160 MILLIARD'S NOTES ON THE MANACUSI. [March 14, 1859. 



carrying their delicate prematurely-Lorn young about with them wherever they 

 go. They have this condition, viz., a sott, warm, well-lined portable nursery- 

 pocket or " perambulator." Take the case of one of our wild quadrupeds, 

 suppose a fox or wild cat ; they make their nest, they have their litter. Sup- 

 pose it should happen that they must travel one or two hundred miles to get 

 a drink of water, impelled by the peculiar thirsty condition of a nursing- 

 mother, but obliged to leave the little family at home, — where would that 

 family be when the parent returned from its hundj^ed miles journey, the 

 poor, little, blind, deserted litter? Why, starved to death. In order that 

 quadrupeds should be fitted to exist in a great continent like Australia, where 

 the meteoric conditions are such as to f)roduce the dilemma I have instanced, 

 those quadrui^eds must possess an organisation suited to such peculiar 

 climatal conditions. And so it is ; that form of mammahan quadruped 

 in this great continent, native to it, and born so as to make these migrations 

 to obtain that necessity of life, has the superadded pouch and genetic pecu- 

 liarities enabling them to carry their young ones wherever they go. And 

 since we find that marsupial animals have lived in Australia from a very 

 remote period, so we may infer that its peculiar climate has prevailed during 

 as vast a lapse of time. Permit me to conclude by repeating that the peculiar 

 mammalian forms of Australia hide themselves by day, and must be sought 

 for by night, or early dawn, or twilight. The scientific traveller, bearing in 

 mind that the marsupialia are nocturnal and keep out of view, would do well 

 to let no night pass without setting and baiting traps for them. He would 

 probably thus be able greatly to enrich our catalogues of these most curious 

 and interesting quadrupeds. 



The Second Paper read was : — 



2. Notes on the Manacusi, or River King George. !By Charles H. 

 HiLLiARD, Mate of the Cutter Herald. 1857. 



Communicated by J. Lyons M'Leod, Esq., f.r.g,s., late H. M. Consul 

 at Mozambique. 



The Herald sailed on a trading expedition up the Manacusi River. 



Wlien she had attained a distance of from 100 to 140 miles from its 



moutli, the Portuguese authorities forbad farther progress, and the 



vessel was ordered to return. Mr. Hilliard gives an account of 



what was observed during the three weeks the Herald was in the 



river. Tlie bar at its mouth is described as the scene of a fearful 



surf, dangerous to a boat, but offering no difficulty to the vessel : — 



*' Opposite to the passage by which we entered are several large, 



low islands, densely covered with the finest red mangrove poles I 



ever saw, on which the archil grows in great abundance, and on the 



bush by the banks of the river. For some miles up the river the 



"banks are more or less covered with bush, mangrove jungles, and 



trees, generally a species of banian, and others, indicating a wet 



soil, the most of which I have seen growing in swamps in Natal. 



On the first night, by where we anchored, the large bush-buck 



(Inconcha) appeared to be plentiful from the number we heard 



barking like small dogs. 



