Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 692

CHAPTER IV. – IN DESOLATION UNREPINING

That evening Juliet was tired, and sat quietly working; but Dorothy read aloud and talked and went through the little home duties with the iron entering her soul. O true words! None others so fitly express the cold hard pressure of a hopeless pain. But such brave hearts do not go through the conflict unaided; and often a passing shelter is provided, into which they may creep till the worst is over.

The next day Dorothy's limbs ached, and her throat pained her. 'She must have taken a chill last evening,' Juliet said; and for several days she kept her room, waited on by loving hands. Even a mother's eyes cannot always discern how much is ailment of the body and how much of the mind. But Dorothy was almost thankful for the pain that laid her quietly by, when nothing was expected of her; the trial could be faced, the burden adjusted for every-day bearing, and she was spared even the sight of Stafford. She heard the horses' feet beneath her window when they came to take leave, and received their kindly messages. To Juliet she never again spoke of that autumn afternoon. Perhaps Gilbert guessed his friend's secret, and generously forbore to wound him further by the sight of his own success; or perhaps he read his fate so surely in Juliet's eyes that he felt secure in waiting. Certainly it was not until some months after, when Stafford was away in foreign lands, that he came to ask her to be his wife. It was not a long engagement. There being no obstacles, they were soon married, and he took her away to his London home. They sorely missed the bright young girl at the Rectory, and father and mother drew more closely to the one daughter left. Dorothy had passed into the bloom of womanhood before the blow came that broke the little circle; the kindly Rector was laid in the village churchyard, and then Mrs Linley and her daughter removed into the neighbouring town.

As if to compensate for some things denied to Dorothy's lot in life, Fortune's gifts were cast into her lap. The same cousin who years before had bestowed the family living, dying childless, again benefited his far-away relatives; and when the dear old Squire was gathered to his fathers, he had not forgotten the children of his old friend. Thus spared the thorn of poverty herself, Dorothy lightened it to many another; and as time rolled on, was numbered in the ranks of those dear maiden ladies (what should we do without them?) in whose lives are hid many an unwritten story, and who make the sweetest aunties and such dear old friends.

And did Dorothy lose all sight of Stafford Melton? No; bear witness, years of kindly intercourse and loyal friendship. It has been said that the hopes of the past are the best seed-bed of the future – even crushed and broken ones bear their fruit.

When at length he became master of Melton Hall, and brought home his young bride, to whom should she, strong and proud in her husband's love, turn so warmly as to his old friends Dorothy and her mother; and when gentle Mrs Linley was laid beside her husband, the young mistress at the Hall grieved for her almost like a daughter.

Dorothy Linley and Stafford Melton lived, in their respective walks down the pathway of life, to see the ripening century roll its wealth of marvels at the feet of another generation, and rejoiced in the development of many of the theories of their youth; yet sometimes, as they looked on the old spots, they spoke of years gone by, for they were such old friends.

RABBITS IN NEW ZEALAND

We already have had some remarks on the disastrous increase of rabbits in South Australia; and now comes to us information from New Zealand, that describes the alarming spread of the creatures in that colony, into which they had been imprudently introduced about twenty years ago, under a fancied notion of doing good.

It appears, says our authority, that it is about twelve years since the rabbits began to attract attention by their numbers and the increasing extent of their ravages in the district of Southland. In the immediate neighbourhood of Invercargill, a tract of grass-land was first found to be colonised by a large number of these rodents; and settlers in more remote parts of the country came from time to time to trap a few of the animals, and carry them away to various localities in the interior. By this means new centres of reproduction were created; and with the idea of conferring a benefit upon their neighbourhood the colonists were unwittingly spreading and multiplying what has now proved a uniform pest. The rabbits themselves gradually moved onwards, in ever-increasing numbers, leaving what was once a country of rolling sward and valuable grass-land a complete desert. During the last two years the greatest impulse seems to have been given to their migration, and they may now be found in suitable localities swarming on the banks of rivers, in the sunny grassy uplands, and surmounting the highest ranges of hills.

It has been calculated that, from the number of times they breed, the number of their progeny, and the early age at which the young begin to reproduce their species, a pair of rabbits will multiply to the amount of a million and a quarter in the space of four years! When the exceptional advantages which they meet with in New Zealand are considered, in the absence of enemies, the sparse population of the country, and the abundance of food which they can obtain, it is not surprising that they have increased enormously.

The matter indeed is becoming one of very great danger to the welfare of the colony; so much so, that a special Commission has been appointed by the government to inquire into the subject. Without quoting an array of figures to prove the harm which has been wrought in a few short years, it may truly be said that large tracts of rich pasture-land have been converted into a veritable wilderness. The sheep-farmers and cattle-raisers find their occupation is becoming impossible. The yield of wool is falling off fifty and sixty per cent. in quantity, while its quality is deteriorating. The lack of food has caused many farmers who used to kill two thousand five hundred animals out of a stock of sixteen thousand, to reduce their stock to a few hundreds, hardly any of which are fit to be killed. The number of lambs in proportion to the ewes kept has fallen from sixty-five or seventy per cent. to in some cases twelve and a half per cent.

It must not be imagined that no efforts have been made to keep down the pests. Large numbers of men and dogs are employed specially for the purpose of shooting and trapping the rabbits. In one run, where scarcely a rabbit was to be seen three years ago, there are now sixteen men and one hundred and twenty dogs employed; costing the lessee twopence for each rabbit-skin brought in, and ten shillings per week for each man, besides the expense of keep and powder and shot. And the numbers killed are enormous. On this run, says the official Report, the average number of rabbits killed weekly is between four and five thousand; and though thirty-six thousand were killed in 1875, yet the report is that there is no appreciable decrease. On another run, close on sixteen thousand rabbits were killed during the first three months of the year 1876 at a cost of twopence a skin. On a third, the expense each week averages twenty-seven pounds; and fifty thousand rabbits were killed in the first four months of 1876. On a fourth run, nine men are employed with sixty dogs, killing at the rate of two thousand per week.

One landowner, in despair of reclaiming a large tract of land infested by these destructive rodents, inclosed an area of ten thousand acres with a solid masonry wall, the foundations of which were dug down to the hard rock, to prevent any chance of the rabbits burrowing under it. Seven years were occupied in erecting this 'great wall' – an undertaking comparable with the ancient walls built in the north of England to keep out the Picts and Scots – and thirty-five thousand pounds were expended in the course of the work. What a happy family the countless myriads of rabbits in that area must be, if they have not already starved themselves to death! This heroic remedy was adopted not only in New Zealand but in Victoria; for others of our Australasian colonies besides New Zealand have (as we have already shewn in the former article) suffered from a scourge of conies. Tasmania and Victoria and South Australia have been made the victims of a misplaced confidence in the virtues of the rabbit. The chief inspector of sheep in Tasmania, writing in 1875, stated that at that time the rabbits were consuming sufficient food to support two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, and thus causing a direct annual loss to the colony of sixty-two thousand pounds, without taking into account the money expended in keeping them down. In all these colonies special laws have been made for the purpose of dealing with these troublesome inhabitants. The main feature of the system adopted is that trustees are appointed, who have power to levy a rate on the lands in 'proclaimed districts,' the proceeds of which are expended in a specially organised campaign against the rabbits; and generally good results have followed these operations. There are runs in Tasmania on which a good shot could bag three to four hundred bunnies in a day six years ago, but where half-a-dozen could not now be seen in the same time.

Some enterprising individuals have put into practice the old motto that 'Out of evil cometh good,' by buying up the slaughtered hosts of rabbits, cooking their bodies, and preserving them in tins as an article of food, and preparing their skins for the market. Nearly half a million rabbit-skins were exported from Hobart-Town in 1874, valued at three thousand seven hundred and twenty-five pounds.

What has been done in Australia and Tasmania ought primâ facie to be as easily accomplished in New Zealand. So urgent, however, are the representations of the farmers – and so great the fear of the government, which derives a large revenue from the rents paid for land, that this source of income will fail, as the land threatens soon to become worthless – that it is proposed to supplement such measures by a state grant in aid of the war against the invaders, and by the introduction of natural enemies, such as stoats, weasels, ferrets, and hawks; and means have already been taken to send a few of our surplus stock of these invaluable animals from England. If ordinary measures of this kind are not sufficient to keep in check the inordinate increase of an animal which will reproduce itself a million and a quarter times in the space of four years, extraordinary means must be adopted.

THE MONTH:

SCIENCE AND ARTS

'On the Transport of Solid and Liquid Particles in Sewer Gases,' is the title of a short paper by Dr Frankland, read at a meeting of the Royal Society. That particles of many kinds are constantly floating in the atmosphere, even at great heights, is well known. At times noxious or deadly particles are diffused among the mass, and disease and death are the consequence. Dr Frankland has proved by experiment that noxious particles can be conveyed long distances, and he sums up his conclusions thus: '1. The moderate agitation of a liquid does not cause the suspension of liquid particles capable of transport by the circumambient air, and therefore the flow of fresh sewage through a properly constructed sewer is not likely to be attended by the suspension of zymotic matters in the air of the sewer. 2. The breaking of minute gas bubbles on the surface of a liquid is a potent cause of the suspension of transportable liquid particles in the surrounding air; and therefore when, through the stagnation of sewage, putrefaction sets in, and causes the generation of gases, the suspension of zymotic matters in the air of the sewer is extremely likely to occur. 3. It is therefore of the greatest importance to the health of towns, villages, and even isolated houses, that foul liquids should pass freely and quickly through sewers and drain-pipes, so as to complete their discharge from the sewerage system before putrefaction sets in.'

The Birmingham Corporation sewage-works comprise a farm of two hundred and sixty-six acres in the valley of the Tame. The outflow of the two main sewers is treated with lime, which throws down the solid matters; and after the sewage has crossed a few tanks, the liquid portion flows into the Tame in a condition much less impure than the water of the river itself. The deposited sludge amounts to nearly four hundred tons a day. Great part of this is utilised by 'double-digging' of it into the land, three years being required to dig the whole farm. Another part is converted into Roman cement by General Scott's process.

The results appear to be satisfactory, for we are informed that 'the rye-grass grown on the farm averages from thirteen to fourteen tons an acre at each cutting, and several cuttings are obtained each year. After each cutting the land is immediately irrigated thoroughly with sewage, and in about three weeks the next crop is generally ready for cutting.'

At Manchester the Health Committee collect the excrementitious matters and other house-refuse in properly constructed vans, which are cleansed after each journey to the yard in the outskirts. There the whole mass is sorted; and what that sorting involves may be judged of from the fact that the quantity collected each week amounts to about three thousand tons, comprising 'paper, one ton; rags, three tons; dead dogs, cats, rats, guinea-pigs, and other animals, two tons; stable manure, seventeen tons; meat tins and old tin and iron, thirty-three tons; refuse from slaughter-houses and fish-shops, sixty tons; broken pots, bottles, and glasses, eighty tons; vegetable refuse, door-mats, table-covers, floor-cloths, and old straw mattresses, one hundred tons; fine ashes, one thousand two hundred and thirty tons; cinders, one thousand four hundred tons.'

In a communication to the Scientific and Mechanical Society of Manchester, from the Proceedings of which these particulars are taken, it is further stated that 'not only is patent manure produced, but disinfecting powder, mortar, fuel, and other useful commodities, all from the vilest refuse; and another matter for wonder is that all this abominable stuff is worked up with so little offensive smell arising from it. In addition to these works, there are workshops in which the Corporation make their own vans, pails, harness, and other requisite appliances for dealing with the new system of treating town-refuse.' No coal is bought: the cinders brought in furnish fuel enough for all the furnaces and heating apparatus, and for the 'destructors,' in which the absolute refuse which was formerly piled in huge heaps in different parts of the city, is burnt into harmlessness, while the heat is communicated to a neighbouring 'concretor.' 'The spent fuel,' we are told, 'is carted to the mills, and is there converted into mortar, a mortar too of the best description, as the samples of brickwork built with it abundantly testify.' Some of the most offensive refuse is passed through the 'carbonisers,' and 'is resolved into a perfectly harmless material.' From all this we learn that the art of keeping a town thoroughly clean may be made to occupy a high place among the useful arts.

The manufacture of iodine by distillation of seaweed, established a few years ago in the isle of Tyree and other parts of the West Highlands, still goes on, and as is stated, with tenfold increase. The selling price, which used to be 1s. 3d. per ounce, is now not more than 5¾d.

In America it has been discovered that the canker-worm, which infests fruit-trees to a mischievous extent, can be effectually checked and destroyed by smearing the stem and branches with printers' ink. It is interesting to know that there are two ways in which printers' ink can be made use of for the suppression of pests. And in France experience has proved that the Phylloxera can be destroyed by planting red maize between the rows of vines. The insects quit the vines and attack the maize-roots.

Meteorologists are well aware of the fact, that as a rule the barometer rises and falls twice within the twenty-four hours. Wherever observations are made, this movement is seen; and attempts have been made to refer it to the influence of tides in the air. But what causes the aërial tides? Some observers say magnetism, others say heat and differences of temperature. Mr Blanford, meteorological reporter to the government of India, has studied the subject; and in a communication to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he remarks: 'It appears in a high degree probable that a great part of the diurnal irregularity of the barometric tides is due to the transfer of air from land to sea, and vice versâ, and to a similar transfer which may be proved to take place between the plains and the mountains. But the phenomenon is very complex, and much study and labour are yet required to unravel its elements, consisting as they do partly of elastic and reactionary pressure, partly of dynamic pressure, and partly of variations in the static pressure of the atmosphere. Till this shall have been done, and it shall be found, after all, that heat and its effects are insufficient to explain the phenomenon, it seems premature to resort to magnetic and electrical phenomena for the explanation of the barometric tides.'

Amateur meteorologists would do well to remember that the trustworthiness of the anemometer as a measurer of the force of the wind is seriously affected by the presence of trees; even a single tree will exert a disturbing influence. For wind-observations, the more open the space the better. We hear that the Meteorological Office is about to place at a high elevation an anemometer which will indicate its work to the observer below by telegraph. In the study of the weather, it would often be of advantage to know the rate and force of the wind on the top of St Paul's or Ben Lomond.

It had been noticed that ozone was developed by the spray of water when under pressure; Signor Bellucci was thereby induced to make observations at the Falls of Terni 'to ascertain if ozone was produced by the natural pulverisation of the water, especially as he had often noticed there the characteristic odour of ozone.' The tests employed completely demonstrated the presence of ozone, and that the quantity varied with the volume of water rushing over the Falls. From this result Signor Bellucci concludes that wherever water is converted into powder or spray, whether by a cascade, a torrent, or by the rolling of waves, there ozone is produced. 'It is noteworthy that the air over the surface of the ocean is richer in ozone than that collected on land. Hence the production of ozone may be due to the electrical state induced by the friction of the minute drops of water against one another, which is increased by the mineral matter suspended or even dissolved in the water.'

Land flooded by the sea generally remains barren many years. The Journal of the Chemical Society gives a German chemist's explanation of the reason why. The land is charged with too large a proportion of chlorine salts; it has a tendency to remain damp; and there is a formation of ferrous sulphate, which, as is known, exerts a very prejudicial influence on plant-growth. Land when brought into this condition by an inflow of the sea, should be drained as quickly as possible, and sown with grass or clover and allowed to rest. Experience shews that it recovers its fertility sooner if treated in this way, than when cultivated all the year round as arable land.

In the course of a lecture on the Motion of Waves in Air and Water, by Professor Guthrie, a light, hollow india-rubber ball was floated on water, and a vibrating tuning-fork was held near it. The ball moved towards and followed the fork. Why? Some people might say that the fork attracted the ball; but the lecturer decided that attraction had nothing to do with it. Each oscillation of a wave is followed by a reflection: in this case, the reflection pushed the farther side of the ball; from which the conclusion was drawn 'that there is no such thing as attraction – that the apparent pull will be found to be a push from the opposite direction. The approach,' said Professor Guthrie, 'need not necessarily be called attraction, and it is better in all cases to substitute the word approach, which is a fact, for attraction, which is a theory.'

Mr Siemens' paper on the Bathometer, which we noticed some months ago, is now published in the Philosophical Transactions. Objections have been made to the instrument as an indicator of the depth of the sea, because the sea-level is disturbed by the attraction of large masses of land. Mr Siemens answers that he is aware of the objection; that the bathometer is not expected to do more than indicate comparatively small variations in total terrestrial attraction, which the hydrographer or navigator using the instrument will have to interpret according to the circumstances of the case. If the zero-point of the instrument varies with the latitude, or in consequence of special geological causes, we must bear in mind that these causes are of a permanent character, and that when an ocean has been once surveyed by means of the bathometer, the special local conditions become observed facts, and would thus serve to increase the value of the bathometer as an instrument for measuring the depth of the sea without the use of the sounding-line.

At a meeting held at Salem, Massachusetts, a lecture on 'Visible Speech' was delivered by Professor Graham Bell, who, by means of the drum in a human ear cut from a dead subject, has succeeded in producing a phonautograph. The ear is placed in the end of an ordinary speaking-trumpet; on speaking into the trumpet the drum is set in motion; this moves the style; the style traces the effect on a plate of smoked glass; and by means of a camera the curves and lines can be exhibited to a large number of spectators. The five vowels make five different curves; and according to Mr Bell, there is no such thing as a sound or tone pure and simple, but each is a composite of a number of tones; and the wavelets by which these are produced can also be shewn on a screen. Tables of the various symbols have been drawn up, and found useful for educational purposes, as was demonstrated by a young deaf and dumb pupil from the Boston Institution, who interpreted the symbols at sight.

Professor Bell has improved the method devised by his father, formerly of University College, London, for rendering speech visible; and as is well known, membranes have long been used for experiments in acoustics. Some of our readers may remember the experiments of Mr W. H. Barlow, F.R.S., described in his paper 'On the Pneumatic Action which accompanies the Articulation of the Human Voice,' read two years ago at the Royal Society, and published in vol. 22 of their Proceedings. And within the past few weeks we learn that the telephone has been so far improved that an account of a public meeting was talked into one end of a wire and was distinctly heard and understood at a distance of eighteen miles.

There is good news for eaters of fish, for the government of Newfoundland have recently ascertained from the survey made by Professor Hind, under their authority, that the fishing-grounds off the coast of Labrador cover an area of more than seven thousand geographical square miles; about a thousand more than the Newfoundland fisheries. And there is good prospect of duration, for the Arctic drift brings down infinite quantities of the infusorial animals on which the cod-fish delight to feed. Owing to the higher latitude, the fishing season varies from that of Newfoundland; and it is found that the cod approach the shore one week later for every degree of latitude, going northwards. The coast of Labrador is described as similar to that of Norway, bare and rocky, and cut by fiords, some of which penetrate seventy miles inland. A summer cruise along that coast would be an interesting adventure for some of our yachtsmen.

The Smithsonian Institution at Washington does not confine itself exclusively to science, but makes itself useful in other ways. One of these ways is fish-culture; and we find from a recent Report, that in three years 1873-75, the Institution distributed forty millions of fish. Among these, shad and two kinds of salmon were the most numerous. The distribution is carried on under the superintendence of Professor Baird, an American naturalist of high repute.

A recently published part of the Royal Asiatic Society's Journal contains a report of a meeting held some months ago in which Sir H. Rawlinson stated that from the further investigations that had taken place there was reason to believe 'that the Hittites were really the chief people intervening between Egypt and Assyria, and that to them we owe the intercommunication of the art of those two countries.'

At the same meeting, Professor Monier Williams, in giving an account of his visit to India, mentioned that while there he had heard the learned men speak Sanscrit with astonishing fluency; and that in his opinion the day is approaching when Sanscrit will be as much studied in England as Greek.

One of the English delegates who took part in the International Statistical Congress held last September at Buda-Pesth, remarks on the disadvantage under which the Hungarians lie in their isolation from other nations by their language. It is a serious obstacle to their development; and as antipathies of race prevent their adoption of German, he recommends that they should take to English. In this he says: 'There would be no race difficulties, and the use of English would aid the Hungarians in more ways than one, and secure for them a predominance on the Lower Danube.'

If the present enthusiasm for African travel should continue, Africa will, before many years are over, cease to be an unknown country. Travellers from Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, and Portugal, are either actually at work or about to commence their explorations, in addition to the Englishmen who are always pushing their way into the interior. And now that Colonel Gordon (Gordon Pasha) has been appointed by the Khedive of Egypt governor of Sudan, facilities for travel in the equatorial regions may be looked for, and Æthiopia will cease to be a mystery.

We are informed that the use of leather belts for transmission of power in factories is more widely spread in the manufacturing districts than is implied in our paragraph on that subject (), and that in the Anchor Thread Works at Paisley, where the belts were adopted four years ago, two thousand five hundred horse-power are transmitted by means thereof.

We take this opportunity of correcting an error in our recent article on Austrian Arctic Discovery. Lieutenant Payer's farthest point north ought to have been 82° 5′ instead of 85° 5′.

notes

1

Herring boats frequently ride out a gale at sea by being made fast by stout ropes to the nets, which answer the purpose of an anchor. In this position the boat is said to be 'hanging by' the net.