370 Dr. Cantor on the Flora and Fauna of Chusan. 



that office, which latter circumstance afforded some opportu- 

 nity of more closely observing the habits of the people. The 

 difficulties which the Chinese language imposes upon the 

 foreigner, the kindness of the Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff had in some 

 measure enabled me to obviate. I had put down and num- 

 bered all questions upon which I wished information, oppo- 

 site to which Mr. Gutzlaif had furnished the Chinese version. 

 The latter I produced in my excursions to the Chinese, who, 

 as they nearly all can read and write, seldom failed to write 

 a reply on a blank paper, to which I attached the number cor- 

 responding to my question, and was afterwards favoured by 

 Mr. Gutzlaff with a translation. That information of such a 

 kind must be used cum grano salis, it is scarcely necessary to 

 add. The bodily fatigue I had daily to encounter in the exe- 

 cution of my duty, the beyond description distressing nature 

 of the duty itself, I have reason to believe laid the foundation 

 of my subsequent severe illness. I had scarcely been relieved 

 from military duty and busily engaged in turning the short re- 

 maining season to the best possible account, when I became 

 a victim to a violent cerebral fever, and was subsequently or- 

 dered to sea by the Medical Board at Chusan, in a state, I am 

 informed, which held out but slight prospect of my surviving. 

 I have now but to perform the pleasing task of expressing my 

 gratitude to Sir Gordon Bremer, K.C.B., Col. Mountain, C.B. 

 of H.M. 26th regiment, in addition to those officers on the ex- 

 pedition mentioned in the descriptions, to whose kindness, 

 during my sojourn at Chusan, I feel myself greatly indebted. 

 To G. A. Bushby, Esq., Chief Secretary to the Government of 

 India, I beg to express my best thanks for his great liberality, 

 which the important avocations of a high office never prevented 

 from rendering every assistance to facilitate my scientific task. 

 To J. W. Grant, Esq., B.C.S., I take this opportunity of ac- 

 knowledging the repeated and through years unaltered bene- 

 fits which I have derived from his extensive, but unassuming 

 knowledge of the natural history of India. In placing the 

 Mollusks at the disposal of W. H. Benson, Esq., B.C.S., I 

 was guided by the conviction, that I could not turn them to 

 greater advantage to science ; and while I beg to offer my 

 best thanks for the liberality with which that distinguished 

 naturalist has met my request, his own descriptions carry the 

 best proof of the correctness of my estimate. 



[To be continued.] 



