The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

one million one hundred thousand He
brews persisted by plague and famine in
the year 20 A d.
The Grand Duke Paul of Russia is one
of the few living royal giants. He is
feet, inches in hight.
In 1892 the new postoffice of Purgatory
was established in Virginia, with George
Godbethere as postmaster.
The earliest reference to shaving is
found in the fourteenth verse of the for
ty-frst chapter of Genesis.
In the time of Augustus, Rome was en-
tirely surrounded by a high wall which
was 20 miles in circumference.
Thomas Parr, an Englishman. born in
1888, lived until 1885, 152 years, and then
died because of eating too heartily.
II. W. Young of Augusta. Ill. owns a
bible that was printed in the year 1876 It
is believed to be the oldest bible in Amer
lea.
Mrs. Ella w Peattie. formerly of Chi
cago, has been nominated to the school
board OF Omaha. She is of the staff of the
World-Herald.
The most curious paper weight in the
world belongs to the Prince of Wales 1t
is the mummified hand of one of the
daughters of Pharaoh.
NJ. Berthelot. who has access to the old
manuscripts in the Paris museum says
that he has proof of an arrnor plated gun
boat made in the fifteenth century.
The voice can be heard to greater dis
rance through a speaking tube than
through the air, because the sound is
confined to the air within the tube, and
the tube itself is a good conductor.
The president of the French republic is
on very friendly terms with his tenants
and the other good people of Pont-sur-
Seine He distributed the prizes at the
yearly village festival the other day. In
former years he frequently competed for
the various prizes, and was particularly
successful a runner.
The statement that Miss Phillippa Faw-
cett, the lady senior wrangler is about
glrsaaa 1fvrf1
neer, is said to be unfounded. She has no
present intention of leaving Newman col
lege,. where she is continuing her own
studies and assisting those of others as
mathematical lecturer.
Mr.. Lindsay Johnson, after examining
the eyes of $50 domestic cats, as well as
those of all accessible wild members of
the family, concludes that the natural
shape of the cats pupil is circular
though under various degrees of light
1t assumes every shape from the circle to
a straight vertical line
The scientists of a European expedition
now in Ecuador have been making analy-
sis OF ashes which fell $50 miles away
from COtOpaXi a the time of its last er11n-
ton. They have found them to consist
mainly of feldspar, quartz, magnetic and
specular iron ore. one sample yielded sill
yer at the rate of 20 grains to the ton.
In South America among the mountains
the evergreen oak begins to appear at
about $500 feet and is found up to the
limit Of the continuous forest, which is
L. i
tree. from which Peruvian bark is OBJ
tanned, has a range of elevation on the
mountain slopes running from 1900 to
$500 feet.
A borehole in Silesia has reached
depth of $500 feet, and is expected to be
extended another quarter of a mile down
ward. The tube is fully two inches wide
at the bottom. At seventeen feet below
the surface the temperature is constant
at 81 degrees F.; the increase is ! degree
for each hfty-fve feet of descent down
To a hon loot 4
further fortyfour feet of depth.
A living specimen of the largest and
most deadly snake known, Ophlophagus-
elaps, has been added to the Geological
fourteen feet in length, and is hooded
like the cobra. 1t occurs in India, Bur-
ma and in the East Indian Archipelago
living in forests and jungles and readily
climbing trees.
Ping Tang, in Northern Korea, the place
where the great battle of Sept. Is was
fought, was the first literary center in
the peninsular kingdom. Its chief author
was an ancestor of Confucius named
kishl, who, gathering up his writing ma
terials and leaving China in 1122 B. C.
emtgrated eastward into Korean regions.
His name is greatly venerated, and many
tablets still exist in his honor in the
northern part of Korea.
The instinct which guides young bird
without either experience or the help of
its parents, across vast eXpanses of land
and water to the winter quarters of it's
species mas Deen described by the greatest
naturalist and sage of modern times as
the unknown power" says the London
Speaker. While the necessity of obtain
ing an adequate amount of food is I'M
doubtedly, important factor in the
cause of migration, 1t can have only a
partial operation, inasmuch as the spring
journey northward is commenced from
a country teeming in many cases
with desirable supplies Another inexpli-
cable phenomenon, which proves conclu-
siVely that neither food supplies nor eli
matte difficulties create the impulse for
change, is furnished by the cross migra-
ton which goes on regularly during the
autumn between this country and the con-
tinent among birds of the same species
Some idea of the great power underlying
The impulse to migrate may be gained
when it is mentioned that swallows have
been known to perish rather than forsake
their young in a fire. yet they will leave
their second callow brood in obedience to
this mysterious instinct The force that
is stronger than the devotion of mother
hood must indeed be great! There is no
evidence to prove that any of our summer
visitors breed IN their winter quarters
with the exception of the sand martin, so
that doubtless the mere desire to perpet-
uate the species governs the flight north.
This theory is based upon the fact, that
while the flight south is led by young
birds of the year, the journey north in
the spring is led by old ones that have
already known the joys and cares of
parenthoOd. Marked swifts have been
known to build in the same chimney
seven years in succession Birds have a
marvellous faculty for calculating time
as is proved by the fact that Some spe-
cies arrive and take their departure to a
day, and this without reference to the
weather, although it has been ascertained
that they dislike a following wind as
much as a head wind. on account of the
disarrangement 1t causes among their fly
ing and steering feathers. Why the kin
gouzel sometimes migrates singly and at
others in fiocks is as inexplicable as the
local limitations of the nightingale The
latter bird does not extend its range fur
Their west than the valley of Exc, nor
much further north than York. Birds are
wonderfully conservative in their migra-
tory routes, the quails pursuing the same
course to-day as when they came IN and
covered the camp of the Israelites" These
great aerial highways are neither the
nearest nor the safest to and from their
winter resorts, according to mans judg-
ment, but there is strong geological au-
thority for supposing that their far-dis- /
tant progenitors few over narrow necks !
Of land where water now exists. In clear
weather birds perform their migratory |
flights at immenes attitudes, but in duh !
weather. when neither moon nor star Is /
II lou nd fl.fv-