150 
NATURE 
[JUNE 15, 1899 
mathematicians, to say nothing of the educated general public ! 
His task is only comparable with the historic one which Mrs. 
Partington set herself with respect to the Atlantic. 
Bangor, June 7. A. GRAY. 
Larve from the Head of an Antelope. 
In preserving the head of an old ¢ Hartebeeste (4. cokez), 
shot on March 31, I took from the nostrils a few hours after 
death some twenty large larvee, which I am now forwarding 
you for identification. ; 
On April 19 I found similar larve in the nostrils of an old 
9 Wildebeeste (C. Zaza) ; but I think their occurrence in the 
heads of antelopes in this part of Africa must be comparatively 
rare ; as, though I have shot and preserved the heads of quite a 
number—including many Hartebeeste—I have not come across 
them in any other instance. I may add, no appreciable emaci- 
ation was shown by the animals from whose heads the larvee 
were taken. RICHARD CRAWSHAY. 
Kiu, Uganda Railway, British East Africa, April 29. 
THESE larve are those of a fly of the family Oestridz, and 
their structure, as well as their habits, shows them to be refer- 
able to the genus Oes¢vus, and to be allied to the well-known 
‘* Sheep-bot fly,” or ‘‘ Sheep-nostril fly ” (Oestrzs ovzs). 
Brauer in his ‘‘ Monographie der Oestriden” (Vienna, 1863) 
mentions such larvee as having been found in three species of 
antelope, and describes two species of fly (O. varzolosus, Low., 
and OQ. clarkzi, Shuck.) from South Africa, both probably 
parasitic on antelopes. 
Probably a search through the scattered literature since 
Brauer wrote would bring to light the record of other species of 
Oestrus with similar habits ; but, unless the flies were bred from 
the larvee, which would not be very difficult, the species con- 
cerned could not be identified. 
WaLtTeR F. H. BLANDFORD. 
48 Wimpole Street, London, June 8. 
Walrus. 
FERDINANDO VERBESTI (1630-1688), in his work in Chinese, 
“ Kwan-yu-wai-ki” (Brit. Mus. copy, 15,297 a, 6, fol. 10, a), 
sub, ‘* Marine Animals,” relates thus : ‘‘ The Zoh-sze-ma is about 
40 feet long, with short legs, and staying at the bottom of sea 
comes to the surface very seldom. Its skin is so hard that even 
swords are unable to pierce it. It has on its forehead horns re- 
sembling hooks, with which it hangs itself on a rock, thus sleep- 
ing a whole day without slightest awaking.” With all deference 
to Prof. G. Schlegel, who takes the animal here described for 
the Narwhal ( Zoung Pao, October 1894, p. 370), I will bolden 
myself for truth’s sake to state that the walrus is meant herein, 
Loh-sze-ma being only a Chinese rendering of Aosmar, the 
Norwegian name of the walrus. The main parts of this descrip- 
tion agree well with the description given by Olaus Magnus 
(‘‘ Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus,” Rome, 1555, p. 
757), but not exactly—e.g., the latter author indicates the size of 
the animal by the words, ‘‘ maximos ac grandis pisces elephantis 
magnitudine ” ; while the former gives it more precisely, though 
much more exaggerated.! Can you or any of your readers 
oblige me by telling from what very source Verbesti derived his 
description ? 
Magnus speaks of the sleeping of the walrus hanging itself on 
rock with its tusks to be often so sound as to expose its life to 
danger. Similar story is told in Japan of the sun-fish (Ortha- 
gortscus mola), which is said to be floating asleep while its flesh 
and entrail are being removed (Kaibara, ‘‘ Yamato Honzo,” 
1708, book xiii., fol. 43 4). KumaGusu MINAKATA. 
7 Effie Road, Walham Green, S W., June 5. 
Strawberry Cure for Gout. 
IN connection with the letter of ‘‘ F. G.” in NaTuRE of June 8 
(p. 125), on the strawberry cure of gout, I may mention that 
last year, when strawberries were so plentiful in England, a lady 
residing in Kent, who had formerly spent several years in Ceylon, 
where she had suffered from the wasting and often fatal com- 
plaint known as ‘* Ceylon sore mouth”? (the chief symptom of 
which is ulceration of the mucous membrane of the digestive 
1 Gesner says: ** Alium esse puto qui _Rusvaal nominatur, quinquaginta 
passuum longitudine. . ” (Historia Animalum,” lib. IV., sd. ‘* De 
Rosmaro"’). 
NO. 1546, VOL. 60] 
organs), having had a return of the malady, and being unwilling 
to go abroad to undergo the ‘‘ grape cure,” conceived the happy 
idea to try strawberries instead, confining her diet to several 
pounds of these a day with plenty of milk. The remedy was so 
effectual that after a few weeks she was entirely cured of her 
malady, and had grown stout and well again. 
5 Bedford Place, Croydon. DONALD FERGUSON. 
THE FRESH-WATER PEARLS OF AMERICA. 
qp ee production of pearls by numerous species 
belonging to the fresh-water bivalve family Uz7on- 
zdae has been a matter of common knowledge from time 
immemorial. Such pearl-bearing mussels occur in the Tay, 
Isla, and several others of the rivers of the British islands, 
as well as in many of those of the continent, Mesopotamia, 
China, and North and South America. As a rule, 
however, such fresh-water pearls, in Europe at least, are 
inferior in lustre, and consequently in value, to those 
obtained from the pearl-oyster; and in those British 
rivers which produce the pearl-bearing species of Uzo, 
it is stated that on the average one pearl is found in every 
hundred shells, and that only one pear! out of a hundred 
is fairly clear. During the eighteenth century, however, 
a considerable number of Irish pearls, ranging in value 
between 4/. and 1o/., were obtained, while one specimen, 
when mounted, realised 80/7. In Scotland, pearls worth 
from 3/. to 4/. each are not unfrequently found, and it is 
stated that as much as Joo/. has been paid for an 
unusually fine example. According to Dr. P. L. Simmonds, 
between the years 1761 and 1764 ten thousand pounds’ 
worth of Scotch pearls were sent to London, while in the 
corresponding decade of the present century the amount 
was considerably more than double that value. During 
the dry season of 1862, when the lowness of the streams 
rendered the fishing unusually favourable, more pearls 
were collected than in any previous year; and the average 
price consequently fell to fifty shillings, or less. Twenty 
years ago, when from 52. to 20/. was obtained for fine 
specimens, the general price was, however, much higher ; 
and one Scotch pearl, for which forty guineas was given, 
is the property of the Queen. 
British pearls were well known to the Romans, and it 
is probable that those from continental rivers were in 
demand at an equally early date. With the opening-up 
of the American continent by the Spanish explorers, the 
world was, however, flooded with a totally new supply of 
pearls, which there is good reason to believe were also of 
fresh-water origin. Wonderful are the accounts of the 
pearls found in the possession of the natives during the 
De Sota expedition from Florida to the Mississippi in 
1540; and three centuries later Messrs. Squier and 
Davis disinterred vast quantities of damaged pearls from 
the ancient mounds of Ohio. So great was the number 
of pearls brought to light by these and other explorers, 
that it was considered improbable they could have been 
the products of the fresh-water unios of the country, 
and they were consequently believed to have been 
obtained from the pearl-oysters of the Pacific. In later 
years, however, many naturalists of repute were inclined 
to doubt the truth of this suggestion; and in an 
important and interesting memoir on the “ Fresh-Water 
Pearls and Pearl-Fisheries of the United States,” recently 
issued by the U.S. Fishery Commission, the author, 
Mr. G. F. Kunz, sums up the question as follows ; “ Not- 
withstanding the intercourse existing between remote 
Indian tribes, as shown by many authorities, and the 
fact that Pacific coast shells have been carried to Arizona, 
and that clam-shells have been found in Zuni cities by 
Lieut. Cushing, it is likely that these pearls came, not 
from the pearl-oysters of the Pacific coast, but from the 
marine shells of the Atlantic coast and the fresh-water 
shells of the eastern part of the continent. It is very 
probable that the Indians opened the shells to secure the 
animal as an article of food; that the shells of some 
