POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



281 



crushing of low intensity and pitch, not 

 metallic or crackling. It occurs when the 

 sand is pressed by ordinary walking, in- 

 creases with sudden pressure of the foot 

 upon the sand, and is perceptible upon 

 mere stirring by the hand, or even plunging 

 one finger and removing it suddenly. It 

 can be intensified by dragging wood on the 

 beach. Somewhat similar phenomena have 

 been observed in sands at various other 

 places. The authors explain the phenomena 

 upon the hypothesis that the sand, instead 

 of being, as ordinarily, composed of round- 

 ed particles, is made up of grains with flat 

 and angular surfaces. In the present in- 

 stance, the plane surface of feldspar is ap- 

 parent in many of the grains. Probably a 

 certain proportion of quartz and feldspar 

 grains is adapted to give the sound, while 

 less or more of either component would 

 fail of the result. It is concluded that the 

 sound is produced either by the intermix- 

 ture of grains having cleavage-planes, or of 

 grains with minute cavities. 



Use and Abuse of Check-Reins. Bear- 

 ing-reins, or check-reins, in the harness of 

 horses, are useful and advantageous in their 

 places and when rightly adjusted, but the 

 instances in which they simply torture the 

 animals that have to endure them are more 

 conspicuous. In crowded streets, with high- 

 mettled horses that run freely up to their 

 bits, a well-fitted bearing-rein gives the 

 driver a more thorough control of the ani- 

 mal that is valuable in avoiding collisions. 

 A bolting horse, says the "Pall Mall Ga- 

 zette," endeavors to get his head well down, 

 so as to extend his neck, and thereby obtain 

 a stronger purchase against the restraint of 

 the reins ; and if he is restrained by a bear- 

 ing-rein, so that he can not lower his head 

 below the level to which he would require 

 to carry it for ordinary equilibrium in 

 draught, his powers of bolting are greatly 

 circumscribed, and if he is not excessively 

 borne up he is not conscious that the rein 

 is restraining him, and his powers of 

 draught are not cramped. The fashion of 

 coachmen is, however, to pull the bearing- 

 rein up so tight that the horse's neck is 

 cramped, and the animal is thrown into an 

 unnatural and painful position, and is de- 

 prived of much of his power to draw the 



load that is intrusted to him. His feelinsr 

 must be much the same as that of a man 

 would be whose head was pulled back so 

 that he would have to stand for hours look- 

 ing up at the sky without being able to 

 turn his eyes away, and had while in such 

 a position to draw a baby-carriage. The 

 fact that the adjustment of the rein is 

 painful can be recognized from the unnatu- 

 ral attitude of the horse's neck, and from 

 his fretfully tossing his head every few 

 minutes to relieve himself, and shake off 

 the foam from his jaws. " This tossing of 

 the head and flecking of flanks, brisket, and 

 harness with foam, seem to the coachman 

 and to the upracticed observer to be pict- 

 uresque, and characteristic of high cour- 

 age ; to the experienced eye they betray 

 that the animal is not only inconvenienced 

 but is also pained by his position." Be- 

 sides this annoyance, the animal thus tight- 

 ly checked, being unable to throw the head 

 reasonably forward when feeling his collar, 

 can not utilize his natural powers of 

 draught, and, in default of them, has to 

 draw from the lateral purchase of his limbs 

 instead of from his height, and thereby un- 

 duly to tire his muscles and joints and strain 

 them ; and, if he stumbles, the danger of 

 his falling is increased. The instinct of a 

 horse in stumbling is to let his head drop 

 to a certain point where it helps to restore 

 equilibrium. A rein adjusted to catch the 

 head at that point would be helpful, but 

 the common tight reins prevent its drop- 

 ping at all, and thereby augment the inse- 

 curity of the horse. 



Cultivation of the Date-Palm. Dates 



are cultivated profitably in two oases of the 

 Algerian Sahara. At the oasis of Rir, where 

 the conditions are most favorable, an un- 

 failing supply of water is obtained by arte- 

 sian wells from a depth of about two hun- 

 dred feet. The use of these wells has been 

 known to the natives from time immemorial, 

 but has been facilitated, and the number of 

 them has consequently increased since the 

 introduction of improved systems of boring 

 by the French. Sixty-four of the wells had 

 been bored by the French in 1878, furnish- 

 ing an average of more than 1,500 quarts 

 of water each a minute. They vary among 

 themselves greatly in capacity, one of them 



