Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/586

572 silver-gilt wire; the finest wires are inserted to serve as the hairs within the eyepieces of the telescopes of surveying and astronomical instruments; and wire is largely used in fencing and netting. Steel wire forms the frames of spectacles, and has replaced whalebone in the ribwork of umbrellas. It is also employed for the strings of pianos and other musical instruments, and has found a more recent application in the spokes of cycle wheels. Copper wire forms the coils round the magnets of dynamo machines for generating electricity, and it transmits the electric current to a distance after its production, for the purposes of illumination. It, moreover, furnishes the vehicle for the transmission of messages by the telegraph and telephone; and when inserted in submarine cables it forms a connecting link between distant parts of the world, and permits the firing of under-water mines in security by an electric battery at a distance. The great diversity of uses to which wire is applied is due to the increased tensional strength possessed by metals when drawn into wire, which is owing to the great tensional resistance acquired by the outer skin; to the flexibility, combined with strength, possessed by wire cables; to the facility with which wire can be drawn out to a variety of gauges; and to the extreme fineness that can be attained with certain metals in the process of wire drawing.

Cereals in Japan.—The most important cereal crops of Japan, according to a report recently issued, are rice, barley, and wheat. Rice is cultivated in nearly all the provinces, and, either as flour or whole grain, boiled with rice, is a common food. It is whitened like pearl barley, steeped five or six hours in water, and then boiled. One of the most common articles of food is miso, which is prepared by pounding together boiled soy beans, salt, and the koji or yeast, prepared from common barley. Barley is also used for brewing beer and making confectionery, and as food for horses and cattle. Its straw, bleached and plaited, is used in summer hats. Wheat is also generally cultivated, and is principally used for preparing soy, vermicelli, and confectionery, and its straw for thatching roofs, etc. Some barley and wheat is exported to foreign countries, barley chiefly to Hong Kong and Vladivostock, and wheat, in flour, to Russia and Korea, and as grain to Hong Kong and England. The manufacture of straw plaits and other goods from bleached barley stalks is assuming large proportions. Although Japanese straw is not so good as that of Italy, it is better than that of China. Articles of straw, especially toys, have been made for many centuries, but recently, stimulated by the demand for exportation, the manufacture of plaits has increased rapidly.

Chitral.—Chitral, where the British recently conducted a successful military campaign for the relief of their post, is described by Captain Younghusband as "a mountainous country, which, if you could get a bird's-eye view of it, you would see to be composed partly of gigantic snowy peaks, partly of barren rocky mountains, and, in a very small degree, of cultivated land. The valleys are narrow and confined, the main ones in their inhabited portions running from five thousand to eight thousand feet above sea level. It is only in them that any cultivation at all is found, and even there it is not carried on very extensively. But what there is is generally very good, and Chitral is a country noted for its fruit." All the ordinary cereals are grown, though in the higher part of the valleys it is only possible to produce barley and buckwheat. The whole food production is small, and barely suffices for the people of the country. The climate varies, of course, according to the height of the valley. The population of Chitral is probably about seventy thousand or eighty thousand. The people are all Mohammedans, but not of a very strict or fanatical type. In the lower part of the Chitral Valley, where they touch on the Pathans, so noted for their fanaticism, they have become to a certain extent tainted by it; but in the upper valleys the people are very quiet, and do not seem to trouble themselves much about religious observances. On the whole, the Chitralis may be described as a peaceable race, who can fight well enough when they are roused to action, but who really prefer to keep quiet and be left alone to enjoy life in peace. They are very fond of sport, and delight in polo, which they play in an offhand, "go-as-you-please" way. The ruler of the country is designated the Mehtar, and has absolute power up to a