recommendation in this case? Surely no: his
voracity is his merit. The Silurus is a hideous
monster, such as threatens you in a nightmare
dream—an organised Thames Tunnel, whose
upper orifice, is open to receive any number of
passengers. A not very distant spot, where
you will find the Silurus, is the lake of Morat,
Switzerland, where it attains the weight of
seventy pounds. Dead, he is capital meat,
white, firm, well flavoured; living, he is an
empty sack, whom you can no more fill than you
can the buckets of the Danaïds. He does not insist
upon having either deep water, or warm water,
or swift-running water, to thrive properly. Der
Weis is his Gernan name.

The president of the French society, M.
Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, giving his ideas of
the foreign fish to be invited and welcomed
with civil entertainment, places first on the list
his late father's favourite, the great barbel of
the Nile, Cyprinus binny, or benny (its Arabic
name), or Cyprinus lepidotus of Saint-Hilaire
and the ancients. This and the oxyrhyucus
were the only lish extensively worshipped in
Egypt. An appreciation of its excellence is
given by the proverbial Egyptian phrase, " Don't
eat me if you know a better fish." At Syout
and Kené especially, there are men who gain
their livelihood entirely by the binny fishery.
The binny (usually half a yard long, though it is
not rare to find individuals of double that size)
is remarkable for the breadth and silvery whiteness
of its scales. The Nile is only a few days'
steaming from the Rhone and the vast ponds of
the south of France; the Acclimatation Society
has many members in Egypt; including the
Viceroy and the princes of his family: therefore,
French fish fanciers live in hopes.

The second species which the French savant
recommends to our attention is the Osphronemus
olfax (the smeller fish) of Commerson, famous as
the gourami, from the rivers of Eastern Asia,
especially of China. This fish is still superior
in size, and perhaps in quality, to the preceding.
It is frequently more than a yard long; and,
as its depth is very great in proportion to its
other dimensions, it furnishes an abundance
of food. Indeed, the outline of its shape
resembles a fat pig without legs. Admiral
Dupetit-Thouars saw specimens that weighed five
and twenty pounds. Representing its alimentary
qualities, there exists only one opinion.
Lacépede reports it as remarkable for the goodness
of its flesh as for its form and size; Cuvier
calls it delicious, and even better flavoured than
the turbot. Commerson, who describes it from
personal experience, says, "I have never eaten a
more exquisite fish, either fresh water or marine,
than the gourami." A recent author, Reisser,
speaking also from his own knowledge, is of the
same opinion, adding, " it is a wholesome as
well as abundant food."

The introduction of the gourami to Europe
has been proposed on several occasions. The
fish well deserves that some attempt, even if
uncertain and expensive, should be made to
procure it. At the beginning of the present
century, Péron and Lesueur tried to bring it to
France from the Mauritius; unfortunately, their
gouramis, which were in considerable numbers
and in excellent health, were all killed at once
by the stupidity of a sailor. The gourami has
not yet been landed (or watered?) in Europe
alive. The latest adventurer expired within
sight of the French coast. A fresh attempt is
contemplated by M. Liénard, of Mauritius; and
while that gentleman is endeavouring to make
the gourami a European fish, t lie English society
is carrying out a well considered plan to procure
it an Australian settlement at Sydney. We may
therefore anticipate that, before very long, from
one source or another, Mr. Lloyd, the intelligent
aquarian dealer, will have little gouramis to olfer
for sale.

May we now call the society's attention to
other pretenders to the rank and state of a good
new pond fish? These have the recommendations
of being found in waters quite as cold as
our own.

The inhabitants of the shores of Lake
Leman believe that they are possessed of a
fish which is peculiar to those waters, and is
found nowhere else in the world. A similar
idea respecting the peculiarity of their own local
fish is entertained in the vicinity of other Swiss
and Savoisian lakes. The Geneva fish (which is
an excellent, abundant, white fleshed, silver-
scaled fish, without the slightest muddy flavour,
and certainly one of the very best of freshwater
fish) is sometimes written the " fera;" but in
the carte of tables d'hôte, both at Vevay and
Geneva, it is spelled " ferrat," which is also the
more common printed form of the word. So
much for its trivial name. The reader now
will naturally ask, " But what is the ferrat?
What is its place and title in scientific
zoology?"

It appears that there is a genus or sub genus
of fishes, called in Swiss French the Lavaret.
If Mr. Darwin wants an illustration of his
"Divergence of Character," we recommend him
to glance at the lavarets. They are very
nearly related to the ombres or umbers of the
Continent, and the grayling which we have in
England. They appear to be a connecting
link between the carp and the salmon
families. Artedi united the umbers and
the lavarets under the generic denomination
of Coregonus (from ????, the pupil of
the eye, and ?????, an angle), because their
pupils are angular. Lavarets are said to be
found in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the Baltic,
and in the Lakes of Geneva, where they are
called ferrats. That the very same species
should be found in a deep briny ocean, in a
shallow brackish sea, and in an excessively deep
freshwater lake, whence it does not migrate,
would hardly seem probable. Yet Cuvier thinks
that Coregonus oxyrhyncus (sharp-beaked) is
the same species as the Coregonus lavaretus
(the ferrat), and the houting of the Dutch and
Flemings. The Atlantic and the Baltic lavarets
live in the deeps, and quit the open seas when the
herrings' spawning time commences, for the sake