The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-23

number Of hours of bright sunshine The
character and intensity Of the sunshine are
shown, and the passage OF small CLOUDS l,1 y J
penetrating clouds so thick as TO interrupt
the ordinary records.
Traces Of the earliest settlements In very
elevated regions are being sought by Mr. O..
H. Fowarth, who would learn whether hui
man adaptabilIty to extreme conditions is
quite recent or of gradual growth. He has
found stone axes at height OF 100 feet
in the Rocky mountains. and stone carvings
of the Central American type have been dis
covered between 5000 and 10000 feet above
sea level. Settlers in high places are sup
posed to have been attracted by conditions
specially favoring some art or industry or
to have sought seciusion for religious pur-
poses Instances of both are not rare IN
the great mountain ranges of the West,
from California to Guatemala. as we'll as in
the Cordilleras High attitudes favor human
life by comforting immunity from several
diseases, especially those of the respiratory
organs. and by insuring simple diet ana
however, on brain development, the inf1u-
ence booming very marked within three or
four generations.
An interesting account of a new South
American quadruped has been given by an
italian naturalist, DIR. Florentino Ameghino.
Stories of an unknown nocturnal creature
had come from the Indians; and it seems
TO have been seen in the flesh by one civ
ilized man, the late Ramon Lista, who some
years ago reported that in the interior of
Santa Cruz. he had fired an ineffective shot
at mysterious animal which appeared to
be bullet proof and kind of reddish haired
pangolln without scales, and of which no
trace could afterward be discovered. Some
FRESH pony osSlcleS and partially destroyed
skin, believed to represent the same animal,
nave now been received from South Pata-
gonia. The skin is four-fifths of an inch
hat N Of1IU he chi
with Ratchet, and its surface shows an
eptdernllS, not Scaly but covered with coarse
the ossicles being buried in the skin like
paving stones in the street. The ossices
resemble those of the fossil Mylodon,
though smaller, and the animal has been
named Neomylodon listai.
The lighting power of acetylene being
about fifteen times that of coal gas, the
heating power more than twice, a method
Of using it with perfect safety is of great
Importance. In liquefied form il has been
utterly condemned and a study of twenty
nine accidents has shown NJ. Ad. Bowler
that its use in the ordinary way includes
these dangers: Local heating of the carbide
to redness when not completely covered by
water, irregular PUSHES of gas when the
lime falls off the carbide, the easy kndling
of the gas Cat $50 degrees CO. by a soldering
iron or cigarette, the slow diffusion of es-
capped acetylene in the surrounding air, the
rapid permeability of rubber by acetylene
the accidental impurities, and the spreading
backward of an explosion from local heat
ing. When acetylene is used in solution in
acetone. slight explosion would set up great
pressure, and at twenty atmospheres the
acetone Itself would go off. A third way
of using acetylene is in dilution, and mix
lures with air. nitrogen and carbonic acid
gas have been tried, the last-named diluent
being the most promising. The Paris Mu-
nicipal Laboratory experiments have proven
that 10 or even 20 per cent. of carbonic acid
affects the lighting value OF acetylene less
than 10 per cent, while the risk of ex-
plosion is greatly reduced. Acetylene may
also be mixed with coal gas or oil gas and
it is the mixture with oil gas that M Bou-
vier seems to regard most favorably.