The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-19 00:00:00

MONTENEGRO.

Gazette of the 30thult. says :—" A
pickedhe A
co(iarrpr of 1,800 men is now being formed by
Prince Danilo in Montenegro. Each of the men
composing it is to take an oath of fidelity on the i
tomb of Peter 1., who s venerated as a saint in
be doubled during active service. The
These men receive a fixed pay,
the country.
be commanded by the brother of the
corpspWriil nicei IloVvriiiillby some officer of his selection."

110 P INTELLIGENCE.—About Canterbury the improve,
meat in the hops during the last week has been all that
could possibly be expected, considering the blighted
state many of the grounds were in. The produce per
acre, which did not at one time look more than two cwt.
bids fair to yield on an average three cwt. The hops
will be much in two crops, so that the early ones will be
dead ripe before many, which have just appeared, will
be fit to pick. The forward ones in many grounds are
disposed to mould, and are infested with much flea—a
very mischievous insect to the hop at this time of the
srsason ; so that. the crop has something yet t) g 0
through. There re no doubt that picking till be full
week earlier than last year ; in fact there are portions o,
some of the ground in this neighbourhood which will
be ready in another week or ten days. In the
neigbourhood of Maidstone the late rains have
much improved the hope, which stood greatly in want'of
moisture. Many grounds that had been previously ila-
jursd by blight have now partially recovered, and will
grow a fear hops where there was scarcely a pie spect of
any. Should we have fine weather from this time the
crop will be larger than was anticipated a few weeks
ago, but should there be a continuance of the wet, mould
is likely to occur on the strong grounds, and thus to
deteriorate the quality. The general reports state that
many of the hop plantations. have been much improved
by the late heavy rams, which have given increased
vigour to the plant, but where the ravages of blight and
vermin were more serious the plants present no sign of
recovery. Not a few of the gardens will yield more than
4 cwt. and 5 cwt. per acre. Picking will be early.
From Sussex the accounts generally are very favourable
as to a crop, in nearly every parish the reports state
either a slight or a decided improvement.—South-Eastern
Gazette.
THE ATLANTIC CABLE.—A correspondent of a con-
temporary says :—Having felt considerable anxiety for
the success of the Atlantic Telegragh experiment, I was
sorry to hear of its having, for the present, failed. I
find that the directors meet on Wednesday to decide
" whether attempts shall be renewed in October, or de-
ferred until next summer." As this experiment may be
regarded as a national one, may I be permitted respect-
fully to offer through your journal the following considera-
tions —viz , Is not the cable too weak to sustain its own
weight to a depth of 4,000 yards,. especially when it has
to bear a great strain upori it by currents, &a. ?
Was it not unwise to increase the strain to
3,0001 b., and would it not have been prefer.
able to increase the speed of the ship ? Would
not a greatly increased velocity of the ship have
diminished the horizontal angle at which the cable left
the ship ; also, the dip angle in paying, out
conse-
quently the strain caused by the ship api , and
tching ? Would
not a high speed in paying out be preferable to a low
one, by keeping up the greatest possible distance from
the 4, settled down" portion of the cable and the ship ?
Admitting the first proposition, would it not be dan-
gerous to the safety of the cable to stop at all ? Would
it not be best, under the circumstances, and while the
chips are in readiness, to try again this season, and to
adopt the plan first fix .d upon—viz., for each ship to
take half the cable to the middle of the Atlantic, join the
two halves, and each ship to sail home with the greatest
attainable speed, with about 2,0001 b. strain, and stop
for nothing?
DUNDEE.—CRINOLINE AND WHALE FISHING.—Last
year the price of whalebone ranged from 290 to 3151.
per ton. This year our union Whale Fishing Company
has sold one of its cargoes to arrive at 4201. The Tay
Whale Fishing Company has sold the cargo of the Jumna
at 4401. ; and we believe that now 5001. per ton is the
price asked for the two remaining vessels. We doubt not,
says the Dundee Courier, that the shareholders of our
whaling companies all agree in their admiration of
crinoline—enabling them, as it does, to draw money
alike from the vasty deep of the Arctic Sea and from
the pocket of Paterfamilias. The immediate cause of
the present rise in price is understood to be a French
discovery by which whalebone can be reduced to a
species of fibre, in which shape its usefulness is greatly
increased,