137 



NEGLECTED POINTS. 



Reprinted from the Austin, Texas, Naturalist, 



If every naturalist were annually to keep a record of all that he 

 sees, confining himself to the branch he most delights in, such proceed- 

 ings would be of the greatest use both for reference in after years and 

 for comparison with other records. All notes are useful sooner or later 

 if properly kept, and many a little incident, trifling as it may seem at 

 the time, might prove of great value in determining some question of 

 the future. With the extension af settlement, animal life, in its natural 

 state, rapidly disappears. Even is this manifest in the finny tribe, for 

 certain species of fish which years ago abounded in some of our streams 

 are now entirely extinct in those waters, owing to various causes attri- 

 butable to man's encroachment on nature. Cutting down the forests 

 has materially tended to cut off the old water supply, and creeks which 

 half a century ago teemed with fish, have now dwindled to brooks with 

 no facilities for their former inhabitants. The refuse of mills and fac- 

 tories has also contaminated the water, and indiscriminate slaughter, 

 especially in spawning lime, has done the rest. In the inland waters 

 around Ottawa, Canada, several species of fish are recorded in lists 

 published by the Natural History Society, of that place, in the year 

 1859, inhabiting streams which are now entirely dryj and if the records 

 did not exist the idea of such fish having been there would be ridiculed. 

 Records of annual observation would contribute to show the cause and 

 the time of the extinction or driving away of certain fish. We all well 

 know the causes to which the disappearance of land animals can be 

 attributed, but it is not so in most cases with the denizens of the water, 

 and I would call the attention of brother-naturalists to the importance 

 of recording little facts for the enlightenment of those of the next gener- 

 ation. 



The study of fish and of " animal life below the water," generally, 

 is perhaps more neglected by the amateur naturalist than any other 

 object, and yet it will be found, after once commencing it, most fascina- 

 ting. I have often sat perfectly quiet beside a still pool or beside a 

 shallow stream where at first no life appeared. Very soon an object 

 darts out from under a stone or a log, either after its prey floating down, 



