A planet is said to be in conjunction with another body when it has the same longitude, and is seen in the same direction in the heavens. It is obvious that in the case of the inferior planets this conjunction will be of two kinds: the one when the planet is between the Earth and the Sun, called inferior conjunction; and the other when at the opposite point of of its orbit, with the Sun between the planet and the Earth, called superior conjunction. The latter is the only kind of conjunction that can happen to the superior planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; the inferior planets, Mercury and Venus, being subject to both positions.

In many mountain ranges rent by the action of torrents, isolated cliffs have been left standing like monuments of former geological periods while the softer strata of gravel and loose rocks have been washed away, with the exception perhaps of a massive boulder resting, as it were, upon the roof of a tower-like crag. On the island of Mauritius that arrangement repeats itself on a marvelous scale in the mountain peak known as "Peter Botte" a monolith towering above the coast range to a height of more than 2,000 feet and supporting a rock so much broader than its pedestal that it gives the combination the appearance of an inverted pyramid or a gigantic toad-stool.

The stars which stud the firmament have, from a time earlier than authentic records can trace, been formed into artificial groups, which have received names borrowed from fancy or fable, mainly from Greek mythology. These groups are called constellations. Though quite devoid of anything like systematic arrangement, this traditional grouping is found a sufficiently convenient classification, and still remains the basis of nomenclature for the stars among astronomers. They are divided into northern, southern and zodiacal constellations. In old authors, "constellation" is used to signify the relative positions of the planets at a given moment.

It is only within a few years, one might almost say months, that the wide effect of the warm, moist Pacific winds, called chinooks, has been known in British Columbia and Alaska. These winds, corresponding exactly to those that make England a fertile country in the latitude of Labrador, keep the snow melted from the plains at the eastern base of the Rockies, and they encourage a magnificent growth of root crops, cabbage, oats and grass a thousand miles north of New York. Wheat does not do well and berries are small, though little attempt has been made to cultivate fruit. The winters are biting cold, but dry, and the summer, though short, is so hot that vegetation comes out of the earth with a rush.

Eureka! or rather Heureka! ("I have discovered it!") was the exclamation of Archimedes, the Syracusan philosopher, when he found out how to test the purity of Hiero's crown. The tale is that Hiero suspected that a craftsman to whom he had given a certain weight of gold to make into a crown had alloyed the metal, and he asked Archimedes to ascertain if his suspicion was well founded. The philosopher, getting into his bath, observed that the water ran over, and it flashed into his mind that his body displaced its own bulk of water. Now suppose Hiero gave the goldsmith one pound of gold, and the crown weighed one pound, it is manifest that if the crown was pure gold, both ought to displace the same quantity of water; but they did not do so, and therefore the gold had been tampered with. Archimedes next immersed in water one pound of silver, and the difference of water displaced soon gave the clue to the amount of alloy introduced by the artificer.

The phenomenon known as the blizzard is a fierce storm of bitter, frosty wind with blinding snow, in which, especially in the western States, man and beast often perish. The word seems to be akin to blast and bluster and is no doubt onomatopoetic in character. The most severe of record is the one that visited the Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas in January, 1888. Within twenty-four hours the thermometer fell from 74° above zero to 28° below zero in most places and in Dakota to 40° below. The roar of the wind drowned the voices of men six feet distant. Objects a few yards off became invisible. Some two hundred and thirty-five lives were lost. The Colorado river in Texas for the first time in the memory of man was covered with ice a foot thick.

Such fierce canivorous fishes as exist in the depths of the ocean are unknown at the surface. There is the "black swallower," which devours other finny creatures ten times as big as itself, literally climbing over its victim, first with one jaw and then with the other. Another species is nearly all mouth, and having no power of locomotion, it lives buried in the soft ooze at the bottom, its head alone protruding, ready to engulf any prey that may wander into its cavernous jaws. There is a ferocious kind of shark, resembling a huge eel. All of these monsters are black as ink. Some of them are perfectly blind, while others have enormous goggling eyes. No ray of sunlight ever pierces the dark unfathomed caves in which they dwell. Each species is gobbled by the species next bigger, for there is no vegetable life to feed on.

On metal rails a horse can draw:

One and two-thirds times as much as on asphalt pavement.

Three and one-third times as much as on good Belgian blocks.
Five times as much as on ordinary Belgian blocks.

Seven times as much as on good cobble-stone.

Thirteen times as much as on ordinary cobble-stone.
Twenty times as much as on an earth road.

Forty times as much as on sand.

A modern compilation of engineering maxims states that a horse can drag, as compared to what he can carry on his back, in the following proportions: On the worst earthen road, three times more; on a good macadamized road, nine; on plank, twenty-five; on a stone trackway; thirty-three; and on a good railway, fifty-four times as much.

Whirlwinds occurring on the sea and other sheets of water are called waterspouts. When fully formed they appear as tall pillars of cloud stretching from the sea to the sky, whirling round their axes, and exhibiting the progressive movement of the whole mass precisely as in the case of the dust-whirl-wind. The sea at the base of the

whirling vortices is thrown into violent commotion, resembling the surface of water in rapid ebullition. What are sometimes called "waterspouts on land" are quite distinct phenomena. They are merely heavy falls of rain of a very local character, and may or may not be accompanied with whirling winds. They generally occur during thunderstorms, being quite analogous to severe hailstorms, from which they differ only in point of temperature, the heavy drops being probably no more than melted hailstones. Also all the moisture that falls is the result of condensation; whereas, in the true waterspout, the rain is mixed with spray which has been caught up from the broken waves, carried aloft by the ascending currents of the whirlwind, and ultimately precipitated with the rain.

Hypnotism is a method for the alleged cure of disease, by the concentrated action of the mind upon the body while in a state of trance, induced by causing the patient to fix his eyes and concentrate his mind upon a disc of bright metal held at a distance of about twelve inches above the level of the eyes. The first effort to investigate hypnotism in a scientific manner was made by James Braid, of Manchester (1846) from which circumstance hypnotism is sometimes called Braidism. The power to hypnotize is possessed only by persons of peculiar mental organization. While in the hypnotized condition, which renders them insensible to pain, patients may be operated upon for surgical or medical purposes, the patient being entirely subject to the will of the hypnotizer. Hypnotism can, however, only be considered as of quasi medical utility, though investigation is being made with the view to placing it on a sound scientific basis.

The Copernican system is that which represents the sun to be at rest in the center of the universe, and the earth and planets to move round it as a center. It got its name from Copernicus, who (although some vague general notion of the system seem to be due to Pythagoras) first distinctly drew the attention of philosophers to it, and devoted his life to its demonstration. For the rest, the glory of developing on the lines he broadly laid down, belongs to Kepler, Galileo and others, and to Newton who finally marked out the form of modern theoretical astronomy. Many who reverence the name of Copernicus in connection with this system, would be surprised to find, on perusing his work, how much of error, unsound reasoning, and happy conjecture combined to secure for him in all times the association of the system with his name; yet, with all its faults, that work marks one of the greatest steps ever taken in science.

The system of philosophy known as positivism, taught by Auguste Comte (1799-1857), discarding the possibility of knowing the beginning and the end of anything, concerns itself only with what lies between. It accepts neither atheism, theism, nor pantheism. It may be divided into two parts: The historic conception and the co-ordination of the sciences. The former is this: That the human mind passes through three stages, viz., the theological, the metaphysical and the positive. In all subjects capable of experiment it passes from metaphysics to experimental verification or exact science. In regard to the co-ordination of the sciences the basis is mathematics; then follow astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and sociology. Take the last: The science of society is impossible without the science of life. The science of life is impossible without chemistry. Chemistry presupposes physics, physics astronomy, and astronomy mathematics.

If we look intently at a bright star we notice that the color and intensity of the light is constantly changing from brilliancy to almost total obscurity, and from bright red to blue, orange, yellow, etc. This is the phenomenon usually spoken of as the "twinkling" or scintillation of the stars. The "twinkling" will be noticed more plainly when the star is near the horizon, and will diminish in intensity as it rises until it is near the zenith, at which time the twinkling is scarcely noticeable. It must be confessed that this twinkling has never been explained to the satisfaction of all investigators. However, it is generally believed to be due to controlling causes within the earth's atmosphere. That the cause may be looked for within the belt of air that surrounds our planet (to particles of

vapor, dust, etc.) may be inferred from the fact that the planets never exhibit the characteristic twinkling so noticeable in the star. One reason for this is the size (apparent) of the planets. The planets each show a sensible disk even to the naked eye, while the strongest instrument in the world only shows the stars as being mere points of light. This being the case, any foreign substance in the atmosphere would momentarily hide the light and make the star appear to "twinkle."

Two synonymous terms in science are Equinoxes and Equinoctial Points. More commonly, by the equinoxes are meant the times when the sun enters those points-viz. 21st March and 22d September, the former being called the Vernal or Spring Equinox, and the latter the Autumnal. When in the equinoxes, the sun, through the earth's rotation on its axis, seems to describe the circle of the equator in the heavens, and the days and nights are of equal length all over the world. At the vernal equinox, the sun is passing from south to north, and in the northern hemisphere the days are lengthening; at the autumnal, he is passing from north to south, and the days are shortening. As the earth moves more rapidly when near the sun, or in winter, the sun's apparent motion is not uniform, and it happens that he takes eight days more to pass from the vernal to the autumnal equinox than from the latter to the former. The equinoctial points are not stationary.

Thought-reading, or mind-reading, is a term which came up in 1881 to designate the act or art of discerning what is passing in another's mind by some direct and unexplained method, depending neither on gesture, facial expression, nor any articulate or other voluntary indication. It was brought into notice (1881) by Mr. W. Irving Bishop (d. 1889), who professed, while blindfolded, and without the aid of confederates, or of collusion with his subject whose hand and pulse he held, and with whom he thereby became in mesmeric sympathy, to find any article previously hidden by the subject, or to show in other ways that he was able to read the subject's thought. The believing explanation is that thought-force, nervous energy, or the like, passes in a perfectly natural but as yet unexplained manner through A's forehead into B's hand, and so to B's mind. The unbelieving theory is that A inevitably, but quite unconsciously, communicates a succession of slight but sufficient muscular indications to B, which B instinctively follows without being aware of them severally. Enthusiasts have sought to include thought-reading in the sphere of spiritualism.

THE LARGEST RIVER SYSTEMS.

THE ZODIAC AND ITS SIGNS.

Zodiac was the name given by the ancients to an imaginary band extending round the celestial sphere, having as its mesial line the ecliptic or apparent path of the sun. It was fixed at about 16° in width, for the purpose of comprehending the paths of the sun and of the five planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) which were then known; and as of these planets Mercury has by far the greatest inclination of orbit to the ecliptic, and the value of that element in his case is only 7° 0′ 9′′ the width given to the zodiac was amply sufficient for the required purpose.