The Seaforth News, 1950-02-09, Page 3Queerest Mine
In The World
John Clayton Gil'thread, bespee-
teclecl, middle-aged citizen of Chats-
worth, California, has become
wealthy "dishing up" oysters 10,000,-
000 years oldl lie's not a restaurant
owner but a miner with the most
' unusual diggings in the world—an
• oyster mine situated on a mountain
up half a mile above sea level.
This southern California rancher
accidentally stumbled on the huge
bed of oyster fossils while strolling
over his property one day about
twenty years ago. It has made hitn
rich,
Gilbrand's much is not the type
Mat most farmers yearn to own -or
rather it wasn't until the discovery
was made. Situated itt a !tot, acid
section 2,400 feet above sea level,
little vegetation can grow in the
rocky soil, Gillibrand's small herd
of cattle failed to tinive on their
sparse diet, and he was hard put to
grow enough garden produce for
his own table.
One day, in debt and discouraged,
Gillibrand made a tour of his proper -
#y, wondering whether to sell it.
Kicking disconsolately into the
loose earth on top of Tapo Tnotut-
Min, an ugly hill right in the centre
of his ranch, he noticed a handful
sof prehistoric sea shells, He put a
few in his pocket as curios,
Some time later he showed the
fossils to a geologist and took him
!o the spot where they had come to
tate surface. Gillibrand's friend tried
to conceal his excitement, and a few
days later he reported that Tapo
mountain was, in reality, a huge
mound of prehistoric oyster shells
and other fossils containing 97 per
sent. calcium, a product in big de-
mand as poultry feed and fertilizer.
Scientists explain that the unusual
deposit—the largest of its kind in
that part of the world—is the result
of a tremendous earthquake which
occurred millions of years ago. The
convulsion lifted the oceam bed a
half -mile into a mountain, The mar-
ine life died and was converted into
thearly pure calcium during the
ousands of centuries that followed.
The Tapo bed was found to con -
Min oysters of all sizes, some of
them as muchas three feet in dia-
meter. These forth the top layer of
an Estimated 50,000 -foot -deep ac-
eumulation of marine sediment. Test
holes have proved that Gillibrand's
oyster mountain is at least 2,300
feet deep and probably deeper:
The rancher, however, isn't wor-
rying about the full extent of the de-
posit. Even at the rate of his present
mining operations, digging and the
processing 100 tons a day, he says
he has enough ermined shells to
keep his crew of fourteen men busy
for 500 years,
Gillibrand did not rush out to sell
mining shares in order to finance
his new business. He bought an old
lorry and a second -had rock -crusher
and for several years mined, crushed
and packaged the product with hie
own hands. Gradually, the business
was expanded from the profits. To-
day, Gillibrand has more than $150,-
000 invested in equipment, and
profits are estimated to be over
$500 a day.
Won The Bet
The song writer was a guest at
a party. He loaded himself with food
and drink, and then began annoying
the piano keys. When he finished,
the host walked.up to him,
"While you were playing," smiled
the host, "I made a bet with a friend.
What was the name of the song you
played?"
The song writer smiled proudly,
"You've never heard it before," he
boasted. It's one of my new compo-
sitions."
The host nodded, "Then I win
my bet," he said happily. "My friend
insisted the piano was out of .tune!"
WE'RE RUNNING FOURT
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VI'II
Ii
Taking the United States as equal to 1‘41i
100 per cent, this chart shows what
proportion of the American worker's
diet cart be bought with one hour's
work in other countries. Figures are
from U. S. Labor Deportment.
Landing A Good Shoal of Si.oek
A post-war addition to Britain's
larder, about which there has been
a good deal of controversy, is a
fish called "Snoelc,"
John Seymour, in London Call-
ing, tells of catching some off the
coast of South Africa.
For a typical day's fishing in
Walvis Bay waters, each vessel car-
ried a crew of from eight to 13
men, with Swedish or Portuguese
skippers and colored or half-caste
crews from the Cape. We would
sleep the night hove -to, right out
on the ocean, and at dawn we would
muster and get the ship moving,
either by setting the sails to draw
or by starting up the engine. Then
we would takeour places round the
stern, standing between the gun-
wale and a fence of planks, which
was to keep the fish from getting
under our feet.
Each man had a short, hand -line
fastened to the rail, On the end
of the hand -line was a fire trace,
then a heavy, conical lead, then a
steel hook,' the size of the outline
of a man's hand, with no barb on
it.
Tied to the eye of the hook was
a frayed piece. of shark skin, which
flashed through the water, and
looked like a pilchard --at least, the
snoek thought it did.
As the ship sailed slowly along,
we jerked our lines in the water to
attract the snook. We might keep
this np for an hour or two without
getting a bite, and then, suddenly,
every man's line was whipping and
cutting through the water with a
fish on it.
We had to pull in our lines with
all our strength. It was like hang-
ing on to a bucking bronco; and If
you did not pull in right smartly,
your fish would weave about and
tangle up other people's lines, and
then you would hear some very'
choice Cape Dutch.
All around was frenzied activity
—every man pulling fish in and
swinging them out as fast as ho
could, the fish leaping and jumping
about on the deck behind, people
swearing and shouting, and people
bowling for the cook to leave his
pots and pans in the fo'castle and
come and fish, too. I have done
many things, but I have never done
anything more exciting than get-
ting in a good shoal of snoek,
The battle night last an hour, by
which time the stern was heaped
high with fish, whioh were falling
over the fence of planks and get-
ting mixed up with our feet. Then
was the time for the skipper to give
the order to "head," but It was al-
ways a job for him to get us to coil
our lines, for every snoek that we
caught meant more money for us.
"Clo's for de missus an' shoes for
-- By Harold Anlett
CEMENT SPREADER
A LOT OF TIME CAN BE
SAVED IN LAYING ROLL
ROOFING BY USING THIS
SPREADER TO APPLY
CEMENT, IT CONSISTS
OF A FUNNEL PROVIDED
WITH A HANDLE AND A
LEATHER FLAP FOR
CONTROLLING THE
CEMENT FLOW, FASTEN
THE FLAP TO THE
Seotir WITH A PIECE
OF WIRE.
PIPE CURE
MOISTEN THE INSIDE Ors A
NEW PIPE BOWL AND COAT
IT WITH POWDERED SUGAR.
THE SUGAR WILL BURN
AND COAT THE BOWL WITH .
714E FIRST SMOKE, 'THIS
WILL BREAK IN A NSW
PIPE.
"hanks, aC,H.,
✓ank1/4l�itr
de hobby!" Old Petrus, who stood
next to me, used to shout.
"You mean dop for Petrusl"
some cynic would reply — "dop"
being the South African for brandy.
But, at last, we would consent to
coil our lines, and each man would
take up a great carving knife and
begin to slice off the heads of the
snoek as fast as he could, and
throw them overboard. The snoek'„
gills are filled with little thorns, and
as you have to put your fingers into
the gill to hold the fish, it is rather
painful. However, we gaffed the
headed fish forward out of the way,
swilled down the deck, and returned
to our lines. Maybe, we could
start catching again immediately, or
perhaps we would wait an hoer or
two before striking them again.
Meanwhile, two wizened old
Cape Malays were busy at the
flecking tables. One would pick up
'a snoek by the tail, lay it on the
table, and, with four quick strokes
with a little knife, lay it open along
the back so that it was flat like a
kipper.
'Within a third of a minute from
being picked up, the fish would be
flying through the air into a wash-
ing tank. From there, it was pitch -
forked out again and taken to a
salting table. It would be rubbed
in the salt, then flung into one of a
half -a -dozen huge, wooden tanks,
which took up most of the space on
the deck,
It would lie there pickling in its
own juice for, perhaps, 24 hours,
and then, after dark, when the fish
would not bite, it would be my
privilege, as mate, to pitch it into
the hold with, perhaps, 1,000 others,
and stow it into a neat stack.
Save the Surface!
Consider the automobile. Though
it is a rugged piece of machinery,
its owner, aided by the designers
and the accessory trade, pampers it
with protection.
Once the radiator was the front
of the,atitontobile, Now it is cov-
ered by the hood and protected by
a grille. Then the grille must be
defended by a bumper and a bump-
er guard.
The inetal. of the body is covered
with the finest, hardest, and shiniest
of enamels, Yet the careful car
owner covers the enamel with wax
or a plastic finish—he must protect
the paint that protects the metal.
Even underneath, the modern car
now usually wears a rubber under-
coating to guard it from mud, sand
and rust.
Inside, the manufacturer selects
his upholstery for style olid dura-
bility; and a salesman persuades the
buyer to put on seat covers to pro-
tect the upholstery front being
soiled—or seen.
Remember the cars that stood in
a few salesrooms before the holi-
days, wrapped In cellophane Eke
Christmas packages? We fully ex-
pect some day to see one of those
being driven down the street.—The
Christian Science Monitgr,
One-Tirner
Maybe you've heard the one about
a passenger flying over Canada.
"Say," the man next to hint sud-
denly inquired, "slid that Dionne
fellow ever have any more quintup-
lets?" "Certainly not." "I knew it,"
maintained the other triumphantly,
"I always said that guy was a
flash in the pan."
More To An Egg
Than You'd Think
The siory of the egg is an in-
teresting one. Most of us take for
granted that an egg has a shell
inside of which there is a yolk,
a white, and an air cell. Close
examination will, however, reveal
several more parts. Just inside the
shell are the outer and inner shell
membranes. Next to these mem-
branes can be found the white.
Close observation will show not
one but three layers of white. Next
to the shell membranes is a layer
known as the outer thin white. And
then comes the dense or thick
white. Inside the thick white is
the inner thin white. And, believe
it or not, there's still another layer,
not easily seen by the eye, which
surrounds the yolk and goes by
the fancy terns of chalaziferous
Layer of white, This layer is pro-
lcnged toward the ends of the egg
in which two whitish cords are
twisted in opposite directions and
tend to hold the yolk in the center
of the egg.
Within the chalaziferous layer
of white and around the yolk is
the vitelline membrane. This serves
to keep the yolk in nearly round
shape. The yolk is made up of
several layers and closely associated
with the yolk is the germ spot.
Postage Starlrrpla
That Caused Trouble
Sometimes the desisen.of a stamp
achieves far-reaching affects. Two
strikng examples of stamps which
caused much mischief are, first, the
original issue of Sudanese stamps
under the Anglo-Egyptian condo-
minium; and, second, an early issue
of George V stamps intended for
use in India,
With the coating of peace in the
Sudan, British local commanders
were concerned with converting
erstwhile enemies into co-operative
friends. (No easy task, as it turn-
ed outl)
Imagine, thou, the horror of the
local proconsuls when it was dis-
covered that the stamps sent out
from Eagland had all been water-
marked with what, to a true son of
the Prophet, was the symbol of
the Cross!
Yet the watermark was not a
cross at all, hut a quatrefoil—
cruciform ornament beloved of Go-
thic artists. But how were the Mo-
hammedans—fearful that they were
to be tricked into becoming Christ-
ians by being made to kiss (or lick)
the Croll—to know that?
Not content with having foolish-
ly, even if unwittingly, offended the
Moslems of the Sudan, those res-
ponsible for the issue of the Em-
pire's stamps committed another
blunder calculated to offend the
sensitive prejudices of Moslems:
this time of the Indian variety.
The stamps, designed by Mr.
McKenna!, showed King George
V wearing the Imperial crown,
robed in ermine and collared with
the chain of the Order of the In-
dian Empire, front which chain dee
pended the miniature model of an
elephant which is the badge of the
Order.
Now, on none of the stamps is
it very clear that it is an elephant
which is intended to be represented,
but on the two annas and three
annas values it seemed to be clear
to the outraged Moslem Indians
that the artist had drawn not the
noble elephant, but the lowly hog
an animal regarded by every Mo-
hammedan as unclean, Once again,
uproar. The whole issue was with-
drawn.
The strength of the Spanish mon-
archy lay, it is well .know,n, in the
loyalty of the Spanish land -worker
to the Crown. The peasantry, indeed,
was the stumbling block to the plans
the countryside was for the King
of the revolutionaries, and while
the men of the cities feared to act.
Yet it was a stamp which turned the
support of the peasantry away from
the King.
In 1929 a stump was issued show-
ing the heads of Pope and King on
the sante oblong. In that same year
a gaup in the series issued in com-
memoration of Goya, the great
Spanish painter, bore a reduced fac-
simile of his famous painting of the
Duchess of Maya. Tltis lady war
painted once clothed, onee uuclotlted.
Those responsible for the Span-
ish postal 'Atoms chose the unclothed
version.
Peasants Scandalized
In the "Maya" issue the enemies
of the Crown saw their great op-
portunity. All over the land they
buttonholed the peasantry and said,
in effect: "Look! you remember how
devout your King used to be? You
remember seeing that stamp show-
ing hint and tate Pope together?
Well ... now look at this! He has
forsaken the Pope and taken a loose
woman to live with hitn. And, looks
he's had the effrontry to put her
picture on a stamp!"
It there is a moral in all this, it
is that stamps should all be of de-
signs as "safe" as those, say, of
Mexico, of 1804, which merely bore
the value -numeral, the value in
word:, and "Mexican Postal Ser-
vice:"
Even the nr.n-conunittal designs
of our otwn stamps have given of-
fence. There was a stamp of King
Edward V11 in which either faulty
printing or tine wear of the black
had caused the shadowy shape of
a dancing -girl to be seen outlined
against the shadow of the King's
cheek!
Faces Death
770 Times
A ltuntan guinea pig in the cause
of science—a young British civil ser-
vant, Charles Howard—has volun-
tarily faced death 770 times.
Experiments were conducted with
mosquitos specially fed for fourteen
days with blood already infected
with pernicious malaria. For half
an hour every morning and every
afternoon for three days, Mr, How-
ard plunged his arms into a cage
swarming with the disease -bearing
insects and carried three Tars filled
with them on his legs.
With arms and legs swollen front
hundreds of bites, he developed
pernicious malaria and was ready
for the clinic. The physicians remov-
ed a portion of 'his infected liver
and followed closely the exact be-
havior of the disease. What before
had bean conjecture now became
scientific fact, a basis for future
experiments and, one day, it is hoped
a lead to a final cure.
Big Around Pm States Regarding Smaller Cars
Experts are beginning to think
that Americans are at last ready
to start buying small cars.
They're dead sure millions of Am-
ericans want a car priced a lot low-
er than the cheapest 1950 models
now being shown.
Since mass production of auto-
mobiles began in the U.S., car
makers have kept a vigilant eye on -
the market to see if Americans, like
Europeans, would demand any
great numbers of tiny cars. From
time to time companies have tried
to sell midget, autos in the U.S.
Most of them failed. Only two or
three managed to keep going any
length .of time, on a small scale,
Now, however, several factors
exist which might change the situ-
ation. In the auto industry it's a
burning question. The present pros -
parity has given thousands of
families enough income for two
cars, A small car might be the an-
swer for the second one.
On the other hand, the greatly
increased costs of new cars has put
therm beyond the incomes of thous-
ands of other families. This might
create a big untapped market for a
snappy small car selliing for less
than $1,000. There's also the chance
of a small car becoming a lad.
American tastes are unpredictable.
There is much evidence that the
fondness for great big cars has
Import: Sales of British cars,
like this Austin, .have
doubled in the U.S. in past
month, •
Straw in the Wind: Experimental Nash, which could sell for
$1000 or less, is touring the U.S. to test public reaction.
counted for by the devaluation.
Sensing this new attitude toward
small cars, U.S. salesmen for the
small French Renault, which sella
for slightly more than $1,000, have
increased their sales rcently and
report greater interest in the auto.
Convinced that this trend is more
a demand for a cheaper car, the
Kaiser -Frazer company is planning
to start manufacture of a new
standard -sized low -price model,
which may be offered to undersell
Ford and Chevrolet, It will be pow-
ered with a new "supersonic" en-
gine, to be produced by the Willys-
Overland company. Low original
cost plus cheap operation will be the
car's features. Other details of it
are secret.
Despite this evidence, the bigger
auto makers still don't see a $1„000
car hitting the market any time soon,
Charles E. Wilson, president of
General Motors, said flatly that the
people won't go for one that could
be sold for that price, at this time,
However, a spokesman for the com-
pany, qualiflying Wilson's state-
ment, says GM is watching the mar-
ket very closely, and if a big enough
small car de.ntand is detected, the
compato v. iii -it rt imtalmiitg theta.
waned. Owners .have cbmplained
that they are too hard to handle
in city traffic and too hard to park.
Women drivers are the biggest
kickers on this score.
The Nash company has led the
field int reviving the small car ques-
tion. It made one sample model
of a car which will sell for $1,000
or less, if the company decides to
start making them. It is taking the
auto around the country to sample
opinion, If enough potential custo-
mers are discovered, the company
will start to make the cars in quan-
tity,
It has a foreign -tirade motor,
gives up to 50 -miles -per -gallon, and
has a maximum speed of 65 m.p.h.
Its size is halfway between the
smallest European cars and ordinary
U.S. cars, It seats two persons and
has no fancy chrome trim or ac-
cessories, but most people who have
seen it agree its the best designed
"little” car yet made.
At the sante time the market for
imported small cars is having a sud-
den revival. For the past year sales
of small British cars in the US,
averaged about 500 a month. Last
month sales more than doubled.
Only part of this increase is ac-
'WISItsoMEONe 1'
WOULD 81M511 THAT
RAotO ONTHE PORcn
tam. POOR„ ITS mgNiNa
ME CRAZY
By Arthur Pointer
I BORROWED IT FROM YOUR WIFE, MR MR.
mug IT ,MUST'VE
OtPI.o0ED'9 ,,
SOMSTHIN:; ',.�• - '�-