i44. Linncean Society. 



regiment. Captain C, from motives of laudable curiosity, so- 

 licited leave to accompany the expedition from the Cape, which 

 sailed in the ship Falmouth to take possession of this very in- 

 teresting island, and which was provided with the necessaries 

 for establishing a settlement there. He gives a copious ac- 

 count of its natural history. It is a solid rock rising abruptly 

 from the sea in the form of a truncated cone, at an angle of 45 

 degrees, 3000 feet, surmounted by a dome 5000 feet high, on 

 which is a volcanic crater. The lower part of the mountain is 

 generally surrounded by clouds, and scarcely a day passes with- 

 out rain. The whole is in a great measure covered with shrubs 

 and with long grass to a considerable height. The animals which 

 inhabit the island are two or three species of seal, various kinds 

 of sea-fowl, and wild tiogs and goats, which were probablv left 

 by some early navigators. These as well as the vegetable pro- 

 ductions are fully described bv Capt. C, who also gives an ac- 

 count of a difficult and hazardous journey to the summit. The 

 animals are described as so tan^.e that it was necessarv to clear a 

 path through the birds, which were re])osing on the rocks, by 

 kicking them aside ; and one species o^ seal did not move when 

 struck or pelted, and at length some of the company amused 

 themselves by mounting them, and riding them into the sea. 



Also an account of a new kind of wheat discovered in the 

 United States, and peculiarly adapted to the climate, from its 

 enduring the frosts without injurv, in a letter from Governor H. 

 de Witt Clinton. 



A letter was read from the Rev. Re\ett Sheppard, on a powder 

 secreted by birds, of the same colour with their plumage. An ac- 

 count of this kind by Bruce has been ridiculed and discredited, 

 as to certain birds in the mountainous districts of Abvssinia; bur 

 hi? assertion is remarkably confirmed by Mr. Sheppard's observ- 

 ing the same circumstance in a heron \vliich he shot a few weeks 

 since. 



Feb. 3. Observations by Mr. E. Barton on the Natural His- 

 tory and Anatomy of the Frigate Bird. — This bird is the Peli- 

 canus Aquila, Linn.^-called by seamen Frigate-bhd, Man-of- 

 war-bird, Sea-eagle, and Halcyon. In vast numbers on the 

 Island of Ascension. Mr. Burton premises that the specimens 

 procured by him differ materially from Linnaeus's. It does not 

 swim, but takes its prey skimming the surface of the water. It 

 can only begin its flight by climbing to the edge of a precipice. 

 Flies immense heights, and tor hundreds of miles without a rest- 

 ing place. — The paper concluded by a minute description of its 

 anatomy, compared with its habits, &c. 



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