214 



NA TURE 



\yuly 1 6, 1874 



The Provost and Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford, have 

 voted the appropriation of 2 per cent, of their revenues to non- 

 colle<»iate University uses, and have resolved that this sum for 

 the next five years shall be paid in equal proportions to the 

 Bodleian Library and University Museum. 



Mr. F. Butler, B.A., of Worcester College, who obtained a 

 first class in Natural Science at the recent examination at Oxford, 

 has been appointed Natural Science Master of Reading School, 

 and during the vacation a laboratory will be fitted up at the 

 school under his supervision. 



The large and lucrative industry which has sprung up on the 

 American coasts in the presei-vation of lobsters in tins, has 

 induced some energetic persons to start a lobster farm near 

 Boston, where an area of about 32 acres has bLen laid out and 

 protected for the purpose of cultivating the lobster. On the sea- 

 ward side it is closed by banks, having hatches or sluices so as 

 to admit of the flow and ebb of the tide. Last summer about 

 40,000 lobsters, of all sizes, were deposited in this ground. The 

 maimed and the halt and the lame and probably the blind are 

 accommodated with (juarters where they can recover their lost 

 claws ; and a crC-chc for the infantine population is provided, 

 where they can increase without the ordinary dangers attendant 

 oa.lobsterial infancy. Food, in the shape of refuse fish, ic, is 

 liberally supplied to this interesting community. In the winter 

 the managers evinced the natural deceitfulness of human 

 nature by catching and scalding the lobsters on which so much 

 attention had been lavished, and a fine harvest rewarded them ; 

 15,000 fine lobsters were sold, and the success of the experiment 

 seems complete. Besides lobsters, it is intended that the 

 farm sh.all be turned to account by being made a nursery for fi-sh 

 of various kinds. As a matter of fact many eels and other fishes 

 were caught in the spring. The venture seems a very successful 

 one ; and in view of the enormous drain on the natural lobster 

 grounds of America, it is very necessary that some: such steps 

 should be taken, as a supplement to the regulations proposed to 

 prevent overfishing, and fishing in the breeding season. 



The suggestion has been made that kangaroos might be gene- 

 rally cultivated in parks and other enclosures in this country ; 

 and it is probable that they would prove quite as useful as deer. 

 A French naturalist, M. Comely, has recently published some 

 novel information on the subject, which seems to show that the 

 proposal is perfectly feasible in every way. The experience of 

 the various zoological societies in Euroje shows that this marsu- 

 pial will thrive and breed in our climate, damp being the only 

 condition which is fatal to it. It will bear great extremes of 

 heat and cold without injury. M. Comely says thai ihey are 

 not destructive to trees and shrubs, and that if any individuals 

 contract the habit of barking trees, they can be broken of it by 

 shutting them up for two or three days without food. On being 

 released they are so eager in search of grass that Ihey do not 

 touch the trees. As an ornamental adjunct to an English park, 

 the presence of kangaroos would prove very valuable ; ihcir 

 skins are highly prized on account of the qualily of the leather, 

 and most probably the principal obstruction to the more general 

 cultivation of the animal is the prejudice that exists against llie 

 introduction of novellies. 



A stVEKE earthquake is reported to have occurred in Ul.ah at 

 midnight on June iS. 



We learn with great pleasure that during' the last three years 

 there has been a very successful class for botany in connection 

 with the Royal Veterinary College. Fiom some notices of 

 excursions made during the present summer which have been 

 sent us, \\e see the field-class is one of the largest in London, or 

 anywhere else we should think, and tliat the excursions are made 

 the means of valuable training as well as of conveying solid in- 

 formation. 



The Council of the Institution of Civil Engineers has just 

 awarded the following, among other premiums and prizes : — A 

 Telford Medal and a Telford Premium to Joseph Prestwich, 

 F.R.S., Assoc. Inst. C.E., for his paper On the geological 

 conditions affecting the construction of a tunnel between 

 England and France. A Watt Medal, and a Telford Premium, 

 to Alexander Carnegie Kirk, Assoc. Iiisl. C.E., for his paper 

 On the mechanical production of Cold. A Telford Premium to 

 Major James Browne, R.E., Assoc. Inst. C.E., for his paper 

 On the tracing and construction of roads in mountainous tropical 

 districts. 



The foUowingis a translation of the telegraphic despatch received 

 in Paris by Gen. Morin from IT.M. the Emperor of Brazil : — 

 " Service from Rio de Janeiro to Paris via Falmouth, June 23, 

 5 o'clock. Electric telegi'aph established from Europe to Brazil. 

 In addressing you my congratulations on this victoiy of science, 

 I beg you to communicate my satisfaction to all your colleagues 

 of the Academy of Sciences, to whom I owe so many marks of 

 good- will. Don Pedro." The Academy immediately replied : — 

 " Tile Academy, moved by his Majesty's remembrance, offers 

 him its thanks, its respects, and its vows." 



We would strongly urge on our readers' attention the appeal 

 made through the daily papers by Mr. C. R. Markham, F.R.S., 

 on behalf of the Cameron- Livingstone expedition . A letter from 

 Lieut. Cameron, dated Ujiji, Feb. 28, tells of his having secured 

 Dr. Livingstone's map and journal from Mikandany, which he 

 was to send home in a few days. " The fish of Tanganyika," he 

 states, " are more like sea than fresh- water fish. The Tanganyika 

 is a veritable sea. I will send home a bottle of lake-water to be 

 analysed. I cannot understand, receiving as it does rivers that 

 flow through a salt soil, why the waters of the lalce should not 

 be salt. I believe that it is gradually being filled up." 



The Report of the Commissioners of Fisheries for the Slate 

 of New York states that in 1S72 upwards of seven and a half 

 millions of young shad were hatched and turned into the river 

 Hudson at the cost of the State ; and five millions were acMcil 

 in 1873. In the spring of the latter year, several hundru 1 

 thousand shad were transported into California and into the great 

 American lakes, where it is hoped they will become fairly accli- 

 matised. The Sacramento River Salmon, and the Whitefish 

 (Corcgouus allnts) have, in return, been introduced from the 

 lakes and rivers of the West to the Eastern States. The 

 enactment of a close time, during which the shad may be al- 

 lowed to proceed unmolested up stream to spawn, is urgently 

 desired, otherwise the natural increase of the fish can never 

 occur, and the results of the artificial culture and prop.igation are 

 nullified. The efforts of the Commissioners, who have erected 

 extensive hatching premises at the cost of the State, have resulted 

 in much more light being thrown on the subject of pisciculture. 

 So thoroughly is the process of artificial spawning and fecun- 

 dation carried out, and so carefully are the after stages of deve- 

 lopment assisted, that nearly cent, per cent, of the eggs taken 

 are actually hatched. Under ordinary circumstances hardly 

 twenty per cent, of the eggs are hatched. The importance of 

 this system in re-stocking barren or depopulated waters cannot 

 be over-estimated ; but its results can never be fully successful 

 unlil all impediments to the ascent of fish in the spawning 

 season are rcmoveJ ; and when this is the case, artificial pro- 

 pagation will be no longer necessary. 



Mr. Seth Greev, thewell-known.\inencan pisciculturist, pro» 

 po;e5 that some enterprising persons sliould turn their attention 

 to frog culture ; and he gives careful directions for procuring 

 and treating the spawn and frogs. The spawn will hatch in 

 about fifteen d.ays, and if the tadpoles and young frogs are placed 

 in a suitable position it is calculated that they may be easily reared, 

 and a larjje profit made. Tlie mmleof feeding the frogs is toplaca 



