{Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 



The Scottish Naturalist 



No. 29.] 1914 [May 



EDITORIAL. 



The scientific papers demanding our attention this month, 

 are mainly devoted to the lower animals, but there is one 

 item of interest to ichthyologists and sportsmen to which we 

 may refer. From the Deveron in October last a salmon of at 

 least 49 lb. weight was safely landed, and this monster is note- 

 worthy, not only as the record for the river, but also because 

 its scale-rings, read according to recognised methods, 

 apparently indicate that this creature of 53 inches length 

 and 27 inches girth had spent less than three full years in 

 the sea after a three-year parr stage. As this result obviously 

 falls short of the true period, it has been surmised that some 

 skin disease must have limited the normal growth of the 

 scales. 1 



R. W. Pocock, of H.M. Geological Survey, publishes 

 an interesting letter 2 recording the finding of oysters 

 in an excavation made in a street at Beckenham. The 

 specimens were obtained in a bed composed of bluish grey 

 sandstone and muddy sand slightly cemented, and lying 

 16 feet 6 inches below the surface of the street. The main 

 point of interest in the discovery is that in the two specimens 

 examined, which are of Eocene age, the ligament was in a 

 remarkably fresh condition, only differing from that in a 

 recent oyster in being somewhat softer, with the fibres less 

 coherent. The preservation of organic tissue in fossils is of 



1 J. A. Milne, The Field, 7th March 1914, p. 475- 

 - Nature, 19th March 191 4, p. 59. 

 29 N 



