Our Academy. 
The Kansas City Academy of Science 
has liad a financial strugo:le for existence 
from its incipiency. Its members are 
poor in property but rich in energy. 
They are determined to found and main- 
tain an institution that will be a credit to 
Kansas City. 
Knowing our financial weakness, we 
fully realize that we have undertaken 
diflicult task. 
On this, fair week, we desire to take the 
public into our confidence and call atten 
tion to our work and plans for the future 
As an indication of what the Academy 
may be exi^ected to do in the future in the 
way of tl)e advancement of science, atten- 
tion is called to the listing and classifica- 
tion of local specimens that liave been 
made by some of our active members. 
In addition to this, it is with the grea t 
est pride that we refer to the discovery of 
several new species by different members 
of the Academy — some of which species 
are described in the present number of 
The Natuealis'I'. 
Aside from all scientific and educational 
considerations — which to the members are 
invaluable — there are the best technical 
and connnercial reasons why oiu' Acade- 
my should be maintained and perpet 
uated. 
The Commercial Club, Citizens' Conv 
mittec and many other organizations are 
laboring to establish manufacturing- 
plants at Kansas City. 
More than one-half of these manufac- 
turers must, if they prosper, obtain their 
raw materials from our local resources. 
Who but our Academy of Science is daily 
calling attention to our manifold re. 
so>irces V 
As soon as we have tlie floor space at 
our connnand, we expect to make a per- 
manent display of the material resources 
of Kansas City for tlie use of manufactur- 
ers, present and prospective. 
This display will inchide clays, lime, ce- 
ment, building, macadam and lithograph- 
ic stones, native woods, fibrous plants, 
gravel, sand, animal fibre and everything 
known to be of connnercial value to the 
manufacturer. 
We expedt to be able to demonstrate, 
both by an exhibition of tlie manufac- 
tured articles and chemical analysis, wliat 
can be done with our raw materials. 
It will be seen from this short statement 
that the connnercial prosperity of Kansas 
City will depend largely on work in the 
line that we are trying to follow. 
We ask the sympathy, co-operation, 
financial support and general good will of 
all who are interested in tlie dev elopment 
of the resources of Kansas City and its 
vast tributary territory. 
Edwin Waltkbs. 
Wonders of the North . 
Tliere are a few very curious tilings 
about British Columbia rivers. Every- 
body knows that they flow in the wrong- 
direction while they are young. For in- 
stance, the Peace and Laird persist in go- 
ing to the Artie ocean, in defiance of the 
Rocky mountains and the laws of nature, 
while the Columbia, Fraser and Kootenay 
only consent to travel seaward after go- 
ing in the opposite direction some hun- 
dreds of miles. But they also have very 
peculiar ways of making ice, quite oppo- 
site to that laid down in the text books. In 
the Skeena I have observed the ice in au- 
tumn to form on the river bed among the 
boulders in globules, like a mass of fish 
spawn, this often growing- until the reef 
actually reaches the surface, but more of- 
ten it breaks away in large pieces and 
fioats off" dawn the stream, bearing peb- 
bles and even bowlders for many miles. 
There are many natural bridges on our 
rivers aiso. In the Kicking Horse, three 
miles below Field station, there is a rock 
bridge in a slate formation which is in- 
clined so as to present shai-p edges — \ ery 
unpleasant to walk upon. Every observ- 
ant passenger on the Canadian Pacific rail- 
road has noticed the snow bridge on the 
Illecillewaiit. Tliere are also records of 
ice bridges. 
Not least among tlie natural wtinders of 
the coast is McKenzie passage, a little to 
the westward of Kingcome inlet. It is a 
chasm about six miles in length leading to 
the base of an isolated and broken peak, 
0,665 feet high. Tlie walls are very close 
together, vertical and snow crowned. 
The sun never shines in tliis awful gorge; 
the vapor from its waters hangs dark and 
bitter cold, unmoved by any wind, and 
no living being enters its solitude., I 
find but two records of this place having 
been visited by white men. Scarcely less 
wonderful is an inlet tributary to Dean's 
canal. 
Some of the tide sluices are very dan- 
gerous, and many lives have been lost in 
them. A great puzzle they were to early 
trav elers, wlio found catai'acts of sea wa- 
ter pouring into many of the inlets, 
tliey aae explained by the existence be- 
lind them of large basins filled by the 
flood tide, the outlet being too small for 
its ready escape at the ebb. Some of these 
salt water cataracts are as much as twelve 
feet high. 
On the Yukon the river the upper wa- 
ters are i-endered quite clear by the depos- 
it of all their silt in a ehaiii of lakes, but 
lower down a stream called White river 
enters from the soutli, so charged with 
glacier mud that the Yukon from thence 
to the sea is too dirty for even the bottom 
of a cupful to be distinguished. Gray- 
lings rise leadiljr to the fly above; no fish- 
ing without nets is possible below. More- 
over, where the great river crosses the 
Arctic circle the tributaries from the tun- 
dra lands are like rivers of tea, so tleep is 
the stain of vegetable matter from the 
moss swamps of the far south. — Victoria 
givief!. 
THE WEATHER PLANT. 
As A Weather Prophet it is Useless. 
A meteorologist experienced in weather 
forecasting might easily have foreseen 
the failure of the '-weather plant," Tl'e 
clouds and winds at any particular place 
■ou a given day will often undergo great 
c'langes from the movement or influence 
of atmospheric "waves," which, twenty- 
four hours before, were thousands of 
uiiles distant from that place. As no 
plant, or even aninia.l, howev<- ■ sensitive 
to vai iations of huiuidity am . tempera- 
tui-e, can evei- be atteced by tbes.o remo te 
■«vaves in time to indicate a coming storui 
< r "cold wave," no confideno< . hatever 
pan be placed in its mo.uUons. The mi 
inosa plate indicates the iiiO(lei-i':e tevu- 
perature of 60 degrees by bocoming rigi'.!. 
'<mt it shows the same sign of rigidity in 
lie blazing sun heat of 12.") degrees. The 
,iovv-moving hvrricanes of the Wes' India 
•as surprise the wariest ;ii 1 uio.-t v eatli- 
'• wise birds, which are sometiMC- caught 
b\ Imndreds in the meshes of the (^ycloue. 
It is not likely that we shall eveivtliscover 
any automatic or natural storm warner. — 
Chimno Herald. 
EARTH'S MEASUREMENT. 
Hie 
First Attfjmpt to Ascertain 
Size of the; Terrestial BaH. 
(he 
The attempt made in England by llerr 
Nowack to predict weather by the use of 
the so-called "weather plant," the well- 
nowii tropical climber, Elbrus prccatori- 
c>((»-, have failed. A bulletin of the Kew 
Observatory, describing- tlie experimental 
tests, states that out of 140 predictions 
with the "weather plant" only one 
weather change was anticipated bj^ Herr 
Nowack. Tlie result of the inquiry is 
that the plant is not to be relied on as a 
substitute for the ordinary systems of 
weather prediction. 
In 1597, Fcrn'iel, a French physician, 
made the first atjenipts to ascertain the 
size of the earth.' After having observed 
the height of rhv jwle at Paris, he went to 
the northward -to a point where the pole 
was just one dcrree .hkfii.-r- tdHiV JSi^ 
point of tlie lir-'t observation. He incas- 
111 ed the distance between the two stati<>iii 
by the number of revolutions of one of 
the wheels of his carriage, to which an in- 
dicator had been attached. From these 
observations he came to the conclusion 
that the earth's circmference was about 
24,408 Italian miles. 
Measures executed more carefully were 
made in many countries; by Snell in Hol- 
land, by Norwood between London and 
York, England. It was not, however, 
until 1669, that Picard, under the auspices 
of the French Academy of Sciences, re- 
duced the degrees to anything like a cer- 
tainty. His plan was to connect two 
points by a series of triangles, thus ascei'- 
taining the length of the arc of a meridian 
intercepted between them, to compare it 
with the difference of latitudes found by 
making celestial observations. The sta- 
tions used were Melvoisiue, in the vicini- 
ty of Paris, and Sonrdon, near Amiens. 
Vt'hile these measurements were being 
made a discussion arose as to the interpre- 
tation of them, some affl'Tnlng that they 
indicated a prolate, others an oblate spher- 
iod. The former figure may be popularly 
represented by a lemon, the latter by an 
orange. To prove which was right Pic- 
ard's observations were extended far to 
the north and south, one expedition going 
to the north and south, one expedition 
going to Peru, the other to Lapland. The 
other to Lapland. The Peruvian expe- 
dition worked lyiie years on the question, 
the Lapland about five. The results of 
the measures thus obtained confirm the 
theoretical expectations of the oblate 
form. — St. Louis Bepuhlic. 
