TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11108, 29 October 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Mrs Annie Taylor, of MiehiShooting gap, has discovered a new way Niagara to pay old debt*. The cable Falls. message does not state the amount cf the debt, but it must hare been fairly considerable when, in order to liquidate it, thin venturesome lady railed over Niagara Falls inside a barrel. Fortune favoured the plucky voyager, and she came through safely, but it was a terrible risk to run. Signor BaU leni, the only man who ever leapt into Niagara and lived to. tell the tale, declares that the etrengtih ol Niagara is inconceivable. "I have seen," Ife remarked to a newspaper representative the other day, "forty or fifty huge logs, each a. hundred feet long, get loose from a lumber raft and be drawn into the whirlpool, and in twenty-four hours there is nothing of them left." Signor Balleni uelieves thflt to swim the whirlpool rapids is impossible, except for gome miraculous "fluke"; and he can speak from experience. In 1873 he leaped into the rapids three times from a rope, stretched from Prospect Park to the Clifton Hotel, above the new suspension bridge. The firpt two drops were from 150 ft to 170 ft each; the third time the rops was nearly taut, and the height at the middle must have been ebcut 200 ft. The force of his plunge carried Balleni down into the undercurrent, and he was nearly drowned. He did not templb Providence again. Mrs Taylor, It is interest ing to note, is not the first person whom debt (has driven across Niagara, and w-ho has yet survived the ordeal. On one occasion a steamer, called the Maid of the Mist, playing on the river below the Falls, wee to be seised for debt. The captain put on full etoam and said: "Well, here goes, neck or nothing! I may as well he dead a« lose my ship." By a sheer miracle be escaped the whirlpool and got into American waters, and it is said that he is. plying on Lake Ontario to-day, Apparently there ia a Providence that looks after debtors at Niagara. • Another successful voyager over the Falls was Ptolemy, a hundred-year-old Egyptian crocodile, whose feat was reaflly a marvel of endurance. Ptolemy was set adrift in .the river recently, on a leg. "In twelve minu-tee after he started on hie journey, he swept over the mighty roaring .cataract. He had not only to descend 164 ft, the height of the Falls, but also to go down into the tremendous gulf which the water* have hollowed out beneath. Ptolemy was.set adrift at half- 1 past three. When an hbur passed and there was no. sign of him below, the Falls, ifc seemed only too probable that he had been crushed to death against the rocks. Still a -watch was kept, however, and .at ten minutes to five PtoJemy was seen swim, ming for the, shore, which" hvs reached ten minutes later. He was very much eaffeaueted when brought ashore, but ctherw.'ee his terrible experience had done him little; harm. The .discussion on "The An Ice-age - Stone Age. of Man and his of Man Co-existence with , nn Iceage" at the British Association's Conference, seems to have been interesting, but not very conclusive. One cYetingirifibed scientist'built up an elaborate theory about the age of man, upon a small,, discoloured flint whioh had come into his' possession; whereupon emother distinguished scientist proceeded to demolish all his arguments, and to point out, in effect, that his learned friend was hopelessly at sea. And then a third jumped up and declared the scratches on the. flint • whk-h had caused all this theorising were probab.y due jo-the accidental presence of a twentieth century schoolboy, or to.rough usage on the way to the Conference at Glasgow. "I always wrap, mine up in cotton wool," he cried as- be eat down,;amid shouts of delighted laughter from scientists and non- ; scientists alike, jt was amusing enough, but the discussion diid .to-fciriy" the Conference. from their Allan Sturge, who in. produced the subject, got along swimmingly ; while he had the field to himsef in hi* atI tempt "to discover the earliest proofs of j man's existence upon this earth." Picking lup a discoloured flint, he said that certain marks upon tho stone told him that two ages of man had used it as an instrument, tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of years ago. "The.scratches on-this stone," be said, "are done by ice. The scratches on this flint," be continued, holding up another stone, "are.produced by sand or grit. The ice-scratched flint take* us back to one of thoee glacial periods which come round every 20,000 years, *nd valleys hare become hills .and mountains have stink into valley* since .this stone wag first fashioned by a »an in a little prehistoric English village." But then Sir John Evans, the distinguished arcfceologigt, rose and pointed oct that"'tir. Stargee had overlooked the chemical constitution of flihte, some of which wa* soluble in water, end nome <if which were vet. Then .again, the doctor had omitted £i* state the nature, of the beds in which the flinte were found. Were they chalk, or were they oolite? For, of course, said Sir John, t-hat would make all the difference. As to tt« scratchings upon the flint,. Sir John thought they might just ad eaeSy be caused by sand as by ice. It was then t-hfat a handsome bid gentleman jumped up and declared that the flints migh* just as easily have been scratched by a schoolboy or a careless railway porter; and after that serious discussion wax nut of the question, so the Conference laughingly passed on to the next subject on the Order Paper.