255 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Fire 

 Fish 



with a small lens, and with a terrestrial 

 source of heat. TYNDALL Lectures on Light, 

 lect. 5, p. 170. (A., 1898.) 



1244. FIRE, THE BEAUTY, MAJES- 

 TY, AND UTILITY OF A Destroying Power 

 Tamed To Minister to Human Needs. Who 

 is not struck with the splendor of a bril- 

 liantly lighted hall or theater? Indeed, the 

 beauty and luster imparted to large rooms 

 by judicious lighting have no small share 

 in the production of the vivacity felt by 

 the audience generally. Turning to com- 

 bustion on a large scale, with flames raging 

 in uncontrollable fury, and material un- 

 dergoing rapid destruction, there is prob- 

 ably no phenomenon in Nature, except, per- 

 haps, the electric discharge, that impresses 

 us with a stronger feeling of awe. A con- 

 flagration, from a bonfire to a building in 

 flames, from a chimney on fire to a blast- 

 furnace belching forth its fiery tongues 

 high into the air, is a fit emblem of un- 

 governable fury and relentless destruction. 

 But it is more to our present purpose to 

 regard flame as an instrument for good 

 rather than evil. Most of the comforts and 

 luxuries and even necessities of modern civ- 

 ilized life are due directly or indirectly to 

 its agency; indeed, it would be difficult 

 to name an art or manufacture which does 

 not owe to flame its very birth. At home 

 and abroad, in the house, the street, and 

 the mart, we are surrounded by a multitude 

 of substances which have been produced by 

 the application of heat in one form or an- 

 other. LOWE Nature- Studies, p. 1. (Hum., 

 1888.) 



1245. FIRMNESS OF THE "SOLID 

 EARTH" Its Rigidity as Great as that of 

 Steel. [Since the attraction of sun and 

 moon acts on land as really as on water, 

 it was suggested in 1868] that this criterion 

 might, by the aid of a prolonged series of 

 exact tidal observations, be practically ap- 

 plied to test the interior condition of our 

 planet. In 1882, accordingly, suitable data 

 extending over thirty-three years having 

 at length become available, Professor G. 

 H. Darwin performed the laborious task of 

 their analysis, with the general result that 

 the " effective rigidity " of the earth's mass 

 must be at least as great as that of steel. 

 CLERKE History of Astronomy, pt. ii, ch. 7, 

 p. 317. (Bl., 1893.) 



1 246. FISH CANNOT LIVE IN GREAT 

 SALT LAKE Lower Organisms Flourish 

 Aquatic Birds Find Food. The brine of the 

 [Great Salt] lake is so concentrated that 

 fish cannot live in it, but it furnishes a con- 

 genial home for small crustaceans known as 

 brine shrimps (Artemia) and for the larvae 

 of dipterous insects. These are abundant at 

 certain seasons, but not in such vast num- 

 bers as in some of the more alkaline lakes 

 on the west side of the Great Basin. It has 

 been stated that the vast numbers of crusta- 

 ceans and of larvae in these waters are due 



to the fact that there are no fishes or other 

 animals in the lakes that could prey upon 

 them; aquatic birds, however, feed upon 

 them in great numbers, but still they swarm 

 in countless myriads. Their food seems to 

 be minute algae, of which several species 

 have been described. RUSSELL Lakes of 

 North America, ch. 4, p. 83. (G. & Co., 

 1895.) 



1247. FISH EJECTED FROM VOLCA- 

 NOES Life in Subterranean Lakes Deluges 

 of Mud in the Andes. Deluges are often 

 caused in the Andes by the liquefaction of 

 great masses of snow, and sometimes by the 

 rending open, during earthquakes, of sub- 

 terranean cavities filled with water. In 

 these inundations fine volcanic sand, loose 

 stones, and other materials which the water 

 meets with in its descent are swept away, 

 and a vast quantity of mud, called " moya," 

 is thus formed and carried down into the 

 lower regions. Mud derived from this 

 source descended, in 1797, from the sides of 

 Tungurahua in Quito, and filled valleys a 

 thousand feet wide to the depth of six hun- 

 dred feet, damming up rivers and causing 

 lakes. In these currents and lakes of moya, 

 thousands of small fish are sometimes en- 

 veloped, which, according to Humboldt, have 

 lived and multiplied in subterranean cavi- 

 ties. LYELL Principles of Geology, bk. ii, 

 ch. 22, p. 348. (A., 1854.) 



1248. 



Pestilence Resulting 



from Decay of Volcanic Fishes. Subter- 

 ranean lakes, communicating by various 

 channels with the mountain streams, are 

 frequently formed in deep and vast cavities, 

 either on the declivity or at the base of vol- 

 canoes. When the whole mass of the volcano 

 is powerfully shaken by those earthquakes 

 which precede all eruptions of fire in the 

 Andes, the subterranean vaults open and 

 pour forth streams of water, fishes, and tu- 

 faceous mud. This singular phenomenon 

 brings to mind the Pimelodes Cyclopum, or 

 the Silures of the Cyclops, which the in- 

 habitants of the plateau of Quito call 

 Prenadilla, and of which I gave a circum- 

 stantial account soon after my return to 

 Europe. When, on the night between the 

 19th and 20th of June, 1698, the summit of 

 Mount Carguairazo, situated to the north of 

 Chimborazo, and having an elevation of 

 more than 19,000 feet, fell in, all the coun- 

 try for nearly 32 square miles was covered 

 with mud and fishes. A similar eruption of 

 fish from the volcano of Imbaburu was sup- 

 posed to have caused the- putrid fever which, 

 seven years before this period, raged in the 

 town of Ibarra. HUMBOLDT Views of Na- 

 ture, -p. 367. (Bell, 1896.) 



1 249. FISH ITS OWN LIGHT-BEARER 



In Opostomias micr>'pnus,& dark black fish 

 living at a depth of over 2,000 fathoms, 

 there are two rows of ocellar organs running 

 down the sides of the body from the head to 

 the tail. In the living animal they are said 



