470 Bibliographical Notices. 



Change, with all the appliances of modern civilization, we might 

 think this would be a protracted encounter ; but no such thing, 

 according to this veracious tale-teller. We are told that, in one case, 

 where the elephant had killed one of the men, "they so beset it with 

 spears, that in a few minutes it was dead" (p. 83) ; and further, at 

 the time he first saw it, he observes, "To-day we killed four elephants 

 in this way." It must be recollected that the spears are not even said to 

 be poisoned, and, by the figures on the plate, they are of the usual slight 

 and slender form. Some of the natives are even represented drawing 

 the arrows out of the body of one elephant that they have killed, in 

 order that they may use them against a second one ! ! The elephants 

 of Equatorial Africa, if this account is true, must be much less strong 

 and vivacious than those in other parts of Africa or India, where they 

 are accustomed to tear up trees and force a path through the jungle. 

 This account is very different from one I received from a friend 

 who was for some years on the coast of Equatorial Africa. He says : 

 " The officers and crew of his ship went to attack an elephant they 

 saw near the coast. Jack armed himself with all manner of dreadful 

 instruments of war. The party, more than 1 00 strong, shot at it from 

 a distance, with all kinds of arms, great and small ; at last the elephant 

 charged them, when the whole band retreated helter-skelter ; and a 

 few days afterwards they saw the elephant enjoying himself as if 

 nothing had happened to disturb his repose." What a pity they had 

 not a few native spears, and the courage of these despised blacks ! 

 Yet, I would ask, what credit can be placed on the observations of 

 a traveller who informs his readers that he " travelled always 

 on foot, and unaccompanied by other white men," and who can sit 

 down deliberately to tell us he took part in killing the elephant in 

 the manner described ; and not satisfied with merely telling us, ab- 

 solutely places before the public a picture which professes to repre- 

 sent the scene, the mere inspection of which is enough to render 

 every sensible person, who knows anything of the strength, intelli- 

 gence, and habits of the elephant, suspicious as to the veracity of the 

 relater ? 



I need hardly say with reference to a work with plates so manu- 

 factured, that the artist evidently had the Indian elephant, and not 

 the African, in his mind when he drew this plate. 



[To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Botanisi's Guide to the Counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kin- 

 cardine. By G. Dickie, M.A., M.D., Prof, of Botany in the 

 University of Aberdeen. 12mo. pp. xxxii, 344. London: Long- 

 mans, 1860. 



Local Floras and lists of the native plants of Scotland are not 

 abundant ; and few of those that we possess pretend to much com- 

 pleteness. The ' Flora of Berwick ' and the ' Botany of the Eastern 



