170 



The Naturalist. 



glad to save such specimens for him. Each specimen, as both Mr. 

 Mosley and Mr. Roebuck very properly insist, should be accompanied 

 by a note showing when and where and in what sort of place it was 

 found, and it might also bear a number or mark, to be quoted by the 

 recorder in giving the name, a similar mark being placed on a 

 duplicate specimen retained by the sender ; or, if wished, the original 

 could be returned. In this way, one's being debarred by want of 

 means or of linguistic attainments from access to the standard books, 

 need not prevent him from forming a very creditable named collection 

 of one of the " neglected orders" ; while from the increased number 

 and inter-communication of workers, science could hardly fail to gain 

 8olid additions — and to enlarge the bounds of human knowledge is 

 surely a higher object of ambition for a working-man naturalist even 

 than to construct the royal arms in butterflies. 



Fish Disease iisr the Bream, at Walton Hall. — About four weeks 

 ago, my attention was drawn to a bream of large size swimming at the 

 top of the water under the bridge here. It was observed to be covered with 

 white blotches, and apparently in a weak state of health, and from the 

 ■description of the salmon disease in the river Eden in the Journal, it now 

 appears to be of a similar character. Within ten days after the observation 

 more than 100 bream of considerable size were found floating dead on the 

 lake, affected in a similar manner. The disease seemed to break out 

 suddenly and as suddenly ceased, nor was there any circumstance as 

 regards the water which could reasonably account for the outbreak. — 

 Edwin Hailstone, Walton Hall, 4th May. 



Natural History Notes — E. Hiding. — On April 20 1 was in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor and Market- Weighton. Mosses 

 and lichens were plentiful in that district, the tree trunks being covered to 

 a considerable extent, reminding one of the west of England. In an old 

 pine wood Leucohryitm glaucum formed large hemispherical tussocks as 

 big as an anthill. When young, these tufts lay loose on the surface of 

 the ground, which was covered with fir needles, and the stems grew in 

 every direction from the centre, even the flat under surface of the tufts 

 presenting, not roots, but leaves pointing downwards. Plagiothecium 

 undulatum and other mosses were equally luxuriant. Several kinds of 

 mosses rarely fertile were in fruit. Hypnun} cuspidatum bore abundant, 

 though immature, capsules in many of the pits and springs near Holme. 

 H. splendens and H. triqnetriim were in fruit on the sides of a gravel-pit 

 about half a mile east of Holme Beacon. A pond in the same pit was 

 fuller of infusoria, desmids, &c. , than any water that I remember to have 

 seen. This part of the East Riding well deserves exploration in botany, 



Goole, May 3rd, 1878. 



