Waste 

 Water 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



746 



3094. 



Seeds Animals 



Man. Altho astronomy, bringing us as it 

 does in presence of the infinities of space, 

 and indicating the operations of an infinity 

 of force acting during infinite time, is of all 

 others the science which seems to present 

 to us the most striking instances of waste 

 in Nature, it would yet be easy to cite 

 many instances of seeming waste without 

 leaving the teachings of our earth. How 

 many seeds are scattered over the face 

 of the earth to no visible purpose, for 

 each one that falls on good ground and 

 grows to perfection? How many creatures 

 are brought to life that perish before they 

 reach maturity? This, true of all races of 

 animals, is true of man. True of the in- 

 dividual man, it is also true of nations, 

 of races of men. History shows us, and we 

 see in our own day, whole tribes of men 

 disappearing without having reached that 

 degree of civilization which we may regard 

 as the measure of maturity in races and na- 

 tions. PROCTOR Our Place among Infinities, 

 p. 40. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



3695. Sun's Heat Poured 



through Empty Space. Our earth receives 

 less than the 2,000 millionth part of the 

 heat and light emitted by the sun ; all the 

 planets together receive less than the 230 

 millionth part; the rest is seemingly scat- 

 tered uselessly through the interstellar 

 depths. To other worlds, circling around 

 other suns, our sun may indeed appear as 

 a star ; but how minute the quantity of light 

 and heat so received from him compared 

 with the enormous quantity apparently 

 wasted. The portion which seems squan- 

 dered is scarcely affected at all by such small 

 uses; and that portion is more than 230 

 millions of times as great as the portion 

 used to warm and illuminate the solar sys- 

 tem. And then consider what is the actual 

 amount of energy thus seemingly wasted. I 

 have computed (adopting Sir J. Herschel's 

 estimate of the amount of heat poured by 

 the sun upon each square mile of the earth's 

 surface) that the sun emits in each second 

 as much heat as would result from the 

 burning of 11,600,000,000,000,000 tons of 

 coal, and of this enormous amount of energy 

 the portion utilized (that is, the heat re- 

 ceived by the various members of the solar 

 system) corresponds only to that due to the 

 consumption of about 50 millions of tons 

 only 50 millions out of 11,600 millions of 

 millions. PROCTOR Our Place among Infini- 

 ties, p. 42. (L. G. & Co., 1897.) 



3696. WASTING OF THE MOUN- 

 TAINS Atmospheric Erosion of the Matter- 

 horn. Standing on the arete, at the foot of 

 a remarkable cliff gable seen from Zermatt, 

 and permitting the vision to range over the 

 Matterhorn, its appearance is exceedingly 

 wild and impressive. Hardly two things 

 can be more different than the two aspects 

 of the mountain from above and below. 

 Seen from the Riffel, or Zermatt, it presents 



itself as a compact pyramid, smooth and 

 steep, and defiant of the weathering air. 

 From above it seems torn to pieces by the 

 frosts of ages, while its vast facets are so 

 foreshortened as to stretch out into the dis- 

 tance like plains. But this underestimate 

 of tis steepness of the mountain is checked 

 by th*e deportment of its stones. Their dis- 

 charge along the side of the pyramid to-day 

 was incessant, and at any moment, by de- 

 taching a single boulder, we could let loose 

 a cataract of them, which flew with wild ra- 

 pidity and with a thunderous clatter down 

 the mountain. We once wandered too far 

 from the arete, and were warned back to it 

 by a train of these missiles sweeping past 

 us. TYNDALL Hours of Exercise in the Alps, 

 ch. 24, p. 290. (A., 1898.) 



3697. WATCHFULNESS OF MAR- 

 MOTS Sociability in Hibernation. The Eu- 

 ropean marmots of the Alps, we learn from 

 Professor Blasius, " live high up in the 

 snowy regions of the mountains, generally 

 preferring exposed cliffs, whence they may 

 have a clear view of any approaching dan- 

 ger, for which, while quietly basking in the 

 sun, or actively running about in search of 

 food, a constant watch is kept. When one 

 of them raises the cry of warning, a loud 

 piercing whistle well known to travelers in 

 the Alps, they all instantly take to flight, 

 and hide themselves in holes and crannies 

 among the rocks, often not reappearing at 

 the entrance of their hiding-place until sev- 

 eral hours have elapsed, and then frequently 

 standing motionless on the lookout for a 

 still longer period. Their food consists of 

 the roots and leaves of various Alpine 

 plants, which, like squirrels, they lift to 

 their mouths with their fore paws. For their 

 winter quarters they make a large, round 

 burrow, with but one entrance, and ending 

 in a sleeping-place thickly lined with hay. 

 Here from ten to fifteen marmots will often 

 pass the winter, all lying closely packed to- 

 gether, fast asleep, until the spring." Mi- 

 VART Types of Animal Life, ch. 12, p. 353. 

 (L. B. & Co., 1893.) 



3698. WATER AN EXCEPTION TO 

 LAW OF EXPANSION A Warning against 

 Hasty Generalizations. A most valuable 

 lesson as to the allowance we ought always 

 to make for the unknown " possibilities of 

 Nature " is taught us by an exceptional phe- 

 nomenon so familiar that it does not attract 

 the notice it has a right to claim. Next to 

 the law of the universal attraction of masses 

 of matter, there is none that seems to have 

 a wider range than that of the expansion of 

 bodies by heat and their contraction by cold. 

 Excluding water and one or two other sub- 

 stances, the fact of such expansion might be 

 said to be invariable; and, as regards bodies 

 whose gaseous condition is known, the law 

 of expansion can be stated in a form no less 

 simple and definite than the law of gravi- 

 tation. Supposing those exceptions, then, 

 to be unknoAvn, the law would be universal 



