1881. ] : Scientific News. 1031 
were killed by still hunters, 3,000 of these being killed for the 
hides alone, and the balance shipped out of the State to Eastern, 
Southern and Western markets. In 1880, the destruction of 
eer was greater than ever before in the history of the State, 
10,000 deer being shipped from fifteen stations alone, and the 
total number of deer killed being 70,000, or about 10,000,000 
pounds of venison. This shocking destruction of deer is paralleled 
by the wanton destruction of game farther west. Organized so- 
cieties, which demand and create proper legislation to prevent 
this evil, are doing a great work for civilization. 
_ — Prof. S. A. Forbes has spent the last two months exploring, 
with sounding line, dredges and beam trawl, the small lakes of 
Northeastern Illinois, Geneva lake in Wisconsin and some parts 
of Lake Michigan, viz.: the southwest part, off Chicago, from the 
shore to seven miles out, and the regions of Grand Traverse bay 
in Michigan. Inthe latter he dredged and hauled the trawl in 
105 fathoms. He also used the towing net everywhere, with very 
interesting results. The most important collections made are 
those of mollusks, deep-water crustaceans, entomostracans and 
Cottoid fishes. The species collected in Lake Michigan by Stimpson 
and Miller, and afterwards lost in the Chicago fire, were obtained in 
abundance, and some were found not reported by previous collec- 
tors. The greatest novelties occur among the entomostraca. 
The beam trawl was found admirably adapted to the collection 
of Cottoids, but few other fishes were taken by it. In the smaller 
lakes it took nothing not obtainable by the use of the dredge. 
Full notes were kept of the vertical range of plant and animal 
life, and of the relative -abundance of species at various depths. 
The results will be reported in detail in the bulletins of the TIlli- 
nois State Laboratory of Natural History. : 
— The bread tistributed on a recent occasion to a cavalry de- 
tachment in a garrison at Oran, in Algeria, was moldy, covered 
with dark and orange cryptogamic vegetation, though made only 
48 hours previously. The men refused to eat it, and mostly threw 
it away; but some offered it to their horses, who scarcely touched 
it, with exception of two, which ate each about-half a kilogramme. 
The consequence was a true poisoning, not followed by death, 
but seriously injuring one of the horses. (Such poisoning of ani- 
mals has been known to occur before.) M, Megnin was led to 
study the substances developed on the bread, and he found there 
were two kinds of mold, one Ascophora nigricans forming a flaky 
cover of sooty-color; the other, Ozdium aurantiacum, forming 
spots of salmon-color, and with great power of multiplication. 
M. Megnin believes the sporules of these molds existed in the 
flour before the bread was made. He cultivated the molds spe- 
cially and experimented on dogs with them. The sickness 
and vomiting were much more violent with the Ascophora nigri- - 
_ cans, but the other had considerable action, 
