14th October, 1868, and that the feat was accomplished with a single-gut casting-line and a fly of small dimensions:

'Not a moment was now to be lost. Five minutes' rest would restore all his previous power and activity, but a succession of boulders discharged rapidly and with unerring aim by the hand of Simon, and falling within a foot or two of his position, failed to rouse him from his sulky fit. So winding up quickly and advancing at the same time into the water, rather below my fish, where I found a sound, gravelly bottom, I was enabled to wade within a few yards of the spot, and, with a short line, attempted to lift him, as it were, towards the surface. In the event of a salmon being foul-hooked this manœuvre is generally fruitless, but if the fly is fixed within the jaws, it is seldom a failure, and, to my delight, its effect on the present occasion was instantaneous. Off he went again towards the other side of the river, and then once more faced the stream. Now hurrying out of the water as quickly as possible, and scrambling up the bank, I got well above him, and at last I could feel that his strength was beginning to fail, as, notwithstanding the weight, I was able to increase the pressure of the rod without opposition, until I had wound up about forty yards of line spun out during his last run. Now he moved again submissively down stream, but suddenly, when I least expected it, made one final desperate effort, and rushed right over to a shallow at the other side of the pool where he had not been before, but quickly yielding to the rod, his back fin and the upper part of his tail appeared above the surface, showing, though but for a few seconds, his enormous proportions, before he rolled heavily into the deep water, as I gradually but steadily drew him towards the shore. Just at this moment I felt almost sure of success, as he was now comparatively reduced to obedience, when an unexpected crisis suddenly arrived.

'A little below the fish, but nearer to me, I caught a glimpse of a small stump-a fragment of a submerged tree -projecting above the surface. In a few seconds all would be over unless I could force him to this side before the stream carried the line across it. Then, indeed, I ventured-in Irish parlance-to" show him the butt," winding-up and walking backwards at the same instant, with my heart in my mouth during that trying moment. It was "touch and go." The slightest effort on the part of the descending giant would have ensured his immediate escape, but how can I describe my delight as he passed between me and the terrible stump, although but a few inches from the latter. The rest may be briefly told. The double hook, though of Lilliputian proportions and severely tested, had proved faithful, and I felt sufficient confidence in the nature and tenacity of its hold to warrant me in bringing matters to a speedy conclusion. A few more ineffectual efforts to return to the stream, and again I led my captive to the water's edge, where Simon was already cowering under the bank,

clip in hand, watching, like a tiger in his lair, for the supreme moment. It came at last. A splash, a plunge, and a fierce struggle succeeded, and throwing down the rod, I assisted him in landing an enormous salmon, in beautiful order and of perfect proportions. Both barbs of the "silver green" were fixed inside the mouth, one of them securely, while the other had been considerably bent backwards, and had nearly lost its hold. Weight, forty-three pounds; length, forty-six inches; girth, twenty-six ; and, although believed to be the heaviest that had ever been taken by the rod on Spey, up to that time, yet, in spite of my exultation, I could not but feel, as the tug of war had been confined to a single pool, and the enemy had never shown his colours during the battle, that the incidents of the contest were of a less exciting character than I had often experienced with many a livelier fish of lesser weight and inferior condition.'

So we part with Mr. Knox, leaving him in the arms of Victory, and hoping that we may meet him at some future time on the breezy moors, or amidst the covert of the deer forest, or beside (or more strictly speaking, in) the rapid currents of the glorious Spey.

& Species, Origin of

DARWIN'S ORIGIN OF SPECIES.*

(July 1860.)

ANY contribution to our Natural History literature from the pen of Mr. C. Darwin is certain to command attention. His scientific attainments, his insight and carefulness as an observer, blended with no scanty measure of imaginative sagacity, and his clear and lively style, make all his writings. unusually attractive. His present volume on the 'Origin of Species' is the result of many years of observation, thought, and speculation; and is manifestly regarded by him as the 'opus' upon which his future fame is to rest. It is true that he announces it modestly enough as the mere precursor of a mightier volume. But that volumé is only intended to supply the facts which are to support the completed argument of the present essay. In this we have a specimencollection of the vast accumulation; and, working from these as the high analytical mathematician may work from the admitted results of his conic sections, he proceeds to deduce all the conclusions to which he wishes to conduct his readers. The essay is full of Mr. Darwin's characteristic excellences. It is a most readable book; full of facts in natural history, old and new, of his collecting and of his observing; and all of these are told in his own perspicuous language, and all thrown into picturesque combinations, and all sparkle with the colours of fancy and the lights of imagination. It assumes, too, the grave proportions of a sustained argument upon a matter of the deepest interest, not to naturalists only, or even to men of science exclusively, but to every one who

On the Origin of Species, by means of Natural Selection; or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.' By Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S, London, 1860.

is interested in the history of man and of the relations of nature around him to the history and plan of creation.

With Mr. Darwin's 'argument' we may say in the outset that we shall have much and grave fault to find. But this does not make us the less disposed to admire the singular excellences of his work; and we will seek in limine to give our readers a few examples of these. Here, for instance, is a beautiful illustration of the wonderful interdependence of nature of the golden chain of unsuspected relations which bind together all the mighty web which stretches from end to end of this full and most diversified earth. Who, as he listened to the musical hum of the great humble-bees, or marked their ponderous flight from flower to flower, and watched the unpacking of their trunks for their work of suction, would have supposed that the multiplication or diminution of their race, or the fruitfulness and sterility of the red clover, depend as directly on the vigilance of our cats as do those of our well-guarded game-preserves on the watching of our keepers? Yet this Mr. Darwin has discovered to be literally the case:

'From experiments which I have lately tried, I have found that the visits of bees are necessary for the fertilisation of some kinds of clover; but humble-bees alone visit the red clover (Trifolium pratense), as other bees cannot reach the nectar. Hence I have very little doubt, that if the whole genus of humble-bees became extinct or very rare in England, the heartsease and red clover would become very rare or wholly disappear. The number of humble-bees in any district depends in a great degree on the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs and nests; and Mr. H. Newman, who has long attended to the habits of humble-bees, believes that more than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed all over England." Now the number of mice is largely dependent, as every one knows, on the number of cats; and Mr. Newman says, "near villages and small towns I have found the nests of humble-bees more numerous than elsewhere, which I attribute to the number of cats that destroy the mice." Hence, it is quite credible that the presence of a feline animal in large numbers in a district might determine, through the intervention, first of mice, and then of bees, the frequency of certain flowers in that district.'

66

Again, how beautiful are the experiments recorded by him concerning that wonderful relation of the ants to the aphides, which would almost warrant us in giving to the aphis the name of Vacca formicaria :

'One of the strongest instances of an animal apparently performing an action for the sole good of another with which I am acquainted is that of aphides voluntarily yielding their sweet excretion to ants. That they do so voluntarily the following facts will show. I removed all the ants from a group of about a dozen aphides on a dock plant, and prevented their attendance during several hours. After this interval, I felt sure that the aphides would want to excrete. watched them for some time through a lens, but not one of them excreted. I then tickled and stroked them with a hair in the same manner, as well as I could, as the ants do with their antennæ, but not one excreted. Afterwards I allowed an ant to visit them, and it immediately seemed, by its cager way of running about, to be well aware what a rich flock it had discovered. It then began to play with its antennæ on the abdomen first of one aphis and then of another, and each aphis, as soon as it felt the antennæ, immediately lifted up its abdomen and excreted a limpid drop of sweet juice, which was eagerly devoured by the ant. Even the quite young aphides behaved in this manner, showing that the action was instinctive, and not the result of experience.'

Or take the following admirable specimen of the union of which we have spoken, of the employment of the observations of others with what he has observed himself, in that which is almost the most marvellous of facts-the slave-making instinct of certain ants. We say nothing at present of the place assigned to these facts in Mr. Darwin's argument, but are merely referring to the collection, observation, and statement of the facts themselves :—

'Slave-making Instinct.-This remarkable instinct was first discovered in the Formica (Polyerges) rufescens by Pierre Huber, a better observer even than his celebrated father. This ant is absolutely dependent on its slaves; without their aid the species would certainly become extinct in a single year. The males and fertile females do no work. The workers or sterile females, though most energetic and courageous in capturing slaves, do no other work. They are incapable of making their own nests or of feeding their own larvæ When the old nest is found inconvenient, and