THE ARMADILLO.

Manawatu Herald, 19 March 1898, Page 4

THE ARMADILLO.

A B.iis- O Id ami Wild Which Fnrnlshes ;i Toothsome Repa.t. Wiih r^her .vrango forms of life found In fin* Pi-.tiirronisi is fcbo armadillo, an nnijmilv.iih luibits that cannot fail to interest oni;r ! .M' n::turnlisfc3. There aro two forms of r!-.!j iirMirulillo. Roughly speaking, one is )iko a lic-ury guinea pig with a pointed tuvrlo slu'iJ o\ta* its bncli and head, while th.ohlicr is like a thick turtle without any bvi-.'i: t ylr.to. Tiie former is very rare even in i'r, haunts in the Andes. Tho lattor is every whero abundant. As described by

all v.'l;:> havo sr-cn 'A th" latter will cat and get lac — vory tat— on anything from grass roots to decayed fish or cattle, fron. an ant to a poisomms serpen*, from strawberries to rats and mice. Ia tho wilderness it roams about by day beoauso tho cats of the desert persocuto ifc most afc night. _ Near the sett lorn en ts, YvVrn, by the way, il thrives best, it. i r 'y.x- . ' nt night because man persecnti"" :'• :• '*':..*. Slow moving as it seems to be ./_ a ti^'traveler revs it at sun*.!", ie ovocra!-.(^ t':!> serpents if tho region in fl fair rr.<. <; v.ku ! :i!!s tlicm bysqi'.aiiiug outhcnianci .-■ .•«. h; >; ins body to nnd fro gj that tho _dgos bf its prntceviva K]j*'-il cnt the snake to pieces. It capturcr> mic. ' by-sneaking on "them cat fashion and throwing its body over them liko a trap. Ifc grubs for worms. It robs nests of eggs and Ccdgolings. Now, although ifc eats a great many things that aro repulsive to civilized tastes, the armadillo is itself a most delicious article of food for any human taste, civilized or uncivilized. The variety in its bill of fare seems but to add delicacy to its flesh. A writer in the New York Sun, who has in ,hi_ journeyings eaten nearly overy kind of fish, flesh and fowl served between Ivigtut, Greenland, and Uahuaia, Terra del Fuego, claim, to hu*. found nothing quite so . much to his tasto as 'an armadillo baked ' In tho emhers of an outdoor firo ou the I desert of Patagonia.

Effects of Temperature.

Experiments of.Piotel, thb French chemist, show thnt animals and insects oppose a wonderful resistances- to Intense cold ob- ,- tamed trom liquefied atmospheric air. A dog placed in a copper receiver at a temperature of — CO to — 90 degrees C. showed a rise of bodily' .c_np.ra.uio of .5 in ton minutes, and after I}_ hours had only lost 1 degree. A lifctlo later, however, nature gavo up the struggle, the temperature fell rapidly, and tho animal died sutMonly. (Insects resist Oi temperature of —-2S degrees, but not — 35 degrees. Birds' egga loso their vitality nt —3 to — 3 decrees, ants' eggs ■at 0. Infusoria dio at —90 degrees, while hacteria ara still virulent at — 213 degrees. This last fact Ib perhaps tho moat significant of all.

_■ Feedinj. Boiler Fires at tho Bottom.

I According to Tho Manufacturers' Ga« zetto, no. only can smoko he suppressed, but a saving of So pi»r cent on fuel bills can bo effected by fueling boiler fire* from underneath instead of from the topi as lias been the custom ever since coal became a fuel. A mechanical stoker introduces a uniform quantity cf fuel at regular intervals under tho boiler, and tho combustion thoroughly consumes all of tho gases and smoko from tho green coal as it passes through tho bed of incandescent coke above

__B A I.emarkablo Performance.

1 Placo in tho middlo of your hnud, .retched out flat, a piece of money — say a cent piece. Take a brush — a clotheo-

lush will do — put it into the hand of on« your friends and tell him he may have o coin if ho succeed in brushing it off ur hand. Your friend tries his best, but his efforts o all in vain, for tho coin 6t,icks to your md ns if ib were glued thoro. Of course ia forbiddon to striko your hand viojitly witli tlio brush, which would cause p coin to f ii ll instantly to tho ground, b must bo content to try to brush it off [if ho wero brushing off a spot from a lit. Thero will uo many who will listen th Incredulity to (he statement of this ucrimont. However, lot them try it and I for themselves.

H______L Scientific Brevities,

Ihe woipht of tho sea water of the globe .stimatea at 5.0,000,000,000,000,000 .cording to eomo recently published istie^, tlio United States produces ncar--3 much copper as all of tho rest of tbe hi together. i Germany aluminium is used for nails he boots of tho soldiery, rofessor Gibson, in tests ns to tho value overing for steam pipes, concluded that i coal at ?■_ pt r ton und 3,000 working Ss per ycur, the loss from a nuked 2 Tpipe was (54 }_ cents per linear foot, he regions of tho world which have the [test rainfall seem to bo the regions be tho largest number of thunderhis occur. Thus along tho equator 50 Lo (.-a? over) thunderstorms occur an-