A three degrees farther north, they ap- of nature discovers something which pear a month earlier, and, as already attracts attention, causes wonder, and remarked, on the rivers of the Varan- affords material for discussion. ger Fjord, still farther to the north, about the 25th of June. It would thus seem that the shoals of fish come with the Gulf Stream from the west, the more easterly rivers on this coast, irrespective of latitude, being the latest. Such also is the case with the cod, which arrive on the Finmarken and Murman coasts after the season in Lofoden. one moment we are invited to see solidified air, at another to listen to telephonic messages that are being transmitted without a wire, or to pause with astonishment before a pen which is producing a fac-simile of the writ ing, the sketches, and the erasures of a person who may be in a distant city Not a day passes without a new crea tion or discovery, and novelties for ou We fear, however, that the limits of edification and instruction are brough our reader's patience have been ex- to our notice at the meetings of soci hausted; and although volumes might eties and conventions which from tim be written upon this wild and compara- to time are held in various parts of th tively little-known corner of northern world. At the last meeting of th Europe - its birds, its beasts, its fishes, its human inhabitants with their singular migrations and yearly wanderings — we will not attempt to trespass further. Our endeavor has been to show what a field it offers to the sportsman, more especially to the angler; and in this we trust we have partially, at any rate, succeeded, although, perhaps, in enumerating so many rivers and lakes we may have seemed prolix. British Association, held in Notting ham, the attention of members wa called to the reports of two committee summarizing a series of facts which seem destined to open a new field i the science which treats of movement in the crust of our earth. For thirteer years one of these committees has de voted its attention to the volcanic and seismic phenomena of Japan, with th result that our knowledge of these sub jects has been considerably extended Now we observe that earthquakes which are referred to as catastrophe in the processes of mountain formation and the elevation or depression alon our coast-lines, are spoken of as 'vul gar disturbances" which interfere with the observation of certain earth move ments which are probably as commor to England as they are to Japan. Earthquake observations, although Hard, indeed, is the life of the poor Laplander. Over hundreds of miles of desolate tundra, of frozen rivers and lakes sheeted in ice and snow, the fisherman wanders to pursue his arduous vocation on the coasts of the icy sea amid darkness, arctic cold, and winter storm, to return by the same long and toilsome journey for the brief summer time to his inland home. The hunter, with but imperfect weapons, pursues the wolf and the bear over the bound- still capable of yielding much that i less wastes, and after a few weeks new, are for the present relegated to among the health-giving breezes of the subordinate position, while the study o coast, the reindeer-owner returns with a tide-like movement of the surface o his herd to the wilds of Enara and Kau- our earth, which has been observed in tokeino, there to protect his herds from Germany and Japan, earth tremors their natural enemies amid wreaths of and a variety of other movements GEORGE LINDESAY. which we are assured are continually happening beneath our feet, are to tak their place. Only in a few countrie do earthquakes occur with sufficien frequency to make them worthy of se rious attention. The new movement to which we are introduced are occur ring at all times and in all countries snow. From Nature. EARTH MOVEMENTS. EVERY year, every day, and possibly every hour, the physicist and observer and we are asked to picture our conti- | tremor storms, which are now defined nents as surfaces with a configuration as long, flat waves which give to the that is always changing. We are told surface of our earth a movement not that every twenty-four hours the unlike the swell we so often see upon ground on which we live is gently an ocean. Such disturbances are parited, so that the buildings in our ticularly noticeable whenever a district ities, and the tall chimneys in our is crossed by a steep barometrical graanufacturing towns, are slightly in- dient. It is not unlikely that these. dined like stalks of corn bent over by movements, which are appreciable at 1 steady breeze. The greatest tilting considerable depths, have an effect akes place during the night; in the upon the escape of fire-damp at our Borning all return to the vertical. collieries, that they may influence the Why such a movement should exist, accuracy of delicate weighing operawe are not told. All that we hear, is tions as, for example, during the dethat it is too large for a terrain tide termination of standard weights-that produced by lunar attraction. In Japan they may interfere with gravitational it appears possible that it may prove to observations, and that they are a nega concertina-like opening and shut-lected source of error in certain classes ing of the crumpled strata forming of astronomical work. Our attention a range of mountains. To determine is next directed to the bending effect hether this intermittent puckering of produced in certain districts by the strata, which would mean a daily in- rise and fall of the barometer, certain Grease and decrease in the height of areas under variations in atmospheric mountains, explains the variability in pressure behaving as if they were the the level of districts where observations vacuum chambers of an aneroid. have been made, is a matter for future Avestigation. Then there are the earthquakes of comparatively restful countries like our A problem which suggests itself in own. A large fault, by which mounnection with this novel work will be tains are suddenly lowered and valleys determine the limiting change in compressed, takes place in a distant clination, which we will assume country like Japan. Near the origin rock-bending, that culminates of the dislocation the shaking brings Deans a sudden fracture and a jar, causing down forests from the mountain-sides, and the neighboring district is devastated. As the waves spread they become less and less violent until, after radiating a few hundred miles, they are no longer appreciable to our senses. But the earthquake has not ended. As long, flat, easy undulations it continues on until it has spread over the whole surface of our globe. The waves passing under Asia and Europe reach England first, while those crossing the meridian of our antipodes and North America arrive somewhat later. Potsdam, Wilhelmshaven, and in Japan, waves of this order have often been recorded, but for the rest of the world they are thus far unrecognized. Great cities like London and New York are often rocked gently to and fro; but Another class of movements to which these world-wide movements, which attention is called are our old may be utilized in connection with the quaintances, the microseismic or determination of physical constants re At lating to the rigidity of our planet's crust, because they are so gentle, have escaped attention. That the earth is breathing, that the tall buildings upon its surface are continually being moved to and fro, like the masts of ships upon an ocean, are at present facts which have received but little recognition. Spasmodic movements which ruin cities attract attention for the moment, but when the dead are buried, and the survivors have rebuilt their homes, all is soon forgotten. It seems desirable that more should be done to advance our knowledge of the exact nature of all earth-movements, by establishing seismological observatories, or at least preventing those in existence from sinking to decay. J. MILNE. THE ESSENCE OF CINNAMON.It will be a remarkable sign of progress if science, in its endeavors to discover a preventive, has to fall back on a sanative application almost forgotten since the days when our grandmothers were young. We call to mind an old gentlewoman, born about the middle of last century, and hale and hearty in the forties of this, whose mysterious pocket, of vast containing capacity, was always redolent of cinnamon. If any virtues were, in those days, ascribed to the spicy bark, we never heard of them. little of it now and then, for tongue and teeth to toy with, was judged to be, in A some way, beneficial, and there knowled ended. The latest announcement in ti interests of medical science is that of : expert, who has been experimenting in 1 Pasteur's laboratory, M. Chamberland, w] says that no living disease-germ can resi for more than a few hours the antisept power of essence of cinnamon. M. Chai berland looks upon it as being not le effective in destroying microbes than cori sive sublimate. Its scent will kill the A decoction of cinnamon is recommende not only in influenza cases, but also attacks of typhoid fever, and cholera. Rook CONTENTS. L. FABIAN ECONOMICS. By W. H. Mallock, Fortnightly Review, . Paul Perret, By Mrs. For EIGHT DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually for- Warded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If iged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made WITH THE MIND'S EYE. THE rasping sound of steel on steel; A score of footsteps on the stair; The clink and whir of rod and wheel, The voice of labor everywhere— Along the wharf the waters lift A sluggish current, dull and brown : With low black hulls, that slowly drift Beyond the smoke-encircled town. But fairer scenes before me rise — The sunny slope, the brooklet clear; Or where the water-lily lies In silver on the silent mere ; Where rounded summits, clothed with green, Are sweet with summer's passing shower; And rippling rivers flow between Wide fields, aglow with bud and flower. Oh, forest glade ! oh, wind-swept hill ! Has power to lessen daily care. Nor greed nor power can snatch away. Chambers' Journal. "OUR NAN." The summer days oft find her with a bucket in her hand, In quest of prickly "urchins," or of seashells on the strand; Or wandering in some woodland dell, a hundred miles from home, Where merry brooklets splash the fern with iridescent foam. Here she has spent the live-long hours, as happy as the day, Though she beyond her village home has never been away; Ay ! there upon the sofa, with her crutches by her side, The hours of pain pass gaily, as, her hobby horse astride, "Our little Nan,' on fancies' wings, the universe doth ride. While drowsily upon the breeze is borne AH! she has crossed the briny deep a thou- And to the listlessness of noonday yield. sand times, I ween, To linger in the meadow-lands of never In the clear heights above the hilltop's sward, Poised o'er a budding brake of eglantine At sunrise, 'midst the silence of the ever- The skylark hymns as though he had out fading green; lasting snow, She climbs the highest Alpine peak to catch the roseate glow, soared His wings' accustomed scope, and could divine That flits across the glaciers to the cataract Elysian islands luminously shored, Ay not a quaint old city near the golden But our sweet maid with busy foot has tripped away to see; And there she spends the live-long hours, as happy as the day, Though she beyond her village home has never been away. Sometimes she sets forth gaily, ere the wintry day is done, Along the glittering path of rays of goldensetting sun; Upon the wingèd wind to flit above the crimson west, Until, amidst the stars serene, she drifts away to rest. And seas that with enchanted azure shine! Speaker. WILLIAM TOYNBEE. A VAIN SHADOW. THE world - what a world, ah me! As a fading day, As veriest vanity, As the froth and the spray Of the hollow-billowed sea, As what was and shall not be, As what is and passes away. 2 CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.' |