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It is reported that the farmers in the province of Skåne, Sweden, have organized to build a central station to furnish their farms with electric current, which will be used both for mechanical power and for lighting; and that in another part of the country the farmers have formed a company to purchase power from a power station and distribute it to the farms.
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At a meeting of the Selborne Society (for Natural History) England, it was suggested that a sanctuary for wild birds should be provided and a tract of wild country acquired and set aside for the preservation of birds likely to become exterminated, such as the chough, the raven, the buzzard, the peregrine, and the kite. If the Government did not see its way to undertake the work, it might give a grant as the nucleus for an appeal for subscriptions. The United States, Switzerland, and Austria already provide such sanctuaries.
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By looking at one object too hard we may so bedazzle ourselves that we can see nothing else. This remark is suggested by the views of a botanist who appears to regard the colors and scents of flowers as being designed entirely and solely for the benefit of insects, in order that the insects may pollenize the flowers. We dare say that object forms part of the plan; but we surmise it does not form the whole plan. Birds carry seeds, but that is not the sole object and purpose of a bird's existence. Besides, the idea that insects and flowers were created for each other reminds one of the old story of the posts that held up the wires and the wires that held up the posts.
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The Swiss correspondent of the London Morning Post said recently that the glaciers in the Rhône district of Switzerland are in retreat, some of them to an extent "which may almost be described as alarming." The Arolla glacier has receded 85ft. in the past twelve months; the Aletsch, the longest in the Alps, 65ft.; the Gorner, 58; the Zinal, 51; while the Turtmann, in the Zermatt range, and the Zanfleuren or Sanetsch have retreated nearly 46ft. each. Within the last ten years the Zigiornuovo glacier has shrunk by 904ft., the Zanfleuren by 718, the Aletsch by 459, the Zinal by 378, and the Gorner by nearly 190. Other glaciers were observed, and all showed more or less shrinkage; but, as for the small Mont Bouvin glacier, in the space of four years it has entirely "disappeared from sight"—a cautious expression. These changes may of course be part of a periodic variation.
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The encroachment of the sea on the east coast of England is such that at Pakefield, near Lowestoft, a row of cottages has been brought to the edge of the cliff. In one of these cottages live an old couple, who own the house, but are now forced to move, as the cliff edge is only a few feet from the front door. The woman was born in the cottage and remembers when it was a good walk to reach the cliff. Old fishermen in Pakefield are now catching fish where as boys they gathered blackberries.