Amador ledger., 1906-06-08

Ine Earthquake Map. p.-Comfort at
Sea.-The Batrachian Goliath
Angling for Big Fish--FIying Snakes
Horse Power of Radium. Steering
Space Telegrams. : Hydrocsr rbons
from HydrosilIcon. Root Growth.
Of the 10000 earthquake shocks that
occur each year about 60 are "world
shaking, giving instrumental RECORDS
at great distance; and Prof. John
Milne finds that these great earth
quakes belong to 13 regions, 3 being
unimpcrtant. The important centers
form two great rings. The chief of
these rings, with radius cf 65 de-
grees, embraces regions = the
Alaskan coast, the California coast,
the West Indies, the Chilean coast,
the south of New Zealand, krakatoa.
and Japan; and the other, with a
radius of 80 degrees from it's center in
the Sahara Desert, includes the earth
quake region between India and
Madagascar. the e''Azores and Tashkeud.
Prot. Sollas has concluded that the
earth has the shape of pear, its ends
being the centers of these two rings,
one in Africa and one IN the Pacific.
This view has had remarkable con-
firmation, and the weakest points of
the earth's crust are where this theory
would suggest.
A novel method of preventing sea-
sickness is recommended by DR..
Eugen Wolf, a German. On the first
feeling of giddiness, the patient lies
flat on his back, with clothing un-
buttoned to give free breathing, and a
handkerchief wet with hot water is
tightly twisted around the head. The
first unpleasant sensation soon wears
away. AS the bandage cools, it is
replaced by another-as hot as can be
borne-untiI ali squeamish feeling is
relieved, which is usually in about
half an hour. After two hours the
patient may eat, drink and smoke as
usual, and if treatment has been
prompt it is claimed that the toughest
sea will have no further effect.
The largest frog is now stated to be
the new Rama goliath from the Came
rooms, with head and body measur-
ing not less than ten inches. Hitherto
the largest known has been a species
living in the Solomon Islands.
The waters near the Pacific atolls
TEEN with sharks, and fishing for them
has brought out a considerable feet
of vessels within the last 80 or 40
years. The enormous livers and the
fins and tails are the only parts of the
creatures specially sought, although
the skins are now saved, as they are
made soft and pliable by new Ger
man process. The liver oil is useful
as lubricant and for medicinal pur-
poses, and the tails and fins, the
latter worth from $3.50 to $3.50 per ton
at Sydney, are priced by the Chinese
for soups and many other purposes.
The Gilbert islanders are reputed the
most expert fishers. They use lines
of cocoanut iber and very strong hooks
made from tree-roots, and, though
they fish from small canoes, loss of
life among them is rare. Yet the
sharks are so voracious that they
often tear to pieces one of their
fellows that has been hooked and
drawn alongside to be clubbed. 1he
fishing seems to be profitable, and in
some localities three or four men will
often get 20 sharks in a day.
The flying frogs of the Malays
appear to be mythical, but three tree
snakes of Borneo, lately described to
the London Geological Society by Mr.
R. Shelford, are credited with taking
flying leaps from the boughs of trees
to the ground. 1t is found that scales
on the lower part of the body may be
drawn inward so that the whole lower
surface becomes concave. The re-
sistance to the air is thus greatly in
creased, and experiments indicate
that the snakes do not fall in writh-
ing coils, but are let down gently i'll
a direct line by the parachute like
action of their peculiar bodies.
We are told that mllllgramme of
radium shoots out some $4,000, 900
negative electrons per second with
velocity about -sixths as great as
that of light, these being the Beta
rays, while there are also Alpha rays
much larger, but having only one
eighteenth of the speed of light. M.
Holzmuller has now tried to give
definite idea of what this action
means. He has made calculations
from observed facts, and these show
that little pellet of pure radium
weighing gramme, or one-thirtieth
of an ounce, exbausts in the course
of its life an amount of energy equl
vaIent to one horse power for fifteen
days.
In his study of the problem of
directing aerial signals, Marconi has
tried the plan of extending large
part-100 or 200 yards or more-of the
excited wire horizontally along the
ground or few feet. above the sur
face, instead of using only vertical
'antennae. - His experiments of
many months have proven that the