MISCELLANEOUS.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXVIII, Issue 1514, 2 May 1902, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

Human bodies buried in limestone countries are often turned into solid stone by the lime-water which penetrates the graves. In other soils there are elements which sometimes so embalm the buried dead as to preserve form and features unchanged. Manv such cases are on record. Robert Burns' body was disinterred in 1815, to.tie removed to a new tomb. To the surprise of all lii<friends the features were found to bias jerfect as at the burial. W'htu the body of John Hampden, t!e faI mous patriot and leader, was disinterred by Lord Nugent, 200 yerrs after the burial, the form and features were, as unchanged a? if ll.e. corpse had recently been laid in tin grav. For absolute strength, extreme simplicity, freedom from weak or undesirable points, and abundance of excellent working features through-?' out, Excelsior Ploughs are unrivalled. They will do perfectly the work that can be expected of any plough and are guaranteed to give satisfaction m any soils where a plough can work at all, no matter > how tough and difficult the work. They have extra length of land beam, specially made mould-boards, and steering gear of the most complete and proved kind. Revolving swivel steel, circular coulters. Double furrow,: £ll 10s; three-furrows, £l6 10s.— I Morrow, Bassett and Co., sol?agents' in New Zealand for Cockshutt farm: implements. j The weathei* records which have been kept for upwards of a century show that there is no connection! between what are called changes of ; the moon and changes of weather.! There is no real changes of the. moon, but only of its appearance, it is always there though not always visible.

An Irishman took a contract to d,ig a public well. When he had dug about 25ft down he came one morning and found it caved in:—filled nearly to • the top. He looked cautiously round and saw that no one was near ; then took ofT his hat and coat hung them on the windlass, crawled into some bushes and waited events. In a short time the people discovered that the well had caved in and seeing Pat's hat and coat on the windlass they supposed he was at the bottom of the excavation. Only a few hours of brisk digging cleared the loose earth from the well. Just as the eager citizens had reached the bottom and were wondering where the body was, Pat came walking out of the bushes and thanked them. " liaud vrr wl.cesht," I've Iricd near every kind of blend that's sell't, I ar.d there's naethin'' tat* compare wi' the unblended " Cock o' the North " Ceylon 'IVa. j Three turnips were thrown recently from the top of the Masonic Temple in Chicago to the street, where Bodini, the juggler, widely known on the music hall stage, stood with a fork in his mouth, to catch them aftef their drop of 340 ft. A syndicate of sporting men bet that he could not catch a turnip dropped from that height with safety to himself and the vegetable. It was ageeed that the juggler sho,uld have three trials and the turnips were wrapped in yarn, so that they would not go to pieces as they whizzed through the air. The first two attempts were unsuccessful, but at the third the turnip came down straight, and it was caught fairly on the prongs of the fork in the mouth of Bodini. The man reeled from the blow, but recovered at once, and said laler that a slipht headache and a shock to his teeth were the only inconveniences he felt.