552 Current History of Fiterary and JANUARY 1ST.-SUNDAY. JANUARY 2D.-MONDAY. Egyptian Bees.- In Lower Egypt, where the blowing of flowers is considerably later than in the upper districts, the practice of transporting bee-hives is much followed. The hives are collected from different villages along the banks, each being marked and numbered by the proprietors to prevent future mistakes. They are then arranged in pyramidical piles upon the boats prepared to receive them, which, floating gradually down the river, and stopping at certain stages of their passage, remain there a longer or shorter time, according to the produce afforded by the surrounding country. In this manner the bee-boats sail for three months. The bees, having culled the honey of the orange flowers in the Said, and of the Arabian jessamine and other flowers in the more northern parts, are brought back to the places from which they had been carried. This procures for the Egyptians delicious honey and abundance of bees-wax. The proprietors, in return, pay the boatmen a recompense proportioned to the number of hives which have been thus carried about from one extremity of Egypt to the other. The celebrated traveller Niebuhr saw upon the Nile between Cairo and Damietta a convoy of 4000 hives in their transit from Upper Egypt to the coast of the Delta. Library at Paris.-The Imperial Library at Paris contains 2,000,000 printed works, 200,000 mauuscripts, 3,000,000 engravings, and above 500,000 maps, plans, views, etc. Persian Newspapers.—There are only two newspapers published in Persia, the Rouz Nameh Elmirjah (scientific Journal), published in Teheran, and the Journal of the Nation, published at Tauris. Both papers are lithographed, letterpress printing not being practised in Persia. The Persians fancy their style of writing the finest in the world, and prefer it to the pure Arabic characters from which it is derived. JANUARY 3D.-TUESDAY. An Illustrious Foreign Visitor.-A visitor well-known and highly appreciated in many of the waters abroad, has, by means of the Acclimatisation Society, been introduced into our own. The present stranger is the silurus glanis specimens of which have been brought alive to the station of the Society at Twickenham, by the exertions of Sir Stephen Lakeman and Mr. Lowe, from a distance of nearly 2000 miles. In all, fourteen of these young fishes were brought from Kapochein, in Walachia, where Sir Stephen Lakeman has an estate. The new fish is like the eel in its habits, being a wallowing fish, fond of burrowing in the mud, and hiding amongst the rotten roots of trees. It is said that the silurus, when the prey is plentiful, will attain over 56 lb. in four years; and Englishmen who have tasted it report that in flavour it is superior to the salmon. JANUARY 4TH.-WEDNESDAY. An Imperial Toy.-On the occasion of the New Year the Emperor of the French presented to the son of Prince Napoleon, an automaton toy representing a gardener with a barrow. The figure walks backwards and forwards, and turns its head in the most natural manner, at the same time wheeling before it whatever may be put into the barrow. Quick Working.-In one of the processes of steel-pen making done by females at Birmingham, a quick worker will cut out in one day of ten working hours 250 gross, or 36,000 pens, which involves 72,000 distinct motions of the arms, two in every second. OBITUARY.-The death of Madame Bure, nurse to the French Emperor, and mother to the treasurer of the Imperial household, is announced. Bure was eighty-nine years of age. JANUARY 5TH.-THURSDAY. Madame A Terrible Weapon.-There is now on exhibition in the lower rotunda of the Capitol of Alabama a very destructive breech-loading battery of small arms, the inven tion of Mr. John H. Foreman, of Company D, State Artillery, at Mobile. As one of the most dangerous arms ever brought to bear against cavalry attacks, it is probably without a competitor, and will undoubtedly be brought into general use as soon as its peculiar merits shall have become generally known. This destructive arm is composed of fifteen 30 in. barrels, calibre 57 (the same as the Enfield rifle), and at their base are screwed into a solid piece of metal. Near the muzzle these barrels are passed through another piece of iron, in such a manner that when fired the balls spread themselves over 120 feet at 500 yards from the point of discharge. It is loaded at the breech by rapid movement, enabling the gunner to discharge his piece six times a minute. Simple in construction, it is not likely to get out of order, and can be cleaned instantaneously whenever it is needed. Triplicate breech-loaders accompany each battery. The gun-carriage can be drawn by a single horse, and, with but two men in charge of the battery, a whole squadron of raiders could be made to bite the dust, and in the meantime the battery could be moved elsewhere the moment its presence was perceived by the enemy. JANUARY 6TH.-FRIDAY. Extermination of the Golden Eagle.—A few days ago, while Mr. Robert M'Niel, one of the Earl of Breadalbane's gamekeepers, was out shooting rabbits, he observed a golden eagle, and, taking aim with his gun, succeeded in bringing it to the ground. The bird is a beautiful specimen of the golden eagle, and measures six feet nine inches from tip to tip of the wings. Within the last few weeks four eagles have been shot and trapped on the Breadalbane estate, and the noble birds are now getting very scarce. JANUARY 7TH.-SATURDAY. An Artist's Present.—The Paris correspondent of the Star says :-Gustave Dore, the well-known artist, gave Madame Rossini an etrenne on the Jour de l'An which queens and empresses might envy. It consisted of a fan, on which he painted the exquisite air, "Mathilde, idole de mon ame;" but notes of music are not pretty things to look at, you will say, and your lady readers by no means envy Madame Rossini her fan. But fancy each note a Cupid's head, giving the exact expression of the tone conveyed by the voice; the additional lines represented by flutes and bows, and for double crotchets the Cupids drawn in tiny boats rowing-and all this painted by Gustave Dore-each Cupid a perfect gem of delicate colouring and execution-and you must admit that Madame Rossini's fan is a most artistic production. "Mathilde" is the favourite air of "Guillaume Tell." JANUARY 8TH.-SUNDAY. JANUARY 9TH.-MONDAY. Richness of the San Juan Gold Mines. -Advices from the River Plate are again, as it were, embossed in San Juan gold. The news of the auriferous wealth of the newly-discovered mines was at first apparently received with some incredulity by the native press of Buenos Ayres; but any want of confidence has since been completely dissipated by the facts which have now come to the knowledge of the public. The Nacion Argentina refers to this important subject as follows:"It is truly fabulous the accounts which we hear from the gold mines of San Juan. The private letters which we have seen, the accounts given us by parties recently arrived from that province, all prove beyond doubt the truth of the news which we at first believed exaggerated. New veins of gold are being discovered each day of the most unheard-of richness. A letter received recently from one of the first men in San Juan assures us that the recent gold discoveries will make San Juan the greatest country in all South America. In the provinces not a peon or labourer is to be found for love or money, all have gone to the gold mines." As the Nacion Argentina is believed to represent the views of the Government, the above statement may be regarded as an official declaration. Private letters received from the spot speak very highly of the mines, and one says:-"The gold mines are wonderfully prolific, and all that is said of them falls short of the reality. You had better come at once.” JANUARY 10TH.-TUESDAY. Discovery of an Arch of the Temple of Jerusalem.-Sir Henry James reports that Captain Wilson and the party of English engineers who are now making a survey of Jerusalem, have discovered an arch of the Temple causeway mentioned by Josephus. This arch is said to be about fifty feet in span; to correspond, in style of masonry, to the Haram wall in its best parts; and to be in a very good state of preservation. We infer that the work is Herodian. Now, this discovery is of very high value; not only as indicating the exact position of the Tyropæon bridge, but as proving by an example that the foundations of Zion were not destroyed after the great siege. This fact made pretty certain by the new recovery, a vast field is thrown open to the explorer. If one of the arches of that mighty roadway could be covered with dust and waste, so as to lie hidden in the soil for eighteen hundred years, why not all the lower chambers of the palaces and houses which adjoined the royal bridge? The first wall ran along that slope of Zion. Near the newly-recovered arch stood the palace of Agrippa; not far from it were the mansions of Ananias, Annas, and Caiaphas. A little controversy with the spade in that quarter will be better than a thousand debates in books and lectures. Old Jerusalem lies buried in the wreck; and those who want it must dig it up. Meantime, Mr. Grove suggests that the Assyrian Excavation Fund-of which there is a balance in Mr. Murray's hands -should be devoted to the prosecution of labour in this new field. With a good plan and a catholic purpose, it would not be difficult to raise a sufficient sum to carry out such works. JANUARY 11TH.-WEDNESDAY. Professor Goesling, a German chemist in Cincinnati, has discovered a process of making the finest sugar from Indian corn. The rate is three and a-half gallons of beautiful white syrup to a bushel of corn. The process is so simple that it can be carried on with the ordinary utensils in a farmer's kitchen. The discovery is likely to add immensely to the wealth of the north-west. A New York company, it is said, have purchased the right for §400,000, and purpose going into the business immediately. JANUARY 12TH.-THURSDAY. Droll Dresses.-It is a notable fact that some of the most extravagant attire that has ever adorned a pantomimic dandy may be traced to quiet respectable Manchester firms doing a large export business. When we behold, not only in pantomimes and extravangzas, but in farcical comedy, which purports to represent the humorous side of real life, clothes made of a checked fabric, the "loudness" of which, side by side with the costume of a pugilistic publican on the Derby-day, might be as the noise of a gong compared with that of a child's tambourine, we naturally wonder how it can be worth while to set up a loom for the weaving of such caricatured varieties of dress. But the truth is that these absurd garbs are manufactured in large quantities for the African markets; and that the same droll kind of clothing which conduces so much to the hilarity of a civilized people is all the while playing a grotesquely serious part in the conversion of the heathen on the shores of Guinea. So that, while we are laughing loudly at the spectacle of a Clown making his toilet by dragging a most outrageous pair of trousers over his white leggings and antic trunk hose, it may be that Qashee or Sambo, with shins hidden by the same species of continuations, is the object of admiring awe among his black brothers and sisters, on the lovely banks of the Old Calabar or Gaboon. JANUARY 13TH.-FRIDAY. The Proposed Tunnel Underneath the River Severn.-On Friday, a meeting was held in the Athenæum, Bristol-presided over by the Mayor of the city—for the purpose of considering the question of constructing a tunnel under the bed of the river Severn, so as to improve the communication between the mining districts of South Wales and Bristol. The importance and practicability of the undertaking having been commented upon by the chairman, Mr. Willis, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Cossham, and others, resolutions were adopted approving of the scheme, and recommending the raising of subscriptions to meet the expenses to be incurred in promoting it. A draft of the prospectus was read, in which it was proposed to raise a capital of £700,000, in 35,000 shares of £20 each. OBITUARY.-By the arrival of the West African mail we learn that Dr. Blackie, the celebrated African explorer and traveller, who had for the last six years been up the river Niger and in the interior of the country living among the natives, died at Sierra Leone on the 30th November last. The Doctor arrived at Lagos on the 21st October in H. M. ship Investigator, from the confluence of the Niger, and it was his intention to have returned to England by the Armenian this voyage. JANUARY 14TH.-SATURDAY. The Treasures of the Sea.-The Opinion Nationale has a feuilleton from the witty pen of Edmund About on the subject of la culture des eaux (the cultivation of the seas). M. E. About's idea is that nothing could contribute so much to the comfort of the poorer classes as the proper working of the rich mine of food which the ocean contains. Amongst the striking accounts which M. About brings forward to prove the superiority of fish versus flesh, in point of economy and nutritive qualities, he makes the following calculation as to what a tureen of soup, or, as the French term it, a pot-au-feu, has cost. The animal from which the meat has been taken, admitting that he weighed 400 kilos., must have consumed 60,000 kilos. of grass during his life. When killed he yields 300 kilos. of meat, the hundredth part of which is required to make the above mentioned pot-au-feu. Substitute this piece of beef by a young salmon of 3 kilos., or two years and a-half old-he was born in a stream, he spent eighteen months in a river, he swam to the sea, and in twelve months made his 3 kilos., or 7 lb. weight of good food. To convey an idea of the marvellous fecundity with which the inhabitants of the ocean are gifted, M. E. About states that one herring lays 35,000 eggs; a mackerel, 845,000; a sturgeon, 7,500,000; a turbot, 9,000,000; a cod, 9,344,000. Then, adds M. About, suppose the 845,000 mackerel eggs all become fish, and that the 422,000 spawners produce an equal number, you will have 360 billion of fish-that is sufficient to support all His Holiness's faithful children in the French Empire during the whole of Lent; but, setting Lent aside, M. About triumphantly points to the hardy and healthy populations of the coast, whose numerous families are a strong contrast to the pale and sickly populations of the Faubourgs. JANUARY 15TH.-SUNDAY. JANUARY 16TH.-MONDAY. Imperial Library at Paris.-The Temps states that arrangements are in progress at the Imperial Library at Paris, for placing at the disposal of the public on Saturdays a room, containing a selection of 40,000 volumes, for the special benefit of those persons who cannot attend on week days. OBITUARY.-A woman named M'Gin died at Glenluce, Wigtonshire, this day, at the age of 105 years. She retained possession of all her faculties to the last. JANUARY 17TH.-TUESDAY. The Postman's Bag.-Among the patterns and samples sent from the country to London by the post in one month of the year 1864-the first complete year of the inland pattern-post system-were 136 packages of tea, 178 of sugar, 907 of alpaca and stuffs, 525 of cloth, 320 of silks, 189 of corn, and smaller numbers of samples of buttons, pipeclay, oilcake, ladies' dresses, hair, drugs, glue, stays, belts, caps, boots and shoes, beans, candles, shawls, flour, china, bricks, slippers, pincers, a cribbage-board, potatoes, feathers, lozenges, hay, tallow, gasfittings, eardrops, and a host of other curious and useful articles, too many to be told. London, on its part, sent at least as many samples of its wares and merchandise to tempt country folk. An Experiment with Iron-Plating on Ships.-The French iron-clad frigate Invincible has just been taken into the dry-dock at Castigneau, which has afforded an opportunity of judging of the efficacy of the system applied to that vessel for preserving her iron plates. A band of zinc, which by isolating the electric currents guarantees the plates from that green coating which causes injury, has transformed the nature of that vegetation, and instead of a casing of marine herbs, there was found attached to the frigate's bottom a fine collection of corals. OBITUARY.-The Right Hon. the Earl of Ilchester expired this day at his seat, Melbury House, near Evershot, Dorsetshire. The late Earl, who was sixty-nine years of age, succeeded to the title and estates in 1858, on the decease of his half-brother. He married, in 1857 the daughter of Sir Robert Sheffield, Bart., and that lady survives him. The deceased Earl leaves no issue, consequently the title and estates fall to his nephew, Mr. Henry Edward Fox Strangways, who is seventeen years of age, and son of the late Hon. George Fox Strangways, by a daughter of Mr. Edward Marjoribanks. The late Earl was attached to the Embassy at St. Petersburg in 1816, at Constantinople in 1820, and at Naples in 1822. Two years later he was appointed paid attaché at the Hague, in 1825 was Secretary of Legation at Florence, and was at Naples in the same capacity in 1828. He was also Secretary of Embassy at Vienna in 1832, and was appointed Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign Office in August 1835. From August 1840, to January 1849, the late Earl acted as Envoy-Extraordinary, and Minister-Plenipotentiary at the Frankfort Diet, when he retired on a pension. His Lordship was a great horticulturist. |