♦ KNO"WLEDGE ♦ 



time ' and set Lie troubled mind at rest." " This young 

 man," proceeds Mr. Clemens, apropos dts hottes, "had 

 asked a great many questions about sea-sickness before 

 we left, and wanted to know what its characteristics 

 were, and how he was to tell when he had it. He found 

 out." 



I' cannot leave Mark Twain's narrative, however, 

 without gently criticising a passage in which he has 

 allnwiM liis iiii,i.jiii:ition to invent effects of longitude 

 wliirli : ii> ll\ N.cre never perceived in any voyage 

 simx iIm ,-liij. Ar.jo set out after the Golden Fleece. 

 " "VVc hiid the jiiiL-uumenon of a full moon," he says, " lo- 

 cated just in the same spot in the heavens, at the same 

 hour every night. The reason of this singular conduct 

 on the part of the moon did not occur to us at first, but 

 it did afterwards, when we reflected that we were gain- 

 ing about twenty minutes every day, because we were 

 going east so fast ; we gained just about enough every 

 day to keep along with the moon. It was becoming an 

 old moon to the friends we had left behind us, but to us 

 Joshuas it stood still in the same place, and remained 

 always the same." Oh, Mr. Clemens, Mr. Clemens ! In 

 a work of imagination (as the " Innocents Abroad" must, 

 I suppose, be to a great extent considered), a mistake such 

 as that here made is perhaps not a very serious matter ; 

 but suppose some unfortunate comjjiler of astronomical 

 works should happen to remember this passage, and to 

 state (as a compiler would be tolerably sure to do, unless 

 he had a mathematical friend at his elbow), that by 

 voyaging eastwards at such and sucl: 



mplea 



,nt predie 



a travelh 



lave placed 

 my, I have 



even seen a work, in wLicIi pi-ucisL'ly hiich mistakes have 

 been made, in use positively as a text-book for examina- 

 tions. On this account, our fiction writers must be 

 careful in introducing science details, lest peradventiire 

 science tcaeluTs (save (h.. iu;.i-k !) bo lr,l astray. 



Itneedsrarrrly br siia tlial no aiiioaiil nf eastwardly 

 voyaging- w,i„l(l rausr ll,,- mnnu In rriiialn always "full" 



from whatever part of the earth she may be seen, and slic 

 will become " new," that is, pass between the earth aii'l 

 the sun, no matter what voyages may be undertakiii by 

 the inhabitants of the earth. Mr. Clemens has con- 

 founded the monthly motion of the moon with her daily 

 motion. A traveller who could only go fast enough east- 

 wards might keep the moon always due soiith. To do 

 this he would have to travel completely round the earth 

 in a day and (roughly) about r.O', miuul.s. If he con- 

 tinued this for a whole muntli, t1ir moon u,,ul,l nrver 

 leave the southern heavens ; but slu' would not lamlinue 

 "full." In fact we see that the hour of the day (local 

 time) would be continually changing, — since the traveller 

 would not go round once in twenty-foui- hours (which 

 would be following the sun, and would cause the hour of 

 the day to remain always the same) but in twenty-four 

 Iiours and tlie best part of another hour; so that the day 

 would seem to jiass on, though very slowly, lasting a lunar 

 month instead of a common day. 



(To he continued.) 



Ii'.i' II I 'li ■ ! iiioNE Companies. — According to exchanges, 



'In' i' ■ II iiMinira in the States may be held liable for 



i"jiiii' I ] I ' k; 1 I ly tlio fall of their wires in the public street. 

 Ill a o..i,i ,a ,, II, \\liirli this was decided, the wires gave way in 

 oonsec|uciici' v( tli(> weight of the ice produced by water thrown 

 upon tlioni by a city fire department whilst extinguishing a fire. 



RAMBLES WITH A HAMMER. 



By W. Jerome Harbison, F.G.S. 



THE KOCKS OP THE LICKEY. 



(Continued from page 135.) 



RETRACING our steps to the Lickey ridge— and here 

 the New Rose and Crown offers the only chance of 

 refreshment for some distance round — we continue oui' 

 south-easterly walk over the camel-backed hills which suc- 

 ceed one another in that direction. To the east the Triasiic 

 sandstones and clays form a plain extending to Birming- 

 ham, while on the west lies a narrow valley above which 

 rises the Bromsgrove Lickey, a parallel chain of hills to 

 that upon which we are walking, but of much greater 

 altitude — the highest point of the " Lower Lickey" (upon 

 which we are now, in imagination, standing) being about 

 500 feet above sea-level, while the height of the " Brnms- 

 grove Lickey" is about 900 feet. At our -; i : , • ; ad 

 where a little lane branches off to the ri- in 1 



of the breccia at the base of the Llandi , i-- 



seen, showing that this rock once extcial w , la 



the hills, although it has now been almost ent inly de- 

 nuded off them. The quartzite supports but a scanty 

 vegetation, conspicuous amongst which are the bilberry 

 bushes, which in the autumn furnish an abundant 

 harvest of blueberries to many busy gatherers. Rabbits 

 flit among the ferns, watched by a kite which hovers 

 overhead, and the whole scene causes us to envy the 

 occupiers of the trim villas which are springing up here 

 and there round the Lickey, but to ho])c that the ridge 

 itself — too steep and bare for citltivatiou — will long be 

 preserved as a free and "happy hnnting-gnjiuid " [■•v the 

 lover of nature. 



Turning to the left, when we arrive ; i 

 precipitous descent, we once more reaiii 1. 



at the eastern foot of tht^ hills at Rial,: i ( 



ithwari 





adl.v bent and ( 



(in: 



h K.iidal Eiuh 

 jhe farm-house, 

 uluck Umtstonc, 

 nf faults. 



S3 si 



gaill.al, , • r. I a -,;■ a ■ - ,., ■.'•''• '^ ,;■', .^ 1 1 ' - . 



agent to Lord AVuidsor.Vho owns much land about liere. 

 We have to thank this gentleman for the pcrmissiun- 

 which would doubtless be accorded to any resiectabh- 



the brook-con r-. v '■ ■■ '\ iv ■,,•■,- ' ■ a ' Ma|i 



(4)].^^ In na.:, r i a: . -. . 





'.A 



rhon.l^ ; 



Sonula: 



it is fr..,u. lul) .... , 

 look, and altogethei 





nd 



, 1. 1.... ,;u eanhy 



- ohi of .1 compacted volcanic 

 -i|u;n\' luilos of the country 

 round Vesuvius. But if "act ivo volcanoes once existed iii 

 this corner of "Worcestershire, and erupted the mass of 

 ashes which now, hardened into solid rock, lies beneath 



