250 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



them by the aid of a hand lens and 

 also projected on the ground glass of 

 the camera. I cordially commend the 

 study of eggs of insects to our readers 



THE PAIR OF CECROPIA MOTHS ON 

 THE HONEYSUCKLE. 



and hope that The Guide to Nature 

 may have many articles along that line 

 from our contributors. 



BLOWING} UP A MOUNTAIN. 



"What are you going to do with that 

 mountain ?" 1 asked. 



"Blow it up," he replied, as though a 

 well-developed mountain was of no more 

 importance than a pebble in his path. 



That graphically tells the story of just 

 how the new transcontinental is being 

 built. And the blowing up of "moun- 

 tains" in these days of powder and 

 dynamite is not a myth. In the moun- 

 tain and wilderness regions "coyote 

 holes" are being fired every day, and 

 one can sometimes hear the explosion 



thirty miles away. I was present at one 

 of these events. Four thousand yards of 

 rock stood in the path of the transconti- 

 nental. A curve would have taken one 

 round the base of it. But "orders are 

 orders," and the "coyote" was dug. A 

 soft seam was found in the mountain of 

 rock, and the tedious task of drilling into 

 its heart was begun. When completed 

 the "coyote" was a tunnel about four 

 feet square running back into the rock 

 for fifty feet, where it terminated in a 

 chamber. It took half a hundred men to 

 carry in the explosives. One hundred 

 and twenty-five barrels of powder were 

 dumped into stacks and the sacks packed 

 in the chamber, and with these were three 

 cases of dynamite of fifty pounds each. 

 Electric wires and fuses were then con- 

 nected with the mine, and after that the 

 face of the tunnel was rammed solid with 

 rock and earth. When the time came 

 for the terrific explosion there was not a 

 soul within half a mile of the mountain. 

 And then a lightning flash passed 

 along the wire. One minute — two — three 

 — five oassed, while in the bowels of the 

 mountain the fuse was sizzling to its end. 

 Then there came a puff, something like 

 a cloud of dust rising skyward, but with- 

 out sound; and, before its upward belch- 

 ing had ceased a tongue of flame spurted 

 out of its crest — and after that, perhaps 

 two seconds later, there came the ex- 

 plosion. There was a rumbling and a 

 jarring, as if the earth were convulsed 

 under our feet ; volumes of dense black 

 smoke shot upward, shutting the moun- 

 tain in an impenetrable pall of gloom ; 

 and in an instant these rolling, twisting 

 volumes of black became lurid, and then 

 it was as if all the guns of all the navies 

 of the world had exploded close to our 

 ears. As fast as the eye could follow 

 a sheet of flame shot out of the sea of 

 smoke ; climbed higher and higher, in 

 lightning flashes, until the lurid tongues 

 licked the air a quarter of a mile above 

 the startled wilderness. Explosion fol- 

 lowed explosion, some of them coming 

 in hollow, reverberating booms, others 

 sounding as if in mid-air. The heavens 

 were filled with hurtling rocks ; solid 

 masses of granite ten feet square were 

 thrown a hundred feet away ; rocks 

 weighing a ton were hurled still farther 



