LAKE COUNTY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2388, 7 December 1899, Page 28

LAKE COUNTY.

December 2.— With the exception that growth is )ate thiugs agricultural look healthy aIL round. Grass upon the hills is becoming move plentiful, and so are the thistles. There apne-ars to bo a" peculiarity about 'the thistle, and that is that it is migratory^. A patch of thistles luxuriates for a number of years upon one fspoc, the» suddenly dies out, as another yfttch somewhere in the neighbourhood begins to flourish. Late rains have done a lot of good, to crops of all kinds, especially turnips, and those who are lnoky enough to have sown early may look forward to a splendid yield. The Small-bird Pest.— The small-bird pest is makicg havoc amongst the small fruit. Some gardens are completely stripped of. "currants o£ all kinds, and considerable inroads hava been, made into goosebsrries as- well, the fruit being picked off before it is half ripe. In the High Heavens.— lt may be rerneinhsved. twat early in 1534 the colonial papora were taken up with predictions by pr Falb, a Yienn?. astronomer of some note. Die Falb,. amongst, oihqr dire events, published a- lisfc of critical days, which were duly set forth, bun no ill came of it. so far as I remember. He also stated that the more than ordinarily eccentric comet discovered in 1866 would probably eo;lido»with our earth about the 13th of November, 1599. As the cornet, has failed to keep the appointment, may is not be surmised that it fell in with the shower of meteorites, t due about the same time, and that they mutually annihilated one another, as did the two lions in the fable, which swallowed one another, leaving nothing but the two tails? I | think we i.aye jtfst a grievance in-bding dei pnved of two such sensations at once.- • All | such, prophecies seem to hurt the piophets more thai either the earth or the comets. Natural History.— New Zealand birds, ifc would appear, arc apt pupils' at evolution. The kea, all out of his own head, went for muiiion. i fal straight to the living sheeo, seagulls ha.v& taken to living inland, Maori hens have taken, to uoisoned grain, muoh to their own detriment, and so forth. Regarding the sfagulls, they m?de their first appearance in inland Otr.go after the kea3 began to kill sheep, and were attracted, no doubt, by the decaying carcases. They became bo plentiful -that the notion gained ground that they also were killing sheep. Such an idea was, of course, absuid, being: impossible from the nature of the gulls' feet and beak. Then came the rabbit, and the gulls increased. , When the rabbits were poisoned as a peat, plenty of singl* gull* were seen shrieking for thair missing mates. After a while the gulls, profiting by the lesson, grew scarcer, until the present time, when they are met with chiefly on the highest ground in, Otago, that is seldom poisoned. They have evidently learned to put this and that together. Some time ago a correspondent in the "Witness called into question the fact of the kea's misdeeds, but he may put his mind at rest on the subject, for when they were more plentiful than they are now, they did much mischief. During a visit in 1882 to Minaret station, Lake Wanaka, the neighbourhood of which swarmed with keas at that time, I saw, during the muatering season, eight sheep in one day corning in with hole.* in their back 3, being just able to carry their fleeces home. They either died skort:y after or had to be killed to put them out of misery. Obituary. — Two pioneers or the district have joined the majority during the past week. Mr James Jack died rather suddenly on ' Wednesday morning last, in the seventy-first year of his age. .Deceased was an early resident.of Big; J3oach and Arthur's Point, where he kept k hotel in the early digging days. Ar» inqnes6 held on the body showed death to hare resulted; from heart disease. — The other death. wsa that of Mr F. Mitscherlich, an early resident of Queenstovn. l£r Hitscherlich carried on the business of a. cabinet maker and carpenter, and being oi an inventive turn of mind, conatructed

models of several contrivances in connection 'with chipping. Deceased, -who was a native of Germany, had reached the ago of 80 '■years. . - • Accidents.— What came very neai being a iofcal accident happsn-ed to a young jnan named James Wilson at the Dart, Head of Lake Wakatipu. Wilson was crossing the river, which ran ■very high at the time, when the horse he was aiding stumbled, both horse and man coining Sown. Fortunately, Wilson got clear of the horse, and managed to reach a shallow beach. He carried a theodolite box on his back being engaged to assist in laying oft some dredging -claims. In hie struggles' to gain his feet, and ■while in a stooped position, tho strap holding the box slipped over his arm preventing him irom rising. As it happened, T. Malaghan saw the mishap, and at once went to the rescue, ■dragging the struggling man on shore. Had it not been for timely assistance, the Dart wotild have claimed another victim. — E. L. Bryant, working at the sawmill at the Head, coming too neaT one of the saws, had his thigh cut rather badly, but has now nearly recovered from the injury.