ed to some experiments on the amount of expansion and contraction in
different kinds of building stones. It was found that in fine-grained
granite the rate of expansion was .000004825 for every degree Fah., of
increment of heat; in white crystalline marble it was .000005668; and
in red sandstone .000009532, or about twice as much as in granite. In
Western America, where the climate is remarkably dry and clear, the
thermometer often gives a range of more than 80 deg. in twenty-four
hours. This great difference of temperature produces a strain so
great that it causes rocks to crack or peel off in skins or irregular
pieces, or in some cases, it disintegrates them into sand. Dr.
Livingstone found in Africa (12 deg. S. lat., 34 deg. E. long.) that
surfaces of rock which during the day were heated up to 137 deg.
Fah. cooled so rapidly by radiation at night that unable to stand
the strain of contraction, they split and threw off sharp angular
fragments from a few ounces to 100 lbs. or 200 lbs. in weight.
According to data obtained from Adie "Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.," xiii.,
p. 366, and Totten the expansion of ordinary rocks ranges from about
2.47 to 9.63 millionths for 1 deg. Fah.

BLUNDERS AND ABSURDITIES IN ART.

In looking over some collections of old pictures, it is surprising what
extraordinary [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads
'anachornisms'] anachronisms, blunders, and absurdities are often
discoverable.

In the gallery of the convent of Jesuits at Lisbon, there is a picture
representing Adam in paradise, dressed in blue breeches with silver
buckles, and Eve with a striped petticoat. In the distance appears a
procession of Capuchin monks bearing the cross.

In a country church in Holland there is a painting representing the
sacrifice of Isaac, in which the painter has depicted Abraham with a
blunderbus in his hand, ready to shoot his son. A similar edifice in
Spain has a picture of the same incident, in which the patriarch is
armed with a pistol.

At Windsor there is a painting by Antonio Verrio, in which the artist
has introduced the portraits of himself, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and May,
the surveyor of the works of that period, all in long periwigs, as
spectators of Christ healing the sick.

A painter of Toledo, having to represent the three wise men of the
East coming to worship on the nativity of Christ, depicted three
Arabian or Indian kings, two of them white and one black, and all
of them in the