NOTES. 



863 



of disintegrated pumice-stone, to which the 

 peak owes its conspicuously white aspect 

 when seen from afar. It can be reached 

 only during the summer months, for snow 

 prevents access to it at other times. The 

 lake, whose name signifies the Dragon 

 Prince's Pool, is six or seven miles in cir- 

 cumference, and is believed by the hunters 

 to be under the special protection of the 

 god of the sea. The inner sides of the cra- 

 ter looking down upon it are very precipi- 

 tous. From its northern end a small stream 

 issues, which becomes the eastern or small- 

 er branch of the Sungari, while the main 

 or western branch owes its origin to several 

 streams rising on the southeast face of the 

 mountain, two of which flow out in handsome 

 cataracts. From the number and character 

 of the rivers that rise in the vicinity, the 

 Pei-shan Mountain is shown to be the very 

 core and center of the river system of Man- 

 churia. 



NOTES. 



WooD-CREOSOTE Oil is recommended by 

 Captain W. H. Bixby, in the Forestry De- 

 partment's " Report on the Relation of Rail- 

 roads to Forests and Forestry," as possessing 

 valuable antiseptic properties. It is an effi- 

 cient poison to animal and vegetable life ; 

 it thoroughly repels moisture, and its tar 

 acids possess the power of coagulating albu- 

 minous and other fermentable matter. It 

 forms an excellent insecticide, and is one of 

 the best possible oils for preserving lumber 

 and piling. Painted upon wooden or metal- 

 lic surfaces, it preserves them from wet and 

 dry rot, rust, and the attacks of insects. 

 Forced into wood by hydraulic pressure, it 

 will fill all the pores, extending its coagu- 

 lating and antiseptic effects to the very cen- 

 ter of the block. It is distilled on a consid- 

 erable scale, in North Carolina, from the 

 wood of the Southern Pimis palustris. 



From a comparison of specimens of 

 chipped implements from different sources — 

 of flint nodules from Abbeville and St. Acheul, 

 France, and Milford Hill, England ; of ar- 

 gillite from Trenton, New Jersey ; of quartz 

 from Little Falls, Minnesota ; and of black 

 chert from the Little Miami, Ohio — Prof. F. 

 W. Putnam has expressed the conclusion 

 that man, in this early period of his exist- 

 ence, had learned to fashion the best avail- 

 able material, be it flint, argillite, quartz, 

 chert, or other rocks, into implements and 

 weapons suitable to his requirements ; and 

 that his requirements were about the same 

 on both sides of the Atlantic, with conditions 

 of climate and environment nearly the same 



on both continents. This brings up for fu- 

 ture investigations the question whether he 

 was the same on both continents, and whether 

 he has left descendants or has passed out of 

 existence. 



A PHILOSOPHICAL definition of luck is 

 given by an English writer as a capability of 

 being incapable. " The first Rothschild was 

 probably right, from his point of view, when 

 he said that he never would employ an un- 

 lucky man. On the other hand, the lucky 

 man is usually the man who fits his fortunes ; 

 who, whether apparently able or stupid, can 

 do just what his especial circumstances re- 

 quire him to do. Very stupid men are often 

 ready men, armed with a readiness as 

 of dogs when they twist from under a cart- 

 wheel unhurt. The ' fool who makes a fort- 

 une ' is usually a man with just the foresight, 

 or just the judgment or the intuitive per- 

 ception of the way things are going — a faculty 

 like long sight or keen hearing, and independ- 

 ent of intellectual power — i-equisite to make 

 large profits quickly. In fact, the fortunate 

 man is usually the man who, in consequence 

 of some hidden quality in his nature, deserves 

 fortune. 



As to the profitableness of hard-wood 

 timber-growing, Martin Conrad, a wagon- 

 manufacturer, of Chicago, says that of the 

 five principal kinds of timber used in his 

 business, white oak takes eighty years to 

 mature ; shell-bark hickory, from thirty to 

 fifty years ; white ash, thirty years ; tulip- 

 tree, sixty or more years ; and red or Norway 

 pine, at least sixty years. An acre of timber 

 artificially grown is worth five times as much 

 as an acre of natural timber. One tree will 

 grow to the rod, or 160 to the acre — say 110 

 after eighty years. At that time each tree 

 will give 500 feet of lumber, or 55,000 feet 

 to the acre, and that in Chicago would be 

 worth now $14.50 per thousand. 



The question whether the rainfall is in- 

 creasing on the plains has been investigated 

 by Mr. M. W. Harrington, who, for the pur- 

 pose, has examined two series of observations 

 representing the average conditions at the 

 epochs of 1850 and 1880. They show an 

 apparent increase of rainfall toward the 

 plains. 



It is a common mistake, according to an 

 eminent authority on bees, Mr. Frank R. 

 Cheshire, to suppose that an angry bee is 

 certain to sting on alighting upon a human 

 hand. On the contrary, she will always ex- 

 amine the skin very carefully first with her 

 palpi. It may seem that she stings at once, 

 and without care or reflection ; but a bee can 

 do a great deal in a very short space of 

 time, in proof of which it may be mentioned 

 that " she can flap her wings more than four 

 hundred times per second, and that each 

 flap involves the extension and contraction, 

 through a nerve impulse, of the muscles em- 

 ployed in the wing-movements." 



