422 NOTES AND COMMENTS [june 



informed the Consul that the gendarme had been sent to watch us by 

 instructions from Paris. 



" By the advice of the Consul, in order to escape from more serious 

 unpleasantness, we quitted the island on the 17th of September and 

 returned to Brest. Thus was our Ushant expedition wrecked. 



" It may be well to state here that our Foreign Office had informed 

 the French Government about our intended visit to Ushant, and its 

 object, long before our advent on the island. Thus the treatment 

 meted out to us is inexplicable." 



Some weird light on the misadventure (though there were some 

 results after all) is given in a footnote, which contains an extract from 

 La Patrie to the effect that " the English are in the habit of visiting 

 Ushant with a view to secure pilots well acquainted with those 

 dangerous seas, and to bribe the islanders with British gold. Only last 

 year, under the pretence of rewarding the islanders for their conduct 

 in connection with the wreck of the Drwmmond Castle, they scattered 

 a perfect golden shower over the islands. In short, our neighbours, in 

 the time of peace, pave the way for the purchase of traitors in the 

 time of war ! " If it were not sad it would be absurd ; and one 

 cannot help feeling that though there may be diseases more fatal, 

 there is none which can expect less sympathy than that of red-tape- 

 worm. 



Marine Zoology in Jamaica. 



We have just received the " Annual Eeport on the Institute of Jamaica 

 for the year ended 31st March 1898." The museum appears to be 

 making good progress under the curatorship of Mr. J. E. Duerden. 

 The Caribbean Sea Fisheries Development Syndicate has investigated 

 Jamaican waters with a steam trawler, with a view to establishing a 

 fishing industry on a large scale. Unfortunately the scarcity of fish 

 and the coral nature of the sea-floor militate against this plan. The 

 operations of the trawler have been recorded by the curator ; and a 

 large series of local sponges has been contributed by the syndicate ; 

 one massive specimen is two feet across. Mr. Duerden himself has 

 collected an almost complete series of the thirty-five known species of 

 Jamaican Actiniaria, a group on which he has published several 

 papers. Miss Eathbun of the United States National Museum has 

 identified many additions to the collection of Crustacea. It may be 

 useful to note that a 3 to 5 per cent solution of formalin has now been 

 in use for over two years as a preservative fluid for fishes, coelenterates, 

 and holothurians, and has preserved the natural form and colours of 

 the animals better than alcohol. Mr. Duerden has also been investi- 

 gating the relics of the aboriginal Indian inhabitants of Jamaica, and 

 the collection of these relics has been much increased. The Eeport 

 indicates a gratifying growth of interest in the museum. 



