Omaha daily bee., 1874-04-01
CURI0SITIES.

NATURAL CURI0sITIEs.
The Philadelphia Geological Gar
den opens next month.
A talking rat has appeared in Al
exandria, Va. In other words, it
can open it's trap.
The bones of three of Barnum's
dromedaries have been presented to
Yale College. The relics of the
OILERS go to the Smithsonian lnsti-
tute.
A calf born in Ludlow, VT, now
no more, had two heads, two necks,
two breasts, and six legs. If he
had lived, what an ornament to the
barn-yard he would have been!
A story of Cleopatra's pearl has
been surpassed. In Saugatuck,
Conn.,, at a supper the other night,
about 100 pearls were found in the
shell Of a roasted oyster, all spoiled,
large and small, by the cooking to
which they had been subjected.
Israel Blythe of Beatrice, found a
live grasshopper on his place across
the river, last week.
A bald eagle, measuring Z feet
inches from tip to tip of wing, was
killed i'm Dakota county last week.
The French town of Issudun boasts
of the most wonderful lusus nature
of the age. 1t Is a young girl, four
teen years old, whose body, from the
waist downward, is double, andpre-
sents two parts acting independent
ly of each other. The two legs she
uses for walking belong each to a
different trunk, whilst q third Oneis
quite insensible to pain. She enjoys
good health.
A few days ago the Scotsman
mentioned that a bible bound in calf
and bearing the name of I" William
Sim," a Dundee man, and the date
1880, had been discovered in the
stomach of a Goldfish. This fact was
remarkable enough, but still more
extraordinary is another circum-
stance connected with the affair also
reported by the Scotsman. The
very same day on which the discov-
cry YVES made known, the heirs of
the deceased Mr.. Sim succeeded In
! obtaining a warrant IN the outer
house of the Court of Session (from
the Lord Ordinary Mure) to uplift
9 several hundreds of pounds belong
ing to the said William Sim, who
was described In the legal proceed
ings as a sailor. a native of Dundee,
who had gone to sea about 1884, and
had not since been heard of. There
can be little doubt that the Bible
thus preserved in the codfsh's stom-
ach belonged to the lost w. Sim Of
Dundee. -
A disgracefnl piece of mischief is
reported from Berlin, where some
idiot has, it seems, been amusing
himself by poisoning a good many
of the most valuable animals in the
Geological Gardens. His last vic
Tins are six bears, two jaugers, two
black panthers, two lions, and q
lynx, all of which have died, with
the exception of the male jaguar
and the female panther. These,
however, are not the only losses sus-
tanned. Within the last few weeks
several valuable carnivora have per-
ished, and their death being attrib-
uted to feeding on the flesh of horses
possibly suffering from disease.
The food given to the animals has
since been carefully cooked, so that
willful poisoning appears to be the
only explanation Of the recent deaths
among them. The Directors of the
Geological Garden Company have
| offered a reward of 1000 thalers for
the apprehension of the miscreant.
An equine curiosity arrived in
San Francisco last Tuesday in the
"Mikado," from Australia. The
name of this remarkable animal is
"Caoutchouc," and he was captured
I'm the nsighborhood Of the Balloon
River, Queensland, when about two
years old. He Is now about six
years of age, of a pure black, from
the tip of his ears to his hoofs, but
without a single hair on any part of
his body. The color is not unlike
that of a black horse very closely
clipped, and the microscope fails to
detect a single hair from nose to tail.
He is q gelding, about fifteen hands
high, well made and very compact,
with fine clean legs, powerful fore
arms and thighs, and q clean, blood
ed, but unusually broad head, from
which sparkles a bright pair of eyes
'beaming with good temper and
docility. His owners, Dat & Wit
chell, paid a handsome price for
him, but refused 81, 500 in the colo
MES before leaving for this country.
This freak Of nature was examined
by several eminent veterinary sur
geons in Australia, and they came
to but one opinion In regard to this
horse, which was that there was no
deception practiced, and that in
reality he was born without the
least particle Of hair upon him, and
consequently Is one Of the greatest
curiosities In the way Of horsefiesh
extant. He IL evidently not Of the
rwoolly horse" breed that was ex-
hibited some years since in New
York. 1t is probable that he win