A CUB THAT ATE ITS OWN MOTHER 29 
the comparatively abundant calcium-sulphate may serve as the 
source of the supply of lime to the myriads of our corals, 
sea-urchins, star-fishes, crustaceans, and shell-fish ; but the 
very minute traces of silica present in sea-water is somewhat 
puzzling. 
In addition to its dissolved salts sea-water always contains 
the gases of the air, though in varying proportions. As we see 
the surface water driven before the wind and thrown up into 
waves, we see it mingled with the air, a bubbling mass of foam 
or detached flakes of spray, and some of this thus imprisoned 
air is dissolved in the water and renders possible the respiration 
of the organisms that live in it. 
Nor is this “ purger of earth,” as Emerson calls it, only the 
means of supplying air to its inhabitants : it is, as he says, 
“ full of food.” The. proportion may seem infinitesimal, so that 
Wyville Thomson’s “ dilute pea-soup ” seems a gross exaggera- 
tion ; but there can be little doubt that the diffused particles 
of the dead bodies of plants and animals which exist throughout 
the sea, whether those of marine organisms or carried down by 
rivers, are of supreme importance as food for the simpler forms 
of marine creatures, which in their turn serve as food for larger 
or higher types. 
A TIGER CUB THAT ATE ITS OWN MOTHER. 
HAD shot a tigress the evening before. At least, I 
thought I had, because although it was too late and not 
safe to follow her up when she went off badly hit, I 
heard her making a nasty noise just as if she was very 
sick. I had also seen the cub of this tigress, but was not able 
to get a shot at it. The next morning we were on the spot, 
searching about, and found no tiger nor any trace of blood. My 
men were beginning to get weary and sceptical about the beast 
being hit, but I determined to persevere. Close by there was a 
deep ravine or “nullah,” with a small rivulet running in it. 
Into this ravine I descended on foot, armed with my double- 
barrelled 500 Express Rifle, and my shikari followed me, 
armed with a heavy double-barrelled pistol, and a long spear. 
After following the course of the rivulet a short distance, there 
was a nasty smell, and I saw my shikari hanging back, so I 
signalled to him to stand still, and went on alone until I came 
across a big trunk of a tree which was lying right across the 
rivulet, and which quite prevented my seeing what was imme- 
diately beyond it. Stalking quietly up towards this trunk, I 
reached it and looked over. There lay the tigress half in and 
half out of the water, quite dead and with part of its body eaten. 
The surrounding moist earth was covered with the footmarks 
