NEW ODD, INTERESTING

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 8, Issue 438, 3 January 1919, Page 4

NEW ODD, INTERESTING

■ ». 1 A large whale gives, on an wans* 20 tons of oil. Man is said to be mtyeet to mat 1,200 different diseases. India Is over fourteen ttMt (Mi size of the British Islands. It takes nearly 4H». ef fMHf * make a bottle of wine. There 1» neither thunder nar ttjhfr sing within the Arctic circle. Cheese cannot be properly dictated under three hours and a half. Postage stamps are sold in Marty all the cigar shops of France. In many of the ordinary schools el Chicago boys are taught sewinc. It is estimated that one cow will destroy 700,000 Insects every year. Some of the stars move with a velocity of nearly fifty miles a second. Forty-four muscles are called into play in the production of the human voice. The eel has two separate hearts. One boats 60, the other 160, times a minute. Ten pounds of good hay will keep a horse alive as long as fifty pounds of green clover. Russia has the highest death-rate ia Europe; it is forty-one per thousand a year. The breadth of the Carpathian Mountains is between one hundred and two hundred miles. They are exceedingly rich in minerals. The Kremlin at Moscow contains the crowns of Poland and all the other kingdoms and principalities which Russia has incorporated. , Not one seed in a thousand lives to make a plant or a tree, and of those that live not one in a hundred reaches the blossoming stage. In the jungles of Sumatra the largest spiders are found. Some of them measure S inches across the back and have 17 inches of leg spread. Thtvie is moth, a night-flying in-, sect of Brazil. ls the iargeßt winged world. Its wings exf** inches from tip to tip. potato-flour factory recently opened at Stockton. California, is the first factory of that nature on the Pacific Coast. The largest yield of bone from a single whale was taken in 1883, and amounted to three thousand one hundred and ten pounds. The word "millinet" meant originally one from Milan—a Milaner; just as "cordwainer," or shoemaker, was a worker of leather from Cordova. The great linguists have never been great, save in their speciality. No great linguist was also great as an author. The ability to learn languages does not seem to co-exist with talent in other lines. The Ik a K e of Greece to-day, allowing for"- cliansPS which wou1(1 | naturally b^ ht aboul durin S tho the by Demosthenes j and Pericles. Shoeing horses to protect their hoofs against the evils of hard usage was unknown to the Greeks and Romans. and is lirst mentioned in the history of the Celts as late as the fifth century. Nearly every guest at a Norwegian weddingbrings a present to the bride the gifts are mostly of a useful character. such as clothing and provisions. Kegs of butter are th> presents which find most favor. It is said that a custom peculiar to Buddhists is that of -wandering about the country with hammer and chisel and carving holy symbols upon rocks by the wayside. Wordsworth, who succeeded Southey' as laurette, held the unique honor of being the only poet to the Crown who never wrote an ode in his official capacity. He was also the most elderly poet to receive such an appointment. About lO.H'iAimio of the bovine species are now to be found in the Argentine Republic. They are all descendants of eight cows and one bull, which were imported into Brazil in the middle of the sixteenth century. Trained vocalists, as a rule, have well-developed chests and lungs, because singing aids in this development. and they are taught to breathe properly. Even without singing this breathing exercise will he found extremely beneficial. In Persia the wedding service is read in front of a fire. In Nicaragua the priest, taking the couple each by the little fingers, leads them to an apartment where a lire is lighted, and there instructs the bride in her duties, extinguishing the fire by way of conclusion. In .Japan the woman kindles a torch and the bridegroom lights one from it, the playthings of the wife belong then burned. Variations in the size of raindrops ire attributed to atmospheric disturbances and to the height from which (hey fall, those from a high altitude being much the smaller. Among the natives of Central India a marriage cecemony is often attended by a sham fight, and the same practice prevails among the Kalmucks of Siberia.