The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-14
ITEMS or INTEREST.

] wv lyAEa VI OAE EAoDN-Lldl IS REONtLAlA5
! the fora of country is an index TO its
! climatic or geological conditions. EXplOr-
| ers who have had charge Of the botan-
4 ical work in both the Arctic and Ant
! arctic circles have recently met and COM
| pared notes, and from these comparisons
i we deduce the following curious fnfOrma-
! ton: Within the Antarctic circle there
| has never been found a single species
/ of Towering plant. In the Arctic circle
/ 762 different species of Towering plants
| have been collected and classified Fifty
Of the above number are flowers Of varied
| hue and of different degrees of odorifer-
BUSINESS; the remaining 1l2 are pale or
| entirely cOlOrless; and with no percepti-
| bic perfume whatever These latter are
/ what the botanists term types of true
| polar flowers"
More than one species of fish is met
! with which cannot swim, says the Fish
/ ing Gazette the most singular of which,
| perhaps, is the maltha, a Brazilian fish,
! whose organs of locomotion only enable
| II TO crawl or hop or walk, after the
/ manner of toad. TO which animal this
/ nsn TO some extent bears a resem blance,
/ and IL is provided with a long uptLHned
! snout. The anterior (pectOraD fms of the
| maltha, which are quite small are not
| capable OF acting on the water, but can
| only move backward and forward, hav-
/ ing truly the form of thin paws. Both
! these and the ventral and anal fins are
| very different from the similar fms in
| other fishes, and could not serve for swim
| ming al all. Other examples of nom
/ swimming fishes include the sea horse.
! another most peculiarly shaped inhabi-
| tant of the sea, which resembles the
knight in a set of chessmen; and the
| starnsh, of which there are many speci-
| mems. which mostly walk and crawl on
the shore or rocks, both being unable 20
| swim.
There are but two recorded instances
| of dogs having been learned to articulate
| words in such a manner that they would
! resemble those uttered by a human be-
! ing, says the st. Louis Republic The
most famous of these cases was that of
| the celebrated Talking Dog of Zeitz."
/ me owner OF this Intelligent canine "a
! gined that his dogs voice strongly re-
| sembled certain words and sounds made
| by men. Acting on this hint, he soon
! trained the animal a big Saxon mastif,
| to distinctly utter some twenty odd Ger
| man words and about a half dozen from
the French language. Although the
| patience to this queer task, he never sue
/ ceeded in charging his pets vocabulary
above above I've. twenty words 4 rival 20 the "a
| ted in Holland in IT'S. Besides pronounc-
! ing several words the Holland beast
ers Of bs the names of al the let
and n
A Vienna correspondent writes to the
! London Graphic follows: II is not
| every city in Europe that can boast of
records extending back 800 years. The
/ goodly burghers of krems, on the Dan
ube, in Lower Austria, with its quaint
| churches. houses and towers within the
| pent-up space round which the city moat
| ran, have, on the strength of a certain
! document IN their archives referring to
peror Otto Ill, in the year 995 A. D..
been celebrating in royal style the 9OOth
| anniversary of the event. Two celebrations
| lasted a whole weeks, favored with
| pleasant weather. There were battles of
! flowers and flower parades, bicyclist pro-
| cessions, fire brigade exhibitions, and rifle
| competitions at the butts. on one even
| ing an ox's carcass was roasted and on
the the THURSDAY hui the nc, climax was reached
| when the pageant illustrating the history
| of the city during the past 800 years
| moved from the Exercierplatz to march
| through the various streets. Krems has
| a population of 10000 souls, well-to-do
| hospitable people whose plenteous vine
yards lying all round the city are prof.
| tabe sources of income.
Recent dispatches telling of the
| streams Of lava at Vesuvius says a Chi
| cago Record writer. will cause no sur
| prise TO any one who has visited the vol
| cano within the last three months 1t
has been steadily putting and spouting
! during that time, hesving out showers of
! molten lava and glowing by night until
| the clouds of vapor above it took on the
| appearance of rolling flames. Two days
before the recent outpour from break
] in the cone the shell of the old crater
! trembled from the working of the lava
| underneath, and the peculiar sounds of
| kissing and growing which accompanied
| each small eruption could be heard two
| miles away. Nesuvius is $50 feet higher
| than it was six months ago The con-
slant showers of porous lava have filled
| IN one side or the old hollow crater and
| have built up the new cone which, from
| its bold outlines, has greatly changed the
| appearance OF the summit and is still
changing it slightly every day. Formerly
| the volcano, as seen from Naples, had a
rounded top. but now it comes to wedge
| point a year ago visitors looked into
the hollow of the old and somewhat cooled
| off crater OF late they have gone inside
the boundaries OF the old crater to get
a good look at the new cone, from the
summit of which at intervals OF a few
minutes there is a gust of steam laden
with RED hot ashes which are sent into
/ a In ar Ilaf E1,.,s-
has drifted away there is another rum
bic, sound of Watery explosion, and
distance in the day time, there seems to
be constant curl of white vapor from
the summit, but at night each separate
eruption throws up a vivid light, which
then fades away to dull glow The ma
tiVes who live on the slope of the noun
tain said that after the new cone had
been built somewhat higher it would fall
in of its own weight and close the present
breathing hole. Then the mountain would
be like corked up bottle A new vent
would nave to be made. and in the MAX
ing of this vent there would be a fierce
eruption an overflow of lava, and the
formation of a new crater ApparentIv
the natives should be informed as some
of them had ancestors at Pompeii and
many remember distinctly the incidents
of the fierce eruption of 1872 by which
the present crater was formed.
There are perhaps 5000 dealers in dia-
monds in the world who carry in their
stock stones worth perhaps $3.50, COO COO. saws
the chicago News. The remainder are in
the hands of private individuals There
is something fascinating about the subject
of diamonds and rich and poor like to
| read>about precious stones 1t is estimated
that during the last twenty-five years the
American people have paid duty on at
least SlS0,000,O00 worth of diamonds and
| other precious stones. In 1893 alone they
imported So 500 worth, but in 1894 there
was falling off, owing to hard times,
and the total was only s4S56,9s5. This does
not include uncut diamonds of which we
imported more than $1,000 coo worth in 1892
| $4,000 worth in 1893 and $685. PSF worth in
1894 During the last twenty-five years we
have imported S.0&,S17 worth of uncut
diamonds. In 1880 we imported only $4,000
worth of uncut diamonds and in 1889 only
$2500O0 worth The large increase of late
has been due TO the fact that a number of
Il American jewelers. have opened diamond
| cutting establishments. There are now fif-
| teen establishments IN the United States
| which employ from one to twenty men
| There are 1900 manufacturers in Europe
| and about 200 in the United States who
employ between 1900 and 5000 persons as
| cutters and polishers. Perhaps q 900 peo-
pie are employed in the diamond mines
| throughout the world. We read that in
| ma centuries f1faOr,la xr,ave