138 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in Japanese history — one, called Hizamane 

 (the knee-sword), from its being tried upon a 

 convict, and at one stroke severing the knee 

 as well as the neck ; and another, called 

 Higekiri (beard-cutting), from its cutting 

 through the beard when similarly tried. 

 Another sword is mentioned in the cele- 

 brated romance of the memoirs of the Eight 

 Dogs of Satonu and called Murasame (Au- 

 tumn Showers), because it had the magical 

 property of shedding water that kept it free 

 from blood. The sword now exhibited is 

 inscribed with Osoraku, which appears to 

 mean 'fearful,' so the sword probably 

 bore the not inappropriate name of ' The 

 Fearful.' Being a short sword, it has no 

 guard, as the short sword was sometimes 

 worn beneath the robe, where a guard 

 ■would be in the way. Long swords usually 

 have an inscription under the wooden han- 

 dle, giving the name of the maker and the 

 date. This bears none, but the maker's 

 name is found upon the blade of the small 

 knife inserted into the same scabbard, which 

 is inscribed Morju Shiro Kanekiyo. Ka- 

 nenga was the name of a famous sword- 

 maker, some of whose works are dated from 

 1321-1323 A. D. A successor of his was 

 Kaneyoshi (1492-1500), and from certain 

 parallel inclined lines which Kaneyoshi 

 used as a distinguishing mark, and found 

 on the part of the present sword concealed 

 by the handle, it seems probable that the 

 maker, Kanekiyo, was a pupil of his, or a 

 not very distant successor, making the 

 sword, therefore, probably over three hun- 

 dred and fifty years old." 



A Chinese View of it.— The Chinese lit- 

 erati have now come to the conclusion, ac- 

 cording to the North China PIcrald, of Shang- 

 hai, that "Western science has been built up 

 from the leaking out of the knowledge pos- 

 sessed by their ancestors to Western men, 

 who cultivated it, improved upon it, and de- 

 veloped it. Hence they argue in favor of 

 accepting foreign science and inventions in 

 China, saying : " We wish to make use of the 

 knowledge of Western men, because we know 

 that what they have attained in science and 

 invention has been through the help that our 

 sages gave them. We have a good right to 

 it. What Europe has done she has done 

 through the help we gave. If wc did not 



exactly give science to Europe, we gave it 

 the fruitful germ which produced it. They 

 have the science of optics, but in our Motsz 

 we find that reflection from mirrors was 

 known in the days of Mencius. The men 

 of the West hold that the earth is round. 

 This was believed also by our poet Chii Yuen, 

 who, in his ode on astronomy, announces this 

 doctrine ; and this was not many years after 

 Mencius. This being so, we ought not to 

 be ashamed of the study of Western science. 

 We are the rivals of the Western kingdoms, 

 and it is good policy to use their spears in 

 order to pierce their shields. We ought to 

 train our youth in Western science, so that 

 we may know how best to meet them in the 

 struggle to resist their encroachments." 



The Birds of the Fame Islands.— The 



Fame or Fearne Islands of the coast of 

 Northumberland, England, famous by associ- 

 ation with Grace Darling, " the wrecker's 

 daughter," are more noted as the home of 

 countless sea birds which resort there to 

 nest and rear their young. The variety of 

 their features of " cliffs, stacks, and crags, 

 rabbit-warrens and land thickly covered 

 with vegetation, rocks, and sloping beach," 

 admirably adapts them for this purpose. 

 They arc not inhabited, except by the light- 

 house keepers and their families, so that 

 the birds and the rabbits have them all 

 substantially to themselves. They are at- 

 tractive spots to visit, and this is best 

 done in the second week in June, when the 

 breeding season of the birds is at its height ; 

 in addition to the eggs, which are practically 

 countless, the visitor then has the pleasure 

 of seeing many newly hatched birds. As 

 " the Pinnacles " of the islands are ap- 

 proached, the guillemots are seen occupying 

 in thousands the flat tops, sitting on end, 

 and packed so closely together that to all 

 appearance there is not room for another ; 

 " indeed, so dense are the masses, that one 

 can not help wondering how each individual 

 bird can recognize its own egg — for the 

 guillemot lays but one — or, having left it, 

 can force its way back to it again when it 

 has recognized it, more especially as the 

 eggs are placed on the bare rock, without 

 the faintest vestige of a nest. They are 

 pear-shaped, very large for the size of the 

 birds, and the color and markings vary in 



