THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
291 
Marine biological laboratory. The multifarious 
and mixed nature of the duties which the present 
professor of Natural History in the Malta Univer- 
sity (he is professor of every branch of natural 
history, of zoology, of hygene, of forensic medi- 
cine as well as curator of a museum, and director 
of the botanic gardens) is called upon to perform 
absolutely prevents him either from pursuing any 
special line of research, or from giving adequate 
attention to the many economic problems which 
are constantly cropping up, and with which the 
most vital interests of the people are intimately 
connected. 
As this is a subject in which the Maltese people 
are specially interested, if not from a scientific, at 
least from an economic point of view, we shall have 
more to say on it in a future issue. 
The Canary Islands. 
The latest Foreign Office report on Spain con- 
tains a comprehensive pamphlet on the social and 
economical conditions of the Canary Islands, by 
Mr. Sander Brown. About 1490 the Canaries 
were partly planted with sugar and large profits 
realised, until, in the sixteenth century, the islands 
were unable longer to compete with the West 
Indies. Recently a fresh start has been made 
by means of British capital ; and now there are 
several steam factories in Grand Canary and one 
in Teneriffe. From 1490 to 1850 the vine throve 
on ‘he islands, but at the latter date it was des- 
troyed by the ravages of a fungus; the European 
had to be replaced by American vines, and the 
quality of wine has greatly deteriorated. The 
trade, however, has rapidly revived since 1885, 
and the vine will probably again become the 
most important of all the productst of the coun- 
try. Cochineal was orginally brough to the Ca- 
naries in 1826, and after some prejudice had been 
overcome it was found that the dye was produ- 
ced more plentifully and of better quality than 
in other countries. The discovery of aniline dyes 
brought about a crisis, and the export of cochi- 
neal has rapidly decreased. The attempt to replace 
cochineal by tobacco has proved a failure. The land 
is now largely planted with tomatoes, bananas, 
arul oranges, and the Canaries are becoming a 
market garden for Northern Europe, earlier by 
several weeks than the Channel Islands. The 
to the hills occasions a succession of zones differing 
in temperature, nature of soil, and other conditions. 
There are five climatic zones, the limit of cultivation 
rarely exceeding 4000 feet. The forest land begins 
at an elevation of about 3000 feet, and the greatest 
height at which any shrub is found is about 11,000 
feet. The Spanish Government has ordered the 
planting of young trees, and prohibited the pre- 
vious reckless waste. There is no record of freez- 
ing-point being touched at Laguna, 1840 feet, the 
highest point at which regular meteorological 
obervations have been taken for a series of years. 
At Vila Flor, 4335 feet, the lowest temperature 
recorded was 28°. The highest summer record 
was 104° at Laguna; the ordinary summer tempe- 
rature in towns by the sea averages 82°. The 
annual rainfall st Las Palmas is 8'35 inches, in 
Laguna 29'41. In the western islands droughts 
are unusual, but in the eastern, specially in 
Fuerteventura, great distress is occasioned. The 
islands of Hierro and Fuerteventura have no 
springs, and Langarote has very few. These 
depend simply on the dew and rainfall. Grand 
Canary possesses by far the best water supply; 
Teneriffe could profitably use for irrigation ten 
times as much water as is available. The water 
is carried from the springs in watercourses of 
stone, and by evaporation, leakage, or robbery, 
a large percentage is lost. An estimate for 1869 
states that all the cultivated land, including woods, 
vineyards, and pasturage, amounted to 845 square 
miles; in 1890 the total amount of irrigated land 
in Teneriffe and Grand Canary was, 15,000 acres, 
The deep water between the shallow banks on the 
West African coast and the Canary Islands affords 
one of the best fishing-grounds in the world. The 
kind of cod caught is said to be superior to that 
got on the Newfoundland bank; while there are 
tunny, porpoises, seabream, and many other spe- 
cies of fish. The fisheries have never been pro- 
perly worked, and are now carried on in a very 
half-hearted fashion. 
Journal R. G.S. 
New diseases of the vine 
Prof. P. Vi ala and C. Sauvegeau have recently 
published a work on two diseases of the vine which 
have been added to the many known before. 
