Dr. E. P.Wright on the Transportation of Living Fish. 439 



they flow in very deep rocky channels which are sometimes 

 filled up by immense boulders or blocks of granite which have 

 fallen off from the mountain's side ; the stream then flows 

 silently beneath them, reappearing at some distance. Here and 

 there, as the water makes its way over some projecting ledge 

 of rock, there will be a tiny waterfall, and below this a deep 

 rock-pool. It is in such that these little fish abound. Large 

 specimens will be met with about four inches in length, but in 

 general they are not more than about three inches long. The 

 colour of the body in an adult specimen is a light olive 

 hue ; but the opercular bones are streaked with red lines, and 

 seven longitudinal rows of red spots correspond to the series of 

 scales. The red on an olive-coloured ground has a very pretty 

 effect ; and Haplochilus Play f air ii would be a very pleasing 

 addition to our freshwater aquaria. These fish were easily 

 caught with a small water-net ; they were of an inquisitive 

 turn of mind ; and when I let the net float for a few moments 

 in the water, it was always sure to be inspected by some of the 

 older fish, who would even go so far as to enter it — a fact of 

 which I generally took advantage, and, drawing the net in, 

 would transfer them to a bottle of spirits. One little stream (the 

 one which supplied the Government Hospital and Dr. Brooke's 

 house, in which I was residing, with water) abounded with 

 these fish ; and as the stream was not far from the house, the 

 thought struck me, would it not be possible to keep them in 

 an aquarium, and watch their habits. The great heat, however, 

 was against this, and specimens brought home to live generally 

 died very soon, so that I despaired of ever bringing any to 

 Europe alive. However, the day before the mail for Europe 

 was expected, I took a dozen of them from the nearest rock- 

 pool, and placed them in a large foot-bath in my bed-room : 

 the next morning three were dead. The ^ Erymanthe ' made 

 her appearance in the roadstead about 1 o'clock, and I was 

 obliged to go at once on board. I had a vast number of 

 packages, including a young leopard, now in the Zoological 

 Gardens, which had been brought from Zanjibar and was given 

 to me by my friend Commander Bradshaw, of H.M.S. ^ Star,' 

 and some three dozen birds ; and it was with some difiiculty 

 that I succeeded in bringing with me a small eight-ounce 

 glass jar with the nine fish. A sail of about an hour brought 

 us to the mail-steamer j and when, after some necessary delays, 

 I got on board, they were all still living. I was not on board 

 many minutes when I found that the ' Erymanthe ' would not 

 start until early the following morning, so as to allow the 

 Bishop of Mauritius to have service on shore and to take 

 farewell of the Seychelles ; and as the bishop was to be 



