50 Dr Hibbert on the existence of 



snout is depressed, short and retuse, projecting a little beyond 

 the under jaw. The nostrils are near the end of the snout, 

 very small, and each has only one aperture. The eyes are near 

 the upper part of the head, as is also the aperture to the gills. 

 The lateral line forms an arch before, and then runs straight 

 along the middle of the side. The tail ends in a sharp point, 

 is compressed, and has sharp edges above and below. — Hamil- 

 ton on Fishes, p. 1 6. 



Dacca, 15th June 1830. 



Art. V. — On the Question of the Existence of the Rein- 

 Deer, during the Twelfth Century, in Caithness. By S. 

 Hibbert, M. D. F. R. S. Ed. &c. &c. Communicated by 

 the Author. 



Ihat the Jarls of Orkney, in the twelfth century, were in 

 the habit of crossing the Pentland Firth to chace the rein-deer 

 of Caithness, has been asserted by Torfaeus : " Consueverant 

 Comites in Catenesiam, indeq.'' ad montana ad venatum caprea- 

 rum rangiferorumq.'' quotannis proficisci. 11 — (Rerum Orcaden- 

 sium Historian, Lib. 1. cap. xxxvj.) 



Torfaeus wrote at the close of the seventeenth century, and 

 I long thought that in following very ancient Scandinavian 

 authorities, he had either misquoted his original by the substi- 

 tution of Rein-Deer for Red-Deer, (which last are still the 

 proud objects of the chace of the Chatti,) or that, in prefe- 

 rence to the language of the more authentic histories of the 

 Jarls of Orkney, he was incautiously perpetuating that of the 

 romantic Sagas. This sentiment, which T stated many years 

 ago at a meeting of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland, 

 I must now condemn, without, however, acquitting Torfaeus 

 of total inaccuracy. 



The manuscript sources whence Torfaeus drew the chief ma- 

 terials of his annals have been explained by a learned Icelander, 

 Jonas Jonaeus, by whom an abstract and Latin translation 

 have been subsequently published. (Hafniae, Anno 1780.) 

 This work I lately consulted in reference to Caithness, and I 

 was not a little surprised to find, that if Torfaeus had done 



