290 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
locust on the coast of the Mediterranean, for in- 
stance, sometimes cover the jground inches thick j 
for miles, while a few years ago 14,000 bushels of j 
locust eggs were collected in a single season in 
three Algerian provinces. A single house fly lays j 
from 150 to 200 eggs, which in two weeks become 
equally fertile flies, and insects generally have 
astonishing powers of multiplication. 
Alluding to the work on the Maltese Ecliinoidea 
lately published by Mr. J. M. Gregory of the Bri- 
tish Museum Natural Science says. “Though 
Malta has for so long a period belonged to the 
British Crown, its geology is still imperfectly j 
known. A good deal of confusion has been caused 
by want of exactness in the determination of the 
fossils; still more by mistakes as to the horizons 
and localities from which they were obtained. 
At last however, the careful observations and 
the fine collection of Maltese fossils made by Mr. 
J. H. Cooke, are providing material for a better 
understanding of the Geology of the Island; and 
in a memoir just issued by the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh! “Transaction,” Vol. XXXVI., pt. III). 
Mr. J. W. Gregory has availed himself of the 
opportunity to revise the Ecliinoidea, while making 
an analysis of the evidence they provided as to the 
age and origin of the Tertiary strata of Malta. Mr. 
Gregory comes to the conclusion that the strata in 
question belong partly to the Oligocene partly to 
the Miocene period, and that they probably range 
from the Tongrian to the Tortonian. The evidence 
brought forward of changes of depth, as shown by 
the Echinoderras, is curious. The Tertiary series 
in Malta begins and ends with shoal water depo- 
sits, but the intervening strata indicate deep water.” 
Civilization, observes Dr. Service G. Ganes, re- 
ceive its primary impulse and has achieved its most 
notable* successes in the temperate zone, and among 
races , which are neither exclusively vegetarian nor 
exclusively carnivorous in their habits. The northern 
American and European, as is well known, is a 
descendant of one or more branches of the ancient 
Aryan or Indo European stock. It so happens that 
one branch of .this stock which early separated from 
its European cousins and travelled southward to 
the mountains and plains of India, through stress 
of climatic and religious influences, became as near- 
ly exclusively vegetarian as any large section of 
the human race has ever been, and has remained 
so for centuries. Here, then, is an opportunity for 
comparison. The effect of the vegetarian habit, su- 
peradded to climatic conditions, has been to deve- 
lop a race notable indeed for some of its intellec- 
tual traits, but inferior in size, lacking in physical 
stamina and energy of character, whose millions of 
people easily fell a prey first to the Mohammedan 
and afterwards to the English, whose c r inmercial 
enterprise for centuries has proved inferior to that 
of the small competing race of the Parsees — their 
nearer blood relation — and which has shown itself 
lacking in those essential traits which characterize 
our modern, progressive civilization The great and 
successful men of all ages have been those who 
have not departed too widely from the mixed diet 
which has long constituted the habit of the races 
which have peopled the temperate Zones of the 
earth. 
A study of the phenomena of marine life, writes 
Mr. Geo. W. Field, is capable of producing a 
greatly increased food supply for man. The ne- 
cessity of cultivating the marine resources is even 
now apparent and many governments have already 
begun to cope with the question, by the establish- 
ment of commissions of fisheries. Of these com- 
missions that of the United States stands in the 
front rank by virtue of its positive results. But 
in the near future individual attention must be 
turned to supplementing the terrestrial resources, 
the wheat fields, the cattle and >heep ranches, by 
an increasing utilization and development of the 
possibilities of marine farming; by fish propagation 
by plantations of oysters, clams ami scallops, by 
raising herds of lobsters and crabs. Improved 
breed of fish and of lobsters, will result. The pos- 
sibilities are well-nigh limitless; and by cultivation 
of the sea and sea bottom as well as c f the land, 
man will postpone indefinitely the fulfillment of 
the Malthusian prophecy. 
Apropos of this subject it is surprising, w hen we 
consider the position of the Maltese Islands, their 
varied and extensive sea-board, and the uuusual 
facilities that they offer for investigations intosea- 
lief, that advantage has not beeu taken of these 
facts to advance our knowledge of Mediterranean 
zoology and biology by the establishment of a 
