The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-02-19 00:00:00

Visrettanecats

HOME FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

BURIAL FEES.—A Bill was published on Saturday,
the object of which is to reduce, and to equalise in all
parts of England and Wales, the fees now demanded
by clergymen on the occasion of a burial, and to
restrict such fees to the payment for a religious
service actually performed. The effect of this Bill
will be that ecclesiastical fees for a religious burial
service will be kept distinct from the civil expenses
incurred in connection with burial. Tire interests of
existing incumbents are guarded by the Act not
coming into for3e in any palish till after the death or
removal of each existing incumbent. The Bill does
not interfere with private rights, nor with the
existing powers of burial boards as regards their civil
charges.

RECRI3IINATION.—Coster (who has been having
" words " with Swell Coachman) : "Why, when I
knowed you afore, you was a-sellin' fusees ; an now
yer've got a 'speetable sitivation you don' know 'ow to
be'ave yerself. 'Shamed of yer !! " (Delight of by-
standers).—Fun.
PLANTS AND THE ANIMAL WORLD.—There has
recently been published a curious and very instructive
list of all the English plants bearing animal names.
The students of legendary lore and of philology should
be as much interested in this as their botanical con-
hires. Looking down the list may be noticed 2 bears,
3 bees, 2 cats, 4 cocks, 2 dogs, 2 ducks, 2 elephants, 2
frogs, 3 goats, 5 hares, 3 hedgehogs, 8 horses, 2
leopards, 3 lions, 2 lizards, 2 monkeys, 3 snakes, and 4
wolves in the vegetable world. The animal names
have for the most the character of genitive forms
welded into one with a word of quality; as wolfsbane,
the common aconite.

MR. BRIGHT ON THE LAND BILL.-Sir Henry
Havelock-Allan, M.P., writing to a gentleman
residing in Sunderland, says :—" In a conversation I
had on Tuesday in the lobby with Mr. John 'Bright, I
was struck with the earnestness, almost solemnity,
with which he expressed the confidence, as well as
the hope, that the forthcoming Land Bill for Ireland
would be a standing monument to the labours of the
party in the cause of justice and humanity to Ire-
land, and his conviction that it would be such as to
satisfy every just expectation of those who desire the
peace and prosperity of that unhappy country."
MAY BE SAID OF A RECEIVING CASHIER.—" A
chiel's amang ye takin' notes."—Funny Iloiks.

LENTIL SOITP.—A gentleman who has had lentil
soup served at his table daily for more than two years
favours us (Globe) with the following receipe for its
preparation :—Take one pound of split Egyptian
lentils; put this quantity into one gallon of boiling
water, add a small onion or two and a carrot sliced.
Simmer gently for three hours, stir frequently, throw
in pepper and salt to taste. The result is a gallon of
excellent soup at a cost of 3d. or 4d.
ExAcTLY.—Why should a pawnbroker be likely to
be successful in courtship ?—Why, because he knows
all about "popping," and is quite used to making
advances to young ladies. —Judy.

AGED JUDGES.—There are 14 judges of county
courts whose united ages amount to 1,065 years, with
an average of 76 years. Of these, five were appointed
judges in 1847, on the passing of the first County
Court Act; they will, therefore, complete 34 years'
service this year—more than twice the time required
for a judge of the High Court to earn his retirement.
One of these judges was appointed in 1849. 'These
venerable gentlemen well deserve repose; but, under
15 and 16 Vict., c. 54, s. 15, they can only receive a
pension on being "afflicted with some permanent in-
firmity disabling them from the due execution of their
office. '—Law Journal.
EASTER MONDAY VOLUNTEER REVIEW. —At a
meeting of the commanding officers of Metropolitan
Volunteer Corps, held on Monday at the offices of the
National Rifle Association, Pall-mall, London, it was
decided that, subject to the approval of the War Office
authorities, which is expected to be received in the
course of a few days, Brighton should be recommended
as the site of the Easter field day.

GAME CONSUMED IN GREAT BRITAIN.—A recently
published estimate of the game consumed in Great
Britain put the increase at two-thirds in thirty years.
The numbers estimated for 1880 are 510,000 grouse
and black game, at 4s. per bird, £102,000; 376,000
partridges at 25., £37,600; 335,000 pheasants at 45.,
£67,000; 500,000 hares at 3s. 6d., £87,500; 9,000,000
rabbits at is. 6d., £67,500; total head, 9,731,000;
total value, £361,600; to which is added £30,000 for
woodcock, snipe, wild duck, &c.
LARGE TREES.—The tallest sequoya (accurately
measured) is to be seen in Calaveras Grove, near
Stockton California. It measures in height 325 feet, and
is hardly surpassed by any other tree of that species. A
few years ago, explorers in Criggsland (Victoria)
discovered many enormous trunks of the eucalyptus,
and the state forester measured one of them, lying on
on the ground on the banks of the Watts River,
which, from the roots to the upper end of the trunk
was 435 feet high. Considering however, that the top
of the tree was broken off, and that the circumference
of the trunk at the break was still 9 feet, he may
have been justified in estimating its full height, when
alive and standing, at 500 feet. Quite recently, an
eucalyptus amagdalinus has been found standing in
the district of Daudenong (Victoria), measuring from
the ground to the first branch 380 feet, and to the top
450 feet, thus exceeding the height of any known
living sequoya (dubbed Wellingtonia by the English)
by 125 feet. Its circumference at the base is 80 feet,
which is less than than that of the sequoya.
SYNONYM FOR Mn. SPEAER.—Mr. Silencer.—
Punch.

THE LABOUR MARKET.—In several districts the
labour market is very unsettled. The wages question,
both in the cotton and the coal trade, is the cause of
much uneasiness and anxiety. In Lancashire the
colliers are still on strike. Scarcely any coal is being
got at the Lancashire pits, and the price is so high
that it seriously interferes with business in the iron and
cotton trades of the county. A conference of South
Yorkshire coalowners and representatives of the miners
was held at Sheffield on Friday in last week. It was
intimated by the men that if the masters would concede
ageneral advance of 5 per cent. and adopt the sliding
scale a settlement of the dispute would be obtained.
The employers expressed their approval of the sliding
scale, but said that the condition of trade did not admit
of a 5 per cent. advance being giveii. They expressed
their willingness to throw open their books to any re-
spectable accountant to prove the accuracy of their
statement, and added that if better-prices were ob-
tained for coal they would be prepared to consider an
advance of wages. After a long deliberation no de-
cision was reached, and the interview terminated. At
a meeting of the coalowners of North Staffordshire,
held last Saturday, it was decided to advance the
miners' wages of that district 10 per cent., to com-
mence from Monday.—The iron trade is active, and
prices are well sustained. The shipyards and engi-
neering trades are very brisk, and the workmen are
well employed at good wages. The carpet trade is
slack, and so is the lace trade.—ln London trade is
not so busy as it was at the end of the year, but it is
satisfactory to note that our home trade is slowly but
surely improving.—The general trade of the Western
counties is only making slow progress. In Bristol
the large manufacturing houses which have relations
with the Cape have found their shipping orders falling
off owing to the recent outbreak of hostilities, while
the home trade is by no means active.—The building
trade is a little brighter, but very large numbers of
men are still out of employ.

DEATH FROM MISADTENTURE. —An inquest has been
held at Birmingham, on the body of the Rev. Robert
Lewin Howarth, proprietor of a Birmingham middle-
class school, who was found lying dead in his bed on
the morning of the 25th ult., with a tumbler by the
bedside containing a small quantity of brandy-and-
water mixed with cyanide of potassium. Evidence was
given to the effect that the deceased held peculiar
views as to the effects of poisons, some of which he
maintained would have no injurious results and would
simply sharpen the intellect. A paper was found in
the bedroom of the deceased which bore the following
inscription in his handwriting :—"Foolish curiosity
has made me take —. May Heaven condone it. Hope
to come to. Don't mind." The jury returned a ver-
dict that "the deceased died through taking poison by
misadventure."

ONION GROWING AT EL PASO.—This place has
long been remarkable for its onion culture (says
Land and Water). In this luxuriant valley these
useful roots commonly weigh six or seven pounds
and one was known to weigh fourteen pounds. A
much larger supply than was on demand has hitherto
been in the market, but now that El Paso is about
to become a great railway centre for New Mexico,
Mexico, and Texas, the onion trade will be developed
into great importance all over the world. Besides
this speciality in onion, El Paso produces magnificent
grapes, for which the soil and climate are most
favourable. The Texas Sun estimates the grape
area on the Texan side only at 300,000 acres, which
could sustain 65,000 families with grape culture
alone. A gentleman who engaged ix this industry
in a small way purchased some grapes on the Mexican
side as an experiment, and made them into wine,
which cost him one dollar per gallon. After keeping
it for a year, he sold this wine for five dollars per
gallon. He then bought a wine press, suitable
casks and implements, and in 1868, on an invest-
ment of twelve hnndred dollars, he cleared three
thousand. He does not engage in the cultivation,
but buys the grapes from the grower. Although
the arrangements are of a most primitive description
as yet, in the El Paso valley the crops yield annually
50,000 gallons.
AN ANGEL FROM PARADISE VALLEY.—An American
peace-at-an7-price party entered a whisky saloon, and
began: "I in an angel from Paradise Valley, and a
bad one, too, and when I flop my wings there's a tor-
nado loose. Give me some of your meanest whisky,
and whole lot of it somethin' that tastes like
bumble-bee stings pickled in vitriol." A dyspeptic
bystander with a bulging brow remarked significantly
that a moral courage was superior to physical force
and bluster, and added, "We will not drink with
you." "No. It'd be cheaper for yer to crawl into a
prospect hole and pull a tombstone over yer head. I
can lick this whole town from the infernal regions to
breakfast, and I believe I'll start it on this dead-fall.
Look out for a hurricane when I swoop. Whoop! I'm
comin'." In about two minutes the bevelheaded ad-
mirer of moral courage was a dilapidated piece of brie-
b,-brac, the big man called Bill was sopping cold water
on his eye in the back room, and the rest of the crowd
scattered about the place in various stages of dis-
couragement, while the angel from Paradise was
standing on a billiard table shouting: "Where's the
rest of yer population? Trot out your cohorts and
fetch on the mob. I'm an angel from Paradise and a
holy terror when I flop my wings. I swallered a cyc-
lone for breakfast and a powder-mill for lunch, and I
havn't begun to cough yet. Where's the populace of
this broken-down chicken ranch? I'm not myself to
night and want exercise."— Virginia Chronicle.

CORN RETURNS.-At a meeting of the Essex Cham-
ber of Agriculture, Mr. Courtauld, M.P., presiding, it
was resolved "That, in the opinion of this Chamber,
the provision made in Colonel Barne's Bill for obtain-
ing corn returns from growers and buyers of corn is
preferable to that of Mr.. Chamberlain's Bill, by
which corn returns are limited to the buyers only in
200 market towns out of a total of 798.

" SPIINO Tips."—These that overleap the Thames
Ensloanknient.—funny Folks.
LONG SHOOTING !—Long-range shooting was being
gossiped about at a recent meeting of sportsmen in
the White Mountains. A man from Virginia told
several marvellous stories, one of which was to the
effect that his father, who had been one of the pioneers
into Kentucky, had once owned a rifle with which he
had killed a deer at the distance of two miles. "I
know it seems almost incredible," he said, in con-
clusion; "but the ground was measured by a practised
surveyor, and that was the sworn result." A brief
silence followed this, which was broken by another
sportsman, who said, "Look here, uncle Nat. How
about the rifle that General Knox gave to you? If
I don't forget, that could shoot some." "You mean
that one that I had to fire salted balls from, eh?"
"Yes. Tell us about it." " Pshaw It doesn't
matter. Let the old piece rest in its glory." And
the old resident wculd have sat back out of the way;
but the story-tellers had become suddenly interested.
"Let us hear about it," pleaded the gentleman whose
father had been a Kentucky pioneer. "Did I under-
stand you that you salted your bullets?" "Always,
said Nat, seriously and emphatically. "And where-
fore, pray?" "Because," answered the old moun-
taineer, with simple honesty in look and tone, "that
rifle killed at sucla a distance that otherwise, especially
in warm weather, game would spoil with age before
I could reach it ? "

A RAILWAY ON THE ICE.—The St. Petersburg
correspondent of the Daily News says :—" A novel
feature, in Europe at all events, is the construction
and working of a railway on the ice, as at present
running between Cronstadt and Oranienbaum. A
gala party attended the opening on Sunday last,
starting from Oranienbaurn. Midway the train was
stopped, and a service of prayers held. The regular
traffic commenced on Monday to expedite the trans-
port of the mass of goods which accumulated, to the
extent of three million ponds, when navigation unex-
pectedly closed at the commencement of winter."

THE RITUALISTS AND THE LAW.—The Bishop of
Truro, in reply to a memorial signed by over a hun-
dred of the clergy of the diocese, protesting against
the secular character of the courts in which ecclesi-
astical disputes are adjudicated upon, says he is deeply
sensible of the distracting influence it exercises on true
pastoral work. While hoping it is not too late to
remedy mistakes, he advises a serious study of the
report of the Lower Houee of Convocation on the
relations of Church and State, and the Bishop of
Lincoln'e essay on " The Present Disquietude in the
Church," and earnest prayer for guidance.
THE CENTENARY OF GEORGE STEPHENSON.—In
view of the approach of the hundredth anniversary
of the birth of George Stephenson, who was born
on the oth of June 1781, the Amalgamated Society
of Railway Servants have started a movement for
commemorating the event by a centenary festival
having for its object the benefit of the Benevolent
Institution established for helping railway servants.
A great fete in aid of Railway 'Servants, Orphan-
age is to take place at the Alexandra Palace, and
it is proposed to hold simultaneously celebrations
in various parts of the country for the benefit of
the disabled and aged, the widows and orphans of
railway servants of all grades throughout the United
Kingdom. Application is to be made to the Lord
Mayor to head the movement.

THE MILITARY AGAIN.—He: 1 met our friend the
Captain yesterday, and he was telling me about his
first engagement.—She: First engagement Has he
broken off many ?—Judy.

EMIGRATION.—The following are the chief figures
that appear in the report of the Commissioners of
Emigration of the arrivals in 1880 of alien immigrants
at the port of New York from Jan. 1, 1880, to Dec.
31, 180: England, 33,768; Ireland, 66,399; Scot-
land, 9,625 ; Wales, 3,588; Germany, 101,24;
Austria 4,41; Sweden, 35,1117 ; Denmark, 5,577;
Netherlands, 3,259; Belgium, 1,302; Switzerland;
8.223 ; France, 4,087; ltaly, 11,190; Spain, 931;
Russia, 7,693; Luxemburgh, 511; Bohemia, 7,606;
China, 200; Quebec and Ontario' 339; Nova Scotia,
239 ; West Indies, 1,298; Mexico, 126; south
America, 355. In round numbers the number of
emigrants from Europe was 324,563; Asia, 262 ;
Africa, 45; America, 1,038; all other, 1,463; total,
327,371.

THE RECOVERY OF SMALL DEBTS.—Lord Randolph
Churchill's Bill for the Limitation of Actions for the
Recovery of -Small Debts in England has been laid
on the table of the House. The Bill only applies to
lkigland and to debts not exceeding £lOO sterling, or
to sums due by a banker to his customer, to bills of
exchange, promissory notes, or the claim of cestui que
trust against his trustee. It limits the time of action
to twelve calendar months, and comes into force next
January.

PROPOSED SALE OF A NATIONAL TROPHY.—The
Geneva Correspondent of The Times says :—" A very
unpleasant impression has been calised by the an-
nouncement that the Government of Schaffhausen are
about to propose to the Great Council of the canton
the sale of the famous Schaffhausen onyx, for which a
rich collector has offered a large sum. The onyx
being a part of the spoil of the battle of Grandson, is
regarded as a national trophy. It is, moreover, a gem
of great size and extraordinary beauty, superbly set,
and of Greek or Roman origin. An energetic pro-
test will doubtless be made against the proposal to
dispose of so interesting a memento of Swiss history
for the enrichment of a foreign museum." [The
battle of Grandson was fought on March 3rd, 1476,
when Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was de-
feated by the Swiss.]

EXTORTION.—OId Gent. Buy a snowball, boy?
What am Ito do with it when I get it? Boy. Well,
I'll give you one for nothink, an' you can take your
time an' think it over. [Gives him one in the eye,
and leaves him reflecting. I—Judy.

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ON "FRUITS AND SEEDS."-At
the London Institution, on Monday, Sir John Lubbock,
Bart., M.P., F.R.S., delivered a lecture on "Fruits
and Seeds" to a large audience. After expressing his
tshateimsfa‘it
satisfaction that
at hteecisihnoicualldnot
terms, b eheo bslaigidedthteoytrwoouubllde
be aware that fruits and seeds differed very much
:from one another some being large, some
small, some sweet, some bitter, some brightly
coloured, some good to eat, others poisonous, some
covered with bristles, some with hairs, some smooth,
some sticky, and so on, and yet there was good reason
for all these differences. He then pointed out the
beautiful way in which seeds were protected from in-
jury, remarking that in some instances this was even
accomplished by the mere motions of the plants
themselves, although in most cases these motions'
were so slow as not to attract attention. Then the,
means by which seeds were dispersed were likewise'
very curious and wonderfully well adapted for the
purpose intended. In some cases p:ants had actually
an apparatus by which they could throw their seed to
some little distance. Having spoken of the wonderful
manner in which seeds found spots suitable for their
growth, and of the curious resemblance which.some seeds
bore to insects, he remarked, in conclusion that there
were still many mysteries to be solved in connection
with seeds, and there was much about the commonest
plants which would reward careful study. In this, as
in every other branch of science, we had only made a
beginning and learned enough to show us low little
we really knew about it. Our great masters in natural
history had immortalised themselves by their dis-
coveries; but they had not exhausted the field—there
was still plenty left for others to discover. The great
majority no dtubt would be unable to devote them-
selves to this study; but he hoped they would all see
that, whatever their profession or occupation might be,
science was capable of giving pleasure in their leisure
time, and would nerve and strengthem them for the
eerious businees of life.

HIS MISS-SHONIC.—Jones (to Smith, who has just
missed a rabbit with both barrels): "Smith, you are
a benefactor to sportsmen, for you evidently intend to
inspire the animals with a confidence that must prove
fatal to them sooner or later."—Fun.

THE AMERICAN CATTLE TRADE.—The shipments of
American cattle to London for January were 41,532
head, of which 1,076 were lost in transit. The ship-
inents to Liverpool comprised 4,342 cattle, 1,038
sheep, and 208 pigs, and of these 656 cattle, 181
sheep, and 89 pigs were 105t.,-The shipments to
Glasgow were 1,108 cattle, of which 299 were lost.

A PRESENT TO THE QUEEN.—A large album, to be
presented to her Majesty by the government of New
South Wales, on behalf of the people of the colony,
has just been completed, and will be despatched to
England in a few days (says the Sydney Mail). It is
a marvel of sumptuous binding, and the photographs
in it, in their delicacy of finish and in the characteristio
beauty of the scenes they represent, are worthy the
binding. The book, which is about 2 feet six inches
long by 2 feet broad, is bound in purple velvet, the
corners protected by silver scroll work, the clasp being
of the same metal, and the upper cover bearing the
royal monogram in richly chased silver. The 56 photo-
graphs it contains, which were taken by artists at-
tached to the Government printing-office, are un-
usually large, and depict the choicest scenes which the
metropolis and the country generally could furnish.
AVERAGE PRICE OF BRITISH CORN.—The following
are the average prices of British corn for the week
ending Feb. 12, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat, 425. 3d. ; barley, 325.
9d; oats, 20s. 6d. per impeAal qr. Corresponding
week last year :—Wheat, 435. 7d. ; barley, 365. 10d. ;
oats, 21s. Id.
FATAL ICE ACCIDEET.—A sad ice accident occurred
near Bolton last Saturday morning. Mr. Ethelbert
Entwistle, of the Atlas Foundry, was skating upon
Lord Bradford's reservoir in Great Lever, when the
ice gave way and he was precipitated into deep water.
The accident was witnessed by several mill hands who
hurriedly obtained a ladder and threw it towards the
unfortunate young gentleman, but he failed to grasp
it, and sank. The body was recovered an hour after-
wards. The deceased, aged 26, was widely known and
esteemed.

THE THIRD PARTY.—Dr. Emmons, the able New
England divine, met a Pantheistical physician at the
house of a sick parishioner. It was no place for a
dispute; but the abrupt question of the Pantheist was,
"Mr. Emmons, how old are you?" "Sixty, sir; and
how old are you? " "As old as creation," was the
triumphant response. "Then you are of the same
age as Adam and Eve ? " "Certainly. I was in the
garden when they were." "I have always heard that
there was a third party in the garden with them, but
I never knew before it was you,' rejoined the doctor.
THE FOREIGN COAL AND IRON TRADES.—The Bel-
gian coal trade continues to be satisfactorily main-
tained. No advance in quotations appears to be com-
templated at present ; but, on the other hand, deliveries
continue active, and transactions have been carried
through with ease. The exports of coal from Belgium
in 1880 amounted to 4,493,145 tons, as compared with
4.235,751 tons in 1879, and 3,889,411 tons in 1878. Of
the 4,493,145 tons of coal exported from Belgium last
year, 4,255,849 tons went to France. A fair number
of new orders for iron have come to hand in the French
Department of the Haute-Marne, and quotations have
been firm in consequence. The condition of the forges
of the Nord is about as satisfactory as could be
desired; contracts which have been concluded are
stated to assure work for some time in advance.
CURIOUS INDUSTRIES IN NEW YORIC.—In the Course
of inquiries instituted in New York by the Superin-
tendent of the census, some singular industries have
been brought to light. In New York City and
Brooklyn about 3,000.000 pairs of old shoes are thrown
away every year. Old shoes used to be plentiful in
the gutters in some parts, but they are now scarce.
They are picked up and used, it appears, for three
purposes. All those not completely worn out are
patched, greased, &c., and sold to men who deal in
such wares. Some persons wear one shoe much
more than the other, and those dealers find mates for
the less worn shoes. Next, the shoes not worth patch-
ing are cut into pieces; the good bits are used for
patching other shoes, and the worthless bits are con-
verted into Jamaica rum, by a process known only to
the manufacturers. It is said they are boiled in pure
spirits and allowed to stand for a few weeks, and that
the product far surpasses Jamaica rum made in the
ordinary way. A manufacturer of tomato catsup,
who gave the value of his manufactured product at
18,000 dols. and that of his raw material as nothing,
stated that every year he sends clean tubs to the
wholesale houses that can tomatoes, with the under-
standing that the women who trim and peel shall
throw the skins and parings into those tubs. Every
day the tubs are removed, their contents ground up,
fermented, flavoured, and sold as tomato catsup.
RIDDLE.—Why was Lord Byron a humane father?
- Because he never beat his Childe Harold.—Punch.

PERPETUAL PENSIONS.—The following resolution
was passed at the last meeting of the Council of the
Borough of Chelsea Liberal Association :—" That in
the opinion of this council an inquiry should be made by
the House cf Commons into the perpetual pensions
payable out of the public revenue." Writing with
reference to a petition signed by a number of his con-
stituents praying for an enquiry into perpetual pen-
sions, Sir E. J. Reed, M.P., remarks that he will
with great pleasure present it to the House of Commons.
He strongly objects to perpetual pensions, but he
hardly sees what there is to inquire into, as all the
facts are well known.

Mn. COWEN, M.P., AND THE COERCION BILL.—
Mr. Joseph Cowen, M.P., has sent a letter in reply
to a resolution psssed at a meeting of the Newcastle-
on-Tyne Junior Liberal Club, desiring him to "sup-
port the Irish policy of the Government." He
promises to give his best consideration to the pro-
posed Land Bill With respect to the "coercive
policy of the Government," he says :—" I mean to
oppose the Coercion Bill on every occasion and at
every point by all the resources in my power. When
all opportunity of defeating the principle of the Bill
has gone, I will strive to delay its operation by every
honourable, fair, and legitimate process. When
that resource is exhausted, I will assist in mitigat- •
ing the harshness of its clauses and minimizing the
despotic powers that the Government are seeking
to obtain. . . . It is my emphatic belief that the
repressive course the Ministry is pursuing will embitter
the relations between England and Ireland."

A ROYAL INSPECTICrN.—Her Majesty the Queen, on
Saturday, at Parkhurst, in the presence of a large
number of spectators, inspected the 14th (Princess of
of Wales' Own) Regiment, Colonel Barry Drew, C. 8.,
commanding. Her Majesty, who was accompanied
by Princess Beatrice, drove on to the parade ground
at four o'clock, and proceeded along the line, the
regiment giving the royal salute, and the band playing
"God Save the Queen." Her Majesty then went to
the saluting base, and the regiment marched past.
At the close of this movement, which was splendidly
executed, the Queen personally conveyed to Colonel
Barry Drew an expression of the pleasure which the
inspection had afforded her, and commanded him to
assure the regiment of her extreme satisfaction with
the discipline, appearance, and soldierly bearing of
her gallant 14th.

WHAT IS A MOUNTAIN ?-It is (writes a Correspon-
dent of Notes and Queries) certainly not very easy to
answer the question. What is a mountain? and to
say at what altitude a hill ends and a mountain
begins. In the fenny portions of England it takes a
small amount of earth to be dignified with a name of
a hill. The Cambridgeshire Gogmagog hills are gently
rising fields. Mr. Boyd in his first series of his " Re-
creations of a Country Parson" (p. 126), save, " I
am writing north of the Tweed, and the horizOn is of
blue hills, which. some Southrons would call moun-
tains." Christopher North, when speaking of the
"mountains " of his boyhood, says, "Mountains
they seem to us in those days, though now we be-
lieve they are only hills." When an Englishman
boasted to a Scotsman that England was in
every respect superior to Scotland which the
Scotsman altogether denied, the Englishman said,
"You must, at any rate, allow that Scotland is
smaller in extent than England ? " "By no means ! "
was the reply. "Yours is a flat country, ours is a
hilly one, and if all our hills were rolled out flat we
should beat you by hundreds of square miles ! " The
West-Highland prefix to a hill greatly helps us to an
idea as to its altitude; thus the prefix " Croc " signifiea
a small surface, eminence, or little hill; "Sliabh,"
a bill of considerable elevation; and " Beann "
" Beinn," or, as it is more commonly written, "Ben,"
a mountain of the largest magnitude. " Beinn-an-
Tuirc," "the Mountain of the Wild Boar," in the
peninsula of Cantire, Argyllshire, is 2,170 feet high;
although its name is omitted in the tables of the
Scotch mountains and hills, that give altitudes down
to that of Arthur's Seat 823 feet high.

THE LARGEST MAN IN AMERICA.—The Philadel-
phia Medical Reporter says that the largest man on
the American continent was the late Lewis Cornelius,
of Pike County, Pennyslvania. He was consider-
ably larger than Daniel Lambert. Mr. Cornelius'
dimensions are entered upon the record books in the
prothonatory's office, at Milford, Pike County,
as follows : " Lewis Cornelius : born 1794,
height, 6ft. ; circumference below waist, aft. 2in. ;
circumference above waist, 6ft. 2iin. ; circum-
ference of arm above elbow, 2ft. 2in. ; circumfer-
ence of arm below elbow. if t. Din. ; circumference of
wrist, lft. 3m. ; circumference of thigh, 4ft. 2in. ;
cumference of calf of leg, 2ft. 7in. ; circumference of
ankle, lft. 7m. Weight without any clothing what-
ever, 645 Pb." This is is the only authentic record of
Mr. Cornelius' size extant. As he had been sick
some time, he lost over fifty pounds of his weight.
He was not weighed until after his death, and when
in full health would have tipped the scales at seven
hundred pounds. His wife was a very slight woman,
and weighed just one hundred pounds.

GRASS AND TILLAGE LANDS IN IRELAND. A
return, moved for by Lord Cloncurry in the House of
Lords, has been issued, showing the total area of grass
lands, including meadows and pastures' and the total
area of tillage lands, including all kinds of crops and
fallows, in Ireland, for the years 1850, 1855, 1860, 1865.
1870, 1875, and 1880. The returns for 1850 are i7,-conal
s;taute acres
in 1860 the
underplet bg
ruats
si in 1855 t4l3ie6r,
oe3sw
oe If et
illloa,gBe72l,p96laBs
tillage,
4,411,454 ;
ninumlBb6esr,sgrl-essre-145ra05i5,,,,
0151;,07t6i1.11Z,ie:
3,008,968;
in
1870.
grass, 11,740,706; tillage, 3,885,945. in 1875 grass,
12,351,005; tillage' 3,399,001; and in 1880 grass,
12,168,033; tillage, 3,186,665,

AN ADVENTUROUB lINDERTAKING.—Census-taking
in Alaska seeme to have been as adventurous an under-
taking as any recorded in books of travel. Mr. Petroff,
who was deputed to take the census of Alaska, took
seven months to count the 30,146 inhabitants of that
enormous territory. He sailed 2,500 miles in a seal-
skin canoe, through regions where he found "oc-
casional human beings, salmon in millions, mosquitoes
in billions." His account of his jcurneyings along
rivers which were overgrown with vegetation, and
which at one place ran through a wilderness where the
banks and even the bushes and branches of the trees
were covered for miles with rotting salmon, is as inter-
esting as any narrative of African exploration. Many
of the natives lived in underground dwellings close
to the river, which supplied them with their only
food. Mr. Petro ff was more than once in imminent
danger of his life. The scenery, he reports, was
magnificent, and the quantity of game of all kinds
incalculable, but life was rendered intolerable by the
mosquitoes,