May 1, 1SG7.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



113 



The Baillie's Salmon-Rob. — I was lying list- 

 lessly one day in summer thirty feet beneath tlip 

 surface, beyond the influence of the rapid stream 

 above, in the fathomless pool called The Pot, some 

 half-mile below Merton Bridge, a boat, kept in its 

 place by two light oars, floating above me, when the 

 fragments of a conversation reached my ears, which 

 by degrees absorbed my attention. A river-keeper 

 was detailing to his employer the circumstances 

 connected with the capturing of a poacher. "Ay, 

 sir," he said, " but that saumon-roe is a sair temp- 

 tation ; mony a guid mon has been beguiled by it. 

 A' ken ane, a baillie ; a' took him mysel'." " How 

 came that ? Tell us all about it," was the reply. 

 " A' was watching, mebbe six months syne, up in 

 the Pavilion Water ; the fish were thranging sair 

 upon the spawning-beds, and weel a' kent they were 

 thrang on the bank abune the Whirlies. A' was 

 hidden in the wee brae just abune the brig, and a' 

 hadna' been there mebbe twa hour, when a' see a 

 mon come daintily alang. Looking carefully this 

 way an' that, an' seeing naebody, he just out vvi' the 

 gaff, an' screwing it on to the end of his walking- 

 stick, stepped lightly into the water. It wouldna' 

 be mickle abune bis knee, an' the back fin o' mair 

 than ae great fish was plain to be seen on the bank 

 before him. 'Deed, but he wasted little time in 

 selection, an' varra little ceremony he treated 'em 

 with. In a second the gaff was in a puir half-spawned 

 beastie, an' lugging her ashore, he started aff bet 

 foot towards Melrose. A' up an' after him, an' for 

 a weighty mon he made mickle running. When he 

 saw me he dropped the fish, but no' stopping to 

 pick it up, a' just kept on under the radway brig, 

 down the meadows, by Ailwand Foot, under Melrose 

 Brig, an' there, as he was creeping up the steep 

 bank, a' grippit hold of him ahint ; a' grippit hard, 

 an' he turned and said, ' Sandy, lad ! dinna grip sae 

 hard ; ye'll rive ma breeks.' ' Ay, Baillie, said I, 

 'is that you? How cam' ye to do it?' And he 

 said quite solemn-like, 'Sandy!' he said, 'it was 

 neether the need nor the greed, but joost the 

 saumon-roe ! " ' Ech, Baillie,' a' said, 'a' wadna' 

 have believed it of ye, but it will be dear saumon- 

 roe to ye.' And sae it proved, for he was fined five 

 pund, and ither harm cam' of it." — Autobiography 

 of a Salmon. 



Sea Eish in Fresh Water.— Last month a fish 

 was captured in the river Blyth, near Halesworth, 

 supposed to be a large specimen of the common 

 trout, but on examination of the head and shoulders 

 which were sent to me, I am confident it was a sea 

 or bull trout {Salmo eriox). As I believe the occur- 

 rence of this fish to be uncommon on the Norfolk 

 and Suffolk coasts, I thought the following descrip- 

 tion might interest some of your readers : — Length, 

 3 feet 4 inches, from the tip of his snout to the end 

 of his tail ; girth, 21 inches ; weight, 15 lbs. ; head, 



peculiar in shape and size, armed with large strong 

 teeth. The extreme end of the lower jaw turned 

 up more than an inch, with a blunt point, nearly at 

 right angles, fitted with a corresponding hollow in 

 the upper jaw. The colour, a pale orange, with 

 spots, not very bright ; flesh very inferior.— 2?. A., 

 Norwich. \ 



Yankee Receipt for Cockroaches.— Close in 

 an envelope several of these insects, and drop it 

 into the street unseen, and the remaining cockroaches 

 will all go to the finder of the parcel. It is also 

 said that if a looking-glass be held before cock- 

 roaches, they will be so frightened as to leave the 

 premises. — Cowan's Curious Facts. 



Wintry Fleas. — During the winter of 1762, at 

 Norwich, after a chilling storm of snow and wind 

 that had destroyed many lives, myriads of fleas were 

 found skipping about on the snow. — Gent. Mag., 

 xxxii., 20S. 



Small Birds for the Antipodes. — The 

 caterpillar, we {New Zealand Herald) hear, is 

 making great havoc with the grain crops south of 

 Auckland, about Otahuhu, Mangarei, Wairoa, and 

 other places. Oats, wheat, and barley have had to 

 be cut green for hay, and some farmers have lost 

 hundreds of pounds by this pest. Again and again 

 we have urged upon the local legislature the neces- 

 sity of encouraging the importation of small birds, 

 and the neglect of doing so is painfully manifest in 

 the ravages which have taken place in the farmers' 

 fields this year. It is neither the climate, nor the 

 fact that New Zealand is in the southern hemisphere, 

 as some imagine, that is the cause of the presence 

 of these armies of caterpillars. The same thing 

 would occur in England were there no small birds 

 to destroy the insects and their larva?. In districts 

 at home where a ruthless destruction of small birds 

 has been permitted, the same results have occurred 

 as here. It would seem as if our local legislatures, 

 puffed up with the idea that they are full blown 

 statesmen, thought the matter of encouraging the 

 importation of small birds beneath their notice. A 

 few sparrows and finches may in themselves be very 

 insignificant things, but the destruction of the grain 

 on a whole country's side for the want of them, con- 

 siderably alters the question. — N. Z. Advertiser. 



A Hint. — Those that know the most, are most 

 sensible how little they know in comparison of what 

 is yet unknown, and therefore consider things with 

 modesty and candour ; but Ignorance cries out at 

 once it "cannot be," inconsiderately measuring the 

 powers of Nature by the scanty compass of its own 

 experience, and more ready to reject the truth than 

 take the pains to find it out.— Baker, "On the 

 Polype." 



