188 



Popular Science Monthly 



I Brown & Dawson 



This family windmill tree must present an amazing 

 spectacle when performing to the accompaniment 

 of a stiff breeze at the approach of a big storm 



Thirteen Windmills Decorating 

 One Pole 



ONE windmill to a pole is considered a 

 sufficiency, as a rule, but a Con- 

 necticut boy has decorated a pole in his back 

 yard with thirteen of them. Some of 

 hisdesignsare unique. For instance, 

 there is the ocean liner with the 

 windmill on the "port" side 

 and another serving as the 

 propeller. There is an 

 aeroplane windmill 

 among the number and 

 an assortment of hu- 

 man figures, including 

 an original Indian that 

 beggars description. 

 The figure topping the 

 pole looks to be a half- 

 cousin to those little fellows 

 that adorn automobiles. The 

 owner must be well-informed 

 as to wind indications. 



Music From the Bowels of the 

 Earth? Yes; in Texas 



THE south central portions of the 

 United States abound in natural 

 curiosities. Not only are there strange 

 things to see, but mysterious sounds 

 often cause the most unimpressionable 

 and hardened traveler to avoid passing 

 through certain localities alone, and 

 especially after dark. Reverberations 

 of the wind are the cause; but the 

 mountaineers will tell you that the 

 thundering footsteps of "Morgan — 

 Morgan the raider, and Morgan's ter- 

 rible men" may still be heard in calm- 

 est weather in certain localities which 

 they laid waste decades ago. 



A less eerie, but similar phenomenon 

 of sound is heard in Texas, where 

 there is what is known as the "singing 

 well." In fine weather dulcet tones 

 like the music from an Aeolian harp 

 issue from the well. At times the 

 sound is wonderfully clear and loud. 

 Then it recedes, until it reaches the ear 

 only faintly. These modulations occur 

 regularly every few minutes. When 

 an east wind blows, the water in the 

 well is low and the musical sounds are 

 faint; but a strong west wind will in- 

 crease the volume of sound to a chorus. 

 It is when the north wind blows, how- 

 ever, that the music of the well is 

 most weird and wild. 



Both the nest and the eggs 

 are now solid rock. The orig- 

 inal owner was a bird prob- 

 ably about the size of a robin 



A Wonderful Specimen of a Petrified 

 Bird's Nest 



PETRIFIED bird's eggs have been 

 found on several occasions, but as far 

 as can be ascertained, it remained for a 

 Washington State man to find 

 both a group of petrified eggs 

 and the petrified nest in 

 which the eggs were origin- 

 ally laid. The nest was 

 imbedded in a rock 

 formation in a cliff 

 of the Grand Canyon, 

 five hundred feet above 

 the base. It must have 

 been the nest of some 

 bird about the size of a 

 robin, and only one side 

 of it — what is now the 

 darker side — must have been 

 exposed to the air. It is im- 

 possible to estimate how long 

 ago the eggs were laid. 



