Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1901-11-01
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The fishes of America north Of the
Isthmus of Panama. as listed by Jor-
dan and Evermann. embrace three
classes, thirty orders, 225 families,
lib genera, 335 sub-genera, 1882 spe-
cies and 1873 sub-species.
A Belgian engineer. Tobiansky. has
invented an apparatus for producing
light from smoke. 1t appears that the
origin of the smoke is a matter of in
difference. 1t is simply forced into
receiver, where 1t is saturated with
hydrocarburet, and can then be burn
ed, giving brilliant illumination.
An interesting meteorological station
is that of Mammoth Tank, on the line
of the Southern Pacific Railway, in
Diego County, Cal. The mean annual
rainfall for twenty-three years has
been 1.81 inches; maximum tempera-
ture 130 degrees, on Aug. IL, 1878; hot
test month July, with mean of 98.5
degrees.
The best test for rubies and emeralds,
says DR.. Emmanuel Friedlaender of
Berlin, is microscopic examination
Nearly every ruby and all emeralds
have many defects which are SO char
aeteristic that the expert can recognize
them, and which cannot be produced in
artificial stones. True emeralds have
minute enclosures of liquids and curl
GUS dentrites. Sapphires also show pc
culiar net-like formations. A magnify.
ing power of 100 diameters suffices to
reveal the characteristic defects. Fol
diamonds a good test is that of hard
ness. A genuine diamond cannot be
scratched by file or by quartz, and 8
ruby should stand a similar test; but
emerald is not much harder thar
quartz, and cracks easily.
During the firing of minute-guns by
the English feet at spithead. on the
occasion of Queen Victoria's funeral
the sounds were heard at surprising
distances inland, and the English scien
tific journals have sinces published
many interesting facts about these phe
nomena. 1t seems to be established tina
not only the direction Of the wind, bu
it's relative velocity at different eleva
tions from the ground, affected the di
rection of the sound waves. In som,
cases, contrary winds refracted th'
sound over the heads of observers be
tween 10 and 45 miles from the ships
so that they did not hear the guns, bu
the same waves were afterwart
brought to the ground by fayorabl
upper currents, rendering the sound
audible at fifty miles, and even as ia
as 140 miles, while at 81 miles the.
were SO loud that laborers in the field
put down their spades and listened t
them.
In several parts of the world resin
GUS substance called ozocerite, an
4 bearing considerable resemblance t
beeswaX, is found, usually in conneo
ton with rock salt and coal. Their
are deposits in Austria, Russia, Rot
mania, Egypt, Algeria, Canada an
i Mexico, but, says our consul at Trieste
Mr.. Hossfeld, ozocerite has, so far, NO
been discovered in sufficient quantitie
to pay for mining anywhere except /
the district of Boryslav, in Austria
Galicia, and on an island on the ives
coast of the Caspian sea- In minin
this mineral wax, shafts are sunk unit
a bed, or nest" of ozocerite is strucl
Then connecting galleries are driver
There is considerable danger, and man
lives have been lost in consequence G
the sudden forcing up of the soft wa
!, into the shafts by the enormous pre-:
sure to which it is subjected. It is use
largely for manufacturing ceresil
which is employed, together with bee,
4 wax, for making wax candles, as we
as in the manufacture of phonographi
cylinders. and for many similar pu
poses.