give support to herds of sheep.
cattle and swine. These grasses have
been developed by the Department of
Agriculture, which has a grass farm at
Knoxville, Tenn, where more than $50
kinds of grasses are being cultivated
for the benefit of farmers, to whom
they have been heretofore unknown.
Some of these grasses come from
abroad, but a large number have been
obtained from the prairies of the West
and the Rocky Mountain regions. Cat
tle-raising ana farming in the South
have been greatly advanced by this cul-
tivation and Introduction of new
grasses.