Feb. 10, 1888,] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



^33 



favourable to the preservation of soft-bodied animals. 

 " Hence," says Mr. Bell, " If any one knows of Lepidop- 

 tera retained in a fossil state, it will be of real service to 

 science if he will say where they were found, and under 

 what conditions." 



Influence of Sewage on Herrings. — It is said that 

 the celebrated herrings of Loch Fyne have been driven 

 away or destroyed by the unfortunate scheme of carrying 

 out the sewage mud of Glasgow in ships and discharging 

 it into the Frith of Clyde. 



Aquarium in Japan. — The Imperial University has 

 established a marine biological station at Misaki, near 

 Tokio. The laboratory is 48 feet long by 12 to 18 feet 

 wide, and has space for ten workers. Salt water runs 

 constantly into the tanks. 



Field Clubs. — Our new contemporary, the Selborne 

 Magasine, says, very truthfully : — " Many of the exist- 

 ing field-clubs are mere associations of collectors, who 

 are much more concerned about the individual possession 

 of scarce birds, insects, and wild plants, than the obser- 

 vation of their habits. We intend that Selborne socie- 

 ties for the preservation of rare and beautiful natural 

 objects, and the study of living nature, shall supersede, 

 or better still, absorb these antiquated institutions which 

 owe their origin to the time when the study of natural 

 history consisted almost entirely on ' species making,' 

 and naming." 



Notes on the Tarantula. — Herr von Bergso finds 

 that the nest of this celebrated spider is nearly two feet 

 under-ground. It is approached by a round, smooth 

 tunnel which descends vertically for a foot, then takes a 

 sharp turn and descends for about another foot. The 

 eggs are enclosed in a spun bag, and the young appear 

 in autumn, but cling to the body of the mother until 

 April, the whole family fasting in the meantime. The sup- 

 position that the bite of this animal occasions an irresis- 

 tible tendency to dance is a mere superstition. — Journal of 

 Microscopy. 



Butterflies of the French Pyrenees. — Mr. H. J. 

 Elwes, F.L.S., in a paper read before the Entomological 

 Society, considers it surprising that a range of moun- 

 tains so high, so extensive, and so isolated as the 

 Pyrenees should have developed so few distinct forms 

 among the Lepidoptera and should have so large a propor- 

 tion of those inhabiting the Alps, which seem so com- 

 pletely separated from the Pyrenees by the great plains 

 and low, dry hills of Southern France. Such is not the 

 case among plants, of which there is, he thinks, a very 

 much larger proportion of peculiar species in the 

 Pyrenees ; whilst a much greater number of common 

 . Swiss plants are absent. 



THE NORWEGIAN FISHERIES. 



IT is an established fact that fisheries are more pro- 

 ductive in those parts of the ocean which lie in or 

 near the frigid zones than they are in warmer regions. 

 The causes of this superiority are various. The most 

 prolific food-fishes, such as the herring and the cod, seem 

 to prefer ccld waters. In warmer even mild seas many 



species of fishes are occasionally or even normally un- 

 wholesome. Further, in such climates there is always a 

 risk of a great part of the take having to be thrown 

 away in consequence of prompt decomposition. Hence 

 it is found that as far as the northern hemisphere is con- 

 cerned the most important fisheries are those of Norway, 

 of Newfoundland and the neighbouring coasts, and of 

 British Columbia, with Alaska. 



The seas of southern Norway are well known as 

 yielding a large supply of lobsters, and many of the 

 rivers throughout the country are famous localities for 

 salmon. They swarm, too, with eels, which sometimes, 

 when undertaking one of their periodical pilgrimages, 

 come down in such number as to clog the wheels of 

 water-mills. But the average Norseman, of whatever 

 station in life, regards eels with a superstitious horror, 

 as beings closely connected with witches, trolls, and all 

 that is uncanny. Hence he will neither eat eels himself 

 nor even catch them for exportation to less scrupulous 

 nations. It is remarkable that a very similar feeling 

 prevails in Scotland, and that thus, in both countries, 

 a large quantity of food is allowed to go to waste. 



It is in northern Norway, however, that the fisheries 

 are of the greatest national and commercial importance. 

 Here there are practically no manufactures, and the 

 climate joined to the rocky character of the land confines 

 agriculture within very narrow limits. Hence the 

 inhabitants are in a manner forced to draw their support 

 from the ocean. In the seas among the Lofotens and 

 along the coast of Finmarken lobsters are not found, 

 mackerel are also very rare, but the cod and the herring 

 are found in millions. Halibut are also plentiful, and 

 reach here their largest size. But they do not form the 

 subject of any expensive export trade, since in the 

 south of England at least a mistaken prejudice regards 

 them as inferior to cod. 



Among the Lofotens the great swarm of cod make 

 their appearance in January, and fishing begins in good 

 earnest. Multitudes of men, who follow other occupa- 

 tions in the remainder of the year, flock to these islands, 

 and carry on the pursuit amidst tempests and darkness ; 

 obstacles which are here encountered without limit. 

 Perhaps there are in the world no seas stormier than 

 these which wash the northern coasts of Norway. So 

 violent are the tempests that the fishermen's huts along 

 the shore are sometimes swept away, and the men out 

 in their boats very frequently lose their nets and even 

 their lives. So numerous are the fishes, and so eager to 

 be caught, that they wiU bite at a naked hook. In a 

 favourable season the number of cod caught among the 

 Lofotens exceeds thirty millions. But the seasons are 

 occasionally bad from two causes. The fish may be 

 comparatively scarce, or the weather so rough that the 

 boats cannot venture out. In such seasons the distrtss 

 experienced is fearful. 



The fish caught are utilised chiefly in three ways. A 

 vast number are salted and dried, and exported to 

 countries where salt fish are in vogue as an article of 

 diet. We may here remark that salt cod has a very low 

 dietetic value. The brine extracts out of the tissues a 

 large proportion of the phosphates present. 



The Norwegians of the lower classes are by no means 

 scrupulous as to the condition of the fish which they 

 consume. This carelessness is by some suspected to be 

 one of the causes, if not the main cause, why leprosy 

 still exists in Norway. It has been contended that this 

 fearful disease, though no respecter of climate, is con- 



