128 



NA TURE 



[June 6, 1907 



(4) The form of the central stone is immaterial in dis- 

 cussing the plan. At a temple observatory, what was 

 chiefly necessary was to mark the exact centre of the 

 circle. Where no " cove " was erected, an upright stone 

 would suit well. Where neither was present, the priest- 

 astronomer would simply stand on the spot to make his 

 observations. The present fashion of placing a large 

 boulder on the flat in the centre of the Gorsedd seems 

 reminiscent of both the " cove " and the later kist. 



(5) " Myfyr Morganwg " is only to be followed so far 

 as he can produce some earlier authority. He tried to mix 

 the contents of the " Asiatic Researches " with those of 

 Welsh tradition. I have before me a plan of the Ponty- 

 pridd circle, published in the second quarter of the last 

 century, in which the three station stones, or sunrise 

 stones^ form alignments to the equinox. May, and 

 November. 



(6) The bards were not allowed to sit in a Gorsedd ; 

 they were to stand uncovered, head and feet. 



(7) I did not mean that the process of " re-codifying or 

 otherwise dealing with the bardic traditions " was in 

 operation only from the twelfth to the nineteenth century. 

 It seems very likely that there was a larger body of 

 Gorsedd traditions known in the twelfth century than 

 we find at any subsequent period. Again, I applied 

 the epithet " voluminous " to the whole stock of printed 

 and manuscript materials on the subject still extant. They 

 have " grown," not to any large ex- 

 tent by addition or accretion, but by 

 the multiplication of versions or recen- 

 sions of what was recited at the 

 Gorsedd meetings, as was the fixed 

 rule. There is much work to be done 

 by way of collating these recensions. 

 I have an impression that the recital 

 of the Gorsedd traditions proper would 

 not have occupied a longer time than 

 an old-time sermon. The only con- 

 siderable additions concern the rules of 

 poetry. There is no evidence, except 

 the indirect evidence respecting the 

 solstitial year, that the conventional in- 

 structions about the Gorsedd circle itself 

 have been subjected to any revision. 

 This is distinctly stated to be a matter 

 of minor importance — the circle with 

 its ceremonies. The following words, 

 translated from a Welsh extract from 

 an old book at Raglan Castle, before 

 that place was destroyed by Cromwell's 

 fortes, shows the attitude of the bards 

 towards the subject here under dis- 

 cussion : — 



" Now follows an account of things that appertain to 

 institutional ceremonies, and that accord with the reason 

 and inherence observable in the reminiscence and customs 

 of the bards of the Island of Britain ; but which, never- 

 theless, are not considered as indispensably requisite parts 

 of the system : because every truth and knowledge — every 

 recollection and intention — as well as every art and 

 science, may be acquired without them : — still they 

 corroborate and illustrate reminiscences and primary 

 regulations ; for which reason, it is deemed laudable to 

 perpetuate them in memory and usage ; especially as they 

 comprise the ancient forms transmitted, by the retentive 

 memory of Gorsedd " (" lolo MSS.," p. 445). 



Then the scribe begins the list of non-essentials as 

 follows : — " It is an institutional usage to form a con- 

 ventional circle of stones, on the summit of some con- 

 spicuous ground," and he gives complete details. This is 

 not the tone of a scribe who was conscious of any weak- 

 ness in the traditional account. 



I take no serious exception to anything that Mr. Lewis 

 says. He has himself furnished very valuable data for 

 this inquiry. But a better theory than an " accidental 

 sort of way " must be found to explain highly finished 

 and polished statements which, like pebbles in glacial 

 drift, speak of the remotest origin. 



John Griffith. 



I.langynvvyd, Glam. 



NO. 1962, VOL. 76] 



MARINE ZOOLOGY AT THE CAPE.' 



THE third volume of reports on the Cape marine 

 fauna contains ten papers published between 

 1904 and 1905. Of these memoirs, two, dealing with 

 eighteen new species of fish and the development of 

 South African fishes, are by Dr. Gilchrist, to whose 

 enterprise and ability these sustained and extended 

 investigations of the resources of the Cape seas are 

 largely due. In this work he has been ably seconded 

 by European colleagues. Prof. Mcintosh contributes 

 two papers on the polychjet annelids ; Prof. Hickson 

 a second report on the Alcyonaria; Prof. Jeffrey Bell 

 three contributions, dealing respectively with the 

 echinoid, asteroid, and ophiuroid echinoderms ; Mr. 

 Stanley Gardiner publishes a careful study of the 

 turbinolid corals; and Prof. Cleve submits a first 

 instalment of a study of the South African marinr 

 plankton. 



Dr. Gilchrist's second contribution to a knowledge 

 of the life-histories of the Cape fish contains several 

 matters of interest, although lie has only succeeded 

 in referring nine of the eighteen stages or eggs he 

 describes to known species. The development of the 

 saury-pike (Scoiiibrcsox saiiriis) is worth noticing for 



Fig. r.— CyttOi 



I Boops, ng. eb sp. Frc 



: Investigations in South Africa.' 



two reasons. In the first place, the young fish before 

 hatching keeps up a rapid and almost constant move- 

 ment of one pectoral fin, and when hatched, keeping 

 its tail well submerged, it skims the surface with its 

 mouth as if in search of food. The second peculiarity 

 of the saury, if well founded, is of greater interest, 

 and consists' in the presence of blue pigment arranged 

 in chromatophores, massively developed on the dorsal 

 surface and sparsely below. The presence of an in- 

 dubitable blue pigment concentrated in cellular 

 elements is probably a new fact in animal coloration, 

 and one that suggests how wide a field of investi- 

 gation is afforded by the phenomena of pigmentation 

 in fish. Another noteworthy feature of this article is 

 the account of cannibalism prevalent among the un- 

 born voung of Cataelyx inessieri. It appears that 

 this deep-sea fish is viviparous. In the one case de- 

 scribed, the right ovary consisted of a mass of un- 

 developed bright red eggs with a single larva coiled 

 up in a dense mucous substance, whilst the left ovary 

 contained seven larva; also strongly flexed and 

 embedded in mucus. When these were detached it 



I Cape of Good Hone, Department of Agriculture. "Marine In»e«lea- 

 tions in South .^ftic.i." Vol. ni. Pp. 269 + 45 P'atei. (Cape Town : The 

 Cn/ie Times, Ltd., 1505.) 



