I happened to be attending the Lancaster Spring Assizes in the month of March in the year 1826, and learning that there was a remarkably high tide in the estuary of the Lune, I walked down to the riverside about the time of high water, and found that the tide had covered the grass in many places; and as it began to ebb, I observed something moving in every small hollow which had been overflowed, and in which a little water had been left behind.  On examination I found that the moving bodies were exceedingly diminutive Eels, rather less, to the best of my recollection, than three-quarters of an inch long, and almost transparent, but exhibiting in every respect the true form of the mature Eel.  They had evidently followed the water to its extreme verge, where it could not have been more than an inch deep, and that they must have been very numerous was clear from the large numbers which were left behind and had perished—­for that they did perish I found on the following day, when they were lying dead on the grass by hundreds.  Some of your correspondents who reside in localities favourable for making observations on this subject may be induced to pay attention to it; the exact appearance may be ascertained, with probably other facts calculated to throw light on the obscure question of their generation.

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ON THE POSSIBILITY OF INTRODUCING SALMON INTO NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA.

October, 1859.

The colonists of Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand appear to wish for the introduction of Salmon and Trout into the rivers of these colonies, and one of them, Tasmania, is said to have offered the reward of L500 for the first pair of live Salmon which reaches that colony.  If this is true it is a liberal offer, and one that is likely to induce various persons, both in England and France, to make the attempt.

I should be sorry to say anything to check so laudable an endeavour, but I greatly fear that Van Diemen’s Land (to say nothing of the Australian colonies) is too near the tropics to offer a reasonable chance of success.  I think it is practicable to take these fish there (or at least fertilized ova), but I don’t think they would live and thrive in the rivers of that colony.  Never having been there, I can, of course, only reason from European experience, but the best inquiries I can make lead me to suppose that there are no Salmon in France (south of Brittany), Spain, or any of the countries washed by the Mediterranean Sea; and in America (although I confess I am not so well informed on that country) I have never heard of Salmon being seen to the south of the tributaries of the St. Lawrence.  Supposing this to be so, I think that we may fairly infer that if Salmon are not found south of a certain latitude in Europe and America, it must be that the climate of these southern countries is not congenial to the habits of this fish.  I believe, however, that the Trout lives and thrives much further south than