Scientific and Useful.

Bruce Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 1753, 28 May 1886, Page 5

Scientific and Useful.

1 » *" The use of fruit and fresh vegetable food J during winter should be encouraged. KBBPING AN EVE ON THE TTIRTI.E. At the forthcoming Indian and Colonial 1 Exhibition at South Kensington it is proi posed, besides the fish-hatching experiments, 3 to exhibit the development of the turtle I from the egg, tho movements of the infant [- turtles being highly interesting to naturalists. For this purpose a large conservatory is being specially erected,' in order to imitate Ofi "* nearly aB possible tho Datural conditions oi , the turtle's life. I SINGULAR DECEPTION BY BTJTT ERFLTES. ' It is well kuown that birds do not esper cially care for hairy butterflies. So in Central America Belt found a curious beetle, that wes a titbit for lhe birds, clothed in a coat of long brown lairs closely resembling the thick, hairy caterpillars. In the same localities, spiders have been found that looked exactly like ants, and were thus enabled to creep upon their prey, the reaPanta. Wallace j observed a butterfly that, though an accepp table morsel jto the birds, deceived them by mimicking the flight of a poisonous butterfly. 3 If a bird chased it, ifc afc onco assumed the * curious and laborious flight of its poisonous ■ model, and the bir J, noticing its evident mistake, would always give up the pursuit. — San . Francisco Call. ) YACHTIKG WITH ICE BOATS. t A very favourite amusement in the United > States is yachting with ice-boats on the l the frozen rivers and lakes of the Northern [ States, and especially on the Upper and Middle Hudson. Ice-yachting clubs are form--1 ed, and have permanent distance at many ' of the principal points of the Hudson ! river. The authentic Bpeed of tho boats is , marvellous. A mile a minute is often made by the " flyers." It is thought that, under perfectly favourable circumstances, these boats, for short stretches, can be driven at the rate of ninety.or a hundred miles an hour. Nine miles ia.saidto have been travelled byjtho Snowflake in seven minutes. The hull of the boat is put together in a spider-like framework to secure the greatest strength and lightness. All sorts of rigs are used, and dozens of these crafts may be seen in fine winter days on the Upper Hudson. — Leisure Hour. PAPEK PIPES. In Vienna there were recently exhibited gas and water services pipes mado of paper. The same kind of pipes will do for many factory purposes ; and for laying electrical wires, &c, we should suppose it to be specially useful. The pipes, according to the Paper World, are made as follows : — Strips of paper are taken, the width of which corresponds with fche length of one pipe section. The paper is drawn through melted asphalt, aud wound upon a mandrel which determines the inner diameter of the pipe. When the pipe thus made haß cooled, it is pulled off the mandrel, and the inside is covered with a kind of enamel whose nature is kept secret by the makers. The outside is painted with asphalt varnish, and dusted over with sand. It is stated that such a pipe will resist some 2000 poundß internal preeanre, though the thickness of the stuff is only about an iuch. TEMPEBATUBE OF JBBEUABY. For 27 years, and probably longer, the month of February has not been so cold as in 1886. The mean temperature for last month taken in Camden Square was 32 - 9 deg., instead of 40deg., and was l-7deg., lower than the previous lowest on record. " The low mean temperature has not been due to intense froßt. In 1864 and 1865 the frost was more intense than on any day last month, but it did not continue. February, 1886, is specially remarkable as the only February in 27 years, in which the temperature never once reached 50deg., the highest having been _7*7deg. There were only eight days in the month on which the temperature even rose to _odeg., and the ground was frozen every night but two. The characteristic of the month has, therefore, been not severe frost, bufc persistent — in fact, almost uninterrupted — low temperature." Similar statements could be made for other parts of tbe country. TIRING WITHOUT FLAME IN COAL MINES. It is announced that some trials recently concluded at the experimental mine gallery at Neukirchen have abundantly justified the suggestion made by Mr Galloway for the water tamping of blast charges in fiery mines. Mr Galloway offered the suggestion as a possible mefchod of preventing the flame from shot firing enteriug the air of a mine, and causing an explosion with the fire damp and coal dust that might at the moment be present. The trials made at Neukirchen were designed to prove the value u of this suggestion under the most trying conditions. A blast hole wascharged with gunpowder and damped with water, thia latter beiug contained in an animal bladder. It was fired in an atmosphere containing five per cent, of fire damp, with coal dust Bpread over ,a length of ten metres of the gallery floor, without producing the slightest flame or consequent explosion. A similar shot fired under analogous conditions with a different tamping pi oduced a very violent explosion. EXALTATION OF MEMOBY. There have been many accounts of persons saved from imminent death by drowning, who all ogree that at the moment of asphyxia they seemed to see their entire lives unrolled before them, even to the minutest detail. ' Home go so lar as to ,say that every instant of former life seems to flash across the memory, not as an outline merely, but with every detail filled in with the most remarkable minutia — every act of life, whether right or wrong, comes buck with great vividness. Ribot cites the case of a clear-headed man who was in the act of crossing a railroad track when an express train running at full speed appeared close at hand. The man had barely tune to throw himself down in the centre ot tho road, between the two lines of ' rails ; and aa the train rushed over him the feeling ot impending danger brought to his recollection most vividly every act and incident of his former life in such array as to suggest to him opening of " the great book at the laist great day." There is no doubt much exaggeration in these statements j yet they show an enormous temporary increase or exaltation of the uutural memory. , TO PBOTECT YOUNG TREES FEOM BABBITS AND HARES. Rabbits and hares are very destructive to young trees, by gnawing t away the tender ' bark above the crown of the roots. Most ■ trees outgrow danger from rabbits, which as > a rule will attack only young trees ; but hollies and laburnumß are never sul'e, and thejlargest specimens are liable to destruction by these little pests. A teaspoonlul of tincture of l asaicctida in half k a buckefclul of liquid clay, t mud or muck of any kind applied with 5 a brush to the stem of the young trees, will ( preserve them from the attacks from hares [ and rabbits,, without injury to the treeß. I Two or threo applications during winter will be sufficient.