POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



573 



is not fixed. Tradition, not law, sets it at 

 three miles out from shore, but the Spaniards 

 in Cuba have claimed six miles, and most 

 nations now have guns capable of enforc- 

 ing their jurisdiction over that distance. It 

 is impossible to determine by a fixed rule 

 what waters between headlands shall be in- 

 cluded as a part of the territory. It seems 

 obviously proper to include landlocked bod- 

 ies of water ; but should Lake Michigan 

 be admitted to this category ? Mr. Car- 

 penter decides that it should. A convention 

 between France and England made in 1839 

 defined the coast-line as one that should 

 cross the mouths of all bays and channels 

 not more than ten miles in width. This 

 would exclude Chesapeake Bay, which is 

 fifteen miles wide at its mouth, but is evi- 

 dently as much a part of the United States 

 as Seneca Lake. Lords Hale and Ilawkins 

 would have had the ocean boundary cross 

 such inlets as are so narrow that " a man may 

 reasonably discern from shore to shore " ; 

 and Justice Story thought the vision should 

 be required to be distinct and with the 

 naked eye; "Wheaton would include the 

 ports, harbors, bays, mouths of rivers, and 

 adjacent parts of the sea inclosed by head- 

 lands ; and Willcock, saying that it may be 

 regarded as generally accepted that bays or 

 channels within the horns of promontories, 

 however large, are subject to the sovereign 

 of the neighboring land, has given a defini- 

 tion under which our Atlantic coast micrht 

 be considered to extend in a straight line 

 from Maine to Florida. The effect of ele- 

 vation over the sea upon the area of a tract 

 is also considered by Mr. Carpenter. All 

 tracts the measurement of which is taken 

 in degrees and minutes, gain in extent as 

 their height above the sea is increased, for 

 they are there a part of a larger sphere than 

 one whose perimeter is defined at the nor- 

 mal levei. ' Colorado, having a mean ele- 

 vation of 7,050 feet, is estimated to gain in 

 consequence 44,800 acres, or seventy square 

 miles % Estimating the mean altitude of the 

 whole United States at 2,600 feet, the coun- 

 try is> 800 square miles larger than it would 

 be if it were all down at the level of the 

 sea. A district or country otherwise gains 

 in superficial area of land if it is mount- 

 ainous, by reason of the slope of its hills. 

 It is impracticable as >yet to determine the 



actual gain from this source for any State ; 

 but if Colorado is supposed to have an aver- 

 age slope of ten degrees, it gains an addi- 

 tional area of 1,600 square miles; if its 

 slope is five degrees, its gain is 400 square 

 miles. Taking a mean of these figures, it 

 seems safe to say that Colorado is indebted 

 to its mountains for at least one thousand 

 square miles of area, which has never yet 

 been included in any statement of its geo- 

 graphical extent. 



Tastes and Smells in Water. Dr. Will- 

 iam Ripley Nichols, in a paper on " The 

 Tastes and Odors of Surface Waters," calls 

 attention to the desirability of competent 

 persons trained to scientific observation 

 undertaking systematic daily examinations 

 of the water in reservoirs for long periods 

 of time say for five years to watch the 

 changes that take place in its condition and 

 the causes of them. He also notices that 

 the means by which water may be made 

 unpleasant are numerous and complicated, 

 and are not always animal in their origin. 

 The worst smell that he ever obtained was 

 from allowing the seed parts of a species of 

 Potamogcton to decay in water. Professor 

 Brewer has obtained a fishy odor from the 

 decay in water of the leaf-stalks of a pick- 

 erel-weed. Sometimes the odors and tastes 

 from various plants differing from each 

 other seem to blend into a more or less 

 marshy or pond flavor. The water of 

 ponds and lakes that are surrrounded by 

 woods acquires more of a bitter or astrin- 

 gent taste, that may be referred to the dead 

 leaves. When a recently felled tree is ex- 

 posed to the action of water, or when 

 bushes or grass and weeds are killed by 

 being flooded, the sap and more soluble 

 matters are leached out and putrefy or 

 undergo other forms of decomposition. If 

 the matter is alternately flooded and left 

 bare, decay takes place fast. As the level 

 is lowered, those aquatic plants which grow 

 in shallow water die, and if the water rises 

 after a short interval it becomes impreg- 

 nated with the products of their decay. If 

 a considerable interval elapses, land-plants 

 grow upon the exposed surface, and, being 

 drowned by the rising waters, tend to its 

 contamination in the same manner. The 

 substances which form the most offensive 



