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O n 27th December Dr. Greeves (not the Melbourne medico, but a ship's surgeon) was walking along the beach at Lime-burner's Point, near Geelong, armed with a gun, and out snipe-shooting. Noticing something like, as he fancied, a h u m a n body floating on the water, he hailed a boat, and pushing towards it perceived the tail extremity of an immense stingaree. O n moving the " whole animal" was seen, and in dimensions it seemed about eight feet long, and nearly as broad. T h e Doctor's piece was charged with small shot, and firing into the fish it wheeled round, rushed the boat, and struck at it with m u c h violence. It then s w a m in a circle round the craft, " thrashing O n rising again a boathook was thrust the gunwale with its tail," but a second shot sent it under. into it, and they tried to haul it on board, when the stingaree struggled so furiously as to wrench itself off the grappler, and lost no time in turning tail and getting away. In 1849, M r . W h y t e was the leader of a survey party employed in marking the boundary line between Port Phillip and South Australia. O n e day, provided with some provisions and two horses, he started alone on a short exploring trip, and lost himself in the Mallee Scrub. H e wandered about for several days, and was reduced to m u c h privation through want of food and water. O n e of the horses died from exhaustion, and by devouring some of the flesh the castaway was enabled to tide over a couple of days, when he was so pressed by thirst that nothing remained but to cut the throat of the other animal and drink the blood. At length he was found by some of his m e n on the hunt for him, lying in a condition of extreme debility, on the bank of the Murray. H e was sent to Adelaide, where after a time he was restored to his normal state of health. During the Christmas holidays of 1849-50, there was displayed in the shop windows of Mr. John Yewers, confectioner, Elizabeth Street, the most wonderful Twelfth Cake ever fabricated in the province. It weighed 2oolbs., was 4 feet high, and had 16 feet 8 inches of a circumference. It was highly ornamented, the centre piece representing Albert, the Prince Consort, as Field Marshal. As no single customer would venture to invest in it, a half-crown raffle was resorted to, and thus the enterprising Yewers succeeded in getting it off his hands. A Mrs. Stammers kept what might be termed an infant school in Melbourne, and if not altogether forgetful of her o w n name, she ought to be prepared to m a k e some allowance for any "stammering" propensities manifested by the mites of children committed to her tender care. She appears, however, to have shown no mercy on this account. She had amongst her pupils a four-year old creature n a m e d Hartnett, whose little tongue could never manage to surround the letter X. In fact the c o m p o u n d consonantal sound was too m u c h for her, and the joint operation of pressing the thick part of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, and the end against the portion above the teeth, was so complex that the urchin could not master it. T h e soft-hearted preceptress fancied that an unmerciful caning would very soon overcome the difficulty, and the child was belaboured accordingly. T h e youngster's parents held totally different views as to the efficacy of corporal punishment, and s u m m o n e d the school mistress for her cruelty. Mrs. Stammers accordingly put in an appearance at the Melbourne Police Court on the 22nd September, when the defendant's "stammering" apology did not avail, and she was fined 40s., or in default one month's imprisonment. She paid the fine, and left the court amidst an unmistakable " X "-pression of sibilant disapprobation from the crowd in attendance. In 1849 supposed symptoms of Asiatic cholera appeared. Thirty-five cases were said to have occurred, though it was all a groundless scare, for a physician in extensive practice pronounced it to be only " plum-pudding cholera." A Thieves' Association was organized in January, 1849, for the "protection of the marauding fraternity," its chief purpose being, by the skilful use of that instrument of legal ingenuity, known as a habeas to procure the release from prison of thieves irregularly committed or improperly