RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 185, 3 May 1929, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

International authorities could create quite an interesting little diversion by forming a league of nations composed of China, Russia, and Mexico.

Alexander, the Jugo-Slavia dictator, has dissolved the Skupshtina. Well, that’s one name our Parliament has never been called.

Professor Einstein may be a wonder when it comes to handling theories, but we have been wondering how he would act if he got up against a reality such as the sheaf of voting papers handed our ratepayers on Wednesday.

A certain gentleman left his wife money to pay for a stone to his memory. She carried out the letter of the bequest by buying a diamond, states an overseas exchange. She apparently wanted a durable monument. » ♦ »

Buckingham Palace, featured in the news owing to the unparalleled disappearance of one of its sentries, dates back to the comparatively recent days of 1762. In that year George IV bought the Buckingham property from Sir Charles Sheffield for £21,000. Both he and his wife Charlotte were inclined towards domesticity, and they wanted a convenient residence to which they could retire when the pomp and formality of St. James’s became too much for their peace and quietness. The King added a superb library, a new riding school, and an additional wing. Ou June 6, 1763, a house-warm-ing party was held at the new palace, sentries were posted for the first time, and His Majesty’s birthday was celebrated on that day instead of June 4. The King and his party sat down to a supper which consisted of no fewer than a hundred cold dishes, followed by an illuminated dessert, whatever that might have been.

Running over a whale these days, thanks to the increased size of ships, is not a particularly perilous undertaking. As in the case of the Baron Belhaven, referred to in yesterday’s news, nothing worse than a heavy jar is usually experienced. As a matter of fact, running over a whale is by no means a unique event. In the case of the French liner, Lafayette, in 1926, a fancy dress dance was at its height on board when the ship gave a sudden lurch, pitching all the dancers into a heap on the deck, and then quivered from stem to stern, all because a large whale had gone to sleep on a busy ocean route and carelessly got himself run over. In the nineteenth century, when whale met ship on more even terms, there are numerous recorded instances of a whale actually coming off best in an encounter. • » •

In 1819, the whaler Essex was on a whaling cruise in the Pacific. Whilst most of the boats were out after whales, a large member of the sperm family breached about 20 rods from the vessel, spouted, and disappeared. The next thing those on board knew was that this whale was tearing at full speed straight for the ship, which it struck head on. The impact shook the vessel like a leaf. To make doubly sure of his work, the whale repeated the performance, and crashed the bow to bits. The whale then tactfully disappeared. In a few hours the ship sack. For 30 days the crew struggled along in their open boat, living mostly on clams that grew on the boat’s bottom, and later upon themselves. Eventuallv, after having landed on Ducieo Island, where they obtained a little water, they set sail again. Five in all were rescued eventually, three by the Indian, and two by the Dauphin.

A more or less similar catastrophe happened to the Ann Alexander in 1851. After having broken up two or three boats, a huge whale rushed the ship itself. Hitting abreast the foremast, and two feet above the keel, the vessel heeled over and cracked, becoming completely waterlogged in a short time. Some think that the whale in this case, as in many other cases, merely intended to dive under the ship, but misjudged his distance. Anyway, he must have had a bit of a shock, for five months later another wliajer captured him; sticking into his head were two of the Alexander’s irons and several large pieces of the ship’s timbers. Early in the fifties a peaceful merchantman carrying grain was set upon by a whale. He rammed her at short range, and in two hours she sank, much to the surprise of the crew, who were not anticipating any such submarine offensives. As recently as IJO- - whaling vessel, the Kathleen, was sunk by a whale.

The latest habit on the part of lions and tigers of climbing trees has been a controversial point for many years. The fact remains, however, that the muscular development of lions is not conducive to climbing any but the simpler trees. As a matter of fact, gently sloping trees are often climbed bv such animals as dogs and goats, especially goats, who may be seen in some countries high up in the trees nibbling away at the new-grown leaves with the utmost content. In the case of tigers, the most encyclopaedias ever mention is the fact that in moments of crisis, caused by flood or fear, these animals will take to the tree-tops ''7.. considerable skill and agility. Unhke a tiger, a lion is by no means loathful to take to water. The lion is a great swimmer, and will cross and recross large rivers in full flood for no other reason than to get to the other side out of sheer curiosity. There are all sorts of unconventional things that lions will do at times, particularly when hungry, and they do not always live up to their role of "rigid meateaters. For instance, one band of hungry lions ate a whole sack of mealies, whilst another lot enjoyed a sack of porridge, apparently with considerable relish, for little was left after the meal, of even the sack itself.

Another lion, who must have been very, very hungry, devoured a shirt that had been worn by a coolie for three months, and had been put out beside a water-hole one night for very necessary laundry attentions the next morning. As regards their newly-reported habit of climbing trees, the Transvaal Game Reserve Warden in 1903 threw some light on the subject. A lion having knocked him down, horse and all, he was carried in the animal’s mouth for some two or three hundred yards. Selecting a suitable moment, he plunged a knife into the lion’s heart, and very discreetly climbed a tree. The lion’s mate arrived shortly afterwards, observed her dead companion below the tree, and noticed the ranger precariously situated in the tree itself, but made no effort to climb up to get him.