MISCELLANEOUS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 592, 2 November 1869, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

A baby show is proposed for Bristol, A ukase has been issued in Russia decreeing that parents who are convicted of compelling their children to marry shall be sentenced to prison. Fire-flies are reported in Surrey. At Caterham, they were so numerous a day or two since that people called them nuisances. The Cliester Chronicle says "there is residing at Ridley a person named Elizabeth How ell, who has this month entered on the hundredth year of her age." An American, contemporary says: — "We are glad to announce that the fishing of Ausauauquotausnngomongotongo lake, in Oxford county, Maine, is reported as first rate." An American paper says : — "The women immigrants of Northern Europe who have settled in the West continue their old country habit of working in the fields, and they do as much work as the men." During the second quarter of the year 1869, the butchers of horse meat have supplied the Paris market with 605 animals of the species, some asses and mules being included. There are 3500 newspapers published in the United States, of which five-sevenths are issued in the North. New York has the largest and Florida the smallest number. A man lately appeared in an Indiana town, wearing a vest made out of the skins of ten rattle-snakes, part of a nest of one hundred and six snakes killed in one day by a Kentucky farmer. The Giomale di Napoli of the Bth says : A discovery was made yesterday at Herculaneum of two gold brooches of moderate size still fastened to two pieces of stuff. They probably served as a clasp for a peplum. A small faun was also found, an indifferent copy of a very valuable original. The Bishop of Calcutta has written to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, stating that he has received into the communion of the Church of England, at thuir own request, 7000 native converts at ChotaNagpore, and has reordained four Lutheran ministers who had sought episcopal orders. The Portage (Lake Superior) Mining Gazette says that paper pipes, six inches in diameter, are used in the Pewabic copper mine to convey air from one portion of the mine to the other. The paper pipes are quite strong, and can be joined perfectly air-tight by a strip of canvas and a coating of tar. Three tons of solid silver in bricks, weighing from 1500 to 1504 ounces each, were recently shipped from Georgetown, Colorado, to Chicago. These bricks were packed in sealed leather sacks ; one, however, was uncovered, and was stamped as weighing 125 pounds 2 ounces, and as worth 1302 dol. The Courner cF Orient states that, by the labor of Midhat Pacha, a palace has been discovered beneath the ruins of ancient Babylon filled with archaeological treasures. Among the most curious objects is a library built of bricks of extraordinary composition.: The characters with which these bricks, or rather pages, are covered are in a perfect state of preservation. The value of the exports of steam engines made from the United Kingdom has somewhat revived this year, having amounted, to May 31, to L 645,7 I TI, as compared wijbh L 569,953 in the corresponding period of 1868, and L 778,038 in the corresponding period of 1867. The value of the steam engines— -probably for the most part locomotives — sent to Russia has largely increased this year; on the other hand, there : has been a rather material decrease in the case of British India. A singular case of ill-luck has just occurred at Levallois Perret, one of the suburbs of Paris, where a Russian valet de ehambre out of place has been living, or rather starving, for the past month. On Thursday the postman arrived at the house with a letter for the person in question. " Tietis," replied the concierge, "I have not seen monsieur for the last two days," and on going'' up to his room he was found dead, hanging to his bedstead. The letter brought tidings from Russia of the death of his father, leaving him a fortune of L2OOO a year. A Parliamentary return shows that in the metropolitan district, in the year 1866, twenty-two persons were convicted, under the Revenue Acts, of adulterating food and drink ; in 1867, seven persons ; and in 1868, five persons. In 1866, the convictions were all for selling adulterated coffee, adulterating chicory with mustard hnsks, or having in possession materials for adulterating beer ; in 1867 and 1868, the convictions were all for possessing or supplying materials for adulterating beer. In 1866j the penalties, as mitigated by the Board of Inland Revenue, amounted to L 15 3; in 1867, to L 97 ; in 1868, L 236. These cases are doubtless but a small percentage of the offences committed by adulteration of food. A spauish. astronomer, Don Mariano Castillo, of Saragossa, prophesies 'tremendous hurricanes, tempests, hail-storms, and whirlwinds on all the coasts, and also the centre of Spain : they are to be experienced principally in Valencia, Cataluna, Aragon, Navarre, Guipuzeoa, iAsturias, Galicia, the Castiles, Andalucia, and part of Murcia. At the same time there are to be great and sudden transitions from excessive heat to extreme cold, and for two days the sea will be subject to extraordinary commotion. AH these wonderful events may be expected between the 12th and 25th of the present month, and will be repeated, but in a lesser degree, in the months of August, September, and part of October. — Gibralter Chronicle, July 7. .;■■,;.■ A singular and somewhat startling phenomenon was noticed in the air for miles around Carlisle on Saturday, the 3rd April. Between four and five o'clock, a ball,, or more properly speaking a pilla.r

of fire, passed from east to west over the city, and was noticed for more than twenty miles around. The fiery substance resembled an ordinary gate post ih size and shape, and seemed as though it was prevented, from falling by some connecting cord. . It travelled at a. pretty quick rate, throwing a lurid glare over every spot that it passed. At Glasson, it is stated, the fiery substance caused the atmosphere to be very much heated, and, indeed, from all that could be learned, this was the effect wherever it travelled. A farm servant at Glasson says that the fire seemed to pass "within a few yards of him, and that the heat was overpowering. The pillar suddenly exploded in. the air, and immediately after the report, which resembled the sound which follows the discharge of a cannon, and was heard for a great distance around, a singular brightness lit up the heavens, and daylight then intervened with extraordinary rapidity. — Eastern Province Herald.