Fishes — Mollusks. 7517 



of the flattened small-scaled fishes. At Staunton Island, Shan-tung, we ohtained 

 large numbers averaging five feel in length, including the slender caudal filament. 

 It is common along many other parts of the coast of northern China, and in the Korea 

 it is salted and dried, and forms an important item in the diet of these people. It is 

 most delicate eating, and cut in lengths and fried it forms a very pretty dish. The 

 bones are so few and easy to separate that even a hungry man may partake of it without 

 fear of being choked. Everywhere it is taken at a considerable distance from the land, 

 and at the surface. OS" the Regent's Sword, or Lian-tie-Shan Promontory, great 

 numbers of strange-looking craft in the form of rude rafts put boldly out to sea, long 

 black nets coiled up snugly in the middle, four men working at huge skulls and the 

 others smoking and chatting. The net is paid out in a circle, and when the end is 

 come to, the net is turned back and hauled in, securing frequently large numbers 

 of the silvery hair-lail. Many hundreds of these rafts surrounded the ship as she 

 sailed through ihem in the glow of a glorious sunset. — Arthur Adams. 



Musical Fishes. — " Mute as a fish " is certainly very expressive, and moreover is 

 generally true, though I have heard toad-fish grunt pretty loudly when taken out of 

 the water. A " fish up a tree " seems an almost impossible thing, but have we not 

 the climbing perch of India ? A " fish out of water " appears strange and unnatural, 

 but species of Periophthalmus are seen hopping about the mud-banks of Chinese rivers 

 like any frogs. With fishes that fly or suspend themselves in the air we are familiar. 

 That certain fishes are enabled, by means unknown at present, to produce sounds 

 nnder water is no less certain, and is a fact well known to seafaring men. Captain 

 Ward tells me that the " drum '' is familiar to the inhabitants of Charlestown in South 

 Carolina. When he was lying ofi" that place in the " Thunder " mysterious sounds 

 were heard from time to time in the bottom of the ship, which were generally ascribed 

 to insects in the spirit room. One day, however, some ladies visited the ship, and on 

 hearing the peculiar vibrating noise exclaimed, "Ah there is the drum-fish." They 

 described it as of large size, and declared that the roe was considered a great delicacy. 

 In October, 1857, the "Actaeon " was lying ofi" Macao, near the entrance to the Canton 

 or Pearl River, and every evening the drum-fish used to assemble around the vessel 

 and continue their musical humming till about midnight. My messmate in the next 

 cabin would call out " There go the drum-fish," and we would sometimes lie awake 

 for an hour or so listening to the sounds. As we were only separated from the fish by the 

 thickness of the ship's side their continuous drumming was very audible. Sometimes 

 they appeared to be " skylarking " or darting at the copper, as if feeding on the bar- 

 nacles, and at other times we used to fancy they were rubbing their scaly sides against 

 the vessel. — Id. ; Shanghai, December 8, J 860. 



Occurrence of Amathina tricarinata in Saghaleen.— The occurrence of rare birds 

 and peculiar beetles is often recorded in the ' Zoologist,' almost to the entire exclusion 

 of Crustacea and Mollusca. I have on several occasions endeavoured to supply this 

 hiatus by a few brief notices of the finding of crabs and shells, frequently showing the 

 extreme geographical range of particular species. I believe this will be found 

 the extreme northern range of Amathina tricarinata of Chemnitz, — a shell so well 

 marked as to render tracing its distribution in space very desirable. The southern 

 extremity of the island of Saghaleen (I spell it as it is pronounced by the Ainos) is 

 named Cape Notoro, — a long, rather low promontory wiih a clifl'-like head and a reef 



