BOOK NOTICE. 155 



ant-eater" {Marathice " Kaiil-maniar") and was told by the Sinhalese that this 

 creature (of which he gives a beautiful vignette) curls himself around the elephant's 

 trunk and suffocates him ! 



He went to Point de Galle, and found a very rare animal in that port, viz., an 

 honest " Moor-man, " who sold him real stones at reasonable rates, under the 

 name of Muhammad " Ossen" (presumably " Hasan" or " Husain.") 



And then he shook the dust off his feet against the Government of Ceylon and 

 sailed to Singapore which he calls " the Hub of the Far East." 



In Singapore he found little to collect, having come at the wrong season, though, 

 on a subsequent visit the Malays brought him marine miscellanea " by the boat- 

 load." Amongst many specimens of Homo sapiens he found three Americans, the 

 Consul and his two daughters ; and thinks it worth while to record that the first 

 was "loyal to the back bone, and devoted heart and soul to the interests of the 

 Government he represents," which one would hope is hardly a rare character 

 amongst Consuls; although the maintenance of a Consul to look after his own two 

 daughters in a port where no other resident specimen of the nation was to be 

 found, seems to be a diplomatic luxury on the part of the " Government he 

 represents." 



However, two more arrived during Mr. Hornaday's stay and satisfied him 

 " in spite of the Scotch blood " of one of them. 



He found that the Europeans drank more brandy and soda than was good for 

 them, which is a common complaint with him, as with other temperate men who 

 make it a custom to frequent fourth-rate hotels in seaport towns. " Of the social 

 life of Singapore he knew nothing, " but " from what he was told" thanked God 

 for America, as a better place to know something of society in. 



Having contemned what he "knew nothing of" to his heart's content, and 

 visited the private Menagerie of the famous Mr. Whampoa ; Mr. Hornadav 

 started for Selangore, and wisely made friends with the Superintendent of Police, 

 by whose advice he went to a place called Jerom, on a "night of the kind 

 especially made for boating" (a good phrase), and there he proceeded to catch 

 Crocodilus porosus, which he calls the sea-crocodile (also a good phrase), 

 although he only once saw the species out at sea, as it seems to be rather an 

 estuarine reptile. He shot a few ; but his best specimens were caught with the 

 " Alir, " an ingenious Malayan " trimmer " which he describes and figures. He saw 

 monkeys (Macacus cynomolgus) picking up small Crustacea at low water; and 

 captured a Hyclrosaurus similarly employed. Also he had a great hunt in the 

 mud after a jumping fish (P-eriopthalmus schlosserii) which any one who pleases 

 may reproduce in B irnbay Harbour if he will be content with our 

 allied " mud-fish" [Boleopthalmus Boddaarti). Centipedes swarmed in his bed 

 and clothes, and he didn't care. Moreover he cured a man of the stab of a sting- 

 ray, which had quite perforated the hand, with tincture of arnica, " divine stuff," 

 as he calls it. After this he returned to Klang, the Capital of Selangore; and 

 started thence for Kwala Lumpor, the centre of the tin mines of that district. 

 Here the most wonderful thing he found was " Jules Mumm's best at 60 cents 

 a quart'" ( =Half a crown a bottle) ; but a little ahead of this he discovered 

 the " Durian" (Durio zibethinus) and appears to have been the first white man 

 who ever fell in love with that remarkable fruit (a cousin of our jack-fruit) at 



