so 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Apeil 1, 1869. 



When I made the figure I could not distinctly make 

 out what became of them when they reached what 

 I call the digestive apparatus ; but my balsam 

 treatment developed the fact that these tubes 

 traversedlthe surface of this sac, crossing each other 

 several times, and I have filled in the lines to in- 

 dicate this. 



Mr. Warren called to see me when passing through 

 town, and said that he saw several of these animals 

 in dipping up the water, and that he supposed the 

 bottle contained three or four at least, though the 

 crustaceans were far more abundant. Mr. Warren 

 further told me that when alive, it moved itself 

 by jerking its tail up to its head, first on one side 

 and then on the other, which seemed to give it 

 great satisfaction, each jerk completing the round 

 of its enjoyments. 



The colour of the animal, when alive, is a beauti- 

 ful chestnut, and my specimen in balsam is now of 

 a fine amber colour. I should say that a transverse 

 section of any.'part of [the body or tail (except, of 

 course, at the points where the legs, &c, join) would 

 be very nearly, if not quite circular. 



I have already made arrangements for a search 

 for more, when the warm weather shall come. 



Is not the appearance of the Artemia salina in 

 these waters worthy of note ? No authorities within 

 my reach refer to it as occurring in this country at 

 all. And if, as stated by Carpenter in his Zoology, 

 it only appears as at Lymington when the water is 

 approaching condensation, it seems to me some in- 

 teresting speculations at least might be developed. 

 With, &c. S. A. Bkiggs. 



P. H. Gosse, Esq., 

 Sandhurst, Torquay, England. 



EATS. 



" A B." must be rather a novice in housekeep- 

 -£*-• ing arrangements, not to have known that 

 rats are quite as partial to sweets as mice, and, 

 being considerably more powerful, it is astonishing 

 the havoc they soon make in a whole loaf of sugar, 

 when once they find access to it. 



I really have been surprised at the things rats 

 have carried off, and must confess that when I first 

 began to "keep house" I suspected "the rats" 

 were to take the place of " the cat " in my esta- 

 blishment. I was living in the country in a very 

 old house in South Wales, and I fancied I should 

 like to make a few alterations in the larder — alter- 

 ations that would effectually prevent " the rats " 

 from committing further ravages. I had been 

 reading one of Soyer's books, and took the idea 

 from it. I had a large deal board, a table in fact 

 without legs, suspended from the ceiling by four 

 iron rods, meat hooks were fixed in rows all along 

 the under side of it, on which I desired cook to 

 hang the undressed meat, joints, poultry, &c, and 



on the top of it there' was ample room for any 

 cooked meat and pastry. I also had some light 

 movable steps made for cook to mount in order to 

 enable her to reach this uovel safe. 



" Now, cook, I trust I shall hear no more of the 

 rats." 



" I am sure, ma'am, I hope so too. Drat the nasty 

 things," was the reply ; and for one entire week no 

 losses were reported, but one Tuesday morning I 

 found cook looking exceedingly anxious, and just 

 as I was about to enter the larder she said — 



" Please, ma'am, the rats have eat the ducks Mrs. 

 Davis brought down last night." (My cook always 

 prefaced any little information of an unpleasant 

 nature with "please, ma'am.") J 



I felt sceptical at the moment as to her having 

 hung up the ducks, but I saw at a glance she had 

 done so when I entered, for there were literally the 

 hanging skeletons, and her fault had been forgetting 

 to take away the steps. The rats must have stood 

 on the top rail and eat the flesh off the bones, while 

 resting on their hind feet, for the steps were not 

 sufficiently high to have enabled them to get the 

 ducks off the hooks. 



" Drat 'em, I believes they must have got on one 

 another's shoulders to reach those ducks," ex- 

 claimed cook. The notion of rats "giving each 

 other a back " was rather too rich for my gravity, 

 and cook escaped the expected lecture. 



Some months after this, a small parcel, containing 

 two silk neckties and some new gloves, was missing 

 from among other parcels on the hall table, and 

 when, the rats having become nearly masters of the 

 premises, ferrets were engaged and a downright 

 war waged against them, both the silk handkerchiefs 

 were discovered, nibbled into bits, forming part of 

 a rat's nest under the cellar wall. Last year, when 

 living in Hampshire, my cook there informed me 

 that some fine greengages, which I had purchased 

 on the previous day with the intention of making a 

 tart, had been carried off by rats. They positively 

 had demolished nearly a pie-dish full, there were 

 three or four half eaten plums remaining, sufficiently 

 bitten to point out the real delinquents. 



Helen E. Watney. 



SPOTS ON PAPER. 

 By the Editor. 



IT is two or three years, at least, since some cor- 

 respondents first forwarded us specimens of 

 white paper with small dendritic spots upon them, 

 and, from the first, we have felt convinced that 

 these spots (all the same although from different 

 persons) were inorganic. Recently the subject has 

 been revived, and in December, 1S6S, we quoted, in 

 reference to them, from the Gardener's Chronicle. 

 "The spot on paper is a doubtful plant, named by 

 Agardh and Lyngbye Conferva dendritica. It is 



