Miscellaneous.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 5, 23 May 1848, Page 1

Miscellaneous.

Wine of Australia.—There is every reason to believe that Western Australia will one day become a great wine country. Its vineyards are becoming more numerous and extensive every year; and the wine produced in them is of r. Quality to lead us t > believe that when the art of preparing itjia better understood, it will he of a superior quality." It will, howtT.'r, be a new kind of wine ; and, therefore, before i: will be prized in Europe, pJejudices in favor of older wines have to be overcome. Soil and cUmate combined, give to different wines their peculiar flavor. The vines which m Madeira produce wine of that uaico, when brought to another country, even in a correspundi- g !a>i ude, and planted in a soil that chemically approach ■■* ai closelv dspas-jitde to that which they have lelt, will produce a wme materially ditlereut from that ta led M-id-in. 1 So wjh the vines of the Xerei ard Oi.uito.i.t TeiuDiffcrtat countries i'.'tfduct; wineb

peculiar to themselves, and the wines of Western Australia will be found to be entirely|.tti generis. An that I have tasted, though made from the poorest of grapes, the common sweet water, have one peculiarity —a good draught, instead of affecting the head or flushing the face, causes a most delightful glow to pervade tlie stomach ; and it is of so comforting a nature, that the laborers in harvest prefer the borne made colonial wi.eto any other beverage. Every fttrm-tettler is now adding a vineyard to his estate— Loudon's (Swan I'.ivcr) Bushman, Are the Planets Inhabited?— Are the planets inhabited is a question which naturally suggests itself to the human mind, and for a solution or which we naturally look to the science of astronomy. But when the immense distance which separates us even from the nearest of the planets be remembered, it can scarcely be matter that the telescope affords no direct evidence on the question, whether the planets, like the earth, are inhabited globes. Yet, though it gives no direct answer to this enquiry, modern astronomy Ims collect* ed together a mass of facts, connected wiih the positions and motions, the physical character and conditions, and the parta played on the solar system by the several globes of which that syst .m is composed, -Ahich forms a vast body of analogy, leading the intelligent mind to the conclusion that the planets are worlds with the same functions, crested by the same hand, tor the same moral purposes, and with the same destinies, as the earth. Thus, for example, we find that these orbs; like our own, roll in regulated periods round the sun thai they have nights and days, and successions of seasons ; that they are provided wi'h atmospheres, supporting clouds, and agitated by wind's ; and that thus also, their climates and seasons are modified by evaporation, and that showers refresh their surfaces For we know that wherever the existence of clouds is made manifest, there water must exist; there evaporation goes on ; there electricity, with iU train of phenomena must reign ; there rains must fall; there hail and snow must descend It is upon the planet Mars tLat the greatest advances have been made in this department of enquiry. Uuder favourable circumstances its disc is seen to be mapped out by a vaiied outline, some portion as being less reflective than land. Baer and. Maedles, two Prussian astronomers, have devo ed, many years'labour to the examination of Mars, the result has put us in possession of a map of the geography of that planet, almoßt as exact and well defineas that which we possess of our own ; in fact, the geod ,raphical outlines of land and Water have been made apparent upon it. But a still more extraordinary fact in relation to this planet remains to be considered. Among the shaded marking which have been noted by the telescope upon its disc, a remarkable region of brilliant white light, standing out in boldest relief, has been observed surrounding tlie visible pole. This highly illuminated spot is to be seen most plainly when it emerges from the long 1 night of the winter season; but when it has passed slowly beneath the heat of the solar beams, it is found to have gradually contracted its dimensions ; and at last, belore it has plunged mto light on the opposite Bide, to have entirely disappeared. But the opposite pole, then coming into similar relations, is tuund to be furnished with a like luminous spot, which in its turn, dissolves as it becomes located by the summer sun. Now these facts prove to us, incoutestibly, that the very geographical regions of Mars are facsimiles of our own. In the long polar winters the snows accumulate in the resolution of its high Northern and Southern latitudes until tbey become visible to us in consequence of their t elective properties; and these are slowly melted as the sun's rays gather power in the advancing season, until tbey ceate to be appreciable to terrestrial eye?. The fact is a most sinking one in reference to the present question.— Westminster and Foreign Quarterly. Rri'OßT of the past Harvest—A report is published in the Gardeners' ( hronnic and Agricultural Gazette from all parts of Great Britain, which presents, as far as such returns—the first which have been attempted—can exhibit, tlie aereable produce of dilKrent districts from the last harvest The most important point it elucidates, and the one on which there is the least liability to err, is the quality. In almost tvery case the weight of grain per bushel is much greater this season than it has been on the average ot past jears. To tlie uninstructed it may appear mere!) a matter of 3 or 4 per cent, importance, whether the bushel ot wheat weighs 09 lbs. orGUlbi. ; but tins is because ihey do not know the miller's report on the mutier. An acre, producing 30 bushela of 09 lbs. wheat, yields less food than one producing the same mea.-ure of wheat weighing G2 lbs. per bushel, not merely by the difference of weight which the respective bulk»t\hibit, but also by the quality of the article with which the bushels are ailed Taking the two extreme cas-s. there given, we find that a bushel of wheat weighing 3G lb,, yields 46 3-4 lbs. of flour . while one weiguiug G2 lbs. yields 53i lbs. The bran is not a o*oparuonuble loss ; it is greater ou the bushel cf least weight. Quoting a contemporary in the I'.ir West, the 5/. Louts sEra describes a terrible adventure in tin- I'raries. "The Hannibal Gazette says, that >oung Houston, one of the Marlon volunteers, was lo=t on the way to Santu Fa, in a singular manner. We are told, that when a hunter rides into a herd oi bnlfdocs, it is often the case that they become frighten, d, and the whole id m suits with furious speed tur the mountains, and there is no way to .*et out but tj Ueo the same speed, and work your way gradually from anions them; tu halt would be certain death, .is the mas. would pass over and crush you; and huntas are often caiikd stven •ud ten miles before they can diseutuiglc themselves Horn tlie headlong herd. In this \\. t y Mi. Houston di-ippeared. When last seen he was out the plain, endeavouring to make his «a> out ut a dio\u ot social thousand, and ha* not Urn luJ' 1 el Miice. The English admin* the doL-iuim ol a ti-ht w uSt, a- do the Chiller vuimpid Ivcl, th. < ud.- i !'. itrt-m d iorvh. ml, i>r the Sulilh ie.t I»J.illd-i, a UUuid hii^.— I far/if r ArumUU,