Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-16
CURIOUS CONVERSATIONS.

The City of Mexico has population Of
se9. 535.
-Forty-eight different dialects are found
in Mexico.
-Blotting paper is made of cotton rags
boiled in soda.
Harvard College has PIG courses in lib
eral arts and sciences.
Florida has man 2s years old and Al
inches high who weighs so pounds.
Yale College received s343, ,395 in gifts,
ranging from 800 TO $50, 600, last year.
In 1890, 21,412 people were killed in
India by snakes, and 5lO,659 snakes were
killed by people.
I'm the parrots beak both mandibles
are movable-a peculiarity unknown in
other species of birds.
In II wears the city of Paris has ex-
pended $4,000 on statues and SS5,0OO on
ornamental ountalns
I'm West Southport, Me-, clam has re-
Gently been dug which measured OKLA inches
and weighed IA ounces.
The horse has no eyebrows, and if much
white is visible in the eye itself it is sure
sign of a vicious nature.
In England and Scotland Saturday, Sum-
day and Monday are considered lucky days
on which to get married.
The University of Michigan has 2.750
students, d larger number than is enrolled
In any other institution of its kind.
The skin of black deer is worth about
$500. One of these animals has recently been
seen in Maine, and hunters are after it.
Fish swallow their food whole because
they are Obliged TO keep continually open-
ing and closing the mouth for the purpose
of respiration.
- The cargo ship of the future will be
fve-masted vessel with auxiliary steam
such as is now building on the Clyde. She
will carry 5000 tons.
Melbourne, Australia, which was
founded less than 80 years ago, has now a
population of 100000, and is the fifth city in
size in the British Empire.
The bog of Allen, Ireland, is the largest
unreclaimed bog, covering nearly quarter
of million acres. The heating power of
peat is about half that of coal. and it
forms very valuable article to the poor
Irish peasant
Rabbits, snakes, birds and fishes never
close their eyes because unprovided with
eyelids. The rabbit and the common barn
yard fowl are each provided with q thin
membrane which is let down over the eye
"hVh doleSp VI III rest
The fox hound was so named because it
was orig inally kept as an addition to every
pack of fox hounds 1t was always noted
for being up within a few minutes OF rum
ming to ground and aiding very materially
IN the capture of Reynard.
-Bloodhounds derive their name from
the possession of a peculiar power of scent
ing the blood of a wounded animal, so that
If once put on the trail they will hunt the
quarry through thick and thin and seldom,
II ever, deviate from their course.
In the southern portion of Formosa the
natives are ofthe Malay type, fierce, warlike
and cannibals in their habits. No white man
has ever been among them, and no one
knows their numbers 1t would be as much
as his life would be worth to go among them.
"A handsome sarcophagus of Carrara
marble is being constructed in Italy, in
which the remains of Sebastian Lerdo de
Tejada, a former President of Mexico, are to
be guarded, and then placed in the rotunda
for illustrious men in the Dolores Cemetery.
The British Museum has received as
bequest the Tapling collection of stamps,
containing about 200 COO specimens, exclusive
of many cards and envelopes. and valued at
between $3.50, 900 and $500 OO0 Mr.. Tapling
was more than 20 years in making it. 1t is
pronounced the finest collection of stamps
existing.
A SKYE terrier is so called because the
breed was once chiefly raised on the Island
of skye, one of the Hebrides. The cele-
brated Dandy Dinmont terrier obtained its
distinctive title from the fact of its being
depicted as the favorite of character bear
ing that name in Sir Walter Scott's "GuY
Block Island is doubtless the most ex-
elusive spot in the United States. There
people grow up, marry and are buried with
out ever having toucned the mainland, not
20 miles away. Only in summer is inter-
course with the outside world encouraged
Almost everybody on the island is related
to everybody else there.
"A Maine man bought spring from
Boston firm. The firm sent it to him, pay
ing cents for postage. The bill was then
for cents-the cost of the spring
and postage was paid on this. Then the
Maine man sent the cents to Boston and
the postage was again cents, making total
of cents paid out to collect cents
Gold is so very tenacious that piece Of
it drawn into wire one-twentieth of An inch
in diameter will sustain weight of 500
pounds without breaking, says an exchange.
Its malleability is so great that single
grain may be divided into 2, 2,OoO,OO parts and
q cubic inch into 9.523 s09, ,529 parts, each of
which may be distinctly seen by the naked
eye.
I'm the Yoruba country, West Africa,
the natives send messages by means Of
Shells feathers, peppers, corn, stones, coal,
razors powder and shot and many other
things The meaning of each object is
known, and all of them together make up a
sort of scode by which intelligence re-
Iating to anything whatsoever may be trans
mitted.
"A missionary on the Middle Zambesi,
who has travelled over all that region, says
the best maps of the country are very mac
,urate; that rivers are laid down where they
10 not exist, and that numerous villages ap-
near where there is not trace of a human
labitation. He says the maps are simply an
to travellers, who are often put
20 inconvenience by relying on information
which they find later to be inaccurate.
The Island of Formosa is about 270
niles long and 140 wide. Ranges of mount
Lins extend from the center to the southern
portion. Some of the peaks are quite lofty,
Mount Morrison being 1000 feet high, and
III are volcanic. Every little while there Is
rumble in the center of one of the peaks
md the whole island is convulsed- The
climate is favorable to such disturbances,
he thermometer rarely getting below 4O'.