8 JULY 1848, Page 10

The bathers at Hunstanton, on the Norfolk coast, have had

an escape from an unpleasant rencontre. A fisherman, employed in catching crabs near a place where bathers are carried in the machines, observed a large fish approaching; though above the waist in the water, the man struck the creature on the head, and a regular fight ensued, the fish using its tail: the fisherman ultimately prevailed, and the receding tide left on the sands a shark nearly nine feet long. os the same morning many persons had bathed at the spot. One day last week, when the salmon-fishers at Berriedale were engaged at their occupation, they were surprised at hearing an incessant report of cannonaa. ing at sea. As there was a heavy mist at the time, they were at a loss to known the cause of the occurrence; but they were not long left to conjecture, as a partial clearing of the atmosphere disclosed to their astonished gaze two vessels peppering it into each other at a furious rate. The vessels were evidently foreign, and are not unlikely to be the same two that are said to have been engaged with each other off the Bell Rock. The fog soon returned, and. the firing m a short time ceased--John O'Groat Journal.

Robert Coates, the London pedestrian, won a match at Bristol on Monday: his task was to leap over 1,000 hurdles in 3 hours and 30 minutes. The first 300 leaps were done in 50 minutes; the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh hundred were performed in 16k, 20,24, and 22 minutes. At the 752d leap, Coates was distressed, and took strong tea; but he finished the eighth hundred in 37 minutes. In the ninth hundred he nearly fainted; but, taking more strong tea and changing his clothes, he again went forward merrily. The 1,000 were done in 3 hours 19 minutes 20 seconds. The feat is noted as the most extraordinary of the kind ever performed.

A publican near the Surrey Theatre having some two hundred letters to post,

wetted the stamps with his tongue; Theatre, he had finished, his tongue and throat became so sore, and swelled so seriously, that he sent for medical assistance; it was found that the gum on the stamps was poisonous. Antidotes were administered, and in a day or two the man recovered.

Punch has a cartoon this week, the conception of which is so good, that although a picture cannot be told in words' the idea is worth describing even in plain prose. A doll meant to represent the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland is resting against a wall, and serves as a target for a gang of ruffians, who are peppering it with bullets; the image receiving the treatment with a helplessly benevolent intrepidity—a blank and smiling resignation. Underneath is printed—" 'My Lord Assassin Clarendon' murdering the Irish."