78 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



reply that artificial culture in the fullest sense would be difficult, but 

 that it is entirely practicable to collect the young whenever they can be 

 had, and by feeding, rear them to a suitable market size. 



Food of mtjskrats. — Mr. Charles Carpenter, of Kelley's Island, 

 Ohio, who has already been quoted on this subject, (Bull. F. C.,1884, p. 

 295), writes under date of October 31, 1884, to say that he has learned 

 from Mrs. Dr. McMeans, who has charge of Jay Cooke's residence at Put 

 in-Bay, that she has lost many chickens this season by the depredations 

 of muskrats, as investigation showed. Mr. E. Alvord, fish-dealer in 

 Sandusky, Ohio, stated that he also had lost chickens by the same 

 means, and often. An old rat-trapper said, "They eat a great variety 

 of food — indeed, they will eat almost everything." 



What fish sometimes swallow. — Having seen the allusion to cod- 

 fish swallowing knives and cards (F. C. Bull., 1884, p. 175), Mr. Henry 

 Ffennell, of the Land and Water office, 2 Salisbury court, Fleet street, 

 London, E. C, under date of September 23, 1884, writes : " I have be- 

 fore me a pewter flask which was presented to my father, the late Mr. 

 Ffennell, commissioner of fisheries. On the flask is the following in- 

 scription : ' This flask, containing two glasses of an ardent spirit, was found 

 in the stomach of a ling (Molva vulgaris), taken off Brandon Head, County 

 Kerry (Ireland), presented by G. J. E. Stopford, esq., LL.D., and W. 

 Andrews, esq., to W. J. Ffennell, esq., in testimony of esteem and of 

 the sense of the services rendered by him as commissioner of fisheries.' 

 The flask is round in shape, and when full holds just four wine glasses. 

 From its appearance it is supposed to have belonged to a Dutch sailor. 

 Although I know many instances of strange things having been taken 

 from the stomachs of fish, I have never heard of so curious a case as 

 this." * 



A sea-monster. — Mr. Alfred Morris wrote from Sidney, N. S. W., 

 August 4, 1884, an account which appeared in Nature of September 25, 

 1884. He says : " Capt. W. Hopkins, of the schooner Mary Ogilvie, 

 who has just returned from a voyage round Australia, has given 

 the following information in order that other travellers may study the 

 char acter of the animal, which, if an octopus, must be of much larger 

 dimensions than those usually met with : 



"On Juue 15, when in south latitude 21° 37', and east longitude 113° 

 49', about 5 miles off the Exmouth Gulf, on the western coast of the con- 

 tinent, he saw an immense creature which he took to be a species of 

 octopus. His attention was drawn to it by a perfect cloud of sea-birds, 

 and at first he naturally thought it must be a dead carcass. On ap- 

 proaching it, however, he found it was alive, and sluggishly disporting 

 itself. In shape it was like a violin, but of immense size, with some six 

 feelers about the greater diameters of the violin. It lay almost flat upon 

 the water, was of a dark gray above and lighter gray below, and was 



