Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/479

Rh in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town. He has lately discovered a species of Metophthalmus (family Lathrididæ), three species of which are represented in the Canary Islands; he has also discovered an eyeless species of weevil (nov. gen.) and another (gen.? Pentatemenus), the eyes of which have only six facets. These insects belonging to the subfamily Cossoninae are very closely allied to similar ones occurring in the Canary Islands, and which are also found in the extreme South of Europe. Wollaston, as far back as 1861, described a Colydid (gen. Cossyphodes) from the Cape belonging to a genus known at the time as occurring only at Madeira. Another species was later on discovered in Abyssinia. It is a singular coincidence that both Cossyphodes and Metophthalmus should be discovered in such opposite directions. The true explanation is that the minute insects of Africa have not yet been properly collected, and that the genera mentioned above will be found to have a larger area of distribution than at first imagined."

Another very interesting record is found in Mr. Gilchrist's report on Marine Invertebrates:—"The specimen identified as Astacus capensis is of special interest, particularly as it is the only known representative of the European Lobster in South Africa. It is described by Herbst as being found in the rivers of the Colony, and as having all five pairs of legs chelate. The specimen procured was, however, found in a salt-water rock pool (at Sea Point), and others in the museum collection are described as from Algoa Bay. Moreover, all the legs are not chelate in these specimens. These points will receive special attention, as there is evidently an error somewhere."

following extracts are taken from an article "By a South Sea Trader" in the 'Pall Mall Gazette' of July 12th:—

Twofold Bay, a magnificent deep-water harbour on the southern coast of New South Wales, is a fisherman's paradise, though its fame is but local, or known only to outsiders who may have spent a day there when travelling from Sydney to Tasmania in the fine steamers of the Union Company, which occasionally put in there to ship cattle from the little township of Eden. But the chief point of interest about Twofold Bay is that it is the rendezvous of the famous "Killers" (Orca gladiator), the deadly foes of the whole race of Cetaceans other than themselves, and the most extraordinary and sagacious creatures that inhabit the ocean's depths. From July to November two "schools" of Killers may be seen every day, either cruising to and fro across the entrance of the bay, or engaged in a Titanic combat with a Whale—a "Right" Whale, a "Humpback," or the long, swift "Finback." But they have never been known to tackle the great Sperm Whale, except when the great creature has been wounded by