MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3105, 17 September 1913, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

Jews are not permitted to buy land in Russia. , Naturalists say that a single swallow will devour 6000 flies in a day. The deepest colliery in the world is at Lambert, in Belgium—ssooft deep. —An inch of rain is equal to 100 tons of water to an acre. ... Mrs Joseph Chamberlain is a descendant of one of the Pilgrim Fathers.. The longest artificial watercourse in the world is the Bengal Canal, 900 miles in iengtE London the {oggy days a ye ar we on an average 58. , . ,v There are 62 miles of tunnels in the fortified rock of Gibraltar. There are 1000 vessels which cross tne Atlantic Ocean regularly every month. ' The Chinese have a superstitious flor ror of being caught in the ram. The oldest known artesian well w* sunk at Lillers, in France, m the twelfth About one sixteenth of the P a P^,° ut ' put of the world is converted into hooka -The most common name for a pto in England is Nowton, which occurs fewer than 72 times. the Oak ebony, and mahogany are me three best-known woods which are heavier were unknown in SwitoTj land until the completion of the Sc Gotha ‘“-Beggars in China are taxed, and have certain districts allotted to them m wh.ch to make appeals for chanty. date St. Peter’s at Rome will accommodate 54.000 persons, Milan Cathedral 3 , J? sons, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, 25.000 persons. . , ~ • Trir i: a on The income tax is levied in on all incomes of £33 and upwards, and then only one man in 700 comes within its “Awhile repairing a temple the. Chinese fhir.he P «iee e S not'be tended at the ships » in Norway than in any other _ country. This is attributed to the fact that the temper ture is cool and uniform throughout the

’VZW" X *"IIVC. P 't.. habitation i. «tU to be that of the coal miners in . Bohe ™ ’ ss t^ Sw“ of figures and write down the total to it. revenue by thocnltb nation of a little State orchard Luxembourg Gardens just as t tak share of the profits of the Liffel lower. -The skins of 100,000 animals are med every year for the covers of Gxford Bibles alone “and 400,000 sheets of gold are auired for the gilt lettering. q The shipping of Great Britain equal that of all oth p r countries of the woild pu Sgether and its commerce and navy are by far the largest. The official viper-killer of France ha. —me qr , o kins Q { venomous a dress composed ot aIW tsins , reptiles. He receives a emall paj mont the head of every viper he destroye. The difference between the tallest and shortest races in the world is one foot and one half-inch, and the average height 5f -\n inscription on the church tower of Birdbrook states Mrs Martha Blewitt, who died May 7, 1681, was tne wife of nine husbands successively. She buried eight of them, but the ninth out-, 3,V —When the Grand Duchess Olga, the Czar’s eldest daughter, was bora, £1.00°.000 was settled on her. and it is said that this huge sum was safely invested in British and * — n Th e SC consular report on the trace of Boston Massachusetts, for last year elates that over 11,000 miles of kmematograph films were exported from America during Sr year, and that nearly three-quarters were sent to the United Kingdom. Iciocks without hands or faces arc now common in Switzerland. The timepiece rta“ds in the hall, and when a button is preyed, by means of phonographic arrangoS it calls out ‘‘Half-past 5” or ‘Five minutes to 9,” as the case may be. The telescope, so far from being, as is generally averred, the outcome of the famous experiment of Galileo, was known at least 300 years before his G'ne ; whi e the microscope certainly dates from the earlv part of the ninth century although greatly improved in the sixteenth by Jar.eon and others. , • The Gorman Emperor is a prodigious reader, and very little concerning himself which appears in the European or American press escapes h:s ken. Every article or paragraph, whether hostile or eulogistic, is pa-sted into an album and carefully indexed. William II has also a weakness foxbeing photographed. , , . . , —An authority states that it is well to use the eves as much as possible in looking at things' far away. The clouds, the sky. distant trees, and forests may bo often very profitable objects of observation. Going on the water is especially useful to strengthen the eyes and prevent shortsightedness. Japanese dolls are usually most elaborately and gorgeously attired, for families keep' these toys and pass them down to their descendants The brocaded silks for the doll robes are specially woven in immature patterns on small looms. The wooden dolls are often beautifully carved and enamelled. , , , _ , , An hour s fighting of a first-class battleship would cost somewhere about £IBO 000.' of £3OOO a minute. In the case of the Maieetic the items woukl be. approximately : Four 12in guns. £38.000; 12 6m quick-firers. £80,000: 18 12-nounders. £38,000; 12 5-pounders, £21.000; eight Maxims, £I7OO. China has still, in many parts of the country, the old-fashioned system of private letter-carrying. If he has a letter to send the Chinaman goes to a letter shop and bargains with the keeper thereof. He pays two-thirds of the cost, leaving the receiver to pay the rest on delivery.

A witness at Old Street, who described herself as a flower-seller by Aldgate Station, London, stated that she earned 14s 8d on Primrose Day and 12s on the day before. She said that she seldom earned less than 10s a day, and often much more when flowers were cheap. At Loerrach, in the Black Forest, there is a lake the bed of which remains dry from 10 to 13 years at a time, and then suddenly refills with water from subterranean springs to a depth of 12ft to 15ft. After 10 years the Eichener See, as it is called, has again commenced to fill, and has destroyed all the crops which farmers had planted on the bed. Doubtless the nlost unique spot in Europe is the little village of Altenberg, on whose border three countries meet. It is ruled by no monarch, has no soldiers, no police, and no taxes. Its inhabitants speak a curious jargon of French and German combined, and spend their days in cultivating the land or working in the valuable calamine mine of which the village boasts. The dry dock which is to be built at Quebec for the Dominion Government by a Montreal firm will, when completed, be the largest structure of its kind in the world. It is to be 1150 ft long and 137 ft wide, of 100 ft longer and 17ft wider than the Gladstone Dock, which was opened by King George at Liverpool Seventy thousand cochineal insects are required to make a pound. The dried substance is used for dyeing purposes, making a brilliant purplish-red colour. Among the hues produced from it arc those known a® carmine, and also the “lakes.” Rouge is also made from cochineal, though probably few of the women whose cheeks are coloured have the least idea that it is derived from a Mexican insect. —As is well known, some metals are unsuitable for casting, while others, like iron, can readily be cast in any desired shape. The property of casting well is said to depend upon whether the metal contracts or expands on solidifying from the liquid form. Iron, like water, expands in solidifying, and the solid metal may bo seen floating in- the liquid iron about it. The expansion causes it to fill the die into which it is poured, and so it can be cast easily. Gold and silver contract in cooling, and therefore are not suitable for casting. Arabian horses manifest remarkable courage in battle. It is said that when a horse of this breed finds himself wounded, and perceives that he will not bo able to bear his rider much longer, he quickly retires from the conflict, bearing his master to a place of safety while he has sufficient strength. But if, on the other hand, the rider is wounded and falls to the ground, the faithful animal remains beside him, unmindful of danger, neighing until assistance is brought to his master.