The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1901-11-01
bAslaSClcnCe
N|ssiventiOn


The fishes of America north Of the
Isthmus of Panama, as listed by Jor-
dan and Evermann, embrace three
classes, thirty orders, go families,
| lib genera, 1856 sub-genera, S,262 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 matter OF in
difference. 1t is simply forced into
receiver, where 1t is saturated with
hydrocarburet, and can then be burn
ed, giving a 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.S1 inches; maximum tempera-
Iture 1870 degrees, on Aug. II, 1878; hot
test month July, with a mean OF ee.o
degrees.
The best test for rubies and emeraids,
says DR.. Emmanuel Friedlaender OF
Berlin, is microscopic examination.
Nearly every ruby and all emeralds
have many defects which are 50 char
acteristic 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. For
diamonds good test is that of hard
ness. A genuine diamond cannot be
scratched by file or by quartz, and a
ruby should stand a similar test; but
emerald is not much harder than
quartz, and cracks easily.
During the firing of minute-guns by
the English fleet at Spithead, on the
occasion of Queen Yictoria's funeral,
the sounds We're heard at surprising
distances inland, and the English scien-
tific journals have since published
many interesting facts about these phe'
nomena. 1t seems to be established that
not only the direction Of the wind, but
its relative velocity at different eleya
tions from the ground, affected the di
rection of the sound waves. In some
cases, contrary winds refracted tht
sound over the heads of observers be
tween 10 and 45 miles from the ships
so that they did not hear the guns, but
the same waves were afterwart
brought to the ground by favorable
upper currents, rendering the sounds
audible at fifty miles, and even as fal
as 140 miles, while at S4 miles they
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,
bearing considerable resemblance t
beeswax, Is found, usually in connec
tion with rock salt and coal Their
are deposits In Austria, Russia, Rou
mania, Egypt, Algeria, Canada AM
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 Il
the district Of Boryslay, in Austrian
] Galicla, and on an island on the ives
h coast of the Caspian sea. In minin
this mineral wax, shafts are sunk unit
o bed, or nest" of ozocerite is struck
e Then connecting galleries are driver
= There is considerable danger, and man
lives have been lost In consequence o
the sudden forcing up of the soft wa
+ into the shafts by the enormous pres
o sure to which 1t is subjected. 1t is use
| largely for manufacturing ceresiI
y which is employed, together with bees
! wax, for making wax candles, as we
), as in the manufacture Of phonographi
: cylinders, and for many similar pul
d poses.