The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-08 00:00:00

BREVET.

Staff Surgeon-Major Henry Downes, M.D., who retires
upon half-pay, to have the honorary rank of Deputy-
Inspector-General of Hospitals.
The promotion of Major and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel
Dominic Jacotin Gamble, C. 8., Unattached, as Colonel,
and of Captain and Brevet-Major George Richards Greaves,
70th Foot, as Lieutenant-Cololel, which appeared in the
Gazette of the 13th February, 1866, to be antedated to the
21st March, 1865.

MEMORANDUM.—The promotion of Lieutenant Arthur
Peel, late of the 101st Foot, and now of the 7th Hussars,
to be dated 19th, instead of 20th November, 1863.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE—Last Evening.

Amsterdam Short. 11 18 11 19
Ditto 3 Months. 12 1/ 12 2
Rotterdam
An:, werp — 25 55 25 60
Brussels
Hamburg — 13 10i 13 11
Paris Short 25 15 25 22}
Ditto 3 Months. 25 42} 25 47*
Marseilles
Frankfort on the Maine 119 120}
Vienna — 13 50 14
Trieste — 13 50 14
-"3',,ersburgn
628}=
Berlin
Madrid . — 44 44i
Cadiz
Leghorn
liti tan
Genoa
Naples — 27 70 28 0

THE MISSISSIPPL—OId steamboat men declare
the signs of the past four or five seasons point to the per-
manent drying up of the Mississippi river, reducing it from
a stream navigable for the largest boats the whole season
to ono of uncertain navigation like the Missouri, passable
at certain seasons, and the rest of the year shrunk to e
mere creek, winding along among sand-bars and shoals.
There is certainly some change taking place in our climate
that is affecting our lakes and rivers. The average of
water is steadily decreasing. Our " June rise," once sts
certain as the coming of the month, has totally ceased.feet
Rains which would have once swelled the river several
now do not seem to affect it in the least. All theiowestern
mit of
rivers are gradually shrinking up. Butthedne
nouecrersas railroad a
itd
osystem a
was.
makes
Paulr ive r navigationfenest
(ME
ST. GILES'S MUR-
REPORTED SUICIDE OF
_TI THE a) povi
oe rie longer Per the
e applied for a bed
DERER.—A man about mildd
hea mg, on Sunday evening.
at the Coach and Horses,
he
Clap
allowed to sleep in a loft
The house being quite
fullbe he was
found the next morning
over the stables,
oefx
existing
no drawers
enan hyaovtihnegrbe por-
tion self with his tdeckhads
carefully destroyed a". traces of his
suicide the
markman had suspended by the nweichikkerfehreanmdtkheerebheiaemf.,
phraiveirngtehertonmgeredihttiimng-
cut out, an
of his apparel which would be likely to lead or furnish
any clue to his: identification. A copy of a newspaper of
de ot other tehvei dbeanncde
Thursday last was found near the body, and on the margin
identity, th
was written in pencil, " Beware of the name of Plummer
—he has been my ruin." It is stated that the body bears
a strong resemblance to the description which appeared in
the daily papers last week of the wretched mrn Jeffreys,
wile is suspected of the murder of his son, the little boy
who was discovered in Great Earl-street, Seven-dials,
hanging from a water-cistern. The dis'zict superintendent
of police, Mr. Henderson, was at once informed of the
occurrence.

TAILS.--All animals, says the Darwinian theory,
spring from an aquatic origin ; w:tness, not merely the
wagging of their tails, but the simple presence of a tel.
itself. When a lion, about to make the fatal spring, lashes
his tail, it is only an innate habitual hick, inherited from
his great-great-grandmother several millions of times re-
moved—some shark-like scourge of primeval seas. Take
a fish of prey—and very few are not fishes of prey—im-
prove his air-bladder into a lung, stiffen his four fins into
legs, finish them off with claws, leave him his scales, or,
if your prefer it, either weld them into a pachydermatous
hide, or convert them into shaggy fur, with bristling mane
and whiskers to match ; above all, leave him his tail, which
may terminate in a fly-brush or in a sting, and you have
at once a land animal, from which, i: you met it in a nar-
row lane, you would probably run away. The Dragon of
Wantley was thus generated, perhaps, as well as other
monsters slain by heroes. When an animal has no tail, as
apes and others, the proof of its watery birth is none the
weaker. It dropped its tail when it came out of the water,
as a lady leaves her bathing-dress in the machine. The
frog, for instance, when it ceases to be a tadpole, bequeaths
its tail to its younger companions. The newt does not ;
preferring to retain that appendage as an ornament in after-
life. It is a mere matter of taste and fashion. The absem.o
of a tail is no guarantee whatever that any creature is not
a fish out of wAtor.—Dickertis " 41d the Fear &t ad."