Tombstone weekly epitaph., 1882-10-07
" EEKLY EPI'lAPH.
FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS.

Ar Cape Island, N. J., the sea has gained on the shore fully mile since 1776. The tides on the eastern shore of the State are observably growing higher.
 DURING the reign of Napoleon I. Q book of birds for children was sup pressed because it contained the phrase ::
 "The cock is rather the tyrant than the chieftain of the farm-yard."
 EVERY shell fired by an army during siege operations costs, with the powder With which the mortar is charged, the sum of eight dollars--enough to support poor family for fortnight.
 THE lead used in sounding from a ves- selusually weighs about fourteen pounds, but in deep-sea soundings weight of not less than l50 pounds is frequently employed. Wire has been largely used for line, as 1t makes less friction in sinking through the water. With hemp rope sinker of 3O0 weight is sometimes twenty minutes in reaching the bottom in l,b00 'athoms of water, so great is the friction of the line.
 THE oldest monument in the world is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. This js the Intel stone of tomb which formed the last resting place of an officer who lived In the time of King Sent, of the second dynasty, whose fate is fixed by M. Marlette more than GOOD years ago. The stone is covered with that del icate and finished sculpture which dis tinguished the early periods of Egip,ian history, and was immeasurably superior to the stiff and conventional art of the latter ages of Egypt, which we are accus- toned to see in European museums.
 THE Japanese are remarkably exempt from deformed feet. The reason of this is to be found in the shoes they wear. The wooden sandals worn in Japan have separate compartment for the great toe, and make clanking noise on the streets. Straw slippers are also worn, and traveller setting out on q journey will strap supply of them on his back, that he may put on new pair when the old is worn out. They cost but cent and half pair. They are rights and ltfts, and leave the foot free to the air. They are never worn in the house, being left outside the door; passing down Japanese street long rows of them are seen at the doors, old and new, large and small. It is sur pris ng to see how rapidly the Japs step out of them, and pick them up again with their feet without stopping when leaving the house.
 AS THE most valuable wealth country can possess is its healthy population, the tables of mortality are worth study and from these we fnd that on the first day of life seventy-eight boys die, to sixty-three girls. In the first week of life 168 boys die, to 153 girls. In Prussia the mortality among femalls is the greatest from 10 to l3 years of age; and from the 25th to the 40th 1t is greater than at other periods of life, and yet at all periods of life the census of females compares favorably with that of males. In England, taking a period of seven years, there were eight mon to fifteen women who were alive at 101 years; three men to five women at lug years two men to three women at 103 years of age, and no man to one woman who lived to 104. It is observed that only one person in 1000 born lives beyond 94 years.
 FROM a comparison of the results of recent deep-iea soundings, it appears that the following are just generaliza- tions: 1. The water of the South Pacific is in its whole mass cooler than that of the Atlantic. 2. The water of the South Plciic is, down to 4, 22j feet, somewhat warmer than that of the Atlantic, but below that depth cooler. 3. The bottom are generally lower in the Pacific than in the Atlantic at the same depths and in the same degree of lati- tude but nowhere in the Pacific are found such low bottom temperatures as in the Antarctic portion of the South Atlantic, where temperatures of -O.3 centigrade to -0.6 degrees have been 4. In the western parts C the Pacific and the adjoining parts C the F lst India arch pelago, the tenn peraturo of the water reaches its minimum at depths between 1,7S7 and s, 937 feet, remaining the same from this depth to the bottom. In the whole of the Atlantic the temperature from S,937 feet to the bottom gradually though slowly increases,