INTERESTING ITEMS.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 20, 18 December 1906, Page 2

INTERESTING ITEMS.

After the age of thirty the brain of a woman decreases in weight, * American women are growing taller while the men are getting shorter. * Of the thirty-eight Sultans who have ruled the Ottoman Empire since the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks, thirty-four have died violent deaths. * A miraculous well was discovered recently in New Guinea at a depth of 600 ft. Anythiag made of iron or steel and dipped into the water at once became magnetic. * Less tobacco is consumed in Great Britain, in proportion to the inhabitants, than in any other civilised country. The average is twentythree ounces per annum for each person. * Nearly everybody smokes in Manila It is a common sight, after sunset, to see a father out for a stroll with his \wife and children, and every one of thorn over the age of five years smoking a cigarette. What is asserted to be the oldest lifeboat in existence is preserved at South Shields as a valued relic. It was built in 1830, and during more than fi/ty years of active service was : instrumental in saving 1,028 persons, size, sometimes 80ft. and even 90ft. - Although whales grow to enormous long, the throat of the common wdiale is so small that it cannot swallow a bit as large as a tea-bis-cuit. The spermaceti .whale has a mouth large enough to swallow a man. * The hottest region on earth is on! the south-western coast of. Persia, where Persia borders the gulf of the same name. For forty consecutive days in July and August the thermometer has been known not to fall flower than 100 degrees, night or day, and often to run up as high as 128. The modern shark is deteriorating.; In ages gone by there were ferocious) sharks 70ft. in length, such as would! make a mouthful of you without! blinking. Plenty of their teeth have! been found which are 3in. in length, whereas the biggest of the teeth be-i longing to the sharks that exist atj the present day are ljin. long. j A large Dublin manufacturer has a. room entirely furnished with Irish* peat. The carpets on the floor, thei curtains at the windows, the pai»erj on the walls are made from this substance. For many years he has experimented with the material!, whicW is now very largely exported as fueftj and he has discovered that it is po»-I sible to procure almost any kind 6L fabric from it. IQlli. 3