Mat 19. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



393 



TTie Euxine or Black Sea (Vol. xl., pp. 102. 

 283.). — Arrowsmith says: 



"It (the Pontus Euxinus) was formerly called axenus, 

 from Ashkenary, the son of Gomer, who settled on its 

 shores in Asia Minor. But this original being forgotten 

 in course of time, the Greeks explained the term by 

 ofeti/ot, inkospitalis, in -which they were favoured b}' the 

 inhospitable and stormy nature of the sea itself, as well as 

 by the savage manners of the people who dwelled around 

 it; in the course of time, however, when their ferocitj' 

 had been gradually softened by intercourse with foreign 

 nations, and by the numerous colonies which had been 

 planted on their coasts, the name of the sea was changed 

 to eiifeii/os, hospitalis. ... Its modern name, the 

 Black Sea, has been obtained from the gloomy appearance 

 of its black and rocky shores, covered with dark and im- 

 penetrable woods, as well as from the dreadful storms and 

 thick fogs with which it is infested in winter." — Com- 

 pendium of Geography, p. 660. 



As to the latter part of my quotation, the winter 

 of 1854 will ever remain to bear painful testimony 

 to the fact ; but I am not sure that the blackness 

 of the shores is to be attributed so much to the 

 "impenetrable forests," as to the fact which your 

 correspondent A. C. M. notices of the existence of 

 coal at Heraclea. All such names, indeed, I am 

 inclined to refer to the actual physical aspect of 

 the country. Are not the terms Edom and the 

 Ked Sea to be referred to the red sandy soil ? 

 Would Albion ever have gained the name if it 

 had not been for her white cliffs? Was Green- 

 land not the glad welcome given by the hardy 

 Icelanders to that green oasis ? And is not the 

 White Sea so called from its proximity to the 

 regions of ice and snow ? I need hardly notice 

 the Black Gang Chine, the Whitfields, clays, 

 chalks, stones, &c., that we have among ourselves. 

 I am not sure about the derivation of the Yellow 

 Sea and Yellow River ; possibly the yellow colour 

 of the silk may have given rise to them ; still I 

 shall be glad to learn that they may be accounted 

 for by the nature of the soil, or some feature in 

 the physical aspect of the country. The Blue 

 Mountains in Australia speak for themselves. 



R. J. A. 



Guy of WarwicKs Cow's Rib (Vol. x\., p. 283.). 

 — Without recording any opinion of more recent 

 travellers or naturalists, I beg to refer F. L. S., 

 Oxford, to some remarks on this subject by a no 

 less (Cambridge) celebrity than Johannes Caius, 

 who, in his work De Canibus Britnnm'cis, De 

 Rariorum Animalium et Stirpiwn Historia, Sfc, 

 says " De Bonasi cornibus, incidi in caput," &c. 

 Let us go on Anglice : 



"I met with the head of a certain huge animal, of 

 which the naked bone, with the bones supporting the 

 horns, were of enormous weight, and as much as a man 

 could well lift. The curvature of the bones of the horns 

 is of such a projection as to point not straight downwards, 

 but obliquely forwards. ... Of this kind I saw 

 another head at Warwick, in the Castle, a.d. 1552, in the 

 place where the arms of the great and strong Guy, for- 

 merly Earl of Warwick, are kept. . . . There is also 



a vertebra of the neck of the same animal, of such great 

 size that its circumference is not less than three Roman 

 feet, seven inches and a half. I think also that the blade 

 bone, which is to be seen himg up by chains from the 

 north gate of Coventry, belongs to the same animal ; it 

 has, if I remember right, no portion of the back bone at- 

 tached to it, and it is three feet one inch and a half broad 

 across the lowest part, and four feet six inches in length. 

 The circumference of the whole bone is not less than 

 eleven feet four inches and a half. 



" In the chapel of the great Guy, Earl of Warwick, 

 which is situated not more than a mile from the town of 

 Warwick (Guyscliff .'), there is hung up a rib of the same 

 animal, as I suppose, the girth of which, in the smallest 

 part, is nine inches, the length six feet and a half. It is 

 dry, and, on the outer surface, carious; but j'et weighs 

 nine pounds and a half. Some of the common people 

 fancy it to be a rib of a wild boar, killed by Guy ; some, a 

 rib of a cow which haunted a ditch (? a ravine) near 

 Coventry, and injured many persons. This last opinion I 

 judge to come nearer to the truth, since it may, perhaps, 

 be Ihe bone of a bonasus or urus. It is probable that 

 manv animals of this kind formerly lived in our England, 

 being of old an island full of woods and forests ; because, 

 even in our boyhood, the horns of these animals were in 

 common use at the table, on more solemn feasts, in lieu of 

 cups ; as those of the urus were in Germany in ancient 

 times, according to Caesar in the sixth book of his Com- 

 mentaries about the Gallic war. They were supported on 

 three silver feet, and had, aa in Germany, a border of 

 silver round the rim." 



So far Caius. 



" The horn which stood before her the queen then raised 

 with care. 

 From the Urus' forehead broke— 'twas a jewel rich and 



rare; 

 Its feet were shining silver, with many a ring of gold, 

 While wondrous rims adorn'd it, and curious shapes of 

 old." 



Frithiof's Saga. 



H.B. 



Warwick. 



Henry Fitzjames (Vol. xi., pp. 199. 272.). — I 

 am much obliged to your correspondent W. B. for 

 calling my attention to what he has rightly termed 

 a " singular error." But for the unaccountable 

 omission of four words Irom the commencement of 

 the third sentence, it would not have occurred. 

 The correct reading should have been as follows : 

 " A younger brother of this distinguished noble- 

 man being at Malta, became a knight of St. John, 

 and aiterwards Grand Prior of England." That 

 this person was Henry, and not James Fitzjames, 

 is clearly shown in the letter of James II. to the 

 Grand Master of Malta. " Henry Fitzjames, our 

 natural son, already well known to you," is the 

 extract to which I refer. W. W. 



Malta. 



Serpent's Eggs (Vol.x., p. 508. ; Vol.xi., pp. 271. 

 345.)._L. M. M. R. is very grateful to H. H. 

 Brejen of St. Lucia, for what he says on the sub- 

 ject of serpent's eggs ; but that which he mentions 

 is not the sort of egg sought for. The Ovum 

 avguinum, or adderstone, or glair, is an artificial 



