200 



NATUKAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



spreading her broad arms to the 

 winds for sails. But unfortunately 

 the story has no foundation in fact. 

 She either crawls about on the bot- 

 tom of the sea, or swims quite like 

 any other cuttle-fish, shell fore- 

 most, only occasionally coming to 

 the surface. Strangely enough, 

 she holds the two broad hand-like 

 extremities of the arms against her 

 body, and it is the inside of these 

 arms that secrete the paper-like 

 shell, which is only a sort of cradle 

 for her eggs. 



Not sd with the pearly nautilus, 

 which is furnished with a beautiful 

 coiled-up pearly shell, formed on 

 the outside of the animal. This 

 shell is divided into numerous 

 chambers, and the animal living 

 in the outer one builds a partition 

 across the back part of it as the 

 shell grows. 



Cuttle-fishes are sometimes used 

 for food by the Brazilians, and. dif- 

 ferent species may be seen in the 

 markets, where one frequently 

 finds them still alive. Sometimes, 

 as we stoop to examine one, its 

 body is suddenly suffused with a 

 deep pinkish glow. Before we 

 have time to recover from our sur- 

 prise this color fades, and a beau- 

 tiful blue takes its place as rapidly 

 as a blush sometimes suffuses a 

 delicate cheek. The blue, per- 

 haps, is succeeded by a green, and 

 then the whole body becomes pink 

 again. One can hardly conceive 

 anything more beautiful than this 

 rapid play of colors, which is pro- 

 duced by the successive distention 

 of sets of little sacs containing 

 fluids of different colors, which are 

 situated under the skin. 



The cuttle-fish is also furnished 

 with a bag containing an ink}' fluid 

 which when the animal is attacked 

 or preserved, it ejects into the 

 water; thus completely blinding its 

 adversary and effectually covering 

 its retreat. It is from this fluid 

 that the sepia is made. Besides 

 carrying an ink-bottle, some spe- 

 cies of cuttle-fish are provided 

 with a long, delicate, horny pen, 

 which forms a sort of stiffener to 

 the back. In some species the 

 pen is hard, thick and broad, and 

 the cuttle-fish bone of commerce is 

 is pen of this kind. The species 

 found in our waters is very small, 

 and not at all dangerous, being 

 barely large enough to draw blood 

 from the hand; but in the tropical 

 seas they are very large, powerful 

 and dangerous. 



□ The cuttle-fish is the original of 

 Victor Hugo's devil-fish, so vividly 

 described in the "Toilers of the 

 Sea," If the devil-fish were a ben- 



eficent creations, I should be sorry 

 to destroy your faith in it; but as it 

 is, I believe it will be rather a re- 

 lief than otherwise to know that in 

 some important respects Victor 

 Augo's story of it is a fable. The 

 kraken was a mythical cuttle-fish 

 of fabulous size. — Lucie L. Hartt 

 i/i The American Naturalist. 



Sulphur Mining in Louisiana. 



The Standard Oil Company has fi- 

 nally solved the great problem, on 

 which hundreds of thousands of dol- 

 lars have been spent in vain, of get- 

 ting at the immense massof sulphur 

 which lies some hundreds of feet 

 below the surface in Calcasieu Par- 

 ish, Louisiana. For thirty-five 

 years company after company has 

 experimented with this deposit of 

 surphur which is probably the 

 largest in the country, and is valu- 

 ed at from $30,000,000 to $100,000- 

 000. There was no doubt about 

 the sulphur being there, but un- 

 fortunately between it and the sur- 

 face lay an immense quicksand, 

 which could not be removed, ex- 

 cavated or bored though. There 

 was no way of man reaching the 

 sulphur and getting it up. A small 

 town, Sulphur City has, grown up 

 in the neighborhood of the mines, 

 at which lived the operatives en 

 gaged in trying to solve their prob- 

 lem. As the expenses of these em- 

 ployes had to be paid, and as not 

 a pound of sulphur was obtained, 

 the several companies organized to 

 mine it went, one after another, in- 

 to bankruptcy, until the property 

 fell, a short time ago, into the 

 hands of the great Standard Oil 

 Company. 



Long before the discovery of pe- 

 troleum in Pennsylvania a party of 

 hunters stumbled on a petroleum 

 spring in Calcasieu. The Louis- 

 iana Petroleum Company was or- 

 ganized to mine for it, and while 

 mining discovered that side by side 

 with the oil was one of the most 

 valuable deposits of nearly pure 

 sulphur in the world. The sul- 

 phur was 400 feet below the sur- 

 face and extended below 800 feet 

 further. There was no doubt or 

 question about this, but, unfortu- 

 nately, just above the sulphur was 

 a quicksand 160 feet thick. One 

 effort after the other to reach the 

 sulphur failed. The drill stuck an 

 underground well then a gas well. 

 After several deaths the American 

 Sulphur Company gave up the en- 

 terprise. Then a Belgian engineer 

 undertook the work and endeavor- 

 ed to neutralize the quicksand by 



freezing it solid and boring it 

 through, and erected valuable re- 

 frigerating machinery for that pur- 

 pose, but the quicksand would not 

 stay frozen and that system of min- 

 ing had to be abandoned. 



Within the last few weeks the 

 Standard Oil Company has got 

 control of the property. It set 

 about mining in a fashion the very 

 opposite to that of the Belgian en- 

 gineer. Instead of using freezing, 

 as the means of getting at the sul- 

 phur, it is trying heat. Superheat- 

 ed water is forced through ten inch 

 pipe on the sulphur, melting it, 

 and the liquor sulphur water is 

 then pumped up. A little expos- 

 ure to the air, so as to evaporate 

 the water, leaves almost pure sul- 

 phur. The experiment has been a 

 success beyond expectations. — The 

 Mineral Collector. 



A favorite contributor in the 

 Natural Science News, Mr. An- 

 gus Gaines, of Vincennes, Ind., 

 writes very entertainingly on "My 

 Water Snakes," in the New Year's 

 double number of the Youth's Com- 

 panion. The esteem in which The 

 Companion holds Mr. Gaines's work 

 is shown by the fact that his name 

 had a prominent place in its an- 

 nouncement for 1896, of which 

 more than a million copies were 

 circulated. 



Hotv to Clean Old Book Plates. 



To restore old book plates that havi 

 been injured by ago aud damp proceed 

 as follows : Place upon a flat surface a 

 sheet of white paper, somewhat larger 

 than the print to be cleaned. Carefully 

 dampen the print on both sides with a 

 soft, wet sponge, and then saturate it 

 with a mixture of chloride of lime and 

 oxalic acid dissolved in about equal pro- 

 portions in a pint of cold water. You 

 can tell when the mixture is right by 

 its turning magenta color. Continue to 

 apply it until every stain or spot has 

 disappeared, and then with a clean 

 sponge wash the print freely with cold 

 water. — Art American. 



A Rare Coin. 



When Lou'siana seceded, Jan. 26, 

 1861, the lew government seized the 

 United States mint at New Orleans and 

 struck $2' 1,820 in double eagles aud 

 $1,101,31 50 in silver half dollars, 

 using the nited States dies for 1861. 

 The bulb' 11 was exhausted in May, 

 1861, when the coinage ceased, and the 

 United St vtes dies were destroyed. A 

 Confederate states die was then made, 

 to be used for silver half dollars, but it 

 was uot fit for use in a coining press, the 

 relief bein too high. Four half dollars 

 were stru.c] with it on a screw press and 

 these comprise the entire coinage of the 

 Confederate states. They are worth 

 about $250 apiece to dealers.— Collector. 



