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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The editor of the " Medical Press " has 

 visited a canary-bird, in the possession of 

 Dr. J. MacGrigor Croft, that can talk. He 

 says he found that the bird could pronounce 

 a good number of sentences, " clearly imita- 

 tive of the voice of the lady who had care 

 of it since its early youth," and that " the 

 effect produced by the clear, sweetly uttered 

 sentences pronounced by the bird is almost 

 weird at first; but the feeling of wonder 

 thus created quickly gives rise to a sensa- 

 tion of exquisite pleasure, which is deepened 

 as the little creature suddenly, at the end 

 of a sentence, rushes off into an ecstasy of 

 song." 



Mr. Craig, of Montreal, has produced a 

 novel effect in the electric light by the de- 

 vice of placing his reflectors under the light 

 and throwing the rays upward to the ceil- 

 ing. It is found that by using this method 

 the light, as reflected back from the ceiling, 

 falls upon the persons below much softened, 

 and far more agreeable in tone than when 

 reflected directly downward in the usual 

 way. The glaring center of light is hidden 

 by the reflector below it, and no longer of- 

 fends the eyes. Objects not exposed to di- 

 rect light are not in shadow, as in cases of 

 ordinary reflection, but the whole effect is 

 described as like that of the sun in the 

 zenith. 



Mount Etna has been in a half-active 

 condition ever since the great eruption of 

 18*79. Hardly a month has passed in which 

 it has not ejected smoke and sand with 

 greater or less violence and persistency. 

 The outbursts have been accompanied by 

 the strong tremblings of the ground, and 

 the intense subterranean noises which com- 

 monly precede the great eruptions, but there 

 has been no emission of lava. Such fre- 

 quency of eruptive paroxysms, ending in 

 simple jets of dust, is unprecedented in the 

 long history of Etna. 



The "Echo of Japan" says that a cave 

 near Beppo-Moura, Japan, had not been 

 entered by any one for several generations. 

 According to popular belief, a god made his 

 abode there, and was ready to punish with 

 death any one who violated his privacy. 

 One of the tribe of doubters recently vent- 

 ured in, and -found there the veritable god 

 whom the mass of mankind worship. The 

 ground was strewed with nuggets of gold. 

 A preliminary examination of the spot has 

 been made, and shows that it is extraordi- 

 narily rich in the precious metal. 



It is estimated that twenty-nine per cent 

 of the acreage of Europe is still in timber. 

 Forty per cent of the enormous territory of 

 Russia is in forests, and of this two hundred 

 million acres are in pine-woods. Thirty- 

 four per cent of the territory of Sweden and 



Norway is occupied with woods of useful tim- 

 bers, twenty-six per cent of Austria, twenty- 

 seven per cent of Germany, seventeen per 

 cent of France, seven per cent of Spain, the 

 timber being cork, oak, and chestnut, five per 

 cent of Portugal, and four per cent of Great 

 Britain. Scotland is the only part of the 

 British Empire (including the colonies) in 

 which the planting of timber is going on to 

 any considerable extent. Sweden is now the 

 country from which the world's supply of fir 

 timber and deals chiefly comes. 



Dr. J. R. Black of Newark, Ohio, in a 

 lecture delivered at Columbus^ makes a well- 

 conceived plea for giving more attention to 

 physical education, saying : " To impart a 

 knowledge of the three R's is well, but is it 

 not as well to impart a knowledge of how to 

 live healthy lives ? Is not a strong, healthy, 

 self-made man better than a highly cultured 

 weakling ? Let the State, as educator, at- 

 tend to this point, earnestly and thoroughly, 

 and the results would be that, besides gain- 

 ing for itself a better soldiery in times of 

 peril, there would also be an increased im- 

 munity from crimes against the State, a 

 diminution of the conditions which produce 

 disease and pauperism, and the rendering of 

 the life of each more joyful and serene." 



In a paper on the aurora of April 16 and 

 17, 1882, which was read before the Ameri- 

 can Philosophical Society, Mr. H. Carvill 

 Lewis points to the occurrence of remarka- 

 ble auroral displays at this time, as afford- 

 ing a striking confirmation of the perio- 

 dicity of these phenomena. " It is just ten 

 years," he says, " since the last auroras of 

 importance occurred, and the period often to 

 twelve years between maximum auroral dis- 

 plays may be regained as firmly established. 

 The coincidence of this period with that of 

 most numerous sun-spots shows a direct con- 

 nection between the electrical condition of 

 the earth and sun. At the present time the 

 sun is exhibiting remarkable disturbances." 



News has been received in Paris of the 

 death of Dr. Crevaux, who had started from 

 Buenos Ayres on a second exploring expe- 

 dition in South America, designing this time 

 to ascend the Paraguay River and its tribu- 

 taries and thence pass to the valley of the 

 Amazon, whence he would descend the Ta- 

 payos. His company appears to have been 

 murdered by a horde of cannibals. On his 

 previous expedition, in 18*79,116 determined 

 with the compass the course of six rivers, 

 two of which belong to Guiana, and four are 

 tributaries of the Amazon. While a little 

 was known of three of these rivers, the Ma- 

 roni, Oyapok, and Issa, two of them, the 

 Parou and the Yari were virgin to all explo- 

 ration, and of the Japura, which is fifteen 

 hundred miles long, four fifths of its course 

 were unknown. 



