12Q IN SPRING. 



one or more brown-black fishes that were as 

 much at home as ever an earth-worm in the 

 firmer soil. Blunt-headed, cylindrical, thick-set, 

 and strongly finned, these fishes were built to 

 overcome many an obstacle that would prove 

 insuperable to almost any other. How, indeed, 

 they burrowed even in soft mud is not readily 

 explained ; that they do advance head-foremost 

 into such a trackless mass is unquestionable. 



How long these mud-fish tarry in such spots 

 I can not say, but during the long-dry summer 

 this one-time ditch must be almost as dry as 

 dust, and then probably it is quite forsaken ; but 

 their powers of endurance may be underesti- 

 mated. Of the African " Lepidosiren " Dr. 

 Gunther remarks : " During the dry season speci- 

 mens living in shallow waters which periodically 

 dry up form a cavity in the mud, the inside of 

 which they line with a protecting capsule of mu- 

 cus, and from which they emerge again when 

 the rains refill the pools inhabited by them. 

 While they remain in this torpid state of exist- 

 ence the clay balls containing them are fre- 

 quently dug out, and if the capsules are not 

 broken the fishes imbedded in them can be trans- 

 ported to Europe, and releasecf by being im- 

 mersed in slightly tepid water." 



The many mud-fishes that I tossed upon the 

 dead grass had clearly no liking for an atmos- 



