NEWS AT A GLANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, 1 February 1909, Page 4

NEWS AT A GLANCE.

In Canada wheat matures in. from 90 to 100 days. The introduction of Christmas cards 1 dates from 1846. ' Rats, in the ..Bermuda's, often build < their nests in tree.*. There are over SQOO_ motor boats on the canals of Holland. Holland import-* oyer £300,000 worth . of bicycles every year. - "" li, takes 3000 silkworms to spin sufficient eilk to make a lady's 'dress,. To every revolution of its driving wheels a locomotive give* four puffs. At a recent Leamington show, a £100 prize was given for a single onion. Ninety-six per cent, of the wdfßl's coal is : produced north of the Equator. Newfoundland contains nearly 40,C00 lakes, only 687 of which have names. Over 6,000,000 French women earn their own living. Half of the6e are married. No bird can fly backward withoutturning; the drag'on-tly, however, can do this. The German population throughout the whole world is computed to be 100,000,000. Pantomimes were originally representations by gestures ond attitude? Among the" Greeks. According to the law of averages, every sheet of plate-gla.ss should get broken in 10 years. Bosnia has been nn independent State since 1389, when tho Turks conquered it. A wood joist 4 inches deep supports four times as much weight as a joist half that depth. Thirty-three survivors of the heroic charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava are still alive. No les* than 10,000 tons of dynamite will bo used on the Panama Canal within the next 12 months. An animal with the strength of a lion and the jumping capacity of a flea could hop one-third of a mile. In Paris 49,298 horses were killed for food last year. These animals yielded 26,600,0001 b. of meat. As a rule, black and white ostrich plumes come from tho male bird; ths grey from the female. Silk as fine as any from a cocoon is spun by the prima nobilis, a shellfish found in the Mediteranean Sea. The inhabitants of Korea, numbering 20,000,000, consume an average of 810,000,000 cigarettes daily. In Persia the dough for making bread r, rolled out as thin as a pancal:e, and ac long as an ordinary towel. Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria is the only Royal personage of Europe who does not m-ik* u-e of automobiles. Tim world's deepest- hole has been bored in Silesia. It is about 7000 ft. deep, and passes through 83 beds of coal. Joseph Grimaldi— l779— lß37— was, perhaps the mos t eminent pantomime clown that ever appeared on the stage. Australia is 26 times larger thnn the whole of the British Isles, and has a population smaller than that of London. The Portuguese three reis piece, worth 3-100 th of a penny, is the smallest metal coin in circulation at the present time. A dictionary in 5020 volnme=, and an encyclopaedia in 22,937 volumes, are the two greatest literary pioductlons of the China *. The first English pantomime was "Harlequin Executed," produced at the Lincoln's Inn Field's Theatre, December 26, 1717. Tho annual loss of the world's shipping averages 2172 vessels, out of which 94 are completely mussing, and never heard of again. Since the Brooklyn bridge was opened for traffic— May 24, 1883 — it has afforded passage to more than the entire population of the world. The fust meerschaum pipe was made •and smoked by Kavol Kowates, a shoemaker, in 1823, in Pesth, Hungary. It Ls .still in a museum there. The word "tariff" originates from the name of a Moorish chief called Tariff, who held a port in Spain, and I levied tolls on passing vessels. The paper money afloat, jn Great Britain represents a little avor £1 apiece j for every inhabitant. In Portugal it Is £3 a head, and in France £4. Tbe nggregato supply of gas from the , 11 London gas companies Is 40,403,852.- ! 000 cubic feet, which is distributed among 1,101,896 consumers. On a two-rail line it is impossible to prevent derailment of trains occasion- ' ally. On the mono-rail derailment is impossible, even at hundred-miles , : speed. j A hydraulic pre.-' for flan*rin? np-*ia- ' I tiori* cxrit a p*r?---m? of ijuO ton* Vi liir.r.*- Fji tV.fj-liitf cie.-l i..-nnt-i the h\;-;liaulic pie^-Lire' ii 400 torn; ar.d up- ' wards. I ~__ I]