Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/401

Rh and possess the extreme characteristics of those of the deer. They are hollow except near the roots and extreme points, and are filled with a sort of light pith, like that found in the quill of the turkey. The hairs are non-elastic and fragile, in this respect resembling more those of the caribou than of any other quadruped. The entire absence of the hind or accessory hoof distinguishes the prong-buck from both the deer and the antelope. A very important feature of the prong-buck is its glandular system, from which is emitted a rather pungent odor.

The eye of the prong-buck is exceptionally large—much larger than that of the deer, the ox, or the horse. The entire exposed part of the orb is intensely black, with a mild and gentle expression. The animal is the swiftest-footed of all known quadrupeds, but it cannot continue the race at high speed for a great length of time, although for a few miles or a few minutes its career seems like the flight of a bird. While it can make astonishing horizontal leaps, even from a standing position, it cannot or will not make high vertical leaps. The author thinks that it could not under any circumstances be driven over an obstruction a yard in height. The most interesting of all its characteristics is its horns. These appendages are given to both male and female, but in the latter they are scarcely more than rudimentary till they are fully adult, and even then the horns are quite insignificant. In both sexes the horn is hollow, like that of the goat and the ox, and it is deciduous, like the antlers of the deer. Altogether this is a most interesting animal, occupying an intermediate place between ruminants with hollow and persistent horns, and those with solid and persistent ones. In skin and coat it is like the deer. Its eye is most like that of some of the antelopes. Its glandular system is most like that of the goat. In salaciousness it even excels the goat.

Process for Condensing Beer.—The process for condensing beer was recently explained by Dr. Bartlett, in a paper read before the London Society of Arts. Essentially it is the same as the process for condensing milk; the only difference between the two consists in the provision made, in beer-condensing, to save the alcohol. The apparatus employed consists of a copper vacuum-pan, with which is connected a condensing-worm. Two copper globes are attached for collecting the alcohol. A certain quantity of beer being pumped into the pan, a vacuum of twenty-five or twenty-six inches pressure is maintained, and a temperature of 130°−160° Fahr. during the first stage of the process. In a short space of time all of the alcohol flows into the lower globe, the connection between which and the upper is then closed. Thus the alcohol is collected without breaking the vacuum. This alcohol contains all the delicate flavors of the beer. The alcohol having been removed, the removal of water goes on till the beer is reduced to a semifluid state. In this way thirty-six gallons of beer is concentrated into a bulk of little over two gallons, and besides there is a little over two gallons of proof-alcohol.

When the condensed extract is taken from the vacuum pan and cooled, the alcohol is mixed with it. All the aromas and volatile matters that went over with the alcohol are thus returned to the extract. Every valuable constituent of the original beer is there present, minus only nine-tenths of the water. When it is desired to remake the beer, all that is required is to empty one of the tin cans of condensed beer, and make it up to the thirty-six gallons by the addition of water. The product is "flat," but carbonic-acid gas can be reproduced in it to any extent that may be desired by the addition of a little yeast or uncondensed beer. The total expense of condensing beer does not exceed the sum of fifty cents per barrel, and that of remaking about twice that sum.

Damming of Streams by Drift-Ice.—In the American Journal of Science and Art for March, Prof. J. D. Dana remarks upon certain phenomena attending the spring overflows of Connecticut rivers, and in these finds reasons for believing that, during the breaking up of the long glacial winter, the gaps, gorges, or narrows, along the river-courses, would have been liable to obstruction by floating ice. Such obstruction, he says, would have been of all grades, from that which could simply impede the free flow of the waters, to the nearly perfect dam. In particular cases the obstructions