M. Du Chaillu's 'Adventures in Equatorial Africa' 61 



to hear the wonderful tales he had to tell (and which he had already 

 told the visitors to his show*) ; they seem to have swallowed all these 

 tales as truth, and to have digested his book, illustrations and all, 

 with equal facility, though it is full of contradictions and most evident 

 exaggerations. 



All these things are of little importance, except to make one regret 

 that persons are not better instructed and more careful in what they 

 give credit to and patronize. But they become important when the 

 writer is put forward as an authority on subjects upon which I believe 

 he is not qualified to speak ; and it is only against the work being 

 considered as what I conceive he himself never intended it to be when 

 it was first compiled (that is, as a regular and veracious work of 

 travels and natural history) that I have ever objected or desire to 

 object. 



I will now proceed to the regular zoological part of the work, 

 which forms Appendix A., entitled " The Fauna of Equatorial Africa." 



This list gives one an odd idea of M. Du Chaillu's zoological know- 

 ledge. It is divided under two heads, Mammalians and Birds. The 

 first, " Mammalians," contains not only the Mammalia properly so 

 called, but also " Turtles," " Serpents, and other Reptiles." We 

 are there told, "New species I have, for convenience of reference, put 

 by themselves : for details of the new animals the scientific reader is 

 referred to the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History 

 for 1860." If the reader refers to them, he will find only the notices 

 of sixteen Mammalia, and nothing respecting the Turtle, Aspido- 

 nectes aspilus, or the birds ; for the birds are all described by 

 Mr. Cassin, the Curator of the Museum of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, from specimens in that museum purchased 

 of M. Du Chaillu, and are published in the Journal of that Academy. 

 But, for some reason, neither Mr. Cassin' s name, nor that of the 

 Academy or its Journal, is mentioned in the ' Travels,' or even 

 referred to in the preface or Appendix f . 



On the Birds I will not make any observations, as only a very few 

 authentically-named species have come under my hand, the typical 

 specimens being in the museum of the Academy ; and M. Du Chaillu 

 appears to have brought only a very small proportion of the birds 

 mentioned in the list to England J. 



When I looked at the Mammalia, on the 13th of April, as care- 

 fully as I could under the then existing regulation that the specimens 

 were not to be touched, and no visitor allowed to take notes or de- 

 scriptions of them, I came to the conclusion that they were all old 

 friends (even those named as new), and that they appeared to have 



* See Berkeley, ' English Sportsman in the Western Prairies,' p. 417. 



•f - See ' Saturday Review,' June 22, p. 634. 



% M. Charles Bonaparte observes, " Nous profitons de cette occasion pour faire 

 remarquer qu'en remettant simultanement en Europe et en Amerique les produits 

 de ses chasses Africaines, M. du Chaillu a donne lieu a 1'etablissement de plusieurs 

 especes notninales; ainsi par exemple, Barbatula Chailluil Cassin, ne differe pas de 

 Barbatula formosa, Verr., et a sur ce dernier la priorite tout aussi bien que Bar- 

 batula fuliginosa, Cassin, sur Gymnobucco Bonapartii." — Compies Rendus, 1856. 



