The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1898-07-29
ITEMS or INTEREST.

The highest waterfall in the world
is Cholock cascade, at Yosemite, Cal. !,
which is 2,635 feet high, or just half a
mile.
Not within living memory has there
been known so abnormally snowless a
winter in European Russia as the past
season.
A medical correspondent at Paris
writes that DR.. Mosso has established
the fact that the blood OF eels Is poi
sonous.
A curious fact has been noted by
| Arctic travelers-snow when at very
low temperature absorbs moisture and
dries garments.
Gun cotton Is cotton wool. washed
then soaked in nitric acid and three
parts of sulphuric acid, washed in
water, pulped and dried.
1t has been found in Switzerland that
in building railway, laborers could
work one-third as long at height of
| 10000 feet as mile lower.
The Rhind manuscript now In the
| British museum is the Oldest intelligi-
BILE mathematical work extant that has
ever been deciphered.
The largest theater In the world is
the Grand opera house of Paris. 1t
covers more than three acres of ground,
and cost SO, 900, 900 francs.
The creatures known as ocean hydras
have no heart, no lungs, no liver, no
brains. no nervous system, nor organs
save mouth and skin.
Glaciers vary in length from year to
year, and apparently in cycles of years
also, those of the Alps having shown a
general dimunition since 1850.
The king of Siam has bodyguard of
female warriors-i. e., 400 girls chosen
from among the strongest and most
handsome of all the women in the land.
A recent landslide in China revealed
900, 900 coppers. The coins were made
about the middle of the eleventh CEN
tury.
Porous glass is one of the latest nov
elites. The holes are so small that
neither dust nor draught follows it's
use, and yet the ventilation is said to
| be excellent.
| Great differences exist between the
Arctic and Antarctic regions. and while
there is polar sea at the north, it is
believed that continent exists at the
South Pole.
Seven Chinese war vessels are at pre-.
sent being built in Germany. Among
them are four torpedo boat destroyers
which will have speed of 80 knots an
hour.
The Peruvian Central railroad cover
ing distance of 10 miles is at an eleva-
tion only about 2, 900 feet lower than the
summit of the highest mountain In
Switzerland.
Five is the sacred number of the
Chinese, who have five planets, five
cardinal points. five virtues, five tastes,
five musical tones, five ranks of nobility
and five colors.
In northern China one of the princi.
pal occupations is raising dogs for their
fuI, which Is fine and dense and much
used for clothing. They cost only 40
cents apiece.
Varlegateu plants OF almost any spe-
cies may be produced, in the belief OF
a German botanist, by grating upon
that species nearly allied form having
colored leaves.
The government of Wuertemberg has
just authorized the erection of hy-
gienic laboratory in connection with
the medical department of the Uni
versity OF Stuttgart.
BY the use OF malleable steel casting
for buffers and frame work castings, the
Erie has reduced the weight, added to
the durability and improved the ap-
pearance of it's freight equipment
Captain Perry speaks of the great dis
tance that sounds can be heard during
intense cold. We often, he says, in
the Arctic regions heard people con-
verse in common voice at the distance
of mile.