FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



427 



of that experience. They had gone too early. 

 If they had started at the end of August in- 

 stead of the end of June, the snow would 

 have been melted, and they would have made 

 better headway. Eventually they got some 

 distance inland, and then they turned south- 

 east in the direction of Advent Bay. On 

 their way they found a peak near them, 

 which they climbed. The rock was rotten, 

 there were large holes through it, and the 

 whole seemed to tremble with the weight of 

 a single man. On reaching the top they 

 found that the white plains they had seen 

 on landing consisted of a number of plateaus, 

 and that valleys of much greater extent lay 

 between. Descending, they entered a large 

 valley which was enveloped in cloud, and for 

 five or six hours were passing, sometimes 

 up to their knees, sometimes up to their 

 waists, through some exceedingly soft slush. 

 In time they reached the foot of a very 

 remarkable glacier which afforded some 

 valuable observations on the nature of 

 glacier advance. Returning from Advent 

 Bay the way they came, they next made a 

 journey eastward across the island. They 

 encountered the same conditions till they 

 came to a wall of ice, which proved to be 

 the side of a glacier. Crossing this the next 

 day, they reached the sea, thus completing 

 the passage across the island. The main 

 geographical point to be noticed in connec- 

 tion with their journey was that while both 

 in the north and the south of the island 

 there was a complete ice sheet, the central 

 region consisted of a great bog " a mere 

 pudding of ice and stones." 



Evolntion of the Bicycle. "At the end 



of the seventeenth century, in 1693," says 

 M. Baudry de Saunier, who is quoted by M. 

 Gaston Tissandier in Tm Nature, " Ozanam, 

 a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 spoke of a mechanical vehicle in the posses- 

 sion of a friend of his, a doctor in La Rochelle. 

 A servant, mounted behind, made it go, rest- 

 ing on two pieces of wood which communi- 

 cated with two wheels working the axle." 

 In 1796, M. de Sivrae, realizing that the 

 simplest construction was the most efficient, 

 devised a machine of three wooden parts a 

 solid beam and two wheels. The beam was 

 furnished in front and back with two forks, 

 between the branches of which the wheels 



turned ; to these were added a seat and a 

 cushion. This vehicle was called the celeri- 

 fere, or carry-fast (Latin, celer, fast, and 

 ferre, to bear). In 1818, M. le Baron de 

 Drais de Sauerbon, farmer and engineer, 

 modified the celeriffere by cutting the front 

 away from the beam on which the rider was 

 supported, and reattaching it with a pivot, 

 which permitted it to be turned to the right 

 or the left. Henceforth it was not necessary, 

 as it had been before, to knock the front 

 wheel of the machine with the hand to the 

 right or left, whenever the rider wished to 

 turn it, but the wheel itself became a readily 

 acting rudder. Baron Drais rejoiced much 

 in the contemplation of his carriage, and 

 giving it his name, called* it the Braisienne, 

 or Draisian, and ordered his servant to ex- 

 hibit it and display its methods of working 

 before the sightseers in the Tivoli Garden. 

 The servant proved awkward at the business, 

 and only succeeded in giving himself many 

 knocks and having the children run and 

 shout after him. Discouraged and annoyed 

 by the caricatures of his experiment which 

 were published. Baron Drais went to live in 

 a convent at Carlsruhe, where he died in 

 1851. The English modified his idea, and, 

 substituting iron for wood, which had the 

 faults of swelling and shrinking and crack- 

 ing, made of the Draisian the pedestrian- 

 horse, or hobby-horse, which was much in 

 vogue for a considerable time. None of these 

 machines were really ridden ; they were simply 

 contrivances to expedite walking. They were 

 propelled by kicking, and the riders seldom 

 let both their feet leave the ground at once, 

 or, if they did, only for a very short time ; but 

 with their aid every step became considerably 

 more than a pace, and the ground was got 

 over much more rapidly. 



American Women's Art. Artistic wood 

 carving, according to Mr. Benn Pitman, se- 

 cured its first distinct recognition as woman's 

 work in 18'72, when examples of carved fur- 

 niture, doors, and baseboards executed by 

 women of the author's family were shown 

 at an exhibition in Cincinnati. Much inter- 

 est was aroused by the display, and a general 

 desire was created in other women to do 

 similar work. In 1873 a practical art de- 

 partment was established in connection with 

 the Art Academy, to which Mr. Pitman and 



