Information respecting Botanical Travellers. 119 



the upper part of the Hunter, near the Liverpool range ; but this 

 being Saturday I follow on Monday, and from the slow travelling 

 shall soon overtake the party. I am sure you would be delighted to 

 spend a week among the Menuras, as I hope to do, it being my in- 

 tention to encamp near their haunts, in order if possible to obtain 

 their eggs and learn something of their habits and nidification. I 

 paid a short visit to Liverpool Range last winter, and obtained seven 

 or eight specimens; of two I made skeletons, and placed three entire 

 bodies in pickle for dissection. In its ceconomy and structure the 

 Menura bears little or no relation to the Gallinaceae ; its sternum is 

 quite plain with a small ridge ; it is a cheerful bird, singing and 

 mocking all the birds of the forest ; and of all creatures I have en- 

 countered it is the most shy and wary, and difficult to procure, inha- 

 biting precipitous rocky gullies covered with climbing plants and 

 dense vegetation. I find the natives very useful in assisting, being 

 scarcely ever without, a tribe or portion of a tribe with me when in 

 their neighbourhood ; they are nearly all excellent and dead shots, 

 and are excessively fond of shooting. I frequently give into their 

 hands my best guns, and never find them in the slightest degree 

 disposed to take advantage : I am of course not speaking of those far 

 in the interior, where I shall require to be strictly on the alert." 



Mr. Gould also writes that he had sent his principal assistant to 

 Swan River, and has already received from him a large and valuable 

 collection. He expresses an intention of endeavouring to visit New 

 Zealand before returning to Britain, and it will be satisfactory to all 

 his friends and well-wishers to know that at the date of the above 

 letter he and Mrs. Gould continued to enjoy uninterrupted good 

 health. 



Extracts from a Journal of the Mission which visited Bootan, in 

 1837-38, under CaptainK. Boileau Pemberton. ByW. Grif- 

 fith, Esq., Madras Medical Establishment. 



[Continued from vol. iv. p. 429.] 



Feb. 1st. Our march commenced by descending, gradually at first 

 and then very rapidly, to the Dumree Nuddee ; crossing this, which 

 is of small size, at the junction of another torrent, we wound along 

 the face of the mountain forming the right wall of the ravine, ascend- 

 ing very gradually at the same time. The country throughout was 

 of a most barren appearance, the vegetation consisting of coarse 

 grasses, stunted shrubs, and an occasional long-leaved pine. 



Feb. oth. On leaving this place we descended by a precipitous 



