80 



" About four o'clock, as I was just giving it up indespair, I suddenly 

 came round a peak of snow, and found the large Ram at about 300 

 yards looking at me : despairing of ever getting nearer, and knowing 

 my rifle would do it if only held straight, I beat a place in the snow 

 and laid it along, taking a steady aim, pulled, and to my delight saw 

 him fall on hi? side and kiek. He recovered himself and crawled 

 into some frightful rock, and there stood showing me his horns." 



The animal was not eventually captured until it had received a 

 large number of balls. " Thus I killed," says Lieut. Smith, " the 

 iirst Burrhal ever killed by European or native that I can leam." 



Mr. Ogilby observed that the present animal, although extremely 

 rare and valuable, had been for some time known to naturalists, by a 

 specimen in the coUection of the Linnean Society, and by the re- 

 searches of Mr. Hodgson, who had described two species of sheep 

 inhabiting the Himalayan range. Recently, however, Mr. Hodgson 

 had changed his opinion with respect to the existence of two di- 

 stinct species, referring them both to his Ovis Nahoor ; but Mr. Ogilby 

 believed that another species did inhabit the Himalaya Mountains 

 decidedly distinct from the present, and the horns of which are so 

 capacious, that the young Foxes are said to nestle in such as are 

 found unattached to the animals. 



A paper was then read, entitled, " Observations on Marine Ser- 

 pents." By Dr. Cantor. 



This communication embodies the results of Dr. Cantor's obser- 

 vations upon the habits and general conformation of the Marine 

 Ophidians, a group of Vertebrata to which but little attention has 

 hitherto been given, from the circumstance of the danger attending 

 their examination in the living statė, and also from their geogra- 

 phical distribution being entirely confined to the tropical seas. The 

 author being stationed, in the East India Company's service, on the 

 Delta of the Ganges, had, during a considerable period, most favour- 

 able opportunities for studying these serpents, many of \vhich \vere 

 captured in the nets employed for fishing. His observations are 

 principally directed to the anatomical characters which distinguish 

 the marine from the terrestrial serpents, and to the modifications of 

 structure by \vhich the fojmer are adapted to the element in wluch 

 they exist. With respect to their physiology, the principai point of 

 interest he estabUshes is, the circumstance of all the species, \vith- 

 out exception, being highly venomous, a fact which has been denied 

 by Schlegel, who statės that the Marine Snakes are harmless ; and 

 the šame erroneous idea is very current with the natives. Dr. Cantor 

 in proof of the contrary refers to the recent death of an officer in 

 Her Majesty's service, Tvithin an hour or two after the bite of a Serpent 

 which had been caught at sea, and also to numerous experiments 

 of his own, in which fowls, fish, and other animals invariably died 

 ■\vithin a few minutes after the bite had been inflicted. Numerous 

 sketches M^ere exhibited to the Meeting in illustration of Dr. Cantor's 

 observations. 



