MISCELLANEA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 113, 5 March 1853, Page 11

MISCELLANEA.

Going a-head with a Vengeance.—Within the last quarter of a century we have made great progress in locomotion, but we were not prepared for the startling project of Mr. D. S. Brown, who proposes to reach America in fortyeight hours, and make the voyage to India and back in a fortnight! Our correspondent intends to put his theory into practice by vessels of quite a different construction to those at present in use, giving them a greater depth of beam. He proposes to make the under surface of the vessel, which is flat, of two inclined planes; the effect of this will be, when the ship is in motion, to raise her whole hull to the surface of the water, thereby removing entirely the resistance at the bows, which is stated to be the great obstacle of her progress. By reducing the angles of the inclined plane, speed could be added to the vessel, which could be increased from thirty to sixty miles per hour, and a ship so constructed would be as little affected by the ordinary waves ,'of the Atlantic as a Gravesend steamboat is by a Thames ripple. The hull of the vessel is of a square tubular form ; the deck, bottom, and sides, being of great thickness. If water obtains its wonted superiority as a mode of locomotion, the velocity of a steam-ship might as much exceed that of a railway carriage, as the railway carnage now does the steam-ship. Unseen rocks could not endanger a ship whose path was on the surface; sea sickness could not take place where there was no oscillation; and the size of the vessel would place her beyond the mercy of the wind and waves. In conclusion, Mr. Brown hopes that the numerous advantages to be adduced are a sufficient excuse for this attempt "to add another feather to our wing," by projecting a ship worthy of the ocean she is to traverse, and the two worlds she is to unite ; and that the scheme will receive the attention that its merits, and which the importance of the subject with which it is identified has a right to demand. — Mining Journal. Curious Dying Scenes.—According to Fielding, Jonathan Wild picked the pocket of the Ordinary while lie was exhorting him in the cart, and went out of the world with the parson's cork-screw and thumb-bottle in his hand. Petronius, who was master of the ceremonies and inventor of pleasures at the court of Nero, when he saw that elegant indulgence was giving place to coarse debauchery, perceived at - once that his term of favour had arrived, and it was time to die. He resolved, therefore, to anticipate the tyrant, and disrobe death of his paraphernalia'of terror. Accordingly, he entered a warm bath and opened his veins, composed verses, jested with his familiar associates, and died off by insensible degrees. Deuiocritus, the laughing philosopher, disliking the inconvenies and infirmities of a protracted old age, made up his mind to die on a certain day ;but, to oblige his sister, he postponed his departure until the three feasts of Ceres were over. He supported nature on a pot of honey to the appointed hour, and then expired by arrangement. When the three sons of Diagoras, of Ehodes, were crowned at the Olympic game?, " Die, Diagoras," whispered a friendly Lneedsernonian, "for you are too happy to live any longer." He took the hint, .and forthwith expired of joy in the arms of his children. The Emperor Vespasian on his death bed sarcastically remarked to his courtiers and flatterers, "I feel that I am about becoming a god!" The first Darius, King of Persia, when dying, desired to have this intelleclual epitaph engraved on his tomb —" Here lies King Darius, who was able to drink many bottles of wine without i staggering." Jerome Carden, a celebrated ' Italian physician, starved himself gradually, [ and calculated with such mathematical nicety as to hit the very day and hour foretold. When Rabelais was dying," the cardinal sent a page to inquire how he was. Kabeluis joked with the envoy until he felt his strength .declining and his last moments approach. He then said —" Tell his Eminence the state in which you left me. I am "oins; to inquire into a great possibility. He is in a snug nest; let him stay there as long as he can. Draw the curtain, the

farce; is over." When the famous Count de Grammont was reported to be in extremity, the King Louis XIV. being told of his total want of religious feeling, which shocked him not a little, sent the Marquis de Dangeau to beg him, for the credit of the Court, to die like a °ood Christian. The Count was scarcely able to° speak, but turning round to his Countess who had always been remarkable for her piety, he said, with a smile —" Countess, take care, or Dangeau will filch from you the credit of my conversion." — Dublin University Magazine. Importation op Rattlesnakes. —Among the extraordinary arrivals with which we have been lately favoured from America, none perhaps has excited more sensation than the importation into Liverpool of thirty-six rattlesnakes, which came over in two large cases, accompanied by their owner, Mr. Van Gordon, who caught them on the Alleghany mountains. Some difficulty existed on board in keeping the cases from being " broached," as tbe ship ran short of water, and the sailors hearing a fizzing noise inside the cases thought they contained bottled porter. — Birmingham Journal. A gentleman once used the expression "Vox Populi, Vox Dei," in conversation with Mr. John Wesley. He at once replied, " No, it cannot be the voice of God, for it was vox populi that cried out, " Crucify him, crucify him." Mind tour Phonouns. —A notice of a recent steam-boat explosion closes as follows:— " The captain swam ashore ; so did the chambermaid. She was insured for 16,000 dollars, and loaded with iron."