Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology, 191 



may be found possessing a competent knowledge of the- Greek 

 language, and of zoology and comparative anatomy, who, after a 

 suflficiont examination of the animals now in Greece, shall under- 

 take the task of editing and illustrating this g?eat work. Such a 

 a performance, properly executed, would be the resuscitation of a 

 body of knowledge which has lain buried for above 2000 years, 

 and would certainly be no less acceptable to zoologists and anato- 

 mists than to the cultivators of classical learning. — Report of apa- 

 per read before the Royal Irish Academy on the 1 \th May last. 



15. Migrations and Capture of the Rein-deer in North Siberia. — 

 The two most important epochs of the year, says Admiral Wran- 

 gell, are the spring and autumn migrations of the rein-deer. About 

 the end of May they leave the forests, where they had some degree 

 of shelter from the winter cold, in large herds, and seek the north- 

 ern plains nearer the sea, partly for the sake of the better pasture 

 afforded by the moss tundras (great deserts without any vegetation 

 but moss and lichen), and partly to fly from the musquitoes and 

 other insects, which, literally speaking, torment them to death. 



The hunting at this season is not nearly so important and valu- 

 able as in the autumn ; as it often happens that the rivers are still 

 frozen over, they afford no opportunity of intercepting the deer, 

 and the hunters can only lie in wait for them among the ravines, to 

 shoot them with guns or arrows. Success with the latter weapon 

 is rathei^ uncertain, and the high price of powder and ball is an ob- 

 jection to the use of guns ; the more so as at this season the rein- 

 deer are very thin, and so injured by insects that nothing but the 

 extremity of hunger can render the flesh palatable ; the animals 

 killed in spring are commonly only used for the dogs. The true har- 

 vest, which we arrived just in time to see, is in August or September, 

 when the rein-deer are returning from the plains to the forests. 

 They are then healthy and well fed, the venison is excellent, and, 

 as they have just acquired their winter coats, the fur is thick and 

 warm. The difference of the quality of the skins at the two sea- 

 sons is such, that whilst an autumn skin is valued at five or six 

 roubles, a spring one will only fetch one, or one and a half rouble. 



In good years the migrating body of rein-deer consists of many 

 thousands ; and though they are divided into herds of two or three 

 hundred each, yet the herds keep so near together as to form only 

 one immense mass, which is sometimes from fifty to a hundred 

 wersts in breadth. They always follow the same route, and in 

 crossing the river near Plotbischtsche they choose a place where 

 a dry valley leads dowta to the stream on one side, and a flat sand j 

 shore facilitates tBeir landing on the other side. As eadi separate 



