MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 316, 19 March 1875, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

' The peace footing of the French army has been fixed at 480,000 men. The number of Catholic priests fined or imprisoned in Germany amounts to 1,400.

Mr. Stanton, the champion bicycle rider, has undertaken to run 100 miles against four ponies for £IOO.

: Dr. Ball has been sworn in Lord Chanr cellor of Ireland, and a new writ has been issued for the election to fill the vacancy thus created in the representation of the University of Dublin.

The Timaru has on hoard 20,000 salmon eggs, 'frozen in an ice-box, for Otago. .The.Tint.ern Abbey takes out 1,1-30 living birds for New Zealand, including blackbirds. thrushes, starlings, goldfinches, redpolls, linnets, and partridges. In the libel case between Rubery and Sampson and Albert Grant, the jury found that the c Times' articles were libellous ; that the charges against Rubery were not -proved ; and awarded £SOO damages against Sampson, and acquitted Grant of . having instigated thu articles. The ' Times' expresses its astonishment and indignation at the disclosures made.

The task of collecting the salmon eggs in the present severe weather has " very heavy, but it has been accomplished by Mr. Frank Buckland, inspector of Salmon Fisheries, and Mr. Edon, the assistant at the Fish Museum, South Kensington. The latter obtained a great many ova from fish spawned at the mouth of the Almond, a tributary of the Tay, near Perth, Peter Marshall, the well-known salmon breeder of Stormontfields, operating on many of the fish. By sion of the Earl of Kinnoul, several splendid eggs were taken by M r. Edon from large salmon in the Earn, near Dublin Castle. As these were taken they were immediately sent to the Patent Ice Company's Works at Glasgow, and at once frozen solid by Mr. liae, the manager. The last lot of. eggs were taken from; the Teith, near Stirling, by Mr Buckland. The largest *taken was a male, weighing nearly 401b . 'ln three hauls of the net no less than nine' splendid "lean-run salmon were caplu mi. The ope!aiion, being done by experienced hands, of taking

the eggs, does not injure the fish in the least. Neither in the Tay, the Teith, nor the Earn has any njischief occurred to the fish, who, though sometimes requiring to be nursed in the water, in every instance swain away quite uninjured. . So intense was the cold that the ice by the banks of the river had to be broken away, and the nut froze hard like wire directly they were out of the water. Though trying for Mr. Buckland and his assistants, the weather was most favorable for the salmon eggs.—" Home paper."