< Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu
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1913.]

NATURE AND SCIENCE FOR YOUNG FOLKS

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north coast of South America, and far to the east of all the other islands of the West Indies, where the strong trade-winds sweep in from the Atlantic Ocean, and for many months blow constantly in one direction. The people use these steady winds, and, with many windmills, have harnessed them to do the work of the island. The mill shown in our picture turns slowly day after day, grinding the sap from the great loads of cane that are drawn in from the fields by the faithful oxen. We owe much to the trade-winds, for they blew Columbus surely and safely on his course across the Atlantic, till he landed on a little island in the West Indies, and discovered the new world. Also the same useful trade-winds blew the big merchant ships across the ocean, before the days of steamships, and made possible the commerce of the world.

“Watered” the horses from his hat

A party of us were spending our vacation in the wild state forest of Minnesota at Lake Itasca, where the Mississippi is really an infant stream, too small to float even a canoe.

Our host, forest ranger John L. Stillwell, had taken us for a long drive to spend a day with the black bass in one of the numerous lakes of the Itasca Reserve. We had just enjoyed our dinner in the cool, airy shade of young birches and alders, when our host arose with a troubled look on his face. “Now think of that!” he remarked, much displeased with himself. “I hauled a boat and a lot of stuff out here, and forgot to bring a pail for my horses; and the shore of the lake
He used his hat as a pail. and the bank of the stream are too marshy for leading them to water. But I guess I ’ll find a way.”

As he led the first horse to the old corduroy bridge, I turned my camera upon it. It took some time to satisfy the two horses, but the improvised pail proved entirely satisfactory. D. Lange.

Bent by the sun

The towering Washington monument, solid as it is, cannot resist the heat of the sun, poured on its
The Washington Monument, and in the foreground, its reflection in the water.
Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Railroad. southern side on a midsummer’s day, without a slight bending of the gigantic shaft, which is rendered perceptible by means of a copper wire, 174 feet long, hanging in the center of the structure, and carrying a plummet suspended in a vessel of water. At noon in summer the apex of the monument, 550 feet above the ground, is shifted, by expansion of the stone, a few hundredths of an inch toward the north. High winds cause perceptible motions of the plummet, and in still weather delicate vibrations of the crust of the earth, otherwise unperceived, are registered by it.—Scientific American.

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