The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-01-03
|P0pularS Scisqcs


The proposal to transmit electric
ity generated at the Victoria Falls
to Pretoria and johannesburg is TAX
Ing shape. and first issue Of capital
Will, 1t is said, be announced within
the next few weeks. The distance
from the Falls to the Rand as the
crow files is 600 miles. but II will be
necessary to make deviations that
will increase the distance to be GOV,
cred to nearly 200 miles. The ex-
traordinary pressure of 150 ,0OC volts
Is proposed. At the outset provision
is to be made for 10000 horse DOW
er, but this may be increased as ne.
cessity arises.
According to DR.. P. Marchal, some
Insects are as fond of eggs for food
as human beings are He has OBJ
served that a hymenopterous insect,
Tetrastichus xanthomelananoe has
made a practice of sucking the eggs
of the elm beetle. It first perforates
them with a small hole, and then
swallows the contents. Afterward
the tetrastichus utilities the empty
egg shell by depositing its own eggs
within. It might be supposed Chat
the primary object of the operation
was that implied by the last state
ment, but DR.. Marchal is confident
that the eating of the egg is a no
less important motive.
Every summer several astronomers
visit the Jansen Observatory on the
extreme summit of Mont Blanc to
take advantage of its great sltitude,
which favors the study of solar phe-
nomena. At present another effort
is being made there to photograph
the suns corona without an eclipse
The observatory is remarkable for
having its foundations laid in hard
packed snow. The builders found it
impracticable to reach the underly-
ing rock. At recent meeting of the
Academy of Sciences in Paris, Mon
sieur Jansen announced that the
measurements of level executed In
1904 and 1906 showed that during
that interval the observatory had
not appreciably shifted in position.
Gas mounds is a popular name in
Texas for the low, circular eminences,
averaging twenty feet in diameter
and two feet in height, which abound
in forest and prairie regions in Lou
isiana, Texas. Southern Arkansas and
the Indian Territory. On the suppo-
sition that the mounds have been
raised by ascending gas from subter-
ranean oil pools, they are regarded
as indicating oil beneath. Robert T.
Hill, the geologist, who has examined
the mounds, disputes this theory of
their origin. They occur in many dis
tricts where not the least sign of oil
Or gas has been discovered Mr.. Hill
thinks that they owe their existence
mainly to unequal settling of the
ground in poorly drained areas sub
jected to abundant periodic rain fall.
Some curious researches have re-
Gently been made by French army
surgeons on the relationship between
good eyesight and good target prac-
tice. At first glance one would say
that the two things must invariably
depend the one upon the other But
the facts lead to a different conclu-
sion. At least they show that one
may have very defective eyesight and
yet be a very accurate marksman.
Astigmatism, myopia and other de-
tects of vision may exist in marked
degree without destroying the abil-
ty to aim and shoot straight. In
1 ha nd u,. AI-
iiers are permitted to shoot from the
right or the left shoulder, according
% their own preference, which is of
ten guided by the superiority of one
aye over the other. Accuracy OF
Judgment counts for as much as
acuteness of vision with the good
narksman.