r. A. de C. Sowerby's Interesting Lecture on Some Remarkable Animals in China"
O fewer than 75 distinct species of fleas occur in China and probably there are a great many more awaiting discovery. fresh water jelly fish was discovered some years ago in the upper reaches of the Yangtze.
Also in the Yangtze there lives a fish, which reaches an enormous size—the Yangtze sword-beaked sturgeon which attains a length of over eighteen feet and weighs several hundred pounds.
No fewer than 1,487 species and subspecies of birds are known to occur in China. These were a few of the many interesting facts about "Some Remarkable Chinese Animals" which Mr. Arthur de Carle Sowerby lectured on yesterday evening at a joint meetin; g of the Royal Asiatic Society and the International Institute of China.
In his Presidential address, before delivering his lecture, Mr. Sowerby expressed satisfaction that the Royal Asiatic Society was able to face the future with equanimity. As a result of the efforts put forth during the past year, he said, the Society's financial position had been so improved that the members need no longer entertain any anxiety as to its future.
This was not only due to the generous response with which the members of the Society and the general public had met the Society's appeal for funds, but also to a great extent to the support which the Society was receiving from the International Institute of China. This was the first meeting under the joint auspices of the North China Branch of te Royal Asiatic Society. that my companion remarked. We always expect something curious from China."
The specimens in question were sent to the world's greatest authori on fleas, the Hon. N. Charles Roth: child, and in due course he produced a paper on three new species of fleas collected on the Clark Expedition. The insects which Mr. Sowerby had believed to be maggots were in fact the gravid females of a very small black flea, male specimens of which had been found in the pelt of the deer.
These females had enormously distended whitish abdomens, which was what made them look so like mag gots. Although he had examined many more roeder and other animals for fleas since that time, Mr. Sowerby added that he had never found another specimen of this strange jigger-like flea, nor as far as he knew; had anyone else since,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.