Supplementary Varieties and Review. 
Cape Chedley, Hudson’s Straits, on the 
3d of August; they were about 1,200 
miles from Repulse Bay, where they in- 
tended to winter. 
Mr. G. Wallace, who lives in Braddock 
Fields, in America, has, during the present 
season, raised a considerable quantity of 
the Hyson Tea-plant. There is a tea made 
from a plant which goes by that name, and 
grows wild on the upper border of the 
Kenibac river ; it resembles, in flavour, the 
best Souchong. 
EAST-INDIES. 
Dr. Tyler has brought from Bencoolen 
to Calcutta, two very fine species of the 
singular ape named Siamang by the Ma- 
lays. 
very nearly three feet high, and is one'of 
the best specimens hitherto procured. She 
is remarkably playful and docile, and ex- 
ceedingly gentle in her manners—without 
any of those traits of ferocity, or disgusting 
habits, which usually distinguish the mon- 
key tribe. Representations of this animal 
have found their way into works of natural 
history published in Europe, but they give 
altogether an incorrect ‘notion. Beneath 
the lower jaw is a thin bag of skin, analo- 
gous to that attached to the adjutant; this 
the creature expands at pleasure, but most 
frequently when basking in the sun. This 
One of the Siamangs, a female, is. 
625 
is not a receptacle for returning any portion 
of the food, which, as in the human species, 
is at once masticated, and passed into the 
stomach. 
NEW SOUTH WALES. : 
Sydney Gazettes to the 10th of February 
have been lately received. An expedition 
across the country to Western Port had 
been undertaken by two individuals, Messrs. 
Howell and Hume, which has led to the 
discovery of a very rich and extensive tract 
- of country, before unknown, and which is 
described as “ the finest in point of soils 
and the most English in point of climate.’” 
of any before explored. ‘The utility of the 
discovery is much lessened by the difficulty 
of access to it by land, inasmuch, that 
between Sydney and Western Port there 
were no fewer than four distinct chains of 
mountains, some of them so lofty as to have 
the summits covered with snow in the 
midst of summer; but, the extreme fertility 
of the country around Western Port was 
such, that-colonization, it was conceived, 
must necessarily follow it, and the commu- 
nication by sea presented no material ob- 
stacles either in point of time or difficulty 
of navigation. The port was excellent, and. 
a navigable river, inferior to none in the. 
colony, extended into the heart of the 
country. 
SUPPLEMENTARY REVIEW. 
'HE Westminster Review Reviewed on 
the Subjects of Plague, Typhus Fever, 
and Quarantine.—There are few subjects 
that have been submitted to public investi- 
gation, the warm and even pertinacious 
discussion of which, pro and con, seem 
likely to be productive of more une- 
quivocal advantage to mankind, than 
that of the contagious or non-contagious 
nature of the plague. It is one of those 
questions, the value of which does not 
principally depend upon the vote or deci- 
sion that may be come to by those who 
unclasp the seals of the book of numbers. 
The advantage is in the discussion itself. 
The local question, indeed, which has 
' brought the subject into the arena, and 
occasioned it to be so hotly disputed, namely, 
whether the cargoes of a few merchant 
vessels shall or shall not be occasionally 
delayed forty days from being brought into 
the market, to the vast inconvenience, and 
delayed profit of a few merchant owners ? 
_ —is, in the estimate of a benevolent phi- 
losophy, scarcely worthy of serious con- 
sideration, much Jess of a hot dispute. 
But. there are considerations of such deep 
import to the interests of science and hu- 
manity involved in the discussion, that, 
_ whatever may be the decision in summing 
up the respective arguments, it is not too 
mueh to say, that the thinking and inquir- 
ing part of mankind (and, ultimately, 
they lead the rest) cannot fail of being, 
henceforward, somewhat wiser and better 
in consequence of the investigation: and 
we trust that our readers, in general, will 
join with us in thanks to those scientific 
and ingenious correspondents, who have 
enabled us to deyote so large a portion of 
our present Supplement to the elucidation 
of the subject. 
Our Quarterly friends of the Westmin- 
ster have entered, as might be expected, 
with some warmth into the controversy; 
and (as might be expected also) are to- 
lerably decisive in their opinion. It is a 
judgment, ex cathedré, they pronounce ; 
and they fulminate a tolerably distinct ana- 
thema against the understandings of those 
who do not bow to the authority of their 
tribunal. In this, however, they are not 
without precedent. The dogmatism began 
with the opposite party—grounded, we are’ 
ready to admit, upon less satisfactory evi- 
dence, and less efficient argument. ; 
The Medico-Chirurgical Reviewers, in 
speaking of what (to us at least) appear the 
very inconclusive facts and vague infe- 
rences of Sir Gilbert Blane, on the conta- 
gious nature of the yellow fever, had al- 
ready thus expressed themselves— 
«* We think that few men, not completely blinded 
by prejudice, or wedded to some favourite doctrine 
will reject, or doubt the evidence which has beer 
brought forward respecting the contagious character 
which 
