Miscellaneous.

Lake County Press, Issue 2168, 9 May 1907, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

ON an average ten letters daily go ot'ie Dead Letter Office, having u > address, and 1,000 registered and ordinary letters are returned. These letters contain £OOO,OOO to £700,000 in money m the course of a year. Millions of postal packets every year car not bo delivered because of the incorrectness of the address. There is probably in all the world only one town built of glass, and that is to be found near Yellowstone Park, in the United States. The glass is not artificial, but j natural, being formed by ages of volcanic action. It is dark green or black in hue, ! but in every other respect resembles the artificial product. Easily cut into slags and ; quite impervious to the weather, it makes excellent building material. There is a species of marine stickleback found in the Black Sea of which both male and female construct nests, while the female sits on the eggs something like a hen. The chromis of the Sea of Galilee also builds nests ; so do the turbot of Mauritius, the Jew-fish of Australia, the mud-fish of Gambia, the cat-fish of Maine, and the gouranii of Java, Borneo, and Sumatra. Some of the suufish, lampsuckors, and doras have the same domestic instincts. There is only one place in the world where the sun sets twice daily, and that is at Leek, in Staffordshire. The'reason of this is that a jagged mountain is situated to the west of the town, and in tho evening the sun sets behind it and darkness comes on. Then the first sunset occurs, the gas-lamps are lighted, and apparently night has set in. But in the course of an hour or so sun reappears again through tho opening at the side of the mountain and it ib daylight again. Artificial lights arc extinguished and daylight prevails, until the sun descends below tho opening and the second sunset occurs and night comes to stay. STANCE CU-STuMi lji GREECF. Tho custom that prevails in Greece of carrying bodies to the grave in coffins which allow the face f,o bo visible is said to have originated when the Turks dominated the land. At tho time arms and ammunition were being constantly distributed to the Greek populace in a way which baffied the Turkish officials until—either by accident or espionage—a coffin which was being escorted by an apparently mourning procession was found to contain not a body, but weapons. An order was then promulgated .hat bodies were to bo bornoHo the grave only on open litters or in coffins without lids. FAJCIR?* The fakirs of India are fanaiics who retire from the world, and give themselves up to contemplation. They endeavour to gain tho veneration of the people by absurd and cruel performances. The self-torture to which they voluntarily submit themselves is almost beyond belidf. Some hold an arm raised in one position so long that it becomes withered, and remains fixed in this position for life. Othors keep the hands clasped together so long that the nails grow into the llesh, and come out on the other side. Others turn their faces over tho shoulder, or their eyes towards the end of the nose, till they become fixed in that direction. Others take their seat or lie down on a bed of nails, points upward ! They make a vow ot poverty, and live on what the faithful give them. The Hindu fakir who has readied a certain stage of perfection become Sanyasis, and is looked upon by his devotees as particularly holy. DlYfffG BSLLf. Diving-bolls are ehieily used for laying the foundations of breakwaters, lighthouses, etc. At Dover there are at present seven of these bells at work helping to build the piers and sea Avails, which will make Dover the largest artificial harbour in the world. These walls arc built up of immense blocks of cement, weighing from 2-1 to 42 tons each. Before the first layer is placed in position the sea floor has to be prepared for its reception. This is done by lowering a giant grab, a jawlike contrivance with a double row of formidable teeth, which descends to the bottom of tho sea with open mouth. There it works its way into the sea floor, and comes up with a dripping mouthful of Hint and chalk that fills a railway truck. The diving-bell is then lowered, with men wlnsc duty it is to levol the fioor ready for the blocks. These bells weigh about -10 tons, and measure 17 feet by 10 feet. When a bell is about to descend the men take their places on a seat inside, and tho boll is gradually lowered into the sea. It has no bottom, but the water is kept from rising any great height inside by compressed air, which is pumped into the bell. When the sea-lloor is readied the air is compressed under a pressure of 271bs. to the square inch, and all the water is driven out, so that the men can work on comparatively dry land. The interior of the bell is lit by electricity, and is almost as bright as day. 'The man in charge of tho bell is able to have it moved about as ho wishes by sending signals up to the man in charge of the great crane to which the bell is attached. Ho also calls for more or less air to be pumped in as required. THE MEIGKT OF W/YEF. In an article published in a recent issue of flic Kevuc Scicntifique, M, Bcrtin, the wellknown naval architect, maintains that the heights ami lengths of ocean waves are often greatly over-estimated. Xlio most rcliablo method of determining the length is, he states, to reduce from the period, since there is a simple relation between this length and the time of complete oscillation. The longest wave of which lie Inn cognisance is 800 metres (2,500 feet) from crest to crest, its period being 2:5 seconds. These long waves, he states, are never very high. In dec]) water the height of a wave SOO metres long will not, at most, be more than Hi metres, or one-fiftieth its length. Much greater heights than these have, he says, been recorded, particularly from small craft, but the observations were quite unreliable. The error arises mainly from the fact that the observer has failed to take into account the fact that the vessel lie is in lloats with its deck parallel to the surface of the wave, and not to a true horizontal plane. With the reference plane thus tilted, grossly exaggerated estimates of the true height of the waves become possible. Where care has been taken to avoid this source of error, the highest wave recorded in open water has measured 13 metres from hollow to crest; but M. Bcrtin believes that heights of 10 metres may, perhaps, be mot with in the Southern seas. On entering shoal water waves become higher and shorter, so that a wave which has ahight of US metres in open water may attain 10 metres on striking a shoal, while if it meets a more or less vertical obstacle, it may shoot up to double this height: and at the Eddystoue light, he states, solid green seas have been known to reach a height of :12 metres. Wives of SOO metres length are, he continues, very rare, since a period of fen seconds is not often exceeded, which corresponds to a length of 100 metres (about 520 feet). More commonly the period is six to eight seconds, and the length 100 feet to IJL'O feet. Heights of over 10 metres (83 feet) are rare, but short waves arc relatively higher than long ones, a wave 100 feet long being commonly S feet to 10 feet high. M. Bcrtin further points out that there appears to be a minimum to the size of ocean waves, as well as a maximum, since there is a connection between the size and the velocity of the wind producing them.