The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1901-09-06
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|sss3sszI11ventiOn : :


The great serpent mound In Ohio has
been transferred to the Ohio Archaeo-
logical and Historical Society.
For some months Italian and French
engineers have been carrying a tele-
phone line up their respective slopes of
the Alps, and they expect soon to form
junction, thus opening direct tele-
phonic communication between Rome
and Paris. The most difficult part of
the work has naturally been to cross the
Alps.
The deposit of salt at Salton, Cal, is
one of the sights of that State. 1t lies
in a depression almost 300 feet below
the sea level, and was at some time In
the past the bed of sea or extension
of the Gulf of California. From the
train, which passes near by, the tract
looks like vast snow field, and In the
early morning 1t is frequently the scene
of beautiful mirage effects. The salt
deposit, which is essentially rock salt.
covers about 1000 acres.
During t1le nineteenth century 235
new comets were discovered, as against
62 In the eighteenth century. The nine
teenth cent ury also beheld a greater
number of large and brilliant comets
than did its predecessor. The finest of
these were the comets of 1911, 1S43,
1858, 1881 and 1882. In the year 1900
only one periodical comet was known,
Halley's; row many are known, of
which at least seventeen have been
seen at more than one return to peri
helion.
Bermuda is remarkable for the scar
city of land vertebrate animals. 1t pos
sesses only one species of reptile, a liz
ard, and until fifteen or twenty years
ago there were no amphibians. At that
time some of the huge Guiana toads
were imported from Demarara by the
owner of Bermudan garden, who
thought these animals would clear his
plants of insects. The toads thrived
on the insects and spread over the ISL
ands, and now they are regarded with
disfavor because they get into the els
leEIlb WHICH HOlu LIE Idl1-W WdLcT ludL ID
universally used for drinking purposes
In Bermuda.
M. Maurice Levy, the President of
the French Academy of Sciences, re-
cannon Is one of the most instructive
laboratories that science possesses. 1t
was the modern cannon, he said, which
suggested the application Of explosive
gases In the driving of engines. The
experience of the immense pressures
obtained In cannon also led to the use of
pressure In steam machines, which a
few years ago would have been regard
ed as impracticable. Thus experiments
intended primarily for the purposes of
war had resulted In the advance of the
triumphs of peace.
Among the great scientific advances
of the century just passed there is one
which Is seldom mentioned, although 1t
Is of remarkable interest. 1t is the DEM
onstration of the fact that stones and
metallic masses fall from the sky. DR..
o. @. Harrington reminds us that up to
the beginning of the nineteenth century
the attitude of scientific men toward the
accounts of stones reported to have
fallen from the sky was In general zone
of scorn and incredulity." He quotes a
remark of President Jefferson when
told that Prof Silliman and Kigsley
had described shower Of stones at
Weston, Conn.,, in 1907: ''It is easier to
believe that two Yankee professors will
lie than to believe that stones will fall
from heaven" 1t was only after a
great shower of meteoric stones at Lai-
gle. in France, in 1903 had been care
fully investigated by the French Acad-
emy that men of science finally became
convinced that such things really oc-
Cured.
DOAAkIrlO