284 NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 1896. 



the basin itself is disappointing, for it is rather barren of any forms except the 

 economic clam. Star-fishes and sea-urchins hardly occur there at all, a fact supposed 

 to be due to the long time the basin is empty at each tide, and the consequent warmth 

 of the water in the pools. 



The thirteenth bulletin of this Society, which has just been published, contains 

 an important article on the ichthyology of New Brunswick, together with a catalogue 

 of the marine and fresh-water fishes of the province, by Dr. Philip Cox, who has 

 lately considerably enriched the museum at St. John by a collection of the same. 

 We may also record the fact that a short time ago this society acquired the so-called 

 Gesner Museum, which was the first museum established in New Brunswick, and 

 contained a collection of arms and implements of various nations, together with 

 numerous natural history objects. The founder of this museum, Abraham Gesner, 

 published a volume on New Brunswick, in 1847, i n London. The Society's museum 

 is strong in native birds, geology, botany, and marine molluscs, and does credit to 

 the labours of numerous local workers, such as Montague Chamberlain, C. F. Hartt, 

 Professor Fowler, G. W. Hay, and W. F. Ganong. There is, besides, a very good 

 collection illustrating the stone age in New Brunswick. The president of the 

 Society for 1896 is G. H. Hay; the secretary, Geoffrey Stead; and the curators, 

 Thos. Stothart, F. E. Holman, and J. V. Ellis, junr. 



It is interesting to note that the Indiana Academy of Science elected forty-two 

 new members at its annual meeting last December. This Academy has taken Turkey 

 Lake as a station for the exhaustive study of the effects of environment on, and the 

 variation of, its inhabitants. Several reports on the first season's work were laid 

 before the meeting. 



In our last number we alluded to the course of study in marine biology which 

 Mr. Garstang will conduct at Plymouth during the Easter vacation. We learn that 

 Mr. A. H. Church, of Jesus College, Oxford, is prepared to conduct a similar class 

 in marine botany, on which subject he has recently been working at the Plymouth 

 laboratory. The Marine Biological Association has secured the steam yacht 

 " Busy Bee " of Fowey. To complete the purchase a sum of £600 is required, of 

 which /ioo has already been promised by Mr. J. P. Thomasson. 



The Committee in charge of the marine station at Millport on the west coast of 

 Scotland has sent us its report for 1895. During that year nine scientific 

 workers carried on their investigations at the laboratory, which was also frequented 

 by some members of the Committee, and by several young students who were 

 engaged in general collecting and mounting. An attempt is being made to increase 

 the museum accommodation, which is specially required, since Dr. David Robertson 

 has agreed to place a great part of his valuable collection at the disposal of the 

 Committee so soon as suitable premises are provided. Only a few hundred pounds 

 is needed, and to raise this the Committee appeals to all interested in promoting the 

 study of natural science in the west of Scotland. The station is well provided with 

 dredges, a small beam-trawl, a Cambridge rocking microtome, and several useful 

 books, and is considered by practical naturalists to be admirable for the study of 

 the fauna and flora of the Clyde sea-area 



Dr. F. Dahl, Professor of Zoology in Kiel, is going to Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land, 

 in New Guinea, to investigate its fauna and flora. We also learn from Natura 

 Novitatcs that Dr. H. Schauinsland, Director of the Bremen Museum, is going for 

 ten months to Laysan Island, in the South Sea, to investigate its fauna and flora. 

 For a similar purpose Mr. Zenker is going to Kribi in the interior of the South 

 Cameroons, and Dr. P. Taubert, of Berlin, to the mountains between Brazil and 

 Venezuela. 



By the enterprise of Messrs. Barbier, numerous representatives of various races 

 from Africa, Madagascar, and the western world are to be exhibited in the 

 Champs de Mars during the summer of this year. 



