property of
spontaneously igniting if left in a warm place. It is,
therefore, customary to mix the material a sackful at a time
in order to reduce the risks of an explosion.

SOME ECCENTRICITIES OF LIGHTNING BOLTS.

TARGETS OF HEAVEN'S ARTILLERY.

Belief That the Electric Fluid Never
Strikes Twice in the Same Place Is
Shown to Be Wrong.

Among the duties assigned to the students of the Agricultural College at
Guelph, Ontario, is that of gathering statistics concerning loss and
damage from lightning in the province. The results thus obtained seem to
show the value of lightning-rods, if properly adjusted, and the
desirability of having trees standing near buildings. Summarizing the last
annual report from the college, the _Free Press_, of London, Ontario,
gives out the following novel facts:

As to the question does lightning strike twice in the same
place, the report says that there may be warrant for the
idea in the fact that where lightning ever strikes there is
very little left to be struck a second time; but where a
barn has once been struck and another barn has been erected
on the same site, that second barn is just as likely to be
struck as the first, and, in some instances, more likely.

The statistics compiled by the college show that in the five
years since 1901 ninety-four trees were struck by lightning,
as follows: Elm, 28; pine, 17; oak, 9; basswood, 7; maple,
7; ash, 4; poplar, 4; cedar, 3; apple, 3; hemlock, 2;
willow, 2; spruce, beech, chestnut, balsam, hickory,
butternut, and fir, 1 each.

The number of cattle killed in the same period was 114;
sheep, 64; horses, 46; pigs, 4. Total, 228.

Barns struck, 179; other buildings, 66.

LIVING LANGUAGES ARE STILL A BABEL.

MODERN CONFUSION OF TONGUES.

Linguists Attempt an Impossible Task if
They Try to Master the Hundreds of
Languages Still Spoken.

Language is, of course, a wonderful telegraph system between minds; but
what a multiplicity of codes! The living languages to-day number eight
hundred and sixty, to say nothing of five thousand dialects. This is a
Babel indeed.

Europe has eighty-nine languages; Asia, one hundred and twenty-three;
Africa, one hundred and fourteen; America, one hundred and seventeen; and
the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans have four hundred and
seventeen.

Probably the most remarkable linguist the world has ev