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J? O "W 1ST TALK.

OUTLINES OF THE WEEK. :

The First Fog.

The Cape of Good Hope and…

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The Cape of Good Hope and the Sea-Serpent. Amongst the matters, small in bulk but not in interest' which the comparative emptiness of the building on Saturdays brings to light, may be mentioned two cases occupying a corner in the Colonial Court, and which are devoted to the products of the Cape of Good Hope. It will be remembered that the Cape colonists, although profiting, perhaps, more largely han any of our foreign possessions by their connection with the mother country, magnanimously refused to vote a shillin g to the sending over contributions or commissioners to the Great Exhibition. A private individual, Mr. Ghislin, of Hatton-garden, has endeavoured, to some extent, to make up for this want of colonial liberality. Mr. Ghislin's contributions are all contained in two small cases, but they are not without in. terest, the more especially as one of them professes to v solve the mystery, so long a piece de resistance with the American newspapers, of the great sea serpent. Mr. Ghislin asserts that the monster, which has frightened mariners both young and ancient, is nothing but a species of sea-weed, which when forced to the surface in oceanic commotions floats about in masses sometimes a thousand feet long, and to a nautical imagination presents the ap- pearance of the sea monster, which from the days of Bishop Pont-Oppidan dewn to the present has been the subject of so many marvellous descriptions. Mr. Ghislin, nothing daunted by the traditions, has boldly seized the leviathan, brought him to land, and, having squeezed him into a substance called "laminae," has turned him into excellent handles for knives and razors, and put him to various other purposes to which gutta-percha, india- rubber, and, more commonly, German staghorn, have been hitherto employed. As the supply is inexhaustible, this laminite may turn out to be a very valuable contribution to the material of industrial art. There is also in this case a collection of fibres, for some of which a prize medal has been given, and others which are pronounced to be very useful in brush and paper making. There is also an immense variety of Cape wines ex- hibited, some of very rare quality, and the graceful manner in which one department is festconed with vines is deservedly admired.

Railway Indicator.

ITALY ^

THE " MONITEUR " ON THE ROMAN…

THE HEALTH OF GARIBALDI.

AMERICA.

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