COMMITTEE’S ADDRESS. 201 
Watchers have been appointed, and a system of taxation to 
defray the cost has been agreed to. The magistrates seem every- 
where disposed to exercise their powers in cases of the breach of 
the regulations of the Act of Parliament, so that we trust this 
noble denizen of our rivers will long be preserved to us, and that 
instead of diminishing, its rapid increase may date from these 
exertions. 
It is clear that the impurities suffered to flow into the Tyne, 
and other rivers, however deleterious, have little to do with the 
great decrease in the number of salmon; stake nets on the coast, 
weirs on our rivers, seldom or never opened, fishing at improper 
times, and consequent destruction of the roe, these are the active 
and powerful causes of diminution, and if these can be stopped, 
improvement is certain. 
The great outlay which the Colonial Government of Australia, 
are willing to incur, for the sake of peopling their rivers with this 
valuable fish, should convince us of the importance of aiding in 
the work of preservation whenever it lies in our power. 
Few questions connected with Natural History have been more 
talked about during the past few months, than the incubation of 
its eggs by the Python, in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, 
in London. 
The important scientific problem involved in the mazy coils 
of the serpent, is whether a cold blooded vertebrate animal has 
the power of increasing the heat of its body, and so assisting in 
the development of its eggs by incubation. 
Much difference of opinion still exists, although the experi- 
ments of Mr. P. L. Sclater, seem to answer the question in the 
affirmative, as appears from the following letter 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 
_ Sir,—As great interest has been manifested by the public in 
the case of the python now incubating her eggs in this society’s 
gardens, perhaps you would kindly allow me, in reply to numerous 
inquiries on this subject, to state summarily in your columns the 
result of experiments made on three different occasions on the 
temperature of the body of this animal as compared with that of 
