Chapter X: MISCELLANEOUS.--New Monumental Statue and Landing Place (4)

No systematic effort has been made to ascertain the quantity of ozokerite in Utah. I saw a drift of some fourteen feet at one place, and a shaft twenty-three feet deep at another. In this shaft, the vein was about ten inches wide; and it could be traced along the slope of the hill, for several hundred feet. The largest vein of pure ozokerite is seen on Soldiers' Fork of Spanish Cañon, which enters Salt Lake Valley near the town of Provo. This vein is very much like the ozokerite of Austria, and contains between thirty and forty per cent. of white ceresin (which resembles bleached beeswax), about thirty per cent. of yellow ceresin (which resembles yellow wax), and twenty per cent. of black petroleum; the residue is dirt. Dr. J. S. Newberry, of Columbia College, and Prof. S. B. Newberry, of Cornell University, made examinations of the ozokerite found in Utah; those who are interested in the subject will find the papers published in the _Engineering and Mining Journal_ for the year 1879.

A deposit of white ozokerite occurs on the top of the Apennine Mountains, in Italy, of which a specimen is here exhibited. An interesting story is told of its discovery. A church at Modena was robbed; among other articles taken was a quantity of wax candles. A short time afterward, a woman brought to a druggist a quantity of wax and offered it for sale. The druggist bought it and afterward suspected it consisted of the stolen candles melted down. Soon after ward she brought another lot. He had her arrested. When questioned by the magistrate, she said she found the wax in the clay on her farm, about twenty miles from the city. This story confirmed him in the belief that she had stolen the candles, or was the receiver of the stolen goods; for such a thing as a deposit of wax in the soil was unheard of. She was therefore remanded to jail. On three several days, she was brought before the court, and, when questioned, told the same story. She was a member of the church, and requested the priest to be sent for. He came, and, after an interview between them, he said it was easy to disprove her story, if it was a lie, by sending her home, in company with an officer, to investigate. The court sent the priest, who was the only one who believed her. On coming to her house, she took her pick and shovel, and going to the place at the top of the hill, she dug out of the clay a quantity of while ozokerite, proved her case, and was at once set at liberty. She performed the same service for me, and I saw her dig the specimen and heard her tell the story as I have told it to you. The hill was composed of loose clay and stones. It appeared as if it had been forced up by gas or some power from below the surface. The quantity that could be gathered, by one person, laboring constantly for a week, was only twenty-five or thirty pounds. An attempt had been made to sink a shaft; but, at a depth of fourteen feet, the pressure of the clay was sufficient to break the boards that held up the sides. The earth caved in, and the shaft was abandoned.

It is not necessary here to describe the various processes of manufacture; it will be sufficient to enumerate some of the forms of ozokerite, and the uses to which it is put. At Borislau, there are several refineries, where candles, tapers, and lubricating oils are made. In Vienna, there are five factories; in one of these, they make white wax, wax candles, matches, yellow beeswax, black heel-ball, colored tapers, and crayon pencils. In Europe, large quantities of the yellow wax are used to wax the floors of the houses, many of the finer ones being waxed every day. It is a curious fact that the Catholic Church does not allow the use of paraffine, sperm, or stearine candles; at the same time nearly all the candles used in the churches in Europe are made from ozokerite, which is a natural paraffine, made from petroleum in nature's laboratory. In the United States, the only uses made of ozokerite, so far as I know, are chewing gum and the adulteration of beeswax. In this the Yankee gives another illustration of the ruling passion strong in money making, which gives us wooden nutmegs, wooden hams, shoddy cloth, glucose candy, chiccory coffee, oleomargarine butter, mineral sperm oil made from petroleum, and beeswax made without bees.

After this paper was written, the following translation from a pamphlet, published by the First Hungarian Galician Railway Company, in 1879, came to my notice. The writer's name is not published:

"Mineral wax, in the condition in which it is taken from the shafts, is not well adapted for exportation, since it occurs with much earthy matter; and, at any rate, an expensive packing in sacks would be necessary. It is therefore first freed from all foreign substances by melting, and cooled in conical cakes of about 25 kilos. weight, and these cakes are exported. There are now, in Borislau, 25 melting works, which, in 1877, with 1 steam and 60 fire kettles, produced 95,000 metric centners (9,500,000 lb.).

"The melted earth wax is sent from Borislau to almost all European countries, to be further refined. Outside of Austro-Hungary, we may specially mention Germany, England, Italy, France, Belgium, and Russia as large purchasers of this article of commerce.

"PRODUCTS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS.

"The products of mineral wax, are:

"(a.) _Ceresine_, also called ozocerotine or refined ozokerite, a product which possesses a striking resemblance to ordinarily refined beeswax. It replaces this in almost all its uses, and, by its cheapness, is employed for many purposes for which beeswax is too dear. It is much used for wax candles, for waxing floors, and for dressing linen and colored papers. Wax crayons must be mentioned among these products. The house of Offenheim & Ziffer, in Elbeteinitz, makes them of many colors. These crayons are especially adapted to marking wood, stone, and iron; also, for marking linen and paper, as well as for writing and drawing. The writings and drawings made with these crayons can be effaced neither by water, by acids, nor by rubbing.

"Concerning the technical process for the production of ceresine, it should be said that, when the industry was new (the production of ceresine has been known only about eight years, since 1874), it was controlled by patents, which are kept secret. This much is known, that the color and odor are removed by fuming sulphuric acid.

"From mineral wax of good quality about 70 per cent. of white ceresine is obtained. The yellow ceresine is tinted by the addition of coloring matter (annatto).

"(b.) _Paraffine_, a firm, white, translucent substance, without odor. It is used, chiefly, in the manufacture of candles, and also as a protection against the action of acids, and to make casks and other wooden vessels water-tight, for coating corks, etc., for air-tight wrappings, and, finally, for the preparation of tracing paper. There are several methods of obtaining paraffine from ozokerite (see the Encyclopedic Handbook of Chemistry, by Benno Karl and F. Strohmann, vol. iv., Brunswick, 1877).

"The details of the technical process consists, in every case, in the distillation of the crude material, pressure of the distillate by hydraulic presses, melting, and treating by sulphuric acid.

"In the manufacture of paraffine from ozokerite, there are produced from 2 to 8 per cent. of benzine, from 15 to 20 per cent. of naphtha, 36 to 50 per cent. of paraffine, 15 to 20 per cent. of heavy oil for lubricating, and 10 to 20 per cent. of coke, as a residue.

"(c.) _Mineral oils_, which are obtained at the same time with paraffine, and are the same as those produced from crude petroleum, described above. The process consists, as in the natural rock oils, besides the distillation, in the treatment of the incidental products with acids and alkalies.

"Of the products of ozokerite, manufactured in Galicia, the greater part goes to Russia, Roumania, Turkey, Italy, and Upper Hungary. The common paraffine candles made in Galicia--which are of various sizes, from 28 to 160 per kilo--are used by the Jews in all Galicia, Bukowuina, Roumania, Upper Hungary, and Southern Russia, and form an important article of commerce. Ceresine is exported to all the ports of the world. Of late a considerable quantity is said to have been sent to the East Indies, where it is used in the printing of cotton."

The President, Dr. J. S. Newberry, stated that ozokerite was undoubtedly a product of petroleum. Little was known by the public concerning its use and value. He exhibited specimens of natural brown ozokerite, of yellow ozokerite, sold as beeswax, and of a white purified form, which had been treated by sulphuric acid. Specimens from Utah had already been shown before the Academy. There was no mystery as to its genesis in either region, as it had been shown to be the result of inspissation of a thick and viscid variety of petroleum. The term "petroleum" includes a great variety of substances, from a limpid liquid, too light to burn, to one that is thick and tarry. These differ widely also in chemical composition: some yielding much asphalt by distillation, resembling a solution of asphalt in turpentine; some containing so much paraffine that a considerable quantity can be strained out in cold weather. The asphalt in its natural form is a solid rock, to which the term "gum beds" has been applied in Canada. These differences in constitution have originated in the differences in the bituminous shales from which the petroleum, ozokerite, etc., have been derived. In Canada, as excavations are sunk through the asphalt, this becomes softer and softer, and finally passes into petroleum. This is also the case in Utah.

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[Concluded from SUPPLEMENT No. 400, page 6390.]

[KANSAS CITY REVIEW.]

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF MAY 6, 1883.

Professor C. S. Hastings, of the Johns Hopkins University, also includes many interesting details in his account of the trip:

The voyage from New York to Panama was pleasant with the exception of a few hot days near Aspinwall. Somewhat further south the wind changed, obliging them to call their overcoats from the bottom of their trunks to keep out the cold when crossing the equator. During a short stop in Lima the party had an opportunity of studying South American life. The products of this country are fruits and photographs of the young women. The party enjoyed both eating the former and bringing the latter home for the admiration of their friends. The expedition really began at Callao, where the party embarked on the United States man-of-war Hartford. Few circumstances contributed more to the enjoyment of the trip than the lucky chance which threw this vessel in their way. The Hartford was fitted out last August as flag ship of the South Pacific squadron. The admiral had not yet removed his flag to the vessel, but the extra accommodations provided for him and his train condoned the dignity lost by his absence. On March 22 they weighed anchor for a sail of more than four thousand miles over the blue ocean which stretches between Callao and their destination, Caroline Island. The southeast trade winds favored them, and from the first day there was actually no necessity for altering the position of a sail....

The inhabitants--five men, one woman and two children, according to the eclipse census--are natives of Tahiti. The houses are one story structures with clapboard sides, probably cut out in California and brought out in ships, to be erected on this island. The island on which they are built is about three-fourths of a mile in diameter and nearly circular in outline. The edge, which rises from five to twenty inches from the water, according to the tide's phase, goes down under the water to an even table of coral running out many feet into the sea; and is impossible to step on it with bare feet. At the end of this table the reef goes down perpendicularly, a sheer precipice, into the unfathomable sea. No vessel can anchor here, and to make a landing was an exciting matter. The island was approached in small boats on the side sheltered from the wind, and here, with the luck which characterized the trip, was found the only opening in this barrier of coral. A long cleft, perhaps eight feet wide, at the outer edge of the reef, ran in, narrowing to a mere crack near the shore. Watching a favorable chance, the boats were guided through the surf into a cleft as far as shoal water, when the men jumped on to the reef and carried baggage and instruments ashore as quickly as possible. The boats, which were new when they entered the surf, came out much the worse for wear, and the boat in which Dr. Hastings landed was stove in. Once on shore, life became a succession of wonders, rivaling the tales of Gulliver, and needing the conscientious descriptions of exact scientists to make them credible.

The members of the observing party took up their abode in the larger of the three houses, sleeping in swinging cots slung from the verandas, which afforded shade on three sides of the building. The second house was occupied by the sailors, while the third was left to the natives. These latter were sufficiently conversant with English to serve as excellent guides. Each day the party bathed in a lagoon in the center of the island. This lagoon was bordered by a beach of dazzling white coral sand, and all through its water extended reefs of living coral of the more delicate and elaborate kinds. These corals gave the lake a wonderful variety of colors, forming a picture impossible to paint or describe, and with the least ripple from a passing breeze the whole scene changed to new groups of color. The water was very clear, and in some places deep; in others so filled with coral that a boat could barely skim over the surface without scraping the keel. After crossing a long reef, one day, they entered on a sheet of water so deep that their longest line would not reach the bottom, plainly visible beneath. Fish swarmed here, and it was characteristic of them that every species, if not brilliantly colored, was marked in the most peculiar manner. One variety which frequented the shallow water, where it was heated to the degree uncomfortable to the touch, was a pure milky white, with black eyes, fins, and tail.

The French party arrived two days after the Americans. They had steamed directly from Panama with the hope of anticipating the Americans.

It rained on the morning of the eclipse, but cleared off in good time, and the definition was particularly good. Photographs occupied the time of the English and French observers. Professor Holden and Dr. Dickson searched for intra-mercurial planets; Mr. Preston took the times of contact; Dr. Hastings and Mr. Rockwell devoted their attention to spectroscopic observations of the corona. Dr. Hastings' observations have led to the production of a new theory of the corona. Briefly stated, the theory is that the light seen around the sun during a total eclipse is not due to a material substance enveloping the sun, but is a phenomenon of diffraction.

From his observation during the eclipse of 1878, made at Central City, Dr. Hastings conceived the first idea of this explanation of the solar corona. Further study served to convince him of the truth of this theory, but he had no means of proving it. Before the present eclipse, however, he devised a crucial test of his theory. This test is based on the following already known phenomena: When the moon covers the face of the sun, an envelope of light is seen all round it; the envelope is not visible when the sun is shining, on account of the sun's greater brightness; this light is called the corona; it is extremely irregular in outline. According to the drawing of Mr. J. E. Keeler at the eclipse of 1878, it enveloped the sun as a hazy glow, extending for a distance of several minutes of arc from the sun's limb and at two nearly opposite points is extended out in two long streamers feathering off into space. The opinion has been that this light was due to an atmosphere extending millions of miles from the sun. According to Dr. Hastings' view, it must be light from the sun which has undergone refraction, i.e., which has been bent from its regular course by the interposition of an opaque body like the moon.

In order to make this perfectly plain, suppose the front of a surface of waves of any sort to be striking an object which resists them. If an organ of sense is placed in the resisting object, it will judge the direction of the waves or the direction of the object producing them by a line at right angles with the wave front. Now suppose a body is placed between the body producing the waves and the sensitive organ. The waves must go around this body and will produce an eddy behind it, so that the wave front will have a different direction, and the organ of sense will conceive the origin of the waves to lie in a direction different from that before the body was interposed. Now consider the waves to be waves of light, and their origin the sun. The organ of sense is the retina of the eye. The moon is the opaque body interposed in the course of the waves, and they, being bent, make the impression on the eye that the light comes from beyond the edge of the sun. The moon covers the sun during the eclipse and a little more, so that it can move for about five minutes and still cover the sun entirely. This movement is very slight, and if the corona consists of light from a solar atmosphere, it should not change at all during this movement of the moon. But if diffraction is the cause of the light, then the slightest change in the relative positions of the sun and the moon should change the configuration of the corona, i.e., the corona should not remain exactly the same during a total eclipse. The character of the light as shown by a spectrum analysis should change.

To determine this point Dr. Hastings invented the following instrument: Two lozenge-shaped prisms of glass were fastened in the form of a letter V, and so arranged that all the light falling within the aperture of the V was lost, and that falling on the ends of the glass prisms was transmitted by a series of reflections to the apex of the V, where the prisms touched; here was placed a refracting prism, so that the light could be analyzed. This instrument was attached to the eye piece of the telescope, and the image of the eclipse reduced to such a size that the moon just fitted into the aperture of the V, while opposite sides of the corona were reflected through the prisms to the place where they came together. In this way both sides of the corona were seen through the eye-piece at the same time. On looking at the eclipse this is what Dr. Hastings saw: The light of the corona was divided into its constituents. Prominent among them was a bright green line, which is designated by the number 1,474; to this line attention was directed. Its presence in the spectrum has been an argument in favor of the view that the corona is a solar atmosphere. If this is the case, the line should remain fixed during the eclipse; but if the corona is due to diffraction, this line should change. It should grow shorter in the light from one side of the corona, and longer on the other. The observation was now reduced to watching for a change in the relative length of two green lines.

At the beginning of totality the line from the west side was much the longer, but as the eclipse progressed it shortened notably, while the line from the east side, shorter by about one-third at the beginning of the eclipse, grew longer. When the eclipse ended, the proportions of the lines were exactly reversed. There had been a change equal to two-thirds the length of the lines, while the sun and moon had only changed their relative positions by an extremely small amount. The only way in which this phenomenon can be accounted for is on the diffraction theory. The material view of the corona will not answer for it. But there are other discrepancies in the older view which have been known for some time. The principal ones are: 1. It is known from study of the sun that the gaseous pressure at the surface must be less than an inch of mercury, and is probably less than one-tenth of an inch, but an atmosphere extending to the supposed limits would cause an enormous pressure at the sun's surface, especially since the force of gravity on the sun is very much greater than on the earth. 2. The laws of gravitation would require a solar atmosphere to be distributed symmetrically around the sun, while the corona is enormously irregular in form. The sun is irregular in outline, which would make its diffracted phenomena show the observed irregularity, but it is symmetrical as regards density. 3. The most interesting discrepancy of the theory of the solar atmosphere is the fact that while it is supposed to extend for millions of miles from the sun, the recent comet passed within two hundred thousand miles of the sun, and yet its orbit was not affected in the least, as it would have been if it had plowed its way through a material substance. In taking photographs of the corona it is seen to be larger as the time of exposure is longer. This shows that the corona extends indefinitely, and it decreases in brilliancy in exact accordance with the mathematical laws of diffraction. These laws involve very complicated mathematics, but by them alone Dr. Hastings has proved that there must be diffraction where the corona is, and that it must follow the same laws as those observed. There is a small envelope around the sun, but in the opinion of Dr. Hastings it does not extend beyond what is known as the chromosphere.

* * * * *

The question seems to be settled, with considerable certainty, that nothing exists inside of Mercury large enough to be dignified by the name of planet. There may be, and there probably are, for the perturbations of Mercury indicate it, multitudes of small masses circulating around the sun like the planets, being fragments of comets or condensations of primitive matter, whose combined luster is seen in the zodiacal light.

The other results of the work of the Commission, so far as now known, are connected with the structure of the corona, the solar appendage which extends out for millions of miles from the sun's disk. In the photographs of the Egyptian eclipse of last summer these streamers can be traced back of each other where they cross; no better proof of their extreme tenuity could be given.

The duration of an eclipse of the sun depends on three things, the distance of the sun from the earth, the distance of the moon from the earth, and the distance of the station from the equator. All of these were favorable to a long eclipse in the case of the recent one, and the six minutes of totality gave opportunities for deliberate work not often enjoyed.

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A BURIED CITY OF THE EXODUS.

The excavations at Tell-el-Maskhutah, of which illustrations are given, have resulted in some of the most interesting and important discoveries that have ever rewarded the labors of archæologists. The idea of founding an English society for the purpose of exploring the buried cities of the Delta originated with Miss A. B. Edwards, the well-known authoress of "One Thousand Miles up the Nile," and was carried into effect mainly by her own efforts and the energy and zeal of Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, of the British Museum, aided by the substantial support of Sir Erasmus Wilson, without whose munificent donations the work could never have been accomplished. The "Egypt Exploration Fund," thus founded and maintained, was fortunate in securing the co-operation of M. Naville, the distinguished Swiss Egyptologist, who set out for Egypt in January of this year with the object of conducting the explorations contemplated by the society. After a consultation with M. Maspero, the Director of Archæology in Egypt, who has throughout acted a friendly part toward the society's enterprise, M. Naville decided to begin his campaign by attacking the mounds at Tell-el-Maskhutah, on the Freshwater Canal, a few miles from Ismailia. The mounds of earth here were known to cover some ancient city, for some sphinxes and statues had already been found; but what city it could be, archæologists were at a loss to determine; though some, with Professor Lepsius at their head, believed it to be none other than the Rameses or "Raamses," which the Children of Israel built for Pharaoh, and whence they started on their final Exodus. Any identification, however, of the sites of the Biblical cities in Egypt was so far merely speculative. Practically nothing definite was known as to the geography of the Israelite sojourn, except that the Land of Goshen was undoubtedly in the eastern part of the Delta, and that Zoan was Tanis, whose immense mounds are to form the next subject of the society's operations. The route of the Exodus was as uncertain as everything else connected with Israel's sojourn in Egypt. What sea they crossed, and where, and by what direction they journeyed to it, remained vexed questions, although Dr. Brugsch had set up a plausible theory, in which the "Serbonian Bog" played an important part.

Six weeks of steady digging at Tell-el-Maskhutah, under M. Naville's skillful direction, placed all these speculations in quite a new light. The city under the mounds proved to be none other than Pithom, the "store" or "treasure city" which the Children of Israel "built for Pharaoh" (Exod. i. 11). Its character as a store place or granary is seen in its construction; for the greater part of the area is covered with strongly built chambers, without doors, suitable for the storing of grain, which would be introduced through trap doors in the floor above, of which the ends of the beams are still visible. These curious chambers, unique in their appearance, are constructed of large, well made bricks, sometimes mixed with straw, sometimes without it, dried in the sun, and laid with mortar, with great regularity and precision. The walls are 10 ft. thick, and the thickness of the inclosing wall which runs round the whole city is more than 20 ft. In one corner was the temple, dedicated to the god Tum, and hence called Pe-tum or Pithom, the "Abode of Tum." Only a few statues, groups, and tablets (some of which have been presented to the British Museum) remained to testify to its name and purpose; the temple itself was finally destroyed when the Romans turned Pithom into a camp, as is shown by the position of the limestone fragments and of the Roman bricks. The statues, however, and especially a large stele, are extremely valuable, since they tell the history of the city during eighteen centuries. From a study of these monuments, M. Naville has learned that Pithom was its sacred, and Thukut (Succoth) its civil, name; that it was founded by Rameses II., restored by Shishak and others of the twenty-second dynasty; was an important place under the Ptolemies, who set up a great stele to commemorate the founding of the city of Arsinoë in the neighborhood; was called Hero or Heroöpolis by the Greeks (a name derived from the hieroglyphic _ara_, meaning a "store house"), and Ero Castra by the Romans, who occupied it at all events as late as A.D. 306. Indications are also found of the position of Pihahiroth, where the Israelites encamped before the passage of the "Reedy Sea," and of Clysma. All these data are directly contradictory to preconceived theories: Pithom, Succoth, Heroöpolis, Pihahiroth, and Clysma had all been hypothetically placed in totally different positions. The identification of Pithom with Succoth gives us the first absolutely certain point as yet established in the route of the Exodus, and completely overthrows Dr. Brugsch's theory. It is now certain that the Israelites passed along the valley of the Freshwater Canal and not near the Mediterranean and Lake Serbonis. The first definite geographical fact in connection with the sojourn in the Land of Egypt has been established by the excavations at Pithom. The historical identification of Rameses II. with Pharaoh the oppressor also results from the monumental evidence. One short exploration has upset a hundred theories and furnished a wonderful illustration of the historical character of the Book of Exodus. The finding of Pithom (Succoth) is, however, only the beginning, we hope, of a series of important discoveries. When enough money has been collected for the proposed exploration of Zoan (Tanis), results of the highest interest to students alike of the Bible and of Egyptian antiquities may, with certainty, be predicted.

The uppermost view shows a portion of the diggings; a workman is bringing up a barrow-load of soil from one of the deep store chambers which the Children of Israel built more than three thousand years ago. In the foreground lie the fragments of a fallen granite statue, the head and face of which are intact. The other illustration is taken from the temple end of the excavations. The sculptured group of Rameses the Great seated between divinities is one of a pair that adorned the entrance; its companion and the sphinxes that guarded the pylon are at Ismailia. Beyond this group, and a little to the left, is seen the great Stele of Pithom, set up by Ptolemy Philadelphus and Arsinoë, and containing a mass of important information in its long hieroglyphic inscriptions. Behind this, and on either side, the massive brick walls of the store chambers and the inclosing wall of the temple can be traced; while on the right hand, in the middle distance, is a heap of limestone blocks, already collected by Rameses II. for the completion or enlargement of the temple. The excavations were photographed for M. Naville, by Herr Emil Brugsch, of the Boulak Museum, and our illustrations are taken from these photographs, supplemented by sketches.--_S.L.P., in Illustrated London News_.

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THE MOABITE MANUSCRIPTS.

The surprises of archæology are magnificent and apparently inexhaustible. It is continually bringing forth things new and old, and often it happens that the newest are the oldest of all. Whether this or the exact converse is the case in regard to the latest discovery of Biblical archæology is a question not to be determined offhand; but the interest and importance of the question can hardly be overrated. There are now deposited in the British Museum fifteen leather slips, on the forty folds of which are written portions of the Book of Deuteronomy in a recension entirely different from that of the received text. The character employed in the manuscript is similar to that of the famous Moabite stone and of the Siloam inscription, and, therefore, the mere palæographical indication should give the probable date of the slips as the ninth century B. C., or sixteen centuries earlier than any other clearly authenticated manuscript of any portion of the Old Testament. The sheepskin slips are literally black with age, and are impregnated with a faint odor as of funeral spices; the folds are from 6 to 7 inches long and about 3½ inches wide, containing each about ten lines, written only on one side.

So far as they have yet been deciphered, they exhibit two distinct handwritings, though the same archaic character is used throughout. In some cases the same passages of Deuteronomy occur in duplicate on distinct slips, as though the fragments belonged to two contemporary transcriptions made by different scribes from the same original text. At first sight no writing whatever is perceptible; the surface seems to be covered with an oily or glutinous substance, which so completely obscures the writing beneath that a photograph of some of the slips--which we have had an opportunity of examining side by side with the slips themselves--exhibits no trace of the text. But when the leather is moistened with spirits of wine the letters become momentarily visible beneath the glossy surface.

These extraordinary fragments were brought to England by Mr. Shapira, of Jerusalem, a well known bookseller and dealer in antiquities. Mr. Shapira's name will be remembered in connection with certain archæological problems which have been solved by some scholars in a manner not altogether creditable to his sagacity.

The Moabite pottery which reached Europe through Mr. Shapira's agency and is deposited in the Museum at Berlin is now commonly regarded as a modern forgery; but of this forgery, if it be one, it is asserted that Mr. Shapira was the dupe and not the accomplice. The leathern fragments now produced by Mr. Shapira were, as he alleges, obtained by him from certain Arabs near Dibon, the neighborhood where the Moabite stone was discovered. The agent employed by him in their purchase was an Arab "who would steal his mother-in-law for a few piastres," and who would probably be even less scrupulous about a few blackened slips of ancient or modern sheepskin. The value placed by Mr. Shapira on the fragments is, however, a cool million sterling, and at this price they are offered to the British Museum, where they have been temporarily deposited for examination.

Dr. Ginsburg, the well-known Semitic scholar--whose receipt of a grant of £500 from the Prime Minister toward the production of his important work on the "Massorah" we announced with much satisfaction yesterday--is now busily engaged in deciphering the contents of the fragments and examining their genuineness. On this latter question we refrain from pronouncing an opinion. When Dr. Ginsburg's report appears, we shall be able to judge whether these extraordinary fragments are really 2,500 years old, or have been compiled within the last few years.

No complete account of the contents of the fragments can yet be given. To decipher them is a work of time and of infinite patience and skill, as will readily be inferred from the account we have given above of the appearance and condition of the slips. But enough has been deciphered to show that the text employed in them exhibits discrepancies of the most remarkable and important character as compared with that of the received version of the Mosaic books.

In the first verse of the ninth chapter of Deuteronomy, where the received version reads, "Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself," the corresponding passage of the fragments substitutes the plural for the singular, "Ye" for '"Thou," while for "_g'dôlîm_," the word translated "greater," it reads "_rabbîm_." But a far more complete idea of the variations of text and signification may be obtained from a comparison of the text of the Decalogue as it appears in the received version in the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy with that contained in the fragments so far as they have yet been deciphered. The version of the fragments, literally rendered, runs as follows:

"I am God, thy God, which liberated thee from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Ye shall have no other gods. Ye shall not make to yourselves any graven image, nor any likeness that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth. Ye shall not bow down to them nor serve them. I am God, your God. Sanctify ... in six days I have made the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and rested on the seventh day, therefore rest thou also, thou and thy cattle and all that thou hast: I am God, thy God. Honor thy father and thy mother ...: I am God, thy God. Thou shall not kill the person of thy brother: I am God, thy God. Thou shalt not commit adultery with the wife of thy neighbor: I am God, thy God. Thou shalt not steal the property of thy brother: I am God, thy God. Thou shalt not swear by my name falsely, for I visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of those who take my name in vain: I am God, thy God. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy brother: I am God, thy God. Thou shalt not covet the wife ... or his manservant, or his maidservant, or anything that is his: I am God, thy God. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart: I am God, thy God. These ten words (or commandments) God spake."

Several points may be noted in this version. The singular refrain "I am God, thy God"--which does not appear at all in the received version--occurs ten times, being, as it were, a solemn ratification of the Divine sanction given at the end of each separate precept. If this be so, the first two commandments, as they are commonly reckoned, are here fused into one, and the tenth place is taken by a commandment which does not appear in the received version of the Decalogue.

It will further be observed that the distinctive Jewish name for the Almighty, "Jehovah," or "the Lord," does not appear at all, the familiar phrase of the received version, "the Lord thy God," being replaced throughout by "God, thy God."

On the many variations in arrangement and detail we need not dwell; they speak for themselves. But we have quoted enough to show that these fragments present problems of the utmost importance and interest both to criticism and exegesis, unless, indeed, they are to be regarded as the ingenious fabrications of some Oriental Ireland, who, knowing the interest felt by scholars in variations of the Sacred Text, has set himself, with infinite pains and skill, to forestall a growing demand. Until this preliminary question is resolved to the satisfaction of all competent scholars, no further questions need be raised. In any case the _primá facie_ presumption must be held to be enormously against the genuineness of the fragments. Such a presumption rests on the improbability of finding manuscripts older by at least sixteen centuries than any extant manuscripts of the same text, on the comparative ease with which such fragments can be forged, and on the powerful motives to such forgery attested by the price placed by Mr. Shapira on his property.

All that we know of the _provenance_ of the fragments is that Mr. Shapira obtained them from an Arab of doubtful character; and that Arabs of doubtful character have driven a splendid trade in Moabite antiquities ever since the discovery of the Moabite stone. On the other hand, the forger, if forgery there be, is assuredly no clumsy and ignorant bungler, as the makers of the Moabite pottery were confidently alleged to be by those who disputed its genuineness. It is, of course, part of his craft, and not, perhaps, much more than the 'prentice part, to give to the sheepskins on which the text is inscribed an appearance of immemorial antiquity. But a good deal more than the skill required to make a new sheepskin look like an old one has gone to the production of Mr. Shapira's fragments. If they are forged, the fabricator must have known what scholars would be likely to expect in genuine fragments, and have set himself to fulfill their expectations. In these days of scientific palæography and minute textual scholarship no forger of ancient manuscripts could hope to take in scholars unless he were a scholar himself. Variations of text would be looked for as a matter of course; palæographical accuracy would be exacted to the minutest turn of a letter. Now, to vary a text so as to furnish a different recension without betraying ignorance or solecism requires scholarship of no mean order, while it is very far from an easy thing to write currently in an archaic and unfamiliar character in such a manner as to deceive experts in palæography. But the fabricator of these fragments, if fabricated they are, has attempted and accomplished a good deal more than this. He has in some cases produced two identical texts written in different hands, both preserving unimpaired the archaic character of the letters. This implies either the employment of two scribes or else an almost incredible skill in the single scribe employed, and in either case it doubles the probability of detection. If, moreover, the supposed fabricator is also himself the scribe, it is evident that he is not only a very ingenious artist, but also a very accomplished scholar, and one can only regret that he has engaged in an industry which has placed him at the mercy of an Arab who would steal his mother-in-law for a few piastres, and is likely, therefore, to enrich no one but Mr. Shapira. We should expect to find, however, that his extraordinary ingenuity has at some point or another overreached itself. Familiar as he must be with the labors of modern Biblical critics--for otherwise he would hardly have ventured to impose upon them--it would be strange if he were not betrayed into some more or less suspicious coincidences with them. In any case, the problem presented by the fragments is one of profound interest, and the whole world of letters will resound with the controversy they are certain to excite.--_London Times_.

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SHIPPING OSTRICHES FROM CAPE TOWN TO AUSTRALIA.

Since the failure last August of the Cape Commercial Bank there has been much depression in South Africa. Ostrich farming, in common with other enterprises, has suffered. Before the crisis a pair of breeding ostriches have been sold for 350 l., now they would not realize 50 l.

The resolution of the Government of South Australia to encourage ostrich breeding came in very opportunely for the Cape dealers, and one or two cargoes of birds have been shipped for Adelaide. The climate of the two colonies is very similar, and the locality selected for the imported birds (the Musgrave Ranges) resembles in dryness and temperature their native _habitat_.

The first sketch opposite represents the ostriches bidding farewell to their South African home. "The dear old farm where we were reared, good-by!"

One of the boxes, while being slung from the cart to the hold, got into a slanting position. This frightened one of the two inmates, a fine cock. He kicked so hard that he burst open the door of his cage, which was, of course, instantly lowered on deck. Fortunately there was there a gentleman who understood how to handle ostriches. He instantly seized him before he could do himself or the bystanders any injury, and after a brief struggle prevailed on him to re-enter his box. When released in the hold he became quite quiet, and ate his first meal on board ship with a relish.

After being taken out of their boxes the birds are allowed to take a little exercise just to make themselves at home, and are then arranged in wooden kraals, of which there are two hundred on board the vessel. The ostriches are induced to move from one place to another by catching hold of their bodies, and using a little gentle force.

The last sketch represents their first meal on board after a fast of thirty hours. Apple melons were chopped up for them by their "steward," who was to accompany them to Australia. It was curious to see a bird swallow a great lump and then to watch the lump working slowly down the animal's long neck. On the voyage they would be fed with maize or mealies, onions, apple melons, and barley. They require very little water; however, there were five large iron tanks on board in case they would feel thirsty. Our engravings are from sketches by Mr. Dennis Edwards, of Hoff Street, Capetown,

1. Ostriches on the South African Farm Where They Were Reared.--2. Attempted Escape and Recapture of an Ostrich on Board Ship.--3. Lowering the Birds Into the Hold.--4.A Queer Dinner Party--Ostriches Eating Apple Melons.]

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A NEW WEATHERCOCK.

An ordinary weathercock provided with datum points may, in the majority of cases, suffice for the observation of the wind during the day; but recourse has to be had to different means to obtain an automatic transmission of the indications of the vane to the inside of a building. The different systems employed for such a purpose consist of gearings, or are accompanied by a friction that notably diminishes the sensitiveness of the apparatus, especially when the rod has to traverse several stories. Mr. Emile Richard, inspector of the Versailles waterworks, has just devised an ingenious system which, while considerably reducing the weight of the movable part, allows the weathercock to preserve all its sensitiveness. This apparatus consists of two principal parts--one fixed and the other movable. The stationary part is designated in the accompanying figure by the letters A and B and by cross-hatchings. This forms the rod or support. An iron tube, T, with clamps, P, at its lower extremity forms the base of the apparatus, and is hidden, after the mounting of the apparatus, by the ornamental zinc covering, Z. The upper part of the tube carries a shoulder-piece, upon which rests a bronze platform, E, and which is slightly inclined outwardly to prevent the accumulation of water on it. Over the platform there move three crystal balls, which are held and guided by a horizontal disk movable around the stationary tube.

The movable portion, designed to receive the action of the wind and to indicate its direction, is designated by the letters C D and coarse lines. It consists of (1) a zinc tube, K, provided at intervals with copper rings, and entering the rod, A B, which serves as a guide for it; (2) of a bronze disk covered by an external ornament, O, fixed to the tube and resting on the balls; (3) of the vane, G, properly so called; and (4) of the cap, C, provided with bayonet catch, crowning the tube and covering the point of attachment of the wire of transmission. This latter consists of a simple brass or galvanized iron wire, f f, perfectly taut, and made fast in the top of the tube. After traversing as many stories as necessary this wire terminates, in the interior of the room where the observations are made, in a copper rod to which is fastened a horizontal arrow, F. The wire traverses the floorings through small zinc tubes; and, in the rooms through which it passes, it is protected by iron tubes. To the ceiling of the observing room there is affixed a wind-rose, R, on which the arrow reproduces all the motions of the vane.

This apparatus is now in operation in the different stations that the Versailles waterworks has established near the reservoirs of the plateau of Trappes, and it is also installed in several primary normal schools, where it is giving very good results.--_La Nature_.

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CHARRED CLOVER.

A correspondent of the _Ohio Farmer_ reports an experiment in curing clover, showing how he just missed breeding fire in his barn, and illustrating the importance of ventilating hay mows:

In 1861 I used a horse fork for the first time. The haying season was not a bright one, and our clover was drawn a little greener than usual, and went into the mow in large and compact forkfuls. The result was intense heating, and consequently very rapid evaporation and sweating of the mow. On a bay holding ordinarily twenty tons we put at least thirty tons, as every load at the top seemed to make room for another. The barn was rather open, which allowed quite free evaporation on all sides as well as at the top. The result was that I had very bright and excellent hay at the bottom, top, and sides of that mow, but severals tons in the center were as completely charred as though burned in a coal pit. What prevented combustion has always been a mystery to me. Since that escape from a conflagration, I have not deemed it prudent to put clover in so green as to cause intense heating, or to fill a mow too rapidly. If we haul six loads per day to one mow, weighing thirty hundred each, which will shrink during the sweating process to one ton each, we have three tons of water to be thrown off by evaporation.

If we continue to put on six loads per day until the mow is full, the principal part of that moisture must rise through the entire mass. To relieve the hay of moisture, I deem it best to have several places of storage, and change daily or semi-daily from one to the other, thus giving time for a share of the moisture to pass off. To facilitate this evaporation and prevent the hay from reabsorbing it and becoming musty, the best of ventilation is necessary. Ventilation above a clover mow is as necessary as it is above a sugar or fruit evaporator. If there is not open space and draught sufficient to carry away the moisture, it is returned to the mow, and mould is the inevitable result. No ordinary amount of drying will prevent hay from becoming musty if ventilation is shut off during the sweating process. If a hole is cut through the floor at the bottom of the mow near the center and under a ventilator in the roof and a barrel placed over it and drawn up as the hay is mowed in, thus leaving a hole from bottom to top, evaporation will be facilitated and the quality of the hay improved. Salt thrown on, as the clover is put in, to the amount of two or three quarts to the ton, will make it a relish with stock.

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THE QUEEN VICTORIA CENTURY PLANT.

(_Agave victoriæ-reginæ_.)

This beautiful Agave is now in blossom in the garden here, and I am happy to be able to send you photographs of it. This is the first time it has ever blossomed in cultivation, and it has never been seen in flower in a wild state. It is a mature native-grown specimen, dense in habit, and perfectly semi-spherical in form, and the leaves are arranged in spiral fashion with as much regularity as those of a screw pine. The circumference of the plant is 5 ft. 1 in., and it has 268 leaves. Its flower-stem appeared about the middle of June, grew rather fast till it was 7 ft. high, then rather slowly till it reached its full development. The scape is now 10 ft. 4 in. high above the plant, 6½ in. in circumference at the base, or 5¼ in. at a foot above the base; from there it tapers very gradually till near the apex. The flower-spike is exceedingly dense, and 5 ft. 8 in. long; the lower or naked portion, 4 ft. 8 in. long, is prominently marked by abortive flower buds, with, near the base, some bristle-like scales 3½ in. to 4 in. long. The flowers are regularly arranged in parcels of three, all the three being equal in size and opening together; they are greenish white in color, 1½ in. long, or, including the stamens, some 2¾ in. to 3 in. long.