NEWS IN BRIEF.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 56, 26 June 1876, Page 2

NEWS IN BRIEF.

Sea-water for the tanks in the Westminster Aquarium is now being brought from Brighton to London. Five hundred thousand gallons will be required. Miss Elizabeth Thompson's new picture, " Balaclava," is to be exhibited at the galleries of the Fine Art Society in Bondstreet, London. Mr. Sims Reeves was recently asked to act as a referee at a musical bee, but replied that " iie looked upon spelling bees as an amusement for idiots, and declined to have anything to do with either the one or the other."

The German excavations at Olympia will be suspended during the summer, owing to the unliealthiness of the neighborhood. Moulds of the sculptures found during the five months' researches have been taken by Signor Martinelli, and are to be shipped to Germany. Calcutta is to have a skating rink in the Zoological Gardens. The floor is to be of concrete covered with cement, as that material, though a rather hard falling ground, is the best suited for the climate.

Spiritualism meets with scant favour in Russia. The Commission deputed by the Physical Society of the St. Petersburgh University to investigate spiritualist phenomena lias finished its labours, and issued a report declaring that "spiritualist phenomena are the result either of unconscious movements or wilful imposture, and Spiritualism is a mere superstition. The rooms in the Paris Louvre lately occupied by the des Souverains (now dispersed) are to be filled with various specimens of bronzes, glass, enamels, ivories, and pottery, at present scattered about the galleries. The space vacated by these collections will be devoted to a quantity of drawings and engravings hitherto stowed away for want of room, The seal fishery at Newfoundland and Greenland has been fairly successful this season. The well-known Dundee whaler Arctic has returned from Newfoundland with forty-five tuns of oil, her propeller having broken. The Arctic abandoned the fishery at Greenland, in consequence of the scarcity offish, but the Norwegian vessel Harold Harfager was more fortunate, and is daily expected .with a full cai'go. A shower of flies is the latest phenomenon across the Atlantic. During a recent snowstorm at Riviere du Loup, in Canada, myriads of flies rained down from the clouds, covering a distance of several acres. The insects were of the mosquito species, although three times as large, and crawled over the snow unable to fly. They are supposed to have been caught up by a whirlwind and brought from some tropical country. Bristol University College begins work next October, and the instruction in all except medical subjects will be open to men and women alike, £20,000 towards

the establishment of the College hav ( promised in Bristol alone', and the I, Clothworkers' Company lias per annum for five years to create at industry in order to. improve the ttj education of clothworkers in the it England. ' The site of the famous lake into, the treasures stolen from the Teitr Delphos by the Tectosages warrior.' thrown, has been found by two f, professors, one of whom is a nienl the Institute, and obtained the ijj tion from a Greek MS. in the Ct of Mount Athos. The long-loot spot is, he asserts, under the alluvi the Garonne, near Toulouse, and | tunate Gauls are going to get up 5 pany for the necessary researches. A valuable work on French coin; preparation, under Ministerial aiJi The work will be in two parts, tl= consisting of an analytical catalogue numismatic collection in the Biblio; Rationale—the only complete collec? existence—with an introduction clas the coins. The second part will c cuts of the originals, with explj text. An appeal is made to all I and foreign museums, as well as j collections, for any information not found in the Bibliotheque Nationals