PREFACE 



THIS volume is a collection of some of the papers 

 which I have contributed to the Daily Telegraph 

 during the years 19081909, under the title " Science 

 from an Easy Chair." I have revised and corrected the 

 letterpress, and have added some illustrations. A 

 smaller volume containing earlier papers was published 

 by Messrs. Constable in 1908, with the title From an 

 Easy Chair. It is my intention now to produce 

 additional volumes (under the title " Easy Chair Series ") 

 as their constituent articles accumulate, and I hope to 

 be able to publish a second and a third instalment at no 

 distant date. 



I should like to draw the special attention of the 

 reader to the Frontispiece (Plate I.), which is very 

 beautifully executed, and is, I believe, the first coloured 

 drawing yet published showing the difference between 

 the adult " silver " eel and the more abundant immature 

 ^ " yellow " eel sometimes called the " frogmouthed eel." 

 The original drawings were prepared for me through 

 the kindness of Dr. Petersen, of Copenhagen, who is 



the discoverer of many interesting facts about the 







