The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

hunters.
The Kentucky legislature is to be asked
Tor an appropriation for this object
The furnishings Of the historic palace
Of Henry VII. at Hampton Court are be-
ing taken away IN bits by visitors from
America and the continent. Some beauti-
tul tapestry chairs have been destroyed
ana even valuable tapestries have been
ruined by the insatiate relic hunters.
through lack of an adequate force of at
tendants.
-Scrumpox is a new disease to which
football has given rise in England, ac-
cording to the New York sun. 1t is a bad
eruption coming Indirectly from dirty Ter
seys and affecting especially the forwards
IN Rugby foot ball. who have TO shove in
scrimmages- It has been proved to be
contagious. The particular micrObe TO
which the eruption is due is the stphyIO-
coccus pyogenes aureus.
There have been two Queens of Eng
land who never saw English ground. Ber-
engaria OF Navarro. the consort of Rich
ard L.. furnishes the first instance. Their
marriage took place at Cyprus in 1871. and
together they travelled to Palestine but on
the conclusion of the Crusade Richard de-
serted his wife, and started of home alone.
The next few years Berengaria spent on
the continent. In 1895 a reconciliation took
place, but, as Richard devoted the rest of
his lie to warning against Philip in France,
Berengaria had no opportunity of visiting
England and on Richards death she re-
manned in France. The second instance
is Sophia DOrothea of Zell, mother of
George H., and wife of George /. She was
separated from her husband in 1894. and
from that time lived in seclusion in Ger
many.
We first read of duties, says the Bos-
ton Traveller. in connection with the
Athenians, who imposed a tax on the
fiftieth part, or 2 per cent upon imports
and exports. These duties produced in
the year 400 b. c., when trade was de-
pressed, a revenue of thirty-siX talents.
In Rome, likewise, customs existed These
were named Portoria, and were payable
on commodities imported into and export
ed from different parts of the empire.
They formed no incOnsiderate part of the
public revenue. Although first collected
in England by Ethelred IL in A. ID. 979, it
was not till the thirteenth century that
the kings claim to the customs was es
tablished by grant of parliament. Two OF
the principal duties were those of wine,
payable in kind and called prisage, and on
wool, the chief source of the cOuntry's
wealth named maletote. At first much un-
certainty prevailed as to what amount
should be levied; but in the year 1875 par
lament granted the king a fixed amount,
on WOOL skin and leather. This grant,
which is called custuma magma ct an
uqua, is the constitutional foundation OF
the customs.
Manhattan Island is composed of
Gneiss rock, says the New York Dispatch.
The rock lies at an angle or dip of 80 de-
grees. 1t is naturally scaly rock very
porous and absorbs water at times and
places. 1t is noticeable that the rock is
gradually rottlng and crumbling and ii
can only be a question of time before the
island will begin to sink. Gneiss rock flakes
easily and every jar on the island causes
the structure to fall off in places, which
fact adds to the danger from rot. The mar
Velous increase of the habitations of man
adds annually to the enormous weight the
island has to sustain. Every building which
increases this weight and also the impor
lance of the city, tends surely to the fu-
| ture destruction of the metropolis. New
no ha fFsHf aff to GvNsI
| place in the bottom of the sea. There are
many historic cities now beneath the
waves. One natural CONFUSION by earth
| quake IS liable to sends us to the bottom
| with our marvellous wealth, great popu-
| lation and splendid civilization. There is
hope for Chicago as the future metropo-
| lis or America, after all.
Now that the curious and eccentric
| jumping beam has had it's run, says the
| st. Louis Republic il will next be in
| into the desert region of Southwest Ne
Vada and collect a carload of animated"
| edged as being the greatest geological
| curiosities in the world. They are de-
| scribed as being almost perfectly round,
/ the majority of them as large a. a walnut
| and of the color texture and hardness of
| nodules of kidney iron ore When distri-
| buted about the floor, table or other level
| surface and within two or three feet of
| each other, they Immediately begin NOV
| ing toward a common center and never
/ cease their curious travelling operations
until all gather around the largest stone
and lie huddled together like eggs in a
nest. On the desert of Nevada they are
| found most frequently in that portion that
| is comparatively level, the surface being
composed of bare, stratifed rock. Scat
| tered over this barren and rocky region
| are numerous little basins, from a few
| inches to a rod or two in diameter, and in
| these the animated stones" are usually
| found. The stones themselves average
| about as noted above, but they are found
-. 1of1 hot of hfr1 5ll0f 30
six or seven inches in diameter. The
cause of the peculiar animated actions of
| these stones is doubtless to be found in
| the material of which they are composed,
| which appear to be ''lOadStone' or mag
| netic iron ore. In the Australian desert
| similar geological oddities are found.
| There they are called travelling stones"
in the many interesting discussions
which have recently been had in scientific
| journals, says the Independent, to the
| reason for the throwing up of large knobs
swamp of the south, some points
| were made by one observer that the
| young tree grew from branches which
were blown off by the wind and, falling
| into the swamps, rooted there. This was
| to meet a difficulty suggested that the
| seeds of the cypress could hardly germin-
| ate in water and it seemed in a measure
| impossible that the trees growing in wa
ter could have terminated just where
| they stood. Objection was made on this
| point in a subsequent issue of the mag
| azine that no known coniferous tree
| would grow from cuttings in this way.
| While a willow branch would grow read
| lily by falling in water or finding itself
| in soft mud, there was no evidence that
| a cypress branch would root in this way.
| while the probabilities were against it.
| 1t now appears from the researches of
| Prof. Emory Smith of Leland Stanford
| University. in California, that the famous
redwood tree of that region which is a
| close relation to the bald cypress of the
| southeastern states, will grow readily in
| that way Logs which have been cut for
| timber, but suffered to lie uncared for,
| will send up sprouts from the upper sur
| face and roots from below, just as willow
| logs will do in the east. He states that
| even chips which have been scattered by
| the force of the blow from the woodman's
! ak in telling the tree, will very often root
| and send up plants, If they happen to fall
| in a spot that will offer sufficient moisture
| These facts are considered very remark
| able by those interested in forestry as
| they bring out character wholly excep-
tionable in connection with trees of this
class.