ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Southern Cross, Volume 13, Issue 46, 10 February 1906, Page 10

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

'About one-tenth of the world is still unexplored. Potatoes in Greenland never grow larger than marbles. A Laplander will often skate 150 miles in a day. A single bee only collects. about a tablespoonful of honey during a season. The costliest fur is that of the sea otter. A single skin of this animal .will bring as much as £2OO. The robbery of graves is the one crime in China for which the thief may be killed on the spot by anyone finding him in the-act. Broad-headed horses are the cleverest. In cavalry regiments the horses with broad foreheads learn their drill more rapidly than the others. In Algiers the grinding of corn is done by women. They use a portable handmill which, during the wandering of a tribe, is strapped to a camel or donkey. Some of the Corsicap brigands brigands use trained dogs to attack and pull down their victims, and hold them on the ground until their masters arrive on the scene. Egypt is the only country in the world where there are more men than women. The male sex in the dominion of the Khedive exceeds the female by 160,000. ’ The Arabs show their friendliness When meeting by shaking hands six or leight times'. Arabs of distinction go beyond this—they embrace each other several times. The magnitude of the Escurial, the great Spanish palace, may be inferred from the fact that it would take four days to go right through all the rooms and the apartments, the length of the way being reckoned, at about 120 miles. For seven years the St. Lawrence River gradually decreases in depth, Then for seven years it gradually increases in depth, the difference in level being about 5 'feet. Why it does so no one has yet discovered. The largest library in the world is the National Library of Paris, containing forty miles of shelves, holding some 3,000,000 books, There are also 200,000 manuscripts3oo, 000 maps and charts,, and 150,000 coins and medals. Wnen the German Emperor travels on German railways a detailed bill is made out for every engine and car used and for the distance traversed. It is estimated that he pays' the Prussian railways alone about £SOOO a year.

Cats are held in great reverence m Persia. The .Shah alone has fifty of them, and each one has an attendant of its owa with a special room for meals-. When the Shah travels the cats go also, being carried by men on horseback. 'A' man is at his weakest when ho turns out of bed in the morning. The muscular force is greatly increased by breakfast ; but it attains to its- highest point after the mid-day meal. It then sinks foiy a few hours, and rises again towards evening. 'A thermometer, when being purchased should be tested by inverting it and allowing the mercury to fall to the end in a collected mass. If it separates into two or more parts the tube contains air, and therefore [will not register accurately. A caterpillar will, in one month devour about six hundred times its- own weight* in green food. It would take a mail nearly three months to eat a quantity ol food in proportion. The caterpillars of moths- usually eat more than those of butterflies. Of pearls, a few black ones are obtained, of great value, in the Gulf of California, while some of those from Panama and Australia are of very superior quality, but practically all the small pearls come from India, as well as a large proportion of the medium and large ones. Snow is sold in the north of Sicily where it fetches about a halfpenny a poumd. It is a government monopoly, and the Prince of Palermo derives the greater part of his income from it. The snow, which is gathered on the mountains in felt covered baskets, is widely bought in the cities for refrigerating purposes. Natural gas has been flowing for many years in several of the Caucasian provinces bordering the Caspian Sea. Some of these gas-wells which have emitted flames for a period beyond the memory of living men, are superstitiou&ly called the eternal fires.,’-

Wool of two quite distinct qualities are shorn from the same sheep. That on the neck is different in texture from that on the lower part of the creature. The former, which is extremely fine is used for making much finer and softer goods than the other and coarser variety growing on the lower parts of the animal. Philadelphia possesses a great hotel for tramps. This is an imposing four-storey building, comprising din-ing-rooms, reading rooms, and the inevitable bathrooms. Tramps who want a night’s lodging must do a certain amount, of work, according to their physical ability. Immediately they enter the building they are taken to the bathroom, from which they pass to the courtyard to do their task. After this they may go out seeking work, and then they go in for the night. Before going to bed, however, they must again use the bath.