MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1612, 12 October 1885, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS.

" What is the name "{'your cat, sir 1 ?' enquired a visitor. " His name was William," said the host, " until he had fit*, and then we culled him Fitz William. A gentleman who was closely wrapped iv a fuv coat, surmounted by a cap to match, took a seat in a railway carriage by the side of a lady. He made several attempts to draw her into conversation, hut without avail. At last he exclaimed : " Madame, why are you so ungracious ? Do you take me for a wolf in sheep's clothing T 41 No ; quite the reverse," answered the lady. A convict at a French penal settlement, who wus undergoing a life sentence, desired to marry a female COQrict, cuch marriages b'mg of

common occurrence. The Governor of the Colony had no objection, but tlie priest proceeded to cross examine the prisoner. " Did yon marry in France ? " asked the clergyman. " Yes," " And yonr wife is dead ? " " She is." " Have you any documents to show she is dead?" "No." " Then I must ref uf c to marry you. You must bring proof !of the death of your wife." There was | a pause, dining which the prospective bride looked at the anxious would-be groom. Finally he said : " I can prove that my former wife is dend.,' "How will you prove it?" -'I was sent here for having killed her." Another Victorian inventor proposes to render the fumes of dynamite innocuous by means of a jet of steam. Miners say that they feel severe headaches and other usual effects from the fumes after the use of th« muchlanded sulphate spray. One great step has been made in the divers' art l>y the introduction of the chemical system of respiration, the invention of Mr Fleuss Me has succeeded in devising a perfectly portable apparatus, containing a chemical filter, by means of which the exhaled breath of the diver is deprived of its Carbonic acid ; the diver also carries a supply of compressed oxygen from which to add to the. remaining nitrogen oxygen, in substitution for that which has been burnt up in the process of respiration. Armed with this apparatus a diver is enabled to follow his vocation without any air tube connecting with the surface, indeed without any connections whatever. A notable instance of a most courageous use of this apparatus was afforded l>y a diver named Lambert, who, during one of the inundations which ocenrred during the construction of the Severn tnnnel, descended into the heading, and proceeding along it for some 830 yards (with the water standing some 85 feet above him), closed a sluice door, through which the water was entering the excavations, and thus enabled the pumps to un- water the tunnel. Altogether, on this occasion, the man was under water, and without any communication with those above, for one hour and 25 minutes. The •nppartns has also proved to be of great Utility in cases of explosion in collieries enabling the wearers to safely penetrate the workings, even when they have been filled with the fatal choke-damp, to rescue the injured. The discovovy of mineral substances which answer quite well for many of the purposes to which soap is applied are becoming quite common — so much so that the discovery of a " soap mine*' is not now considered so much of a myth as formerly. The latest discovery of this character is described as follows : " There is said to be a vast deposit of natural soap nearOrning, Ohio. As the story runs, a party of hunters in the • Big Woods ' built a fire against a precipice of rocks for the purpose of pre paring a meal The heat split off a large fragment of solid stone and to their surprise a slippery substance of a dirty jeliov colour began to run from the. little perforations on the face of the rock. This substance had a consistency similar to that of molasses in cold weather. After gathering a quantity of the stuff the discoverers managed to stop the outflow. Samples are said to have been sent to leading chemists throughout the country, who with one accord, pronounced it nearly a pure article of soap. Scientists suggest that this deposit is owing to a combination of lakes of potash and rivets of i essential oils within the subterranean caverns underlying the i^reat coal measures of Southern Oi-i-i. The story sounds like one of Mmuthausen's tales, yet it is said that a company with a capital of 200,000d01. is being formed to work this natural soap mine." Mr T. Dunn, one of the prospectors who went to the King Country to prospect in the neighbourhood of Pirongia, has reported that the party was stopped in const quence of the per--1 mit not having boeu signed by Wahanui, to whom all the natives bfive yielded ta'-'it obedience in thr- ::uitter. He considers that the I'p-.iMiiy they have passed through was likely to contain auriferous lodes. They had very little chance of testing the country, as they were so closely watched by the natives. Th«* panning they did was mostly at night, which, allowing that .gold exists in pij'abln quantities, was not likely to evidence the fact. — 21te Be.l.