HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12735, 3 September 1919, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

\ ~< tAs fine as a spider’s web” is ratner a misleading comparison, as all spiders webs are not alike; nor are all the threads of which they are made, these may be dry or sticky, fine and regular, or coarse and rough, accordmg to the will of the spider, and tho us© ho wishes to make of it. One kind or web is that seen on the grass on dewy mornings. This is merely a level floor on which the spider runs and catches his prey. The thread is noc s .?cky. and the web may last, if undisturbed, a whole season. Attached to it is a tube of web, in which tho spider hides. Another web is in largo meshes, but of indefinite shape. Insects get entangled in the mesh, but are not held by any glutinous nature in the thread. Then there are dome webs, in which the spider runs about to catch the insects which get entangled, in addition, there is the familiar geometrical pattern. In making these, the insect first places the radiating lines in position. On these are woven, tha circles of sticky thread, which, however, never reach right to the «mtre. ihese are the webs which catch insects by their stickiness. There are, j n addition, many varieties of spiders which build no web at all, but catch their prey by running after it English buyers appear to have plenty of money to spend on art treasures. A pair of old Chelsea candlesticks recently. realised 920gns. At a sale of .porcelain at Christje’s a set of figures of Apollo and the Muses brought 2500gns; and a pair of bow figures, “Summer and Autumn.” _ 13in high, realised 3600gns, which is a record price. Many of the phrases winch are in common use to-day date ’back many hundreds of years. Take, for instance, “ There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip.” This dates back to an ancient king of the island of {Samos, in tho Grecian Archipeiao. The king had 1 planted a vineyard, but one of his slaves, whom he had ill-treated, predicted that ho would not live to drink any of the wine. When the vintage came, the king, asked his menial what had become of his prophecy. The other replied: “I think there’s many dip twixt cup aard lip ” At that moment word was brought that a wild boar had broken into the vineyard, and was doing great _ damage. The king hastily put down his untouched cup, seized hia weapons, and went out. But in tho chase he was killed, and tho prophecy of the slave was fulfilled. “ Done to a turn ” is said to have originated from the martyrdom of St Lawrence. Ho was sentenced to bo roasted alive on a gridiron. The story goes that during his torture he calmly requested the attendants to turn him over, as he was thoroughly roasted on one side. Hence the phrase, “ Done to a turn.” A group of small companies which are interested in the export of dairy produce from the Wellington district have formed a new company which has acquired the balance of the unexpired lease from the Wellington Meat Export Company of that company’s refrigerating stores and machinery plant in Waterloo Quay, together with any i goodwill appertaining thereto, for a | sum of £12,000 (says an exchange). The lease has only four years and a half to run, but . the new company will, during that time, transfer their operations to a block of reclaimed land on the corner of Waterloo Quay and Cornwall Street, the lease of which has already been secured from the Harbour Board by the company, which will provide for continuity of operations. The majority of people would probably say that the hip pocket was the safest place in which to carry personal valuables, but an authority in crime tells up that the pocketbook in the hip pocket is the easy prey of the professional thief. London Tube stations at the present time swarm with the nimble-fingered gentry, and the way of safety seems to lie in inside pockets and a tightly buttoned coat. For loose cash the trouser pocket is probably safest. Tlie modern woman disdains pockets and relies on the vanity hag, easily opened and easily looted. Women’s pockets, when they existed, were the despair of the cleverest thiewes; which is not surprising, for often the owners had serious difficulty in finding their pockets themselves. , Quaint and curious are the ways of pome reptiles of the desert, as revealed by the famous naturalist, Mr 0. L. Camp, who has been studying them. in the Colorado Desert. He tells of: some reptiles—tho burrowing snake sonora, the gridiron-tailed lizard, the. ocellated sand-lizard, and the desert j “horned toad”—which actually swim; into the loose sand by the strong lateral movement of their heads. The Snd-iron-tailfed Fizard is very swift am! agile, and when chased will race over the sand at fifteen miles an hour. Moss of the desert reptiles of the Colorado are coloured like their surroundings, and are difficult to detect. . Others can change their colours to suit roundings, while not a few of tlm desers lizards are able to part with their rendilv when they are seized. There is humour in-the ways of desert tortoises. When one meets anolher-nn-less both are males, when a fight in variably takes place-each head rapidly np and down as though in salutation, and sometimes noses a touched as they pass. . According to Major-Genial Sqmer,' Chief Signal Officer of the Hmted States Army, every tree top is a poten 4 - rial^rel™tower- The discovery waa made during armv at Camp Atascadero, California, when found that telegraph and telephone buzzers inoperative he<anse of the dry «jnson and unusual character ofthe soil became operative when connected with the trunk or root of a tree. Irar,w hostilities the American army, with a string of stations using treetops as antenn®, read messages from shins at sea and the principal European radio stations, but so far transmission with the treetop radio has only been success-** fill over short distances. *