New Odd & Interesting.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 724, 25 November 1914, Page 6

New Odd & Interesting.

Thcro are nino kilted regiments in the British Army. Tim occupants of the Philippines represent such a variety of races thai, thirty-one ]angn.-»pv? are spokorH'hero. In Venice there is a cafe which has been open day and night for one hundred and fifty years. Ftfgs of different species of bird? differ in shape, but the yolks are invariably spherical. Switzerland shares with Scotland the distinction of bi-ing the, best educated country in the world. In ten years the descendants of two rabbits, if left unmolested, will ber 70,000,000. Jf Wire hairpins \vcrc first manufac\turcd in England in IMS. Bcforc/.h.tt time the female coiffeurs were held in place by fine wooden skewers. Tho constant labor of four pprs'ons, for an entire year, is required to produeo a cashmere shawl cf the best quality. Sharks are patronising tho Suez Canal, and are making their way through it, from the Red Sea to tho Mediterranean. Tho ancient custom of putting a coin in the. hand of the dead is still occasionally followed in the rural districts of Franco. Throughout the world the total number of Roman Cn'holics is estimated at 264,500,000, and of these there are 5,758,000 in Great Britain and Ireland. Tho Swiss are very thrifty poopje. Two-fourths of the grown people of Switzerland have bank accounts, and hoggars are few. , In Belgium, ly a re-rent regulation, 1 all bulls and cows are to wear earrings as soon as they have attained Lite ago of three months. A curious butterfly exists in .India. .The male has tho left wing yellow and the right one red j the female has the.-;o eolors reversed. .

to careful estimates three houro of closo study wear ,the body moro than a whole clay of hard physical exertion. . Forty years ago Jnpan had only coasting vesse's. Now it has several steamship companion, tho largest of which runs G3 vessels. Among the Moors women do ivfS celebrate their birthday. A Moorish woman considers-it a point of honour to be absolutely ignorant of her age In Paraguay there is found a "railway beetle," a kind of glow-worm, which emits a strong red light from head to tail, but also a green light along each side of its body. In every I.OCO marriages in Great Britain, 21 arc solemnised between first cousins. Among the nobility the rate is much higher, amounting to 45 in 1,000. A young man named Dubois is j bringing an action against his sweetheart at Marseilles because she boxed his cars for being late to take her to the theatre. *ln Finland the women of the lowci classes perform labour that in other countries is usually assigned to men. They wheel handcarts and barrows containing heavy burdens. They also sweep the streets, act as boatmen, and even assist in loading ships. Where the rivers freeze to the bottom and small trees snap off from the biting force of the cold stands the coldest inhabited city in the world—Vcrkoyansck, in North-Eastern Siberia. It is a place of som? size, stands one hundred and fifty feet above sea level, and in winter has a temperature 85 degrees below zero. Its average tern- , pcjalurc is three degrees above zero. The Russian Government owns the town, and is interested in having an administrative centre, where clever and industrious Yokuts, fur-trading Jews of Siberia, carry on All the inhabitants of Vcrkvyansck, with the exception of a fev officials and Russian traders, arc Yokuts. T-"' ■ i * The Florida Keys Rai way runs from the mainland for a distance of one hundred and 24 milos over what is practically open sea. Imagine a string of tiny islets, stretching like tin: broken-off piers of some Titanic bridge, right out into the great salt ocean, and you have the Florida Keys. Most' of them arc only a few rods in extent. Here and there is one that reckons its area in acres; while four or five among them arc islands, rather than islets, covering several square miles. Big or little, however, they serve merely as stations for the railway,- which runs over and upon them with the open sea on either side of it. Moreover, the viaducts and embankments that cany the trains, although immensely strong, are so narrow and steep that the passengers look out upon ocean only. There is no land whatever in sight during the greater part of the trip. _j^M