To the Editor of the Nowri-Emma Datty News."
Sin,—May I be permitted to venture the following information in reply to Mr, A. I, Hall's query under the above heading. If Mr. Sowerby were in Shanghai he certainly would be the best authority to reply, but as you state in voir footnote to the above letter that he is not, T take the liberty to do th The sudden appearance of large clouds of insects at certain times ig one of the unsolved phenomenons of animal life. I think a possible explanation is that myriads of pupa, deposited in some dumps of decaying vegetable matter or other refuse—in the present case T suggest the Pootung shore, Nantao, or the dumps along Soochow creck—and which have been in a dorm: but ripe state for some time, possi bly months, simultaneously" break open owing to some external occurrence, thus bringing about the appearance of large clouds of insects An event which would cause this breaking of the pupa, naturally would have to be a general one, affecting extensive surfaces, The only event imaginable is therefore 4 change in the atmospheric pressure and it would be interesting to find out whether a few hours before the appearance of the inseetx—they need a few hours to stretch and hard-ten their wings—an atmospheric depression has taken plice in and around Shanghai. The records of the Siccawei Observatory shoud afford the necessary details. The beetles, according to Mr. A. L. Hall's place, From being the abode of plain-loving animals, Shanghai has become gradually the home of rock-loving creatures, such as hawks, rock-eagles, ete. The impression our fine roads and buildings make on animals in, general are those of canons and high rocks perforated, with hoes. specially since Don Quixote and Sancho Pansa have appeared in our midst in the shape of the "North-China Daily News" Building and the Chartered Bank, Tam, ete, Shanghai, Aug. 8, '924.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.