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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



be raised or lowered at will carries the axes 

 of two circular saws ; these latter are operated 

 by power from the portable engine. The 

 boat itself is moved by means of a rope run 

 over a windlass, the loose end of the rope 

 being attached to an anchor fixed in the ice 

 at a distance in front of the boat, and in the 

 direction to be taken. The framework con- 

 taining the saws is placed at a suitable height, 

 according to the thickness of the ice, and 

 the saws are set in motion. Being separated 

 from each other by a distance of about five 

 yards, they cut out a band of ice which the 

 boat breaks into fragments by its forward 

 movement. By reason of its form it causes 

 these fragments to scatter before it that is 

 to say, to disappear on the right and on 

 the left under the ice remaining in place. 

 Through ice two inches thick this machine 

 forced a passage at the rate of twenty feet 

 per minute. In eight-inch ice the advance 

 was about one third of a mile per day. 



The Cost of an Epidemic. In a recent 

 number of the British Medical Journal, Dr. 

 Munro gives the following interesting statis- 

 tics : In the course of an epidemic of enteric 

 fever in 1893 there occurred eight hundred 

 and fifty-nine cases, and seventy-four people 

 lost their lives. The loss in wages was $16,- 

 455 ; the cost of treatment was $21,475 ; fu- 

 neral expenses, $1,850. Adopting Fair's esti- 

 mate of the average value of an individual as 

 a wage-earner, $795, we have for the seventy- 

 four deaths the large sum of $58,830. So 

 that the pecuniary loss to the community, 

 arising in connection with the epidemic, 

 amounted to a total of $98,610. A con- 

 sideration of these figures, says Dr. Munro, 

 might well suggest the reflection whether any 

 investment was calculated to yield a better 

 pecuniary return than the expenditure in- 

 volved in the operations of the Public Health 

 Department, which has for its main object 

 the prevention of epidemics. 



In the Frankincense Country. Near 

 Cape Risut, on the coast of Arabia, Mr. 

 Theodore Bent, in his exploration of the 

 frankincense country, found the trees cover- 

 ing a large tract. They have bright green 

 leaves like those of the ash, small green 

 flowers, and insignificant fruit. Frankincense 

 was the old staple of trade in this district, 



and it is still gathered in three places in the 

 Gara Mountains, and is classified in three 

 qualities. It is only collected in hot weather, 

 before the rains begin, in March, April, and 

 May, for during the rains the trails in the 

 Gara Mountains are impassable. The col- 

 lectors cut the stem, and after seven days 

 return to collect the gum which has exuded. 

 This they do three or four times a month. 

 In the cool weather, as the gum comes down 

 slowly, they leave the trees alone. The trees 

 belong to the various families of the Gara 

 tribe, each of them being marked and known 

 to its owner. The product is sold wholesale 

 to traders who come after it. This odorifer- 

 ous gum was much more prized for temple 

 worship and household consumption than it 

 is now, and BO precious was it that the 

 old Sabsean merchants invented marvelous 

 stories of genii and dragons guarding the 

 trees and of the woods exhaling deadly odors, 

 in order to protect them from too curious 

 and enterprising trespassers. 



Seebohm the Ornithologist. The science 

 of ornithology has sustained a severe loss in 

 the death of Mr. Henry Seebohm, which took 

 place at his home in London, November 26, 

 1895. From a brief biographical sketch in the 

 London Spectator we take the following : Com- 

 ing of an old Quaker family, and from child- 

 hood an enthusiastic observer and collector, 

 when he later in life became a large steel man- 

 ufacturer at Sheffield, he still found time to 

 make numerous excursions to foreign lands, 

 in order to see for himself the English migra- 

 tory birds in their temporary homes. His His- 

 tory of British Birds and their Eggs is one of 

 the best works of its class. Among the many 

 trips which he took to clear up some question 

 of migration or habitat, the one which led to 

 his discovery of the north coast tundras as 

 the great breeding ground for a large class 

 of European birds is one of the most inter- 

 esting. In looking for the breeding place of 

 several English birds which regularly disap- 

 peared every spring, no one knew whither, he 

 was led to visit the Petchora Elver, which 

 flows from the Ural Mountains northward 

 and falls into the Arctic Ocean opposite No- 

 vaya Zembla. On the upper river is the 

 great Siberian forest, while lower down on 

 either bank below the limit of trees is the 

 tundra, which fringes the whole length of the 



