296 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Mar. 30, li 



houses are often the gathering-place of pigeons. As 

 these birds are liable to diphtheria, and have been re- 

 ported as communicating it to man, the drainage from 

 roofs should be avoided. An instance is given of a 

 household in Naples where four out of five children 

 died of diphtheria. The flat roof was the abode of hens, 

 turkeys, and pigeons, and the servant had been duly 

 cautioned against drawing this water for drinking or 

 cooking. To save trouble she neglected this charge, and 

 the result was as already mentioned. 



The Natural Gas Works of Pittsburg. — As some 

 of the wells owned by the Wheeling Natural Gas Com- 

 pany, of Pittsburg, gave signs of a decrease in the supply 

 obtained from them, this company determined, says 

 Engineering, to try if a fresh supply could be obtained 

 by carrying the borings to a greater depth. Operations 

 were, the'-efore, commenced on one of their wells, having 

 a depth of about 2,100 feet. On carrying the boring 

 down an additional 200 feet a new gas-bearing stratum 

 was discovered. The gas blew out at a pressure of 

 600 lb. per square inch, and prevented all attempts at 

 further drilling. Three or four other wells have since 

 been similarly treated, and in each case with satisfactory 

 results, the supply of gas being nearly double the former 

 output. It would thus appear that a supply of gas can 

 be relied on for many years to come, and the Pittsburg 

 manufacturers are consequently jubilant. 



A Sunken- Forest. — It is said by fishermen who ply 

 their vocation off Kenosha, Wis., that a forest of con- 

 siderable dimensions exists in the bottom of Lake 

 Michigan. Some years ago it was the custom with the 

 fishermen to cast their nets nearer shore, but as the fish 

 gradually became less plentiful the fishermen moved 

 farther out, until they encountered the forest of trees 

 mentioned, and it effectually prevented them from using 

 - their nets there. Repeated experiments fixed the farther 

 boundary line of the timber something near twenty miles 

 from shore, to which distance they now go to cast their 

 nets. It is stated that trees have been known to wash 

 ashore that have evidence of having remained under 

 water for centuries. They were in a perfect state of 

 preservation at first, but they soon decayed after exposure 

 to the atmosphere. The wood, too, was of a kind 

 entirely unknown in this country or anywhere on the 

 lake. 



Permanence of the Climate of Europe.— M. J. C. 

 Houzeau gives in del et Terre a novel and very striking 

 proof that the climate of the west of Europe cannot have 

 undergone any great change for some centuries. It is 

 well known that formerly in France the time of begin- 

 ning the vintage was not left to individual discretion. 

 The mayor of each commune fixed the time according to 

 the advice of experts. The communal registers have 

 preserved the dates of these official proclamations, ex- 

 tending back in some localities to the fourteenth century. 

 The dates of the vintages at any given place are found 

 t3 have varied considerably from year to year, some- 

 times as much as seventy days. But if we take the 

 mean epoch for any place, by periods of thirty, forty, or 

 fifty years, we find that there has been no progressive 

 variation. In other words, the climate of France, as 

 manifested in the development of the vine, has neither 

 improved nor deteriorated since the fourteenth or 



fifteenth century. M. Houzeau mentions that the olive- 

 tree perishes if exposed for a single night to a tempera- 

 ture of 24^ Fahr. ( = 7^ degrees of frost). 



Superstitions concerning Comets. — A contemporary 

 gives the following summary of the light in which 

 comets were regarded down nearly to the middle of the 

 present century : — They were supposed capable of all 

 sorts of mischief, from turning a pail of milk sour to 

 setting the earth on fire. If Gaffer's apples withered on 

 the trees, it was all the fault of the comet ; if Gammer's 

 goose went lame, the same explanation was enough. 

 Pestilence and famine were among the recognised 

 satellites of the brilliant vagabond, and Emperors and 

 armies have been terrified by its appearance. The 

 Plague of London was due to the comet of the year, and 

 in 1668 the appearance of one of these meteors oc- 

 casioned a remarkable epidemic among cats in West- 

 phalia. In 1746 Lima was overthrown by an earth-, 

 quake, which was the result, of course, of the comet that 

 was then in the sky ; and the same cause led also to the 

 occurrence of unusually large flights of pigeons in North 

 America, and to the prevalence of the "sneezing sick- 

 ness," as it was called in Germany. So, at any rate, it 

 was said at the time. Even much later the apparition 

 of one of these nebulous luminosities led to important 

 results, for in iSii the port and claret vintages were 

 exceptionally excellent ; on the other hand the number 

 of twins born was unprecedented ; a shoemaker's wife 

 in Whitechapel gave birth to four children ; there were 

 no wasps in the autumn; and flie; were all blind that 

 year. All this and much more was, seventy-four years 

 ago, gravely attributed to " the comet." 



Lepet or " Pickled Tea." — In a communication to 

 the Indian Forester the writer, who recently ascended the 

 Chindwin river in Upper Burmah, describes a village 

 called Kawya, on the river, where the people are wholly 

 devoted to the cultivation of tea, and which may be 

 considered as the southern limit of the tea plant in this 

 region. Before planting, the ground is cleared of all 

 undergrowth, but high trees, even those of the densest 

 foliage, are left standing. The seedlings, which are 

 usually raised indoors, are planted out in rows at the 

 beginning of the rains, and the first pickings take place 

 when the plant is three or four years old. When it 

 grows too large it is cut down, and three or four new 

 stems shoot out from the stool. The leaves are plucked 

 and immediately steeped in boiling water for a short 

 time ; they are then taken out, strained, thoroughly 

 kneaded with the hands, and pressed into bamboo 

 baskets, when they are ready for market, and fetch locally 

 four rupees per 100 lb. This " pickled tea," as it is called 

 by Europeans, lepet being the Burmese name, is floated 

 down the river in baskets or hollow bamboos, which 

 are carefully kept below the surface of the water to pre- 

 serve the quality of their contents. Lepet is a favourite 

 among the Burmese, who mix salt, sesamum oil, and 

 other ingredients with it. To the ordinary European its 

 taste is as bad as its smell, which is saying a good deal. 

 The soil along the Chindwin is eminently suitable for 

 tea cultivation ; the plant grows wild on all the hills and 

 attains enormous dimensions. One tree which was 

 found neglected in a corner measured 18 inches in 

 girth at one foot from the ground, and was fully 20 feet 

 high. 



