Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 349, 15 January 1903, Page 2

Traveller.

DOCKED HORSES IN SOHTjftAFBICA (rfcTWpF the English a /largo «/?ft majority had been docked, horses from Australia, America, and other countries were not docked, and the latter had a great advantage-over the former, Bays 'Our Animal Friend.' In the climate of South Africa it is said that 'docking involves a. much greater cruelty than in England, and there is a general regret that docked animals should have been imported.' Another important observation of an eminently practical character is reported by a Cape society paper in the following significant words: • Cavalry officers and members of the veterinary staff express the opinion that, from their experiences during the war, docked horses could not stand the fatigues as well as those -which have not been docked.'* It 1 is 1 to be hoped that his signal proof of the injurious effect of a senseless and cruel mutilation may have some influence in leading, to its abandonment.

WELSH COLONY IN SOU FH AFRICA Comparatively few people understand what took the Welsh Colony to Patagonia, though everybody seems agreed that; the best thing that could happen to them now is to transplant them to a British Colony. Mr. Chamberlain, it will be remembered, recently contributed £2O out of hia private pocket towards the fund £or sending the unfortunate settlers to Canada, where the Canadian Government ha 1 given them a free grant cf thirty-six square miles of territory. The history of the Welsh Colony iB as follows. • PILGBIM FATJIEBS. It was in 1865 that a little Colony of Welshmen settled upon the no man's land of the Chubut Valley, at the north of Patagonia. Their enterprise was in a sense a. semi-religious one. They were nearly all poor men, farmers, miners and quarrymenrr-unfortunately for their interests they had not a lawyer among them —and for *-few years after settling in Chubut they had a great difficulty in (making s living. Their task would have been still' harder had they not made friends with the natives, who taught them to eke out their means of. livelihood by hunting. But by decrees their energy and industry subdued the unfertile region which tl.ey had selected for their Pales tipe j they irrigated it, they built upon it, they "farmed and mined- it, they built churches and public buildings, they borrowed capital to construct a paying railway—they have raised up a population on it which now amounts to 4 000 These efforts, however, were not likely to be unobserved by their neighbours. Both Chili and Argentina cast envious eyes on this Naboth's vineyard, but as each was. rather, afraid of the other, for sometime the Chubut colonists were left in possession of their own. When Chili went to war with Ptru, Argentina seized so favourable an opportunity to take a step forward, and when the war was over, suggested to-the reluctant Chili, that, in return for important considerations, Argentina should be looked upon as the prospective owner of what was worth having in the Chubut Colony. That was the first step. . Signing away Bibthbight.

The second step was taken in 1880, when agents from the Argentine Government suggested to the innocent Welshmen that they should .take titles for their land from Argentina, and be registered "accordingly The. Welshmen, honest, law-abiding, and unsuspicious settlers, saw no harm, in the insiduous propes&l. What' they, should have done, of course, was. to have' run up the Biitish flag, .and have conveyed to Argentina that, in a phrase popular in America, they had no use for their titles. Unfortunately, however, they had no British fiag—nothing "but a white flag with the red dragon of Wales upon it, a picturesque emblem useless for the assertion of Jlgal rights—and, more unfortunately still, they had no "lawyer. So they agreed to the titles, and; thus signed away their birthright. Devastating floods occurred, as well as continual interference by the Argentine Government with their social and religious environment, and in their distress they have turned to the old flag for help. The Canadian Government has offered them facilities to be settled in the Djuainion, and bas promised them land and the mesno of subsistence until the emigrants are able to maintain themselves. They now only need the nu-ansrof transport. POET SAID. 1 / r { | There may be viler towns than Poit Said. We have never seen t ; em. Leadville, in its most flourishing and fiercest days, could not equal this city at the mouth of the Suez canal, says a correspondent of the ' Kansas City Journal.' If ten righteous men were needtd to save thi3 to/ra of 35.000 people it would go unsaved. The inquiry, ' Do,i you : want anything?' which, iH Egypt, covers a multitude of sins, is met with from small bojs upon the main streets. Vice which in American cities, hides itself in the back alleys here flaunts itself in gay gauze garb and brazen face; upon t*>e boulevards. It is a made town, on made earth and its manufacture is not morally a success. Tne few decent people, condemned by business necessity to dwell in Port Said console themselves by the assertion that all new towns go through this period of vicuusacsk—and Port Said is not a quarter of a century old. After seeing Port Said, we do not wonder that Moses fled into the wilderness.

GENEROSITY AND B&0FIT/ In a community of the fox once set himself up as a #jp|ifr.' Proposing to his customers, to be psteotly fait, he said he would. take ho pay except where these-was a cure. He prescribed in all cases of sickness, and took ,a fee from all that got well Tbisjwemed-foir enough to the animals, and even generous. Bat the fox soon became rich, since a patient that got sick might recover many times, while he could only die once; bo that each animal contributed often to the fox and only once got his services for •nothing. WHAT ALLIGATORS EAT. More than once carious things have been found in the stomach of a shark, but never has each an extraordinary collection been found as. ,waa„ discovered recently in the stomach of aa alligator." This alligator was killed in the Soudan and was more than twelve feet in length In its stomach were, discovered eightyfive stones, several birds' claws two human finger-nails and three hoofs of a donkey, to one of which a piece of rope was attached.

SOME SWIFT FISH. Recent experiments show that the dolphin, when pursued, can go through the water at the rate of about thirty-two miles an hour. This is good speed, but for a short distance the salmon can do better, since it has frequently been know to swim at the rate of forty miles an hour. Among the smaller fish it is doubtful if there is one which is more swift than the Spanish mackerel. As a rule, however, all those fish which: prey on others are remarKably swift, which, is only natural, as, if they lacked speed they would be unable to hunt successfully for prey and would often be obliged to go hungry. HOW TOADS FEED. Few persons, Mr. Charles P. Jenkinson writes, are aware what an interesting pet the common toad makes. The manner in which it feels is particularly entertaining. Insects, etc, are greedily devoured: it will not, however, eat. anything which does not move. When any insect is introduced into the cage the toad fixing its gaze upon it, cautiously. approaches, suddenly a slimy tongue flashes out, and with a curious click the insect is transferred to 'he captor's capacious mouth. If a large worm is substituted, the toad approaches and seizes it in its mouth, proceeding by a set of prodigious gulps to swallow it, its eyes almost disappearing in the effort, using its front paws to scrape off any particles of dirt adhering it slowly accomplishes the task until the eyes resume their position and the worm vanishes. A toad I had on one occasion swallowed a large worm, until three quarters of an inch alone remained; it then appeared unable to proceed, and stopped as if to regetn breath. The worm proceeded to crawl forth, the toad off taring little resistance, and presently made off apparently none the worse for its narrow escape literally 'from the jaws of death.'

THE LTJNG.FISiL Curiously enough, thelung-fish, of Queensland and its two allies have their swim-bladders also modified into lungs, so that they ean breathe by their gills, just as an ordinary fish does, but at the same time if there be any need they can substitute a lung for a gill. Under the circumstances this is a great advantage to them. The African mudfish, as it is there called, lives in rivers which are frequently dried up. When this takes place, it simply coils, itself up inside a cocoon made of mud, breathes, air by its lun?, and quietly waits till the returning rains fill the river, and at the same time soften the hard walls of its mud house and enable it to swim out and breathe once more by gills. The Queensland lung fish never makes a mud cocoon, but uses its lungs as well as its gills all the year round, finding the lung, specially useful, doubtless, when the witer is more turbid with sand particles brought down by the fioodß or foul with decaying vegetable ciatter towards the close of a hot summer. These peculiar animals show us, in fact the way in which an air-breathing developed out of a water-breathing animal, and are but the relics of a group of once more widely-spread form 3, for their fossil remains have been found, not oniy in other parts of Australia tian those where they new live, but in various parts of Europe. When we speak of air-breathing as opposed to water-breathing animals it rust bo remembered. that the essential process of breathing is exactly the same in each case. A has gills, which are adapted to absorbing the oxygen dissolved in the water (not the oxygen which is chemically combined wi'h the hygrogea to form water, but oxygen which is mechanically dissolved in the water and obtained from the air), whilst we, for example, have lungs which' are equally well adapted to absorbing oxygen directly from the air.