78 Miscellaneous. 
which had been hatched in an old actively working aquarium. This 
fact may be of service to those engaged in fish-culture and in send- 
ing Salmon to Australia.—Transactions of the Midland Scientific 
Association. 
A Fossil Lizard in Copal. By Prof. Peters. 
M. W. Peters presented to the Academy a Gecko ( Hemidactylus), 
enclosed in fossil copal-resin, from Zanzibar. 
Under the name of copal, various resins occur in commerce, some 
of which are derived from America, others from the East Indies, New 
Zealand, and the tropical regions of East and West Africa. The 
American copal is obtained from Rhus copallina and other species 
of this genus; the Indian or oriental from Kloecarpus copalifera ; 
and on the east coast of Africa fresh copal is procured from a tree 
(Trachylobium mossambicense) which I discovered there, and which 
has been accurately described and figured by Klotasch*. 
Besides this fresh copal, which is prepared principally by the 
Chinese, according to an unknown method, and is used for lacquering, 
there is found on the eastern coast of Africa fossil or subfossil copal, 
which is much dearer, and used for the best varnishes ; it occurs, in 
larger or smaller beds. in the earth, not far from the coastf. 
Mr. F. O’Swald, who remained several years in Zanzibar, has 
brought home a collection of pieces of this fossil or subfossil copal 
containing animals and plants enclosed within them, the former of 
which he sent me for examinationt. Most of them belong to the 
articulate animals. Among them are not only representatives of 
all the orders of insects, but also Arachnida; and the species, 
according to M. Gerstacker’s determination, are unknown, but all 
referable to genera belonging to the present period §. A single piece 
only had contained a small lizard, of which, as shown by examination, . 
no trace was left—the impression of its outer surface enclosing a per- 
fectly empty space, on which the entire external figure and the form 
of the individual parts of the body and scales were so distinctly im- 
pressed, that it was easily recognized as belonging to the genus 
Hemidactylus. And, what appears to me to be of special interest, 
* M. Peters, Naturwissensch, Reise nach Mossambique, Botanik, p. 21, 
taf. 2. 
+ See R. F. Burton, ‘The Lake Regions of Central Africa,’ vol. ii. 
p- 403. 
{ According to Mr. O’Swald, this copal is procured from tracts which 
are at present treeless, occurring from 3 to 9 feet under the surface of the 
ground. That the tree which has afforded this fossil copal agrees with 
Trachylobium has been proved by a large portion of a leaf bemg found 
in it. 
§ The accurate determination of these species will be more especially 
interesting, because the locality from which the species of copal were 
obtained is known, while the origin of the insects described by J. W. 
Dalman (Kgl. Vetenskaps Akad. Handlingar for dr 1825, Stockholm, 1826, 
p. 375) was unknown. 
Se 
