Brief Mention.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4907, 24 March 1894, Page 3

Brief Mention.

• J Tife fashion of serving the fish before meat began in 1562. False teeth for horses are now manufactured by a Parisian firm. Stealing was first made a criminal offence in the reign of Henry I. The Baroness* Burdett-Coutta owns the finest flock of goats in England. The fashionable cat in London this year is of bluish tint and long haired. Within the Antarotio Circle there has never been found a flowering plant. One of the curious things about the Gulf stream iB that no whales are found in it. A perfeotly proportioned wan waigbs twenty-eight pounds for every foot of his height. One of the celebrated wine vaults of tha London docks is nearly seventeen acres in extent. The-presant Shah is the first sovereign of Pereia who has left his dominions in 2350 years. •In 1552 books on geometry and astronomy were destroyed in England as savouring of magic. The past year was tho sunniest on record in England. The aggregate for the twelve months was 1686 hours. The first horoe was brought to America in 1518. Now there ore, in the United States alone, 14,056,750 ; valued at £188,200,000. The Victoria Railway Bridge over the St Lawrence at Montreal, Canada, contains 3,000,000 cubic feet of masonry work and 10,500 tons of iron. The Italian fire engines are supplied with hos-as fitted with electrio wires, co that the firemen can communicate with those at the engine. Prom 1638 to 1652 musket balls were used as currency in New England, at a valuation of a farthing apiece, and were legal tender up to one shilling. The electric railway has penetrat_d the fastnesses of the Tyrolese mountains, a road twenty-seven miles long being projected between Riva and Pinzola. An Amsterdam lapidary has a machine which cau pierce a hole as small as one one-thousandth of an inch in diameter. The holes are made in diamonds, sapphires, and rubies. The largest bnilding stones are thoae used in the cyclopean walls of Baalbec, in Syria. Some of these measure 63ft in length by 26ft in breadth, and are of unknown depth. The Chine&e Encyclopedia meetß a longfelt want and no family should be without it. It was published in Pekin in 5020 volumes, and at the price of .£2OOO is the same aB given away. An American firm of papermakers have experimented with wild sunflowers, and produced a tough and pliable paper, on which an entire edition of a local paper was successfully printed. It has recently been conjectured by Dr John Murray that the Antarctic mainland has an area of 4,000,000 square miles, or eight times the size of Greenland, and i nearly aa large as Australia. Tfye French are considering what to do with the 100,000 francs left come time ago by a lady as a prize to tho first person who succeeded in communicating with the inhabitants of the planet Mars. ♦' Admission by loaf of bread " was the announcement in respect of a concert at the Charming Hall, Sheffield, in aid of the distressed miners. Over two hundred and fifty loaves were obtained by this means. The policy of protecting the deer in the Maine woods by a rigorous close season is said to be resulting in an unexpected return of wolves to their old haunts as well as in an increase of the deer. In the Middle Ages a considerable part of the lands of Scotland came into the possession of Norman knights through their marriage with native heiresses ; that waa a recognized mode of founding a family. South American ants have been known to construct a tunnel three miles in length, a labour for them proportionate to that which would be required for men to tunnel under the Atlantic from New York tc London. The number of religious sects entered bj the Registrar-General at Somerset House in 1873 as having places of worship in England was 125. In twenty yeara they have more than doubled, the number lust year being 270. The alphabet of the language of Madagascar is so difficult that it took the first two missionaries two years to learn it, though the Eing to help them issued as order that no letter should have more than one sound, The inhabitants of Santiago are much agitated at a discovery made by one oi their number the other day. The ground on a plain to the south of the oity haa been found to rise nearly twenty inches during the day, and to resume its normal level at night. In Watford (England) churchyard there is a fig tree growing oub of a tombstone, whioh it haa split in half. There is a tradition, which is well authenticated, that a lady asked that a fig-seed might be put in her coffin. The tree ii now a large one, and bears fruit. A Viennese undertaker has turned out a richly-decorated coffin for a millionaire customer, who, before he became qualified to occupy it, stipulated that it should contain twenty small incandescent lamps, which were to be kept alight for three years after his decease. A gold wedding ring, with the lettera "W.A.G." engraved on the inside, wae found under the roots of a holly tree neai the Lake of Menteith Hotel, on the tree being blown down. Since then anothei storm has blown the tree baok into it_ former position, and it seems to be thriving. Putting the population of the earth af 1200 millions, there are 500 millions who do not eat flesh from religious motives, and at least 100 million Mohammedanonly taste it once a year, whilst among the 400 million Christians a large number are vegetarians in practice, if not by conviction. At the North Pole there ia only one direction; south, east, and west have vanished. The hour of tho day at the Pole is a paradoxical conception, for thai point is the meeting place of every meridian, and the time of all holds good so that it is any hour one cares tc mention. Ismail Pasha — whose bad luck is traced by many Egyptians to his act, while Khedive, in letting Cleopatra's Needle go to England — is not permitted now to leave Constantinople without the surveillance of a medical man, who is also a diplomatic spy. Hia condition is not so precarious a. that of his creditors. A clergyman in Philadelphia, who has been crowded out of the Baptist denomination, has hired a theatre, in which he proposes to hold Sunday services with unique spectacular effects. The stage is to be set to represent the Biver Jordan, and the rite of baptism is to be administered in a tank, He will be reinforced by a choir of 15C trained voices. The diameter of trees not only varies from summer to winter, but from day to day, They are larger from noon until twilight next morning than from twilight to noon ; they are smaller in winter than in summer. Low temperatures, as well as high, promote evaporation. The trees evaporate from their branches in winter, and so, the coldei the weather the more they shrink. The first needles that were made in England were fabricated in Cheapside, in the time of Queen Mary, by a negro from i Spain ; but aa he would not impart the ' secret, it was lost at his death, and not * recovered again till 1566, ia the reign of j Elizabeth, when Elica Orov.ee, a German, taught the art to the English, who have since brought it to the highest degree of J perfection. J Iv Lancashire a clergyman whose stipend j doea not reaoh .£IOO a year, and who had a ! church which virtually coueiited of four ; bare wkllp, get hio_?e)t' to work, beggtd ; wuod, tools, nails, and even varnish, and I in abou. four years, with his own hand. i fitted that little ,cburch with open sittings, a really artistic pulpit, an altar screen, S reading desk, and everything complete. Evoa to an expert the effect was excellent,