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ANIMALS HAVE DISCOVERED One of the Richest _- m. â€" . ~"‘7.â€"__â€"_â€". shun GOLD MINES TREASURE . “Placer” De- posits in Australia Found By a Dog. One of the best known stories bear- ing on Australian_gold miningâ€"and one which has the merit of being strictly trueâ€"tells how, some thirty years ago, one of the richest of the many rich “placer” deposits in the Ballarat district was discovered by a dog. A disappointed prospector picked up a stone and threw it at the animal. The latter, returning good for evil, as is so frequently the dog’s wont, brought back the missile to its master in its mouth. ,Some- thing peculiar in its appearance caused the man to take it again in his hand, and examine it carefully. It proved to be a chunk of goldâ€"bear- ing quartz.‘ ‘ A similar incident has recently been reported from Coolgardie. A dog, out walking with its master, chased and caught a kangaroo. In the struggle the ground got torn up, and the dog’s owner, on arâ€" riving at the spot, found a true fis- sure vein of rich ore exposed. Another similar occurrence led to the discovery of one of the richest gold deposits ever unearthed in the British Isles. The place was a tiny hamlet in the Wicklow Mountains. A farmer had killed and cut up a :steer,.and, as was 'the custom, car- ried .a portion to the schoolâ€"master of the district as part payment in kind for the education of his chil- dren. While he was absent on his errand, a large dog entered his shop, carried away a prime joint, ate what it could, and then, after the manner of his kind, proceeded to BURY TI-IE REMAINDER. The irate owner went in search of the fourâ€"footed thief, discovered him 'in the very act of, thus disposing of the surplus beef, being a frugal man, started to disinter it. Sticking to the fatty portions were certain heavy bright. “pebbles,” which were so unâ€" like anything of the kind the tradesâ€" man had ever seen before that he thought it worth his while to pre- serve them, and show them to his friend, the schoolmaster. That genâ€" tleman had little hesitation in pro- nouncing the supposed “pebbles” to he nuggets of virgin gold, and enâ€" joined the butcher to on no account share his secret with anyone else. ‘The advice, though well meant, was -diflicult to follow. First one neigh- bor and then another discovered for himself what was in the wind, and in the end word even reached Dublin Castle, and troops were sent to the locality to guard the Government’s royalty. By that time, how0ver, more than 2,500 ounces, worth over $50,000, had been taken out by the peasantry ; and so pure was it that the Dublin shopkeepers used to ex- change it for guineas, WEIGHT FOR WEIGHT. Enjoying a solitary supper of roast :fowl one night, the late Mr. Sanuel Ireton, then Member of Parliament for the Western Division of the County of Cumberland, found a tiny fragment of striated gold in the ,gizzard of a fowl he was carving. His first impulse was to send for the cook who had trussed the bird, .and chide him for his carelessness in preparing it for table. His second to make inquiries regarding the 10â€" cality whence it had come, and whereabouts its favorite pecking- ;ground was situated. It transpired that the fowl was of his own rearâ€" ~ing, and that, in company with sev- eral dozen other of its species, it had been wont to resort to the partially dried-up bed of a small stream, which ran through a portion of his estate, in order to obtain therefrom the gravel which its in- stinct told it was necessary for the proper keeping in order of its digesâ€" tive apparatus. 'As a result of this discovery the birds resorted there no more ; their places being taken by Mr. Ireton's laborers, who suc- ceeded in washing out some $4,000 WORTH OF GOLD DUST. Deposits of other more or less preâ€" cious metals, besides gold, have been discovered in like fashion. In the Cathedral of La Paz, in South Am- .erica, there is preserved a silver pig with jewelled eyes, a thankâ€"offering made long years ago by a pious Spanish prospector, who had been led to stumble across what proved to be an exceedingly valuable silver mine owing to preliminary investiga- tions carried out by a inquisitive .sow. Tradition has it, too, that the enormously rich antimony beds, which are being worked to this day near Aurillac, in France, were dis- covered by a boar, the property of an itinerant truffle hunter ; while the existence of large subterranean oilâ€"fields at Baku, on the shores of the Caspian Sea, was first made manifest owing to the refusal of cattle to graze on the paraffinâ€" taintcd grass which grew above them. Similarly, a wounded seal led 'a tramp prospector to the wonderful .“golden beach" at Cape Nome, in Alaska. “Coyote’s Luck,” one of the rich- est of Arizona’s carbonate mines, owes its c‘urions name to the fact of its-existence havingbeen originâ€" ally revealed by the burrowing of a small species of prairie wolf so-callâ€" ed ; while‘ only the other day, in South Africa. a discarded army mule dying of thirst. started scraping with its fore-feet in the sandy soil for water, and unearthed a pocket of diamonds worth several THOUSANDS OF POUNDS. Undoubtedly, however, the most striking as well as the most curious among a host of incidents similar to the above, is afforded by the story of the discovery of what is now known as the Canon Diablo meteor- ite, interest in which has been quite recently strongly re-aroused, owmg to the fact of the finding of diaâ€" monds within the mass by.Dr. Foote, an eminent American minerâ€" alogist. It is now nearly a quarter of a century ago since an Arizona stock- inan, named James Kelly, out after stray cattle, followed a steer’s Spoor into one of the most remarkâ€" able valleys it has ever been his lot to set foot in. Right in the centre he found the steer that had led him there dead. It had fallen into a huge pit in the ground, a crater formed by impact with the earth of an enormous meteoric mass of iron projected from space. The crater was carefully measured, and was found to be more than three quar- ters of a mile in diameter and six hundred feet deep. How immense must be the mass of iron lying be- low may be inferred from these data. Many of the smaller found their way into geological museums and cabinets, and it was while cutting a section of one of these. that Dr. Foote found his tools injured by something vastly harder than metallic iron. He at- tacked the specimen chemically, and soon afterwards announced to the scientific world that the Canon Diablo meteorite contained diamonds both black and transparent. At this present moment several hundred men are energetically engaged in deepenâ€" ing the crater aforesaid, in search of the millions of diamonds buried there.â€"Pearson’s Weekly. m...__+____â€"â€" RAILWAY AURUSS SIBERIA WILDERNESS OF 6,000 I‘vIILES TO BLOSSOM LIKE A ROSE. fragments Sketch of the Territory as Seen From Train in Long Journey. The finishing touches are just now being put on the improved great Siberian Railroad, and in a few weeks the entire line will be opened for all kinds of traffic. After years of labor under the most adverse con- ditions, the Russian Government has at last accomplished its greatest work in the line of transportation. A surveying party has begun lay- ing out a new branch of the Man- churian Railroad from Kwangâ€" changtze to Girin. It will be about 135 miles long. Girin is an im- portant commercial center, being lo- cated at the crossing of many roads and at the head of navigation on the Sungari River. Siberia is proâ€"eminently a country of magnificent distances. It is one hundred times larger than the Briâ€" tish Isles and double the size of the United States. It has a mining and agricultural area fifty times the size of England. It has rivers navigable for the largest flat bottom boats for 30,000 miles. Little is known to the outside world of its immense re- sources, but it probably is as rich 3. land in minerals as any in the world. Its forests are numbered by the hundreds of thousands of square miles. ‘ All this field is now thrown open by the completion of this railroad, and it is expected that rapid de- velopment will proceed. For 4,000 miles there is an unbroken chain of rich mineral lands, in 'which are gold, silver, lead, copper and iron of unestimated wealth. The great railâ€" road, with its 6,000 miles of iron rails, traverses this field and many will reap untold fortunes in exploit- ing these mines. EVERYTHING IN SIBERIA is big, with a vastness that is mar- vellous. Leaving Moscow on the Siâ€" berian express one is told that the first stage of the journey to the golden East is over the plains of Western Siberia. The traveler does not realize that it is 2,500 miles to the extreme border, which takes three days to cover. Through the entire trip of this stage there is not a hill or a cut through which the train passes. Reaching the Baikal region the scene shifts, much to the relief of the passenger. For a’thouâ€" sand miles the roadbed is cut through high, rocky mountains, and in the midst of the great world, which lies east, west, and south of it, Siberia the bridge of that world's commerce â€" these certain- ties of the approaching future should make politician and trader alike pause. When Siberia expands it will flow southward over the Mongolian wastes, which irrigation and the enâ€" gineer shall reclaim, and over fer- tile China, which the powers shall prove powerless to prevent. I This, the greatest of the world’s railroads 'â€" and easily twice the longest â€" is emphatically a pioneer line. The grades are something aw- ful to contemplate. The train first goes up, then down, then swings around a precipice, perhaps changing the monotony by passing through a tunnel. All this takes about two days, for fast time is impossible. Then one comes to a. lake that .is half‘ as big as England, and across which the train is ferried. This is a difficult undertaking in winter, for the ferry boat must break through the ice. It is an expensive operaâ€" tion, and it is doubtful if in the end it would not have been cheaper to build around. It is forty'miles to the opposite shore, but it must be confessed that the trip is a delight- ful break in the monotonous jourâ€" ney. Once on the other shore there is a run of 1,500 miles to the Pacific Coast. All this country is hilly and rocky, and the road winds around so much that it is difficult to keep track of the points of the compass. Thus the line is divided into four great divisionsâ€"the plains, the for- est rolling land of Central Siberia, the high mountainous ranges of the Baikal, and the hills of the Pacific section. In the section of the for- est there are more curves than in any other owing to the great marsh- es, but on the plains the road is as straight as a string for A THOUSAND MILES . When the project was first broached to span the 6,000 miles by rails the idea was laughed at. It was realizv ed by engineers that the task would be a gigantic one, and no _one could see where the profits were to come from. The Russian Government, however, knew more of the resources of Siberia than did the critics and the astuteness of the officials is now fully recognized. Last year 2,000,000 passengers and 1,500,000 tons of goods were trans-ported, and the traffic will inâ€" crease with the complete opening ’of the line. That is pretty well for a country where you may travel for days without seeing a single house. It is impossible to estimate what the traffic will be when the country is. developed to a quarter of its ability to produce. No doubt the passenâ€" gers will amount to 50,000,000 and the freight to 100,000,000 tons a year: The population of Siberia al- ready has grown to 9,000,000 from 6,000,000 since the road was start- ed. Towns have sprung up in the wilderness and smoke from factories is a common sight. Two years ago the junction of Tomsk had three houses, now there are 15,000 people there. While the main_ line â€" the great artery â€" will do wonders for the country, the branch lines, of which fully two score are projected, will people the country much more rapidâ€"‘ ly. The White Sea, Black Sea, and the Baltic will be connected with this sult Russian shipping must grow to take care of the exports of the fu- ture. This flcet is startling to con- template, and the prediction is made that it will eclipse that of every country on the globe eventually. At every verst is passed a QUEER LITTLE SENTRY BOX by the side of the track. Looking out of the window one sees the sentâ€" ry step into the roadway and wave the flag‘â€" after the train has pass- edâ€"to declare that all is well. There are 10,000 such sentinels keepâ€" ing watch. Russian system naturally domin- ates everything. I-I-ere it.is, for exâ€" ample, in the stations, of which, by the way, there are 4-00. They are built on a strictly systematic plan and graduated into four classes. The first and second class are built of brick and stone; they have very good refreshment rooms and complete ar- rangements at the back for temporâ€" arily housing and dispersing the 250,000 picked emigrants now annu- ally cntering Siberia. The lower classes are built of wood and unâ€" cooked food is procurable at these. All, of course, have a water tower and a storehouseâ€"banked with earth up to the roof to keep out the cold â€"â€"and to every station there is atâ€" tached a small dispensary, with a dispenser in attendance, which is a Welcome enough sight in this land of distances. In the case of an acciâ€" dent, or of sudden illness, of course, his presence is doubly welcome, for he charges nothing for his services or his drugs. ______+â€"____ TUENS BLACK FROM MALARIA. Whether men were originally all of one color and subsequently assumed their present distinctive tints in the process of becoming acclimatized to their different surroundings is an op- en question which has given rise to much speculation. A case is reâ€" ported from India which may prove very valuable in assisting to deter- mine the matter. A soldier in the Seaforth Highlanders, after being in India. about four years, was at- tacked by malaria. Shortly after leaving the hospital he noticed that the exposed parts of his body were changing color. The discoloration gradually spread to other parts of his body; his eyes have changed from grey to blue, his light- brown hair is now quite dark, and the skin of his body appears darker in summer than in winter, some parts becoming quite coal black. 4 +._..._ WOM AN’S CHIEF VIRTUE. . A Paris paper is taking the opin- ion of its readers on several points of general interest. The voting on the question, “Which are the most essential virtues of a woman 1‘” may be worth mentioning for the dew which it gives to French sociology. Economy comes first, with 1,420 votes ; fidelity and modesty are bracketed second, with 1,357; kindâ€" ness is fourth“ with 1,182; maternal love is considerably lower, with 539, while cleanliness and patience are the last two on the list. great producing artery, and as a reâ€"' SEGRE PULI ssu. THE Iv/IETHODS ADOPTED BY VARIOUS COUNTRIES. ___. How That of Great Britain Com- pares With Foreign Inâ€" ‘ stitutions. All the great nations require in- formation about other countries which is not obtainable openly. For this reason the Intelligence Depart- ments of the great military pow- ers of the Continent are organized on a scale of cost and efficiency un- dreamed of in thfi'Constitutional country, says a. writer in the Lonâ€" don Express. In Russia the secret police employ a considerable number of agents, both male and female, who are resi- dent in England. Some of these paid ‘agents, or spies, are people well known to society. Their duties vary from diplomatic work of the highest delicacy to the collection of news- paper cuttings. THE SPY AT WORK. One of the points attended to by the Russian Secret Service is the record of every English public man who speaks or writes about Russia. On one occasion the present writer had the opportunity of seeing the system followed by the Russian po- lice. Every speech and every writ- ing of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre â€"â€" an inno- cent and not very formidable per- sonageâ€"with particulars of his birth, parentage, means, residence, habits, tastes and position were all entered up in a great portfolio. Mr. Shawâ€"Lefevre was, I believe, at one time associated with the Friends of Russian Freedom, and is,. thereâ€" fore, like all the other members of that body, carefully watched by the agents of Russia. Considerable sums are spent .by Russia on secret service agents in Central Asia, Baluchistan, Persia and in India itself. The object of these agents is to belittle Great Bri- tain and belaud Holy Russia. Con- stant diplomatic duels take place between British Consular agents and the avowed representatives of Bus- sia. This subterranean war of sec- ret agents is going on all over the world. ’ GERMANY’S SYSTEM. The German system of secret ser- vice is conductcd on much more sciâ€" entific lines. German knowledge of the United Kingdom is completer than that of most Englishmen. I was lately - informed by a British diploâ€" matist of the highest rank that the German general staff possesses a schedule of the contents of all the chief residences in the Kingdom. Every picture and work of art of any considerable value is known to the German general staff, while the study of British topography, the mastery of our ordnance maps, the knowledge of the fords, smithies, obâ€" stacles, population and high roads form the subject of examination from German officers who are told off to the duty of acquiring full knowledge of the counties of the United Kingdom. The German agents in England, Who are occupied in surveying our country with a view to contingenâ€" cies, are generally to be found in couples in the guise of tourists. They know to a head how many horses the Irish farmers can supply within a given time. They have made a careful study of the idiosyncrasies of our leading men. Their tastes, hab- its, health, friends and means are carefully noted by the astute Teu- tons, who distil the honey of inforâ€" mation from English fields for the German hive. The principal feature in which Ger- man Secrct Service differs from that of England is that the Germans coâ€" ordinate the whole of their knowlâ€" edge, and have it ready to hand in a concentrated form whenever it is required. ENGLISH METHODS. The English system is different. There is a Secret Service Fund con- trolled by the Foreign Oflice._ So many Foreign Office agents are hos- tile to England, and are unpaid that the Foreign Office service is often found to be useless for naval or milâ€" itary purposes. ‘ During the last two yearsthe adâ€" miralty has succeeded in wresting from the Foreign Office the control of the Secret Service, so far as it, affects the navy. During the trou- ble with France over Fashoda agâ€" ents of the admiralty were busily watching French opinion in the great centers. The English Military in- telligence Department is again a sepâ€" arate service. What is required is to concentrate in one spot the whole of the knowl- edge obtainable. The Foreign Office should be the brain, the eyes and the antennae of the nation. The Ger- man and Russian Foreign Oflices ful- fil these functions. The British For- eign Office not only does not know what is going to happen; it does not want to know; while the Mili- tary and Foreign Office Intelligence Departments are separated adminis- tratively. WHAT IS WANTED. After the heavy experience of the Boer war it is inconceivable that the Government will not take steps forthwith to reorganize the whole of our intelligence ‘system -â€" naval, military and diplomatic. Our ig- norance of foreign countries conâ€" trasts unpleasantly with their knowledge about us. France is rapidly becoming a, peaceful power, and is losing that passion for military glory which has oppressed her for hundreds of years. Germany and Russia, however, re quire careful watching, and the. pa; cific tendencies of the French Re~ public may be dissipated by tin temptations of an alliance that Ger‘ many-may yet have to offer. What does the admiralty know about the German fleet? Very lit- tle. How many times has the naval attache in Berlin visited Emden, or even Kiel? ‘ For what purpose are the miles of quays erected at Ein< den, a little village with a tenth- rate museum in it? If the Boer war taught us anything it was to enforce the lesson that knowledge is power. There is nothing so conducive to peace as a full knowledge of the in-~ tentions and tendencies of other na- tions. An encrmous outlay may be saved by the reorganization and es- tablishment of an efficient and up.- to-date system of secret service. â€"â€"â€"-â€"‘A-â€"-â€"â€" .: COAL OIL IN ALBERTA. Some Samples Show a Good Quality. For a good many years the preâ€" sence of coal oil in Southern Al- berta has been known, but only re cently have any decided steps been taken to ascertain the extent of the oil supply. The country where the oil deposits are is one of the richâ€" est and most picturesque districts in. the Northwest. It lies at the foot of the beautiful Livingstone range of the Rockies, not very far from the Mormon settlement of Cardston, in a country where grain growing and ranching have been so successful; in fact, no small circle would embrace a country which produced wheat, cattle, coal and timber of the very best. Some ten or twelve years ago people who had seen the oily ap- pearance of the water in certain creeks in the vicinity, and had no Very ticed the lumps of a pitchy sub stance which appeared here and there, decided to investigate. Machinery was brought up front the east, and was on its way to tilt oil district when a prairie fire camt along and burned all the woodwork of the apparatus. This is said tc have so discouraged the prospector! that they abandoned their plans and made no further attempts. Recently, several wealthy men, old- timers in the country, brought it boring machinery and have sunk a well. The flow of oil is claimed ta be from 100 to 300 barrels a day, but at present the well is stopped up and work can hardly be resumed before the spring. Samples of oil have been tested, and the one re- cently analyzed is said to be of a VERY GOOD QUALITY, containing, in addition to illuminat- ing oil, quite a percentage of fluid very suitable for lubricating. The only question is that of the supply, and until that is solved the success of the enterprise is uncertain. The men interested have great faith in their project, and are spending a considerable sum of money on the work. Oil has been noticed at sev- eral other points, and the successful working of this well would be the signal for activity elsewhere. Across the line in Montana, not far from the Canadian well, they are boring: for oil. Next summer should set some important developments, and if the oil is really there in quantity it will be an additional product fox the country and a valuable asset for the young Canadian west. _.___+_____. TI-IEY HATED TOBAC CO . /‘ Who Disliked the Weed. Somehow or other We associate tobacco with literary men, but not all writers are lovers of the weed. Goethe hated tobacco intensely, and never lost a chance to attack it. Heinrich I-Ieine had the same dislike. Balzac, who lived on black coffee. preached wisely to young men about the vice of smoking, and Victor Hu- go and Dumas were equally opposed to the practice. But the list 01 French smokers comprises many great names, such as Alfred de Mus- sot, Eugene Sue, Paul de St. Victor, Prosper Merimee, lieranger, anr‘ Baudelaire. Madame Dudevant, better know: as Georges Sand, ‘often indulged in a cigar between the intervals of he] literary labors. Charles Lamb at one time Was a great smoker, but afterwards jusl as great a hater of it. In the height of his smoking days he once pulling the coarsest tobacco from 2 long clay pipe, in company with Dr. Parr, who was a connoisseur, and careful in obtaining only the finer choiccr sorts. The doctor said “How did you acquire this prodig ion; power of suction ‘?" Lamb re plied, “By toiling after it with in’ tensity, as some men toil after vir- tue." Sir Walter Scott carried the habil of chewing and smoking too far fol his own healthâ€"both of mind and body. The poet Bloomfield wrot( sweet pastoral rhymes with a clout of tobacco smoke making a fog around his head. Campbell, Moore, and Byron delighted in its temper. ate use, and Tennyson was a great smoker. _One of the quaint scenes in th( realm of letters is that of Carlyle and his old mother sitting together by the chimney-corner cach’smolzing a “darkâ€"brown pipe, and chatting Famous Men earnestly the while.” .‘ The man who is his own beef friend has few others. wa: ‘ «Judd...va . ‘;«-1’1.'U "-"f-"NVMWV v by”, arm‘s. w=~_â€" ' Jr“ ‘-" ’â€"5,,* X ‘ ,: my». ‘-’~“«W9¢' ‘3‘! ;'« / .- :2... ._.'...,.,V .. ran. l . m. a“; w" 14-, - .- an... ...> 1,... ‘ '.~) “" '5’ 3")“