1878.] 
AMERICAN. AGRICULTURIST 
107 
TOTS <& iMlES’ WWIMSo 
Atooiat Skates, 
In November it was stated that the curious thing fig¬ 
ured in September last was the egg of a Skate. Several 
THORh’BACK SKATE. 
have written to ask what kind of a fish a Skate is, and 
one is disposed to be humorous over the matter. He 
writes : “ We have plenty of skates here in winter ; they 
go iu pairs. But these do not lay eggs: they often lay 
out our boys, and girls too, with a big thump. These 
leave no shucks, but sometimes a big 1 bumple,’ as 
Johnny calls it, on the back of the head.” 
An engraving will give a better idea of a Skate than a 
description, so we give it of one of several kinds that 
are found. It is the Thorn-back Skate. They are all 
flat, thin, and broad creatures, oftlie general shape of the 
one figured, and some grow very large, and weigh over 
200 pounds. The mouth, nostrils, and gill-openings are 
below, while the eyes are upon the upper side. They are 
of a dark mud-color, and when lying close to the bottom 
are not easily discovered. One hind of Skate is the 
Sting-Ray, or “ Stingeree ” of the fishermen. The tail 
of the Sting-Ray is very long and slender, and is armed 
with a bony lance, which has upon its edges teeth like a 
saw, with which it is capable of inflicting a severe wound. 
We knew.of the death of a young lady from a wound by 
One of these fishes. Master Christopher D. Chandler, of 
Fair Haven, N. J., sent us one of these barbs or “ stings,” 
from which we have had an engraving made. It is shown 
of the natural size. Master C. says that he uses the tail 
for a riding-whip. 
Shelters from Ywaisag IPeople. 
It is always pleasant to read letters from young people, 
and we now and then publish one, but we have not room 
to allow us to do so as often as we otherwise would. 
Here are two letters from two brothers in Indiana, which 
We have kept since last winter, waiting for a chance to 
print them. We give only the principal parts of the let¬ 
ters. The first is from Clarence, who writes: 
“ We have had awful big snow-storms this winter ; I 
never saw such heavy ones. My Pa was at court some 
ten day^, so I had a pretty good chance to test their depth, 
as we boys had to go about fifty rods twice a day to feed 
our cattle. Sometimes I would let my colt out of the 
barn, and I tell you he made some motions that were 
laughable. Sometimes he was on his hind feet and some¬ 
times on his fore feet, and sometimes he was so smart 
that he got on his side. It was fun ! I am eleven years 
old. I study mental arithmetic, geography, reading, 
writing, and spelling, and work on the slate evenings, 
but I can not get ahead in my spelling-class. You must 
not think I don’t study. I do study hard, and improve in 
all the rest.” 
That is right, Master Clarence, keep at it and you will 
soon succeed with the spelling. Indeed, the letter had 
very few mistakes. Here is what Master Timmy says: 
“ Clarence brags wonderfully on his colt. Well, ho is 
a nice fellow. We boys think him as nice a one as Indiana 
can afford. But, sir, I have a pair of two-year-old steers 
that beat him for handiness. I forgot to tell you how I 
got them. My folks named me for my uncle Timothy, 
and he gave me a little lamb. I kept getting more and 
more until I got my steers, which I think are worth $40. 
I could have sold them last fall for $30, but I found out 
the man wanted to kill them, and I would not let him 
have them. I can get on either one of them and ride all 
over the north woods after the cows, with nothing but a 
leather-wood bark on their horns, ‘ just as nice as a pink.’ 
I can make them mind to the word. They can trot pretty 
fast. Sometimes they jump over logs, and Tim finds 
himself getting up on the other side, but not very often. I 
can ride either of them up to the gate, let him through, 
and make him stop until I shut it, and make him come up 
to the fence and I get on again and off I go. My studies 
are the same as Clarence’s. Almost every night I pass 
to the head. Am four years younger than he, and I don’t 
spell in the same class. My pa is an old school-teacher, 
and so is Ma: they train us at home. I most forgot to tell 
you I got called on the floor almost every day for mischief, 
hut I always have good lessons.” 
Tlie Doctor’s Talks—About si 
Caudle. 
We do not seem to get along very fast with our candle, 
as we have had two talks and have not yet got to the 
most interesting part, the burning of it. We have 
seen that all candles are some solid substance that 
can he melted by heat, and how the liquid tallow (or 
whatever else the material may he) rises in the wick a 
short distance and then it is burned. But the tallow is 
changed again before it burns. A little heat turns it 
from a solid to a liquid, and a still greater heat makes 
this liquid a vapor. Yon know that we have solid water 
or ice, then liquid water and the vapor of water or steam. 
Well, the fat of the candle before it is burned is turned 
into vapor. It takes a great deal stronger heat to turn 
the tallow into vapor than water requires, hut the heat of 
the flame does it. Some of the tallow vapor in burning 
gives out heat enough to 
make more, so the supply is 
kept up. If you look at the 
flame of a candle when it is 
burning quietly, w h c n 
there are no currents of air to blow it about, it 
will appear very much as in figure 1. The brightest 
portion is at the top and sides, while the 
part just above the wick is dark. The 
burning can only take place where the 
vapor of the candle can touch the air, 
and the inside of tlie flame is full of tallow 
vapor, all hot and ready to burn. You 
can prove this is so by a very pretty 
little experiment, if you are so fortunate 
as to have a small glass tube ; hut as all of 
you are not likely to have a tube at hand, 
I will make the experiment for you and 
give you a drawing of it. The glass tube 
should be five or six inches long, and the 
bore about the size of a knitting-needle. 
This is then held in an inclined position, 
with its lower end in the dark part of 
the candle flame. Very soon the whitish 
vapor from tlie interior of the flame will 
appear at the upper end of the tube and 
pass out in a tiny stream, and by applying 
a light it will burn with a small flame, as in figure 2. 
This shows very clearly what there is in the center of 
the candle-flame. There is another way to show that the 
Fig. 2. —BURNING THE VAPOR OP A CANDLE. 
vapor of the tallow is what burns, and it is an experi¬ 
ment that no doubt many of you have already tried. 
If you blow out a caudle flame with a sudden puff, 
a small cloud of the hot vapor will arise from the wick, 
and if you apply another candle flame or a lighted paper 
to this cloud, as in figure 3, it will catch fire at once and 
Fig. 3.— LIGHTING A CANDLE BY VAPOR. 
thus relight the candle. If this is cleverly done, the flame 
will run along the vapor for several inches, but yon must 
apply the light to it quickly before it has time to cool. 
So the burning is going on at the outer surface of the 
flame while the interior of tlie flame is filled with vapor 
and comparatively cool. The heat is where the air and 
the fuel meet. You can convince yourself of this by a 
simple experiment. Take a strip of white paper and 
hold it directly upon the flame of the candle, as shown in 
figure 4. You will see that the paper begins to scorch in a 
ring, leaving that portion of the paper tluil is over the 
Fig. 4.—SHOWING WHERE THE HEAT IS. 
center of tlie flame untouched. By a little care you can 
succeed in getting a burned and charred ring with the 
central portion white and unbnrned. So let us sum up 
our candle story and see how far we have told it. The 
fuel is in the first place a solid, like tallow, withawick in 
the center. The solid is melted by heat and becomes a 
liquid, which rises in the wick by capillary attraction. In 
tlie wick the melted tallow meets with still greater heat 
and becomes a vapor, which burns to give the light and 
heat that we see and feel in the flame. This flame is 
a cone of vapor burning upon the outside only, while the 
inside is full of vapor that has not yet been burned. As 
we have been going on with our experiments, the candle 
has been growing shorter and shorter. What has become 
of it? “Burnt up,” you will say, but that answer will 
. hardly satisfy you, for it is not possible for ns to get rid of 
a thing- in that way. Wliat was the candle has gone 
somewhere, and still exists in some shape or another. 
That is a matter that we shall have to look into. 
AaiBEt Sue’s JPisKKle-lSox. 
ARITUHOREMS. 
1 . 
101000900160. 
6. 
1010500. 
2. 
9005001155. 
7. 
11155500. 
3. 
11C2000250. 
8. 
72504250. 
4. 
117125080. 
9. 
500801000. 
5. 
150250160. 
10. 
79. 
Otis A. Gage. 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 11 letters. 
My 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 is moderate pleasure after pain. 
My 8, 9, 10, 11 is having competent strength. 
My 1, 2, 5 is what pigeons do. 
My whole is being in a state of ease. 
Frederick A. Schultze. 
CROSS-WORD ENIGMA. 
My first is in cream but not in butter. 
My next is in sleigh but not in cutter. 
My third is in lake but not in river. 
My fourth is in arrow but not in quiver. 
My fifth is in Adam but not in Eve. 
My sixth is in Rufus hut not in Steve. 
My seventh is in knives but not ill spoons. 
My eighth is in wolves hut not in raccoons. 
My ninth is in tavern and also in guest. 
My whole is a well-known town in the West. 
Willie H. K. 
BARB OR STING OF A SKATE. 
Fig. 1. 
