2 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Jan. 5. 1883 



an inch and a half thick, that the board, tho Scv'utific 

 American says, penetrated some distance through the wall 

 into the water. It was found that the board was wedged 

 in so closely that the water did not leak, and the owner 

 simply sawed the plank off, leaving the wall of tho cistern 

 all right. 



For making luminous paint the following has been 

 given : — Take oyster-sliells and clean them with warm 

 water ; put them into the fire for lialfan hour ; at the end 

 of that time take them out and let tliem cool. When quite 

 cool pounti them tine, and take away any grey parts, as 

 they are of no use. Put the powder in a crucible in 

 alternate layers with flour or sulphur. Put on the lid and 

 cement with sand maile into a stiff paste with beer. When 

 drj% put over the tire and bake for an hour. Wait until 

 quite cold Ijefore opening the lid. The product ought to be 

 white. You must separate all grey parts, as they are not 

 luminous. Make a sifter in the following manner : — Take 

 a pot, put a piece of very fine muslin very loosely across 

 it, tie around with a string, put the powder into the top, 

 and rake about until only the coarse powder remains ; open 

 the pot and you will find a very small powder. Mix into 

 it a thin paint with sum water, as two thin applications 

 are better than one thick one. This will give a paint that 

 will remain luminous far into the night, provided it is ex- 

 posed to the light during the day. 



The members of the Bombay Hunt, says the Bomhay 

 Gazette, have much to answer for. They have been un- 

 consciously the cause of serious allegations being brought 

 against their gallant countrymen in Egypt. At a critical 

 moment of the struggle, when men's minds were highly 

 strung and their imaginations excited to a feverish pitch, 

 they insisted on having a pack of hounds sent through 

 the Canal en route to Bombay. This pack bids fair 

 to become historic. Shortly after it passed Port Said, 

 a son of M. de Lesseps informed his indignant friends in 

 Paris that a pack of bloodhounds had been sent with the 

 British troops to hunt down the Egj'ptian fugitives. It 

 was only a Frenchman who could have mistaken a fox- 

 hound for a bloodhound. In their version of the affair, the 

 Egyptians were more circumspect. In one of the numbers 

 oi Al Wakaija al 2[asriyeh, the Egyptian Gazette, published 

 by Arabi's Government, Abdelal reported from Damietta 

 to the Sub-Minister of War that " a ship has been passing 

 through the Canal to Ismailia, filli d with a cargo of 

 hunting dog-i, to act as scouts for the English soldiers when 

 they go out to fight. We conclude," continued this veracious 

 commander, " from their now having recourse to dogs, that 

 the climax of their ill-success and of their defeat has come." 

 Surely history, which keeps a page for the geese of the 

 Capitol and the hound of Kobert Bruce, will not grudge a 

 paragraph for the Bombay Hunt and their "cargo of hunting 

 dogs ! " 



Describing a visit just paid to the sandstone quarry at 

 Turner's Falls, on the Connecticut River, Massachusetts, 

 Mr. Elias Nason states that workmen are still busily 

 engaged in excavating the bird tracks that have made the 

 quarry geologically famous. The ledge rises 30 ft. or 40 ft. 

 above the river, and consists of thin lamina^ of a dark- 

 coloured and somewhat brittle sandstone. On the faces of 

 the slabs are found the tracks, depressed and in relief. They 

 are in general clear cut and very distinct. Some very fine 

 specimens have recently been brought to light. One of 

 them has tracks of an enormous animal, .O ft. apart, and the 

 tracks themselves (three-toed) are 15 in. long. According 

 to Professor Huxley, who has visited this quarry, an 



animal making such tracks must have been 25 ft. or 

 30 ft. in height. Mr. Kason was permitted to take a.way 

 with him several beautiful specimens, one of which exhibits 

 the delicate tracery of the feet of an insect escaping over 

 the soft mud ; another exhibits the ripples of the wave, 

 another the drops of rain, and others have well-defined 

 imprints of the tracks of liirds. He also saw the impres- 

 sions of several kinds of ferns and grasses. Mr. Stoughton, 

 who is working this geological mine, considers some of the 

 largest slabs to be worth from §500 to §1,000; but the 

 cost of excavating them is heavy. The whole region is 

 supposed to have been originally covered by the sea. As 

 the waves receded, birds and quadrupeds whose species are 

 extinct left the impressions of their feet upon the mud, 

 which, hardening into stone, has held them through the 

 ages for the e.xamination of the scientists of the present 

 day. Compared with these tracks as to age, the pyramids 

 of Egypt are but as of yesterday. 



A California Tree. — There was recently felled in 

 Lonoma County, California, a tree which cut up as follows. 

 The I'eta/uma Aryus says that the details can be relied 

 upon. The standing height of the tree was 347 ft, and its 

 diameter near the ground was 14 ft. In falling, the top 

 was broken off nearly 200 ft. distant from the stump, and 

 up to the point of breaking the tree was perfectly sound. 

 From the tree saw-logs were cut of the following lengths 

 and diameters: — 1. 14 ft. long, 9 ft. dia. ; i. 12 ft long, 

 8 ft dia.; 3. 12 ft. long, 7 ft 7 in. dia.; 4. 14 ft long, 

 7 ft 6 in. dia.; 5. 16 ft long, 7ft dia.; 6. 16 ft. long, 

 6 ft 10 in. dia.; 7. 16 ft long, 6ft 6 in. dia. ; 8. 16 ft- 

 long, 6 ft. 4 in. dia. : 9. 16 ft. long, 6 ft. Sin. dia.; 10. 

 18 ft long, 6 ft dia. ; 11. 12 ft long, 5ft 10 in. dia. ; 12. 

 18 ft long, 5 ft 6 in. dia. It will thus be seen that 180 ft. 

 of this remarkable tree were converted into saw-logs. 



A CORRESPONDENT (" Psychomantis ") quotes the fol- 

 lowing from the Times of June 10, 1870, as admirably 

 expressing the value of the novelist to his fellow men : — 

 " The loss of Charles Dickens will be felt by millions as a 

 personal bereavement. Statesmen, men of science, philan- 

 thropists, the acknowledged benefactors of their race, might 

 pass away, and yet not leave the void which will be caused 

 by the death of Dickens. They may have earned the 

 esteem of mankind ; their days may have been passed in 

 power, honour, and prosperity; they may have been sur- 

 rounded by troops of friends ; but however pre-eminent in 

 station, ability, and public services, they will not have 

 been, like our great and genial novelist, the intimate of 

 every household." 



A CORRESPONDENT, Mr. Henry H. Sparling, sends the 

 following sonnet. Regarding it as addressed, not to the 

 Editor, but to all who share the work of advancing 

 Knowledge, we quote it ; but still rather as expressing 

 what we wish to do than what we have done : — 

 '• L't KnowIrJge crow ! " but not content 

 With just what b.v those words is meant, 

 You Hj-.<7c it forward on its course 

 With all your wealth of mental force. 

 Learning, and wide experience blent. 

 Along the toilsome steep ascent, 

 Up which TOur readers' steps are bent, 

 Stand Darwin, Spencer, Mill, and Jlorse: 

 '* Let Knowledge grow ! " 

 Free from the glamoJir wliieh is lent 

 By mystic wandering words anent 



The things you teach, you but endorse 

 That you have fathomed to its source. 

 And Daikness' veil have widely rent — 

 " Let Knowledge grow ! " 



