Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/443

Rh her, "with the expression of 'How can you be so greedy? why don't you give me a bit?' Of course he did get it, and then departed and hid himself in the leaves overhead." At a place in California, where she stayed after all the other visitors had deserted it, "a stag," she says, "with great branching horns was my only companion; he had a bell round his neck, and used generally to live in front of the house, but liked human company; and when I appeared with my painting things he would get up and conduct me gravely to my point, and see me well settled at my work, then scamper off, coming back every now and then to sniff at my colors."

The Succession of American Floras.—No strongly defined line can be drawn, says Prof. Warren Upham, in a paper on the flora of the basin of the Red River of the North, "between different portions of the flora and fauna of the country from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Sea. But great contrasts exist between the Eastern region, with its plentiful rainfall, and the dry Western plains, as also between the almost tropical Southern margin of the United States and the tundras beneath the Arctic Circle. In traveling from the once wholly forest-covered country of the Eastern States, across the prairies, to the far Western plains bearing cacti and sage-brush, there is observed a gradual change in the flora, until a very large proportion of the Eastern species is left behind, and their places are taken by others capable of enduring more arid conditions. Likewise, in going from St. Augustine or New Orleans to Chicago, St. Paul, Winnipeg, and Hudson Bay and Strait, the palmettoes, the evergreen live-oak, bald cypress, Southern pines, and the festooned Tillandsia, or Spanish moss, are left in passing from the Southern to the Northern States; and instead we find in the region of the Laurentian lakes the bur or mossy-cup oak, the canoe and yellow birches, the tamarack, or American larch, the black spruce, balsam fir, and the white, red, and Banksian pines; while farther north the white spruce, beginning as a small tree in northern New England and on Lake Superior, attains a majestic growth on the lower Mackenzie in a more northern latitude than a large part of the moss-covered barren grounds which reach thence eastward to the northern part of Hudson Bay and Labrador. Thus, although no grand topographic barrier, like a high mountain range, impassable to species of the lowlands, divides this great region, yet the transition from a humid to an arid climate in passing westward, and the exchange of tropical warmth for polar cold in the journey from South to North, are accompanied by gradual changes of the flora, by which in the aggregate its aspect is almost completely transformed."

Timber-testing.—The Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture is engaged in making tests of timber, for the purposes of obtaining a better knowledge of the qualities of our commonest commercial timbers; of devising means of relating qualities to physical structure and appearance; and to establish, if possible, the influence which divers conditions of growth exercise upon the quality all conditions affecting the usefulness of the specimens in service. The records, which are preserved in duplicate, include the definition of the locality where the piece was cut, with its geological and climatological features; an exact description of the site and exposure, the soil, and the surrounding growth and undergrowth; the origin of the tree, its age and dimensions; the positions in the tree of the various test pieces submitted; and other points. It is expected to submit to the regular series of tests between one and two thousand test pieces of each species. It is hoped that when the work is done means will be afforded the engineer and architect to specify for timber of given quality, and also, by a rapid macroscopic and microscopic examination, to pass on each stick as to its coming up to the specification; and, further, of acquainting ourselves with the conditions of growth that produce given quality.

The Preservation of Historical and Interesting Scenery.—At the instance of the Appalachian Mountain Club, a law has been enacted in Massachusetts incorporating a Board of Trustees of Public Reservations, with authority to acquire, hold, arrange, maintain, and open to the public, under suitable regulations, beautiful and historical