A SUBMARINE ERUPTION.
"There are volcanoes that have their craters under water—or rather there are submarine eruptions that would be in the form of volcanoes if they were on land. I once saw one of these eruptions while going through the eastern part of the Mediterranean, near the Santorin Islands. There was a column of dense smoke rising from the water, and it couldbe seen for miles; above it, and not very far up, was a cloud formed from this smoke, and it made a very noticeable contrast to the clouds on the horizon, which were tinged by the light of the setting sun. The air was filled with a smell of sulphur, and all around there were bubbles rising from the water as though the entire sea was impregnated with gas. We sailed quite near the place where the smoke was rising, and had an excellent view of it. When the eruption began there were thousands on thousands of fish killed by the sulphur, and for some days the people from the islands used to go out and get them by the boat-load.
"An effect of an earthquake occurring near the sea," Doctor Bronson continued, "is the tidal wave that causes a great part of the destruction."
Fred asked what was the difference between a tidal wave and an ordinary one.
"The tide, as you know," the Doctor replied, "is the rising and falling of the waters of the ocean, and the seas and bays that extend from it. The ordinary wave is caused by the action of the wind blowing upon the flat surface of the water, while the tidal wave is not. In most instances where an earthquake occurs near the sea, there is a rush of water in a wave more or less great—first upon the land, and then away from it.
"In 1868 there was an earthquake on the west coast of South America, which furnishes an excellent example of what I have mentioned. At first the ground shook with a frightful noise; the whole chain of the mountains in the distance trembled like reeds in the wind, and it was apparent to every one that a frightful disturbance was at hand. The United States steamerWatereewas at anchor in the harbor of Arica, Peru, and one of her officers has since told me of the earthquake. He says the sea was perfectly calm at the time, and from the decks of the ship they could see the town shaking to pieces, and the hills that formed the harbor crumbling and throwing down great masses of rock.
"Several shocks followed, with little intervals, until two-thirds of Arica lay in ruins. The ships sent their boats ashore with surgeons to assist the wounded, but they had hardly landed before the water began to recede as though the tide was running out. It reached the point of low tide, and then began to rise again; and it kept on and on till it had reached a point thirty-four feet above high-water mark; it overflowed the town, poured through the streets, and flooded many of the houses. Then it flowed back again as fast as it had risen, and carried with it the custom-house, the residence of the English consul, and other buildings. Hundreds of the people had rushed to the mole or landing,and as the water swept out through the harbor they were carried with it, and many of them were drowned.
UNITED STATES WAR-STEAMER "WATEREE," STRANDED AT ARICA IN 1868.
"It was an awful spectacle, enough to terrify the bravest man that ever lived. Again the water rose to the same height as before, and again it fell, carrying with it houses, merchandise, and even a locomotive and some cars that were standing on the railway track. Altogether there were eleven of these waves, and then there was another shock of an earthquake, lasting about eight minutes, accompanied by repeated rolls of thunder and loud rumblings. This was followed by a rush of water from the ocean; it came on in a great wall breasted with foam, and poured over the land like an avalanche. Nothing could stand against it; the anchor-chains of the ships were snapped like threads, and theWatereeand three or four other ships in port were swept inland and stranded. The sea retired and left her high and dry about four hundred yards inland, in a position where it was impossible to get her afloat again; the same was the case with an English vessel and a Peruvian gun-boat; but the American store-shipFredoniawas less fortunate. She was knocked to pieces on the rocks, and all on board were lost; her captain and four of the crew were ashore at the time, and were saved."
Frank asked if there had ever been any earthquakes in the United States, and if so, whether they amounted to much.
"The United States," the Doctor replied, "can hardly be included among the lands of the earthquake, though we are not by any means exempt from slight shocks. San Francisco has about a dozen disturbances in a year, but they rarely amount to much. Now and then the walls of some of the houses are cracked, and a few are thrown down; the people are more or less frightened, and many threaten to move away in consequence, but very few do so. East of the Rocky Mountains there have been a few shocks, the most violent being in a period of about fifteen months from December 16th, 1811. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, New York, Washington, and other cities as far south as Savannah, were shaken on several occasions, and the earthquakes extended as far west as the Mississippi. New Madrid, in Missouri, seemed to be the centre of the disturbance. Fissures six or eight feet across were opened in the ground, and the land around New Madrid sunk about twelve feet below its former level. It is said that in some places the channel of the great river was changed, and lakes were formed where none had been before. But no lives were lost, and no great damage resulted from these earthquakes; and since that time we have had only an occasional slight trembling in some of the eastern States."
The clock indicated the hour of bedtime, and the talk about earthquakes and their mysteries came to an abrupt end.
The next day was passed in closing up letters for the mail, viewing the destruction caused by the earthquake, and making preparations for leaving Manilla. The Doctor found, on visiting his banker's, that there was a steamer ready to start for Singapore on the following morning, and that she had accommodations for a few passengers. As she would suit their purposes exactly, he engaged places for the party, and in due time they were at sea with the prow of their vessel directed toward the Straits of Malacca.
ON THE WAY TO SINGAPORE.
The anchor was dropped in the harbor of Singapore, and the steamer was quickly surrounded with the same swarm of boatmen that greeted our friends at the time of their first arrival. Some of the sharp-eyed fellows recognized Doctor Bronson and the youths, and claimed them as old acquaintances; the result was that only a few minutes were required for the negotiations that had taken so long on their first visit, and beforethe anchor had been down half an hour the trio were at the hotel with their baggage, and safely quartered in their rooms.[3]
"We are just in time," said the Doctor, "to catch the steamer that leaves here every week for Penang, Rangoon, and Calcutta. We will go in her as far as Rangoon, and have a peep at Burmah, and when we have done with that strange country we can go somewhere else."
The boys were delighted with the idea of going to Burmah, and declared themselves ready to leave on the instant; but they moderated their enthusiasm on learning that the steamer would not start till noon of the next day. A garri was called, and our friends drove to the banker's and the post-office, and their journey was rewarded with a fine parcel of letters and papers from home. They also called at the United States Consulate, and found that two or three letters had been addressed to them in care of the consul, and were safely kept by that gentleman, pending their return.
The news from home was entirely satisfactory. The families of Frank and Fred were greatly interested in the letters which the youths had sent describing their journey, and Miss Effie informed them that some of the letters had been given to the editor of their favorite newspaper, and so had found their way into print. "And the editor says," she added, "that they are good enough to make a book of, and when you get home you shall have one printed."
"What! we make a book!" exclaimed Fred, as Frank read the concluding sentence of Miss Effie's letter; "we could never do it in the world!"
"Why not?" Frank inquired. Evidently he thought the thing possible, perhaps for the reason that his sweetheart so regarded it.
"Because," Fred answered, "we don't write as the books do, or, at any rate, the most of them. We don't trouble ourselves about 'fine writing,' whatever that is, but go straight on and tell what we see and hear, the same as though we were sitting around the table at home and talking to our friends."
"Perhaps, after all," responded his cousin, "a book written in just that way wouldn't be so very bad. It's the kind of book I would prefer in reading about a country; and the fact that the editor prints our letters, shows that he's of my opinion. However, let's not trouble ourselves about the prospects of being book-writers, but go on and make our letters just as we've been making them."
This was agreed to without further discussion, and the rest of the afternoon and the evening were devoted to reading and rereading letters and papers, and answering the most important of the missives.
BAY ON THE COAST OF SUMATRA.
At noon the next day they were steaming out of the harbor of Singapore, and entering the Straits of Malacca. On their right they had the Malay Peninsula stretching away as far as the eye could reach, while on their left were the densely-wooded shores of Sumatra. The air was warm, but its severity was tempered by a breeze that blew steadily in their faces as they steamed up the Straits, and seemed to be laden with the odor of spices and other tropical products. At least so thought Frank, but the Doctor assured him that the perfume was principally imaginary, as they were not yet where spices grow in profusion.
"The principal products of the region we are now passing," he explained, "are rice, sugar, pepper, and gambier, and none of those articles are famous for their odors, with the possible exception of pepper."
One of the boys asked what gambier was.
"Gambier," Doctor Bronson answered, "is a vegetable product that is largely used in dyeing and tanning, and is sometimes called Japan earth, for the reason that when it was first introduced it was supposed to be a species of earth, and to come from Japan. The tree or bush that produces it is of the same family as the Peruvian bark trees, and is a native of the East Indian Archipelago. The leaves and small shrubs are boiled in water, and a thick decoction is formed, which is finally poured into moulds and allowed to harden in the sun. A great quantityof gambier is produced in the Malay Peninsula, and if we went on shore we could visit the plantations where it is cultivated. They would remind us of the tea-plantations we saw in Java, as the bush is six or eight feet high, and looks not unlike the largest tea-shrubs."
COAST SCENE IN THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.
Occasionally the steamer came quite near to the shore, and gave them charming glimpses of the scenery of the Malayan Peninsula. Everywhere there was an abundant vegetation, and the principal trees in the landscape were palms and their kindred. Villages were scattered here and there, and the captain of the steamer pointed out several establishments that he said were the residences of local chiefs, acting under the authority of the British Government. Several provinces along this part of the peninsula are under British control, though nominally ruled by their own sultans; as long as the sultan remains friendly to the English he is allowed to do pretty much as he pleases, but when he defies their authority, they speedily chastise him into obedience. Step by step the English have increased their power in this part of the world, and the movements on the political chess-board indicate that they will not be satisfied until they have secured all the territory between their Indian possessions and the frontier of China.
It is three hundred and ninety miles from Singapore to Penang, and as the steamer was not of the highest speed, she did not reach there untilthe morning of the second day from the former port. In fact, the departure from Singapore had been timed so that they should arrive early in the morning, and have the day before them. Frank and Fred were on deck as the vessel swung into the harbor and came to anchor, and their eyes were busily engaged in contemplating the novel sights of the place. Doctor Bronson joined them a little later, and arranged with some boatmen to take them on shore as soon as breakfast was over. The boatmen were similar to those that surrounded the ship on their arrival at Singapore when they came from Siam—Klings, Chinese, Malays, and Arabs, with a sprinkling of negroes from the coast of Africa.
Penang is an island containing about a hundred square miles in all, and is separated from the main-land of the Malay peninsula by a strait from two to seven miles in width; it is sometimes called Prince of Wales Island, and by the natives is known as Pulo Penang, "pulo" being the Malay word for island. It is an important English possession, and was under the British flag long before Singapore. The history of its transfer to the English is somewhat romantic, and is told as follows:
It formerly belonged to the King or Sultan of Quedah, in Malacca, and was given by him to his daughter on the occasion of her marriage with Captain Light in 1785. Light was master of an English ship trading in the Straits, and a few years after his marriage he sold the island to the East India Company, on condition of being appointed governor. Afterward he negotiated with his father-in-law to give the English authority over the whole province of Quedah on payment of an annual subsidy; the sultan consented, and since that time the English have had complete possession.
We will let the boys tell the story of their sight-seeing in Penang during the day the ship remained there:
"We had no trouble in going ashore, as the boatmen were in competition with each other, and did not demand as high prices as at Singapore; for a dollar apiece we were brought on shore and taken back to the ship again at the end of the day, and the captain says we might have done better than that if we had bargained a little longer. The harbor is at the northern end of the strait that separates Penang from the main-land, and a very nice harbor it is. The capital is called Georgetown, and we are told that it has about 100,000 inhabitants; such a mixture you never saw in America, and we don't believe there are a dozen places in the world with such an odd population. The English are the masters, but there are not more than a thousand of them, not counting the garrison of soldiers; and there are a few Germans, French, Italians, Greeks, and other Europeans.The rest are Malays, Chinese, Parsees, Klings, Bengalees, Arabs, and descendants of the early Portuguese settlers, together with a few other sorts and kinds 'too numerous to mention.'
"We went through the town, but there was nothing very curious, after what we have seen and described to you in Singapore, and so we didn't take a long time about it. Each of us bought a Penang lawyer to take along. What do you suppose a Penang lawyer is?
"It is a cane, or walking-stick, with a straight stem; it has a root shaped like an egg, and forming a capital thing for the hand to grasp when the cane is finished and polished. These canes are called lawyers, because they are employed in settling disputes, and they certainly appear very useful for that purpose. One of them has been known to finish a discussion in a few seconds where an ordinary attorney would have taken an hour or two, and then would have been as far from the end of it as ever. The shillalah of the Irishman is something like it, but though it may be quite as effective, it is not half as handsome.
PALM-TREES IN PULO PENANG.
"Back of Georgetown the hills rise up nearly if not quite two thousand feet, and we were told that from the summit we could have a magnificent view. So we climbed up there, or rather we took a carriage to the foot of the hills, and then hired coolies with chairs to carry us the rest of the way. You cannot imagine a prettier excursion. The tropical trees, with their splendid foliage, shade the roads and paths, and sometimes you can go a mile or more without a ray of the sun striking you; at every turn there is a charming view of some kind or other, and you are constantly in sight of delightful summer-houses, where the merchants and professional residents of Penang have their homes. Higher and higher you go, and find the air becoming cooler as you ascend; when you are at the summit, you find the temperature ten or twenty degrees less than in Georgetown, and are glad that you brought along your light overcoat.
"As we stand at the top we look away to the main-land, and our guide says that in clear weather we can see ninety miles. The harbor with its shipping is in full view, and we have the whole panorama of the island and a long stretch of the Malay peninsula. We seem to be at the top of a great mound of trees, as the whole of the hills are thickly wooded. Farther down there are cleared spaces, especially in the valleys and plains, and we can see fields of rice, sugar-cane, and other products of the warm regions of the earth. On the upper parts of the hills the air is cool enough for the cultivation of European vegetables and flowers that will not grow in the vicinity of Georgetown.
"Where the forest is neglected, even for a few months, it soon becomesso overgrown with jungle that it is not easy to get through it; Doctor Bronson says it is a constant fight with nature to keep down the verdure, and if Penang were left to itself for a single year it would be all overgrown, as when Captain Light came here nearly a hundred years ago. They tell a funny story of how Captain Light cleared away the jungle. He used to load cannon with silver dollars, and then fire them into the grass and bushes; then the Malays went to work to find the dollars, and, of course, they had to clear the ground before they could do so.
A SUBURBAN COTTAGE.
"Where we left our carriage there was a pretty water-fall, and we saw several little cascades on our journey. They are fed by water from the clouds that sweep over Penang, especially during the time of the south-west monsoon, and every owner of a bungalow on the mountain-side tries to have a stream of water going through his place, and if he can get a cascade in it, so much the better. Some of the residents have bathing-houses at the foot of their cascades, and they go there to get cool; a more delightful bath-house than one we saw it would be difficult to imagine. It had a floor of the solid rock of the island, and the water fell into a natural basin about four feet deep, and then ran off through a channel it had worn for itself in hundreds of years of patient work.
A PENANG BUTTERFLY.
"Penang is full of insect life; in some places where we went there was such a buzzing of beetles and other humming things that our voices were drowned when we were twenty yards apart. It reminded us of the buzzing of machinery in a cotton factory, and there was more of it in the early part of the day than later on. There is one beetle they call 'the trumpeter,' that does not rest from making a noise from morning till night unless he is disturbed; when you go near a tree where he is he stops, and does not start again till you go away. There are lots and lots of butterflies, and they are of all sizes and colors; there is one called the 'Saturnia-atlas' that measures ten or twelve inches across the wings, but he is not very abundant, and the only one we saw was in a glass case in the office of a merchant we called on. We saw some beautiful humming-birds, and were told that there are several varieties of these tiny things in Penang. There was a bright metallic lustre all over them, and when we looked at them in a certain light they glistened like a piece of burnished steel.
HUMMING-BIRDS.
"How many kinds of trees there are in Penang it is difficult to say, but there are great numbers of them. Some of them are so heavy that they will sink in water; the Chinese and Malays take these woods to make anchors for their boats and junks, and they use the rattans and bamboos for cordage if they cannot afford twisted ropes. Many of theplants live entirely on air, and we saw trees a foot in diameter growing on a rock where there wasn't a particle of soil. The moist air is what they thrive on, and they seem as well satisfied on a rock as in the richest soil.
"We asked how many fruits there were in Penang, and learned that they amounted to a hundred, and perhaps more. They have that delicious fruit, the mangosteen, that we told you about when in Java; and then they have the pineapple, custard-apple, pomegranate, mango, banana, and we don't know what else. We tried to eat the durian again, but couldn't get through it; and, as we are not to be very long in the land of this fruit, we don't think it worth our while to learn.
"At night the air is full of fire-flies, and sometimes they are so brilliant that they resemble a torch-light procession just breaking up. Then the natives kindle fires under the trees to cook their meals; and, as you ride or walk along the roads, the scene is a curious one, as the figures of these dark-skinned people are brought into strong relief by the light.
A TRAVELLING BLACKSMITH.
"You see so many Chinese in Penang that you can easily believe you are in Shanghai or Hong-Kong. They are everywhere, and in all kinds of business, from the most important to the most humble; they are wholesale merchants of every name and kind, and they practise all the industries known to civilization. There are Chinese tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, jewellers, cabinet-makers, and anything else you might name, besides a variety of trades you couldn't think of. Most of them work in shops, but there are many blacksmiths, cobblers, and others, who go from house to house, and carry their tools in baskets.
"The banks have Chinese clerks to keep the accounts and handle the money, and every European merchant in Penang has a comprador, the same as the merchants in Yokohama and Hong-Kong. You can hardly do anything in the way of buying or selling without coming in contactwith a Chinese, and even if you try to avoid them you cannot. In commercial matters the Chinese have full control, and the European merchants complain that their profits are very light owing to the sharp competition of their Oriental rivals. Every year the Chinese are gaining in business, while the Europeans are diminishing; and the gentleman who told us about them says it is only a question of time, and not a long time at that, before all the trade of Penang will be in the hands of the Chinese.
"They are not only in Georgetown, but all over the island of Penang, and on the main-land. Some of them have been here for many years, and either brought wives from China, or married Malay ones; they have no intention of going back to China but will end their days in Penang. The most of these old settlers are rich, and have fine houses, with magnificent gardens filled with fruits and flowers; but there are plenty of poor settlers who cultivate the soil, and live in modest huts among their market-gardens and pepper-fields. A large part of the agriculture of the island, and of the neighboring province on the main-land, is in Chinese hands, and if all the people of the Flowery Kingdom were driven outof the Malay Peninsula and the adjacent islands, there wouldn't be much business left. Several times the Government has had trouble with them owing to their guilds and combinations; and on two or three occasions they have openly defied the laws, and refused to be bound by them. The garrisons of troops at Penang, Singapore, and other points are necessary to keep the Chinese in order, as no one can tell when they may make a serious disturbance.
"When we were at Manilla, we learned that the Chinese in the Philippine Islands were not always easy to control, and had twice broken into open insurrection. The first time was in 1603, when 23,000 Chinese were slaughtered by the Spanish troops and people; and the second was about fifty years later, when 25,000 were killed, and the rest, amounting to six or eight thousand, were banished. But others came to fill their places, and there have been no more insurrections, though quite often they narrowly escape them.
"It is fair to say, on behalf of the Chinese, that their insurrections in the Philippine Islands were brought about by excessive taxes and religious persecutions; at least we are so informed by the historians who have written on the subject. In Penang there is no danger of trouble on this account, as the inhabitants have the fullest liberty in the matter of religion, and the taxes are the same for all nationalities.
"It was late when we got back to the steamer, and, as we were pretty tired, we went straight to bed. When we rose in the morning, we were steaming out of the harbor; and so ended our visit to Penang."
The voyage from Penang to Rangoon was an agreeable one for our young friends, as the sea was not disturbed by storms, and the temperature on deck, both night and day, was delightful. In the cabins it was too warm for comfort, as the iron sides of the ship absorbed a great deal of heat, and the arrangements for ventilation were not able to carry it off. The passengers slept on deck beneath the triple awning that covered the whole stern of the ship, and the boys had a table arranged there where they wrote their journals, and the letters describing what they had seen. The evenings were devoted to conversation on whatever topics happened to come up, and before they reached Rangoon the boys had made a material addition to their already extensive stock of information.
The distance from Penang to Rangoon is 1194 miles, and the steamer took five days to make the voyage. Consequently, the boys had all thetime they wished for bringing their writing up to date, and getting ready for the new sights and sensations that awaited them in Burmah.
FIRST VIEW OF THE METEOR.
On their first evening out from Penang the travellers were sitting near the stern of the steamer, and gazing out over the moonlit waters. The stars were bright in the sky, and the boys were designating the various clusters and constellations, as they had learned them at school, when suddenly there was a flash of light about half-way from the horizon to the zenith, and directly in their line of vision. Then it moved across the heavens from right to left, with a slightly downward course, and, as the youths fixed their eyes upon it, there was an appearance of an explosion, and the sky assumed its former aspect.
"A shooting-star!" Frank exclaimed.
"Or perhaps a meteor," Fred responded.
"Either way you like," said the Doctor, "as both names are used for the phenomenon. It also has the name of 'falling-star,' as the path is generally downward, or apparently so."
Frank asked what a shooting-star, meteor, or falling-star was composed of, and what was the reason of its appearance.
EXPLOSION OF THE METEOR.
"That is a question more easily asked than answered," the Doctor replied. "Scientific men in all parts of the world have devoted a great deal of time and attention to the subject, but they are not, as yet, satisfactorily informed as to the character of the meteor."
"Don't they fall on the earth sometimes?" Fred inquired. "I haveread of aerolites that came from the air to the earth, and were composed of solid matter. Are not these aerolites parts of shooting-stars?"
"Circumstantial evidence favors the theory that some of the aerolites come from falling-stars; but, at the same time, no solid matter has reached the earth that can be directly traced to one. The amount of solid matter in an ordinary shooting-star is so small that it is thought to be consumed in its passage through the air, where its great velocity causes it to be heated to a very high degree; whenever anything has fallen from the sky to the earth, and been found at the time of its fall, it is always intensely hot."
"How far off was that meteor we just saw?" said Frank.
"Fifty or sixty miles, I presume," the Doctor answered. "It has been determined that shooting-stars begin to be visible at distances varying from forty to one hundred and twenty miles, and disappear at from thirty to eighty miles. During the time we saw it, it moved about ninety miles; it was in sight three or four seconds, and its velocity was, therefore, not far from thirty miles a second; a pretty fast rate of travelling."
"Ever so much faster than a cannon-ball," Fred remarked. "No wonder it gets heated so that it is consumed."
"But you didn't tell us about the aerolites, and what they are made of," Frank protested.
"Nor about the circumstantial evidence in favor of their coming from the shooting-stars," added Fred.
"Several instances may be given," Doctor Bronson replied; "but the following from Professor Loomis will be sufficient to illustrate the theory:
"On the morning of December 14th, 1807, a meteor of great brilliancy was seen moving in the atmosphere over the town of Weston, in Connecticut. Its apparent diameter was about half that of the full-moon; when it disappeared several persons heard a sound resembling the discharge of a cannon, followed by smaller reports like a fire of musketry. Soon after the explosions a man heard a sound like the falling of a heavy body, and upon examination he discovered that a stone had fallen upon a rock near his house and was dashed into fragments, which were quite hot when picked up. When put together they were found to weigh about twenty pounds.
"In another place, five miles away from the first one, somebody found a hole in the turf, and on digging down about two feet he brought up a stone weighing thirty-five pounds. Other stones were found in the neighborhood weighing respectively ten, thirteen, twenty, and thirty-six pounds,and at a spot several miles distant there were a dozen fragments, evidently broken from a mass of two hundred pounds or more, that struck a large rock with great force. The entire weight of all the pieces of the meteor found in Weston exceeded three hundred pounds, and one of the specimens, weighing thirty-six pounds, is preserved in the cabinet at Yale College."
"The proof is pretty conclusive that the fragments came from the shooting-star," one of the boys remarked. "Do they know how high it was in the sky when it blew up?"
"It was first seen near Albany," was the reply, "and it disappeared near Weston. When first seen it was about eighty miles high; its course carried it toward the earth, so that when it exploded it was only eight miles high. Probably the greater part of the meteor fell into Long Island Sound and was lost, as the direction in which it was going would take it there.
"There have been some twenty or more aerolites in the United States whose falls have been known at the time of their occurrence, besides a good many discoveries of meteoric stones. There was one in Ohio in 1860 that burst in the air one day about noon; several stones were seen to fall and were secured, the largest of them weighing one hundred and three pounds. The surface of all the stones was covered with a crust, as though they had been melted.
"Now we come to the composition of the meteoric fragments. It varies greatly, some of them containing ninety-six per cent. of iron, while others have only one per cent.; in some there will be eighteen per cent. of nickel, and in others less than one per cent. There are many aerolites that consist of silica, lime, magnesia, and kindred substances; these are called meteoric stones, to distinguish them from those where iron preponderates, the latter having the name of meteoric iron.
"Aerolites generally contain small quantities of cobalt, tin, copper, and one or two other metals, in addition to the iron. The latter, when in large proportion, is readily malleable, and can be wrought by the blacksmith with the utmost ease. You know that iron ore is one of the most abundant minerals, but metallic iron in a state of nature is exceedingly rare. The curious thing about these meteors is that the iron in them is always metallic, and not in the shape of ore.
THE SANTA ROSA AEROLITE.
"I will now tell you," he continued, "about the structure of these masses of iron that fall from the sky. Their surfaces are more or less dotted and indented, and sometimes they suggest that there were large bubbles of air on them at the time they were cooled. One that fell near Lockport, in the State of New York, is honey-combed as though cavities had been dug in it with a chisel, and another that came from Santa Rosa, in New Grenada, has a less number of dimples in it, but they are deeper. And let me say, before I forget it, that this aerolite from Santa Rosa weighs 1600 pounds, and has about one cubic foot of volume; it is consequently very dense, and is composed of nearly pure iron."
Fred asked if that was the largest meteor ever found.
MELBOURNE AEROLITE.
"Not by any means," the Doctor answered. "The largest in any collection was sent from Melbourne, Australia, to the British Museum, and weighs 8257 pounds. The same museum has one from Otumpa, South America, that weighs 1400 pounds, and was detached from a mass estimated to weigh more than fifteen tons. This is the largest mass of meteoric iron known to exist.
STRUCTURE OF THE TEXAS AEROLITE.
"Meteoric iron has a highly crystalline formation, which can be foundby polishing a surface and then heating it to whiteness. When it is cooled it will be found covered with curious lines and streaks that remind you of the frost-marks on a window-pane. An aerolite found in Texas was submitted to the heating process; the streaks that were developed remained there permanently, and the same is the case with several others. Ordinary iron will not exhibit these marks, but they can sometimes be produced in iron that has been melted out of volcanic rocks."
"How does the iron get up in the atmosphere to form these aerolites?" one of the boys inquired.
"That is a conundrum I give up without trying," the Doctor replied. "Nobody has yet been able to tell us, and we must be content with the fact that it is there.
"And there is a good deal of it up in the regions beyond the clouds," he continued, "if we are to judge by the number of meteors or shooting-stars that are seen every year. It has been estimated that more than a thousand meteors fall daily through the air so near the earth that they might be seen from one place if the clouds and the sun and moon would permit; taking this as a basis, there are more than 8,000,000 of meteors visible every day from all over the earth. Once in a while we have meteoric showers, when thousands of meteors can be seen from one point in an hour's time, and frequently the fall is so rapid that they cannot be counted. But it is a curious circumstance that in these showers no meteor or its fragments have been known to strike the earth."
A good deal more was said on this subject that we have not space for recording, and from meteors the conversation wandered to the moon, and around among the stars generally, till it was bedtime. In the latter part of their talk they were joined by the captain of the ship, who told them that the natives of the Malay peninsula and the coast of Burmah have a remarkable knowledge of astronomy, so far as it relates to the navigation of their sailing craft. "To find our positions at sea," said he, "we must use elaborate instruments and take several observations, particularly in getting our longitude; but these natives will work up their longitude by observations on the stars with a simple apparatus consisting of a stick and a string. The string is twice as long as the stick, and is fastened to its ends; there are several knots on the string and notches on the stick, and by holding this rude instrument in a certain position, and observing the relations between the knots and notches with some of the more prominent stars, they will get their longitude exactly.
"It is too late now," said the captain, "or I would tell you about a most remarkable voyage that was made across the Bay of Bengal, a few years ago, by men who had no knowledge whatever of navigation. Perhaps we'll have it to-morrow night."
With this remark he left them, and, as before stated, the evening session came to an end at the hour for retiring to sleep.
According to promise the captain joined our friends the next evening, and told them of the feat performed by a small party of natives in crossing the Bay of Bengal in an open boat.[4]
RIVER-BOATS IN BURMAH.
"There were five of them," said the captain, "and they went to sleep in their boat one night, so as to take an early start up the river from Rangoon. The boat was made from a hollowed log, and was about twenty-five feet long by four wide in the centre; it had a mast with a small square sail, like what you generally see on the native boats in the East, and its sides were not more than a foot above water. This was the craft that safely carried five men a thousand miles across the open sea.
"They went to sleep, as I said, and when they waked in the morning, just at dawn, they found themselves at sea. The boat had become untied from the stake where it was fastened; the strong current of the river, with the ebb-tide, had floated them down at a rapid rate, and before they knew it they were out of sight of land.
"Not one of them had ever been at sea before; they were all from the upper country, and some of them had not even heard there was any water in the world beyond their own river. The oldest of the party was captain of the boat; he had heard something about 'the black water' that was so salt as to poison those who drank it, but beyond that he had very little information concerning it.
OUT ON THE WATERS.
"He had no idea in what direction he should steer to reach land, but remembered that it was necessary to keep a straight course to get anywhere. Whether to go east, west, north, or south, he could not say, and in fact he hardly knew the points of compass. He had no compass, or anything of the sort, and so he concluded that to steer properly he should keep the sun constantly on his left hand. It was unfortunate that he did not decide to keep the sun on the right hand, as he would then have brought up on the coast of Burmah, while the course he took was westward, across the Bay of Bengal.
"The boat was loaded with salt belonging to an English house in Rangoon, and consigned to their agency up the river. The old man ordered the salt thrown overboard to lighten the boat; then he divided the provisions, giving each man his share. The sail was spread to the light wind that was blowing, and with the sun on the left the boat moved on.
A WRECK AT SEA.
"The only provisions were a couple of bags of rice, and with care this could be made to last a month. They had very little fresh water, and the old man's ingenuity was set to work to devise means ofcollecting some. They had a little furnace on some earth in the middle of the boat where they did their cooking, and they had a bag or two of charcoal. Whenever they were engaged in cooking their daily allowance of rice, thepadronecaused his companions to dip a couple of tin plates in the sea; when these plates were cooled as much as the sea-water could cool them, they were wiped dry and held in the steam that rose from the rice-kettle, and in this way a few drops of water could be obtained. As soon as they were heated, the water that had accumulated on the plates would be wiped off, and the dipping in the sea would be renewed. Enough water was collected in this way to prevent their dying of thirst,but not enough to save them from considerable suffering. Of course the rice contained a good deal of water which it absorbed in the process of cooking: the usual mode of preparing rice in the East is to steam it above a boiling kettle, and not to place it in the water, after the American manner. Occasionally they were surrounded by flying-fish, but they never caught any, though they tried to do so.