HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16738, 20 May 1922, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. CONCRETE CRUSHING CRABS Some men working on a bridge it Florida made an extraordinary dis covery. For many years it has been the custom for engineers to protect wooden piles and piers ureter water by encasing them in concrete, wliich 3aves them from the ravages of destructive sea-worms. Now jt has been discoverer! that the small stone crab can dig through the hardest cod crete and break it up completely. The result is a new and very serious problem for engineers in places where thi* crab abounds. BOTTLE’S LONG ADVENTURE. Placed on an iceberg on the coast of Franz Josef Land in the Arctic nearly fifty years ago by the Austrian Expedition which discovered that territory. a bottle containing a message in the handwriting of the leader. Karl Weyprecbt. has just reached Vienna. After being imprisoned in the ioe two years, Wevprecht decided that the ship Admiral Tegetthoff must be abandoned. and before the party set out on their hazardous journey in three amaii l>oats this bottle and its message addressed to the Austrian Government was placed on a berg, so that if the party perished news of their fate might possibly reach Austria. The bottle was found last year on the coast of Nova Zemhla by a Norwegian exploring party, and has now been sent to the President of the Austrian Geographical Society. Only one survivor of the party remains ViceAdmiral Brosch, who resides at Graz. He states that the commander and other officers made four copies of the letter, which were each signed by Weyprecht. They were placed in separats bottles and on different bergs. Tie copy found happens to be the <"ne written entirely by the leader. This message from the days when Austria was a Power, recalling an achievement of a kind on which all nations can congratulate her, has sent a thrill through the broken nation. pussy v.e. When a fire broke out at the Maga< sins du Print.emps, the big Paris shop, a cat was in the basement with its three kittens. Scenting danger, she carried the kittens, one by one, out of the fire zone to a neighbouring shop. How the devoted mother accomplisher the rescue through flames and blinding smoke will always remain a mystery. When the kittens were 6aved the cat sank to the ground with her paws badly burnt and her skin a mass of blisters. She was later tended by the shop girls, who made the suggestion that a med al for bravery should be given to her. HOLD YOUR BREATH! Can you hold your breath for long? In this direction two French doctors have been making experiments, and have discovered that the period during which a normal person can hold his breath is not more than 40 to 45 seconds in a state of rest, and a little longer when lying down. The most important result of these experiments i» the discovery that the capacity for holding the breath is affected by di» eases of the air passages or heart. In the case of chronic bronchitis the patient is rarely able to hold his breath for more than twenty seoonds. BIG AND LITTLE BIBLES A manuscript Bible, now being made in London, is oft 2in in height and 3ft 6in in breadth; when opened out flat it measures 7ft lOin across. When, it is completed it will be mounted on a motor-car, with folding pulpit and platform, and sent round the country. It is believed to be the biggest Bible in the world. In the Royal Library at Stockholm is a Bible, the pages of which measure 3ft by 2ft 6ins. It is printed on parchment made from the skins of many hundreds of asses, and its oaken covers are 4ins thick. At the other end of the scale come the miniature Bibles, about lin square and 3-Bin in thickness, w'hich people U9ed to wear as charms attached to their watchchains. These tiny volumes are bound ” in gold, sometime© gem-en-crusted, and are greatly valued by collectors. The text is in Hebrew, and the titles in Latin, but it is perhaps unnecessary to state that neither can be read except bv the aid of a powerful magnifying glass. In the British Library there is a New Testament which measures tin by 2-sin.