Tell-tale Scales
• We owe a great deal to the research workers who spend hours a day in' studying scales under a microscope. The ability to infer the world, as Tennyson desired, from the little " flower in the crannied well," is-nothing compared with their skill in detailing the life history of a salmon from the hieroglyphics of a single scale. At the same time that they have been advancing this branch of science they have learnt a great deal of the history of the fish by direct observation. One of the sea trout marked for the sake of discovering its move- ments was caught in a river 80 miles from the place where it Was ringed ; but in general perhaps the fish that alternate between sea and land maintain a strong preference for the home river, as the grouse for the home moor and the partridge • for the home field. We may perhaps add even' the birds whose recorded journey covers 4,000 miles. We had further proof this very year of swallows returning to nest at the very cottage they frequented the year before.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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