542 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 199. 



naturalists during the occupatiou by the 

 Mahdi. 



Upon learning of the importance of this 

 investigation, Charles H. Senfif, Esq., of 

 New York City, very generously contributed 

 the greater part of the funds for the pur- 

 pose, and the full equipment was made by 

 the Zoological Department of Columbia 

 Universitj'', with the assistance of Professor 

 Osborn. Mr. N. R. Harrington, Fellow in 

 Zoology, and Dr. Reid Hunt, Tutor in 

 Physiology, volunteered to go to any part of 

 Africa where it seemed most probable that 

 embryonic stages could be secured. On 

 reaching London they consulted with Dr. 

 Boulenger and Professor Giinther, also with 

 Mr. Henry M. Stanley and Miss Mary H. 

 Kingsley. The advice of these and many 

 other naturalists and African explorers be- 

 ing strongly against the "West Coast, it 

 finally appeared best to choose the Nile 

 Valley. The progress and results of the 

 work may be extracted from Mr. Harring- 

 ton's report. H. F. 0. 



Leaving New York on April 23d, we 

 spent two weeks in London, making inqui- 

 ries about Old Calabar, the Congo, Sene- 

 gambia and Egypt. The rains having been 

 prevalent on the West Coast for a month, 

 the presumption was that the fish had al- 

 ready spawned there. Further, information 

 was gathered in London which led us to 

 think that Polypterus spawned in Lake Men- 

 zaleh, a connection of the delta of the Eiver 

 Nile. 



On May 26th we reached Cairo, where per- 

 mission to fish, interpreter, assistant and out- 

 fit were obtained. We were received by the 

 Under-Secretary of State, Clinton E. Daw- 

 kins, as guest of the Egyptian government, 

 and given laboratories and apartments in the 

 capacious Fisheries plant near Damietta. 

 The sympathy of the Egyptian government 

 with pure scientific work was demonstrated 

 by the repeated favors shown us. 



But after three weeks' search we found 

 that Polypterus did not occur in Lake 

 Menzaleh during the low Nile period, and 

 starting for the nearest point on the river we 

 searched along the banks of the Nile until 

 we came upon several Polypterus near Ras- 

 el-Ghelig. From this point we explored 

 carefully for 377 miles, having as many as 

 thirty fishermen at work at one time in 

 promising regions. The result was that on 

 June 22d we settled down at Mansourah, 

 forty miles from the sea, where we anchored 

 for the summer over what was then the best 

 Polypterus fishing ground not closed on ac- 

 count of the Anglo-Egyptian campaign. 



The fish came in slowly, but, as a result 

 of this, there was abundant time to study, 

 to carefully inject, and to make the long- 

 wished-for observations on living material. 



The Nile being especially late in coming 

 down, we remained at Mansourah until Au- 

 gust 18th, and in our two months' stay ac- 

 cumulated a large number of the fish, beside 

 very interesting and valuable cytological 

 material from Mormyrus, Malapterurus and 

 other Nile forms. After the 18th of August, 

 when the tremendous flooding makes fish- 

 ing in the river impossible, we worked in 

 the canals, and, although we obtained fish 

 as late as August 30tb, the eggs were still 

 immature. We sailed from Port Said 

 September 10th. 



As to the material brought back, it in- 

 cludes some beautiful invertebrate col- 

 lections made in the Red Sea, numerous 

 Elasmobrauchs, lizards and general collec- 

 tions from the eastern Mediterranean, an 

 admirable collection of Nile fishes (on 

 which the Napoleonic expedition has left 

 little undone in a systematic way), a still 

 larger collection of the salt and brackish 

 water fishes of Lake Menzaleh, and a con- 

 siderable amount of morphological, neuro- 

 logical and cytological material of great 

 interest. 



N. R. Harrington. 



