Curious Facts

There haa been skating on the Thames at Twickenham, which has nat been possible for over tblrty years. The London postal parcel traffic at hristmaa numbered 1,150,000 packages, many containing turkeys and pluni puddings. The oyster is one of the strongest reaturos on earth. The iorce MqUv ed to open an oyster ia more than J300 times it weight. If a man were to drink four quarts oí beer daily, so UUle is the real nutriment in it that he would in the eóursë oí one year yet the equivalent oí a livepound loaf of broud. V being the abbreviatton for veuve., the French for vridow, it is becoming tho modo for widows to place the letter before the Christian naraes of their dcceiised husbands. Thua Mrs. John Brown siffns her nume V. John Brown. Tho Welsh colony in Patagonia was last f;dl visited by scores of the blaclcbrcasted Mwan, which could be killed with sticks. Thny had left the interior because the sircaras and lakos had dricd up. Tho colony number about 201)0 suuls. . At ono of tlie steel works in Allcgheny City, Pa., there was recently ïftLled u strip of steel for a sprng six lDChes wide. one-quarter of an inch tbick and .'ilO téet long. The order lor it had been tendered to all the large English and Continentjil works. but, none of them would undeitake the taak. New York's great aqueduct was opened recently, and a supply of 818,000,000 gallons every twenty-four hours Ie now available. It is one of the most ütupendous works which even this genration, so familiar with stupondousness of all kinds, has produced. lts longth is about thlrty miles, bcing for nearly all that dislance far underground, and passing by means of an ingenious siphon system under instead of over the Harlem river. lts cost is about $'3,000, 000 already, and tho system of dams in process of eonstructiou will add many more miüions lo that. No saying is moro common among physicians than the declaration that a ulrong physical constitution and good health are necessary to success in hfe; yet there have been many instances in which this rule does nol, secra to have been true. Darwtn, th greatest natJiralist of his wm nlways an invalid, and Sir Andrev (;iark, one of the most eminent inen f the present day, tells us that he v. . so sickly that his life was not deemed worth a year's purchase when he began the active work of his singularly suecessful career.