Falls of Fishes 1 1 9 



of the boa constrictor at the Zoological Gardens, which 

 had recently swallowed a blanket, stating that instances 

 were on record where this snake in darting at its prey had 

 seized other things, and had been apparently unconscious 

 of its mistake. 



The occasional fall of fishes during showers of rain in 

 India was discussed on Dec. i8th. Colonel Sykes thought 

 the spawn was caught up by a whirlwind, but Dr. Hooker 

 held that it was the fish themselves, for the whirlwinds, 

 during the monsoon season, are frequently very powerful. 

 All the members who had been in India agreed that such 

 falls really occurred. 1 



Dr. Royle, in reply to an enquiry, said that tea was now 

 grown on more than 2000 acres from Kumaon westwards 

 on the lower slopes of the Himalayas. 2 



Mr. Porter spoke of a cloth, the invention of Klaussen, and 

 made half of sheep's wool half of flax, some of which he 

 was then wearing. 



Dr. Hooker said that a museum was then in process of 

 construction at Kew to be devoted to foreign products, and 

 the conversation turned on a project for removing the 

 Crystal Palace, or part of it, to Kew, and for appropriating 

 the surplus fund to a school of design, a thing much needed. 

 Colonel Sykes asked him why plants in India, though the 

 ground was waterless and cracked by heat, burst suddenly 

 into flower. Dr. Hooker thought it due to the sudden access 

 of heat to water lying at some distance below the surface. 



1852. Dr. Playfair, at the 44th meeting (Jan. 2gth), 

 stated that, eighty years ago, Lady Moira had proposed the 

 plan of making cloth, mentioned at the last meeting, and 

 was presented with a medal at Manchester, but the effort 

 had failed owing to the fiscal regulations of that day. 



1 " Showers of fish and frogs are by no means uncommon, especially in 

 India." In one which occurred in 1839, the fish, all of one kind, were 

 about three inches long. See Ferrel, A Popular Treatise on the Winds 

 (1890), page 414, and pages 381 to 393, for instances of the lifting power 

 of tornadoes. 



2 In 1908 it amounted in India proper to over 531,000 acres, Encycl. Brit. 

 (India). 



