572 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



"Of the bones of fish which are found 

 in the petrified fishes. All animals having 

 bones within their skin which have been 

 covered by the mud of rivers, which have 

 overflowed their ordinary beds, have received 

 to the line the impress of that mud. And 

 with time, the beds of the rivers having 

 fallen, these animals having the impression 

 of the mud which has inclosed them and 

 consumed their flesh and organs, the bones 

 alone remaining their organization being 

 consumed they have fallen to the bot- 

 tom of the concavity of their impression ; 

 and in that concavity the mud, when it has 

 been dried by its elevation above the course 

 of the river from its aqueous moisture and 

 then from its viscous moisture, becomes 

 stone, inclosing within itself whatever it 

 finds there and filling everything hollow 

 with itself. And finding the concavity of 

 the impression of such animals, it pene- 

 trates subtilely into the minute porosities 

 of the earth by which the air which was in 

 them escapes that is, by the lateral parts, 

 for it can not escape above, because that 

 porosity is occupied by t'-ie humor that de- 

 scends into the void ; and it can not flee be- 

 low, because the humor already fallen has 

 closed the porosity. There remain the lateral 

 particles opened so that the air condensed 

 and pressed by the humor that descends 

 escapes with the same slowness with which 

 the humor descends. That humor drying 

 becomes stone without weight, and main- 

 tains the same form as the animals that 

 have left their impression there, and of 

 which it incloses the bones. 



The Taxation of Revolvers. The fol- 

 lowing, from the London Lancet, will ap- 

 ply with equal force in this country, where, 

 in not a few cases, the boys even indulge in 

 the senseless and dangerous practice of car- 

 rying fire-arms : " The dangerous folly of 

 carrying revolvers was once more illustrated 

 in a case recently tried in the North London 

 Police Court. In this instance a young man, 

 described as being most respectably con- 

 nected, though without occupation, was ac- 

 cused of threatening to shoot a policeman 

 with whom he had had an altercation. 

 Though he had been drinking, he was not 

 intoxicated. A revolver loaded in two 

 chambers was taken from him. The case 



is exactly typical of its kind, and requires 

 no further explanation to show the hazard 

 and the uselessness of this custom of ha- 

 bitually carrying fire-arms. Entirely need- 

 less for purposes of self-defense, they may 

 become at any angry moment the instru- 

 ments of hasty and irreparable crime. An- 

 other minute and the policeman might have 

 been a corpse and his assailant a foredoomed 

 murderer, all for the sake of a petty differ- 

 ence of opinion. Most persons, we feel 

 sure, will agree with us that the time is over- 

 due for some restrictive measure which will 

 abate this growing nuisance. We would, 

 therefore, advocate once more the imposi- 

 tion of a sufficiently heavy tax upon the 

 possession of these weapons, and of regis- 

 tration in each case of sale. To regulate 

 by such restraints an idle practice and a 

 constant menace to public security implies 

 no injury to, but rather a needful care for, 

 private rights." 



The Pamir Table - land. The name 

 Pamir is not properly the name of any par- 

 ticular spot, but means the country of frozen 

 winds. It is well fitted to the region to 

 which it is applied a table-land in central 

 Asia, having the height of the Jungfrau, 

 one of the highest of the Alps, and a super- 

 ficial extent of a hundred thousand square 

 kilometres. In consequence of its height, 

 although it lies in the latitudes of southern 

 Spain, its climate is extremely rigorous. 

 The snow-line varies somewhat, at a height 

 of about fifteen thousand feet, and the zone 

 of cultivation rises to within about fifteen 

 hundred feet of it. Within this zone cereala 

 are raised, and a few good pasture tracts are 

 found here and there. Forest growths are 

 wanting. 



About Certain Dye-stnffs. The princi- 

 pal dye-woods of the Argentine Republic 

 are the Quebracho Colorado, the Algorrobo 

 bianco, the CorovMo, and the Lapacho. The 

 extract of the quebracho, the chemical con- 

 stitution of which has not been ascertained, 

 when dried, gives an almost bla.ck substance, 

 brittle, and having a characteristic luster. 

 It is used alone to dye wool, and with mor- 

 dants. The brownish-black sap of the al- 

 gorrobo gradually solidifies in the air into a 

 resinous and gummy substance that wholly 



