655 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Stone 

 Storms 



" Their dwellings, if they may be so called, 

 are similar to those of the chimpanzee, 

 consisting simply of a few sticks and leafy 

 branches, supported by the crotches and 

 limbs of trees; they afford no shelter, and 

 are occupied only at night. 



" They are exceedingly ferocious, and al- 

 ways offensive in their habits, never running 

 from man, as does the chimpanzee. They 

 are objects of terror to the natives, and 

 are never encountered by them except on 

 the defensive. The few that have been cap- 

 tured were killed by elephant-hunters and 

 native traders, as they came suddenly upon 

 them while passing through the forests. 



" It is said that when the male is first 

 seen he gives a terrific yell, that resounds 

 far and wide through the forest, something 

 like * kh ah! kh ah!' prolonged and shrill. 

 His enormous jaws are widely opened at 

 each expiration, his under-lip hangs over 

 the chin, and the hairy ridge and scalp are 

 contracted upon the brow, presenting an 

 aspect of indescribable ferocity. 



" The females and young, at the first cry, 

 quickly disappear. He then approaches the 

 enemy in great fury, pouring out his horrid 

 cries in quick succession." HUXLEY Man's 

 Place in Nature, p. 211. (Hum.) 



3239. STORING OF THE COAL 



Earth Once a Giant Hotbed. There is in- 

 disputable proof . . . that all coal beds are 

 of vegetable origin. Geologists tell us that 

 these coal beds were formed during an age 

 before the earth had cooled down to the tem- 

 perature that it has at the present time 

 an age when vegetation was forced by the 

 internal heat of the earth instead of having 

 to receive all its warmth from the sun's 

 rays, as we do now. Some of our readers 

 are familiar with what is commonly termed 

 a hotbed. A hotbed is made by putting 

 soil on top of substances that will ferment 

 and create heat underneath the soil. This 

 heat from beneath will force vegetation 

 and cause a much larger growth than there 

 will be if left to the sun's rays alone. Dur- 

 ing the carboniferous age the earth was a 

 great hotbed. ELISHA GRAY Nature's Mira- 

 cles, vol. i, ch. 3, p. 24. (F. H. & H., 1900.) 



3240. STORMS MILD BY COMPAR- 

 ISON Earth's Fiercest Tempests Compared 

 with Hurricanes on Jupiter. Examined by 

 a powerful telescope, Jupiter shows all the 

 signs of the most tremendous atmospheric 

 disturbances. There are great bands of 

 clouds all around him, so arranged as to 

 imply the existence of very strong winds 

 resembling our trade-winds. But these cloud 

 zones change sometimes so rapidly in shape 

 as to show that either some of the clouds 

 have rapidly discharged their contents in 

 rain and new clouds have been very rapidly 

 formed, or else that great cloud-masses have 

 been carried along with enormous rapidity 

 by winds of hurricane force. These motions 

 of cloud-masses on Jupiter, when interpreted 

 by what we know of the real dimensions 



of Jupiter, have been found to indicate the 

 existence of winds blowing at the rate of 

 nearly 200 miles per hour [contrasted with 

 the rarely attained speed of ninety miles 

 an hour on earth]. . . . Our terrestrial 

 storms rage sometimes for five or six days 

 in successsion, but this is very unusual. Or- 

 dinarily, the fiercest storm blows itself out 

 in less than three days. Now, Jovian hurri- 

 canes have been known to last for six or 

 seven weeks. PEOCTOB Expanse of Heaven, 

 p. 79. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



3241. STORMS ON THE SUN Tor- 

 rents of Flaming Hydrogen Thousands of 

 Miles High. Outside the opaque photo- 

 sphere the sun appears surrounded by a 

 layer of transparent gases, which are hot 

 enough to show in the spectrum bright 

 colored lines, and are hence called the 

 chromosphere. They show the bright lines 

 of hydrogen, of sodium, of magnesium, and 

 iron. In these layers of gas and of vapor 

 about the sun enormous storms occur, which 

 are as much greater than those of our earth 

 in extent and in velocity as the sun is 

 greater than the earth. Currents of ignited 

 hydrogen burst out several thousands of 

 miles high, like gigantic jets or tongues 

 of flame, with clouds of smoke above them. 

 These structures could formerly only be 

 viewed at the time of a total eclipse of 

 the sun, forming what were called the rose- 

 red protuberances. We now possess a meth- 

 od, devised by MM. Jansen and Lockyer, by 

 which they may at any time be seen by the 

 aid of the spectroscope. HELMHOLTZ Popu- 

 lar Lectures, lect. 4, p. 158. (L. G. & Co., 

 1898.) 



3242. Tumult and Up- 

 roar behind Beneficence The Soundless 

 Depths of Space. We know something of 

 the processes at work upon our own sun. 

 We know of storms raging there, in which 

 fiery vapor masses, tens of thousands of 

 miles in breadth, sweep onward at a rate 

 exceeding a hundredfold in velocity the 

 swiftest rush of our express trains. We 

 see matter flung forth from the depths be- 

 neath the sun's blazing surface to a height 

 exceeding ten- and twenty- fold the diameter 

 of the globe on which we live. And we 

 know that these tremendous motions, tho 

 they seem to take place silently, must in 

 reality be accompanied with a tumult and 

 uproar altogether inconceivable. We know 

 that precisely as distance so reduces the 

 seeming dimensions of these vapor-masses, 

 and their seeming rate of motion, that even 

 in the most powerful telescopes they appear 

 like the tiniest of the clouds which fleck 

 the bosom of the summer sky, and change 

 as slowly in their seeming shape; so dis- 

 tance partly, and partly the absence of a 

 medium to convey the sound, reduces to ut- 

 ter silence a noise and clangor compared 

 with which the roar of the hurricane, the 

 crash of the thunderbolt, the bellowing of 

 the volcano, and the hideous groaning of 



