MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND FIGURES. 



613 



Some doubt exists between May and June, 

 July and August. Thus some give the agate 

 to May and the emerald to June ; the carnelian 

 to August, and the onyx to July. 



Flying Dutchman, The, is the name 

 given by sailors to a phantom ship, supposed 

 to cruise in storms off the Cape of Good Hope. 

 According to tradition, a Dutch captain, bound 

 home from the Indies, met with long-continued 

 head winds and heavy weather off this cape, 

 and refused to put back, as he was advised to 

 do, swearing a very profane oath that he 

 would beat round the cape if he had to beat there 

 till the Day of Judgment. He was taken at 

 his word, and doomed to beat against winds all 

 his days. His sails are believed to have be- 



lt is believed, however, among East Indians, 

 that the elephant lives about 300 years, and 

 instances are on record of the animals having 

 been kept in captivity as long as 130 years, 

 their ages being unknown when they were first 

 taken from the forest. Camels live from 40 

 to 50 years ; horses average from 20 to 30, 

 oxen about 20, sheep 8 or 9, and dogs from 12 

 to 14 years. The age of a whale is ascertained 

 by the size and number of the laminae of cer- 

 tain organs in the mouth, formed of a horny 

 substance commonly called whalebone. These 

 laminae increase yearly, and, if the mode of 

 computation be correct, it is known that whales 

 have attained to the age of 400 years. Some 

 species of birds attain a great age. The swan 



come threadbare, and his ship's sides white has been known to live 100 years, and it is re- 

 with age, and himself and crew reduced almost corded that the raven has exceeded that age. 



to shadows. He cannot heave to nor lower a 

 boat, but sometimes hails vessels through his 

 trumpet, and requests them to take letters 

 home for him. The superstition had its origin, 

 probably, in the looming or apparent suspen- 

 sion in air of some ships out of sight a 

 phenomenon sometimes witnessed at sea, and 

 caused by unequal refraction in the lower 

 strata of the atmosphere. 



Age of Animals. The exact age at- 

 tained by animals other than those domesti- 

 cated it is, of course, impossible to ascertain. 



Parrots have been known to live 80 years. 

 Pheasants and domestic poultry rarely exceed 

 12 or 15 years. Among fishes and animals 

 that live in the water great age is often at- 

 tained. The carp has been known to live 200 

 years. Common river trout have been con- 

 fined in a well 30 and even 50 years, and a 

 pike was caught in 1497 in a lake near Heil- 

 bronn, in Swabia, with a brass ring attached 

 to it recording that it was placed in the lake 

 in the year 1230. 



Navies. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. The year 1900 saw 339,783 young men attain the age of military service liability. Out of 

 this number but 193,346 were drawn for service, the rest being excused for physical, moral, or mental disability, 

 or for being sole supports of families, heads of financial or manufacturing establishments, or for other good 

 reasons. Of the number drawn only 143,000 were required in the active army, while the remainder were either 

 credited with their first period of service or placed directly in the reserve. Obligatory service begins on the 

 first day of January of the year that the young man attains his twenty-first birthday. 



