per hour were obtained,
is worked by the bargee on board his boat. The towing path is not
worn, and there is no occasion for a tow rope, which always causes
difficulty when two boats cross one another. M. Maillet and M.
Dufourny, Belgian Ingenieurs des Ponts et Chaussees, who watched the
trials, conclude that a practical solution of the question depends
upon the cost of producing the motive power; but they also consider
that horse haulage on canals will soon be superseded by mechanical
traction, based on the use of an automotive tricycle, working with
petroleum or some other hydrocarbon, and capable of running on the tow
path without requiring any fixed plant.

IT HAS long been known that feathers and hair are electrical bodies,
but until recently we have had little information about their
electrical properties or the conditions in which these properties are
manifested. Most of these phenomena were first observed by Exner, and
in the work of Dr. Schwarze are found collected a mass of facts that
cannot fail to interest the physician and the biologist; besides, we
find there a description of Exner's apparatus which was used by
Schwarze in most of his experiments on electrical phenomena of this
kind. By the side of gold leaf electroscopes we see a feather
electroscope, which is fastened to its support by means of a silken
thread. A feather waved through the air is positively electrified,
while the air itself seems to be charged with negative electricity....
Two feathers rubbed together in the natural position are so
electrified that their lower surface is negative and the upper
positive.... These experiments and others still have been utilized to
study the vital relations of animals and the biological signification
of these phenomena. Most feathers stick together and remain so even
after being dried; if they then are waved through the air, the barbs
of the feather separate, owing to differences of electrification. No
bird needs to attend to its plumage at the end of a long flight, for
while the large feathers are positively electrified by friction
against the air, the white down has become negative, and so there is
attraction between it and the feathers. Another consequence of this
production of electricity during flight is that during winds, even the
most violent, the plumage does not become ruffled, but rests tightly
against the bird's body, for in this case the wing feathers, which
overlap, rub against each other and