ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 190, 15 April 1902, Page 4

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

••♦.* — Of 555 Japanese university students who were questioned as to their religious beliefs no fewer than 172 called themselves atheists. The most extensive cavern is the Mammoth Cave in Edmonson County Kentucky. It is near Green River, six miles from Cave City, and twenty eight miles from Bowling Green. If you would relish food, labour for it before you take it; if enjoy clothing, pay for it before you wear it; if you would sleep soundly, take a clear conscience to bed with you. Franklin. A curious accident happened at the office of the Paris " Aerophile " lately. During a thunderstorm the lightning entered the printing office, struck the forme which was being corrected and melted three pages of type.

The highest monolith is the obelisk at Karnak, Egypt. Karnak is on the east side of the Nile, near Luxor, and occupies part of tke site of anscient Trebes. Its height, without the pedestal, is 180 ft., 10 in.

At Knossos, in the Candia district of Crete, where archaeological excavations on a large scale are being made, some jars and vases of great value, dating from the Mycenese period, have been discovered.

The .loftiest volcano is Popocatepetl (Smoking Mountain), thirty-five miles south-west of Puebla, Mexico. It is 17,784 ft. above the sea level, and has a crater three miles in circumference and 1,000 ft. deep.

King George of Greece regards sovereignty as a strictly business affair and regulates his life accordingly. He rises at 7.30 every day, works all the morning, rests in the afternoon, and is again at work from 9 until 11 every night.

Absolute zero is the point at? which, as has been determined by experiments with gases, matter would be without a trace of heat—could be cooler no farther. This point is 273 deg. below Centigrade zero. A degree of cold so intense as this is, how ever, absolutely unattainable. Even the meteorites which swarm in interstellar space must be heated to some extent by the radiance of the stats.

The largest Empire in the world is that of Great Britain, comprising 8,557,058 square miles ( more than a sixth part of the land of the globe ), and embracing under its rule nearly a sixth part of the population of the world. Russia ranks 5ec0nd,8,352,940 square miles. In territorial extent the United States rank third, containing 3,580,242 square miles, including Alaska ; in population it ranks fourth, with its 60,000,000 people.

The largest trees are the mammoth trees of California. One of a grove in Tulare County, according to measurements made by members of the State Geological Survey, was shown to be 276 ft. high, 105 ft. in circumference at the base, and 75 ft. at a point 12 ft above the ground. Some of the trees are 37G ft. high and 34 ft in diameter. Some of the largest that have been felled indicate an ago of from 2,000, to 2,500 years.