HERE AND THERE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10241, 2 September 1909, Page 1

HERE AND THERE.

WHAT THE DUTCH MIGHT HAVE DONE WITH 12-INCH GUNS. The 12-incii, 50-ton guns of a Dreadnought have ail "estimated extreme range," as it is termed, of 25 miles, but for practical purposes lo miles is the limit up to wliicli they are sighted. AYhen, during the range of Charles 11. the Dutch Fleet- under Admiral de Ruyter made its raid up t-lie Thames, it reached a point from which, had its ships.. been armed with Dreadnought guns, ■ all London would have been at its mercy to the furthest suburbs of the metropolis. A FLYING BOAT. A wliale-like hydroplane, not unlike an ordinary motor-boat in appearance, but which skims the water at the rate of thirty miles an hour, has just made its appearance on the Thames at Chiswiek. The vessel is twenty-two feet long, and marks a great step in the practical development of the hydroplane. She has a flat bottom, with a horizontal plane under the forward keel to keep her steady, and is fitted with 50-li.p. petrol engines amidships. . It is thought possible that lier design may be found of value for destroye-rs. CHURCH ROBBED OF TREASURES. Thousands of pounds' worth of silver and gold sacramental cups and crucifixes, many of them fine examples of mediaeval work and some jewelled, have been stolen from the ancient cathedral of Capo d'lstria, which is famous for the rich contents of its treasury. The robbers, who are supposed to have concealed themselves in the church during the day, and allowed themselves to be locked in, broke into the sacristy and forced an old iron chest which ed the valuables. They also took from the tabernacle above the chief altar the monstrance or crucifix, a fine piece of jewelled work of the fifteenth century, which is alone wori.li £2OOO. They then opened one or the church doers and escaped without leaving any elu

A vr.'!i(iorfiii new train-ferry service, for tl;o purpose• of transporting railway trains over the sixty-five miles' stretch of Baltic Sea, lias just been inaugurated between Sassniz, in Germany, and Trelleborg, in Sweden. Tlie strange ferry-boats are British made, the work of Messrs Swan, Hunter, and Wigliam-Richardson, of Neweastle-on-Tyne. The train enters the after-end of the ship from a specially constructed landing-stage, and a coniplete train of eight coaches can be carried on board on two parallel lines and during shipment entire steadiness is obtained by the system, of trimming tanks. The ferry is subdivided into an unusual number of water-tight compartments and is practically unsinkable.

DECEIVING THE BIRDS. There has just been completed inside the Small Bird House at the London Zoo an arrangement of incandescent lamps, the object of the installation being to induce the tiny feathered inmates to take breakfast a couple of hours earlier thaii they otherwise would do. It is controlled by a switch outside the building, and each morning at six a keeper turns on the lights. This, of course, arouses the birds, who commence feeding forthwith, under the impression that day has dawned. The same dodge has been used from time immemorial for fattening quails fer the London market. These birds feed only in the early mornings -so, after being caught, they are kept in underground cellars, fitted with electric lights, which are periodically switched on : and off. Every time the lights are raised, the quails start eating, going, contentedly to roost when they are lowered. In this way a bird can be induced to eat as many as twenty-four breakfasts in one day."

AN EGYPTIAN. OASIS. = The British child —and sometimes his elders—is apt to figure, an oasis as a small, green spot embellished by trees, a spring of .water, and maybe a wild beast or two. Very different from this are the curious and beautiful inhabited depressions called by Herodotus "the Islands of the Blest." . They are con--siderable in extent," and inhabited by a lasge population, and; ;tlie Oasis of Kharga'is the most interesting of them all.; There js still-:to*be seen iilie Temple- of -Hibis, and the extraordinary early Christian metropolis, which dates from the fifth- century. . There is little doubt . that the • water-bearing beds underlig practically, tlie whole of tlie Libyan Desert, though :it is only on. the floors of - the depressions that- they lie within accessible distance of -the surface; . , -The; essential conditions required--to produce an 'artesian basin,, ■which, when .tapped' by Jborings, will produce self-flowing - welis, are the presence of strata of sufficient porosity to carry .water, enclosed above and beiow by beds of sufficient impermeability to ' prevent the escape' of "that water." Descended from the ancient Libyans, the inhabitants of the Egyptian oasis; numbering ov.ei< 30,00,0 souls, .are quite distinct from; the Fellalien < and Bedawin of the Nile t Valley. . Isolated by arid and desolate wastes, these commr.ni- i ties occupy quaint walled-in towns andvillages .tucked away, among- groves ofpalms interspersed .with . smiling gardens and .fields of corn, -Rain is al- ; most unknown and rivers are Nonexistent, the trees and crops being irrigated by < bubbling wells deriving their water from deep-seated sources * :