POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



857 



been broken by the proper official. The 

 messengers are lifted at the post station 

 from one horse to another, and sometimes 

 die on the way from exposure and fatigue. 

 Over some mountain roads, which would 

 otherwise be impassable, considerable work 

 has been done and money expended. In 

 some places the paths have been paved for 

 foot-passengers, and in others provision has 

 been made for the passage of carts. Most 

 of these roads date from very remote periods, 

 but there are occasional instances of recent 

 construction and repair. 



Forest Growth after Fire.— In an article 

 in Zoe, quoted in Garden and Forest, Mr. T. 

 S. Brandagee describes the vegetation that 

 grows on ground over which forest fires 

 have run, particularly in Colorado, Montana, 

 and on the Pacific coast. Trees have a 

 power of resisting fire proportioned to the 

 thickness of their bark. The redwood trees 

 of the forests of the California coast, when 

 they are killed or burned to the ground, send 

 up new shoots from their roots, which soon 

 surround the old stems with a luxuriant 

 growth ; the parent stem disappears in time, 

 leaving only the circular groves characteristic 

 of the redwood. The forests of Douglas fir 

 in the coast region of Oregon and Wash- 

 ington destroyed by fire are in time replaced 

 by countless seedlings which under favorable 

 conditions grow very rapidly. The mountain- 

 ous region is usually more commonly covered 

 with a new growth than regions of lesser al- 

 titudes, although the new growth is not al- 

 ways at first the same as that of the original 

 forest. Fire is very apt to destroy in the 

 mountain regions the seeds of conifers, for 

 seedlings do not appear immediately on the 

 site of a coniferous forest, although trees of 

 the original species gradually appear grow- 

 ing under the shade and protection of bushes, 

 aspens, and other plants which first cover 

 the burned ground. That fire is the principal 

 cause of this change of forest composition is 

 shown by the fact that, when the original 

 trees arc cut and fires are excluded, young 

 trees of the same species appear at once. 

 Many of the trees that grow in the regions 

 where fires prevail have the power of repro- 

 ducing themselves by root-suckers strongly 

 developed. The soil loosened by fire, and 

 enriched by the ashes of the destroyed for- 



ests, provides excellent seed-beds for the 

 germination of the seeds of many annual 

 and perennial plants. Hence these Califor- 

 nia burns often afford the best botanizing 

 grounds in the State ; and several otherwise 

 rather local plants are appearing in such 

 situations in much greater numbers and 

 growing much more luxuriantly than they 

 have ever been known to do before. It is not 

 difficult, therefore, to imagine how great 

 an influence this periodical burning of vast 

 forest areas must have upon the composition 

 and spread of the flora of the region. 



A Hnndred Miles an Honr. — New York 

 Railroad Men publishes a symposium on 

 the possibility of reaching a speed of a 

 hundred miles an hour, and on the modifi- 

 cations in railroad appurtenances that will 

 be required to promote such a result. Mr. 

 J. D. Layng, of the Cleveland, Columbus, 

 Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad, sees 

 no more difficulty in raising speed to a hun- 

 dred miles an hour than has been met in in- 

 creasing it from thirty to sixty ; and believes 

 that it will be more difficult to get a track 

 clear for the train than to develop a speed 

 greater than now seems possible. Mr. George 

 H. Thompson, of the New York Central and 

 Hudson River Railroad, believes that a wide 

 gauge will be necessary to secure the desired 

 speed ; " but, after the principles of railroad- 

 ing become better known, an ultimate rail- 

 road constructed and operated upon ultimate 

 ideas will obtain. Forces now at work, part- 

 ly physical, partly ethical, point to a broad 

 gauge, say eight to ten feet. This gauge, 

 outside of its adaptation to economical 

 freight-work, will admit of large drivers, and 

 consequent high-speed acceleration and low 

 piston speeds." Further, Mr. Thompson be- 

 lieves, as a deduction from the doctrine of 

 evolution relating to progress, that high 

 speed will some day be in the usual order of 

 things. Another general manager is hope 

 f ul as to high speed ; but three other officers 

 do not believe that a hundred miles an hour 

 will be reached in this generation, if ever. 



An Ant Mineralogist. — A curious coinci- 

 dence is observed by M. A. Vercoutre be- 

 tween a statement of Pliny's and the habits 

 of an American species of ant. The Roman 

 naturalist relates that among a tribe in 



