NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1735, 27 September 1917, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

- - It is semi-ollicially slated in Brussels that as a number of German women and children'and noncombatant men captured by the Belgians at Tabora (East Africa) have been interned in France, llie German Government has arrested 20 Belgians connected with the colonies. Pawnbrokers in New York have haul a very good year, and are chielly grateful to the .Mexicans for the greater part of (heir prosperity. Before leaving for the border, United Stales soldiers pawned 'almost everything, from watch tu hoots and shoes, so as to raise a little ready cash. One of the most curious facts in regard to snakes is that their eyes arc never closed. Bleeping or waking, alive or dead, they are always wide open. This is because they have no eyelids. The eye is protected only by a strong scale, which is east off every lime the reptile changes its skin. American gray squirrels, introduced into Richmond Park, near London, have spread into the adjacent country, and proved such a pest that the authorities are taking measures to exterminate them. They not only drive away the native rod squirrel, but work great damage in gardens and orchards. A group formed by a largo number of Rumanian University professors lias been formed to work for a rapproaeiimeut between Rumania and the allied countries in intellectual, economic, and financial matters. Tho. group in particular approached France in regard to technical agricultural instruction. The deepest mine in (he world is the Morro Velho gold mine, near A tiro Presto, Brazil, with a depth of more than D,!U)U feel. This mine has been in course of exploitation since the eighteenth century. Its depth exceeds by TOO feet that of No. 3 shaft of the Tanmriek mine, in Houghton County, Mieh., which has commonly been cited as the deepest in the world.

A so-called “cork log” is not made of cork at all. but principally of wood. The inventor of the modern artificial leg was John Cork, and the limbs he made, which took the place of the ordinary sticks that had hitherto boon used, soon became famous. When anyone sneaks of a. “cork leg,” he is unconsciously paying a tribute to the skill of John Cork.