J. W. GREGORY.

From Chambers' Journal. GREAT CORK FORESTS.

WHEN experts in the science of for-estry discourse upon cork forests, they generally confine this significant nomenclature to the cork forests of Spain and Portugal, which are reckoned the largest and finest cork-producing forests in the world. The scattered groups of cork-trees growing throughout the northern coasts of Africa rank next in priority to those of southern Europe ; but they do not appear, even in the aggregate, to deserve the appellation conferred upon some of the groups of the latter continent.

but distribute it more evenly through-respective applications of these theout the year. There would then, more- ories, and thus the exploration of east over, possibly not have been any such Africa is not of value merely as yieldsharp differentiation into wet and dry ing new topographical information, but seasons. Hence districts that now, as from its bearing on the principles of barren, sandy deserts, present a barrier geographical evolution. to animal migration, would then have been well-watered, fertile prairies, thin scrub would have been replaced by woodland, and the present woods would have spread out from the river valleys into extensive forests. Thus all the factors that govern the distribution of animals would have been quite different from those that rule at the present day. It is the same with the freshwater faunas, though here the change is due not to the alteration of climate but of the structure of the country. If we take the fish fauna, it is so mixed up at present that, as Dr. Günther recently remarked to me, "The rivers must have had a very different course from the present ones." Professor Suess has suggested that there was once a connection between the Nile and the Rift Valley, and the collection of fossil mollusca from the old lake beaches renders a connection with the rivers now belonging to the Nile system highly probable. Many of the fish of the Tana, Sabaki, and Athi, as well as of the rivers of the Rift Valley, have been identified by Dr. Günther as Nile and Abyssinian species. There is other evidence which also suggests that before the Nile had cut its course back through the gorge south of Lado, the drainage of the great lakes followed eastward, along the Salisbury Lake chain, into the Rift Valley; thence it probably flowed through the region of Afar, much of which is now below sea level, and finally discharged into the Red Sea.

The Americans, many years ago,. took active steps to propagate extensive cork plantations for themselves; and by way of experiment, a large quantity of Portuguese acorns were transmitted in the year 1859 and planted in selected parts of their country; and the result, eleven years after, proved satisfactory so far as the growth was concerned.. Some of the trees attained to a height of thirteen feet, and the stem to a diameter of eleven inches, including the bark, which attained a thickness of one inch. This evidently rapid growth. would infer that the American zone was all that could be desired for the favorable rearing of cork-trees. But, strange to say, this was not the case; In addition to these questions there although the growth of the tree had is the nature of the Rift Valley, which been exceptionally strong, the quality has yet wider general bearings from of its salient product turned out to be its evidence upon the two brilliant of an inferior character. The cork theories of the evolution of existing generally improves with the age of the continental form, which we owe to tree; in this instance, however, even Professor Suess, of Vienna, and Pro- after years of maturity, the cork harfessor Lapworth, of Birmingham. vested did not improve to any great The study of the Rift Valley may be extent, and, indeed, is still of a secondexpected to throw much light upon the rate quality.

Before the present supplies from the the south of the Guadiana, and part of home-growth in America, the primitive Estremadura, between the Tagus and material used for bottle-stoppers con- the Guadiana rivers. In the latter resisted of the roots of liquorice, which gion the forests are extremely dense; were cut and formed to the shape of but the quality of cork harvested is incorks. The spongy substance of an- ferior to that produced in the districts other tree, called Spondias lutea, which of Catalonia, where the cork is of a abounds throughout the marshy re-firmer and more compact texture. Algions of South America, and there though the cork forests of Estremadura called Monbia, was also used in the same way. The roots of liquorice are still often used in North America for the making of bottle-stoppers; as also another product called Myssa, which contains some of the component elements akin to cork.

difficult to find in any substance out- to supply the demand from this source, side the range of cork.

which may more than counterbalance any falling off in the supply to the principal branch of the cork industry. The methods in vogue in barking and harvesting the cork in Spain and Portugal are pretty much the same. The barking operation is effected when the tree has acquired sufficient strength to withstand the rough handling it re

The application of cork as a bottlestopper for liquid vessels is said to be of great antiquity; the earliest record extant of its use in Europe is that mentioned by Horace, who asserts that the Romans had cork as stoppers for their wine amphora. Certain of the uses of cork were known to the ancient Greeks and Egyptians; but whether ceives during this operation, which they used cork for stopping the mouths of their liquid vessels history does not say. It was not, however, until the year 1760 that the Spaniards first commenced to work their cork woods with some degree of regularity for the making of "corks."

Although, perhaps, corks were more or less in use from the time glass bottles were first invented, which Beckmann asserts to have been in the fifteenth century, yet it was not until two and a half centuries later that the Spaniards began to prepare cork for bottle-stoppers, which they did in a forest situated at the north-east of the Tigueras, on the Muge. The cork industry has since gradually risen to be one of the first magnitude, its chief centre in Spain being in Catalonia, where, at the present, a population of 8,228 persons are employed, who in the course of each year turn out about one hundred and eighty-eight thousand hundredweight of cork grown in the province; one hundred and forty-four thousand hundredweight of cork grown · in other provinces of Spain; besides forty-seven thousand hundredweight of cork exported from Algeria. The revenue from the cork industry of Spain amounts to £1,073,880 per annum.

Considering the number of newly invented stoppers now in use, it would be reasonable to anticipate a pro rata decrease in the consumption of cork. On comparing the past with the latest trade returns of Spain and Portugal, no perceptible change appears to have taken place in this respect. Probably we can account for it in this way, by taking into consideration the increasing progress in some branches of science, and the large draughts made upon cork

takes place when it has attained the fifteenth year of its growth. After the first stripping, the tree is left in this juvenescent state to regenerate, subsequent strippings being effected at intervals of not less than three years; and under this process the tree will continue to thrive and bear for upwards of a hundred and fifty years. If the bark is not removed artificially, it will on maturity split and dismantle itself; this is caused by the fresh growth of bark forming underneath.

The cork of the first barking is termed Corcho bornio-bornizo, or virgin cork; the cork of the second stripping is called Pelas, or secondary cork. The work of removing the bark from the tree is performed in summer by men, who are paid at the rate of two shillings and sixpence a day. The instruments used for the work are an axe, a lever, and a hand-saw for the cutting of transversal incisions.

The first process through which the bark passes after stripping is that of boiling. This is sometimes done in the woods, but more frequently in the cork factory, in large, specially constructed caldrons, in which the bark is left to boil for upwards of an hour. This seething process increases the thickness and elasticity of the cork; and at the same time the tannin and other feculent substances generally existing in the bark are desiccated.

The various uses of cork in this country are pretty generally known, and do not require recapitulating; but some of its applications where it is indigenous are not perhaps so universally known; it may therefore be interesting to mention some of them. In Spain, beehives, kitchen pails, and

ception of a section of territory at the extreme south and extreme north, where a calcareous strip of country exists, separating the cork-trees of the valley of the Tagus from those of the valley of the Douro.

other culinary utensils, are made of The geographical formation of Portugal cork, including pillows. In Italy, is extremely favorable for the rearing images and crosses are carved out of of cork-trees; indeed, every evidence it, and footpaths are paved with it. In of this characteristic is well marked by Turkey, it forms cabins for the cork- the densely thick groups of cork-trees cutters, and coffins for the dead. In to be seen in certain regions, especially Morocco, it appears in the form of in the valley of the Tagus and the drinking - vessels, plates, tubs, and Sierra de Portalegre, which are the water conduits. In Algeria, shoes, chief cork-bearing centres of the counarmor, and boats, and various articles try. The cork-tree virtually abounds of furniture, consume their share. in every part of Portugal, with the exCups made of cork have been recommended for the use of hectic persons. One familiar article in which a great deal of cork is used in our own country is the cork jacket, an adjunct to the outfit of the mariner which cannot be dispensed with. This life-protecting apparatus, although no doubt a vast improvement on the original, cannot be classed among modern inventions; for Plutarch, in his life of Camellus, mentions that the messenger sent by that general to his fellow-citizens when besieged in the Capitol, used a cork jacket in swimming across the Tiber, the Gauls being in possession of the bridge. The Portuguese use cork for structural purposes, such as roofing houses and lining wells, as well as in articles of domestic use.

From Blackwood's Magazine.

THE NEWEST ABOUT EARTH-WORMS. PERHAPS the very last attribute that would seem likely to characterize our humble friend the earth-worm is the capacity for making a noise; we are told that the worm, when unduly provoked, will turn, but it does this in a quiet way, as a rule. It is, however, an undoubted fact that in the island of Java there exists a worm which amuses With regard to the cork forests of itself in the night by producing “a Portugal, our data are unfortunately sharp, interrupted sound." Darwin, too meagre to enable us to estimate as everybody knows, raised our views what exact proportion of the thirty-of the intelligence of the earth-worm four thousand square miles of country to a very considerable height; but even occupied by Portugal is devoted to the he did not suspect the creature of this cultivation of cork. The reason as- claim to a higher place in the animal signed for the non-existence of this world. For some time this extraordistatistical detail by the government is, nary deviation from worms in general that the cork forests of the country are was literally "vox et præterea nihil; in the hands of private individuals, the but ultimately it was found and chrisState forests being very few in Portu- tened in the vernacular of its country gal. In the absence of a government tjatring son darie, a name which apstatistical report as to the area cov- pears to indicate its power of speech. ered by cork forests, the only idea The more technical but not less apt which can be formed of the magnitude name of Megascolex musicus was subscof the Portuguese cork industry is that quently given to it. Whether by this obtained from the trade returns of that means a worm can advise its friends of country. the approach of the local equivalent for the mole, which in this country is its chief foe, remains uncertain; but in any case one might suppose that there was some good reason for this curious deviation from the normal. Perhaps

The total quantity of cork exported in the year 1890 is stated to be 453,650 hundredweight of cork in the rough, and 42,427 hundredweight of cork manufactured into articles of commerce.

the uncanny effect produced by sound - the worm would leave its tail in the issuing from so silent a creature may possession of the bird and go on its paralyze the energies of some intending way rejoicing; but, unlike the fox in foe. Mr. Darwin first brought the the fable, it would be able to grow a earth-worm into fashion; since he new tail to offer to a second bird. In wrote about it, it has steadily gone up this respect the worm offers a curious in position, and may now be fairly re- analogy to certain snails. Some of garded as belonging to the inverte- these have a weak spot in the extended brate aristocracy. It wants, it is true, foot; when pecked at, the latter half of one feature of aristocracy, the earth- the tail, which, as in the case of the worm is not blue-blooded like the king-worm, contains no vital organs of imcrab and some other ancient forms of portance, is sacrificed to save the anilife; it has, indeed, red blood colored mal from being swallowed entire. by a pigment identical with that which Though no other earth-worm, so far tints the blood of man - a further claim as is known, possesses a special proupon our sympathies. There is, how-vision for parting with a section of ever, no doubt at all about its very an- itself with impunity, a considerable cient lineage. It has in all probability loss of length can be suffered with the been a native of the soil ever since there has been any soil to be a native of.

utmost indifference. There are even species not indeed true earth-worms. but close allies which voluntarily, when they find themselves getting too large, break up into shorter and, it must be presumed, more convenient lengths.

Instead of retiring at the approach of man, as most savage animals do—if such an epithet can be applied to so mild a creature it has been in many The agitation caused by a places positively increased in numbers slight handling of the creature is by the appearance of man, in spite of enough to produce this result. When trout-fishers. By various means it is this happens, and one or two pieces are able to triumph over various defects in devoured, it is difficult to say whether its equipment for the battle of life; the the animal has been killed or not; the struggle for existence must be a phrase individual becomes a little confused absolutely without meaning for the under these circumstances. Each fragearth-worm. In its case a familiar ment, be it observed, can grow into a sentence must be reversed to express complete worm; so that the lumbricuthe truth, for it has no eyes and yet can lus, as this particular worm is called, is see (in a sense); and indeed, gener- literally a committee of one with power ally speaking, though without organs to add to its number. It is superior to of special sense, it possesses all the the hydra; for it can grow not only a special senses: it can hear; its palate new head as fast as the old one is is delicate; it is aware, as already men- lopped off, but a new body or a new tioned, of light and darkness. What anything. Hercules would have found more can be said? It can even cir- his match here. "Thus it is," recumvent, sometimes by astuteness and marked some one impolitely of the other times by peculiarities of struc- worm, "that the most contemptible ture, the early bird. In the forests of lives are with the greatest difficulty deSouth America, and in some other stroyed." These latter facts, however, parts of the world, there is a small spe- date from the time of Bonnet, Müller, cies provided with a clear spot towards and the other fathers of experimental the tail; at this point the tissues of zoology, and hardly, therefore, come the body are in a somewhat immature under the head of the "newest about condition, and seem to be softer and worms." more breakable than elsewhere. Now,

if a bird grasps the worm anywhere behind this spot-and there is at least one chance in three that this happens

The fact about earth-worms which is perhaps of the chief interest to naturalists is their astonishing diversity of structure under a great uniformity of