SCIENCE 



FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, i5 



The past season has been one of unusually successful activity 

 with the United States Fish Commission, a review of whose work 

 is published elsewhere in this issue of Science. Probably the most 

 important accomplishment during the year has been the establish- 

 ment, at Gloucester and Wood's Holl, of stations capable of hatch- 

 ing four hundred million codfish-eggs, and which, with favorable 

 weather, may be expected to put at least one-fourth of that number 

 of cod-fry into the Atlantic Ocean during the present season. The 

 problem of restocking the coast of New England with inshore cod, 

 which has become so scarce except in Ipswich Bay, has been defi- 

 nitely solved. It is only a question of time, and a very short time 

 at that, before codfish can be made to be more plentiful on the 

 coast of New England than they were years ago, and a lost in- 

 dustry restored that will be worth millions of dollars to that sec- 

 tion of the country. The only probable causes of delay are bad 

 weather during the hatching-season, and anchor-ice, which kills the 

 small fishes. It is known that only an mfinitesimally small propor- 

 tion of the fry hatched out at the hsh-commission stations, and put 

 into the rivers and lakes and the ocean, ever survive to reach ma- 

 turity. It is only by planting an enormous quantity of the fry that 

 the supply of fish is increased. It is claimed, that, of those artifi- 

 cially propagated, a much larger proportion survive than when the 

 eggs are deposited naturally in the stream. In order to ascertain 

 whether the number of small fishes to survive might not be enor- 

 mously increased. Commissioner McDonald placed in a pond in 

 Washington, in June, two million shad-fry. Eight hundred thou- 

 sand of these are still alive, — breathing fishes from three to four 

 inches long each. These will be kept until spring, and then placed 

 in the Potomac. As a rule, they will by that time be able to take 

 care of themselves. The remarkable success of this experiment may 

 cause an entire change in the methods of artificially propagating 

 shad. A new scheme of gathering up the small indigenous fishes 

 hatched in ponds and lakes on the borders of Western and South- 

 ern rivers after their annual overflow, and planting them in the 

 rivers, which, in many cases, have been depleted by over-fishing 

 and the destructiveness of the floods, was put into successful opera- 

 tion this year. A hundred thousand fishes were thus rescued from 

 sure death, when, later in the season, these lakes and ponds dry up. 

 On the Pacific coast the steamer ' Albatross ' has done the pre- 

 liminary work of developing the extremely valuable halibut-fish- 

 ing grounds that lie off the coast of Washington Territory and 

 Vancouver's Island, convenient to the ports of Puget Sound, de- 

 fined the boundaries of several deep-sea codfishing banks off the 

 coast of Alaska, and will devote the winter to similar work in lower 

 latitudes. The results of her first season's work are expected to 

 be of very great economic value to the Pacific coast. These are 

 but a few of the branches of work accomplished by the United 

 States Fish Commission during the past season, though probably 

 the most important. This commission is the most profitable of all 

 the bureaus of the government, and ought never to lack for money. 



On Nov. 2 the following telegram was sent from Zanzibar : 

 " Couriers from Tabora bring direct news from the Stanley expedi- 

 tion, a portion of which was met at the end of November, 1887, by 

 Arabs trading between Lakes Victoria Nyanza, Mvutan Nzige, and 

 Tabora. These Arabs met Stanley's rear guard at a point west of 

 Mvutan Nzige, south-east of Sanga, just as the expedition was pre- 

 paring to cross extensive swamps. The Arabs did not see Stanley. 



The detachment seen consisted of thirty men. They stated that 

 Stanley was two days ahead. The expedition had suffered greatly 

 on the march through a thick forest, where it was impossible to 

 advance more than a mile and a quarter daily. They had also suf- 

 fered in the marshes, where many had disappeared or died. Forty 

 were drowned in crossing a great river flowing from east to west. 

 One white man had died. Stanley was obliged to fight some tribes 

 that refused to supply him with provisions. The expedition had 

 often halted in the expectation of receiving re-enforcements from 

 the Kongo. The rear guard, at the time met, had only been on the 

 march five days after a halt of three weeks, due to the illness of 

 Stanley and a great part of the escort, who had been attacked with 

 fever. The Arabs estimate the total strength of the expedition, 

 after all losses, at two hundred and fifty men. The health of Stan- 

 ley was then good. The rear guard, which consisted of natives of 

 Zanzibar, stated that Stanley had decided that he would no longer 

 advance in a north easterly direction, but would strike toward the 

 north, hoping to avoid the swamps. After getting a certain dis- 

 tance north, he intended to take an oblique line to the eastward, 

 and go straight to Wadelai, where it was thought he would arrive 

 fifty days later, — about the middle of January, 1888. The Arabs 

 were of the opinion that the expedition was still strong enough to 

 reach Wadelai." We hesitate to accept this news as authentic, as 

 it corresponds too closely to the views recently expressed in numer- 

 ous newspapers, particularly regarding Stanley's intention to turn 

 northward. Sanga, which is mentioned in this despatch, was 

 visited by Junker in 1882, and marks the south-eastern limit of our 

 knowledge of this region. The Arabs, who claim to have met part 

 of the expedition, must have penetrated beyond the limits of 

 Unyoro. It will be remembered that on Lake Mvutan Nzige and 

 Muta Nzige no information was obtained by explorers regarding 

 the regions farther west, and that there seems to be little com- 

 munication in this direction. Therefore the report would imply 

 that the Arabs had recently succeeded in opening this country to 

 their trade. Besides this, their route must have led along Lake 

 Mvutan Nzige, where Emin had re-established, a year since, his 

 influence. Therefore it seems somewhat remarkable that no men- 

 tion is made of Emin Pacha. Another despatch which was re- 

 ceived on Aug. I in Zanzibar is undoubtedly an invention. It was 

 stated that two messengers had arrived there v/ho had left the in- 

 terior about the beginning of April, and who reported that Stanley 

 had not arrived at Wadelai up to that time. The messengers 

 stated that in the month of March Emin Pacha did receive some 

 vague and indecisive news of the explorer, which had filtered 

 through from tribe to tribe, but that the reports were very conflict- 

 ing. Some declared that Stanley, after losing a number of men 

 and a large portion of his supplies, was hemmed in by hostile tribes 

 between the Mabode country and the Mvutan Nzige, while other 

 rumors were to the effect that he had been attacked by the tribes 

 in the Matongora-Mino district, and after several conflicts had 

 diverted his course in an unknown direction. The wording of this 

 despatch is almost exactly the same as that of another received 

 about fifteen months ago, and therefore it cannot be accepted as 

 genuine. 



THE ERUPTION OF KRAKATOA. 

 The Krakatoa committee of the Royal Society has made its final 

 report,' which forms a large quarto volume, and contains a mass 

 of material of the greatest interest. After the remarkable phenom- 



^ The Eruption of Krak.ito.i, and Sub£cqucnt Phenomena- Ed. by G. J. Svmons. 

 London, Triibncr. 



