FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



H3 



two and a half times that of the Pacific 

 slope of the Andes. The minimum water 

 discharge into the Plata estuary would, 

 every twenty-four hours, make a lake one 

 mile square and 1,650 feet deep. About 

 seventy-four per cent of it would represent 

 the flow of the Parana, and twenty six per 

 cent that of the Uruguay River. These 

 interlaced with the affluents of the Amazon 

 along a line of fourteen degrees of longitude 

 The author sought to show that the Plata 

 drainage area was, in a recent geological 

 period, much more extensive than it is to- 

 day ; that its extreme northern limit was in 

 10° 44' south latitude, and that nearly all the 

 waters that now unite to form the Madeira 

 River, the main affluent of the Amazon, 

 once flowed southward into a Pampean sea 

 that penetrated north over the plains of the 

 present Argentine Republic to about 19° 

 south latitude. 



Dr. Le Neve Foster, who nearly met his 

 death in 189*7 from carbonic-oxide poisoning 

 while investigating a mine accident in the 

 Isle of Man, discussing, in his report on the 

 disaster, the origin of the gas, points out 

 that although it occurs occluded in certain 

 rocks and minerals, it has never been found 

 as a natural constituent of the atmosphere 

 of the mines. He had, therefore, to seek an 

 artificial source, and found it in the burning 

 of the timber in the mine. It appeared that 

 the combustion of a cubic foot of larch, the 

 wood used in the timber construction of the 

 Snaefell mine, gives rise to enough carbonic 

 oxide to occupy four hundred and seventeen 

 feet of space at a temperature of 60° F. and 

 a pressure of thirty inches. Twenty-five cubic 

 feet of timber will yield sufficient to infect 

 the atmosphere with one per cent of the gas 

 all through the mine— enough to cause almost 

 immediate loss of consciousness and speedy 

 death. It is important, therefore, to avoid, 

 as much as possible the use of combustible 

 material in the shafts and roadways of mines, 

 unless they are constantly wet or damp. It 

 is also well to have compressed oxygen at 

 hand for the restoration of asphyxiated per- 

 sons, and also apparatus for penetrating 

 noxious gases. 



Rafting, similar to that which formerly 

 distinguished the navigation of the Ohio and 

 Mississippi Rivers, and to that which is still 



employed by the wood dealers on the great 

 rivers of northern Russia and Siberia, is in 

 use among the farmers of the middle and 

 upper courses of the Yang-tse-Kiang as a 

 means of getting their produce to market. 

 They join rafts till they have a surface of 

 two or three acres, care being taken not to 

 have them too large for the river at its nar- 

 rowest passages, and on these they build 

 veritable farmsteads, with dwelling houses, 

 barns, stables, and pigpens, for horses, 

 cattle, and swine ; and provide supplies of 

 hay, fodder, and provisions for beast and 

 man, to last the human and animal popula- 

 tion of the craft during their journey of six 

 hundred or nine hundred miles. The men 

 on board are not idle through this journey, 

 but have their stock of osier twigs and spend 

 their time making baskets and other articles. 

 Arrived at one of the great river marts, the 

 people dispose of their animals and products, 

 sell the articles they have made, and find 

 markets for the material of their rafts with 

 the dealers in lumber and firewood — just as 

 the Ohio and Mississippi boatmen used to do. 

 Then they return home. 



NOTES. 



The New York School of Applied De- 

 sign for Women, 200 West Twenty third 

 Street, was organized for the purpose of 

 affording to women instruction which will 

 enable them to earn their livelihood by the 

 employment of their taste and manual dex- 

 terity in the application of ornamental de- 

 sign to manufacture and the arts. Besides 

 eight elementary courses, it has a course in 

 historic ornament, advanced courses in the 

 applications of design to the manufacture of 

 wall paper and silk, and of the elementary 

 instruction to the work of an architect's 

 draughtsman, and to illustrating and lithog- 

 raphy ; and special courses in book-cover 

 designing, advanced design, animal drawing 

 for illustration, stained glass designing, water- 

 color painting, and interior decoration. The 

 instructors are practical men from manufac- 

 toiies and architects' offices. Pupils are al- 

 lowed to proceed as rapidly as they master 

 the successive steps in the course of instruc- 

 tion, without having to conform to a fixed 

 period. 



Communicating to the American Associa- 

 tion the results of experiments in fig-raising 

 in California, Dr. L. O. Howard said that the 

 trees produced from imported Smyrna cut- 

 tings dropped most of their fruit, whence it 

 seemed that something was wanting. This 

 was found to be the fertilizing insect, Mas- 



