on June 17th, and sighted Kolguev on the 25th, whence they set their course for the island of Dolgoi. Soon after they came upon the pack ice, which prevented their advance. It was extremely dirty, covered with gravel and silt, and with branches and logs scattered over it. Finally they forced their way into Dolga Bay, on Waigatz Island. Eventually they continued their voyage to Novaya Zemlya, and anchored in Cairn Bay on June 26th, where there is a Samoyede settlement. With regard to the scientific results of the voyage, the ornithology of Waigatz, Novaya Zemlya, and the North Island has been practically worked out, and the results of their observations will soon be published. The botanical collections were satisfactory, and several interesting plants had been added. But by far the most important discovery was the finding of what had hitherto been considered the rarest and most inaccessible of flowering plants, the Pleuropogon sabinii, growing in the greatest profusion both in Novaya Zemlya and Lutke Land. Collections of rocks and fossils, insects, and marine invertebrates have also been made.
A propos to the subject of "Wasp v. Spider," discussed in 'The Zoologist' (1897, pp. 475–76, and ante, p. 29), Mr. Richard M. Barrington has contributed to the 'Irish Naturalist' (1897, p. 325) an account of a combat between a large Spider and a Wasp which he one day placed in its web. In this encounter victory remained with the Spider, but the writer adds:—"I don't think this would have been quite possible save for the apparent power possessed by the Spider of lassoing a dangerous enemy by shooting out its glutinous threads by a sort of centrifugal jerk when sweeping past its victim." In 'Knowledge' (vol. xx. 1897, p. 301), Mr. Enock describes an experiment of "presenting a large Bumble-bee tail first to the side of the silken tube of a British Trap-door Spider. The Spider seized it, but was wonderfully careful in so manipulating it that without seeing the Bee (the aerial part being quite opaque), she managed to turn it completely round until she had firm hold of the head; then she promptly pulled the Bumble-bee through and down."
Mr. William Thorpe has presented to the British Museum the shell of a giant Tortoise which lived for upwards of two hundred years in the grounds of Plantation House, in the island of St. Helena. It was frequently the object of much curiosity on the part of the great Napoleon during his enforced stay on the island.
With the gradual extinction, as evidenced by a recently-issued return of the Cape Agricultural Department, of the various species of big game
