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pangis were on our nerves and two men now kept guard during the night.

VI

One day some of us climbed up the slopes of the mountain which formed one side of our gully and, on reaching the summit, beyond the zone of dense vegetation, got a magnificent view of the entire country, which stretched away beneath until lost in the haze. We could easily trace the course of all the rivers, and waterways feeding them, by the film of mist which hung over their channels in long serpentine lines, and we could even see the Papangi village, quite distinctly, about ten miles down on our right. The Professor sketched in the lines of the rivers and prominent features and on our descending journey collected some orchids which he said were unknown to the world. When we reached camp, Silent Ted and the Doctor had our evening meal ready and our boys had added more inflammable scrub to our surrounding wall. Silent Ted was a wonderful cook and his culminating efforts were in that never-to-be-forgotten dinner.

'I have half an idea that a restaurant in New York, where all meals were cooked in hot wood-ashes, would be as good as a gold mine,' Boston Bob remarked, as he helped himself to another portion of wild pig.

'If you would throw in a camp-fire, a New Guinean atmosphere, and hungry prospectors as guests, I should n't mind being your partner,' said the Doctor. 'But I fear

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What the Doctor feared was never known, for as he uttered the last word a burst of yells startled us almost out of our senses and a flight of poisoned spears stuck in our protecting barrier. The crashing of the undergrowth and the sound of bodies falling over the

wild-vine-creeper rope guards we had fixed amid the outlying trees, told us we were attacked in force, and the shrieks of our own boys added to the awful din.

'I guess, Doctor, I'm not having any of your New Guinea atmosphere for my New York restaurant,' said Boston Bob, flinging a lighted brand on our brushwood guard, 'but I'll have this bit of pig now, sure!'

'Load up and run!' Big Sam cried to the carriers. 'Lead them, Charlie we 'll follow.'

Sam's words were the last heard in that camp; all other sounds were drowned in the roar of the flaming scrub, which crackled like thousands of whips, and next instant the gelignite charges went off like a battery of guns in action. A dense pall of smoke fell low and enveloped everything, and, seizing from the ashes what we could of our late meal, we picked up our rifles and departed toward the Mambare headwaters. What the savages thought, we never knew. Probably they made night hideous with their frenzied shouts, but we did not hear them, and I fancy they concluded that all the demons of the spirit world had been let loose on them. Looking back from the top of the divide, we could see that the forest had caught fire and were thankful that the slight breeze favored us.

"The Paps are having a hot time,' Sydney Charlie remarked as we turned away, 'but we've left a lot of stuff behind -'

'We'll not need it,' growled Mac. 'We've got our gold and our rifles and our lives.'

We stumbled on in the moonlight in the direction of the nearest waterway we had seen that day, and under the Professor's leadership soon reached it. Following it down, we joined a larger stream and found an easier passage

along its crocodile-infested shallows. Before sunrise we struck a large river and our carriers smelled a village on the opposite side, although it was still too dark to see it.

'Our troubles are nearly over now,' said Mac cheerily; 'I know this village, and its people are quite decent. One of you come with me and the rest of you kindle all the fires you can, to attract the crocodiles.' Mac waded out into deep water as he spoke and I followed, and presently we were swimming diagonally across toward a large structure dimly discernible on piles in the water. Lashed alongside were several canoes of various sizes, with paddles inside, and, cutting out two large ones we drifted down and back across the water in them. A few minutes later we had distributed ourselves, carriers, and gold between the boats and were heading down with the current.

VII

Four days later, near sundown, we were astonished to hear a voice hail us in English from the bank. "This way, boys,' the owner of the voice called. "This way to the new Eldorado Howling dingoes! It's Mac!'

'How far are we from Tamata, Murphy?' Boston Bob cried. 'You've won your bottle of fruit salts, but what are you doing there?'

"Tamata is at present nearly deserted,' Murphy answered. "This is the latest new find, discovered since you left; there are forty men here already, and more coming. We've got a second Yodda Valley and- but where on earth have you come from?'

We were now alongside. 'From the land of gold, old man,' Mac replied, gripping Murphy's hand, 'from over the mountains of the moon and from the land beyond the shadows. But we're hungry. . . .

Safe among forty brother-prospectors, in the latest gold-mining camp in New Guinea, we slept soundly that night and sent our gold on to Tamata by petrol launch, next day. With it went Boston Bob and the Doctor, the former down with fever and the latter to attend to him. We remained in the new camp, meaning to return to Papangi Land when they came back. But many things happened before we saw them again, and when we did meet it was in Queensland.

We returned the canoes with presents and apologies.

HOW BIG IS AN ACRE?

BY ALEXANDER MCADIE

THE writer has asked a thousand schoolchildren, who from time to time have visited various observatories with which he has been connected: 'How many square feet to the acre?' and not once has the correct answer been given. The children guess wildly or stand mortified. He believes he might ask a hundred school-teachers the same question, and if two answered correctly, these could be easily stumped by the further casual inquiry: 'And how many square inches, would you say?' Perhaps, gentle reader, you would like to try the problem? You know what an inch is and you know that 'acre' is a term quite frequently used.

Of the same groups of children, a second question was invariably asked: 'How many cents in four hundred thirty-five dollars and sixty cents?' There is a moment of hesitancy, then a flash of recognition, and a jubilant chorus booms forth: 'Forty-three thousand five hundred and sixty.' They always put the 'and' in. They feel that they valiantly met the enemy and got the better of him.

But why this ability to answer so promptly a problem in values, and the complete failure to solve the problem in measuring an area?

Perhaps the explanation is to be found in this. A dollar is a hundred cents; but a link is 7.92 inches, and 625 square links make a pole, and 16 poles make a square chain, and 10 square chains make an acre. So one must multiply 7.92 by 7.92, then multiply this by 625, then multiply by

16, then by 10; and finally divide the total by 144. This gives, if you've made no mistake, 43,560 square feet. If you want the number of square inches, omit dividing by 144, and the answer is: 6,272,640 square inches in

an acre.

There are two things to be noticed. We do not use a scientific and sensible unit to begin with; and the method of extension is unscientific, in that there is no constant and easily comprehended ratio of values. It is quite easy to devise a suitable unit and there is already a legalized method of extending values, but we do not try to use the system, although it is used successfully by a large majority of the civilized communities of the world and there is no valid reason against universal adoption. Great Britain and the United States are not wholly to be classed with the rest of the world, because, while the United States also the English-speaking communities which make up the British Imperial Union use a logical and scientific method in connection with money, they still retain - except in scientific usage a cumbersome and antiquated system of weights and measures.

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And so it is that the schoolboy must spend precious hours trying to memorize the relation of the foot to the rod, and the yard to the mile; or the square rod to the perch; or the gill to the gallon; or the tierce to the hogshead; the pipe to the butt; the tun to heaven knows what. Luckily for him, there is a limit to scholastic requirement, and

the arithmetics generally add in fine type:

These measures of capacity do not express any
fixed measure but are usually gauged and have
their capacities in gallons marked on them.

Like ready-made clothes, they need a tag to tell how much they are worth!

Then there are the bushel and the peck. There are sixteen pints in a peck; but these are dry pints. There are eight wet pints to the gallon; but who would dare to trace the relationship between a gallon and a peck?

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An ounce is a small thing, but not always the same thing. We now have two kinds of ounces, one contains 480 grains, one has 437.5 grains and is still considered a respectable ounce. And the pound? Ah-it is a fickle fellow! If, dear reader, you should step into the Mint and ask for a pound of gold, of course, you would go fully protected, you would get just twelve ounces, or 5760 grains. Come home now with your gold and buy a pound of golden butter. The honest groceryman will give you 16 ounces, or 7000 grains or you can incarcerate him in jail, upon application to an inspector of weights and measures somewhere near the State House. Is not this another case of acquiring knowledge in Wall Street and paying for it?

But forget eatables like butter and sugar for a moment.

The winter is long and cold, and we cannot all go to the sunny South, or the golden Pacific Coast. We try to keep warm by buying and burning coal. We buy it by the ton. And how much is a ton? Why, that depends upon how much coal you buy — and how much money you have. The United States Government requires in its fuel-contracts 2240 pounds to the ton. Many large corporations tell the coal barons

to deliver likewise unto them the 'long' ton. With them, a hundredweight means one hundred pounds, plus twelve more. For a ton is made up of four quarters each 560 pounds - those who devised the English system of weights here missed a fine chance to make a ton five quarters or 160 stones. Everyone in America knows a stone to be just exactly 14 pounds, no more, no less. But, gentle reader, when you buy a ton of coal, you may get some stones to be sure in each ton, but the coal baron will see that you get just 2000 pounds. He gets 2240. That's that. An ounce is not always an ounce; a pound is not always a pound; and a ton is not always a ton.

Now let us come back to the schoolchildren and the size of an acre. There is no need of sticking to the link; but if we must, at least let us be able to answer how many links there are in any given piece of ground call it an acre. A square link would be 404.6873 square centimetres. Ask foreign schoolchildren: 'How many square links in an acre?' Philippine children, Mexican children, Russian children, German children, Swedish children, Spanish children, Austrian children, Belgian children, French children, in fact, all the children of the world except our own and those in Great Britain, would answer without delay: 40,468,730.

Is it not time that our school superintendents took a hand in the game? The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children would undoubtedly be glad to second any effort to protect defenseless youngsters from the cruelty of memorizing ancient and no longer honorable tables of weights and measures. That the system fails utterly is attested by asking so simple a question as: 'How big is an acre?'

LYRICS

BY AMORY HARE

THE FLAME

LIFE is a gusty night, and I a flame;

But never think me fearful of the dark.

Out of the night was born my spirit's spark,

The star-winds blew it till the hill grew bright,

And the recording heavens watched a face

Moved suddenly to laughter by its light!

FOUND

I SAW the young moon, blue and cool,

Reflected in a shallow pool

Set in a public square;

So that I lifted up my eyes

To the dark wonder of the skies

To find her there.

I saw Love in its gentleness

Shine on a face I love to bless;

I saw it there;

So that I lifted up my eyes

To see if God were in the skies

And found Him everywhere.

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