HOOKING A BOY INSTEAD OF A FISH.
About five and thirty years ago, as Mr. George Moor was fishing in the river Tyne at Pipewellgate, Gateshead, he espied something in the water which seemed like a drowned dog, but the day being clear, and the sun shining, he thought he perceived a face, upon which he threw his line to it (which had but three hairs at the hook) and hooked a coat, by which he found it was a boy, but the hook loosing hold, he again cast his line and struck him in the temple and drew him to the shore, and in less than quarter of an hour he revived.
CHILDREN OF AGED PARENTS.
Margaret Krasiowna, of the village of Koninia, Poland, died 1763, aged 108. The following extraordinary circumstances are stated, by Eaton, as connected with the life of this woman:—"At the age of ninety-four she married her third husband, Gaspard Raycolt, of the village of Ciwouszin, then aged one hundred and five. During the fourteen years they lived together she brought him two boys and a girl; and, what is very remarkable, these three children, from their very birth, bore evident marks of the old age of their parents—their hair being grey, and a vacuity appearing in their gums, like that which is occasioned by the loss of teeth, though they never had any. They had not strength enough, even as they grew up, to chew solid food, but lived on bread and vegetables, they were of a proper size for their age, but their backs were bent, their complexions sallow, with all the other external symptoms of decrepitude. Though most of these particulars," he adds, "may appear fabulous, they are certified by the parish registers. The village of Ciwouszin is in the district of Stenzick, in the palatinate of Sendonier. Gaspard Raycolt, the father, died soon after, aged 119."
SEPULCHRAL VASE FROM PERU.
The vessel of which the annexed is an engraving, was taken from the tomb of one of the ancient inhabitants of Peru; the subjects of the Incas, or princes who ruled over that country before it was conquered by the Spaniards. Vases of this sort were probably placed in the sepulchres of the Peruvians to contain the ashes of the dead, or offerings to their disembodied spirits;—usages which are familiar to us through the frequent allusions to them which we meet with in the works of the poets of ancient Rome, and the discovery of urns and lachrymatories in Roman tombs which have been in our own and other cemeteries. The specimen which we have engraved is quadruple, but forms one vessel.
FIRST IRON CANNON.
The first cannon was cast in Sussex in 1535. In after years bonds were taken in £1,000 from the owners of the charcoal furnaces, that none should be sold till a license for the sale or issue of the ordnance had been procured. Fears were entertained that the enemy would purchase them.