178 General Notes. [ March, 
protected by law, having been regarded as objects of interest and curios- 
ity to the San Franciscans and strangers visiting the neighborhood. 
The Cliff House at the point is a famous resort, and the road leading to 
it from the city a favorite drive ; these animals, which are quite numerous, 
are a conspicuous feature in the attractions of the locality. The state 
fish commissioners, who are diligently working to stock the waters of the 
State with food fishes, find that the results of their labors are impai 
through the voracity of the seals, which occupy a station especially favor- 
able for preying upon the finny tribe. Recently a bill has been intro- 
duced in the legislature to repeal the protective act and to encourage 
their extermination. 
_ It may well be questioned, however, whether more harm is not done 
by the Chinese fishermen who drag the waters inside of the bay and 
sweep them of everything that has life, whether fish or crustaceans, with- 
out regard to “age or condition,” and who dry their “ catch ” for export 
either to the interior or to their native land. The amount of fish-food and 
of young fish thus caught and dried is undeniably very great, and should 
in some manner be regulated or controlled by legislation. The papers 
have recently contained an account of an attack on a boat made bya 
sea-lion. “As a Mexican Indian named Sacramentus was crossing 
Tomales Bay at Marshall, the boat was attacked by a large sea-lion. 
renewed fury. It was finally killed and afterward towed. ashore. The 
fishermen estimated its weight at twelve hundred pounds.” — R. E. C. 
STEARNS. | 
Eyes anD NO Eyes. — In the chetopod worms of the cold deep water 
of the Atlantic “ we miss neither the colors nor the eyes which are met 
with in coast regions” high north. Ehlers believes that these colors 
and eyes are preserved in the lightless depths in consequence of “new 
animals ever migrating down from the brighter layers of water, and 50 
preventing the disappearance of these parts.” As the surface animals 
go southward and into water warmed superficially by the Gulf Stream; 
they retire into the depths. To this Ranke, in the same volume (xXV-) of 
the Zeitschrift für wissenschaftlich Zoölogie, adds another pregnant sug- — 
gestion as to the persistence of eyes where they seem to be useless; namely; 
that in leeches their very simple eyes have also sensations of touch 
taste; indeed, that they are not simply eyes which may upon occasion servé : 
other ends, but rather neutral organs of sense which can act in various 
directions, as needs in the long run may require. Some confirmation a 
this “ appears partly from the fact that organs quite similar to these 50- 
called eyes on the head of the leech occur also in the whole of the rest 
of the body.” We take these statements from a German correspon® 
ent of Nature, November 25th. 
REMARKABLE Hanis or a Trer-Frog.— Professor Peters hast 
