The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-06

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Gus and well observed, has been rough
4 ly traced for several centuries by Pro-
fessor A. Baltzer. A remarkable fact
| is that great advance of this glacier
from ITO to 1873 buried a large mar
BILE quarry, and, although the ice had
several periods of retreat and advance,
this old quarry was not again laid bare
| until 1871.
| Seasiekness is now subject of scien-
tific attack. A league has been formed
in Paris to investigate it fully, and an
early plan is to treat 100 soldiers subject
| to seasickness in one way and another
100 by another method. 1t is expected
that useful conclusions may be reached
| from the results. s.
| Instead of the rare oxides from
which incandescent gas nantes are
| usually made, Herr H. Helmcke. OF
Hamburg, forms very satisfactory
mantles from solution of lime with a
little alum or borax. Such NANTES are
claimed to splinter little, to be very
tough, to resist heat, and to give a
good light in water-gas flame.
A new method of cleaning foul casks
consists in first washing and steaming
and then blowing ozonized air into the
DunS-IOle. when very IOul, the casks
are first chemically cleaned with sodium
solution, sometimes with little acid to
free the chlorine, and are finally wash
ed thoroughly with ozonized water. The
foulest casks are made sweet
An interesting electric-1ight buoy is
now moored in the North Sea, before
Busum, in Holstein, to give warning of
the dangerous sands at that place Even
a slight motion of the waves generates
sufficient electricity for illumination, and
clock-work in the interior regulates the
half-minute lighting and extinguishing.
Tests of this automatic light have prov
en- so satisfactory that the extensive use
of such buoys is predicted.
Some curious botanical experiments
made at the geological laboratory at
Naples are reported by Hans Winkler
A howerless aquatic plant, that grows
normally with its roots in the sand,
and leaves in water was inverted
specimens being placed with the leaves
buried in the sand. and the roots float
ing in the water in strong light. The
roots changed to stems and leaves, the
buried parts becoming roots.
In the manufacture of acetylene gas.
amount of about 40 per cent of the cal
cium carbide used. This by-product
proves to be desirable substitute for
caustic lime in agriculture, being espe-
cially useful in vine, fruit and grain
growing. and having the advantage of
being less readily transformed into car
Donate. Calcium hydroxide also finds
use in making chloride Of lime, and in
soap factories and other Industries.
Colored rains, like the red rain that
not long ago produced a sensation in Eu-
rope, are well known being due to dust
or pollen washed from the air A singu-
lar instance of another kind is recalled
by Prof. Palazzo, an italian meteoroIo-
gist. On May Is, 1890, the fall of red
drops from the clouds for several min
utes on two occasions astonished the
people of Messignadi in Calabria, and
the drops were afterward proved to be
genuine blood-that of birds. It is sup
posed that the birds in dense migrating
mass high in air had been injured by a
hurricane.
Human influence on the weather has
been found by DIR. w. Trabere Of the
Paris Meteorological Society to be very
slight. It is chiefly involuntary. due to
deforestation and the extensive burning
of coal, and its effects are an increase in
drouths and foundations, fogs IN indus
trial centers like London. and an in
crease in thunderstorms. which have
doubled in number in Europe SINE 1870
That steam cannot influence rainfall is
proven by the exceedingly minute guam
tity produced, while the LAO pounds of
dust thrown into the air from coal fires
for each square mile of Germany is a
very tangible cause. Voluntary changes
in weather have been from artificial
clouds to prevent frost and explosions to
avert hall the artificial production of
rain being very doubtful.
The passing of the birds in France.
where protective measures excite little
interest. is illustrated by NJ. Louis Adrien
Levat by the statement that in one
spring not less than 1,500 nests were TAX
en-, representing a prospective loss of
about 5000 birds, in one province alone
In 1860 an export of 100 cages of insectiv-
orous birds of various kinds was made
from Baden to New South Wales, but 1t
would be almost impossible to make such
a shipment now on account of the scare
ity of such birds in Europe Not only is
the loss of bird-life and bird-song in
country districts deplorable, but the eff
feet on agriculture is disastrous. 1t is
computed that some birds will consume
2oO,o0O insects in a season, others as many
as 600 per day, and that single insect
eater may be the means of saving 5000
grains of wheat and ], $50 grapes daily
Some French districts are already practi-
cally desolated by insect ravages due to
bird-slaughter.
About 500 soundings made in tae North
Atlantic in 1899 in the interests of cable
laying have added considerably to what
is known of the ocean bottom. Sir John
Murray records these soundings in three
groups-those between the Azores and
the British Isles. those between the
Azores and North America, and those on
the Azores bank. In each series there
were interesting new discoveries. On the
first line the "Peake Deep" new de-
preston of over 5000 fathoms. was re-
vealed, but a more important discovery
was that of numerous shoals, evidently
the submits of submarine cones, rising
sharply from depth of more than 20Gc
fathoms to 1000 or 1,4O0 fathoms The
more southerly Of the two lines OF sound
ings between the Azores and North
America showed an unexpected extension
Of the great Newfoundland bank Obser-
vations of bottom temperatures, currents
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