Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/592

574 crystallizes in the monoclinic system, in tubular or short columnar or needle-shaped crystals, usually well developed and free from distortion, varying from microscopic size to five inches in length. It is brittle, transparent in the purest crystals, and of shades of yellow or brown in color. It is an accessory constituent of the granite rocks and their derived gneisses, and has been found in apatite, cyanite, and veined quartz, but not in sedimentary rocks. The economically valuable deposits are found in the placer sands of streams and rivers, in the irregular sedimentary sand deposits of old stream beds and bottoms, now covered up, and in the beach-sand deposits of certain seashores. Workable deposits of monazite have so far been found only in limited geographical areas. The only ones in the United States are the placer beds in North and South Carolina; in Burke, McDowell, Rutherford, Cleveland, and Polk Counties, North Carolina, and in Spartanburg, Greenville, and York Counties, South Carolina. They occur in gravel deposits, from one to two feet thick, in streams that are seldom more than twelve feet wide. Other deposits are found in Brazil, the United States of Colombia, and Russia. The value of monazite depends on its percentage of thoria, the earth sought after by the Welsbach-light men. The Carolina beds furnished one million nine hundred thousand pounds of monazite in 1896, at from six to ten cents a pound. The next year the output fell off, both in amount and price, on account of the competition of the Brazilian field, where the production is easier and cheaper.



Institute of France, Cuvier Prize.—At the session of the Académie des Sciences held at Paris, December 13, 1897, the Cuvier Prize of 1,500 francs was awarded to Professor O. C. Marsh, of Yale University. This prize is "awarded every three years for the most remarkable work either on the Animal Kingdom or on Geology."

The Cuvier Prize is generally regarded as the highest honor in natural science, and hitherto has been given to only two persons in this country, Agassiz and Leidy. The former, however, was a native of Switzerland, and there the special work was done for which his prize was awarded.

vine was once much more largely cultivated in England than it is now, and English wines were not unknown. The recent success of Lord Bute's vineyards at Castle Cook, near Cardiff, Wales, seems to favor the prospect that the grape and its products may yet, if the people take to it, win a position of importance among British industries. The vines were planted in 1875. The yield of wine has, with various fluctuations, risen from forty gallons in 1877 to forty hogsheads in 1893 and 1896; and the cost of all previous experiments was covered by the crop of 1893* That this success is not merely an accident of locality is proved by the return of a second vineyard, which was planted in another part of Lord Bute's estate, the vines of which are thoroughly established, grow vigorously, and ripen well in most years. "We are planting thousands of vines every year, and propose to plant an acre every spring. Six hogsheads of wine were given in 1895 by the one acre in bearing condition in the new vineyard, in a season when many of the grapes and fruit and vine crops were spoiled by mildew."

the useful aspect of earthquake observations, Prof. John Milne said, in the British Association, that in Japan it is now clearly recognized that ordinary engineering practice as applied to embankments, piers for bridges, tall chimneys, the framing of ordinary dwellings, and other structures is to be avoided; and whenever, as, for example, after a disastrous earthquake or a fire, reconstruction is required, new methods are adopted, and the loss of life and property is being steadily reduced. The application of seismometry to measuring the irregular movements of locomotives has resulted in new forms of balancing the engines, with, among other incidents, a marked saving of fuel. By the use of seismographs along the coast of Japan submerged areas of seismic activity have been mapped through which it would be dangerous to lay a cable. Instruments which record the unfelt movements of the earth's crust sometimes tell us that cable interruption is due to earthquake action