DURING the last few weeks there have appeared in NATURE several letters containing extraordinary statements of the vitality of fish that have been frozen in ice. I have just found in a quaint old book—the “Anatomy of Sleep”—two further statements on this subject, and have therefore extracted them, thinking that they might prove of interest to readers of NATURE. The first statement is quoted by the author (Dr. Binns) from Franklin's “Journey to the Polar Seas,” p. 248:—“The fish froze as fast as they were taken out of the net, and in a short time became a solid mass of ice; and, by a blow or two of the hatchet, were easily split open, when the intestines might be removed in one lump. If, in the completely frozen state, they were thawed before the fire, they recovered their animation. We have seen a carp recover so far as to hop about with much vigour, after it had been frozen six-and-thirty hours.”