Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/736

 a valuable fodder-yielding tree. The fruit when ripe is a bright brown pod six to ten inches long, about an inch wide, and a quarter of an inch thick, the substance of the pod consisting of a sugary, amber-colored pulp. The pods are borne in great profusion. As they ripen they drop to the ground, and are picked up and eaten with much relish by all kinds of stock. The excellent quality of this fruit as a fodder is evident from its fattening effect—stock having access to it improve markedly during the time it is in season. The pods can be stored for use in winter and spring.

Another New Metal(?).—We take from "La Nature" a brief account of a new metal, norwegium, lately discovered by Daffl in an arseniuret of nickel, copper, and iron. Unlike most of the new elements latterly discovered, this new metal was not discovered by the aid of the spectroscope; indeed, Daffl does not appear to have examined its spectrum. The oxide of norwegium is easily reduced by carbon or by hydrogen; the metal is white, malleable, of the hardness of copper, and is fusible at a low red heat. Its density is equal to 9·44. It dissolves readily in hydrochloric acid; but nitric acid soon forms a nitrate. The concentrated solution is blue; on adding water it becomes green. Its chemical equivalent is 196 if the oxide is a protoxide. It is precipitated by potash, ammonia, and carbonate of soda, and redissolves in an excess of the precipitant. Sulphuretted hydrogen gives an insoluble brown precipitate in the sulpho-hydrate of ammonia. At the blowpipe, with borax, it forms a globule which is green while hot, but when cold, blue. The phosphorus salt yields a yellow globule, which on cooling becomes emerald green.

The Flight and Fall of Meteors.—Professor C. U. Shepard, in a paper on "Meteorites," read before the Connecticut Academy of Sciences, states the number of supposed independent falls of such bodies, whereof specimens are preserved in museums, as about three hundred and fifty, which number is increasing at the rate of between three and four per year. In the northern hemisphere there are two regions where falls of meteorites have been most frequent. "These regions," says Professor Shepard, "are apparently situated where they have been similarly influenced by the earth's magnetic polarity. The regions are on opposite sides of the hemisphere, have similar areas, and are in analogous directions and at similar distances from the two terrestrial north magnetic poles." The author calls attention to the highly magnetic constitution of nearly all meteorites, and to the fact that each mass, whether large or small, of a detonating meteor, maintains during its aërial flight a fixed axial direction. He infers that "if a strong magnetic force is found to attend these bodies, the perplexing subject relating to their high and variant velocities may receive some elucidation." He thinks that the great objection to the theory of the volcanic origin of meteorites, viz., that their velocity is too great, may be obviated by the hypothesis that acceleration may be produced by the electro-magnetism of the earth.

A Natural Well.—In March last a remarkable "sink-hole" was discovered in Meade County, Kansas. In May it was visited by Professor B. F. Mudge, who gives an interesting account of it in the "Kansas City Review of Science and Industry." This sink-hole made its appearance in a grassy prairie at a point forty miles south of Dodge, and its site was formerly crossed by a wagon-road. This road is little frequented, but those who passed over it early in March saw nothing new where now the sink-hole exists. About March 18th the road had disappeared, and in its place was a deep cavity. As seen by Professor Mudge on May 5th, it had the appearance of a gigantic well, sixty feet deep and 610 feet in circumference, being nearly circular. The walls were perpendicular, or nearly so. The material of the soil, at least to the depth of seventeen feet, consisted of a firm clay shale of reddish tinge. All around the cavity were circular cracks parallel to the rim, from five to fifteen feet deep, and from one to ten inches wide. These had opened at the time of the catastrophe, and appear as though ready to cave in; but one of the party that accompanied Professor Mudge had visited the spot a month earlier, and he