Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1900-03-02
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miles north Of Sitka, between Chilkat
and Dyea, and Mount Fairweather. 1t
terminates in Glacier Bay. 1t was dis
covered by John Muir, the writer and
mountain climber of California, in 1878,
when he was making a canoe trip
among the islands of Southeastern
Alaska. The glacier was named in his
honor.
The "axle-light" system is to be ap-
piled on the trains of the Atchison, To-
peka and Santa Fe Railroad on an ex-
tensive scale. Each car will have its
own storage batteries supplied with
electricity generated by the axles of the
wheels, and the locomotive headlights
will derive their illumination from the
same source. It is calculated that each
full train, exclusive of the locomotive,
will develop nearly 5000 candle-power
of light.
If the weather is exceptionally clear,
and a strong glass is used, large YES
sci can be sighted five or six miles away
at sea, either from the bridge or look
out station, fifty or sixty feet above
the water, and If the vessel sighted be
q steamship, her smoke can sometimes
be detected before her stacks or hull are
visible. Taking the height of the OBJ
server In feet, and extracting the
square root, the result approximately
expresses in miles the distance at
which the seas surface can be seen
from a ship.
A notable recent achievement in
archaeology is the discovery in the
Roman Forum Of a massive pavement
Of black marble nine feet square, which
esome believe to be the veritable "black
stone" which the Romans venerated as
marking the tomb of Romulus. Under
the marble, among other objects, was a
broken stele, or sepulchral column, COW
cred with archaic Latin characters, and
this Is considered to bear out the state
ment of the later Roman historians that
In the early days the Romans spoke a
tongue which their descendants could
not understand.
An enthusiastic wheelman in New
York State recently got rid of trou-
blesome sprinkling Of tacks in novel
and effective manner. The trouble oc-
Cured on a cycle path which had been
made with cinders brought from the
yard of a shoe factory, and which were
filed with iron tacks. 1t was proposed
to build an entirely new path, but our
rider solved the problem more cheaply.
Constructing framework carried on
rollers, like a carpet sweeper, he fur
nished 1t with six powerful magnets
and swept the track repeatedly, stirring
up the cinders until every tack was re-
moved.
Between the northern point of Long
Island and Watch Hill lies row Of
little islands, two of which, Plum Isl
and and Goose Island, possess a pecu-
liar form of mineral wealth. 1t consists
In heaps of richly-colored quartz peb-
bles, showing red, yellow, purple and
other hues, which are locally called
agates. They are used in making
stained-glass windows, and there is a
sufficient demand for them in New
York to keep the owners of one or two
sloops employed in gathering them
from the beaches, where the waves con-
tinually roll and polish them, bringing
put the beauty of their colors.
With the Crossley rejecting telescope
at the Lick Observatory photographs
have recently been obtained which
show surprising structure in the cele-
brated Ring Nebula in the constella ton
Lyra. With an ordinary telescope this
nebula appears only as delicate oval,
hanging like little smoke-ring, with
faint stars sprinkled about it on the
dark sky. The photographs not only
reveal a star situated in the center of
the ring, but they show that the ring is
made up, to use Prof. Keeler's express
sion, "of number of narrower rings
lnterlacing somewhat irregularly" The
space within the ring, which Is covered
with faint nebulosity, is seen in the
photographs to be crossed by three dark
and two bright bands. Near the ring
Is a small Independent nebula whose
Photographic image appears in the
form Of "left-handed, two-branched
sDiral"