Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 214, 19 January 1869, Page 2

Local and General.

Kaiapoi . Institute. — The Rev. A. Reid of Lyttelton, will deliver a lecture this evening in aid of the funds of the above institution. Subject: " Woman's Influence on the World's Weal." Bachelder's Diorama. — The above was exhibited in Kaiapoi last evening to a large and interested audience. Several of the scenes elicited rounds of applause, and the audience separated much pleased with their evening's entertainment. The Governor. — His Excellency, attended by his suite, left for Lyttelton. by a special train at 1 1 .45 this morning. A large number of gentlemen had assembled to witness his departure, the Superintendent, the Mayor of Christchurch, the Hon. John Hall, and several others also accompanying him in the train. Presentation. — At an ordinary meeting of Court Star of Canterbury, 2309, A.0.F., a testimonial illuminated on parchment was presented to Brother- J. M. Thompson, the former secretary of the Lodge, and who is about to leave by. the Hydaspes for England. It had been prepared by Mr J. C. StQuentin, and was very neatly executed. Water Velocipede. — Galignani says : — " An ingenious application of the principle of the velocipede to water locomotion may now be seen on the Lake of Enghien,. near Paris. The form of this new species of naval construction, is that of the twin ship tried some, years back on the Thames, the motive pojver being placed in the middle, instead of on each side as in ordinary paddlersteamers. A' piir of hollow water-tight pontoons, about twelve feet long, ten inches wide in the -thiek-6t^art r and-tapered to a point-at-each end, are fastened together about twenty inches apart, by transverse bars near the extremities. In .thecentre is placed the seat, 'rising about two teet above the water, and .supported by iron rods. In the front is : the paddle-wheel, about three feet in diameter, and eight inches broad, provided with 1 sixteen floats, the axle turning on stout iron uprights, and the rotary motion being obtained from cranks worked hy thefeet. This little vessel is steered by rudders at each of the stercs, and moved by lines. The pontoons being

_^_ . . 5 —rmade of thiaj:-is&hoga-ny planks, the whole construction isV^ry light, kndVglides along with astonishing rapidity. This- water velocipede, ha^mg^Sjeen VbmltVas * a^first experiment, is, no doubt;- susceptible Vof improvement in someVof Jts'details, .but the principle may be already^ pronounced a complete success. The /in ven tpr is AL\ .Thierry, an architect, of Paris/ '•'/■: V\ V -\ N Oyster CoLt-okb/in' KaAutJEi*— The Times correspondent say's-: — The ' Irish Fishery .Commissioners have concluded their labours in France, after a tour of inspection extending.'o^er 2,000' miles, . during which, tlley visited 14 of the principal places in which ostrea-culture is carried on. The failure of the " spatting " season in the southern districts appears to have been serious ; and although there is a visible improvement in the northern establishments, there is not much hope of any decrease-in the present high price of oysters for two or three years to come. Unfortunately, the destruction of the great natural beds, which the Government are now sedulously endeavouring to replace by a system of production wherever they have the power, has left the supply almost entirely in the hands of the cultivators of the foreshores ; and although the supply from these sources ia ordinarily large, yet, from the exposed condition of the crop, it is: far. more ; liable to damage from un : favourable weather than it would have been in the j natural beds. Among the objects of interest visited by the Commissioners, the pares Of ; Chatelaillon deserve mention. One can hardly conceive a city turned into an oyster bed, or a population replaced by scallops and periwinkles, yet such, it appears, has been the fate of Chatelaillon. On the sea coast, some ten miles from La Rochelle, stood, centuries ago, the important town of Chatelaillon, which preceded it. j; Tiie ments of the sea little by little, carried away ,the earth onV which it t .stood, and jsubmerged its ruins* Of . jthese nothing now remains but the .shattered walls j of , what is said to have been a portion of an ancient castle, which stood upon a low cliff immediately oyer ; the sea ;■ and. as. this cliff is still falling into. the sea piecemeal, the last vestige of the ancient city will doubtless soon disappear altogether. The eminence on which the town stood is visible at low water, and though, the .eye traces a cfanciful resemblance to streets. in the natural [passages, formed .between the pares, and the pares are no doubt formed of some of the stones which belonged to. the city itself, and continue to be called after the traditional designations of the various streets, there, really are no visible ye§tiges.of Chatelaillon beyond the ruin just mentioned. The city, or rather ,its ; site, is, in fact, an oyster, bed,.- . iThe commissioners have left Paris after an interview with M. de Champeaux, the representative of the Minister of Marine in the Fisheries Department From what they have seen they have every : reason to hope that the cultivation of oysters can; be considerably (extended in Ireland. ; i An; Ascent; of ; Vesuvius. — "We left the hotel at Naples. at 8.30 a.m. in a hired carriage (charge of Bf . for the day) for Resma— a village built over the ancient Herculaneum — arriving there in an hour. At the house of the chef des guides a guide was assigned us, and.we mounted ponies (guide 1 Of., ponies |sf. each, extras 5f.), surerfooted animals as we afterwards found them, if left to themselves to pick their own way ; and by their, useful assistance we reached the Hermitage, 4_ miles up cthe mountain, at 11.15, passing on the way the Lacryma Christi vineyards,, and also by a fairly constructed path, proceeding across the various old lava streams — masses ot hard and brittle, dark, vitreous material, curled up into wave-like forms, or broken and crumbled . into irregular shapes, some of their crevices emitting heat to the present day. We lunched at the Hermitage, having provided ourselves beforehand from our hotel, and mounting the ponies again reached the Atrio ■. del Cavallo, at the base of the cone, at. 1 1 .30. Here the hard work on foot commenced. Each traveller, at a charge of 5 francs,, has the assistence of an extra guide, who with a leather strap over the shoulder, hauls him up the difficult and fatiguing ascent— an undignified, but extremely necessary, arrangement. We had here a foothold of nothing but scoriae and broken lava. The view as we ascended was grand in the extreme — the Campagna, Felice, Baire, Sorrento, Ischia, Procida, the Bay, and city of Naples, aud the Mediterranean being embraced, and, with occasional sunlight over all, some splendid effects of light and shade were observable. The dark and mysterious Mount Sonima, close to us on the left, returned to the voices of the guides a singular echo, like the tones of a great organ. Wear'riveid at the summit at 1.30, and here our, first introduction to incandescent lava occurred. We lit our cigars, and afterwards cooked eggs .by its fire. Clouds aud thick fogs here enveloped us, and an extra coat became agreeable. After a rough, walk over very J irregular ground, which in many places emitted hot vapour, got to the seaward side of the mountain, and at times a break in the clouds afforded us views of astonishing grandeur. At 2 o'clock, again with the help of the guides, we ascended the side of the crater, the ground being at an angle of about 50 degrees, and composed of loose sand and stones, with occasional crevices emitting sulphur fumes and tyot air. .We arrived at the lip of the crater at 2 15, thus'taking a quarter of an hour to ascend 100 feet. The surface here was too hot to bear the naked hand, and the air was full of hot sulphurous fumes, rendering an occasional turning of- the head to windward necessary. The crater was giving out volumes of smoke, and we had been looking on but a few minutes when an eruption took place. A sheet of bright yellow and red flame divided into perpendicular lines, preceded by a cloud of steam, and mixed with stones-and black objects, was thrown into the air with astonishing force and noise, to a great height, subsiding in smoke and steam. Ibis was, from about the centre of ; the crater, and - it

had an inconceivably grand effect. We weTe particularly fortunate in witnessing this display, as we migtft have waited for montbs, fas the guides told u.s, witholit isuch a chanoe occurring again ; but as jVesuvius has beeri for EO-ne days pagtin an uncertain and fitful state, it is possible that < similar and other effects of the volcano's liveliness may be" seen tbis winter. We descended the crater, the cone, and the mountain by another path, and arrived at Hesina at 4 p.m., the only drawback to the journey being the impossibility of satisfying the numerous applicants for buono memo,, who assailed us on every conceivable pretext." inHßHM ■_■— — a—— — _■——_—___—_