, 1891-08-05

1eSsoI EutSOil uOpeS H6 ms 1uuNu an eueCClV0
method which avoids waste. The treatment
is by solution Of crude petroleum, and the
Government # the Bahamas are now in COM
munication with the Professor. 1t is under
stood that the same solution may be used many
times, and, if present hopes are realised, the
petroleum will be admitted free of the duty
now imposed
Apart from the fibre Gu ltivution, agricul-
ture in the Bahamas, it APP pears, is confined
chiefly to pineapples. The people raise maize
and sweet potatoes for their own rse, and
their maintenance much assisted by
these crops. Cotton shows an in
crease. being 1884 in value, compared
with l ,07A. in 1889. Tn ere is no reason, OBJ
serves the Governor, why this business should
not be extensively prosecuted, as most of the
islands are we'll adapted for it's cultivation. 1t
is hoped that the presence of strangers now
arriving in the Colony to pursue the fibre
industry will act on cotton productions, to the
advantages of which their attention cannot fail
to be directed. 1t is quite possible that, in time
cotton may be found only second to the fibre
in the category of exports from the Colony.
The pineapple crop realised 40, 1861. as compar
ed with IS ,558l. in 1889. Of canned pineap-
RASo - VI O0POAGSu ~, bOV casts, NdluSO
at {, 126L. and in 1889 the the export was 81.
683 cases, with a value of 4,5O0L. In oranges
there was an export of 1861, the output Of
1889 having been 3040l.
King ia ia is now in the Canary Islands
awaiting Lord Salisbury's fnal instructions,
and it is understood that Macdonald, the newly
appointed Consul General and Chief British
Commissioner on the Oil Rivers, will shortly
call at Teneriffe and conduct the King to Old
Calabar, prior to reinslating him as q r%eigning
monarch by command of the Imperial Govern
ment. The old monarch is reported to be in
good health and spirits, and ex ceedingly anx-
ious to get back TO his people. He blames
Mr.. H.. H.. johnson for all his troubles, and
sincerely hopes that that official may never
again be permitted to go on service on the
West Coast.
A Geological Phenomenon of considerable
Importance has appeared in San Diego County,
in the extreme South of California. It con-
sists in the almost sudden formation of an in
land sea. On June q a triokling of water wa
observed to damp the ground around the Sal
ton Salt Works, and now it has expanded into
a lake ten miles square, and from three to
eight feet deep. Then at Indian Wells, sixty
miles south OF Salton, another new sea, forty
miles square and from three to five feet deep
has been formed. 1t appears possible that
these bodies of water may unite, and form a
lake fifty miles long and four hundred feet
deep. Indian runners have been employed to
go round the rising waters, and as they have
failed to find any surface inlet, a boat has
been provisioned for a week, and started to
explore and try to discover the connection
with the Colorado River, whence the water
is believed to come, whether above ground or
by a subterranean communication. The So
called Colorado Desert, lying to the east of
the new lake, resembles the bed of a dead
sea. It has an area Of three thousand miles,
and lies two hundred and seventy feet below
the sea level. Shells and other maritime
deposits abound. Engineers have often
planned to make this area fertile by irrigation,
after the manner Of the Valley of the Nile,
which would add two million acres to the
State, but all their efforts have so far been
in vain. Several theories have been started
to account for the formation of the new
lake in San Diego County, California. The
first is that the recent earthquake has admit
ted the waters Of the Pacific through an open.
ing in the coast range of mountains. The
aooond 10 tbat tho -laka NOW fnrno;nr 20 +ho