ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 626, 28 November 1863, Page 7

ENGLISH EXTRACTS.

By a Communication from the Atlantic Telegraph Compniry it appears that the necessary capit.d for carrying oub their enterprise ha-? now been provided, and out of tenders subnittad by eight fiiffarenr contractors the directors have selected that of Messrs Glass, Eiliot nnd <Jo., en the unanimous recommendation of the PcUutiflc committee, consisting of Captain Galton, H.E., Professors Wheatstone and Thomson, ani Messrs W. Pairbaim and Joseph Whitworth. The contractors have already commenced' the manufacture of the cable, which is to be of the best description, and e ubj wt to the approval of the scientific committee and the beard, and t';ey undertake io lay the cabl9 across the Atlantic bsfore the end of the year 1861. A Pugilist oh his Own Decease.—Thefjllowing letter has been addressed to the editor of the &iar:—" Sir.— On the occasion of my late right with Dillon you took the liberty to do what JWllou could tiot do -namely, to kill me. You stat:d in your paper that I was dead, and preached a funeral serHwii over my grave. I have now to request that you I will do me the justice to bring me to life again, seeing tnat I am all alive and kicking, an it you do I shall be happy to see you at my 'crib,' iv Castie street, to take part in a bo to of wine nith me, so that you may v ie.i by your own ej e-sight ; or, if you are up to the noble art, you miy take a friendly houtwith ihe softibt gloves I have, to enable you to judge by your own feelings wheiher lam dend or alive. But as you are, perhaps, better up to the use of your own weapon—the pea— which is sometimes mo;e deadly than ! the fist, I enclose an article cut from your own p iper to pseac'i from, showing that, although I, Bob Travera, was not killed by Dillon'a fist after an hour's hammering, Anthony Gblding was killed in one moracdt by a ttib from the knife of Patrick E uly. I am sure, if you will v c your gift of the gab by putting down on papir, and getting yoar printers 1 devils, or whatever else you call the people who set up all the lies that appear every day in all the newspapers, such as killing people who are all alive O !— which nobody but devih would do— you caa preach a capital sermon about ' The nst and the Knife '— Your ob'dienr seryaut at command for any thine like fair play, which is a jewel, Bob Tkaybrs. Cattle street, Leicester Sjunre, August 26." A remarkable discovery of the precious metal has lately bean made in the quiet little town of Kmhin, in the valeof Ciwyd. In sinkingfor the foundations of a new pier, the workmen came on some fra.>tneuls of quartz impregnated with gold. The.circuni3tancs occasioned considerable surprise, as the ground is a mixture of peat, sand, &c, where one would hardly evpect to find such a tteasure. No attention was however paid- the pier v, as built, and the ground re stored to its former condition, bince th-it Vine, how ever, a trial has r een made close to the spot, wheu within five fir six ftet or less from the au face fragment* of quartz containing gold, ns well as pure gold dust, were found mixed up in, white sand. There h 'no possibility of f aud or deception, or of secret deposits placed to bjjj developed in due time. The sole machinery is a single hborer, set to dig by the owner of the soil, and who is all day long surrounded by a dozen open-mouthed anl openeyed natives watching the work. Although this discovery may not be very important as to tlie amount of gold obtained, yet it is one of considerable interest, and aa indicating tbat the mountains to the east and south of this part of the Vale ot Olwyd originally contained the metal, which has been brought down by the action of water and deposited in the sand with or without its matrix of quartz. It Is not unlikely, therefore, that these mountains may be soon added to the gold producing districts of North Wales, which have lately attracted so much Pttention. The exact diggi' g.i at present going on are in a field to the east of the railway station, and immediately below the Lion Hotel, the occupier of which holds the land in question. Injurious t ction op Lead Pipes on Water —The importance of discovering a really efficient means of preventing the injutious action of lead pipes on wafer is universally acknowledged, and the experiment? of Dr Grace Calvert have proved that no propo-ition hitherto brought forward has been calculated to remedy the evil complained of. A discovery, however, has now been made, through which the water suppli d by leaden pipes may bs obtained by the consumer as pure as from the original sources. Dr H. Swartz, of Breslau, has discovered a means by which the portion of the lead forming ihe interior surface of the pipe may ba converted into an insoluble sul- 1 phidu ; ihe natural consequenoe being that the water ! passing through will be as free from contamination a' ■if glass were used. The means by which Dr Schwartz eiiects this conversion is extremely simple. He simply passes a strong solution of the sulphide of an alkali through the pipe to be acted upon, and the process is completed. The solution, which is either a solution of potasaum or soihm, is used at a temperature of about 212 degrees Fall,, and is allowed to act upon the metal for from 10 to 15 minutes. It is stated that, in practice, the boiliugsolution of caustic soda and sulphur is found to answer every purpose.— Mining Journal. - Another miracle is mentioned by Italian letters. There is a saint at Bergamo whose specialty it seems is i to cure "gibbosity." The other day a person nfnicted with a hump, after praying for some time, went up a ladder to the niche of the saint, " in the presence of eountltss witnesses " To their amazement, as he ascended the hump gradually diminished, and finally altogether disappeared. A sceptial French paper, however, asserts that on examination it was found thai the hump was a, block of ice the man had placed undpr his clothes, and which melted nway under the influence of the natural heat of his body. At the Homes Boiling Mills, Rothertham, a boy was caught by the machinery, and in an instant he was drawn in in between the rolls, and thrown out on the opposite ?'vis a mangled corpss. The rolls through which he passed were only two inches apart, and at the time of the accident were making 130 revolutions per minute, Last year a very extraordinary scene presented itsell at the church of Montmartre, Paris, on the day when the young females of the parish take their first communion. Upwards of fifty of the young communicants were suddenly seized with, convulsions, and some of them with epilepsy. This year the samo circumstance has occuired upon a smaller scale About a dozen of the communicants have been similarly attacked.

Thr British Assooutioh. -Scienfe bsgins reaping its annual harvest before the farmers have done. The British Association met U Newcastle on Wednesday, and owing to the popularity of Sir William Armstrong, who is the President of the year, 2000 new members were enrolled in the Association, and 2000 annual subscriptions annexed. Besides the sectional papers and discussions, there are, of coarse, to be much mora important amusements. To-day there will be a trip tg Sunderland, where adventurers may de:cend the Monkueirmouth Coliiery, 1800 teetdeep Cn Monday, Mr CVxweH and Mr Glaisher are to make a scientific ascent, and we tru9t also, unlike the untortunate man at Nottinghom, a scientific descent and Mr Glaisher is to lecture on hia own achievement on fuesday evening. On Wedneslay next, Sir William Armstrong will shoot off 12-pounder breech-loading and shunt puna for the amusement of the Association, and to illustrate tha highly destructive powers of his time and percupsion segment shell. Bills, concerts, and eutertainments of every description are to be crowned with a regatta in which tiheen, the Australian Champion, Kelly/ the Champion of the Tyne, and. Chambers, the Champion of the Thames, are to measure their skill, fir Win. Armstrong's inaugural address was by no means open, to the charge of taking coals to Newcastle. On the contrary, it undermined" the future hopea of Newcastle in coals as much as the coal mines themselves undermine its soil. He said that England wss now raising 86,000,000 ton 3 coal yearly, and that recently the yearly rate of increase had heen 2,750,000 tons per year. If the increase were now for ever to cease, and the coal income to be henceforth only 86.000,000 tons, the English stock would be exhausted to the depth "of 4000 feet in 930 years ; but if the increase of 2§ mi'iions anuua'ly were to continue it would be exhausted in only $12 yearf. Moreover, he scarcely thought that at piesent the coal could be worked so deep as 4000 feet The bottom qf Monkwearmouth Colliery (only 1800 feet deep) shows a temperature of 84 degrees, and a degree rises for every sixty feet of depth. This would give 129 degrees for the depth of 4TOQ feot;— a dreadfully hot climate to mine in, and most exhausting to the strength. On the whole, Sir W Armstrong thought that in a osntury or two the rjnited States, which possesses coal-fields thirtysix times as extensive as ours, will supply the world with Goal; but the meeting wa^not apparently depressed by , this prospect for their posterity, probably thinking „ that Qonnjthing , might turn up, even for Newcastle, as 'good as coal itself. Sir W. Armstrong then discussed also the source of coal in the sun's heat, and gave a very striking picture of Mr Nasmy th's solar "willow leaves," which are each, 1,000 mile3,in length and 100 in breadth, and, says Sir William, "perhaps organisms." We hope no.t; crowds e£ involved, bright, hot caterpillars creeping over eaoh other, cash 100,000 square miles in. area, are not a pleasant (or a very probable) idea; but Sir W. Armstrong's speech was the ablest and far the most popular of recent yeats.— Sncqtator. Three men dressed in black coa.ts and white neckerchiefs, drove down from London to Uxbridge, the other Sunday, wont to a confeotionefs, the family being absent at church, bowod and lifted their hats as they went in - took possession of a quantity of plate, bowed themselves out again, and drove off. They were thieves.

The number of colored tror pa actually in "tb.s field is between twenty-two :aad twenty-three thousand. Fifty additional regiments are partly organised, and speedily approaching completion. The eatimatn of one hundred thousand being in an.s by Fall will, it M thought, be fully sustained,— New York paper. At the meeting of the British Association, on Friday, Dr Hunt, endeavored to show that the blaok was naturally inferior to the European; whilst several other gentlemen, insluding a native Cingalese, took the other side. The audience entered warmly into the controversy, and applauded the advocates of negro equality as freely as they hissed their oppb* nente, ,