Sept. 24, 1885] 
NATURE 
515 
Government as a slight recognition of the presentations of ova 
made by them to this country. There is a great dearth of flat 
fishes in the United States, and at the instigation of the Com- 
missioners-of Fish and Fisheries many attempts have been made 
to forward young specimens for propagation from England. 
Hitherto these efforts have not met with success, it being exceed- 
ingly difficult to transmit live soles, as they are less tenacious of 
life than their congeners. We hope that Prof. Baird, who has 
received notice of the despatch of this valuable gift, will not be 
again disappointed. The fish have been placed in charge of an 
experienced pisciculturist, who will accompany the s.s. Republic, 
by which vessel they have been sent, and who will bring back a 
number of American species with a view to acclimatising them 
in this country. 
THE Royal Commissioners of the Colonial Exhibition, to be 
held next year at South Kensington, have issued circulars to the 
Governors of our Colonies requesting them to send the various 
species of fish indigenous to their respective countries for exhi- 
bition. Special preparations will be made at the close of October 
for receiving them. The arrangements will necessarily be of an 
elaborate nature, as the tanks will have to be constructed in such 
a manuer as to provide for the exigencies of each species and the 
regulation of high and low temperatures according to the 
climatal necessities of the fish. 
SPECIAL interest is just now centred at the Aquarium in 
the incubation of the ova of some of the dogfish which have 
recently spawned. The eggs, which resemble filbert nuts in 
shape, are to be seen in a special tank, which presents a sight of 
much edification. The formation of the fish inside the ova is 
plainly perceptible, every part of them being apparent. The 
fish in the Aquarium are now being fed at 6 o’clock, partly on 
a new dietary specially invented by Mr. W. Burgess, of Malvern 
Wells. 
THE Marquis of Lorne has successfully planted some whitefish 
in a specially constructed lake on the Isle of Mull. The fish 
form part of those reared by the National Fish Culture Associa- 
tion this year. His Lordship reports that the fish are doing 
well. 
AT a lecture delivered by Mr. W. Oldham Chambers, F.L.S., 
at the Hull Town Hall last week on fish culture, living speci- 
mens of the whitefish and other foreign species of fish were 
exhibited, and excited much interest amongst the audience. 
A RECENT Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission 
contains the following interesting account of the destruction of 
young trout by mosquitoes: ‘‘In the middle or latter part of 
June, 1882, I was prospecting on the head-waters of the 
Tumichie Creek, in the Gunnison Valley, Colorado. About 
9 o'clock in the morning I sat down in the shade of some 
willows that skirted a clear but shallow place in the creek. In 
a quiet part of the water where their movements were readily 
discernible, were some fresh-hatched brook or mountain trout, 
and circling about over the water was a small swarm of 
mosquitoes. The trout were very young, still having the 
pellucid sack puffing out from the region of the gills, with the 
rest of the body almost transparent when they would swim into 
a portion of the water that was lighted up ‘by direct sunshine. 
Every few minutes these baby trout—for what purpose I do not 
know, unless to get the benefit of more air—would come to the 
surface of the water, so that the top of the head was level with 
the surface of the water. When this was the case a mosquito 
would light down and immediately transfix the trout by inserting 
its proboscis, or bill, into the brain of the fish, which seemed 
incapable of escaping. The mosquito would hold its victim 
steady until it had extracted all the life juices, and when this 
was accomplished, and it would fly away, the dead trout would 
turn over on its back and float down the stream. I was so 
interested in this before unheard-of destruction of fish that I 
watched the depredations of these mosquitoes for more than half 
an hour, and in that time over twenty trout were sucked dry and 
their lifeless bodies sent floating away with the current. It was 
the only occasion when I was ever witness to the fact, and I 
have been unable by inquiry to ascertain if others have observed 
a similar destruction of fish, I am sure the fish were trout, as 
the locality was quite near the snow line, and the water was very 
cold, and no other fish were in the stream at that altitude. 
From this observation I am satisfied that great numbers of trout, 
and perhaps infant fish of other varieties in clear waters, must 
come to their death in this way ; and if the fact has not been 
heretofore recorded it is important to those interested in fish- 
culture.” 
A TELEGRAM from Rome, September 21, states that repeated 
shocks of earthquake have occurred in Benevento. The in- 
habitants are terror-stricken, and are encamped in the open 
country. 
THE Russian Official Messenger states that the city of 
Namangan, in Ferghana, has been visited all through the 
summer by repeated shocks of earthquake, which have hitherto 
been of very rare occurrence there. The strongest shocks took 
place on April 17 and August 4, but no very serious conse- 
quences resulted. 
ON September 12, at 9.30 p.m., a magnificent meteor passed 
over the city of Stockholm, going from south to north. Its light 
was very brilliant. On account of the limited area of observa- 
tion it was impossible to tell whether it burst near the city 
or not. 
Durine the month of August enormous swarms of ants 
passed over the town of Solothurn in Switzerland. They came 
from the Jura mountains, and formed a cloud, consisting of 
seventy-five perpendicular columns, in which the ants circled 
around in spiral form. The swarm lasted for twenty minutes, 
the height of the cloud being upwards of ninety feet. Millions 
of them fell to the ground, however, without making any visible 
change in the phenomenon. 
ACCORDING to the Bergen Adresseblad, fishermen at the island 
of Mogster, on the coast of the province of Bergen, on the west 
coast of Norway, have lately seen large floating blocks of ice at 
sea, which are believed to be parts broken off from icebergs in 
the North Atlantic. Such a phenomenon has never before been 
observed in these parts. 
THE Swedish journal Norrbottens Kuriren states that the 
water is falling rapidly in the Gulf of Bothnia, a phenomenon to 
which we have on several occasions referred. As a further 
proof of this the journal states that a stone in the archipelago by 
the coast which fifty years ago at lowest tide was barely visible 
above water is now at mean tide three feet above it. 
WE have pleasure in noticing the issue of No. 43 of the first 
part and Nos. 29-31 of the second part of the well-known 
“Encyklopeedie der Naturwissenschaften” from the house of 
Eduard Trewendt, Breslau. The former brings forward Dr. A. 
Reichenow’s ‘‘ Handworterbuch der Zoologie, Anthropologie, 
und Ethnologie,” from article ‘‘ Heteronereis” to ‘‘ Icteridze.” 
Among other articles embraced within this interval are valuable 
contributions on the development of the organs of 
by Prof. Griesbach; on ‘‘ Hypnotismus,” by 
Jager; on ‘‘Januten,” “‘Japaner,” ‘‘ Javanen,” by Dr. 
yon Hellwald; on ‘‘ Hissarlik,” ‘*‘ Hohlefels,” ‘‘ Hohl- 
keit,” by Prof. Mehlis. Nos. 29 and 31 of the second 
part, again, continue the ‘*‘ Handworterbuch der Chemie,” while 
the 3othnuniber continues the ‘‘ Handworterbuch der Mineralogie, 
hearing 
Prof. Gustav 
