MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2727, 20 June 1906, Page 62

MULTUM IN PARVO.

k— The credit of having reached the highest altitude in a balloon is giver toMr Bersen and Dr Suring, of Berlin. They Iret went to the height of 30,000 ft, losing Consciousness for brief intervals. They continued to ascend to 33,790 ft, wheD one of jthem became unconscious, and could not be fcroused. The other, after opening the rvulve, also became insensible, and neither •"recovered till the balloon bad dropped

*to"«16,000ft. — The Amazop is the greatest river in jthe world, except in length. In its lower jDOurse, its width is sometimes so great that *m» shore is invisible from the other, the "' itfjeetver aeeming to look out o^re rolling "' £eTof turbid water. It has over 400 tribuitaries, great and' small, which rise m so xaany different climates- that when one set 'is at flood height the others are at ebb, end vice versa, so that the bulk of the reat river remains unchanged the whole year round. — Th© well-known landmark feiand aUane," on" the Scotch coast, between St. iAbbs Head and Cockburnspath, fell on the "Jfearb. -with a orash. recently. The" landtaark whit* consisted of a mass of rock fin the shape of a tower over, a hundred jfeeirm'gh, was not only a' guide to ships, fcut' a favourite- subject for artists. It is estimated ihat 1100 tons of rock

• .fcdllapsed;< . — In, tall men, as a rule, the body is out *A proportion to the lbjrer limbs, with the natural result that such men arc unable to !be*r fatigue or to compete in the struggles " of life with their lesser fellows more harmoniously proportioned. Army experience fcears out these observations. In a long and fatiguing march the tall men usually ,If all out first. A eoldior between sft sin tend sft Bin or 9in is usually the one best adapted for bearing extra exertion. — Ay very fine flint dagger of the neolithic ago; was found by men who were diffljng for the foundations . of a new sqhoorat -fieaoham, Norfolk. It is 10i inches long, mncf the beat specimen ever found in Norfolk. — . . '— In the course of an action against a Chibago matrimonial agency for fraudulent practices, 12 women .clerks employed by *he' agency admitted that they haft written OflO,00(Hove-letters to men who applied for intfdduotions to rich wivee. — A man-trap has-been found m Auord, {Lincolnshire, whicfe shows tho barbarity X& less than a century- ago. It is probably Hhe' largest man-trap in existence. ,It is /Join in length, and,, ife Jaws, with teeth mrotrudinjr 2in, will open fully 2ft 2m by -Old-time landlords _ who chose to m''autUipon' their rigbts'in their entirety, as JVbef ofteVrdioV were ,it .iiberty' to ptent ,1, 1 jtbefe barbarous engines' about* in. the undersjrowth o£ their encTosod' land," for the - benefit of ,any trespasser or possible poacher . wh<s-%ii^it' ehariog to' «et foot' near wem: ' use 'was abolished- by law in 1827. ' -*It is claimed for Ealkirk that it Jibs/ lfche> most unique coat-of-arms in Scotland. „The desigrf includes to. lion bearing, a smeld an its foi«i>aws, on which are quartering* the old Roman 'wall, the old ►Established Church, the Battle of Falkirk an 1298 and the rebellion of 1745, and the ' ~ qnarteringe of tho Earls of Livingstone, formerly superiors of Falkirk.- Why they "*»ft out the Stirling Cup Final Tie and lalkirk Tryste is ,not clear. > — What" is regarded as th© greatest of all illustrated books has just been completed. Only 100 copies have been printed, jwhieh have been sent ,to American and foreign museums, to the Kaiser, the" Czar, the Mikado, the Emperor "of China, Queen JWilhelmina, and the Prince of Wales/ The (book is a catalogue of Mr H. R. Bishop's collection of jades, bequeathed to an Engfieh art museum. I* contains 150 fullroage water-colour drawings, etchings, and Aithographs, and 30D pen-and-ink sketches. -The text was contributed by 30 writers -renowned in scientific- And art circles, and the illustrations are by Japanese and Chinese artists; The book has cost £20,000 to produce. ■ — The ' King Edward VII Sanatorium at Midhurst, "which will soon be completed, is in 'many respects a notable building. As a precaution against the accumulation of Idust, all internal and external angtes of the building have been rounded, concave mouldings- being inserted at the 'junction pf floors and walls. The chapel will attract attention. It i? in the shape of an inverted jV, the twpXaxma of the V forming practically' two naves "set at right angles to each other. An open-air pulpit is a feature oi the chapel. — A missionary who recently returned from -South America discovered on th« jonie -to" Orurotutofagosta a tribe of fetish ■redskins' -worshipping Bismarck as a god. ■ "Last "year, wben ' the -drought threatened ' -"their harvest, they offered up prayers to their usual idols, <but all to no avail. Their chief, having seen at an emigrated farmer's hut the picture of the Iron Chancellor cut out from an illustrated German paper, asked the farmer tc make him a present i>f the print, which request was willingly agreed to. Thereupon the Indians brought the picture in great procession to their kemple, and, 6trange to say, a welcome rain watered the lends of the tribe. Since that time the deity of the Chancellor, whom t-he - Indians call Bimbarko, is firmly estab- * lifihed, and all kinds of reptiles are offered up to him in sacrifice. —In addition to the stained glass windows already subscribed for by admirers of the late Dean Farrar, a marble medallion, presented by his son, is to be set up in Canterbury Cathedral. Trio's medallion, which is in profile, has been executed in Italian marble by Mr Albert Bruce-Joy. The" head of Dean Farrar shows that Mr Joy. is in the first rank of sculptors, for it is beautifully executed, the dignified and expressive features of the great divine being most faithfully reproduced. The lead is a little more tha,n lifo-size, and the fircular plaque ie about 18in in diameter. — Colonel Bte\va*t Mackenzie, of Seaforth, and Airs Stewart Mackenzie have intimated their intention of building, equip- - ping, maintaining, and eventually endowing it sanatorium for the treatment of conBumption. The object of the sanatorium tri\\ bo to submit cases of pulmonary tuberculosis for several months to treatment with ft view to arresting the progress of the disfease, to effect a cure, and also to edujcate the patients in the system of openair treatment, so that on leaving they may „ introduce the rrincdpJes to their own homes, which will become centres of instruction-, to otfierl. The sanatorium will be oKen v to the inhabitants of Ross and Cro-jnarty-shjres, and no charge will be made i Cor th« treai.naent.