KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



into a pit dug in front of hor tent a 

 adds that she slept ovtr their grave t 



And buried the: 



THfRTy-SEVEN lighthouses have been built round the island of 

 Newfoundland during tlie present century, of wliich eleven have 

 been erected during the last seven years. Two new lii;;hthouses 



been voted. 



WiBE Gauc.es 



was broiig 



, f.ir 



v(m\a las 



2,1:1: 



supcric 



anthrax 

 east of the ! 

 but the coal is more bituminou-^ 

 traded, and Baron von Itichtln 

 sionaries at Tai-yuen, the capital 

 a ton at the pit's mouth, though 

 is about double as much. He e.^t 

 at 2,965,00(1 tons for the whol. 

 Southern Mandchuria. 



Bt Richaud a. Tkoc 



distance of the Bea 

 iiiii^ the rule to the 

 ;ire root of the sun 

 i/.nn in miles. It is 



-■(■ d(i>rrssi.>n for one 



A^: 



the optical depression per mile to be but six 

 ics, what is the curvature of the lis;ht rays due to 

 action ': It is clearly such as to produce a deflection 

 \vo inches ])fr mile. Wherefore, says another corre- 

 nlent, if the earth were so much larger that the geo- 

 rical depression for one mile Tvere only two inches 

 line of sii,Hit would bend just enough to correct the 

 ression and we should be able to see right round, or 

 iver the surfa,ce of the earth supposed to be smooth. 

 ■.\,y not Satan," he proceeds, " when he i.rranged the 

 nraruic view from an exceeding high mountain (un- 

 wn) have brought the whole world into view this 

 •, by altering the refractive power of the air, so that 

 bending just corrected the geometrical dopression? "' 



That is the sort of question continually pottred fii,' 

 One would imagine that the fallacy could deceive no one,_ 

 aad that the best reply would be,— " Oh bosh"— like' 

 the worthy bishop in the "Bab Ballads." But that 

 answer, or oae to that effect, was not held to bo satisfac- 

 tory. Truly the misapprehensions men make, even men 

 of ilceent a'vcrage intellect, about matters optical, are 

 amazing. Here, for instance, is a man imagining the 

 visual line, or a r.iy of light, capable of curving round 

 a globe so as always to be at the same elevation, or where 

 the air has the same density, though bending or refrac- 

 tion can o'lly ari.'e as the ray or visual lino passes from 

 air of one degree of density to air of a different degree ! 



Satan, then, could not be allowed to arrange any such 

 unscientific trick, either now or in the old times when 

 men were safe at any rate from Editors of Knowledge 

 and from scientific lecturers. 



Bt THK WAT, it was not Satan, but the author of one 

 of those " reconciling " books who tried to show that 

 refraction might bring the sun into view round a whole 

 hemisphere. This, of course, would bring him into view 

 all roand, or make him appear like a ring round the 

 liurizon, just as he would (pace Mr. Williams) to an in- 

 habitant of the moon, if such there were, during a 

 central eclipse of the sun by the earth. 



Talking of odd 

 such a time two I 

 side of the earth, 

 opposite side, cros 

 earth and 



mistakes, Mr. Williams's notion that at 

 ims of sunlight, one going round one 

 id the other going round the exactly 

 on the line joining the centres of the 

 ! at a focus, is an odd one — though 

 natural enough perhaps. I wonder how many readers of 

 these lines will appreciate my remark on this point, that 

 these two beams have as much connection with each 

 other, so far as coming to a focus (properly so called) is 

 concerned, as the last ray of the setting sun to-day with 

 the first ray of the rising sun the day after to-morrow. 



