Vol. XXIV. No. ii.] 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
163 
a s^'stematic study of the fossils, which were thus 
far looked upon as a burden to the mineralogist. 
It soon became evident that the Deluge had noth- 
ing in common with these fossils. The latter were 
found at a depth where the water could not have 
penetrated, as, according to sacred history, the 
Deluge touched only the surface of the earth. It 
was also observed that the perished animals and 
plants which floated together were not mixed, as 
might be expected, but rather in quite a determined 
distribution. Frequently in one layer plants and 
remains of animals were well preserved ; in the 
other, one. could only discover with the greatest 
dilTiculty few and hardly recognizable traces of or- 
ganic life. Here, an exuberant flora arose ; there, 
a numerous fauna. In those layers were promi- 
nent bones of land and mammifers, in which the 
denizens of the deep were vastly more numerous. 
Finally, Cuvier gave a death blow to Schleuchzer's 
theory, and also to his homo diluvii testis, by proving 
that it was nothing else but a three-and-a-half-foot 
salamander skeleton. 
rOriginal in Popular Science KewB.\ 
THE WAY OF THE LIGHTNING. 
BY A. BOOTHBY. 
About 3,400 years ago, a very rich and God- 
fearing man of the East, the patriarch Job, — who, 
by the by, was a Bible meteorologist of ability, — 
asked this weighty question: "Who hath divided 
a way for the lightning of the thunder.'" That 
ancient scientist, with whose surroundings we are 
not now familiar, wrote about as wisely concerning 
lightning and its real essence as any modern scholar 
has dared to do. 
Lightning is apparently freaky, and sometimes 
behaves itself unseemly. Its diverse ways are not 
fully known to man ; and yet there are a few rules 
that even this fickle agent does obey — a few regula- 
tions, now sought out by observation and study, 
tliat do positively somewhat control its seeming 
irregularities. 
The great principles of electricity have in no wise 
changed in all these thousands of years, nor has its 
force, to our present knowledge, either increased or 
diminished since Franklin's celebrated kite experi- 
ment in 1752. The universal law of atmospheric 
electricity, like other electricities, is today this : that 
unlike electricities, positive and negative, attract, 
and that like electricities, positive and positive, or 
negative and negative, repel each other. 
The lightnings of today are no more destructive, 
the winds no more cjclonic, the effects no more 
terrilic — according to the surroundings — than in 
those olden times. Then, as now, showers accom- 
panied by hail and whirling winds prevailed, fearful 
1 lightnings darted hither and thither athwart the 
heavens, and alarming execution was done in 
regions known and unknown to man. 
The following are a few facts that belong to every 
thunder-cloud: The lower surface — the surface 
next to the earth — is exceedingly uneven, and gen- 
erally charged with positive electricity. Some parts 
of the cloud are much nearer the earth than others. 
Electricity gathers in the largest measure at the 
lowest point, or is said to have at its lowest point 
the highest electrical tension. A highly-electrified 
water-cloud at the time of a powerful shower seldom 
exceeds in height a quarter of a mile (1,3^0 feet). 
When the electrical tension is sutliciently high, the 
electricity passes across the intervening atmopphere 
to the highest point — usually negative, but opposite 
to that of the cloud — on the earth, directly under 
the cloud. This passage is called a thunderbolt. 
During an electrical storm, if the air be very dry, 
then the lightnings are more zig-zag and the thun- 
ders more deafening. If the lowest electrified cloud 
be directly over a short object in the immediate 
vicinity of a tall one, the short object — it matters 
but little of what kind — will be "struck." This 
fact, that the way of the lightning from a cloud to 
some object on the earth beneath is usually as direct 
as possible, will greatly help to a better understand- 
ing of some of the mysteries of lightning. So that 
it is not always the highest object in the region 
of a prevailing thunder-shower that is struck, 
but that object which is directly under the lowest 
hanging cloud. It not unfrequently happens that 
a corner of a dwelling-house is struck sooner than 
a tall chimney of the same, because the corner 
thereof was directly under the lowest part of the 
electrified cloud. Repeated and close observation 
will verify the truth of these sayings. 
About 4 o'clock, Tuesday afternoon, August 5, 
1890, during the prevalence of a thunder-storm in 
the vicinity of Willard State Hospital, directly In 
front of the main building, ySt a short distance out 
on the then gently-ruffled surface of Seneca Lake, a 
most fearful, very zig-zag, and blinding thunderbolt, 
followed by unusually terrific thunder, struck the 
waters of the lake directly under the cloud, causing 
a hissing sound not unlike the fall of a red-hot body 
into water. In this instance, the electrified cloud 
hung over a portion of the earth's surface upon 
which there was no remarkable elevation, thus cor- 
roborating the idea advanced in this writing. 
[Origin.al in Popular Science X'etos.] 
A NATURAL ICE-HOUSE. 
BY GEORGE T. BINGAY. 
When living in Annapolis, I heard a story that 
ice could at any time of the year'be dug out of the 
ground in a ravine of the " Mountain" — as the hills 
some three or four hundred feet high which protect 
the Annapolis valley on the north are called. 
Being rather skeptical, I set out one hot day in 
July on a tour of inspection. I selected the north 
side as being probably the coolest; and an old 
inhabitant telling me that if I found a certain 
wood-road, and followed my nose, I could not fail 
to find the place, I started into the woods, but — on 
such a broiling hot day — with little expectation 
of finding anything as cool as ice. The road soon 
began to be crossed by numerous little streams from 
springs, as it gradually ascended the hill, and walk- 
ing was rendered extremely bad by the black mud, 
which was oflen one or two feet deep. Quite a 
brook was made by this water, and it meandered 
along some hundred yards to the right and below 
me, where it widened into miniature pools that 
abounded in trout, which were probably cool if I 
was not. Going two miles up the ravine, I found a 
lot of pits, made by throwing out the small stones, 
and, concluding that they were the ice wells, I threw 
out the stones, twigs, leaves, etc., as those had done 
before, and did find ice in lumps of one or two 
pounds. This did not at all come up to my expecta- 
tions, so I crossed the brook to examine the other 
side. Here I found the side hill as steep as the roof 
of a house, and made up entirely of loose stones, 
weighing from a ton or so downwards, but perfectly 
dry ; the springs were not to be seen. Poor chance 
for ice, thought I, as I clambered over the sharp 
rocks. But just then, to my utter surprise, I came 
directly upon a mass of ice and snow, perhaps 
weighing a ton. The sun was shining full upon it. 
The top of coarse snow, some inches thick, covered 
clear, solid ice, which extended under the rocks as 
far as I could see. But the strangest part was that 
no water was near it, nor could there ever have been 
any ; it was merely a hole in the rocks, considerably 
larger than the rest, and would no more hold water 
than a collander. It was an ice-house; but it was 
also something more^ — it was an ice-making machine 
as well. . . 
I account for the presence of the ice in this way : 
The snow drifts and accumulates in this gorge, to 
the depth of ten or fifteen feet, and the loose stones 
of which the whole hill is composed, under your 
feet and all around you, allow of enough evapora- 
tion to cool the air to a very low point, thus pre- 
serving the snow till it gradually changes to solid 
ice; the coarse snow was in a transition stage. Ice 
keeps here the year round. There is never a drop 
of water nearer than the brook, about thirty yards 
from it, and at a considerably lower level, deriving 
its water entirely from the spring on the other side. 
All the crevices are in this way filled with ice, which 
soon melts; but in the big hole it remains until the 
fall rains dissolve it out. Strange to say, the great 
dampness on the north side does not tend to pre- 
serve the ice; rather the reverse. It is only in this 
comparati'vely dry place that it is well kept. It is 
literally true that the sun shines upon it all through 
the middle of the day. The rock is trap. In some 
way it has been broken up into lumps and slabs, 
and they are piled loosely together, forming a wall 
that would measure on its slope five hundred feet or 
more. There is no earth, and the moss only serves 
to make a better and more extensive evaporating 
surface and a lower temperature. 
At the top of the mountain I found a hole about 
the size of a barrel. In it I lost a valuable cane, 
and almost myself. Next day I went back, provided 
with cord and a lantern, which I lowered some 
thirty yards, revealing a long, wide fissure, where a 
mass of the rock had split off and moved away 
several feet from the main body. Indeed, the lace 
of the mountain is just here full of cracks and 
crevices, affording a favorite resting place for foxes 
and racoons. It is admirably adapted to keep up a 
copious evaporation, making ice on the same prin- 
ciple as is adopted by ice-machine makers. 
Westport, Nova Scotia. 
[Original in Popular Science 2fewa.\ 
ANCHOR ICE, OR GROUND ICE. 
BY S. C. GRIGGS. 
The formation of anchor ice depends upon these 
two properties of water: ist. Water can be cooled 
in a quiescent state down as low as 22° F. without 
congealing; but, as soon as it is disturbed, part 
of the water becomes ice, and the rest of the water 
goes up to 32° F. 2d. The greatestdensity of water 
is about 39'^ F. ; after reaching that point, in cooling, 
it grows lighter on further reduction of tempera- 
ture. 
The conditions for producing anchor ice are : 
ist. A long stretch of still water in a river; then 
the water running over a pebbly bottom in a descent 
of the river. 2d. An intensely cold day, with the 
river free from ice. This latter condition often 
happens after a thaw in winter. 
The water, moving slowly over the stretch of still 
water, cools down below 32^' F. , and remains on the 
surface, as it is lighter than the water below, and 
does not congeal till it reaches the rippling water 
running over the pebbles. This intensely cold 
water cools the rocks and covers them with ice 
on the bottom of the river, often several feet under 
water. This water, cooled down below 32°, is ready 
to deposit ice on the first hard substances it meets, 
and these are the stones at the bottom of the 
river. 
I have seen mills stopped for the want of water, 
because the intensely cold water going through the 
gateway that supplied the water for the mill became 
agitated, and the ice crystals formed so rapidly that 
they completely choked up the opening, and no 
