Miscellaneous. 509 



a private letter,, whicli some indiscreet friend of Mr. Alexander 

 Agassiz published in * Silliman's Journal,' and which then found 

 its way into the English journals, is ' official.' He would have 

 done well to have ascertained whether this was really the case before 

 allowing himself to comment on Sir WyviUe Thomson's proceedings 

 in such severe terms. So far as we are aware, out of the many 

 naturalists actually engaged to work out the results of the ' Chal- 

 lenger' expedition, only three are not Englishmen, two being Ame- 

 ricans, and one German. These three gentlemen are of the very 

 highest repute in their respective branches ; and Sir WyviUe Thom- 

 son has, in our opinion, done well for science to secure their 

 services." 



The Editor of ' Nature ' seems to have a curious notion of the 

 application of words. In what manner, except by an expression of 

 his own opinion, does he attempt to show that the letter from 

 Prof. Duncan, which appeared in our last number, contained an 

 " unwarranted " attack ? In what sense he uses the word " offi- 

 cial " we are at a loss to understand. It is not usual in such cases to 

 talk of " official " statements and communications. The only question 

 seems to be whether the statements published in the * American 

 Journal' fdr February last were or were not "true;" and we were 

 informed by Prof. Duncan that he had fuUy satisfied himself upon 

 this point, by direct communication with Sir Wyville Thomson, 

 before he wrote his letter. From the wording of the letter from 

 Mr. Alexander Agassiz, as printed in the ' American Journal,' it is 

 perfectly clear that the letter in question was addressed by Mr. 

 Agassiz to the Editors of that Journal, or to one of them ; and 

 hence that gentleman himself must be held guilty of the indiscre- 

 tion pointed out by the Editor of ' Nature.' But in what does the 

 indiscreetness consist ? Mr. Agassiz's statement was undoubtedly 

 indiscreet if there was any thing in the transaction that required con- 

 cealment. Are we to infer that such was the case ? Indiscretions 

 appear not to be peculiarly the produce of the western shore of the 

 Atlantic. 



On a Newt from the Darjiling Hills. By Prof. J. Wood-Mason. 



At the February Meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Prof. 

 Wood-Mason exhibited a specimen of a newt which he had de- 

 tected in a small collection of insects and other objects recently made 

 by Colonel G. B. Mainwaring in the Darjiling hills and said : — 

 " The specimen is in the highest degree interesting, not only as being 

 the first example of a tailed amphibian that has ever been found in 

 India, but also as being an individual of the remarkable species 

 described by Dr. J. Anderson (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 423) from specimens 

 obtained by him around the little Chinese town of Nantin and in 

 various other parts of the same region. Tylototriton verrucosus, as 

 the animal has been called by Dr. Anderson, lives, in Western China, 

 in flooded rice-fields, but in Sikkim, according to Colonel Main- 



