Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1875 — Page 8

The Geological Importance or Oar Weston Explorations.

In no period of the world’s history has there been a greater activity displayed in enterprises to increase the knowledge of our globe and its history than at the preset dav; as instances of which may lie cited the explorations in Central Africa, those of the ruins of the cities of antiquity, such as Nineveh, the expeditions to the' north pole, intended for settling the mystery of an open polar sea, the deepsea soundings in the Pacific Ocean, proving the existence of a sunken continent, sum, last but not least, American explorations in the great West, now in progress, which have already contributed to our knowledge of geology facts of greater importance than any obtained during the previous half century. It is especially in the region of the Yellowstone River abounding as it does with hot springs ami geysers, and in the valley of the Colorado that the most instructive features have been discovered. While in the last few decides the importance and universality of Slow upheavals have been demonstrated, the explorations have shown that a second agent, namely, erosion, is of the utmost importance aud results in a variety of features, varying with the nature of the soil, the climate (wet, dry or rainless), presence or absence of winter frosts, etc. In Colorado the erosion by the rivers produces canons in the comparatively easily worn-out rock of thousands of feet in depth; while the aridity of the climate prevents the rain from destroying the results of the erosion, as is the case in countries where rainfall is of ordinary occurrence. It is evident, therefore, that the arid regions around the Colorado River give specially favorable opportunities for studying the effects of erosion, and the resent researches in that country have resalted in classification of these effects, as, 1, the erosion of water gaps; 2, the cliff erosion of canons; 8, hogback erosion, and 4, bill and mountain erosion. The second and third classes are due to the undermining action of water in arid climates; while in the first and last this action is modified by surface washings in rainy or moist climates.

When another topographical feature is added, namely, the eruption and outpouring of molten matter from below, its overflow covering the eroded lands, and its subsequent erosion in its turn, a new field of investigation is opened, especially instructive in arid climates, where surface washings do not destroy the prominent points of interest. This makes the region of the Colorado particularly rich in peculiar features, such as canons and canon valleys/volcanic caves and volcanic mountains, cliffs and hogbacks, buttes and plateaux, naked rocks and drifting sand, bluffs, valleys, etc. Ail the inount£‘n forms of tliis region are due to erosiou, “ing carved out by the running waters; but, notwithstanding the aridity of the climate in many localities, beds hundreds of feet in thickness and hundreds of thousands of square miles in extent, beds of schist, granite, limestone, sandstone, scale and. lava have slowly yielded to the unseen powers of the air, crumbled away into dust, and been washed away by the rivers. It is an illustration on a gigantic scale of the return of the lands to the ocean depths from xvhlch they once arSse. It appears, however, that the climate there has not always been so arid as it is now; SO the basin of the Great Salt Lake which is now so depressed that its waters have no outlet to the sea and are entirely disposed of by evaporation, leaving all dissolved matter behind, had once a moist climate aud so much rain that the valley was filled with water to its brim, forming a large and deep fresli-water lake which had its outlet into the Columbia River. Mr. G. K. Gilbert, who studied the features of this outlet, considers its epoch identi«cai with the glacial period; and from a further study of the deposited soils he has proved that before the glacial epoch an arid climate prevailed there of many times longer duration than the present epoch of 100,000 years which followed it. The period of time required to form successive deposits of thousands of feet iu thickness, which the erosion of the Colorado River has brought to light, in its deep canons, is enormous, and we cannot suppose that here the erosion was less than that of" other rivers, although in mpist climates the evidences of this erosion have been destroyed; while in the arid climates of our West they were preserved.

The evidences are that that region was lifted up from the ocean’s bosom three tunes; that three times the rocks were fractured; that three times the lava poured out of the crevasses, and that three times the waters carved out valleys iu their course seaward. The tlrst of these periods was after the formation of the granite rocks; the second succeeded the red sand’ stone formation; the third period is the present. The remnants of the first and second periods are buried; but we know that, unnumbered centuries ago in the past, the granites and schists, now on the bottom of the grand canon, were formed as a sedimentary bed beneath the sea; that then an upheaval took place, after whicn thousands of feet of beds were washed away in the sea by rains; then a depress sion took place, sinking the whole region some 20,000 teet beneath the ocean’s surface, and allowing the formation of sandstone, at least 10,000 feet iu thickness, as a sediment; then a second upheaval came, changing it again into dry land; then the rains washed away channels in the sandstone 10,000 feet deep, requiring countless years of gentle but unrelenting .energy. Again the sea rolled over the land, which became its bottom, and received a new deposit of more than 10,000 feet of rocky bed; and lastly, this ocean bed was again upheaved, and for 100,000 years the atmospheric influences and the running streams, gathered from the clouds in the highest mountain tops, have been making gorges, canons and valleys, and carrying the debrit back to the sea, from whose bottom the material all came. We ask: Will the sea, at some future Seriod, invade that land, by the sinking own of the latter, and will coral reefs be formed, and serve perhaps for the burial of the bones of the beings which shall then exist ? Will the surrounding continents or islands be washed into that sea and form new beds of rock, which, when again upheaved, will form a new land, and canons again be formed, and reveal in their walls, to another race of intelligent beings, some of the features of the time in ■Which we live ~at presents —Scientific American.

A Diver’s Adventure With a Shark.

41 On Deck” hod led an eventful life. “A sailor in youth, a diver in manhood and a “ne'er-do-well” in old age, he saw more than falls to the lot of most men. He came to California in early times, and was the hero of a shark story, remarkable as the only one having truth for foundation native to our harbor born. In 1851 James Carton, a stevedore, while warping ! the ship Genesee to a berth off Market street wharf, lost an aqthor. f* On Deck” was

the only diver, except Bill Matthews, then known in the city, and was sent for to recover the anchor. “ On Deck" complied, and while so engaged noticed a shark hovering a few feet above him, evidently observing his movements. The fish was at least eighteen feet long, and was known as the “ bottlenose,” one of the most voracious of the shark kind. This discovery: naturally alarmed the diver. He had found the anchor, made a cable fast to it and was about ascending, when the appearance of the shark made him pause. He had heard that sharks did not molest men in armor. He doubted this and did not feel, now, like risking the experiment. He moved a few paces from the anchor—the shark moved too. He returned to his former place—the shark followed. He was evidently, to use his own words, “ spotted by the bottle-nose for a supper,” ana, unless signally favored, would fall a victim to its voracity. He hardly knew how to act, when he thought of the cuttlefish—how that singular creature often escapes its enemies by darkening the waters with an inky liquor ejected from its body. He accordingly stirred up the mud at the bottom till the water was darkened arbund him, cast off his weights and signaled to the man to haul him up. He was hauled up immediately, but did not entirely escape. The shark knapped at him as he ascended and three of his toes were taken off. A little more and his foot would have gone, a stout boot only saving it The happy thought of muddying the water saved his life. —San Francisco Ledger.

Users and Monkeys.

On one occasion I followed a tiger in the early morning for several miles up the bed of a stream, entirely by the demonstrations of the large Hanum&n monkey, of which there were numbers on the banks feeding on wild fruits. As the tiger passed below them the monkeys fled to the nearest trees, and, climbing to the highest branches, shook them violently and poured forth a torrent of abuse, that could be heard a mile away. (The voice of the monkeys on such occasions is quite different from their ordinary cry. It is a hoarse, barking roar, something like that of the tiger. Is it the first beginning of imita tive language ?) Each group of them continued to swear at him till he passed out of sight and they saw their friends farther on time up the chorus in the tops of their trees, when they calmly came aown again and began to stuff their cheeks full of berries, as if nothing had happened. I think it is the pranks of juvenile tigers, rather than the serious enmity ofold ones, that cause such a terror of them to exist among the monkey community. The natives say that the tigress teaches her cubs to stalk and hunt by practicing on monkeys and pea-fowl. The gorgeous plumage of the latter, scattered about in a thousand radiant fragments, often marks the spot where a peacock has thus fallen victim to these ready learners, but the remains of a monkey are seldom or never seen. Indeed, these sagacious Simians rarely venture to come down to the ground when young tigers are about, though this sign is not always to he relied on as denoting the absence of tigers. I thought so for a long time, till one day in the Betul country, in 1865, after hunting long in the heat of a May day for a couple of tigers whose marks were plentiful all about, we came up to a small pool of water at the head of a ravine, and saw the last chance of finding them vanish, as I thought, when a troop of monkeys were found quietly sitting on the rocks and drinking at the water. I was carelessly descending to look for prints, with my rifle reversed over my shoulder, and another step or two would have brought me to the bottom of the ravine, when the monkeys scurried with a shriek up the bank, and the head and shoulders of a large tiger appeared from behind a bowlder, and stared at me across the short interval. I was meditating whether to fire or retreat, when, almost from below my feet, the other tiger bounded out with a terrific roar, and they both made off down the ravine. I was too much astonished to obtain a steady shot, and I was by that time too well acquainted with tiger-snoot-ing to risk an uncertain one, so they escaped for the time. I quickly regained my elephant, which was standing above, and followed them up. It w;as exceedingly hot, and we had not gone more than a couple of hundred yards when I saw one of the tigers crouched under a bush on the bank of the ravine. I got a steady shot from the hmedah, and fired a threeounce shell at his broad forehead at about thirty yards. No result. It was most curious aud I paused to look; but never a motion of the tiger acknowledged the shot. I then went around a quarter of a circle, but still the tiger remained motionless, looking intently in the same direction. I marched up, rifle on full cock, growing more and more amazed—but the tiger uever moved. Could he be dead ? I went round to his rekr and approached ' close up from that direction. He never stirred. Then I made the elephant kick him, and he fell over. He was stone dead —converted without the movement of a hair into a statue of himself by the bursting of the large shell in his brain. It had struck him full in the center of the forehead. We then went on with the track of the other. It led down into the Moran River, on the steep bank of which there was a thick cover of jaman-buskes, in which the tiger was sure to stop. I had just before come through it, and found the place as full of tracks as a rabbit-warren. Having a spare pad-elephant on that day I sent her round to keep down the bottom of the bank and mark, while I pushed my own elephant—Futteh Rani (Queen of Victory)—through the cover. About the center'l came on the tiger, crouched like the other, with his massive head rested onEis forepaws, the drawn-up hind-quarters and slightly-twitching tail showing that he meant "mischief. " At the first shot, which struck him on the point of the shoulder, he bounded out at me; but the left barrel Caught him in the back before he had come many yards and broke it, when he rolled down right to the bottom of the baok, and fell, roaring horribly, right between the forelegs of the elephant. On another occasion I was much struck with the caution of the monkeys under very trying circumstances. In May, 1864, I had tracked a man-eating tigress into a deep ravine near the village of Pali, in the Seoni district. She wasnot quite a confirmed man-eater, but had killed nine or ten persons in the preceding few | months. She had a cub of about six , months old with her, and it was when this cub was very young and unable to move about that want of other game had driven her to kill her first human pirey. I knew when I entered the ravine that this was her regular haunt; for, though every bush outside had been stripped of its berries by a colony of monkeys, I saw them perched on the rocks above the ravine wistfully looking down on the bushes at thg bottom, which had strewed the ground with their ripened fruit. They accompanied me along the ravine on, the

top of the rocks, as if perfectly knowing the value of their assistance in getting the tigress—and better markers I never had. 1 should probably have passed out at the toD without seeing her, as she was lying close under a shelving bank, but for the profane language of an ancient, graybearded Hanuman, who posted himself right above her, and swore away until he fairly turned her out of her comfortable berth. The excitement of the monkeys soon told me she was on the move; and presently I saw her round lace looking at me from behind a tree with a forked trunk, through the cleft of which I caught sight of about a square foot of her striped hide. It seemed about the right place, so covering it carefully I put in a shell at about forty yards, and she collapsed there and then, forming a beautiful spread-eagle in the bottom of the nala. The youngster now started out,. roaring as if he were the biggest tiger in the country; and, though I fired a couple of snap-shots at him as he galloped through some thick bushes, I coulu not stop him. It is important to extinguish a brute, however young, who lias once tasted human flesh; and I followed him till it grew nearly dark, when I returned to the ravine to take home the tigress, and there I found my monkey friends tucking into the berries in all directions, and hopping about close to the body of the- dead tigress. The cub was met, much exhausted with its run, by a gang of wood-cutters, and killed w'ith their axes.—“ Highlands of Central India," by Capt. James Forsyth.

A Stolen Mail-Poueh.

It was nearly a year ago when the mail agents connected with the overland stage route were completely puzzled by a robbery which, leaving no clew in its wake, baffled the shrewdest detectives and left neither train nor track for the special agents of the Government to follow. A mail-pouch, containing valuable drafts, gold-dust and greenbacks, was dispatched from Portland to San Francisco, but did not arrive. It was expected and looked for, inquiries were instituted, rigid measures were taken to discover its whereabouts, but all efforts to find the missing pouch were fruitless. It had disappeared. The robbeiy and the utter darkness which enveloped it were fruitful themes of conjecture and surmise, and the topic was worn threadbare by the people round about As other subjects arose, engrossing their immediate attention, the theme of the robbery would be dropped, only to be revived again with the same interest. The affair found its way into the columns of the press, from which vague insinuations commenced to emanate, toihe effect that the agents of the Postofflce Department knew more regarding the robbery than thej- were willing to divulge. A political canvass was then pending, and hints began to be dropped here and there, by the press, that the missing pouch was enacting a prominent role in the farce of politics. The newspaper criticism was incisive and, impelled by its sting, , the agents renewed their efforts to recover the missing pouch. About this time it was by chance discovered that one of the parties on whom suspicion had rested had left for parts unknown. He was Dan Smith, one of the stage-drivers. It was known that he had been accompanied on his liegira by the wife of one Montgomery. Jlere was a clew. Slight, buttievertheless a’clew. The authorities reasoned that a man who would take another man’s wife would not hesitate to plunder a mailpouch, and by inquiry speedily. ascertained that Dan Smith had been discharged, and for overturning a coach. The ground where the vehicle was upset was carefully examined, and the conclusion was that the coach was overturned, not through accident, but by design. The clew increased in plainness and was briskly followed up. As a driver, Smith was an expert and the best whip on the route. The overturning of the coach was evidently by design, as a mere child could have'driven the coach over the ground with no danger of overturning. There was but one and a ready inference: Smith upset the coach as a pretext for being discharged in order that he might leave the country. Special-Agent "Underwood, knowing that Montgomery had been intimate w-ith Smith, and reasoning that Montgomery, if lie had anything pertaining to the affair to disclose, wouid readily do so in a spirit of revenge for Smith’s treachery, interviewed him. The result was gratifying in an unexpected degree. Montgomery confessed that Smith had stolen the mail-pouch and was the guilty man. After carrying it for several days in his feed-sack Smith rifled its contents, filled it with stones and sunk it in the Umpqua River. Acting upon this confession the bed of the stream adjacent to the stage road was carefully searched and the long-missing mail-pouch found. It was opened, aud contained, besides a portion of the valuables, a striking illustration of the love of a Californian for hard coin and his contempt for paper money. The bag of gold-dust, amounting in value to $4,000, was nowhere to be found; but all of the drafts and a roil of greenbacks were Smith and his paramour were tracked to San Francisco, and very soon Special-Agent Underwood arrived and registered under an assumed name at the Russ House. With the aid of Special-Agent Alexander, of California, vigorous plans of pursuit w-ere adopted. The telegraph was put in requisition, and it was ascertained that the fleeing Dan had gone to Salt Lake, from thence to lowa, and finally to Philadelphia, where it was subsequently ascertained he had disposed of the bag oi gold-dust. By this time special agents and detectives Of every State ycere hot upon the robber’s track. But, as Dan had been cunning before, he was wary and suspicious now. He suspected that that terrible, invisible phantom, the detective, was shadow ing him, and he “sloped for Texas.” Special-Agent Stuart, of lowa, and Underwood followed closely 1 and swiftly behind, and finally at Sequin, Gaudaloupe County, Tex., overhauled Smith and his paramour, w ho had so long defied capture. Smith, whose real name is Hamilton, came to this coast from lowa. His object in carrying the mail-pouch for nearly a week without opening-it previous to his flight was that if he could geta “ run” with no passengers he could then have an opportunity of abstracting the desired plunder alone and in safety. He never succeeded in obtaining the “ eftpty run,” but finally one night, while his solitary passenger was sleeping at a station, entered the bam and abstracted the gold-dust unseen.—San Francisco Chronicle.

The Picton Gazette says Mrs. Rorke, wife of the mate of the schooner Union Jack, which sunk in Lake Erie recently, saved her preserved peaches, although the vessel sank in five,minutes. The woman who. with ajariof preserved peaches in each hand, cab calmly await death is worth having, although sugar is ten cents |i pound. —Osicego (JV r . F.) Palladium. —Sack for a thief—Ransack.

Excavations at Pompeii.

Those who remember the three bodies, incrusted in their coating of lava and ashes, in one of the houses at Pompeii, will feel interested in knowing that other bodies have recently been uncovered. One is that of a woman, found lying on her face, with her hands raised above her, as if to shield her eyes from the falling ashes. The form of a man is clearly visible in one of the bodies, which w’as found resting on its side. Another discovery was that of a dog, petrified in its very agony, with one foot in his mouth. (After a sleep of nearly 2,000 .years these forms are excavated from their stony bed, to be the wonder of the nineteenth century. Other curiosities have been recently brought to light. Several houses and shops have been uncovered. In two' oi the houses have been found tablets bearing inscriptions. They were"qf wood, and had been joined together by means of cords. The writing is still legible, and Bfter 1,800 years we can read the contracts of loans and acquittance made between merchants in the first Christian era. One house, supposed to have been that of a rich banker, contained beautiful marbles, frescoes and bronzes. A portrait-bust in bronze was found, and several richlypainted heads, a fresco of “Adriadne abandoned by Theseus;” tie Judgment of Paris,” and a hunting sci pe. A writer in Appletons' Journal speaks of these discoveries, and also records that in this beautiful dwelling a marble half-bust of a man was found, where the dog before alluded to was guarding the doorway. But the chief ornament of the dwelling was a fresco of Orpheus, colossal in size, playing on a harp and descending a flight of stone steps, followed by a lion on one side and a tiger on the other, while below are a boar and a fawn, all evidently entranced by the music. The face of Orpheus is very fine. In the dining-room is represented a temple containing a burning sacrificial altar, directly over which a full-length figure of Diana is seen, while, higher above, Minerva is hovering. The decorations in another room are in the Egyptian style; there are figures of warriors, an ibis, and a landscape, in which is a Hermes of Priapus. A statuette of Venus was found in a house containing a bakeiy r , and also a fresco representing Hercules landing at Sicily.

On the walls of other shops were frescoes of Mercury aud Bacchus, Venus and Cupid, and many inscriptions written in vermilion. One building excavated was a well-arranged kitchen, with a bronze kettle hanging over the fire-place. The court had a marble fountain and a white marble table. The marble water-tanks on the sides had openings for the pipes. A quantity of substance on being analyzed proved to be soap. From the frescoes on the wall it is believed that the shop was that of a dyer or cleaner. The movable articles, especially the bronzes there found, were.ponveyed to the museum at Naples, to tie placed beside the charred bread and the mosaic dog, so familiar to all visitors to that institution. The work of excavation goes on slowly, but satisfactorily. The works of art, so beautiful, even in their ruin, give evidence of the skill of the workmen and the artistic taste of the designers of those days. The unveiling of a whole city, with its monuments, its nouses and its deep-rutteri-streets; the discovery of articles of dally use, and the very bodies of men ana women engaged in pursuits of every-day life, is something the world has never before witnessed. Yet under the Tiber and buried beneath the soil of Rome are, doubtless, other and greater treasures, which time will yet reveaL —Brooklyn (N. T.) Union.

Capture of a Toad by a Mouse.

It is my custom during the summer months to visit the Huguenot Sulphur Spring every evening and morning. Having arrived at the before-named place about six o’clock p. m. on the 2d of September, I drank aud took my seat on the masonry that incloses 1 the spring. In the two most southwestern corners of this inclosure,, which is an octagon, are two holes, each about three inches in circumference. After sitting a short time a -shrew-mouse made its appearance in front of the hole nearest to me, seeming to he earnestly in search of something. After encircling its threshold for a short time it proceeded around the walk Presently, to my great surprise, I heard a scream, and on looking up perceived that it had encountered a large toad. At first the shrew seemed unwilling to make an attack, aud , returned a short distance; but at this I time, as if its courage was renewed, it re- | traced its steps, and leaping over the toad : seized it by one of its hind legs. The | toad made no show of fight, but, striving I to escape, put forth those pitiful screams j that wouid have moved the heart of any- ! one to its rescue but of one whose curi- | osify was not yet satisfied. When the j shrew had wearied its prey the former i undertook to carry the latter into the near- ; esthole; but this was impossible, as the : shrew had cut the cavity in the wall to tit itselt and not the toad, which was larger round by two inches. When several unsuccessful attempts had beeu made to carry the toad-tinto this diuing-room the latter succeeded iu getting free; but was soon recaptured and taken back to undergo the same treatment, the shrew no doubt Blinking that it had swollen itself to prevent being carried through the -threshold entrance; but unfortunately lor the shrew the toad's frame was too large. Finding it impossible to accomplish its purpose at this corner, the shrew dragged its prey (which by this to have given up all'hope of escape) to the next hole, and laying it near the entrance ran quickly to find fro several times, as if seeking a place to put it. The shrew now .commenced again the task to take a toad that measured five inches ground into a hole that was only three inches in circumference; but this being of no avail it seernea as if to say: “To take supper in my dining-room this evening is impossible, so I will enjoy it the beat I can out in the cool porch.” And so it did, for it gnawal off and devoured one of the hind legs of the living toad, when I set the latter free to spend the remainder of its life with only three legs. During the whole of this scuffle, which lasted about half an hour, the tqad screamed most pitifully.— Cor. Richmond (la.) Dispatch.

How to weigh a load of coal: Weigher —•‘This load is too heavy; jump on there, 1 Patrick, and take off a few baskets.” Patrick jumps on the load and shovels off coal until the weigher cries “ stop,” and the purchaser of the coal pays for 100 pounds of Irishman which he does not receive. „! f ' Whex the Mexican authorities catch a train-robber the aforesaid robber lives just six minutes. In case the guns hang fire he may live six and a half. A max’s position in society is virtually determined by his own conduct. As he sowetb, socially reap.

The English Hangman.

A Paris journalist claims to have interviewed “M. Marwood,” the English hangman and the successor of Calcraft. “ Calcraft,” he says, “was a gentleman. Short in stature, scanty in vestments, his figure humble as a beaten dog, M. Marwood has the air of a badly-paid solicitor’s clerk. He has an enticing expression, and he always appears benign, kind and easygoing. Like Calcraft, he dresses himself in garments made by the most fashionable tailors of London; his clothes are black, and, being too large, give him a melancholy air. From an invariable.obsequiousness toward Sheriffs, journalists, priests, and, in short, all those who have business with him, he changes his tone toward the condemned. He draws himself up, the pupils of his little gray eyes seem illumed as by a flame, he swaggers and regards the condemned with an imposing air which seems to say: ‘Yes, it is I, M. Marwood. You see that I am not fat; very well, with this excellent rope, of which I hold one end while I place the other round the neck of a man, 1 just dispatch this man whose life is forfeited. It is I who have the honor and the talent to do this. 1, Mr. Marwood, Esq!’ However, he shows the greatest humanity and the greatest celerity during executions, and it is very curious to see him at those moments. This little, miserable man is so terrible at his work tliat he becomes positively frightful. The thing done, the obsequious solicitor’s clerk reappears v but the obsequiousness is mingled with haughtiness. M. Marwood willingly explains to journalists his manner of procedure, and he becomes very cadaverous when he makes his compliments. Here are some details of his conversation: ‘“ls it long, M. Marwood, since you entertained the idea of succeeding Calcraft ?’ “ ‘ Always, sir; but I was not in that line of business; I was in commerce. But I never missed an execution. I have spent whole nights in seeing them.. I have even been discharged from three situations because I was obliged to play truant ior two days in order not to lose an execution. During this time I studied.’ “ ‘ What did you study?’ “ ‘ I studied the procedure of Calcraft, and I said to myself that he hanged with a rope too short. I remarked that his criminals were never killed at a blow, because they did not receive a sufficient shock. Then his ropes were so thin that they almost decapitated the patient (!). It was as bad as using the guillotine.’ “ * They say that you do not agree With the guillotine, M. Marwood?’ “ ‘ Certainly not; and it does not agree with me. We have a right to kill a man, but we have no right to separate him in two. Besides, it is of no consequence that the guillotine works better. It is a mechanical affair, and to do the thing properly is a work of art. I tell you, then, that one day I discussed my theories with M. Calcraft.’ “ ‘ And what did M. Calcraft say V “‘ He first ordered me out of the door i"n contempt. However, after he had reflected—for he was an intelligent man, though somewhat obstinate—" You are the man of the future, Marwood,” he said to mp, with a melancholy air. “ You will be the chief of the new school! But I —l am too old to renounce the traditions of my life. My old hands only know how to hang properly with a rope short and thin!” After that day he frequently asked me to assist him. Some time since I succeeded him.’ “ ‘ And how much money do you make a year ?’ “ Four or five hundred pounds sterling, according to whether business is slack or heavy. We are otherwise very happy.’ “ ‘ You have a family ?’ “ Here the voice of M. Marwood became, churlish. “ ‘ I must ask you, sir, not to speak of Mistress Marwood. An Englishman would not have put so indiscreet a question.’ “ He finished, however, in softer tones, and when our special was taking leave of him he presented him with a hangingrope.”

Snakes in Southern Africa.

The puff-adder is a most dangerous snake, being of the color of the dead leaves on which he is fond of curling himself up, and of so sluggish aud sleepy a nature that he will not trouble himself to move out of one’s way; it is difficult to always avoid treading on him. His bite is most deadly, and he has the most dangerous habit of striking backward, not forward like other snakes. A few people have, I believe, recovered from the effect of a puff-adder’s bite, but very few ; they generally die in about a quarter of an hour, going quietly to sleep. The only chance of a cure is to keep constantly walking, and to drink quantities of raw brandy, and to take doses of eau-de-luce. When the Kaffirs kill a snake they lake some of the venom from its head, which they carry in a little bag round their necks, and, if bitten, swallow a little; which they say is a certain cures There is even a worse snake in Natal than the putl'-adder—fortunately a rare one—the black imamba, oife of the very few that will venture an attack without provocation. Many people say .that it will even follow a person for miles; hut I rather doubt this, unless the person’s road happens to run between it and its home, aud then I-dare say it would do so.. Perhaps every one does not know that cats are snake-proof. A bite has no® effect on them; we had an opportunity of proving this. A short time alter we came to Oakham we were out strolling about, looking at our new possessions, when we were startled by hearing a peculiar shriek from one of the children, evidently a scream of terror. WdVushed up to the house and info the dining-room, whence the sounus' came, and Jthere was our little boy in a frantic state of fright, with a long, green iujamba wriggling about on the floor in front of him, engaged in a fierce tussel with a large tortoise-shell cat, one we had brought from the town. Which would have got the best of it had they been left to fight it out I cannot say, for the coolie rushed in and killed the snake. The cat had bitten out one of its eyes, and in return had got a wound on its face that swelled up to an enormous size; but beyond that he seemed none the worse for his encounter, anil iu a few days puss was quite himself again; and we telt very grateful to him ever after for having, in all probability, saved our little boy's life.— Frazer's Magazine: >

Slaxg is both strong and weak. Its strength consists in the ability to express in it, sharp and nervous.and lull, the idea intended to be conveyed. Its weakness is in the fact that it is the language of the unrefined, the uneducated, the low.—Philadelphia JS'orth American. The number of sheep imported into Kansas was never so great as now. Hundreds of sheep farms are being estabhahed.

Flogging of Three Garroter in England.

At the last assizes in Liverpool no less than five, men were convicted of garrote robberies, three of : whom were ordered to receive twenty lashes each, one to receive twenty-five, and the fifth—on account of his youth, we suppose— ism to have thirty strokes with the birch rod. The latter received his strokes some time ago; the man who was to get twenty-five lashes was spared the infliction on account of illhealth, and the three other men duly received their score each yesterday. The hour fixed for the flogging was 11:45. The punishment was given, as usual, in the central corridor of the prison, and, in anticipation of it, all those prisoners who are in jail, eonvioted of violence, were brought out of their cells and stationed in the circular galleries- above, from w’hich they could command a- Mill view of the flogging, the object of the visiting Justices iu making this arrangement being, as before, that it might have ai deterring effect. In the meantime the three men who were to be flogged were brought out, and each of them placed facing a wooden frame, to which lie was, after talcing off his upper clothing, securely fastened, hand and foot. The two meny Bums and Rigby, were of comparatively small stature, but powerfully built, with: plenty of muscle and sinew, and appeared to await their punishment with considerable indiiference. The youth, Wafer, was the tallest of the three, but slim in body, and seemed likely to suffer the most. As on a previous occasion, when several men were flogged on one day, the arrangement was made that the punishmsnt of the three men should take place at the same time, each man to be flogged by a separate officer; and the strokes to fall upon one prisoner at a time in succession, until each had received his quota. The .frames were numbered A, B, and C, and aa Deputy-Governor Bishop sang out A 1, B 1, C 1, and so on, the lash was brought down on the men’s backs and shoulders in regular order, until the twenty rounds had been completed. The order in which the three men were placed formed a crescent, Burns being placed at one corner, Rigby at the other, and Wafer in the center. The man who had to administer the flogging to Burns lacked neither strength nor willingness to let the lash be felt, and Burns, although he said very little beyond giving utterance to a short exclamaiioa during the first few strokes, and complaining that he was being struck too hfgli—the ends of some of the tails once or twice in the beginning catching him on the neck and chest—undoubtedly suffered most. The man who flogged certainly miscalculated his distance, and hence the cause of the complaint made by Burns, who at one time shrieked out, “ It’s all round my neck—do you call that on my back?” Rigby endured his castigation well, and said nothing more than “Oh!” once or twice, and at one time asked to be struck fair on the back. The blows in his case were more lightly laid on than in that of Burns, but they seemed to have quite as much effect, causing him to shake and shiver a good deal. He was thankful, however, when ..the end came, and when the last stroke fell he remarked that that was what the cobbler called the last Wafer was less able than either of the other two men to bear the flogging, and after the first stroke or two he began to howl and cry and continued to do so until the end. When the three men were released their backs were in a terribly lacerated state, their right shoulders being all livid, cut and bleeding. Rigby appeared to take the matter coolly when he was being released and turned round and laughed and grinned at the prisoners standing in the galleries above, but iris bleeding back belied the genuineness of his smiles. Burns marched aiWay seemingly unconcerned, chewing a piece of lead or other substance with which he had fortified himself to sustain his courage before he was tied up. Wafer was a piteous-looking object and was led away crying. The pnsoners who witnessed the flogging from above did.-not appear to be much moved by the spectacle with the exception of- one, a, youth, who was led away in an almost fainting state. The cat-o’-nine-tails used onathis occasion were much more formidable weapons than those heretofore employed. Formerly the “ cats” were made in the prison, but yesterday whips marked with the Government stamp were brought into requisition, the handles of which' are longer and thicker and the cords longer also than the old cat o-nine-tails. The flogging only occupied about ten minutes. —Liverpool Post.

Alpine Excursions.

Anne Brewster- says in a letter to the Philadelphia Bulletin: “ There are’ijia: ly persons who are unhappily ignorant Vof the delights and varieties, of Alpine Excursions ; they imagine them to be fill alike and all equally tiresome. They dall our raptures nonsense and our recitals/ of what we have actually seen and felt flights of imagination. We can only pity them. They are as the cleat and blind, and are unbelieving because, of their incapabilities. Alpine courses are very fatiguing; you return, with every atom of your body tingling, bruised feet, probably severe contusions; your face blistered and' skinned, caused by the reflection of the sun on the ice; every drop of blood in your veins is dancing and bubbling. You go to bed tired from the crown of your head to the sole of your feet, and wonder if it could be possible for you to lalL to pieces, so thoroughly shaken up and unhinged is your mortal frame. But something inside of you feels splendidly., Alpine courses may weary the body, but they delight and fortify mind, imagination and spirit. I never shall forget the physical pain and keen spiritual enjoy" ment I felt once when the guides allowed me to throw myself down on the turf of a Buperbfirand pine forest near the Nan, Berrant during a rapid, steep and wearying descent we were making on foot one August afternoon. The grass was thick with flowers: lilac digitals, golden arnica, rosa saxifrage, Alpine veronica genipet even little chrysanthemums, the dark garnet vanilla and Alpine roses. I gathered great handfuls and flung them up into the air. Life never had for me a happier, purer moment. There was a sense of exaltation, an exulting emotion that nothing else gives. There was no sorrow worth thinking of, no wrong worth remembering, no care but was folly. It is this ex, alted feeling that is the secret Cause of the fascination of Alpine traveling. If you experience it once it is irresistible. No juice that the grape ever yielded possesses the exhilarating power that is in the air you breathe on a solitary glacier, or the summit of a high Alp. The air far surpasses wine of Cyprus or Xeres. It gives a godlike inebriation, and its to-morrow is one of health and lightness of heart.” A man who travels around a newlycarpeted bedroom barefoot will be apt to find himself cn the wrong rack. -