240 On the Severe Cold of last Winter, 



Three fishes came out on the 5lh April, swimming with 

 agility, sometimes leaping beyond the surface, moving con- 

 stantly their lips and pectoral fins. Their appetite seems 

 awake, and they snatch some grains of meal, sometimes throw- 

 ing it out again to get again hold of it. The red spots de- 

 creasing, show sufficiently that it is partly nutritive matter, 

 partly, as I had opportunity to perceive, digestive matter, 

 (for it is considerably caustic, staining through and through 

 paper, and is acted upon by acids.) 



The bladder assumes with time a more pointed shape, and 

 loses at last the more transparent one, which is only visible at 

 the posterior extremity. 



They repose sideways when there is no rough ground, but 

 when upon pebbles, they conceal their heads between them, 

 and seem to prefer this way of resting to any other. 



Their growth is now very considerable, and their colour, 

 particularly the gray shades, more decided. 



Sea-water has a considerable effect on them ; they seem to 

 be at first full of vigour, twisting themselves with all possible 

 muscular strength. When replaced in fresh water, they imme- 

 diately sink to the bottom exhausted for some minutes. I 

 found afterwards, and by means of an experiment, where the 

 fish was at liberty to be either in fresh or salt water, that the 

 latter only was to be their abode. 



On the 15th two died ; and this is presaged by the change 

 of the blood in the heart and gills growing darker some hours 

 before. 



Length of one ten days old.— From head to tail, 11 lines; 

 from head to bladder, 2J lines ; from tail to bladder, or anus, 

 4 lines ; body of the fish, 1 line ; from back to under part of 

 the bladder, 3| lines. Fins. — Pectoral, 2 lines ; dorsal, 1 line ; 

 ventral, 1 line ; abdominal, 2 lines ; tail, 1 line. 



Art. X. — Notice of the severe Cold of last Winter, and of the 

 late great Heats in June 1 826, ivith original Observations. 

 By a Correspondent. 



x aoM my observations in January last, chiefly made in the 

 country near Edinburgh, I find the mean temperature to 



