6 4 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
in color, nearly four feet long and as 
hard as wood. It is made of pulp by the 
insects which capry the material in 
small bits to the nest. Thousands of 
wasps laboring together finally pro- 
duced the big nest. 
In the geological room on the third 
floor the commercial ores and ores of 
the precious metals are arranged with 
their products. Thus the crude ore of 
tin, for instance, is shown with many 
of the manufactured products produced 
from it. The crude ores from which 
silver, mercury, tin, lead, arsenic, co- 
balt, copper, sulphur, iron, etc., are 
made are shown together with some of 
their finished products. The work on 
this exhibit is now in progress. 
In addition to this the geological de- 
partment has been enriched by a col- 
lection of the common rocks that form 
the crust of the earth. These are fully 
labelled and are interesting. 
In the bird hall an exhibition has 
been arranged showing the largest and 
the smallest eggs known and interme- 
diate sizes. The smallest is that of a 
humming bird. The largest is one of 
an extinct species while in between are 
eggs of hawks, emu and ostrich. The 
largest is thousands of times greater in 
volume than that of the humming bird 
and it seems almost unbelievable that 
both were laid by species of the same 
order. 
Attendance is increasing day by day 
and the collections are increasing in 
value, but the Museum is in urgent 
need of funds which, it is hoped, will 
be supplied at once. The work must be 
expanded, especially now that the 
school year has begun. Educational 
work of great value can be accom- 
plished if support be given to the Mu- 
seum’s plans. Nothing strikes home so 
quickly in the mind of a child as 
graphic illustration, and no institution 
could be in a better position to teach by 
graphic methods than The Bruce 
Museum. 
The Museum is a big advertisement 
for this part of Fairfield County, in ad- 
dition to its educational possibilities, 
in that it is much talked of in many 
places. 
People have come from New York 
and other places by train, motor and 
boat for the sole purpose of visiting the 
collections. They have told the cura- 
tors and caretakers that the Museum is 
unique in a number of ways. Curators 
of other museums have come here and 
expressed delight at the Bruce’s meth- 
ods and displays, and we are only four 
years old ! 
The town of Deerfield, Massachu- 
setts, possesses a small museum con- 
taining only historical relics, but Deer- 
field is famous for that museum. Green- 
wich is an enormously rich and cul- 
tured town. Its people are known 
everywhere. No town could be more 
distinctly placed on the map of money, 
art and culture. Now it is becoming 
conspicuous on the map of science. 
Water Eats Iron. 
BY C. D. ROMIG, AUDENRIED, PA. 
This article refers to water in anthra- 
cite coal mines. It is usually a clear 
amber color with a strong acid taste 
and not fit to drink. In some mines it 
is so strong that a constant dropping on 
a shovel from the roof of the mine will 
eat a hole through it in a single night or 
a few nights at the most. A saw will 
be ruined in a week or two if allowed 
to lie in this water. Iron or steel bolts 
are worn away like worm-eaten wood. 
In some cases iron pumps are useless 
and in this event it is necessary to sub- 
stitute bronze, brass or other copper 
composition metal which may not be 
as strong but which resists the wear of 
the water better than iron. 
A continual spray of this water on 
anthracite will in a day turn the coal 
into peacock or rainbow colors, after 
which it turns to bronze and then to a 
yellow which is the color of all ditches 
where this water flows. One peculiarity 
I often noted in a certain ditch where 
a wrought iron pipe lay exposed was 
that ordinarily the pipe was rusty, but 
when the mine water covered it the 
pipe assumed a rich purple color with 
a velvet finish which made it look like 
anything but iron. 
As yet there is no special use for 
the water, which is usually called sul- 
phur water. 
Wild life sanctuaries in Pennsyl- 
vania alone now number twenty-four 
in size from 1,800 to 3.000 acres each. 
Plans now under way will, by the end 
of 1921, bring the number up to forty. 
The average cost of maintaining such 
tracts is a little less than $1,200 a year. 
