Notes

Abstract

DR. MICLUCHO MACLAY, the eminent Russian Naturalist and New Guinea explorer, has been trying to rouse the Linnean Society of New South Wales and the scientific public of Sydney to the necessity of founding a zoological station, similar to that at Naples. He tells of the great inconvenience he himself has suffered during his residence at Sydney from the want of such a station, even though the Hon. Mr. Macleay placed his-museum at his disposal. But Dr. Maclay's scheme embraces much more than a station at Sydney. He has written to the German Eastern Asiatic Society at Japan and to Mr. August Godeffroy at Samoa, urging that similar stations he founded at these places, and he has reason to believe that his proposals will not be without result at both places. Thus should zoological stations be instituted at Sydney, in New Zealand (as Dr. Maclay also proposes), in Japan, and at Samoa, we might hope in a very few years to have a fairly complete knowledge of the fauna of the Pacific. Dr. Maclay's proposal deserves the heartiest encouragement, and we trust that ere long it will be fully carried out. We hope the people of Sydney, at any rate, will take Dr. Maclay's appeal to heart; ha tells them, moreover, that he will judge of the intensity of the scientific life of Australia by the interval which elapses between the reading of his paper on the subject and the actual foundation of the station. He shows what valuable results have followed the foundation of the Naples station, and gives a few hints as to how such a station at Sydney should be organised. We shall be curious to see what will be the result of Dr. Maclay's fervent appeal.