Here and There

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 4 January 1917, Page 42

Here and There

FACTS ABOUT BLOODHOUNDS. '" . fev : J No real • reason - exists for - the .common ' belief that 15' the bloodhound i is a fierce animal, ready to tear the ■;.;; person whom it may be tracking to pieces. ';'Tt is, on the contrary, .. rather -. noted : for its gentleness, even deeming timid, unless specially trained to attack. fM: The origin of •' the N breed, according to ; Count Le i- ;Couteulx de Cantelei>, the greatest living authority on .;■;■';the subject, is from St. Hubert of St. Hubert's Abbey /'■" in the Ardennes. It dates from the earliest ages, and the breed certainly existed in the time of the Gauls. As regards the name bloodhound, the Count Le v Couteulx believes that when fox-hunting in something r like its present form was instituted it was "found that the sleuth-hound was not fast enough for the; purpose, and > the present foxhound was evolved from various " material, and about this time it became usual, in speakv~ ing of the old hound of the country, to call him a bloodhound, meaning the hound of pure blood (as might be said of a blooded horse) to distinguish, him from the new .. hound or foxhound. - There is only one breed of pure, genuine v bloodhounds, and that is the English. "'. ; . THE TERM BLUE STOCKING. i ■ In or about 1750 Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu, a woman of means and high social standing in London, made an "effort to introduce into society a more intellectual tone by holding assemblies at which literary conversation and discussion were to take the place of cards and s gossip. Although • her assemblies were primarily for women, men were not excluded, and one who embraced - the opportunity to improve his mind by contact with - bright women was Benjamin Stillingfleet. a well-known naturalist and linguist of the period. The assemblies ; s were not dress affairs, and because Mr. Stillingfleet invariably appeared < in blue worsted stockings instead of the conventional blue silk of the period, the wits of the day called; Mrs. Montagu's women friends blue stockings, and'from that the term was applied to' literary ; women generally. <; A REMARKABLE VOLCANO. .''■■ Kilauea, in the island of Hawaii, is known as one of the.most remarkable Volcanoes in the -world. Like Stromboli, and perhaps some of the South American volcanoes, it is in a constant state of activity. In the centre of the crater is a fiery liquid lake, throwing up fountains of boiling lava. " Occasionally the lava overflows the crater, but more often finds a way of escape lower down the mountain. It has recently, however, been exhibiting a phase of activity never before known during the eighty years it has been under observation. In the central pit, which occupies an area of forty or fifty acres, explosive and spasmodic movements have been taking place. The molten lava suddenly rises , from ten to four hundred feet in a few hours, and then as suddenly subsides. The explanation suggested is ■ that through earth movements which have occurred a great underground cavity . has been formed. This gradually fills with gases and vapors, until their pressure is sufficient to raise the overlying lava in the crater. Presently the gases find a way of escape, and the lava sinks again. DESTROYING DILAPIDATED NOTES. ■ V To keep pace with returns of worn and dilapidated ; 'Australian notes from the increased war circulation', the staff of women sorters at the Federal Treasury in Melbourne has gone up from 20 to 100, and it may be necessary even to add to this total, as the work has fallen into arrears somewhat. In ordinary times ... ; 200,000 notes a month are .returned! to the Federal Treasury by agencies throughout the Commonwealth for destruction. The total is now 800,000, and still rising. Each week lately 150,000 cancelled notes have been burnt, the former face value being between £300,-

OOO.and/£400,000. ; The total face.value/of old notes destroyed since yNoy ember, 191, when - the Act came V into operation, is £16,445,000. y The total circulation *"■ is now £30,000,000, for which a gold reserve equal to ; 34.14 per cent, is held. Many of ; the notes reaching . the Treasury have had advertisements stamped on them, x This is , against the Notes j Act, and warnings- have" been ; issued that ;' proceedings will ■': be taken if the practice is not stopped. .; . The penalty for the offence is a v fine up to £2O. "' -' > : ' *'' ' * ",0 " •:< ■ '*- - CROCODILE BIRDS. ".*'*'"' ' '' ,\ In a former generation all grammar school pupils 4 were acquainted with the ancient story of the trochilus, ;-V a little bird said to ? attend the Egyptian crocodile in - the manner related by Herodotus, the 'father of his-' tory,' who reported: ;..-;>. ,wV-'.-;- ' : '.'../ ' All other ■' birds and beasts 'avoid him (the crocodile), but he is at peace with the trochilus because l ' he receives benefit from that bird. / Even 'when the crocodile gets out of the water on land and ithen opens ' its jaws, which it commonly towards the west, ■>:. the trochilus enters its mouth and swallows' the leeches';','•-V the crocodile is so well, pleased with this service that; it > never hurts the trochilus.' "."', "".; \-, A variation of • this story, to the effect that the ; crocodile opened its enormous mouth to* the bird, in order to protect it, grew up during the Middle . Ages. Both tales were commonly , regarded, till recently, as equally fabulous. .-.•','. N ' Almost all modern naturalists; discredited the report of Herodotus, for modern scientists are very apt to doubt anything for which they have not the authority of some known modern scientific observer. This is a natural consequence of the fact, that the ancient writers, - and indeed most writers up. to within a hundred years were very credulous, and gravely reported numerous untruths because they believed wonderful tales on little or no evidence. . r Now it has been proved that the crocodile does. -, open its mouth for a little bird identified as. the spurwinged plover. Mr. J. M. Cook and his friend, Mr. Hedges, being on the Nile, saw on a sand-bank some crocodiles apparently 1 attended by these birds, which, the natives called crocodile-birds. So the two Englishmen determined to watch for what might happen. For this-purpose,' says Mr. Cook in •' during the dark hours we had a small pit dug on ..the western side of the sand-bank, and ensconced ourselves in the pit. We watched patiently until about noon, when two large crocodiles came out of the water on the bank ; and apparently were soon asleep. Several crocodilebirds commenced flitting over them. We watchecl one bird, and saw it deliberately go up to a crocodile, appar-; ently asleep, which opened its jaws. The bird hopped in, and the crocodile closed its jaws. -^ ' In a minute or-two the crocodile opened its jaws, and* we saw the crocodile-bird go down to the water's edge. As the sand-bank was at least half a mile across and the bird's back was turned toward us, we could not see whether it vomited in the water or drank, but in the course of a few seconds it returned to the crocodile which opened its mouth, again and the bird again ' entered. ' The mouth was again closed, and in a short time was opened for the bird to • come- out, and the same operation was repeated at the- river-bank. We saw the same bird enter the crocodile's mouth three times, and on three occasions go to the water.' ; « The story of Herodotus is confirmed unanimously " by the Nile boatmen, and it can no longer be doubted since Mr. Cook's evidence. But the question. what the bird does in the crocodile's mouth, remains, to ■'be solved. . ;. THE DISCOVERY OF GRAVITATION. It was in the summer of the year 1666, two hundred and fifty years ago (writes Brother Potamiah-;in < the. Catholic World), that a young man of twenty*- \[ three, a Cambridge graduate of one year's ; : standing, "■, while sitting in the garden of . his .Woolthor.pe farm v.

alone and -absorbed,in thought, saw an apple fall to the ground. r ..; No doubt, he had seen .apples fall from - the trees many a time .hi that same orchard when a ■ boy*;. but. : then his mind ■ was free [ and open,'' now it : was preoccupied and .bent : upon a ■ quest. •; What passed : unnoticed.in his boyish days, ; commanded attention in his present; mood and awoke a serious train of thought. :-; There is a popular belief to the effect that Newton : •discovered gravity; but, of course, that is an error. 5 What he did discover was that the gravitational pull * of'terrestrial gravity extends out to the moon and keeps her in- her orbit and, by inference, that the attraction of the sun is the ruling power in our whole ■planetary system.', , A further induction, which was amply . justified, • established the grand generalisation that all pairs of bodies wherever placed in the universe, attract each other with a force that varies directly as ; the product of their masses and inversely as the square ,of the distance between them. But it required years of close thinking ; years of observation; calculation, and ■ discussion before all objections to the new philosophy of the universe were answered, all difficulties removed, and the theory of universal gravitation firmly established. ; • » The same modesty characterised Newton throughout life. His estimate of the work which he accomplished during his eighty-five years is.; best expressed in his own memorable words: ' 1 know not what the world will think of my labors, but to myself it seems that I have been but as a child playing on the seashore : now finding some pebble rather more polished, and now some shell more agreeably variegated than another, while the immense ocean of truth extended itself .unexplored before me.' '* INDEPENDENT INDIANS. ,The San Bias Indians, who occupy the north coast of the Republic of Panama from a point a lew miles west of the Gulf of San Bias to Cape Tiburon, on the Colombian' frontier, are well known to dwellers in the ~ Canal Zone, which they frequently visit, but are by no means inclined to receive visits in return. They have resolutely maintained their independence, preserving their territory from foreign exploitation, aim kept their blood and racial characteristics pure. .'■, Mr. J. G. Steese, writing of these people in the Bulletin, of the American Geographical Society, says that they keep up the custom of requiring the traders who visit their coast to return to their ships at' sundown. There has been friction of late between the Indians and the Panama Government, and consequently the former are at present flying the Colombian flag. The President of 'Panama made a special trip of con- ' ciliation to the San Bias coast last spring, but most of the Indian chiefs refused to receive him. A result of this trip, however, was the establishment, of a Customs House on one of the islands of the Gulf, where all trading boats must clear, and this will give the Government a stronger hold upon the tribesmen. ; ' WHERE THE PIANOS GO. What becomes of all the old pianos? Thousands of- new pianos are sold every year, the greater number to those who already have musical instruments. The salesman allows a liberal price for the old piano in trade, accepts a little cash and -takes the balance on monthly payments. Now while he has sold one piano he has just as many on his hands as before, for he has accepted an old one. What becomes of it? He does " not care to sell it to some one who has never had a piano if he can avoid it, for if the process of trading continued he would soon be following himself around in a -circle, and there are no dividends in that. He must find a market for the old musical instru- ■'. ment. To do this he repairs and revarnishes the old piano, boxes it and, with hundreds of others, it is i shipped to South America, Africa, Asia, and other be- ' nighted portions of the world, where it is sold to the natives, who yearn for music and whose ambition is :s to drum out tunes on an instrument of their own.

■' These pianos are -sold' I '-'for a small J amount down '-- and the .balance';; in monthly , sometimes weekly, -pay £.5 ments extended s over a long period of time. . .■","' > / In this 'way the dealer, gets back not only the price he allows for the old .piano in: tlie first place, but. , the cost repairing, boxing, and. shipping, with in- .: terest added toeachof the charges'.— -Harper's Weekly. • ' " -'X-'- . '"• ■ - ■ — ~~- — 7~~. -~: —.>'.■ : •■"-''".'''•■.!'V" '■' AN INTERESTING INDUSTRY. ; '• '" 'The recent v exhibition of British Industries in* Lon- ... don was a revelation .of the wonderful strides in inven- : tion and manufacture which 'are being evidenced every- U/ where in fighting' German trade. •- ~ Before : the war a - toy industry in this: country can scarcely have been said . to have '. existed, yet ; now in almost.. every industrial :. centre, and even in rural districts, cleverly inventive ;V : v and well-made toys are being produced on a ; ; large >_.- scale. ■> ■ ■ ■ _.' • '"'',:: '-,-:•.■ - •. ''. ,' .". .■ . , Lady King, of Dublin, is doing ah excellent work ■ in this direction.-. In the autumn of /1914 she started] ;';.. the Kingrain Toy Industry in order. tcWive employment ? to women and girls who were greatly" in need of work- . and to establish, in Ireland a new trade under healthy >• and happy conditions. The toys are from entirely .; new designs, and are beautiful -in outline and color. '.'•■; and, whenever possible, true to nature, thus the tasteof children'is educated to recognise and appreciate the./■•■t beautiful. . ' i, v -''.:' '-Vv v LEATHER SWINDLES. .-}" ,^ If asked to recommend substances to be :/ fraudulently to give weight to cheap-leather, probably '// no otie would think of suggesting sugar or Epsom salts. . Yet these are the ' weighting ' materials most generally ■ found, the sugar being used in the form of glucose. ' ' Tanners state that leather is loaded with foreign ■'..•■' materials, because boot and shoemakers will buy only the lower price leather which, to quote the trade expression, 'cuts to advantage,' that is, leather from which the greater number of soles can be got at the lowest cost a. pair. .-'-■■-. - '< During a recent investigation 63 per cent, of theleathers examined were found to be weighed with 7: glucose or Epsom salts, or both. This loading varies•■'.._ from 1 to 7.5, with an average of 3 per cent, of Epsom salts, and up to 10.4, with an average of 5.5 per cent, of glucose, amounting to a total maximum loading, when both are present, of 16 per cent, and an average of 8 per cent. The loading process often makes the leather hard, brittle, and liable to crack, and, when the soluble loading washes out, the leather is more easily penetrated by water. t In short, this weighting, trick tends to destroy those very essential properties of ■: leather for which it is trusted. ' .. WHERE ISLANDS REALLY GROW. ; ;^ At Yamagata, Japan, there is a small lake called the Lake of the Floating Islands, that contains at times as many as sixty islands that change their position constantly. The islands, which move first one way > and then the other, start* from masses of vegetable -. debris that are carried to the surface by bubbles of gas; reeds soon grow on these masses in such quantity' that they sometimes become top-heavy, and overturn. - In that case the reeds grow on the newly-exposed side, ~ until the islands have become so deep and wide that they will no longer turn over. Professor Kusakabe, of the Tohoku Imperial University, and . several' asso- 'i ciates have investigated the mysterious movements of these floating islands. By placing wooden floats in the lake to show the situation and direction of the ' various currents Professor Kusakabe and his associates,J found that combined action of currents of air and water is what makes the islands move. ; ! -