Show scientific miscellany the peat coal now being turned out on a considerable erable scale in norway is made by the process ot of rosendahl a norwegian engineer which consists in heating the peat in closed retorts to C tor for seven hours the finished product retains 80 80 per cent of the 0 original ri g inal tar and gas analysis shows this c coal a I 1 to consist of 65 per cent of cail carbon bon 16 per cent of oxygen 6 per cent of hydrogen 37 3 per cent ot of water and only 5 per cent of ash asah and its heating beating value is that of average bituminous coal the cost of manufacture is about 60 60 cents per ton the selling price being a little over per ton or about a quarter of the cost in norway of natural coal the peat coal has proven suitable for foundry work and rooms have been heated with it at exactly half the cost of the same effect from ordinary coal the scheme of cov covering kring the sahara with forest is pronounced by M P privat schenel deschanel De utterly impracticable the arid plateaus beir bei g hopeless desert on a limited scale however the valleys most of which are favored with a small amount ot water may be sf lly ily planted with tamarisk acacia eucalyptus and poplar the last named tree having unexpectedly proven the most su suitable in the lorest forest shelter vegetables and fru bruit it trees may be grown in some late experiments on the bursting of small flywheels fly wheels the first wheel tested 15 inches in diameter burst at a speed of revolutions per minute or a rim speed of over five miles milesa a minute A timber casing around the wheel was completely demolished and a piece of the rim was shot like a bullet ballet through four inches of pine and 2 inches into the hardwood floor A new xray x ray tube with adjustable cathode shows that the exact position of the cathode enormously affects the penetration of the rays a change of a third of an inch giving a range ol of penetrative power from th the e highest almost to none at all the use of ether for forcing plants has given iven mr johannsen ol of the Agri agricultural cultura I 1 agh I 1 high school at Copenh copenhagen ageng results so decided as to suggest great possibilities tor for florists and market gardeners the plants are etherized etheri zed by being placed for twenty four to ninety six hours in a closed vessel filled with ether vapor cylindrical glasses bein being used for s small mall plants and oil painted boxes boxes lined with tinfoil tin lin foil for larger ones the cost of etherizing ether izing lilacs is said to have been from a cent to a cent and one halt for each plant in the experiments of the last three years tulips lilacs etc ether iced late in the fall and then placed in a hothouse cevelo developed P ed much more rapidly than usual and bad a pretty color and great durability little benefit was had from ether applied before the middle of september trials on a greater variety of plants are planned for this year and a study of the effects of va varying in and nd repeated wig be doses of ether be made f the he ether being very inflammable great care must be taken to keep it away from lighted matches or any flame an incandescent lamp of three or four candle power is used by M paul noel a french entomologist for capturing in ill sects that swim in ponds at night the lamp is connected by wires to a small storage battery on the bank of the pond weighted by a semicircle of iron and placed over a net having an opening two feet and a halt half across the net is of coarse packthread pack thread closed by a string the weighted lamp and the net are slowly sunk in the water the lamp is lighted and insects fish lizards frogs tadpoles and larvae of every kind rush up to it the string is pulled quickly capturing several pounds of victims flourine Flou remarkable both as the most active of cf the chemical elements and as the only ont forming no compound with oxygen was with great difficulty isolated by bv doissan in 1887 its liquefaction just announced by professor dewar adds a new and extraordinary detail to the chemistry of cold the gas liquefies at a temperature of below zero cent and the product is a 6 yellow mobile liquid which has lost the intense chemical energy and become entirely inert new discoveries of rocks dangerous to navigation show no signs of diminish ing not less than rocks and shoals not before known having been reported to the british Hydro graphe r in 1896 A singular eruption was witnessed early this year by a postman who was crossing the sands of Skei dara in the south of iceland A sudden long groaning sound drew his attention to a glacier about two miles in front of him when he saw huge masses of ice thrown into the air from the glacier followed by a flood that swept down upon the level sands carrying everything before it turning his horse he fled to the station of cf N up astad on returning to the sands six days day la later he found them covered by a belt of ice floes or waves about four miles wide and seventy to ninety feet thigh ee high re reaching achink from the glacier to the sea a distance of at least twenty five ailes ili 11 iles six newly formed torrents rush ed from the glacie r on the opposite side 0 of f the ice field the eruption is is sup posed to have some connection with the severe earthquakes of last summer A scorpion carrying a flower is the curious sight seen not lorig long ago by an aden correspondent ot of nature the lower flower was a large blossom of what is loftily known as the wa white bite gold tree and the creature held it over its back by one claw aurli curling up i its ts tail to assist the nearest tree nelom from w which the flower could have been obtained was thirty feet away with two or three steps and a low stone parapet intervening i ng this fact seems to prove that the scorpion carried the flower through intention though whether as concealment to shield itself from the bright lamp ight or for some other purpose is unknown scorpions are not known to feed on v vegetable ege table substances nor to construct nests it might buzze many to say why the feathers of birds rest closely against the body even in the strongest wind A german naturalist has made experiments showing that in the birds flight through throng h the air the feathers ate aie electrified positively and the white down negatively causing an attraction that down the feathers the surprising theory that whooping cough is contagious only before the patient begins t to 0 whoop is advanced by dr a french physician from many cases of exposure he be has satisfied himself that all risk of infection ceases at the begio beginning ning of tle the whooping stage or very soon after |