Bibliographical Notices. 301 
For the same reasons we would object to some of the Cetaceans 
which appear in the list. The High-finned Cachalot, in fact, has 
never been captured on the Northumberland and Durham coast at 
all, and is included merely because it is said to have been seen at sea 
off the Dogger Bank! Sailors, however, are not always safe authori- 
ties for the naturalist to follow ; and though they may have seen the 
Cetacean in question, they are just as likely to have seen something 
else which they mistook for it. 
But the most injudicious or ludicrous (we searcely know which) 
insertion is that of the Alpine Hare (Lepus variabilis), of which the 
authors coolly state, “‘We are not aware that this species has been 
met with in our district, though we see no reason why it should not 
occur on the Cheviots and high fells which separate our counties 
from Cumberland and Westmoreland, the mountains which it inha- 
bits.’ Now really this is too bad, and indicates such an utter want 
of carefulness on the part of the authors as to throw suspicion over 
the whole catalogue. For it is quite evident that, besides the species 
which they know to exist in Durham and Northumberland, they 
likewise include those which they think ought to exist—two very 
different things. Certainly, if this be the fachien after which the 
Catalogue of ‘the Northumberland and Durham mammals has been 
constructed, no wonder that it is the largest local list that has yet 
appeared in England! 
In a paper by Mr. G. S. Brady, on the Zoology of Hylton Dene, 
we have an account of a careful examination of the faunas of a series 
of pools of brackish water, of different degrees of saline strength, 
situated on some marsh- han near to the River Wear, about two miles 
and a half from its mouth. The pools which are the most saline 
are solely inhabited by marine species (the common Stickleback ex- 
cepted), among which are Nudibranchiate Mollusca, Shrimps and 
other Crustacea, Foraminifera, and Annelides. In pools further re- 
moved from the influence of tidal action, and hence containing a 
smaller percentage of saline matter, some of the above forms are 
absent; but, as no freshwater species appear, the fauna remains 
marine. Further away still, is another pool, which the overflow of 
the highest tides rarely reaches, and which is therefore virtually 
freshwater. Here are Water- rats, Beetles, Freshwater Mollusca, 
Entomostraca belonging to Cypris and Cyclops, and other fr eshwater 
animals and plants; and the banks of the pool are fringed with 
grasses and brushwood. But amidst all these indications of fresh- 
water conditions likewise appear two or three species of Prawns and 
Shrimps, which, as the author says, ‘it 1s strange to see gliding 
among the leaves of the Callitriche, and overshadowed by the blos- 
soming wild-rose and whin.” The author further observes that 
these marine Crustaceans do not seem to have deteriorated from their 
residence in fresh water, except in the case of the Prawn, which is 
rather small. 
There are few subjects in natural history that promise more in- 
teresting and important results than that which Mr. Brady here 
takes up. For the zoology of an estuarine or brackish region, whe- 
