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Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2075, 18 October 1895, Page 3

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_ „ |pn Parliament prorogued. ■ skins of animals were the earliest of money. all snakes the cobra is said to be BK most susceptible to music. At the Bombay Zoological Gardens the skin of a sea serpent 64ft in length Is on exhibition, j When flying at its highest speed the house-fly makes 600 strokes of its wings per second and the dragon-fly 11,500. London Board of Rank of Australasia announces a dividend of r> per cent, and carries forward over 1.10.00(1 A glow-worm has a brush attached to its tail, because it is necessary that the back be kept clean in order to show its light. W. G. Grace is about to make a record season of IS9.">. On the 7th Inst, scored his ninth century of the present season.

The song of a male skylark is best when the female is on the eggs. At such times he soars to great bights and sings rapturously. "Not serious," Mr Curzon, the UnderForeign Secretary, says of the hanging of Stokes. We suspect that Stokes regarded it as serious enough. The Newmarket handicapper has let the Australian horse Paris into the middleweight divisions for the Cesarewitch and Cambridgeshire Stakes. Oscar Wilde has been removed from Pentonville to Wormwood Scrubs, while Taylor has gone to Wandsworth. Roth prisoners are reported to he in good health. The early Japanese swords were expected to be so keen that a blade suspended horizontally beneath a tree would sever any falling leaf that might fall upon its edge. The first execution by the guillotine in India has taken place in the French settlement of Chandernagore, the instrument being specially imported from France for the occasion. The Esquimaeux have no chairs or stools, and know nothing of the comfort to be derived from their use. The attitude usually assumed by the men when in the hut is to sit with their legs crossed tailor fashion, while the women sit flat down.

Tke terror Inspired by the Japanese armies in the East is greatly enhanced by the fact that they make no noise. They march with no bands, no drums beat, reveille or tattoo, and in action the Japanese utter no cheers. Another dynamite outrage attempted to be perpetrated upon the Rothschilds. An Anarchist arrested in the act of lighting the fuse of a bomb in the Paris banking house. The flame was happily extinguished before harm was done. The frozen water lily despatched by Messrs Searl« and Sons, of Sydney, to The Queen has arrived in London safely. Her Majesty is now" summering in the Highlands, and the Australian flower will be kept in London until her return to England. The French press is urging the Government of the Republic not to submit to Uncle Sam's demand for the liberation of Mr Waller, formerly Gonial for the United States at Tamatave, and for compensation to be paid for the indignity imposed upon him. Coffee-planting promises to be the great industry of British Central Africa. The export of coffee in IS9H—about !C>.ooo pounds—was nearly double that in IS9J. that of 1594 was nearly double that of 1893, and 1595 "can now be definitely expected to fully double that of 1394." The origin of the oft-quoted saying that the streets of London are paved with gold is somewhat curious. It seems that the granite cubes used for paving are called by contractors "halfsovereigns," and that in mediaeval times they were known as "sovereigns." Hence the saying. The Chinese Government are not erring on the side of leniency in their treatment of at least some of the fanatice found guilty of the murder of male and female missionaries at Ku-Cheng. More have been execcuted, and the trial of others is proceeding. The doubt always is in these Chinese affairs about your gettim: hold of the real eulprits after all.

The sporting: proclivities erf the fair ?ex in New York are finding another cutlet than the bicycle. This new outlet, according to the "London American," is nothing other than a plan to put a feminine fight into the fipld, or rather, on the water. The eight will comprise women of extreme fashion and wealth. They propose to issue a challenge this summer to a club of males, and to row them off the course. A uniform has been adopted. It se'-ms graceful and quite likely to extinguish glories of the bicycle female. Among the interested supporters of the undertaking are Mrs. J. J. Astr.r. Mis. (Jeorge Gould, Mrs. Mackay, and Mrs. Isdin. In view of the " capturing "' of the power of Niagara "Cassiers Magazine" . explains that what makes Niagara Falls power possible is the fact that ; Lake Superior. Lake Michigan. Lake , Huron, and Lake Erie, with a rum- - bined area of 90.000 square miles, re- , presenting the reservoirs of some 250,000 square miles of watershed, are , situated 000 ft above the sea level. The great volume of water falling over the vast territory flows on its natural course to the Atlantic Ocean with bur a slight descent, until it is brought into the narrow Niagara Hiver. wh'-n, in the rapids just above the falls, ir declines 55ft., and then, with a single plange. drops into the abyss, P'..">fr. below. Eminent engineers have computed that 275.00U ruble feet of water pass over the Falls every second, representing in theoretical energy, over i;.000,<»00 horse power. The International Geographical Congress, which is now deliberating in our midst and filling the papers with columns of scientific talk, is a remarkable gathering <>t' learned grey-beards. writes our London correspondent. Not the east noteworthy of the veterans present is an erstwhile Melbourne celebrity, whose name occurs pretty often in the early volumes of the proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria, but which is practically unknown to the present generation of Melbournians. This is Professor Neumayer, now the most eminent of German meteorologists and the holder of a high Admiralty appointment. He spent seven years in Melbourne, and established a private observatory on Flagstaff Hill. This was the germ of the institution that was perfected on the south side of the Yarra by the ability and industry of Mr Ellery. -!•*!• A young man had owned for some years a dog who was his constant companion. Recently the young man married, and moved with his bride and his i dog into a house on the opposite side i of the street from his father's house, his I own former home. The dog was not ' happy, for the time and attention which had formerly been his was now given to the ycung wife. In many ways he Fhowed his unhapplness and dis- ►* pleasure, ir. spite of the fact that the master tried to reconcile him and the bride to win him. One day when the master came home, his wife sat on his knee, while Jack was lying by the fire. He rose from his plac- 3 , came over to the couple, and expressed his disapproval. "Why, Jack," said the master, •' this all right ; she's a good girl." And as he spoke he patted her arm. Jack looked up at him. turned away, and left the room. In a moment they heard a noisp. and. going into the hall, they found Jack dragging his bed down stairs. When he reached the front door he whined to be let out. and when the door "was opened he dragged his bed i down the step?, across the street to bts i old home, where he scratched for adI mittance. Since then he has never been I hack to his master, refusing ail over--1 lures.—" .Spectator/'