Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889

by Barkham Burroughs

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buffalo were not heard of or seen again. Another condemned vessel, the Detroit, that had belonged to Commodore Perry's victorious fleet, was started over the cataract in the winter of 1841, but grounded about midway in the rapids, and lay there till knocked to pieces by the ice. A somewhat more picturesque instance was the sending over the Canada side of a ship on fire. This occurred in 1837. The vessel was the Caroline, which had been run in the interest of the insurgents in the Canadian rebellion. It was captured by Colonel McNabb, an officer of the Canada militia, and by his orders it was set on fire then cut loose from its moorings. All in flames, it went glaring and hissing down the rapids and over the precipice, and smothered its ruddy blaze in the boiling chasm below. Thia was witnessed by large crowds on both sides of the falls, and was described as a most magnificent sight. Of course there was no one on board the vessel.

OLD TIME WAGES IN ENGLAND.--The following rates of daily wages "determined" by the Justices of Somerset, in 1685, answer this question very fairly. Somerset; being one of the average shires of England. The orthography is conformed to original record:

s. d.

Mowers per diem, findeing themselves: 1 2 Mowers at meate and drinke: 0 7 Men makeing hay per diem, findeing themselves: 0 10 Men at meate and drinke: 0 6 Women makeing hay: 0 7 Women at meate and drinke: 0 4 Men reapeing corne per diem, findeing themselves: 1 2 Men reapinge corne at meate and drinke: 0 8 Moweing an acre of grasse, findeing themselves: 1 2 Moweing an acre of grasse to hay: 1 6 Moweing an acre of barley: 1 1 Reapeinge and bindeinge an acre of wheate: 3 0 Cuttinge and bindeinge an acre of beanes and hookinge: 2 0

The shilling is about 24 cents and the penny 2 cents.

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE SIGNERS.--The following is the list of names appended to that famous document, with the colony which each represented in Congress:

New Hampshire--Josiah Bartlett; William Whipple, Matthew Thornton.

Massachusetts--John Hancock, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine.

Rhode Island--Elbridge Gerry, Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery.

Connecticut--Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott.

New York--William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris.

New Jersey--Richard Hockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark.

Pennsylvania--Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross.

Delaware--Caesar Rodney, George Reed, Thomas McKean.

Maryland--Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone, William Paca, Charles Carroll, of Carrollton.

Virginia--George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton.

North Carolina--William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.

South Carolina--Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton.

Georgia--Button Gwinntet, Lyman Hall, George Walton.

LIFE OF ETHAN ALLEN.--Colonel Ethan Allan was captured in an attack upon Montreal, September 25, 1775. He was sent as prisoner to Great Britain, ostensibly for trial, but in a few months was sent back to America, and confined in prison ships and jails at Halifax and New York till May 3, 1778, when he was exchanged. During most of his captivity he was treated as a felon and kept heavily ironed, but during 1777 was allowed restricted liberty on parole. After his exchange he again offered his services to the patriot army, but because of trouble in Vermont was put in command of the militia in that State. The British authorities were at that time making especial efforts to secure the allegiance of the Vermonters, and it was owing to Allen's skillful negotiations that the question was kept open until the theater of war was changed, thus keeping the colony on the American side, but avoiding the attacks from the British that would certainly have followed an open avowal of their political preferences. Allen died at