Pumas are large, cat-like animals which

are found in America. When reports

came into London Zoo that a wild puma

had been spotted forty-five miles south of

London, they were not taken seriously.

However, as the evidence began to

accumulate, experts from the Zoo felt

obliged to investigate, for the descrip-

tions given by people who claimed to

have seen the puma were extraordinarily

similar.

The hunt for the puma began in a

small village where a woman picking

blackberries saw 'a large cat' only five

yards away from her. It immediately ran

away when she saw it, and experts

confirmed that a puma will not attack a human being unless it is cornered. The

search proved difficult, for the puma was often observed at one place in the

morning and at another place twenty miles away in the evening. Wherever it

went, it left behind it a trail of dead deer and small animals like rabbits. Paw

prints were seen in a number of places and puma fur was found clinging to

bushes. Several people complained of 'cat-like noises' at night and a business-

man on a fishing trip saw the puma up a tree. The experts were now fully

convinced that the animal was a puma, but where had it come from ? As no

pumas had been reported missing from any zoo in the country, this one must

have been in the possession of a private collector and somehow managed to

escape. The hunt went on for several weeks, but the puma was not caught. It is

disturbing to think that a dangerous wild animal is still at large in the quiet

countryside.

 

 

 

Our vicar is always raising money for one

cause or another, but he has never

managed to get enough money to have

the church clock repaired. The big clock

which used to strike the hours day and

night was damaged during the war and

has been silent ever since.

' One night, however, our vicar woke up

with a start: the clock was striking the

hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that

it was one o'clock, but the bell struck

thirteen times before it stopped. Armed

with a torch, the vicar went up into the

clock tower to see what was going on. In

the torchlight, he caught sight of a figure

whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins, our local grocer.

'Whatever are you doing up here Bill ?' asked the vicar in surprise.

' I'm trying to repair the bell,' answered Bill.' I've been coming up here night

after night for weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise.'

'You certainly did give me a surprise!'said the vicar. 'You've probably

woken up everyone in the village as well. Still, I'm glad the bell is working

again.'

'That's the trouble, vicar,' answered Bill. 'It's working all right, but I'm

afraid that at one o'clock it will strike thirteen times and there's nothing 1 can

do about it.'

'we'll get used to that Bill,' said the vicar. 'Thirteen is not as good as one

but it's better than nothing. Now let's go downstairs and have a cup of tea.'

 

 

 

Some time ago，an interesting discovery

was made by archaeologists on the Aegean

  island of Kea．An AmeriCan team ex-

plored a temple which stands in an

ancient city on the promontory of Ayia

Irini．The city at one time must have

been prosperous，for it enjoyed a high

level of civilization．Houses--often three

storeys high--were built of stone．They

had large rooms with beautifully decor－

ated walls．The city was even equipped

with a drainage system，for a great many

clay pipes were found beneath the narrow

  streets．

  The temple which the archaeologists

explored was used as a place of worship

from the fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the most sacred room of

the temple, clay fragments of fifteen statues were found. Each of these repre-

sented a goddess and had, at one time, been painted. The body of one statue

was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century B.C. Its missing

head happened to be among remains of the fifth century B.C.;This head must

have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was very old and

precious even then. When the archaeologists reconstructed the fragments, they

were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very modern-looking

woman. She stood three feet high and her hands rested on her hip. She was

wearing a full-length skirt which swept the ground. Despite her great  age,she

was very graceful indeed, but, so far,the archaeologists have been unable to

discover her identity.

 

 

These days, people who do manual work

often receive far more money than clerks

who work in offices. People who work in

offices are frequently referred to as' white

collar workers' for the simple reason that

they usually wear a collar and tie to go to

work. Such is human nature, that a great

many people are often willing to sacrifice

higher pay for the privilege of becoming

white collar workers. This can give rise to

curious situations, as it did in the case of

Alfred Bloggs who worked as a dustman for the

Ellesmere Corporation.

When he got married, Alf was too embarrassed

to say anything to his wife about his job. He

simply told her that he worked for the

Corporation. Every morning, he left home

dressed in a fine blacksuit. He then changed

into overalls and spent the next eight hours

as a dustman. Before returning home at night,

he took a shower and changed back into his suit.

Alf did this for over two years and his fellow

dustmen kept his secret. AlF's wife has never

discovered that she married a dustman and she

never will, for Alf has just found another job.

He will soon be working in an office as a junior

clerk. He will be earning only half as much as

he used to, but he feels that his rise in status

is well worth the loss of money. From now on, he

will wear a suit all day and others will call him

'Mr Bloggs', not 'Alf'.

 

 

Editors of newspapers and magazines

Often go to extremes to provide their

readers with unimportant facts and statis-

tics. Last year a journalist had been

instructed by a well-known magazine to

write an article on the president's palace

in a new African republic. When the

article arrived, the editor read the first

sentence and then refused to publish it.

The article began: 'Hundreds of steps

lead to the high wall which surrounds the

president's palace.' The editor at once

sent the journalist a telegram instructing

him to find out the exact number of steps

and the height of the wall.

The journalist immediately set out to

obtain these important facts, but he took a long time to send them. Meanwhile,

the editor was getting impatient, for the magazine woul1d soon go to press. He

sent the journalist two urgent telegrams, but received no reply. He sent yet

another telegram informing the journalist that if he did not reply soon he would

be fired. When the journalist again failed to reply, the editor reluctantly pub-

lished the article as it had originally been written. A week later, the editor at

last received a telegram from the journalist. Not only had the poor man been

arrested, but he had been sent to prison as well. However, he had at last been

allowed to send a cable in which he informed the editor that he had been

arrested while counting the 1o84 steps leading to the 15-foot wall which sur-

rounded the president's palace.

 

The expensive shops in a famous arcade

near Piccadilly were just opening. At this

time of the morning, the arcade was almost

empty. Mr Taylor, the owner of a jewel-

lery shop was admiring a new window

display. Two of his assistants had been

working busily since 8 o'clock and had

only just finished. Diamond necklaces

and rings had been beautifully arranged

on a background of black velvet. After

gazing at the display for several minutes,

Mr Taylor went back into his shop.

The silence was suddenly broken when

a large car, with its headlights on and its

horn blaring, roared down the arcade. It

came to a stop outside the jeweler's. One

man stayed at the wheel while two others with black stockings over their faces

jumped out and smashed the windoW of the shop with iron bars. While this was

going on, Mr Taylor was upstairs. He and his staff began throwing furniture out

of the window. Chairs and tables went flying into the arcade. One of the thieves

was struck by a heavy statue, but he was too busy helping himself to diamonds

to notice any pain. The raid was all over in three minutes, for the men scrambled

back into the car and it moved off at a fantastic speed. Just as it was leaving,

Mr Taylor rushed out and ran after it throwing ashtrays and vases, but it was

impossible to stop the thieves. They had got away with thousands of pounds

worth of diamonds.

 

 

Children often have far more sense than

their elders. This simple truth was

demonstrated rather dramatically during

a civil defence exercise in a small town in

Canada. Most of the inhabitants were

asked to take part in the exercise during

which they had to pretend that their city

had been bombed. Air-raid warnings

were sounded and thousands of people

went into special air-raid shelters. Doctors

and nurses remained above ground while

Police patrolled the streets in case anyone

tried to leave the shelters too soon.

The police did not have much to do

because the citizens took the exercise

seriously. They stayed underground for

twenty minutes and waited for the siren to sound again. On leaving the air-raid

shelters, they saw that doctors and nurses were busy. A great many people had

volunteered to act as casualties. Theatrical make-up and artificial blood had

been used to make the injuries look realistic. A lot of People were lying 'dead'

in the streets. The living helped to carry the dead and wounded to special

stations. A Child of six was brought in by two adults. The child was supposed to

be dead. With theatrical make-up on his face, he looked as if he had died of

shock. Some people were so moved by the sight that they began to cry. However,

the child suddenly sat up and a doctor asked him to comment on his death.

The child looked around for a moment and said, 'I think they're all crazy!'

 

 

The Great St Bernard Pass connects

Switzerland to Italy. At 247o metres, it is

the highest mountain pass in Europe.

The famous monastery of St Bernard,

which was founded in the eleventh cen-

tury, lies about a mile away. For hun-

dreds of years, St Bernard dogs have

saved the lives of travellers crossing the

dangerous Pass. These friendly dogs,

which were first brought from Asia, were

used as watch-dogs even in Roman times.

Now that a tunnel has been built through

the mountains, the Pass is less dangerous,

but each year, the dogs are still sent out

into the snow whenever a traveller is in

difficulty. Despite the new tunnel, there

are still a few people who rashly attempt to cross the Pass on foot

During the summer months, the monastery is very busy,for it is visited by

thousands of people who cross the Pass in cars, As there are so many people

about, the dogs have to be kept in a special enclosure. In winter, however, life

at the monastery is quite different. The temperature drops to -30 and very

few people attempt to cross the Pass. The monks Prefer winter to summer for

they have more privacy. The dogs have greater freedom, too,for they are

allowed to wander outside their enclosure. The only regular visitors to the

monastery in winter are parties of skiers who go there at Christmas and Easter.

These young people, who love the peace of the mountains, always receive a warm

Welcome at St Bernard's monastery.

 

 

By now, a rocket will have set off on its

35 million mile trip to Mars and scien-

tists must be waiting anxiously for the

results. The rocket will be travelling for

six months before it reaches the planet.

It contains a number of scienitic instru-

ments, including a television camera. Any

pictures that are taken will have to travel

for three minutes before they reach the

earth. If the pictures are successful, they

may solve a number of problems about

Mars and provide information about the

markings on its surface which, nearly 100

years ago, the astronomer, Schiaparelli,

thought to be canals.

It will be a long time before any

landing on Mars can be attempted. This will only be possible when scientists

have learnt a lot more about the atmosphere that surrounds the planet. If a

satellite can one day be put into orbit round Mars, scientists will be able to find

out a great deal. An interesting suggestion for measuring the atmosphere around

Mars has been put forward. A rubber ball containing a radio transmitter could

be dropped from a satellite so that it would fall towards the surface of the planet.

The radio would signal the rate which the ball was slowed down and scientists

would be able to calculate how dense the atmosphere is. It may even be possible

to drop a capsule containing scientific instruments on to the planet's surface.

Only when a great deal more information has been obtained, will it be possible

to plan a manned trip to Mars.

 

 

The great ship, Titanic, sailed for New

York from Southampton on April 10th,

1912. She was carrying 1316 passengers

and a crew of 89l. Even by modern

standards, the 46,000 ton Titanic was a

colossal ship. At that time, however, she

was not only the largest ship that had

ever been built, but was regarded as

unsinkable, for she had sixteen water-

tight compartments. Even if two of these

were flooded, she would still be able to

float. The tragic sinking of this great

liner will always be remembered, for she

went down on her first voyage with heavy

loss of life.

Four days after setting out, while the

Titanic was sailing across the icy waters of the North Atlantic, a huge iceberg

was suddenly spotted by a look-out. After the alarm had been given, the great

ship turned sharply to avoid a direct collision. The Titanic turned just in time,

narrowly missing the immense wall of ice which rose over 100 feet out of the

water beside her. Suddenly, there was a slight trembling sound from below, and

the captain went down to see what had happened. The noise had been so faint

that no one thought that the ship had been damaged. Below, the captain realized

to his horror that the Titanic was sinking rapidly, for five of her sixteen water-

tight compartments had already been flooded ! The order to abandon ship was

given and hundreds of people plunged into the icy water. As there were not

enough life-boats for everybody, 1500 lives were lost.