MISCELLANEOUS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 23, 23 July 1864, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

The annual receipts of the London Times for advertisements are said to be £225,000. M. Dv Chaillu. — Mr Frank Buckland, writing to the Field, says : — I have just received a letter from this intrepid- traveller, which gives the welcome intelligence that up to this time all is well with him. Of course • I shall keep a sharp lookout; for the chimpanzees On their arrival — bur relations, though, -as hasbeen reriiavked, our poor relations : "My dear Buckland,— l shall shortly send two live chimpanzees, a *male and a female. The male is in a splendid state of health, and should riot the vessel 'reach England in winter, I should almost, feel sure that he; would -reach, London safely. "The female is much younger, and ■I havehad her only a few' days. Master Thomas' (the name of. the male) is a most funny, fellow, . ' iand a great rogue. He is exceedingly fond of tea and coffee, and lately has taken? a great- fancy to * cheese ; but the worst of all, lie rsvill not. eat cold food. TJriliie the foraier one I had, and 1 the description of which I gave in my wofk, ; ?Equa-: torial Africa,' he cannot bear spirits .ner even the/ ! smell. I find him also less intellgieni; < The •first' day the female came in he did not care for her in theleafit, hut' now He-Is very fond of her,' aiid thfey rare the greatest, part of the day in each other's ; arms ; and he is getting wicked, arid has bitten ■fieyeral people, but he is: very tame with irie:> Since my arrival here I have not hunted gorillas ;

thefactis/thati Have'be(en|off-;^iffly''.' i with-'oth'er: things to go a shooting, but in a few dayß I will start for. a country where, a yerylarge land of.anti eater exists. I have seen 7 ay scale, and p, claw, y T should be very happy to kill one "• it would be a very great curiosity. I will try my best to get one. . I will not start/for,, the "interior hefore|the end- of May, and should t hunt soine animals' unknown to ub I shall apprize you of it. I only wish you were with me 7 to" enjoy _ the fun. Of course one must have good health in orc"W to do something; ahd,l hope that j^rovidence^ilTgrant me this great blessing.. I shall be very lapoy to hear from -you before my departure for the inter-, rior/ Try to wite me a few 'fines' by the mail to" FerandoPp, my letter tabe, forwarded to, Gaboon.. P. B. Dtt Chailltt. Femand-Vaz river, Jani. 14" ; Discovery' op a 'NAtueai. ' Ctoiosity. — Switzerland, already soricH,in, ,beau.tiftil & scenery, has had a new feature added to its 'wonders of nature. Near. St. Maurice, in the Canton deTaud, a grand crystal cavern has'been^ discovered,^ at' ; which one arrives by boat on a subterranean lake. The cavern lies 400 metres, or 1300 feet, below the surface of the earth, and is^ said to be heauti* ful beyond description, ', ; XTg-ly Dttoks. — Amid a family of little, ducks there was one very big, ugly, and awlrward. Helooked so odd and uncouth that those who beheld him generally felt that he wanted a thrashing; and, in. truth, :he frequently got one.: Hepwas -bitten^ pushed about and laughed at By allthe ducks, and even by the hens, of the house .to which; he belonged: 'Thus the poor creature' was quite cast down under the depressing sense of hia ugliness. And the of his own family used him worst of all. He ran away from home, and lived fora while in a cottage with a cat and an old woman. Here, likewise, he failed to. be. ap T predated; for, chancing to tell them how he liked to dive under the water and feel it closing over his head, they laughed at him, and said he was a fool. All he could say in reply was, •' You can't r under-. stand me !" " Not understand you, indeed," they replied in wrath, and thrashed him. But he gradually grew older and stronger. One day he saw at a distance certain beautiful birds, snow-white, with magnificent wings. Impelled .hy- something; within him, he could not but fly towards them, though expecting to be repulsed and perhaps killed for his presumption. But, suddenly looking into a lake below him, ho beheld not the old ugly reflection, but something large, white, graceful. The beautiful birds hailed him as a companion. The stupid people had thought him an ugly duck, because he was too good for them. They could uot understand him, nor see the great promise of that uncouth aspect. The ugly duck proved tobe a swan. He was not proud that wise bird, but he was very happy. Now everybody said he was the most beautiful of all beautiful birds ; and he remembered how, once upon a time, everybody had laughed at him vand thrashed him, Yes ;he was appreciated athis true value at last. Possibly, my friendly reader; yon-have known' various ugly ducks — men who were held in little esteem, because they were too good for the people among whom they lived ; men who were held in little esteem, because it needed more wit than those around them possessed, to discern the makings of great and good things under their, first unpromising aspect. — Fraser's Magazine. Freemasons may be curious to know their strength in the world's population. From very accurate statistics we can state that, in the New and in the Old World there are 8,258 lodges, with 500,000 active members ; thenumber of non-active and those who have withdrawn is nearly three millions. Napoleon feared that they meddled in politics, and the French Government has the same idea, perhaps not altogether unfounded, as far as France is concerned, if we ' may give credit to a recent public appeal to the brother-hood. The Effect op Light on Body and Mind. — A tadpole confined in darkness would never become a frog ; and an infant being deprived of Heaven's free hght will only grow into a shapeless idiot, instead of a beautiful and reasonable being. Hence, in the deep dark gorges and ravines of the Swiss Valais, where the direct sunshine, never reaches, the hideous prevalence of idiocy startles , the traveller. It is a strange, melancholy idiocy. Many citizens are incapable of anyp articulate speech; some are deaf, some are blind, some, labour under all these privations, and all are misshapen in almost every part of the body. I believe there is in all places a marked difference in the healthiness of houses according to their' aspect with regard to the sun, and those are de- - cidedly the healthiest, other things being equal, in. which oil the rooms. are, during some part of the day, fully exposed to the direct hght. Epidemics attack inhabitants on the shady side of the 'street, and totally exempt those on the other side ; and even in epidemics, such as ague, the morbid influence is often thus partial in its labours. — De. Moobe. The " Maid of Judah" is announced from Mel-; bourne, with 3200 ounces of gold. Brown says that's the gal for him.