477 



Tuggurt, and in the deep ditch which surrounds the city. The lake 

 and ditch abound in small weeds, round the stems of which great 

 numbers of a species of Melania and Paludina nana (?) cluster. 

 This lake is the only one with which I am acquainted in the Eastern 

 Sahara (except that near Waregla) that is never dry in summer. It 

 is intensely saline, and the whole surface of the sand, for some miles 

 round, is covered with a delicate incrustation of salt, and glitters like 

 a vast sheet of water in the distance. As it is considerably lower 

 than the Mediterranean, and probably the lowest depression in the 

 whole Sahara, may not this fish be the last lingering living relic of 

 those forms which must have swarmed in these seas during the Ter- 

 tiary epoch, and before the great and gradual elevation of Northern 

 Africa drained this ocean into the Mediterranean by the Gulf of 

 Cabes ? It seems probable that this gulf between Tunis and Tripoli 

 formed the outlet, since on this coast, for a space of near 200 miles, 

 there is no high land between the Mediterranean and the Desert, — 

 merely long ranges of drifting sandholes about 300 or 400 feet high, 

 — while between Tuggurt and Souf the level of the land is calculated 

 to be 70 feet below that of the sea. 



As Lacepede has mentioned a fish of the same family, " Spams 

 desfontaini" in the springs of Cafsa, or Gafsa, not 200 miles from 

 Tuggurt, we may reasonably anticipate that a more persevering 

 search than I had time to make will reveal some similar inhabitant 

 of the Wareglan lake. 



The following list of additions to the Society's Menagerie by pre- 

 sentation and purchase during the month of November was read : — 



1 Entellus Monkey 

 30 Roach. 



5 Perch 



3 Bleak 



2 Pike 



1 Egyptian Goose... 



1 Ocelot 



1 Malbrook Monkey 

 1 Coral Snake 



Pectens 



Lucernariae 



1 Striped Hyena ... 



1 Roe Deer 



2 Bean Geese 



2 Barnacle Geese ... 



15 Carolina Ducks ... 

 1 American Bear ... 



Presbytes entellus 



Leuciscus rutilus 



Perca fluviatilis 



Leuciscus alburnus 



Esox lucius , 



Chenalopeoc agyptiacus... 



Felis pardalis ? , 



Cercopithecus cynosurus 

 Oocyrrhopus trigeminus 



Pecten varius , 



Lucernaria auricula 



Hycena striata , 



Cervus capreolus , 



Anser segetum 



Bernicla leucopsis 



Aioc sponsa 



Ursus americanus 



