Nov. 1 6, 1876] 



NATURE 



57 



A little further on, of Lowestoft (p. 122) : — " Recent experience, 

 however, does not support this statement " [that the summer fish 

 are often as abundant as they ever were before the spring-fishery 

 came into fashion], "as with a more or less successful series of 

 spring fisheries, the summer herrings have been exceedingly 

 scarce for the last seven years." Now neither Yarmouth nor 

 Lowestoft are very small or unimportant stations. It weuld 

 look, then^ as if scarcity has begun to appear there. Again 

 (pp. 214, 215), Mr. Holdsworth tells a very good stoiy of the 

 disappearance of herrings from the Guernsey waters ; but he 

 does not contradict the statement that there has been no herring- 

 fishery there since the year 1830. Furthermore he says (pp. 

 266, 267) : — " Turbot or ' bratt ' nets are successfully worked by 

 the Staithes fishermen, although, according to their report, the 

 catches are not nearly as large as they were formerly. This is 

 the general statement along this coast. ... It is a remarkable 

 circumstance that nearly thirty years ago turbot became so scarce 

 near North Sunderland, close to Holy Island, that the turbot- 

 nets were given up. At that time trawling in the North Sea 

 was only just beginning from Hull and that part of the coast ; 

 and the trawlers have never worked near the place where the 

 decrease of turbot was said to have been greater than even at 

 Staithes. It is evident, then, that we have a good deal to learn 

 about what attracts or drives away the fish to or from any par- 

 ticular locality." 



To this last remark I cordially agree, for in my address I said 

 that the consideration of our fisheries is "fraught with unusual 

 difficulties." l!ut while we are satisfying ourselves on this and 

 similar points, I cannot regard with the same complacency as 

 Mr. Holdsworth the increasing outlay of capital in improved 

 boats and fresh fishing-gear, the growing fish-traffic on the rail- 

 ways, or the glories of an enlarged and renovated Billingsgate, 

 arising amid the pious ejaculations of its frequenters. Is that 

 the only market which is to be unaffected by inflation ? I derive 

 little comfort in allowing my fancy to run riot over the marble 

 slabs of Cheaps^ide, Bond Street, and Arabella Row, teeming at 

 present with every finry delicacy, and still less when I meet the 

 humble barrow of the East-end costermonger, with its as 

 plenteous and more odorific load. The question is, how long 

 will that abundance last ? Incalculably great as the stock of fishes 

 in our seas may be, it must be subject to the same laws 

 as the stock of every other animal. Directly the draughts upon 

 it exceed its natural increase, it must dwindle. The time when 

 that shall happen seems frcm the evidence before me to be 

 imminent. 



Some of Mr. Holdsworth's remarks appear to me irrelevant, 

 I said nothing in my address about " spawning-beds," and there- 

 fore to have mentioned the discoveries of Prof. Sars and Herr 

 Malm would have been little to the purpose. But if my friend 

 meant to hint that I did not know that the spawn of some fishes 

 oats in the water during its development, I will content myself 

 y observing that my acquaintance with Scandinavian naturalists 

 and their works began in the year 1855. His reference to the 

 Sea Birds' Preservation Bill also seems to be wide of the mark. 

 But I am sure ornithologists will be thankful to him for informa- 

 tion that will show how many of the birds named in that Act 

 commonly prey upon the sea-fishes that come to our matkets, 

 and which kinds they take. Perhaps he will also explain why 

 the fishermen of our coasts were so strongly in favour of its 

 l)eing passed. Of the precise direction my efforts took towards 

 that end Mr. Holdsworth, I think, cannot be aware. 



Alfred Newton 

 Magdalene College, Cambridge, November 3 



P.S. — If the remarks I made in my address be well founded, 

 they of course have a general bearing, and will apply to all cases 

 of "over-fishing." Since I wrote the above I have received 

 from my kind friend. Prof. Baird, the United States' Commis- 

 sioner of Tides and| Fisheries, his reports from 1871 to 1875. 

 Therein I find the decrease of the Sea-Fisheries on the Atlantic 

 coast of the United States treated as a fact beyond denial, and 

 "over-fishing " unquestionably assigned as the chief cause of that 

 decrease. A. N. 



! November 14 



i 



! m( 

 1 an 



*■ 



, The Foundation of Zoological Stations in Heligoland 

 and Kiel 



Will you kindly permit me to say a few words in answer to 

 'the letter by which my friend Mr. Balfour expressed his view on 

 the proposed foundation of zoological stations at Heligoland and 

 .Kiel. 



Mr. Balfour has certainly not been well informed, when he 

 believes the promoters of the future stations in Heligoland 

 and Kiel had intended "to put aside claims of the zoological 

 station at Naples in favour of the two new institutions.'^ In 

 the first place it is expressly stated in their Report that the 

 committee are far from wishing to take away the least support 

 from the Naples establishment. Besides, according to information 

 which reached me some time ago, one of the moft competent 

 and influential members of the committee has only consented to 

 act, if it is expressly stated in the memorandum to be handed 

 over to Government, "that, should the empire limit its annual 

 contributions to zoological stations to 1,000/. or 1,200/, (a sum 

 asked at present for the zoological station at Naples), this sum 

 ought to go undivided to the Najjles establishment as the one of 

 much greater importance. The foundation of the two northern 

 stations ought in consequence to be deferred to later times." 



Nothing more than thii could be desired, and certainly the 

 proposition once made, nothing more could be expected, and 

 had Mr. Balfour been acquainted with the whole of the facts, I 

 am satisfied he would never have applied the terms " unwise and 

 ungenerous" to the proposition. He is, however, certainly right 

 in maintaining that the Naples station has been the means of 

 proving both the value and feasibility of such institutions, and 

 perhaps nobody, besides myself, knows better than Mr. Balfour, 

 how great and how numerous were the obstacles which had to 

 be overcome. This and the fact that Mr. Balfour assisted n.e 

 most generously and most vigorously during the whole of my 

 struggle, entitles him fully to oisapprove of what he thinks might 

 possibly have a detrimental influence on the fate of the Naples 

 establishment. With regard to this apprehension I may be per- 

 mitted to state that there is well founded hope that the Naples 

 station will soon be frte from such embarrassments as are the 

 consequence of ir sufficient means, and that I always expected, 

 and desired a series of zoological stations to spring up which 

 should not only follow but even rival the original one staittd 

 by myself. The sudden appearance of zoological itaticns on 

 the Normandy coast, at Trieste, Sebastopol, the foundation of 

 the late Anderson School of Natural History in the United 

 States, the proposition to create two stations at Heligoland and 

 Kiel, and another plan to erect a station on the White Sea, 

 brought before the Association of Russian Natuialisfsiu Warsaw, 

 furnish indubitable proofs that my belief was well founded. It 

 may be that too little circumspection has been used in founding 

 or planning several of these institutions ; nevertheless their griat 

 number and rapid, augmentation justify me in giving to niy 

 establishment such dimensions and so distinct an international 

 character as to carry it as far beyond competition as possible. 



I hope to be able to enter more fully into the development of 

 the Naples station in the Second Annual Report, which I think 

 will be ready next spring. It will show that till now the station 

 has not only not suffered from competition but has been increasing 

 very considerably the range of its activity and influence on the 

 progress of biology. Anion DoHRN 



Berlin, November 5 



The Deep-sea Manganiferous Muds 



In the very interesting Address delivered by Sir C. Wyville 

 Thomson, at Glasgow, on the ChaUcnger expedition, whi'e re- 

 ferring to the "red clay " deposit so general over the deepest 

 parts of the Atlantic and North Pacific, the remarkable fact is 

 mentioned that the clay contains numerous nodules of peroxide 

 of manganese, which in some places are found in great quantity.! 

 The Address goes on to say :—" This is a phenomenon which 

 we are as yet unable to explain, and I do not know that there is 

 any analogous instance in any of the older formations" (Nature, 

 vol. xiv., p. 494). 



It is possible that this can be accounted for in the same man- 

 ner as the formation of the " red clay " itself, assuming that the 

 explanation given by Sir C. Wyville Thomson is the correct one, 

 as there can be but little reason to doubt. It is true that excep- 

 tion has been taken to it by Dr. Carpenter, who considers the 

 " red clay " to be " ^post-mortem deposit in the chambers of the 

 foraminifera." * It does not clearly appear, however, where such 

 a post-mortem pseudomorphic deposit could come from in this 

 caEe, while, were that opinion correct, then the G/obigerina ooze 



' See also " Report to Hydrographer of the Admiralty on the Cruise of 

 H.M.S. Challenger." Prof. Wyville Thomson, KR.S., Proc. Roy. Soc , 

 vol. xxiv., p. 39. . _. , „ ,. . »T . 



^ " Remarks on Prof. Wyville Thomson s Preliminarjr Notes on the 

 Nature of the Sea-bottom," &c. Proc. Roy, Soc., vol. xxiii., p. 244. 



