At a recent meeting of the “Parker” C. L. S. C., in Washington, D. C., Dr. H. A. Dobson illustrated how ice will move downward by pressure of its own weight, applicable to the glacial chapter of Packard’s Geology. In the top of a wooden bucket or tub, drive two tacks or small nails on opposite sides, and about two inches apart. Stretch across two fine iron wires—such as is used for wax flowers will do—winding the wires around the tacks so as to be kept in position. Upon the wires place a piece of clear ice, about six inches long, four inches wide and two inches thick, placing the thin edge in contact with the wires. Almost instantly the wires will be imbedded in the ice, and in the course of an evening the downward movement of the ice will be so great as to cause the wires to pass entirely through the block of ice, which, strange as it may seem, unites again below the wires, and though it is actually severed by the wires in three parts by its course downward, it falls into the vessel a solid piece, leaving no trace of the path the wires made. An interesting question for C. L. S. C. readers to solve, after repeating the experiment, is, Why does the ice re-unite?
The Hon. Hiram Price, of Iowa, one of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, comments severely on the iniquity of the liquor traffic among the Indians, and quotes instances of trouble arising from it. He reports the total number of Indians in the United States, exclusive of Alaska, as being 262,366.
The work of revising the Old Testament is going on under the direction of Dr. Philip Schaff as chairman of the American portion of the committee. They are now engaged on the third and last revision, which will be completed in about a year from this time. The American committee meet on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of each month, in Dr. Schaff’s study, in the Bible House, New York. The English committee meet in Jerusalem Chapel, in Westminster Abbey. The Bishop of Winchester is chairman.
We shall furnish our readers with a complete list of the names of the C. L. S. C. graduates for 1882 in The Chautauquan for February.
Messrs. Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co., 739 and 741 Broadway, New York, have in press for immediate publication, “Evangeline—The Place, The Story and the Poem.” By Prof. Noah Porter, President of Yale College. To be issued in an elegant large folio volume, limited to 500 copies, numbered and signed by Prof. Porter, containing nineteen magnificent original illustrations by Frank Dicksee, A. R. A., fifteen of which are elegantly reproduced in photogravure by Messrs. Goupil & Co., of Paris, and four are proof impressions on India paper from the original blocks, beautifully illustrating Longfellow’s poem of Evangeline. The publishers claim that this will prove the handsomest artistic gift book of the season.