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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Sugar -Eeflnery of Havemeyers & Elder. 

 From "ludustrial America." Pp. 18. 



Report on the Retreat for the Insane. Hart- 

 ford, Conn. : Case, Lockwood & Braiuard Co. 

 print. Pp.3(i. 



Steam-Engine. By F. J. Bramwell. Lon- 

 don : Macmillan. Pp". %l. Price, M. 



Distilled Water from Service-Steam. By C. 

 E. Munroe. From American Chemist. Pp. 12. 



Superficial Deposits of Nebraska. By Dr. 

 S. Augliey. From Hayden's Reports. Pp. 31. 



Self and Cross Fertilization of Flowers. By 

 T. Meehan. Pp. 8. 



Circular Eight of Johns Hopkins University. 

 Pp.12 



The New Century. Pp. 46. $1 a year. 



Natural Resources of the Black Hills. By 

 W. P. Jenney. Washington: Government 

 Printing-Oflice. Pp. 71. 



Proceedings of ATuericau Chemical Society. 

 Vol. I., No.^. Pj). 77. 



Pennsylvania College Monthly. Gettysburg: 

 Wible print. Pp. 28. 



Vick's Floral Guide, Rochester, N. Y. Pp. 30. 



Poisonous Mushrooms. By Dr. I. Ott. Pp. 6. 



POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



Reopening of au Old Route into Sibcriat 



Fully three hundred years ago the Rus- 

 sians carried on an extensive trade between 

 Archangel and the settlements on the Obi 

 and Yenisei. About the . same period the 

 Kara Sea was navigated by English and 

 Dutch mariner.^, in search of a northeast 

 passage to Japan. The Russians employed 

 wretched flat-bottomed boats, called kotch- 

 kies, and in these they braved all the dan- 

 gers of navigating the stormy Kara Sea. 

 But, till quite lately, this route to the in- 

 terior of Siberia was abandoned, and the 

 belief was generally entertained that the 

 existence of ice in the Kara Sea presented 

 an insuperable obstacle to navigation. Re- 

 cent expeditions to the mouths of the Obi 

 and Yenisei, and up those rivers for hun- 

 dreds of miles, have demonstrated the entire 

 feasibility of this route to the interior of Si- 

 beria. The influence of the Gulf Stream and 

 equatorial currents on the temperature of 

 the Kara Sea is apparent from the fact that 

 its waters are as much as 18 or 20 warmer 

 than the waters in the same latitudes off 

 the east coast of Greenland or in Davis's 

 Strait. Of Siberia, the country to be opened 

 up to commerce by the navigation of the 

 Kara Sea, M. de Lesseps declares that it is 

 the richest country in the whole world as 

 regards its vegetable, mineral, and animal 

 products. The great rivers of Siberia flow 



from the south to the north, forming a vast 

 fan which -widens in the interior of the 

 country, to the great advantage both of 

 vegetation and of commerce. The Obi, with 

 its confluent the Irtish, affords a navigable 

 highway into China. 



The Art of tlie Tarrier. It is with 

 regret that we are forced by want of space 

 to present to our readers, in the unsatis- 

 factory shape of a synopsis, a valuable 

 article on " The Art of the Farrier," by Dr. 

 D. D. Slade, published in the Bulletin of the 

 Bussy Institution, vol. ii., Part I. In the 

 state of Nature, we are there told, the growth 

 and wear of the horse's hoof are in perfect 

 equilibrium ; in the domesticated state wear 

 exceeds growth, and some means of pro- 

 tection must be devised. But this again 

 destroys the balance, and growth is in ex- 

 cess. This excess must be removed either 

 by natural wear of the bare hoof or by 

 artificial means. The farrier's art consists 

 'in removing this excessive growth. The 

 hoof of the young animal, before it has 

 been shod, needs little or no preparation 

 from the farrier's hands. The foot that 

 has already been shod must have the nails 

 extracted, and its ground surface cut down 

 to the proper level. The growth is greatest 

 at the toe; in leveling the wall, reduce the 

 hoof at the toe to a level with the unpared 

 heel. The shoe must not remain on the 

 hoof more than one month at a time. 



The heel seldom needs paring away, be- 

 ing usually worn away by the motion be- 

 tween the iron of the shoe and the horn. 

 The process of " opening up " the heel de- 

 stroys that portion of the foot which was 

 designed by Nature as a defense against its 

 contraction ; this defense should never be 

 mutilated. The practice of paring the sole 

 and destroying the bars is to be condemned 

 so long as the parts are healthy ; it exposes 

 the sensitive portions beneath to injury. 

 The frog should be retained in its integrity. 

 Rasping the wall after the application of 

 the shoe cannot be too strongly condemned ; 

 it destroys the polish of the external layer 

 of horn which protects the layers beneath, 

 rendering the crust brittle. 



The shoe ought to present a concave 

 surface to the ground, and a plane surface to 

 the foot. But, where the sole has been mu- 



