TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 11 July 1925, Page 9 (Supplement)

TIMELY TOPICS

NEW TERROR FOR BIRDS.

The installation of the greatest aix beacon in the world at Mont Afrique, in Central France, may be welcomed with joy by the airmen yet will be looked upon with borrow by bird-lovers. With its tremendous lamps of ©Tie thousand million candle-power, this lighthouse is bound to work terrible destruction among the great flights of migrant birds which at this time and again in autumn cross France on their way to. summer and winter quarters. Already the death-roll from this cause is very serious. In a book on the migration of 'birds in Ireland by Mr. R. M. Barringtoii, there is inserted a note from the keepers of the Copeland Island. lighthouse relating to the early spring migration. "The air," says the "writer, '' was filled with birds. The balcony outside the light was completely covered with killed birds. They were five or Six deep all Tound, so that one walked upon a carpet of their dead bodies.'' At no other period of their existence do birds run so great and varied risks as during migration. If caught by a change of wind while crossing the sea whole flights may be beaten down and drowned. Incidentally, how does the tiny gold-crest, weighing barely half an ounce, manage to cross at one flight the whole breadth of the North Sea?

! .; Birds of prey destroy immense nuinpbers of migrants when tired "by long flights, and —although I do not think this fact is generally known —gulls are also their savage enemies. Blackbirds, larks, and many other birds migrate "by night, and usually complete their whole flight before dawn. But when delayed by winds they are pursued and attacked by gulls, whp strike them down, then, settling on the water, .devour them at leisure. Worst bf all is the destruction caused by man. In many places A regular business is. made of shooting or trapping birds Which arrive worn out by a long journey.—T. C. Bridges, in the "Daily' Mall.'*

SHORTAGE OF MEN.

EFFECT IN TEACHING,

Should women teach boy's.in school? MrJ w. H. Young, president of the National Association of Schoolmasters, England, holds that they should nol — thai boys need to be taught by '.anon. 7 If," say« ha, "boys are to be trained as men, to act as men, and to think as men, they must have manly instincts, and these instincts cannot be implanted in them by women teachers." Yet how many men have "made good" in life, although they have been taught mainly, if not wholly, by females. In the old —even in Victorian days—there were not often available for a large number of biyf any teachers save female. ~A=s recently as 1880 62 per cent, of the teachers were women. Today the percentage is still greater—76 per cent. Although, to cite figures furnished by Mr. Young, there are over 8?00 women teachers of boys in school, theTe are only two men teachers of girls. The fact is, according to Mr. Young, that there is a shortage of 11,100 men teachers.

STONE AGE IN SAHARA.

In the course of an account of the oasis of Kawar (Kaouar), Eastern Sahara in "La Nature" for March 14, Captain Marius Prevost describes stone implements found on a considerable number of sites in the oasis explored by him. The implements occur in such numbers as to suggest that the oas ; s supported a considerable population from an early date. In addition to flint, which was imported, quartz, quarziles, silicious limestone, haematite, and volcanic rocks are used in the manufacture of the implements. In the absenco of stratification, the only indication of date is the somewhat uncertain evidence of type. On this certain implements, worked sometimes on one side, sometimes on both; flakes, points, carinated implements, etc., would, if found in Europe, be classified beyond question as palaeolithic, while others, arrow-heads, with or without tang, or triangular, spear-headed knives, polished axes, etc., would be-

long to the neolithic. Beads and pendants of stone and ostrich shell were also found. The neolithic 'industry shows strong affinities with that of Egypt which, if contemporary, would indicate an antiquity of 0000 to 12,000 years, and the palaeolithic type mi gift therefore be assumed to .be older still. Up to the present, neolithic typology in the Sahara seems to point to a great uniformity of culture in the whole area.

GRAND EVOLUTION.

A large head witli a bulging brow supported on a body like a splinter of wood, with short arms and legs and perhaps hoofs instead of feet. This is the picture of the man and woman o! 2,000,00 years hence—ugly, weak, and clever—drawn by Professor Conrad Tliaraldsen, professor of zoology in the North-Western University, Chicago (U.S.A.). The man of the future will, says the profesor, be largely the result of gland control. Profesor fharaldsen, who has gained considerable fame since his appointment six years ago, declares (says tlie "Cape Argus") that we hay"e : already started on this road. Many professors have attempted to look into Ene future, but none so far as he.- There will, he thinks, be little use for muscle. "We are going towards that place which we shall never reach—Utopia," he states. "What we are doing is gradually fitting the individual to the environment. Every time there is a mating of gerin cells there are 16,777216 chances of variation, and it is the useful variation that survive. In future- glands also will have a greater function to perform. By regulating the gland 3 we can produce children who will be workers and have intellectual interests —in other words, we can regulate production.

"Meantime" continues Professor Tharaldsen, "man's brain is growing, and the constant growth will demand a much larger skull, with a bulging brow. The man of the future will probably have to wear glasses. Some of the physical assets will be lost with the increase in .brain power. We are getting near-sighted and losing our Bense of Bmell. Society, consequently, will be different in the generations to come. "What the future man is like may depend somewhat on the fads and fancies of the present. Mechanical devices are fast doing away with the need for muscles, and the lack of use will -cause the muscles to degenerate. .Except for hardiness and the power to withstand disease, physical bulk means nothing nowadays."

810 RECLAMATION".

THE FAMOUS WASH.

Along oiie part of .tft# coast of Norfolk, near Hunstantdn, the' sea is steadily washing awiaCy ,cliffs and land, with the result that the sea-coast communities have ever to be on the alert and ever expending large sums of money in defence. Higher along the same coast we are witnessing a determined attack upon the sea by man. At the Wash, thousands of acres which have long been under water are being converted into farmland, and there will be no richer land in England. With giant scoops, workmen are busily at work, at the expense of the Government, which voted £32,000 for the purpose, creating a bank which will enclose the once tide-washed land and protect the Wash against the wash of the sea. At high tide already the water only just ripples over great stretches of the Wash, whilst at low tide there is a great number of islets, which will soon form undulations in a large territory of new farm land, extending to .300 square miles. It is calculated that 5000 farms and small-holdings will be able to occupy the land, which is so rich that it will produce £1,000,000 worth of foodstuffs every year. The only "fly in the amber'' in Norfolk is that King's Lynn will cease to be a port —it is the oldest commercial harbour in Great Britain—and will become an inland town, miles distant from the sea.

making maps.

THE FIRST BULE WATER.

That the sea should be coloured blue on maps seems obvious. It is claimed, however, that the convention is not a hundTed years old. Messrs W. and A. K. Johnston, of Edinburgh, mapmakers, are celebrating their centenary, and one of the original partners, Keith Johnson, is said to be the man who first made water blue in atlases. This grand old firm was founded on Christmas Day. 3825, by William Johnston, a lad of twenty three. He started business as an ordinary printer, but in 1830, in the course of a walking tour in the West Highlands, the inaccuracies in the maps then available suggested the idea of producing better maps himself; and map production, therefore, became the main concern of the firm. This William Johnston became Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and, as holder of that high office, was knighted by Queen Victoria in Holyrood Palace, about the middle of last century.

HERBS OF HEALING.

To the novice all plants are dandelions or weeds —that favourite generic term, so carelesly employed* The experienced herb-gatherer knbws better, and fills Mb basket only with what will yield him health and good spirits.

Dandelion leaves, tender and young, are excellent for a salad. Boiled carefully, in a little water; they are a good substitute for spinach. Young nettles are also extremely good as a vegetable, but care must be taken to take only the very young tips. The wild hop can be found in some districts, and is thought by many to be equal to asparagus. Sorrel is another v salad ingredient, and this can be found in. the long grass of the meadows, but ear e-must be taken not to confuse it witfc the dock. Sorrel has a much smoother, finer leaf, and the stems of the plant are more slender than those of the dock and much less tough. Sage, the familiar garden herb, is very useful for many purposes. A gargle madfe from an infusion of red sage leaves is a certain cure for sore

throat, while leaves of ordinary sage are often put between slices bf and butter to make an inexpensive sandwich. Sage was used by our forefathers as a eure for that depressing melancholy incidental to advancing years, and its garden neighbour, thyme, was used by the Romans for the cure of low spirits. Indeed, most herbs, whether found in the fields and lanes or in our gardens, are good for low spirits, and this alone should be sufficient reason for setting out in quest of these cheap health-giv-ers. —"EX.," in the "Daily Mail."

SECRET RIVER.

UNDERGROUND FAIRYLAND.

A romajace of a wonderful diseovery by two young students on a lonely moor lies* behind the announcement that a g"reat cavern system has been opened up at Ingletori, in the Yorkshire hills. The two men, Mr Christopher tong and Mr John Churchill, were spending a holiday among, the hills, and happened one mornihg to survey the rugged slope of the great llngleboroujjh Mountain through theit Jfleld glasses. They saW, half-hidden .•among thfe bracken, a. imrrovfr slit in 'the rock. "They blasted away a couple ipf thousand tons of liritestonfy-and in f£he heart of the mountain discovered a roaring river passing through crystal caves. In lofty chambers, curtained with stalactites of orange and white crystal, are cascadies of clear water, which have splashed down for countless ages. At one point the river bed widens out and forms a long subterranean lake. This portion is not yet opened up, but excavation is being carried on by Mr Churchill. This underground fairyland will be named the White Scar Cavern.

ORGANIST'S NOTABLE RECORD.

Mrs P. H. Hawkins commenced on Easter Sunday her fiftieth year as organist of St. David's Roman Catholic Cathedral, Cardiff. This is claimed to be a record of continuous religieua service unequalled in Britain. Mrs Hawkins, who began her duties when only ten and a half years old, is a native of Cardiff and a member of an exceptionally musical family, all of whom have been closely connected with Roman Catholic churches in various parts of the country. Michael, a brother, who died recently, was a conductor at an Ilford church, while a sister, Mary, is the present organist at St. Patrick's, Cardiff. Two other sisters are nuns, one being a reverend mother of the Order of Charity (Sisters of Providence), and one of these sisters Tas the organist of St. David's before Mrs Hawkins.

NEW USES FOE STATELY HOMES.

A new use for great English country mansions* which owners find too large these clays has been found. Quite u number of great homes in recent years have been bought for school or institution purposes. Included are Worth Park, the Montefiore's luxurious home in Sussex; Normanhurs* Court, the splendid Brassey seat; historic Battle Abbey; Eden Hall, of "luck" fame; Eendlesham Hall; Canford Manor; Stoke Park, near Guildford; Stowe Hall, in Bucks; Ballarda, at Addiscombe; and Caversham Park, Bending. Hevthrop, the splendid Brassev home in North Oxfordshire. is to be a Jesuit College: it litis been bought by the Eoman Catholic Theological College at St Asaph. Heythrop is a stately Italian mansion. Probably it cost the late Mr Albert Brassey something like £200,000 to build.