falls, we shall catch larks." It has come true, you

see.

'Nonsense, Madge. You have only caught a Robin.'

THE MONTH:
SCIENCE AND ARTS.

IF, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer says, the British public are paying the expenses of the Challenger exploring expedition (and therefore can't afford another arctic expedition at present), it is satisfactory to know that they are getting something for their money. The explorers send home Reports from time to time, with particulars of their researches. By the Report despatched from Madeira on their departure for the West Indies, we are informed that their soundings shew the existence of a deep basin (2500 fathoms) between the Strait of Gibraltar and Madeira, which was before unknown. It may be described as a deep lake in the sea, edged by comparatively shallow water. In the words of the official Report: This deep sea continues the chain of basins extending from the Black Sea to the westward through the Mediterranean, which, divided by a shallow ridge between Sicily and Africa, forms, as it were, two lakes, the shallow ridge at the Strait of Gibraltar separating them from the newly discovered Madeira Gulf.' The observations made on the temperature of the water shew that the summer heat penetrates to a depth of about 600 feet, below which the temperature is uniform all the year round. And it appears to be demonstrated by the experiments made on board the Challenger, that at a depth of from one to two miles the temperature of the water is everywhere 28 degrees, or four degrees only below the freezingpoint.

A Commission appointed by the United States' government to examine the fisheries, and search out all the kinds of fish in the Bay of Fundy, has done some good zoological work by dredging in deep waters. The deepest haul yet made north of Florida was made by them in 430 fathoms, and from this great depth they hauled 44 species of animals, exclusive of Foraminifera. In this we have another proof that living things are much more numerous at the bottom of the deep sea than (until within recent years) has been believed. In the capture above mentioned, some species were found which have never before been taken in American waters, though they are well known to naturalists in Europe. Another interesting fact established by this remarkable haul is, that there must be plenty of light' at the depth of 860 yards, for many of the animals taken are 'predaceous, with well-developed eyes.'

Another fact in natural history is worthy of note. Certain species of fish are found in Lake Superior, which on examination prove to be identical with species that inhabit the lakes in Sweden, and with other species that live in the sea. Perhaps some of our naturalists will give us an explanation of this phenomenon.

Captain Chimmo, R.N. who is now on his way home from a cruise in the China Sea, and the region of the Eastern Archipelago, has brought to light some interesting facts in the natural history

of the ocean, of which we shall have full particulars by-and-by. We shall then learn something about 'reproductive pearls'-about the so-called sea sawdust and, as regards the phosphorescence of the sea, we are told that it is produced by a minute but highly organised crustaceous animal, with digestive and reproductive organs, among which the captain believes he has discovered the seat of the luminosity: a phenomenon of wonder and delight to unaccustomed eyes.

In

A noteworthy instance of supply following demand is afforded by the trade of India. 1870-71, the export of jute from that country was more than three million cwts.; in 1871-72, it rose to more than six million cwts., thus nearly doubling itself in a single year. For thirty miles along each side of the Hooghly above Calcutta, jute is grown, and mills are built to prepare the fibre on the spot, and continually more and more land is taken into cultivation. Jute, as most people know, is largely used in weaving; for canvas, sacking, for articles of dress, for imitations of silk, also use it in prodigious quantities. A great trade and for chignons. Ropemakers and papermakers for the mere cuttings and waste jute has grown up between India and the United States. Brother Jonathan, shrewd in his generation, buys this waste, and converts it into excellent paper. Meanwhile, many a young Dundee is growing up along the valley of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.

Twenty-five years ago, paraffin was first distilled from oil found in a Derbyshire coal-mine. When this was exhausted, experiments were made by Mr James Young, which proved that paraffin could be extracted from any kind of bituminous shale or coal; and he began with a mineral so rich that it yielded one hundred and twenty gallons of crude oil to the ton. This having in turn become exhausted, shales are now worked which yield not more than from fifteen to thirty-five gallons per ton. But that this smaller quantity is profitable is manifest by there being in Scotland alone sixtyeight oil-works, which consume in the year 782,000 tons of shale, and produce 21,840,000 gallons of oil, from which are extracted ten million gallons of oil for lamps, five thousand tons of paraffin, and six hundred tons of sulphate of ammonia. The paraffin is used in the manufacture of candles, for various purposes in the arts and in pharmacy; and as a lining for beer-casks it effectually prevents their becoming foul. A layer of paraffin preserves fruits, jams, and meats from taint and putrefaction; and it prevents the decay of stone. By treatment with paraffin, woven goods can be rendered waterproof; it is used instead of sulphur in the preparation of lucifer-matches; and last, though not least, paraffin is a non-conductor of electricity, and takes its place among the best of insulators. This is a prodigious sum of results within a quarter of a century. The world is much indebted to Mr James Young for his share in the achievement thereof.

Perhaps experiment would prove that paraffin is a good dressing for cotton yarns, and with preservative qualities. The reproach of cotton-spinners would then be wiped away, and the fair fame of English commerce would not be blurred by Manchester mildew.'

There are in the United Kingdom some millions of acres of peat-bog, and the question as to the best way of converting those broad deposits of peat into

fuel has often been raised; but it has become more than usually interesting since the falling off in the 'output' of coal. Peat in its ordinary condition is too bulky and too wet to be offered as marketable fuel, and no thoroughly satisfactory method for 'converting' it has been put forward until lately. Now, at the Atlas Works in the Harrow Road, machinery has been set up which, by an ingenious contrivance, expels the water from the crude peat, chops and converts it into pulp, and squeezes it forth in continuous strips or belts, as wide and thick as an ordinary brick. These strips may be any number of yards in length, but they are cut by wires into five-inch sections; and these peatbricks, as they may be called, are then placed in racks to dry. They shrink so much in the drying, as to be finally reduced to three inches long, two inches wide, and one inch thick; but in this condition they are of the same density and specific gravity as coal, and can be used for all, the purposes to which coal is applied. Whether the price will be lower than the price of coal, is not stated; but as the cost of production is not more than five shillings a ton, it may be inferred that peat-bricks will not be dear. To convert all our peat-bog into good fuel would be a doubly praiseworthy development of industry, since the land now covered by the bogs would become available for cultivation.

There is talk of a Company which proposes to manufacture for sale a kind of compressed fuel, composed of peat, coal-dust, lignite, street-sweepings, and cinders. All these materials are to be mixed in a special way and formed into compact blocks, which, as in the case of the peat above mentioned, is as useful for fuel as coal.

'Indurated tar,' of which report speaks favour ably, is now under experiment at Devonport. It is used as a coating for iron, ships' boilers, and such like, and resists alike a moist heat or a dry heat. It contains no oil, and requires none when applied, and is described as shewing a gloss over the whole surface. The experts believe that it will bear any amount of heat below the red-hot point; hence it should stand as well in the torrid zone as in our latitudes; and if it be true that this indurated tar does not crack, shrink, nor blister, what an admirable coat it will be for iron ships of every kind! Ships rotten with rust will no more figure in the

navy.

We mentioned in a recent Month that machinery to do the work of stokers at gas-works was being introduced. This has now been done with satisfactory results at the Chartered Gas Company's Manufactory in the Horseferry Road, Westminster. Hitherto, the retorts, in which gas has been distilled from the coal, have been placed horizontally: in the new method they are placed vertically. The retorts are iron tubes exposed to great heat. In each tube an Archimedean screw turns round and round. The coal falls in slowly from the top, descends slowly with the movement of the screw, gives off all its gas on the way, and the coke falls from the bottom. The advantage of this over the horizontal method is shewn by the fact, that for every ton of coals converted it yields more coke, and two thousand feet more of gas.

A method still more advantageous is offered by Mr Ruck. He decomposes water, and thereby obtains hydrogen in unlimited quantities, for water at this time is unusually plentiful. With the

hydrogen he mixes vapour of petroleum, and this produces a gas which may be made to give any amount of light at a cost of less than two shillings for a thousand feet. So many experiments have been made to test this new method, that it may be looked on as demonstrated; and if this should hold in applications on the large scale, the economy will be of great importance, for coal tends to increase in price; and where thirty men are required in the manufacture of gas from coal, only one man is required in Mr Ruck's method.

Since Sir William Armstrong introduced his hydraulic machinery for raising ore from deep mines, and for loading and unloading ships in dock, it has been applied, as our readers are aware, to many other purposes. By the quiet pressure of water the largest of dock-gates are now opened and closed with the utmost ease; newspapers are printed; lifts are worked in hotels and factories; and the scenes are shifted in theatres. At the Royal Academy, when Exhibitions are in preparation, truck-loads of pictures are raised from the basement to the galleries by a hydraulic lift of unusual size, fed by the ordinary water-supply. Water can be used to blow the bellows of an organ; and in the employment of water for this or any other intermittent purpose, there is the advantage that it is always ready. Pull a lever, or turn a tap, and it begins to work. There is no lighting of a fire, and waiting half an hour, as in the case of steam. And now an ingenious mechanician at Paris has contrived a way to close and open shop-shutters by means of the ordinary water-supply. The winch, and cog-wheels, and connecting apparatus at present employed, are not required with twenty gallons of water, at a sixtyfeet pressure, more than twenty square yards of iron shutters can be raised or lowered merely by turning a tap inside the shop. The water-tubes, and indeed all the apparatus, are inside the shop, which renders it easy to guard against effects of frost; while failure of water could be prevented by storing a day's supply in a cistern. The inventors of this new contrivance are Messrs SaintPere, 1 Rue Jacob, Paris.

The Academy of Sciences at Paris have awarded their prize of fifty thousand francs to Mr Gramme for his electro-magnetic machine, which is one of the simplest and most efficient that has yet been invented. The construction is so free from complications, that the instrument will work and give a continuous current for months together; and to those who know anything of the subject, these will appear as results of the highest importance. One of the uses to which this machine may be immediately applied is the production of a light of intense brilliancy, which will be seen farther than any other electric light yet known. With Mr Gramme's light on board ship, we ought to hear no more of collisions at sea, with their terrible catastrophes; and we are informed that one of the French steamship companies is about to adopt it, so that their vessels carrying a dazzling light on their prow may not run down other ships, or wreck themselves against icebergs.

Nottingham, Birmingham, Rochdale, and other busy towns of the midland and northern counties are combining in an endeavour to obtain for their several localities the advantages of university training. As they cannot go to the universities, they desire that the universities should go to

them; that Cambridge and Oxford should appoint 'lecturers of approved eminence and skill," who might conduct evening classes for working-men in the large commercial towns, and at suitable hours give lectures to the educated portion of the community, and thus spread the advantages of university education throughout the country. This project appears to us well worthy of support, and we are glad to learn that the university of Cambridge has already appointed a syndicate to take it into consideration.

In our Month for January last, 10,000 tons was by a clerical error represented to be the amount of water given to an acre by one inch of rainfall. It should have been 100, or, more exactly, 101 tons.

OLD ADA M.

A 'GRAND old gardener ?'-Not at all!
Adam, in sooth, was somewhat small;
His tribe have dwindled since the Fall,
Or he, at anyrate,

Was squab as any Dutchman's tub.
Yet gardeners like old Adam Shrub
Are rare in what old fogies dub
These days degenerate.'

I do not think that he was pat in
That many syllabled dog-Latin

That modern gardeners love to chat in (To my distraction);

I never heard him call a blossom
The Crambocrakja Polyglossum,

But this sad lack disturbed his bosom-
No, not one fraction!

Perhaps 'twas little to deplore;
Others, indeed, might be far more
Versed in mere dull botanic lore
And nomenclature;

Old Adam chiefly cared to know,
How best to make his garden glow,
Perchance less like a 'Flower-show,'

But more like Nature.

And surely, since the untimely blight
Of earth's first garden, never sight
Of floricultural delight,

So glad and glowing,
Such Paradise for eyes and noses,

Such store for bowpots' and for posies,
Was seen as when old Adam's roses
Were all ablowing.'

I, a young pickle' rising seven,
Esteemed the place a very heaven ;
Yet would at that sweet age have given,
I'll frankly own, a

Whole world of stocks and roses for a
Free entrée to the orchard. Flora

I loved exceedingly, yet more, a

Great deal-Pomona !

O Adam, were there ever grown

Such pears? such toothsome peaches known?
Or plums, with flavour all their own,
As grew thy trees on?

Or what were sweeter than to win
Leave-granted with thy puckered grin-
To visit that old orchard in

The strawberry season?

The Sciences were nought to Shrub,

But then Smelfungus-there's the rub!-
This sciolist, this squat Dutch tub,
This void rotundity,

Roses and ribstones made to grow!
I have a modern gardener now,

Of Scottish accent, ponderous brow,
And great profundity.

Adam, by simple 'rule of thumb,'
Grew peach and pippin, pear and plum,
In wealth whose sight would just strike dumb
My man M'Slumber.

He, with much scientific fluster,
Last season just contrived to muster
Six pears, two pines, of grapes a cluster,
And one cucumber !

My walks are painfully precise,

My beds are planned with quaint device,
Trim streaks of flowers grow coldly nice

I well remember how, when I
Was wooing winsome Cicely,

We twain would stroll, with none to spy

Save Shrub the artful,

Among the roses white and red,

That topped my darling's dainty head
(She'd beg a few-old Adam said:
'Marm-take a cartful'),

He'd dodge and dive with zeal discreet,
What time he heard our loitering feet;
Or sternly guard our Sacred Seat
Among the laurels.

Those hollyhocks were high, but he Some snatched salutes was bound to see, Nor wholly unaware could be

Of tiffs and quarrels.