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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



best tools and weapons, the finest springs 

 and drawn wire, and the best kind of nails 

 for riveting and clinching. Its excellence 

 depends partly on its being free from phos- 

 phorus and sulphur, and partly on the supe- 

 rior manner of the smelting, which is done 

 with charcoal. The supply of ore is practi- 

 cally inexhaustible. It is found all over the 

 country ; it occurs in the thick strata of the 

 rock and forms the bulk of great mountains 

 in various parts of the kingdom. The largest 

 of these iron mountains is Gellivare, situ- 

 ated in Swedish Lapland, beyond the Arctic 

 Circle. The ore occurs here chiefly in four 

 gigantic strata, and covers so large an area 

 that it is estimated that, if only one metre 

 in depth is taken out a year, the yield would 

 be 943,600 tons, nearly equal to the amount 

 now produced by all the mines in Sweden. 

 The ore contains seventy per cent of iron. 

 Much of it, however, contains apatite, and 

 in such large quantities that the question of 

 turning to account the phosphoric acid held 

 in that mineral is entertained. Iron is chiefly 

 mined in central Sweden, but the best iron 

 comes from the Dannemora mines, a little 

 east of the chief area. Besides making the 

 rougher forms of iron, the Swedes build iron 

 steamships of fine quality, and are very skill- 

 ful in the manufacture of cutlery, for which 

 they have a dozen factories. 



Suspended Matter in Flame. In a com- 

 munication to the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, Mr. G. C. Stokes announces that he 

 has secured an optical proof of the exist- 

 ence of suspended matter in flames. Pass- 

 ing a beam of sunlight, condensed by a 

 lens, through the flame of a candle, he no- 

 ticed that where the cone of rays cut the 

 luminous envelope there were two patches 

 of light brighter than the general flame, 

 which were evidently due to sunlight scat- 

 tered by matter in the envelope which was 

 in a state of suspension. The patches cor- 

 responded in area to the intersection of the 

 double cone by the envelope, and their thick- 

 ness was insensibly small. Within the en- 

 velope, as well as outside, there was none of 

 this scattering. When the beam was passed 

 through the blue base of the flame, there 

 was no scattered light. A luminous gas- 

 flame showed the patches indicating scat- 

 tered light like the flame of a candle, but 



less copiously. They were not seen in a 

 Bunsen flame or in the flame of alcohol, but 

 were well seen in the luminous flame of 

 ether. The phenomenon shows the separa- 

 tion of carbon, associated, it may be, with 

 some hydrogen, in the flame, and the ex- 

 treme thinness of the layer which this forms. 

 It shows, too, the mode of separation of the 

 carbon namely, that it is due to the action 

 of heat on the volatile hydrocarbon or vapor 

 of ether, as the case may be. At the base, 

 where there is a plentiful supply of oxygen, 

 the molecules are burned at once. Higher 

 up, the heated products of combustion have 

 time to decompose the combustible vapor 

 before it gets oxygen enough to burn it. 

 Since making his communication, Prof. Stokes 

 has found that he was anticipated in part of 

 his observation in a paper published a few 

 years ago by Mr. Busch. 



The Ylachs of Turkey. The Vlachs of 

 Turkey are described by Mrs. L. M. J. Gar- 

 nett, in her Women of Turkey and their 

 Folk Lore, as a nomadic people, shepherds or 

 traders, who leave a great deal of responsi- 

 bility to their wives. The women, besides 

 managing their households, have to cultivate 

 the vineyard and garden, herd the sheep, 

 shear the wool, weave the cloth, and gen- 

 erally perform every variety of labor, " not 

 the least arduous part of which is the assid- 

 uous attention required by their lords and 

 masters when they return from their wan- 

 derings for a spell of domestic repose." 

 The customs of this people are a mixture of 

 Greek and Roman tradition. They belong 

 to the Orthodox Church, and their cere- 

 monies at birth and baptism are essentially 

 similar to those of the Greeks. The marriage 

 forms (save the sacred rite) are more like 

 the Roman. These ceremonies are very mi- 

 nute and protracted ; and " it must require 

 a liberal education to master all the details 

 of a Ylach or Greek wedding: to find the 

 five-twigged branch and decorate it with an 

 apple and tufts of red wool and fix it on the 

 top of the bride's house; to prepare the 

 ring-cake and then engage in a hot struggle 

 for it. . . . The unfortunate Vlach must be 

 perpetually trying to remember what func- 

 tion he or she has to perform each week. 

 On New Year'3 day come the children with 

 olive branches ; on the morrow every visitor 



