The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1882-04-07
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

The earliest known nails were made of
copper.
The sceptre of Charlemagne was sew
en- feet long.
1t is said that hysterical persons have
a marked taste for vinegar and green
fruit.
About four thousand roses are Iequir-
eG to make one pound of ottar of roses.
Remedies are said to be known for the
poison of all snakes, except that of the
cobra.
a herring yields over 10000 eggs,
myTiads of which are devoured by va
rious enemies.
In Africa, vegetable butter is made
from the fruit of the shea tree, and is a
richer taste than any made of cows
milk.
Researches among the rock formations
OF western American sEowsthat it is to
the New World we must look for the
perfect pedigree of the horse.
Oysters can live "a hours in an ex-
hausted receiver. The fame of a can
die goes out in one minute. charcoal in
five.
Among the largest of Australian
snakes is the boa, which sometimes
grows to be eighteen feet long, is as thick
as a mans leg, sluggish by day and of
harmless bite.
The coffee plant has the general ap-
pearance of a cherry tree. 1t grows to
the height of twenty and thirty feet,
but in the course of culture is kept cut
down to five feet.
The oldest map of the heavens is in
National Library at Paris. 1t was made
by the Chinese about the year 600 B. G.
and contains one thousand four hundred
and sixty stars.
To give lightness to what would be an
insupportable weight. the cranial bones
of the enormous head of the elephant
contains numerous air-cells.
Experiments made to test the muscu-
lar power of insects. prove that the
smaller the insect the greater the pro-
portionate muscular power A bee is
for its weight thirty times stronger than
horse, for a bee harnessed to a wagon
can pull twenty times it's own weight.
In many parts of the earth's surface,
among which are tracts in our Rocky
Mountain region, successive lava sheets
have been piled one upon another to the
height of several thousand feet, and
cover areas of many hundred or even
thousand square miles.
Strut, an English authority on games
and amusements, speaks of a Yorkshire
jumper, named Ireland, whose powers
were marvellous, He was six feet high,
and at the age of Is leaped, without the
aid of spring board, over nine horses
ranged side by side.
Examine the thread-slime how we
will, we can find in it no mouth, no
stomach, no muscles, no nerves, no parts
of any kind. Yet it eats and breathes
and grows. When it is too large to be
comfortable it splits in two, and each
half goes its way as living animal.
Another learned blacksmith has arisen
to take the place of the late Elihu Bur
ritt, albeit his requirements are almost
exclusely biblical, He is about publish
ing a book of 566 pages which he has
named "Curiosities of the Bible" He
has spent nearly thirteen years in the
preparation of the work, and has gone
through the bible thirteen times wi5h a
minute examination of every verse, de-
Quoting from it whatever he thought
might appeal 10 the curious interests of
readers, and his knowledge of the scrip
tIres is said to be marvellous. The
blacksmith's name is Ambrose s, Otley,
and his shop is as Booths Corner, Della
ware county, Penn. He works hard at
his trade all day and devotes his even
ings to study.