;78 



NA TURE 



[August 20, 1908 



special reference lo the question of storage. Full details 

 -are given of the experimental methods employed. Taking 

 cultures of lOo cubic centimetres of water as the final 

 guide, it appears that, starting with an initial number of 

 typhoid bacilli varying from 40 per c.c. to 8,000,000 per c.c. 

 in the infected water, the typhoid bacillus could not be 

 recovered from 100 c.c. of the water in any of the eighteen 

 experiments after nine weeks, i.e. in this period the 

 organism had died out so far as experiment could ascer- 

 tain, and in sixteen out of the eighteen experiments the 

 organism had died out in eight weeks. If, therefore, the 

 water before distribution to the consumer could be stored 

 for an adequate period, it \vould seem that the risk of 

 conveyance of typhoid, supposing the water were infected, 

 "would be practicidly eliminated. 



At present the Water Board's existing storage reservoirs 

 are capable of holding in the aggregate 8883-7 million 

 gallons, which is forty times the average daily supply of 

 :2i9 million gallons, and powers have been obtained for 

 the construction of storage reservoirs for another 6000 

 million gallons. When these are completed, the storage 

 capacity would be adequate for the storage of the water 

 for the eight or nine weeks necessary to eliminate the 

 typhoid bacillus. Even in existing circumstances the con- 

 ditions are by no means unsatisfactory. Unfortunately, 

 however, the storage capacity at the different works is 

 very unequal, and some have to take their water after 

 only a limited period of storage. If the different reservoirs 

 could be connected, and the supplies so " pooled," a better 

 condition of things would result. -Adequate storage of 

 water also presents advantages of a general character, 

 apart from the elimination of typhoid, e.g. subsidence of 

 particulate matter which tends to block the filter-beds, 

 reduction in the total bacterial content, &c. 



R. T. H. 



SOME RESULTS OF THE NORWEGI.AN 



HERRING INVESTIGATIONS. 



■" TTNSERE Heringsstiimme und ihre Wanderungen " 



^ is the title of a paper written for the Bergens 

 Museum Aarbog, 1908, by Hjalmar Broch, dealing with 

 some of the results of the Norwegian investigations into 

 the herring fisheries. Extensive and detailed observations 

 made by the Michael Sars, the Norwegian vessel for the 

 international investigations, supplemented by information 

 from other vessels, have yielded some valuable and in- 

 teresting information as to this fish. One of the chief 

 objects in view was to distinguish clearly the different races 

 or varieties of herrings that are to be found in the 

 North Sea, for it has of late been becoming more and 

 more evident that each race of herring must be studied 

 by itself, the characteristics and the direction and extent 

 of the wanderings of the different shoals being very 

 different. Following the method used by Heincke to 

 accomplish this object, Broch has made a series of 

 "biometrical observations on numerous fish, and so deter- 

 mined their differences of structure, and these, accom- 

 panied by observations on sex, maturity, and fatness, have 

 added considerably to our previous knowledge of the 

 subject. Tables of the measurements are given, and the 

 differences between the corresponding average measures 

 on fish from different races, with their probable errors, are 

 printed in the text, so that we are able at a glance to 

 •estimate the real significance of these differences. The 

 inclusion of these in this form is of real value. For 

 example, the differences between the averages of most 

 races are considerably greater than their probabie differ- 

 ences, but there is no conclusive proof as yet whether 

 or not the varieties known as spring and large herring 

 are really of the same race. 



The following kinds of herring and their characteristics 

 are now well known : — 



(i) The Dogger Bank herring in the central North Sea. 



(2) The Bohusliins herring in the Skagor Rak. 



(3) The Shetland herring in the northerly and westerly 

 parts of the North Sea. 



(4) The Norwegian spring and large herring along the 

 Norwegian west coast and the north-easterly part of the 

 North Sea. 



(5) The Beitstad Fiord herring in Trondhjems Fiord. 



'Ihere is a short section on the age investigations, which 

 are as yet not advanced enough to give many results. Age 

 is determined by means of the annual rings in the herring 

 scales. An examination of plate ii. shows that the length 

 of a herring is not by any means a simple function of 

 its age, the growth rate being very different for the 

 several kinds. The Beitstad Fiord herring, which is sup- 

 posed to spend its whole life within the area of the fiord, 

 is found to grow much more slowly than those races 

 which frequent the open sea. In its fifth year it seldom 

 exceeds a length of 22 cm., whilst the herrings of the 

 Norwegian seas may become 24' or 25 cm. even in theii 

 second year. 



The distribution of the various shoals and their move- 

 ments at different times of the year have been studied. 

 For instance, the spawning-places of the spring and large 

 herring are found along the Norwegian coasts from 

 Trondhjems Fiord to Riser, and the shoals gather here in 

 early spring. The spent herrings then move into the open 

 sea, and later in June they appear on the North Sea 

 slopes. In autumn, 1903, they were discovered on the 

 coastal banks between Stadt and Lofoten, whence in 

 December they moved in a southerly direction towards 

 the spawning-places along the coast. 



The value of these investigations is not for the man of 

 science alone ; they are of great importance to the practical 

 fisherman, who, knowing exactly when and where the vari- 

 ous shoals spawn, is able to catch the herring when they are 

 prime and avoid them in their spent condition. Many 

 interesting questions, such as the relation of the herring 

 migrations to the distribution of plankton, )-et remain to 

 be solved, and these must be the object of further 

 investigations. R. M. L. 



.ARCH.EOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN INDIA. 

 A WRITER who has enjoyed unusually favourable 

 ■^ opportunities of examining the conditions under which 

 archreological research in India is being conducted has 

 recently contributed to the Times a series of reports of his 

 observations. Archaeology in India is now at last, after a 

 period of vandalism and neglect, being conducted on busi- 

 ness and scientific principles. For this we are indebted to 

 Lord Curzon. 



The first serious attempt to collect information dates 

 from the appointment, in 1862, of General Cunningham as 

 Director of .\rch;eology. Owing to the wide extent of the 

 sphere of operations and the difficulty of securing the 

 services of qualified assistants, the result was far from 

 satisfactory. .\ long series of reports was issued, which, 

 though they contain some valuable material, are ill- 

 arranged and overloaded with useless matter. Besides 

 this, under the regime of General Cunningham the work 

 of conservation of existing buildings formed no part of the 

 proceedings undertaken by the Government of India. After 

 the retirement of General Cunningham little progress was 

 made until, under Lord Curzon 's scheme, in 1901 the post 

 of Director was conferred upon Mr. J. H. Marshall, who, 

 though without any Indian experience, had been trained in 

 the Cambridge School of Greek Archaeology. Since his 

 appointment the work of conservation has gone on side by 

 side with that of exploration, and important buildings like 

 the Taj Mahal at Agra and the palaces at Fatehpur-Sikri 

 have been judiciously restored. The most noteworthy 

 excavations now in progress are those at the Buddhist 

 monastery at Sarnath, near Benares, the buried city of 

 Sravasti in northern Oudh, and the Graeco-Buddhist re- 

 mains in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. On the resulls 

 of these excavations excellent periodical reports have been 

 issued. 



It is hardly realised what a wealth of archaeoIogic.il 

 material still remains to be explored. Kapilavastu, the 

 birthplace of Buddha, which lies just within the Nepalese 

 Terai ; Pataliputra, the Maurya capital, in the neighbour- 

 hood of the modern Patna ; and numerous sites of the first 

 importance in the Punjab and the United Provinces of 

 .•\gra and Oudh, such as Taxila, near Rawalpindi, still 

 await exploration. Research at many of these sites is 

 certain to unearth inscriptions and sculptures which will 



NO. 2025, VOL. 78] 



