Zurich Herald, 1923-11-15, Page 3For the
and X11"
ODD FACTS ABOUT. WILD
.ANIMALS.
The lioness, in times of peril, will
come to the assistance of her mate,
but • not so with the lion, who shows a
decided "yellow streak," and, when in
danger, e.,11 leave his mate to fight
her own battles.
The lion does not chew its food, con-
sisting of about twelve pounds of beef
a day, when in captivity, but swallows
it in chunks, except when it licks it
off the bones with its tongue, which is
like a sharp rasp, then the meat comes
off in shreds. So sharp are the spines
in its tongue that three playful licks
ea your hand will take the skin off.
In seeking safety from the attacks
of the tiger, hunters have often found
a small tree a safe refuge. The tiger.,
is a powerful swimmer, but not a tree
climber. ,Its 'whiskers are stiff quills,'
like those of theporcupine, and are
so sensitive that it depends on them
almost entirely for ' guidance, when
prowling in the jungle at night.
An elephant's'instinct. tells him not
to cross a bridge that will not hold
his weight. This has often occurred
against his ' keeper's judgment. No
:coaxing air threatening will cause him
to cross it, until it has been strength-
ened, then he will go across it without
any coaxing or force.
The elephant is provided with
twenty-four fur
Y o enormous teeth, only
eight of which, however, four in each
jaw, are in action at one time. The
other two sets, of eight each, are re-
serve teeth, corning into use as the
others are worn out.
The stomach of a hippopotamus, or
river horse, will hold about four bush
els. Its food consists- of roots a
water plants in its native land, an
hay, carrots and cabbage, in captivit has long been supposed that th
""hippo' sweats blood. This mistak
arises from the presence on its skin o
reddish .brown oil globules, •whic
serve to keep the thick hide pliant."
The hyena has the strongest jaws in
the animal kingdom, and secures the
marrow.. in the bones, leftb the lions
y ,
by cracking thein with its teeth, the
eating not only the. marrow, but els
the bone, which the powerful acids of
its stomach readily'dissolve. ; The. hy-
-ena is considered a desirable citizen,
because it is a thorough -going scav-
enger.
The jaguar catches fish by lying on
a log over the water,;and flipping
theist out with its claws. One of is
s
favorite dishes is turtles and,'turtle
eggs.' It is; the "el.tigre" of Sout]
America, and the >large.st:of the
„eats
in the , Western Hemisphere. It "Gan, -be
di i'i3 edt by a -eh in at`' 31.101
The kangaroo at birth
the size of a mouse.- It is is plscaracedcely by
the mother in a pouch peculiar to the
marsupials, where it stays for weeks,
finally growing large enough to crawl
out and hop around. Tlie opossum is
the only animal in the Western
Hemisphere possessing a peuch like
the kangaroo, The female -kangaroo,
whenein
b � g pursued by hunters, will
throw out her offspring and leave
them to their fate. '
The •giraffe has very prominent
eyes, and little depressions behind.
them so that it can see in every direc-
tion, without turning its head. "When
a giraffe desires to feed on some
tempting grass, it lies down, eats all
within its reach, and then moves.' , Its
hoofs are very dangerous weapons,
but full as damaging is the use of its
head, which it swings from side to.
side with sledge-hainrner force..
The leopard seems to have a mania
for destruction, often killing wantonly
every sheep in a hock, where a lion
would only kill one for food. Tree-
tops are the favorite haunts of the
leopard; its black rosettes blending so
perfectly with its surronudings that
it is almost invisible, For this reason,
it would not change its spots, even if
it could.
The large ape called the gibbon is
perfectly formed -to excel in gymnas-
tics. Its arms
and and- are1
hands on and
g
powerful; its shoulders and chest are
broad, to give exceptional lung power,
and the Iower part of ' its body and
legs are small, so that there is no un-
necessary weight to carry. By seizing
a branch, and swinging itself once,; or
twice to gain force, it 'munches 'itself
thibugh the air thirty or forty feet
an to another branch, which it never.
d .misses. The gibbon is of a very gentle
ty, nature, and is easily tamed.
e The stripes on the zebra are a strik-
e ing example of protective coloration,.
f for when it lies down in the dry, dust-,
h covered grass of the African' plains,
the color of_ the grass matches the
ground color of its coat, and grass
shadows match its stripes, rendering;
,it almost invisible. If domesticated, it
n i would be valuable, because it is im-
cel mune to the bite of the poisonous
tsetse fly.
A poisonous snake can be di;tin
guished by the fact that the pupil of
its eye:is elliptical, like the slit pupil
of a common house , cat. All non-
poisonous snakes have a circular pu-
pil. A snake's mouth can accommo-
date food ten times the size of its
e head, because its lower jaw, being in
t two' ports, separates,at'the chin; and
the skin of the throat stretches until
there is room for the food ao,,;pass-:`
A 'brt.fndailirag, eke, eri floe^'sTeelis" or
weeks, until digestion is complete.
By James Edward }'tungerford.
es aloe 't
g its b•lck, .which are'
wanting in the coat. of the leopard.
FRENCH LEAD IN
RETURN NORMAL
®.SAL
HUGE WORK WELL DONE
BY FARMERS.
The Finance Minister's Report
Shows Prosperity While the
Rest of Europe `Lags.:
Of all the paradoxes in Europe,
France undoubtedly presents the most
remarkable one at the , present mo-
ment. With Germany economically
battered- and helpless, capitulating at
the end of eight months of useless re-
sistance in the Ruhr, and England, by
virtue. of, the loss of a great part of
her German trade staggering under
the burden of idle factories and al-
most 2,000,000 unemployed, France,
the nation which suffered most dur-
ing the war, is now almost back to
normalcy.
No first -rank nation on the Conti-
nent is so close to pre -War times as
France. ,The Frenchmen themselves
did not realize -it fully until this week,
when'Count,`de La�steyrie, Minister, of
Finance, addressing a relatively un-
important agricultural meeting in, the
Department of Tarn, pulled from his
portfolio a compilation of figures
. which have not been generally known,
• and certainly not emphasized, In
Paris. •
Natdi`ally, there was a political mo-
tive bebind the minister's speech. He
was interested In winning rural votes
for the Nationalist bloc in the Cham-
ber. of Deputies at" the coning national'•
els tionc: For obvious reasons, -,how
ever•, it was not in the interest of the
-country. to '"talk • too enthuelastically
regarding the fi:ourislting condition of
France; at least, not for world con-
sumption.
Credit Given to People.
The necessity of collecting repara-
toms of the terrible aftermath of the
war, to. a nation which has regained
its econorisie and to seine 'extent its
financial status was an evolution ire
which the credit was really due to
the farmers and tradespeople whom
de Lasteyrie complimented, And the birds ' folloW him. By the
All classes of 'Frenchmen settled 21st of September he is half way on
down. to hard work as soon as the the journey,
armistice was sounded. Like the The birds must keep an eye .on him.
Israelites who followed the counsel of The winter solstice (sol; the sun,.plus
Moses to rise before sun-upi and go sistere: to stand still) occurs about
abroad to receive manna .from heaven, the 21st of December. Canadian mi- `species freezes.
the Frenchman followed his instincts. gratory birds are then loafing in Cen- The' method of travel. of different
The manna has fallen abundantly, but tral America,. or the West Indies, or species' varies. The warblers the
it literally required getting out, before the Northern parts of South America 'finches, the thrushes and others of the
sunrise to gather it. The French or Southern parts of the United States..' smaller species proceed by` short
peasant farmers have done. more than The sun has accompanied them in the flights, little by little. Suddenly, on
that: They have worked long aftery'
sundown, great adventure. some' sunny September morning our
Unlike Germany,But, like the birds, he, is• ever on the garden is filled with uncommon bird -
choking herself in , Forth and back he goes, as visitors, dozens, perhaps. scores of
nationally with.a 'fruitless struggle to; flee ,and they follow hien"North! them "zwe-zweing" in sweet high -
escape reparations, and unlike Eng- they '
land, depending on extensive foreign g North!" he will be calling towards the! Pitched tones, or trilling, or chipping,
trade to keepthe. wheel spring and the birds will follow hdm..,or tweeting, but rarely "carolling," for
sof indfistr - By the 21st of March he will again be song -days are over for year.
whirring, France's restricted Indus-.
trial machinery and labor have been half -way on his journey. In June he. I rush fox my guide book If I don't
fully needed for turning out materials will reach farthest north of the season recognize the species. The robins
to be used in domestic reconstruc- when the,birds are' in the highest gather conspicuously on the city lawns
tion.
ecstacies of song, in their most bril- in September, the. young birds :resem-
Steady Grind of Work. liant plumage; •in their. happiest. mood bling thrushes with their streaked
Industrially, as well as agricultural -of devotion to their mates and nest- breasts. Grackles and Blackbirds also
throughout the period "the entire popue linns. flock very noisily,,
un ry but
QD
IH% t+CLc
1M,Lcx.t
DETROIT SIMS.
Inventing New Anitnals,]a
The mule,' a cross hetween'4 e:
horse^y
and the donkey, has'' aiwa,vs.
been ono of the most useful of cjrau,ght
!animals. The only objection to it'lla;i
been its somewhat sulky temper
There has lately been produced
British East Africa a ziew cross wki3^th.
is as gond as'the mule and less s .tyb
born: This .is called the "zebru „'ry
and is half horse, half zebra. • Thl
9e,•
,,
creatures stand' about "fourteen halide'
high, are very hardy, good •woriW's .
and easily brbken to harness.
Of late years many novel expefii
•meats have been tried in cross -breed
ing. An animal produced by a cr�.oas
between a wild'American bison
and a Hereford cow seems` lkelti r ib
be one of the best beef -producers, 'of
the future. It is called the "cattleo,
and numbers'are being bred in Canada
for the market. -
The late Mr. Hagenbeck made many
e.
experiments in cross -breedings Jae,
successfully crossed the lion and tiger `
their progeny having a tiger's body
and a lion's• head."
Equally interesting but much_ mere
uo
useful is a cross between the South-
down sheep and the large wild sheep
from Central Asia. , The new sheep
is very hardy, can withstand great
cold, and gives excellent mutton:.'
Pheasants from Central Asia have
been crossed ``with our ordinary.wild
pheasant, resulting in a large: bird
which is strong; on the wing, and a
splendid' creature from the sportsman's
point of view. • ''
Persian fallow deer crossed with at
t�
.English fallow. produce' ,'a •creat,+tr�(b
•
Which gives excellent venison. Jus
'as a cross of wild -barley with some
of •;our . cultivated sorts has resulted
In .a disease -proof variety, so the i
troduction of new blood into some- :o
our domestic,stocks gives immunity
against many of theillnesses to whieh
domestic animals are. subject.
A Tiger's .Nice Habit.
The rhinocerosi
• s a .shortsighted
(jteast;'; but his. sense of smell is ex-
ceedingly
x
ceedingly keen. ' He will always charge
a tiger, on scent. He. will not, hpw-
ever, clash with an elephant.
The two big animals are shy of each
other, although'the- rhinoceros is not
a match for the elephant when the
latter coils up his trunk out of the
way and goes at the other beast with
his great tusks.
The tiger on the other hand• is no
match for a rhinoceros and will not
fight back. He has no weapon strong
enough. The tiger is not even a match
for.;a water buffalo.
His method of killing the largest
animal he attacks—a bullock, for ex-
ample -is to break Its neck. Stand-
ing on his hind legs, he reaches one
paw to the 'bullock's shoulder and the
other to the` lower thigh.
Then, taking the animal's neck in
his paw, he throws back his own
read,- jerking the neck of the bullock
over and cracking it •
.
Stories About Well -Known Peep e`
Fuse Over Duke of Yerk.
A. new story about the Duke of
York is being told„
KR.BI, was~visiting a big provincial
town for sone state purpose. The
streets were gay with buuting and
lined with people waiting to welcome
their King's son.
Standing together on the kerb were
two men of the working claw, appar-
ently acquaintances, ono tall, the
other 'Mort.
Said the tall one, after a leisurely
survey all round, "Makin' a great fuss
over "im
Whereupou the short man, having
conducted a similar survey,.lasting
half .a minute or so, grunted: "Too
Much.'"
Then the tall man, atter'a re -survey
lasting another half -minute, sighed "I
dunno " '•
And after a simile e
short man acquiesced t-
enl.. ;'P'r'ops not" --which
much can be'put in a f
only one thinks before
r re -purvey th
with a daub-t-
ent
shows how
few words i
ane speaks,
Snack with the Queen.
While he was out alone picking
heather, Scout Terry Harbud, a mem-
ber of the Haz•
Han -ow County School
t Troop in camp at Luscombe Common,
Isle of Wight, saw a stationary motor-
car, in front of whfdh sat a lady be-
- side a picnic basket.
"Would you like a roll?" called the
lady, handing Jahn one. She then
said: "You look thirsty; would you
Iike a drink?"'
That nothing*a k with aimless feet;
'That not one life shall be destroyed:
Or cast as rubbish .to the void,
When God hath made the file
complete:. •
"Yee, please, auswered the boy, ,
He was given milk In a silver cup,
When the boy was leaving the spot
another lady approached and asl^.ud if
lie knew to whom he had been speak-
ing, He admitted that he did not.
'"That is the Queen, " he was told.
A Now Ambassador's Wit.
The new United St.tes Ambassador
in London, Mr, W.111a_ti• Collier, who
has succeeded Mr. Harvey, hes a repu-
tation as a wit.
Once, when addressing' a political
meeting, he was heckled= by, a man
who persisted in shouting, "My food
is taxed. Why?" "I had no idea,"
retorted Mr. Collier, at `last, "that
there was any tax on thistles,"
A Hero of Science,
It is impossible to say how -much
we owe to those 'self-sacrificing heroes
who give health and life in the cause
of suffering humanity.
Such men as Mr. Reginald G. Black
all can never be repaid for their ser-
vices. For many years senior radio-
grapher at the London Hospital, Mr.
Blackall is a victim of X-ray derma-
titis (inflammation. which destroys the
skin) as a result of his cort,stant ex-
posure to the rays. Last. February he
had to have his left hand removed,
and recently it was' found necessary
to amputate his right hand.
Only forty years of age, he .has been
unable. to carry on any .active work.
for two years, but he still acts in an
advisory capacity to the hospital.
RECORDING GREAT
JAPAN EARTHQUAKE
READING STORY OF THE
SEISMOGRAPH.
How Observers. Determine Lo-
cation of Source—Possibili-
ties of Future Quakes...
The great earthquake which
wrought such terrible devastation in
Japan affected. Canada deeply in'inany
ways and our leaders have given ex-
pression
x
pression to the feelings of the people
in regard to this awful catastrophe.
Here it is intended to refer only to
'the physical shock as registered on
the delicate instruments. at the 'Do-
minion Observatory, Ottawa, and to
what may learned from that record.
The `earthquake was registered on the
Milne -Shaw seismograph at `the Ob-
servatory. The- first preliminary
tremors arrived at Ottawa at 10 h. 11
m. 47 se p.m:, eastern standard time,
The sun leads the way. "South!
South!" he seems to admonish. "I
am going in that direction. Follow
mer„
Adventure of the Birds
By Laura B. Durand.
justice He only kills sufficient t
satisfy his hunger!
And so the'birds turn to the south
impelled by :rome instinct which warns
them of the it ipending dearth of food
in the north. •It Is not from fear o
the cold .that they go. Their thick
coverings of feathers, soft and downy
next to their skin, makeethem imper
vious to Icor temperatures. It is the
fact that the food supply of so many
o vast. They summed as far north as
Alaska •and. Labrador. They winter
, le Central America; Mexico, the West
Indies and even in the southern con-
tinent. i
f The wrens seek the' Gulf States. The!
Robins are content to winter in the
middle States, some flocks going an to
Florida and the Gulf. Formerly they
were ruthlessly slaughtered and sold
in strings by the dozen in the cities of
Tennessee and the Carolinas. Their
practice of roosting together in large
numbers was fatal to their safety. In
the year 1910, Mn W. L. McAtee, an
outstanding specialist in ornithology
attached to the Department of Agri-
culture, Washington, was sent to 1
Louisiana to enquire into the food
habits of Robins wintering in that
State and the ferocious slaughter of 6
the birds that was:going on by the na-
tives. He reported that the Robin was
essentially insectivorous in that State
in the month of February, He ob- o
served flocks feeding in open grassy
fields and concluded that their diet
must be of animal matter. He said, e
"They are shot here from morning to
night; shots are heard in every direr- e
tion. Each hunter kills from 25 to 50 t
per day." At that date Robins might be
killed, lawfully, at any time In Florida.
hi Mississippi, North Carolina, Ten- O
nessee and Virginia the open season
for' robins was from September to c
March—the entire period'of their so- i
journ in the south. It was a perilous a
adventure for the robins, as it still is'4
for the bobolinks, the ducks, wild g
geese and other water fowl.
• One thing more may be said. This g
is regarding the speed of flight of mi- r
grating birds. Recent investigation p
has led to the conclusion that the dif- fn
ferent species maintain about the s
speed of their average flight in mlgra- a
tion. They proceed on the great ad-
venture, not by wild impetuous dashes, ' g
but by steady travel. to
This statement applies to the lei-
surely
land birds. Water fowl and y
shore birds are more speedy. The to
flight of the Golden Plover is one of It
the marvels of nature. It is said •to ee
cover 2,000 miles of the trackless air g1
in a single night. This species is re- ea
potted not to be common now on the •.T
Atlantic coast as it was formerly. It' to
has been hunted to near the point of
extermination,
Posterity will Have the present gene-
C
ration of lawmakers to thank for the se
preservation of all species surviving .go
at his time. The i c
t t brds•ar
e fairly
safe
on their great adventure. Only the
merciless and callous scientific collect- m
ors have still to be restrained and re-tli
striated in the destruction of species
ly, therefore_ the, oo t thrived, And as suddenly -as they appear, the
lotion has ,been. engaged in a steady. uncommon and welcome "visitors van -
grind of work necessary, both for
moral and material The range of the tiny Warblers is
gain: De Laster-
rie announced that France's unem-
ployed had dwindled to practically
nothing at the beginning of the year, forth on the great, adventure. For;,
and since then the country faced suel] three and a half months they may law
a labor shortage that she was coin -fully be harried, hunted and shot, the,
pelied to admit foreign workmenlimit of the bag for each licensed hunt
The greater part of those lands, de- er being 200 during this period, and'
stroyed in the war are again under the" limit • far any one day being 25
cultjvatiou, with a °specially large birds.
wheat acreage, and a cattle increase When one cons]ders that the-'puz-
of more than x,000,000 head since 1919: chase and sale of wild ducks' and
;'France is to -day in full agricultural! geese for the market' in 'Canada are
regeneration," said. De Lasteyrie, "and i prohibited (most: wisely, elte a few ;
is not only self-supporting in the mat -1 seasons would see the species exter-
ter of food supply`, but, is clearly on 1 urinated), one is at a loss to find .a
the road to becoming a great export- reason for permitting so great a et
ng nation, From the industrial point slaughter of wild life to one person.
of view Franc :�ii
he effects of the war' with stupendous take out licenses to kill 200 wild ducks. l
rapidity. No, the. 'killing is done by mon of
"The unfavorable balance of trade means, for their enjoy,rnent. On the
tiring the first eight months of 1923 ferocity of sportsmen some restrai t
g Y p n
ad fallen to 810,000,000 francs,. as. is imposed, lir authority, however, The
Lgainst 1,750,000,000 .francs in 1919,1 birds are granted a Safety zone out-
ailwa and port traffic has increased.t"
y i side of 200 yards from any shore, and,
y leaps hind bounds, while coal pro- • it is forbidden to shoot them from sail
In the vast solitudes of northern
Canada—the Barren Lands, where the
reindeer •herd—myriads of geese; and
ducks make their brief summer home,
The gunners are out to receive them
on the first of September as they set
tions from Germany' and getting the t
best: terms on other war debts would
make an advertisement inadvisable
But within the small -agricultural area d
of south eaitel'n ;trance, the Finance h
Minister. dill not hoeitate to give :the
greatest credit to France's rni:l.liof]s of R
f':arrtsers' and:tratlespeopio, whe b
',eel, quietly back to work to restore
the country to its pre-:ua,r:: standard.
�.1
To actual ebee i•�
rvo 6, itanae,5 evb-.
lu!:en`sinco 1113 fronral cotir]try like
alninst all the nthere_tn Europe; vrith
its social foign:dati,ns badly = .]•ac r ked
aed seti'i;rir.Yg from huutirede of syniy-
France has recuperated from It is not the poor, io need of food, who
LO13D HEADLy
A well-known
h
i3r't
. �British peer, who has
dilation for the first eight months ot, boats or steam launches, or sunken travelled extensivelyfor fifty years,
the year exceeds the production of i punts, and 10 use ai1ttzmatie guns. ,:No end on tame as an engineer in India,
last.rear for the same period by doubt these restrictions' are vlolated id bead of the 'Moslems in England,
3,500,000 tons
.
every hour rf
everygb
i day of thes semen,
He recently completed the pilgrimage
e g
Financially, the speaker assured the 23tit i.ltev are in 'oar law becks as evi. ih' mecca, the only an l'
sh-speaking'
listeners, Frahsee hes her ordinary bud dente bit we are not quite sapsges, Man ever authorized to visit the bios-
]3ut, ptrdofi, I do the savage an in- hen holy: et holies, j
get Well balanced, !
on August 31. The calculated time
when the shock occurred at the origin
was 9 h. 53 m. 55 s. p.m., eastern
standard time;YAugust 31. This latter
instant was, however, 11 h. 58 m.. 55
s. a.m., September 1, in the standard
time of Japan. Obviously the dif-
ference between the first two of the
above three expressions for time is
the elapsed interval during which
the first' tremors sped from the origin
to Ottawa -a matter of twelve' min
utes and fifty-two seconds. The de-
termined distance to the epicentre or
source is 9,800 kilometers or 8,085
miles.
The _tremors continued to record
for over six hours and a half, due to
the fact that the earth waves were
propagated in all directions , on the
surface as well as in, all possible
directions within the earth and were
reflected and interfered with until the.
whole earth was a quivering mass.
The maximum displacement. of the
earth at Ottawa, due to these tremors
was about a millimeter or one twenty-
fifth of an inch. But as it required
about eighteen seconds •to complete a
maximum oscillation the motion could
only be detected instrumentally,
The epicentre was not a single
point but rather a long broken line or
andlie t -meat" oo`kol ted. `one end of
this "fault" is - at Tokio. The other
end some nine hundred miles north
and east—lies in the Paicfic Ocean.
This end being nearer to Ottawa is:
the point indicated as the origin by
the Observatory records.
The Line of Readjustment.
`The great circle joining Tokio and°
Ottawa and running near the Aleutian
Islands parallels the eastern Japanese
coasts. This edge of the islands is
between the highlands of Japan' to the
west and the "Kurile Deep"to the
east. The "Deep dips under the
ocean level dearly five miles, reach-
ing this great depth within about 250
miles of the shore line. The fault
line probably lies in this abyss.
The tremendous difference in level.
Is `a varying one. The Japanese is
ands are rising on the east and sink -
ng on the west. These variations
are taking place slowly ' with occa-
conal sudden yieldings to the stress.
t was a sudden "give" in the pro.
cess which was the cause of the great
destruction at Tokio and the adja
cent country.. When the records from
ther observing stations are available
t will be possible to determine from
the whole mass of data the extent and
osition of the fault line affected,
These .adjustments by means of
arthquakes are far more common
han is generally supposed. Up to
nd including the Japanese earth-
quake, 208 records have registered at
ttawa, since January, 1923. Some
f these have been small, many of
onsiderable size, several comparable
n intensity with the quake at Tokio,
nd one which occurred on February
in the north Pacific was many times
renter than that. The trace ampli-
ude was at least fifteen times as
reat at the maximum in the Ottawa
eeords. As this adjustment took
lace at sea no damage was reported
the press 'except for the resulting,
o -called "tidal wave" which swept in
t Hawaii.
The earthquake at Japan Is the
reatest disaster' of its kind in his-
ry, Btfl in spite of the awful toll
1 lives and homes, Japan cannot even - -
et rest assured that her last sacrifice
continent building has been made,
is practically certain that for many
nturies to come that section of the
obe will be more or less subject to
rthqualces al' destructive magnitude.
he shores of'the Pacific are active
-day at nearly all points—from the
ast Sndles, past China, Japan, the
Kurile and Aleutian Islands
Alaska,
aliforela arid Central Aznerica.to the
est' doast of South America as s
uth 'as Chile,
tar
We mourn about the decay of pen.
anship, but a bum id typewrites
o ,yp +wistek
at will write is better than rt• ' f
ns and empty ink -Wella,
PC
it