HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16905, 2 December 1922, Page 10

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOE EVERYTHING. MANY-EYED INSECTS, In some ways Satare is kinder b> insect® tha-n to men (say© the Moirtfeq* L ‘ Witness ”) Examine a lamprey of ]me fish closely, arui you will find fchaS it possesses, in addition to a P® 4 * *** eyes similar to our own, a third the top of its head. It resemble* th© i chthy osaurus, an extinct animal which had an or© at the tap of the skull, The *am© peculiarity ists in some of tb© lizards, such a** tho green variety common in the eauffr m Europe, and account®, for their wellknown acuteness of sight, Jnseete ar# even more liberally provided with ey«a, Sn general, they have two kinds of eyes—ssinrplo and compound, Simple eyes are like our own, though less efficient, while compound ©y©9 ana e&m* po-?ed of nxunorons facets or lances, This explain* the difficulty In carrying out the injunction, (t Swat that fly I' 1 Tho oyo of “ that fly n has 4000 facets, and consequently ft does not miss muhh within its range. Large though this number may seem, however, it is by no mean? exceptional, Tho dragon-fly's eye ha-5 12 000 facets, and the MordoHa beetle'* ©ye i* mad© up of no fewer than 20,000, Whit© the cemootmd eyoa never exceed two, the single eye© vary in number from on© to eighteen or twenty. They are situated in groups on each side of the head, Spiders and scorpions have both single and compound eyea, though they appear to derive comparatively little benefit from them, ODYS3EY OF THE FROZEN NORTH, A grim story of a man's awful batflla ! with -deatli in th© frozen North is told | in report© from the far northern posts of th© Royal Canadian Mounted Police, ju»t received at Edmonton by Superintendent Jennings, Mr J, L, M’Cleary, who served with th© 102nd Battalion In th© world war, lay alone for eighteen week* in a cabin on an island in th© Mackenzie? River, unable to move, out a fir©, and with frozen feet. Ml* M'Oleary, with a jaeh-knif© amputated th© toes of Ids left foot in an effort to ©as© the agony, H© at© nothing in all this tim.© but raw flour, mixed with molted snow, secured through a chink j in th© cabin wall by his bedside, For j eighteen weeks h© fought th© oold and j death. H© conquered* although he# will boar tiio marks of the struggle* all hi© life, Indians reported to th© police that no signs had been seen of the man, and a sergeant and constable, with two dog teams, sot out from the Fart Norman station of the Canadian Mounted Polio©, arid eventually found, and rescued him, “W© found the cabin in an almost indescribable condition,” said th© sergeant, “In it lay th© man we were looking for, All fiv© toes of his left foot, and the foot itself appeared to be mortified., P arts of the right foot were gangrenous, The man told us that his feet had gone had on his wa-V back to camp before Christmas.” M'Cleary's left foot and a toe on the right have boon amputated, and it is believed h© will r©coyer, SWEARING IN A JTTDGE, America has little time, apparently, for the tradition which provides that a judge shall hay© no ©yea or ears except for tl>© gentlemen of the bar (writes the New York correspondent of the Melbourne “Argus”), Wandering into the City Hall of Chicago ena morning in Juno, I found a municipal court agog with preparations for the swearing-in of a newly elected judge. The bench was laden with huge bouj quets and baskets of the choicest I flowers, feuch as Britons would reserve for a favourite concert artist. The floor was crowded with lawyers, idlers, and court official a, many of the last-named in their shirt sleeves, which they did not deem it necessary to cover with their coats, even in the presence of the judge; and the atmosphere was thick with tobacco smoke. In th© corridor outside a. hawker was selling peanuts, chewing gum and candy. Before th© 1 inauguration ceremony, th© new judge and his friends appeared on the floor of the court, and posed for a small army of newspaper photographers, ’ Then they ascended to the bench to tha accompaniment of vast applause. After th~ swearing-in ceremony began a seemingly interminable succeed on of speeches, addressed not to th© bar hut to “ Ladies and Gentlemen,” The occupants of the bench having been exhausted, chance visitors were singled out from the crowd on the floor ami asked to contribute their share. When T left the courtroom the speeches had occupied ninety minutes, and the end was not yet in sight. The informality of the proceedings of these lower courts is a strong© experience to the foreigner. Thus, at Philadelphia, I witnessed the spectacle of a newspaper photographer taking a position on the bench in order tc “ snap ” two delinquents confronting the judge at the time, and the photograph duly appeared in the evening’s paper. As to public bodies like a city council, one reads of Chicago that, C( The galleries were jammed, and as the aldermen explained their votes v ,h© crowd voiced its approval or disappr© 'a l bv cheers, hisses, and catcalls.”