TIMELY TOPICS

Northern Advocate, 7 February 1925, Page 1 (Supplement)

TIMELY TOPICS

QUEER TASTES. A MEAL OF MOTHS. Moths hardly appeal to the average man as an article of diet. Yet there bounds in certain parts of Australia and Tasmania a moth which, at one time, was highly esteemed as an article of diet by the aborigines of those countries (says "Tits Bits"). This is the Bugong moth, to which, scientists have given the nome of Agrotis spina. It is a dull, brownish, stoutbodied insect, measuring from one and a quarter inches to two inches across the wings. There is nothing especially attractive about its appearance. Years ago a well-known naturalist recorded that these moths congregated in myriads in the isolated granite rocks in a particular district which he visited during November, December, and January. What was the object of these assemblages it would be difficult to say. The natives, however, turned the occasion to their own advantage, and came from far and near to collect the moths. After removing the wings they ate the bodies, or powdered and smoked then) to preserve them for future use. The bodies of the Bugong moths abound in an oil, and have a nut-like flavour. When first eaten they cause violent sickness. After a few days, however, this wears off, and the native who chooses this particular diet begins to get fat. Black crows were other eager consumers of the moths. However, the native dealt with these ma-

irauders in a summary manner, dispatching them with their clubs and using them as food. # * * * DARING TRICKS. WIZARDS ON HORSEBACK. Riff horsemen, whose achievements in the war with Spain are frequently j referred ,to in the newspapers, are the ! most daring riders in the world. When in full gallop they will throw their ■ swords and matchlocks in the air, and I catch them by the hilts or stocks without drawing rein. Not long ago a war correspondent declared that he had seen a Riff rider thread a needle held by another rider while riding full tilt across the sand! Cossacks are fond of performing similar spectacular feats. One of their favourite tricks at gymkhanas is to snatch a child from its mother's arms, throw it in the air, catch it, and return it unharmed to its parent. Indian riders of the Great North-West will dismount while their steeds are galloping, pick up an object on the ground, and remount almost in the same instant. * . * * * AIRSHIPS OP THE PAST. There is reason to believe that someone constructed an airship which Solomon gave to the son of the Queen of Sheba. Of course, there was no motor—possibly it was a glider. The Secretary of the Royal Aeronautical Society states that Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba* "a vessel wherein one could traverse the air for wind.*" There are other references to flight in .Abyssinian sacred writings, and there is a long description of the miraculous. way "in which the Quden of Sheba's son' Menyelek left Solomon, journeying to his mother's country. "No ' man hauled hife waggon, and whether it was men, or horses, of mules, or loaded camels each was raised above the ground to a height of a cubit." A cubit, according to the ancient Egyptians, measured labout twenty inches i but elsewhere it is recorded that over j the Red Sea they were lifted up three 1 cubits, "and everyone travelled in the j waggons like an eagle 'when his body ! glideth above the wind."

* * * * STAG IN A MOTOR-CAE. A motor-car was travelling at full speed from Pless to Tichau (Upper Silesia) when a stag of fourteen points rushed out of a forest and eollison appeared inevitable. Springing high into the air the stag tried to avoid the car, but landed on its roof, which gave way, windows and framework being smashed to pieces. The chauffeur was unhurt and managed to reduce the speed of the car; but the two travellers inside lay helpless under the stag and a desperate struggle went on which ended in one of the human passengers being thrown out. Eventually the animal jumped out of the car, carrying away on its antlers what remained of the roof. The man who had been thrown out was afterwards found up a tree, which he refused to leave until assured that the stag had disappeared.

RATS AND MICE. NON-MARSUPIAL ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA. We become so used to thinking of Australia as the country of marsupials that we are apt to forget that apart from the dingo and from recent introductions, such as rabbits,, house rats and mice, there are many scores of specifes of non-marsupial mammals in Australia (says the Sydney "Sun"). , They range from tiny bush mice up to the huge wliales of the seas round Aue- i tralia. J Man introduced the two plague- ! carrying rats and one small species of i mouse, but long before that Australia j possessed 50 of rats and mice, j which still live in the bush today, i Some of the,se rodents are quaintly ; shaped with long kangaroo-like feet ! and brushy tails. One species had the ' peculiar habit of building a strong ( stick nest several feet high around the . base of a small tree. There are also about 50 species of bats, of which the fruit bats, or "flying foxes," as they are called, are pests in orchards. But for the half dozen species eating fruit, there are 40 species* which eat myriads of harmful insects, and are thus the friends of man, talcing the night watch in the birds' battle against insect pests. The highly-strung senses of the bats enable them to avoid unseen ob- ;

jects, and to hear sounds inaudible to man. There are as strange mammals in the sea as ever strayed on land. Seals were once of great value in Australaisan waters, and the giant blue whale believed to be the largest animal that ever inhabited the world, is often stranded on ' the Australian coast. It is stated that whales- once had hind > legs and still retain a few hairs of | '.their once thick hairy coats, whieh , have been siipplanted by rubber. «*. # * . A RUSTY RIVER. POISONOUS IN WINTER. . Can you imagine a river that gets rusty? There is one which is subject to this phenomenon —the River Ob, which falls into the Arctic Ocean and runs through the north of Siberia. The Ob contains a great amount of iron. Every year when it freezes over the iron is cut off from the air. The result is that the metal precipitates, or, in other words, instead of being dissolved in the water, becomes a solid. The whole underside of the ice is covered thickly with rust, and even the fish and other creatures become rusty. In the lower reaches, where ice does not form, the water, ordinarily quite clear, becomes cloudy and discoloured. The whole river, 2300 miles long, becomes poisonous. People living near it have to quench their thirst with mfelted snow, and most of the fish leave the river and seek safety in the sea. They are. told by instinct when the time j arrives for their annual exodus. In the spring the ice thaws and the air renders the river free from poison. The fish imme/liately return. They swim up the stream in such vast numbers that they are packed tightly together. Any boat that tries to navigate the i river at this time forces thousands of fish on to the flat banks, where the I natives kill them with sticks.

* » * # FASTING TO KEEP YOUNG. FIFTEEN-DAY PERIODS. The discovery of a sovereign specific against old age is claimed by Professor A. J. Carlson, of the department of physiology in the University of Chicago. After three years' investigation he has reached the conclusion that fasting is the key to Renewed youth. . According to him, the proper dose of this rejuvenating process is 15 days' fast. At the end of this period ! three adults in his laboratory found their metabolic rate amazingly increased. Their tissues when they resumed eating consumed as much as those of youths of 15. In terms of basal (metabolism their age was nearer 12 than 40. Profesor Carlson, who subjected himself to this process, declares that ' his experiments prove that prolonged fasting increases the secretion of gastric juice after eating has been resumed and that bodies regain their normal weight. "We have established/' he says, "that fasting brings the tisi sue back to more youthful conditions. i through the precise mechanism by which the changes in the gastric secretions are induced is as yet unknown."

i EVE-IJ3SS EDEN. i | j ' THE BABOON CITY. | The first sod of "Baboon City," or ' "Monkey Mountain/' was cut recently, without ceremony, at the London Zoo. Behind the ranges of the Mappin Mountains a twin-peaker African kopje 100 feet across will give shelter to a horde of fifty Arabian baboons. No bars of wirework will shut them off from the public, but a concrete circular moat 12 feet deep and 16 feet wide will protect the animals from the visitors and vice versa. A waterfall will splash down the craggy slopes until it fills a bathing lake. Wide rock-edges are to give, shelter in showery weather, but inside, approached by a small cavelike entrance, will be the great meeting hall of the baboons, 20 feet high, complete with bedding, glass skylights and central heating. It is to be an ''Eve-less Eden." The one hope of avoiding constant warfare is to keep the baboon women-folk out of the community. * * * * milk from trees. It is generally supposed that omy animals give milk, but in tropical countries the dairyman has competiton from the vegetable kngdom. A tree in the West Indies, known to the natives as the hyahya, yields from its , bark and pitch a 7 juice richer and thickler than cow's milk. The people who | live where the hyahya grows use its i juice as we use milk. The tree when ! full grown is almost 40ft high and 1 18in in circumference. The Cingalese ! have a tree, the kirikhuma, which yields a milky fluid, while in the for- ! ests of Para grows the anassenodenI dron another species of milk-tree. The | milk Of the massenodendron can be J kept for an indefinite length of time ( and shows no tendency to sour.

• « # • QUEEN OF THE QHINA SEA. Captain W. jtl. Dowman, the owner of the famous old tea-clipper Cutty Sark, is considering whether he will put canvas on the ship and endeavour to break the old sailing record to Australia. The Cutty Sark has now been practically re-rigged from a barquentine into a full-rigged ship, carrying a main skysail yard. The aim has been to get as near as possible to the ship's rig in 1870, when uhdej; Captain Moodie, she made the quickest voyage from China of all the clipper fleet. It would, however, take at least two years to complete arangements for the Australian voyage. The Cutty Sark is at present at Falmouth. * * * * BROKEN NECK FEAT.

With Ms liead held rigid by plaster of Paris, John Harrington, a forty-four-year-old gardener, of Eastney, Portsmouth, has been discharged from Portsmouth Hospital, to which he had been admitted suffering from a broken neck. His case is said to be without precedent. About a month ago (says the "Daily Mail" of December 3) a piece of masonry fell on him. Though badly injured, he did not consult a doctor until a week later, when it was found that he had been walking about with a broken neck. The plaster of. Paris support prevents Ms head form being moved until the fracture has had time to mend. Apart frpm the inconvenience of having his head in a fixed position, he is not suffering, and he expects shortly to return to work. • • # • WITTY SUMMING-UP.

One of the most modern of orchestral pieces has for its subject a railway engine. Written by Honneger, a French composer, one of the notorious group known as the Paris Six, its title is "Pacific 231.". It was performed for the first time in England by the Halle Orchestra, and at the rehearsal Mr. Hamilton Harty requested the players to give it their particular attention owing to its peculiar character. All sorts of strange noises were emitted, shrill whistles, the shovelling of coal into the fire-box, the thunderous shunting of waggons, the rushing of the train along the metals, the climax cdming with a deafening boom. The silence at the end was suddenly broken by a sepulchral voice from one of the double basses droning out: "Tickets, please!" Incidentally, when the piece was played at night, hisses mingled with the applause, an unusual happening in England.

Among the passengers who landed at Liverpool, recently, from the liner Eegina, four were named Stout, Beer, Porter, and Sherry, and others were named Grey, Green, Black, and White.