Cite: http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article626318

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15 corrections, most recently by julanna - Show corrections

SYDNEY        

The annexed is a correct Statement of the number of Seal skins, and quantities of Oil brought by the different vessels belong- ing to the Coparinership of Messrs. Kable and Underwood ; viz. -

Schooner Endeavour.-From March 9, 1803,

to May 28, 1804, 9,514 skins ; 220 gal- lons of Seal Oil ;

Sloop Surprise.-From March 11, 1803, to      

Sept. 15, 1803, 15,480 skins, 610 gal-   lons Elephant Oil ;  

Schooner Governor King.- From August  

1803, to June 1804, 3,288 skins ; 180 tons,, 136 gallons of Eleohant Oil.

Producing a total of 28,282 skins ; and 183

tons, 40 gallons of Elephant, and 220     gallons of Seal Oil ; in procuring which   63 men have upon an average been em- ployed.

The importance of a trade that in the space of a few years is found capable of giv- ing employment to so many people upon a single firm, must appear obvious ; and its estimation increases when we contemplate the solid resources that may one day be de-

rived from a branch of commerce in its

very infancy to distant from contemptible.

Some days since the house of S. Terry at Parramatta, was near taking fire, owing

to the circumstance of an additional room  

requiring that a beam should be inserted in the chimney wall, which becoming exces- sively dry, cherished a spark, which accu- mulating strength, had nearly burst: into a   blaze before it was perceived.

A student from the College of St, Giles, proficient only in the vulgar tongue, sup- poses Bon-a-part to be a misnomer ; other- wise, wishes to be informed, whether the term part may be allowed an unlimited ap- plication? for says he, he has already bon'd   considerably above one half, and seems in- clined to extend his pretensions to the whole. It devolves to Britain, however, to ascer-   tain the true extent of the terminating part-icle, and to reduce it to its original va-

lue in construction.

A few days since humanity required that a period should be put to the existence and extreme anguish of a valuable Dog, whose fidelity had rendered him a favorite. This poor animal had some weeks since received   a violent stroke upon the joint of the shoul- der, either with a cutlass or a similar wea- pon, and the wound produced a languor and a rapid decay, attended with continual tor- ture. Long prior to the above barbarous event, the creature had gradually declined in bulk ; and being opened by a Canine ope- rator, a contusion was found to have formed   upon one of the kidneys, which had attained to a most incredible size, originating possibly

from the kick of some more brutal animal

than himself. The crime, for surely such   it may be called, of wantonly exercising our superiority over the brute creation, in this instance appears without excuse, as the poor object was the most docile and least vicious of his species, and had as such been very long respected by the whole circle of his acquaintance.

About a fortnight since a fine boy between two and three years old, strayed from his father's farm at Prospect, and was supposed to have found his way to the house of a neighbouring settler, as he had frequently   gone before, in which conjecture the mo- ther of the child remained undisturbed until the following day, when being given to un derstand the infant had not been seen by any one, she rushed into the bush attended by several friends and neighbours, and about

three miles distant from the house near to   a pool of water, found the scattered remains

of the boy, whose body had apparently be-   come a prey to native dogs, and was more

than half devoured.

The extreme violence of the weather yesterday prevented many of the settlers at Kissing Point and in its environs from fur-   nishing their usual supplies, some few, however, had sufficient resolution to encoun- ter every difficulty. Before midnight on Friday the heavy fall of rain commenced, and in one uninterrupted shower continued

until 8 this morning, the wind between the points s. and w. with little variation.

Wm. Ramsay received a corporal punish- ment on Monday last, for violently assault- ing and threatening the life of his over

seer.

The following singular case (copied from an Asiatic Paper of last July), is worthy of the serious attention of the faculty. On the 17th of November, died at Bennington, in   the state of Vermons, America, D. Stratton, the son of Mr. J. Stratton, in the 20th year of his age. This unfortunate young man

was, in 1791, seized with what is called fei.tlaca ; and at different periods, he suffered a dislocation of most of his joints. For the last eight years he was unable to step from his bed, and all his joints were gradually dislocated and rendered uselefs - even those of his fingers, During the last six years he had never been turned on his bed, nor removed, except upon the bedstead. Three years before his death   his jaws became fixed, and continued so to

the time of his death : all his sustenance was administred in slices thin enough to be forced     into an orifice about an eighth of an inch   wide ; and the disorder affecting his eyes, deprived him of sight for three years. He afterwards became entirely deaf with one ear, and received no liquid for two years be- fore his decease but what was conveyed to him through a straw: yet it is truly remar- kable, that he retained his senses throughout the long period of his afliction. In his last  

moments he called his relatives together,

and taking leave of them in an affecting manner, expired without apparent pain.

A gentleman in the month of October last exhibited in the bath at Buxton a curious apparatus, which he called a Nautilus ; by the use of which any person might walk up- right across the deepest river, without the danger of sinking- The experiment was made in the presence of a great number of spectators, who were highly gratified in witnessing the complete success of an inven- tion which promises to be of such importance to mankind, as we understand the apparatus may be applied either to boats or ships of the largest dimensions, and thereby rendered in- capable of sinking, even though their bot- tom were beaten out.-We recollect an experiment, having been made with a like object some years ago in Dublin, where the projector undertook to walk across the bay ; but the first step he took immersed him a   dozen feet-- below the surface, to the no small   entertainment of several hundred spectators.

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