POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



861 



Their circular walls consisted of wattle and 

 daub ; three or four stout poles with forked 

 ends protruded above the rest of the wall to 

 receive the ribs of the umbrella-shaped roof, 

 this roof being first covered with a plastering 

 of mud, and then thatched with long grass. 

 Some of the granaries measured six feet in 

 height to the eaves and six feet in diameter, 

 but they varied in size to suit the area of 

 level rock available on the several bowlders. 

 The interior is partitioned, by walls of wattle 

 and daub, into three or sometimes four com- 

 partments, to separate the bulk of the grain. 

 The building is covered with an inner roof of 

 sticks plastered into mud before the outer 

 roof is put on. A small door or manhole 

 made from an oval or round slab of rock, and 

 with a handle fitted to it, is let into the wall 

 of the hut about four feet above the ground. 

 The outside ornamentation of nearly all the 

 huts consists of moldings representing the 

 female breast an emblem of plenty and a 

 longitudinal bar in relief above them, the 

 significance of which is open to conjecture. 

 In the aggregate these granaries were capa- 

 ble of storing upward of six thousand bush- 

 els of grain." 



Height of Ocean Wares. Dr. G. Schott, 

 studying the form and height of the waves 

 of the deep sea, found that under a moderate 

 breeze their velocity was 24"6 feet per second, 

 or 16"8 miles an hour, which is about the 

 speed of a modern sailing vessel. As the 

 wind rises, the size and speed of the waves 

 increase. In a strong breeze their length 

 rises to 260 feet, and their speed reaches 360 

 or 364 feet per second. Waves, the period 

 of which is nine seconds, the length 400 or 

 425 feet, and the speed twenty-eight nautical 

 miles per hour, are produced only in storms. 

 During a southeast storm in the southern 

 Atlantic Dr. Schott measured waves 690 feet 

 long ; and this was not a maximum ; for in 

 latitude 28 south and longitude 39 east he 

 observed waves of fifteen seconds period which 

 were 1,150 feet long, with a velocity of 78*7 

 feet per second, or 46^ nautical miles an hour. 

 Dr. Schott does not think that the maximum 

 height of the waves is very great. Some ob- 

 servers have estimated it at 30 or 40 feet in 

 a wind of the force represented by 1 1 on the 

 Beaufort scale (the highest number on which 

 is 12) ; and Dr. Schott's maximum is just 32 



feet. He believes that in great tempests 

 waves of more than 60 feet are rare, and that 

 even those of 50 feet are exceptional. In the 

 ordinary trade winds the height is five or six 

 feet. The ratio of height to length is about 

 1 : 33 in a moderate wind, 1 : 18 in a strong 

 wind, and 1 : 17 in a storm ; from which it 

 follows that the inclination of the waves is 

 respectively about 6, 10, and 11. The 

 ratio of the height of the waves to the force 

 of the wind varies greatly. 



Climate of Galveston. The advantages 

 of the climate of Galveston, Tex., are well set 

 forth in a paper by Dr. I. M. Cline. The city 

 is situated on an island four miles from the 

 mainland, in latitude 29 17' north, and has, 

 therefore, a real insular climate. During 

 twenty years the lowest temperature was be- 

 low 20 only in two, while the highest re- 

 corded temperature is 98. July is the only 

 month in which the maximum temperature 

 reaches 90 in every year. During August it 

 has reached that point in eighteen years ; 

 during September, in eight years ; during June, 

 in four years ; and during May, in three years. 

 The highest monthly range is 58, and the 

 average diurnal range is 10 5'. The amount 

 of moisture in the atmosphere ranges between 

 seventy and eighty per cent. There are on the 

 average 133 clear, 140 partly cloudy, and 92 

 cloudy days in a year; and it is estimated 

 approximately that the sun shines to some 

 extent on 318 days in a year. The average 

 annual death rate is about 15 per 1,000 in- 

 habitants, consumption leading the list with 

 one in fourteen deaths. No epidemic dis- 

 eases, except a few cases of smallpox, have 

 visited the region since 1870, and none of 

 the more destructive epidemics have ever 

 originated in Galveston. 



Flanieless Explosives. A committee ap- 

 pointed in 1888 by the North of England In- 

 stitute of Mechanical Engineers to investi- 

 gate upon the subject of flameless explosives 

 in relation to their degree of safety in mines, 

 has only recently published the first part of 

 its report upon experiments that were begun 

 in 1892. They find that all the high explo- 

 sives are less liable than blasting powder to 

 ignite inflammable mixtures of air and fire 

 damp. They can not, however, be relied 

 upon as insuring absolute safety when used 



