The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-06-27

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AS we reach lower and lower depths
the water becomes colder: the warm
water, being less dense, remains at the
surface. At about $4,000 feet the tenn
perature Is little above the freezing
point OF fresh water. Light gradually
disappears, and at 1.4OO feet, SAYS
Country Life, absolute darkness pre-
walls; and as no plant can live without
light, the vegetable kingdom Is unrep-
resented, except by some boring algae
which have been dredged from a depth
OF over 5000 feet. Further, there are
no currents, oxygen is scarce and un,
formity Of temperature prevails.
Prof. A. Herschel, in the Quarterly
Journal OF the Royal Meteorological
Society, describes the extraordinary eff
fects produced by lightning in the
midst OF an open moor In Northumber-
land. A hole 1 or 8 feet in diameter
was made in the fat, peaty ground,
and from this half dozen burrows ex-
tended on all sides. Pieces Of turf
were thrown In various directions, one
3 feet In diameter and foot thick hav-
Ing fallen Is feet from the hole. Inves-
tigation showed that In addition to the
effects visible on the surface, small
holes had been bored in the earth ra.
dating from the large excavation.
Many readers may recall the surprise
they felt on reading Darwin's book on
earthworms to find how the great nat
uralist had lent an irresistible charm
to 80 apparently unpromising subject.
1t led them to entertain respect they
had never previously felt for the hum
BILE borers in the earth. It now appears
that earthworms must be regarded as
useful otherwise than as simple cult
vators and reviewers of the soil. Ac-
cording to E. A. Andrews, they are tree
planters also. They draw the fat seeds
Of the silver maple into their burrows,
and such seeds, in districts too dry for
them to terminate If left upon the
surface, sprout from the wormholes,
and grow into seedlings, which, under
favoring conditions, may become -four
ishing trees.
Maj. w. v. Judson, the government.
engineer in charge of harbor work at
Milwaukee, Wis.,, is reported by the
Railway and Engineering Review to be
experimenting with REINFORCED con-
crete blocks, made hollow, so that they
can be floated to place in constructing
the government breakwater at that
point. The proposed block Of standard
size will weigh about fourteen tons,
but In the experiments the weight is
only about seven tons. The blocks will
consist of REINFORCED concrete walls,
inclosing hollow space. After it has
been towed to the site Of the work an
opening in the bottom Is uncovered and
water is permitted to enter the block
and sink it. The interior Of the block
is then filed with sand and gravel, and
the open space in the top Is filed with
concrete.
This question, always interesting for
the light it throws on the past history
of the earth, has had many answers.
The latest Is that Of DR.. J. w. Spencer,
who, from recent studies on the spot,
finds that the mean rate Of recession
Of Niagara falls at present Is ~ feet per
year, and this has been the rate for ap-
proximately 227 years. But owing to
the fact that originally the waters Of
Lake Erie only were discharged over
the falls, giving but one-ffteenth OF the
present water supply, the rate Of re-
cession was at first much lower. A sud-
den widening Of the gorge above Fos-
ter's Flat indicates the position Of the
falls when the other great lakes began
to discharge into Lake Erie. From his
data, DR.. Spencer calculates the entire
age of the falls at $4,000 years. The
cutting, with the full power Of the>four
lakes, Is estimated to have lasted $500
years.