GRAINS OF KNOWLEDGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 17 January 1931, Page 10

GRAINS OF KNOWLEDGE

The Suez Canal was opened in 18(59. A goldfish loses its depth of colour with age. Another name for the giraffe is ca melopurd. Nurse CaveJl was born at Swardeston, near Norwich, where her father was vicar for 4(5 years. The old French Parlements were the principal judicial courts, the chief one being in Paris. Neptune was discovered in 184fi by Professor Adams, an English scientist, and M. Leverrier, a French astronomer. The oldest Museum in Great Britain is that of Oxford, founded in the year 1670. It is known as the “Ashinolenii Museum.” The Adam style was that general design formed and executed by the brothers Adam, wrongly called Adams, of the Adolplii, London. The largest insect in the world is found in Venezuela, Tt is the elephant beetle, which when fully grown weighs half a pound. India has 5,500,000 acres planted with ground-nuts, and the yearly production amounts to more than fifty million hundredweights. The Friendly Isles were so named by Captain Cook, who found the natives not opposed to his landing and remaining among them. A ton of water from the Dead Sea when evaporated would yield 17.811)8 of salt, A ton of Atlantic water gives Hllbs, and a ton of Pacific water gives 791hs.

The rhea, the ostrich of South America, is hunted in Patagonia by horsemen armed with the bolus, a weighted cord which they cast with wonderful skill. The six most populous cities of the world are Loudon, New York 0,103,384; Berlin, 4,000,000; Paris, 3,000,000; Chicago, 2,701,705; Osaka, 2,115,000. In the late summer the Ostyaks of West Siberia gather large quantities of cranberries. The hedges arc burned every ten years to improve the growth. January 13 was named Marrying Day because by St, Hilary’s favour it was the earliest date alter Advent oil which couides might wed with any chance of luck. The name Workington means the town ol' the sons of Wcorc, an ancient chieftain, whose family began the settlement that has since developed into the modern town. Palm kernels are the hard seeds of the oil-palm. They are imported for crushing so that the oil may he extracted, from Lagos, Sierra Leone, and the Gold Coast. Scientists who have been visiting the Great Barrier Reef estimate that 150,000 mutton-birds, or Avedgq-tailgd shearwaters, make their home on one little island off Bundaberg. The biggest tree in the world is the Sequoia, or Big Tree of California. It grows at elevations of 4500 feet or more above sea-level, and sometimes attains a height of over 300 feet, with a circumference at the base of the trunk of 100 feet.

The smallest member of the dog family is the Mexican lapdog, a creature so very minute in its dimensions as to appear almost fabulous to those who have not seen the animal itself. One of the little canine pets is to be seen in the British Museum collection.

The origin of the phrase “Nine clays’ wonder” is supposed by some to refer to the nine days during which Lady Jane Grey was styled Queen of England. Other authorities attribute it to •In’ uiuc days after birth during which £i puppy remains blind. There is an old proverb, “A wonder lasts but nine days, and then the puppy’s eyes are open.” The word journal, which comes to us from tlie Latin through French, means daily, and a weekly journal is therefore a weekly daily. The earliest newspapers or journals were daily news sheets, but the word gradually came to have an extended meaning. If we use it. in the later sense we have to add the adjective daily and speak of a daily journal, which means a daily daily. TJie largest tract of uncultivated land in England is “Dartmoor.” It extends nearly 22 miles from north to south, ancl 20 from east to west, occupying about one-fifth of the area of the country of Devon. It is remarkable for its wild and rugged scenery, its towering rock-capped hills, and the many cyclopean relics of the aboriginal inhabitants scattered over its solitary wastes. The New Forest, covering 64,000 acres, is another large tract of uncultivated land.

According to the researches of paleographists and bibliographists, neither in printing nor in writing were capitals always used. The earliest writing consisted of characters of almost uniform size, the transition being gradual. In MSS., both Greek and Latin, of the earlier centuries, the writing runs continuously without breaking into distinct words. The systematic use of capitals commenced only in the fifteenth century. It was in this century that they first began to be used in printing. One of the partners in Hodge’s distillery at Millbank, London, was Thomas Chamberlain, familiarly known in the distillery as “Old Tom.” His department was the superintendence of the distillery operations. Thomas Norris, one of the men, left the employment of the firm and opened a gin palace in Great ltussell-street, Covent Garden. Out of respect to his former master, he christened a cordial of Hodge’s make “Old Tom”—a name which is now general for a line quality of gin.

The Lord Chancellor’s seat in the House of Lords is a large square bag of wool without back or arms and covered by red cloth. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth was passed an Act to .prevent the exportation of wool. That this source of our national wealth might be kept constantly in mind, woolsacks were placed in the House of Lords for the judges to sit on. Hence the Lord Chancellor who presides in the House of Lords sits on the Woolsack, and he is said to be “appointed to the Woolsack.”

Above Teddington Weir the motion of the river Thames is totally different from that which is observed at London Bridge. There is no alternate backward and forward motion, no regular rise and fall of the water, but the river flows onwards in one direction, always towards London. Careful observers at Teddington have shown that, with the water at ordinary summer level, about .‘180,000,000 gallons flow over the weir every twenty-four hours. This vast volume of water is swept past London, and ultimately joins the sea.