Feb. 2 2, 1 872 J 



NATURE 



33: 



information. He is now stationed at Iliuliuk, in Unalaska, and 

 engaged in surveying harbours and taking soundings, and generally 

 in gathering such information as to the shores and their adjacent 

 waters, the tides and currents, as will be to the interest of com- 

 merce and navigation. He is also using his opportunities in 

 dredging for marine animals, and in making collections of natural 

 hi-tory, of which he has already accumulated quite a number. 



The first contribution to science from the Haslo- expedition, 

 under Prof. Agassiz, appears in the form of a letter addressed to 

 Prof Peirce, dated St. Thomas, December 15. In this it is 

 stated that, in the course of the frequent examination of the 

 floating Gulf-weeds made daily, for the purpose of collecting the 

 marine animals that usually inhabit them, a mass of this weed 

 was found, the branches and leaves of which were united to- 

 gether by fine threads, wrapping it in every direction into the 

 form of a ball. The threads forming the connecting material 

 were elastic, and beaded at inteiTals ; the beads being some- 

 times close together, sometimes more remote, a bunch of 

 them occasionally hanging from the same cluster of the 

 threads. From the accounts of the professor it would ap- 

 pear as if a globular mass had been formed by wrapping up 

 a small quantity in the thread, and then adding more, and 

 continually wrapping it up, until a ball of considerable size 

 was produced. A careful examination of these beads showed 

 that they were in reality the eggs contained in the substance of 

 the threads, and in some the embryo was sufficiently far ad- 

 vanced to prove that they belonged to a fish. The mass was 

 preserved and watched until some became detached and were 

 free in the water ; and by a very interesting process of critical 

 investigation, the fish icself being too small for identification, it 

 was ascertained, mainly through the structure of the pigment- 

 cells, that they belonged to a small species, quite common in the 

 Gulf Stream, known as CliironcLtes pictus. In this genus the 

 pectoral fins are supported on arm-like appendages, giving them 

 the power of hands ; a somewhat similar structure in some allied 

 forms enabling them, when thrown on the shore, to walk or 

 crawl back leisurely into the water. It is somewhat remarkable 

 that these eggs should hive been found in the month of Decem- 

 ber, when the great majority of species lay their eggs in early 

 spring. It is possible that CJiironccUs picius may be an exception 

 to the general rule. A scarcely less interesting peculiarity is seen 

 in regard to the eggs of the goose-fish, or the common fishing- 

 frog, of the Atlantic coast. This is an extremely hideous-looking 

 species, shaped like a much-depressed tadpole, with an enor- 

 mous head and huge mouth, and sometimes weighing from fifty 

 to one hundred pounds. It is known to naturalists as Lophius 

 aiiicricanus. The eggs of this species are contained in an im- 

 mense flat sheet of mucus, sometimes thirty or forty feet long, 

 and twelve to fifteen wide, which, when floating along the sur- 

 face of the ocean, resembles nothing so much as a lady's brown 

 veil. The mucus is so tenacious as to admit of being wrapped 

 around an oar and dragged on board a vessel, but is extremely 

 slippery, and readdy escapes from one's grasp. The eggs, or 

 embryos, are disseminated throughout this sheet at the rate 

 of ten to twenty to the square inch, and by their brownish 

 colour tend to give the impression just referred to. The num- 

 ber of eggs in one of these sheets is enormous, in some in- 

 stances exceeding a million. 



The GarJcner's Chronicle inquires whether the physicians or 

 the lecturers on Botany at St. Thomas's Hospital and King's 

 College Hospital, London, respectively, have been consulted as 

 to the planting that has been lately carried on in the enclosures 

 facing the buildings we have mentioned. We can hardly suppose 

 that these gentlemen can have had any voice in the matter, since 

 they must be too good physiologists not to know what must be 

 the inevitable result of such operations. At St. Thomas's the 

 expenditure for evergreen shrubs must have been very con- 



siderable. There are scores of such things as Liboccdrus decurrens, 

 Ciiprcssus Lmvsoniaiia, T/iiijopsis borcalis, WelUnglonia, and th e 

 like, which are certain to die. The selection of evergreen shrubs 

 for the Thames Embankment (north) is sufficiently unfortunate, 

 but for reckless planting commend us to the Hospital of St. 

 Thomas. At King's College Hospital the planting has been 

 more modest, the victims consisting merely of cherry laurels. 

 Surely we might have looked for a little common sense in such 

 establishments as we have alluded to. 



At the Wisbech District Chamber of Agriculture, held on 

 February ist, some very interesting remarks were made by Mr. 

 S. H. Miller, advocating the establishment of a County Agricul- 

 tural Laboratory in which chemistry, botany, and agricultural 

 meteorology might be prosecuted, in which young farmers might 

 get a scientific training, and to which soils and manures might be 

 sent for analysis. The warmth with which the proposal was re- 

 ceived by those present augurs well for the manner in which sub- 

 jects of this kind are now taking hold of the agricultural and 

 commercial mind. We heartily commend the subject to the 

 attention not only of Chambers of Agriculture, but of Chambers 

 of Commerce throughout the country. 



Equally satisfactory was the reference made at the half- 

 yearly meeting of the Scottish Meteorological Society, held on 

 January 2Sth, by. Mr. Milne Home and Mr. Melvin, to the ex- 

 tent to which this country is lagging behind in its endeavours 

 to increase our knowledge in scientific agriculture. The follow- 

 ing resolution was passed at the meeting: — "This meeting 

 having had explained to it a scheme proposed by Commodore 

 Maury, of America, for obtaining reports from all countries of 

 the state of growing crops, and also of the weather in the dis- 

 tricts where these crops are growing, so as to warrant correct 

 estimates of these crops as regard both quantity and quality ; 

 and having learnt that an influential agricultural society in 

 America has approved of the scheme, and applied to the United 

 States Government to carry it out, and to invite the co-operation 

 of the Governments of other countries, agree to express a general 

 approval of the scheme, and remit to the Council to make a 

 favourable answer to Commodore Maury's communication." 



At the recent annual conversazione of the Sheffield Literary 

 and Philosophical Society, the annual address was delivered by 

 Mr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., as president. Among the remarkable 

 inventions of the year he referred eipecially to the honour done to 

 the town by Mr. Earnshaw's new method of integrating partial 

 differential equations, and to the invention of the Moncrieff gun- 

 carriage, where, by a simple application of mechanical principles, 

 the force of the recoil is utilised, and made instrumental in pro- 

 tecting the men and the gun, and employed to raise it into a 

 position for the next shot. 



The pages of the " Public Ledger Almanack " are filled with 

 far more sensible matter tlian usually finds its way into similar 

 publications. We find articles on the atmosphere, on the various 

 descriptions of weather signals, and on the United States Coast 

 Survey. 



M. QuETELET reprints a eulogium on the late Sir John 

 Herschel, spoken before the Academy of Science of Brussels, of 

 which he was an associate. 



Mii. Fairgreve, the proprietor of Wombvvell's No. i 

 Menagerie, is retiring from business, and is going to dispose of 

 the stock. The horses requisite for the dragging of the vans 

 were sold the other day in Edinburgh, and realised over 1,400/. 

 This sum gives a slight insight into the large capital invested 

 by the owners of menageries. It is not known what he is going 

 to do with the animals. There is some talk of another Zoological 

 Garden being formed in Edinburgh, but nothing definite. 



