488 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



animal to be met with south of the Zambesi. It is particularly rich in 

 horns of the Koodoo, Eland, Klipspringer, and Gemsbok, or Oryx, which 

 some identify with the Unicorn, its two horns often resembling in profile a 

 single horn. — (' Daily News.') 



According to the ' Globe,' a subterranean laboratory has been opened 

 at the Museum of Natural History, which is situated in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, Paris. It has been created in order to study the influence of dark- 

 ness on animals, and discover by experiment how animal species are thus 

 modified. In short, it is an attempt to apply the doctrine of evolution by 

 experiment ; and as such must be regarded as unique in the world — a new 

 departure, in fact. The idea seems to have originated in the researches 

 made not long ago on the animals of the Catacombs of Paris. 



In the ■ Records of the Australian Museum,' vol. iii. No. 2, is a descrip- 

 tion, by Mr. R. Etheridge, Jun., of "An Australian Sauropterygian — 

 Cimoliosaurus — converted into Precious Opal." The search for Opal in 

 the Upper Cretaceous at the White Cliffs Opal-field on Momba Holding, 

 about sixty-five miles north-north-west of Wilcannia, Co. Tungnulgra, has 

 been signalized by the discovery of many beautiful examples of the entire 

 conversion of the shelly envelopes of Pelecypoda and Gasteropoda, the in- 

 ternal shells of Belemnites, and Reptilian remains into precious opal by a 

 process of replacement. Among other examples, and pre-eminent for its 

 beauty, is a bivalve in the possession of a jeweller of Melbourne, and " with- 

 out exception one of the most beautiful conditions of fossilization I ever 

 beheld." The Survey Collection, previous to the Garden Palace fire, 

 contained an ammonite wholly converted into precious opal, six inches in 

 diameter. 



