RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 70, 15 December 1933, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events / ■> (By Kickshaws.) Bathing costumes, says a writer, are worth investigation. They are. »» • - The world is discovering at last that it takes a lot of high spots all round to make a depression. According to the Otago Dental School the outlook for dentists is bright. A lot of patients is the secret. • • • “Your most excellent column in the ‘Dominion’ is a veritable well of knowledge. Could I make ai request to you?” says “Prospective Father.” “I am very anxious to find out the meanings of some Christian names and have made enquiries but without success. Could you therefore advise me through your widely read column of a likely source. I have enquired at three libraries—Turnbull, Public and Geperal Assembly—-but could not get the required information. Perhaps one of your many readers could supply the name of some dictionary or other.” One edition of Webster’s Dictionary gives the meaning of the better known names. “Inquire Within Upon Everything” has some information on the subject, as also has “Cole’s Picture Book.” Readers may know of others?—Kickshaws. • • • One should not be too sceptical about the Loch Ness monster, becaus*e this is by no means the only unknown monster in the world. As a matter of fact the Loch Ness monster was first seen at least 50 years ago. It has been seen at long intervals ever since. There are other lakes in England that also have their monsters. During netting operations' at Combermere Abbey, in Cheshire, the nets were torn to shreds by some monster that, it was calculated, must have weighed several tons. Efforts .to probe the mystery’ failed. At Ha'mpstead in 1926 considerable excitement was caused by a queer creature hooked by an astounded angler in the Vale of Heath Pond. It was nearly five feet long and sported long whiskers. At Tring another terrified angler caught a monstrous whiskered fish very similar to the one mentioned above. It was proved that this was a mudfish, brought from America years ago by a member of the Rothschild family.

While on the subject of mysterious monsters, it is perhaps only fair to add that England holds no exclusive monopoly in monsters. It has been wellknown for several generations that Ohanagan Lake, British Columbia, is the home of a veritable edition of a sea serpent, called locally “Ogopogos.” This monster is said to be 50 feet ion.? and over two feet in diameter. Aged, tribesmen declare that their fathers had stories of similar monsters. One of these monsters appeared only this year and caused consternation to three Indian youths on a. raft. It is on record that Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle once saw in the sea near Athens a creature about four feet long w’hich was like nothing so much as a skinned dog with flippers. A similar beast only larger was reported off the coast of Ireland. Some experts think they mayhave been the young of a pleisosaurus, one of the supposedly extinct animals. In India comes a story from the Gauges delta of,a dozen strange animals, seen by a British officer. They came out of a ■ watercourse. ■ Their bodies were like a crocodile’s and the heads were the size of a Rugby football. The necks were several feet long. A very similar creature was seen 40 years ago in Loch Alsh by a distinguished surgeon.

It would be absurd to dismiss all the’ ’ reports of mysterious animals, mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, as the hallucination of overwrought people. When Paul du Chaillu first told the experts about the African gorilla, his “fantastic romancing” was. received with wise smiles. Experts are apt to be just a little too expert The gorilla to-day may be seen in Regent’s Park, London. When Marco Polo came back with a yarn about a weird half-human animal, he too was scoffed at. Yet to-day there is reason to believe that an unknown race of halfhuman missing links do exist in the heart of Sumatra. The natives call these brutes by the name of orang-pen-dek. ' When a' man named Cornell claimed to have seen a Brontosaurus on the banks of the Orange River, he too had to submit to a modicum of expert scepticism. There is reason to believe that Cornell was not romancing, as there have been at least three other reports of primeval monsters very similar to’a Brontosaurus. The natives call these monsters “goot slang,” but for generations nobody has listened to them.

News that St. Paul’s cathedral .is sinking at Hie rate of nearly 24 inches in 37 years, will come as no Surprise to geologists. It has been known for some time that, not only St. Paul’s, but the whole of London, has been on /the down grade for centuries. Actually St. Paul’s is never quite still. The east end of the cathedral is sinking faster than the west, and the building is gradually tilting over. But’ St. Paul’s is not the only building on the move in London. The Tower of London is gradually sliding t into the Thames at the rate of a twenty-fifth of an inch every year. The Bank of England, before the new building was erected recently, had actually sunk six inches since 1895. County Hall, Westminster, moreover, actually rises and falls with the tides. In contrast to these movements, it is only fair to add that, owing to. the accumulation of rubbish and dust, the surface of London is actually 15 feet higher than it was in the days of Julius Caesar. The rubbish of one century is the foundation of the next.

Now that it is possible to measure very small earth movements with considerable accuracy, it has been found that there are very-few places that are really stationary. Every continent, is on the move. Owing to the attraction of the moon, the distance between Loudon and New York varies once every 24 hours by 63 feet. Even the North Pole is not' a fixture. At the moment, it is moving south at the fate of seven inches a year. In time, at this rate, it will get to the South Pole. This will, no doubt, give Admiral Byrd a shock. Meanwhile, one might add that the whole world is shrinking. The diameter is reduced by five inches every thousand years. It will be seen, therefore, that by the time the North Pole gets to the South Pole, the world will have shrunk away to nothing. All this will take some little time. The plight of Britain, however, is more critical. It has been proved that Great Britain is sinking into the sea at the rate of nine inches a century. ■ In 200.000 ye'ars. three-quarters of Britain will be under water. A few mountain peaks will mark the lost Isles of Britain,