CORRESPONENDCE. 109 
the bottom of the sea, and that at this particular period fishes 
which live on the coast may often swim up the (ascending) sea- 
bed, and arrive in depths of water where such a low pressure 
prevails that the muscular apparatus of the swimming bladder is 
no longer able to compress the air in it so strongly, and the 
specific gravity of the whole fish becomes equal to that of the 
sea water. 
Weakened by the act of deposition of the sexual materials, 
the fish is no longer able to get back by swimming to a suitable 
depth. The higher it ascends the more difficult it becomes to re- 
turn to the deep water, and soon this becomes quite impossible. 
Always ascending higher, the fish—powerless and paralysed by 
the pain of the distension of the swimming bladder—reaches a 
region where the bladder bursts. The fish dies from the internal 
hemorrhage. A portion of the air remains behind in the body, 
and keeps it afloat, where it remains—if not snatched away by 
an albatross or shark—until it is thrown up on the beach. 
The variety of Lepidopus caudatus \iving on the coast of New 
Zealand is different in several respects from those representatives 
of the same species which occur in the Atlantic Ocean. 
During two months one to two fish were on an average 
(daily ?) thrown up on one kilometre of coast line. 
[NoTE.—The number of frost-fish thrown up on the coast 
varies greatly in different parts. On the boulder beach of 
Moeraki they are thrown up daily by hundreds in still weather 
during winter, but further north and south they are not so plen- 
tiful. No doubt the slope and formation of the sea bottom 
affects their occurrence.—ED. | 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
=a Se 
THE NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE. 
SIR,—I quite agree with the remark in Mr. G. M. Thomson’s 
paper in your last number that the principle on which the New 
Zealand Institute is founded is incorrect and ought to be 
amended. The great defect in its constitution seems to me to 
be the almost entire absence of the essentials of permanence. At 
present the Institute—so far as it consists of a government de- 
partment and affiliated societies—is held together by the govern- 
ment grant of £500 a year. If this were to cease, the Transac- 
tions of the Institute would at once collapse, and the affiliated 
societies fall away, although a nominal Institute, consisting of 
the Colonial Museum and the other eight departments presided 
over by the manager might still exist. But the existence of the 
Institute then would be useless. It is quite possible that the 
different societies might associate to publish their papers collec- 
tively, but this association would most certainly take quite a 
