Connecticut western news., 1879-12-31
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Gun Club turned out on bne plalnS oA Wilbraham have been seen this year. Whether they went safely South last winter and returned to other northern points or got lost in the ocean is uncer- tain. However tho club think of trying it again in little different way. They talk about sending soon to Sicily for another 100 pairs, which will get here next spring. Then, instead of turning them adrift, they propose to keep them together till they have bred, and release them in time to go South in the fall. It is thought that this course will dornesti- cate them to ihis section, so that they will come back the next spring. From the 100 pairs imported it is calculated that ], 1000 young quails would be reared in one season, which would make very good basis for so .hopefalan experiment.. Hunting is better than it was a month ago. Cartridges are quite plenty on the plains east and south of the city, and quail, too, but the latter are difficult to bag.
 The Groton, N. Y., Journal says that A. H. Clark has the sheep that stands No. l, as far as sagacity is con- cerned. It is 8 male, and during the summer was pastured with some calves in an apple orchard adj oining the resi-. dence. There were several trees in the orchard we'll loaded with early fruit. The trees were about six inches in diam eter. One evening Mir. Clark heard consid erable noiee in the orchard, and, upon investigation, found the sheep and calves quietly eating apples under one of the trees 1; iu few minutes all the apples were eaten, when, to his surprise, he saw the sheep back off several yards from the tree and then butt it with all force, bringing down a quantity of fruit. This they proceeded to eat as before. and when the supply gave out the sheep replenished it as before. This was con. tinued at intervals until appetite was appeased. So persistent was the sheep in his novel mode of tree-shaking that MT. Clark was obliged to protect the trees, lest the continual bruising of the bark should cause permanent injury.
 -The snow fall in Paris was the heaviest known there for many years. The cold was intense and the quantities of snow accumulated in the thorough fares were so great that there was little or no circulation for vehicles. Omni. buses, though drawn by three and in some cases by four horses, only moved at funeral pace; the tramways and circuit railway ceased running, and very few hackney carriages were in the streets. In the suburbs the snow lay on the ground to an average depth of a foot, but in places where it had been drifted by the wind or accumulated by the efforts of the armies of sweepers il was three and four feet deep. The snow was driven along the boulevards in blinding showers, the few cabmen out refused to take fare at any price, and the benighted had accordingly to make their way as best they could through the deep snow and piercing northeast wind.
 | ,--I5- is commonly supposed that petroleum is modern discovery but it was known in tue time of Alexander though the anc;ents ma }e no use of th< find. Tie following ia most interest ing passage: 2" For a Macedonian called Pfoxenus that had charge of the Kings carriage {baggage), as he disged in ,certaine place by the liver of Oxus, tt set up the Kings tent and his lodging he found certaine fat and oily veine which, after they had drawn out tht first, there came out also another clearer which differed nothing, neither in smell taste nor savour from natural oile having the glosse and fatness so like, a there could be discerned no difference
 between them the which was so mucl the more to be wondered at, becauLe il all that country there were no olines.
 (Sir T. North, tr. of Plutarch's "Lives,
 ed. 1861, p. 9O2). This passage is nor
 than curious, for it may be useful. I
 there was rock oil besides the OxUs il
 Alexander's time, there is probably som
 there still. It might also be wortl
 while to go and see; and if any on
 should there "strike oil" let him thapl
 Plutarch for his remark.
 It is related of Thaddeus Steven
 that when he was young man, practic
 ing in the courts of Pennsylvania, h
 lost his case in one instance by wha
 Stevens considered an erroneous ruin
 of the Judge; and being completely dis
 gusted, he jumped up and slammed tn
 law books on the table, making consid
 erable noise while searching for his owr
 picked up his hat, and started for tn
 door, muttering imprecations in all d
 rections as he was leaving the cour
 room. The Judge, feeling that his dig
 nifty was insulted, arose. sspompously an
 called out, "Mr. Stevens" MT. SteN
 ems stopped, turned around, and made
 deferential bow (for he was always defer
 ential to tLe court), and the Judge COT t1nued, "Mr. Stevens, do you intend b
 such conduct to express your conteml
 for this court P MT. Stevens, with thu : mock seriousness which was ever 6
 marked characteristic of his, answered ) !" Express my contempt for this court No, sir l was trying to conceal it, you , Honor"
 The Rev. I. s. Kalloch, Mayo elect of San Francisco, has published letter calling upon the Police Commi , sioners to revoke the license to carry pistol granted by them to Charles I ! Younp of the Chronicle. He says tn