412 Miscellaneous. 
go daily newspapers, as follows :—In London, 25; pro- 
vinces, 36; Wales, 1; Scotland, 12; Ireland, 15; Channel. 
Islands, I ;—total, 90. Fifteen years ago there were not 
15, and not one in the English provinces. The gross list 
of registered newspapers, which, however, includes some 
not now published, and omits others which have neglected 
reg'stration, shows that there are 1,732 registered news- 
papers in the United Kingdom. Of these England has 
1,372, Wales 55, Scotland 144, and Ireland 161.—Royal, 
Leamington Spa Courcer. 
RELATIONS AT SEA.—A very interesting paper was re-. 
cently read by Dr. Gunther, at the Zoological Society, on 
the fishes of Central America, in which he brought zoolo- 
gical research to bear upon the history of earth-changes. 
It had been supposed that the existing fauna of the 
Atlantic was quite distinct from that of the Pacific; but Dr. 
Gunther finds (Gn a collection recently made by Mr. Salvin), 
of the total number of species taken on both sides of the 
Isthmus of Panama, 30 per cent. to be specifically identical. 
Nay, they do not even appear to vary enough for Dr 
Gunther to be able to tell whether any given individual 
came from the Atlantic or Pacific side. There was, there-- 
fore, no doubt, a communication between the two oceans, 
since the existing species of fish came into being ; and the 
land across the isthmus near Panama is nowhere more than 
400 feet high; while to the north, through Lake Nicaragua, 
there is another tract, nowhere more than 150 feet above 
the sea-level. That these low tracts of land mark the site 
of former sea-channels, is rendered still more probable from. 
the fact, that in the Lake of Nicaragua a sea fish still exists, 
the ancestors of which were probably imprisoned by the 
land’s upheaval. Dr. Gunther believes that there has been, 
no such interoceanic communication since the latter part of. 
the Pliocene period ; in which case, the persistence of these 
piscine specific forms would be very remarkable. It is well- 
known that, in ancient Miocene times, one fauna extended: 
on both sides of what is now the separating land; but the 
specific identity of so many existing forms is quite a new: 
fact.—Brittsh Medical Fournal. 
_ THE Government botanist, Dr. Mueller, has placed in 
the Australian Intercolonial Exhibition several specimens, 
in frames, of paper made from the fibre of the bark and: 
foliage of trees common to these colonies. The specimens, — 
were prepared at his laboratory, from material selected by. - 
