430 



NATURE 



[March 13, 1879 



careful observations of temperature made during the mani- 

 pulation are tabulated for future use. With reference to 

 Salmo qitinnat of the Sacramento, it may be confidently 

 affirmed that there is almost no difference between it and 

 Salmo salar, which, in form and habits, it closely re- 

 sembles ; it has, however, if we mistake not, more rays in 

 the anal fin, and is of course able to endure a higher 

 temperature : the eggs mature in summer and hatch in 

 the autumn. In ascending to their spawning grounds 

 the gravid fish must frequently pass through river water 

 having a temperature of over 76°. We were not pre- 

 pared for the following remarkable statement from New 

 Zealand, made in the present volume (p. 989) : — "So far 

 as yet observed, the adult fish all die after spawning, and 

 never return to the sea." This fact is stated in a " memo- 

 randum respecting the American salmon and white fish 

 recently introduced in New Zealand by Dr. James Hector, 

 of the Colonial Museum, WelUngton." We shall be 

 glad to have some authoritative statement with regard to 

 the above fact, as without some explanation it seems too 

 extraordinary for belief. 



An interesting account of the distribution and habits of 

 the " Shoodic "salmon " is given in the present volume. 

 These fish, Salmo sebago, are known as " land-locked 

 salmon," at one time probably in communication with the 

 sea, but now shut out from it altogether, and thus forced 

 to pass their lives in fresh water for ever. There is, 

 however, no evidence that "the supposed change of 

 habits — the abandonment of the seaward migrations — 

 came about in such a way as the term, land-locked, im- 

 plies." Mr. Atkins, in his report to the commissioner, 

 makes a statement w-hich we should like to have ex- 

 plained. In collecting the spawn of the " Shoodic salmon," 

 there was taken, he says, a single female specimen of 

 Salmo salarj " she yielded 10,000 eggs, which were im- 

 pregnated with the melt of the ' Shoodic salmon ; ' they 

 developed well, and hatched into vigorous fish." But 

 how did a female specimen of Sahno salar come to be 

 among the " land-locked " fish ? and what became of her .'' 



The operations of the United States Fish Commission 

 <;ommenced eight years ago, and are still being prose- 

 cuted. The work has been varied, as we have indicated, 

 and, so far, it has been well done, and the information 

 accumulated will form a quarry which will yield a lasting 

 supply of fishery knowledge to all inquirers. 



THE PACIFIC ISLANDS 



Reise durch den Stillen Ocean. Von Max Buchner. 

 (Breslau: J. U. Kern, 1878.) 



THE author of this pleasantly written and very inte- 

 resting book of travel became, as he tells us, a ship's 

 medical officer, in order to gratify his desire to see the 

 world. He sailed in an emigrant ship from Hamburg to 

 New Zealand and returned home by Fiji, the Sandwich 

 Islands, San Francisco, and the Pacific railroads. He 

 made a considerable stay at New Zealand, Fiji, and the 

 Sandwich Islands, and the chief interest of his book lies 

 in the accounts of what he saw at these places. Though 

 there is little new information in the work the descriptions 

 are extremely good. 



On board the emigrant ship there devolved on him not 

 only the usual medical work but also the entire charge 



and government of the 397 emigrants and the division of 

 rations amongst them. He draws a very unpleasant pic- 

 ture of the dangers and sufferings incurred by passengers 

 in such a vessel. The captain seems to have known 

 little of his business. After a narrow escape of collision 

 the ship appears to have incurred a still narrower risk 

 of running on the Goodwin Sands, and on the open ocean 

 there seems to have been constant doubt as to longitude. 

 A terrible picture is drawn of the sufferings of the emi- 

 grants — a mixture of Poles, Scandinavians, Germans, and 

 Dutch — in a storm. The captain, who in such voyages 

 receives a small percentage on the profits of the voyage 

 from the owners of the ship, made constant attempts to 

 cut short the allowance of food to the passengers. The 

 author, who acted in the interests of the New Zealand 

 Government and their emigrants, had great difficulty in 

 making the captain, who cursed and swore and hammered 

 the table with his fist when appealed to, act up to the 

 details of the contract in the matter of rations. Even 

 then the food seems to have been insufficient, and the 

 salt beef was constantly being stolen, the beef tub being 

 forcibly broken open for the purpose. The barbarous old 

 custom of shaving on crossing the line was carried out, 

 but we are glad to find that only volunteers amongst the 

 emigrants were operated on. An outbreak of typhoid 

 fever occurred on board before New Zealand was reached 

 and caused nine deaths. 



The author gives a most interesting and lively account 

 of the present condition of the Maoris. At Lake Taupo 

 there is now a very good clean hotel kept by a German 

 and an Italian ; and a Maori, who goes by the name of 

 Mr. Jack, has established himself as guide of Taupo. He 

 has constructed a bathing-place at the hot springs with 

 room over the bath and dressing-room, and charges^ 

 shilling for each bath. Close by, but hidden in the vege 

 tation, our author discovered an equally good or better 

 natural hot bathing-place, but the crafty Maori had filled 

 it with dirt for fear it should compete with his own. At 

 Ohinemotu on the south shore of Lake Rotorua, where 

 are the principal hot springs, there are two good hotels 

 for tourists and a population of about 300 Maoris. Every 

 evening the greater part of the population turn out and bathe 

 together in a small bay of the lake which is kept constantly 

 warm by the hot springs, and whites and browns of both 

 sexes swim about and sit in the warm mud together, 

 conversing for hours at a ,time. Close by the bathing- 

 place are a group of huts, the owners of which are dead, 

 and which are tabu, and are described as full of ancient 

 native implements, spears, adzes, wood-carvings, and 

 other desiderata for ethnological museums, but which no 

 one dares to touch. A performance of the *' haka," the 

 old New Zealand dance, was got up for the author and 

 his friends, on their paying a sovereign a-piece, but tke 

 young Maoris seem not to care for the dance any longer, 

 and to perform it only for the benefit of tourists for 

 money, and the performance lacked spirit, and soon came 

 to an end. The hula, hula, in the Sandwich Islands, 

 seems to be dying out in the same manner, and in Tahiti, 

 when the old lascivious dances are performed, they are 

 usually got up for the benefit of European visitors, through 

 the agency of the native washermen, who combine such 

 offices with their legitimate business. The young Poly^ 

 nesians in New Zealand, as elsewhere, prefer the waltZ- 



