Entries Tagged 'Science & Natural History' ↓

Pussy Makes a Pet of the Rat and Is a Mother to It

It is related in the San Francisco Chronicle that, four miles from Farmington, in California, resides a well-to-do rancher named Morrow. He has a little 4-year-old son, Vernie, who usually has about everything he takes a fancy to. Among the things he fancies an which he has is a large, matronly cat that has been brought up to make due provisions for herself and her progeny. Jet is this cat’s name and jet her color. Jet and Vernie are great friends, and they are frequently seen roaming around the premises together when Jet’s time is not taken up with her own private affairs. Jet has always borne the reputation of being “sure death” to any rats or ground squirrels. A short time ago, in exploring the barns, granaries, and barn yard, Vernie came upon a nest of young rats, which he immediately took up an carried to the house, and placed carefully in a drawer in his mother’s sewing machine. Mrs. Morrow objected to the nest of rats being in the drawer, and took them out to drown them, when Vernie insisted he must keep one, and begged so hard for it that his mother gave it to him. In a short time he laid it down and forgot about it. Then Jet came along and took up the young rat and carried it to her bed as a companion for her one kitten and a solace to her own mind. Strange as it may appear, the young rat made himself at home, derived his sustenance from the same source as the kitten, received the same maternal attention from Jet, who seemed to forget that she was nursing her legitimate prey, to the great delight of Vernie and the surprise of the older heads about the neighborhood. This strange state of affairs continued for two or three weeks, when the baby rat strayed from Jet’s protection, and met his death at the claws of another cat not so merciful as Jet. Strange as this may appear, it is a fact, and can be verified by several persons who witnessed this peculiar and happy family.

They Fly at Great Altitudes and Attain Speed Well Nigh Incredible

Boston Herald: The investigations of the celebrated artist and savant, Heinrich Gootke, have thrown an interesting light on many facts hitherto unknown concerning the migration of birds. It has been noticed that when the time of departure comes the birds vanish as if by magic. This is explained in various ways. The migration flight is always at an extremely lofty altitude, and it also takes place generally at night. The structure of birds renders them capable of existing at an incredible height. They can ascend to an elevation of from 35,000 to 40,000 feet, and at such heights sustain great muscular efforts for considerable lengths of time. At this altitude birds attain to astounding speed, a speed which seems to come to them simply for the purpose of migration. While the swallow is supposed to fly with the speed of the fastest train, the northern blue-throat, a bird which under normal conditions only hops, makes the journey from Central Africa to Heligoland in a spring night of scarcely nine hours. Its average rate is therefore 180 geographical miles an hour. The Virginia plover, according to Mr. Gootke, travels at the rate of four miles a minute, that is, 240 miles an hour. This incredible speed is of course only attained at great altitudes, where the extreme rarity of the air causes less loss of muscular power in overcoming friction and there is no wind to act as an impediment to progress. What guides birds in their migration? After fifty years of study Mr. Gootke refuses even to attempt to answer of this question from a scientific point of view. What adds to the mystery is that young birds of the year–their age not exceeding six or eight weeks–perform this first journey of their lives with the same unerring certainty as the old individuals which follow a month or so later.

Boston Transcript: P. Valin, a nervous little old gentleman of Somerville, has discovered that everybody who buys liquids is being cheated. He says the gallon measures in common use do not contain 231 cubic inches, as required by law, and he has proved it to his own satisfaction by testing a standard gallon measure with a set of square tin boxes of known capacity. Mr. Valin has great confidence in his own measures and in his method of proof, which requires a squaring of the circle, but a little thing like that does not bother him. He figured out a method of squaring the circle some years ago, and has been squaring circles ever since, with the greatest of ease. He says that, as a practical result of his figuring, he has found that the standard gallon is about a wineglassful “shy,” and he calls on the authorities, in the name of the president of the continental congress, at once to rectify this error. Just what he will do if the government continues to go on cheating the consumers of liquids he does not say, but the mandates of a man who has squared the circle, it seems, should be given some consideration.

A fashionable audience in Paris recently listened to a lecture on chemistry by a celebrated chemist. At the conclusion of the lecture a lady and gentleman who were among the first to leave the hall had reached the open air, when the lady caught her escort staring at her. “What is the matter?” asked the madame, in surprise. “Pardon me, but you are quite blue!” The lady returned to the hall and approached a mirror. She started back in horror. The rouge upon her cheeks had been converted into a beautiful blue by the chemical decomposition which had taken place under the influence of the gasses which had been generated during the lecture. The majority of the women in the audience had suffered in a similar manner. There were all sorts of colors–blue, yellow, violet and black. Some whose vanity had induced them to put ivory on the skin, coral on the lips, rouge on the cheeks and black on the eye-brows had undergone a ludicrous transformation.–New York Tribune.

It Would Test the Patience of a Man on a Record Breaking Train

There is a perpetual fascination about the stars and the immense distances at which they lie from one another and from us. To demonstrate the vast distance of Centauri from this planet a popular scientist gives the following illustration: “We shall suppose that some wealthy directors, for want of outlet for their energy and capital, construct a railway to Centauri. We shall neglect, or the present, the engineering difficulties–a mere detail–and suppose them overcome and the railway open for traffic. We shall go further, and suppose that the proprietors of the interstellar space had not been exorbitant in their terms for right of way.

“Therefore, with a view to encourage traffic, the directors had made the fare exceedingly moderate, viz., first-class at 1 penny a hundred miles. Desiring to take advantage of these facilities, a gentleman, by way of providing himself with small change for the journey, buys up the national debt of Britain and a few other countries, and, presenting himself at the office, demands a first-class single to Centauri.

“For this he tenders in payment the script of the British national debt, which just covers the cost of his ticket, but at this time the national debt from little wars has been run up to £1,100,000,000.

“Having taken his seat it occurs to him to ask:

“‘At what rate do you travel?’

“‘Sixty miles an hour, sir, including stoppages,’ is the answer.

“‘Then when shall we reach Centauri?’

“‘In 48,663,000 years, sir!’”

A Western Passenger Train Held Up by a Swarm of Hornets

A swarm of hornets held up a passenger train on the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines railroad, and gave the trainmen and passengers a battle that will be remembered longer by far than if it had been against bandits, says an Ottumwa dispatch to the Cincinnati Tribune. The train was running slowly up a steep grade just outside the city, where the hillside is covered with trees. Suddenly Engineer Cunningham noticed a black mass moving through the air ahead of the train. Had he known what was coming he could have stopped his engine and backed to the next station. The small cloud soon developed into a swarm of hornets. The hornets notice the slowly puffing engine and made for it. They attacked the engineer and fireman, who were forced to stop the train. It was a sultry day and all the car windows were open. This gave the hornets an opportunity to enter the cars and pester the passengers. It was an hour before the trainmen and passengers succeeded in driving away the hornets. A number of persons were severely stung. The train stopped at a farmhouse until the injuries could be attended to and then proceeded to this city.

One of the most singular looking creatures that ever walked on the earth or “swam the waters under the earth” is the world famous man-faced crab of Japan. Its body is hardly an inch in length, yet the head is fitted with a face which is the perfect counterpart of that of a Chinese coolie–a veritable missing link, with eyes, nose and mouth all clearly defined. The curious and uncanny creature, besides the great likeness it bears to a human being in the face, is provided with two legs, which seem to grow from the top of its head and hang down over the sides of its face. Besides theses legs, two feelers, each about an inch in length, grow from the chin of the animal, looking for all the world like a forked beard. These man faced crabs swarm in the inland seas of Japan.

The Mississippi valley, from the headwaters to the gulf, was roughly shaken up by an earthquake shock, which, while it did no serious damage, was quite severe in many places. At New Albany, Ind., a church wall fell in and crushed in an organ causing a loss of $2,000. In the vicinity of Gadsden, Ala., several persons were bruised by being thrown from their beds and several houses were partially wrecked. Near Charlestown, Mo., hundreds of chimneys were toppled down and windows in store fronts broken. The brick Methodist church there was also badly shattered and the plastering knocked from the walls of many dwellings. At Louisville, Ky., three severe shocks were felt and all the tall buildings are reported to have swayed like reeds. In Cincinnati the buildings shook as from a great explosion, and many people were flung from their beds. St. Louis, Mo., people were so badly scared that they left their homes and remained in the open air until numbed with cold. The public library building in Cairo, Ill., was badly damaged, and many chimneys were shaken down. A swaying of buildings and a loud rumbling noise were perceived in Cleveland. Cracks a foot wide were made in the walls of the capitol building in Jackson, Miss. Noises resembling thunder were heard in Nashville, Tenn., when the vibrations ceased. Michigan felt only a brief rocking with an almost imperceptible rumble, but not damage was done beyond the breaking of a few dishes. Reports show that the seismic disturbance was manifest in various other parts of Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia.