RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 69, 14 December 1939, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws.) An oil expert declares that a successful bore has been found in England. Unfortunately, he does not mention the name of the club. » « * It has required a book entitled "Hitler Speaks” to make one appreciate that one merit of this war is that he seems to have shut up. * * M The Soviets complain that the League Committee is packed. A sort of nonsuit case, in their eyes, maybe. » ♦ » » It is reported that, for the first time in history, oil is being produced in commercial quantities in England. A well in Nottinghampshire is operating successfully. This may be strictly correct, but oil has been used from other sources in England in small amounts. Actually, oil has been obtained at Dalkeith, Scotland, for some years, but, then, as most Scots folk know,'Dalkeith is not in England. The first strike from a bore occurred last June in Dalkeith, producing 1000 gallons a day. Before that, however, there had been an oldestablished industry in the Lothians where 6500 workers have been employed obtaining 40,000,000 gallons of crude oil yearly from various shales. The only producing oil well in England itself, until the recent find in Nottinghampshire, was situated on the Duke of Devonshire’s estates near Chesterfield. This little well, since it was sunk in 1919, has supplied about 4000 tons of oil or enough to keep one battleship running for two months. It will be apparent that, although it has been known that there is oil in England, the quantities obtained have been very small. A few years ago a large-scale search for oil was instituted.

It was not until 1918 that serious efforts were made to find oil in Great Britain. In four years 11 bore-holes were sunk at a cost of about £1,000,000. Two of them showed oil in small quantities. Subsequently the search lias continued in Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Sussex, Midlothian, Yorkshire, East Lothian, Lincolnshire, Nottinghampshire, Norfolk, Leicestershire, Rutland and Cambridgeshire. Moreover, oil was struck in Derbyshire, near Castleton. This discovery, which produced oil in small quantities, caused experts to suggest that a huge oil belt stretched from south-west of the Humber across the Pennines to the shores of Cardigan Bay. Lead miners in Derbyshire have talked for years of a huge oil lake under their workings. It has been claimed by Italian oil experts that there is also enough oil-bearing shale near Weymouth to supply the whole of Great Britain’s peace-time needs. At the moment, some of the best brains in the oil world are tackling the problem, and several well-known oil companies have been granted prospecting licences. * * *

When digging up the lawn of his residence in Hamilton, a householder is reported to have found an engagement ring lost 19 years ago by a couple who then occupied the house. There seems nothing in this fact except mere coincidence, until one starts to investigate lost rings. It would appear from this investigation that rings possess some charm of their own which denies them the power to be lost for ever. Maybe readers can give first-hand instances of the weird homing instincts of rings. It must be remembered that the ring is itself a symbol of eternity. It is the nearest to infinity that one can get in this world. There is no beginning or end to a ring. It goes on for ever, possessing neither a left nor a right, or any position within itself. It is the symbol of “0” in mathematics, but nobody knows what nothing is, some believe it is the end of infinity. Anyway, rings do seem possessed of a homing instinct, as the examples below suggest.

Maybe the classic example of the way a ring can be relied upon to turn up, is observed in the experience of St. Kent!gern. This saint was summoned to the aid of a queen who had given a ring to her lover. The king got to hear about it because, as is usual, affairs of this nature are always found out. The king was very annoyed. He ordered his wife to produce the ring within a couple of hours. The queen went to her lover and asked for the ring. The king, however, had had the ring stolen previously and hurled it into the river Clyde. The queen seemed up against it. In despair, she appealed to St. Kentigernexplaining to him the whole truth. St. Kentigern knew that she was not dissembling, which is usual, unless a woman is really up against it. He told her not to worry, because rings had a habit of turning up unexpectedly. He thereupon went off to fish. The first fish he caught he opened, and in it was the ring. The king had a bit of a shock, but. to this day Kentigern’s fish appears on the arms of Glasgow. Believe it or believe it not.

It is not everyone who gets into the predicament of the queen in the last paragraph. Nevertheless, here are a few true ring stories, just to show that rings do turn up, even for folk who are not queens and have no lovers. A German woman who was sowing carrot seed, lost her wedding ring. Five years later when she. was pulling carrots, she noticed one with a yellow stripe and very thin. This turned out to be her wedding ring, with a carrot right through it. The Reverend E. T. Drake, of Orange, Texas, testifies that be lost a gold ring while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico., Ihe ring bore the inscription. “Pat D.” Twenty, eight years later fishermen found the ring inside a cod they caught. The varn about St. Kentigern, therefore, is not so far-fetched as might be imagined. Professor Morgan vouches for the following true ring story. A servant was sent to a town with a valuable ring. He allowed it to fall into a muddy stream. For a long time he searched in vain. He was afraid he would be accused of theft. He fled, went to sea, eventually making good abroad. Having amassed a fortune, he returned to bis home town. He bought the estate on which he bad been a servant. Ho stood on the little rustic bridge where he had lost the ring. 16‘Y probing the mud with a walking stick as he explained his loss, he drew out the ring on the end of the stick.

"K. 8. has kindly sent along the following "Litany of the Poilu”: —1. Either you are not mobilized —then von need' not worry; or you are mobilized. If mobilized. 2. Either you re behind the lines, and need not worry; or you’re at the front. If you are at the'front. 3. Either you are resting in a safe place—and need not worry; or you are exposed to danger. If you are exposed to danger. 4. Either you won’t be wounded, and therefore need uot worrv; or you will be wounded. If you are'wounded. 5. Either you are wounded slightly—and need not worry; or you are wounded seriously. If you are wounded seriously. 8. Either you will recover, and therefore need not worrv 7. Or you will die—and cannot