1899] MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 241 



The inoculated tubes are tipped and rolled so that the 

 liquid gelatin moistens the inside of the tube to within 

 about a centimeter of the plug. Then roll the tube rap- 

 idly in the groove on the ice until the medium becomes 

 solid. The gelatin should not come in contact with the 

 plug. In rolling the tube the plugged end should always 

 project beyond the ice. 



A Few Words on Red Mites Found in Fresh-Water. 



CHAS. D. SOAR. 



Given a good microscope and an easily accessible pond, 

 and what a field, for research is still open to the student 

 in natural history ! What a lot of Nature's little secrets 

 are yet left unread ! In the vicinity of a good all-the-year- 

 round pond a small local club would have sufficient mate- 

 rial to keep it going always. If the club did not num- 

 ber many members, the pond would furnish enough dif- 

 ferent subjects to allow each member to study a different 

 group. For instance, one member could take Rotifera, 

 another the Entomostraca, another the Diatoms, etc., etc., 

 and they would sometimes find their independent studies 

 of great mutual assistance. Not a few of the great army 

 of pond hunters (or puddle rakers as they are sometimes 

 called in derision by the unthinking) are looking forward 

 to the formation of a Fresh Water Biological Station in 

 England, on a similar plan to that at Plon in Holstein, 

 Germany. When this takes place, which we hope it will, 

 we shall be in a better position to study the life history 

 of various forms of aquatic life of which we are now so 

 ignorant. 



Now there is one form of pond life in particular to which 

 I wish to draw attention, and that is Hydrachnide (Fresh- 

 Water Mites). They are very beautiful both in color 

 and form, and they are fairly common, but very few pond 

 hunters, if they take one when collecting, know more 



