In Algeria there is a river of genuine ink. It is formed by the union of two streams, one coming from a region of ferruginous soil, the other draining a peat swamp. The water of the former is strongly impregnated with iron, that of the latter with gallic acid. When the two waters mingle, the acid of the one unites with the iron of the other, forming a true ink. We are familiar with a stream called Black Brook, in the northern part of New York, the inky color of whose water is evidently due to like conditions.—_Scientific American._ _A Warlike Bantam._ In the "Life of Rodney" it is related that in the famous victory of the 12th of April, 1782, a bantam cock perched himself upon the poop of Rodney's ship, and at every broadside that was poured into the _Ville-de-Paris_, clapped his wings and crew. Rodney gave special orders that this cock should be taken care of as long as he lived. _Oyster-dredging Chaunt._ During the oyster-dredging the fishermen keep up a wild monotonous song, or rather chaunt, which they assert charm the oysters into the dredge— "The herring loves the merry moonlight, The mackeral loves the wind. But the oyster loves the dredger's song, For he comes of a gentle kind." _Normandy Treasures._ At Bayeux, Normandy, a strong belief exists among the people of some hidden treasure in the ground beneath the ruined churches and castles so abundant in the neighborhood; but they are supposed to be guarded by supernatural means. Even so late as 1827 persons were found credulous enough to follow the directions of a Douster-swivel and employ much time and labor uselessly in searching after imaginary riches beneath the stones in front of the Cathedral. This belief that the hidden or lost treasure is guarded by a spiritual attendant is very generally diffused. On this point Southey, in the "Doctor," observes: "The popular belief that places are haunted where money has been concealed, or where some great and undiscovered crime has been committed, shows how consistent this is with our natural sense of likelihood and fitness." _Tenacity of Odors._ Dr. Carpenter states, in his "Comparative Physiology," that a grain of musk has been kept freely exposed to the air of a room, of which the door and window were constantly open, for ten years, during all which time the air, though constantly changed, was completely impregnated with the odor of musk, and yet at the end of that time the particle was found not to have sensibly diminished in weight. _Antiquity of Acrobatic Figures._ Modern toys of acrobats are made to perform evolutions by the use of quicksilver. Dædalus, the famous Greek figure-maker, who is said to have lived about a thousand years before Christ, introduced quicksilver into a wooden image of Venus, thereby lending to it a sort of Chinese tumbling motion.—_Dr. Doran._ _Saffron as a Perfume._