208 Descriptive Notice of 



tance. The grass here was found covered with a heavy dew, 

 partaking a good deal of the nature of hoar frost, which was 

 so chilly and pinching to the bare feet of the natives, that they 

 could not endure it, but were obHged to stop and kindle a fire, 

 till the influence of the sun had reached them. We therefore 

 left them to follow us as they could, and continued our ascent up 

 the peak, which was steep and rugged, but thinly covered with 

 grasses, and little thickets of low shrubs. These may be con- 

 sidered as the alpine plants of this island, most of which were 

 entirely new to me, and, though there were but few of them 

 in flower, yet their variety, and the novelty of the tract, gave 

 new life to my steps, and enabled me to reach the top of the 

 mountain exactly at half past eight. The rest of the gentle- 

 men followed me pretty close, and by ten the whole party 

 crowded the lofty summit of Wha-ra-rai. 



As I observed that we were accompanied by a number of 

 idlers, who were unwilling to burden themselves, I took the 

 opportunity, as the party arrived upon the summit, to mark 

 all those who were well loaded, by tying a piece of variegated 

 tape round the arm of each, as a badge of distinction, telling 

 them, at the same time, that on producing these badges, when 

 we returned to the ship, they should be well paid for their 

 service, whilst those who brought up small loads would receive 

 but little. This induced several of the idlers to return to the 

 plantations for loads, and as they arrived with them each had 

 a similar badge ; but if any of them, after this, misbehaved, or 

 was not sufficiently careful of what was entrusted to his charge, 

 he was discarded, by taking his badge from him ; this pro- 

 duced an emulation amongst them, which had a wonderfully 

 good effect during the remainder of our excursion. 

 {To be continued.) 



Art. II. Descriptive Notice of a Specimen of Lemur tardigradus 

 Lin., Makis Cuv., kept alive for some Time at Edinburgh. By 

 W. Baird, Esq. Communicated to the Plinian Society in May, 

 1827. 



The Lemur {lemures^ ghosts; resemblance to man) tardi- 

 gradus, Slow Lemur, or Tailless Maucauco {Jig. 83.), has been 

 described by Linnaeus, Buffbn, and others ; but, perhaps, as 

 to manners and habits, most accurately by Vosmaer and Sir 

 W. Jones, whose descriptions may be seen in Shaw's Zoology, 

 He is placed by Linnaeus next to the monkeys, as a connect- 

 ing link between them and other animals, under the genus 

 Lemur; and by Cuvier, under the quadrumanous animals. 



