Zoological Society. 415 



and how it is that our brains did not bespatter the ground is to 

 me miraculous. These rascals had crept on us under cover of the 

 tea-trees : the tent in which Calvert and I were being first in their 

 road, the whole body attacked us ; poor Gilbert, hearing the noise, 

 was rushing from his tent with his gun, when a spear thrown at him 

 pierced his breast, and, penetrating to his lungs, caused internal hae- 

 morrhage ; the only words he spoke were these, ' Charlie, take my 

 gun ; they have killed me,' when pulling the spear out with his own 

 hands, he immediately dropped upon the ground lifeless. Little 

 Murphy, who was by his side at the time he was speared, fired at the 

 black fellow who speared him ; Brown fired at the mob beating Cal- 

 vert and myself, and they immediately retreated howling and la- 

 menting. Mr. Calvert was pierced with five spears, myself with six, 

 and our recovery is to be attributed to the abstemious way in which 

 we lived. After having the spears pulled out, you may imagine our 

 feelings when we heard Charlie exclaim, ■ Gilbert is dead ! ' — we could 

 not, would not, believe it. Alas ! the morning brought no better 

 tidings — poor Gilbert was consigned to his last and narrow home ; 

 the prayers of the church of England were read over him, and a large 

 fire made upon his grave for the purpose of misleading the blacks, 

 who, we thought, would probably return and search the camp on our 

 departure. It is impossible to describe the gloom and sorrow this 

 fatal accident cast upon our party. As a companion, none was more 

 cheerful or more agreeable; as a man, none more indefatigable or more 

 persevering ; but it is useless for me to eulogize cine so well-known 

 to you — one whom you will have cause to regret, and who will ever 

 be remembered by, " Sir, 



" Yours most truly, 



V John Roper." 



The skull of a Seal was exhibited to the meeting, presented by the 

 Society's Corresponding Member, Richard Hill, Esq., who refers to 

 it in a letter, dated Spanish Town, Jamaica, July 8, 1846, as "a 

 skull of an undescribed Seal found on the islands and shoals called 

 by the seamen the Pedros, but known as the Vibora Bank on the old 

 Spanish charts, situated about a degree to the south of Jamaica." 



Mr. Hill's letter proceeds : " The most detailed account I can give 

 of this Seal, in addition to the facts presented by an inspection of 

 the cranium, which will be found to have much of the contour and 

 character of that of the Calocephalus of Frederick Cuvier, will com- 

 prise little more than the statement that it has no external auricles : 

 the foramina are so small that all trace of an ear to a casual observer 

 is imperceptible. The colour of the animal is intensely and uni- 

 formly black ; the hair is stiff and close, and very short ; the nails of 

 the hinder claws are rudimentary ; the eyes are large, black and full, 

 and the iris crimson. 



" The measurements of the specimen from which the cranium sent 

 was obtained, are the following : — 



ft. in. 

 Total length along the back from the snout to the tip of the 



tail 4 2 



