The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1881-10-13
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

WHEN reduced to extremity by hun
ger, the wolf will swallow mud IN order
to allay the uneasy sensations of his
stomach.
THERE is Il species Of crow in Flor
ida that gives vent to q series of haw
haws in exact imitation of the human
voicei
A WILD elephant may generally he
tanned, 80 as to be conducted from
place to place unfettered, in about six
months.
In the Guildford Endowed Grammar
School, in England, where the school
master is held responsible for every vol
ume. which, if lost, he is bound to re-
place, one master, to decrease his risk,
carefully packed all the books under the
floor, where they proved banquet for
the rats and mice.
HE curious library of old Samuel
Pepys, the well-known diarist, is i'm
prlsoned in its original bookcases at
Magdalene College, Cambridge. No
one can gain admission to it except in
the company of two Fellows of the col
lege, and, If a single book is lost, the
whole collection goes to q neighboring
college.
IHE Norwegian lemming is an animal
about the size of mouse. They live
under the stones in summer, under the
snow IN winter. They hiss and bite.
About once in ten years they migrate in
Large armies. They march in O straight
line. They cross lakes and rivers.
They go straight through hay-stacks
rather than go around. Nothing stops
them, Aot fires, cascades nor sWamps.
Ii man stands in their way they will
Jump ut him as high as his knee. If
struck they will turn around and bark
and bite like dog. Foxes, lynxes. owls,
hawks and weasels will follow them and
destroy large numbers Of them. but il
docs not check them. They continue
their course until they reach the sea,
into which they plunge, as persistent
and progressive as ever, until the waves
eXtermlnate them.
THE microscope shows q variation in
the thickness of human hair from the
l-25Gth to the 1-600th part of an inch ::
but, notwithstanding such fneness, it is
massive cable in comparison with
other fbers. Thus the thread of the
silk-worm is many times finer. being
from the IL, 700th to the 1-2, ,OOOth of an
inch. This, however. is nothing to the
slenderness of the spiders thread, which
has been found in some instances to be
no more than 1-30, ,000th of an inch in
diameter. The fibers yielded by the
vegetable kingdom are also Of astonish
ing minuteness. Thus, every fiber of
flax is found to be composed of bundle
of other fibrils, which are about
-2,5OOth of an inch in diameter. SINH
lar fbers obtained from the pineapple
plant have been ascertained to be no
more than 1-5, ,000th or oven IL, ,O0Oth of
an inch in diameter
In the British House of Lords Lord
Brougham once mentioned two some
what-remarkable facts showing the ne
cessity of having safe place for the
deposit of wills. The first case is one in
which one of his noble friends, as heir
at-law, lost, and another of his noble
friends, as a devisee, gained, EDO. 900
year. How the first lost it, and the last
gained it, was by will being found in
an old rusty box, in an old travelling
carriage, and which, therefore, might
have been very naturally lost by acci-
dent or destroyed by ignorance. The
second case was one, also, in which
some of his noble friends were con-
cerned, and the sum in question was no
less than G160,000. This sum would
have been entirely lost for the purposes
for which it was intended if the Inquiries
relative to the existence Of O will with
respect to it had been instituted in win
ter instead of in the summer. The will
was searched for everywhere, but could
nowhere be found, until, at last, it was
discovered in a CRATE, and stuffed like q
piece Of waste paper through the bars
if it had been winter instead of summer.
in all probability when the fire had been
lighted it would have been destroyed.
"GATH" says that public man at