preparing for a voyage from that river
along the shore of the Arctic sea to Behrings straits. It may be that
the navigation of the Arctic sea, which is impossible away from land,
can be accomplished in its neighborhood. The return journey will be
made by way of China, India, and the Suez canal, the whole forming the
most remarkable voyage ever undertaken by one ship.

* * * * *

BRADFORD, Pennsylvania, is lighted with gas from a well situated about
two miles from town.

IN the United States heavy rains are less frequent between 4:35 P.M.
and 11 P.M than at any other part of the day. The greatest number are
between 7:35 A.M. and 4:35 P.M.

IN the Alps the snow line is 8,900 feet high on the northern side and
9,200 feet on the southern. In the Himalayas it is 16,600 feet on the
northern side and 16,200 feet on the southern.

THE eminent physicist, Prof. J. C. Poggendorff, for many years
professor in the Berlin university, and editor of "Poggendorff's
Annalen," has died in Berlin, in his eighty-first year.

THE magnitude of the prizes which may be drawn by exploring
antiquarians in Europe is shown by the recent finding near Verona,
Italy, of two large amphorae containing 50,000 coins of the Emperor
Gallienus and his immediate successors. The majority of them are of
bronze, but there are some of silver. Nearly all of them are in the
finest state of preservation, and are so fresh from the mint as to make
it evident that they were never put into circulation.

PROF. LOOMIS says that in this country great rainfalls do not generally
continue over eight hours, and very rarely do they continue for
twenty-four hours, either at one place or a number of places considered
successively.

ACCORDING to the Washington "Gazette," the paint makers are grinding up
Egyptian mummies for the fine brown color which they make when
powdered. This color is due to the asphaltum with which the cloths
wrapped around the mummies was impregnated.

THE Washington monument is probably doomed. In its present condition it
is a grievous eyesore in the Washington landscape, and a board of army
engineers now say that its foundations are not strong enough to permit
raising the shaft higher, and it is proposed to take it down.

MR. H. BYASSON has produced a kind of petroleum by the mutual action of
steam, carbonic acid, and sulphuretted hydrogen in presence of iron at
a white heat. All these su