Science Siftings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4, 25 January 1906, Page 29

Science Siftings

By 'Volt'

Timber for Paper. Canada has forests which, at the present rate of consumption of timber for paper, would supply the world with paper pulp for 840 years. A Natural Sun-dial. There is a promontory in the Aegean Sea which is the largest sun-dial on this planet. It is known as Hayon Horoo, and extends 3000 ft above the level of the water. As the sun swings round, the shadow of the mountain touches one by one a circle of islands separated by regular intervals, which act as hour marks. Tides in Inland Seas. Small inland seas have tides which follow the moon with even more precision than the open ocean. The water in a lake ' rocks ' as though it were a solid mass, but slowly, the surface changing its level as the meridian of the lake alters its direction with regard to the moon. It requires, however, minute observation to detect this tide. A Large Orchard. Americans claim that the largest orchard in the world is in Missouri. It is the great Winans Orchard, near Marshfield, in Webster County. There are 86,000 apple trees, 40,000 peach trees, and 10,000 pear trees, now at proper bearing age. The acreage covered is 1240 and it is estimated that the orchard is now worth 12s a tree, or £81,600. Gibraltar Crumbling Away. It is not generally known that the great rock of Gibraltar is tumbling down — that «its crumbling, rotting masses must be continually bound together with huge patches of masonry and cement. Yet they who sail past Gibraltar cannot fail to notice on the Eastern slope of the fortress enormous silver-colored patches gleaming in the sun. These patches, in some cases 30 or 40 feet square, are the proof of Gibraltar's disintegration. Of thick, strong cement,, they keep huge spurs of the cliff's side from .tumbling into the blue sea. Sea captains cruising in the Mediterranean say that Gibraltar has been rotting and crumbling for many years, but that of late the disintegration has gone on at a faster rate than heretofore. They say that the stone forming this imposing cliff is rotten stone, and that in a little while the phrase ' the strength of Gibraltar ' will be meaningless. Acetyline Lighting. Acetyhne lighting is quietly gaining favor, and the German Acetyline Association finds that the gas is supplied the public by 75 places in Germany, 202 in the United ■'States, 16 in the United Kingdom, and 19 in the British colonies, while Germany alone has 75,000 private installations. Peculiar Habits of Fishes. A peculiarity of nearly or quite all of the fishes allied to the celebrated ' climbing perch ' (Anabas scandens) is that they place their eggs in nests or floats of bubbles. These fishes are all brilliantly colored, and all are natives) of the Ijido-Malayan rivers except one African species. Among the species making these nests are the gourami, renowned for its excellent flesh, the paradise fish, and the fighting-fish, the last so-called on account of a domesticated breed kept by the Siamese for fighting. Specimens of the two latter recently studied by an English naturalist have built their bubblerafts, of dome shape, in an aquarium. The paradise fish gradually increases the layers of bubbles— which are blown by the male— until the eggs are raised above the water and are so hatched.