The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-26 00:00:00

Liverpool Cotton Market —This Day.

Market still quiet, and prices easier. Sales, pro-
bably 4,000 or 5,000 bales.

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S FUNERAL.—The bills con-
sequent upon the death of Mr. Lincoln, including those for
decorating public buildings and those for tho funeral, have
all been delivered to Secretary Harlan. The aggregate is
but a trifle over $25,000, while the expense of President
Harrison's funeral, when the display of mourning was much
less general, and the ceremonies much less imposing, was
$30,000.—New York Times.

LIGHTNING AND THE TELEGRAPH.--On Thursday
last Banffshire was visited with a slight thunder-
storm, and the lightning interfered to an unusual extent
with the telegraph wires on the lower portion of the
Strathisla or Banffshire Railway. About half-past two
o'clock in the afternoon, when the rain was accompanied
by several smart peals of thunder and flashes of lightning,
the electric fluid entered the railway station at Tillynaught,
running along the wires and penetrating the box of the
telegraph instrument, setting the place on fire. Fortu-
nately there was no person at the instrument at the time.
The station agent happened to be outside, and hearing a
sharp report inside, he entered and found smoke and fire
issuing from the box. Opening the door of it he found it
was in flames, and had to expend some pailsfal of water
before the fire was extinguished. Otherwise they eis no
doubt the whole establishment would soon have been burnt.
It was discovered on examination that the wires leading to
the telegraph instrument, and bonnected with the battery,
were completely destroyed—the gutta percha reduced to a
cinder, and some of the wire itself quite melted and run-
ning on the floor. Otherwise, apart from the charring of
the box, no material damage wes done, the instrument
itself and the batteries having escaped injury. At Banff,
Lady's-bridge, and Portsoy, the magnetic coils were burnt,
the small wires in some instances being fused into a mass,
the needles in every instance completely demagnetised, and
the instruments, of course, rendered unworkable. Above
Tillynaught Junction no damage was done, the lightning,
in so far as the telegraph was concerned, confining itself
to the fork below, towards Banff on the one hand and
Portsoy on the other.—Banffshire Journal.

THE SURVEY OF JERUSALEM AND THE ADJACENT
COUNTRIES.—CoIoneI James publishes the gratify-
ing intelligence that the party of Royal Engineers from
the Ordnance Survey, which left England under the com-
mand of Captain Wilson, on the 12th of Sept. last, for the
purpose of making a survey of Jerusalem, and levelling
from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, have accom-
plished their task, and arrived in England on the 10th
inst. Colonel James has received the authority of the
Lords of the Treasury for publishing the plans, sections,
&c., and hopes to be able to add to these photozincographic
copies of about 100 photographs of the most interesting
places included within the area of survey. The levelling
from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea has been per-
formed with the greatest possible accuracy, and by two in-
dependent observers, using different instruments; and the
result, Colonel James believes, may be relied upon as
being absolutely true to within three or four inches. The
depression of the surface of the Dead Sea on March 12,
1865, was found to be 1,292 feet, but from the line of drift-
wood observed along the border of the Dead Sea, it was
found that the level of the water at some period of the
year, probably during the winter freshets, stands two
feet six inches higher, which would make the
least depression 1,289.5 feet. Captain Wilson also
learnt from inquiry among the Bedouins, and from
European residents in Palestine, that during the early
summer the level of the Dead Sea is lower by at least
six feet ; this would make the greatest depression to be as
near as possible 1,298 feet. Colonel James adds—" It may
interest those who have subscribed to the fund for paying
for the survey and levelling to know that my estimate for
the survey was £5OO and the cost £519 10s. Id., the esti-
mate for the levelling was £2OO, and the cost £214155. 6d.,
and that this small excess was caused by the unexpected
detention of the party at Alexandria for a fortnight, in
consequence of an accident to the mail steamer in the Red

Sea."