60 JOURNAL OF THE [April, 



the steel, the more rapidly it wears and the more likely it is to 

 break. It does not wear smooth, it drops out in patches ; the 

 small laminae become loosened and the large scales fall off. 

 Steel for rails is not made now as it was when steel rails were 

 introduced. Then, the rails were made of ingots of steel ten or 

 twelve inches square and of sufficient length to make one rail 

 only. Now, the ingot is from fifteen to sixteen inches square 

 and long enough to make three rails. The rails now made 

 contain, as shown by analysis, practically the same percentage 

 of carbon as those first made, yet they are much softer than 

 those, because the granulations of the metal are coarser, the 

 large size of the ingots being answerable for that. These granu- 

 lations are bounded by a delicate layer of what is probably 

 carbide of iron, and they become loosened very easily. This 

 explains why the axles of car-wheels are liable to fracture. The 

 fracture follows along the planes — even in wrought iron — of 

 these apparent crystals (granulations). At the present time, the 

 life of a steel rail is about one-half as long as when steel rails 

 were first made. The wear of a rail is as follows : The rail 

 rests upon ties. Dust, containing particles of grit, accumulates 

 between the ties and the rail, and cuts and grinds away the 

 metal under the motion of the rail produced by the passage of 

 railway trains over the track. No means exist of securing the 

 rails from the movements caused by trains in motion. The 

 under side of a rail will thus be worn away one-eighth of an inch 

 while the upper side is worn away one-quarter of an inch. A 

 few years ago rails were enlarged at the top and lessened at the 

 bottom, in consequence of the belief that they would wear better 

 if so shaped ; but the result was, they wore out so rapidly at the 

 base that their use became dangerous before the upper side was 

 worn out : hence, the present shaped rail, which is large at the 

 top as well as at the bottom." 



EGGS OF THE CHRYSOPA OCULATA. 



Mr. E. B. Southwick : " The position of the eggs is the 

 peculiar feature of the object I have brought. They are the 

 eggs of the lace-wing fly and are situated on silken stalks half 

 an inch in length. The fly deposits its eggs in masses among 

 swarms of plant-lice upon which the larvae feed. The eggs are 

 placed on these stalks in order that they shall be out of the 



