Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/425

Rh water, and he has also prepared type-written instructions for each of his subordinates, telling them their precise duties throughout the journey.

As soon as they have been taken on board the young fish are at once examined, and the water in their cans is aerated. This is accomplished by drawing off a certain portion of the water into a suitable receptacle, dipping it up with a dipper, and letting it fall again, so as to mix air with it. Fresh water is added, and ice is put in to chill it to the proper temperature of 60°, when it is returned to the can. This process occupies more than an hour, and must be repeated every two hours. If any of the young fishes are dead they sink to the bottom, and are taken out with a syphon tube.

Meanwhile the 400,000 Shad eggs are transferred from the shipping-cans to the batteries of hatching-jars. The jars are put on shallow trays, which are placed over refrigerating tanks. There are forty-eight jars, each capable of hatching 100,000 eggs at one time. When the hatching apparatus has been set in operation it requires hardly any further attention, a continuous stream of water passing through the jars, and keeping the ova agitated. When hatched the young fish, being lighter than the water, pass out of the receptacles, through syphons, into glass aquaria, from which they may be taken with gauze nets when required.

When the car reaches one of the places on its journey where a consignment of Shad is wanted, an attendant takes perhaps fifteen cans, containing 300,000 fish, drives to the water that is to be stocked, and in the cool of the evening lowers the cans gently into the water, and releases his captives to their first experience of the world. The chances are that one in ten will live to grow up; the remainder will be eaten.

that relates to Gilbert White is of interest to naturalists, and when we have an article by Prof. Newton on "Gilbert White and his Recent Editors" ('Macmillan's Magazine,' July) we know that we shall have sound views, with pungent criticism. And we are not disappointed. The last two editions are certainly not bepraised, and the opinion as to former editions will probably receive general acceptance, though editors have a rough time. As Prof. Newton severely observes:—"The work itself has never suffered from its misusage by editors, of whom it has had so many, a few good, some indifferent, and several bad. If anything be needed to prove White's right to be considered a naturalist of the first order, it may be found in the fact that his most ignorant editor has been unable to degrade him from that rank, and how ignorant some have been would take too long to tell." Some, however, are "regarded as experts, and their work therefore to have real value. Among them are such men as Blyth, Jardine, Rennie, and Bennett, the labours of the last two forming the