252 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to ten of the nutritive matters of milk — a 

 proportion of added preservative material 

 which contrasts very favorably with the 25 

 to 28 per cent, of sugar found in ordinary 

 condensed milk. If the one pound of gela- 

 tine required could be at once dissolved in 

 the whole eight or ten gallons of milk, the 

 process would be simplified and cheapened ; 

 but gelatinization could not then be secured, 

 for it is the gradual drying up of the slabs 

 of jelly, with which the animal and vege- 

 table food materials have been uniformly 

 incorporated, that envelops every particle 

 of changeable substance with an adequate 

 protective coating of gelatine. 



Nctes on Afghanistan! — Afghanistan is 

 happily described by a writer in the Geo- 

 graphical Magazine as a star of valleys ra- 

 diating from the stupendous peaks of the 

 Koh-i-Baba, and bounded all round by very 

 rugged and diificult mountains. These val- 

 leys are traversed by streams which flow in 

 various directions, the most important of 

 them being the Cabool and its tributary the 

 Kunar, the Argandab, the Helmund, the 

 Harirud, and the Murghab. The appalling 

 grandeur of some of the defiles north of the 

 Hindoo-Koosh — a name applied to the whole 

 line of Alpine water-shed stretching south- 

 west from the southern end of Pamir — is 

 not surpassed anywhere, while many of the 

 sheltered glens on the southern slopes of 

 that range are the delight of travelers. 

 The general elevation of the country, which 

 is considerable, diminishes toward the fron- 

 tiers, and as its face becomes lower the 

 rivers are absorbed by irrigation or lost 

 by evaporation, and a belt of very barren, 

 desert-like land is thus formed, bounding 

 Afghanistan on all sides except the north- 

 east corner. The spurs of the Hindoo- 

 Koosh run out on both sides into the basins 

 of the Oxus and the Cabool. Its peaks in all 

 probability rise throughout to the region of 

 perpetual snow, and the loftiest attain 20,- 

 000 feet in height, or over. This mighty 

 range is pierced by upward of twenty passes, 

 all leading from the basin of the Oxus to 

 that of the Cabool. The climate is very di- 

 versified, but this is due to difference of ele- 

 vation rather than of latitude. At Ghazin 

 ('/('ZSO feet) the winters are very severe, 

 and here, as well as in the Hazarajat, the 



people stay in their houses during the cold 

 season. The summer heat is everywhere 

 very great, except in the most elevated parts 

 of the Hindoo-Koosh and other lofty moun- 

 tains. A deadly hot wind blows over the 

 southwestern portion of the country, which 

 is a sandy and almost uninhabited desert. 

 For nine months the sun shines with the 

 greatest possible splendor in Afghanistan, 

 and the nights are even more beautiful than 

 the days. The geology of the country is but 

 little known. Antimony, iron, and lead, are 

 found in the Ghorband Valley, and quarries 

 of white marble in the hills near Maidan. 

 Copper is found in various locahties, but the 

 deposits are unworked. Lead is obtained 

 from the Hazara country ; sulphur from 

 Pir-Kisri, on the eastern confines of Seis- 

 tan ; and zinc and nitre from the Zhob Val- 

 ley and Herat respectively. The main wealth 

 of Afghanistan consists in the domestic 

 animals — the horse, camel, cow, etc. The 

 population is estimated at a little below 

 5,000,000. Wheat is the staple food ; rice 

 is largely grown ; other agricultural pi'od- 

 ucts are turnips, ginger, turmeric, sugar- 

 cane, castor-oil plant, madder, asafcEtida, 

 tobacco, and fruits. 



Japanese Fermented Liqnors. — Some 

 time ago Prof De Bary, of Strasburg, dis- 

 covered that alcoholic fermentation can be 

 effected by the growth of a species of Mu- 

 cor. Singularly enough, as we learn from 

 a communication in Nature^ by Prof. R. W. 

 Atkinson, of the University of Tokio, this 

 agency for bringing about alcoholic fermen- 

 tation has long been known in Japan brew- 

 eries, where it is employed in preparing from 

 rice the alcoholic liquid called sake. In the 

 breweries at HachiOji the main room is usu- 

 ally one hundred and twenty by fifty feet, 

 and twenty -five or thirty feet high ; along 

 the middle of it is a platform about twelve 

 feet from the ground; on this are ranged 

 wooden tubs, which serve for the prepara- 

 tion of the ferment, an operation repeated 

 several times during the brewing-season. 

 At the close of the previous season a quan- 

 ty of green mould is produced on rice by 

 exposing steamed rice mixed with ashes, 

 and over which the spores of this fungus 

 have been scattered in a well-closed cham- 

 ber — the " fungus-chamber " — a small room 



