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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 14, Issue 1131, 1 March 1870, Page 3

Balloon Ascent. — Mr. Gale, the Syd*. ney aeronaut, has made another balloon, ascent. Mr. Gale says tbat when ho reached an altitude of about a mile and a quarter, though he did not appear more than half the height from Sydney, he found himself in a current of air that would have carried him to sea, aud to avoid that possibility, he opened the valve and allowed some gas to escape. He then descended to a calm atmosphere, in which for a time he appeared stationary. A further discharge of gas brought the balloon into the ordinary sea breeze, apd so diminished his own buoyancy that it soon came to the earth, and rather quicker than wag desirable. Mr. Gale contemplates another ascent next week. A New Canal. — The Continental correspondent of the Argus writes : — The Isthmus of Suez is barely open, and peo- . pie already talk of the opening of the Isthmus of Corinth, so as to bring about a communication between the Adriatic and the Archipelago. You see on the. map this narrow strip of land to which the antique Corinth has given its name, and which, lying between the Gulf of Lepanto and the Gulf of Athens, links together continental Greece and the Morea, thus constraining all ships coming from the coasts of France, Italy, and Austria to go round this peninsula on their road to the ports of the Levant. The idea of piercingthisisthmus, whose utmostbroadth is not 5,000 yards, is not a new idea. The Romans had proposed to effect it, and it was indeed commenced under Nero. The cost, if we are to believe the plan recently laid before the Greek Parliament, will not amount to more than 22,000,000 of francs,, and two years will suffice to the engineers . for its execution. . When achieved, the distance to be gone over, via Italy, by the Indian mail, will bo reduced:,^ uours more. v^^^fe/ We (Wellington Advertiser) Sir e glad to learn that Captain Gordon, late of the65th Regiment, has received recomnien&li-; tions from the Colonial Secretary's ftepartment here to the Colony's English Commissioners and Agent in England, drawing their favorable attention to his project of settling a body of Highlander* on a block of the confiscated land between Taranaki and the Patea. :