KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[July, 1906. 



of these requisites. It was also quickly shown that the 

 native engineers were useless, and their places w-ere 

 taken by Europeans from Italy, France, and Poland. 

 A German engineer, Hcrr Meisner, was placed at the 

 head of the railway-corps. 



(ireat efforts were made to raise the monev required 

 for this gigantic task. The Sultan set a good example 

 by giving up a month of his civil list, amounting to 

 50,000 Turkish livres, and a tax of 10 per cent, on all 

 salaries was levied in aid of the undertaking. Besides 

 this, large donations were received from all parts of the 

 Mussulman world, especially from India and Ceylon. 

 Mirza Ali Bey, of Calcutta, sent a donation of ;£'5,ooo 

 to the holy work, and promised further advances, and 

 large sums were also received from Australia, Singa- 

 pore, and Natal. 



On September i, 1901, being the 26th anniversary of 

 the Sultan's succession, the first portion of the new line 

 (about 20 kilometres, between \izaireb and Dera) was 

 opened with great ceremony. Other portions followed 

 suit from time to time, and the main line from 

 Damascus to M'aan, a place about half-way between the 

 south end of the Dead Sea and the north end of the 

 Gulf of Akabah (conveniently near to the famous ruins 

 of Petra), was sufficiently finished to carry slow traffic 

 about a year ago. The length of the line, as shown 

 by the subjoined list of the stations (kindlv supplied to 

 me by Messrs. Thos. Cook and Son), is 465 kilo- 

 metres. Since then (as we were informed bv the corre- 

 spondent of the Titties at Constantinople in December 

 last) the line has been carried on for a further length of 

 150 kilometres to Mudavara, and it has been deter- 

 mined to build a branch line either from that place or 

 from M'aan to the head of the Gulf of Akabah. 



But a still more important event in connection with 

 the Hedjaz Railway now remains to be mentioned. To 

 connect the great city of Damascus and the fertile 

 country around it with the civilised world two railways 

 were originally planned — a French line to start from 

 Beyrout and cross the Lebanon and Antilebanon, and 

 an English line commencing at Haifa and crossing the 

 Jordan south of the Sea of Galilee. The northern 

 (French) line was quickly carried out, and for some 

 years has been the established route to Damascus. The 

 southern (English) line, ill-provided with funds and 

 not in favour at Constantinople, has nev'er prospered, 

 and only a few miles of it out of Haifa were ever opened. 

 Abdul Hamid realised the situation, and after a long 

 bargaining with the concessionnaires, succeeded in buy- 

 ing up the undertaking and completing it from Haifa to 

 Dera, a station on the Damascus-Mecca line, 123 kilo- 

 metres south of Damascus. The Sultan will thus be 

 able when the whole project is completed, to ship his 

 pilgrims (or soldiers !) at Haifa and run them straight to 

 Medina and Mecca. This will not only save the passage 

 of the Suez Canal, which, as being under Anglo- 

 Egyptian control, is not favoured by the authorities at 

 Constantinople even for pilgrims, but will also enable 

 troops and arms to be sent to Central Arabia without 

 any risk of their bemg stopped or delaved in Egjpt. 



I am not much in .sympathy with the Turk and his 

 ways, but in the case of the Hedjaz Railway I think he 

 has done a good work and deserves success. It may 

 probably be some years before the line is completed to 

 Medina and Mecca ( !), but in the meantime a country 

 very little known and hitherto very difficult of access 

 has been opened up, and Petra and manv other ancient 

 sites along the route which it traverses will be rendered 

 comparatively easy of access. Messrs. Thos. Cook 

 and Son inform me that they are making arrangements 

 wherebv travellers will be able to visit the wonderful 



ruins of Petra by the Hedjaz Railway from Damascus 

 to M'aan during the next season in Palestine. 



There can be no doubt that the recent occupation by 

 the Turkish forces of one of the ports at the north end 

 of the Gulf of Akabah which is now producing much 

 friction between the Egyptian and Turkish Govern- 

 ments, is caused by the anxiety of the .Sultan to find a 

 suitable opening for the Hedjaz Railway on that Gulf. 

 If this can be secured the Porte will be able to send its 

 troops and stores into Central Arabia without going 

 through the Suez Canal, which might be closed at any 

 moment in case of war. 



-i^^^^r* 



Plants and Frost. 



.According to Professor A\aegand, of Cornell University, it 

 seems probably that frost causes the death of vegetation by 

 causing the actual withdrawal of water to form ice nutside 

 the cell. The ice formation dries out the cells, and the plant 

 suffers therefore from drought conditions. Every plant cell 

 has its critical point, the withdrawal of water beyond which 

 will cause the death of the cell, whether by ordinarv- evapora- 

 tion or other means. It may be supposed that the delicate 

 structure of the protoplasm necessary- to constitute living 

 matter can no longer sustain itself when too many molecules 

 of Nvater are removed from its support. In the great 

 majority of plants this point lies so hieh that it is passed 

 very soon after ice beerins to form in the intercellular 

 spaces. Hence the death of so many plants at this point. 

 But other plant cells may be able to exist with so little 

 water that a very low temperature is necessary before a 

 sufficient quantity ^s abstracted to cause death. From 

 some plants enough water cannot be abstracted by cold to 

 kill them (many bacteria, it will be remembered, can endure 

 the cold of liquid air). In rather dry tissues, as in some 

 winter buds, a temperature twenty to thirty degrees below 

 freezing may be required before the ice crystals can be seen 

 in the tissue. 



