GENERAL INFORMATION.

Northland Age, Volume V, Issue 7, 5 October 1908, Page 8

GENERAL INFORMATION.

The French unit of horse-power is one-seventh less than the English, The skeleton measures one inch less than the height of the living man, i One-seventh of Great Britain's foreign commerce passes through t-lie j Suez Canal. I The average depth of British coalI mines is 800 ft, The limit of practical mining is 4,000 ft, The only country in the world where the fashions in women's dress do not change is Japan, An Englishman eats more butter ! than any man of any other national- , ity. His yearly average is 131 b, ! Victoria is twice as densely populated as any other Australasian ; Colony. , ! The swiftest river in the world is ‘the Sutlej, of British India, which in 180 miles has a descent of 12,001 feet. | The anauaJ out put of coal in Ja- * pan has increased from 200,000 tons |to 11,500,000 tous during tbe last , thirty years. | Galileo discovered the use of the - pendulum. In 1639 he published a | work dealing with the use of the pendulum in clocks. Among the worst foes of the memory are too much food, too muck physical aiarcier, and, strangely enough, too much education. Elephants have only eight teeth, All young elephants' teeth fall out when the animal Is about fourteen years old, and a new set grows. A vast portion of Australia is virituaMy empty. The ratio of white i population la Northern Australia is ' about one to every 700 square - miles. j ! Lord Roberts is studying Esperan- | to, and has joined the British EgI peranto Association. Tills announcement was received with enthusiasm 'by the delegates to the Esperanto Congress at Cambridge, . j Iron cloth is largely usod to-day by tailors for making the collars ol coats sit properly. It is manufactured by a new process from the steel wool, and has ths appearance of having been woven from horsehair. The tonnage of the world's merchant shipping fleet, according to tlm latest returns, is 37,(554,017 tons. Of this total no less than 31.744,W0 J tons represents steam shipping, and 17,611,096 tons ot the whole is under ths British flag. A new industry has been started is Australia in connection with rabbits. Nsnrly ballf a gallon of oil possessing valuable lubricating qualities has been obtained by a rabbiter at Oolgonda. New South Wales, from 731 b. | of tfcins, without lessening the cons mercial value of the lutter. j A prospecting party haa been sent to the Hudson Bay district to search I for diamond fields, hopes of which are based on the official reports of the Canadian geological survey Canadian acientists predict that these fields will be found to be the richest in the world. Two Indian girls, not jel fourteen years old, were sold to the highest bidders in the open markets ot Alert Bay recently. £2OO cash won paid for the girl who was first solj. Tlie second who was put up to barter was sold for £IOO, payable in dirty blanket* 1602. .