Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889. Barkham Burroughs

from the sun in aphelion than in perihelion. As we attempt to locate the heavenly bodies in space, we are immediately startled by the enormous figures employed. The first number, 91,500,000 miles, is far beyond our grasp. Let us try to comprehend it. If there were air to convey a sound from the sun to the earth, and a noise could be made loud enough to pass that distance it would require over fourteen years for it to come to us. Suppose a railroad could be built to the sun. An express train traveling day and night at the rate of thirty miles an hour, would require 341 years to reach its destination. Ten generations would be born and would die; the young men would become gray haired, and their great-grandchildren would forget the story of the beginning of that wonderful journey, and could find it only in history, as we now read of Queen Elizabeth or of Shakespeare; the eleventh generation would see the solar depot at the end of the route. Yet this enormous distance of 91,500,000 miles is used as the unit for expressing celestial distances—as the foot-rule for measuring space; and astronomers speak of so many times the sun's distance as we speak of so many feet or inches.

      SIGNS OF STORMS APPROACHING.—A ring around the sun or moon stands for an approaching storm, its near or distant approach being indicated by its larger or smaller circumference. When the sun rises brightly and immediately afterward becomes veiled with clouds, the farmer distrusts the day. Rains which begin early in the morning often stop by nine in place of "eleven," the hour specified in the old saw, "If it rains before seven."

      On a still, quiet day, with scarcely the least wind afloat, the ranchman or farmer can tell the direction of impending storm by cattle sniffing the air in the direction whence it is coming. Lack of dew in summer is a rain sign. Sharp white frosts in autumn and winter precede damp weather, and we will stake our reputation as a prophet that three successive white frosts are an infallible sign of rain. Spiders do not spin their webs out of doors before rain. Previous to rain flies sting sharper, bees remain in their hives or fly but short distances, and almost all animals appear uneasy.

HOW TO DISTINGUISH GOOD MEAT FROM BAD MEAT.

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      1st. It is neither of a pale pink color nor of a deep purple tint, for the former is a sign of disease, and the latter indicates that the animal has not been slaughtered, but has died with the blood in it, or has suffered from acute fever.

      2d. It has a marked appearance from the ramifications of little veins of fat among the muscles.

      3d. It should be firm and elastic to the touch and should scarcely moisten the fingers—bad meat being wet and sodden and flabby with the fat looking like jelly or wet parchment.

      4th. It should have little or no odor, and the odor should not be disagreeable, for diseased meat has a sickly cadaverous smell, and sometimes a smell of physic. This is very discoverable when the meat is chopped up and drenched with warm water.

      5th. It should not shrink or waste much in cooking.

      6th. It should not run to water or become very wet on standing for a day or two, but should, on the contrary, dry upon the surface.

      7th. When dried at a temperature of 212 deg., or thereabouts, it should not lose more than from 70 to 74 per cent. of its weight, whereas bad meat will often lose as much as 80 per cent. The juice of the flesh is alkaline or neutral to test paper.

RAILROADS IN FINLAND.

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      People who think of Finland as a sub-arctic country of bleak and forbidding aspect maybe surprised to hear that several railroads have already made a large part of the region accessible. A new line, 160 miles long, has just been opened to the heart of the country in the midst of great forests and perhaps the most wonderful lake region in the world. Sportsmen are now within less than a day's journey from St. Petersburg of central Finland, where there is the best of hunting and fishing and twenty hours of sunlight every summer day. The most unique of railroads, however, is still the little line in Norway, north of the arctic circle, carrying the product of far northern mines to the sea, and famous as the only railroad that has yet invaded the polar regions.

COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE ARK AND THE GREAT EASTERN.

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      The following comparison between the size of Noah's ark and the Great Eastern, both being considered in point of tonnage, after the old law for calculating the tonnage of a vessel, exhibits a remarkable similarity. The cubit of the Bible, according to Sir Isaac Newton, is 20–½ inches, or, to be exact, 20.625 inches. Bishop Wilkins makes the cubit 20.88 inches. According to Newton the dimensions of the ark were: Length between perpendiculars, 515.62 feet; breadth, 84.94 feet; depth, 51.56 feet; keel, or length for tonnage, 464.08 feet. Tonnage, according to old law, 18,231 58–94. The measurements of the ark, according to Wilkins' calculations were: Length, 54700 feet; breadth, 91.16 feet; depth, 54.70 feet; keel, 492.31 feet. Tonnage, 21,761. Notice how surprisingly near the Great Eastern came to being constructed after the same plan: Length, 680 feet; breadth, 83 feet; depth, 60 feet; keel, 630 feet. Tonnage, 23,092.

FINGER NAILS AS AN INDICATION OF CHARACTER.

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      A white mark on the nail bespeaks misfortune.

      Pale or lead-colored nails indicate melancholy people.

      Broad nails indicate a gentle, timid, and bashful nature.

      Lovers of knowledge and liberal sentiments have round nails.

      People with narrow nails are ambitious and quarrelsome.

      Small nails indicate littleness of mind, obstinacy and conceit.

      Choleric, martial men, delighting in war, have red and spotted nails.

      Nails growing into the flesh at the points or sides indicate luxurious tastes.

      People with very pale nails are subject to much infirmity of the flesh and persecution by neighbors and friends.

DANGERS OF CELLULOID.

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      A curious accident, which happened recently in Paris, points out a possible danger in the wearing of combs and bracelets of celluloid. A little girl sat down before the fire to prepare her lessons. Her hair was kept back by a semi-circle comb of celluloid. As her head was bent forward to the fire this became warm, and suddenly burst into flames. The child's hair was partly burned off, and the skin of the head was so injured that several months after, though the burn was healed, the cicatrix formed a white patch on which no hair would grow. The burning point of celluloid is about 180 degrees, and the comb worn by the girl had attained that heat as it was held before the fire.

ODD FACTS ABOUT SHOES.

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      Grecian shoes were peculiar in reaching to the middle of the legs.

      The present fashion of shoes was introduced into England in 1633.

      In the ninth and tenth centuries the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes.

      Slippers were in use before Shakespeare's time, and were originally made "rights" and "lefts."

      Shoes among the Jews