MULTUM LN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3522, 13 September 1921, Page 45

MULTUM LN PARVO.

Coal used for pumping London’s water supply amounts- in normal times to 220,000 tons a year. On Kennell Island, the least visited in the Pacific, the only currency consists of tho teeth of dying foxes. Ihe island is surrounded by walls of coral limestone 300 ft high. . Sharks are now prized for their slun by manufacturers of shoes and leather articles in the United States. Special seines have been constructed with which to catch the man-fish, and as many as 200 a day have been captured. One hide will produce 10 to 40 square feet of leather, the liver of tho shark yields upon boiling with water a r \ a [liable oil, used in making glue, soap, paints, and medicines. Ihe meat is white, resembling halibut, and is edible. —As far back as 300 B.c. the Egyptians used a clock which was worked by water. The passing of water through various pipes moved a cog wheel’with a hand attacheo, and this hand indicted the different hours of the day while the wheel performed its revolutions. Hour glasses, or sand glasses, were invented about 330 A.D. They were made of two bulbs of glass with an intervening neck. Dry sand placed in the upper bulb ran through the neck into the lower bulb in exactly one hour. Clocks worked by weights were in use in 1125, but watches were not invented until 1500. There is a constant struggle in India between human beings and wild animals. Last year 55 persons were killed by elephants, five by hyenas, 109 by bears, 3a(). by leopards, 853 by tigers, andt 688 by bears and other animals. Poisonous snakes claimed no fewer than 22,478 victims. More than 19,CC0 wild beasts of various kinds were destroyed and 91,000 snakes were killed. High floods killed off many of the small animals that are ordinarily the prey of wild beasts, and this probably accounts for the attention that tigers and other large animals have given to their human neighbours. —lt seems the castles of Scotland are being abandoned (observes the Weekly Telegraph). Hamilton Palace has been dismantled. and is to be pulled down. Taymouth Castle is for sale. Douglas Castle is practically closed. Drumlanrig Castle is completely closed. Duff House and Erskine House were vacated some time ago. The Earl of Wemvss has given up Gosfoid House. Ellisland (where Burns and his “Bonnie Jean” lived and where ho wrote much) lias just changed hands after several attempts to sell it. There will be nothing in the famous Scottish " houses but the ghosts at this rate. But there will always be plenty of ghosts, for most of them are “haunted.” The latest literary genius to go down to posterity on a postage stamp is tile immortal Dante, in connection with tho sixth centenary of whose death the Italian Minister of Posts has consented, under pressure, to issue a series of commemorative postage stamps. An eminent Roman artist, M. Giuseppe Cellini, has been com missioned to prepare appropriate designs for the Dante stamps, which will consist of the three denominations, 15. 25, and *0 centesimi, and no fewer than 4,000,080 sets are to be printed. They are to be placed on sale early in September. bis eyes if he were to walk through New Smyrna, Florida, and encounter negroes digging live fish from the ground as if they were potatoes. A certain variety of mud fish found in nearly all parts of the State is responsible for this state of affairs. This queer member of the finny tribe inhabits streams or ponds which have mud banks or bottoms. It is black, and weighs tip to 51b or 61b. When the water in a pond evaporates, as it docs during certain seasons of the year, leaving only a mas 6 of mud, which on the surface is almost dry, t doesn’t worry the fish. The fish merely burrow into the mud to wait for rain, and apparently continue to live as long as the earth is wet. Tile negroes locate the fish by exploring the mud with their bare feet. The fish is edible, but is not a favourite because of its stringy and coarse flesh. —lt is interesting to look at sand with a microscopic lens, for one sees that the grains differ among themselves in colour, size, and shape. They differ in colour because they have been produced by the Weathering and breaking down of different kinds of rocks, such as granite, quartz, and sandstone. But why are some grains round and others angular? The smallest ones are most irregular, and that must be because they are carried in suspension in the flooded rivers, and not rolled along the bed rubbin" one another —for it is the rubbing against their neighbours that takes the corners off sand grains, and the rounding and polishing may come about, either in water or along the ground when the wind makes a sand-storm. Wind-driven sand is even rounder than water-roiled sand. How long does it take a sand grain to become round? Dr Galloway has just o-iven us an answer; it requires 800 hours of rolling in water at four miles an hour to produce a round from an angular grain of sand! It is interesting that this calculation, based on careful experiments, is almost the same as that given years ago by the French geologist Daubree - who said that the sand grain would require to travel 3000 miles to get, its corners rubbed off. According to Dr Galloway, the roundness of very minute sand grains is partly due to a dissolving away of their surface, the thinner projections naturally going first. There has just beer, fashioned for one of the big lumber mills in British Columbia the largest circular saw ever made. To be accurate, there aro two of them, and they have been designed to meet the special requirements of the mill which is called upon to handle giant fir logs, many of which run from 15ft to 25ft in girth. There are millions of acres of fir forests in British Columbia, there being sufficient timber in this single province of the Dominion to supply the world with ali the lumber it needs for many generations to cotno. Each saw is 9ft in diameter, and boasts 190 detachable teeth of the inserted spiral tync. 'I Lis is an important innovation. and means that should any of the teeth get broken or damaged, new ones can be inserted without removing the saw from its frame. Each blade was cast from ingots weighing 11401 b. After reheating, rolling", and trimming, the finished blades turned the scale at 7951 b apiece. Great care had” to be exercised in the final treatment, as they had to be mathematically true and nerfect, and the steel of a uniform quality. This giant among saws is capable of attaining a speed of 130 miles an hour. It eun saw through the greatest forest giant that aver grew as easily as one can cut Butter witii a knife.