i,30 



NA TURE 



[June 7, 1906 



beginnings of the Zoological Society. How it grew 

 from more to more Mr. Scherren tells us witfi 

 no lack of circumstantial detail. We see the 

 long procession into the scientific ark, we hear 

 the quaint comments made when conspicuously 

 new creatures arrived, we can realise from the 

 abundant plates how the " houses " increased in 

 number, size, and efficiency, and we are reminded how 

 men like Owen, Yarrell, Waterhouse, Gould, Huxley, 

 Flower, Sclater, Murie, and Wolf helped the Society 

 forwards in varied ways. From time to time there 

 were new departures, such as the publication of Pro- 

 ceedings and Transactions, the institution of aquarium 

 and insect-house, the formation of a library, the ex- 

 periment of the Davis lectures. As in many a devel- 

 opment there were periods of rapid growth and of 

 temporary arrest, of crisis and metamorphosis, and 

 there was quite recently a general reorganisation. 

 The author gives expression to the view forced upon 

 him by the history " that before the Zoological Society 

 was half a century old its bionomical work practically 

 ceased owing to the increasing influence of morpho- 



I. — Rocky Mountain Goat. From " The Zoological Society of London 



graphers and systematists in its councils. The elec- 

 tion of the Duke of Bedford as president, the recom- 

 mendations of the Reorganisation Committee, and 

 subsequent changes, mark a return to lines laid down 

 by the charter." We fervently hope that this policy 

 will be adhered to, and that the " Zoo " will gradually 

 become a recognised centre of bionomical research 

 and evolutionist experiment. 



No naturalist can read this well-told history without 

 having his gratitude to the Zoological Society revived, 

 not only for what it has directly accomplished through 

 the gardens and the workers there, through the 

 scientific meetings and the publication of what has 

 been submitted there, but also for the way in which 

 the society has given aid and encouragement to 

 bibliography (notably through the Zoological Record), 

 to institutions such as the biological stations of Naples 

 and Plymouth, as also to travellers, collectors', and, in- 

 deed, zoologists at large. The excellence of the plates 

 which adorn Mr. Scherren 's volume reminds us also 

 of the important part the societv has played in sus- 

 taining and raising the standard of zoological illus- 

 tration. 



NO. 1 9 10, VOL. 74] 



THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES 

 INVESTIGATIONS. 

 T^ HE latest publications of the International 

 -*■ Fisheries Organisation consist of the part of 

 the Bulletin des Kesultats containing the results of 

 the quarterly cruises carried out in May, 1905, the 

 fourth volume of Rapports et Proc'es-Verhaux, and 

 Nos. 28 to 32 of the Publications de Circonstance. 

 The bulletin contains the usual data — hydrographical 

 and plankton observations obtained in the course of 

 the obligatory voyages made by the exploring vessels. 

 M first the west coast of England and the coasts of 

 Ireland were not included in the area to be investi- 

 gated, but for the last year the Irish Board of Agri- 

 culture and Technical Instruction have allowed their 

 steamer to make the necessary quarterly cruises, and 

 a report on these is now made to the International 

 Council by Mr. E. Holt. 



The Publications de Circonstance include an account 

 of an investigation of the fisheries for salmon and 

 sea-trout in the rivers and neighbouring waters of 

 the Baltic, with special reference 

 to measures of artificial culture, 

 being the report of an international 

 commission appointed bv the In- 

 ternational Council for Fishery 

 Investigations, and two papers by 

 Dr. R. J. Witting, of a very tech- 

 nical nature, dealing with the 

 measurement of ocean currents, 

 one of them describing a new elec- 

 trically registering current meter. 

 The two remaining reports are by 

 Dr. C. Kofoid and Dr. L. Gough, 

 the former dealing with a means 

 of studying plankton from deep 

 water layers, and the latter de- 

 scribing the migrations of an 

 oceanic species of Siphonophore. 



In the former paper Dr. Kofoid 

 describes the construction of a 

 luicket for obtaining samples of 

 water from considerable depths. 

 Plankton from deep water has 

 hitherto been obtained chiefly by 

 means of self-closing nets, or by 

 bringing up water from the re- 

 quisite depth by a pump and hose- 

 pipe, both methods of some un- 

 certainty in their results. The ap- 

 paratus described consists of a 

 bucket of considerable dimensions which is lowered 

 down to the depth required, where it fills with water, 

 and is then closed bv means of a specially constructed 

 catch and " messenger." The samples of sea- water 

 obtained by making a number of hauls with this ap- 

 paratus are then filtered in the ordinary way, and 

 the organisms present are so obtained. It is claimed 

 that the apparatus is simple and certain in its results, 

 and that it can also be used for obtaining temper- 

 atures from the depths to which it is lowered. 



Dr. Gough describes the distribution of the Mono- 

 phyidan genus Muggiaea atlantica, Cunn., in the 

 waters of the English Channel, the Irish Sea, and off 

 the south and west coasts of Ireland during the year 

 1904. It is shown that a shoal of Muggiaea entered 

 the Channel in May, and that the shoal was intro- 

 duced into this area by the current of Atlantic water 

 which, just before this time, had set into the Channel 

 as a stream flowing north past Ushant from the Bay 

 of Biscay. The shoal entered the English Channel 

 and reached as far as Plymouth, from which region 

 it disappeared at the end of the year. After entering 

 the Channel the shoal divided, and, rounding Land's 



il&'Co., Ltd. 



