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C. HODGSONII. Length of the male,from snout to rump, four feet eight inches: height, before, two feet eight inches; behind, two feet 10 inches: horns, with a sinus in the core, from 22 to 27 inches long, slender, black, sub-erect, sublyrate, inserted between the orbits, approximated at bases, and strongly compressed; towards the points round and turned forwards, 12 to 20 annuli, which are round-edged, independent, very prominently displayed to the front, striated to the sides and back; large inguinal purses, as in Dorcas; no suborbital sinus; nose perfectly clad, broad, bristly; aperture of the nostrils wide, and furnished on the outer side with an accessary enlargement or intermaxillary pouch ears, short, pointed, substriated: tail, short and full: hoofs, low and compressed forwards, spread and padded behind; fur very thick and porrect, of two sorts, hairy and woolly: the hair, quill-like and brittle; the wool spare, applied to the skin, and very fine; no bands on the flanks, nor brushes on the knees; no congenital callosities on knees or sternum; rarely artificial ones on the former: size medial, with very compact structure, full of grace and vigour ; the limbs cast in the finest mould: colour, above, bright rufous; below, white: the face and fronts of the limbs, entirely brown-black. The female, smaller, hornless; inguinal purses less than in the male; two teats; no marks on the face or limbs. In both sexes the palate is colourless, but the naked skin of the lips and nostrils, jet black.

Major H. SMITH having provisionally ranged our animal with the Oryges, with a conjecture that it might be found to belong to the Reduncine group, it is proper to add that the Chiru cannot, with any propriety, be classed under either of those racemi, as designated by himself, and that this species belongs unquestionably to his Antelopine or to his Gazelline subgenus. Hornless females would give it to the former. But lyrate horns, no suborbital sinus, and ovine nose, affine it rather to the latter, under which, accordingly, I have disposed it.

The Chiru, however, with his hollow-cored horns, his intermaxillary pouches, and his bluff bristly nose, united to a figure and manners resembling exactly those of the beauteous Gazelles and Antelopes proper, is, in many essential respects, a conspicuous novelty, and, but that I apprehend the prevailing disposition of the day is to carry classification beyond the limits of accurate knowledge, I would have placed the Chiru in a new subgenus created for his reception, and denominated Pantholops. The Byzantine writers so called the supposed unicorn, and we all know how resolutely the Tibetans insisted for years that such Iwas their Chiru.

Should any one object to my synoptical character, that it contains some distinctive points of a generic or even larger quality, I have only to observe that until our classification be amended, the thing cannot be helped, without omitting essentials. For example, the genus Antelope

has been separated from Capra and from Damalis by the circumstance of the cores of the horns being solid in the former and sinused (so to speak) in both the latter. Nevertheless, I am well acquainted with three* species, besides the Chiru, in which the cores of the horns are not solid, though the whole four are still retained (and of necessity) in the Antelopine genus. It would be easy to multiply instances, from the best and most recent works, of new sub-genera, which have been set up upon the strength of diagnostics of far from general prevalence, that when you come to examine carefully, the several species classed under any one of them, the rule too frequently turns out to be the exception! For example, the subgenus Næmorhœdus is chiefly designated by the presence of the intermaxillary pouch: but of the three species contained in it, two are perfectly familiar to me (Ghoral and Du Vaucellii), and neither has a trace of any such organ. Nipal, 25th February, 1834.

VI. Comparative Section and Tonnage of English and Indian Boats for River Navigation.

The advantage to the internal commerce and agriculture of this country, likely to arise from the improvement of the communications both by land and water, are too well known to require pointing out: but the means of effecting this improvement appear to be very much neglected; and the object of the following observations therefore is to shew to those interested in the inland navigation of Bengal, the manner in which they may benefit themselves by reducing the cost and facilitating the conveyance of goods by water carriage.

The alteration in the present system recommended is a better construction of the boats, both in their proportions and in the manner of building them; and, as examples are more satisfactory to general readers, than theory or calculations, a table is given, containing the dimensions of several boats used for river and canal navigation in England, and for the sake of comparison, a few boats now in use on the Hoogly river. Dimensions of the boat. Burthen.

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* Viz. Thâr, Ghoral, and Vaucellii.

The few examples stated in this table have been taken indifferently from a collection of the dimensions of boats used in twenty different rivers in Europe, and from an equally numerous list of country-boats.

The resistance that a boat meets with in passing through the water being proportional to its greatest section immersed, the last column in the table has been added for the purpose of shewing the number of maunds the boat can carry for each square foot in its greatest section. This column is the best criterion by which an opinion may be formed of the comparative advantages of the proportions of any two boats; their burthen, and the proportion between their resistance and their greatest section, being the same.

Dimensions of Boats proposed for the Navigation of the Rivers of Bengal.

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From the last column of the first table it appears, that the average load of a country-boat is 151⁄2 maunds for each foot of section, while the average of the English boats is 35 maunds; and if one tracker is allowed for three feet of section, or six or seven men to track 100 maunds every in a country-boat, the same work can be equally well done by three men in a boat of the improved proportions. This comparison is not strictly correct, as the boats compared are not of the same burthen: but if the country-boats in the first table be compared with boats of equal burthen in the last table, the proportion will be found to be as 15 to 32. This comparison shews how a saving of half the crew may be made. The economy of using large boats instead of small, is in like manner pointed out by the last column of the second table. It may be here necessary to remark, that the stability, and of course the safety, of boats of this proportion, when under sail, will exceed that of country-boats, as much as the former exceeds the latter in length, the section of both being the same, and the size of the sail bearing such proportion to the greatest section as has been already remarked.

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Economy is not the only point to be considered in the conveyance of goods; regularity, certainty, and expedition are of equal importance :

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from a want of these essentials the hire of a country-boat is 100 per cent. per annum, on the capital expended, or the price of the boat and stores; and the insurance of a four months' voyage is more than that to England. As an example, it may be stated, that a boat that can carry 500 maunds of goods, will, if in constant employment, earn 360 rupees a year, while the same boat may be purchased for 200 or 300 rupees. If 12 per cent. per annum is allowed for the interest of capital, and the boat requires repairs equivalent to replacing it every five years, 360 rupees a year will allow of 1125 rupees being expended in the construction of the boat. For this money, the boat could be built in such a superior manner, and the supply of stores made so complete, as to set at defiance the ordinary risks attending the navigation of the Ganges, and the insurance would in consequence probably not exceed per cent. per mensem.

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VII. Climate of Seringapatam. Latitude 12°45' N. Long. 76°51' E. Being desirous of including within the pages of the Journal all the data necessary for a meteorologist, to judge of the contingencies of pressure and temperature on the whole continent of India, we extract the following results of a meteorological journal, kept for two years at Seringapatam, from Brewster's Edinburgh Journal of Science, No. 5.

The original registers were kept by Mr. SCARMAN in 1814 and 1816. They were abstracted and reduced to order by Mr. J. FOGGO, Junior.

The mean temperature of the whole year is by observation 77.06. The mean at sunrise is 63°.17: at 3 P. M. 90°. 95 :—of the day, 84°, of the night, 70°. 11. The average daily range of temperature 27°. 7. The curve of mean temperature has two convex summits, in May and October, corresponding with the sun's passage twice over the latitude of the place. The highest temperature is 115°, and the lowest, 48°. The mean temperature of the river Caveri, observed every day at 6 A. M. and 6 P. M. is 77.2 agreeing exactly with that of the air.

The average height of the barometer is 27.568, whence the elevation of Seringapatam may be calculated to be 2412 feet above the sea, assuming the sea level, 29.88, and the temperature of the intercepted column of air, 78°.

The average diurnal tide between the hour of 10 A. м. and 4 p. m. is 0.074 inch. During the prevalence of the south-west monsoon, the extent of the variation is diminished. The monthly variation also proceeds with great regularity, the whole range being 0.262. For the last three months of 1816, the register was extended to the hour of 8 P. M. and the average height of the barometer at that hour is 0.006 lower than at 4 A. M.

The prevailing winds are the north-east and south-west, or the general monsoons of the Indian Ocean. The south-west sets in during the month of April. When it commences, its reciprocation with the north-east wind interrupts the serenity of the weather; and during its continuance, thunder storms occur almost every day, with heat-lightning at night. This is the rainy season, but the monsoon having deposited its superabundant moisture upon the ghats, very little rain falls at Seringapatam. During the north-east monsoon, which begins about the end of October, the weather is settled and fine, with heavy dews before sunrise.

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