16 



NATURAL SCIENCE NEWS. 



they gleam under the summer sun 

 like mountains of burnished silver, 

 with pinnacles and cliffs of clear 

 sapphire or the palest green, from 

 which rush cataracts of limpid 

 water mingled with fragments of 

 ice. These various hues arise 

 from several causes. Bergs are 

 originally composed of fresh water 

 ice of different ages, but that form- 

 ed from salt water frequently over- 

 lays it in parts. A great deal of 

 snow lies on their summits, and 

 forms large ponds of fresh water, 

 when dissolved by the heat of the 

 sun. Finally, the solar rays touch 

 the bergs with colors, changing 

 with the position of the spectator. 

 Only one-eighth of their total 

 thickness is seen above water. 

 Frequently bergs capsize in con- 

 sequence of the sea undermining 

 their base. An ominous rolling 

 motion gives notice of this event; 

 it continues for some time, and at 

 last the berg heels over and disap- 

 pears with a terrific plunge, send- 

 ing up columns of spray. It reap- 

 pears bottom upwards, balances 

 itself, and floats quietly on with a 

 changed face. 



All the antartic land yet discov- 

 ered consists of gigantic clih with- 

 out a single opening, three thous- 

 and feet high in some places, des- 

 cending in others to one hundred 

 feet. The whole is faced with ice 

 of enormous thickness, and cover- 

 ed with snow, so that at a glance 

 the eye can scarcely imagine it to 

 be land at all, but for spots show- 

 ing the dark stones where the cliff 

 is too perpendicular to admit of 

 even ice maintaining its hold. 

 Nothing is so tenacious as the cold 

 of the antartic regions. In Feb- 

 ruary the warmest summer month 

 of 1 841, the thermometer never 

 rose above 14 degrees at noon near 

 the continent. It is rarely above 

 30 degrees in the sun at mid-day 

 during summer, and falls in winter 

 more than 50 degrees below zero. 

 The sun stays a week longer north 

 of the equator than it does south, 

 making the winter and night of the 

 antarctic regions longer. South 

 Georgia, in a latitude correspond- 

 ing with that of Yorkshire in the 

 northern hemisphere, is always 

 covered with frozen snow, and 

 produces scarcely anything but 

 mosses and lichens. The immense 

 preponderance of water south of 

 latitu de 30 degrees, allows the 

 fierce westerly winds to blow round 

 and round the world, a perpetual 

 cyclone, keeping the sea in con- 

 stant agitation. 



The two polar circles differ 

 greatly in physical conditions. 



The antarctic has a marine climate, 

 that is to say, it is equable. 

 Though wet and stormy, it is not 

 subject to extremes of tempera- 

 ture, and it is believed that the 

 south pole must be warmer than 

 the north in winter. Arctic sun- 

 shine raises the thermometer to 66 

 degrees or 70 degrees, and hung in 

 the shade immediately after, the 

 mercury falls to the freezing point. 

 The arctic climate is continental — 

 dry, calm, and variable. The 

 thermometer has a range of about 

 120 degrees: and while the round 

 of the seasons brings but little 

 change in the frightful antarctic 

 wastes, nothing can surpass the 

 beauty of the arctic summer — "an 

 endless blaze of light, the air and 

 sea and earth teaming with life," 

 plains glowing with richly tinted 

 flowers, and strange, glittering 

 forms sailing past '-in stately and 

 solemn procession." Its currents 

 are strong, and bear large numbers 

 of bergs to me;t the warm Gulf- 

 water, and, as it is natural to sup- 

 pose, bergs are found to be most 

 numerous where the drift is strong- 

 est. The antarctic seas are in dir- 

 ect opposition to this. Not only 

 are its currents sluggish and feeble, 

 but the most powerful of them, 

 Humboldt's Current, carries few 

 bergs along the Chilian coast, 

 while the main ice-drift is towards 

 the Falklands on one side, and the 

 Cape of Good Hope on the other, 

 where there is scarcely any motion 

 of the water. This is a fact which 

 no navigators are able to explain, 

 except perhaps on the supposition 

 that there may be strong submar- 

 ine currents at a great depth below 

 the surface. Bergs have been ob- 

 served in Baffin's Bay drifting rap- 

 idly to the north, where there was 

 a powerful surface-current running 

 against them, showing that in con- 

 sequence of thejr weight and im- 

 mense draft of water (in some in- 

 stances more than a thousand feet), 

 they must be influenced by some 

 "resistless undertow" yet stronger. 

 — From Chamber's Journal. 



Nest-Building Fishes. 



The Anabatida form one of the 

 most remarkable of all species of 

 fishes, owing to their capability of 

 living for a long time out of water, 

 a power which has formed in them 

 some curious habits. The Anabas 

 scandens, or climbing perch, of In- 

 dia, has been known to live for six 

 days out of its appropriate element; 

 and some will sometimes quit the 

 water and wander over the land, 



so far from any stream or pond 

 that they were formerly supposed 

 to have dropped from the clouds. 

 The German naturalist Daldorff 

 states that he once saw one of this 

 species which had climbed a tree 

 to a height of five feet but this is 

 stated by other observers to be an 

 impossibility. This power is dup 

 to the peculiar structure of the 

 pharyngeal bones, which, in a cav- 

 ity in the base of the skull, are dil- 

 ated into voluminous lamina;, form- 

 ing cells in which a supply of 

 water may be carried for the pur- 

 pose of keeping the gills moist. 



But the gourami's instinct is 

 more peculiar than that of any 

 other member of the tribe. By 

 their united labors, the male and 

 female construct a well built nest, 

 in which the ova are deposited, 

 and which protects the young fry 

 from the thousand enemies by 

 whom infantile fish are pursued 

 and tormented. 



The body of the gourami is of a 

 brownish color, varied with some 

 golden tints cn its sides; the belly 

 is of a silvery brown. The con- 

 formation of the fish is high from 

 its belly to back, and the body is 

 narrow; the head is short, the 

 mouth small and protractile. The 

 scales are large and round. The 

 fish is properly herbivorous, but 

 will eat insects and earth worms; 

 and it is so voracious that, says 

 M. Dabry de Thiersant, the Cre- 

 oles of the Mauritius call it the hog 

 of the river. 



The gourami, like most other 

 anabatida;, is found throughout the 

 East Indies, and is a valuable food 

 fish of delicious flavor, resembling 

 that of the European carp. 



Many attempts have been made 

 by the French to acclimatize it on 

 this continent, especially in Cay- 

 enne; but little success has been 

 met with. In Algiers, other at- 

 tempts have been made, and greater 

 encouragement followed. At the 

 Cape of Good Hope and in Aus- 

 tralia, the experiments were en- 

 tirely successful. — Scientific Amer- 

 ican. ., 



An I'V£stment in ''Natural Siience News'' 

 Returns Fifty-fold- 



Bangor, Mb , Feb. 16, 1896. 



Friend Lattin: 



I enclose herewith $1.03 for my renewal to 

 Natural Science News. I have found the in- 

 vestment of $1.00 made a year ago for the pa- 

 per to have returned to me 50-fold. In ad- 

 dition to the excellent articles which have ap- 

 peared in its columns I have derived fully $i0 

 cash by the sale of specimens to parties whose 

 names have appeared in your exchange col- 

 umns. I have also through the same means 

 added fully $ 00 worth of specimens to my pri- 

 vate collection. Have done this by writing 

 parties who had notices in the exchange col- 

 umns. O. W. KNIGHT. 



