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They are identical in appearance with some of Dr. GERARD's shells from Spití, (spirifer striatus of SOWERBY, a shell of the mountain limestone group.)

A fine specimen of the Kyuk-Phyoo lignite half-silicified and other minerals were presented in the name of Lieut. W. FOLEY.

A flying fish preserved in spirits, presented by J. A. WILLIAMS, Esq. The saw of a saw-fish, 5 feet long, presented by Capt. R. LLOYD, Mar. Surv.

Read a letter from Serjeant EDMUND DEAN, of the Sappers and Miners, forwarding some selected specimens of the fossil bones discovered and col lected by himself in blasting the rocks of the Jumna river, for inspection and examination.

Among the present specimens are some not found in the collections received from Captain SMITH and Lieut. BURT, from the same localities; of these the most interesting are, two teeth of the fossil hippopotamus, and a bone resembling the cervical vertebra of a camelopardalis, as compared with one in possession of Dr. J. T. PEARSON.

[This paper shall appear as soon as possible.]

Read extracts of a letter from Dr. MALCOLMSON, Secretary Medical Board, Madras, forwarding some botanical specimens collected by him at Malacca, and a report upon them, by Dr. N. WALLICH, Superintendant Botanical Garden.

Having seen the interest excited by Lieut. NEWBOLD's fern from Mount Ophir, Dr. M. obligingly sent his collection in hopes that some prize might reward the labour of their examination. Dr. WALLICH, however, finds nothing in the list which is not already well known. No. 9, only, a Bossia, is probably new and an interesting plant.

Dr. MALCOLMSON's letter contains the following account of fossil shells discovered in the Hyderabad country.

Fossil Shells in Hyderabad.

"In the Neermal hills lying north of the Godavert river on the road from Hyderabad to Nágpúr, many very perfect fossil shells, mostly bivalves, and evidently marine, have been found imbedded in a volcanic rock; also the head and vertebræ of a fish. The formations rest almost every where on granite, and have the usual characters of this class of hills. The most interesting facts however, are the raising of some portions of the blue limestone, passing into clay-slate, by the basalt, and in one place the bursting through of the latter with very remarkable distinctness through the limestone, which is singularly altered, its silicious constituents being converted into gloss-slag, and a cinder-like rock. There is a series of hot springs holding lime in solution, which is deposited in rocks on the passing off of the carbonic acid which gives the river a sour taste. The contrast between the ancient and recent fossils is very striking. The hills I find belong to the Sehsa range, extending S. E. to N. W. several hundred miles. In the same oc

curs the Lunar lake, (40 miles from Jaulnah,) which I examined some years ago. It is a vast crater nearly 500 feet deep, and four or five miles round on the upper margin. Its waters are green and bitter, supersaturated with alkaline carbonate, and containing silex in solution as well as some iron. The mud is black and abounds with sulphuretted hydrogen, but the water is pure and without smell. The rocks are volcanic, and springs of pure water rise out of the salt mud or

stream down the sides of the punch bowl, thus strangely sunk in a nearly level country, there being but a gentle rise to the edge. The crystals of salt found at the bottom by the divers who remove it for purposes of commerce are tabular. Between this and the hot springs of Kaiv others are found, and the direction of the range corresponds with the dykes described by VOYSEY in the Hyderabad country." A note from Capt. F. JENKINS to the Secretary intimated the discovery of limestone in Assam.

"I find the shell lime of Sylhet extends across to Assam in the direction of Dharmpúr; it having been discovered on the right bank of the Kopili-a discovery of no small importance to us : no lime before having been known to exist in Assam nearer than the Brahmakund."

A Persian letter from SHEKH KERAMAT ALI at Cabul, accompanied a package of the fruit and flower seeds of that country, and some specimens of lead and antimony ores.

The seeds were unfortunately nearly spoiled on their way down by the rain. They were made over to Dr. WALLICH'S care.

Extracts from the letter before alluded to of Prof. WILSON, were read. Professor BUCKLAND had been much gratified with the duplicates of Dr. J. G. GERARD'S fossil shells selected and transmitted for his examination. He found them to corroborate in every respect a view of the distribution of the ammonites, on the subject of which he had recently been delivering a lecture to the Ashmolean Society at Oxford: he had no doubt, although doubts had been very justly entertained before, that the formation to which these shells belonged in India was allied to the Lias of Europe. We shall look with eagerness for the report of this high authority, which promises to confirm the opinion of our associate the Rev. R. EVEREST on the subject. A most valuable article on the species and distribution of ammonites, by DE BUсH, appears in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles of May, 1833, which we regret our inability to transfer to the Journal: it contains plates of all the varieties of this fossil hitherto discovered in the Himalaya range. The business of the evening being concluded, The Right Rev. the VicePresident rose and addressed the meeting:

It had been suggested to him that the death of the Rev. Dr. CAREY, one of the oldest and warmest supporters of the Asiatic Society, was an occasion which called for some testimonial of the sense entertained by all its members of the value of his services to the literature and science of India, and of their sincere respect for his memory.

He had himself enjoyed but two short interviews with that eminent and good `man, but a note from Dr. WALLICH, who was prevented himself from attending to propose the resolution, supplied his own want of information. Dr. CAREY had been 28 years a member of the Society: and (with exception of the last year or two of his life, when protracted illness forced him to relinquish his Calcutta duties), a regular attendant at its meetings, and an indefatigable and zealous member of the Committee of Papers since the year 1807.

He had enriched the Society's publications with several contributions :—an interesting report on the agriculture of Dinajpur, appeared in the tenth volume of the Researches. An account of the funeral ceremonies of a Burman priest in the twelfth :-The catalogue of Indian medicinal plants and drugs in the 11th vol. bearing Dr. FLEMING's name, was also known to have been principally derived

from his information and research. As an ardent Botanist, indeed, he had done much for the science in India, and one of the last works upon which he had been engaged, was the publication, as Editor, of his deceased friend Dr. ROXBURGH'S Flora Indica.

His Bengalee, Marhatta, Telinga, and Punjábí dictionaries and grammars, his translation of a portion of the Ramayana, and other works, were on our shelves, to testify the extent of his learning as an oriental scholar. It was well known that he had prepared some time ago an elaborate dictionary of the Sanscrit language, the manuscripts of which, and a considerable portion of the work already printed off, the result of many years' intense labour and study, had been destroyed by the fire which burnt down the Serampore premises. He had also been of great assistance, as the author testified, in the editing of Baboo RAM COMUL SEN'S Anglo-Bengalee Dictionary.

The memory of those members, who had been longer associated with him than himself, would easily fill up this very imperfect estimate of his various services. During 40 years of a laborious and useful life in India, dedicated to the highest objects which can engage the mind—indefatigable in his sacred vocation, active in benevolence, yet finding time to master the languages and the learning of the East, and to be the founder, as it were, of printing in these languages, he contributed by his researches, and his publications, to exalt and promote the objects, for which the Asiatic Society was instituted. The close of his venerable career should not therefore pass without a suitable record of the worth and esteem in which his memory was held; and His Lordship begged to move that the following minute be entered on the Journals of the Society :-it was seconded by Colonel Sir JER. BRYANT, and carried unanimously:

"The Asiatic Society cannot note upon their proceedings the death of the Rev. WM. CAREY, D. D., so long an active member and an ornament of this Institution, distinguished alike for his high attainments in the oriental languages, for his eminent services in opening the store of 'Indian literature to the knowledge of Europe, and for his extensive acquaintance with the sciences, the natural history and botany of this country, and his useful contributions in every branch towards the promotion of the objects of the Society, without placing on record this expression of their high sense of his value and merits as a scholar and a man of science; their esteem for the sterling and surpassing religious and moral excellencies of his charac ter; and their sincere grief for his irreparable loss.”

VIII.-Indian Zoology.

Notices extracted from the proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.

January 22, 1833.

Mr. BENNETT called the attention of the Society to a stuffed specimen of an Antelope, from the southern part of the peninsula of India, which had been present. ed to the Society several months since by CHARLES TELFAIR, Esq., Corr. Mem. Z. S. He remarked, that notwithstanding some discrepancies between the specimen exhibited and the description published by PALLAS, he was disposed to regard

it as the young of the Indian Antelope, Antilope Cervicapra, PALL. Its general colour is pale fawn, and it has a paler streak on each side, passing from the Shoulders to the haunches; characters by which, as well as by the form of its horns, the pale circle surrounding the eyes, and the white patch under the tail, it agrees with the young of the Indian Antelope: but it differs by the fawn colour extending down the sides to the under parts of the body, which are merely of a lighter shade than the upper, and are not pure white; and by the length of the which does not exceed 4 inches, while in no specimen of the Indian Antelope possessed by the Society, is the length of these organs less than 5 inches. The latter circumstance is so remarkable, as to suggest the necessity of further inquiries into the bistory of the race from which this individual was derived. Its age may be conjectured from the size of its horns, which have made two nearly complete turns, and are surrounded by eighteen rings.

ears,

Specimens were exhibited of the adult male of the lineated Pheasant, Phasianus lineatus, Lath., and of two immature birds of the same species: for the whole of these the Society is indebted to George Swinton, Esq., Corr. Mem. Z. S. The immature birds died on their passage to this country; the adult skin was obtaincd from the Tennasserim coast.

At the request of the Chairman, Mr. GOULD made some observations on these specimens. The adult bird differs in some particulars from the description published by Dr. Latham. "Its total length is 2 feet 8 inches; the length of the wings, from the shoulder to the end of the longest feather, 9 inches; of the beak, from the gape to the tip, 14 inch; of the tarsus, 34 inches; and of the tail, 1 foot 2 inches.

"The beak is strong, and considerably arched; the naked space round the eye bright red, and covered with numerous papille; the head crested with long glossy blue-black feathers; the back of the neck, and whole of the upper surface, delicate grey, very numerously barred with fine zigzag lines of black; which are broader on the quill feathers; the throat, breast, and belly, black; the sides of the breast and flanks having white lanceolate feathers with black edges; the tail, of eighteen feathers, very much graduated, and arched, as in the Silver Pheasant, Phasianus Nycthemerus, LINN., the outer edge of the two centre feathers, and the tips of the two next, being white; the remainder are alternately marked with irregular lines of black and white, the black predominating; and the legs strong, of a reddish flesh colour, furnished with conical sharp spurs.

"The two immature birds are alike in colouring, and appear to be male and female. They differ very materially from the adult, and very much resemble the female or the young male of the Silver Pheasant. They are about 18 inches in length; wing, 8 inches; tarsus, 23; beak, 1; tail, 10. The head is crested with feathers nearly 2 inches long, of a reddish brown, obscurely marked with minute zigzag lines of black; the naked skin round the eye is not so much developed as in the adult male; the neck, throat, breast, and under parts are brown, each feather having a lancet-shaped mark of white; the whole of the back and shoulders brown, minutely sprinkled with a darker colour; the quill-feathers brown, having the outer edges barred with yellowish white; the secondaries brown, with oblique, irregular, and narrow lines of a lighter colour; the tail irregularly barred, and dotted with rich brown and yellowish white; the legs and feet reddish brown." February 12, 1833.

A note from Col. HALLAM was read, accompanying drawings of the Mango-fish, Polynemus paradisæus, LINN.; and of two individuals of a race of pigs with only

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two legs, the hinder extremities being entirely wanting. The latter, Col. HALLAM states, were observed "at a town on the coast in the Tanjore country, in the year 1795: they were from a father and mother of a similar make, and the pigs bred from them were the same."

June 11, 1833.

Specimens were exhibited of various Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles, from the continent of India, which had been recently presented to the Society by THOMAS HEATH, Esq. Mr. BENNETT observed on the several objects, pointing out especially the more interesting among them. They included an individual apparently referrible to the Semnopithecus cucullatus, Isid. Geoff. St.-Hil., although darker in all its markings than is indicated in the description given by the original observer of the species. They also included a species of Felis, of a size intermediate between the larger and the smaller animals of that genus, and having in its grey colour and longitudinal striping a general external resemblance to some of the Viverræ. This Mr. BENNETT regarded as new to science, and proposed to designate it FELIS VIVERRINUS. Fel. fulvo-cinereus, subtùs albescens; capite, nucha, dorso, genis, guláque nigro vittatis; lateribus, ventre, pedibusque nigro maculatis. Long. corporis cum capite, 33 unc.; caudæ mutilæ, 7; auriculæ, 14.

The prevailing colour of the upper surface is a rather deep yellowish grey, the separate hairs being dusky at the base, yellowish in the middle, and having short black tips. The black lines and spots are formed of hairs destitute of yellow, and having the black tips of much greater length. A longitudinal black band passes on each side from the inner canthus of the eye above the ear nearly to the shoulder; a second, more internally, passes to the same distance backwards, and is somewhat interrupted anteriorly; and between this and its fellow on the vertex is the vestige of a median line, which on the forehead is broken up into a double row of spots; these and the two adjoining lines subdivide in front into numerous very small spots between the eyes. Two black lines pass downwards obliquely on either side from below the eye, over the angle of the jaw; and from their terminations on each side there passes a transverse band across the throat: the space between these lines is nearly white, as is also a stripe over each eye, and the whole of the under jaw and chin. There is a large black spot surrounding the base of the ear posteriorly, and the ear is also tipped with black. The long, linear, markings of the back are disposed in about five interrupted, longitudinal bands, and some of the spots on the sides assume a linear form. Of these the most remarkable are, one on each side of the neck, and an oblique wavy band on the shoulder. The spots on the sides generally approach a rounded shape, and form, posteriorly, four or five interrupted longitudinal rows. Those of the under surface are larger, and are arranged without order. On the fore limbs the spots are small externally, and internally there are on each two large transverse black patches. On the hinder limbs the spots are arranged so as to form interrupted transverse bands on both surfaces. The hairs of the soles of the feet are dusky brown. The tail is spotted above in the same manner as the sides; its colour beneath is uniform. The spots are throughout numerous. The whiskers are white, and take their origin from three black lines on either side.

The species is nearly allied to Felis Serval, SCHREB., but will readily be distinguished by the characters above given, by the comparative shortness and strength of its limbs, and by the locality whence it was obtained.

Col. SYKES reminded the Society that, in submitting his catalogue of the Mam. malia observed in Dukhun, East Indies, he took occasion to comment on the

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