The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1911-04-15

your birthday or any other such oc-
casion, then go over to Samoa the
following day and have the celebra-
ton all over again. You might recall
your yesterdays; for the 1S0th meri-
dian is the international date line
which we have all tried so hard to
comprehend, but in which we have
mostly failed.
If the world was any sort of fruit,
it would be nice juicy peach, one
of that sort from which the skin may
! be peeled with the fingers. Let's let
the skin represent today, Sunday.
This skin is cut along the 1S0th meri-
dian. At twelve midnight we begin
to take off the skin. We pull it gradu-
ally to the west. For each hour we
take off one twenty-fourth of the
whole skin. All that is peeled is Sun
day. The rest is Saturday. It is Sun
day just beyond the 180th meridian;
but it is Saturday just east of it and
practically the same time of day at
both points. The skin is taken gradu-
ally off the peach to the westward.
1t becomes Sunday in Australia, in
India, along the east of Africa, in
! Europe, in Rio Janeiro, in New York,
in San Francisco, in Hawaii, in Sa-
moa. The skin of Sunday has been
taken entirely off the earth. The
curtain of Monday is now taken up
and gradually removed. So the pro-
cession of days follow one another.
1t is the same day the world round
only at the moment of taking up the
new day. At other times there is a
different date line in Fiji and Samoa.
Other Puzzles.
There is an old dread of encounter
ing a derelict that is just below the
surface of the water. There is no
sach danger. A derelict that will sink
below the surface will sink to the
lotion. Take tub of water and
toy to find any object that will, I'M
attached, occupy a position that is
other than at the surface or at the
bottom. There is a long task ahead
of you. There is the false theory
that the water grows denser as one
goes deeper and that a sinking OBJ
ject will find a place where it will
remain suspended. This theory is not
correct, and a boat that will sink be-
meath the surface will sink to the
bottom, even if that bottom should
be twenty miles down. The derelict
that is bumped into has a piece of
itself sticking out of the water as
an alarm, if the eyes of the lookout
are only sharp enough to catch it.
In sounding for ocean depths there
has been great difficulty in deciding
upon the best wire for the purpose.
The difficulty is in getting a wire
that will bear it's own weight when a
string of it four or five miles long is
reeled off. When even a small wire
a mile long is wound up there is great
weight to it, The Nero, in sounding
near the island of Guam, got accurate
measurements at a depth of 31,614
feet, nearly six miles. The wire used
in such soundings is steel wire such
as used in piano making and is very
small-twenty-eigh thousands of an
inch in diameter.
The temperature of the water gradu-
ally decreases until a depth of nearly
four miles is reached. Here is found
the coolest, about thirty-ive degrees
Fahrenheit. Beyond this the temper
AZURE risea again, and at the bottom
of the ocean in the hole near Guam
the temperature was thirty-six de
grees.
Constantinople is the deepest port
of consequence in the world The
channel leading into this port is one
hundred and thirty feet deep and al
the quay is a depth of sixty feet Cal
outta surpasses this record for close
in. depths, with sixty-ive feet; but
the channel has only thirty-ive feet
of water Three of the deepest ports
in the world, following these, are on
the coast of Washington Seattle
Tacoma, and Everett all have deep