Odds and Ends.

Otago Witness, Issue 1374, 30 March 1878, Page 4

Odds and Ends.

The expense of Stanley's African exploration is, in round numbers, $115,000. He discovered 15,000,000 heathens, which is about six for five cents, or a very reasonable figure for heathens.

Frank Harvey, of Lexington, is fifteen years old and six feet two and one-half inches tall, with thirteen inches more or less turned up for feet. France,' Germany, and perhaps Austria, intend, it is said, to have expeditions fitted out and stationed at San Francisco to observe the transit of Mercury, in May next.

In London now the rubber seems a thing of the past. Go where you will, poker is the game on hand in the cardroom.

Miss Kate Field, who is a dramatist, actress,- singer, journalist, and a charming lady, has recently been taken on the staff of the London Times.

The great cemeteries of New York City — Calvary and Greenwood — comprise over a thousand acres, and are located on Long Island, several miles distant from Brooklyn.

During the past year England paid, as a nation, nearly two millions and a-half pounds sterling for eggs bought of foreign farmers, in addition to perhaps as much more for those of home origin.

A very little beauty goe3 a long way in a princess. The " lovely " Margherita of Savoy is, to unprejudiced eyes, a rather dingy yet pallid blonde, with a very prominent nose.

Mr Brassey said, in his late lecture at Westminster, that the American export trade was increasing largely, while the import trade was dwindling ; and exactly the converse to that state of things which was going on in England.

The .third week of the Moody and Sankey meetings at Hartford, Conn., opened with unabated interest, three immense throngs .gathering at the Rink on Saturday.

In (Stockholm each doctor receives a fixed sum per annum, from the families who are his clients, and this is paid whether, during the year, they are well or ill.

The renewal of shipments of ore from the celebrated Emma Mine will naturally cause the old English shareholders to consider anew the value of the property they so thoughtlessly threw away. Exactly how many alligators' hides are received, annually in New York to be tanned for boots and shoes is not known, but they do not fall far below ten thousand skins.

It is said that short dresses will be worn in the Spring, and, moreover, that they will be made very plainly, with habitshaped basques, as masculine as possible. * In the opinion of many foreign authorities, much of the evil of drinking in England is due to the fiery and potent nature of their habitual drinks.

At a recent meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society, London, a large photograph of the sun, twelve inches in diameter, was shown as a specimen of the photographs now regularly obtained. A Bill has been introduced in the Legislature' of California to prohibit, after the year 1885, the burial of the dead within the limits of any incorporated city. „ Mr Paul Boyton, the inventor of the swimming dress which bears his name, is about to attempt to swim from Toledo to Lisbon on the Tagus, a distance of 700 miles.

The opening music at Victor Emmanuel's funeral was Schubert's " Serenade," bo achingly full of life and love longings, and then a cheerful pastorale. The auditors .were almost expecting a tarantelle to follow.

On Stanley's very first night in Paris he had to go through the form of presentation to. a score of celebrities, and to hear;Albani Bing, and this in a private house.

The experiment of casting type in hardened glass has been successful in Paris. Glass is cheaper than metal, and finer lines can be cast in it.

By the death of a miner named Anton Sonenschein, in the Bendigo Hospital, that institution is £100 the richer.

Bertha Yon Hillern accomplished her taak-of- walking 89 miles in 26 consecutive hours at Washington. She finished in' good condition, with her pulse at 104. The treaty of commerce and friendship between the United States and the Sampan Islands was signed on Thursday. It \ will be sent to the Senate for ratification.

(The tenth game of billiards in the billiard tournament resulted as follows: — Sexton, 600 ; Daly, 477. Largest runs : Sexton; 247 and 146 ; Daly, 136 and 94. 3?he great feature of the racing year has beejn the wonderful success of Lord Falmauth. That one man should, weight-f oragq racesj takeupwardof £35,000 in stakes al6ne, stamps 1877 as an annus mirabilis anaeedr '

An American branch of the " Conffrßteroity of the Sacred Thirst " has been established in America. It is a new «tyle of teetotal society, started in Ireland iby Father Bobert Kelly, aud approved of by the Pope. From the moaasnt that Stanley entered ttfee African .continent on one side, until he eiaaerged fromit,a,t/;he other, he never (received & letter or. a, newspaper, or heard a syllable at what was gq^g on in the world.

A pipe is being laid from via Bennaylvania to Baltimore, a distance . •of 1236 miles, which .will transport to the' seaboard tiwo .million .ba.rxeja.oi crude oil, Mtauftlly. ' <