THE COLOSSUS OF TELESCOPES
A rResipENT of Los Angeles, Cal., the Youth's
Companion states, has recently given $45,000
for the construction of a r1oo-inch reflecting
telescope for the Carnegie Solar Observatory
on Mount Wilson. The glass disk from which
the mirror will be formed has already been
ordered at St. Gobain, France; but it is ex-
pected that about four years will be spent in
making the disk and afterward grinding and
figuring it. Prof. George E. Hale, the director
of the Solar Observatory, thinks that no in-
superable difficulty is likely to be encountered
in the making and mounting of this enormous
instrument, which, in light-gathering power,
will immensely exceed all other telescopes now
in existence. At the present time the tele-
scope in the Yerkes Observatory near Chicago,
with its 40-inch lens, is the largest in the world,
and that of the Lick Observatory in Califor-
nia, with a 36-inch lens, is second in size.
I
AN INTERNATIONAL TUNNEL
IN the dim ages of the past, geologists: say,
France and England were joined; but as far
back as human records go, the sea has rolled
between the two countries, a fact which En-
gland has had occasion more than once to con-
gratulate herself upon.
The voyage between Dover in England and
Calais in France is short (about thirty miles),
but the sea is very rough, and if a passenger
is liable to seasickness, he is sure to have un-
pleasant experiences. Seventy years ago the
idea of saving him this unpleasantness, and
facilitating travel between the two countries,
the Christian Herald says, suggested to an
eminent engineer, M. de Gamond, the project
of a tunnel under the sea. A company was
organized, and work was actually begun. But
several prominent Englishmen protested
against the tunnel on the ground that it re-
moved from England a protection which had
saved her from invasion in the past and which
she might need in the future.
The scheme was abandoned at last, but it
has been revived since the new friendship pro-
moted by King Edward has drawn the two
peoples together. A bill has been introduced
into Parliament. The company proposes to lay
two tunnels at the depth of one hundred and
fifty feet below the bed of the sea, forty-five
feet apart, each tunnel eighteen feet in diam-
eter, with a drainage gallery beneath to carry
off infiltrated water. It is believed that this
can be done, as the bed of the sea is gray
chalk, easy to excavate and impervious to
water, an ideal material for tunnel work. The
estimated cost is $80.000,000, which is to be
divided equally between the two nations.
It is proposed to erect strong fortifications
at each end, so that either nation can, in case
THE WATCHMAN
of war, guard the exit or even destroy the
tunnel. Nevertheless there is a strong senti-
ment among the most eminent British military
and naval experts, headed by Field Marshal
Lord Wolseley, which condemns this project
as opening the possibility of continental in-
vasion. So its construction is liable to be
postponed.
BJ
AN EXAMPLE OF TURKISH JUSTICE
Tur following incident, telling how a Turk-
ish official meted out exact and even justice,
was related to Secretary Root by a Turkish
diplomat :—
“Tt appears that a mechanic fell from a
roof into the street upon a wealthy old Turk
and killed him. The son of the deceased
caused the arrest of the workman, who was
uninjured, and had him taken be-
fore the cadi, with whom he used
all his influence to have the pris-
oner condemned.
“But the man’s innocence was
clearly established, and nothing
could satisfy the dead man’s
son save the law of retaliation.
Thereupon the venerable cadi
gravely directed that the work-
man be placed upon the exact
spot where the victim of the
accident stood. When this was
done the cadi turned to the son
and said,—
“‘Now, you may go to the
roof of the house, fall down -:
upon this man, and kill him if
you can.”
No doubt the son decided to
forego his sweet revenge, if it
could be gained only in this dangerous way.
ES
THE BOWER BIRD
11kKE many strange things in nature, the
bower bird hails from Australia. Not that
there is anything strange in the appearance of
the birds themselves. One species is a deep
rich purple, and very glossy; another is a
warm brown, profusely spotted with buff, and
the male wears upon the back of the neck
a kind of falling ruff or collar of long feath-
ers which shine like spun glass and are of a
lovely rose-pink color. But think of a bird
going deliberately to work to build a play-
house.
Mr. J. G. Wood, a well-known English nat-
uralist, has had opportunities of observing these
birds in the zoological gardens of London, and
he says that in building its bower, the bird
certainly does not hurry. He begins by weav-
ing a tolerably firm platform of small twigs,
which look as if he had been trying to make
a door mat, and had nearly succeeded. He
then selects long and rather slender twigs,
and pushes their bases into the platform, work-
ing them tightly into its substance, and giving
them such an upward inclination that when
they are fixed at opposite sides, they cross
each other, and form a simple arch over the
platform,
When completed, the structure forms an
arched alley, extending variably in height and
length, and it serves as an assembly room in
which a number of birds take their amusement.
Many birds resort to it, and run through and
around it, chasing one another in a very sport-
ive fashion. Indeed, a good bower is seldom
left without a temporary occupant.
Related to the bower bird is the garden bird
of New Guinea. This bird chooses a level
spot in the forest, clears a space around a
sapling the size of a walking stick, and heaps
up around its base a cone of mosses about
eighteen inches high. Around this they build
a conical hut. Its rafters or supports are the
thin, straw-like stems of an epiphytal orchid.
These are interwoven, and well thatched with
others of the same sort, forming a wigwam,
open in front, but covering a gallery running
THE CABIN OF THE GARDEN BIRD
around the pillar. The orchids remain alive
and blooming for a long time; and De Bec-
cari, who observed these birds, thinks they
choose the orchids on this account.
The same authority says that in front of the
entrance to their cabin is a miniature meadow
of soft moss, transported thither, and kept
clean and free from grass, weeds, stones, etc.
But upon this graceful green carpet are scat-
tered flowers and fruits of different colors in
such a manner that they really present the ap-
pearance of an elegant little garden. Showy
fungi and elegantly colored insects are also
distributed about the garden and in the gal-
leries of the cabin. When these have lost
their freshness, they are taken away, and re-
placed by others.
EE
“FEicHTY per cent. of the broken legs set at
St. .Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, during
recent years, have been caused by banana skins
thrown on the footpath.”