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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



signalized this period. Such acquisitions 

 to the treasury of positive human knowl- 

 edge have never been made in an equal 

 time in the history of thought. More light 

 has been thrown on the material conditions 

 of our existence on earth than has been 

 enjoyed before since the morning stars first 

 sang together. But the signs of the times 

 indicate the commencement of a reaction. 

 The age accepts the results of physical re- 

 search, but refuses to regard them as the 

 limit of rational belief. In resolving, matter 

 into molecules, and molecules into atoms, 

 the most illustrious cultivators of physical 

 science cheerfully confess that they arrive 

 at invisible forces which no crucible can 

 analyze, no microscope detect, no arithme- 

 tic explain. The alleged materialism of 

 Tyndall and Huxley thus affords an unex- 

 pected support to the idealism of Berkeley. 

 " The Tribune, it may be predicted, will 

 continue to represent the intellectual spirit 

 of the age. Faithful to its past history, it 

 will welcome every new discovery of truth. 

 Free from the limitations of party in phi- 

 losophy or religion, in politics or science, 

 it will embrace a wider range of thought, 

 and pursue a higher aim in the interests 

 of humanity. Watching with its hundred 

 eyes the events of the passing time, it will 

 wait for the blush of the morning twilight 

 which harbingers the dawn of a brighter 

 day. As we now place the votive tablet on 

 its rocky bed, let it symbolize the radiant 

 scroll of human knowledge reposing on the 

 foundation of eternal truth." 



A Swarm of Locusts. — Dr. B. A. Gould, 

 in a letter published in the December num- 

 ber of the American Journal of Science, de- 

 scribes a swarm of locusts at Cordova 

 (in the north of the Argentine Republic), 

 which, for extent, rivals those which have 

 been sometimes witnessed in Eastern coun- 

 tries. He says : " I saw to the eastward 

 what was apparently a long trail of dense 

 black smoke extending over 160° of the 

 horizon, from which it extended to an alti- 

 tude of about 5°. The appearance differed 

 in no respect from that of a black smoke 

 drifting from a large conflagration. The in- 

 sects were evidently transported by the wind, 

 and passed within about three or four miles 

 of us. Certainly twenty miles of its length 



were visible over the far-stretching pampas. 

 They were seen before ten o'clock in the 

 morning, and continued to pass with appar- 

 ently undiminished numbers until daylight 

 failed." 



In about eighteen days the phenome- 

 non was repeated. They again appeared to 

 move before the wind, and passed through 

 the space between the traveler and the 

 mountains, which were twelve miles dis- 

 tant, during many hours. The height of 

 the dense nucleus seemed to be not less 

 than 2,000 feet, its width about six or seven 

 miles. "Since I began this page," says 

 Dr. Gould, " they have come upon us in full 

 force, literally darkening the sun, and there 

 is probably not a square inch of our grounds 

 unoccupied by them." 



Asphaltnm Deposit in West Virginia. — 



Prof. W. M. Fontaine published, in the 

 December number of the American Journal 

 of Science, an interesting account of a de- 

 posit of asphalt in Ritchie County, W. Va., 

 which is extensively mined, and is valuable 

 as an addition to the coal used in produ- 

 cing gas. 



It occurs in an enormous fissure in the 

 rocks, apparently filling it, and has been 

 worked vertically through a depth of 300 

 feet, and horizontally through a distance of 

 3,315 feet. The fissure is seldom more than 

 four feet wide, in many places much less, 

 and narrows, in one direction, so much as 

 to be unworkable. In another direction it 

 ends abruptly at the valley of McFarland's 

 Run, 



The geological position of this fissure 

 and deposit is in the " Upper Barren Meas- 

 ures," above the Pittsburg Bed, which con- 

 tains no coal. These barren measures are 

 of sandstones and shales, and are horizon- 

 tal. They show no break except at the mines. 



About seven miles in the direction of 

 the crevice is the line of upheaval in which 

 occur the oil-wells of West Virginia. And, 

 as Prof. Fontaine observes, the bituminous 

 deposits, which lie far beneath the surface, 

 are doubtless the source of both the oil and 

 the asphaltum. 



In the cleft the mineral closely resem- 

 bles ordinary bituminous coal, but at the 

 sides adjoining the walls it is jet black, and 

 has a brilliant lustre. The walls of the 



