Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 7 May 1892, Page 2

Notes and Events.

We learn, says the Chronicle, that a gentkrnan at Timaru, who has been for several years investigating the causes and sources of our colonial earthquakes, and who has supplied to him telegraphic notices, with particulars of all that are observed, has arrived at the conclusion that most if not all, of those felt in this part of New Zealand originate at a point under the sea, about 62 miles from Wanganui and 47 irom Wellington. This would be about half way between Otaki and D'TJrville'slsland, and agrees with observations taken here during the last fifty years by the late Rev. R* Taylor and others.

A company bas just been incorporated at Springfield, 111., for the purpose of building an electric road from St. Louis to Chicago. The Company proposes to build a double track road as straight as an arrow, without a curve in it. On this road it is proposed to run electric cars of 100 miles an hour, making the distance in two and one half hours instead of eight, as now. The power station will be at Clinton, 111., where the company will operate its own coal mine for fuel, using electric drills and mining machinery. In time the entire line is expected to become a boulevard, the farmers' houses standing on city lots, while behind them will stretch the wheat .fields. The houses will be lighted and heated by electricity, and the reapears, mowers, and threshers will be driven by chained lighting. An electric block system will be operated and the track will be automatical^ illuminated. Trains which are on

the same section will have telephone connection, and communication may be had -whether the trains are moving or standing still. Dr Adams says nearly the entire right of way baa been secured, and that within a few weeks the contracts will all be let. The company will endeavour to have the line in operation for the World's Fair. — Washington Star.

The London " Sporting Times " has the following with reference to a perfect steeplechaser : — " He should not appear to jump .at all, but should race up to the obstacle and clear it by almost imperceptibly enlarging the scope of his stride, We have in our mind's eye, Emblem, as she eaine up to the water jump at Liverpool, in the year she was sacrificed by her stable- <;onipanion, Hmblematie. Four horses, of which she was. one, were in the air in line, but on landing and getting away Emblem was a length or two in front. When a liorse gains a length or two at every jump it means a lot when there are thirty jumps to be negotiated. The famous' L'Airicane was quite as good a. jumper as Emblem. He was as grand looking as Emblem was mean. He was a model of what a powerful horse should be— very handsome, with perfect symmetery, and with such a loins! When the sun shone on his rich brown, well-polished coat, we thought that we had scarcely ever seen such a horse. L'Africane, like Emblem, took nothing out of himself in jumping. It. is the horse who runs up to the fence, steadies himself and then with one splendid bound clears it, who tiressto nothing over a course like Liverpool ; and it is this that brings the high-class longdistance flat racer, who, on being trained for steeplechasing, often jumps in this manner to the level, or more probably below "it, of the sprint runner, who jumps with ease."

The American Consul at Bordeaux gives some interesting information in regard to truffles, of which three species are found in Prance - the black and most common, the white (highly prized), and the truffe aVail, which has a flavour of garlic. They are found in all soils, but' chiefly in oak forests or where the earth is damp and calcareous, thriving best in most sterile soil, the best coming from Perigueux and about Angouleme. In appearance the ordinarj^P truffle is about the size of a walnufc^ with a rough, brown warty surface, closely akin to the potate, which it likewise resembles in consistency, though not in colour. They do not yield to cultivation. , Recently it has been found that dogs could be trained to perform the duties that are instinctive to the pig, and so great is the demand in France for the truffld that many dogs are now, in certain districts, possessed! of. this skill. Finely cut or slioed truffles are mixed daily with their food, until at length they develop a liking fdiftne flavour. Afterwards their owners conceal, in

some portions of a field whore truffles are supposed to exist, a little tin dinhoi filet auz imps, covered with a few handfuls of earth. The dog is then brought out and urged to hunt for the dish, goaded by an empty stomach. When at length he finds it, he is caressed by his master, and thus in the space of a few weeks lie %ill readily learn to hunt for the Vegetable iisclf. There are poachei - s for truffles as well as for game, who hunt by night with their dog or pig, a plague to landowners '*and to local gendarmes. The annual production is valued at about £600,000. In 1889 the imports of truffles into France were 22,5801b5, and the exports 452,8611bs Of the latter quantity 204,6381bs went to England 107,2761bs to Germany, 38,9901bs to Belgium, and 24,3871bs to the United States.