MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume XI, Issue 1713, 4 June 1886, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

The South Australian Register, of May 10th, contains the following information with regard to the new Western Australian goldfield : — " We have heen favoured with the following extract from a private letter, dated Perth, April 21 : 'Much gold haa been found. The highest nugget I have seen, which was bought by the Govern ment to send lo the Colonial Exhihi . tion, was over 19ozs. — a very fair specimen. The diggers all describe the Cambridge Gulf road as very bad, and that from Derby, i hough longer, a? preferable. One digger I saw this morning told me the nights had been quite cool at the diggings, and that the miners worked through the middle of the day.' Another private letter, dated Derby, April 18, states : ' Gold is plentiful. I saw a great deal of it. Over 500oz obtained already. Three men got 640z in four days. The field is of large extent' The gentleman who furnished us with the above extracts says : ' People should be cautious in proceeding to the country without having a supply of rations, &c, to last at least six months. In the winter the country becomes very boggy, and with a team there is no knowing how long you may have to remain in one spot through the boggy state of the country.' " It is repotted that the inhabitants of Helena, Ark., were recently aroused early in the morning by what seemed to be a heavy hailstorm, but they found the sky perfectly clear, and the air full of dark flakes which afterwards proved to be a cloud of grasshoppers. They I pattered against the roofs and windows of the hou.es with so much force and in such numbers that they simulated rain. People who had seen the dreaded pests before, when they descended upon the grain fields of Kansas and consumed every blade in a few hunt's, say that the numbers exceeded even that visitation. They were passing westward. Many of them were disabled by hitting against buildings and other obstructions, as they flew very low, and had to be shovelled off the sidewalk in the street They were apparently genuine Kansas grass* hoppers. The Otago Football Club was represented at the annual meeting of the Rugby Footbail Union, which was held in London a few days since. Its dele gate, Mr S. E. Sleigh, explained to the meeting that the rules of his club were, identical with those of tho Rugby Union, with the exception that they had long ago adopted the system of scoring by points, and that it had «/iven eutire Wktfefaction. Mr Sleigh also

refenvd to the report of the intended visit ot the Lond >n Rjwrs to Austra lasia, and to the letter respecting the same, whi.h had been received from the person named Parsons. Mr Sleigh said that since this individual could not be traced, he had come to the conclusion tint tin atfciir was a hoax. Nevertheless, he assured the meeting that if English players did coutera* plate a visit to the antipodes, they would find " gates " as large as any in England, a true love of sport, and a cordial reception, A correspondent in Nature quotes the following from Dr John Davy's " lonian Islands." published in 1842, vol. i. 164 :— " The next phenomeon I have to mention is very extraordinary, and apparently contrary to the order of nature ;it is the flowing of the water of the sea into the land iv currents or rivulets which descend and are lost in the bowels of the earth. This o;curs in Cephalona, about a mile and a half from the town of Argostoli, near the entrance to the harbour, where the shore is composed of freestone, and is low and cavernous, from tlie action of the waves, The descending streams of salt water aro four in number; they flow with such rapidity that an enterprising Englishman has erected a grist mill on one of them with great success. I have been informed that it produces him €300 a year. The flow is constant unless the mouths though which the wate. enters are obstructed by seaweed. No noise is produced by the descent of the sea water, and rarely is any air disengaged ; the streams hay- been watched during earthquakes, and have not been found affected by them."