HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16542, 28 September 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

COUNTING AT HOME AND X ABROAD. The numerical value of a billion varies in different countries. For instance. in England a billion means a million millions, but in France and America the term is used to indicate a thousand millions. /A similar difference holds good with that still more swollon conception, the trillion- In England a trillion means a million billions, and is shown by the figure cue followed by eighteen cyphers, thus: 1.000,000,000,009,000.000. In France and America. where it indicates but a beggarly thousand billions, it has but twelvecyphers to its credit, and is but the equal of our billion. LTFE AND OXYGEN. Scientists have recently shown that the amount of oxygen necessary to sustain life is very final! indeed. A case in point is that of Surgeon Murray Levic-k, who went with Caotaip Scott to the Antarctic, lived with his party for seven months in a snow liut with ice-lined walls, and during that time the atmosphere was quite still in the place, with not sufficient oxygen to support the combustion of a lamp or even n match. The circuinstance tempts one to revise one’s attitude towards those sanguine folk who, in imagination, havo peopled not only Mars but the moon as well. There is no doubt that, judged from our standard, the atmosphere of Mars is exceedingly rare, and that the moon possesses practically no atmosphere at all. LIFE ON BEN NEVIS. In the British Isles there is one spot wjiere it is always cool. This i* the summit of Ben Nevis, the highest mountain, where from 1883 until 1903 the Scottish Meteorological Society maintained an observatory. The records kept during these years show that the*© in no month in the year when snow doe 3 not fall there occasionally, while from the beginning of November tirl the end of March violent storing of snow and frozen sleet sometimes rage for days on end. During one particularly severe snowstorm, the wind, which attained at times the almost incredible velocity of 150 miles an hour, forced the Hjnow, dry anc } powdery as dust, thj-pugh every chink in the walls of the observatory. THE EYES AND DEAFNESS. It is said to be a fact that blue-eyed cats are invariably deaf. Even more surprising is the fact that human being.** with a, bluish tint in the whites of their eyes are prone to deafness. These persons, moreover, have brittle bones. One girl with bluish eye-wliites had ten fraoi tures in two years. Th© trouble runs in famines, and generally those affected ar© short fn stature. In one famiTv it was traced for five generations, and thirty-one of -thirty-five members of the family were afflicted with deafness and brittle bones. It is curious that whereas persons with yellowish teeth can crack nuts safely, persons whose teeth are a kind of bluish porcelain white cannot. V EXPENSIVE LUNCHEON. An American millionaire, desiring to visit/ th© most exclusive restaurants of Paris, and having only one day at his disposal, spent £IOO on his luncheon. He was accompanied by his wife and a friend who knows the haunts of Paris thoroughly Th© party decided to havo only one course at each restaurant. Beginning with cocktails at a famous ; cafe on the boulevards, they drove up to Montmatre for hors d’ceuvre, lo u. restaurant which makes a boast or serving eighty varieties daily. Then they came down to the neighbourhood of the Opera for fish, which consisted of filleted sole with mushrooms. Next they went to another famous house near the Madelain© for a veal entree, and to an open-air restaurant in the Champs Elysees for a chicken speciality. Vegetables—a plain dish of onions, exquisitely cooked—were obtained at a small restaurant on the left bank of the river. Not far from Concorde the party had chicory salad, and near the Etoil© they ordered fruit—expensive fresh pineapple. Again entering their car. they drove to a most fashionable establishment, in the Bois de Boulogne, where they had coffee, liqueurs and cigars. TREASURE FOUND AFTER 100 YEARS. After nearly 100 years, stocks worth £IOO.OOO have been romr-nticallv discovered hidden between the pages of a copy of the “ Faerie Qu ene,” which has been passed, with other inherited possessions, from one family to another, and never opened. The treasure might conceivably havo remained there for another century had not Mr H. S. Enyart. of New York, a genealogist, obtained from Dr William Pierce Seymour, of Troy. New York, permission to look through Ins j collection of family papers and heirlooms in quest ol the history of another family wholly unrelated. While displacing th© old faded volume of the “ Faerie Quenne” he opened it. and from its pages there fell a certificate for sixty-seven shares of stock of New York City Bank. Dated August 19. 1823. th© oertin-,-ate belonged to Thomas Williams, great-grandfather of the physician’s lat© wife. At the time of purchase it was worth £2O a share. Mrs Seymour’s son, Alfred Watkins Seymour, claims the certificate, and demands that dividends unclaimed since the stock was acquired b© turned over to him.