MISCELLANY 



7^7 



continue attached to the plant for a long 

 time, and thus the observer at once per- 

 ceives which plant has had the benefit of 

 animal food. No difference in health or 

 vigor could be detected between those 

 which had had insects and those which had 

 not. This, however, docs not by any 

 means decide the question whether the 

 plants do or do not digest the insects. As 

 Mr. Meehan remarks, the case of these 

 plants is comparable to that of vegetari- 

 ans and flesh-eaters among mankind ; it is 

 a question which class is the healthier. A 

 plant, he said, might feed on insects, and 

 yet be no healthier than those which lived 

 as other plants did. But the author does 

 not see how this faculty of catching and 

 digesting insects could be developed by 

 natural selection. " It is beheved," said 

 he, " that the power to catch insects is a 

 developed one a power not possessed by 

 their predecessors and developed accord- 

 ing to the law of natural selection. Unless 

 insect-catching can be shown to be an es- 

 pecial advantage, there is nothing to select." 

 Among the many Droseras observed by 

 Mr. Meehan on this occasion, only one pre- 

 sented the phenomenon of the leaf bending 

 over on itself, and so enfolding the pi'cy. 



The Soda -Lakes of Wyominsc. An ac- 

 count of the soda-lakes of Wyoming Terri- 

 tory is given in the report of Mr. Pontcz, 

 geologist of the Union Pacific Railroad. 

 He describes two such lakes, the larger one 

 covering about 200 acres. The average 

 depth of water in this lake is three feet, 

 and its specific gravity 1.097. The soda is 

 nearly all carbonate. The second lake is 

 situated near the first, and covers about Z^ 

 acres. During the greater part of the year 

 it is a concrete mass of carbonate-of-soda 

 crystals. Mr. Pontez excavated to the 

 depth of six feet without reaching the bot- 

 tom of the deposit, which is constantly in- 

 creasing from the influx from the larger 

 lake. These lakes are situated about 65 

 miles from Rawlins Station, on the Union 

 Pacific Railroad. The quality of the car- 

 bonate is declared to be fully equal to the 

 imported article. Estimating the quantity 

 by the specific gravity of the water, its 

 depth and area, the large lake would yield 

 on evaporation 78, COO tons, which would 

 realize, at $45 per ton, 4,510,000. Be- 



sides the cost of freight, the expense of 

 preparing the article for market would be 

 $4 per ton for evaporating. The small 

 lake already crystallized, and estimated only 

 at a depth of six feet and an area of 155,- 

 000 feet, contains 30,660 tons, which at 

 $45 per ton would realize $1,379,700. 



Befiactiou of Sonndi Refraction of 



sound by the atmosphere was the subject 

 of a paper read by Prof Osborne Reynolds, 

 at the last meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion, in which were given the results of ex- 

 periments made by the author. He had 

 confirmed his hypothesis that when sound 

 proceeds in a direction contrary to that of 

 the wind it is not destroyed or stopped by 

 the wind, but that it is lifted ; and that at 

 sufiiciently high elevations it could be heard 

 at as great distances as in other directions, 

 or as when there is no wind. An upward 

 diminution of temperature had been proved 

 by Glaisher's balloon-ascents, and he showed, 

 by experiments with the sounds of firing 

 of rockets and guns, that the upward varia- 

 tion of temperature had a great efl'ect on 

 the distance at which sounds could be heard. 

 By other observations, he found that when 

 the sky was cloudy and there was no dew, 

 the sound could invariably be heard much 

 farther with than against the wind, but that, 

 when the sky was clear and there was a 

 heavy dew, the sound could be heard as far 

 against a light wind as with it. 



The Opinm-IIabit. The British vice- 

 consul at Kinkiang, China, in a report to 

 his government, states certain facts coming 

 under his own observation, which seem to 

 show that the opium-habit may exist with- 

 out detriment to health. During a tour on 

 the Upper Yang-tse-kiang, he was thrown 

 into the closest relations with junk-sailors 

 and others, almo:-t every adult of whom 

 smoked opium. Their work was of the 

 hardest, rising at 4 a. m., and working, with 

 hardly any intermission, till dark, having 

 constantly to strip and plunge into the 

 stream in all seasons. The quantity of food 

 eaten by them was prodigious, and from this 

 and their work it may be inferred that their 

 constitution was robust. The two most ad- 

 dicted to the habit were the pilot and the 

 cook. On the incessant watchfulness and 

 steady nerve of the former the safety of the 



