234 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
true Californian salmon. Professor Hutton replied that it was 
undoubtedly a Californian salmon, This fish was very easily 
distinguished from all the different kinds of salmon that. live in 
rivers running into the Atlantic, by having about 16 rays in its 
anal fin; whereas in all the Atlantic salmons there were never 
more than 11. More than a year ago Dr. Chilton, of Timaru, had 
sent him a description of a fish caught in a river in the south part 
of Canterbury, which was also a Californian salmon. 
OTAGO INSTITUTE. 
The plan of holding courses of popular lectures similar to those 
given in England under the Cambridge Extension Scheme is now 
under trial in Dunedin, and is meeting with great success. The 
lectures are being held on Saturday evenings, in the lecture-room 
of the Museum, and are open to members of the Institute; while 
a very small fee (2s. 6d. or 3s. per course) is charged to the general 
public, so as to cover merely necessary expenses. 
The first course was given by Prof. Parker, on the evenings of 
15th, 22nd, and 2gth July, the subject being ‘‘ Fermentation and 
Putrefaction.” The lectures were illustrated practically by nume- 
rous specimens, drawings, and experiments, including a repetition 
of Tyndall’s celebrated experiment disproving the theory of spon- 
taneous generation; and the whole subject was treated ex- 
haustively. A detailed syllabus of the whole course was printed 
and distributed among the audience. 
Despite the wretched weather which has prevailed this winter, 
and which seems to have reserved its worst manifestations for 
successive Saturdays, the attendance at the lectures has been 
most encouraging, the lecture-room being filled to excess on the 
opening night. 
15th August, 1882.—W. Arthur, Esq., president, in the chair. 
New members—Messrs. David Cosgrove and E. Melland. 
Papers—(1.) ‘‘ Notes on the New Zealand Sprat” (Clupea 
sprattus), by W. Arthur, Esq.,C.E. The author gave a description of 
this fish, taken from two specimens caught at Oamaru in May, out 
of a large shoal which visited the coast. The fish is of rare 
occurrence. Specimens were obtained in 1872 in Foveaux Straits 
and near Wellington, and in 1874 it was sold in some quantity in 
Dunedin. Since then it does not appear to have been seen 
on our coasts until May of this year, when a large shoal appeared 
near Oamaru for about a fortnight, but did not visit either 
Moeraki or Dunedin. 
An examination of the female fish led to the conclusion that it 
contained about 20,000,000 ova. From the minuteness and 
buoyancy of the ova it is inferred that, at whatever depth 
spawning may take place, the hatching probably occurs at the 
surface of the sea. The vast number of ova in this sprat is 
suggestive of a very high death rate, due to the species being 
probably the food of the seal, whale, and predatory fishes, as well 
as of marine birds. Its occasional occurrence on our coasts is 
perhaps due to variations in the ocean currents—a subject, how- 
ever, on which very little is known. 
(2.) ‘‘ Diseased Trout in Lake Wakatipu,” by W. Arthur, Esq., 
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