, 1861-02-07

Correspondence Of the n. +. Timee.1
PARIS. Friday, Jan. IS, 1861.
The local excitement Of the moment is the
skating in the Bois de Bolcgne. Three ", eks
ola temperature Of ten degrees below freezp.
has furnished the ice for this carnival Of the
skaters. We do not pretend to rival the scenes
Of the Sernentinc at London, where the daily
report Of pleasure is 100000 skaters, 20 Killed.
100 broken limbs, and 200 damaged heads. Nor
laye We anything like the night torcAli.ht
scenes, The express skating train,"' The or
shestres, the quadrilies, OF humane society to
save the drowning and dress the wounds Of the
broken and manned. But we have instead d
daily exhibition of royalty on skates.
The Emperor and Empress, the Count md
Countess dc MorDy, and, IN fact, all the Court
i'cvrlc young enough to indulge in this kind
Of exercise, are on the ice every afternoon.
The Emperor, who is a good skater, even at
fihy-tWo years Of age-a man is styoung" in
this country, you Know, till sixty-tlies about
through the crowd of skaters as unmolested Us
any other private gentleman. The Empress,
who is not L skater, aud who commenced her
ice exercises In handsome hand-sled with
golden runners, has ut last been Induced to try
tie skates, and yesterday made her d<but in i
short Russian costume, which exposed her
handsome feet and legs. and set off her person
TO grcal advantage Her Majesty got along
very well for first attempt: she was led py
moyemcnts-amongt the rest, Mr.. Stevens, the
wellkuown Belgian artist, and one Of the
"crack'' skaters, had the honor Of conducting
Her Majesty. Several American ladies have
appeared OIL skates, but ice is go rare at Paris
that skating is not regarded r; Is an amusement
press will perhaps give it vogue for any future
occasion that may present
Everybody complains Of tile present exce6-
sivc cold excerpt the sdruHs, who seize the occa-
sion to indulge III a series OF experiments in
oaima ui1a, that is to say, On dogs, which it
LAS become Tie habit for some time past In the
scientific world to cut and slash without mcr-
CT. We are assured that the dog continues,
nevertheless, to be the friend Of nla11-a stretch
ofkindncss We had not supposed him capable
Of The other day gentleman missed his dog
while hunting, and WIS obliged to 60 home
hunt the dog, and ut last found him frozen III
the position of "setter'' watching hare,
which latter was also frozen "settin," the dog.
Since then the sdpuns hare been freezing dogs
every night, in order to study the aao7us oper-
0ndt Of cold on animal tissues. It seems that
ono Of these gentlemen. had the luminous itlcs.
Of exposing an unhappy dog all night in the
open s.ir, with his mouth open and his tongue
out, in the interest Of science. He thus dis
covered that cold has the power Of diminishing,
progressively all the nervous functions, amt
even Of weakening, and finally extinguishing,
muscular 1novenlent-rcsnlts well known to
the ignorant, but which the learned men it,
question seemed to ignore.
While part Of the population Of Paris seeks
it's pleasure in the lakes Of the Bois dc Bo-
logne, another part dcyotes its leisure to the
bears Of the Garden Of Plants. The high water
in the Scine-the highest since lSl9-las
flooded the dens Of the bears and frozen over
This extraordinary event has thrown tho polar
hears into 4 state Of agreeable excitement, for
they imagine themselves returned to their ma
tive country, and gambol all day long on the
ICE, to the amusement Of the crowds that never
cease to surround them. The black bears, Of,
the contrary, are suffering from this state Of
things, and the pbysician-in-o to the
Garden, fearing that they might be seized with
catarrh, OF worse affection Of the lungs, con-
ceived tho idea Of throwing them some boxes
Of jujubc paste The animals ate the boxes
anu left the pastel