70 



iS;i)C jTavmcr's iHoutl)lu biriitor. 



000 pounds of ore in sij;!]!. It is from 12 to 15 

 inclifs in iliiiilincss. On tlje fjixir about the ren- 

 tre of tlie ciive, as if fiilleii fjoni tlin ceiling', tljere 

 are pieces or liodies of ili« niineriil vvliieli are 

 estimated to wei^di 40,000 ll)s. Witliin tlie last 

 three tiiontlis, under a very defective systeju of 

 operations, an avernye of tun liands have been able 

 to raise between 350,000 and 400.000 lbs. One 

 fnrnace has been in operation during the linie, 

 another is in progress of erei-tion. As yet the 

 riches of that section are hut half <leveloped. 

 There are appearances which indicate to tlie 

 skillid iiiiner the presence of mineral in every 

 direction. But of these, it is not necessary to 

 speak, as future operations will disclose the ac- 

 tual wealth to be Ibiuid at the Maintnolh Cave." 



Curiosities of Science. 



From an address recently delivered befure the Mechamcs' 

 iNijTiTUTE, of New York. 



1 meniiou these r.icls, only in the hope of showing you 

 thit there \s pleasure in studying the sciences, and when 

 we come to Natural History we shall Knd the study of 

 that still more amusing. The animal and vegetable worlds 

 are well worthy of uhscrvalinn. Frnbaljly you all know 

 what is meant by a cycloid. If we make a spot in the 

 periphery of a wheel, Ir.ivelling on a plane, the figure 

 which that spot describes is a cycbdd. Now. there is no 

 figure in which a body can be moved with so much veloci- 

 ty and such regularity of speed, not even in a straight 

 line. Mathematicians discovered this not a great many 

 years ago; but Nature's God taught it to the eagle before 

 mathematics were invented ; and when the eagle pounces 

 upon his prey, he describes a cycloid. 



.\ globe placed in water, or in air, in moving meets with 

 resistance, and its velocity is relariled. If you alter the 

 globe to the form of an egg, there will be less resistance. 

 And then there is a form called the solid of least resist- 

 ance, which mathematicians have studied a long lime to 

 discover ; and when they had discovered it, they found 

 they had the form of a fish's head ! iNalure has •' rigged 

 out " the fish with just such a figure. 



The feathers of birds and each particular part of them 

 are arranged at such an angle as to be most clTicient in 

 assisting Might. The human eye has a mirror, on whicli 

 they are conveyed to :he brain, and thus we are enabled 

 to lake an interest in objects which pass before the eye. 

 JNow, when the eye is loo conve.\, we use one kind of 

 glasses to correct the fault; and if it be not convex 

 enough, or if we wish to look at objects at a distance, we 

 use glasses of entirely another description. 



But as birds cannot get spectacles. Providence lias giv- 

 en them a method of supplying the deiicicnny. They 

 have the power of cf)ntractiiig the eye, of making it more 

 convex, so as to see the specks which float in the atmos- 

 phere, and catch them for food ; and also flattening the 

 eye to see to a great distance, and observe whether any 

 vulture or other enemy is threatening them. In addition 

 to this lliey have a film or coating, which cart be suddenly 

 thrown over the eye to protect it ; because at the velocity 

 with which they fly, and with the delicate texture of their 

 eye the least speck of dust would act upon it as a pen- 

 knife thrust into the human eye. The film is to protect 

 the eye. and the same thing exists to some extent in the 

 eye of the horse. The horse has a large eye, very liable 

 to take dust. I'his coating in a horse's eye is called a 

 /mrw, or third eyelid, and if you will watch closely, you 

 may see it descend and return with electric velocity. It 

 clears away the dust and protects the eye from injury. If 

 the eye should catch cold, the haw hardens and projects, 

 and ignorant persons cut it ofl", and thus destroy this safe- 

 guard. 



Yiiu all know, if you take a pound of iron, make of it 

 a rod a foot long, what weight it will support. Rut if it 

 be a hollow rod it will support a weight niony times great- 

 er than bel'ure. ISature seems to have taken advantage of 

 this aliio, long before niatliemalicians had discovered it, and 

 nil the bones of animals are hollow, 'I'he bones of birds 

 are large, because they must he strong to niove their large 

 wings with Fufiicient velornty ; but they must also be 

 light, in order lo float easily upon the air. Birds also il- 

 lustrate annlher fact in natural philosophy. If you take a 

 bag, make it air-ti;iht. and put it under water, it will sup- 

 port a large weight. JNow a bird has such an air-bag. — 

 \Vhen ht; wishes to descend he compresses it at will, and 

 fills ;rapidly ; when he xvould rise, he increases it, and 

 floats with ease. He also h;ia [niwer of forcing air into 

 Ihe hollow parts of the body, and thus to assist his fli^^lit, 

 'i'he same thing may be observed in fislieSi They have 

 also an air-bag to enable them to rise or sink in the water 

 till Iliey find their proper tenipeiature. 



11' Uiey wish to rise, they increase it; if lliey wish lo 

 sink, they compress It, and down lliey go, .Souurtimcs 

 the fish in sinking, makes too strong :in effort to com|iresa 

 his air-bag : then down he goes to tlie bottom, and there 

 remains for the rest of his life. I'lounders and some other 

 fish have no air-bag; and sri ihey are never fouiul swim- 

 ming on the surface ; but always (-aught at the bottom. 



In this wny are the principhs of science applied lo al- 

 most everything. Viiu wish lo know how lo pack the 

 greatest amount of bulk in the siiiallest space — the forms 

 of cylinders leave large spaces between llienr. Mathe- 

 maticians labored a long time to find what figure could be 

 ustd so as to lo.se no space ; and at last found that it was 

 the BIX sided figure, and also that three planes ending in a 

 point, formed the strcnigcst roof or floor. 'I'he honey bee 

 discovered the same things a gonil while ago. Honey- 

 comb is made up of six sided figures, and the roof is built 

 with three r)lane surfaces coming to a point. 



almost crushed together by the pressure of the surround- 

 ing atmosphere. And if a tube partly filled with fluid, be 

 emptied of its air, the fluid will lise to the top. The bee 

 understands this ; and when he comes to the cup of the 

 tall honey-suckle and finds that he cannot reach the sweet 

 matter at the bottom, he thrusts in his body, shuts up the 

 bower, and then exhausts the air and so possesses himsell 

 of the dust and honey of the flower. 'I'lie leet of Hies 

 and liz.'irds are cnnstiucted on a similar principle, and thus 

 they walk with ease on glass or ceiling. Their leet are 

 made so as to create a vacum of atmosphere, filtcen 

 pounds to the square inch, to enable them to bold on. — 

 The cat has the same power lo a less extent. 



Plants require the sunlight, and some flowers turn 

 towards the sun, as it travels round from east to west, — 

 The bun-Hower does this, and so does a field of clover 

 These facts, though we have not got at llie reason of 

 them are still extremely interesting. 



You all know that if a hollow ball be filled with a gas 

 linjiter than air, it will rise and float away. This fact is 

 beautifully carried out in nature. The farina or impregna- 

 tion dust of plants, are little balls extremely thin and filled 

 with light gas. They are blown off Ironi the male plant, 

 and by falling upon the female plant impregnate it. Na- 

 tore has so arranged it, that the unctious matter which 

 causes the impregnating part of plants to attach to others, 

 never occurs precisely the same in male and female 

 plants. Thus if the farina of the male plant hit the male, 

 it does not adhere; but if it hit the lemale, it does at- 

 tach; the ball bursts, but they are fastened and take ef- 

 fect. The impregnation often lakes place many yards 

 distant. In raising Indian corn, you must all have noticed 

 that a single hill of red corn will impregnale an entire 

 field ; and red corn will be scattered to a long distance 

 through the whole. 



The Virginia creeper throws out tendrils in the form of 

 a foot, with fine toes; each toe has a large number of 

 hairs or spine, wdiich entering the small opening of brick 

 or lime, swell and hold on; but when decaying ihey 

 shrink and the plant falls off. The voiiilla |i|aiit of the 

 West Indies exhibits a similar construcuoii e.\cept that it 

 winds itself around other objects. 



The gastric juice is worthy of remark ; It is a taste- 

 less, colorless, inodorous, limpid fluid, like water, and is 

 adapted in diff'erent animals to diflerent purposes, in the 

 hvena and other carnivorous animals it will not dissolve 

 live 'flesh, but will dissolve dead flesh. These creatures 

 then, live upon other animals, and even bones are soluble 

 in their gastric juice, while it will not dissolve vegetables 

 at all. On the other hand, some animals live entirely on 

 vegetables; and their gastric juice will not dissolve ani- 

 mal food. 



We cannot alter the nature of the animal by changing 

 its food, it will still belong to the same family. In this 

 particular bees are better instructed. When they lose 

 their queen bee — which is an entirely different animal 

 from the working bee — if you present another to them 

 within twenty-four hours, they will not accept of her nor 

 obey her. They prefer taking an ordinary grub before it 

 has become a flier, and feeding it with a particular food 

 and treating it in apcculiar way, and when it leaves the 

 (jrub state it becomes a queen bee, and they always suffer 

 themselves to be governed by her. 



The habits of ants are curious. We all have heard of 

 ant-houses, sometimes twenty feet in diameter, filled 

 with halls and rooms of great size and strength. These 

 and beaver dams are constructed on strictly mechanical 

 principles. 



In some insects the males have wings while the females 

 have none. 



This is the case with the glow worm, and the female 

 has the properly of emitting a phosphorescent light, and 

 were it not for this, the gentleman glow worm would 

 never find his way lo his lady's chamber. The ostrich, 

 like the cherubim, is not provided with the means of sit- 

 ting down. She cannot, therefore, hatch her eggs, but 

 buries them in hot sand, and leaves nature to hatch them 

 for her. .Some buds build no nests ; like the cukoo, 

 which deposits her eggs in the nests of other birds — but 

 she knows enough to select the nests of other birds that 

 have bills shaped like her own ; tor then she is assured 

 her vouiig will have the same liiiid of food as she herself 

 would procure. 



tliron{.'h. This operation is ]>erfornied when the 



sUin is in the most relaxed iitirl ile\ihle state, so 

 thiit the fibres yield readily to the points, as 

 scarcely any iracesare observable after the leath- 

 er is tanned, further than upon the grain or epi- 

 dermi.s 



The advanlaj;c3 of this over the old mode of 

 tanning are, that it greatly (iicilitates the process, 

 makes a belter leather, and saves bark and (i,x- 

 ture.-'. In this way calf-skiiis can be laiincd in 

 from ten to twenty dtiys, in cold white oak ooze, 

 while by the old 'process the time ictpiired doe.s 

 not average les.s than four monllis. This is a 

 disideratum, in ;-npplying a means by which the 

 tannin can he infused llironghout the hide or 

 skin in the shortest possible time alter it is jire- 

 pared and put inlo liie ooze, a strong objection 

 to the old method being that the licrpiciit ttin- 

 ning and re-lamiing of the two surfacei;, in order 

 to tan the interior or body of the skin, is a posi- 

 tive injmy to tlie leather, as it makes it harsh and 

 brittle, and more liable lo bieak. 'riiis objection 

 is obviated by the new process, which expo.'cs n^ 

 much hirger suiface to the immediate action of 

 the tannin, w hich is absorl ed so readily that the 

 ooze must necessarily be renewed or strength- 

 ened more li-cf|uently, whereby it never becomes 

 sour. As respects the saving in fi.xtnres, it is 

 stilted that as much leather can be tanned in five 

 vals by ihis process as can he tanned in liltcen 

 under the old system. 



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mUimdiM 



To PRESERVE Steel Instruments or Tools 

 FROM Rust. — Take a |)iece of liuckskin and rub 

 it over with a few cents ^vorth ol'tnercnrial oint- 

 ment. This ;i()plied «ill preserve steel from 

 rust, but will not take it oft" when once on. 



A .NEW PROCESS OK Tanniisg. — A respectable 

 gentleman of Ohio a few days since ilesciihed to 

 us a new method of tanning leather, for which 

 he has taken out a paK'iit h<Me,and is now on his 

 way to l')ngland to obtain a patent there al.so. 

 As lhi.s new system is represented by practical 

 men to possess many advanl.-igcs over the pro- 

 cess at present in use, it is worthy of public no- 

 tice. 



The invention consists in pcrfoiating the hide 

 or skin to be tanned. This is done (allcr the 

 skin is cleaned and rcaiiy to be piil in the tan 

 to ooze) with line steel points — as, for instance, a 

 (iiie article <if cotlon-ctird combs, nnmbeiiug 

 fnun lilicen lo eighteen leilli to the inch. These 

 combs are placed side by side, and screwed firm- 

 ly together, in a kind of iron box, with a liiindle 

 on Ihe top, which is struck with a m.'dlct, on the 

 grain side of some and the llesh side of other 



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"Mount Belknap." 



Correspondence of the Belknap Gazette. 

 Col. Lake:— I have been thinking considera- 

 bly of what is commonly called the gretit Gilford 

 ftlounlain. Di-. Belknap calls the whole group 

 south of the Winuipissogee Lake, mount IMajor. 

 Di-. Jackson, oin- late Geologist, calls them Gun- 

 stock INIoiintains, and says they aic made up of 

 Ihree distinct parts. These statements, either 

 through misapprehension or wrong informtition, 

 are neither of them strictly cotrect. What are 

 apjiroprialely called Gunstock Mountains are 

 made up, 1 think of more than twenty petiks and 

 perhajis more than Iwenli/ distinct niouutains. I 

 liave frequently asked the people of .Mion, and 

 others, and liave always found that what is known 

 by flhujiit Major, is a'single high peak neai-/\lloii 

 IJay. Gunstock Mountains are made up of niany 

 peaks, without any definite clasifii-aiion; hut what 

 I am now at, iiarticnlarly, is to cull the attention 

 of the good peo|)le of our county to one of these 

 many |ieaks — the highest and most impoitant of 

 the whole grouj). This is commonly calleil Gil- 

 ford Mountain. It is silnatetl very near the centre 

 of our comity, wholly in the town of Gilford, 

 near the westerly line of Alton, and near the 

 norlhcasterly corner of Gilmanton ; and oi\ 

 whose summit neaily till of our cotmly can be 

 seen. I5elie\inga separate anil distinct name 

 fiir this gi-aiid peak, tiniong the (Jiinstuck group, 

 would be acceptable to oiir people, I do, for and 

 on behalf of the citizens of our county, f()irf(ci7/i- 

 orii any auOwrily in me vested, nnma said moun- 

 tain "MOUlNT IJKLKNAIV 'i'here are many 

 reasons why this name should be accepttdile to 

 the people of Belknap (.'ounty as well asotheis; 

 but they will ralily, coiifirin and adopt it, or dis- 

 annid the same as their pleasure may be. 



About liiiu- years ago 1 asceiiilrd this moun- 

 tain, which r shall call IMoimt Jielkiiap, with 

 Messrs Willitims and Whiliiey, assisl.'inls of Ur. 

 .lackson, and Dv. Tibhels of this town. 1 was 

 much disa]ipoinled, and very agreeably so. 'i'he 

 view or pi-ospect was grand — much moi'esolhan 

 I had anticipated. On the '.iOlh of November last 

 1 ascended it agtiin. it was a pleasant ilny, and 

 the prospect all 1 could expect or desire. 'I'he 

 point of ascent was liom the south side. .-Vlicr 

 an abrupt rise ol' a dozen feet, nearly perpendic- 

 ular, at the base, the ascent wtiy is in a zig zng 

 direction, at an angle of about folly live degi-ees 

 to the siimmil. l''roin this place the visitor has ii 

 full view of Ltike Wiumpisseogeo. sirelching 

 along the (■.•istern side of the iMomilaiu, ami ap-^ 

 parenlly direclly tit ils base, lo the distance iif 

 live ami twenty miles, ils surface dolled over with 

 its hundi eds oi Islands of every imagiiiahle form 

 and size. IvMending the view l-irlher east, the 

 towns of Tuflonborongh and Wolf borough are in 

 full view ; ami the prospect in that direction is 

 finally bounded by Ossipee Mountains. Father 

 to the right appetir the Blue Hills, in Strafiiird, 

 'iiiiilicM. Mount Major in .Alton 



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