New, Odd & Interesting.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 600, 18 January 1921, Page 4

New, Odd & Interesting.

Girailes ?nd ant-caters each hava tongues nearly 2ft. in length. The United States furnishes three fourths of the world's cotton supply. The hair grows considerably faster during- summer than during winter. Potatoes in Greenland do not grow larger than an ordinary marble. Mushrooms, a world-wide product, arc as plentiful in Siberia as in the tropics. Camel's milk is said to be very helpful to consumptives. It is palatable and nourishing. No person under sixteen years of age is permitted to enter a theatre or tavern in Heligoland. A halfpenny is exactly liu.'in diameter, thus forming a convenient measure. The native of India has an average life of 24 years, as against 44 in landNearly everybody smokes in Japan. The girls bogiu when they aro ten years of age, and tho boys a year earlier. In St. Louis is a concrete building 57 feet high which is entirely without windows. The lighting is by means of skylights in tho roof. Three-tenths of the earnings of a Belgian convict aro given to ban on tho expiration of his term of imprisonment. Gold is the best conductor of heat, but stands second as a conductor of electricity. Copper is the best conductor of electricity, but stands onlj fourth as a conductor of heat. During several months of ea:h year some of the great rivers of Siberia aro frozen solid to the bottom, but tho fishes imprisoned i" the ice maintain their vitality and rcsumo their active life when tho ice melts in the spring. Tho busts of Romans have no beards. Most ancient nations allowed their beards to grow only a* a sign oi mourning. They were generally dh.used in Christian Europe towards the end of the seventeenth century. Phrenology is not a modern science. 'A work called "Margarita Pliilosopliica," published at Friburg, in 1-503. contains a skull marked and divided nearly as Gall's. Physiognomy, etc.. were subjects treated much at large ii' tho sixteenth and seventeenth .centuries. Calicoes, cossacs, jaconets, boucks chintzes, mulls, japans, ballusores bandannas, pulleates, ginghams, etc. etc., arc all Indian names, and mcr imitations. The Hindoos seem to b ill manufactures liko the Creeks i; architecture, even in the minute ci'cumstances of package, salvage fringe, etc. Nero gave £6BOO for Cato's purpi robe; Cicero's citron table was sold fo £750; tho habit which Charles X'tt wore at Pultowa was sold for £22,000 tho cup of Napoleon as sold for V" guineas; his Egyptian sable fetched I guineas; and tho hat which he wol at Eylan was sold, against thirty-tv bidders, for £7o. Statistics published in Germany in dicate that there arc at present ir Europe over 7,000 living- centenarians Bulgaria comes first with 3,88fc there are 1,70-1 in Roumania, 573 ir Servia, 410 in Spain, 213 in France. 197 in Italy, 113 in Austria-Hungary, 92 in England, and only two in Denmark. Longevity preponderates in the Balkan region, and is at a minimum in Scandinavian countries. In certain parts of the world, while hundreds of miles from land, vessels often encounter what the sailors cali '•'dry fogs." While sailing through these fogs, which are usually of such density as to make navigation quite dangerous, the ship's decks, sails, and rigging become covered with a brick- ! coloured dust, which falls in such a way that it is known as •'•'dry mist.'' The quantity is sometimes sufficient to cover the dec); to a dcptli of sevcra' inches, providing several hours' work for the. men in shovelling- it overboard. The Mercure dc France has been leaking- some inquiries as to the respective popularity of the various modern languages in (he schools of Europe, and it finds that French is still far ahead of all competitors. It says that in England German findsless and less favour, and that pupils who have any option in regard to a modern language always choose French. In France, however, since 1870, German has, perhaps, secured a preponderance over English in the Lycees. In Germany the study of French has progressed to the detriment of English; but the Government has intervened in order to develop the teaching- of English, which it regardi as of great importance in commercial matters. French is now taught in Italy I more than ever before; but German is | also gaining some ground, especially I in the north. In Spain French has j more pupils than any otixr foreign language, and English comes next. i