INTERESTING ITEMS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 19, Issue 26, 3 April 1908, Page 7

INTERESTING ITEMS.

A submarine cable costs 250 to 350 pounds a mile.

The first striking clock was made in Persia about 800 A.D.

The first gold and silver coins were struck in Argos about 862 B.C. j

Thirty-six acres out of every 100 ' of Russian territory are forest land. | About 3,300 horse-races are run yearly in England. 1 » ■

“German” silver contains no silver, and was invented in China. ■

Of the whole area of the globe only; 5i per cent; is capable of tillage.

The only fish that never sleep am said to be the salmon, pike. «n 4 gq’dflgh.

At least 1,000 million acres of the world's surface cover gold or silver* bearing ores.

It is said that women criminals have larger hands and feet than average women. 1

The first lightning-conductor was Invented by an obscure Bohemian monk in 1754.

It is said that pansy leaves spread among furs and woollens will protect them frQin moths.

Oysters can only live in water that contains at least 37 parts of salt to every 1,000 piarts of water,

A Hussian can plead infancy for a long time, as he does, not come of age till he is twenty-six years old.

A Dutch force from Amsterdam, moveing upon skates, in 1572, utterly defeated a large body of Spaniards.

Ninety-nine men remain poor waiting for a fortune to fall to them, where only one is made rich by the longed-for ‘ death of a dried-up uncle.

During thirty days after a death in China, the nearest relatives 01, the‘deceased do not shave hor chango ! thc.r clothes.

The largest cabbage farm is near chiengq. It covers 190 acres, and ueftily U mjuton cabbages are raised annually.

In the last J. 20 years, 10 millions of acres of waste British land hftvg been enclosed; but these could not be sold for the cost of their reclaim* ing.

Farm servants are exceptional!/ long lived, only seven out of every 1,000 succumbing yearly; but, low, as that proportion is, it IS well' beaten by gardeners with the ’surplus! ugly low deathrate of five per 1,000.

Eagles arc so plentiful in the mouni tains near Selma, Cal., as to be a serious nuisance to stockmen. They have a strong preference for suckingpigs, and a stockman says that in one season fully 200 young pigs were carried from his farm by eagles.

■ i One of the most famous palls of' flowers over used for any funeral was one which adorned coffin of the late William H. Vanderbilt. It. was a work of art, and as great a trK umph as the most famous picture, that was ever painted; It was mode entirely of orchids with the Wtceptiofi of a few spots of violate, and cost £3OO, |

In many countries the rainbow is f spoken of as a great bent pump or j siphon tube, drawing watdr from the earth by mechanical means. In. parts of Russia, in the Don- country,' and aflso in Moscow and vicinity, it, is known by a name which is equivalent tq "the bent water-pipe.”

The earliest standing army in Europe was that of Macedonia, established about 358 B.C, by Philip, father of Alexander the. Great. Itwas the second in the world’s history, having been preceded only by that of Sesostris Pharaoh of Egypt, who organised a military caste a- 1 bout 1600 B.C,

A curious lake is to be found in the island of Kildine, in the North Sea. It is separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of land, and contains salt water under the surface,' in which sponges, codfish, and other marine animals flourish. Tbs'surface of the water, however, is perfectly fresh, and supports daphnias and other fresh-water creatures.

When “La Lutino,” a captured French frigate, sank under the waves of fihe Zuyder Zee a little over a century ago, she took 330 bars of gold down with her, in addition to much silver bullion and £127,000, the pay of the troops in Holland. Within a year of her foundering, £55,000 had been recovered ; fifty years or more later she gave up another £50,000 ; but of the rest of her hoard—she was insured for a round million pounds sterling—the sea still keeps a jealous hold.

Defoe made some amusing slips in his immortal “Robinson Crusoe. ’* On one memorable occasion, after making the hero strip in order to swim with greater comfort, he pictures him as providently filling his pockets with biscuits ; and he represents the Spaniards giving a written agreement to Friday’s father, sublinuily regardless of the fact thati bqth ink and paper were then existent 1 .1079* —;