Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1880 — BITS OF INFORMATION. [ARTICLE]

BITS OF INFORMATION.

The equinox occurs a little earlier (about twenty minutes) overy year; hence, in the course of time, the first day of winter, which no»v comes on the 21st of December, will come on the 4th of July, and in the course of 20, 000 years will come again on the 21st of December. A letter from Tokio furnishes some interesting details concerning the number of foreigners resident in Japan. In 1879 there were 2,475 Europeans and i Americans in the whole empire. Of j these 1,007 were English, 470 Amerij <eans, 300 Germans, 105 Hollanders, 95 FP/wtnnnaea orwlilio vnmoinripr WHS divided among other nationalities, prm;ei pally French and Italians. The “needle” is supposed, in all places and at all hours of the day or night, to point to the north or the North pole or the pole star. In point •of fact it does nothing of the kind. In mo two localities on the earth does it point in precisely the same direction, and in no one place does it continue constant for any great length of time. It may be a true indicator of the direc- \ tion of electric currents, but by no means the points of the compass. There is no known law for the variation of the needle. At the present time off Sandy Hook it is half a point or 5 de- ! grebs and increasing. Off the Banks it jumps suddenly to two points or 22 degrees, and in the British channel it is two and a half points or 30 degrees and ! decreasing. In high latitudes the variation is much greater. The principal source of salt is the .sea. Salt beds are the bottoms of old bays or gulfs that once connected with the ocean, but were cut off from i„, the water evaporating and leaving the crystals behind. Europe, the West Indies, Central and South America manufacture salt direct from sea water. In this country it is chiefly made from brines. Brines are chance solutions of salt deposits by subterranean streams, or artificial solutions of salt deposits dissolved in the mine for greater ease in removing impurities. Rapid evaporation of the brine by heat produces fine salt; slow evaporation by the sun, coarse salt. The Great Salt Lake of Utah was once a part of the Atlantic ocean. Geological change cut it off from the sea, and it remains salt. The amount of salt in a lake will remain constant, or nearly so, and it needs no supply to keep it salt. There is no salt in the atm^shere.