Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/149

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POPULAR MISCELLANY.
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expected to cost ten thousand dollars, and it is intended to stand in Trinity Cemetery, overlooking the Hudson, and not far from the Audubon mansion. All gifts will be publicly acknowledged. They may be sent to William Dutcher, No. 51 Liberty Street, New York. A committee of the Linnæan Society, consisting of L. S. Foster, C. S. Allen, M. D., and Jonathan Dwight, Jr., are co-operating in this enterprise, to whom gifts may also be sent, 11 West Twenty-ninth Street, New York.

British North Borneo.—The portion of Borneo ceded to the British North Borneo Company is of about the same size with Scotland, mountainous on the western side, and having large slopes and flats on the eastern side. Among the mountains is the Kina Balu, more than 13,900 feet high. Several rivers rise near the west coast, and, following a very long and winding course, fall into the sea on the east. The junction of several of these forms the Kina Batangau, a noble stream navigable by large steamers for 150 miles. On one of the tributaries of this river, the Quarmote, are the Alexander Falls, said to be a grand cataract, but never yet seen by any European. The rivers on the east coast run through an uninhabited virgin forest. On the west there is a fair population. From the healthfulness .of its climate, the equableness and moderate heat of its temperature, the absence of physical disturbances, and the prodigious natural wealth with which it abounds. North Borneo promises to support a very large population. Ferocious wild animals are absent, while large game appears to be plenty. Valuable timber exists in great quantities, and is accessible; and, after the wood has been cleared off, the ground will be available for cultivation.

Philosophy of Combinations of Capital and Labor.—In an address before the Christian Conference which was held in Washington last December, ex-Mayor Low, of Brooklyn, held that the combinations of capital and labor, as represented by the corporation and the trades-union, arc not necessarily antagonistic to one another, but are really different manifestations of the same force—the force which emphasizes the interdependence of society as against the individualizing forces of popular government. If the working on one side has resulted in wrong, it is equally the case on the other side; but the corporation is liable to the imputation that it is without sympathies and without a conscience. The workman is under the disadvantage that in the present minute division of labor his occupation has become almost wholly mechanical, and in case of the loss of his single function he has no resource. This belittling of the workmen's life has doubtless aggravated their sense of antagonism to capital. The same influences which have reduced the workingman in his daily scope have widened indescribably the privilege and opportunity of capital. Has capital appreciated as it should the responsibility and the duty which come with the privilege?

Mother-of-Pearl in the Red Sea.—The mother-of-pearl fisheries of the Red Sea extend the whole length of that water. About three hundred boats are employed by the Arab tribes who are engaged in the work—open, undecked boats, of from eight to twenty tons burden, carrying a large lateen sail, manned by crews of from five to twelve men, and each provided with a number of small canoes. There are two fishing seasons during the year, one of four and one of eight months, during nearly the whole of which the boats keep the sea. Fatal accidents are said to be unknown among the divers, and they are remarkable for their strength and good health. They dive between the ages of ten and forty years, and the practice is said to have no ill effects. Operations are conducted only in calm weather, when the shell can be discovered by the eye at a depth varying between seven and fifteen fathoms. Of late years, empty petroleum tins, with the ends knocked out and a sheet of glass inserted in one end, have been used to assist the eye. The glazed end of the tin is submerged under the sea, when a much clearer and deeper vision is obtained. During the last ten years the find is said to have diminished, owing to the dearth of shells, from ten to twenty per cent in quantity. Shells brought to Jeddah for sale are disposed of at public auction in heaps of about half a hundred--