The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


their 1901 dividends. The Hasper car
ries forward its entire net earnings as
a special reserve against possible losses
on the company's accumulated stock of
iron.
The origin of the name of Cape
Nome" on the coast of Alaska, where
many Americans are looking for gold,
has been till recently a mystery, says
the Baltimore Sun. 1t was not on Rus
sian charts. British admiralty charts
of 1853 first used it. This fact led
Prof. Davidson of the University of
California to make inquiry of the chief
photographer of the British admiralty,
with the result that it is found that
Nome" is a draughtsmans mistake
for Name. When the manuscript chart
of this region was being constructed
on board H. NJ. S. Herald, says the
photographer, attention was drawn to
the fact that this point had no name
and mark (?Name) was placed
against 1t. In the hurry of dispatch
ing the chart from the ship the in
terrogation point was linked in by a
rough draughtsman as CO. and as the
a in Name was made indistinctly ii
was interpreted as o, with the result
that &c. Nome got on the chart and
has remained ever since This infor-
nation is given by an officer who was
on board the steamer Herald when the
chart was made.
"A suggestion of the Royal Society
for a magnetic survey of India has
been recently adopted by the govern
ment, and already considerable pre-
paratory work has been done. The
survey has been promoted by research
es of Sir Norman Lockyer, on the as
sociation of sunspots with the periodi-
cal droughts from which the country
suffers, and besides subscribing the
cause of science it is expected that
the undertaking will prove of some
practical utility from an administra-
tive point. 1t can easily. be seen how
much the authorities can be helped in
warding off the famines which from
time to time cause such widespread
misery and death in the country, if
such periods could be definitely pre-
dicted. The existing magnetic obser-
vatories at Bombay and Calcutta be-
ing inadequate as base stations for the
vast area the survey will cover, SINH
lar observatories are in course of con-
struction at Dehra Dun. below the
Himalayas; at Kodiakanal, in the Mad
ras presidency, and at Rangoon. The
field observations will be carried out
by six or seven detachments of the
survey department. Sind and the
Punjab will first be- taken in hand
and. as the country is now ;ntersected
with railways in all directions, enab-
ling field detachments to quickly cover
the distances from one observing sta
ton to another, it is ANTICIPATED that
five years will suffice to complete the
field work of the preliminary magnetic
survey.
Since the disastrous war with the
United States, the navy has been ex-
ceedingly unpopular in Spain, and has
been subject to all kinds of attacks
in the press and in Parliament, says
the New York Evening Post. There
have been constant demands for re-
organization, retrenchment, etc. and
this has caused so bitter a feeling in
the navy itself that the senior officer
Admiral Valcarel. sought and obtained
special audience with the Queen Re-
gent with a. view of laying the griev
ances of the feet before her. He pre-
scented a memorial declaring that naval
officers object to the contemplated Gre
alton of civil controllers over naval af-
fairs and credits. They profess not to
be guided by political motives, but by
mere consideration for the dignity of
their profession. They ask the gov
eminent and Parliament to declare.
once for all, if the existence of the
navy is necessary, and, in that case,
to provide lit with what is necessary
to its efficiency. If the country does
not require a navy, the government,
they say, should dismiss all who belong
to it. The incident has caused much
excitement, and the Liberal press att
tacks the Minister of Marine for per-
hitting what is described as a glazing
breach of discipline. Meanwhile, the
government is in a sad financial pre-
dicament, wanting money for the army.
the navy, education, and public works,
and not knowing where to look for it.
Certain plants absorb and live on
insects, but it has only recently been
discovered that there are species of
plants that devour animal food when
| given to them in small morsels, says
an exchange. The leaves of these plants
appear in doublets, like oyster valves.
This double leaf is closed up from its
base to within about three-quarters of
it's entire length. In the front part it
is detached, the two pointed tops form
ing, as 1t were, pair of lips, or a
mouth, which the plant can open at
will. Inside this mouth is a kind of d
passage or throat which extends to-
ward the body of the plant. This pass
age has a number of hairy bits about
| ii, which are very fuzzy, and at the
end of each bit there is sticky sub
stance. When the plant opens its
mouth it is evident that the trap is
then set, for upon any insect entering
1t the lips close upon it at once, fore
ing it to the gummy substance of tn :
throat. This. substance has properties
similar to those contained in the gas
| trio juices of the human stomach which
help to decompose and digest the food
When so digested the food resolves it .
self into a liquid which is carried all
over the plant to nourish and revive
1t. The most marvellous thing about
this newly discovered species is that il
can digest such food as small morsels
of beef, fish and egg gelatine, some of
which, dropped into the open leaf, were
retained and apparently digested. At
the same time anything of a starchy
or fatty substance the leaf or plant IS
not able to retain. 1t does not, there.
fore, close its lips upon it, and If al
lowed to remain in the mouth the
plant will decay.
Extraordinary inconvenience has
been caused throughout European Rus
STA in consequence of the difficulties of
this years navigation of the Volga,
says the New York Post. At the latest
accounts from Astrakhan, no fewer
than 100000 pools of oil alone were
lying in barges in the lower reaches of
the river between Astrakhan and Sar-
atoff. with little hope of getting the
barges even halfway up the river this
year. Scores of towns along the Volga
from Saratoff northwards to Kazan,
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