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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue X, 7 January 1875, Page 4

A Deadly Spring.— A writer in the Colusa (California) Independent says: — About half a mile- over a mountain from Bartlett Springs there is what is called the Gas Spring, This is probably tlie greatest curiosity of the mountains. The water is ice-cold, but bubbling and foaming as if boiled, and the greatest' wonder is tbe inevitable destruction of life produced by inhaling the gas. No live thing is to be found within a circuit of 100 yards near the spring. The very birds if they happen to fly over it drop dead. We experimented with a lizard on its destructive propertied by holding it two feet above the water j it stretched dead in two minutes. It will kill a hyinaa being in twenty minutes. We stood over it about five minutes, when a dull, heavy, aehing^seps'a tion .crept over us, and our', eyes began to swim. The gas which escapes here is the rankest kind of carhonic, hence its sure destruction of life; also quenching of flame instantaneously An Atrocious Crime. — The New York World, of a recent date, says: — The crime perpetrated near Henryville, Ind., was one of the most horrible that bloodthirsty criminals could conceive. The victim, Angus Gardner, appears to bave been a perfectly peaceable man, in very straitened circumstances, with only 5 dols in his pocket, he was, according to his statement made just before dying, walking to Louisville, where he hoped to get employment. The three wretches who overtook him, after robbing him of the little money he had, tied him to the railroad track tb be run over and killed by the cars. Was not the man drunk ahd asleep on the track, and did he not invent the horrible story to excuse his own fault and create sympathy? — are questions which at once suggest themselves, and they were the firpt oneß put to the dying man by the physician who went to attend him. But on inspecting the track at the spot where the men said he was laid, the ropes were found still tied fast tothe cattle-guards, the ends that were fastened arouud the rails having been cut off by the wheels as they passed over. The crime was perpetrated in the middle of a dark, rainy night, and the victim lay bound to the rail for half an hour, struggling and shouting for help before he *' hef>rd thenars whistle." Then he lay still : and "shut his eyes." His left leg was cut off, the train passing over the rest of hia body without crushing it. When a crime so hideous as this is committed it seems as if the populace should not wait for the regular authorities to hunt | down the perpetrators. Every man in j the country should come to the help of j the officers of the law. j "•• JEgles," in the Australasian, says: ■—■"Talking with an intimate friend of the ex-King of Fiji about that august person, he tells me that he is not only a clever thinker, but an eloquent speaker— tbat he can deliver an address of 15 or 20 minutes' length, full of that imagery derived ironnature in which able men of native races, and unfamiliar with books, indulge. In reply to my enquiry whether Cakobau ever made speeches in English, my friend said he had suggested : to him on one occasion to make a speech in English, but Cakobau shrewdly replied, ' No, no ! I have heard you Englishmen make speeches in my language : that is enough.' " Hares. — Hares are increasing at a very fast rate in Victoria, and there is no wonder that such is the case when it has been ascertained beyond doubt that they appear to have almost changed tbeir nature in tbis sunny land of our 3. In England it is rare that a hare produces more than two leverets, but here the litters are far more numerous. A gentleman (says the Bendigo Independent), upon whose word we can implicitly rely, informed us that while engaged in burning logs at Rochester, he noticed that a hollow one which he had piled upon the fire, bore marks of being, or having been, the abiding place of some four-footed beast, and his sus picions were verified when he heard a decided squeak issue from the interior of tbe log. It was too late then, however, to save the life of the unfortunate inhabitant of the timber, and all he could do was to arm himself with a stick, and prepare to give the coupdegrace to the animal when it presented itself. Presently out hopped a fine bare through the flames, and fell dead at the outer edge of the fire. It was found to bave no less tban nine leverets.