580 
NATURE 
(Oct. 15, 1885 
Pereyaslavtseff’s method differs from most of those hitherto 
recorded : she does not select one or another phase of develop- 
ment as being the most important, but, placing several Rotifers | 
and Lepadelle under the object-glass of a microscope, she 
waited until one of them would lay an egg, and the development 
taking about three days from the beginning of the segmentation 
until the issue of the new animal from the egg, she observed it 
continually throughout the first thirty to thirty-five hours, with 
only short interruptions of two to three hours in the observation 
of subsequent phases. This method has of course its incon- 
venience by preventing sleep for two nights. It cannot be 
applied also to those Rotifers which live an errant life. These 
last do not survive confinement, and must be kept in watch- 
glasses until they lay their eggs, which last are then brought 
under microscopic investigation. Ten different species were 
studied in this way, and proved to undergo the same develop- 
ment, so that Rotifer inflata has been given as a type of the 
development of the egg. The stages are all figured in forty- 
eight drawings on a plate accompanying the memoir. 
THE same volume contains, moreover, three papers on geo- 
logy : one by M. Sintsoff, on Tertiary fossils from Novorossia, 
being a description of the following new species: Anodonta 
unzoides, Scrobicularia tellinoides, Ervilia minuta, Neritina 
pseudo-Grateloupana, and several others formerly described ; it 
also contains a list of the fauna of the intermediate Ponto- 
Sarmatian deposits of the region, Another, by M. Miklashevsky, 
gives some information on the Government of Tchernigoff ; and 
athird, by M. Andrusoff, deals at length with the geology of the 
Kertch peninsula, and throws some new light on the confused geo- 
logy of the Crimea. It appears from the author’s researches that 
the Tertiary deposits of the Crimea may be subdivided into the 
following: (a) the true Congerie deposits (Pontri), consisting of 
iron-bearing clays, equivalent in West Europe to the deposits of 
Hidas and Arpad, and of limestones, sandstones, and m11!s 
equivalent to the Dreissena triangularis deposits of the Vienna 
basin, the D. rostriformis deposits of Ploeshti and the upper 
Siebenbirgen deposits ; (4) the Ponto-Sarmatian intermediate 
group of the Kertch limestone, equivalent to the lower Sieben- 
biirgen deposits; (c) the Sarmatian group, equivalent to the 
same of Roumania, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary ; and (¢) the 
Upper Mediterranean, equivalent to the Leythakalk, the Badner 
Tegel, &c. It would result from the above, and from what is 
known about South Russia and the Crimea, that during the older 
Miocene period both were a continent. Later on they were 
invaded by a sea penetrating from the west, and a narrow gulf 
limited in the south by the Yaiba hills, extended towards the 
East. During the Sarmatian epoch the subsidence continued, 
followed soon by an upheaval towards the end of that period, 
which upheaval led to the formation of narrow, less settled bays, 
like those we see now on the Kuban, at the place formerly 
occupied by the Sarmatian Gulf. 
The Garner and Science Recorder's Fournal is the title of a 
new scientific monthly, edited by Mr. A. Ramsay, and pub- 
lished by W. E. Bowers, Walworth. 
A Socrety for the Advancement of Science has been formed 
in Bergen, numbering about a hundred members, the President 
being Dr. Danielsen. 
Mr. ARTHUR S. PENNINGTON’S Manual of British Zoo- 
phytes, to be published immediately by Messrs. L. Reeve and 
Co., will include not only the Hydroida but also the Actinozoa 
and Polyzoa found in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel 
Islands. The same publishers announce an illustrative volume 
of ‘‘Collections and Recollections of Natural History and 
Sport,” by the Rey. G. C. Green. 
WE have received the sixteenth annual Report of the Norfolk 
and Norwich Naturalists’ Society, forming part 1, vol. iv. of 
the Transactions, Amongst the published papers is a presi- 
dential address by Mr. Francis Sutton, F.C.S., on the nitrifica- 
tion of soils by means of minute living organisms ; and the same 
gentleman also contributes a most valuable paper on the 
varieties of sugar, natural and artificial; Mr. Horace B. Wood- 
ward, F.G.S., gives a paper on the earthquake of April, 1884, 
which made itself so severely felt in the counties of Norfolk and 
Suffolk; Mr. F. D. Power, who visited the Norfolk coast 
during the period of the autumnal migration, in his ‘* Ornitho- 
logical Notes from Cley and Blakeney,” shows the wonderful 
influx of birds, some of which are generally supposed to be of 
the greatest rarity, which takes place on the eastern coast at 
that period ; amongst Mr. Power’s list of rarities occurs the blue- 
throated warbler, of which he says he must have seen from 
eighty to one hundred individuals, and the barred and ictarine 
warblers. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., also contributes some valu- 
able facts bearing upon the vexed question of migration, for the 
observance of which the Norfolk coast is so favourably situated. 
Mr. Southwold furnishes his usual review of the herring fishery 
from the ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, from which it 
appears that the enormous number of 505,005,600 fish were 
taken by the fishermen using those two ports ; the same gentle- 
man also contributes a paper on the white-beaked dolphin, a 
Cetacean which has been procured on several occasions on the 
east coast. The ‘‘ Ornithological Notes” of Mr. Hy. Stevenson, 
F.L.S., are in continuation of a series extending back for many 
years ; and a most interesting memoir of John Scales is contri- 
buted by Prof. Newton, forming one of a series of memoirs of 
naturalists of whom the county of Norfolk has since the com- 
mencement of the present century produced so many notable 
examples. 
AN experiment has recently been tried at the Inventions Ex- 
hibition Aquarium by Mr. W. August Carter with a view to 
discovering how far fish are prone to sleep. After close examina- 
tion he found that amongst freshwater fishes the roach, dace, 
gudgeon, carp, tench, minnow, and catfish sleep periodically in 
common with terrestrial animals. The same instincts were 
found to actuate marine fish, of which the following were 
observed to be equally influenced by somnolence—viz. the 
wrasse, conger eel, dory, dogfish, wrasse bass, and all species of 
flat fish. Mr. Carter states that, so far as he can discover, the 
goldfish, pike, and angler fish never sleep, but rest periodically. 
Desire for sleep amongst fish varies according to meteorological 
conditions. Fish do not necessarily select night-time for 
repose. 
THE specimens of fish collected for the International Ichthyo- 
logical Museum, which is being formed by the National Fish 
Culture Association, now number about 500. They include 
many rare fish as well as those of extraordinary growth and 
formation. Many of the specimens are the finest to be seen in 
London, having been specially caught for the Association by 
qualified ichthyologists and agents. The work of setting the 
fish out in glass jars is now being commenced, and it is hoped 
to be able to exhibit them to the public shortly. 
WE have received the third and concluding part of Dr. 
Hann’s paper before the Berlin Academy of Sciences on the 
temperature of the Austrian Alps. The tables contain monthly 
and yearly averages of temperature for 382 stations in the 
Austrian Alps and the neighbourhood reduced to the true 
(24-hour) average, and to a thirty-year period (1851-80). Of 
the stations 277 were below 1000 metres, 88 lay between 1000 
and 2000, while 17 were over 2000 metres in height. The data 
obtained at all these stations over a period of years are here 
worked up and arranged. The present part contains over 160 
4 
