htly-hued fish whose habitat is on
the surface of the ocean. Why this is so must be decided by
ichthyologists, for there are no bright, silvery-scaled fish inhabiting
the ocean at such depths as eighty or a hundred fathoms. And why is it
that the _palu,_ quiescent by day, and feeding only at night, so eagerly
seizes a hook baited with a flying-fish--a fish which never descends
more than a few fathoms below the surface, and which the _palu_ can
never possibly see except when it is lowered by human hands to, or sinks
to the bottom?

Of the marvellous efficacy of the _palu_-oil in a case of acute
rheumatism I can speak with knowledge. The second mate of an
island-trading schooner of which I was the supercargo, was landed at
Arorai, in the Line Islands, unable to move, and suffering great agony.
After two days' massaging with _palu_-oil he recovered and returned to
his duties.

[Since this was written I have learned that Mr. E.R. Waite, of the
Sydney Museum, has described the _palu_ as the _Ruvettus pretiosus_,
"which hitherto was known only from the North Atlantic, and whose
recorded range is now enormously increased. The Escolar--to give it its
Atlantic name--has been taken at depths as great as three and four
hundred fathoms, but can only be taken at night in September and the
early part of October." I should very much like to learn how the _palu_
is taken at a depth of four hundred fathoms--eight hundred yards!]

_The Wily "Goanner"_

In the early part of the year 1899 a settler named Hardy, residing at
Glenowlan, in the Rylstone district of New South Wales, about 150 miles
from Sydney, lost numbers of his lambs during the lambing season.
Naturally enough, dingoes were suspected, but none were seen. Then other
sheep--men began to lose lambs, and a close watch was set, with the
result that iguanas, which are very numerous in this part of the
country, were discovered to be the murderers of the little "baa-baa's."
The cause of this new departure in the predatory habits of the
"goanner"--which hitherto had confined his evil deeds to nocturnal
visits to the fowl-yards--is stated to be the extermination of the
opossum, which has driven the cunning reptile to seek for another source
of food. And, as before the shooting of kangaroos, wallabies, and
opossums was resorted to as a means of livelihood by hundreds of bushmen
who had no other employment open to them, the young of these marsupials
furnished the iguana wit