vHi ' lie port on the Zoological Surrey of India 



Alfred Bourne, the Director of the Institute and probably the senior 

 biologist now in . the country. I took the opportunity to discuss 

 Survey business with several other zoologists at Madras and 

 Bangalore, and to collect certain common South Indian freshwater 

 molluscs, Crustacea and dragonfiies of which fresh specimens^ were 

 wanted in connection with work in progress either in the Survey's 

 laboratories or at the hands of our correspondents abroad. 



My tour to Allahabad, Agra, Delhi and Lahore was also mainly 

 a tour of inspection. Its ultimate goal was the meeting of the 

 Board of Scientific Advice at Delhi, but I was anxious to see the 

 laboratories and libraries of the chief colleges of Northern India and 

 to gain precise information as to the extent to which help might be 

 expected in the work of the Survey. In every case offers of assist- 

 ance were freely made. 



Our investigations in the Mutlah River, undertaken mainly by 

 Mr. Kemp, had greater general interest. They 

 The Mutlah River. were carried out in close co-operation with 



the Deputy Director of Fisheries, Bengal, whose department placed 

 its fine steam launch, the ' Kitty,' at the disposal of the Zoological 

 Survey. Mr. T. Southwell, the Deputy Director (now Director), 

 also accompanied Mr. Kemp for several days. 



The Mutlah River is one of the largest of the numerous waterways 

 that traverse the Gangetic delta and is navigable for ships of large 

 tonnage as far as Port Canning. It varies greatly in depth, but 

 in the main channel there is nowhere less than 4| fathoms at low 

 sprints tides ; over considerable areas the water is 8 fathoms deep. 

 The level of the water varies greatly according to tide ; there is as 

 a general rule a difference of about 10 feet between high and low 

 tide. The water is nearly always laden with silt and doubtless 

 shows great seasonal variation in salinity. It is never very salt. 



The fauna of the river-bed appears to be very limited ; but, 

 thoufj-h poor in species, it is abundant in individuals. The chief in- 

 terest of this fauna is the extraordinary resemblance that the species 

 bear to those inhabiting great depths in the sea. If any one with 

 experience of both deep-sea and shallow-water faunas were to have 

 made a casual inspection of the contents of the nets we hauled in 

 the Mutlah River, he would probably have expressed the opinion 

 that the catch came from deep water not less than 400 fathoms in 

 depth. The similarity exists chiefly in three characters, in colour- 

 ation, in the peculiar translucent and gelatinous appearance of certain 

 fish and prawns, and in the production of long feeler-like processes 

 or appendages ; it is in most cases quite superficial. The reason 

 for it will be discussed by Mr. Kemp in a paper that will shortly be 

 published in the Records of the Indian Museum. 



In addition to discovering this interesting phenomenon Mr. Kemp 

 obtained a very valuable collection of Decapod Crustacea and other 

 estuarine forms, some of which appear to be new to science while 

 others are extremely scarce in collectiona. 



