Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1881-01-20
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

IT is officially stated that 1893, 165, 794
acres have been granted by the United
States for rail and wagon roads. 1t
would make 1928, $50 farms Oh 160 acres
each. and its area is greater than that OF
the five States of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Kansas and Minnesota. Its value nc
81 per acre would be 1896, 331, 588.
THE reason alleged in China why Chi
nese become Christians on reading the
Bible is, that the ink used has a power
to stupefy the reader and take away his
reason, and so make him ready TO be-
lieve false doctrine. The people ate
warned against buying or reading for
eign books. The missionaries are sus-
pected of desiring to kidnap Chinese
children to sell them.
IT was formerly held that sponges
were vegetables, but they are now gen.
orally admitted to be animals. They
are fixed by kind of root at the base,
or incrust other bodies, growing mostly
IN groups, sometimes in fresh water,
generally In salt water some In shall
low, some in very deep water They
are said to grow by division. Scarce and
small In cold ATTITUDES, they increase In
size and number toward the tropics,
being most abundant in the Australian
seas. The sponges of commerce are
procured chiefly IN the Mediterranean
and the Bahama islands.
A CURIOUS case occurred 1T the Chill
dren's Hospital in Paris. A girl of 10
was at school. and during q thunder
storm the electric fluid fell close to her.
For moment she seemed 10 he suffo-
eating, but this sensation soon passed
off into fit of the hiccoughs. These
became so distressing that after three
days the mother took her to the hospital
for advice The surgeon ordered her to
be taken to the operating theater, where,
| on seeing the medical man standing at q
table covered with some awful-looking
| instruments, and surrounded by num-
Der of assistants in white aprons. the
child became 80 terrified that she forgot
her hiccoughs, which did not recon-
mence, and she was thus cured.
The inhospitable Arctic regions have
been generally regarded as the very OPP
posite of DEMONSTRATING or fertile in food.
Yet recent traveller in Siberia asserts
that birds go there to breed, not in thou
sands but in millions, and that for the
reason they find there prodigal album
dance of foods. Berries of many kinds
In inexhaustible quantities, frozen dur
ing the winter, are ready the moment
the snow has melted for the frtlit-eating
birds and, for the insect-worm varie-
ties, mosquitoes In such swarms that the
birds have but to open their bills to have
them fly down their threats. That is the
oldest feature of all. One would scar cely
think of going to the North pole to look
for mosquitoes.
DURING the draining OF some huge
carp ponds in Silesia it was observed
that frogs were clinging to the backs of
many of the larger Ash, and that most of
these fish were blind, the frogs fore feet
being found firmly fixed in the eye sock
cts of their victims. The carp frequent
ly Lad spongy crust on its head, upon
which the frog feeds, and when once
solidly seated they soon succeed in goug-
ing their iinny steeds, binding them.
and, being unable To look out for their
food, soon perish of hunger. How tight
ly these yoracious batrachians held on
to their living pastures was exemplified
| by the pond master, who picked up
carp weighing two pounds and half.
and held it suspended in the air By one
of the hind legs Of frog perched UPON
it's back In the manner above described.
Carps thus frog-ridden to death begin
to turn yellow on the third day after the
parasitical croaker has taken his seat.
rapidly waste away, and die within q
fortnight from the commencement Of
their martyrdom.