Abstract
THE first part of the fifteenth volume of the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, which has just been issued, is devoted to a report by Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., on the collection of fishes made by Mr. J. E. S. Moore in Lake Tanganyika during his recent expedition to Eastern Africa. As Mr. Moore has shown in our columns (NATURE, vol. lviii. p. 404), there are two faunas in Lake Tanganyika, the normal freshwater, and what Mr. Moore proposes to call the “Halolimnic” group, the latter being evidently of marine origin. That this is the case has been conclusively shown by Mr. Moore's studies of the splendid collection of molluscs which he obtained in that lake. It would therefore be naturally expected that the results of the examination of Mr. Moore's fishes, which has been undertaken by Mr. Boulenger, would likewise show the presence in Lake Tanganyika of a certain number of “Halolimnic” or marine fishes. This, however, does not prove to be the case. Mr. Moore's fishes, Mr. Boulenger informs us, do not yield any such startling results as the mollusca and other invertebrates. The fishes of Tanganyika, though very novel and very remarkable, do not embrace any marine forms. This may be due, as Mr. Boulenger observes, either to the origin of the present fish-fauna not reaching as far back in time as that of the molluscs, or to the incompleteness of Mr. Moore's series. The latter explanation is probably the correct one, as Mr. Moore met with great difficulty in dredging in the deeper water of Tanganyika, only one fish having been obtained from a depth of about 400 feet. This (Batkybates ferox), although of a new genus and species, belongs to the widely-spread African family Cichlidæ.
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References
For the various methods of space-telegraphy, see a paper by Dr. S. P. Thompson (Soc. Arts Journal, 46, pp. 453–460, 1898
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The Fishes of Tanganyika and other Great Lakes. Nature 59, 251–252 (1899). https://doi.org/10.1038/059251a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/059251a0