European encampment; the dung of camels proving that it must have been one of Burke's, while en route to or from the Gulf to Cooper Creek. The remains of one of the party, since ascertained to be Gray, and showing traces of a violent death, were found slightly covered with earth and boughs; and at a little distance two holes very like graves. A subsequent visit to Cooper Creek left but little doubt about the fate of Burke. In the course of December the main camp moved to a double lake, called Appocaldradille. From this point a scout was undertaken to both north and east without finding water for 50 miles. The party consequently moved on to a deep creck, called Appanbara, where, however, they endured much suffering from heat and bad water. After the first rains in February, it was thought practicable to traverse the stony desert. For some days the route lay along a creek called 'Cariduro' (probably Eyre Creek of Captain Sturt), where several traces of Burke's party were found. At this period of the journey the main difficulties were due to the floods, which rise very rapidly, and render the whole country a sea either of water or of treacherous mud. Forced by the flood to continue a northeast direction, over an undulating stony country, the expedition came at length to vast grassy plains, bounded by volcanic hills, among which were obtained some of the most striking views on the journey. On the 7th of May the party reached the gorge through which the Leichhardt flowed towards the Gulf. On the 20th the camp nearest the sea was made, at a point where the tide rose 8 or 9 feet, and where sea anemones floated past in large numbers. On the 21st the expedition commenced its return viâ Port Dennison; and on the 2nd of August, after great fatigues and the loss of most of the cattle, the first station in the settled districts was reached." DR. LIVINGSTONE'S RECENT EXPLORATION OF THE NIASSA LAKE. The following synopsis of a recent communication from Dr. Livingstone respecting his explorations of one of the Lakes in Southern Central Africa, is taken from the London Geographical Society. (Proceedings, vii, 18.) "Exploration of the Niassa Lake; by DR. LIVINGSTONE and his Party. After establishing the members of the University Mission in the neighborhood of Mount Zumbo, Dr. Livingstone proceeded with his party to explore the Lake Niassa. They carried a four-oared boat in three weeks past Murchison's Cataracts, which extend through 35 miles of latitude, and launched her on the upper waters of the Shiré. They entered the lake on September 2, accompanied by a score of natives, and explored its western coast for 200 miles, travelling until they were compelled to return from waut of food, due to the recent extermination of the northern coast tribes by savage warfare. Part of the expedition went on foot and part in the boat: the latter were never able to cross the lake or venture far from shore, owing to the suddenness and extraordinary violence of the storms. They ascertained its breadth by rough triangulation, whenever the haziness of the air allowed the opposite shore to be seen, but no certain knowledge was obtained in regard to its northern extremity. The lake has something of the boot shape of Italy: it is narrowest at the ankle, where it is 20 miles, and broadens gradually to 50 or 60 miles. Its western shore presents a succession of sandy bays, each divided from its neighbor by a bold headland, with detached rocks extending some distance out to sea. Much of the land adjacent to the lake is low and occasionally marshy: it is tenanted by water-fowl and some elephants. Eight or ten miles from the shore are ranges of high and well-wooded granite bills, nearly parallel to its course, and presenting in several places a magnificent succession of distances. The intervening plane narrows towards the north; where Dr. Livingstone turned, it disappears altogether. The depth of the lake is readily to be traced by the changing color of its surface. A belt of bright green water fringes the shore, and varies in breadth from a few yards to several miles: beyond this is the deep blue water of the body of the lake. A sounding-line of 200 fathoms was found insufficient to reach the bottom one mile from shore. The temperature of the water is 72° Fahrenheit; its rise in the rainy season is 3 feet. Five affluents were seen ou its western coast, of inconsiderable size their united volume was far inferior to that of the waters of the Shiré. Natives, of essentially one tribe and language, throng the southern portion of the lake. Their villages are so close together as frequently to form a continuous line of habitations. They are hard-working fishermen and good cultivators of the land: they were reasonably civil to Dr. Livingstone's party, and exacted no dues for the right of transit. The slave-trade is unfortunately active. An Arab had built a "dhow" (boat) on the lake, in the latitude of Ibo, for the purpose of ferrying slaves across. Dr. Livingstone's present endeavor is to transport a steamer to the Niassa for the purpose of checking this traffic as far as may be practicable, and also with the object of further exploration." EXPLORATION OF THE RIVER VERMEJO, IN THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION-MR. PORTER C. BLISS.-The Argentine Confederation lately sent an expedition up the Vermejo River, one of the principal branches of the River Parana, to examine its capacity for navigation and the advantages of the districts which it drains, for commercial enterprise. Connected with the party was a young scholar from New England, Mr. Porter C. Bliss, who was especially charged with inquiries relative to the Indians upon the route. For such investigations he was unusually fitted, having long paid particular attention to the characteristics of the aborigines of the Continent. A correspondent of the New York Daily Times, writing from Buenos Ayres, Sept. 28, 1863, reports that Mr. Bliss has returned to that city with an abundance of new and important information in respect to the region which he has visited. Among the subjects to which his attention seems to have been directed, is the adaptation of the country to immigrants, for whom it presents many attractions. It is suggested as a favorable home for the freedmen of the South. From our personal acquaintance with Mr. Bliss, we shall look with interest for a full and authentic statement of his observations. ART. X.-Review of Holbrook's Ichthyology of South Carolina.' THIS volume is for the most part a second edition, the first having been published in the year 1855, but suspended with the issue of the tenth number. The plates, stones, and original drawings for the work having been subsequently destroyed by the fire which consumed the Artists' Buildings in Philadel phia, the government of South Carolina interposed and assumed the cost of its reproduction. "The delay in the publication of the work has, however, enabled" Dr. Holbrook "to give more accurate and highly finished plates and to correct some errors of the letter press. As but few numbers of the work were distributed previous to the destruction of the original plates, and the present edition is so much improved," the author "decided to recall the former numbers and to replace them by those of the new edition, without expense to the present holders." It is to be regretted that the new edition was not more freely opened to the patronage of the public, and to obviate the inconvenience to naturalists caused by the restriction of its circulation, the present notice is given. .... In the second edition, the generic and specific descriptions are in most cases entirely the same as those of the first, the principal deviations occurring in the family called Ichthelidae. The plates are also arranged in the same manner, the only exception relating to XXIII and XXIV which had the numbers reversed in the first, and the interposition of an additional plate between XXVI and XXVII which last in the present is consequently called XXVIII. The figures themselves are mostly new and are as a rule superior to those of the original edition; the worst are the ones illustrating the scales of the Sparoid fishes and another intended to represent the preoperculum of "Homoprion lanceolatus." Dr. Holbrook, adopting the fashion introduced in this country of figuring three scales of each species, has caused to be thus represented those of the Sparoids, but none give an idea of the type of structure peculiar to the representatives of that family and so characteristic of it. When the scales are so espe cially figured, we might at least reasonably expect a close approximation to correctness, and when it is not found, and it thus becomes apparent that the author himself has not paid special regard to them, we may well ask why the time and space given to these figures could not have been more advantageously bestowed in illustrating some more important characters. By what strange optical delusion a preoperculum, like that represented in the enlarged view of that bone in Homoprion lanceola1 Ichthyology of South Carolina, Vol. I. By JOHN EDWARDS HOLBROOK, M.D., &c., Charleston, S. C. Published by Russell & Jones, 1860. AM. JOUR. SCI.-SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXXVII, No. 109.—JAN., 1864. ture. tus, could have been imagined by the artist, it is difficult to conjecWith these remarks, however, special criticism may end, for although some of the other figures might be much improved, most are tolerably accurate. With regard to the nomenclature of the species, little need be said. The names which will probably be for the most part adopted are given below; those specially interested in the subject are referred to the discussions in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, &c. Dr. Holbrook has been frequently unfortunate in the application to his fishes of former names, especially in the cases of the synonymy of his Caranx hippos and Homoprion xanthurus. The Scomber hippos L., identified with the first, belongs to a different genus, as does also the S. chrysos of Mitchill. Under Homoprion xanthurus, the specific character is based on an extract from Cuvier & Valenciennes' description and radial formula of Leiostomus xanthurus, while the body of the description and the figure apply to Bairdiella argyroleuca-the Corvina argyroleuca C. & V.-a species of a different subfamily. If Dr. Holbrook had been correct in his application of Lacépède's name Leiostomus xanthurus, he would have been subject to the charge of a perversion of that author's generic name, but by a happy error, he has correctly retained it in its true sense. 112 On the other hand, some former names, concerning whose application there is no reasonable room for doubt, have not been at all accepted; such are the Linnæan Labrus auritus and Gasterosteus Carolinus. The former was evidently proposed for the species called by Holbrook, Ichthelis rubricauda-the Pomotis rubricauda of Storer, well characterized in the terse Linnæan phrase "opercula apice membranaceo, elongato, obtuso, nigro," and even rendered more certain as to its application by the doubtful reference to Catesby's figure of Pomotis aureus. It is however due to Dr. Holbrook to state that it appeared to him "certain that the specific name auritus was not applied to the "Pomotis vulgaris," and that Linnæus's description might "possibly apply to" either P. rubricauda or P. incisor. Probably none familiar with the subject will hesitate to retain the Linnæan name instead of rubricauda. The Gasterosteus Carolinus was as evidently intended for Holbrook's Bothrolaemus pompanus, notwithstanding this author's opinion to the contrary. The latter species, it may be here remarked, has served at different stages of development, as the type of three genera, and Holbrook's Bothrolaemus is founded simply on very old individuals of Trachynotus in which the teeth had fallen out. As Dr. Holbrook has not uniformly adopted a systematic ar- rangement, but has scattered some species in places where they do not belong, the species given under a family name cannot be considered as members of that family, even in the author's opinion, and many of those have been referred to their proper ones in foot notes to the text. Labrax, Grystes, Serranus, Diplectrum, Rhypticus and Centropristes are not Ichthelidæ, but Percidæ ; Pagrus and Serranus nigritus not Scianidæ, but severally Sparoid and Percoid; and finally Trachinotus and Haemulon are not Scopelinidæ, but respectively members of the Scombroid and Scianoid families as understood by Dr. Holbrook. With regard to the systematic arrangement thus corrected, it may be remarked that it is not an exposition of the views now prevalent concerning the limits of the families. All the Scombride of Holbrook are Carangoids, except Cybium, Elacate, Echeneis and perhaps Temnodon, members of as many different families. Ephippus scarcely belongs to the same family as Chaetodon and its allies; Hamulon and Pristipoma are rather Sparoids than Sciaenoids, and at least do not belong to the latter family. Lobotes is the type of a peculiar one, and finally Saurus is the representative of another. The most important modification in the arrangement is undoubtedly the foundation of the family Ichthelidae for the reception of the North American fresh water Percoids of Cuvier with six branchiostegal rays. Adopting the family of Percidae with the boundaries established for it by Sir John Richardson, he has considered that the Theraponidae of that author taken from it should be itself subdivided, and the family of Ichthelidae is therefore proposed for some of its constituents. The only positive character of the family mentioned by Holbrook which would remove it from the typical Percoids is the presence of only six branchiostegal rays." As such, if strictly adhered to, would necessitate the expulsion from the latter of Dulés (auriga) Percilia, &c., and their transference to the Ichthelidae, the character is not the true one, and is of very secondary importance in itself. The group of genera embraced under Ichthelidae is however so natural, and its representatives so well distinguished from the true Percoids by their physiognomy, that it is probable that the family itself is a natural one; it has indeed more resemblance to the Cichloids, and its species hold the same place in North America that those fishes do in the Southern Continent and in Africa. Like them, the Ichthelidæ construct a rude nest, guard their young and are the most characteristic Acanthopterygian types of their respective regions. Their arrangement of colors and the variation in the number of anal spines are analogous, and their forms simulate each other. That form is Dr. Holbrook gives to Grystes in the new edition, "branchiostegal rays seven" instead of "branchial rays six" as formerly, but in a note adds that "sometimes there are but six rays." |