NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13781, 20 June 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Some butterflies lay over 100,000 r-gsf- ■ Thaw are 48 rarietks of ii* common, fly,. ■. lit India last year ■ ti'gfcrs failed. 7S& ■ per- ; sona.. ■':':-■■■'■■ ':■:'! ;■' .- : " '.'. :,; v ': '^■ : Geese in migrating often travel over- 6000. mik*.' V ■.'■'■.■:"■.- "■,-■. '- \ ,:; :; ; ' ; «# ■ -''"A- Jew can marry.- an; Englishwoman at a, ■.■; ' '.- registry. '■,'■■■' :; The Site has a 'Ml of only-, Ax inches in ;':■/;■ 1000 Talks.- .'■ ■■'■.■;■ ■■<-* ' . -. : :j; ■""•' Electricity ■'«■. now .used; to;improve tho complexion. ■' '■'..'.• '■ I* •;••; ■'■;> The lamest mammoth- itisk.-yofc.diKOTfif* oil .was '16.ft. ■ lit (■' aw 40,000 t«v(otai *-«n,t'tii m u»e British Army. . ,"-.-' _ . ;; '<■.■':..■'•. s^s A ion of so&t results from the bunting ol _ _ 100 tons of wiL ■' ■ After living for 55 years * goose hi- just died in Cornwall,- ''■■''■■■;■'' .Tho speed of the falcon, often exceeds 15Q miles an hour. . • Some of the fish in the Royal Acpiariuw ■ in St. Petersburg have been exhibited foe .-■ more than 150 years. ...'. .''-'; I In British India no. fewer than 185 ddfcient languages are spoken.., ■ _. • -■■';; ;:■■;. Tho telephone ■ has : a tendency to ■. rend«". .■: .; ;..- tho girl'operators' left-eared. ■'. ' .\' : '-' ■.■■;■. As ,& general, rule, man's .. hair .turns, prey , , five years sooner "than" woman's. I ■'■■;■■[ The loss of -food crops by injurious inwi-* , aJono.isXloo,ooo,ooo' per annum.."'' Tins railway oridgo which 'connects Yniiis 1 with tho mainland is 12,050 ft long. ,:■ ■In tho Lords the Church it! ivmv»rilvd " | ■by two archbishops and 24 bishops. ' hero aro 862 motor-'buMs hi Tendon ihi*_ .'year as compared with four in 1905. ;', ;'";•"'' ; The lowest, graduate in honours at Ca m- f \ t'lridgo is called..tho "Wooden Spoon" ■ y i ,■ There is one license to ©very 118 iwhaln- , la its in tho Llangollen urban district. - '. Harrow, one .of tho- four ' greatest, public „ r j w l ; . ? ( England, was founded in 1571..,. ".Til Britain about two-thirds of ail i IV• infants arc vaccinated tit the public e\pon.Mi. Bombs which ;-■ liable oranges are tln> ]:<totn product of th" <U Petersburg Kdiili&ts. .'.■,,.,' * '':>'-: "i y lii-r.v.ith for the Chines* -.amy are not • ''l'', accepted uukvs they can jump ft ditch Mt ,;, wide. . • - - . . - i Tlioro aro 262,000' Sun day-school is m tH world, ..with-something like 26,000,000 - !'; pupils. ';'■':.-;';: :: pSI6 : . S H? Tho greatest Japanese actor of mo<ls rn J , 1 times is Ichi.'v am Danjuro. Ho is 5? yea of age. ~, ' .:•.:■'■■ : ( '-;;J Seventy-ono English cities have ai-Mieii-tions striving to ihiprovo the. homos of lite. poor. Some 8000 to 10,000 pigeons »to impoiud from Italy during, tlw year for tho London market. ; • Fifty pounds of candles are required to produce as ranch light, as one thousand cubio feet of gas,: :■ Chemists say that paper-; written in the.. ordinary inks "in use to-day will be illegibly 'in 27 years. The population of Italy w very douse, there being 270 people 'to every wpj.tr? mile. of territory. No fewer than 46,000 murders have been , committed in tho United States during tiif.. last: five years. Iceland holds the- record for longevity, , tho average duration of human life theao being 61.8 years, - ■1n15,000-udminiatnitiontt of anißsfchcfcice dtin; Cancer Hospital, London, only om .death" has occurred. • ' -.'-"'.,. ' ' ■ The oldest"/railway,; in - Franco tubs !»:-■ ' tweeu Paris and Havre. It was built more- - than a century ago. " : ~^:.'^--^>V^^:'-M It is.said. that Madame Fatti's voi« !i<i*v always been insured for £8000 hist, \k;vmanent 'accidental loss. A machine has'just been com pie tori! that will count and bind, in packages 500,000

postal cards in 10 hours. - The biggest :fresh-water fish, the "an;- ' ;' paima," of the Amazon, in South America, grows to six feet* in length. '■ ■ l j Over 40,000,000 trees have been planted ■ in Switzerland in seven years in the effort :.:.■■ to "re-afforest" the country, Elections in France are always held on Sundays, in order to suit the convenience of working-men and peasants. "■-.-, ■ The making of lu;:if«r matches is. a State monopoly in France, Spain, Portugal Italy, Greece, Iloumania,' and {.'lorvia. The iron floor of the boiler-room of ani ocean steamer ia frequently so hot that it blisters the feet of the stokers. ; ' ■'~: Babies are used as bait by crocodile-bun* ters in Ceylon. The infants are, of . counts,, never put in peril of their lives. , Consumers of meat in New York are no* . leaving about lis per cent, more for their food than they did one year ago. "" \ . There, are 1581 persons sleeping in, van i" and tents in Surrey, including 540 chil- "■ . • dren, only 44 of whom go to schfiol. In' the Encyclopaedia Briiaraiica there arft • 10,000 words that have never been formally 1 entered and defined in any dictionary. Since the first imposition of "ilia Death Duties, twelve years ago, over £200.000,000 , has gone into the Government coffers. - Oklohonta; the newest State in the Ante- ' rican Union, has passed, a law forbidding -.", negroes from using the public telephone. The practice of irrigation is very ancient, • " : ..; ! water having been stored and distributed • 1 in' this way ■■ in Egypt as early as 2000 ' B.C.- . " " A sixteen-year-old husband named Tho* mas Ashby was summoned at Northampton ; by his wife, who is aged eighteen, for main* - • tenance. ■ ■;■■■.■■'■,■■■■■,■:■:.:.'.■■: [ A camel can readily carry as much as ' ' two oxen.. With a ■ load : of • 4001b : he' car* ; , travel 12 or 14 days without water, and t make 40 miles a day. ' . . | * A squadron consist in the army-el-1*» . troops of men, of from off to 100 each: arid : " in the navy, of a section of a fleet on, special 1 duty under a flag officer. The body of a disused railway coach h*?. . been fitted* up as a miniature rifle range at: i the Gorse Hill branch of the Swindon ' G.W.R. Mechanics' Institution. -,■;.. ■';''.'-■-'; » In Dutch Guiana the women carry upon ' then* persons ail the family savings in the' shape of heavy bracelets, anklets, neck--; : ;; ' lacos, and even crowns of gold and silver.. r Members of. friendly societies numbered ' ' 2,467,806 in 1906, as against 2,375,903 in 1 1905 The total assets in 1906 amounted: to. '■ : '■ £52,960,807, compared with £49,341,142 in r 1905. ; ■ ' i A searchlight of 100,000 candle-power'. /; - will render print visible at a distance of I 20 miles. The experiment- has.been; trie,! ; v/, from the top of Mount Washington, m - America. .r±.-z It is estimated 'that. 20 per cent, of tlie : population of Canada earn their living in . i connection with the country's carrying '■> trade, some 124,000 being employed on the ". railways alone. . .•.,:..■■., i Other efforts having failed to recover the .■■;,':■-; -. body of a young man who was drowned, ~-■<;■■■• ! the coastguards resorted to the expedient g > of firing. a gun, and at the fourth discharge ,: '-;v t, the body rose. :-.-...* r In some villages in Holland distance is \> computed among the peasants by smoking their pipes. Thus, from village to vil- • lago is a "pipe and u-half," "two pipe:;,' 4 i "half a pipe,' etc. ... ' : ■■[ "y .'■'■•-.■''.•'■ While travelling on the steamer Bermu- ; dian to New York, Mark Twain rescued iti girl who was in danger of being swept away • by a otg sea. He spoiled one of his famous pearl-grey suits,in ■ the process. ■■.',-'; - ; ..'v. ■;;;;:■■■; f,■■:■:£ I Tchojak ■ Anfcitch, a student of the Bel- ' P grade. Musical College, committed suicida 1; because ho could not, overcome the ti-ch'iii- . cal .difficulties in a parage-of: Ca-nvj-'s exercises. Ho-explained in a. lot* a * tint ha • «■ .preferred death to being an : indiSfer«int ':' .player. ; w ,' ' /

LION HUNTER'S STORIES. ■"" , ' ■ .' <•- ■■•- '■: SOME EXCITING ADVENTURES. *'Mtt. SklotJS is the laet ''■' the big game hunters of South Africa; the last of the mighty hunters whoso experiences lay in the greatest hunting ground which this : , world has scon since civilised man has jappeared therein. . '....' Mr. Selous is . much more than a mere big-game hunter, however; he is by instinct a keen field naturalist, an observer with a power of seeing and of remembering what he has seen; and finally he is a writer who possesses i- to a very marked and iinsual degree the power vividly and accurately to put on r paper his observations." .-■ The interesting personal sketch by PreV sident Roosevelt, himself a hunter of big ''".'. game, will find an echo amongst all who havo followed with attention the career of Mr. F.. C. Selous. The sketch appears fin a foreword, contributed by America's : strong man to Mr. Selous* now book, "African Nature Notes and Experi- , . ences," just published by Macmillan and :'■■; iV ■ -Co. at the price of. 10s. . The book is good reading, as good as ;: anything, Mr. Selous lias hitherto pub- :' . lished. Its scope is broad. There is in jit much of the personal romance necessarily associated with the. pursuit of big ::' game. But there is also a great deal of blatter of especial interest to the. naturalist, to the man who thinks less of the sensational aide of the chase than of the na- ■ ture, the habits, the influence of environment, and the life history generally of animals and birds. . . MONARCH OS* THE WILDEST ESS. One of the most fascinating sections of : the book is that devoted to the Hon, the : ; i: monarch of the African wilderness, by night at least, "whose life means con- >'\, , stant, death to his fellow brutes, from the > ponderous buffalo to the light-footed gazelle, and and often destruction, too, ,i.-. to the human inhabitants of the countries through which he roams.'* Than Mr. .. Selous no one we should think has made a deeper study of the great meat-eating cat, or has had more opportunities of doing so and his notes throw much light on points -which have in the past been surrounded by much doubt. • LION AND SWEEPING .MEN*. '.'■ "As a rule, I think, a lion scj^|* 4 a |!L, s that ,'■'■'' ""case, unless it is a very-old and weakly animal, death must be usually instantaneous, as it* great fang teeth > will be driven into the brain through the'thickest negro J£ ■ {•kuil. ..: - .-•;.' . ".I have-known of two instances of Men. having been seized at night by tho , •shoulder. This, I think, is likely to hap- -**""" pen to a sleeping man lying on his side with one shoulder raised, especially if his recumbent form should happen to be covered with a blanket, in which case the most prominent part of him would very likely be mistaken by a lion for his head. "In the early nineties of the last century, two troopers of the British South Africa Company's police started one afternoon from the neighbourhood of Lo. Magondi'a kraal to ride-into Salisbury, • the capital of Mashunaland, a distance of about seventy miles. They rode until . dark, and then -saddling their horses, tied them to a tree, and after having had something to eat and cooked a pot of tea, lay down .by the side of the camp fire' they had kindled, intending to sleep until .the moon rose and then continue their journey by its light. About midnight, however, and when it was very dark, for the moon had not yet risen, a prowling lion came up to their lonely bivouac, and disregarding their horses, seized one of them by the shoulder and at once dragged ;> him away into the darkness. His companion, "awakened by his cries, quickly realised what had happened, and snatching up his rifle, ran to his friend's assistance and fired two or three shots into the sir in - quick succession.. This so startled the lion that it dropped its prospective supper and made off. "The wounded'man, 1 > it was found, had received a severe bite in the shoulder when the lion first seized him, but fortunately had not suffered any further injuries, and was able to proceed with his friend to Salisbury as , soon as the moon had risen. He had to be, 1 stint to the hospital, on his arrival* there, as, although his" hurts were not very serious, any wound inflicted by the teeth of '.. a lion is, as a rule, very difficult to heal unless carefully attended to at once and cauterised with a strong lotion of carbolic .. acid." ■•■'.■■ ■ ' A CUNNING BKrjTE. i s " In April, 1878, a lion entered a small Banyai village near the river Umay, in. Northern Matabeleland, a short time. after I had left it, and, not being able to make its way into any, of the huts through the small doorways, all of which had been. ",;■■ very carefully barricaded, climbed on the roof of one of them, and tearing away the grass thatching, forced its way in from the top There were three or four women inside the hut, and it killed them all; but, having gorged itself, was apparently unable _ to make its escape through the roof again, and was speared to death by the men of the village the next morning through the framework of the hut, after the mud plaster had been removed in places." ; ' : -,'.,, WHAT LIONS KNOW. ""There is no doubt, I think, that lions know tnat the head, throat, and the back ox the neck are tlie most vital spots in all animals on which they prey. Human, be- ■;/; ings are nearly always seized by th* head ok" neck; horses, ■ donkeys, and "zebras are ■ almost invariably killed by bites in the ! -'- back of the neck just behind tho ears, or . V by bites in the' throat; whilst they either '; dislocate the necks of heavy animals like buffaloes, or hold them in such a way that - f they can hardly help falling and breaking then* own necks. The lion which broke • the neck of one of my oxen, as I have described/above, escaped punishment, when it returned to the carcase the following evening owing to my rifle missing fire. It then ■-,' visited' a mining camp close at hand, and : forcing its way into an enclosure in which there were fourteen sheep" and goats and r one calf, it killed every one of these unfortunate animals. . I shot this lion early the following morning and then examined it? victims. Every one of them, the calf 1 as well as the sheep and goats, had been I killed by a single bite in the head. In eoch case the upper canine teeth had been driven through the top of the skull or the back of the neck just behind the ears. I once came on a young elephant only a few minutes after it had been killed by ■■'-''; a lion. The only wounds I could find . were deep tooth-marks in the throat." CLAWS THAT CUT LIKE KNIVES. "I have never seen any evidence of a lion's killing its prey by striking it a heavy blow with one of its paws, and I believe that it always, endeavours to kill by biting, and only uses its claws for holding or pulling an animal to its mouth. I have seen both a lion and a lioness bayed by dogs repeatedly throw out their fore-paws like lightning when one of these latter came near them but the movement was not in the nature of a' blow, but rather an attempt to hook one of the dogs in their claws and draw it to them. Lions, : - X think, must often lose their prey through the very sharpness of their claws, 'which _ cut ■> like - knives through the _ skin and flesh of a heavy animal in motion. I have known several instances of a lion overtaking a horse that had only had a short start. In such a case a lion will not land with a flying leap right on to a horse's back. It gallops close along the ground until it is almost under the horse's tail, and then, '. rearing itself on its hind legs, seizes it on -.■.:-■; . either flank, endeavouring to hold it with 'the protruded claws of its great forepaws. But almost invariably in nich a case it fails to stop a galloping hon=e, its 1 . .claws simnly cutting great gashes through •skin and flesh." . /'','•' " When a lion charges, it does not come on in great leaps, nor-does it strike its' adversary a crushing blow with its paw. It comes close to the ground like a great dog and bites, often so low that its forefeet can hardly be off the ground. Two Boer hunters of my acquaintance were both of them first bitten in the thigh. Shortly after the opening up of Mashunaland, too, an Englithman and a Dane '",;■/ were both seized in the same way by charging lions when hunting near the Panpwe River, in Portuguese East Africa, Uso latter dying from his wounde. In

1877 an Englishman was charged by an unwounded lion in Mashunaland and severely bitten in the groin; and.in the following year, in the same locality, an old Hottentot servant of mine was badly bitten in the small of the back when-running .away from a charging lion which he had previously wounded.'' • PAINLESS DEATH.',., ' ' ■■ Mr. Selous thinks that, for a European at any rate, to be killed by a lion is to suffer a practically painless" death. "I once made the acquaintance of a fine old Boer hunter with whom I subsequently became very intimate, just after ho had been severely maided by a lion. On asking him if he had felt much pain when the lion was biting him— had eleven deep tooth wounds in the one thigh, besides others on the left arm and hand, and described the lion as having "chewi ed" him ho answered, " Ja, ik at byung sair gekrij" ("Yes, I felt much pain"); and some Kaffirs have told me that they have suffered much when being bitten, but in the case of Europeans, at any rate, who probably- possess very highly-strung nervous systems, all the first-hand evidence I have been able to gather goes to prove that the bite of a lion or a tiger is 'practically painless. I imagine that the reason of "this is, that the tremendous energy exerted by a lion in biting is equivalent to a heavy blow, which produces such a shock to the nervous system that all sensation ie for the time being deadened, as it would be by a heavy blow from a sledge-hammer.'' AX EXCITING ADVENTURE. Speaking of a very exciting adventure he once had, the author says : " I have | the pictures of four male lions that I had chased and brought to bay very vividly impressed on my memory. They all stood fairly facing me, their heads held down below their mane-crowned shoulders, their fierce yellow eyes' gleaming, and their ears laid flat like the ears of an angry cat. All the time they stood at bay they kept, up a constant succession of loud rumbling growls, and flicked their, tails continuously from side to side, throwing them suddenly' into the air before charging with louder, hoarser growls. They stood thus with their mouths held slightly open, until two of them charged before I fired at them. The other two,„l fired at; and killed before they their minds to charge, jr ■""~>-^ •We have .mff. thafc the ' BCO of Ml Selous boak^ broad _ It is [ Q fact xo . comprehensive. It includes on protective colouration in aniJffials; the extinction and diminution of game in South Africa ; the tee tse fly; the Bushmen of the interior, and many other topics associated with big game. The book is enriched by a large number of photographs.