308
THE WEST SHORE.
December, 1883,
THE DIGGERS AND THEIR DEMON.
The country around Bloomer Hill, just across
the river, opposite Cherokee, was made hideous
lately by the recurrence of that savage custom
among the Indians known as their burning. To
observe this ancient custom, which they regard
with superstitious sanctity, about $0 dusky sons
and daughters of the forest prepared their soup,
gathered their wood and made all arrangements
for the burning, which took place about 12
o'clock. This place, Bloomer Hill, has been for
years the Indian burying ground, and It is esti
mated that thousands have been buried there.
At sunset they sprinkled the graves with flour and
yelled as none but an Indian can until exhausted.
' The next evening, after being refreshed with grass
hopier, angleworm and acorn soup, they manu
factured their demon. The materials used in con
structing his satanlc majesty were bones any
kind and feathers promiscuously gathered. He
was about four feet high, and looked as much
like the " devil before day '' as can be imagined.
AIout dark they built a large fire and kept it
burning until about midnight with wood gathered
for that purpose. Then commenced the sacrificial
offerings, which consisted of wearing apparel and
provisions, which they suppose will be wafted by
something like " presto change " to their friends
in the happy hunting grounds. After burning
about 500 pounds of flour, several squaw-loads of
bacon, numerous red handkerchiefs, breeches and
shirts, they listened to a long and, of course, elo
quent harangue from a venerable buck. They
then appointed a committee to escort their im
provised demon into the circle, where he was
given a warm reception. He was brought within
reach of the fire, and amid the most terific howl
ing unceremoniously precipitated into the flames.
This was the signal for the most unearthly ming
ling of whoops, groans, female shrieks and general
uproar, which closed the barbaric scene. Enter
jiriit, Ckict, Cat,
Their appearance so near together in the same
field is considered something surprising and sig
nificant. It is thought by some that they may
throw new light upon the origin of comets and
the laws by which they are governed. Both com
ets are being observed with much interest at all
the American observatories.
OUR HOLIDAY VISITOR.
From out impenetrable space there comes to us
a brilliant guest for the holidays. It is the great
comet of 1813, returned to keep the appointment
made for it by astronomers at that time. It was
discovered early In the fall by Professor Brooks,
at the observatory in Rochester, N, Y., at which
time It presented a nebulous mass with a starlike
nucleus of the eleventh magnitude. Recently it
suddenly biased up into great brilliancy, as though
tome great Internal commotion had occurred, or
It had received a sudden addition from other
bodies so far out in the realm of space as to be
invisible even to our powerful telescopes. Its
brilliancy was magnified fifteen times In two or
three day. In a few week it will be visible to
the naked eye at its present rate of approach, and
will shine brightly in the evening sky during the
holidays and for a few weeks thereafter, reaching
perihelion on the twenty-fifth of January. It 1
be a spectacle seldom witnessed, for though not
quite so large as the comet of 188a, Its appearance
in the evening Instead of the morning sky will
enable every one to see it. A few nights after the
tint one was discovered, Professor Swift observed
another in the same neighborhood. The Indica
tioru ore that these two comet will crocs each
others orbiu Q their progress toward the tun.
ADVANTAGES OF PRAIRIE LAND.
There is one advantage enjoyed by the farmers
of eastern Washington which, it seems to us, has
not been given the prominence it has deserved in
presenting the claims of the country to people
who are seeking homes in the new Northwest.
And the advantage we allude to is that of being
able to raise a crop of wheat or other cereal the
first season of land breaking. If the settler can
get located on his land early enough to break the
prairie in April or May, he may raise a good crop
of wheat or other grain that very first season, and
thus save himself the great expense of purchasing
these necessaries through an additional twelve
month. And this is also true of all kinds of
garden vegtables. In the prairie countries east of
the mountains the raising of a very meager crop
of "sod-corn" is the very best that a new settler
can do the first year, the toughness of the fresh-
turned sod making other seeding or cultivating
than that by chopping with an axe or heavy hoe
utterly impracticable. And in those regions the
settler on new prairie land is compelled to wait
until the fall of the second season before realizing
anything in the shape of crops for his labor. In
stances are not wanting in this county of Spokane
where twenty and twenty-five bushels of wheat to
the acre have been realized the first year of settle
ment and cultivation, and we may state that these
instances are so common a to be passed without
remark by the older settlers. . The season of 1883
has been an extremely dry one for this section,
but drouthy and unfavorable as it has been, the
yield of wheat on spring turned sod has been
fifteen bushel and upward to the acre, a yield
not often exceeded on the best tilled lands of
Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. It is possible
that some of our really superior advantages
are so common-place as to cause them to be
known and enjoyed without remark, and we may
sometimes forget to give them the' prominence
their merit entitles them io.Spragui Herald.
THE SPIDER'S WONDERFUL WEB.
In a lecture at the Lowell Institute, Professor
Wood dea!t with the phenomena of spider life.
The female is larger and much fiercer than the
male, who while paying his addresses is in con
stant peril, frequently losing some of his legs. In
one tribe the female is 1,300 time a large as the
male. The spider thread 1 made up of innunv
erable smaller threads or fiber, one of these
thread being estimated to be one two-millionth
of a hair in thickness. Three kinds of thread are
spun. One 1 of great strength for the radiating or
spoke lines of the web j the cross lines, or what
a sailor might call the ratlines, are finer and are
tenacious, that is, they have upon them little
speck or globule of a very sticky gum. These
peck are put on with even interspaces. They
are set quite thickly along the line, and are what,
in the first instance, catch and hold the leg or
wing of the fly. Once caught in (hi fashion the
prey is held secure by threads flung over it ion
what in the manner of a lasso. The third kind
of silk is that which the spider throws out ina '
mass or flood, by which it suddenly envelop, an,
prey of which it is somewhat afraid, as, for aw.
pie, a wasp. A scientific experiment once drew
out from the. body of a single spider 3,480 yardi
of thread or spider silk a length a little short of
three miles. Silk may be woven of spider's thread,
and it is more glossy and brilliant than that of the
silk worm, being of a golden color. An enthusi
astic entomologist secured enough of It for the
weaving of a suit of clothes for Louis XIV.
TELEGRAPHING IN CHINESE.
Owing to the peculiarity of the Chinese charac
ters, each of which represents a word, not a letter,
as in our western tongues, the Danish Telegraph
Company (the Great Northern) working the new
Chinese lines have adopted the following device.
There are from five to six thousand character! or
words in ordinary Chinese language, and the com
pany have provided a wooden block or type for
each of these. On one end of this block the char
acter is cut or stamped out, and on the other end
is a number representing the character. The clerk
receives a message in numbers, and takes the
block of each number transmitted and stamps with
the opposite end the proper Chinese character on
the message form. Thus a Chinese message tent
I in figures is translated into Chinese character!
again and forwarded to its destination, ine
sending clerk, of course, requires to know the
numerical equivalent of the characters or have
them found for him.
THE BEST CLIMATE.
Mr. F. B. Foltz, of Indiana, after having tpent
six weeks traveling with his wife on the northwea
coast has seen no place that compare with the
Willamette valley. He contrast the climate
this wise. He savs in the East you have to teed
your stock six month in the year j here scarcely
any at all. There the cold is long and eximw
in the winter; here the climate i very tempera
not havine seen any ice here yet this season, r
says our people tell him that in the tw"
the heat i not extreme, and that me d.s
cool and pleasant so that people can spend th
sleeping and resting. In the East such is not the
case. There the nights are extremely sultry I""
sleepless and restless In the heated season.
he compared our beautiful timber io .oc -
Hey of the middle States. He
rather own an acre of land in me
valley than in Illinois when it comes to 1
The oil is as good, the climate better, the timber
and water unexcelled anywhere, di', 0'
matter of a few year, when an acre of
will be worth as much a in Illinois. The 1 F
farm would be divided up into farm
hundred and ixty to two hundred acre, w
productiveness of the land increased more
a hundred fold. Salem StaUsma.
The best photos, all styles and sTtes, areuV
... .. X . .m. nf First Hreet. M-
oy Aoen. (jaiiciy wt
tmvn Morrison and Yamhill
To obtain the most artistic view of
.1,. P.,ifio VnrihweaL eo to Davidson, "
corner First and Yamhill. He has the only com
plete assortment in this state.