Alaska sentinel., 1905-11-09
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Is now using syeral electric mail wag- ons which ardesigned to transport the mail matterin larger quantities and at greaterspeed than the old horse- drawn vehtes.
 Salt tror the mines at Stassfurt is carried or trains of thirty half-ton trucks, esh train having a twenty four-hors, power electric locomotive. No engiper rides on the train, which is stoppd and started instantly by an attendat at each Of the five stations along ie line.
 Ift industry now being carried on by aFrenchman at Ions le Saunier in tb Jura district proves profitable
 on large scale rabbit fur may be-
 cou rival 10 sheep's wool in the
 msing of clothes generally. The
 bred utilized Is the Angora or "silk
 rDbit," which molts four times
 gar. The fur, just before it falls of .aturally, can be stripped easily by skilled hands.
 Stovaine, the new anesthetlc Of Dr. Fourneau, is injected into the spinal fluid, and within five minutes gives complete insensibility below the point Of injection, while the patient does not lose consciousness The effects last for an hour and 8 half No unfa- yorabls results have been reported in the numerous tests that have been made in France, but fears of lack of control and danger of blood poisoning have been expressed.
 A rubber film glove has been de- Tised for surgeons. The gloves are put on" by imnersing the hands in a weak solution of gutta percha in benzine or acetone. The purpose of The film is to seal the surfaces of the hands with an insoluble. impervious and practically imperceptible pellicle, which will not admit blood. pus or se- credons. Such a protective measure for surgeons is said to be preferable to working with rubber gloves. inas- much as the sense of touch or plia- biltty Of the skin is nor impaired in any way.
 Attention has been called by techni. cal writers 10 the fact that the wheels Of vehicles intended for driving roads have not kept pace in development with the other parts Of carriage mech anisn. Experiments with heavy ve- hicles indicate that wheels should be made both higher and broader. In En- gland ,t has been recommended that with maximum axle load of eight tons the width of tire should be about 1o1a inches. Increase of the diameter Of the wheel Ys said to be more eff fectye tn preventing damage 10 road. beds than width of tire.
 During the past two years the Dan- ish government has begun careful to- geographical survey of Iceland. a work never before undertaken except in few parts of the island The least known region is the southern coast, which is impossible in the summer time, owing 10 the immense quick sands and the inland ice masses push ing down from the mountains. Last spring, as long as the frosts kept the norasses and streams in a traversa- ble state, the survey was pushed. and one of its results was 10 show that the highest point of Iceland is not the Oraefa Jokull, as hitherto supposed, but the Hvannadalshnur, the elevation of which is 6.953 feet.
 The distinction of being the oldest living thing undoubtedly belongs to some giant tree, and many attempts to locate t and determine Its age have been made. A century ago De Can dole found two Yews-one at Forti- gal in Perthshire,, and one at Hedsor, in Bucks-that were estimated 10 be respectively twenty-five hundred and 8-240 years old. Both are still four ishing, and the oder tree has g trunk twenty-seven feet in diameter. 4 gi- gsntic baobab of Central America, with trunk twenty feet through WAS thought by Humboldt to be not less than 5,150 years old. Mexican botsnists believe they have now dis covered life span even greater than this, and from the annual rings a cy- press of Chepultepec, whose trunk is 11s feet in circumference. is assigned an age of about sixty-two hundred years.