Omaha daily bee., 1874-05-21
CURI0SITIES.

Justine, which is to be fenced in and
the creature exhibited.
A boy while fishing in the Mis-
souri, river at Brownville last week,
caught an eel, the first one that
ever came out of the Missouri.
A lad named Plat found a tooth
of a mastodon, in McHenry county,
Illinois, a few days since. and a
similar molar was recently discOv-
cred i'm Ogle county. The former
weighed ten and the latter fifteen
pounds.
Professor Darwin is the happy
possessor of a practical supporter of
his peculiar theory i'm the shape of
the first gorilla ever tanned. 1t is
described as q most courteous diner
out, very particular as to its food,
and insisting on a nightly ration of
hot rum and water, sweetend with
honey, before retiring.
The Los Angeles public library
has made the addition of a second
natural curiosity-a mammoth
shrimp, nicely bottled and picked
down In vinegar. The specimen is
about eight inches long by four in
circumference, having the general
form of a shrimp, with p%rotruding
eyes, long f~eelers, and every other
characteristic, except the usual size
and color, which is a light red.
Mocking birds can initiate human
actions as well as human voices, it
seems. A Macon, Ga, paper says
that two birds of this stripe got
jealous of each other and under
took to fight it out i'm desperate
fashion. One of them, getting
enough of it sang out "quit, quit"
and followed this up by crying
''police, police" And, oddly
enough, there was a policeman
within hearing who came up and
stopped the fight.
A spaniel named "Curley" is the
regular mail-carrier between a
settlement called Lake of Two
Woods, Dakota, and the Minnesota
line, twelve miles away. Letters
and papers are placed i'm a sack and
tied about the dogs neck; he is told
to go, and never fails to reach his
destination. Arriving, the mail is
overhauled, the faithful servant is
treated to a good dinner, and
started Oh his return trip.
The seals in the Brighton, Eng
land, Aquarium are in a room where
concerts are occasionally given. 1t
is said that the animals are greatly
affected by vocal music, and lately
became very disorderly during a
performance, rushing about i'm the
water and making a noise which
almost drowned the voice of the
singer. Instrumental music does
not seem to affect them so power
fully, but the more sweet and tender
the voice of the singer the more
powerfully they are affected.
A gentleman at Helena, Monta-
ma Territory, has a pair of huge
mountain lions, or cougars, which
he has raised from whelps. These
beasts are now about two years old,
and fully as large as a good-sized
panther. They do not obtain their
full growth until four years of age.
They r very ferocious, and give
no evidence of becoming tractable;
and an ordinary sized dog thrown
into the cage, did not survive long
enough to give a yelp. The owner
says they have already devoured
some ten or twelve dogs, and twen-
ty or thirty cats, which have been
given them to play with.
A correspondent writes as follows
of a celebrated place in Colorado
Canon, called Echo Park: "When
a gun is discharged, total silence
follows the report for a moment;
then, with startling suddenness, the
echo is heard, seeming at a great
distance-say five miles to the south
whence it comes back i'm separate
and distinct reverberations as if leap
ing from glen to glen. Louder and
quicker grows the sound, until ap-
parently directly opposite, when a
full volume of sound Is returned.
then once more the echo is heard,
like the swapping of a cap, far to the
eastward"
The New Haven Journal records
the case of a young lady i'm that city
who had been lying in a cataleptic
trance since the night of Wednes-
day of last week. She retired on
that night in full possession of good
health, and i'm the morning she was
found, body and limbs perfectly
rigid, and has remained SO ever
since. Another singular circum-
stance attending this case is that
about a year ago she lost all power
of speech for twenty-four hours, and
upon regaining it she could articu-
late nothing but German, a lam
guage which she has never learned.
The so-called vegetable wax of
Japan and China is, in reality, the
of an insect about the size
"a a SioiAi VI AICC. H IcCelNeS It's
name because it is found on trees.
After it is gathered it Is melted and
strained; nearly 5000, 600 pounds
were exported from China in 1870.
The pretty little plant called the
Drosera, or sundew, says the Provi-
tence Journal, developes some
strange animal instincts. 1t is a
charming plant, with its lovely pink
blossoms, while the dew-like sub
stance issuing from its glands gives
{ a most cool and refreshing appear
lnce on a warm summers day.
But though it looks the very pic
ure Of innocence and g~entleness, 1t
a strange taste for Selling, kill
ng, and sucking the blood of in
ects, and for grasping and eating
aw beef. Mrs. Mary Treat has
contributed to the American Natu.
alist some very curious observations
made on this remarkable plant. She
ound the specimens upon which she
xperimented in New Jersey. The
liant was in full bloom and growing
cry thickly on either side of an ex.
ensive cranberry plantation. The