MISCELLANEA.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 146, 27 August 1872, Page 3

MISCELLANEA.

I Speaking of the late finding of a nugget jof 5380zs weight, near Dunolly, the Express gives the following particulars:'•This prize was found at the Shoots, about three miles from here, in the wall of an old trench that had been cut about nine years ago, when a large number of men were at work in the locality, and an immense quantity of gold was being obtained, —principally in nuggets, varying from a few pennyweights up to hundreds of ounces in weight. The successive rainfalls had, with the continuous washing and crumbling away of the soil, brought this handsome little fortune into daylight to be dropped upon by a hard-working miner named Davy, who was passing by, and seeing what looked like a speck of gold, he applied his pick; and knocked out his longsought pile. A piece weighing 1970zs was, j at the time above referred to, obtained in | close proximity to.the piece under notice." —The same paper, in a subsequent issue, says:—'• On .Sunday last a poor but | honest man, wishing to see the last upon I earth of a departed friend, and being, as j he thought, too poorly clad to join in th>3 funeral procession, took his stand on a heap of pipeclay in Quaker's Gully to watch the departure of the cortege, when, looking down, he observed something glistening, bright and yellow. Judging it to be gold, he stooped, and picking it up, was delighted to find himself possessed of a nugget weighing just niue ounces, and worth £'M. The fortunate Under of the a3.Sozs piece, reported in our columns last, week, unearthed a nice little bit of 50ozs on Friday last, giving him about £2OO more to add t > his previously acquired little fortune." A simple mode of avoiding the spread of small-pox has been discovered in Alabama. They let the patient die safely by himself, hire a negro to bury him, and shoot the negro as soon as the interment is finished. The CaUfomian Chronicle reports :—Developments have recently been made at ttwin mine in Lower Gulch, unparalleled in the history of quartz operations in the Calitornian .State. A stratum of rock has been discovered in the main shaft, at a depth of 400 feet, that for richness eclipses anything of which we ever heard or read. The strangest feature in the development is, however, that the rock recently discovered so closely resembles the slate of which the walls of the-lead aie composed, that it has heretofore been taken out and thrown away with other debris from the mine. The stratum mentioned lies next to the foot wall, and is about a foot in width and thickness-'. In colour and formation it so nearly resembles slate that it requires a close examination to distinguish the two from each other. Jt was discovered that this singular deposit, instead of being slate, was a mass of sulphurets, curving free gold in abundance. Mr Klaes. who was known anions' his acquaintances by, the name of King of Smokers, has just died near Rotterdam. According to the Belgian papers, he had amassed a large fortune in the linen trade ; and had erected near Rotterdam a mansion, one portion of which was devoted to the arrangement of a collection of pipes according to their nationality and chronological order. A few days before his death he summoned his lawyer, ami made his will, in which he directed that all the smokers iii the country should be invited to his funeral, that each be presented with lOlbs of tobacco and two Dutch pipes of the newest fashion, on which should be engraved the name, arms, and date of the j decease of the testator. He requested all 1 his relatives, friends, and funeral guests to I be careful to keep their pipes alight during the funeral ceremonies, after which they should cnvity the ashes from their pipes |on the c 111 i. The poor of the neighbourihood who attended to his last wishes were jto receive annually, on the anniversary of I his death, lOlbs of tobacco and a small cask of good beer, lie desired that his oak coffin should be lined with the cedar 'of bis old Havana cigar-boxes, and that a bax of French caporal should be placed at. j the foot of his c >ffin. His favourite pipe was to be pi iced by his side, along with a | box of matches, a flint and steel, and some ! tinder, as he said there was no knowing j what might happen. A clever calculator I has made out that Mr Klaes had, during his nighty years of life, smoked more than four tons of tobacco, and had drunk about j 500,000 quarts of beer The following epitaph is to be seen on a ! tombstone in Louisville : " Beneath this stone our baby lays, { I He neither cries nor hollers ; He lived but one-and-twentr-daya, I And cost us foitj- dollars."