MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2202, 14 May 1896, Page 53

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— There is & banana plantation in Cuba eoveriDg an area of 50 fquare miles, whioh contains on an average 2,500,000 trees, and keeps in constant employment 3500 persons. A fleet of 28 steamers is required to transport; the fruit to the United States. The banana is East superseding the sugar cane in the West Indies. — Circles around the' moon are sometimes large and sometimes small, becauso they are formed at different heights in the air. — What are claimed to be the largest fireepgines in the world were recently made in Lindon. One is capable of throwing 1400 gal a&d the other 1800g«d to 2000 gal of water per mkufce. The machines weigh three and oneh*.lt toes each, and can be readily drawn at full gallop by four horses. — Even apart from its Biblical history, the Jordan possesses many point* of interest. During its course it falls over 1200 ft. At no point is 'it navigable, even by a small craft, to any considerable distance, and piesenfcs the unique spectacle of a river which, has never been navigated flowing Into a cea which contains not cne living creature. — The Taamee flows at the rate of two miles an hour. — The electric I'ght in the lighthouse at St. C*th?-rireV Piint, Isle of Wight, has a power of 7,000,000 candles. — In the United States there, are 57 frog f&rim. — The area of the British colonies is 8,000,000 j iqunre miU s, that of the French 3,000,000, of the Dutch 660,000, of the Portuguese 206 000, j of the Spenish 170,000, of the German 99,000, f and of the Da-uish 74,000. ;—; — ' The pinnacle of fame," says the Standard and Diggers' News, an aDti-Rhodeeian journal recently ►published in London, "is r SSad< me Tuss&ud's. At that place of enterjraiument may now be seen figures of Mr , Rhodes, Dr Jameson, and President Eruger. {Tone of them are in the Chamber of Horrors." — A well-known expert says there is one red diamond in existence — and only one. It is YAlntd at £7000. .— Pickpockets are even more superstitiout than burglars. It is one of the elementary rales of the " light-fingered fraternity " never to pick the pocket of a cross-eyed or club-footed person. Finding a twitted' coin in a purse will frequently induce a pickpocket to throw away the puree and all it contains, for such a thing, if kept, is considered to assure nine months' bid luck or the thief's early arrest. — A photograph of Mont Blanc has been taken at a distance oi 53 miles. — Polo on tricycles is the latebt Paris novelty in sports. . * ■ — Experiments mads with carrier pigeons in connection with various European arnves show that the speed of the carrier in c*lm weather and for a ehoit distance is about 1210 yds a minute. With a very strong wind in the directiou cf the flight a bird has reached 1980 yds a minute. — There are living at the present time over 30 mm who have tried to ewim Niagara Falls. — The arrival of "the first herriDg" at VlAnrdingen is & great event in Holland, and is duly chronicled in the Dutch journals. The selected fish, the first- truits of the herring b&tvt&t, is always solemnly declared to be " the property of the King of the Netherlands." She fishermen would look upon it as a sort of treason and impiety for any lesser Dutchman to eat it. The fish is wrapped in a silken flag bearing the national colours, and conveyed al<ng the read in solitary grandeur to the Boy.il palace at Hague. — One of the schemes for future engineers to work at will be the sinking of a shaft 12,000 ft or 15,000 ft into the earth, for the purpose of utilising the central he&t ot the globe. It is said that such a depth is by no means impossible with the improved machinery and advanced methods of the coming engineer. Water at a temperature of 200deg Centigrade, which can, it is stated, be obtained from these deep borings, would not only heat houses and public buildings, but would furnish power that could be utilised for many purposes. — The Duke of Sutherland' is promoting a great extension of the railway system of the Highland county in which he is the leading, if not the only, magnate. His first object is the construction of a line due north through the eastern part of the county,, connecting the Highland line with the sea. Afterward he means to promote the construction of two lines westward to the Minch. — The Amazon is in every respect but length the greatest river in the world. At many points | in its course so vast is its width that one shore is invisible from the other, the observer seeming to look out into a rolling sea of turbid water. It has over 400 tributaries, great and small, which rice in so many different climates tbat when one set is at flood height the others are at ebb, and vice versa, so that the bulk of the gre*t river remains unchanged the whole year round. .<- In Germany the view obtains that tho exrcu'ion of criminals should be by fome mesns more .certain even than, the electric chair. A celebrated chemist suggests the use of carbolic acid. According to his pl*n, the criminal' would be carried to a cell, which can be filkd noiselessly with carbolic acid in gaseous form frim floor to ceiling. When the gas reaches the delinquent's mouth and nose it caraecs instant paralysis of the lungs and unconsciousness, and life departs without previous pain. — The origin of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kevr will illustrate the growth of most botanic gardens in Great Britain. The Kew Gardens originated in 1759 in the exotic garden of Lord Capel, which was purchased by the PriiiCe of Wales, eon of George 11. They were greatly enlarged by George .111, but it was not until 1840 that they became a natiosal establishment, when they were annexed to the Old Deer Park, and thrown open to the publio. — Some people are so disquieted by the expression of an opposite opinion to that which they themselves hold that they seem to fear the fate of a certain Catholic and Jew who discussed together the grounds of their religious position with the result that the Jew became a Catholio and the Catholio a Jew. ' Others appear to fear disoussion because it lands them in the^difßcalty of the judge who confessed that he understood a case when he had heard only one side — it was the other Bide which embarrassed him. Controversy calls into play the spirit of toleration, and the day has gone by when, aa Mr Gladstone once remarked, either reticence or railing at opponents can be regsided as a sufficient defence of opinion. — Speaker. — A Frenchman has at last perfected and brought out an invention which has long been looked for by many musicians ; it 1b nothing more or less than a recording piano. By means of a kind of typewriting instrument which is Attached under the keyboard, anything that is played can, at will, be recorded by the instrument. The music so written is not recorded in the usual notes, but in a eeri*-a of long and short <ta«hes, something like the Morse alphabet, Irhieh it ie easy to reproduce in tha ordinary

— Botanists have divided all plants into 24 classes and 121 order* ; aud they have discovered 3000 genera, 50,000 species, and varieties of species without uumber. With regard to the roots, plants are bulbous, as in oniona and tulips ; tubarous, as in turnips or potatoes, and fibrous, as in grasses. — Dr Hall-Edwards has, before the Birmingham postal authorities, successfully used "X"rays for detecting coins in newspapers, embedded in sealing wax, and otherwise posted contrary to regulations. By the aid of the Salvioni crytoscope objects were seen through hundreds of thicknc sies of paper. — A peculiar result of lightning was noticed near Dijon, in France, after a severe thunderstorm. A bolt struck a small pond ju&t outside the city, and it was discovered that the electric shock had killed &U the fish in the water, about 1000 in number. — The hitherto unaccomplished task of passiDg Rontgen rays right through tho human body has been performed by Dr Hull-Edwards, of Birmingham, who, with an adult subject, has obtained photographs ehowiug the backbone, with the vertebisß and the spinal cord in full derail. — The smallest square of magnitude that can be perceived by the naked eye, of plain white on plain black, is a square one four hundred and fiftieth part of an inch. — The Shuh of Perpia treasures nn heirloom in the shape of a small cube of gold literally covered with (Mental letters and characters. It is believed to have fallen from heaven during Mahomet's time. — The first company for fire insurance in England was started in 1696 as the Amicable Contribution, but goon aftei wards became the Hand in- Hand, a name which *tiJl survives. I — Reindeer, as a rule, are not very strong animals. They can carry only 401b or 50lb on their backs, and draw from 2001b to 3001b. — Amsterdam is intern crtd by canals, which divide the city into about 90 islands. Communication with them iB had by about 300 bridges. — The pure white population in Venezuela, is lees than 3 per cent. The vast majority of the people are negroes, Indians, mula'toes, and zaruV-09. — The costliest mile of railroad is a mile measured ■on the steel portion of the Forth Bridge. The length of this portion is a mile and 20yds. »nd the cost of it was considerably over £2 000,000. — The flower which has the greatest diversity in shades of colour is said to be the carnation. Its blossoms may be pure white, lemon, yellow, salmon, terra cotta, pink, rose, scarlet, red, maroon, brown, bluit>h purple, grey, and all intermediate shades, besides the innumerable combinations in the variegated flowers. — The ex- President of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons says that public drinking troughs for horses are a curse to horseflesh, as they spread farcy and glanders. — Science has provided a phosphorescent or luminous paint with which the glass eyes of earthenware models of cats can be painted. These terra cotta images strike terror into the hearts of any mice or rats who may venture to peep out of the wainscot. — Professor Mendenhall says that if we could imagine an infant with an arm long enough to reach the eun and burn himself, he wou'd die of old age long before he could feel the pain. — At a church near Brest 34 couples were married together, the pairs' relatives and friends making a gathering of 1000 persons. — The most sober country in Europe (Spain) uses the least tea, having an annual consumption of no more than one-hundredth part of a pound per head. — A watch on exhibition in France has no hands or face, but when jou press a button a tiny phonograph speaks the time. — An extra smart mandarin, Ti Lien Fou, is said to have lately invented a really dirigible balloon, and whioh has been seen travelling through the air at various heights and in every direction, "even during terdfio storms." It is constructed wholly of steel. — Each ton of coal used by the principal gas companies of London costs, on the average, lls j lOd ; but as it produces 12cwt of coke, lOgal of tar, and other residuals, which sell altogether for about 7s 10£ d, the net cost of the coal is reduced to a little under 4s per ton. A ton of coal produces between 9000 ft and 10,000 ft of , gas. — Scientists will be delighted to learn that the New York police in taking a recent census discovered a man named S&usrge. He is undoubtedly the lor.g-looked-for missiDg link. — One Hundred and nine thousand locomotives are at present running on the earth. Europe has 63,000 ; America, 40,000 ; Asia, 3300 ; Australia, 2000 ; and Africa, 700. In Europe, Great Britain takes premier position with 17,000 engicea; Germany has 15,000; France, 11,000. — Some of the British steamship companies emp'oy more men than are enlisted in some of the second-class European navies. The Cunard line employs 10,000. — Twenty millions of meteors are said to fall upon the earth every day, their aggregats weight amounting to several tons. — Mr Bo wen Rowlands, Q.C., and his son, Mr E. Bowen Rowlands, solioitor, of Poutypridd, were pitted against one another at the assizes held at Cardiff lately, and a titter was raised when tho son alluded to tho recorder of Swansea as "my learned friend ! " — Two steam whalers of 400 tons each are to start from London next August for the Antarctic in pursuit of wha'ea and seals. They are to be supplied with steam launches, in whioh to chase blue whales.