The weekly Butte record. [volume] (Oroville [Calif.]) 1858-1864, 1862-09-06

II We contrast the Ptolemy canal and al
the unhappy circumstances attending It's pro
tracted construction. with the Suez Canal now
progressing, We gratefully thank the Almight!
for blessing our age with the great improve
ments of modern civilization.
As we have said heretofore. the ancient ca
nal was 500 years in progress of construction
while it is expected that the modern one will
be made in six years.
Through ignorance and mismanagemeni
10000 laborers lost their lives whilst enga
ged on the ancient canal, whilst with the
knowledge, talent and abandant means now at
hand, no apprehension of losing human lives
can be reasonably entertained.
The Ptolemy Canal was destroyed through
selfish and revengeful motives by an ignorant
| and tyranncal monarch, whilst the new Mari
time Canal protected and patronized by No
manned Said, the talented Viceroy who now
rules Egypt, bids fair TO last for ages, as a
standing monument of his wise and active gov
ernment; handing down to posterity his name
and that of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the promo
ter of this great and useful enterprise
VENETIAN WATER C1srERYs-The CITY of
Venice is wholly supplied with rain water
which is retained in cisterns. The city occu-
pies an area of about 1900 The annual av-
erage fall of rain is 81 inches, the greater part
of which is collected in 2,O71 cisterns. III of
which are public The rain is sufficiently
abundant to Eli the cisterns five times in the
course of the year, so that the distribution of
water is at the rate of 312 gallons per head.
To construct ciStern after the Venetian fash
ion, large hole is dug in the ground TO the
depth of about feet The sides of the ey.
cavation are supported by a framework made
OF good oak timber, and the cistern thus has
the appearance of square truncated pyramid
with the wider base turned upward. A coat
ing OF pure and compact clay, one foot thick.
Is now applied on the wooden frame with great
care; this opposes an invincible obstacle to
the progress of the roots of any plants growing
IN the vicinity, and also 10 the pressure of the
water in contact with it. No creyices are
lett which might allow the air to penetrate
This preliminary work being done, large
circular stone, partly followed out like the
bottom of a kettle, is deposited in the pyramid
with the cavity upward and on this founda-
ton a cylinder of welbaked bricks is con-
structed, having no interstices whatever, ex-
cept number of conical holes in the bottom
row. The large vacant space remaining be-
tween the sides Of the pyramid and the cylin-
der, is filled with welscoured sea sand. At
the four corners of the pyramid, they place
kind of stone trough covered with a stone lid
pierced with holes. These troughs communi-
cate with each other, by means of small ril
made of bricks, and resting on the sand and
the whole is then paved over. The rain wa.
ter coming from the roofs of the buildings runs
into the troughs, penetrates into the sand thro
the rlls, and is thus filtered into the well hole
by the conical holes already described. The
water thus supplied is limpid, sweet and COOL
How AFRICANS Hunt THE ELEPHANr-
A recent African traveller thus describes the
manner in which the negroes of Central Africa
hunt the elephant; The lordly elephant is
slaughtered by long spears, made on the same
donkey principle of going neither backwards
nor forwards Once bit with one or two of
these remorseless weapons. the huge beast
must die of agony, pain or stiffness. 1t is on
ly matter Of time, and the savage knows this
and follows him through the thick forest till
he does die He then eats his body for din
ner, and cuts out his tusks But this sable
hunter is so far from civilization that ivory is
useless and as vaueess as wood to him he
therefore makes hunting horns of the tusks-
and such horns. Whole tusks, from two to
nearly FIVE feet long, are followed out rude
mouthpiece cut at the sides, and with them
he makes wild but sweet music, wakeuing the
echoes of the primeval forest, and signalling
death of its monarch, the elephant, to his hun
CRY and clamorous comrades TO cut off the
brush of the captured fox, and carry it home
in triumph, seems to be the Unborn instinct of
every Englshmau, be be man or boy The
same sort of idea seems prevalent. also, in the
savage mind for we see in the collection a
goodly number of :. elephants brushes all
trophies Of good sport and perilous adventure,
could we but know the =" good runs each had
shown. As the English foxhunter wears the
foxs tusks for personal ornament so also
does the sable Nimrod wear the tusks of the
elephant; for be cuts and carves them into
bracelets and anklets, wherewith he dances to
the the sound of the tom-tom (also played
with ivory drumsticks) when he, ike the ja-
gers of -Eneas of old, is " full of fat elephant
and old rakee.
TIE young lady who could read the follow
ing and not pity the sorrows of a poor young
man : deserves to live and die an old girl:
l, 7 =