4/96 Scientific Intelligence^^^Zoology. 



tion on that and similar subjects by your en[\inent friend, S. S. 

 Duncan, Esq. (of Oxford.) Every person who has been much in 

 the Bombay trade must have seen countless shoals of sea-serpents 

 off that coast. I myself have seen them for hours accompanying 

 the ship I was on board of in J 809, when going to Bombay, 

 and every person I have spoken to on the point here has ap- 

 peared surprized that any doubt could exist about it. Those 

 which I saw might be about 40 feet long, from estimation ; they 

 were beautifully coloured, and moved as rapidly as the ship, 

 going seven or eight miles an hour : smaller ones still more 

 common. On the coast of this island an immense medusa was 

 thrown on shore, in a violent gale of wind, in 1819; it was with- 

 in seven miles of my Belomber estate. It must have weighed 

 many tons. I went to see it when the gale had subsided, whicli 

 was not for three days after its being cast upon the sand, but i$ 

 had already become offensive, and I could not distinguish any 

 shape. The sea had thrown it high above the reach of the tide, 

 and I instructed the fishermen who lived in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood to watch its decay, that if any osseous or cartilaginous 

 part remained it might be preserved ; it rotted, however, entire- 

 ly, and left no remains. It could not be less than nine months 

 before it entirely disappeared ; and the travellers were obliged 

 to change the direction of the road for nearly a quarter of a 

 mile to avoid the offensive and sickening stench which proceeded 

 from it." — Extract of a Letter from C. Telfair^ Esq. July 20. 

 18£7, to R. Barclay, Esq. of Bury Hill. 



22. Chinese method of fattening Fish. — " The Chinese are ce- 

 lebrated for their commercial acumen, indefatigable industry, 

 and natural adroitness, in making the most of every gift of na- 

 ture bestowed on their fertile country. Useful as well as orna- 

 mental vegetables engross their every care ; and animals which 

 are the most profitably reared, and which yield the greatest 

 quantity of rich and savoury food, are preferred by them for 

 supplying their larders and stews. Their hortus dietetica would 

 form a considerable list ; and though they do not use such a va- 

 riety of butcher's meat and fowl as Europeans do, yet, in the 

 articles of pork, geese, and ducks, they surpass ; in the use of 

 fish they equal us ; and in their domestication and management 



