POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



H3 



ly adapted to the estivation which is the 

 forced consequence of the pluvial regime of 

 the country. After a heavy shower nu- 

 merous fish will make their appearance in 

 places that were absolutely dry a few hours 

 before. Living fishes of certain species 

 may be found buried two feet below the 

 dry surface of the soil. The Opkiocephalidcei 

 like our eels, pass from one pond to another 

 by gliding through the moist grass, and the 

 Amphipnous cuchia loves to rest on the 

 ground hidden in high grass ; and one may 

 see it leap into the water when he ap- 

 proaches it. The Ophiocephalus striatus 

 builds a nest with its tail among the aquat- 

 ic plants on the banks of the rivers, and 

 finishes it off with blades of grass, which it 

 cuts with its mouth. The eggs are laid in 

 the nest, and the male takes care of them, 

 or, if he dies or is captured, the female takes 

 his place. Both watch the fry with as much 

 care as a hen takes of her chickens, but will 

 drive them away when they have become 

 large enough, and will eat them up if they 

 do not go. The male of the Arius burrna- 

 nicus hatches out its little ones in its mouth ; 

 fifteen or twenty eggs in different stages of 

 development, ana even recently hatched 

 young ones, may be found in the buccal 

 cavity and on the branchiae ; and, during 

 the whole period of this incubation, the fish 

 takes no food. The varieties of the fauna 

 of this country support the hypothesis that 

 it was primitively an archipelago, separated 

 by arms of the sea. The forms are often 

 totally different on mountains, having pre- 

 cisely the same geological formation, only 

 fifteen or twenty miles apart. 



A Premature Burial. M. G. Eric Mac- 

 kay presented, in " The Popular Science 

 Monthly "for January, 1880, a number of 

 apparently authentic instances of cases in 

 which premature burial had occurred. In 

 a subsequent number of the " Monthly " 

 (August, 1880), Dr. William Lee depreciated 

 the danger, and undertook to show that 

 premature burials were extremely rare. An 

 instance very similar to some of those re- 

 corded by Mr. Mackay, and showing that 

 the danger is an actual one, is related in the 

 " Viedomosti " of Samara, Russia. A clerk 

 while drunk was seized with an epileptic fit, 

 and apparently died. As the next two days 



would be holidays, when burials would not 

 be permitted, it was decided to lay him in 

 the ground that very night. Drops of sweat 

 were seen on his face during the funeral 

 services, but no attention was paid to the 

 matter because it was thought the drops 

 might have come from snow that fell on 

 his face on the way to the church. But lit- 

 tle earth was thrown on the coffin, on ac- 

 count of the lateness of the hour. When the 

 grave-digger went the next morning to fill 

 up the grave, he heard a noise, as of groan- 

 ing and struggling in it. Instead of releasing 

 the man, the sexton went to the priest to 

 ask permission to do so. The priest sent 

 him to the police ; the police sent him and 

 the man's wife, who had joined him, to the 

 chief ; the chief sent them to the archiman- 

 drite, and he to the procurator. At last a per- 

 mit was obtained, after five hours, but then 

 the man was dead, having left in the coffin 

 evidences of a hard struggle. He had turned 

 around, bitten his fingers, torn his flesh, and 

 rent his clothing. It is hard, in reading 

 this story, to decide whether most to admire 

 the stupidity of the grave-digger and the 

 victim's wife, or the elaborate complication 

 of Russian red-tape. 



Improvements in Insnrance Manage- 

 ment. The " Pall Mall Gazette " notices 

 signs of improvement and invigoration in the 

 management of the English life-assurance 

 companies during the past year, particularly 

 in the matters of the settlement of claims im- 

 mediately after death, liberal extensions of 

 the limits of residence, facilities for the re- 

 newal of lapsed policies, the introduction of 

 the paid-up policy system, and the simpli- 

 fication of the initiatory stages in paid- 

 up policies. Tendencies are observed, too, 

 toward the reduction of rates to a simple 

 living basis, and the gradual working out of 

 the "bonus" system. The companies are 

 still, however, obliged to meet the sharp 

 competition of American enterprises, which 

 are able to offer inducements enhanced by 

 the higher interest on their investments ; 

 but they ought to be able to neutralize these 

 advantages, it is suggested, by those which 

 they enjoy from the prestige of their long 

 career and honorable position, and from 

 the less cost at which their business is con- 

 ducted. 



