Amador ledger., 1910-02-25

blSStllC Cudl &c -JillllllS OAHU W
Forest--Windmill as a Smoke Cure
Quick Cooling Mouds-Br and
States from Stag Fast Photography
Electrical Seasoning.
Human senses cannot be implicitly |
trusted, especially near the limits of |
their perception, and what can be seen
on Mars depends largely on the OBJ
server, his optical aid, and his training. !
The streaks called canals we're first re-
ported by Schiaparelli, a keen-eyed |
Italian astronomer, in 1877 Since then
Prof. Percival Lowell, the American,
has made more thorough study of the
planet than any other man, drilling his
eyes to see and manipulating his splen
did equipment so as to reveal the minu
test possible detail, and, as a result OF
his labors, he believes he has shown a
regular network of several hundred
canals connecting numerous dusky
patches. AS the bands may reach a
length of 1000 miles and a breadth of
200 miles, it has not been supposed that
they are artificial channels, but that they
may be vegetation growing along artif
cal water way. Lowell finds that the
narrow lines are often hidden and con-
fused by the waves in the great aerial
ocean above us, SO that they are not
easily detected and only seen under the
best conditions. Many astronomers now
doubt the existence of the canals. which
they have failed to see with even larger
instruments, and they state that the
dusky spots are too irregular and natural
in appearance to suggest artificial con-
struction.
The mean height of the Antarctic con-
tinent-assumed to be more than 5000,
600 miles in area-has been estimated
from the distribution of atmospheric
pressure at 2, 900 meters, $500 feet, and
recent exploration seems to confirm this
calculation by Prof. w. Meinardus. If
this is nearly correct, Artarctica-with
its ice-cap, of course-is the largest
mass of raised land in the world. The
mean height OF the land surface OF the
world has been taken at 700 meters, but
the new figures make it 825 meters.
The dream of electric power from the
air is baseless. A German calculation
has shown that the atmospheric tension
of many thousand volts would yield one
horse power over 2, $50 square miles, so
over the Geman Empire, or So 600 over
the entire globe.
The sand dunes in New Zealand, as
stated in an official report by Dr. Cock
ayne, cover "a, 600 acres IN the South
Island, and 29O, 600 acres in the North
Island the dunes of western yelling
ton stretching ITO miles along the sea
with an area of more than 90, 600 acres.
The formation of the deposits begins
with the dsintegration of rocks on the
mountain side. The material broken up
by frost action and weathering is carried
down the rivers reaching the sea in
various degrees of fineness. and some
addition to the sand is made by the
direct erosion of the sea- waves. Unlike
ordinary river and sea sands, the par
ticles making up dunes are thoroughly
rounded BY wear. The plants of the
dunes are mostly long -stemmed grass S,
sedges and spurges, which are actually
benefited by partial burial, and they are
almost essential 10 the dunes, which
seldom begin TO accumulate unless some
form of vegetation stops the drift. Wind
action is checked by remarkable scanty
plant growth The tufts of grass or
sedge may be not more than foot tall,
with two thirds of the sand uncovered,
and yet the dune may be surprisingly
stable and show little effects from
ordinary storms. European experience
leads to the belief that the New Zealand
waste will be reclaimed, eventually be-
ing converted into forest-land.
Ii the coal-substitute scheme OF Fomer
Busby is ever worked out, suburban
batteries OF huge windmills will COM
press air in a suitable system of reser-
voirs and pipe lines, so that energy for
factory and domestic motors en- be drawn
from city streets, like water from the
service mains. Such engines could