POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



563 



the size of the cask. These lengths are then 

 boiled for two or three hours in a closed ves- 

 sel, while a current of electricity is passed 

 through the water. The wood is thereby 

 softened so that it can be cut, in a machine 

 rotating the log in the same manner as the 

 ordinary lathe, into a sheet of any desired 

 thickness. The sheets are then passed 

 through a grooving machine and grooved. 

 Another machine seizes the sheet between 

 two arms, and by means of knives cuts a 

 series of mortices or slots around the sides, 

 so as to give them, when made up, the de- 

 sired conical shape. Eventually the sheet 

 reaches the cooper, who rolls it into cylindri- 

 cal form, drives on the hoops, and makes a 

 barrel of it. 



The Chemung Geological Formation. 



The conclusions of Prof. John J. Stephen- 

 son's review of the relations of the Chemung 

 and Catskill formations on the eastern side 

 of the Appalachian basin, as expressed in 

 his address at the American Association, are 

 that the series from the beginning of the 

 Portage to the end of the Catskill forms but 

 one period, the Chemung, which should be 

 divided into three epochs the Portage, the 

 Chemung, and the Catskill ; that the deposits 

 of the Catskill epoch were not made in a 

 closed sea or in fresh-water lakes ; that the 

 disappearance of animal life over so great a 

 part of the area toward the close of the 

 period was due to gradual extension of the 

 conditions existing in southeastern New York 

 as early, perhaps, as the Hamilton period; 

 and that the Chemung period should be re- 

 tained in the Devonian. 



Scenery of the Mustagh Glaciers. In his 



description, before the English Society of 

 Arts, of the Pamirs and neighboring regions, 

 Captain F. E. Younghusband gave a pictur- 

 esque account of the scenery of the glacial 

 regions of the Mustagh Mountains. The first 

 object to attract attention in ascending the 

 mountain streams is the appearance of what 

 seem to be great heaps of gravel, with a 

 stream issuing from their feet. Clambering 

 up to the summit of one of these mounds, 

 the traveler looks upward over a sea of 

 needle-like pinnacles of ice, of every fantas- 

 tic shape and variety of color, and among 

 them sees long lines of rocky debris, the 



medial moraines of the glacier, "while on 

 either hand mountains of stupendous height 

 rise in stern and solemn glory." Among the 

 pinnacles, or serecs of ice, " may be seen 

 fairy-like caves and grottoes of pure ice, with 

 icicles twenty or thirty feet in length hang- 

 ing from the ceiling or formed in a delicate 

 fringe across the entrance, and into the walls 

 of these lovely caves one can look as into a 

 sheet of glass." When the great snow-fields 

 at the head of the glacier are reached, " all 

 is white, pure, and unblemished ; and the 

 bold intruder is deeply and unforgetably im- 

 pressed with the noble sublimity of the 

 mountains towering round on every hand, 

 and moved by his audacity in daring to in- 

 trude into regions ruled by Nature in such 

 stern and silent grandeur. He feels, too, 

 what tremendous forces are at work beneath 

 the calm and placid surface; for, while at 

 first sight all seems still and unchangeable, a 

 glance around shows the glaciers rent into 

 great chasms with perpendicular walls of ice, 

 perhaps hundreds of feet deep, into which, 

 if a stone is dropped, it bounds from side to 

 side, and the echoes are heard coming up 

 from the very heart of the glacier. And 

 then a little observation shows that these 

 vast seas of ice, motionless and immovable 

 as they seem, are year by year forcing their 

 way down the valleys, carrying on their icy 

 bosoms the fragments and craigs of rock 

 which have been broken off from the mount- 

 ains by the nipping fingers of the frost. 

 Great cliffs, too, are met with, worn away 

 and ground by the glacier forced against 

 them ; and I have seen a whole cliff of lime- 

 stone polished and smoothed by the glacier 

 almost as well as small fragments of rock 

 are by the hand of man." 



Eastern and Western Weeds. A com- 

 parative list has been published by Prof. 

 Byron D. Halsted, made up from his own ob- 

 servations and those of his correspondents, 

 of the weeds of New Jersey or the East, and 

 Iowa or the central West. Of 297 weeds in 

 Iowa, 210 are native and 87 are foreign; and 

 they are further classified as 51 worst weeds, 

 94 bad weeds, and 152 indifferent weeds. In 

 passing from the worst weeds through the 

 middle class to the indifferent, the percent- 

 age of perennials rapidly increases. In New 

 Jersey, 135 weeds are native and 130 are 



