Fire Barrels Of Snakes

Jonathan Sockwell, engineer at the fire-bricK works at Sciotoviile, Ohio, has canght and killed the greatest number of snakes ever hearrt of in these parts. Some three weeks aro he purchased five empty whisky barrels and stored them in an outbuilding to be used for eider barrels when his apple3 were ripe enough to be made into that temperance beverEge. ÏJear the outbuildinojs thers Í3 a ledge of roeks containing many fissures and openings, and has always been " a bad plate for snakes." Yesterday Mr. Rockwell took occasion to visit the outbuilding referred to, and, in opening the door, he noticed a number of snakes crawling into the bung-holes of the whisky barrels. Quick as thought he gol the bungs and drove them into the barrels andsecured the snakes. ïje then attempted to roü the barrels out of the building, but found them too heavy to handle without assistance. He then called in J. D. Matliiot, Dustin Jones, tíeorge Sturdy. Hugh Smfth and Thomas Powell.who arraed themselves with hickory clubs and prooeetled to kiü the snakes. The bung was taken out of one barrel aml some hot water was poured in, and the snakes begun to eome out so rapidly that it kept all the above gentleman busy with their clubs in dis patchinv theni. The iiext barrel was treated in the same marnier until all the üve barrels were emptied, and the total number of snakes killed was 2,153. To-day there is a steady streain of people visit ing the premises of Mr. Rockwell and viewing the slain snakes. No one pretends to account for the snakes getting into the barrels. All we can say is that they were there, and it is the "wbole truth and nothiiig but the truth." The aftidavits of our best and most reliahle citizens will substantia'.e it beyond any doubt. The snakes were uot all large ones, but there were none less than a foot in length, while many were six or seven feet long. A tivnoh had to be dug thia afternoon to bury them, as the ster.ch avising trom them was getting horrible. - t'or. (U.nc.' ■"■-''' H iil. -The Journal of the FrnnhUn Instilvte says the materials for making every deseription of iictile ware are found widely distributed in the United States. In 1766 American clay was imported by England. Trials of it by Wedgwood turned out so well that he made arrangements for a regular su]jply from Avor, 'm the country of the Cherokeea, about three hnndred miles from Charleston. In 1768 i cargo of Carolina clay reached ; Liverpool, and the trade beoanie genj eral in the Cherokee and Pensacola olays, Wedgwood apparently ving preference to the latter. In 1745 an American had shown Uookworthy specimens of kaolín and . petunze found in Virginia, and samples of the ware made from them. The final practical effect of Mr. Cookworthy' ation wit) the American was the foundation of the English poroelain industty. One jrandred and tliiriv-two yeara later the country from wliieh tho suggestion came is importing kaolin from llat which receired it. The elay of Woodbridge was known before the revolu tion. The soldiers at Perth Amboy called it fullers earth, and uscd it for cleanmg their buckskin breeehes. In Baikal (Siberia) soundings hnv been obtained which, for a lake, ar Iruly astonishing. In the upper part the depth is 3.027 metres (about the height of mount Etna), bul downward the bottom constantly descends, and aear the opposite end, a distance of gome 350 miles, the depth aniounts to 3,76G metres. The measurement f ar exceeda anything to be fonnd in the Mediterranean Sea, which, in its deepcst ]:irt, has only ,1!)7 metres of water. II ow such an extraoi'dinary depression 08 lliat of Baikal could have.oceurred in the midst of a continent is a problem which greatly puzzles geologists, but the generally accepted idea is that it was the result of some volcanic eruption ii past ages, and a consequent subsidence of the crust of the earth to a vast extent. The lakes in the centre of New Zealand are equally remarkable in point of depth. The extreme depths of the Taupo and Waikari lakes in the north, and Lake Wakatpn in the south, havo never been fathomed. They are known to be very far below tho seo-levol.