44 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
on June 17th, and sighted Kolguev on the 25th, whence they set their 
course for the island of Dolgoi. Soon after they came upon the pack ice, 
which prevented their advance. It was extremely dirty, covered with 
gravel and silt, and with branches and logs scattered over it. Finally 
they forced their way into Dolga Bay, on Waigatz Island. Eventually 
they continued their voyage to Novaya Zemlya, and anchored in Cairn Bay 
on June 26th, where there is a Samoyede settlement. With regard to the 
scientific results of the voyage, the ornithology of Waigatz, Novaya Zemlya, 
and the North Island has been practically worked out, and the results of 
their observations will soon be published. The botanical collections were 
satisfactory, and several interesting plants had been added. But by far the 
most important discovery was the finding of what had hitherto been con- 
sidered the rarest and most inaccessible of flowering plants, the Pleuropogon 
sabinti, growing in the greatest profusion both in Novaya Zemlya and Lutke 
Land. Collections of rocks and fossils, insects, and marine invertebrates 
have also been made. 
A propos to the subject of ‘‘ Wasp v. Spider,” discussed in ‘The Zoolo- 
gist’ (1897, pp. 475-76, and ante, p. 29), Mr. Richard M. Barrington has 
contributed to the ‘ Irish Naturalist’ (1897, p. 325) an account of a combat 
between a large Spider and a Wasp which he one day placed in its web. 
In this encounter victory remained with the Spider, but the writer adds :— 
“IT don’t think this would have been quite possible save for the apparent 
power possessed by the Spider of lassoing a dangerous enemy by shooting 
out its glutinous threads by a sort of centrifugal jerk when sweeping past 
its victim.” In ‘ Knowledge’ (vol. xx. 1897, p. 301), Mr. Knock describes — 
an experiment of “ presenting a large Bumble-bee tail first to the side of 
the silken tube of a British Trap-door Spider. The Spider seized it, but 
was wonderfully careful in so manipulating it that without seeing the Bee 
(the aerial part being quite opaque), she managed to turn it completely 
round until she had firm hold of the head; then she promptly pulled the 
Bumble-bee through and down.” 
Mr. Witiiam THorPE has presented to the British Museum the shell 
of a giant Tortoise which lived for upwards of two hundred years in the 
grounds of Plantation House, in the island of St. Helena. It was 
frequently the object of much curiosity on the part of the great Napoleon 
during his enforced stay on the island. | 
—_—— 
Wira the gradual extinction, as evidenced by a recently-issued return 
of the Cape Agricultural Department, of the various species of big game: 
