POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



281 



ured young. "The majority of them 

 seemed to feel as much at home here as in 

 any nestiug-ground of their own choice, and 

 generally returned whenever they were per- 

 mitted to migrate in autumn." The proge- 

 ny of the Canada goose as well as of the oth- 

 er species prospered well and became large. 

 Some of the progeny are still living, and 

 betray in many instances a tendency to re- 

 vert, as to plumage, but the majority have 

 become completely metamorphosed into 

 barn-yard fowl. No hybrids from different 

 species were obtained, except from crosses 

 between the mallard and the dusky duck. 

 The food of all the ducks was what they ate 

 in the wild state grains, acorns, etc. ; and 

 shoots and roots of aquatic plants for the 

 wood-ducks. All the species experimented 

 with migrated southward, if not maimed, 

 each autumn, and invariably returned with 

 a male mate, which remained till the female 

 began to hatch, when it went away, never 

 to return. The crosses obtained with tame 

 birds retained their original plumage to a 

 greater or less degree, but were of increased 

 size. It appears from the experiments that 

 the majority of our wild ducks are not easi- 

 ly prone to change their wild condition for 

 that of perfect domestication, but that they 

 manifest no aversion to breed freely, even 

 when they are placed under artificial re- 

 straints. 



Siberian Products. The following facts 

 indicate that Siberia may be destined to 

 occupy a place of considerable importance 

 in the world's trade : Gold, silver, platinum, 

 lead, copper, and iron are found in the Ural. 

 The gold product of that region (nearly all 

 of it being drift-gold) amounted in 1S76 to 

 between 140 and 150 centners ; and the 

 whole product of Siberia in 1877 was esti- 

 mated at about 780 centners. Coal-beds 

 exist in the Ural, in the Kirghiz steppes, 

 on the northern borders of the Altai Mount- 

 ains, on Lake Baikal, and on the Amoor 

 River. Graphite-beds have long been worked 

 in the Shian Mountains, and other graphite 

 beds are waiting exploitation on the lower 

 Tunguska. Agriculture and cattle-raising 

 do not flourish, notwithstanding some favor- 

 ing circumstances, on account of the deficien- 

 cy of outlets and labor. The fur-trade is not 

 so important as it formerly was ; for the 



silver-fox, ermine, and sable have become 

 scarce. The fisheries afford an important 

 article of export, but they are carried on in 

 the most primitive manner. The opening 

 of the Arctic Ocean to navigation and the 

 extension of the railroad that now reaches 

 to Ekaterinburg will be of great advantage 

 to the future of Siberia. 



Miracles not out of Date. Dr. Gior- 

 dano has reported upon a remarkable epi- 

 demic of morbid fanaticism which is pre- 

 vailing in the village of Alia, in Italy. The 

 place is almost inaccessible, having but 

 little intercourse with the world, and is 

 marked by a barbarous style of living, and 

 by the prevalence of intermarriage, with 

 its usual concomitants of weak-mindedness, 

 morbidness, and idiocy; consequently, su- 

 perstition flourishes. After a long drought 

 in February, March, and April last, a re- 

 ligious procession was organized to obtain 

 rain. The statue of Saint Francis was car- 

 ried round, and the declaration of a fanatic 

 that he saw water flowing on the face of the 

 saint was readily taken up by the credulous 

 crowd. The miracle was attributed to the 

 intercession of a girl named Rosalia Giallon- 

 barda, who, having formerly suffered from 

 epilepsy, believed she had been cured by 

 the saint, and was the subject of an exces- 

 sive mysticism, with hallucinations. Her 

 frenzy was caught by her relatives and 

 neighbors, and spread abroad till the crowds 

 of fanatics coming to visit her and the saint 

 became so formidable that she was arrested. 

 This " sacrilege " only stimulated the popu- 

 lar excitement. 



Silk-spinning Spiders. The spiders, 

 large Epeiridce, which produce silk, inhabit 

 the hottest countries. They are represent- 

 ed in our latitudes by a few species of infe- 

 rior size, the most common of which, the 

 Epeira diadema, is very numerous in gar- 

 dens in the fall, and may be remarked by 

 the regularly shaped webs which it weaves 

 among the bushes. These delicate gauzes, 

 however, give only an imperfect idea of the 

 webs that are woven by the larger species 

 of tropical regions. In India, the Sunda 

 Islands, Madagascar, Reunion, and Mauri- 

 tius, the Epeira! construct webs of extraor- 

 dinary dimensions, and the traveler has frc- 



