Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-02-26
Forty thousand less Immigrants arrive,

Forty thousand less immigrants arrived
in New York last year than in 1884.
"A Philadelphia jury has determined the
value of eight ribs in a man at Sl5, 900.
There is a chestnut tree near Mt Etna
which is said to be PIP feet in circumference.
The Alps are pierced by three remarka.
bly, long tunnels, entering Italy from France,
Switzerland, and the Austrian Tyrol. They
are the Mont Gents seven and three quarters
miles long :. and the Arlberg tunnel, only six
and one half miles long. The projected
Smplon tunnel, by which the railroad from
Geneva to Martigni will be carried through
the mountains to Dunno d'Ossola, will be-
twelve and one-half miles long. aud the esti-
mated cost $50, 900, 900.
"A Burlington resident writes to the Free
Press to show that for 46 years each decade
has been characterized by cold snaps that
have steadily increased in number and inten-
sity of temperature, and the most severe with
but one exception have been on the 4th aud
9th of this month. He notes that the average
date of the closing of Lake Champlain has
advanced several days in the last half-century.
So he concludes that our winters are slowly
growing colder and longer, aud the wide
extent of these cold snaps argues that the
planet is psrcepdbly cooling OF.
John Evans of East st. Louis will be
known as one Of the very few men who have
been blown up by dynamite and lived to tell
of it. He was putting dynamite cartridges
in hole in the ice preparatory to an effort
to break up an ice gorge in the river. He
had placed all but one in the hole, and was in
the act of putting that in when the electric
current was turned on and a tremendous ex-
plosion followed. John, after a short flight.
began to say unpleasant things about the
man who set of the dynamite. He was not
hurt much.
The immense quantity of peanuts grown
in Africa South America, and in our own
Southern states afford not only pleasant ar
ticle of food, but a very large source Of oil
production. The seed contains from 40 to
80 per cent. of a nearly coorless, bland,
fixed oil, not unlike olive oil, and used for
similar purposes it is non.drying oil,
which changes but little by exposure to the
air, and remains fluid even at several degrees
colder than thirty-two degrees, Fab. A very
great quantity of soap is manufactured from
this kind of oil indeed, some of the finest
toilet soaps imported from France are of this
material.
Operations have been lately begun for
the purpose of clearing away the mass of
| sand which has accumulated during centuries
around the famous statue of the Sphinx. The
portion of the statue at present above ground
! is about 40 feet. 1t is supposed that as much
more, at least, is buried in the sand, and the
amount of sand to be cleared away is esti-
mated at 20 900 cubic meters. A small tram
way is being constructed to carry away this
mass of sand to distance, aud 100 laborers are
employed on the task When the statue has
been laid bare to the level of the foundations
a broad circular walk will be constructed
around it, aud a high wall will be built to
guard against future ehoroachments of the
sands of the desert. The work will be An
ished this spring,