There is an interesting anecdote of a boy, in one of the rudest parts of the County of Clare, in Ireland, who, in order to destroy some eaglets, lodged in a hole one hundred feet from the summit of a rock, which rose four hundred feet perpendicular from the sea, caused himself to be suspended by a rope, with a scimitar in his hand for his defence, should he meet with an attack from the old ones; which precaution was found necessary; for no sooner had his companions lowered him to the nest, than one of the old eagles made at him with great fury, at which he struck, but, unfortunately missing his aim, nearly cut through the rope that supported him. Describing his horrible situation to his comrades, they cautiously and safely drew him up; when it was found that his hair, which a quarter of an hour before was a dark auburn, was changed to grey.
MEMORABLE SNOW-STORM.
The following characteristic account is taken literatim from the parish register of the village of Youlgrave in Derbyshire:—"This year 1614-5 Jan. 16 began the greatest snow which ever fell uppon the earth, within man's memorye. It cover'd the earth five quarters deep uppon the playne. And for heapes or drifts of snow, they were very deep, so that passengers, both horse and foot, passed over yates hedges and walles. It fell at ten severall tymes, and the last was the greatest, to the greate admiration and fear of all the land, for it came from the foure pts of the world, so that all c'ntryes were full, yea, the south p'te as well as these mountaynes. It continued by daily encreasing until the 12th day of March, (without the sight of any earth, eyther uppon hilles or valleys) uppon wch daye, being the Lordes day, it began to decrease; and so by little and little consumed and wasted away, till the eight and twentyth day of May, for then all the heapes or drifts of snow were consumed, except one uppon Kinder-Scout, wch lay till Witson week."
ROADS IN 1780.
A squire from the neighbourhood of Glastonbury, journeying to Sarum in his carriage, about 1780, took care that his footman was provided with a good axe to lop off any branches of trees that might obstruct the progress of the vehicle.
WONDERFUL PEDESTRIAN FEAT.
Captain Cochrane, who set out from St. Petersburg in May, 1820, to walk through the interior of Russia to the east of Asia, with a view of ascertaining the fact of a north-east cape, travelled at the rate of forty-three miles a day for one hundred and twenty-three successive days. He afterwards walked upwards of four hundred miles without meeting a human being. Wherever he went he seems to have accommodated himself to the habits of the people, however rude and disgusting. With the Kalmucks, he ate horse-flesh, elks, and wolves; and with the Tchutski he found as little difficulty in pasturing upon bears, rein-deer, and raw frozen fish, the latter of which he considered a great delicacy.
BOOK-SHAPED WATCH.
