Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1876 — An Amphibious People. [ARTICLE]

An Amphibious People.

The writer of a piper called “ A Week Among the Maoris of Lake Taupo,” in the Cornhill Magazine for January, says: “ Arriving we were transfixed with as-, tonishment and amusement. The ground was as hard as stone, covered with a roqklike deposit of silicia, which formed a sort of platform. Asif scooped out of this, were three almost circular basins, oi twelve feet in diameter and immeasurably deep. The right and left pools were nearly boiling—the central basin just right for a dip. Ip this caldron were forty-eight persons ‘hitched’ on round the edges, shoulder to shoulder, and with heads just out of water, oi/sporting in the midst. We soon decided what to do, and soon there were fifty persons instead of forty-eight, smiling and laughing, apd shaking hands, or rubbing noses in the water. They were all sorts and sizes, and ail en coetume d'amhange. Some were old tattooed grandsires, some babies hardly able to walk; there were fathers of families and mothers of the same; young men and maidens, boys and girls laughed together. Tne most perfect _ decorum and propriety were observed. Little brown babies nestled in their fathers’ arms; and the latter, to amuse us, pitched the little things into the midst to show how they could swim. They yrould sink for a moment, and then disclose a little brown solemn face above the water, and strike out for their fathers’ arms again. I shall nevernow believe that children cannot learn to swim as soon as they can walk, <of before?* ; ■.< < . A thrifty class. The total wealth of New York city is estimated at $1,600,000,000. one-eightb «£ which belongs to the Jews, although they comprise or|ly about one-fifteenth of the population.