Show errors of ancient times in good old times geography was a much more fascinating study than it Is today to day stanley had not then tol ked livingstone through africa the english had discovered nothing interesting about the root of the world nor had they begun to late on the probable identity of the chief tibetan river with the brahma pike had not found his peak nor lewis and clarke the rocky moun bains so erttle was about the distant world and much depended on the tales of seamen that each geographer chose his facts to suit himself thus says the author of old time schools there was a nev er about the geography books the joint snake declared the au thor of geography made easy more than a hundred years ago Is a great curiosity its skin Is as hard as parch ment and as smooth aa glass it Is so stiff it can hardly bend itself into a loop and brittle that when it is struck it breaks like a pipestem you may with a whip break it into pieces not an inch long and not produce the least tincture ot blood the diversions ot the scots are dancing gott and curling the goal 1 a 0 ball playing performed with a bat and a ball the extremity of the bat being loaded with lead and the party which strikes the ball with fewest strokes into a hole wins the game in answer to the question what curiosities are there in france appears thia incredible yarn A fountain near grenoble emits a flame which will burn paper straw etc but will not burn gunpowder within about eight leabes of the same place is an inaccessible mountain in the form of a pyramid reversed so the writers ranged afield describing the odd manners of the inhabitants of the earth from guinea to diew england |