ILLUSTRATED ODDS AND ENDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14226, 24 November 1909, Page 9

ILLUSTRATED ODDS AND ENDS.

THE GIBRALTAR OF THE - ENGLISH CHANNEL: THE NEW NAVAL HARBOUR UNDER THE CLIFFS OF DOVER, OPENED BY THE PRINCE OF WALES ON OCTOBER 15, 1909.

This great work was commenced in 1898, and after 11 years has been brought to a successful completion. The picture shows the new harbour as seen from ghc sea. Some fdea of the' magnitude of the task undertaken may be gained from the knowledge that the area of the enclosure that constitutes the Admiralty harbor* is 610 acres, and that of the commercial harbour 80 acres, a total enclosure of 690 acres, "which is believed to be the largest area of open sea yet enclosed by solid tmasonry works to form a harbour of refuge." The outer masonry walls forming the harbourage measure 2£ miles in length. * -The,iSphere.

,:.s' ... •. ■ .. -V' i v.,,-.- I-,-,- • • /«, ; -• • • - •' ■ . , v< Illustrated jjondon News. < ONE OF THE- MOST PRIMITIVE OF WEAPONS W' A NEW' ARM FOR SOLDIERS OF. TO-TMY: MEN OF THE SPANISH TROOPS AT MELILLA USING SLINGS FOR THROWING EXPLOSIVE GRFfIJADES.

The slings used against the Itiffians by. Spanish troops at Mehlla were described, when they were first mentioned , in despatches *e<»ntly, as new weapons, of destruction. ' Obviously, tLey are merely a modern form of one of the most primitive of arms, though explosive grenades have taken, the place of the stones-of David and those who went before him. i Forty men of the Chiclana Battalion were chosen to wield the slings, and owed their nov.«t position to the fact that they . came either from the Honda Mountain region or from : among the hill-dwellers of Toledo and Estremadura-that is to say, from duvets whose people are accustomed to the use of the slings. Speaking of new weapons, it may be recalled that the Moors have been turning ginger-beer and curacoa tattles into bombs.