GENERAL INFORMATION.

North Otago Times, 27 December 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

GENERAL INFORMATION.

A favourite study of tho King of Sium is nsli'ontvny.

A herring lives the shortest time of any fish when taken out of water; carp and eels the greatest length of time.

A train going nt a rate ol sixty miles an hour can be stopped within ll!0 yards from the first application of the breaks; in doing this, enough power is lost to carry the train fifteen miles over a level surface,

The skin o/ the men nnd women of some nations is much thicker than that of others, particulnily in hot countries. The Central African negro has a skin About half as thick again as that of a European. That of a negro is thickest over the head nnd hack—doubtless to serve as a protection from the sun.

.Sheet iron can now be rolled so thin that it takes 15,000 sheets to make a single inch In thickness, Light shines as clearly through one of these sheets as through ordinary tissue paper.

Very little food satisfies the Hedouin Arabs. .Six or seven dates, soaked In melted butter, serve a man a whole day, with a very small quantity of coarse flour, or a little ball of boiled rice.

The Idlest re/? over woven In a singles piece lias been completed for* the lodge room of the Knights of Pythias, in Hartford, Connecticut. It is 4lift. Gin. long by il'ift. (iin. wide, and contains l.iiiil square, feet, or 172 square yards. Snme idea of the Immensity of its size may be gathered from the fact that if it were cot up it would be sullicieiit to carpet an ordinary.sized three-story hcyise, containing drawing-room, dining-room, library, hall, Mninvn.ys, and three bedrooms. It is valued at £I,OOO, and was designed by American artists, and spun, dyed, woven, and finisbed by American workmen. The design is Oriental, founded on a geometric basis, and of rich, though subdued, colouring.

The value of a real old Persian rug lies in the number of hand-made knots to the square inch. A silk rug, which was sold for £">,000, and which was catalogued ".Middle Persia," was 6ft, Uin, in length, and 4ft. lOin, in width, and contained 780 hand-tied Persian knots to the square inch. .