3848 Reptiles. 



did not seek them. The specimens exhibited by Mr. Ffennell were taken in the Lower 

 Lake of Killarney, fourteen miles from the head of the tide- way. According to the 

 seasons, if the fishermen used proper means of capture, he thought that herrings might 

 be taken there in abundance. Mr. Andrews remarked that he could not but receive 

 with astonishment such a statement. He was aware that many singular habits of 

 fish had been noticed ; the mullet and the cod-fish have been recorded as living in 

 fresh water, and the finest soles have been taken in the Arun river, miles above the 

 tide-way, and where they breed and remain throughout the year. Nilsson states in- 

 stances of the salmon remaining permanently in fresh water, for it is known that it 

 winters in the interior Swedish lakes, Wenern and Silgern, from whence it ascends 

 the rivers at the close of the spring, without entering the salt water at all. Could the 

 Clupea harenga be proved to be in such numbers in Killarney, it would be of vast im- 

 portance to that district. Jolters brought them from the coast to Killarney and other 

 inland places. Too frequently the uncertainty of taking herrings, and the storminess 

 of the weather, made them scarce and dear. Mr. Andrews was aware that the Alosa 

 had been met with in the rivers in Kerry, but it was difficult, in the young slate, to 

 detect well the differences between A. communis and A. finta. They were frequent in 

 some of the rivers in England, and abundant in the northern lakes and rivers of Eu- 

 rope. Alosa finta spawned in fresh water in May. — From the Report in ' Saunders's 

 News-Letter,' February 18, 1853. 



Occurrence of Pennant's Globe-fish (Tetrodon Pennantii) near Ardmore, Co. Wa- 

 terford. — My communication [to the Dublin Natural History Society] dated Ardmore, 

 Co. Waterford, Sept. 28, 1852, was to the following purport. I am anxious to place 

 on record the occurrence of Tetrodon Pennantii, a fine specimen of which was washed 

 ashore here on Sunday, the 26th instant, after a smart North-easterly gale. It was 

 dead when found. This makes the third specimen which has been taken on the Irish 

 coast, and it differs from Pennant's description, both in the colour of its spines, and in 

 the fact of its having a double row of dark spots extending from the snout, backwards 

 over the eyes, and ending by curving downwards in front of the branchial openings. 

 These spots, when the skin dried, became elevated and rough to the touch. The ad- 

 measurements of this fish were as follow : — From the mouth to the extremity of the 

 caudal fin, 21 inches : from the commencement of the spines beneath the lower jaw 

 to the vent, 13 inches : circumference round the moderately dilated pouch, 33 inches. 

 The fin-notation was : — Caudal, 7 : dorsal, 12 : anal, 12 : pectoral, 14. The colour 

 of the fish was a most brilliant ultra-marine blue on the back ; the belly silvery ; pouch 

 gray, covered with white spines, each arising from four roots ; the spines extended 

 from beneath the lower jaw to the vent. The irides were gray, with white spots. In 

 other respects the fish agreed with Mr. YarrelPs description. After it was preserved, 

 the colours faded considerably, especially that on the back. — Edward H. Sargint ; 

 19, Bolton Street, Dublin, February 18, 1853. 



Note on Frogs and Toads inclosed in Stones. — During the summer of 1846, in the 

 formation of a railroad, about half a mile from Pontefract, in Yorkshire, the works 

 were carried a " depth of four feet through a rock betwixt lime and sandstone, about 

 the junction of the two formations ; " the rock being so firm as to require blasting. " It 

 is entirely free from beds of any kind, or what the workmen term ' backs ' running up 



