stretches, curves with radii of from two hundred and sixty-two feet to three hundred and twenty-eight feet, constituting the remainder. The road includes a viaduct, three short tunnels and one long one. The width of the track is two feet seven inches. The foundation consists of a wall covered with plates of granite and loose material, and on this the superstructure is firmly anchored. The tooth-bar—which is placed midway between the rails and is somewhat higher than the latter—consists of soft steel, and is provided with a double row of vertical teeth, which are milled out of the bar. The cogged wheels on the cars, which engage the toothed bar, are arranged in pairs at the right and left of the same. The axles of these cogwheels are not horizontal with the level of the road, as in the Rigi system, but perpendicular to the same, this arrangement making it impossible for the cogwheels to become displaced. The locomotives and cars form a train with two running axles and four cogwheels engaging the toothed bar. The boiler and engine are behind or below the cars, which latter accommodate thirty-two passengers. Brakes can be applied to all of the cogwheels, and besides this there are two clamps at the upper running-axle, which clutch the head of the rail, thus preventing the upsetting of the cars by the wind. The weight of the loaded cars is about twenty-one thousand pounds, and one trip up or down can be made in about eighty minutes. The idea of the Pilatus road originated with Edward Locher, under whose supervision and control the road has been built. The engine was invented by Mechanical Engineer Haas.—_Illustrirte Zeitung._ ====== RECENT discoveries have settled the vexed question of the former existence of lions in Australia. Bones from the Wellington Caves, New South Wales, are regarded by Professor Owen of the British Museum, as being those of a marsupial or pouch-bearing lion, fully equal in size to the existing African species. These remains were found in connection with those of the Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Devil. Quite curiously, Professor Owen many years ago expressed the conviction that certain ancient herbivorous animals of Australia must have been kept in check by a co-existent race of lions.—_Selected._ VALUE OF ARABIC NUMERALS. FEW people, probably, have any adequate idea of the great difficulties in which arithmetic would be involved were it not for the happy invention of the Arabic numerals. Here is a very simple little sum in addition put Roman fashion. The reader will find it “a nice amusement,” as the model papa always tells his daughters, to work it out as it stands without having recourse to Arabic notation: MDCXLVIII MCCXLV DCCXXXIX MDCCCLXXXIV None of these figures reach two thousand, and yet what a hopeless task to sum them up without an abacus! But that is, indeed, a small matter. Here are two better tests of the impossibility of arithmetic without Arabic notation: