Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1883 — FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS. [ARTICLE]

FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

In one grove in California ar® 1,880 trees, none measuring less than six feet in diameter. The dog, which ft apparently tormented by the notes of a soprano voice, remains undisturbed by those of a bass voice. A thermometer, plunged in the snow to the depth of four inches, will mark nine degree.; more Heat than at the surface. The -4Vsr n soil of the Siberian coast never i v* to a depth of more than two feet even during the greatest heat of summer. S.MAt,£ sponges often fix themselves to living shells, and Dr. Johnston tells us that he once met with a sponge on the back of a crab, which walked about quite unconeemod with its light burden, though it was many times larger than itself. The sea-urehin has several movable spines. Each spine looks very knowing, and apparently makes its own little excursions without regard to what the other spines ar# doing. In large specimens, where Rp' claws can be seen round the the effect is very comical. In Lot one tigress was reported year, and ktofsped a public road for several weeks, ia another ease, a single tigress caused the desertion of thirteen villages, and 250 square miles of country were thrown out of cultivation. Government reports show that in Lower Bengal'about 2,000 persons are killed every year by wild animals, nearly half of whom are victims of the ferocious tiger. Enervating drags are freely used in cigarettes to disguise the poor quality of the tobacoo. Opium and valerian are especially mentioned. What is called ‘‘Havana flavoring” has grown to be an important article of commerce. Thousands of barrels of it are sold everywhere. It is extensively used in manufacturing certain kinds of r cigarettes. It is made from the tonca-bean, which contains a drag oalled mellolotis, a deadly poison, seven grains of which will kill a dog. The immense herds, now aggregating 20.000,000 which roam over the pampas of the Argentine Republio and comprise, with the sheep, most of the wealth of that country, are all descended from eight oows and a bull which two Portuguese brothers, named Goes, took to the Spanish oolony there in 1558. It is only within a few years that any effort has been made to improve the much-de-preciated stock of the country. As yet only a few cattle near Buenos Ayres have been crossed with short-horn breeds.

Leeches are among the curious pests which swarm in the moist places of a Malay jungle. Directly the earth trembles with a man’s, step, the leeches stretch themselves out in savage thirst, By some means they manage to make a lodgement on his body. He may not feel them at first, but when, at his journey’s end he strips for a bath, he finds a score or more of the little blood-suck-ers fastened to his legs and gorged with their sanguinary dinner. He pozzies his head in vain to discover how they managed to get up his trousers-legs. But on resuming his journey, he ties his trousers tightly round the ankle, places them in his boots, which he anoints an abomination to the little peats. Only in this way may they be kept off the person.