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manner in which the dinner was ferved; and would certainly have precluded my noticing the diftreffing inconvenience these valuable people labour under, in the want of almost all the common and moft neceffary utenfils of life, had I not been taught to expect that this colony was in a very different ftage of improvement, and that its inhabitants were infinitely more comfortably circumftanced.

After dinner we were engaged in an entertaining converfation, in which, by the affiftance of Mr. Dobfon our interpreter, we were each able to bear a part. Amongst other things I underftood, that this miffion was established in the year 1775, and the Prefidio of St. Francifco in 1778, and that they were the northeramoft fettlements, of any description, formed by the court of Spain on the continental fhore of North-Weft America, or the idlands adjacent, exclufive of Nootka, which I did not confider as coming under that description any more than the temporary eftablishment which, in the preceding fpring had been formed by Sent Quadra near cape Flattery, at the entrance of the ftraits of Juan De Fuca; and which has been already stated to be intirely evacuated. The excurfions of the Spaniards feemed to be confined to the neighbourhood of their immediate place of refidence, and the direct line of country beween one station and another; as they have no veffels for embarkation excepting the native canoe, and an old rotten wooden one, which was lying near our landing place. Had they proper boats on this spacious fheet of water, their journies would not only be much facilitated, but it would afford a very agreeable variety in their manner of life, and help to pass away many of the folitary and wearifome hours which they muft una voidably experience. I understood that the oppofite fide of the port had been vifited by fome foldiers on horse-back, who obtained but little information; fome converted Indians were found living amongst the natives of the northern and western parts of the port, who were esteemed by the Spaniards to be a docile, and in general a well-difpofed people; though little communication took place between them and the inhabitants of this fide. The miffionaries found no difficulty in fubjecting thefe people to their authority. It is mild and charitable, teaches them the cultivation of the foil, and introduces amongst them fuch of the useful arts as are most effential to the comforts of human nature and focial life. It is much to be wifhed, that these benevolent exertions may fucceed, though there is every appearance that their progrefs will be very flow; yet they will probably lay a foundation, on which the pofterity of the prefent race may fecure to themfelves the enjoyment of civil fociety.' Vol. ii. P. 14.

Another miffion is that of St. Clare, about forty miles. diftant, through a country highly beautiful. The ecclefiaftics of this establishment live in the fame flyle as thofe of the

former miffion, but cultivate grain in greater quantities, which the fertile foil affords, with little affistance from the labour or fkill of the husbandman. Trees grow here in profufion to a confiderable fize. The natives were found to be in a very barbarous ftate; but the Spaniards were endeavouring to civilife them; and we hope, for the honour of human nature, that fuch efforts will be fuccefsful.

At Monte Rey, our navigators were received with extraordinary benevolence and hofpitality. The latitude of this fettlement is about 36° 36′ 20", and the longitude 238° 25′ 45. It differs little from that of St. Francifco, except that it is better defended and more actively cultivated.

(To be continued.)

Tranfactions of the Linnean Society. Vol. III. 4to. 11. 55. Boards. White. 1797.

THIS volume, like the two former, contains fome interefting articles, and others of a more trifling kind; but all are of fome confequence, as the flighteft fhades contribute to the beauty of a picture, and the minuteft links of the fcientific chain unite the most important fubjects.-The first article comprehends

Obfervations refpecting fome rare British Infects. By the late Mr. William Lewin, F. L. S.'

Thefe infects are two fpecies of sphinx, viz. the f. apiformis and f. crabroniformis (the lunar hornet), the phalæna trifolii, and the ichneumon chryfopus.

II. A curious Fact in the Natural Hiftory of the common Mole, Talpa Europea, Linn. By Arthur Bruce, Efq. Secretary to the Natural Hiftory Society of Edinburgh.'

As this paper is curious and not long, we fhall transcribe the whole.

That the mole does, in common with other quadrupeds and man, poffefs that fpirit of curiofity which prompts to emigration and even to tranfmarine expeditions, I found out last fummer from the beft authenticated facts.

In vifiting the Loch of Clunie, which I often did, I observed in it a fall ifland at the diftance of 180 yards from the nearest land, measured to be fo upon the ice. Upon the ifland, lord Airly, the proprietor, has a caftle and fmall fhrubbery. I obferved frequently the appearance of freth mole-cafts, or hills. I for fome time took it to be the water-moufe, and one day afked the gardener if it was fo? No, he faid, it was the mole; and that.

he had caught one or two lately. But that five or fix years ago he had caught two in traps; and for two years after this he had obferved none. But about four years ago, coming afhore in a fummer's evening in the dufk, the 4th or 5th of June, 10 o'clock P. M. he and another refpectable perfon, lord Airly's butler, faw, at a small distance upon the fmooth water fome animal paddling to, and not far diftant from the island. They foon, too foon! clofed with this feeble paffenger, and found it to be our common mole, led by a moft aftonishing inftinct from, the nearest point of land (the caftle hill) to take poffeffion of this defert island. It was at this time for about the fpace of two years quite free from any fubterraneous inhabitant; but the mole has for more than paft made its appearance again, and its operations I was witness

to.

year

In the hiftory of this animal I do not at prefent recollect any fact fo ftriking; efpecially when we confider the great depth of the water, both in fummer and winter-from fix to ten, fifteen, and fome places as deep as thirty or forty feet, all round the island.'

P. 5.

III. A Hiftory of three Species of Caffida. By the Rev. William. Kirby, of Barham, A. L. S.'

This article furnishes no information but to the most and leaft delicate, entomologist.

eager, IV. Obfervations relating to the Migration of Birds. By Edmund Lambert, Efq. of Boyton near Heytefbury, Wilts. In a Letter to William Markwick, Efq. F. L. S.'

The few facts contained in this paper are curious: fome we fhall felect.

• The woodcock Í once faw the first of October, N: S. in this inland country; and a couple was shot this present season that very fame day on fome heath about three miles from my houfe. But a perfon living at Uphill, the nearest point of land to the Steep Holms in the Bristol channel, and who rented that little island for the use of fishing, affured me he never knew the month of September pass without feeing woodcocks on that island. I have had two nefts in my wood; the last was in the year 1789. It had four eggs. The old bird was loth to get out of the neft; as he had fat, as near as I could guefs, about a fortnight. I took one of the eggs and blew it, and have it by me now. But I do not believe the young ones are ever bred up in this country to be flot at, as you have heard: for Mr. Seymer had one lived all the fummer in a coppice near his house; and though it was a place well calculated to maintain a bird that lived on fuction, yet the bird loft almost all his feathers, and could not fly for fome time, fo that it was often caught: but in the autumn it recovered its feathers and ftrength, and flew away. This I had from Mr. Seymer himself, and other gentlemen whom he used to fhew the bird to.

CRIT. REV. VOL. XXIV. Nov. 1798.

X

• Suipe.

The fuipes breed in great numbers on the bogs in the New Foreft, Hants; and always come to us in September, and fometimes in Auguft. Some years ago two neighbours fent me five couple the fecond week in Auguft, telling me at the fame time they never faw them more plentiful in winter. I went out the 15th myfelf, and killed three couple in a little time; and the weather being extremely hot, I was obliged to come home before I intended it. They were in as good condition as in winter."

R. 13.

We have feen the woodcock, in the fouth of England, before the end of September. The bird, in the circumftance mentioned, probably loft its feathers in confequence of the drying of the ponds, or at leaft the diminution of their depth; and, perhaps, from the metamorphofis of the infects on which it fed.

The antipathy of the rook to the raven, mentioned in this paper, is not generally known. The latter will not fuffer any bird to come within a quarter of a mile of its neft, and carries the young rooks away as food for its own nefllings.

V. Account of the Canis Graius Hibernicus, or Irish Wolf Dog, defcribed in Pennant's Hiftory of Quadrupeds, 3d Edit. Vol. I. p. 241. By A. B. Lambert, Efq. F. R. and

F. L. S.

The breed of the Irish wolf-dog has greatly degenerated, and will foon be loft. At prefent it fcarcely exceeds twentyeight inches in height. In appearance it refembles an Englishmaitiff.

In a letter from the earl of Altamont, published at the end of the volume, among the extracts from the minutebook, we find that there were originally two kinds, the greyhound and the maftiff wolf-dog. The figure, before us, is of the latter variety: both kinds are harmlefs and indolent. It was formerly the cuftom to hunt wolves with them; and a man, called Bryan Scahil, who was living, and in his 119th year, when the earl wrote the letter, remembered huntings of this kiud in Ireland as a common fport. A vast number of dogs were collected, and, among them, were fome wolf-dogs, which were kept almoft exclufively by gentlemen. Other dogs were probably neceffary, as the fcent of the wolf-dog is very weak.

VI. The Botanical Hitory of Mentha Exigua. By James Edward Smith, M. D. F. R. S. P. L. S.'

This is a curious hiftory of the minuter kind. The mentha exigua was introduced into the English Flora by the hafty inattention of Linnæus, and continued in it from too great. deference to the dicta of the Swedish naturalift. The plant fent to him by Miller was not the m. exigua, but was more

probably the m. gentilis. A fuppofed m. exigua growing, in appearance fpontaneously, in a garden at Ipfwich, proves to be an American plant, brought accidentally in the mould furrounding the roots of other plants.

VII. Obfervations on the Economy of the Ichneumon, Manifeftator Linn. By Thomas Martham, Efq. Sec. L. S.'

Thefe obfervations are introduced by fome remarks on the general care of animals, in watching over the early period of the lives of their young ones, and the anxiety of infects, which cannot attend that period, to place the ova where the larva may find nourishment and fupport. This leads Mr. Marsham to speak of the parafitical infects, and particularly the ichneumon. Thefe minute animals lay their eggs on the larvæ, and fometimes on the eggs of other infects, deftroying, in the former inftance, their fofter-parent, by a lingering atrophy, and preventing its existence in the latter. Some curious obfervations on the i. manifeftator, which feeks the nefts of the apis maxillofa, and depofits its ova on her's, follow.

VIII. Defcription of a new Species of Opercularia. By Mr. Thomas Young, F. R. and L. S.'

The genus opercularia is in the clafs of aggregate; and its place, in Linnæus, is between the allionia and the knautia; in Gmelin's edition, between the crinita and evea. This fpecics is the o. paleata receptaculo globofo paleaceo. It grew, fpontaneously, in the garden of Mr. Curtis, in 1793, in some mould brought from New-Holland.

IX. Defcriptions of Eight new Fishes from Sumatra. By Mr. Mungo Park, A. L. S.3

These are the chatodon canaliculatus and trifafciatus; the perca lunulata, aurata, and Sumatrenfis; the fcomber filamentofus; the balistes niger and undulatus.

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X. Lindfæa, a new Genus of Ferns. By Jonas Dryander, M. A. Libr. R. S. and F. L. S.'

This genus refembles both the adiantum and pteris, but differs fufficiently to eftablish its fpecies under a different name. Nine fpecies are defcribed, and illuftrated by plates. They are chiefly new; but fome of them have already been defcribed, under the genus of adiantum, by Aublet and Swartz.

XI. On a Species of Tellina, not defcribed by Linnæus. By William George Maton, A. B. F. L. S.'

This tellina is found on the chalky parts of the bed of the river Avon, and is ftyled t. rivalis. It has hitherto been confounded with the t. cornea.

XII. Obfervations upon the Generic Character of Ulva, with Defcriptions of fome new Species. By Thomas Jenkinfon Woodward, Efq. F. L. S.'

The genus ulva, it is remarked, confifts at prefent of Ipe

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