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The Brussels Post, 1924-10-1, Page 6VA G OF , PRECISE LEVELLING Aide in Opening Up Countr and Means of The carrying of ieean ilea level datum r the 'Interior of a country, khats is. the deterinlnetioa of the exact height above mean sea level by mane of a precise levelling instrument, 113 a' work of the Anima importauce. In Canada theprecise eentrul of the' Geodetic Survey le ueedas e bailie Per neur:y all the other surveys that are carried an In the damnation, and by Lilt; tnt,uus a great saving to the peo- ple of f;anaila,Is effected. Ay the pro- jection oi' these accurate lines of levee Into uew territory, ititportant develop• meats sucll as the contraction of railways, dams, rt'atetepower plants, elrainage and . irrigation 'systema, and the opening up of mines, may be carried forward to completion without the sante necessity of running complete Individual surveys for each new work and at the same time without lbs pos- sibilities of errors which these inde- pendent surveys would Involve, Thus If the :tato did not undertake this work development would be greatly re- tarded and the added expense wben works were completed would neces- sarily mean a heavier burden to all the people, The necessity for exact surveys Is everywhere recognized and it is the! atm of the different organizations en- trusted with Canadian survey,: to at- tain as nearly as scone/Meetly feasible to absolute accuracy. Mean sea level' is determined by meane of gauges maintained by the Tidal and Current' Survey, Department of Marine andj y and 'Establishing lnclustries Communication. leislieries, at such points tis Vancouver and Prince Rupert on. the Paeiee coast, and Helitax, Yarmouth, and Father Point on the Atlantic. Starting iu from the seacoast the levelling en - Omer, iieer, with Ills spirit level incorpor- ated in n modern instrument called a precise level, proceeds Inland by means of a myriad of consecutive sighting state:ne, determining as he goes along just how far above sea level melt new station 1s. To retain for all'future -u'se the re- sult of his levelling, at imitate sufficient in number ter public service, he sets in solid rock or masonry, or in eon - crate piers erected for this purpose, a series of copper bolts or tablets to hear a teasel mark, tate elevation of which he has determined, and which is included in published tables of ele- vation. The records thus established are technically itnown as benchmarks. Thus the precise levelling goes for- ward and• the result is an ocean to ocean net of accurate data, placed at the convenient command of the pub- lic. Since the inauguration of precise ieveIling by the Geodetic Survey some' eighteen years ago good progress has been made and approximately 17,000 miles of levelling has been run. In the permanent recording of this wtirk some 5,500 bench -marks have been es•' �,4tr-Iiln5ta tabliahed, thereby bringing many iso- late(' levelling projects to an accurate sea level datum and paving the way 1Vlelnchl But the King for the Inauguration of future pro -1 melancholy, acts. _T Approves. b. -AND THE WORST ,1S YET TO COME Guideposts and Milestones. Travelers along the roads of Eng- land, even its late as the reign of George I., had few eurieprste and mile- stones to direct them to their jour• ueee: end. In fact, they were far less familiar objeets than road -side emeses or memorials. Guideposts were scattered about the' male hefore the mllce,taues made their appearance. The earliest type was a wayside cross bearing a direct Ing arm, Probably one of titre: a old gi b iepeets gave its name to Hand Crc>es, on the Brighton road, knghmd. In Stuart time. there were very few guideposts and nu milestones. One traveler, about this period, states that in some parts of the country, where there are ereeermuls. there Is tome- thm,e found a post with a hand to di- rect people the riglit way. but no dts tonnes are -hewn. An Act of Parliament was passed in 169e. ordering justices to erect guide- pcete at all crossroads. but in 1713 oomplaluts were made that its provi- sion.-. were disregarded. " Travelers cumptainect of the lack of guidance, one man stating that un Ono octa,ion he arrived at a crossroad which "fronted nine ways at ante with out a single directing host" 1Iany of the early guide posts were set up by private Individuals One of these is at 'Teddington, and known as Teddington Hands. It i,: a five -armed post and was first set up by Ednt.tnd Attwood, of the Vine Farm, and repair- ed by successive generations of his family. when It carne to Alice Att- wood. of the tenth generation. This lady repaired the post In Hifi, being the last of the family. Another pri-; vote guidepost I., near Bacton, in Dew' onehire; on its sides are directions," tolliwed by Scriptural texts, hm.t<tanes are still of more recent t origin than guideposts, although the g Romans, (luring their ocoupations, set! tip many distance stones on their. roads, One of these Roman milestones j can be seen in Leicester Museum. On the Great North road, in Eng- land. in the seventeenth century, many" milestones were set tip. These were J not only milestones, but mounting, blocks as well, designed for the con- venience of horse riders. Eerie, In the eighteenth century a ; number of milestones were set up ou the high road at t'ambridge. Tine was done at the instance of Trinity Hall, one of the oldest colleges comprising Cambridge University, The et/liege held £1600, which lead been lectin 1586 by two former mem-, bere, tho interest'to be used to repair the road between Cambridge and Barkway. In 1725 part of this stoney was expended In providing milestone:: ou this stretch of road. The eighteenth century was well ad - vamped before official milestones were placed on the highway. A standard pattern was soon introduced. At flat they were square, but after a few yenta the now double-faced variety was found to be more convenient and, was eenn adopted all over the country. i Round the World in Seven- I teen Days. i t' irte were vastly entertained when Jules Verne caused his notional hero, Planeee Fogg, to make a circuit of the earth in eighty days. 1 Now a commercial conce=rn sn- nounees Rotted the World Trips by; airship and aeroplane in eeventet:n days, and causes no astonishment. A company has been formol in Lon- don 10 conduct these tours according tet the following itinerary: London to ?Paris and Constantinople by aeroplane, t0 ' Australia by airship, to San'Fran• Waco by airship, to New York. by aero- plane, to London by airship, In the crypt chapel under the Brit- iah house of Comment is preserved an altar cloth reputed to have been. Mad© by Queen Elizabeth, n What Do You Think of Him, Girls? Wifle-"Oh, how. sweet It was of You to remember my birthday with those beautiful roses. But there were only twenty-five of them when there should have been thirty." Hubby --"My, my, 81d I make a mis- take? Tbere's a mirror just opposite you --can you blame me. dear??" The Earliest Pen. Among the recent discoveries at Kish is a great treasure in the shape of the oldest knuwn pen. Professor Langdon, director of the Weid-Blun- leIl and Field Museum Archaeological 'expedition, who was delighted at find- ing this bone stylus Inc writing cunei- orm, says that many scholars had vainly tried to reconstruct the lustre - meat. This stylus is a triumph of simplici- ty. It is a bone, six Inches long, with a triangular cross-section and pared ends. After a little practice Professor Langdon was able to make cuneiform ascriptions tions n clay tv p a tilt fair rapidity. P Protestor Langdon considers that the mound twenty miles south-east of Nippur may be identified as the site of the city of Iain, isin was the capi- ta of a dynasty which ruled over a teat part cf Babylonia after that of ler from about 22':0 B.C, to about 2050 • Solving the Problem, Ten -year-old Jimmy finally reached what threatened to be his limit of ex- pansion, when drseert was served ' immy stared hut found the solution. He reached for his belt buckle and on the tide of a long -drawn sigh exclaim- ed: "Guess 1'11 have to move the dee-- mai paint two places." Needn't Walt. The tenor, with wide-open mouth, had just emitted his first note, when the sweet young thing who had volun- teered to act as accompanist suddenly disenvered that her back hair needed pal deg. :Just go right on," she directed. "1"11 play fast and catch up with you," at:71y eele", 111 Though little is said or done when the British sovereign opens Parlia- ment in person, the custom is well worth retaining if only Inc the mag- nificent spectacle that it offers. But when it comes to the simulacra,- -that is, the opening of Parliament by royal commission,—the grand pageant is re- placed by a pitiable mockery, and as for the proroguing by royal commis- sion, that is—so we learn from Sir Henry Lucy in Lords and Commoners —an even more melancholy spectacle. The five commissioners, he writes, are received with elaborate ceremony that takes up a deal of time that might well be spared at the end of a busy session, but it Is :othing to what fol- lows. There is a mighty pile of bills that, having passed both houses of Parliament, now await the royal as- sent. The clerk on the right-hand side of the table, taking up the bills one by one, first bows low to the cloaked figures of the commie,:ioners, duetting as if a sustaining bolt bad been sud- denly ud denly withdrawn from the region of the small of the back. He reads out the title of tite bill• Thereupon com- mences the task of the clerk on the left. If it be a money bill, the clerk, first bowing low to the 'commission- ers, turns hie head slightly t0 the left and over his shoulder throws_ at the Speaker and the assembled Commons the phrase: "Le ref remerele see bons sujets, accepts leur benevolence, et ainsi le vault," (The king thanks his good subjects, accepts their bounty and proves it.t If it be an ordinary measure, he says with the sante melan-I choly gesture: "Le rot le vault," (The king approves). Whether there are ten bills or twol hundred, the process is the same. First, the clerk on the rlgitt=hand side bows to the commissioners; second, he recites the name of the hill; third, he bows again; fourth, the clerk on the left-hand side bows to the commis- sioners; fifth, with scornful gesture of disregard he throws over hit shoulder to the awes Commons the assurance of the royal ascent; sixth, lie beeves a little sigh of eynipatby with the cotn- missi0ners Inc having to meet the Commons; t eventh, he bows again, and Ms colleague takes up the next ani the whole procee t is gone over again, the phrase "Le rot le veult" rising and falling over the deserted Ilouse like the cry of the curfew on a distant desolate rock. Nobody knows the age of the werhd,. but we all agree that it's old enough to know better. A specialist in nervous diseases says that women should sleep nine. hours at night and one hour in the daytime. Telling Teacup Fortunes. The custom of telling fortunes from tea -leaves lett In the cup is by no means' on the wane, .It is a simple matter to memorize most oe the signs, and a good imagination Is also of great assistance! Leaves in the form of a train are said to mean either a journey or the arrival er departure of some one in - ' n ` whom you are interested. A snake in- dicates enemies, Doves are supposed to be lucky, and so are stars, the cres- cent moon and horseshoes. News from abroad is often fore- ashadowed by a tent. Shoes mean a journey. .If the cup 1s clear all round it is said to be a good sign. Gloves indicate a meeting with strangers, while stockings usually foreshadow presents. Chairs mean visitors; keys new un- dertakings. Initials are usually deem- ed to be lucky. Black clusters of trees mean gatherings, but may also be taken to mean'a cluster of worries. Words That Work 1 -lard. There are wards it is almost 11111101• Bible to avoid using, however careful- ly'we may try to do so. Itis said that a quarter of the task of expressing oneself in the English language in borne by nine words—and, be, have, it, of, the, to"will, and you. It is also asserted that these nine with thirty-four other words; form half the words the .average talker uses in or- dinary conversation. The additional thirty four are as follows: about, all, as, at, but, can, came, day, clear, for, get, go, hear, if, in, me, much, not, on, gay, she, so, that. these, they, thie, though, time, we, with, write, your, her, and Ono. It would be an interesting and in- structive occupation for readers to underline on any one page of this paper the words included in this litt of forty-three, and see how near the total number comes to being half of the whole, t• Awful Stuff, Bug --"Goodness, Mr, Skeet, you're intoxicated1" Skeet—Yash. Never Bite a fellow (hie) again that's been drinking home brew!" IRRIGATION IN WESTERN 'CANADA Tile Mighteeatlt Annual Convention,'esuitg eibtainod nutter untur]tl rain - Oe the Western Gauada. Irrigation Ao, Rall, with resells aeoui'od under Melee - solution "was held in Calgary, Alberta; tion, the Domiulon Govsrnmont 70x• on We last three Jaya of July. It to 0 per1tlfentul I'a'rni at Lethbridge lesues the following ilgurus, the percentages reinarltabie thing that whenever au or titcrottee. beiOB. Viet 01)00slt0 each: irrlgattonmeeting Is held in onb of Al• l'ptatoes, 200%ul turtriPe, 200%; su&ar berta's cities, rain iaysi'Ia ly 01005. beets,• i.S4%1 carrots;' X41%; oro Following n iiei'iud of drought, two 123%,; mnngoids; 102%u; Held po0B, iaehes of rale fell the day. procetliug 74%. barley (two -rowed), 09°% (els; the convention, while a heavy shower rowed), 45% :ring wheat, 28%. on the last day preyented the dale -1 The Lieut. Goverunr, Senator Sir gates from participation in an aurone- Janie,: Lougheell, the Mayor and the bile tour et the irrigated laud west of Minister of Alberta' all eltowed they the city. 1 wore apprectativoot the ltumonse 00- In the period of tltirteen'years;'since tentiallttes Of the irrigated areas, the hist convention took place in Gale; while other speakers brought Out teats gsry, great strides have been mads In'� and figures to show what the proper irrigation development in Western, fanning of rho irrigated lands would Canada, One 'largo area, the 'Western ( mean in the est*bllabtilent of tom• Section of the Canadian Pueblo hall- mun)tles of satisfied and prosperous way'e Irrigation Block, adjacent to the � dealers, in rho nmking of attre.otivs city, lifts. been peopled by industrlaus. ilolues, in making ptassible the eetab- settlers who have prospered attd have lishment of sugar Raptpi'lea and Can• attractive homes, surrounded by trees,: Hing factories as wslLas in the`ilnlsh• on what was, at the time of the last ing of alt kinds of livestock, etc. They convention, baro prairie, In no part' demonstrated that tbs areas are cap - of the West has there been any de-' able of supporting ltundreds of thous• velopntent comparable to it in a sitar' ands of people in prosDerfty and col- lar period. Further east Vie Caigaty, fort, which, in turn, would add maters - around Brooks, thousands of acres are ally to the welfare of the people in the producing eaves of high value where cities, formerly nothing at all was produced Cousidsr'abIs interest was taken by at' the time the 1911 convention was field in Calgary, In other parte of the province and in South-western Saskatchewan, Irri- gation Is bringing about wonderful transformations leading'' to' prosperity on, take a greater interest in irriga and better living conditions, and while tion development; the better they. be• the public in the proceedings, the Rotary, Kiwant and Gyro Clubs ex- tending invitations to several of the speakers to address their members. Undoubtedly, the publie wIil, from now only the fringe of possibilities bave come acquainted with its possibilities been realized, the development of irri- .and with the obstacles that have been gotten has now reached a stage worthy and yet are impending it, the sooner of the attention of business men and will irrigation come to be realized as I3 others not directly engaged in farm one of the greatest assets the Wen ing under irrigation. Comparing the possesses. • A Poem -You Ought to Know. "What the Chimney Sang." __re" Bret Harte wrote of the pathos and humor of the gold -diggings of Cali• tcrnia in "The Luck of Roaring Camp." hitt r J i ' Ole made his name known the world _ • "Kittle fs already slowing lines in • her fare." - "Yt,s, but her outer lines offset 'em," Unsolved Problerns of the Sky. Seisnt'.:ts have weighed the planets, the stet, the moon; we know the dis- tance of stars whose light.takes cen- turies to reueb ue, turd we even mea- eure accurately the minute amount of heat given by distant stats: 'For alt that, the sky is still full of puzzles which astronomers are attempting to eoive. . Take, for Instance, the problem of Lark start;. Possibly, it has never 01 - unwed to you that there are such bodies, yet for every bright star you can see on a Clear night 'tliere must be thousands which have gone cold 'ind are therefore invisible. Yet, dead as they are, they are still plunging' jthrough space at appalling speed. I On February 2nd, 1901,, there biahed out in the constellation of Perseus a star of amazing brilliance. It was not, hatcourse, a new star. What had really appened•was drat ono 01 those dark , stare had either hit another; cr, per- haps,,struck one cf the big gas clouds Khich Ming in space,.. The result was an explosion on a scale we cannot even Imagine. These dli'rk stars anti gas cloud,: are among the greatest of sky puzzles. It Is 'only three years age that a Dutch scientist discovered a mystery cloud 140,000,000,000,000 miles in length and, twice that distance from the solar sys- tem, it may be gas ,it may be dust. We tlo not know' and probably never shall. During excavations at, Christ's IIoepital, Folkestone, Zingland, ruins of the Roman Occupation and the background 18 one of the famous Martello tOWere, ettlement of the island were unto red. In over by a humorous poem entitled "The Heathen Cbinee," but that he was a poet of pathos as well as humor Ls shown by the following verses:— Over the chimney the night -wind sang And chanted a melody no one knew; And 'the woman stopped,: as her babe elle tossed, And thought of the one site bad long since lost, And said, Fa her tear -drops back she forced, "I hate the wind in the chimney:" Over the chimney the night -wind sang Anil chanted a melody no one anew; And the children said, as they closer drew, "'T1s acme witch that 1s cleaving the black nigbt throughea ' 'T1s a fairy trumpet that just then blew, And we fear the wind in the chimney.'.' Over Gra oltimney the night -wind sang, And chanted a melody no one knew; And the man, as be sat on his hearth below, Said to himself, "It will surely snow, And fuel is dear and wages low, And I'll step the Mak in the chjmcey: " Over the chintuey the nighe-wind sang And chanted a melody no one knew; But the poetlistened and smiled, for he Was met, and woman, . and child, all three, And said, "It is God'e own haftuony, This wind we hear In the chimney," . Winds of Romance. What romantic names are given to seine winds, whide are anything but romantic in character. There ls the Mistral, for example, the dry, cold wind that blows with con- siderable strength en the ivfedlterrau• can coast of France. Another violent, cold wind is the Bora, which those Who imve been much on the northern chores of the Adriatic 'lave expert- oaced, greatly to their discomfort. Then there is the Simeon, wheal 1s as ecorchingly trot as the Mistral and Bora are cold, The Clmon, in fact, is like a violent succeesi0u of gusts from a hot oven. it Ilea proved a terrific enemy to travellers In the Sahara: The Sirocco it; much the same trine of scorching, wind. A naval .officer, describing an experrenee with this Wind in the Mediterranean, setae: • "We soon felt a sultry brooze7whicb conveyed innumerable] insects into every crevice, and became sit trouble - tome on deck that we were glad to re- treat below, bat in vain, for wherever the air roaclled, there they teemed in counelesn numbers and our dinner was presently covered with them." Itctnantic-ecuuding enough is the name lthamein, but those who have encountered- this hot, dry wind in the Egyptian plain tlo not have very pleas- ant memories of it, '"The llarnlattttn is etitsfll:My unpopn- lar among tlto inhabitants of Western Africa and those travellers who have been unfortunate enough to encounter this. desert, dust -laden wind, ' Fetal is the table of another dry, itot whirl, which has• an enervating effect upon the valley dwellers on the north- ern side of the Alps. Tito name of the Pampero has a glamour about it whish belies ;it in reality, This fearful coma bination of violent wind, rain, tun, der and lightning is only tee tatuilllar 10 the re/adonta of the Argentine and Uruguay, FARM LAND VALUE$ A000rdlitg to various agricultural authorities farms land prices is Cants da are as low at the present time as they aro ever likely' to be. The Gov, ernment return takes the Ostituate only tip to June, 1923, Sines that time 'inntr"values in the Dotnitllott, accord- ing to popular estimate, have further declined, and tbese are probably new as law as in 1916, the year in which tale lode began their advance duo to the high' war prices received for Mem produots. Within the year, it is further estimated, with the antici' pitted adjustment aI farm products and manufactured eommodlty pricee farm land values will again advance. alba present year, therefore, is a pare* tieularly advantageous one for land purchase Red settlement, A Decline of 23 Per Gent. Taking .Canada as a whole, the aver- age value of farm land in Canada was at the limo of the return back where it was in 1916, and since the psOk reached in,•1920 there baa beou''a do, cline of 23 per cont, Allowance ,must bo mads for a yet Natter decrease be- tween June, 1923, and the Present time. Farm land values fluctuate with the Prices abtainabld for agricultural pro- ducts, attd when hothare low in Cana- da it will usually be found that a similar situatlon obtains In other large agriculturally producing area, The remarkable feature thea' disclosed in a comparison ie that farts land of such fertility and proven productive quali- ties can be obtained so t•easonenly, Prices obtainable for most farts pro• ducts in 1923 were the lowest readied for years, olid yet an acre of Alberta land worth on the average 324 If sewn t0 wheat returned an average of 28 bushels sold at fisc per bushel or 318. and to oats 50 bushels at 24c a bushel or 312.00. Increase in Values Foreshadowed. Together with other features of the nationalepfs, farm laud values are re- covering from the effects of war stimu- lation and : post-war depression. The" factor which will effect their rise in the, future will be that which was ac- countable for a steady ascendancy in prices before the was, the increase df, settlement and the consequent dinii.nu- tion of available supply. Probably no country In its colonization history re- corded such a rapid, steady, and con- sistent rise in farm land values as Canada's record up to 1914 shows, which was merely the mirror of eon - animas settlement. This factor is. once more being felt after the read- justment which 'has come about. Au increase in values is foreshadowed for the end of the present year, which makes the present peculiarly propi- tious for the purcbase-of Canadian farm lads. Layers of Life. Tho Himalayan exploration party have set it on record that they saw the lanemergeler, or great mountain vulture, flying at a height of 27,000ft There Is. however, nothing fn,•rodible about this, for the condor of the Andes has been seen soaring at tremon'lous tn heights above peaks theselves'ex- ceeding 20,000ft. The great naturalist Humboldt declares that lite condor can fly at five miles above soa•ievoi. To go to the other extreme. it is known that life exists In the greatest depths of the ocean. We have to thank ...the Prince of Monaco for pr,et-that the blackest, coldest, and tetntIgst abysses are tenanted by fish. of the strangest sbapes and by muss:+i cep- halopods. We have, tberefore, the eon:duty that life surrounds our planet far a titia n:ass of almost exactly ten entree Ocean, earth, and lb£ lower portion of the at:nospbere form inyere or 'theta of life. 02 the lowest layer we have learned lest, yet enough to knew that the creatures . which dwell iu tho depths are, specially 111085 to with- stand the tremendous pressures, and are provided "with luntinnue appsn- ti'ages so that they stay be visible to one another, e a Re -Christening a City. We are apparently not yet ilnishod with changes in the map of Europe. The Norwegian Stortheig bus decided to change the name of the capital from Christiania to Otto from January 1st, 1925. Oslo was the original name of the Norwegian capital, and the name per- sists in the Oslo Court of Aseizts anal the Bishopric of Oslo. The most famous example of a city changing its name is, et course, that of St. Peterzburg, which betanin Petro. grad tiering the war, and eftart.ttrds, under ievict rale, Laningraal, Constantinoule, ni. Stanibule as the Turks call It, is another• city wbic'i , has changeti'its name, It was original- ly known as Bys antlum.. Other cities which have changed their names Yunlude Parts, which was fohhn£rly known as Lutotia; ' New York originally New Amsterdam; Athens, whloh was once called Cecroa' pia; and Ottawa, whose first name was bytown. a jury system, kleie:ofore judges ap- pointed by the 2itnperor have decided all court cases 'and announced their '9iindings "according to law in the name .of the Emperor." Delegates - from Japan imve recently 'Visited thla country and other cottntrN/el to study the jury system.