i 4 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



resources, except in so far as the peculiar 

 conditions call for special exercise of the 

 protective and persuasive or educational 

 functions of the state. Being a restorable 

 resource, restriction of private enterprise in 

 regard to it can not be demanded. The re- 

 strictive and providential action of the state 

 is only necessary in reference to those forest 

 areas whose existence and proper condition 

 influence other cultural conditions. Since 

 restriction of private rights is always im- 

 practicable and unsatisfactory, and compen- 

 sation of damages difficult to adjust, com- 

 mercial or state ownership of mountain 

 forests is advocated. The ameliorative func- 

 tion of the state is called into play for the 

 reforestation of the large treeless areas 

 where private energy is powerless to accom- 

 plish the desired result. 



NOTES. 



It appears to be the belief of some that 

 as man in the savage state has, for the 

 most part, been largely, if not wholly, car- 

 nivorous, he will, with the progress of civil- 

 ization, become entirely vegetarian or use 

 only the products of animals, as eggs and 

 milk, with vegetable food. A vegetable 

 diet has been found very successful in treat- 

 ing kidney troubles and indigestion. In 

 point of economy it is an enormous saving, 

 not only in actual cost to the consumer, but 

 also in land ; as of two equal portions of 

 ground, one raising a cereal and the other 

 beef or mutton, the part devoted to the 

 cereal will support ten times as many men 

 as the beef or mutton portion. 



In a letter on compressed tea, which re- 

 cently appeared in the Kew Bulletin, Colonel 

 Alexander Montcrief says that one of the 

 chief advantages claimed for this form of tea 

 is that, being subjected to heavy hydraulic 

 pressure, all the cells are broken, and the 

 constituents of the leaf more completely 

 and easily extracted by the boiling water, 

 thus effecting a considerable saving in the 

 quantity required for a given amount of the 

 beverage. There is also a gain in its greater 

 compactness and portability. 



It is said that Iceland is gradually be- 

 coming depopulated, owing to the constant 

 emigration of its people to the shores of 

 Canada and the United States. These emi- 

 grants send back such favorable accounts of 

 their new home that others quickly follow. 

 It is estimated that twenty thousand natives, 

 nearly one quarter of the whole population, 

 have left the country in the last year. The 

 emigrants are chiefly from the northern and 



eastern districts, where labor is only carried 

 on under great difficulties, and recent bad 

 harvests have caused much suffering. 



The largest plant-fossil in Europe is ex- 

 hibited at the Berlin Berg-Akademie. It was 

 discovered in 1884 in the coal-mines of Pies- 

 berg, and sent to Berlin by the magistrate of 

 Osnabriick. With great difficulty the mass 

 was cut out of the earth in which it was im- 

 bedded and carted away. The fossil is a 

 piece of a gigantic ancestor of the ordinary 

 lycopodium of the present day, known as 

 Sigillaria. It consists of a trunk about one 

 yard in diameter, which divides at the bottom 

 into several fork-like, strong roots. The 

 surface of the trunk looks like wood, and 

 shows a graining in the form of long ridges. 

 The bark is still traceable in places in 

 charred-looking remains. The entire fossil, 

 with the exception of the charred pieces of 

 bark, consists of argillite. 



Daniel J. Rankin, ex-acting consul at 

 Mozambique and a recent traveler in Africa, 

 read a paper at the January meeting of the 

 Royal Geographical Society on the Chinde 

 River and Zambezi Delta. He points out 

 the importance of cheap and rapid means of 

 communication with civilized markets to the 

 vast tract of country comprised by the Zam- 

 bezi basin, whose only outlet is through the 

 delta ; calls attention to the difficulties at- 

 tending navigation of the Quillimane and 

 Kongoni ports, the ones now chiefly used ; 

 and shows the superiority of the Chinde 

 River in its depth of water and comparative 

 clearness and constancy of channel as a road 

 for import and export. 



Sir Morell Mackenzie has recently 

 written upon The Effect of Tobacco-smoking 

 on the Voice. He tells us that most of the 

 leading actors suffer from a relaxed condi- 

 tion of the upper throat, brought on, he be- 

 lieves, entirely by smoking ; but actresses 

 are rarely affected in that way. He has 

 noticed the same thing in public speakers 

 and clergymen. He says that for a delicate 

 throat the usual smoke-laden atmosphere of 

 a common railway smoking-car is even worse 

 than the actual use of tobacco. The Oriental 

 hookah is, in Dr. Mackenzie's opinion, the 

 least harmful apparatus, as the smoke, pass- 

 ing through water is cooled before entering 

 the system ; and the cigarette, so popular 

 nowadays, is the most harmful. 



The people of the island of Sangir keep 

 time by the aid of an hour glass, formed by 

 arranging two bottles neck to neck. The 

 sand runs out in half an hour, when the bot- 

 tles are reversed. Close by them a line is 

 stretched on which hang twelve sticks marked 

 with notches from one to twelve, with a 

 hooked stick which is placed between the 

 hour last struck and the next one. One of 

 these djaga keeps the time for each village, 

 for which purpose the hours are sounded on 

 a gong by the keeper. 



