Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 39.djvu/439

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POPULAR MISCELLANY.
425

"You no like girl first; if you do, the girl laugh at you and call you a woman." (That is, the young man must not propose marriage to a girl, but must wait for her to ask first.)

"You no marry the sister of your mate, or by and by you will be ashamed; mates all same as brothers." (But "mates" may marry two sisters.)

"You no marry your cousin; she all same as sister."

"If any one asks for food, or water, or anything, you give something; if you have a little, give a little; if you have plenty, give half."

"Look after your mother and father; never mind if you and your wife go without."

"Don't speak bad word to mother."

"Give half of all your fish to your parents; don't be mean."

"Father and mother all along same as food in belly; when they die you feel hungry and empty."

"Mind your uncles, too, and cousins."

"If woman walk along, you no follow; by and by man look, he call you bad name."

"If a canoe is going to another place, you go in canoe; no stop behind to steal woman."

"If your brother is going out to fight, you help him; don't let him go first, but go together."

A Glacial Epoch in the Carboniferous Period.—Data are collated by Dr. C. D. White, in a paper published in the American Geologist, on Carboniferous Glaciation in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres—based on observations in India, Australia, and South Africa—which show that evidences of glacial action are abundant and marked within an area extending from 40° south latitude to 35° north, and from 20° east longitude to 155° east, and including more than one fourth of the earth's surface. The idea that there was a glacial epoch in later Palæozoic or earliest Mesozoic time has, in the light of these evidences, gained credence steadily since 1872, "until at last it is supported, not only officially, but individually," by nearly every geologist who has specially examined them or studied them in the field. This is also the conclusion generally accepted by European geologists, including Prestwich and Neumayr, who is quoted as saying, in his Erdgeschichte, that there can no longer be any doubt that during the latter half of the Carboniferous period strata were deposited in southern Australia, Farther India, and the Cape region of South Africa, whose material shows all the characteristic features of transportation by means of glaciers.

Packing Fruit for Transportation.—The instructions of the British Pomological Society respecting the packing of fruit for transportation advise that, for protection against injury from pressure, it be put up in boxes or stout baskets; against shaking, by using cases of moderate dimensions in every direction, or cases cut up by partitions, and by laying the separate articles so closely and compactly that they shall just keep each other steady without crushing. Packing material which might communicate an unpleasant flavor should not be used. The bloom of fruits is best preserved when they are packed in young nettle-tops, partly dried, or in cartridge-paper. Grapes carry best if tied down to the bottom of a shallow box, or when each bunch is inclosed separately in a piece of stout cartridge-paper. Melons should be inclosed in cap paper, placed in a box, and surrounded by chaff, bran, or dry sawdust. Peaches, nectarines, and apricots should be carefully inclosed in a piece of tissue-paper, and kept separate from one another by cotton-wool. Plums, when the bloom is important, should be rolled up, six or eight together, in a piece of cartridge paper, and tied round with matting. When the bloom is not important, they may be packed in strawberry or similar leaves. Cherries, gooseberries, and currants travel very well, under general circumstances, if laid together in small, shallow baskets or punnets. In packing strawberries, raspberries, and mulberries, each fruit should be separately surrounded by one or two strawberry leaves.

The Care of Milk and Cream.—In milk and cream exposed to the air, bacteria readily collect and multiply rapidly. They cause the souring and curdling of milk and induce other changes in it, while their effect on