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THE
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY
By EDWARD CH ARLESWORTH, F.G.S
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,
PATERNOSTER ROW.
1840.
CONTENTS.
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS, With References to the Subjects of their respective Communications,
Page
Adams, Arthur, Esq.
On the Variation of Colour in Wild Plants 325
Bellingham, O'Bryen, M.D., &c., &c.
Description of a Specimen of the Orthogoriscus mola (Sun-Fish), caught off the Irish Coast in June, 1839, and preserved in the Museum of the Natural History Society of Dublin. ... 235 Catalogue of the Entozoa indigenous to Ireland 343
Birch, Samuel, Esq.
On the Monkeys known to the Chinese, from the Native Au- thorities. (Continued from vol. iii. p. 592.) 35
Bladon, Mr. J. B.
Remarks on the Theory of Spontaneous Generation 280, 339
Bladon, James.
Singular mode of extrication of the Imago from the Pupa-case
in a species of Crane-fly 101
Occurrence of the Argynnis Aphrodite in Britain 306
j^ Blyth, Edward, Esq.
^ Notice of some additional species of the genus Equtis to those
i^ currently admitted by Zoologists. ., 81
Bowerbank, James S., Esq., F.G.S.
On the London Clay Formation at Bracklesham Bay, Sussex. 23 On the mode of procuring the London Clay Fossils at the Isle of Sheppey 205
Bree, The Rev. W. T., M.A.
Notice of the capture of Argynnis Aphrodite in'Warwickshire. 131 Notice of a remarkable variety of Vanessa Urticce taken at Coventry 368
Bright, John.
Habits of the Toad, its change of skin, &c 103
Bromhead, Sir Edward Ff., Bt., F.R.S., Lond. and Ediub.
Remarks on the Botanical System of Professor Perleb 329
iv CONTENTS.
Page
Brown, John, Esq., F.G.S.
Notice of a Fluvio-marine Deposit containing Mammalian Remains, at Little Clacton, on the Essex coast 197
Charlesworth, Edward, F.G.S. , &c.
On the Siliceous Casts of the Echinites from the Chalk 38
Clarke, William Barnard, M.D., F.B.S. Ed.
On the Habits of the Water-Shrew 149
Sketch of the Flora of the neighbourhood of Ipswich ; inclu- ding the Phsenogamic Plants, the Filices, and Equisetacese. 124, 317
Cooper, Daniel.
Notice of the occurrence of the Alyssum Calydnum, near
London 104
Couch, Jonathan, Esq., F.L.S.
Remarks on some species of -^5^ma« found in Cornwall. ... 32
Denny, Henry.
Announcement of his work on the Anopleura, &c 249
Dickson, Joseph, Esq.
Notice of a few rare Plants, collected during 1839, in Jersey. 226
DoMBRAiN, Henry H.
On the establishment of a Natural History Society at DubUn. 247
Doubleday, Edward, Esq.
Remarks on the Lepidoptera of North America, with occasional descriptions of New Species 213, 268
Eyton, T. C, Esq., F.L.S., &c.
Remark on the Skeleton of the common tame Goose, the Chinese Goose, and the Hybrid between the two 90
Fitch, Robert, Esq., F.G.S.
Notice of the existence of a distinct Tube within the hollows of the Paramoudra 303
Hogg, John, M.A., F.R.S., L.S., C.P.S., &c.
On the Action of Light upon the Colour of the River Sponge. 259
Hope, The Rev. F. W., F.R.S., F.L.S., &c.
Remarks on the Species of Cicindela and Elaphrus, mentioned in Olivier 169
Jenkins, Thomas, Esq.
Observations on the Young of the Salmon, more particularly on the Samlet, or small Fish found in the Wye and other Rivers, in the autumn months, called, in Herefordshire, *' Lasprings, or Gravel- Lasprings." I6l
Lee, John Edward, Esq.
On a new species of Siphonia from the Yorkshire Chalk 46
Remarks on the Teeth of Reptiles, from the Tilgate Grit of Battle and St. Leonard's 87
CONTENTS. V
Page
McLauchlan, Henry, F.G.S.
Notice of the capture of a Hoopoe at Fishguard, Pembroke.. . . 250
Morris, John, Esq.
A Systematic Catalogue of the Fossil Plants of Great Britain. (Continued from vol. iii. p. 548.) 75, 179
Nangle, Edward.
On some observations in Mr. Newsman's ' Notes on Irish Na- tural History,'&c 247
Newman, Edward, Esq., F.L.S., &c.
Notes on Irish Natural History, more especially Ferns
16, 64, 112, 173 Notice of the capture of Calosoma sycophanta, at Brighton,
Ramsgate, and Hastings 150
Description of a few Longicorns, MS. names of which are
published in the Sale-Catalogue of Mr. Children's Insects. 194
A few Notes on British Ferns 241
Descriptions of eight new Cryptocephali, captured near St.
John's Bluif, East Florida, by E. Doubleday, Esq 249
Descriptions of some new species of Coleopterous Insects. ... 362
Prestwich, Joseph, Jun., Esq., F.G.S. , &c.
On the occurrence of Mammalian Remains in the Lower Eocene deposits of Epernay, Marne 187
Prideaux, Charles.
On the occurrence of the Little Bustard in Devonshire 47
Rylands, Peter, Esq.
Notes on Telephori 133
SowERBY, James De C.
Upon the ^s^rea from Bracklesham Bay 27
SowERBY, Mr. G. B., jun.
Descriptions of some new Chitons 287
Strickland, H. E., Esq., F.G.S.
Observations upon the Affinities and Analogies of Organized
Beings 219
On a Fossil Dragon-fly in the Lias at Warwickshire 301
Sweeting, R. H., Esq.
Dimensions and description of a supposed new species of Ba- IcBnoptera, stranded on Charmouth Beach, Feb. 5, 1840.... 341
Thompson, William, Esq.
On a new Genus of Fishes from India 184
Thompson, Robert, Esq.
On the fall of a Meteorolite at the Cape of Good Hope 201
Waterhouse, G. R., Esq.
Description of a new Marsupial Mammal, belonging to the genus Phascogale 299
VI CONTENTS.
Page Waterhouse, G. R., Esq.
Descriptions of some new species of Carabideous Insects, from the collection made by C. Darwin, Esq., in the southern parts of South America 354
Weissenborn, W., Ph. D.
On the Flora of Snow Formations, in reference to the Theory of Spontaneous Generation 28
Westwood, J. O., Esq., F.L.S., &c.
Observations upon the relationships existing amongst Natural Objects, resulting from more or less perfect resemblance, usually termed Affinity and Analogy 141
A few further Observations on Affinity and Analogy 305
Wilcox, Mr. W.
Notice of the Occurrence of a living Specimen of the Testudo Caretta on the Coast of Devonshire 136
Wood, S. V., Esq., F.G.S.
On the Fossil Shells of the Crag 230, 294
Young, John, Esq.
Notice relating to the recent Landslip on the Devonshire Coast 138
EXTRACTS.
D'Orbigny, M. Alcide.
On a recent species of Crinoidea or Encrinites, constituting the type of anew Genus; — Holopus 352
RUPPELL, M.
Habits of the different species of Sterna and Larus 47
Town, Joseph.
On the development of Birds in ovo 43
TRANSLATIONS.
Lund, Dr.
View of the Fauna of Brazil, previous to the last Geological Revolution 1, 49, 105, 154, 207, 251, 307
Rang, M.
On the Genus Argonauta..., 8, 57
CONTENTS. VU
REVIEWS.
Page
Beechey, Capt. R. N.
Notice of the appearance of the ' Zoology of Beechey's Voyage/ 145
Curtis, John, F.L.S., &c.
British Entomology : or Illustrations and Descriptions of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain and Ireland 96
Erichson, G. F.
Genera et Species Staphylinorum ; Pars prior 98
Guerin-Meneville, F. E.
Revue Zoologique. Par la Society Cuvierienne ; public sous la direction de M. F. E. Guerin-Meneville 97
KoLLAR, Vincent.
A Treatise on the Insects injurious to Gardeners, Foresters, and Farmers «... 95
Laporte de Castelnau, Lucas, et Blanchard.
Histoire Naturelle des Animaux Articules 97
Newman, Edward, F.L.S.
A History of the British Ferns 98
Stephens, James Francis, F.L.S.
A Manual of British Coleoptera or Beetles 92
Westwood, J. O., F.L.S., &c.
An Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects 98
IJST of the SUPPLEMENTvVRY PLATES, with references to the de- scriptive Letter-press in the body of the Magazine.
PLATE X.
Two views of a specimen of Argynnis Aphrodite, taken at Ufton Wood, * near Leamington, in the summer of 1838, by JamesWalhouse,Esq. Page 131 .
PLATE XL The figures illustrate a paper, shortly to appear, by John Morris, Esq., ' on the Vernation of the genera of Cycadece.
PLATE XIL One of the Plates from Mr. Bowerbank's work on the Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the Isle of Sheppey. The figures relate to three genera proposed by Mr. Bowerbank, namely, Hightea, Petrophilioides, and Cupressinites.
PLATES Xin. and XIV.
Fossil Shells from the Crag, described by Mr. S. V. Wood. Pages 294 ' and 230.
PLATE XV. Variety of Vanessa Urticce, described by the Rev. W. T. Bree. Page 368.
PLATE XVL New Species of Chiton, described by Mr. G. B. Sowerby, jun. Page 287.
PLATE XVIL Holopus Rangii, a new genus of existing Crinoidea. Page 352.
Fig. 1. Holopus Rangii in its natural position, having the arms contracted and applied closely together.
Fig. 2. Longitudinal section of the Holopus, showing the deep groove (a) which is prolonged throughout the whole length of the arms ; (6) vestibule between the arms and the mouth ; (c) interior of the foot with its large cavity, which no doubt contained the viscera.
Fig. 3. A profile view of one of the arms, having the internal ra- mules somewhat contracted.
Fig. 4. One of the ramules magnified.
Fig. 5. Part of one of the ramules, showing its articular portion.
Fig. 6. One of the pieces of which the arms are composed, on which the anterior convexity (a) is observable ; (b) the internal cavity or longitudinal groove ; (e) the part by which it is articulated to an ad- joining portion.
PLATE XVIIL British Limaces described by Mr. Nunnelley, in the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Leeds, vol. i. part L
Fig. 1. Cochlea agresiis. Fig. 3. Limax variegatus. Fig. 2. nuda. Fig. 4. agrestis,
PLATE XIX. Two new Carabideous Insects from the collection made by C. Darwin, Esq., in South America. Page 354. Fig. 1. Odontoscelis Darwinii. Fig. 2. Cardeophthalmus longitarsis, slightly magnified.
(a) Labrum and mandibles. (d) Fore leg.
(b) Mentum and labial palpi. (e) Fore part of anterior fiJia.
(c) Maxilla and maxillary palpi.
THE MAGAZINE
OF
NATURAL HISTORY
JANUARY, 1840.
Art. I. — View of the Fauna of Brazil, previous to the last Geolo- gical Revolution.^ By Dr. Lund.*
Dr. Lund commences his account by explaining the circum- stances under which the fossil remains he is about to describe are found. " They are all found, " he says, " in the caves which occur in the calcareous rocks that traverse, in various directions the interior Highlands of Brazil. A mountain chain composed of this rock diverges from the principal chain of the central plateau (Serra do Espinha^o) in the neighbour- hood of the capital of the Province Minas, and extends to- wards the north west, dividing the waters of the rivers Rio das Velhas and Paraopeba. It is this chain which has hi- therto formed the richest field of my researches ; and indeed it is to the caves on its eastern declivity that I am indebted for all the relics of the inhabitants of a former world which I yet possess. Its western side presents fewer caves, and I have not been so fortunate as to find any trace of animal remains in them, any more than in the numerous caverns contained in the other small limestone chains connected \^dth the above principal range.
The rock of which these chains is composed is a dark grey, fine-grained, crystalline, transition limestone, disposed in ho- rizontal strata, which not unfrequently exhibit a very gentle
1 This is a nearly literal translation of Dr. Lund's own title, but it is by no means descriptive of this first paper, at least, which is merely introduc- tory, and might be better entitled, — "An Account of the Limestone Caves in the Interior Highlands of Brazil ; with a description of the Mammalia now occurring in that district." His second paper is entitled — "A Survey or Sketch of the extinct species of Mammalia which inhabited the High- lands of Tropical Brazil, previously to the last Geological Revolution." — Translator.
2 In a communication addressed to the Society of Sciences at Copenha- gen, and printed there in 1838. Translated from the Danish, and com- municated to the Mag. Nat, Hist., by the Rev. W. Bilton.
Vol. IV.— No. 37, n. s. b
2 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL
dip to the east. It rests upon a vast mass of talc slate, which dips at an angle of 90° to the east, and forms the outermost member in connection with the higher central range : and farther from this principal chain, it alternates w^ith beds of siliceous and clay slates. It often contains veins of quartz, but I have never yet found in it any trace either of metals or of organic remains. These limestone hills form smooth, rounded ranges, which, however, have often a wild and pic- turesque character, from the extraordinary disruption of their masses, and the projection of their bare and steep walls of rock. They are also clothed with a peculiar vegetation ; and among the isolated outliers of this same formation, are nu- merous lakes. Another physical phenomenon peculiar to the limestone district, is the sudden disappearance of rivers (Su- midouro), which again emerge at greater or less distances. — This phenomenon arises from the number of fissures by which the limestone is traversed, both above and below the surface. Of the form of these fissures no universal description can be given. Sometimes they appear as perpendicular clefts, run- fiing in one direction ; sometimes they are intersected by a number of transverse fissures; sometimes they run in zigzags ; but often expand into passages, chambers, halls, and other similar forms, in which breadth predominates. It is more particularly this latter form of which I think it necessary to give a more detailed description.
The first thing that strikes the observer in these caves, is the rounded form presented by them. The roof is arched, and passes into the side walls by a regular curve. The floor can seldom be seen ; but when visible, it exhibits the same mode of junction with the sides ; and it is impossible to avoid remarking, that all the angles which project at the different divisions or bends of the passages, are in like manner rounded oif. If we examine the walls and roof more carefully, we perceive that the surface of the rock is full of protuberances and hollows, blending into each other with the gentlest curv^e. But especially do we observ^e numerous round holes, of all sizes, both in the sides and roof, which penetrate more or less deeply into the rock, and are closed at the bottom. Fre- quently, where the walls project beyond the regular line, these holes penetrate from one side to the other, and thus form pas- sages, usually narrow, but sometimes large enough to admit of our creeping through them, and presenting, on a smaller scale,, the same phenomena already described in speaking of the principal passages.
The surface of the stone is moreover smooth, often to such a degree as to reflect light : which circumstance, combined
PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 3
with the rounded forms assumed, frequently gives the rocky masses the appearance of bronze statues.
The number of caves already visited by me in Brazil, amounts to eighty-eight, to the whole of which the charac- ters here described are more or less applicable ; and these characters are such as, in my opinion, leave no doubt as to the mode of formation of the caves. In traversing them, one appears to be walking by the rock-bound shore of ocean, and to see its naked cliffs as they are hollowed and smoothed by the waves. And doubtless, such is their origin ; doubtless, we must assign the formation of these caverns to those peri- ods when either this whole tract, that is now dry land, was covered with vast lakes ; or when it yet rested in the bosom of the sea. At any rate, it is certain that the filtration of wa- ter through the limestone, is quite insufficient to explain the phenomena we have been describing, and particularly the deep yet blind holes gnawed into the roof
All these caves are more or less filled with soil, which I will take the liberty of describing, by giving a short account of the newest formation that covers the surface in this part of Brazil : it is exactly the same as that which is found inside the caverns.
The plains, the valleys, and the lower hills are, without exception, overspread by a vast layer of loose soil, from which the higher ranges alone are free. This stratum, with a cer- tain degree of uniformity combines no inconsiderable variety, which is partly shown in its subordinate beds, and partly in the occasional appearance of these beds, without any such sequence, by the side of each other. The most common form assumed by these formations, is that of a stratum of coarse, red clay, from ten to thirty or more feet in thickness, in which there is no trace of stratification or other divisions. Occa- sionally we may follow this clay -bed over considerable tracts, without observing any remarkable extraneous substance ; but it usually contains, in a greater or less quantity, rolled stones of quartz, from the size of a pigeon's egg to that of a man's head. These boulders are sometimes strewed about without order ; sometimes they form more or less regular beds. In- termixed with these rolled quartz stones are found, but in far less quantity, similarly rolled fragments of the other kinds of rock belonging to this district ; and it is out of this same soil that the natives obtain gold and diamonds by washing. — Quartz is also found in this bed of clay, under another form still more common in the Province of Minas, namely, that of sharp angular fragments, grouped together so as to form regular beds, of from six to eighteen inches thick, and fre-
4 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL
quently of considerable extent. This siliceous stratum has no uniform depth in the clay, but often approaches the sur- face, and then forms the ' Gruns Campos' so characteristic of that country, and so unfriendly to agriculture, though clothed with so peculiar a vegetation. Amongst this quartz occur, although sparingly, fragments of other rocks, particularly of ironstone. ' The colour of the clay occasionally passes from red into dull ochre-yellow : and this change in colour is usu- ally accompanied by a greater degree of fineness and unifor- mity of composition, with some slight trace of cleavage, or separation into cubical masses. I have hitherto had no op- portunity of observing these beds of clay alternating with beds of sand ; whereas this last formation appears on the surface over an extent of many degrees in length, in the broad vale watered by the St. Francisco river.
But the most peculiar character under which these newest formations present themselves in Brazil, is that called in this country " Tapanhoacanga," or negro-head. This formation is seen, like a stream of lava, spread over the plains, valleys, and hills, nay, even on the highest mountain-ridges of Brazil. It is most common in those districts where there are iron- stone rocks of the older formations. It consists of a ferrugi- nous conglomerate, composed of rolled and angular fragments of quartz, and other rocks of the country ; but chiefly of the iron formation itself, such as ferriferous mica slate &c., united by a ferruginous cement of red, yellow, or black colour. Oc- casionally, the fragments disappear, and the cementing sub- stance alone remains. It forms a mass almost as hard as stone, with a smooth and often shining surface ; inside, it is full of vescicular holes, which give it the appearance of a slag. It very often contains stone marrow, and in general the same minerals that form the constituent portions of the common red
* The origin of this quartz-ted was long a puzzle to me, until more care- ful examinations of the principal mountain range enlightened me on the subject. One of the most important members in the composition of that range is a vast mass of talc slate, with numerous veins and subordinate beds of quartz. This talc slate, in most places, and to considerable depths, is in such a state of decomposition, as to crumble between the fingers, and the quartz separates with the touch into larger or smaller angular frag- ments. If we examine the beds of diluvium at the foot of this mountain chain, we there see the red homogeneous clay replaced by a mass of nothing but fragments of talc slate, lying in all directions, but containing also the same siliceous layers disposed with more regularity, so as often to look like connected quartz beds. That this talc slate is in a secondary position, is evident from its irregular stratification ; and if we follow its development from the foot of the mountain, it is easy to convince ourselves of its gradual passage and change into the common red clay, with its usual siliceous bed.
PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. D
clay, particularly gold, vrhich is often in sufficient quantity to be worked. The same conglomerate is likewise found in the caves, and contains the same animal remains as the red clay ; so that there can be no doubt of the contemporaneousness of their formation. These most recent formations are found in the caves, under all the conditions I have thus attempted to describe, and in about the same relative proportions as to quantity ; the red clay soil being by far the most common, ei- ther in a piu-e state, or mixed with siliceous boulders or gravel. But all these kinds of soil have undergone changed since their deposition in the caves, of which changes I will now proceed to give an account.
The first change arises from the infiltration of water charged with lime. The lime derived from the evaporation of the wa- ter, and its contact with the surrounding hard bodies, unites the loose particles of the soil, and changes the whole into a mass as hard as stone. Indeed, the looser the soil was pre- viously to this infiltration, the harder does it afterwards be- come, fi:om the greater quantity of calcareous particles which it allows to penetrate. For this reason the fine yellow clay never becomes so hard as the coarse red, the loose composi- tion of which even permits the calcareous incrustation to col- lect in connected masses, which are sometimes solid, at other times contain holes lined with beautiful small crystals of cal- careous spar. Lastly, the beds of boulders and gravel, which outside the caves are loose and unconnected, are metamor- phosed into perfect pudding-stone inside. Another character which distinguishes the soil within the caves from that with- out, is the much greater quantity of fragments of limestone contained in it. These fragments have their angles partly sharp, and partly broken off and rounded ; and are from the most trifling size up to that of immense blocks. In those caves the opening of which is to the north, and which are closed at the end, these fragments are found in extraordinary abundance, especially in the inner part, towards the bottom : while in those which open to the south, or have two opposite entrances, the fragments are either entirely wanting, or occur in trifling quantities. This result is based upon the exami- nation of so many caverns, that it cannot be looked upon as an accidental circumstance : and the natural explanation ap- pears to be, that the inundation which deposited the soil in these caves, must have moved from north to south, and with sufficient force to carry along with it the blocks of all sizes which we see scattered inside and outside of the caves.
But the most important substance which has enriched the soil since its deposition, is, without doubt, saltpetre, which is
6 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL
found in sufficient quantity to become an article of industry and export to the neighbouring population. The origin of this salt was for a long time obscure to me ; but at length numerous observations and experiments have convinced me that it is neither formed in the soil where it lies, nor contain- ed in the limestone in which the caves occur, but that it owes its origin to the bed of mould which lies above the caves. — The rain water that filters through this mould becomes charg- ed with decomposed vegetable particles, and by contact with the limestone in its passage through the fissures, the salt is produced.
Most frequently this bed of soil is covered with a coating of stalagmite. In my foi-mer communication, describing the cave of Maquine, I have drawn attention to the difference in the manner and period of formation of this stalagmitic crust, and of those columnar and leaf-shaped productions, which, either as stalactites, hang from the wall or clothe the roof in a thousand fantastic and indescribably beautiful forms, or, as stalagmites, rise like enormous pillars or cones from the floor. By far the greatest quantity of this stalactitic mass belongs to ages an- tecedent to the introduction of the soil, which is seen resting on it as a base, just as the soil outside rests on the base of the older rocks. A much smaller portion has formed since, and indeed it continues daily to increase, even under the eye of the observer. On the other hand, the stalagmitic coating which covers the surface of the soil, must have been a later production, to which many causes have contributed ; these causes it is important to distinguish, in order that we maybe enabled to decide upon the age of the organic remains found under the stalagmite. In the communication already referred to, I have proved that the formation of the columnar and leaf- shaped stalactite is effected by a very slow process. If the dripping of the water proceeds too rapidly, its dissipating pow- er prevents its setting, and the stalagmitic mass below is hol- lowed out, instead of being increased. The calcareous water which runs down the sides of the stalagmitic blocks, collects in the first hollow it finds near their base. There, and on its passage thither, it gradually deposits its lime, and thus there is gradually spread round the stalagmite mass, and in the de- pressions nearest to it, a calcareous coat, which the water continually enlarges, until by the filling up of the first hollow it is compelled to flow onward to the next, and so on. The splash of each drop that falls upon the stalagmitic mass also contributes to form a similar incrustation around it ; as may easily be seen fi-om the innumerable small inequalities of the surface, which, with the faces of their crystals, often give an
PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 7
appearance of crystallized sugar to the substances covered by them.
Whoever visits these caverns to admire the beauty of their fantastic draperies, will dwell with most pleasure on the for- mations of this class : while for the zoologist they possess less interest, since the substances they enclose are most com- monly of very recent origin. Under the stalagmitic mass, and forming, as it were, the nucleus of these " confetti," I have often found recent bones of existing animals, shells, nay, even a piece of charcoal, probably left by savages. Not unfre- quently do we detect nature in the very act of forming these incrustations, where, in a heap of bones lying on the floor, some are already entirely enveloped in stalagmite, others stick half out of it, while others again lie perfectly untouched, and awaiting the incrustation that will veil them from our view, and preserve them perhaps for the investigations of a future generation. Forasmuch as this formation depends on agen- cies which are in daily operation on the surface of the earth, that it to say, on the infiltration of rain water through the fis- sures and pores of limestone, there can be no reason for sup- posing that it should not also have been going on at a period before the introduction of the soil into the caves : and expe- rience has convinced me that this is really the case. I have frequently had occasion to observe, under the stratum of soil, a similar stalagmitic incrustation, with those beautiful basin- shaped crystallizations known hereby the name of "Pias," or baptismal fonts.
Besides these originating causes, there is scarcely a cave in which we may not see, at least in time of rain, the water drop from the roof, and form basins of a larger or smaller size. — At the bottom and round the edge of these basins, the same phenomena already described occur, and occasion incrusta- tions and depressions in the floor. These two modes of for- mation of the stalagmitic flooring of many caves are indubi- table ; and where passages are narrow, and the quantity of stalactite on the roof and walls considerable, they are sufli- cient to account for the phenomenon : but at the same time they are evidently insufficient, in many respects, to serve as an universal explanation, as for instance, in the case of those wide and spacious halls into which the caverns often expand, where a coating of stalagmite covers the stratum of soil, like ice on the smface of the lake, and yet where no dripping from the roof betrays the actual presence of incrusting water, — no stalagmitic crust on the walls or roof attests its agency in time past.
In the communication already cited, I have drawn atten-
8 M. SANDER RANG
tion to the proofs derived from the condition and preservation of the bones found in, and immediately under, this calcareous tegument, which compel us to conclude that its formation dates from the time immediately subsequent to the introduc- tion of the soil ; and that it owes its origin to the extraordi- nary condition into which the surface of our globe passed, as a consequence of the equally extraordinary catastrophe that occasioned the destruction of the whole race of animals pre- viously existing, and the introduction of their remains into the caves. This stalagmitic crust, which, with so few ex- ceptions, covers the surface of the soil in all the Brazilian caverns, is never found beneath it ; which circumstance con- trasts so strongly with the abundance of the stalagmitic blocks produced during the remote period that preceded the intro- duction of the soil, as to be sufficient, in connection with the adduced proofs, to confirm their distinct origin.
I fear that I must have wearied the Society by dwelling so long on this point; I trust however that its practical impor- tance will plead my excuse. Future visitors to these caverns may perhaps find here a hint to guide them in their search after the treasures contained in them, and in the determina- tion of the age of those treasures. The same remark will hold good with respect to the observations I shall next pro- ceed to offer on the conditions under which the bones are foimd in the caverns.
(To he continued).
Art. II. — On the Genus Argonauta. By M. Rang.
( Continued from Vol, iW. page 532.^
Thus the intention of the membraniferous arms with which certain species of poulps are provided is now known. These organs envelope the argonaut-shell as the lobes of the mantle in some other kinds oimollusca envelope their shells. But for what purpose are they so disposed ? Some naturalists have thought, and there are those among the number whose learn- ing and talent are incontestible, that the poulp secreted the shell by means of its airholes ; would then an opinion be more unreasonable which should attribute this secretion to the membranes themselves ? The slender form, the fragile
ON THE ARGONAUT. V
and diaphanous nature of the shell, its sides, which so well indicate the different applications of the anterior margin of the membrane, its tubercles along the keel, constant in all the species ; the coloration of the bases of the arms, correspond- ing so well with the colouring of the keel towards the spire ; — are not these characters, which, more thoroughly investi- gated than they have yet been, would tend to support the fact of the membranous arms being the organs of secretion ? We shall be told that it is not by the aid of their mantle that the Mollusca secrete their shells, but by the collar which unites them to the opening ; and without doubt this is an opinion very justly adopted, and we have proved by more than one circumstance, and even in the preceding note, that we have for a long time ranged ourselves on the side of this opinion ; but the argument does not, for that reason, appear to us the less feeble, for admitting it to be proved that it is by the collar that the Mollusca secrete their shells, it is also proved that there are exceptions to this nile. The mollusc of the Nautilus, for example, the shell of which is very solid and strong, and must have required two or three kinds of se- cretion, has no collar, as a skilful English naturalist teaches us by the anatomical examination which he has lately made, and in which we find no mention of these organs. — Now if the mollusc of the nautilus, without the aid of a col- lar, has constructed a shell so strong, so heavy, and so emi- nently calcareous, surely we may believe that the mollusc of the argonaut, likewise a cephalopod, is equally capable of constructing a shell without such aid. Such a supposition, according to our view, is so much the more admissible, be- cause the argonaut, by nature delicate, flexible, and submem- branous, would seem to favour such a theory much more readily than the nautilus. Would it then be very strange that the lobes of the large arms should possess the property of secreting this slender shell, and that it is but a mere mem- branous pellicle in its early stage ? Do not the lobes of the mantle of the Mollusca which form the cowries and the olives, secrete calcareous layers, which change, in such a remarka- ble manner, the original aspect of these shells, and ultimately add largely to their thickness ?
M. de Blainville, who rejects with all the weight of his authority this line of argument, has, from the very first, sought to re-consign the use of these membraniferous arms, with which we have made him acquainted, to the wants of the poulp of the argonaut, and, having so done, has pressed it into the service of parasitism. Indeed this philosopher points out to us, that since the poulp, as is now perfectly
Vol. IV.— No. 37, n. s. c
10 M. SANDER RANG
known, does not adhere to its shell by a muscle, or even a collar, it is therefore very necessary that it should have some organ to hold it by ; and, if we do not deceive ourselves, there lay perhaps one of the difficulties which most clogged this naturalist in developing his whole ideas upon the para- sitism of the mollusc in question, for it was impossible, with the knowledge which he has of the organization of this ani- mal, that he should believe, like some naturalists, that the poulp made use of its suckers as a means by which to adhere to its shell. M. de Blainville sees then, in this abnormal or- ganization of the large arms of the poulp, an arrangement necessary for its maintaining its position in the shell that it inhabits, and, without which, it would be every moment ex- posed to the loss of it. This is a fact incontestably demon- strated, and which cannot fail to be adopted indifferently by the partisans of non-parasitism, and those of parasitism.
Should it be objected, (for it is necessary as much as possible to anticipate objections), that the poulp can have no need to cling so strongly to its shell, because the effort that it makes to expel the w ater from its branchial cavity, when swimming, far from tending to separate the two, only on the contrary brings them closer together ; — it would be easy for us to re- ply, that the movement does not consist merely of remo^^al : and, that without speaking of shocks, of the agitation of the waves, &c., it is very natural to suppose that when the mol- lusc crawls along, carrying its shell with the opening turned downwards, the shell could not fail to escape, and mount to the surface of the water, on account of the air which it indu- bitably contains, if the poulp did not retain it by some means as constant and as powerful as those which it possesses.
The position of the large arms with their membranes over the shell, and the service which they render to the poulp, being once made known and adopted, let us see what are the inferences which may yet be drawn from this fact to throw light upon the question, and simplify it from the chaos of ar- guments presented on all sides, and generally derived from facts wrongly interpreted, or from pure imagination.
Those naturalists who have turned their attention to the argonaut, have been very little agreed as to the relative posi- tion of the poulp to its shell ; and from this there has re- sulted— first, the inconvenience of not being able sooner to explain the use of the membraniferous arms; — and, secondly, a supply of weapons to the partisans of parasitism ; for these latter have skilfully seized uj)on this disagreement to draw from it this certainly rather rational argument, that, since the mollusc adheres sometimes in one manner, and sometimes in
ON THE ARGONAUT. 11
another, it is a proof that the shell has not been made for it, and does not belong to it : this part of the question being one of the most important, we shall pause here a little.
Poli, who, from what he says, must have thoroughly in- spected this animal in a living state, places its great arms in front, that is to say, at the anterior edge of the opening. — Ferussac, who has reproduced the beautiful, but too fabulous sketch of Poli, has, like that naturalist, placed it the wrong way, at the same time sketching other figures in a proper manner, which, on the part of one of the most ardent parti- sans of non-parasitism was a serious fault; but, at least, proved his candour in the discussion. However, in 1836, upon some information which we gave him from Algiers, and, we believe also, in consequence of some observations of M. Delle Chiaje, or Yerany, he resolved to make a new copy of the plate borrowed from Poli, in order to turn the animal the opposite way, which is in fact the true one. It has been wrongly thought that he made this change only that he might not leave such weapons in the hands of his adversaries ; — on the contrary, it was the result of conviction in his mind.
It is very clear, as to the rest, that Ferussac had adopted the idea that the palmated arms were to be found on the side of the spiral line of the shell ; since, from 1825, as may be seen by the memoir which he read to the Academy, he sup- posed that the palmated portions of the gresii tentacula folded themselves into a globular mass in the spiral cavity of the shell, which he would not have been able to point out if he had thought that these arms were in the anterior part.
M. Delle Chiaje, whose observations will always be of great weight in all questions of malacological organization, has not been happy in this circumstance. In fact, he also reverses the animal in such a manner as to put its membra- niferous arms at the anterior part of the shell ; and manages, as he can, to explain how the animal holds its shell by the aid of suckers, which is difficult enough to conceive, since he says at the same time, that the arms are spread out upon the surface of the water. After these come Mr. Broderip, who affirms^ that in a specimen which he had in his posses- sion, the palmated arms were on the side of the back of the shell; and Mr. James Sowerby, who nevertheless acknow- ledges that in Cranch's specimen it was the contrary.
M. de Blainville has also had well-preserved specimens in his hands, and he has seen them turned in the manner we have described ; nevertheless, he draws from the divergence of opinions, another argument in favour of parasitism. This argument ought now to fail him, and indeed the inference
12 M. SANDER RANG
which he himself draws from it decides this question ; for it is very certain, that since the function of the membranes of the large arms consists in seizing the shell, by enveloping it from the re-entering part of the keel, to its further extremity, the animal must be constantly turned, so that this arrange- ment can take place, that is to say, it must have its dorsal part towards the spire.
The partisans of parasitism place great stress upon an an- ecdote, which in fact would be very fit to decide the question, if it constituted an accurately made and precise observation, or even one worthy of confidence. We refer to the mollusc of which Rafinesque has made the genus Ocythoe. We know not if we are right, but it appears to us, that natural- ists, who have in some instances very just pretensions to having based their opinion upon scientific principles, de- ceive themselves in this instance, and take hold of a fact of no value, as we are about to show. The history of the genus Ocythoe is as follows. —
A traveller, studying natural history in the Sicilian seas, found among other curious things, a cephalopod, of which this is the description, quoted, and no doubt verbatim, by M. de Blainville. " Tentacular appendages to the number of eight ; the two upper ones winged within ; with interior suckers; pedunculated; joined by the lateral wing; without any membrane at their base." If, as we cannot doubt, such is the description furnished by this naturalist, truly those who back themselves upon this clause to sustain their opinion are very fortunate, for never besides, according to what we know of the other poulps he has described, has this observer taken such great pains in describing a mollusc ; he does not speak of any shell ; so that fact has been seized upon to show that the mollusc is the poulp of the argonaut, walking freely in the open sea, and without its testaceous covering, as if the author usually took the pains to describe all that he sees in a mollusc — thus the parasitism is demonstrated !
To all this may we not make the following objections ? — 1st. — It is not proved from this that the mollusc was without a shell, though Rafinesque says nothing of one.
2nd. — It is not further proved, that in case the animal was, as we are willing to believe, without a shell, the shell had not been lost a few minutes before the capture of the animal : it is necessary, in order to reap advantage from this anecdote, that we should be well acquainted with all its details.
3rd. — The astonishing descriptions of five or six poulps met with by the same traveller, and that taken from his Ocy- thoe, which are the only things that we have the honour of
ON THE ARGONAUT. 13
knowing about him, are not calculated to give to ourselves or others any confidence in the precision of his observations.
4th. — We have not felt ourselves obliged to believe that this cephalopod was an argonaut-poulp, more especially be- cause his description states that the arms had no membrane at their base, and, as we have seen, although contrary to ob- servations made upon specimens preserved in alcohol, these molluscs possess, if not very large, yet, at least, very visible ones.
5th. — If we wished to describe one of our " Poulpes a grandes membranes^'' of which Ferussac makes his Veliferes, and a species of which we shall introduce at the end of this memoir, we should choose very nearly the same expressions as M. Rafinesque, so much does his poulp resemble those of this division.
6th. — An expression made use of by M. de Blainville him- self, shows of itself, all the uncertainty which prevails con- cerning this mollusc. "There have been found," says this naturalist, " in the seas of Sicily, poulps, whose pair of up- per tentacula is spread out in width, probably as in the para- sitic poulps, since they appeared to differ sufficiently from known species to form a distinct genus, under the name of Ocythoe.''^ We shall just observe, that the veliferous poulps are common in the Mediterranean, and particularly in the seas of Sicily and Italy ^ and, that at the epoch when this traveller made his discovery, and even at that when M. de Blainville published his article, * Poulpe du Dictionnaire,' no other species was known.
It would be the same with the argument w^hich it has been attempted to draw from the two poulps Ocythoe that Ranzani had in his possession : they were in alcohol, and one of them moreover carried the fragments of the shell.
The partisans of parasitism bring forward yet another ar- gument, to which we believe it easy to reply, so as to make it valueless ; they say, that it is not always the same species of poulp that we find in the same species of shell. Their adversaries seek to demonstrate its non-parasitic nature, by sustaining, that it is always precisely the same. Which are we to believe ? As for ourselves, our opinion upon this sub- ject was formed long ago ; and we endeavoured to prove it in the ' Bulletin Universel des Sciences,' by citing an occa- sion when we had been able to examine a great number of these animals, some occupying the Argonauta Argo and others the rice- grained argonaut. We then easily convinced our- selves that the same species always inhabited the same shell ; for we never found in one those that we discovered in the
14 M. SANDER RANG
other. But we will not argue from this fact ; for, following the example of M. de Blainville, we think that it is not well in any case, to support ourselves upon an observation capable of being set aside as being but a mere anecdote ; we will en- deavour to proceed by means of reasoning.
M. de Blainville thinks, that it was an ordinary poulp that was seen by Aristotle in the shell of the argonaut ; and he founds his opinion upon what is said by that gi'eat naturalist of the arms being united by a membrane, slender as a spi- der's web, in the same manner as the toes of ducks. Our ov\Ti observation of the palmatures upon the arms of the poulps of argonauts, of which we have already spoken, over- turns this argument, since it shows that the character ob- served by Aristotle, applies as well to the one as the other.
Mutien, Pliny, Bom, and Bosc, have all spoken of a Seiche which inhabits the argonaut; that doubtless is true, but it is not less certain that these naturalists understood by a Seiche, a poulp ; as is shown by the Sepia octopus of Linnaeus, the Sepia rugosa of Bosc, &c., &c. How otherwise are we to comprehend that a Seiche, which is always an elongated ani- mal, and not at all proteiform as poulps are in general, which besides,'encloses in its body a large, straight, and solid shell, could ensconce itself in the cavity of an argonaut, and conse- quently cause the first shell to accommodate itself to the form of the other. And further, to admit the possibility of so extra- ordinary a circumstance, we must suppose, (the narrowness of the opening in some argonauts considered), that the Seiche would place itself sideways, — that is, for example, the ventral part to the right, and the dorsal part to the left ; which would be contrary to what we have just pointed out as existing in the cephalopod of the argonaut, where the dorsal part is al- ways behind, and the ventral part always before, without a possibility of its ever being otherwise.
M. de Blainville cites M. de Roissy, as having assured him that he had seen in the hands of M. Ferussac, in two different species of argonauts, the A, lisse, and the rice-grained argo- naut, two poulps, evidently of the same species. Here is, certainly, a very strong objection, and one which appears to carry much weight ; for M. de Roissy, as all naturalists know, is an observer as skilful as conscientious, and, for our own part, we often allow ourselves to be influenced by his judg- ment, because we have learned to know its worth ; but, wish- ing to have on this subject very accurate details, we interro- gated this naturalist, and, we confess, that the objection lost a great deal of its merit in our eyes, when we had learned from his own mouth that he had not seen the two poulps in
ON THE ARGONAUT. 15
question in the hands of M. Ferussac, but merely drawings of them ! and that also these allowed some slight differences to be perceived, particularly in the colouring.
Every one will agree with us, that, if this fact does not en- tirely lose its importance by this explanation, it is at least allowable to adjourn all conclusions with respect to it, and set it on one side. As to the rest, what inference of any importance can we draw thence, when we have shown that the premises are incorrect ? In fact, we can affirm positively, that the rice-grained argonaut has never been found in the Mediterranean, but chiefly upon the coasts of Brazil, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Indian ocean.
What we have said of the position and use of the mem- braniferous arms of the poulp of the argonaut, will suffice, according to our view, to demonstrate that the same species of poulp cannot inhabit indifferently either species of shell. If it were otherwise, it would be in fact difficult to conceive how the upper arms and the membranes should be found to correspond in form and proportion with the lateral faces of the shells, which vary much according to their species. Thus we should be troubled to comprehend, how the poulp could maintain itself one day in the rice-grained argonaut, and ano- ther in the Argonauta Argo ; for, if its arms and membranes are just large enough to grasp the extent of the face of the former, they certainly would not be so for those of the latter. We declare further, that we have never found in the Argonauta Argo any but the species which we have sketched at the end of this memoir; and we are obliged to add, that the intensely blue colouring which we have never failed to meet with up- on the large arms, gives us little confidence in the rather romantic pictures hitherto furnished.
The discovery of the use of the palmated arms overturns some other hypotheses also, from which one or the other party drew more or less force ; and by this means it simpli- fies the question.
Among such, is the assertion advanced by one naturalist, that the two large arms of the poulp arrange themselves in the interior of the shell, in such a manner that they cor- respond exactly to the two tuberculated edges of the keel, and that then the suckers form the tubercles; — and also Ferussac's way of viewing it, who thought that the palmated part of the great teiitacula rolled itself into a little globular mass, in the spiral cavity.
Such is also this other opinion of M. Delle Chiaje, who thinks that it is by means of suckers that the animal trans- udes the calcareous matter, destined for the progressive in-
16 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
crease of the shell ; and he finds proof of it in the supposed fact that the animal adheres to its shell only by these organs : an assertion also of this same naturalist, that the animal sees through his shell both his enemies and his prey; a cir- cumstance, which we confess appears to us difficult to credit, on account of the covering over of this shell by the mem- brane of the great arms, which must considerably diminish its already small degree of transparency ; and, finally, a description in which the same naturalist proclaims the fact, that when the poulp of the argonaut wishes to change its place, it overturns its shell, spreads out at the surface of the water its two membraniferous arms, as well as its pointed tentacula, so that there remains only its body in the shell, adhering to it only by means of some of the suckers nearest the base. It is now evident, that the palmated arms an- swer a purpose quite different to that of floaters.
( To he continued.)
Art. III. — Notes on Irish Natural History, more especially Ferns. By Edward Newman, Esq., F.L.S., &c. ( Continued from Vol. 3, page 577.) Ascending the rising ground to the south of Ballinahinch, I found the \dew amply repay me for the trouble. Immediate- ly beyond the palace — the Martin is a king in Cunnemara, and his house a palace — rose that strange assemblage of hills called the Twelve Pins. In my endeavours to count these Pins, I was quite unsuccessful ; and the number appears to be optional on the part of the counter. Immediately around the palace, — a modem and by no means an elegant building, — water and wood are very prettily interspersed. It would add some fraction of interest, could I name the bold head- lands that jutted out into the more level bog, — the lakes that even there, mountain-locked though they Avere, reflected a bright blue sky, and fleeting clouds of surpassing white- ness,— and those lovely islands, covered with the richest, thickest, wood. How is it that throughout Cunnemara the lake-islands alone bear trees ; and that here they abound, of- ten to crowding } I here observed the hen-harrier (Cercus cyaneus), hunting over the bog, as owls fly along our fallows in quest of mice. -The face was turned downwards, often however being moved in every direction. I fancied that these marauders were looking after the young curlews, which I am sure must be abundant, for the old ones would run before me
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 17
as I marched over the hills, and waken the echoes of the Twelve Pins with their piercing whistle. The curlews were evidently at enmity with the hawks, for sometimes two or three would follow a hawk, and attempt to stun him with their whistle ; when they approached too near, the hawk would turn up his round face as if to take a survey, and then look down again, as if quite satisfied he had nothing to fear, and with noiseless wing beat the bog as regularly as a well-train- ed pointer. During the day I saw many of these hawks, but not one that I supposed to be the female of the same species. In the afternoon the clouds came down so low as to hide all the hills by whose forms I had endeavoured to steer, and I was not sorry to see something like a road winding round the shore of a beautifully wooded lake. This lake, I afterwards learned, was Garromin, and the beautiful woods the property of a Mr. Mahon, the residence being called Glendalough. — Just beyond the lake is a cottage called the Recess, and a few cultivated fields, one of w^hich was completely purple with the blossoms of Vicia Cracca. The grass was intended for mowing, and was not yet cut ; I think it would have averaged three feet in height, and was very close together ; the crop must have been enormous. There was a patch of oats that must have been nearly five feet high. From what T learned at Roundstone, I believe the land might be taken at sixpence or eightpence an acre unbroken, and where partially re- claimed, for 2s. or 2s. 6d. The plan is, " to set a plot of ground to a man," that is, to let him have a tract marked out from point to point, but not measured, and for this he is to pay an annual sum. I saw, above Roundstone, plots of about forty English acres, as nearly as I could guess, set at £2 a- year. But between Urrisbeg and the sea, is a wonderfully rich and populous tract, which is let in small pieces, and at a higher rate. I was told that in the immediate vicinity of Roundstone, under Urrisbeg, is a population of nine or ten thousand people ; and I was quite willing to credit it, for [ could have counted near upon a thousand cabins, and ten in- mates to a cabin is by no means an extraordinary number. — But this is going back. From " the Recess " I walked stea- dily along the road, in hopes of finding a place to stop at for the night, but the bog seemed to stretch out before me, and I began to anathematize the Irish miles. I felt a twinging in the shin-bone, which had annoyed me for seven or eight days, get so much worse that I could scarcely step with that leg without crying out. I had walked ten hours a-day, which would be thirty English miles, ever since I broke my shin in crossing Achill Sound, and it had day by day grown more Vol. iV.— No. 37, x. s. d
18 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
painful. I began to think the bone was sphntered, and that I might perchance meet with an effectual stop, if I persisted in bearing up against it : so I made a halt, took off my knap- sack, and throwing it on a bed of Menziesia, sat myself down and examined my wound. I did not like its appearance, and waited for chances.
I sat for an hour, or rather perhaps lay, for I went to sleep ; and a party of police, who had been spending a night in Clifden, to superintend "a pattern" which had been going on there, happened to come by on their way to their quarters. They had a queer vehicle ; it was like a liOndon brewer's dray in nakedness, but with this difference, that the wheels were under the bed of the vehicle, so that they could sit over the wheels and dangle their legs down, as in an outside car. Of course they gave me a lift, and deposited me safely at Flynn's half-way-house, — a wonderful place, and the residence of a whole colony of Flynns. I shall never forget the kindness of the people at this place : they made me an excellent firciin my bed-room, brought in an enormous dinner, — a fowl killed on purpose, a pile of potatoes, eggs and bacon, beyond all possibility of consumption, bread and butter, and whiskey a discretion. The next morning I could not walk ; so I got a lift by Bianconi's car. Leaving Flynn's there is a most sweet lake — Lake Shindella — to the right, with such beautifully- wooded islands, it was like a land of enchantment. After Shindella was passed, there came a line of lakes along the road to the right, and finally these issued in a river, and this river still accompanied the road, but was so overshadowed by a fringe of huge Osmunda regalis, that the stream!jwas often lost to sight, though its course was abundantly marked by this luxuriant fern.
The road towards Galway is cut beside the river Feogh, a picturesque although small stream. It runs rapidly over lime- stone slabs, and similar slabs often overhang its waters, par- ticularly where it enters the village of Oughterard. Here, for many hundred yards, a beautiful skreen of the greenest ivy is suspended from the bank above, and actually dips its ex- tremities in the rushing river, forming caves and grottoes that naiads and water-nymphs might be proud to occupy. The stream falls over a succession of ledges, and just after pass- ing Oughterard, it flows under one huge slab of limestone, and is soon lost in the waters of Lough Corrib. The slab or mass of stone forms a natural bridge, over which passes the road to Galway. Here the country becomes more cultivated, and planting to a very great extent is going on. The face of the country is very curious, displaying the most wonderful
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 19
forms of craggy limestone that I have ever seen, and crowded with such ferns as delight in rocks. Ceterach officinarum and Asplenium Rida-muraria and Trichomanes were in the greatest possible luxuriance. And here I should remark that I have never seen Ceterach so fine as in Ireland. Many of the larger ferns were also in great profusion : — Lastrcea Filix- mas, Las, dilatata, Athyrium Filix-fcemina, and all the forms of Polystichum aculeatum, and Osmunda regalis, as usual. — Most of these ferns, but more particularly Ceterach, occurred on all the walls till I reached Galway.
The walls and houses in Galway are half covered with Parietaria officinalis ; and being generally very old, and the Parietaria unusually fine, we might venture to call the old age of Galway " a green and vigorous old age. " Ceterach is abundant all round and even in the town. Mine host having detected me in the act of stowing away a few fi:onds I had just been gathering, informed me of a botanist resident in the town, and assured me he would be glad to see me ; so in a few minutes I found myself in the presence of one of the most ardent and right-spirited naturalists with w^hom it has ever been my good luck to foregather. He gave me authen- tic specimens of Erica Mackaiana, and also Adiantum Ca- pillus- Veneris from the foot of Urrisbeg.
Having now" finished Cunnemara, I will just run over an enumeration of its ferns. Adiantum Capillus- Veneris, rai'e ; Lomaria spicant, abundant ; Pteris aquilina, very sparingly scattered; Polypodium vulgare, very local ; Cystopteris fra- gilis, local; Polystichum aculeatum, abundant in some places and in all varieties ; of Lastrcea Oreopteris I saw one plant only ; Las. Filix-mas, rare ; Las. dilatata, everywhere ; var. dumetorum, abundant ; Athyrium Filix-fcemina, abundant ; Asplenium Adiantufn-nigrum, common on rocks ; Asp. Ruta muraria, on ruins; Asp. marinum, on cliffs by the sea; Asp. Trichomanes, on rocks and buildings, not uncommon ; Cete- rach officinarum, abundant on walls ; Scolopendrium vulgare not common ; Hymeiiophyllum Tunbridgense and Wilsoni, on wet rocks, and intermixed ; Osmunda regalis, most abun- dant, sometimes covering small islands in the lakes. In pass- ing through the country as I did, and omitting altogether the Mam Turk range and the Twelve Pins, I must of course have missed many of the finest localities ; yet is this fist a goodly one.
I must now make a comment or two on those ferns which I either did not see at all, or saw but seldom. Polypodium Dryopteris and Phegopteris ; these species, in Scotland and Wales, abound in all districts similar to those which I hunted
20 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
most diligently in Cunnemara, yet I never detected a single frond of either of them in the latter district. Lastr(Ba Ore- opteris ; although I traversed large districts such as this fern usually delights in, yet I found it not. I suppose the climate is too warm for these three ferns, and that they may possibly occur at a greater elevation : but I should say that Polypo- dium Dryopteris is exceedingly rare in Ireland, and with the exception of two fronds gathered by Mr. Moore on Knocklayd, Co. Antrim, I have neither seen nor heard of a single speci- men. Osmunda seems to have completely taken the place of Pleris, and Filix-faemma of Filix-mafi.
It was with regret that I left Galway without having visit- ed the South Isles of Arran, but the lame leg was in the way, and moreover I was told it would be difficult to get away from them with the violent wind that was blowing off shore ; and much as I wished to see them, especially An-anmore, where Adiantum Capillus- Veneris is found in such profusion, I was compelled to give it up, and to patronise Bianconi. — And really, after all, it is a great comfort that you never can find yourself in any considerable town, without finding also one of Bianconi's cars ready to transport you elsewhere as soon as you please. As I was jolting along the bank of Gal- way Bay, the clouds were driven headlong to seaward, and the sun birrst forth with bright but watery splendour. I gazed on the Isles of Arran, as they rose clearly from the sea against the blue horizon, and even then I was half tempted to turn back, but having passed Oranmore, the sea was lost, and I turned my thoughts inland. The country now assumed a very different aspect ; it appeared bleak, but was generally cultivated, and lets at fifteen or sixteen shillings per Irish acre. Close to the town of Galway the little paddocks for cattle let at £4. and £6. per Irish acre. Loughrea is a mi- serable place ; whole streets of houses are without roofs, and I felt tempted to enquire w^hether the plague or cholera had stripped them of their inhabitants. Passing the little village of Aughrim, where the decisive battle was fought between James and William, I reached the important and thriving town of Ballinasloe. There I got on board a boat just start- ing by the canal for Shannon Harbour ; it was drawn by three horses, a boy was on the first, and another on the third, and they set off at full gallop, the whips cracking, and the boys vociferating in the choicest Irish.
At Shannon Harbour I stayed a night, and then went on board a steam-boat going down to Limerick ; it is a tedious passage. The steam-boat which took us to Portumna was a funny concern ; the funnel, boiler, pistons, &c., amidships,
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 21
and the paddle-wheels aft, and no wider than the deck. The locks and artificial cuts seemed endless ; it is called navigat- ing the Shannon, but you really navigate little canals, twelve or fifteen feet wide, for which the Shannon supplies the wa- ter. However, when we arrived at Portumna, a steamer of the usual build took us through Lough Derg, the scenery of which is certainly interesting, but can scarcely be called fine. This steamer took us to Killaloe, where a boat awaited us, which, with trotting or galloping horses, conveyed us through a perfect labyrinth of locks to Limerick. To compare the navigation of the Shannon with that of the Thames, is sheer nonsense. The Thames is a vast and deep tide-river, at all times navigable, but at high water capable of floating the largest ships ever built : the Shannon is wide, but so shallow in some places, and so rapid in others, that it never can be rendered of any mercantile importance. Limerick has in it a great deal to occupy the time and attention. It is divided into the new and old towns ; the new town is very respecta- ble in its way, a sort of Pavement-Moorfields-looking place, and a long straight street, and the houses much of a same- ness ; but the old town, on the Clare side of the Shannon, took my fancy amazingly. I ascended the tower of its an- tiquated and mis-shapen Cathedral, and gathered Scolopen- drium, and Ceterach, and Rut a-mur aria, from its summit, and looked over that ancient tovm, which is known by the opprobrious epithet of " English ^
I visited Castle Connell, a poor little village six Irish miles from Limerick, much frequented on account of the ap- pearance of the Shannon, which is here very shallow, and runs over a bed of stones. I crossed to the Clare side in a little boat, and the boatmen wxre very impressive in their conversation touching the danger of the passage (which they perform twenty times a-day), and told me the falls were con- sidered the finest in Europe, and that Mr. English (Inglis) had been there. On the Clare side are the grounds of Sir Hugh Massey, and the view of the river from the " hanging gardens " as they are termed, is very pretty : there is a con- stant ripple for half a mile. Having heard so much of Mr. Inglis at this place, I looked into his book, and find, after a page of grandiloquence, the following wind up. — " None of the Welsh waterfalls, nor the Geisbach in Switzerland, can compare for a moment, in grandeur and effect, with the ra- pids of the Shannon." On the walls of the hanging gardens I saw abundance of Ceterach, Asplenium Ruta-muraria, Adiantum-nigrmn, and Tricliomanes, Scolopendrium vulga- re, Lomaria spicant, and Polypodium vulgare.
22 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
Having had my leg mended by a regular practitioner at Limerick, I determined to rest it another day, and so got on board a steamer bound for Kilrush. It was a glorious day, and the steamer ploughed the sea in gallant style. I call it sea, for though in courtesy called ' the Shannon,' it is in fact all sea below Limerick. There is much to amuse the tourist in this picturesque estuary, but I panted for the mountains, and was tired of steam-boats. On approaching KiliTish, we obtain a view of Scattery Island, with its numerous ruins and lofty round tower. I did not go to the island, but was told that this round tower is perfectly solid — a compact mass of stonework from the base to the summit. If so, it differs abun- dantly from all other round towers, for they invariably have an internal cavity, apparently to allow of ascent within.
The island is sacred to St. Senanus, who flourished here long before St. Patrick came into fame. The crabbed old saint indignantly refused to permit any woman to set foot in his territory. I believe it was Cannera, a saintess, conveyed thither on a raft by an angel, whose disappointment Moore deplores to the tune of ' The Brown Thorn^ taking care, ra- ther wickedly, to add, how
" legends hint that had the maid
" Till morning's light delayed, " And giv'n the Saint one rosy smile, " She ne'er had left his lonely isle."
Oh rare Tom Moore ! I heartily wished I could conjure up old Senanus from his long rest, not to enquire about Canne- ra, but simply to ask what the Scientific Associations, and sapient literati of hi^ day, said about the round towers. It would be amusing to know at what conclusions they arrived, and to whom was then assigned the premium on round-tow- er-speculation. It is very obvious that in the earliest days of Christianity, when it is to be presumed the Irish were pos- sessed of more zeal than architectural skill, these towers were frequently built into their churches, and performed the office of heaven-pointing spires : but of so superior a structure were these spires, that even now, when the early churches have mended the roads, or are reduced to a confused and scattered heap of ruins, the towers stand triumphant and alone in their glory, sneering sarcastically at the feeble efforts of time.
When I landed at Kilrush, I found all the steam-boat peo- ple were going to Kilkee, and T did the same, without any definite object. There were from thirty to fifty cars on the quay where we landed, and twelve of these were soon freight- ed with live lumber for Kilkee. We were a formidable body
LONDON CLAY ON THE SUSSEX COAST'. 23
altogether ; it must have been a gallant sight to a traveller moving in an opposite direction ! Whips cracking, carmen shouting, and the company laughing, talking, and smoking, and on terms of the most easy familiarity with each other. — On an-iving at Kilkee there was a regular car-race to the best inn, and when that was glutted, to the second-best, and then to the third.
When I arose the next morning I was located at a fashion- able bathing-place. I found it extremely difficult to make the Irish believe that I was such a fool as to wander over their island in search of plants or insects, or to see the coun- try. At Kilkee the folks were of a very respectable class, and evidently felt nurt at my explanations ; they thought I was "smoking " them, so T pleaded my leg as an excuse for coming to Kilkee, and this seemed perfectly rational ; and when I left the place about thirty-six hours after my arrival, they kindly hoped I had " found the benefit." Up to this period I think I had been asked a hundred times my name, occupation in life, country, exact place of abode, the place I had last come from, the place T was next going to, the object of my journey, what I had in my knapsack, and at whose expense I travelled.
(To he continued).
Art. IV. — On the London Clay formation at Bracklesham Bay, Sussex. — By James S. Bowerbank, Esq., F.G.S., &c.
There are few localities where the London Clay can be ex- amined, of which so little is known, and which at the same time is so worthy of a careful investigation, as that portion presented to our view by the action of the sea at Bracklesham Bay and its neighbourhood, on the coast of Sussex. The deposit here differs so much, both in its mineral character and fossil contents, from the same formation in other parts of Eng- land, and exhibits so close an approximation in both these respects to the corresponding beds in France — those of the Calcaire Grossier — as to render it a matter of surprise that it has not attracted a greater share of the attention of English geologists.
The low clay cliffs extending from Selsea Bill to the mouth of Chichester Harbour, seldom exceed ten or twelve feet in height, and for by far the greater part of the space interven- ing between these points, do not rise higher than six or seven feet. This section presents the usual characteristic appear-
24 ON THE LONDON CLAY FORMATION
ance of the London clay,— dark brown or blueish clay, with rarely any fossil remains. The base of this low cliff is usu- ally covered up with shingle, which extends towards the low water mark for about fifteen or twenty yards, and there it ter- minates. The remaining space intervening between the foot of the shingle bed and low water mark, is in many places at least 80 or 100 yards in length, and presents a surface, under ordinary circumstances, of a clean, dark greyish-green sand, with scarcely a single pebble to be seen : but after some tides it is literally strewed with thousands of the detached valves of Venericardia planicosta, and of other shells, while at other times scarcely a shell can be found. The part of the bay most interesting to the geologist, is that immediately in the neighbourhood of Bracklesham Barn, especially at about a furlong to the east of that spot, where there is a small break or chine in the low clay cliff. At this place, and at a few paces east and west of it, beneath about six or seven feet of clay, there is a stratum of light green marly sand, abound- ing in remains of Venericardia planicosia and other shells, but which is frequently entirely hidden by thrown-up shingle, and it is very rarely that more than a few feet in length of this bed can be seen. It is from this bed, or from one ex- ceedingly like it, somewhat lower in the series, that perhaps most of the interesting shells of this district are to be pro- cured. If we proceed from this little break or chine west- ward, for about forty paces parallel to the coast, and then in the direction of a line at a right angle to the cliff, and at the time of low water, we shall find, near the low- water-mark, the bed we have described as abounding in fossils, exposed by the action of the sea in the most favourable manner. At this spot Venericardia planicosia is found literally by thou- sands, with the valves united, the shells resting upon their edges, and packed close to each other, exactly in the manner that we might expect to have found them, supposing them to have been recent shells with the animals yet inhabiting them. Comparatively very few are gaping, and their condition and position strikingly impress upon the mind the idea that when alive, they must have inhabited the spot from which they are now disinterred; especially as there are numerous small and fragile species of other well-known London-clay shells, which could not have remained whole had they been subjected to much attrition amid the larger shells siuTounding them. On the sands in the vicinity of this spot I found large masses of Nummularia Icevigata cemented together, and numerous de- tached specimens of the same shell.
At the eastern extremity of this bed, which, at the time of
AT BRACKLESHAM BAY, SUSSEX. 25
my visit, was opened for about fifty yards, I found Sanguin- olaria Hollowasii, a rare and fragile, but very beautiful shell, in a fine state of preservation. At about twenty or thirty yards westward of the western end of this interesting patch of shells there are large blocks of this bed, which, being of a firmer texture than the surrounding parts of the deposit, have suffered less from the action of the water, and project about twelve or eighteen inches above the surrounding sand, and, by presenting an obstruction to the ebbing tide, they usually induce the formation ol" a small pool amidst which they stand. At the south-eastern side of this pool, on one occa- sion I found the stratum, which is usually covered by the sand, completely exposed. At this spot there was scarcely a specimen of Venericardia planicosta to be seen, but in- stead of this shell, Turritella conoidea and edita were em- bedded in a dark green marly sand ; and among them, toge- ther with Fusus longmvus, and other well-known London- clay shells, I found Venericardia acuticostata and mitis, and a splendid specimen of Conus deperditus, fully equal in size to the one figured by Deshayes. Westward of this point I did not meet with anything particularly interesting.
Proceeding eastward from this locality, I found, at about midway between high and low water mark, Cerithium Cornu- copicBy a Corhula, which I believe to be Corh. gallica, Cythe- rea trigonula and sulcatarea, and a new species which I cannot find in Deshayes' work ; and also Area duplicata and a new species of Crassatella.
About midway between Bracklesham bam and the Thomey coast-guard station a series of patches of a deposit of chalk- flints was exposed : the first of these was nearly at low water mark, and the remainder of them ran, at short distances from each other, in a diagonal line towards the coast, nearly in the direction of a straight line drawn from their western extremity to the Thomey station houses. Apparently, this stratum of flints has not, at any time, exceeded eight inches or a foot in thickness, they are indeed so thinly scattered as rarely to oc- cur piled upon each other : very few of them have suffered from attrition, and the greater part retain their original form and whitened surface. They are firmly embedded in the same light green marly sand, which I before described as occurring at the bottom of the London clay, in the neighbourhood of the little chine near Bracklesham bam. Amongst the flints there are numerous remains of the roots of trees, in the state of soft bog-wood; which indicate that this portion of the strata has been very thinly covered by the superimposed clay.
Vol. IV.— No. 37, n. s. e
US ON THE LONDON CLAY FORMATION
Upon one of the bouldered flints, firmly embedded in the marly sand, I found the most interesting of the valuable series of fossils which I had the good fortune to obtain during this excursion, namely, a fine specimen of Astrea, built upon the upper and exposed surface of a flint. The base of the coral is three and a quarter inches long and two and a quarter wide, and closely embraces and spreads over the rounded edge of the smooth stone. No part of the coral appears to have suf- fered firom attrition : it is three and a half inches in height from the base to its upper surface, from which a considerable portion has been broken off", and the fractured surface presents every appearance of having suffered no other injury than that arising from the action of the water since it was exposed. I have carefully examined, with a high microscopic power, thin sections of the stone on which this interesting coral is built, and can safely assert that it is truly a chalk-flint, as it exhi- bits the characteristic organic structure of the Kentish chalk- flints, and abounds with the well-known forms of the foramen- iferous shells of the chalk. On the following day I obtained fi:om one of the coast-guard, a second but smaller specimen of the same coral, which had been picked up close to the spot where mine was procured. This has been drawn by Mr. J. DeC. Sowerby, and engraved to accompany the present paper.
Astrea is completely a tropical genus ; but when we consi- der the many other tropical forms occurring in the same for- mation, such as those abounding among the fruits, the remains of saurians and fresh- water turtles, and also that Astrea has been found in the lower beds of the calcaire grossier, we shall not be surprised at its occurrence in beds which, according to the description of Mr. Webster, are so closely allied to those of the calcaire grossier of Liancourt, both as regards their mineral character and their fossil contents.
Near the Thorny coast-guard station Cerithium Cornuco- pi<B and giganteum, Turritella sulcifera [Melania sulcata of Sowerby), Tur. terehellata and multisulcata^ are found, al- though I could not ascertain the beds from which they come, but their position is probably lower in the series than those which occur to the westward of Brackelsham barn. Sower- by, in the description of Melania sulcata in the ^ Mineral Conchology,' states that at Stubbington, where the specimen figured was found, " the cliff" is twenty or thirty feet high, composed of sand and gravel, more or less mixed with blue mud, and frequently irregular patches of sand. At the base of this is a stratum, not more than two feet thick, of blue clay or mud, in which the shells are found."
AT BRACKLESHAM BAY, SUSSEX.
27
I propose naming the coral (fig. 1), Astrea Wehsteri, after the veteran geologist who has thrown so much light upon the formation in w^hich it was found.
A. Astrea Wehsteri from Brackelshftm Bay. B. A portion of the same magnified.
Note by Mr. James De C. Sowerby, upon the Astrea from Bracklesharn Bay.
Five or six species of Astrea nearly resembling this are found at Hauteville, and other places in La Manche, where Ceri- thium Cornucopice abounds. The existence of this Astrea at Brackelsham Bay is therefore another link between the Lon- don clay of Hampshire, and the tertiary beds of France, and would indicate a temperature progressively higher in that di- rection, when the beings, the remains of which we now find, were living. May we not hope that an assemblage of such indications may hereafter show if any, and what, changes have taken place in the position of the equator since the de- position of these strata ?
Camden Town, Nov. 2Srd, 1839.
28 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION OF PLANTS
Art. V. — On the Flora of Snow Formations, in reference to the theory of Spontaneous Generation. By W. Weissenbobn, Ph. D.
Although the recent discoveries of Professor Ehrenberg appear little favourable to the casual production of organic beings at the present period, yet they do not in the least affect the theory, that their original existence is owing to a purely dynamic process. The importance of this subj ect will perhaps excuse me if I try, in this place, to lessen the weight of the above conclusion,' by some reflections (founded on facts to which I have not alluded in my former articles on this question) on certain spontaneous generations which are un- doubtedly going on in our time, and which, in calling the at- tention of the reader to the traces of a nascent future creation, may serve to throw some light on the conditions of the former and present ones, as well as to banish the uncouth idea of a Deus ex machina.
Although it would appear from the calculations of M. Fou- rier, as applied by M. Arago (Annu. du Bur. de Long. 1834), that the general temperature of the globe has not changed by ■i^ of a degree centig. within the last 2000 years, yet, accord- ing to the theory of cosmogony now universally admitted, the body which shall next add a new crust to the solid part of our planet must be water, in the various modifications of structure which it presents under the forms of ice and snow. What proportion of the existing quantity of it w ill be required and consumed in completely oxidizing and cicatrizing the actual mineral crust, it is impossible to determine ; but leaving the vapoury part of it out of the question, and supposing the mean depth of the ocean to be only four miles (the calculations of Laplace make it from four to five), and its extent about three fourths of the surface of the globe ; then supposing the mean density of the solid and lasting products of water, from the hardest ice to the lightest snow, to be half that of water, the thickness of the strata that will be added to the globe by the solidification of the water existing on the surface of our pla- net will be six miles. Were the bed of the ocean to remain in its present state, the present mineral crust of the globe would be covered only three miles high, reasoning from the present level of the sea; but as that bed is constantly filling up, the distribution of the crust of ice and snow over the whole
» The conclusion alluded to will be found in Vol. 3, paffe 508, in an analytical notice of Ehrenberg's work.— Ed.
ON THE SURFACE OF ICE AND SNOW. 29
surface of the globe, will be considerably more equable than might be otherwise anticipated.
Now we must suppose that long before the whole of this vast geological formation shall be added to the surface of the globe, the whole of the living creation strictly belonging to the present crust must have become extinct, and their remains imbedded and partly preserved in snow and ice, as their ex- istence is incompatible with a ground composed (chiefly) of. snow and ice, as well as with a perfectly dry atmosphere.
Let us not, however, conclude, that this new surface will present a dreary aspect, or be void of vegetable and animal life. During the gradual transition from the present state of things to the succeeding one, it cannot be doubted that many organisms will arise w?iich will link the succeeding creation to the former ; and though in the present state of the surface the geographical distribution of the species of the same fami- lies appears to prove that the complication and perfection of structure depends greatly on the quantity of free caloric pre- sent, yet we have no right to conclude that under circumstan- ces entirely changed, the comparative absence of that element from the ground must render the new creation comparatively scanty and imperfect. Nay, there are many reasons which would seem to support an opposite conclusion. ^;/'i for proofs of this new creation we have to look to the poles and the tops of the alpine mountains, where the geological formation of ice and snow has already fairly begun. The Flora of these regions is, as yet, very poor ; but we have to consider that it is in an incipient state. On the Alps grow two species, the red snow [Protococcus or Palmella nivalis), and a very curious production which M. Hugi found only on the glacier of the Unteraar, but which is said also to occur on that of Chamouni, a description of which I shall give be- low. To the snow-flora of the Poles, consisting likewise of the red snow, the expedition of the Recherche to Spitzbergen has lately added (as stated in a letter from Dr. Robert to Baron Struve, the Russian minister in Hamburgh) a second species of red snow, and a delicate green flabelliform plant, two inches in height. Now we have only to notice the pe- culiar circumstances under which these plants are found, in order to be convinced that they are the specific and sponta- neous productions of a soil that is neither "land" nor "seas," and to render it probable that from every new and well-esta- blished stratum there will spring a new creation at any time.
As the polar regions are comparatively unknown, and have never been visited by man within about ten degrees of lati- tude from the north pole, these phenomena have only been
36 SPONTANEOUS GENERATION OF PLANTS
well studied on high mountains, especially the Alps of Swit- zerland, where besides, every modification of lasting ice and snow is comprised within a narrow range that may be survey- ed with comparative facility.
From the foot of the glaciers to the highest tops of the mountains, the ice and snow present a constant change of stra- tification and structure. Below, the strata average eight feet in thickness, and the ice-crystals are often two inches in di- ameter. On the summit of the glaciers the thickness of the strata is at most two feet, and sometimes only six inches, and the crystals having become gradually smaller on the limit of the glacier, pass into that sort of granulated snow which in Switzerland is called Firn. The appearance of this fim marks the limit of a very important change in the meteorological conditions. Whilst the height at which the glaciers begin, as well as the line of perpetual snow, varies in Switzerland fi'om 6,000 to 10,000 feet, according to the exposure, thefirn- line, at about 8,000 feet, appears to be comparatively inde- pendent of temperature. At the height of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea, M. Hugi sometimes observed a heat of from +15° to H-20° R. (the thermometer being probably exposed to the direct rays of the sun), but no melting of the snow, as is remarked below the firn-line at much lower tem- peratures; (see Hugi's Naturhistorische Alpenreise). At such high temperatures M. Hugi saw the fresh-falling snow losing its needles or rays, and converting itself into grains, so as to constitute Jlrn, whilst the old firn became loosened to the depth of several feet, so as to resemble a heap of hemp-seed.
The Palmella nivalis is found exclusively on the fim, be- ginning at the firn-line and ending about 1,000 feet above it. It is never seen either on a glacier or common snow ; its fa- vourite habitat being sunny slopes where the snow is quickly changed into firn. In August it is already blackish and de- caying at the firn-line, in full growth at 8,200 feet, and just springing at 9,000 feet. It is interesting to find that not on- ly is the existence of the plant strictly dependent on that of fim, but that the form of the former bears an evident relation to the structure of the latter. The little plant, in its nascent state, has the form of the letter Y, the simple radicle descend- ing between two grains of the second layer, and the two little branches embracing one grain of the surface-layer of the firn. In its incipient state it tinges the firn with a delicate rose co- lour, which is not observable when the eye is brought to the same level as the surface of the fim ; but when fully develop- ed, the plant appears above the surface of the firn,*^ which is then beautifully crimson-coloured. The Palmella afterwards
ON THE SURFACE OF ICE AND SNOW. 81
becomes dingy, and at last black, decaying into mould which sinks into the firn.
The second plant of the snow-formation, which M. Hugi discovered, is never found on the firn or common snow, but grows out of the solid ice of the glacier of the Unteraar. The circumstances under which it is produced, and the plant it- self, are described by M. Hugi as follows.
It is well known that all snow melts away from that gla- cier (as well as others) every year ; and a certain portion of the surface of the glacier of the Unteraar is afterwards seen studded with innumerable holes, from one to six inches wide and from three to twenty inches deep, the bottom of each be- ing filled with black mould. In the neighbourhood of still existing snow-patches near the north-easterly side of the gla- cier, M. Hugi found these holes as yet very shallow, and a substance, more like jelly than mould, was still adhering to the surface. Soon after he also observed on the very borders of the snow-patches, while yet at some distance, spots of a bright yellow colour, which he found to be substances nearly the size of the hand, and an inch thick, very delicate and spongy, the under surface of which was strongly attached to the glacier, but they were unfortunately already in a state of decomposition. If he removed them, they melted into a co- lourless water, leaving his hands stained with an ochraceous substance. It was only in one spot that he found a well-pre- served specimen of this plant. He cut out the part of the glacier on which it was growing ; the ice was perfectly pure and transparent, the plant was about the size of a hand, and half an inch thick, and presented ill-defined hemispherical protuberances and almost the appearance of a Tremella^ but had so little cohesion that every part, when touched, crum- bled, or rather melted, away. The whole appeared like a beautifully bright yellow excrescence of the glacier, studded with bubbles, and melting into a water of the same yellow colour ; whereas in the older and decayed plants, the colour- ing principle had already been precipitated. This produc- tion was sunk between the crystals of the glacier, into which it had struck innumerable capillary radicles. The line of se- paration between the ice and the growth could nowhere be distinctly made out, nor could any peculiar organization be discovered in the latter, even with the assistance of a lens.
We see, therefore, that the power of vegetation is inherent even to snow and ice, and that by creating organized beings, which decay, they lay the foundation for the existence of be- ings of a higher order.
As to the production of animal life on the snow-formation,
32 ON SOME SPECIES OF ASTEIUAS
we cannot expect to find living proofs of it in the present in- cipient stage of the formation itself In the mean time the existence of creatures, as the Podura nivalis, which are ma- tured by the influence of snow, and can only enjoy their lives on that substance, will justify the conclusion that a continu- ous surface, foimed chiefly of ice and snow, does not exclude animal life.
But if we must admit the Flora of the snow-formation to exist by dint of spontaneous generation, it is but rational to conclude that the higher creatures, to whose purposes that Flora will, without doubt, be at some time subservient, will not be created by direct supernatural intervention ; and al- though it may never be given to man to point out clearly how the natural powers, through which the Almighty manifests Himself to him, have operated or shall operate in creating animals, yet any unprejudiced mind may clearly discern that by cutting the knot in the customary manner, we can never hope to arrive at anything like a fair solution of the question.
Weimar, 1839.
Art. VI. — Remarks on some species of Asienais fou7id in Cornwall, By Jonathan Couch, Esq., F.L.S., &c.
I HAVE the pleasure of forwarding for insertion in the Maga- zine of Natural History, a notice of some of the less known species of British star-fish, of the first of which Dr. Fleming complains of the want of a figure and description. These might have been supplied before now, if naturalists, living in some of our larger ports, where the trawl-fishery is chiefly followed, had examined the various matters torn from the bot- tom by that mode of fishing. I have no opportunities of this sort, and am chiefly indebted to accident for the possession of the specimen here described.
Prickly Star-fish. Asterias spinosa. Flem. Br. An. p. 487.
The diameter of this specimen, across the disk and rays, was thirty-three inches ; but the five rays were not of equal length, the longest being fourteen inches. Across the disk, in one direction, the diameter was three and a half inches, in another, three inches ; the disk depressed, although this may be only casual. The rays, at their origin, were two inches wide, tapering, depressed, flaccid ; their spines stout, and each surrounded by a tuft of fine suckers. Two of the rays have a double row of spines along the middle, divided by a
FOUND IN CORNWALL. 33
slight depression ; on the other rays only one row of spines, which are irregularly scattered. There is also a marginal row pointing obliquely downwards and forwards. The co- lour above, reddish brown ; tufts round the spines yellow\ — Interior of the stomach j)ale green, and surrounded by eleven teeth. This species bears a greater resemblance to Asterias glacialis than to any other known to me ; but besides its su- perior size, it differs in having the rays less tapering and more flaccid. The proportion of the rays to the disk is also differ- ent ; for whilst in Ast. glacialis they are as two to one, in the species under consideration, on the under surface, where they are best defined, the breadth of the disk is to the length of the ray as two and a half to twelve. The individual spines are, indeed, not much unlike those of Ast. glacialis, but their dis- tribution, and consequently the figure of the body, are differ- ent. The spines on the disk are smaller than those on the rays. The weight of the body cannot be sustained, or even turned over, by lifting it by the rays, without separating them. The specimen came from deep water.
It must be allowed that on comparing this description with the figure of a portion of a ray of Asterias spinosa in Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall, plate 25, fig. 18, the resemblance is not exact; and I have no opportunity of referring to other original authority. If, therefore, any learned naturalist shall dispute the appropriation of the name, I give it up, on the condition that a more correct reference be given.
The difficulty of doing this, however, will be somewhat ap- preciated by referring to the present state of our knowledge of some other species, which is far from satisfactory. Thus, in the Mag. Nat. Hist., o. s., vol. ix, page 145, the references are made on the supposition that two species have been con- founded; one of which is studded with produced spines, while the other, strictly speaking, has none, — the moveable, leg-like crutches not being regarded as such. It is true, the species above described cannot have been known to Dr. Johnston ; for he represents his Ast. ruhens, of the length of twenty inch- es, as being superior in size to any other British species. — But the Doctor, who probably is as competent to settle the synonymes of the British Asteriadce, as any naturalist in the kingdom, is in error when he judges it to be the same as that which he has represented at page 145 of the same volume; and which also is different from that which I understand to be signified by the name of Ast. ruhens. The latter, as shown in Pennant's Brit. ZooL, vol. iv., plate 30, fig. 58, ed. 1757, closely resembles a species familiarly known in Cornwall, which does not commonly exceed the size given in the plate,
Vol. IV.— No. 37, n. s. f
34 STAR-FISH FOUND IN CORNWALL.
although a few may be found of twice that magnitude. I must therefore refer to Pennant's Ast. hispida as different from the Ast. spinosa described above, as well as from the species given by Dr. Johnston under the name of Ast. ruhens, the figure of which, though slight, is characteristic of one, a description of which I subjoin, as it will supply a few parti- culars not contained in Dr. Johnston's account.
The diameter of the specimen was eighteen inches, to the extremity of the opposite rays ; of the disk, two inches and three quarters ; below, the proportion of the diameter of the disk to the length of a ray, as one to two and three quarters ; the disk flat ; rays seven, thin and tapering ; breadth of the ray where widest, one and three-tenths of an inch. Skin coriaceous ; on the disk minute spines, several from one base ; those on the rays somewhat larger, but less thickly set ; along the margin of the rays a double row, larger and more elevated than the others. Leg-spines three lines long ; suckers be- neath, in two rows, stout. Hays exceedingly frangible ; two that were broken off, flaccid, especially at the points ; one remaining uninjured, rigid at the tip. Colour reddish orange. In its stomach a purple Spatangus, crushed together.
I the more despair of finding a proper synonym for this species, that Dr. Johnston has failed in it ; but, as some de- signation is indispensable, I have named it Ast. pectinata, from the minute points which crown the ossicula, and which become distinctly visible only when dry.
I shall conclude these remarks by the description of a mon- strosity in the common species, — Ast. glacialis, the clam or cramp. It is of the ordinary size, and possesses eight rays ; but to distinguish it from the simple duplication of parts, it possesses three of those circular dorsal organs, the use of which is uncertain, but of which a common specimen pos- sesses only one. These three occupy triangularly, one half of the disk, and seem connected with four of the rays, the other four lying distinct from them.
This species is in great abundance in spring, being found in multitudes in the fishermens' crab-pots, the baits of which they readily find. As the season becomes warmer they dis- appear, and in summer comparatively few are to be seen.
Polperro, Cornwall.
Dece7nher, 1839.
ON THE MONKEYS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 35
Art. VII. — On the Monkeys known to the Chinese, from the Native Authorities. By Samuel Birch, Esq., Assistant in the Depart- ment of Antiquities, British Museum ; Assistant Secretary for the English Section of the Archaeological Institute of Rome. ( Continued from page 592, vol. 3^.
Leaving the animals approximating nearest to man in Chi nese Natural History, a secondary kind of baboons or apes appears in the Encyclopedia. Of these the Pei, the Hwatso, the Pih yuen, and others, are not very discernable with re- gard to species, although their general appearance is suffi- ciently accurate to identify the genera to which they appertain. The Pih yuen is apparently a Hylohates or Machacus ursinus, and its name implies "a white monkey." The 'San tsae' ob- serves, — " There are in the Tsang ting hills many Pih yuen; their outward appearance is similar to a Me how. They have large and uneven arms and legs, taking long steps, and are excellent climbers of trees ; their note is mournful." — San. Zool. iv. 41. The Pe or Pei is perhaps the Siamang ; it is figured erect, is described as " like a wild boar, with white stripes, long neck, and tall legs. It stands erect like man, is fierce, stupid, and excessively powerful. It tears up trees and delights in injuring mankind." — San «Scc. Zo. iv. 19. This animal is not described or drawn in the Japanese Encyclope- dia. The Mashe (horse-hog) is fabulous from its description, viz. " that in the Fow yu hills are quadrupeds whose exterior form is like that of an ape with four ears, tiger's hair, and a cow's tail. Their cry is a loud bark. They are designated Ma she and eat men. When seen it is a sign of plenty of water." This, if real, is the Machacus leoninus. Likewise the animal in Zool. iv. p. 30, where the description states that " in the Yuho kingdom are beasts whose body is of a black colour. Fire issues from their mouths. Their appearance is like a Mehow. They walk and sit like men." — Zool. iv. 30. This is either a Hylohates or Simla Lar.
The Pih heaou (white bawler) is an edible animal. The San tsae (Sec. fixes it to the Lun tseen hills. " In the Lun tseen hills are beasts like apes, wdth long arms. They are fit for killing, and called Pih heaou." — San tsae, &c. Zool. iv. 34. The Papio Maimon is figin*ed under the name of Tao teih or glutton, and a most ludicrous mistake has been made by the describers ; for since the eyes of the Papio^ especially of the adult animal, are excessively small, they have accordingly been figured and described in the nipples of the animal ! — "The gluttons" says the text "have a goat's body, with human
36 ON THE MONKEYS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE.
face, eyes under their breast, tigers' teeth, and human nails. Their cry is like the squalling of children ; they eat men as well as other things. They are found in the Kewyu hills. — The * Book of Hills and Streams ' calls them Keuhaou." — Zo. iv. 39.
The Tung [Simla callitrix) is another type that can be identified. They are described as " belonging to the Yuen yew species, being nimble in their movements, and excellent climbers of trees : both great and small kinds have the long tails of the Yuen, but of a golden colour, and are commonly called Kin-tseen Jung (golden thread Jung ). They are bred in the Laeshin hills. Men shoot and kill them with poisoned arrows. Their tails are made into bed-clothes, saddle-hous- ings, and rugs to lie upon. The Jung are vastly fond of their tails, but when strack with the poison gnaw them off through pain, to get rid of their calamity." The Hwatso is a fabulous animal, and consequently an object of superstition. "In the Yaoukwang hills are animals whose exterior appearance is like a Mehow, with human face and hogs' bristles. During the winter they dwell in caves. They are called Hwatso : their cry is like cut water, and when seen they are ominous of a conscription." The " cut water " probably refers to the noise of a mill. The expression " yaon yih" in the text, ap- pears to imply the power that the Chinese, in common with other despotic Asiatic governments, have of forcing people to work for them. Yih is literally " police runners to send out" &c. — Zool. iv.
" The Yew are like the Mehow, and of a deep yellow and black colour ; their tails are several cubits long, like an ot- ter's, but have no tufts. When they scent the dew ascending to form rain, they then suspend themselves from a tree by means of their tails, to fill their nostrils with it, or else by both feet. In Keangtung they call them carriers, (Wuhkeen)." — Zool. iv. 38.
The Gaou are said to inhabit the Lunseen hills, to be like an ape, with long arms, to be good for killing, and called Gaou. — Zool. iv. 34. " The Yuen's arms, when cut through at the thick part, can be made into flutes rounder than reeds ; they are of the monkey tribe, having long legs, and are good whis- tlers, given to dragging things about, whence their name is derived from the character yuen, to drag or lead. — Zool. iv. 36.
" The Jen are like the common monkey (how), with green body and dark jaws, they have black whiskers: their paws are also black. They are naturally very fond of their whis- kers, and dote on their species, living and dying together ; on which account if one can be got at a hundred may be kill-
ON THE MONKEYS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE. 37
ed. Men shoot them with poisoned arrows ; the shot animals* companions draw out the arrow in order to wound themselves, and die with one another." They are also called Kwojen ; vide Morrison, (Diet. Chin, and Engl., part ii. vol. i. p. 321. 4to. Macao).
The How monkey {Swiia) is one name for five sorts, viz., How, Nao, Keo, Yu, and Muh. The female monkey is called ^Moo how not pin. The name of the Muh (washers) is derived from their habits : "they are naturally addicted to running about, fond of stealing things and utensils, and of imitating men, and as soon as they have brought forth their young, in imitation of mankind, they plunge them into the mountain streams." — Zool. iv. The how is the proper mon- key, but no plates being given of the others, it is difficult to guess which are indicated.
This closes the account of the Simice in the ' San tsae too hwuy : ' many of the animals are fabulous, some few perhaps new. The following scattered notices have been collected from other sources, to throw as much light on the subject as limited time and materials will allow. Although Zoology as a science, may not receive much additional information from Chinese works, yet animals of new species may occasionally be found, as was the case of the tapir first described from the Chinese by Mr. A.bel Remusat, the existence of which has since been satisfactorily proved. The Japanese Encyclope- dia before quoted, only presents its readers with two sorts of monkeys — the Yuen or Yuen-how, and the How, also named Hoosun. Fan ming mo sze cha, — " The name of Fan pro- vokes their irritability." " The keo are like monkeys, and fond of seizing in their paws men's property." Fan is the name of an Indian bonze. (See Heuen &c. part xii. p. 5).
The Urhya, of which a very splendid copy in 4to., an edi- tion of the sixth year of the emperor Keaking, exists in the library of the British Museum, not only contains several draw- ings with explanations, but also an account of the Yu, or 'do- mesticated class,' with a commentary. The plates have the Fuh-fuh holding a sword, and said to be " like a man, with straggling hair, and to run after men to eat them." — Urh-ya, part Heahow, p. 27.
The Mung yung nao chwang ; " the Mung yung have the appearance of the Nao." Mung yung means dull face.
The " Nao yuen that are good climbers ; " a species of Hy- lohates.
' Moo, mother, instead of the common feminine adjunct or prefix for female animals.
38 SILICEOUS CASTS OF ECHINITES
The " Keo foo, remarkable for their steady gaze; '' and in their description in a consecutive page it is stated, that " the Keo are like a large Mehow, that their general colour is of a blueish black, and that when they meet men, they are fond of looking favourably upon them." In commentary upon the Keu they are described as " located in the Keen ping hills, be- ing about the size of a dog, and like a Mehow, having much whisker and hair on the top of their head, which they are fond of brushing, and that when they meet men they pick up stones and throw at them." In the Dictionary of P. Basil the Keo are described as a species of monkey like men, which ravish women. In comment upon the Nao it is stated that " their external appearance is like a luy, but smaller ; that they are of a brownish black colour, can be domesticated, are more agile than cats in catching mice, and that Kewshih says that the Nao only come from the south, and are of the Mehow baboon species."
This finishes the monkeys in the works above cited. In the Chinese Dictionary of P. Basil, published by De Guignes, folio, Paris, 1807, the following apes are mentioned.
The "Kea,' sort of ape like a man." The Tsoo. The Hoosun, " animal like a monkey." The Nao, " sort of mon- key fond of climbing up trees," (p. 408). The Yaou or Yew. The How tsan, (p 408)
Art. VIII. — On the Siliceous Casts of the Echinites /rom the Chalk. By Edward Charlesworth, F.G.S., &c.
Some curious facts have, at various times, fallen under my notice, explanatory of the anomalous appearances often pre- sented by the siliceous casts of the Echini from the chalk, more especially the genera Ananchytes and Conulus ; and bearing also upon the history of the occasional silicification of the shell itself. Were it not for the costly nature of the engravings necessary to illustrate the subject, I should have been tempted ere this, in some shape or other, to have placed my observations on record ; and, without losing sight of this intention, I now only propose briefly to state some of the in- ferences I have arrived at. In doing this, however, I by no means would have it thought that I reserve to myself the ex- clusive right of entering, on a future occasion, upon the details
' Pronounced also Ko, same meaning as Keo ; Kang he tsze &c.
FROM THE CHALK. 39
connected with the results now indicated. On the contrary, I should be much gratified if the hints contained in this short notice, were to form the basis of a thorough examination of the whole matter, by any one who may have the time at com- mand, and the necessary materials within reach, for following up the enquiry.
Circumstances attending the disappearance of the Shell from the investing siliceous Matrix. — Upon breaking up the masses of common flint which have been taken from the chalk, where that substance is quarried for economic purposes, the contained shells of the Echinites, or the calcareous spar re- presenting the shell, will be found entire, and agreeing with the shells which occur in the chalk itself. This, however, is not the case with the chalk-flints that, at some remote pe- riod, have been removed from their original site, and sub- jected to diluvial action. In these latter, the shells of the Echini have disappeared, the removal being either total or partial, according to the alteration in character which the in- terior of the flint exhibits. In the ordinary flint-gravel, as for example that at Household Heath, near Norwich, the ori- ginal aspect of the flint is exchanged for a grey or a brownish- yellow colour, and then the calcareous matter of the included fossils is entirely gone, and the space which it occupied left quite free. But in other places, beds of flint may be found overlying the chalk, in which the change in the original con- dition of the silex is but slight, and the shells of the Echini and other fossils are then only partially removed.
Proposed separation of the flint Casts into true and false. — The internal siliceous moulds of the Echini may be sepa- rated by readily-appreciable characters, into what I propose to designate as the true and \he false casts. The false casts are much more abundant than the true, and are distinguished by having upon that portion of their surface which corresponds to the internal face of the ambulacral or perforated plates of the shell, a series of circular and regularly concave pits. Each one of these pits corresponds to an ambulacral perforation ; but it very frequently liappens that the areas occupied by these hollows respectively encroach upon one another, and the whole then become merged into so many deep sulci, ex- tending from the apex of the cast to the base, and indicating the course of the ambulacra. Another condition, much less frequent than the last, but exclusively confined to the false casts, is an abruptly truncate summit, with a surface clearly showing that the deficiency cannot be explained by an acci- dental fracture, but rather suggesting the idea of the siliceous matter having entered at the mouth and vent, (the shell being
40 SILICEOUS CASTS OF ECHINITES
in its natural position,) without rising high enough to fill the entire cavity.
The true casts principally differ from XhQ false, in present- ing us with a faithful fac-simile of the internal surface of the ambulacral plates ; and unless worn smooth by bouldering, or other causes, the course of the ambulacra is indicated by rows of short, cylindrical, siliceous processes, which are, in fact, nothing but the casts of the ambulacral pores ; and the length of these processes is consequently just that of the thickness of the original shell. These processes upon the true casts, conespond to the pits upon the surface of the false casts.
Now, the presence of the siliceous processes, marking the course of the ambulacra, is a circumstance that we should naturally expect, the anomaly consists in this condition being so generally reversed, — a hollow taking the place of d^ projec- tion. Every collector of fossils has probably noticed the dif- ference in the two conditions, but I am not aware that any attempt has yet been made to explain how the difference originates. The secret of the matter is simply this : — In the case of the true casts, the silex has not only filled the cavity of the shell, but it has also completely enveloped the shell externally, the Echinus forming as it were, the nucleus of the flint nodule. In the false casts the siliceous matter has filled the cavity of the shell, but not surrounded it with a mass of the same substance. Now in both these instances, the cavity of the Echinus is entirely filled with silex, and the difficulty therefore is still unaccounted for ; but if we take an Echinus filled with, but not surrounded by, flinty matter, and by an artificial process carefully remove the shell, it will be found, that a portion of the contained silex (forming the cast) is in a state of disintegration. Now it seems, that this process of disintegration always commences on those portions of the casts which are in the immediate neighbourhood of the natural openings of the shell, and that it goes forward to a greater or less extent, without the degree being regulated by any apparent law * ; but where the Echi- nus forms the nucleus of a mass of flint, the disintegrating process takes place ( if at all ) on the surface of the entire stone, and does not reach the flint within the Echinus ; con- sequently, the casts formed in this way, present us with an
' I have used the term " disintegrated" silex, in the absence of a more appropriate designation. That this condition of the silex is an altered one and not the state in which it was originally deposited, I have in my pos- session tolerably conclusive evidence.
FROM THE CHALK. 41
exact mould of the cavity of the shell. The Echlnites sim- ply filled with flint, after being torn from their bed of chalk by the operation of diluvial currents, are worn away by boul- dering, and the internal cast becomes exposed ; — the disin- tegrated silex, (no longer protected by the shelly covering), then separates from the rest of the mass, leaving the hollows or deficiencies that I have described. I do not pretend to explain how the disintegration of the flint originates, or to define the change in its mineral condition, as that enquiry forms a distinct subject of investigation.
Partial silicljlcation of the Shell Itself. — The above re- marks have reference solely to the flint which fills the cavity of the shell ; but the shell itself is frequently more or less silicified, in this respect following a general law which ap- pears to me altogether inexplicable, namely, the shells which have undergone the greatest amount of silicification, are those which contain false casts ; it is comparatively rare for the shells containing true casts, to exhibit any traces of this process.
The silicifying process appears to commence at a short distance from the natural openings of the shell, and a beau- tifully defined siliceous ring having been deposited around each of the ambulacral perforations, and also around the mouth and vent, the silicification frequently does not extend farther. At other times the silex proceeds to invest the se- creting membrane of the shell, where this membrane dips between the sutures of the separate plates; and instances sometimes occur where one third or more of the calcareous matter is replaced by silex.
Cavity of the Shell not always perfectly filled, — It some- times happens that the silex does not fill the entire cavity of the Echinus ; but I believe that when this is the case, it in- variably lines the whole internal surface of the shell, leaving a central hollow, the interior of which presents a chalcedonic or crystallized surface. The nature of this surface therefore readily shows, whether the deficient part of the mould arises from the cavity never having been filled, or from the subse- quent process of disintegration. The occasional imperfect fill- ing of the cavity of the Echini, is a condition common to both the true and the false casts.
I have never yet met with an Echinus enveloped exteraally with flint, having chalk in its interior, a circumstance suffi- ciently curious to deserve notice.
Distinct Crystals of Calcareous Spar on the internal sur- face of the Shell. — It is by no means a circumstance of rare occurrence to find crystals of calcareous spar lining a portion.
Vol. IV.— No. 37, n. s. g
42 MR. town's observations
or even the whole of the internal surface of the chalk Echini. These crystals are of a pyramidal figure, and each plate of the shell of the Echinus is occupied by the base of a single crystal, the size of the crystals being regulated by the size of the plates, an arrangement depending, I suppose, upon some law of crystallization with which I am not familiar. Now it would seem that these crystals existed before the introduction of the flint into the cavities of the Echinites, as I have had specimens in my possession in which the crystals are pre- sent, while the rest of the hollow is occupied by silex.* A cast formed under these circumstances has a most remarkable appearance ; for instead of its giving you a mould of the ca- vity of the shell, it is a mould of the cavity formed by the crystals which line the shell ; and what renders the appearance still more puzzling is this, that wherever the silex is in im- mediate contact with the crystals, the silex itself assumes a semi-crystalline structure.
If the various points connected with this subject were tho- roughly investigated, I think it probable that the result of the enquiry might develope some important suggestions with re- ference to some of the conditions under which the chalk- flints were deposited or aggregated. Considered zoologically, the enquiry is certainly not without interest ; for our know- ledge of some extinct organisms is drawn from natural moulds ; and as I have shown that these moulds are sometimes modi- fied by subsequent causes, all facts tending to elucidate the nature and possible extent of those modifications, must be looked upon as a means of guarding us against inferences of a fallacious nature.
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY.
JANUARY, 1840.
A Paper has been published in the last number of Guy's Hospital Me- dical Reports,^ detailing some facts connected with the development of
1 The most characteristic specimen of this kind that I have ever exa- mined, is in the rich collection of Mr. Fitch, of Norwich.
2 Guy's Hospital Reports, No. 9, October, 1839: edited by G. H. Barlow, M.A., &c., and J. R Babington, M.A., &c.
ON THE INCUBATED EGG. 43
tlie bird in ovo, which are well worthy the attention of those of our read- ers who may pursue the subject of Animal Physiology. It appears that the anatomical modeller to the Hospital, — Mr. Joseph Town, — whose high talent in his profession has so largely contributed to the celebrity of the Museum in that establishment, received instructions from the trea- surer,— Mr. Harrison, — to prepare a series of models illustrative of the changes which occur in the egg during the period of incubation. Before however commencing his task, he consulted the works of Sir Everard Home and other writers, that he might render himself familiar with the opinions of previous observers, and see how far his own observations would tally with the views entertained in reference to this subject, by physiolo- gists of the present day. The result was, that in the very outset of his undertaking, his attention was drawn to a circumstance which seemed to oppose the generally-received theory of the decarbonization of the blood in the embryo, by its contact with the oxygen of the atmosphere ; and this induced him to institute a series of experiments, which convey the startling announcement, that the natural development of the contain- ed embryo goes forward and is perfected without the transmission of at- mospheric air to arterialize the venous circulation.
The lining membrane of the shell, through which the air was supposed to pass before reaching the chorion, was remarked by Mr. Town to in- crease in density, and become apparently less permeable to air, in a ratio corresponding to the extent of time during which the process of incuba- tion had gone forward, a condition directly opposed to that which might have been expected to obtain, assuming the correctness of the above-mention- ed theory of decarbonization. It then occurred to Mr. Town, that in the cases in which it had been found that incubation did not go forward when a barrier was put to the supposed egress of atmospheric air, that a source of fallacy might have been present, in the employment of a sub- stance to protect the shell, which, from its noxious qualities had been fatal to the existence of the contained embryo. Having determined to satisfy himself on this point, Mr. Town infonus us that he repeated the experiment in question in the following manner. —
" Having selected a number of fresh eggs, as nearly as I could of the same size and form, I varnished them over, many times, with albumen, which had been allowed to stand for some time in an open vessel, until, by evaporation, it had acquired considerable consistence : this was re- peated until the shells appeared completely lackered. I then, with a pencil, marked one of them into equal sections, like the divisions in an orange, and cut a piece of card to correspond exactly with one of these divisions ; then a great number of papers similar to this card ; and ma-
44 ON THE INCUBATED EGG.
cerated them for two days in albumen, until they were thoroughly satu- rated, and so soft and pulpy that I could readily apply them to the egg, and bring the edges so well together, that the joining was scarcely ob- servable. After having covered the eggs in this way, and allowed them to dry, I repeated the papering and varnishing four times ; taking care to bring the middle of each section opposite the joining in the previous coating. They were now covered with four thicknesses of paper, satu- rated as described ; besides very numerous coatings of albumen, used as a varnish, first on the shell, and subsequently between each layer of pa- per ; the whole forming a covering so thick and horny, that I felt con- vinced it was entirely impermeable."
The eggs thus protected were submitted to incubation on the llth of April, and such of them as were examined during different periods of the process exhibited the development of the embryo without any deviation from its normal condition, the chick arriving at maturity in the same time as when placed under ordinary circumstances. To render the ex- periment doubly sure, it was afterwards repeated, and attended with a similar result, though in addition to the covering already described, there were added several coatings of oil-paint, purposely prepared with the most noxious materials, as a test of the air-proof nature of the protection used in the first instance.
Another observation of importance recorded by Mr. Town, is that upon his removing a large portion of the shell without injury to the chorion, while circulation wa5 going forward, no visible eflfect was produced on the blood by the admission of atmospheric air.
" The blood still continued to leave the chick of a livid-red or venous colour, pass to the chorion, and, after having circulated through that membrane, was returned to the chick of a bright scarlet ; and this dif- ference remained perfectly apparent so long as the circulation continued ; and then, but not until then, the atmosphere appeared to act upon the blood ; and both arteries and veins became alike bright scarlet, as if this change were effected by circulating through the chorion, and de- pended on some principle of vitality."
It appears to us that Mr. Town's first experiment might be advanta- geously varied by placing the egg in a condition under which the possi- ble access of atmospheric air would be even still more effectually guarded against. It might, for instance, protected in the way he has describ- ed,— be immersed in mercury, — and then subjected, in an hermetically- sealed vessel, to the temperature under which artificial incubation is known to be produced. The development of the embryo under these circumstances, even though the experiments already performed may be
NEW WORKS IN NATURAL HISTORY. '45
thought to have proved enough, would still be a result sufficiently inte- resting to repay the trouble of the attempt.*
Mr. Town's paper is illustrated by a number of coloured and beauti- fully executed lithographic drawings, and his observations contain seve- ral other matters of great interest, but into the details of which we do not enter ; our object having been rather to point out the channel through which he has made public his experiments and deductions, than to dis- cuss the physiological considerations they involve.
The first step has just been taken to establish a Society for the promo- tion of Natural History by means of microscopical observations, and a meeting, with that object in view, was held a few days back at the Hor-. ticultural Society's rooms, in Regent Street. Our own feeling is strongly opposed to the multiplication of scientific bodies, upon the principle that one association of the kind, well supported, can do more to promote the interests of science, than can be efi'ected by the exertions of half a dozen, when each is restricted to a particular department of research, and, from that very restriction, probably cramped in its available re- sources for prosecuting the contemplated purpose of its formation. In the present instance, however, the proposed institution cannot justly be regarded as any off-shoot from a parent stock. The nature of the enqui- ries it contemplates pursuing, is as independent and distinct as the field which lies before it is boundless ; and if only a reasonable share of sup- port be proffered it by the cultivators of science, its establishment must eventually give rise to the happiest results.
The new year opens with a rich promise of additions to our scientific literature. Messrs. Whitehead and Co. announce for publication an il- lustrated work upon the history of the entire class Mammalia, in which all the known species will be described and figured. Having some know- ledge of the great capital embarked in this undertaking, and entertain- ing a high opinion of the zoological acquirements of the author — Mr. Martin, we anticipate in this work a contribution to Natural History of no ordinary importance. Mr. Bowerbank is ready with the first part of his history of the Sheppey fossil fruits, — a work which will put the sci- entific world in possession of the contents of his unique collection, and the result of many years most diligent research into the history of this little-known class of organic remains. A wide and comparatively untrod-
* It would of course be necessary that the e^g should have a column of mercury above it, equal to the ordinary weight of the atmosphere.
46
NEW SPECIES OF SIPHONIA.
den field of philosophical investigation has lately been engaging the at- tention of Professor Owen, the microscopic structure of the teeth through- out the Vertebrata generally, but more particularly as developed in some of the extinct genera among the fishes and Reptilia. Mr. Bail- liere announces for publication in the month of February, some portion of Mr. Owen's observations.
British Natural History, in the hands of Mr. Van Voorst, seems to flourish amazingly. Mr. Newman on the British Ferns, and Mr. Bell on the British Crustacea, are both about to issue from No. 1, Paternoster Row, and likewise another work which we announce with no small share of gratification ; — a History of our indigenous species in the families As- teriadce and Bchinidce, by Mr. Forbes. Mr. Lowe commits a work, in active preparation, on the Fishes of Madeira, to the same able superin- tendance ; and a volume, styled '* The Canadian Naturalist" makes its appearance from the same quarter. Our own publishers, Messrs. Long- man and Co., promise an illustrated history of the various breeds of our domesticated animals, by the celebrated agricultural professor, Mr. Low, and a revised edition of Turton's Land and Fresh-water Shells, by Mr. Gray, of the British Museum.
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS.
New Species of Siphonia from the Yorkshire Chalk.— IniheMsig. Nat. Hist, for 1839 (page 10), it was observed that the numerous specimens of SpongicB and Siphonice from the chalk in the neighbourhood of Bridlington, exhibit such vari- eties of form, that it is difficult, and in some cases almost impossible, to distinguish the species. — The Siphonia of which the annexed figure (fig. 2) is a reduced sketch, is, however, marked by such distinctive characters, that I have ventured to consider it as a new species, under the name oi Si- phonia fusiformis. At the time the account above referred to was written, I w^as not aware of the ex- istence of this species ; the specimen from which the drawing was taken had been received some time since from Mr. Wilson, the lapidary, of Brid- lington Quay, and had inadvertently been laid aside amongst a number of duplicates.
LITTLE BUSTARD. — STERNA AND LARUS. 47
SiPHONiA fusiformis. — Irregularly fusiform, very much elongated, the summit composed of a cluster of naked tubes.
This species may at once be distinguished by the form of the crown, and by its great length, which is equal to about ten times its greatest breadth. The stem, near the root, con- tains as usual a single canal, which, at the distance of four inches from the bottom, is divided into four or five ; the num- ber is encreased on approaching the summit, which is pierced by about twelve apertures (fig. 3). These canals are neither so crowded as those of Siphonia clava, nor so large and distant from each other as those of Siph. anguilla. The appearance of the crown is that of a cluster of thick, solid tubes, but this character is lost at a short distance from the extreme point. The annexed sketch, which is drawn of the na- tural size, will give an idea of the general appearance of the summit. The length of the whole specimen is more than fourteen inches.- -Jo/m Ed- ward Lee.— Hull, Sept. 18, 1839.
Little Bustard Shot in Devonshire. — On Friday, the 15th of November, a specimen of that very rare bird, the little bustard, [Tetrax campestris), was killed at Bigbury, in the south of Devon, which came into my possession the next day ; this is I believe the second occurrence of this bird in that county, and it is rather singular, that in the other instance the bird was bought in Plymouth market in 1804, by my brother, Wm. Prideaux, and presented to the late Col. Mon- tagu, and is now in the British Museum ; it was killed in the north of Devon. — Charles Prideaux. — Hatch Arundel, near Kingshridge, Devon. — Nov. 22nd, 1839.
Habits ef the different Species of Sterna and Larus. The sandy island of Mareat is quite covered with salt plants, be- tween which thousands of sea-birds had built their nests, in different groups, according to the different species. 1 re- marked five species that had collected there for the purpose of hatching their young : Sterna affinis, St. nigra, St. tenui- rostris, Larus leucophthalmus, and Jmv. Jlavipes. Each species had occupied a division by itself, in which the several nests were hardly a foot distant from each other. Tn each nest of four of the groups there was only one eg^, in a much- advanced stage of incubation ; in the nests of Sterna nigra only were there two eggs. The sailors collected a great num- ber of eggs, every one of which they were obliged to throw away. It was heart-rending to hear the cries of the disturb- ed birds, which were so eager to hatch that those which had
48 MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.
lost their own eggy occupied the first nest they could find with an egg in it. — Riippell : Travels in Abyssinia.
Society for Microscopical Investigation. — A meeting was held at the house of E. J. Quekett, Esq., Wellclose Square, Sept. 3rd., 1839, to take into consideration the propriety of forming a society for the promotion of microscopical investi- gation, and for the introduction and improvement of the mi- croscope, as a scientific instrument ; — The following gentle- men were present : — Rev. J. T. Bean, Rev. J. B. Reade, Dr. F. Farre, Messrs. Francis, Greening, Jackson, Lister, G. Lod- diges, C. Loddiges, E. J. Quekett, Rippingham, Ross, R. H. Solly, C. Varly, N. B. Ward, and A. White. It was "Re- solved, that such a society should be formed ; that a provi- sional committee be appointed to carry the resolution into effect ; and that the said committee do consist of the under- mentioned gentlemen; — Messrs. Bowerbank, Lister, Loddi- ges, Quekett, Reade, Solly, and Ward." The provisional committee, in accordance with the above resolution, having prepared an outline of a constitution for the society, a meet- ing was held at the Horticultural Society's rooms, Regent- street, on Friday evening, the 20th instant. The meeting was numerously attended. Professor Owen, F.R.S., &c., took the chair, and was elected president ; after which, the treasu- rer, N. B. Ward, Esq., the secretary. Dr. A. Farre, and the council were appointed. The constitution prepared by the provisional committee was unanimously adopted by the meet- ing, and the president announced, that the future meetings of the society would be held in the Horticultural Society's rooms. The society will be designated the "Microscopical Society." Its objects are, to promote improvements in the optical and mechanical construction of microscopes ; the reading and discussion of papers, upon new and interesting subjects of microscopical enquiry ; the formation of a col- lection of rare and valuable microscopical objects ; and of a library of reference. At the close of the business of the evening, upwards of fifty gentlemen joined the society. The terms upon which members are admitted, are one guinea en- trance, and a yearly subscription to the same amount.
THE MAGAZINE
OF
NATURAL HISTORY
FEBRUARY, 1840.
Art/ I. — View of the Fauna of Brazil, anterior to the last Geo- logical Revolution. By Dr. Lund.
(Continued from Page 8).
The greater proportion of these caves have their entrances so disposed, that rain-water penetrates into them, either in the shape of casual or periodical floods, or else in that of con- stant streams. This water has often no other outlet than the fissures in the floor of the cave; but it not unfre- quently pursues its course quite through, and escapes by an- other aperture. The rain-water necessarily brings with it soil and organic remains, which it is highly necessary to distin- guish from the older deposits of the same kind ; and fortu- nately this is no very difficult point. The dry bed of former floods is often so distinguishable that it cannot easily escape notice. A channel, often so deep in the soil as to expose the rock, and strewed with sand and boulders, admits of no doubt ; and in it besides are often found shells of recent Mol- lusca, branches, roots, and leaves of trees, &c.
When this proof is wanting, the condition and contents of the soil itself will serve to characterize it. Should it be loose and light, of a grey or black colour; — or if it contain the slightest trace of vegetable remains, uncarbonized ; — then there can be no doubt of its recent origin, even in the rare contingency of our not being able to discover the passage by which it has entered, which is usually easy enough to per- ceive. Where these distinguishing marks are all absent, the determination becomes more difficult. In some caverns I have seen alluvial deposits in which no trace of vegetable re- mains could be detected, and which notwithstanding, if they have not been introduced at late periods by water, have at
Vol. IV.— No. 38. n. s. h
50 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL
least been exposed to its influence. The characters most to be depended on in the latter case, are a very pale dull colour, approaching to ashen-grey; a greater intermixture of sand than usual on the surface, with a diminution in the quantity downwards ; the presence of rolled stones lying loose on the surface ; the absence of saltpetre, and of the stalagmitic coat- ing:— these signs are sufficient to prove that rain-water has gained admission into the caverns, and operated on the soil therein, though it may not have originally deposited the latter. Caverns of this description demand the most careful examina- tion ; for not only might recent bones be covered with soil deposited by the water in its passage, but also, really ancient fossils, which had previously lain in the soil, might be washed out by the same agency, and deposited in places where their origin and age might easily be mistaken. I have seen exam- ples of both these cases ; but I must confess that the great majority of caverns here, present no such difficulties, but in general have a single opening in the perpendicular, naked face of a rock, high above the sunounding soil, and most fre- quently protected by a projecting roof of limestone. A layer of reddish stalagmite is spread, like a carpet, over the soil of the cavern, and serves to mark the boundary between the past and the present. None of nature's devastating forces have here had place ; all lies undisturbed, and in the same condi- tion as when deposited by that mighty catastrophe which closed the curtain over a former world and its inhabitants. — Such is the theatre to which I wish to introduce the reader ; for what this mantle covers — what this soil contains, belongs without exception to that extinct world.
The nature and condition of the fossils themselves often afford still better means of determining their age. -In by far the greater number of instances they present the following appearances. The bones are entire and uninjured, with their smallest processes and their finest points and edges well pre- served. Their exterior is of a beautiful reddish ochre-yellow, and their fractured interior of the purest white. They are much lighter than recent bones, and so extremely brittle as to crum- ble to pieces if carelessly handled : they adhere closely to the tongue : if exposed to the action of fire, they turn black, and give out, although in a slight degree, a burnt and fetid odour. A portion of the soil in which they have lain always adheres to these bones, either in the form of a fine dust or coating, or as filling up their cavities. When the enveloping soil has been saturated with lime-water, it adheres so closely to the bone that it is impossible to separate the two. More rarely the bones, without losing their uninjured surface, or the pure white co-
k
PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 51
lour and osseous structure which they display when broken, have their cells lined, or sometimes quite tilledj with a stony substancej and their weight is consequently so much increased that they appear to be of the same specific gravity as lime- stone. There is yet a third condition, in which these bones depart still farther from their original character than in the two above named ; that is, where the organic structure has entirely disappeared, and calcareous spar is substituted for the osseous substance. This alteration, I have satisfied myself, is owing to the bones having lain long under water.
It will next be my object to point out the mechanical changes which these fossils have undergone, and which may be treated of under three classes. First ; splits and frac- tures in all directions, but for the most part longitudinal, and not unfrequently accompanied by a more or less evident compression of the bone. In these cases the interior surface of the medullary cavity and of the cellular structure, as well as the sides of the fracture, are of the same reddish yellow colour as the exterior : and if the soil be impregnated with calcareous particles, then are these internal surfaces overlaid with a thin coating of very fine crystals of calcareous spar ; but they are never filled with earth. Besides, the outer sur- face being perfectly uninjured, it is ^lear that these bones have been buried in the soil in a more or less fresh condition, and that it was only from their increasing brittleness, that in the course of time they have begun to yield to the continual superincumbent pressure. To this class also belong those injuries of which I have spoken in describing the cave of Maquine. The bones, in that case, were not only split in all directions, but often quite crushed ; yet in such a manner that the fragments lay by the side of each other in their natural position. In the same paper I have shown how this fact, as well as some others met with in that cavern, can only be ex- plained by the supposition of effects produced on the animals, when still clothed with flesh and skin, by vast masses of rock.
The second class of mechanical changes which these bones have undergone, has been effected by the teeth of predatory animals. And again, these changes depend partly on the resistance the bones were calculated to offer, — partly on the character of the animal that attacked them. Such beasts of prey as derive a considerable quantity of nutriment from the bones themselves, and for that purpose are provided with crushing teeth, like the huge hyaenas of the Old World, the remains of which are found in European caves, were want- ing in this part of the globe, and were represented by others, which have left the records of their existence imprinted in a
52 VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL
much less destructive form on the relics of their prey. Of this class I need only remark, that the fragments are scattered promiscuously together, and are enveloped in, and filled with, earth. Moreover, they are often gnawed by the teeth of small animals.
The third kind of mechanical change which these bones exhibit, is an abrasion of their points and angles, which, in a former communication, I conceive that I have proved to be attributable to the action of the water which formerly had ac- cess to the caves wherein they are found.
In all the cases of which I have hitherto spoken, the bones have been protected from the action of the atmosphere, either by their stalagmitic covering, or by lying in water. But many have not been so favourably circumstanced. Many have I seen which, from their peculiarly raised position in the middle of a basin in the floor, have escaped being buried in the soil ; and these present the most remarkable examples of the destructive power of time. Their most exposed parts are mouldered away, and changed into a yellowish dust, which, by covering the inferior portions, has protected these from decomposition. In those caverns where water has had access in later periods, these fossil bones have occasionally been torn out of their beds, and by the joint operation of water and air, their decomposition has been so accelerated that they resemble in appearance half-decomposed recent bones. This has come under my notice at least once ; and had it not been for the size of the bones, which indicated a much larger ani- mal than any mammal now living in this quarter of the globe, I confess I might have mistaken its age. Such, however, if I may judge from my own experience, is seldom the case; at any rate I can assure the Society that the above is the only instance open to any doubt, among the fossils forming the subject of this communication ; all the others were found under circumstances that left not the slightest question as to their origin.
So much for the circumstances under which these fossils are found and the changes they have undergone. But before I proceed to a more accurate description of the animals to which these remains belong, it will perhaps be advisable to preface it with a few remarks on those existing species which frequented or have left their traces in the spots that have af- forded us so astonishing a catalogue of the creatures of a for- mer world. /
The first place on this list is due to the family of the bats. There are few caves which do not harbour at least some in- dividuals of this family : but to one who has not been an eye-
PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 53
witness of the fact, the multitudes in which they are found in certain caverns, must seem perfectly incredible. There are caverns, commonly called '' Lappas dos Morcegos," that is, bat-caverns, which are rendered almost impassable by these creatures. Their liquid excrement covers considerable sur- faces of the walls and floor, rendering the latter so slippery that it is hardly safe to cross it where at all inclined; and besides, the strong ammoniacal odour exhaled is enough to stifle the intruder whom science has lured into these murky labyrinths. I have seen considerable spaces of the roof so thickly covered with bats, that they appeared matted toge- ther ; and when disturbed, the universal flutter agitates the air so much as to extinguish the lights. Nor is it only in the living state that they are found, but dead or dying they are also seen hanging from the roof by their hind legs ; while their remains are strewed over the floor in every stage of de- composition.
In these caves I have discovered some species of the ge- nera Phyllostoma, Molossus, Glossophaga, Vespertilio, and others ; but the most abundant by far is a new geims, which, from its peculiar dental system, is not only far removed from the other genera of this family, but even stands alone in the order Mammalia. Of this very remarkable creature I hope soon to forward a description and drawings.
As the bats hold the first place among the living inhabit- ants of these caves, so is it the family of rodents which have left the greatest number of recent bones there. And as the bones of the Rodentia form no inconsiderable portion of the fossil remains ; — and the species of this family at present ex- isting in these parts being besides very imperfectly known ; — it will be advisable to offer a short sketch of them : pre- mising that in their enumeration, as well as in that of all others that may follow, I strictly confine myself to those which, either from my own observation, or from the reports of trustworthy witnesses, I know to be inhabitants of the dis- trict in which these caverns are situated. *
' Brazil embrace?, witliin its extensive boundaries, great varieties of cli- mate and other physical conditions. In the southern provinces, most of the tropical forms, both of animals and vegetables, disappear, and are re- placed by new ones. There is scarcely less difference observable in com- paring the interior highlands with the narrow tract which extends along the coast, and is bounded by a high, wooded, wall of rock. Fortius reason I have not been able to confine myself to mere political divisions. And be- sides, as it is an indubitable truth that the extinct animals have in general lived in the spots where their remains are now found, a geographical com- parison of existing and extinct animals must necessarily be confined to the district where the latter occur.
H 3
Ol VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF BRAZIL
I naturally place at the head of the rodents the largest yet known — the Kapivar. It is spread over all the warm parts of eastern South America, and its amphibious habits partially protect it from the fate to which it is doomed in consequence of its depredations on the corn-fields. There is but one known species of this genus, — the Hydrochoerus Capihara.
The next in size and abundance is the Paca, — Ccelogenys Paca. This is much prized for its flesh, and its numbers have in consequence sensibly decreased in many places. Its colour varies through all shades, from a light yellow-brown to a black-brown. I confess that I cannot, from my own ex- perience, affirm a distinction between Coel. fulvus and Ccel. fuscus ; and the Brazilians, who have a remarkably good eye for permanent marks of distinction, and who often perceive specific differences where a naturalist can see only varieties, are unanimous in recognizing but one species of Paca. The same is the case with the Gutia [Dasyprocta Aguti), and the Perea (Cavia Aperea), — the only species of their respective genera in those parts of Brazil which I have visited. Of the genus Lepus there is but one species [Lep. Tapeti), of an in- termediate character between the rabbit and the hare, though in its habits it agrees best with the latter. There is likewise but a single species of squirrel (Sciurus (Bstuafis): and finally the list closes with an animal [Sphiggurus spinosa^ F. Cuv.), which, from its sluggishness and awkwardness, would ere this have been nearly extinct, had it not been provided by nature with a formidable cuirass, by which it is protected fi:om all its enemies.
Such is the catalogue of the rodents hitherto known and' described as inhabiting this district ; but the number which has escaped the observation of naturalists is still greater, and as they fill a distinguished part in the history of the inhabit- ants of these caverns, it is important that the reader should be made acquainted with them.
I begin with the genus Echimys, or spiny rat, of which there are four species in these parts, all different from those of Paraguay and Guiana. The largest of them is about the size of the Perea, while the others are not larger than our common house-rat. They are nocturnal animals, passing the day in subterranean holes in the woods, and feeding not only on frogs, but on insects, the wings and elytra of which are seen strewn outside their holes. They present several pe- culiarities in their internal structure ; but on the whole ap- proach nearest to the porcupine {Hystrix), which they serve to connect, in many points, with the cavies, and especially with the genus Dasyprocta ; while in occasional features they
PREVIOUS TO THE LAST GEOLOGICAL REVOLUTION. 55
remind us of the true rats. The commonest species, of which we shall have occasion to speak more at large hereaf- ter, is distinguished from the others by a groove or furrow on the front of the incisors, for which reason I propose to name it Echimys sulcidens. •
Of the genus Mus I am acquainted with five species, which all appear different to those described by Azara and Reng- ger from Paraguay. Two of these infest houses, the three others keep out in fields and woods. One of the former ap- pears to me identical with our own house-mouse [Mus mus- culus), but the other is quite different from our two kinds of house-rat, Mus decumanus and Mus rattus. I call it for the present, Mus setosus, on account of the long black bristles which are scattered here and there over its skin. This spe- cies was introduced into these parts about the commencement of the present century ; and it has driven out of the houses a smaller species, of a pretty chocolate-brown on the back, chesnut-brown on the sides, and white on the belly, with a fine short fur, and a short silky tail : the latter species has become rare, and is now only seen about cultivated fields. — A fourth and still smaller species frequents gardens : it is of the same size as our house-mouse, has a large head, with large hairy ears, and a very short tail. I have named it Mus last- Otis. But the most remarkable species of this genus lives only in the woods. I have hitherto been unable to procure a single specimen in fre§h condition ; but I have found it abun- dant in the stomachs of the larger diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey. Its tail is provided with stiff bristles ; on which ac- count I have given it the temporary name of Mus lasiurus.
After this cursory sketch of the rodents inhabiting this dis- trict,' I shall proceed to consider them with reference to the remains which they have left in the caves, in order to explain thereby some points connected with the history of the fossil bones in the same places.
I commence with the common Brazilian wood-rat, Mus lasiurus. I know of very few caves in which remains of this animal are not found ; and in many they occur in such pro- digious quantities, as to excite the utmost astonishment. To convey some idea of this, I will give a brief description of the first cavern of this kind that I had an opportunity of examin- ing near Caxoero do Campo. Thie cavern is one hundred and twenty feet long, from six to nine feet wide, and from thirty
* The Moco (Kerodon rupestre) is not found within the district in which the caves are situated, although the southern boundary of its habitat is but a few degrees from that locality.
66 EXTIxNCT FAUNA OF BRAZIL.
to forty feet in height. Its floor, for a distance of twenty feet from the entrance, was covered with a bed of earth, perfectly identical with the soil outside, and which had evidently been washed in by rain water. Farther in, this bed of earth dis- appeai-ed, and was replaced by a layer of very loose brownish or black mould, about a foot thick, and completely full of small bones, more abundant in some places than in others. — I filled a box, containing about half a cubic foot, with this mould ; and on my return home counted in it about 2,000 separate rami of the under jaw of Mus lasiurus, and about 400 of Videlphis murinus^ besides a small number of the jaws of other animals, of which I shall presently speak more particularly. These bones were for the most part broken : only the smaller, such as those of the feet, the vertehrce, and the strongest long bones, being entire. All the skulls, with- out exception, were fractured, so that a portion of each, par- ticularly the ossa inter par iet alia, was usually wanting : the weaker ascending ramus of the under jaw was also generally absent. The bones were in different states of preservation, according to the position occupied by them in the bed of earth ; those lying deepest being brown, brittle, and adhesive to the tongue, properties which diminished upwards, so that the uppermost of all were very fresh. Upon the surface of the earth lay scattered the elytra and legs of beetles.
The extraordinary collection of bones at this place, and their fractured condition, led me involuntarily to the conclu- sion, that they must have been introduced by some predatory animal ; and subsequent examination has taught me to recog- nize this animal in the common Brazilian owl, Strix perlata. This owl is met with in abundance in the caverns, where also I have had frequent .opportunities of examining its nest, under which I have invariably found a heap of ball-shaped bodies, from an inch and a half to two inches in diameter. — These balls consist of tangled hair, intermixed with the above- mentioned bones ; and are the well-known balls cast up by all predatory birds after digesting the flesh of their prey. — They fall asunder in the course of time, when the less dura- ble portions, such as the hair &c., moulder away, and form the loose soil before spoken of, in which the bones lie scat- tered about. I have had frequent opportunities of tracing the formation of these heaps from their first commencement : but to remove all possibility of doubt, I kept several species of owls in my own house, and supplied them with small mam- mals and birds; and under my own eye they cast up the very same sort of balls filled with bones, which exhibited exactly the same marks of injury as those in the caves.
M. RANG ON THE ARGONAUT. 57
With regard to the species to which the bones in the balls have belonged, I have found the following kinds, and in about the following proportions. Out of 1000 individuals, Mus la- 5^Mr^/s constitutes 800; Didelphis murmus, 100; EcJnmys sulcidens, 50 ; small birds, 20 ; bats, 10 ; a smaller species of Mus, which I consider to be Mus lasiotis, 10; and the re- maining 10 are composed of the three other species of Echi- mys, together with some young individuals of rabbit and Perea in about equal proportions. Unconnected with this heap of bones are frequently found the remains of the two larger spe- cies of this family, — the Paca and the Gutia. The numer- ous foot-prints of the first of these animals, which may be observed in almost all the caves, prove that it is a constant visitor at least ; and indeed, in some caverns, where their path lay over narrow passes, I have seen the limestone quite po- lished by their feet.
Of the three other species of this family, the Kapivar, the Sphiggurus and the squirrel, 1 have as yet discovered neither traces nor remains.
(To he continued).
Art. II. — On the Genus Argonauta. By M. Rang* ( Contifiued from page J 6).
'Let us now turn to the consideration of a fact of more impor- tance, and which, beyond contradiction, furnishes one of the strongest arguments apparently at least in favour of parasitisifi. M. de Blainville very ingeniously makes use of our disco- very to corroborate the opinion that he advocates ; and it is with that clearness which runs throughout his demonstrations, that he here developes his views, which are undoubtedly very likely to carry us along with him, but which, nevertheless, rest upon an observation, respecting which we are somewhat at variance, so that we do not find in this new argument all the force which at the first glance it appears to possess. The Professor, admitting our assertion that the poulp of the argo- naut crawls vvith its tube above, that is to say, according to his idea, with the ventral part uppermost, remarks that in this respect the poulp completely differs from the ordinary Octopi which he has obsers^ed upon the shores of Provence, and par- ticularly from the Oct. moschatus. These Octopi, he says, crawl by dragging themselves along the ground, but always
58 M. SANDER RANG
with the tube below, and the dorsal region above ; and he consequently infers that our argonautic Octopus is in an ano- malous position, while the Octopi, properly so called, are in a normal one : from which M. de Blainville deduces a new proof of the parasitism of the animal.
Without venturing to discuss the validity of this argument, we will merely observe that if we do not admit it, it is in a great measure because we are not agreed as to its elements.
We have often seen Octopi out of the water, in the act of progression ; and a drawing made on the coasts of Provence by.M. de Blainville himself, and which he very kindly showed us, appeared in some measure to confirm what we on our part had observed. The species we have seen is precisely the same as that which engaged the attention of this naturalist; we have found it in the same position as he did, but we are far from affirming that it assumes no other, for we have often observed the contrary.
The Octopus moschatus is undoubtedly, of all the species, the one which most readily accommodates itself to this expe- riment, not only because it is the most common in the nets of the Mediterranean fishermen, but also because, when out of the water, it exhibits surprising strength and agility. We have studied it in the road of Algiers, at the instant when the fishermen hoisted up their nets, almost always full, upon the deck of their boats. Escaping through the meshes, these ani- mals would run about, endeavouring to regain the sea ; and nothing in fact could be more curious than the motions used to attain that end. They did not crawl in the manner of gasteropods, but holding themselves bent double, so that only their head and the extremity of their sac rested upon the deck, they seemed to gallop at a great rate, if we may so express ourselves, enlarging their back or stomach according to their position ; while their arms, which they carried before them, or by their sides, had an undulatory or serpentine motion, and, fixing themselves alternately by their suckers, assisted the Octopus to draw itself along, while raising itself on its extremities. What we inferred from this was, that when out of the water, these invertebrate animals move themselves as they can, by the power of the arms furnished with suckers, according to the position in which they find themselves placed, and according to the vitality remaining in them. This condition is really an accidental one for them, since by the nature of their organization, the power of living habitually out of the water has not been granted to them, and conse- quently they have not been provided with any particular organ for terrestrial progression. But their normal state is when
ON, THE ARGONAUT. 59
they are in the water ; it is there only that they enjoy the fa- culties for action which have been given them ; and in the water we affirm that they never crawl or progress in the man- ner above described, any more than that they swim in turning upon themselves, as has been advanced.
We do not however altogether disallow the force of the ar- gument advanced by M. de Blainville, and this is the way in which we understand it. If we suppose that a poulp, from the nature of its exigences, saad' from its peculiarly pelagian destiny,- is compelled to have recourse to a shell in which to lodge itself, and pass the whole or a part of its life, we must certainly admit, in some of its organs, a particular pre-arrange- ment or modification. It would, for example, be necessary that nature should have provided it with organs specially des- tined to maintain its position within this foreign covering ; — and such organs we find in the membraniferous arms of the poulp we are now considering. Thus, when we meet with an animal surrounded by these peculiarities,- — a mollusc in this anomalous state, — we may be justified in considering it to be a parasite, but can we affirm with certainty that it is so? It is after all but a pjesumption ; and to consider the para- sitism demonstrated, would perhaps be hardly compatible with sound logic.
We cannot conclude this portion of our memoir without remarking that Ferussac, a short time before his death, as we have just learned, entertained the idea that the membranifer- ous arms of the poulp of the argonaut were disposed by the poulp upon the lateral faces of the shell ; this, at least, is what we found expressed in a letter, written by him to M. Pretre, requesting from him a new plate for his great work on the cryptodibranchiate cephalopods, and which letter that skilful artist very willingly communicated to us. The pas- sage is as follows. — "In the second phial is a specimen in its shell (of which also a view must be taken), and having the large membrane very much spread out with great care over the shell, in the same position as its arm." Unfortunately,, neither the animals nor the beautiful drawing made by M. Pretre are to be found; and the sentence we have just quoted is all that we possess by Ferussac relating to a subject which it would have been very interesting to see treated of by him.
Locomotive Faculty of the Argonaut in deep water. — When in deep water the poulp of the argonaut swims in the same manner as other cryptodibranchial cephalopods, — by the re- jection of the water introduced into the sac by means of a tube situated opposite to the anus. Such is the third obser-
60 M. SANDER RANG
valion we have made ; it evidently tends to restore this poulp to the normal state of the other cephalopods, from which it has been so strangely separated ; — it destroys the fabulous notions of the navigation of the argonaut ; — it explains why it is necessary that this poulp should have two palmated arms to retain its shell ; — and finally, it overturns the argument drawn from the divergence of opinions as to the manner in which the poulp swims on the surface of the water, and on which was founded the statement that the parasitic inhabit- ant of the argonaut was not always a poulp with palmated arms, or else that it did not always place itself in the same relation to the shell.
Locomotive Faculty of the Poulp of the Argonaut at the hottom of the Sea. — The observation we have just made, and the description we gave at the commencement of this memoir of the manner in which the poulp of the argonaut crawls along the bottom of the sea, constitute a fact which is quite new, and which seems not to have been previously observed. It is nevertheless but just to state that it had already been pointed out ; for Rumphius long ago said that this mollusc walked at the bottom of the sea by the aid of its arms, and with the keel of its shell uppermost. AVe then merely give a more detailed confirmation of his observation. It naturally follows from what we have said on this subject, that these poulps do not always carry themselves with their ventral part beneath, but fi*equently also with it above.
This observation weakens still more the opinion of those naturalists who suppose that the palmated arms are turned to the side of the anterior part of the shell, and of those who think that the mollusc places itself indifferently either one way or the other ; and draw fi:om thence an argument for its non-parasitism. And finally, it also restores the poulp to a more normal state than that which had been assigned to it.
Will not this peculiar mode of reptation at the bottom of the sea explain why the poulp in question, supposing it to be the real constructor of the shell, should preserve a space at the end, instead of filling the forsaken part with a solid de- posit, like the Magilus, or forming partitions there, like the Nautilus ? May it not be for the puipose of preserving a reservoir of air, in order to facilitate its rapid and vertical ascent to the surface of the water ? Rumphius, who was a close observer, as we have just shown, seems to confirm this idea, when, in referring to this mollusc, he remarks that it also re-ascends in a reversed position ; that is, with its head below and the keel of its shell above. In fact, is it not evi- dently for the purpose of retaining the air compressed by it
ON THE ARGONAUT. (51
into the bottom of the shell, that the poulp thus holds itself upside down during its ascension ? If, on the contrary, it ascended with the keel downwards, this air could not fail 'to escape, and it would .then be necessary for the animal to use its organs of " refoulement" to remedy this loss. This remark will perhaps appear strange to some persons ; but it is cer- tain that many of the Molhisca and Acalepha ascend on this principle : and we have many times seen them leave at the surface of the sea, the bubble of air which they had undoubt- ly obtained at the bottom by means of some peculiar faculty.
Examination of the arguments which have been presented in favour of one or the other opinion. — M. de Blainville, in his interesting letter, has advanced a series of arguments in favour of parasitism, to the greater part of which our preced- ing observations apply. But there are some still remaining, to which we have objections to oppose; such as, for exam- ple, his fourth argument, which is drawn from the absence of organic attachment between the shell and the animal, a cir- cumstance tending to indicate that the two are foreign to each other.
We quite agree with those naturalists who recognise this want of attachment ; in fact there is no other connection be- tween the shell and the animal, than that of contact, and this argument has always been regarded as one of the most valid : we can, how^ever, meet it by another, namely, that the true constructor of the shell, supposing it not to be the poulp, did not adhere to it either ; since, contrary to what we observe in other shells, there are upon the argonaut no traces of attach- ment, or, in fact, of any muscular impression. This remark, moreover, is not our own ; it was made to us by Cuvier ten years ago, in a conversation with him on this subject.
To this observation it has sometimes been objected, that the argonaut is evidently an internal shell. We confess that we should have some difficulty in picturing to ourselves an internal shell of this description, — so ^^enroulee", so symme- trical and diaphanous, and possessing ribs and tubercles, and, in short, so little analogous to all internal shells, whatever may be the order of Molhisca to which they belong.
An attempt has also been made to approximate this shell to the genus Atlanta, which attempt rests upon some recital of an inhabitant of the island of Amboina, of which however we have nothing but a completely anecdotal report. But in the genus Atlanta the animal is united to the shell by a very evident attachment, and upon the whole there exists no rela- tion between the argonauts to the Atlanta on the one hand, or to the Carinaria on the other ; for these two nucleobranchiate
62 M. SANDER RANG
genera constantly possess a simple and central keel, which the argonauts do not. And again, as we have long since shown, the Atlanta and Carinaria are not all symmetrical in form, while, on the contrary, all the argonauts are so.
In order to prove that the argonaut is inhabited by another mollusc, besides the membraniferous-armed poulp, a beauti- ful specimen of this shell, in the possession of M. de Roissy has been quoted, in which, by means of an accidental frac- ture, a torn fragment fixed to the internal wall may distinctly be perceived. We have not seen this shell, but from what M. de Roissy himself has told us of it, we do not think that an argument of any great weight can be drawn from this cir- cumstance. Are not parasites, such as the Ascidiw, Anati- Jerce, and Actinice for instance, often found (as we ourselves have seen) fixed to forsaken shells ? And might they not leave fragments of their base attached.? The argonaut of M. de Roissy perhaps offers an example of this kind ; there is nothing to prove the contrary.
The fifth argument of M. de Blainville tends to demonstrate that the form of the animal has no true correspondence with that of the shell. We shall not return to this subject; for to establish this correspondence is exactly what we endeavoured to do towards the commencement of this memoir, and we find it still greater, now that we know the use of the membranifer- ous arms.
In his ninth argument M. de Blainville expresses himself thus. — "The animal may be drawn out of its shell apparently without feeling any inconvenience, and without suspending its movements ; as Cranch has proved positively by experi- ment." Nothing is so embarrassing as. to have to refute an argument, based upon what a person highly worthy of credit says he has seen. We have over and over again observ^ed exactly the contrary. One may combat an opinion ; but in conscience one cannot tell an observer who professes to have seen a thing, — "You have not seen it! \' although one may feel certain that it never could have been so. We shall there- fore omit the consideration of Cranch and his poulp, and merely recall what we said in detailing our own observations upon the one that was on the point of expiring, and which, weakened, and scarcely retaining any life, had contracted its membraniferous arms, and being no longer able to hold its shell, was accidentally separated from it. We made the same observation many years ago, upon the particular species spoken of by Cranch, but with less of detail, because we did not then know the use of the large arms ; and also at a later period, at the Cape of Good Hope; and lastly, we have stu-
ON THE ARGONAUT. 63
died the facts we relate in this memoir, at Algiers. We de- clare that we have never seen the poulp voluntarily quit its shell ; and that it was only when deprived by weakness of the power of adhering to it by means of the organs which nature had given it for this purpose, that it was separated from it by a fortuitous circumstance, and one that was quite inde- pendent of its will. And if, in this case, the poulp resumed an appearance of activity, it was only to expend all its re- maining strength in one effort, and expire almost immediately. We shall say nothing further on this subject; for reasoning, in this case, can do no more, and subsequent experience only can show the weight of these arguments. On this ground we earnestly entreat those who may have opportunities of study- ing the poulp of the argonaut in its shell, to multiply their experiments on this fact as much as possible, and carefully to record all they witness,
If we have found ourselves under the necessity of combat- ing many arguments in favour of parasitism, we have also had occasion to attack some of those put forward by the partisans of non-parasitism. W^e have already extinguished several of these, in opposing to them the use and position of the large arms ; as, for example, we showed that these arms were not directed towards the interior of the shell, on each side of the keel, to form the tubercles. *
We have also done away with the arguments founded on a pretended observation, that the animal, when drawn out of the shell, exhibits upon its mantle the entire form of that shell, and the impression of the furrows and tubercles with which it is ornamented. But there is a more important fact which ought to detain us a moment, since it has been for some time advanced with great success, and yet it must now fall to the ground. This will doubtless be the case with ma- ny other arguments — fruits of an active imagination — ^to which too much attention has hitherto been paid, but which perhaps only await a simple observation, conscientiously made upon the animal when full of life and at liberty, to be completely nullified. The nature of this tact we will now explain. The partisans of non-parasitism thought that the best method of solving the problem, was, to assure themselves whether the rudiments of the shell of the membraniferous-armed poulp were to be found in the ova of the animal. I'his investiga- tion might be decisive. Many naturalists, relying solely upon it, soon exclaimed, " the question is decided, for the shell is there ! " It was a truly eminent anatomist, whose reputation extends throughout Europe, who first uttered the cry of vic- tory, which was immediately enregistered in a host of publi-
64 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
cations, all relating the marvels of this observation, and all bringing forward the determination of the skilful Italian, as beyond appeal. Nevertheless, many other naturalists of ac- knowledged talent, and we must quote M. de Blainville as among the first, would not allow themselves to be convinced by hearsay, but wished to verify the fact ; but neither M. de Blainville, nor Sir Everard Home, nor M, Bauer, saw what had been announced. Still further, Madame Power, a disci- ple of the celebrated Poli, of whom we have already spoken in reference to her striking observations upon the poulp of the argonaut, and who is one of the most enlightened defend- ers of non-parasitism, now gives a formal contradiction to her master, declaring that there is no appearance of a shell in the ova of the poulp ; and she then concocts a very ingenious lit- tle system, which can however do no prejudice to the cause of non-parasitism, and shows how the shell may be formed after the birth of the mollusc.
As for ourselves, we also have been very curious to verify Poli's observations. AVe have tried at different times, some- times upon eggs which were preserved in alcohol, sometimes upon those we had taken quite fresh from the sea, and which had, without doubt, arrived at di fferent degrees of maturity ; and after all we never found anything but the nucleus which may be observed in eggs in general.
Thus the strongest argument brought forward by the parti- sans of non-parasitism, must evidently give way before these reiterated observations.
( To he continued).
Art. III. — Notes on Irish JVatural History, more especially Ferns. By Edward Newman, Esq., F.L.S., &c.
{Continued from -page 23.)
KiLKEE stands in a little semicircular bay, which, having a bar of rock across its mouth, affords no shelter for shipping ; indeed, nothing can be more forbidding to the seaman than the west coast of Clare, From the Hag's Head or Mohir on the north, to Louphead on the south, it consists of black, precipitous, slate cliffs, against which the restless Atlantic frets itself into a perpetual foam. The whole line of coast, in extent about forty miles, is called Malbay ; and through- out the entire distance there is not a single place of safety for
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 65
shipping, and scarcely a creek to afford a doubtful and tem- porary shelter in extreme dislvess. The cliff is worn by the ocean into forms more wonderfully grotesque, and oft-times more strikingly picturesque, than the most vivid imagination could devise. Here a peninsula of rock stands boldly out to sea, and the isthmus which connects it with the land has for centuries lost its basement, and only exists as abridge, hang- ing as it were by magic over the dark waters, which meet and strive, with thundering din, hundreds of feet below its aerial span ; — there, an enormous cleft in "the face of the cliff, riven as by an earthquake, forms a wedge-shaped chasm, into which the vast waves gambol one after another like huge leviathans, playing a thousand antics, and sending the "playful spray" aloft, to be borne on the wings of the wind. Then comes some vast cavern, with vaulted roof and gigantic columns, divided maybe into a hundred minor caves, in some of which a ship might float with every stick standing; and from these caves there issues such a reverberation of the roar of waters, that thunder might mutter its loudest and remain unheard.
1 took the southern cliff from Kilkee, and skirted along its extreme margin as best I could. Where it was broken and uneven, and I could accomplish it with safety, I descended the cliff as far as practicable ; I often found the crevices fdled with Asplenium inarinum, Aster Tripoliimi, Silene rnaritima, Arenaria marina, &c. &c. Nothing could exceed the auda- city of the gulls while I was clambering about these .cliffs : some of them came so near me that I could have touched them with a whip, and their screaming was fearful. There were also flying around me curlews, hawks, and choughs ; — the curlews whistling, the hawks screeching, and the choughs chattering; but the gulls were the most noisy and numerous of alL On the top of the cliff is a short close herbage, of that kind which in England we call good sheep-walk ; and on this, and the turf walls which separated it, were rooks, carrion crows, hooded crows, ravens, magpies, and choughs innumerable ; the latter bird predominating in number over all the others of the crow family. Further along the coast I saw a settlement of sea-birds ; puffins, guillemots, rasor-bills and corvorants, intermixed with the eternal sea-gulls : and I saw three large birds which I supposed to be the great north- ern diver; they sat up like penguins, on a rock that just peeped out of the water, and was now and then covered by the swell ; this sometimes carried off one or two of the divers, but they almost instantly returned and resumed their station. The distance from the top of the cliff to the water will, I think, afford an excuse for my inability to name the species.
Vol. IV.— No. 38, n. s. i
OC NOTES ON IRISH NATURx\L HISTORY.
lliese cliifs afford perfect security for eagles and hawks, and I have little doubt that very large numbers are annually bred here, as well as gulls, corvorants, and other aquatic birds. With regard to the gulls, I could make out but little as to species ; there were two of very different sizes, but nearly alike in colour, which I supposed to be the greater and lesser black-backed ; and occasionally a little covey of four or five individuals of Lestris would make their appearance, but these always seemed passing on, as though bent on other business, while the whiter gulls appeared to have no other amusement than screaming round my head ; I never was so insulted ; they swept round and round in semicircles, fanning me with their wings every time they approached : I longed for a gun, just to have given them an admonisher. Proceeding far- ther along the cliff, I found a man and boy fishing with lines 400 feet in length. The hook was baited with the inside of a crab, and a stone was tied near the extremity of the line, and being thrown into the sea carried the line with it, which otherwise could not have been persuaded to make the de- scent. I waited some time, but to no purpose, in the hope of seeing a fish hauled up ; and I was equally unsuccessful in learning what kind of fish were taken in this way, for as neither party understood a word that the other said, it might be called on my part, " the pursuit of knowledge under diffi- culties." Shortly afterwards I saw a single rock dove [Co- Iwnha Livia) fly to the cliff, and apparently enter a hole ; it was closely pursued by a kestrel, which continued sailing backwards and forwards along the cliff, until I left the spot. I ascended a hill to examine what appeared a most singular ruin : on reaching this I found it was only a Napoleon-tower, with a small portion rearing its head high over the shapeless mass of ruins which surrounded it. The view from this tower is magnificent ; you can see nearly two hundred miles of coast, so ruggedly rocky, so curiously indented, and so intermixed with sea, that it requires a tolerable degi'ee of map-knowledge to understand the objects you are beholding.
The high promontory on which this tower stands, termi- nates in Cape Lean, or, as it is usually termed, Loop-head. After enjoying the splendid panorama to my heart's content, I turned southward, and soon falling in with a road or track, returned to Kilkee. The ferns of this promontory are Las- trcBa Filix-mas, rare; Las. dilatata^ abundant; Athyrium Filix-fcemina, abundant ; Pleris aquilina, sparingly ; Os- tnunda regalis, abundant ; T.omaria spica7it, not frequent ; Asplenium marimimy abundant. The population is very great in the neighbourhood of Kilkee and Kilrush ; the cabin*
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 67
are thickly sprinkled over the whole surface of the country, except along the high cliffs by the sea. There was a great deal of oats, wheat, rye, and potatoes, in small patches at- tached to the cabins ; the wheat and rye in ear, the oats back- ward, and potatoes not looking vigorous, the ground being very conspicuous between the rows.
Having crossed the estuary of the Shannon, I landed at Tarbert, and proceeded by car to Listhowel over a flat, unin- teresting, and unprofitable bog. Ballinruddery, the seat of the Knight of Kerry, is to the left of the road, and the fine wood of his demesne is the most pleasing object throughout the journey, and is again seen to great advantage from the bridge over the Feale, on leaving Listhowel for Tralee. The bog appears to present no impediment to cultivation, and why it is left in its present state is unaccountable.
Leaving Listhowel the country continues for the most part flat, and generally cultivated, but in a wretched manner. Where the bog remained in its native state, it seemed to be rather left for the sake of cutting turfs for burning, than from any impediment it offered to the cultivator. The face of the country abounds in ruins, some of them very fine ; and a round tower of considerable height is visible to the right of the road for nearly two hours. The road passes over the shoulder of the Stack Hills, and then the view of the town and bay of Tralee, with the fine hills beyond, bursts on the traveller with great beauty. The principal ferns were Las- ircea dilatata, Osmunda regalia, and near Tralee Scolopen- drium vulgare and Polystichum aculeatum ; and choughs and hooded crows the commonest birds.
Leaving Tralee I ascended the hill south of the town, and was delighted to find a lovely little plant which I had never before seen growing, — Sibtliorpia eiiropma. On the hilly land in Ireland you find deep and naiTow channels cut by torrents of rain water after heavy showers, but, except imme- diately after rain, perfectly dry. Spread over the banks, and pendant in graceful festoons from the grassy margins of these channels, I found the SihtJiorpia in the greatest profusion. — With a degree of greediness equal to that of the sailor who loaded his boat "with plunder from a wreck, till the boat and the thief went down together, I cut up masses of soil covered with this pretty plant, till 1 found myself quite unable to carry them, and was compelled to relinquish them one after ano- ther, and retained but a solitary specimen. I here found also, in the greatest abundance, the dumetorum variety of LastrcBa dilatata, and furnished myself with a good supply of roots : my first package of this plant, forwarded from Newport and
r>8 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
consigned to Mr. Ward, had never reached him, and I was particularly desirous of sending a second supply. On this high ground few other ferns made their appearance ; some feeble plants of Osmuncla, and an occasional F'dix-foemina or Filix-mas, with plenty of Lomarla spicant^ were all that I observed. The heaths, as everywhere else in Ireland, were beautiful : the bells of Erica Tetralix were larger, and of a brighter and more varied colour than I have ever seen them in England.
How my heart leaped within me when I peeped over these Tralee hills ! When, after an ascent of five hours, I saw the Reeks, Tomies, Carran Tual, Mangertoii, Glena, and Turk, — names familiar as household words, — and, while their dark, empui'pled, cloudless summits were relieved against a sky of the purest blue, w^atched the snow-white clouds drifting amongst them, passing in front of one huge peak and behind another ! I instantly singled out Carran Tual as the highest land I had seen in Ireland, but I knew nothing of the others, and contented myself with admiring the beauty of the group, without making any attempt to ascertain the names of indi- viduals.
On leaving Tralee I had determined on staying that night at Cloghereen, and had entrusted my knapsack to the care of tw^o gentlemen w^ho w^ere going there in the afternoon by the mail-car ; had it not been for this, I believe I should have made for " the Reeks" at once, bent my course southward to Kenmare, and missed the lakes of Killamey, the mob of guides, and Trichomanes speciosum. It was a long struggle, but the knapsack and Trichomanes gained the day, and I began to descend the hill towards the most celebrated of all touring localities, with anything but anticipations of pleasure, for I really hate touring-places, and touring people, and tour- ing guides : however, I resolved to face it, and so forthwith put myself in order to see the lions of Killarney. Having made up my mind I began to descend from the heights, and it was really a fine walk ; the beautiful mass of Kerry hills shut out the horizon, and that dark, grove-like, mountain- locked basin at their feet, contained the lakes which were weekly visited by hundreds of felicity-hunters. Throughout the walk I found abundance of the dumetorifw variety of Lastr<Ba, dilatata, and many other forms of the same plant, but I could not quite satisfy myself that they merged in one another. Osmmida regalis, not abundant ; Pteris, still less common ; Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, As^jI. Ruta-mura- ria, and Aspl. Trichomanes^ on walls and ruins ; and, ap- proaching Killarney, Polystichum acnleatiim^ Lastrcea Filix
NOTILS ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 69
mas, and Athyrium Filix-foemitia, in the greatest abundance.
When you approach Killarney you find yourself shut in between enormous stone walls, which totally preclude the possibility of seeing anything of the scenery. These walls occur on all the roads in the neighbourhood, and make them anything but picturesque ; and Killarney itself is a large, dull and dirty town, and one which a traveller w^ould never sus- pect was situated amidst the most celebrated scenery in the British dominions.
Cloghereen, an hour's walk beyond Killarney, is merely a dozen houses, the best of which is an inn. Almost opposite to the inn is an entrance to the demesne of Muckruss, and the old abbey is within ten minutes' walk. The abbey is a very beautiful object ; it is in excellent preservation, the roof alone being wanting, and the walls are covered with a dra- pery of ferns, among which Scolopendrium vulgare is the most abundant and conspicuous ; it is surrounded by fine fo- rest trees of the most beautiful growth : here also was the Arbutus Unedo growing in a state of nature, mingled with holly and yew, and forming the most beautiful natural shrub- bery I have ever beheld. The rocky ground below was car- peted with mosses, intermixed with the most luxuriant tufts of Scolopendrium vulgare, which here assumes a character I had never before seen ; ten or twenty very long fronds ema- nate from a common centre, and each is bent in a graceful semicircle. Here also Polypodium vulgare grows to an im- mense size, and runs into those luxuriant excesses in which the pinned become again divided, and its normal form is alto- gether lost : and here Hypericum calycinum grows with all the vigour of a native plant, and, if introduced, as some bo- tanists assert, it has made its footing so secure that I much doubt the ability of man to eradicate it. Passing through this little paradise you stand on the bank of Lough Lane, the largest and most beautiful of the lakes of Killarney. A boat, with rowers, steersman, arid bugleman was in waiting, and in a few minutes T was floating over its placid waters, the wood- ed heights of Glena and the purple summit of Tomies rising immediately before md.
Lough Lane covers an area of 5,000 English acres, and contains twenty-four named islands ; the largest of these, — Koss Island, — contains 150 English acres, and is laid out in a tasty manner by its proprietor. Lord Kenmare, who allows all visitors to land, and wander about its beautiful shrubber- ies jiist as they please. Ross Castle, on this island, is a fine old building covered with ivy, and the visitor is expected to ascend to its summit, from whence the view is very beautiful.
I 3
70 NOTES ON IKISH NATURAL HISTORY.
The mixture of the foliage of holly, arbutus, and yew, with the rugged moss- or lichen-stained rocks, is different from what one sees elsewhere. Embarking again, the boat coasted along Ross Island, the bugleman extracting some fine echoes from the ivied walls of the old castle, the wild ducks continu- ally flying off the water before us, and circling high above us in the air, and dozens of corvorants, squatted on their tails, watching our movements from the naked little rocks which just peep above the surface of the water. We passed between the islands of Ross and Jnnisfallen, and either my vision had been long unaccustomed to trees, or those on Innisfallen, par- ticularly the ash and holly, were unusually majestic in size and beautiful in figure. Indeed it looked like a fairy island raised by magic out of the placid water ; and I cannot much wonder at the strange legends of O'Donohue and his milk- white steed, which are so implicitly believed, that an Irish maiden fell in love with the imaginary chieftain, and actually plunged into the crystal waters of Lough Lane, in hopes that after death, her spirit might meet with his ; this tale sug- gested one of Moore's sweetest melodies. —
" Of all the fair months that round the sun, &c."
But the wooded heights of Tomies are paying back the notes of Gandsey's bugle ; so —
" Sweet Innisfallen, fare thee well !
And long may light around thee smile As soft as on that ev'ning fell
When first I saw thy fairy isle !
Thou wert too lovely then for one
Who had to turn to paths of care ; Who had through vulgar crowds to run
And leave thee bright and silent there."
Landing again where the huge buttresses of Tomies moun- tain, densely covered with birch, oak, arbutus, holly, and yew, come down to the edge of the lake, I made my way to O'Sul- livan's cascade, in hopes of finding on its shady and moss- covered rocks the rare Trichomanes, but I was disappointed. Abundance of Hymenophyllum, intermixed with luxuriant mosses, covered every stone ; and the most graceful form of Lastroia dilatata waved its feathery fronds from every crevice where it could find a footing, and every plant had its pin- nules crisped and concave, giving it that appearance which Mr. Babington has elsewhere noticed. Here I will take leave of the lake for a short time, and ascend the mountains.
The mountains of this district appear to be divided into
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 71
three principal ranges, and certainly possess, beyond all com- parison, {he most elevated points in the island. The first of these ranges is considerably to the west of Lough Lane ; it extends almost to Cahirsiveen in Dingle Bay, and is called Macgillicuddy's Reeks ; Carran Tual, the highest point of these, being 3,400 feet above the level of the sea. The se- cond range is also to the west of the lakes, and immediately between them and the Reeks, being separated from the latter by an opening called the Gap of Dunloe ; this range is called the Tomies, and includes the Purple Mountain and Glena. — The third range is to the south-east of the lakes, and is usu- ally denominated the Turk Range ; its highest points are Mangerton and Turk. On all these mountains that rare and beautiful animal, the red deer, exists in his native freedom ; and is said to feed on a species of lichen which is here very abundant. I was told that on Turk herds of several hundreds were occasionally seen. It is thought strange that this fine animal will not breed in parks and enclosures ; but when we recollect that in a state of nature he only frequents the sum- mits of the barest mountains, and possesses unbounded free- dom ; — that restraint to him is like the chain to the eagle, an indignity his proud heart cannot brook; — that in confine- ment he becomes fretful, impatient, and savage; — we can scarcely wonder that he fails to propagate his kind, and lives always hating and generally hated by the creatures wi.h whom he may chance to come in contact. Very great pains have been taken in Kerry to preserve the red deer, but it is found that their numbers are fast decreasing. Lord Bantry has paid great attention to them at his seat on Bantry Bay, where everything has been done to secure them from moles- tation ; but for some years not a single fawn has been ob- served. I saw a noble stag on his lordship's estate, a few days after leav ing Killarney ; it was at some distance, and I at first took it for a bay horse quietly browzing on the moun- tain-side. The horns and heads of red deer which adorn Lord Ban try's residence, would furnish half the museums in the kingdom. A head, placed over the entrance, is consider- ably larger than that of a donkey ; which would imply the possession of a body nearly twice as large as that of the quad- ruped from Jerusalem. Several of the noblemen and gentle- men round Killarney have attempted to rear the red deer in their enclosures, by taking them when very young; but it is next to impossible to effect the capture of a fawn, without doing it some mortal injury : a heavy blow with a stick or a stone will so injure one of the delicate little creatures, that it frequently dies in consequence of the wound. Still, however,
7-2 NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
several instances have occurred, in which fawns have been secured without injury, and if they survive the period of suck- ing, they are sure to do well, although never sufficiently re- conciled to captivity to encrease their kind.
It was through the Gap of Dunloe that I now took my course, having heard its sublimity mightily extolled, but I cannot say I think it would pay for the trouble of exploring, unless to those who are unacquainted with the wilder parts of Wales and Scotland ; for the pass is thronged with guides, and it is a sheer impossibility to address a single observation to a companion, without receiving a reply from at least half a dozen of these familiar Milesians. At the top of the Gap I rested awhile in the cottage of the celebrated Kate Kearney, and from her own hand I received the cup of poteen and goat's milk, — a very comforting mixture. After reaching the sum- mit of the gap I turned to the left, and seeing below me the cottage at the end of the upper lake, I abandoned the path, and pursued my way towards the lake in a tolerably di- rect line, over the trackless waste. All over the side of the mountain VirKjuicula grandiflora occurs in great abundance : its flowers were generally gone, but some were even yet re- maining, and struck me as very beautiful. I believe botanists do not agree as to the value of this species, but to me it ap- peared distinct : [ should however mention that not having the commoner species [Ping, vulgaris) at hand, I had no op- portunity of comparing them.
At the extremity of the upper lake a boat was in waiting, and I once more embarked. The upper lake looks small compared with Lough Lane, but is said to cover an area of 1000 English acres : the little rocky islets rising from it are very beautiful. Leaving this lake the rowers entered a.rapid river connecting it with Loughs Lane and Turk, and ha\^ng reached a fine bold cliff called "the Eagle's Nest," pulled to the opposite shore, and we landed in order to hear to greater advantage the extraordinary echo for which this spot has long been famous. A tune played by the bugleman standing op- posite the cliff, has the effect of a duet. Whether it be pos- sible to produce a duet by merely causing a repetition of a Jirst, I must leave the scientific to decide, but so it appeared to me. Indeed the echoes in many parts of these lakes seem perfectly magical. But I am forgetting the ferns. After leaving the Eagle's Nest, Onmunda regalia completely fringes the banks of the river between the lakes, and forms a pro- minent feature in this most lovely scenery. So.alifered is the usual character of this fern, that its long fronds arch grace- fully over, and dip their masses of seed in the crystal water ;
NOTES ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY. 73
while the saucy coots, from beneath the canopy it affords them, gaze fearlessly on the visitors who are continually pass- ing by. One of the boatmen employed by Sir Walter Scott, on the occasion of his visit to Killarney, told me that Sir Wal- ter uttered scarcely a syllable in praise of the scenery, until he came to this spot ; and here he stopped the rowers, and exclaimed, " This is worth coming to see ! " The boatman evidently thought very meanly of Sir Walter's opinion, whom he considered in duty bound to be in raptures with the lakes and mountains. I do not wonder at the great man's taste : to me it was the most wonderfully beautiful spot I had ever beheld, and this beauty is mainly owing to the immense size and number of these pendant fronds. I now approached Dinas Island, on which, I believe, stand some of the largest arbutus trees in the world. The stem of one of them is seven feet in circumference, and its height is equal to that of an ash tree of the same girth which stands near it. There are seve- ral others closely approaching this in size. The arbutus, in a state of nature, possesses but a distant resemblance to the trim, formal, bush-like figure which it assumes in cultivation. The branches are very long, gnarled, crooked, and naked to the extremity, where they are crowned with bright green leaves. They seem particularly fond of the fissures of rock, and, like the holly and yew, with which they are ever inter- mixed, flourish most where there is least appearance of soil to support them.
In this river-scenery the silvery stem and feathery foliage of the birch, and the picturesque figure of the oak and ash, are not to be overlooked ; nor should the white water-lilies, floating on the stream, nor the multitudes of mosses, nor the rich bells of Erica cinerea, be passed by without a notice. — Passing to the left of Dinas Island, the rowers pulled into Turk Lake, a beautiful sheet of water occupying an area of rather more than 1000 acres, with scarcely an island to inter- rupt the uniformity of its surface. On the right, the woods of Turk Mountain come down to the water's edge. This fine lake is separated from Lough Lane by a narrow strip or neck of land, and through this is a small opening, over which is thrown a bridge, called " Brickeen Bridge." We passed un- der the bridge into Lough Lane, and steering to the right, the rowers rested on their oars in the cove of Glena. Here is a cottage belonging to Lady Kenmare, and its tasty archi- tecture, its beautiful flowers, its green lawns, its sweet ac- companiments of wood, rock, and water, — render it a spot of uncommon loveliness. From this little cove the boatmen pulled across to Muckruss, passing O'Donohue's horse. This
74 NOTKS ON IRISH NATURAL HISTORY.
curious rock has so precisely the appearance of a huge horse standing on the surface of the water, with his head down, as though grazing or drinking, that it seems ahuost impossible to get rid of the illusion; as we approached it, however, it proved very rock-like, and seven corvorants flew off, and skimmed in a line along the surface of the water to some lit- tle rocks we had just before passed. After leaving the horse I soon landed, and returned for the night to Cloghereen.
I next paid my respects to Turk waterfall. Owing to an excess of rain the fall was really very striking, — far more so than 1 had expected to find it : it was a continuous sheet of foam. I first found Trichomanes speciosum to the left of the seat whence visitors take the first view of the fall. About fifteen yards higher up the stream, the rocky bank projects into the river; the projection is only to be approached by leaping from stone to stone, along the bed of the torrent, which, in times of flood, as happened to be the case when I paid it this visit, is rather an exciting and ticklish operation. You are so close to the fall as to be covered by the spray, and the roar is almost deafening. Having reached the projection, the botanist must ascend it by means of the roots and branch- es,— a feat very readily performed, and there is a little plat- form at the top, where he can stand very comfortably ; and while so standing, he will find the rocky bank, just on a level with his eye, completely clothed with Trichomanes, the dark green fronds hanging heavily down, dripping with wet, and, if the sun happen to shine, begemmed with sparkling drops. It is a beautiful sight, and well worth the wet feet, which, when the flood is on, form a necessary accompaniment of the expedition. The scenery around is well worthy the rare fern which it cherishes in its bosom. The rhizoma of this fern is black, velvety, tough, and remarkably long r it formed a kind of network on the perpendicular surface of the rock, in which its roots had no kind of hold : this was the character of the plant when most luxuriaut, but I found other and much smaller plants, which possessed more root and less rhizoma^ and the roots were fixed in a thin layer of moist earih, among a profusion of moss and Hymenopliyllum.
At this waterfall, and again in various localities along the road winding towards Kenmare, I found both species oi Hy- menopliyllum growing together in the greatest luxuriance and profusion, sometimes on rocks, and sometimes clothing the stems of oak trees to the height of three or four feet from the ground.
In walking under Turk Mountain on my way to Kenmare, I found Asplenium marinum in considerable abundance, to
FOSSIL PLANTS OF BRITAIN. 75
the left of the road, on a rock which appeared to have been blasted but a few years back. It was of small size and some- what unusual form, and 1 consider the habitat worthy of no- tice, as being so completely inland. The plant grows at a considerable height on the cliff, and, except to a practised eye, would have the appearance of Ceterach officinarum. — The site of this fern is near a tunnel of rock, through which the road passes. The walk here is very fine ; the arbutus trees are most ornamental and of large size : I measured the trunk of one that was lying by the road-side, and found it four feet nine inches in circumference. Rohertsonia umhrosa, or the plant which I have taken for it, is very abundant both here and at the Gap of Dunloe.
The ferns which I met with at Killarney are these. Lo- maria spicant, Pteris aquilina, Polypodinm r/ulgare, Poly- stichum aculeatum, LastrcBa Oreopieris, Las. Filix-mas, Las. dilatata, Athyrium Filix-Joemina, Asplenium Adiantum-ni- grum. Asp. Rufa-muraria, Asp.marinum, Asp. Trichomanes, Scolopendrium, vidgare, Ceterach officinarum, Trichomanes speciosum, Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense, Hym. Wilsoni, and Osmunda regalis : and to these Mr. Mackay has added Lastrcea Thelypieris. Polypodium Dryopteris and PJtegop- teris, ferns which delight in regions like these, I was unable to discover.
(To be continued).
Abt. III.— ^ Systematic Catalogue of the Fossil Plants of Britain, By John Morris, Esq.
(Continued from Vol. in-page 6AQ J,
Adiantites, Gopp.
Frond stipitate, semi-orl)icular, fan-shaped, entire, deeply lobed or pin- nate, j^mncc nearly orbicular or oblong, usually unequal and cordate at the base ; veins very numerous, forked, arising from the base ; midrib scarcely apparent.
* Frond simple, stipitate.
Adian. digit atus, Gopp. page 217; Sphenopteris latifolia, Phillips, tab. 7, fig. 18. Cyclopteris digitata, Brong. Hist, i. page 219, tab. 61, fig. 2, 3; Sternb. part v. and vi. page ^^. Upper Oolite shale, Scarborough ; Bumiston Bay.
76 FOSSIL PLANTS OF BRITAIN.
— Huttoni, Gopp. page 217. Cyclopteris digitata, Lind. and Hutt. page 179, tab- 64. Cycl. Huttoni, Sternb. part V. and vi. page 66. Oolite shale, Scarborough,
Phillipsii, Nob. Sphenopteris Phillipsii, Mant. Geol.
South East Eng. page 239, fig. 2. Hastings sands, Heath- field.
* * Frond pinnate.
— Cyclopteris, Gopp. page 218, tab. 34, fig. 8 a. Cyclop- teris orbicularis, Brong. Prod, page 52 ; Hist. i. page 220, tab. 61, fig. 1,2; Parkinson, i. tab. 5, fig. 5. Cycl. Ger- mari, Sternb. part v. and vi. page 68. Coal measures, England; Belgium; Bohemia; Silesia.
— Germari, Gopp. page 218. Coal measures, Wettin, Germany.
— Jlabellatus, Gopp. page 219. Cyclopteris flahellata, Brong, Prod, page 52, Hist. i. page 218, tab. 61, fig. 4—6; Sternb. loo. cit. page 167. Transition slate, Berghaupten, Germany.
Bockschii, Gopp. tab. 36, fig.