MISCELLANEOUS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 289, 6 May 1848, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The Hartlepool Lighthouse. — The experiment of employing gas for lighting this lighthouse has been made, and the result has been completely successful. It is the first lighthouse on a large scale, and of any great importance that has yet been lit in this manner. Some sn:all lighthouses on piers have certainly been thus lit before, but no lighthouse of such importauce to navigation. The burner employed was constructed by Mess. M'Niel, of St. Martins-lane, who were employed to carry the new mode of lighting into effect. The power and brilliancy of the light were tested by several captains and persons connected with the harbour going out to sea, and their report was very favourable. The substitution of gas for oil will reduce the expenses about half, and will remove the danger said to arise from the lamp with concentric wicks, which requires constant attention, and considerable judgment' in the management. There has hitherto been considerable difficulty in adapting gas to lighthouses where a single large light is required, for the only burners which were large enough to give sufficient light burned with so unsteady and irregular a flame, that they were unsuitable to the optical apparatus employed to concentrate the ra^ s. These diffiulties have been overcome, and a most desirable end attained.

Are the Planets Inhabited? — Are tbe planets inhabited is a question which naturally suggests itself to the human mind,/ and for a solution of which we as naturally look to the science of astronomy. But when thft immense distance which separates us even from the nearest of the planets is remembered, it can. scarcely he matter of surprise that the tele« scope affords no direct evidence on the question, whether the planets, like the earth, are inhabited globes. Yet, though it gives na direct answer to this enquiry, modern astronomy has collected together a mass of facts, connected with the positions and motions, the physical character and conditions, and the parts played in the solar system by the several globes of which that system is composed,, which forms a vast body of analogy, leading the intelligent mind to the conclusion tbat tbe planets are worlds, fulfilling in the economy of the universe the same functions, and crea-> ted by the same band, tor the same moral purposes, and witb the same destinies, as theearth. Thus, for example, we find that these, orbs, like our own, roll in regulated periods round the sun ; that they have nights and days, and successions of seasons ; that they are provided with atmospheres, supporting clouds, and agitated by winds ; and tbat thus,, also, their climates and seasons are modified* by evaporation, and that showers refresh their surfaces. For we know that wherever th* existence of clouds is made manifest,, thert water must exist ; there evapora.tion.goes on 5 there electricity, with its train of phenomenv

roust reign ; there rains must fall ; there hail and snow must descend. It is upon the planet Mars that the greatest advances have been made in this department of enquiry. Under favourable circumstances its disc is seen to be mapped out by a varied outline, some portion as being less reflective than land. Baer and Maedles, two Prussian astronomers, have devoted many years' labour to the examination of Mars, and the result has put us in possession of a map of the geography of that planet, almost as exact and well defined as that which ■we possess of our own ; in fact, the geographical outlines of land and water have been made apparent upon it. But a still more extraordinary fact in relation to this planet remains to be considered. Among the shaded markings which have been noted by the telescope upon its disc, a remarkable region of brilliant white light, standing out in boldest relief, has been observed surrounding the visible pole. This highly illuminated spot is Co be seen most plainly when it emerges from the long night of the winter season ; but when it has passed slowly beneath the beat of the solar beams, it is found to have gradually contracted its dimensions ; and at last, before it has plunged into light on the opposite side, to have entirely disappeared. But the opposite pole, then coming into similar relations, is found to be furnished with a like luminous spot, which in its turn, dissolves as it becomes located by the summer sun. Now these fact's prove to us, incontestibly that the very geographical regions of Mars are fac-similes of our own. In the long polar winters the snows accumulate in the re-solution of its high northern and southern latitudes, until they become visible to us in consequence of their reflective properties ; and these are slowly melted as the sun's rays gather power in the advancing season, until they cease to be appreciable to terrestrial eyes. The fact is a most striking one in reference to the present question. — Westminster and Foreign Quarterly.