The Lewiston teller. (Lewiston, Idaho) 1900-1905, 1901-09-12
ls,;|Ngn%Cience
S1HAX ~ AP
||ssse4nVeiltiOn|

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Another mountain observatory is pro-
jected 1t is to stand at an eievatioLs
of 5000 feet near Semmersns, n thes
Austrian Alps. The ne.ghbJf!ng VAL
leys are frequently filled with Clouds
while the chosen peak towers clear in
the starlight.
1t has been supposed that the Herr
Z!an waves, on winch The Mireiess teie-
graph depends for its operation, Went
through The ground as we'll as in the,
air for MOUNTAINS otter no obstacle to,
, them. But Nj. La Grange reports to-
the Paris Academy of sciences that.
the Hertzzan waves simply follow
along the ground, being directed by IT'S
surface. and that tests show that they
do not penetrate the earth to distance
of eighteen inches. The conclusion +, onA
this is that there is llttle hope Of Sc
curing underground wireless tee
graUhy.
I. }. j. See of the Naval Observatory
has auAounced the results of new meas-
uIeu.n S % SaturA and IT'S Rags. which
differ somewhat from oder ueterMlla-
tons. lie makes Tie exterior ame.er
of the rings about 1890 mics, the
equatorial diameter of Saturn .4,J9h
miles. and the polar d.ameter ~ 1890.
the difference between the two dame
tiers beng 1885 miles. almost equal to-
the entire diameter OF the earth. Mr..
Sees measures make the diameter OF
Titan. the largest Of Satuln's moons>
2,O92 miles. 1t had previously been
estimated as high as $500 miles.
X. Ii. Yapp, an English naturalist
who has recently explored the noun
tain ranges of the Malay peninsula, re-
ports the hitherto little known fact that
in several species of bamboo the hol-
low internodes-the paris Of the SENS
between the jolnt,-are stored with
large quantities of naturally filtered
water. The knowledge OF this fact
might be of great service in an emer-
gency. Mr.. Yapp also discovered TIVE.
species Of te.ns, growing en- TEES
whose thick. tiesLy stems are 1lled
with galleries tunneled by ans. she
ferns thus forming living nests for the
ants.
A light electric railway for passenr
gers and goods traffic Ia Russian PO-
land, connecting the towns Of Lodz.
Zgierz ana Pabianice. is now open. The
building OF this railway has been grant,
ed by the Russian government on the
condition that after twent eight years
the whole line and plant IL to be hand
ed over to the government without any
lon nd wa fyS
years 1t has the option Of purchase
Furthermore. the company has agreed
to pay a certain portion Of the profits
to the government. This line Is inter-
esting, as 1t is the first electric railway
established in Russia.
: In the constellation Gemini IL WELL
known variable star, Zeta, of less than
the third magnitude when brightest.
which. according to an estimate recent
" set forth In the Observatory by Miss
: Agnes NJ. Clerke. may be ranked among
the giants Of starry space. The COM
parative insignificance of Zeta Gemino-
rum among the visible stars appears to
be due to It's enormous distance. II re-
.. moved equally far away. our sun would
be only one-thirty-sevenlh MS bright an
Zeta Geminorum when at Its maximum
J brightness and Miss Clerke computes
the gravitative power OF the star at
223 times that of the sun.
A French writer. Henri Coup.n, says,
that the fact that. notwithstandinR
|. their simplicity, the songs OF the birds
! cannot be initiated with musical In
! struments arises from the imp0ssibility
!. of reproducing their peculiar timbrea.
I The notes Of birds, while corresponding
with our musical scale. also include
vibrations occupying the Intervals hes
!. tween our notes. The duration Of BIRDS
d songs IL usually very short, two or
a three seconds for thrushes and chaf-
iinches. four or ave seconds for black
i. caps, but from two to i've minutes for
i the lark. Monsieur Coupin remarks
that while one in every ten species OF
European birds ID tuneful. the proper
tion diminishes to only one IN thou
sand among the gorge0usly clad birds
Of the tropics.
Change the Dictionaries.
There il q teacher In the BrOoklyu
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