Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 356, 5 March 1903, Page 7

Naturalist.

CAUGHT ON THE PLY. night, a* the Philosophical MfiM Peasant eouudJy slumber, d after a hard -day's work among his turnips, his good wife woke hint up to whisper in his ear : < • Get thee up at once or we shall be on- , done '•' V. 'But why get up ?' he asked. 'lf one is to ba undne it might as well be in Ma « Hist t There is seme one at the door!' | ' That may be true, but why be alarmed t Perhaps a traveller would borrow our l lantern, or a neighbor would ask after our health. • ,*, * ' I tell yro thsft some one has come to rob us!' exclaimed the wife in great fear. •It may be so, but why excite thyself f A. robber soeks but to rob, and we have ho little. Liok thee out of the window and tell me what manner of man is this intruder who hafcb disturbed us.' •I cannot be cure,' replied [he wife after obeying instructions. 'Then we must calmly abido events. If it is the king's tax-gatherer he will take our all. If i* is a robber he will sot leave a grout. 1 At the end of five mmutts the wife peered from the window again and called out: . •Alas, the marauder hath discovesed our Goat and js leading him away.' •Then let us thank heaven and return to our sleep,' said the husband with a sjgh of relief. • . •But shall he be permitted to escapa scatheless P' . 'My dear woman, you make me tirea. In the first place, the intruder might have proved to be the tax-gatherer or a robber, la the next, he might have come in at the window instead of pausing outside uje door. Thirdly, he has led »"&y a * l Goat when he might have taken a £7 ass, and fourthly, we shall probably find bun tangled up in the barbed-wire f eno* in ttw morning >nd I'll go through his pockets for the last stiver.' Moral: Everything is always all right i? you would only think so. A WONDEEBTJL HE BEING MACHINE. Very clever is a Swedish inventor named Ekenberg, who has constructed* machine which takes berrinss as they come from the net. sorts them into the four sizes recogniz id by the trade, scrapes off their scales, cues off their heads, splits, cleans, and washes them inßide and out. The machine does all this automatically, and turns out twenty thousand herrings 'an hour. Ore of the big fioating herring "factoriea which go out from the herring banks is to be equipped with this astonishing apparatus, which ought to effect a revolution in the price of bloaters. INDIGESTIBLE. An extraordinary collection of things was recently discovered in the stomach of an alligator. There were eighty five stones, several birds' claws, two human finger nails, and three hoofs of a donkey, . to one of which a piece or rope was attached. Where the best things are not possible,# the best should be made of thoie that M* Hooker. s