POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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ings taken in that neighborhood, the greatest 

 measured being 4,655 fathoms. At 4,340 

 fathoms a Miller Casella thermometer came 

 up wrecked from the resultant pressure. 

 The time occupied in making a cast of 4,356 

 fathoms and getting back a specimen of the 

 bottom was two hours twenty-six minutes 

 and fifty-seven seconds. Good specimens 

 were brought up from four of the depths, 

 and in one other the specimen-cup struck 

 rock. At the deepest of the casts the 

 wire parted. In view of the remarkable 

 depths found, the conclusion was irresisti- 

 ble that the great-circle route would have 

 to be abandoned, and a new line of less 

 depth adopted if it could be found. This 

 series of depths, ranging from 3,500 fathoms 

 to 4,600 fathoms and upward south and 

 east of the ridge between Cape Lopatka and 

 the Aleutian Islands, indicates that a trough 

 or basin of extraordinary depth and extent 

 exists along the east coast of Japan and the 

 Kurile Islands and under the Black Stream 

 (Kuro Siwo), exceeding any similar depres- 

 sion yet found in any other region of the 

 great oceans. The depth of the deepest cast 

 five miles and a quarter, the deepest wa- 

 ter yet found is sufficient to hold two 

 mountains as high as Japan's great Fusi- 

 jama, and leave them nearly two thirds of 

 a mile under water. This region of the Pa- 

 cific has been named by the German geog- 

 rapher Petermann the " Tuscarora Deep." 



Improvement of Printing-machines. 



The first automatic printing-machines, ac- 

 cording to Messrs. Southward and Wilson's 

 woik on the subject, were invented for 

 calico-printing in 1*750. About a hundred 

 years ago, Nicholson took out a patent for 

 a machine applicable to the printing-press. 

 It did not come into use, on account of 

 Nicholson's poverty, and the first practical 

 machine was made by Koenig in 1810, 

 when the Annual Register was printed on 

 his press. This machine was capable of 

 printing a thousand copies in an hour, 

 while no other press then existing could 

 print more than a fourth of that number. 

 Curved stereotype plates were made by 

 Cowper in 1816. Inking by rollers had al- 

 ready been invented. For the last sixty 

 years progress has been very rapid, and 

 every year brings some new machine to 



save time and trouble, and increase the 

 speed of production. Much attention is 

 now given to type-setting machines, of 

 which six are described by Southward and 

 Wilson as in use. The great difficulty in 

 the use of these machines, which has only 

 now been solved, is in the distribution of 

 the type. It is evaded in the London Times 

 office by taking a cast of the matter, then 

 melting the type and refounding it. One of 

 the latest machines, it is said, however, ef- 

 fects the distribution as rapidly as the set- 

 ting. 



The Aye-aye. A curious creature is 

 the aye-aye (Cheiromys madagascariensis), 

 which was long a puzzle to naturalists on 

 account of its many peculiarities of form 

 and structure. It was named by the French 

 traveler Sonnerat, after an exclamation 

 made by the Malagasy natives on seeing it. 

 It is classified by Prof. Owen as the sole 

 representative of the last of the three fami- 

 lies into which the lemuroids are divided. 

 It has eighteen teeth, of which the four 

 front ones two upper and two lower are 

 much like those of a rat. Cuvier compared 

 the lower teeth to plowshares. They are 

 powerful cutting instruments, and availa- 

 ble for removing wood, making holes in 

 branches, and gnawing through the stems 

 of sugar-canes and other similar plants. 

 The ears are large, round, and open, and 

 have been compared to those of a bat ; the 

 eyes are wide and staring ; and the upper lip 

 is perfect, or uncleft. The whole body, ex- 

 cept the ears, nose, soles, and palms, is cov- 

 ered with thick, dark fur. The most curi- 

 ous peculiarity of the animal lies in the 

 structure of the third and fourth fingers, 

 which are very long, the fourth being the 

 largest and longest, while the third is so ex- 

 traordinarily thin and wasted in appearance 

 that, as Prof. Owen-says, it seems as if it was 

 paralyze d. The use of this finger is described 

 by Prof. Saudwith, who gave his pet aye-aye 

 some sticks to gnaw which were bored by 

 grubs : " Presently he came to one of the 

 worm-eaten branches, which he began to ex- 

 amine most attentively, and, bending forward 

 his ears and applying his nose more closely to 

 the bark, he rapidly tapped the surface with 

 the curious second digit as a woodpecker 

 taps a tree, though with much less noise, 



