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The greatest bonfire chain since the news of the approach of the Spanish Armada was "telegraphed" by that means around the coast of England, was organized this past summer in Kashmir, India, to send the news should an ice barrier break in remote Tibet and send an avalanche of water down the valley of the Indus. Several years ago a glacier slid across the river Shyok, one of the tributaries of the Indus, and formed a lake 17,000 feet above sea level. Behind the ice barrier, 120,000,000 tons of water collected, the lake finally growing so great that it became apparent its waters probably would break through when the level reached the top of the barrier and the sun this summer began softening the ice. The government of Kashmir prepared by laying a chain of bonfires 140 miles long, each in sight of the next, and stationing a sentinel to touch off the pile when the waters started. In charge at the lake end, Col. E. B. Howell, British resident attached to the Kashmir government, established a camp on the glacier itself, more than three miles above sea level and fourteen days' march from civilization. All the villagers in the lowlands were moved out by troops and preparations made to abandon a great part of the famous Vale of Kashmir if the flood came. Colonel Howell's post, on the "roof of the world," was one of the most lonely spots that could be found, with no one but a small escort of Tibetan mountaineers to keep him company.

 

By actual tests with a mechanical putter, experts at the turf garden of the United States golf association near Washington, D. C., decide what varieties of grass are best for the greens. The device is essentially a pendulum arrangement which simulates the stroke of a player in putting, and the force of the stroke can be regulated by means of a spring. Tests have been made on some 500 plots and with many different kinds of grass. The trials have revealed that certain varieties are not successful, as they impede the progress of the ball unnecessarily or deflect it from a straight course. The advantage of the mechanical putter is that strokes of exactly the same force can be made and the ball always struck in the same way.

 

Greater ease in skating is claimed with a jointed-blade skate now on the market. It adapts itself more readily to the movements of the feet without interiering with forward progress, and is said to enable the wearer to easily keep his balance.

