288 NATURAL SCIENCE [October 1898 
shall be open to workers throughout the Australasian colonies. Subscriptions 
to the Fund may be sent to the Hon. Treasurer, addressed to the College of 
Pharmacy, Swanston Street, Melbourne. 
THE Report of the Botanic Gardens and Domains of New South Wales for 
1897, by Mr J. H. Maiden, has recently appeared, and contains full accounts 
of the Botanic Gardens, Government Domains, Garden Palace Grounds, Centen- 
nial Park, State Nursery at Campbelltown, &c. _Mr Hugh Dixson has placed his 
collection of Australasian orchids at the disposal of the Botanic Gardens, and 
suitable accommodation is to be speedily provided for their reception. Parlia- 
ment has also voted a sum of money for the erection of a building to house the 
Herbarium ; the Library shows a steady progress. Altogether a very favourable 
and hopeful report, and the first of a new series, which is to be continued annually. 
The last report appeared in 1878. 
We learn from the Echo that 100 tuns of beer and 18,000 cups of coffee were 
consumed at the Berlin Zoological Gardens on Whitsun Day. We are not 
responsible for the statement, but, if true, it shows that zoology as an interest is 
not likely to die out in Berlin. 
“ NaTuRE” for August 25 has an interesting article on “The Marine Fauna 
in Lake Tanganyika and the advisability of further exploration in the great 
African lakes,” by J. E.S. Moore. Mr Moore prints a list of empty shells and 
fishes previously known and also a list of the entire mollusca and fishes obtained 
during his expedition. 
THE Swiss Society Rambertia has laid out an Alpine Garden at Montreux, at 
an elevation of 6000 feet, where the characteristic trees and flowers of the country 
are to be cultivated. 
Ar the moment of going to press we learn that Dr Florentino Ameghino has 
made a remarkable discovery. Details of a nocturnal quadruped have been 
brought to him from time to time by Indians, and a few years ago the late 
Ramon Lista actually saw and shot at a mysterious creature in the interior of 
Santa Cruz. Apparently bullet-proof, it disappeared into the brushwood, and all 
search for it proved futile. Lista described the creature as a pangolin, without 
scales, and_covered with reddish hair. Despite the fact that Lista was known to 
be a good observer, Dr Ameghino could not help feeling that he was deceived. 
Lista, however, has now been proved correct, for Ameghino received recently 
from South Patagonia some fresh bony ossicles and a partially destroyed skin. 
The ossicles were comparable to those of Mylodon, but smaller, and they were 
embedded in the skin, like “paving stones in a street.” The skin itself is two 
em. thick, and of such toughness that it could only be cut with a hatchet. 
The surface of the skin itself shows an epidermis, not scaly at all, but covered 
with coarse hair, four to five cm. in length. and of a reddish grey shade. This 
Ameghino considers was the animal described by Lista, and as that naturalist 
has unfortunately lost his life while exploring Pilcomayo, and was the only 
civilised man who had seen it in the flesh, he names it Neomylodon listat. The 
importance of the discovery need not be emphasised here. 
NOTICE 
To ContripuTorsS.—All Communications to be addressed to the Epiror of NATURAL 
ScreNcE, at 29 and 30 Bedford Street, London, W.C. Correspondence and Notes 
intended for any particular month should be sent in not later than the 10th of the 
preceding month, 
