DISCOVERIES IN ASIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20851, 18 April 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

DISCOVERIES IN ASIA.

RELICS OF CHINESE WALL. A Chineso record written on wooden sticks between 86 and 31 8.C., is one of tlio many thousand archaeological objects discovered in Mongolia by Dr. Sven Hedin, the Swedish .explorer, who has lately returned to Stockholm after two years in Central Asia. This bo6k is a part of the archives found at Etsin Gol, 200 miles north of Kanchow and contains 2600 wooden wands elaborately inscribed, tlio largest collection in the world. On one is written an order for " 300 archers to go to the ninth city gate." What city is referred to and whero it onco lay probably will never bo revealed.

Equally important is the discovery by Dr. Folke Bergman, the liedin expedition's 27-year-old chief archaeologist, of the remains of an older Chineso wall, located many hundred miles north of the present one. It onco encircled prospering cities and artifically irrigated fields and protected the ancient trade route from China to Home against tho attacks of the Huns.

Dr. Bergman has made other discoveries which will help to prove tho existence of commercial intercourse between China and tho Near East as early as tho Stone Age. A new unit of the expedition, headed by Dr. T. Arne, soon will bo dispatched to Persia, whero similar researches have been made. In addition to the results achieved by the Swedish scientists, two Chmineso archaeologists of the liedin group have matin valuable finds.

Although China forbids the export of archaeological and paleontological relics, unless duplicates exist within the country, Dr. liedin and Dr. Bergman expressed a hopo that they will be allowed to tak'e tho rich collections, amounting to more than 25,000 objects, to Sweden. The Swedish expedition has maintained the friendliest relations with the Chinese, as shown by the fact that the Mongolian authorities have suggested that Dr. Hedin return and continue his scientific research for two more years. Tho reason for Dr. Hedin's visit to Stockholm, which will not bo of long duration, is lo collect money to carry on his work. Newspapers are endorsing his plan, hoping that tho famous explorer may have a change to finish his studies of a part of the world which he entered in 1891 as a pioneer.

HARDEST AND SOFTEST METALS. Iridium, a metal belonging to the platinum group, and often used on the tips of fountain pens, is the hardest pure metal known, recent tests have shown. Molybdenum is next and tungsten third. Of the common mqtals, nickel is the hardest, ranking fifth. The tests do not include alloys, such as those of steel with a high percentage of carbon, which rank higher than any. The tests showed that thallium is the softest metal, being twenty-fourth on the scale, lead was twenty-third, and tin twenty-second. Gold ranks as number eighteen, silver fifteen, copper eleven and iron ten. HELIUM FOR EVERYBODY. Tho disaster to RJ.OI has had one beneficent result, for the helium of the United States will in future be available to all. Nearly ten million cubic feet of helium were obtained by the United States from their plants in Texas in 1929. A great deal of it is transported in steel vessels under a pressure of 20001b. a square inch. One of the greatest achivements of the department producing the helium has been to improve its purity; 100 parts of helium to-day contain only two parts of impurity, while a year or two ago they contained five. This means that an airship can lift several tons more weight. TARANTULA'S BITE FAILS TO KILL. Professor P. W. Fattig, curator of the Emory University Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, made a large tarantula from Honduras bite him. Professor Fattig said that ho made tho experiment partly out of curiosity and partly to prove his contention that the bites of such inseots are not necessarily fatal, says the popular science. It took about half an hour's poking to make the supposedly vicious creature bite. Then it hung oil to the professor's thumb with a bulldog grip for about three minutes beforo it was pried off Professor Fattig said that (he bite was two or three times as pain--ful as (he sfing of a bee, and that his th limb felt about three times ils normal size. There were no other ill effects, and the swelling soon disappeared.