Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1892-6-9, Page 10W LANDS IN THE PACIFIC. .kutb Aiscovered and Reap*. Iy Created Islands. Tome A •hood White to 'Become Well nnuainted with so nig a entice es ace. -The Unexpected, Meth or Van L tenant. night in May, 1819, Capt. De Peys- the ship Rebecce, wassouddingelong a, stiff breeze, 600 miles north of Fiji, startling cry from the deck sum - him from his cabin. He had not a tar when be heard that cry, but next se his forelock was perfectly white td age silvered his head it remained ieuous memento of that night. It aile as pitch ead rained in torrents he man forward called out. A light !" That light, which savages had. d saved the ship, for she had been onolo g toward certaen destruction n nekoowa Island. It was a night of e anxiety, for in spite of all the sail- ild do it seemed for hems an though hip would be driven to destruction he laud, preeeding night, while the Rebecca er all sail, the helnigmaai suddenly 4SV, White sandy beach apparently cable's length ahead. Turning sharp- ie starboard tack, he just ole -eel the Capt. De Peyster had diseentged up in the Pacific, the Bake and De islands, and the exciting inoidents etwo nightsdecidedhim therealior to between dark and daybreak. rs tell no that many a lost eldp 131 dfie has doubtless driven in the dark - upon some little unknown island, ug the fate that De Peyster NARROWLY ESCAPED. an at all can scarcely be distingeivinad y daylight a few miles away, because hest lend rises only thirty or forty ove sea level. Hundreds of ships y the Laughlau group, east of New , but few white men have ever eeen ow -lying islands. The best author - Australian geography say that with- doabt there are many little islands ed over the Pacirio that have never en seen by white sellers, and we know so because every HOW and then a new the ocean is brought to light. Not ttle racks, but islands ni ennaider- iportanee are discovered. NEW Booesnov. great expause stretching between s and Timor on the west aad New a on the east is still imperfectly . New islands like that which, the r Semarang discovered in 1888 south - f Teninther still give zest to travel in . The same may be said a the cle Archipelago northeast of New a, where a, while ago Capt. Allison, steamer Fei Lung, diecavered. the and now known as Allison Island, a ooded and fertile bit of land rising tibove the sea,. Mr. H. H. Remit- eribing his cruises in the western ,says thet many of the reefs and is - east of New Guinec are not marked chart, and the position of many is incorrectly laid down. The fact any islands, particularly in the west. mific, appear on e charts more or t position she that there is nch. wonw Fon F.XPLORERS part of the world, and it is remark - at explorers are now studying for at time islanela whose existence has en known. The three larger islands Louisiade and D'Entrecasteaux , off the seutheast oeoast of New , populous and interesting in all their ,were first described by Basil H. zoomn 1880. They had never been before, and absolutely nothing was about them. ikely that not a few new islands will und in the broad, almost unthread. uses where as yet no sign °fluid am - the maps. Now and then traders on some island not marked on the They guard their secret well, for it o their interest to attract rival to the fields they monopolize by an. to the world the discoveries they ot long ago a trader who had. done eusiness on the Woodlark Islands charts he had made to the Captain rman man-of-war Carole., and. they O published. Explorers were begin- avel around among his islands, and no longer hope to keep his know- hese% so he made a contribution PhY- oilman named Donald Dow was 1886 by an exploring party living ong the natives on the island of ria. Be is said to have been the te man who up to that time had ong the savages of the Bismarck go, and he was not at all pleased e intruding white men. He was beche de men and in due time a to come to carry off his cargo. It own that any white man ever land - the island of this great archipelago 875, w'hen the Challengerexpedition e. Dow said. that if he was not kill - if the Captain of the Dancing Wave ered to pick him up, the fish be had would make litin rich for life. of these islands fall into the code - those mentioned by Wilfred Powell, nt some years along the coasb of inea, and who says there are hun- not thousands of islands in the Paci- been oever been seen by white men the distance, and many he thinks ver been seen at all. The fact is eanica is so immense that no atlas or sty wall map can be nea,de of it except very small scale. We see scores of p with tho islands apparently itrIIDDLED TOGETHER, igthe impression that large arts of the deere crowded with verdant bits of ; but is ia a fact that ships often sail ugh theie groups without sighting land is not improbable that sailors to -day living the lives of Robinson Crueoe on e inland specks here and there. Such a away, a sailor named Jorgensea, and td. in 1888, living witheree nnataan com- onship on Midway Island, in that vast nese neeMevcst of Honolulu known as on Archipelago, not one of whose little ids is known to be inhabited. Abele - ?el by his shipwrecked cemrades, who refuge on another island, he had lived ditude for about a year, faring poorly sea birds and fish. geldes islands that had existed for ages re m, arioers ever saw them are others, wn open a few hears or days from the om If the sea by volcanic eruptions. veg. of' New Britain, and. the Tonga p hem witnessed this remarkable .ern000n within the past few yeere. mortelag in 1878 the awe•strieken na- •-••-•*, tires along the shore of Blanche Bay, New /Britain, saw in the bay an island which was uot there the night before. It was ebout 900 feet long and 300 feet wide, and elle natives still say that it was pushed un from the bottom of the sea, though it is evident that it Was formed by tho enor- mous volumes of mud and debris that were shot high into the air from <meters that had openedio the sea floor. It was at this time that the remarkable speetecle was witness ed of a great bay full of violently boiling water, and for some time the neighborhood was rendered uninhabitable by reason of the immense quantitiee of fish that were killed in the euperlaeated waters. We may expect from time to time to hear of the birth of new islands along the various lilies of volcanic action through the Pacific. The same forces that reared Ice- land above the sea, within a recent geologi- cal age, by means of matter brought from the bowels of the earth, are still in opera- tion and. the two most conspicuous ex- amples of these convulsions of nature that have recently occurred are found, one in our Aleutian chain and, the other in the middle of the Pacific in the Tonga group. Old Bogaslov is a volcano the Russiana wrote about over a hundred years ago. For forty years ib apparently had been extinct, until its internal fires burst forth again. in 18S2, and from new craters opening in the sea floor a new mountain was thrown up from the sea,. New Bogaslov- was first seen in 1883, and an isthmus connected it with old Bogaslov. This isthmus and the rock in its centre, celled Sail Rock, have now sunk out of sight, and vessels pass between the. new and old moun- tain. Last surrim.er clouds of steam and vapor were still escaping from numerous fissures that extend almost to the base of New Bogaslov. This great mass of volcanio matter issued from a submarine volcanic • vent, the debris filling up around. the (water until it reached, the sea level, forming the foundation for the mountain it reared above the water, New Bogaslov has the <listing. tion of being the latest addition to our domain. Nobody saw the birth of New Bogaslov, but a little party that left one of the Tonga Islands in October, 1885, on the schooner Sandfly, witnessed THE ATFALLING SPECTACLE of the making of a new island at a distance of forty miles from the nearest land. One of these pictures gives a faille conceptiou of the wondexful scene before them as they gazed upon it eight miles away. . Vast masses of volcanic matter were ris- ing in three great columns to a height of several thousand feet. Smaller quantities of erupted substances were thrown from numerous minor vents. The heavier material quickly fell back into the sea, while volcanic dust, light, brown in color, like that which caused the red sunset glows after the Krakritau eruption, floated away at a great elevation; and higher yet rose vapor from the craters expanding into clouds of dazzling whiteness. Each up - throw from the main craters carried hundreds of tons of matter, which was from twelve to sixteen seconds in reaching its greatest altitude. The next day the volcanic forces were quiescent, and the Smadfly approaehed near enough to see a long, narrow island about forty feet high. A few days leer the eruptive energy was resumed et th greater violence than ever, and yam finally ceased Falcon Island, as b eras Gar,t.cl was three miles long, a mile wide, and 150 feet high at its highest point. It is only a bare, brown heap of ashes, around which big waves break, sweep- ing up the steep shores in sheets of foam. Many a Pacific island, the result of volcanic action, was just such an ash heap when first it peered above the sea. A little soil has accumulated in spots on Falcon Island, and a few cocoanut trees and plants are dragging out a sickly existence. At present the waves are carrying the island rapidly away. But even if it should disappear entirely there is little doubt that there is to be an island fitted for the abode of man. Mr. Lister says the islands nearest to it justify the in- ference that the volcanic debris of Falcon will give a resting place to a host of marine animals and plants; banks of pelagic shells will accumulate in sheltered places; cora reefs will grow- and reach the surface ; sand banks will be formed to which the seeds of shore -loving plants will be drifted. by the waves, and another verdant island will be added to the summer seas. The seven Bibles or the World. The seven Bibles of the world are the Koran of the Mohammedans, the Tri Pitikes of the Budhists, the Five Kings of the Chin- ese, the Three Vedas of the Hindoos, the Zendavesta of the Persians, the Eddas of the Scandinavians, and the Bible of the Gilds - thins. The Eddas is the most recent and cannot really be called more than a semi - sacred work. It was given to the world sometime during the fourteenth century of OGT era. The Koran is the next mosb ancient, dat- ing from about the seventh century A. D. It is composed of sublime thoughts from both the Ohl and the New Testaments, with fre- quent, almost literal, quotations from the Talmud. The Budhista Tri Pitikes were composed in the sixth century before Christ; its teachings are pure and sublime, its aspira- tion lofty in the extreme. The word. "King," as used in connection with the sac- red work of the Chinese, simply means "web of clotm i h." Frothis ID s presumed that they were originally written on fine rolls of cloth. The Vedas are the most ancient works in the language of the Hindoos, but they do not, according to the best commentaries, antedate the twelfth century before the opening of the Christian era. The &oda- vesta of the Persians contain the sayings of Zoroaster, who lived and worked. in the twelfth century B. C. Across the continent with. a Wheelbarrow The fact that a man. is now trudging across the American Continent pushing a wheelbarrow before him revives interest in "Potter, the wheelbarrow crank," who traveled over exactly the same route in 1878. Ilis full name was Lyman Potter, and his place of residence Albany, N. Y. He was a shoemaker by trade and much given to boasting of his feats as a pedestrian. O'Leary was doing his big walking about that time and bed lust finished a ten -days walk at New tort city. One day in the presence of many witnesses Potter said that he him- self could outdo O'Leary in feats of endur- ance. Some one suggested that he walk to San Francisoo on trial. Potter did not hesi- tate a moment but offered to wager that he could make the trip in a given length of time, and, furthermore, that he could wheel a "paddy" barrow the enare distance, The money was covered and Potter left hie home on Dove Street, Albany, on the. morning of April 10, 1878, and arrivectat San Feel:wino on the evening of October 6, being exactly 180 days in •making the trip. The wheel- bandw and load (his clothing and cooking utensils) weighed seventy -nye pounds. The distence traveled was 4085 miles. ABOUT A BIG TR1Ell. A. Man Could Nide Seventy Feet Ender About 1856 I had some business with William W. Hanford, who owned a saw mina few miles from the famous Mammoth Grove in California. I rode from his mill, some ten or twelve miles, to see the mon- sters. Mr, Hanford was the gentleman who had the big tree as it is called, cut down, and related to me his experience, as fol- lows :-Said he : "1 thought there would be a speculation in stripping the bark from the ground up about 20 feet, taking it off in sections, and shipping it to New York, and then setting it up for exhibition, the bark being about two feet thick. So I set five good men at the work, and in a few days we had the baain off, ready to ettp... Then an idea struck me to fell he monster before taking the bark off. I had measured with a long tape line,around the butt, and it was a few inches over 90 feet in circumference -33 feet across. I then had some pump augers spliced out, and set four men to boring through from each side; and I put long handles into mortising chisels, and set the fifth man to cutting off the wood left be- tween the auger holes, so, after some week. WE SAW LIGHT, elear through the o entre of it, which was sound to the core. I left a portion on each side, north and south, to be cut off with chopping axes. I selected my men, who chopped right and left hand foremost, and with four light chopping axes, we soon lied it Chopped off, so that it settled down about an inch on its base, the top being light, and little or no wind, and the tree standing so erect that it did not fall over. I then made hard wood beetles and got some iron wedges and very large wooden wedges, and, after nearly two days of hard work of five good men, we tipped it over. I then sent my 20 feet of bark to San Franoisco, loaded them on a steamer, and eeacked them on mules' becks acrossl,he Isthmus, and finally got them to New York, hired a large hall on Broadway, and set them up. Men would come in and pay their 25 cents, and look at it and say Mister, where did you get that?' I would tell them the truth. Then some of them would say: Oh, my 1 you can't make us believe that that ever come off a tree ; there NEVER WAS A TREE ON EARTIT the size of that.' I was determined not to be beat. So I sent back, had my men dave- tail four or five long crosscut saws together, and saw about OM foot thiol e off the butt of the tree, showing the borings on one side, and. hewed off 50 05 to leave a piece with the heart of the tree in the centre and twelve inches wide smoothed off the sawed side with a carpenter's plane, packed it and, took it to New York, and fitted it into my bark shell. Than I said; Now, look at that, and see how I made it.' By that time I was out of pocket between $3,000 and $4,000, ao I sold out to some Englishmen, and they took it to London. Mr. Hanford said in conclusion, 'Now, if I should find a men, maid with eight tails'I would not exhibit her in New York.' They hewed off and smoothed the upper portion of this fallen tree, andbuilt a roof ovor it, and used ib for a bowling alley. There was a staircase of twenty-three steps up the side of this tree, near the large end, which reached a little above the centre; then notches were cut in for the feet to walk up to the top. To took off the butt down was like looking off the stein of the Great Eastern.' There were about savnxer OF THESE MONSTERS in the grove of about 70 acres, variously named the Twin Sisters Father and Son, Mother of the Forest, Sisters, of the Forest, etc., etc. The Prostrate was the largest in cireumference, and hollow for 72 feet." In Trenton, N. J. some twenty years ago I was in a lumber office, and some lumber- men sat there on a work bench telling of some of the big trees they bad seen up the river. I heard a number tell their yarns, and said: "Boes, you don't call them big trees, do you ? Why, 1 saw an old. hollow tree in California that a man could ride 70 feet through on horse back, and rido out through a knot hole." One of theni got down and took offhis old slouched hat, and said: "Say, mister, that ain't the best of a hat, but it is all I've got, and you are welcome to it." Then someone said after I went out that I did not adhere to the truth. I had actually told the truth, but could not blame the man for calling me a prevari- caton-DLE. Emerson, in Scientific Ameri- can. 147/00•11/.. -Ila. Number of People Since Adam. Did you ever make a. calculation of the probable number of people that have in- habited. our globe since the beginning of time? No doubt you will say that sue - calculations involve a loss of blew, and are, after all, barren of results. But as the compileris engaged togivecurious items and odd calculations, let us take a few minutes time and approximate, with a certain degree of accuracy, the number of souls that have been ushered into this wicked world since the time when it was "not good for Adam to be alone." At the present time it is be- lieved that there are 1,400,000,000 human beings on the globe ; but let us suppose that there has been but an average of 900,000,- 000 living at any one time since the creation. Next, to give room for any possible doubt, we will put the average length of life at 50 years. (It may have been mach loeger than that 5000 years ago, but has been much shorter for the last thousand years). With the average length of life as above, we have had two generations of 900,000,000 each every century for the past 6000 years. Tak- ing this for granted, this globe has had 66, 627, 843, 237, 075, 266 human inhabitants since the beginning of time. To even. bury this vast number the whole landed eurface of the globe, every inch of it, would. have to be dug over 120 times The Miner's Repiy. The Prince of Wales, duringa recent visit to Doncaster, went with a friend for a stroll near Wentworth House'and came across a miner accompanied by a brace of bull -terriers. • Wishing to appear sociable, the Prince's friend asked the man how much he hacl paid for them. "Two quid," was the laconic reply. The prince looked them over critically, and remarked : "Don't you think two pigs would have been a better investment for you, my good man ?" "Happen so," replied the collier "bub mister, what a fool a chap would look goin' " a-rattin' wid two pigs." A Tiny llene-Ftece. M. Morquet, a frier of the Florentine order in Paris, has constructed a perfect watch only a quarter of an inch in diam- eter. Besides the two hands seen on all watches it has a third which marks the seconds, besides a microscopic dial whieh indicates the days, weeks months, and years. It also contains an alarm, and, on its front lid is an ingeniously cut figure of St. Francis. On the back cover, by aid of a powerful glass, von can distinctly read two verses of the " rre Deum." r CROW'S NEST PASS DISTRICT. Deolared to be a Country of Illimitable Possibilities, coal and Coal Oil Both Found in Alain- dance-luteresting Gleanings From a Ile - port on Geological observations. There has just been issued a summary from the Canadian Geological Survey De. partment. It contains Dr. Selwyn's report on the work done by officers of the depart- ment in the Crow's Nest pass and dietrict. After dealing with some experiments made in Alberta, Dr. Selwyn speaks of Camp Ak- aniina, just inside the British Columbia boundary, and the country thereabout :-- " Cameron Falls brook is a rapid moun- tain stream eight or ten yards wide. After following it up about a mile and a half on the left bank, Mr. Fernie, my guide, remark- ed that we must be close to where the oil had been found. He had scarcely spoken when, while still on the saddle and the trail eight or nine feet above the brook, I noticed a powerfrd odor of petroleum. Descending to the edge of the water and stirring the stones and gravel in the bed of the stream, considerable quantities of oil at once rose to the surface and floated away. Crossing to the right bank it was again seen coming out of the bank, SOITle inches above the then level of the stream, Iere, skimming it off the surface of a shallow pool, a wine bottle full was soon colleeted. This can now be seen in the Geological Survey museum, Sixty or 70 yards below where the oil was seem a rocky reef of grey siliceous dolomite crams the creek and rises into a steep bluff on the left bank; on the right bank, seven or eight feet above the creek, a broad, thick- ly timbered flat extends for 150 yards eo the base of Thn HORGERING mouNTAINS, which culminate six miles to the southwest at the boundary monument, 6,0U0 feet above sea level. No work whatever has been done to test the nature of bhe oil sources. A. comparatively small outlay for some shallow sinking or boring on the flat above described would do this. On the 23rd we proceeded through the Pass, crossing the summit and camping on Akamina, brook about six miles clown on the western slope in British Columbia. On the 24th we proceeded down the valley, and at about four miles north of the 49th parallel the trail came down to the level of the brook, and here on the edge of a beaver dam pool there were ledges of bard dark blue shale dipping E. 300 N. 120. Lifting layers of this at and below the water & quantity of dark green circular patches of oil rose to the surface, and a pre- cisely similar result followed by stirring up the mud in the bottom of the pool. This place is about 15 miles inc direct line, west 10 ° south, from the ocaurrence on Cameron Falls creek, the mein watershed of the Rocky mountains, and Mounts Kirby, Spence and Yarrell intervening. Oil is said by the Indians (the Stoneys) who frequent this region to occur at other points in the Akatnime Brook valley, both above and be- low- that recorded. The Aleamino joins the Flathead river in Montana, about four miles south of the international boundary. The Beaver dam oil is of a dark greenish black and does not apparently differ much from that of Cameron Falls creek. Preliminary tests might be made hero by sinking a shah low shaft in the shales at the Leaver dam pool, and by a boring on the sandy and gravelly flat country, about two miles and a half north of the boundary line." The reporb then deals with the move- ments of the party up to their arrival in the valley of Sage Creek, about nine miles from its mouth. In this connection, he says :- " At about a mile and a half higher up, the creek leaves the high mountains which border its upper course in a northeasterly direction up to the main watershed some 12 or 14 miles distant, and hero at the edge of the water, on the left bank, I found hard, dark, flinty scales like those at the Beaver dam pool on the Aleamina dipping S. 25- 30 degs., W. 25 dogs. Directly the Dieters of this rook are raised the oil rises and spreads over tho surface of the water in such abundance that a short time suffices, with the aid of it tin cup, to collect a bottle full. Here also a considerable quentity of gas escapes from the cracks and joints in the rock and ignites freely on the applica- tion of a match. Less than half A MILE HIGHER 1/2, on the right bank and on the opposite or west side of the valley, oil was again found issuing from the base of a bank of delft which has here filled the valley and caused the stream to make a sharp bend eastward to the base of the opposite mountain. No rock was exposed here, but every stone in the bed of the creek, especially on being broken or rubbed, gave out a strong odor of petroleum. The oil collected here, a sample of which can be seen in the museum, differs entirely in appearance from those of Cameron Falls creek and Akamiva or Kish-e-ne-nali creek. Some of it was ole lighe lemon yellow, but most of it nearly the color of pale brandy and with a very powerful petroleam odor. The gen- eral geological structure, the character of the rocks and the physicial aspect of the country in the South Kootenay, the North Kootenay and the Crow's Nest and other passes of the Rocky mountains have.been admirably described by Dr. G. M. Dawson, and the South Kootenay pass is also de- scribed in his report on the genlogy and re- sources of the 49th parallel, 1875. For de- tails on the subject named these works can be referred to. The present is, however, I believe, the first recorded instance of the occurrence of petroleum in this region as well as its occurrence in Cambrian weeks. Whether the reference of the rocks to the age is correct, is not quite certain ; that it is so as regards the somewhat similar sill, ceous dolomites and quartzose strata, of the Kicking Horse pass has been proved by the discovery of a Cambrian fauna and there seems no reason to doubt that the petroleum - bearing beds of the South Kootenay pass are of the same age. At present, however, ex- cept on the traverse made by Dr. Dawson, little or NOTHING /8 ElN OWN respecting the distribution of the formations in the great block of mountainous country Which lies between the 49th and 51st paral- lels of latitude and the 115th and 117th degrees of longitude, and which comprises the Purcell, Hughes, Macdonald and Gahm ranges and covers an area of about 9,600 square miles, much of it densely wooded and with peaks ranging to eight and nine thou- nd feet." Speaking of the coal possibilities he tells of observations made at the mining camp, east of Crow's Nest lake, and situated about 1,200 feet above the trail, on the ridge which runs in a northeasterly direction between Marten creek and Michel creek, and forms the west side of the valley of the west branch of Michel creek. From thts ridge a number of spurs with steep intervening gullies descend abruptly to the trait; 10 these and on the intervening ridges a won- derful series of coal seams is discloted, one above the other from near the level of the trail to the TS uramit of the ridge. No exact measurements were taken, and it rosy be that some of the lower cannel seams are the upper ones repeated by faulting. The out. crops, whMli can all be seen on the ground are twenty seams in all, showing a total thickness mf 132 feet of coal as follows: No, 1, 5 feet ; 2, 3 feet; 3,4 feet ; 4, 2 feet; 5, 4 feet ; 6, 3 feet; 7,2 feet; 8, 4 feet ; 9, 5 feet; 10, 6, feet. (oTo, 1 to 10 inclusive are cannel coals.) 11, 4 feet; 12, (Peter seam), 15 feet; 13, 7 feet; 14, (Selwyn seam), 6 feet, (so named by Col., Baker); 15, (Jubilee seam), 80 feet ; 16, ( Williams' seam), 20 feet; 17, 5 feet; 18, 3 feet; 19, 2 feet; 20, 2 feet. These last four are cannel coal, After some sgaensei:11 observations the writer of the report y "The few hours I was able to spend o the ground, while not suffieient to euabl me to affirm the absolute correctness of th details of the table, were, however, ampl to enable me to see that there is in th Crow's Nest pass, between the eastern sum- mit, 4,330 feet above tide, and the valley of Elk river, in British. Columbia, an area of not less than 144 square miles that is des- tined to be one of the most valuable and mos t rnonnorrva COAL FIELDS in Canada, A rough Oalculetion would give about 46,952,000 tons per square mile. If one-half of this is available there are in each square mile 24,976,000 tons. The average elevation of the field is about the same as that of Canmore and Banff, or between 4,- 000 and 5,000 feet. From Pincher creek westward to Elk river the pass presents no difficulties for railroad construction. The eastern entrance to the pass in Alberta is 3,800 feet, and where it comes out on the Elk river is 3,300 feet; the highest inter- vening sum mitbeing 5,500 feet. A better route to the Elk uver, however, than that of the present trail would be to follow down Michel creek from near the eastern small and reach Elk river about ton miles above the mouth of Coal creek. The distance through the pass from Lee's lake, .Alberta, to the Elk river is about thirty-seven At Coal creek the record says that at the mouth of a steep rocky gulch, about 200 yards to the right of the trail, a due seam of coal 7 feet thick had been cut into. Tho section exposed showed in descending order: Shale, 10 ft.; hard ferruginou, bands, 1.6ft ; coal 1 -Oft; shale, 7,6 It, ; coal, 7.6 It. Cherty conglomerate and massive gritty sandstones are seen bothabove and below; the dip is about E. 100 N. 15 ° -10 0 . A close search along the mountain side, between here and the watershed at the head of Coal creek, would almost certainly dis- close the outcrops of many more of the Marten creek seams. The officer descended the Elkriver valley about seven miles, then turning to tho left ascended the rnountaim a steep climb of 1,500 feet. Here on the top of a broken- down oliff of massive sandstone, about 50 feet thick, he came to the fu -et of series of coal seams. Above this four more seams were examined. About No. 0 there are six more seams which were nob visited, but the particulars of which were given by Mr. Perot,. These give a total thickness of 148 feet of coal against 132 feet in the 1k/torten creek area on the eastern side of the basin, while in other respects the seams correspond so closely as to make it ahnost certain that, except where cut out in the valleys, they are continuous beneath the whole interven- ing area.. For much detailed information respecting the Crow's Nest pass the annual report of the Geological Survey, vol. 1, part b, 1885, already cited, and the map can be referred to. Many of the seams are first- class coking coals and others are good gas coals, but none of them are antlinteites. LEPERS IN BOXIIADA. LATE CABLE h1WS Prinoe George of Wales -The King of Spain -.4. .Royal Visitor. Prince George of Wales has been dilly Created Duke of York. He will celebrate his 28th birthday in Copenhagen and then return to England, and gradually aocusthm himself and the people to his new position as hen' apparent. The apartments in St James's Palace prepared. for his late brotlaer are being made ready for him upon a scale e which indicates that he is not expected to e occupy them for any length of time alone. e The Princess of Wales, by tbe way, sleeps e nighbly at Copenhagen in the very room and e bed which she occupied when a girl. It is said that the little King. of Spain, who is now in his summer quarters at Aran juez, is having meat fun with a pony and bicycle. He is growing tall, strong, and self-willed, and needs a brother to keep him in order, as in the English royal family when Prince George of Wales used to knock the conceit out of Albert Victor. Alfonso XIII., unfortunately has only women about him, including two sisters, whom he terrorizes, and a 'nether of whom he is not a bit afraid. The Gaekwar of Baroda is coming to England, notwithstanding far -away hints that his company is not hankered after. Worse than this he is bringing one of Ids • wives, the Martlninee Chimnabai Salieba, whose name will have to be mastered by unhappy major demos, together with this fearsome collection of the names of members of the family: Shrinia,nb Sampatrao, Gaek- war Shrimant Anehitruo, G aek war Shrimant Bajoobeal? A harjtaerhebedar Rojessei Sea t morth, Prince Fattesingrao, Prince Jeysin rao, and Baturao Narayer Kale. The leas -- war's following will include three valets charged solely with the grooming of his Highness : five cooks, who alone may pre- pare his food, and twenty ordinary ser- vants. According to present intentions he will mercifully stay only three weeks. The Emir ISRUeS an Order to Separate tue Men Front the Women. Some months ago reference was made in some nf the papers about the lepers of Bolt - liege who were peimitted to marry each other, and thus perpetuate and extend leprosy in Central Asia and beyond it. None of the books of travellers who have within the past fow years visited Bokbara gives any details of the peat spot in the big city of ceotral Asia. But Mr. Emile Muller has written recently a slicrt note on tho lepers of Bokhara which has appeared in a Russian periodical of Satnarcand. He says that comparatively few people know that the city of Bokhara has its leper .quarter. The outcasts are huddled together In houses on the northern edge of the city. The dis trict is known by the name of Gouzari Pissiane. The lepers live there lea, state of the greatest independence, receive no medical assistance, and, in fact, do nob ask for ib. Marriages among them having never been prohibited, new generations of these unfortunates spread the disease. It is worthy of remark that np to seven- teen years of age the children do not show any trace of the terrible malady, but three years later the disease covers their bodies. The Emir of Bokhara has had his attention called to the evils resulting from the mar- riage of these victims of the disease, and in accordance with the advice of Russian physicians, he, last fall, ordered the separa- tion of the men from the women. He also decided to establish a hospital for lepers, and to employ in that institution the best specialists, in order to see if leprosy can- not be cured, or at least, the sufferings of the victims mitigated. The order of the Emir was of a drastic nattire and could be warranted only by the sternest necessity, or it separated husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, and children an parents. It has often puzzled the uninitiated to give a reason why musicians tune their instru- ments in public and not before they enter the orchestra. If they tuned their instru- ments before entering the theatre or concert room the temperature is very apt to be dif- ferent in the place of performance, and - therefore the instruments would not be in tune. A piano that isin tune in a cold room would get out of tune if the room were sud- nenly heated. While the United States, Canada and Australia are suffering from a dearth of do mestic servants, the supply being alto- gether inedequate to the demand, England on the other hand may be said to be surfeited with this particular clots of labor. For ac- cording to the report just issued by the newly organized London Domesbic Servants' Union, there are at the present moment no less than 10,000 trained eervants of good character walking about the streets of the British metropolis in search of employment. According to the last census returns, Eng. land possesses no less than 76,000 coachmen and grooms 56,250 male indoor servants, and 1,230:000 female indoor servants, Among other information contained in the report of the Union is a duly authenticated statement to the effect that four-fifths of the inmates of one of the largest, London work- houses leave been at one time or another employed as domestic servants. This is one of those matters in which America differs radically from England. For over hero it is far more frequently the employers who end their days in the workhouse, while their former servants die rich. SECESSIONISTS IN DITEENSTAND. The Central and Northern Districts Wish to to It Alone, The people of central and northern Queensland have petitioned the British Gnvernment for legislation that will erecb the districts into separate and independent colonies. Similar movements have been started there before, but none that had the force aud serious enthusiasm that is behind the present petition. The case which the delegates ho.ve presented to the Secretary of State for the Colonies is very strong, Few persons realize the immense extent of the territory which was assigned to Queensland when that colony was carved out of the mother settlement of New South Wales in 1859. Queensland is larger than the United States between the Atlautie Ocean and the Mississippi River. It is Almost as large as the Indian entpire of Great Britain. Ib presents a wide diversity of climate and. resources. The whole population of the colony is only 400,000, and more than three- fourths of the inhabitants liv:e in the tem- perate regions of the southern district Of which Brisbane is the business centre. Brisbane and the southern district com- mand a permanent majority of the members of the Legislature, and the inhabitants of the central and northern districts complain that their interests are neglected; that the revenue raised. by the colony is spent as Brisbane pleases; that central and northern districts of Queensland do not get their fair share of public improvements.'and that, in fact, the 13riabane district is flourishing at the expense of the resb of the colony.. Inas- much as their feiterests and industrees differ so greatly from those of the southern part of the colony, they think they should be per- mitted to separate from Oneensland and have the privilege of attending to their own interests. They desire, however, to erect two colonies, ono in central and the other in northern Queensland, because the iuterests of the two regions aro far from identical. Rockhampton, the chief town of the central region, has a very large trade in cattle, supplied by the great ranches to which rail- roads extend far to the westward. On the other hand, the people of the northern settle- ments are very active in. mining and sugar enterprises and other pursuits fitted for a , tropical climate. They say the Rockhamp- tou district cannot legislate for them any better than the people of south Queensland, and so the original demand for the creation of one new colony is now supplanted by the present scheme for two colonies. It is not certain what the imperial Govern- ment will deckle to do. Brisbane desires he entire colony to be kept together, and promises to legislate in the future more for the intererests of the northern part of the country. The loyalty of Queensland has never been very great, and 00 80010 previous occasions, when they have had grievances to air, they have threatened to cut off entirely from the control of Great 13ritain. lb is probable that the Colonial Office in London will endeavor to gain a little time by advis- ing the delegates to await the action of the Parliament now in session at Brisbane. The colonists of the northern" districts have received the most ample promises that the present Parliament will look out care- fully for their interests and vote for what is necessary for the development of their dis- tricts. A Dusky Joker. • "Now, Margaret," said Mrs. Jackson, addressing the colored cook, " we have just got in a supply of flour and I want you to make it go as far as possible." " Yessum." "The times are very hard now, you un- derstand, and it is about as much as we can du to meet expenses."' " Yessum. "1 hope that you will pay attention t what I say." " Yessum." About two weeks later Margaret went to Mrs. Jackson and said: "De fiour is out." " What? ' "1 say de flour is out." "That can't be possible." "Wall, it's out, all de same." "You good for nothing thing, you took the moat of that flour home, you know you, did 1" "Who, me?" "Yea, you." "Wall, now, sense you are gittin' - pussonal, I'll jest tell yer dat yer ougtecr mine how yor talks ter me. Yer said, deb yer wanted dat flour ter go ez for ez. pos- sible, an' ma,de it go fur, way out on de yudder Mae' ce". dat ain't fur, ernuff out of the country" ----s--- "1 have a great mind to haee you restack" "What far ? 'Case yeese'f kain't toko er john I wuz jokin' wid dite deux, but of yer wants ter get mad erbout b, ee'y kain't he'p it. Reckon I'd better whti ye; an' wUck for a puss= dat'a got ankta' WM- gence."