610 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



the atolls be regularly attended and watched as culture-fields 

 of the pearl-oyster, there is a great commercial future before 

 the pioneer settlers of the South Sea Islands. 



In the same part of the world there is sad waste of oppor- 

 tunity in not cultivating the turtle industry. The animals 

 are carefully watched on landing by the keen eyes of na- 

 tives, and the "nests" of eggs are devoured. If the small 

 turtles, hatched by the sun, could be reared in salt-water 

 ponds — as we rear trout in the fresh waters of this colony — 

 they would escape not only their human foes till they arrived 

 at maturity, but in their babyhood they would be aljle to be 

 preserved from the crowds of sharks and other fish that await 

 the tiny turtles as they enter the sea in a defenceless condi- 

 tion. This applies both to the edible and the tortoise-shell 

 varieties of turtle ; they could be bred for commercial pur- 

 poses with a minimum of trouble and outlay and a maximum 

 of profit. 



The Eoyal Society's expedition to Central Africa has re- 

 corded a remarkable observation-in regard to the great Lake 

 Tanganyika. The fauna of the lake is quite unique, and as 

 limited as peculiar. The jelly-fish and shrimps are of marine 

 type, and the water, which Livingstone stated was brackish 

 in his time, is now quite fresh. Lake Nyassa, some 246 miles 

 to the south-east, never apparently had any connection with 

 the ocean, but it seems probable that Lake Tanganyika, a part 

 of the great Eift Valley running through that part of Africa, 

 once had such connection. 



Turning from the lower grades of creation to the world of 

 men and women, there is much to interest us in modern 

 geographical and anthropological work. A journey needing 

 great daring and entailing severe exposure was made by 

 Mr. Harry de Windt among the Tchuktchi of Arctic Alaska. 

 He gives us in his account a wonderful picture of the intensity 

 of the struggle for life among the Esquimaux of the far north. 

 They make a habit of infanticide, but even under the extreme 

 pressure of hunger do not carry the practice so far as to 

 indulge in cannibalism of the kind related of an Australian 

 mother who was found in tears, not because of her baby 

 having had to be killed, but because her parents had eaten 

 the titbits. We doubt, however, if any Australians could 

 surpass in dirtiness these Indians of the land of ice. Some of 

 their habits are perfectly indescribable. The Tchuktchi is not 

 prone to suicide, but when a man has reached the point at 

 which he is decidedly not worth his food a family conclave is 

 held, and the whole village assembles around the home of the 

 victim to celebrate his funeral feast. The person in whom all 

 are interested is himself full of lively interest in the proceed- 

 ings, and, in the midst of a circle of relations, submits himself 



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