The \\ est American Scientist. 159 



samedes to two hundred miles into the interior has been pro- 

 jected. It will cross the Schella Mountains at a distance of one 

 hundred and twenty miles from the coast, beyond which the 

 country is said to be magnificent, and salubrious for Europeans, 

 who are able to work in the fields. 



Modern Cave-Dwellers in Germany. — Cave-dwellers in 

 civilized Europe? It seems incredible; and yet, just above the 

 thriving village of Langenstein, in the Hartz Mountains, and 

 forming a part of it, are about ten dwellings hewn in the rocks. 

 They are called the "Burg," or "castle," and here some forty per- 

 sons have their home. In the face of the solid rock is to be seen 

 a row of regular-shaped doors and windows, one door and one 

 window belonging to each dwelling. The most ancient of these 

 dwellings is the work of a young married couple whose extreme 

 poverty gave them no other choice than to seek a home in the 

 rugged mountain-side. Their work must be held deserving ot 

 respect, for it was no light task to pick away the rock bit by bit, 

 as one workman must with no tool but his pick-ax. Through 

 the doorway one enters a narrow, straight hallway, at the right 

 of which another doorway leads into a good-sized room with a 

 window, the only one in the dwelling. Opposite this doorway, 

 at the left of the entry, is a shell-shaped hollow, which serves as 

 a sleeping-room, in which, however, straw supplies the place of 

 a bed. Back of this, at the lelt, is a store-room; opposite it, ad- 

 joining the living or sitting-room, is the kitchen, with fireplace 

 and chimney; and back of the kitchen is another sleeping-room. 

 The latter has no opening for light, yet, as the house-door is usu- 

 ally open the greater part of the year, there is light enough to see 

 by. The walls are of the natural rock, and the apartments are 

 perfectly dry, and not badly ventilated with the door, window, 

 and chimney, which create a slight draft through the dwelling at 

 all times. The place is warm in winter and cool in summer, and 

 the inmates are rosy and healthy. Some of the cave-dwellers 

 have whitewashed their houses, and made little gardens outside, 

 so that the exterior does not display a forbidding appearance. 

 At any rate, these cave-dwellings are quite as comfortable (and 

 certainly more sanitary) habitations as the cellars of our cities, 

 which are leased to wretched inmates, and are only caves of ma- 

 sonry. 



A Wonderful Lake. — 'The 'Walled Lake,' as it is called, is 

 the greatest wonder in the State of Iowa. It is situated in 

 Wright county, twelve miles north of the Dubuque and Pacific 

 Railway, and one hundred and fifty miles west of Dubuque City, 

 and occupies a surface of two thousand eight hundred acres, with 

 a depth of twenty-five feet in some places The lake is from two 

 to three feet higher than the earth's surface, and in some places 

 the wall surrounding it, which gives it its name, is ten feet high. 

 The stones used in its construction vary in weight from one 

 hundred pouids to three tons, and the wall is fifteen feet wide 



