MISCELLANEOUS.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 414, 1 March 1877, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

The latest addition to the Koyal Family —a daughter, given birth to by the Duchess of Edinburgh, at Malta, during the past month—is the Queen's twenty-fifth grandchild.

The following are the particulars of the late fatal thunderstorm at Napier : —lt had been raining heavily and thundering more or less during the afternoon, when suddenly a blinding flash of fire was seen by all in the conservatory, accompanied by a crash of breaking timber, and almost instantly followed by the most awfully deafening peal of thunder which those present had ever experienced. Mr. "Wood, who atthetimewasinastoopingposture.was thrown on his face, as he describes it, by a shock or blow on the shoulders, which bore him down instantly. He at once rose, went to his children, and found the two little girls lying down with their eyes open, but apparently paralysed. The body of the boy was lying across their feet. The only marks found on the body was a slight scorching of hair behind the right ear, and a small mark on the forehead, probably caused by falling down. From the present appearance of the house alone, can be inferred the course which the lightning flash followed. It appears first to have struck the new part of the house. The shingles were torn off round the chimney, and roofing boards and rafters shattered. From the door leading from the kitchen to the bed-room, close to were the child stood, the lock had been crushed. Between that door -and the back wall the lining has been forced inward, exposing one of the studs, which was split in two In the bath-room, within three feet of where the wood was struck, and quite at the other end of the conservatory, the outer frame of the window was split and torn from its place. In the drawing-room a very curious phenomenon is to be observed. The pattern of the paper is of flowers and diamonds, the lines of the latter being formed with gold or other yellow metal. In one case the lightning has from the roof to the floor, blackened diagonally the lines of metal, and, more, singular to state, where the lines intersect each other, an explosion appears to have taken place, forming a mark of irregular shape, but still uniform, about one and a-quarter-inch by half-an-incb, this mark leaving a black stain when rubbed witn a white handkerchief.

The "Garden" says :—Many de&pise poplar as a timber, but it has one golden property—it will not burn. Some years ago a factory at Nottingham took fire on the second floor, and burned to the top furiously, but not downwards ; although the floors lay a yard thick with hot clinkers and melted machinery, yet it did not get downwards, because the floors were of poplar.

The British ship Ada Treadle, bound for ?an Francisce, with coal, has been totally destroyed by fire. The crew, numbering twenty-two, set out for the Marquesas Islands, over 2000 miles distant. One boat capsized in a gale, but all were saved except one. After twenty-six days in open boats, and undergoing great sufferings, they arrived safely. The 'Times' Berlin correspondent says that Russia seems to have decided upon a peculiar plan. She trusts she can support the strain of a prolonged mobilisation better than Turkey, and will therefore keep troops on the frontier, thus compelling Turkey to do the same. If Turkey follows Russia's example, it is expected, before many months, that the people will demand peace at any price. Russia has made fresh unsuccessful attempts to raise a loan in Amsterdam, and Germany will be obliged to have recourse to an increase of her floating debt, and issue Treasury bonds. War prerarations continue with energy. Servia is making an earnest appeal to the Western Cabinets to support Jier in refusing the demands of Turkey. The Russians, in order .to redouble their pressure on Turkey, will probably cross the Purth, if not immediately, at least at a later stage.