Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1902-07-18
POPULAR SCIENCE.

FOPulAh SCIENCE.
at a recent meeting of the Washing
ton Geological Society Professor T. II.
Means. Of the Bureau of Soils, read an
interesting paper, in which he stated
that 10000 square miles of the United
States had been surveyed by the bu-
reau, and the character and fertility of
the soils Of the area surveyed properly
mapped. He also stated that soil
survey is now in progress in Porto
Rico; also that the maps to be issued
by this bureau viii be for the use of
farmers and stockmen.
new name to be seen on the latest
maps of British East Africa is Ugowe
Boy, applied to an arm of the Victoria
Nyanza. This name originated with
Stanley, the explorer. in a singular
way. When he was making chart of
the lake shores he came upon a great
bay, and calling to native he asked
what it was called. After repeating
the inquiry several times lie got for
answer somthing that sounded like
"You go way" and the interpreters
efforts met with no better success. So
Stanley, accepting the sound, named
the bay Ugowe, which is pronounced
like the English phrase quoted above.
Mr.. Odds, who has been studying the
songs of birds for a long time, says
that some Of them, notably the wood
thrush, the Carolina wren, the chicka.
dee and the chewink, use in singing
the intervals of the musical scale.
Many Of their songs are so rhythmical
that they may be divided into regular
measures, properly accented. Indeed,
the birds unconsclously observe sew
eral of the formal rules of human mu-
sic. The wood-pewee, for example,
sings according to the construction
governing many of our ballads. All
this seems hard to believe, but it comes
from a man thoroughly qualified to
speak scientifically on the subject, and
we must accept it as truth.
Il
That the waves Of light produce q
mechanical pressure, or push, was
claimed years ago by Maxwell, but he
made no experiments to prove his the
DRY. Experiments OF that kind have
been recently made, however, by Pro-
fessor Lebedow, of Moscow, who uses
q radiometer somewhat resembling the
| Crookes instrument, with its revolving
| yanes. His device. however, has a
larger and more completely exhausted
bulb. from which the movement of the
Crookes vanes depend. When the light
falls on the vanes they are driven be-
fore it, and the pressure thus revealed
comes within ten per cent of that cal
culated by Maxwell. The effect is In
proportion to the energy of the light
and is wholly independent of Its color.
The recent destruction OF the city OF
st. Pierre by the eruption of Mont
Pelee has brought out many illusions
to the fate of ancient Psmpeii, the
most suggestive of which comes from
Professor Max Nordau. of Vienna
Where, he asks, did the Pompeiians go
those that escaped from the city
There was population of about 80,
000, and of these only few hundred
lost their lives, as has been shown by
the excavations. The eruption of We
suvius lasted for only few days. an(
the deposit of ashes did not exceed
from one to three yards in depth. TIL,
houses were well built, as we have
found out, and were filed with costly
furniture, bronzes, marble statuary
gold and silver ornaments and jewels
\ They might have been restored to thei
original condition in short time, bu
they were wholly abandoned, no at
tempt having been made, so Var as W,
can determine, to recover anything
Perhaps the citizens were so rich tina
they did not care to make the attempt
or We're they so overcome by fear ant
superstition that they dared not? Blu
where did they go? There is no recort
of them after the eruption. and We
only a few hundred were killed out o
$4,000. Any other city would hav
been glad to receive them, but histor.
gives no account of them whatever.