MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1224, 24 January 1883, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The following curious extract from a novel is advertised in connection with a piano by a German maker : — " I think my idea of Heaven would be a place in which Biilow and Joachim played Beethoven, alternating with some others all day long, and where a tuneful choir sang Schubert's and Rubinstein's s,ongs to the accompaniment of a — pianoforte." The present season is one of curious meteorological portents, which som 0

connect with the erratic comet so unexpectedly returned within the field of our vision, and others declare to be simply the forerunner of especially evil weather. Astronomers the most learned are unable at present to estimate what mischief the comet will ultimately do the sun when it falls into its flaming surface, still less what will be the consequences to this round ball of ours. As the absorption of the comet has not yet taken place it is fair to assume than the danger is still in the future, and not yet past As to the whether, the sea;:on is undoubtedly a most capricious and unsual one, with rapid variations and quite phenomenal inclemency. Whatever the course, too, the northern hemishere has recently witnessed an unusually fine display of that mysterious light, the Aurora Borealis. It was a most beautiful natural exhibition, commencing with a dusky veil, which obscured the stars ; then an are of rosy-tiated light shot across the northern sky. The evening it was seen in Londou was that of the fire which destroyed Mr Whitely's, the universal provider, store, and the Aurora was mistaken for the reflection of another vast conflagration. Nor was this the only strange phenomenon. On the same day, too, the sun was flecked with one or more of those mysterious and unexplained spots which are generally the precursors of unsettled weather.

The telephone is at last eclipsed by the electroscope, which actually conveys by vibrations of light a clear view of persons and scenes at a distance. This important discovery was made by Dr. Coridrah, of Victoria. The trial of this wonderful instrument took place at Melbourne on the 31st October last, in the presence of some 40 scientific and public men, and was a great success. Sitting in a dark room, they saw projected on a large disc of white burnished metal the racecourse at Memington, with its my raid hosts of living, active beings. Each minute detail stood out with perfect fidelity to the original, and as they sat looking at tho wonderful picture through binocular glasses it was difficult to imagine that they were not actuajly upon the course itself and moving amongst those whose actions they could so completely scan. Two soldiers were bivouacking in the neighbourhood of Alexandra; lying beneath their blankets, they were looking up at the stars. Said Jack, ' What made you go into the Army, Tom V « Well,' replied Tom. 1 1 had no wife aud loved war. What made you go fighting, Jack V ' Well,' said Jack, ' I had a wife and loved peace, so I went.'