NEWS IN BRIEF.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1985, 3 June 1919, Page 4

NEWS IN BRIEF.

A silk stocking which had belonged to Napoleon, preserved in a green morocco case, has sold for £SO. It had been the property of General Crokat, who was at St. Helena during the captivity of Napoleon, and was sent with despatches bearing news of his death.

The city of Luxemburg', capital of the grand duchy of the same name, has seen as much fighting in history as perhaps any European city. It has becg stormed and captured live times in less, than 500 years. The Germans, French, Spaniards, and Austrians have all in turn held it. From the beginning oft-history the custom of sending ambassadors has been practised in Europe, but it was not until the close of the fifteenth century that the permanent embassy became at all common, and not until the end of the sixteenth century that it became a generally recognised institution. The largest Bible in existence is

in the royal library at Stockholm. The covers are made of solid planks, four inches thick, and tire pages each.measure a yard in length.' It is estimated that a hundred asses’ skins must have been used to furnish the 309 parchment leaves of the colossal book. Nearly all bells require working down after casting, a task which requires the greatest experience and skill. If the note is too Hat, part of the rim must he cut away; if too sharp, then the thickness of the sound bow must he reduced. The sound bow is that part struck by the clapper. This work used to he done by steel chisels, the marks of which may still he seen on old bolls. Nowadays the lathe is brought into play. The belief exists that a fish cannot live out of the water, but there are known to ho sevei’al species which can travel overland for miles. For instance, certain fish of (he South American tropics leave the small ponds they have Jived in to seek larger and cooler stretches of water farther afield when the sun threatens to dry up their habitations. They spend whole days and nights.upon their march, and travel by hundreds through (ho moist undergrowth of the forests.