138 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
A QUERY. 
BY MAKY H. WHEELEK. 
Down, down in the pool where the eypris is swimming. 
And the Baplmia pulex darts swiftly from sight. 
Where the pink fairy-slirimp o'er confervce. is skimming, 
And the floscule extends her Ave lobes to the light. 
Where the CawcZowa Zttcens, a wandering gem, 
Creeps along a desmidium band. 
And the fair vorticella, on sensitive stem. 
Is contracting, again to expand. 
Do the small creatures know, in their homes in the ditches, 
That the dark, stormy winter is near ? 
And, O, what will they do, in their cold crystal niches, 
Through the long silent night of the year! 
When the wee tardigrada is chilled into quiet. 
And the sphere of the volvox no longer is seen, 
When the long-toed dinocliaris quitteth her diet, 
And the shining Zanthidium loses its green ; 
When the bright hyalotheca, faded and limp, 
Lies all tangled with ulothrix bands. 
And the slender synedra and staurastrum jimp 
Shall drop down to be blent with the sands. 
Will the small creatures know any changeful emotion. 
Any feeling resembling our joy or our fear. 
Or excitement of which human nerves have no notion. 
Through the long, silent night of the year ? 
Pittsfield, N. H., Oct. 25. 
Care of Oil-Stones. 
THE oil-stone is such an important tool 
in every mechanic's and amateur's 
workshop, that the greatest care should 
be taken to keep it in good order. Out- 
side of the shops of skilled mechanics and 
thoroughly good amateur workers, the 
oil-stone is generally an unsightly and 
useless nuisance. Covered with gummed 
oil and dirt, and hollow and uneven on its 
surface, it is a very unsatisfactory article 
to work with. We know one shop where 
an oil-stone is used occasionally, but not 
enough to lead the owner to make a point 
of keeping it in order. He has, perhaps, 
a dozen which have been thrown to one 
side as useless, simply because they are 
covered with thickened oil— gummed up, 
as mechanics call it. As soon as the stone 
refused to cut the metal, it was thrown 
aside as useless, and a new one procured. 
The owner readily gave us, for the asking, 
one or two of these old, and, as he 
thought, useless stones, and we gave him 
a little information and advice which prob- 
ably enabled him to put all the stones on 
his premises in order.- 
The first thing to do is to clean off the 
dirt. This is best done by means of com- 
mon washing soda. Soak the stone in a 
strong lye for a few hours, and then rinse 
it off in clean water, and wipe it clean. If 
the stone has not been worn so as to make 
the surface hollow or uneven, the only 
thing that will be needed is to apply a 
little good oil. The stone will then be 
found to cut freely, and will be as good as 
new. But if the surface has been glazed 
by being used without oil, or by being- 
used very much with oil that has become 
quite gummy, the stone must be refaced. 
The best thing for refacing stones, where 
it can be had, is a plate of cast iron, 
smeared with emery and kept moist with 
water. This will cut the stone very fast, 
and will bring out its cutting properties 
very thoroughly. The cast iron plate 
should be planed or ground, so as to 
make it quite level, and take the skin off. 
Instead of a cast iron plate, a piece of 
thick sheet zinc makes a very good 
grinder. The emery should be fine, and 
plenty of water should be used. Even a 
sheet of glass paper or emery paper, laid 
