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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



the reason why a greater accumulation 

 of ice is found around the south pole 

 of the earth than occurs around the 

 north pole. And as this ice, by its gravi- 

 tating pull, must draw an undue propor- 

 tion of the waters of the sea towards it- 

 self, it may he that this is the explana- 

 tion of the fact that the waters are 

 drained away from the northern re- 

 gions leaving, for example, the broken 

 lands of northern British North 

 America exposed, and submerging the 

 lands in the extreme south. And many 

 believe that this varying distance of the 

 earth from the sun thus affords a clear 

 explanation of the well ascertained fact 

 that the earth is, accurately speaking, 

 egg-shaped, the portion below the 

 equator being slightly larger than that 

 above it. 



The New Comets. 



A comet was discovered on May 17, 

 which was almost bright enough to be 

 visible to the eye, and which it was 

 strongly hoped might become a con- 

 spicuous object. But when its path 

 about the sun had been computed it 

 was found that its great brightness at 

 discovery arose only from its nearness 

 to the earth. It passed nearest us on 

 May 20, and ever since that time has 

 been very rapidly drawing away, its 

 brightness now being but one twenty- 

 fifth of that which it had at discovery. 

 The path of this comet among the 

 stars is shown in Figure 1, but it is 

 now only visible in the larger tele- 

 scopes. 



The last comet of 1913 will this 

 month emerge from behind the sun 

 into the morning sky. During this 

 month it is moving quite rapidly 

 through the constellation Auriga, and 

 it is hoped that when it has withdrawn 

 from the sun's rays and entered Ursa 

 Major it may become conspicuous to 

 the naked eye. This will hardly 

 occur before August or September, 

 however, if at all. 



The Spiral Nebulas. 



The recent announcement that the 

 well-known spiral nebula which is sit- 

 uated at Z, Figure 1, was actually 

 observed to be rotating will, if 

 confirmed, possess the very highest 

 philosophical interest. While the ma- 

 jority of astronomers believe it prob- 

 able that these strange objects are true 

 nebulous clouds within the borders of 

 our universe of stars and that they are 



each condensing into a central sun 

 with worlds revolving about it, others 

 vigorously contend that they are not 

 true nebulas at all but are star clouds 

 immeasurably far away from our uni- 

 verse. This recent, most important 

 discovery will not, if confirmed, dis- 

 prove this latter conclusion, but it will 

 apparently render the truth of the first 

 hypothesis more probable. 



What is the Best Time of Life? 



If after death at a good old age, say 

 one hundred years, you were given the 

 choice of a body to be owned for all 

 eternity, what would you take? Per- 

 haps you have told the child that he 

 is at the happiest time of his life, but 

 would you select your child body as 

 the best for all eternity? 



You may have eulogized the fullness 

 and the richness of the memories of 

 your Indian summer of life as the 

 best, and assuming that the body is 

 then in full health, would you select 

 that in preference to one in middle 

 age ? Would you resume your body as 

 it was at forty, fifty, sixty or seventy 

 years — that is, supposing you have 

 aimed at one hundred with a well-kept 

 physical machine? 



A similar question was asked a long 

 time ago (I Cor, 15, 35), "With what 

 body do the dead come?" Well, if 

 you could have for all time a physical 

 body, which of your old cast-off 

 bodies would you resurrect and again 

 wear? 



Investigating Nature in Brazil. 

 The strenuous naturalist, Theodore 

 Roosevelt, has been investigating the 

 Brazilian wilderness and writing inter- 

 esting accounts of the trip for "Scrib- 

 ner's Magazine." The first installment 

 was in the April number. We advise 

 lovers of nature not to miss these 

 interesting articles. The effective il- 

 lustrations were taken mostly by pho- 

 tographers in his party. 



Not So Stupid After All. 



"Come, sir," said the teacher to the 

 boy at the foot of his class, "how do 

 you pronounce s-t-i-n-g-y ?" 



The boy at the foot scratched his 

 head. 



"Well," he answered thoughtfully, 

 "it depends on whether the word is 

 applied to a human being or to a 

 bee."- "Woman's Home Companion." 



