MISCELLANY. 



121 



vating the soil. No flint or stone imple- 

 ments are to be found among them, and 

 they produce a flame by rubbing two sticks 

 together. Their intellectual capacity is so 

 small, that they are unable to count or to 

 discriminate colors. They are almost des- 

 titute of the religious sentiment, as well as 

 of an appreciation of personal cleanliness, 

 for they habitually eschew ablutions. They 

 abhor theft and lying. But, perhaps the 

 most remarkable trait in the character of 

 the Weddas is the apparent absence of a 

 faculty which is held to be peculiar to the 

 human race that of laughter. It is stated 

 that they regard the expression of mirth by 

 others with surprise and disgust, and that 

 no Wedda has ever been known to laugh. 



Lettuce as Food for Silkworms. A writ- 

 er in Das Ausland states that, in the sum- 

 mer of 1873, a few silkworms, belonging to 

 his children, were fed with lettuce for some 

 time after being hatched, mulberry-leaves 

 not being obtainable. The caterpillars ate 

 the lettuce ravenously, but, when they were 

 about half-grown, a supply of mulberry- 

 leaves was procured, and this constituted 

 their food for the rest of the season. The 

 moths in due time spun their cocoons as 

 usual, and the next spring the author him- 

 self determined to feed the silkworms only 

 on lettuce. The young brood devoured the 

 lettuce in great quantities, care being taken 

 to leave no moisture on the surface of the 

 leaves. The insects grew and went through 

 their metamorphoses in the usual manner ; 

 a few only died, and they from carelessness 

 in not wiping the leaves dry. The cocoons 

 were of good quality, and the author intend- 

 ed to exhibit some of them at the Royal 

 Agricultural Hall in Stuttgart. Time alone 

 can determine whether silkworms will de- 

 generate on being fed on lettuce. How- 

 ever this may be, the subject is one that is 

 worthy of investigation. 



Dredging for Amber. According to an 

 official report from Memel, Germany, an es- 

 tablishment has been organized for obtain- 

 ing amber by dredging in the Kurische Haff, 

 . near the village of Schwarzorts, situated 

 about twelve miles south of Memel. It has 

 been known for many years that amber ex- 

 isted in the soil of this place, from the fact 



that the dredger employed by the Govern- 

 ment for clearing away the shallow spots 

 near Schwarzorts, which impeded naviga- 

 tion, brought up pieces of amber, which 

 were duly appropriated by the workmen, 

 and at the time no particular attention was 

 paid to the matter. Some time afterward, 

 however, some speculators associated, and 

 made an offer to the Government not only 

 to do the dredging wherever required at 

 their own expense, but to pay a daily rent, 

 provided the amber which they might find 

 should become their property. This pro- 

 posal was accepted, and the rent fixed at 15 

 thalers, and later at 25 thalers, for each 

 working day. The dredging was begun 

 with four machines worked by men, and 

 one worked by horses. Judging from the 

 extended business transactions in this mat- 

 ter, its results must have been extremely 

 profitable. At present, the work is carried 

 on with eighteen steam-dredges and two 

 tug-boats, the whole managed by about 

 1,000 laborers. 



Temperature of Germination. It is gen- 

 erally supposed that the seeds of plants do 

 not germinate at a temperature lower than 

 4 or 5 Cent. (40 Fahr.), but certain experi- 

 ments made by Uloth, and published in the 

 German botanical magazine, Flora, would 

 seem to show that, this opinion is erroneous. 

 In Dr. Uloth's experiments the seeds of 

 Acer platanoides and of Triticum germi- 

 nated at a temperature not exceeding zero 

 C. (32 Fahr.). In the winters of 1871-"72 

 and 1872-'73, he made the following experi- 

 ments : He took two boxes and in each had 

 a certain depth of water frozen into a block 

 of ice. In these blocks he made furrows four 

 millimetres deep, in which he sowed seeds 

 of various plants, which were the same for 

 the two boxes. He now covered the boxes 

 with a plate of ice, and stored them away 

 in two separate ice-houses. He then partly 

 filled two boxes with soil, in which he sowed 

 the same kinds of seeds. These boxes he 

 also covered with plates of ice, and stored 

 them in the same ice-houses with the others. 

 Care was taken to have a good thickness of 

 ice (over four feet) surrounding the boxes on 

 every side, so as to provide against any 

 elevation of the temperature. The boxes 

 were placed in the ice-houses in January, 



