ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XLIII, Issue 2283, 5 February 1912, Page 2

ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.

MOTION IN SPACE. Everything in the heavens is moving, every single thing. “ The stillness of night ” is only on the earth’s surface. As the sun goes down the wind falls, the rustling of the trees ceases, animate things sleep. Familiar sounds are heard no more. Quietness there is ; hut stillness ? That is something quite unknown in the arched dome of the heavens. A meteor shoots across the sky, visible for a second or two alone, and then disappears. Its long trail of light shows how great is the pace at which even the tiny atom that constitutes a meteor—no bigger than a grain of gravel—travels in the illimitable theatre of the heavens. A meteor la the least considerable of all the celestial bodies, and none of them are still.

Night and day the earth is moving round upon its ails and round the sun. This we all know because night follows day, and the seasons come in order. The earth has its own encircling moon. Other planets have families of moons, two, four, even nine in number, all revolving ; and moons and planets together encircle the sun. But the sun Itself is no fixed centre of the solar system. It, too, is moving, carrying our world with it at present in the direction of the constellation of the Lyre, though a great curve may divert the drift far distant. Away in the depths the stars are moving. In cases the motion is sufficiently large to have been traced either across the sky or towards or away from the earth. Other stars — and these the vast majority—lie at such unfathomable distances that during the period in which the skies have been closely watched no change in position has been recorded. But they cannot be still. They must move or perish. The greatest catastrophe conceivable would occur if motion in space were stopped for but a moment.— " Chronicle.” WHEN TERENCE' CAME HOME FROM GAOL. The second floor room of the little cottage was decorated with a shrivelled last year’s Christmas wreath, depending from the creased and torn blind, and on either side of the wreath were pinned little flags. It gave the cottage a particularly festive appearance. One of the neighbouring women, a broad and buxom person, of middle age, stopped in passing, and looked at the window curiously, and as she did so a little old woman, as withered and shrivelled as the Christmas wreath came and bid her ” Good morning.” ” Good mornin’ to you, Mrs. Cowley,” said the neighbour cordially. ” It’s cilebratin’ ye are, I see by th’ decorations, and mighty foine they look,. Ye must b’lave in Christmas.” The little old woman smiled. ” Yes,” she answered, *• I’m celibratin’ 'tls for Terence, th’ b'y. He Is coming home this day.” “Is that so 7” exclaimed 'the neighbour. “Terry's cornin’ home. Ye don’t tell me, I thought be was sent up fer five years 7” ”So he was,” said Terence’s mother, beaming. “ Yis, he was sent up fer five years, but he got one year off for good behaviour.” “ Think of that !” said the delighted neighbour, in sympathetic tones. ” For good behaviour ! Now isn’t it a comfort to have a son like that.” WONDERFUL GAVE TO BE ' EXPLORED. A mammoth cave has been discovered in German East Africa in Mt. Nangoma. about an hour to th« south of Nandembo. A police officer Weckauf, and a missionary named Ambroa Mayer, has made a partial investigation of it. The entrance is 43 meters (a meter is about 39 ins.— a yard and 3 ins.) wide by 21 meters high, and the whole cave has a length of 329 meters. It is of pipelike shape, and has a funnel-shaped opening, caused by a cave-in. It is in a chalk mountain and caused by water erosion. The natives had long known of it, but concealed its existence from the whites. During the uprising of 1905-06 they used it for a hiding-place for thousands, completely baffling the enemy. It contains a spring of fresh water, which gives it additional value as a refuge. Its entrance lies in the primeval forest. Evidence is strong that it has been the habitat of thousands of bats through untold years. It is hoped that funds will be forthcoming to provide for a thorough exploration, since this can hardly fall to yield prehistoric remains and antiquities of great interest and value. I It was a very hot day ! Jinks, i who had gained a great reputation ias a world-wide traveller —chiefly on the strength of his travelling-bag, which is covered all over with foreign labels —came strolling into the dining room, looking provokingly cool, just in time for dinner. “ Well, old chap, is it warm enough for you, to day 7” innocently asked Jinks, as a slight shiver ran swiftly along his spinal column and branched off from rib to rib. I “ Quite warm enough for me,” an- ■ swered the little man addressed. ” Do you call this warm 7" Jinks went on, satirically. “Why, I remember when I was away from home a few months ago, I got into a place where the scorching sun-rays actually used to raise largo blisters on the blocks of ice we used to sit upon to keep us from catching brain fever. Ah, that was a warm place, if you like. The water in the river was boiling hot—the cattle in the fields used to walk all about browned over like a smoked joint ; even the old hens used to lay hard-boiled eggs, and when it rained, as it sometimes did, we used to stay inside for fear of scalding raindrops. Why actually-” ” You’ll go there again some day, old man, if you stick to the story,” was the little gulet man’s short but trenchant comment. 1216. ,