AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1745, 9 March 1874, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

The Daylesford Mercunj says : — " On Monday we were shown a sample of the Tripoli that exists in this neighborhood — pronounced to be such by the Mining Department, to whom the material was sometime ago submitted . All we can say is that if this infusorial earth is necessary to the manufacture of dynamite, the former may be procured here in inexhaustible quantities." "The fate of the man Gray, who was employed as clerk to Mr J. P. Gray, legal manager, of Sandhurst, is, says the Eaglchawk Leader, "still shrouded in mystery. No chin has yet, been obtained as to his whereabouts. We understand that there are several trifling errors in the books which were under his care, but nothing to warrant either suicide or a hurried flight from the district. The general opinion is that he has fallen down an old shaft in the neishborhood." The expedition under the leadership of Mr Gosse, despatched by the South Australian Government to explore the unknown regions in the centre of Australia west of the overland telegraph, made a remarkable discovery 130 miles south of Lake Amadeus. It consisted of a huge monolith, llUOft high, and six or seven miles in girth at the base. A stream of water, fed by a spring in the centre of the pyramid, flows frem the rack. The return of the late North-Eastern Coast Exploring Expedition, as was to be expected, has added several aboriginal curiosities to the Brisbane Museum. The most remarkable, if not the most, beautiful, of these, is the "mummy" of a black gin found at the blacks' camp near the Johnston River. It is the custom of some Northern tribes of blacks to preserve thfl remains of any great favorite of the tribe by a system of "smoking" — almost identical, indeed, with the well-known plan of preserving hams. It is stated that the lower orders of the Egyptians used a similar means of " preserving " the manes of their relatives, having learned the curative qualities of the creosote contained in smoke. The mummy under notice, however, is far from being a favorable sample of this conservative art, being anything but pleasant either to the eye or nose. The mummy, which consists only of the skin and bones of the deceased, is 2ft 4in If nerth, the knees, arms, and legs being hpnt. rp to the chin. Tho body is tied +iphtly round with cords made from the fibrpa of the R+rinsrv bark. The woman could not have bppn dead for more than a few months. If is. we are informed, the onatom of +h" Northern arx-iriffinals to crry <h«Mr mummies about with them in thpir migrations f->r a year "r two, until the orce farrous virtues of the departed arp forgotten, and t 1 c body is then cast aside. Among the other curiosities furnished to thft museum, the most noticeable is an aboriginal fishing apparatus, including a basket, carefnllv and neatly manufactured from a wood closely allied to thp well-known "Spanish cane." The fishinsr hook is of wood, tho barb being pointed al.T)nat i <» the fineness of a needle. Accompanying thpse is a bark canoe of perfect shape, though of very frail construction."