EXCURSIONS AND EXAMINATIONS 249 



(4) A water barometer is longer than a mercurial barometer because 

 it has to go down to the bottom of the sea to see how deep it is. A 

 mercurial barometer has to see how high a thing is, and no hill is higher 

 than the depth of the ocean except a few high mountains which nobody 

 can get to the top of. Oxygen occupies the space above the mercury, 

 and if a hole were bored the oxygen would flow out and the mercury 

 rise to the top and flow out also. 



In 1893, in order to correct some popular errors, the 

 following questions were asked : " Point out the errors in 

 the following statements: 



" (a) Earthquakes have raised to heaven the ocean bed." 

 " (b) Volcanoes are burning mountains that vomit fire and 

 smoke." To which the following replies were given : 



(1) Earthquakes swallow the ocean bed. 



(2) In ancient times volcanoes were called burning mountains, but 

 we do not call them by that name now, because we have a new name 

 for them derived from the Latin words volca to burn and noe moun- 

 tain, and the two put together " volcanoe." 



In the same year, in reply to the very elementary question, 

 " How is angular space measured ? " — without a clear concep- 

 tion of which no knowledge of mechanics or any comprehen- 

 sion of many of the simplest facts of nature is possible — such 

 replies as the following were given : 



(1) By multiplying the number of seconds a body is falling by 32. 



(2) Angular space is measured by a delicate instrument which brings 

 the rays to one position on a stand or anything you like to put in the 

 way, and they take the angle and measure it and keep on like this at all 

 times of the year and then find the average. 



(3) You take a pair of compasses and put a point on one star and a 

 point on the other, and then you look between your legs where they 

 join and judge the distance between them thus. 



In 1895 we again had a simple question as to a very common 

 instrument, the construction and use of which can be taught 

 to any child — " Describe the mariner's compass and its chief 

 uses " ; — and we had a set of answers as bad as those seven 

 years earlier: 



