342 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



localities in India. Much of this work might appear to the layman to be absolutely 

 useless, judged from the severely practical standpoint, but a little reflection shows 

 us that even apparently unpromising fields of research are worth undertaking 

 solely from a utilitarian standpoint. Take, for instance, in the part under review, 

 the group of aquatic insects. The Culicidae include the mosquitos, which have 

 such an important relation to public health in Bengal. In a recent report on the 

 public health of that province we read : " Villages are built on the very borders of 

 the lake, and though most of them have a few patches of rice cultivation, the vast 

 perennial mosquito population comes from the lake itself. In situations sufficiently 

 protected by weeds and algse from the attacks of fish, anopheline larvae and nymphs 

 are in veritable swarms." Annandale and Kemp do not confirm this. They say 

 that in spite of careful search in many localities the only mosquito larvae they were 

 able to find in the lake were were those oi Anopheles rossii, and they conclude that 

 most of the mosquitos breed in small pools of water near the edge rather than in 

 the lake itself. 



It is obvious that if prophylactic measures are based on insufficient or inaccurate 

 evidence there is a risk of waste of public money. Consequently we are compelled 

 to insist on the value of the field zoological work done by the Indian Mission staff 

 under the able direction of Dr. Annandale and to hope that its sphere of usefulness 

 will be considerably extended in the future. 



J. T. Jenkins. 



Memoirs of the Indian Museum. Vol. V. Fauna of the Chilka Lake. No. 3, 

 December 191 5. (Calcutta: Published by order of the Trustees of the 

 Indian Museum, 191 5. Price Rs. 9.) 



This, the third part of the volume of the Memoirs of the Indian Museum devoted 

 to Lake Chilka, is of less general interest than the preceding, since it is confined to 

 a description of the Crustacea Decapoda inhabiting the lake area. Mr. Kemp, 

 who is responsible for this group, is a worthy successor to Dr. Alcock, whose 

 researches into the Indian Crustacea brought great credit to Indian zoology. 



It must be obvious that a group such as this can only be adequately dealt with 

 by a trained zoologist who has collected and made field observations in India. 

 We would even go so far as to say that it is impossible to do the work properly in 

 any other manner. 



Mr. Kemp writes not only with the knowledge of the laboratory-trained 

 zoologist, but with the advantage of a first-hand acquaintance of the habits of the 

 creatures he is writing about. 



The Crustacea Decapoda are of some economic interest since they form the 

 basis of an important seasonal fishery by the Ooriyas who inhabit the borders of 

 the lake. The fresh-water prawns {Palccmon malcolmsii and P. rudis) are 

 trapped in large numbers in September when the water is fresh or very slightly 

 brackish. 



Generally speaking the Decapod lake fauna shows a much greater resemblance 

 to that of the Madras backwaters than to the Gangetic delta. Of the brackish 

 water prawns Penceus indicus is caught in large numbers by the Ooriya fishermen 

 and it occurs at all seasons of the year both in the main area of the lake and in 

 the outer channel communicating with the Bay of Bengal. These prawns are 

 dried and exported to Burma. 



There is, in Bengal generally, evidence of an annual migration of the prawns 

 (Penaeidae) to the sea in the winter months, and this apparently coincides with 



