August, 1902.1 



KNOWLEDGE 



169 



ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE 



Founded by RICHARD A. PROCTOR. 

 Vol. XXV.] LONDON : AUGUST, 1902. [No. 202. 



CONTENTS. 



The Deer of the Peking Parks. liv R. Ltukkkbk. 



{irii'trate.l) ' 



Vegetable Mimicry and Homomorphism. — IV. By Eov 



.\LBX. S Wilson, ji.a., B.sr. (Illustrated) 

 The Plain of Prussia. Ev Ghksviilk A. J. Cole, m.r.i.a., 



F O S. ... ........ 



Distant Worlds. II. — A Review of some Recent Studies 

 in Stellar Distribution. By l. F aston. (Illustaleit) 



Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its Surroundings. Bv 

 W. F. ])knmn(;, f.k.a.>. (Plate) .". 



Astronomy without a Telescope. XVI. — The Struc- 

 ture of Comets. By E. Walter SlArNDKB, p.b.a.s. 

 [Illustrated) ... '.. 



Letters : 



>[ARKrxGS OX JrpiTER. By W. F. Dexxixg. (Illustrated) 



A MoiiERX TTcno. By A. ff. Garrett, Lt. R.K. Note 



liy K. Waiter Mafxper 



Notes 



British Ornithological Notes. Conducted by W. P. 



PyCEAFT, A.L.!-., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



Notices of Books 



Ho.iKs Hkikived 

 The Nobodies, — A Sea-faring Family.— IV. By Rer. 



T. R. R Stebbixo, M.A . F.R s., V P.L.S., F.z s. {Illustrated) 



Microscopy. CondiKt«l by M. I. Cross 



Notes on Comets and Meteors. By W. F. Dennino, 



P.R.A.S 



The Face of the Sky for August. B\ W. Shackleton, 



F.B A s. ... ... ... 



Chess Column By C. D. LocoCK, b.a 



171 

 173 

 176 

 17S 



191 

 191 



THE DEER OF THE PEKING PARKS. 



By R. Lydekker. 



OcTOHER r2th, 18()0. will alwav.s lio memorable as the 

 ilate t)f the liuniiiii^ of the Imi)erial " Siaumer Palace " in 

 the YiiangmiiiL,' Yuan, the wonderful pleasauuee situated 

 to the north-west of Peking. The Ynangming, which had 

 apjiai-ently been hitherto unvisited by Europeans, oceujiies 

 an area of many hundred acres, and is in fact a park 

 diversified with lakes, and containing a collection of 

 buildings of immense extent, among which was the 

 Summer Palace. The most beautiful part is the forest 

 clothing the flanks of the Hiaug-chan hills, whidi attain 

 a height of a thousand feet, and from which mav be 

 viewed at the foot the extensive lake, and in the" far 

 distance the walls of Peking enveloped in a smoky haze. 

 Dotted through the gardens were temples, lodges, and 

 pagodas, groves, grottos, lakes, bridges, terraces, and 

 artificial hills. " It certainly was," writes a spectator, 

 " one of the most beautiful scenes I had ever beheld." In 



the Summer Palace were gathered together all the 

 treasures and curiosities accumulated by the reigning 

 dynasties of China during untold centuries. All these 

 perished in the conflagration, which lasted two days. 

 Whether this burning of the palace, which was ordered 

 by Lord Elgin as a punishment for the atrocities inflicted 

 by the Chinese on IBritish subjects, was justifiable, is not 



Fig. 1. — Sketch Map of Peking and its Environs. 



our province to enquire — Mr. Justin McCarthy, in his 

 •History of Our Own Times," considers that it was. 



All that concerns here is the fact that among the loot 

 sent home from the destruction of the Yuangming Yuan 

 were the skins and antlers of certain deer which had been 

 shot in the gardens. These specimens, now in the British 

 Museum, appear to have been obtained by Colonel Saul, 

 although Consul Swinhoe was the gentleman by whom 

 they were sent to this country. 



Although there does not appear to be any record that 

 such was the case, these specimens may be taken as an 

 indication that among the other attractions of the grounds 

 of the Summer Palace were herds of deer, kept either for 

 the purposes of sport or to enhance the beauty of the 

 landscape. The best of the three specimens sent home 

 was a young stag in the winter coat, of which a coloured 

 figure was given in the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London for 1861. By the late Dr. Gray, then 

 Keeper of the Zoological Department of the British 

 Museum, this deer was regarded as belonging to an 

 ill-defined species named many years before. Two years 

 later this identification was disputed by Mr. Swinhoe, by 

 whom the sjiecimen was regarded as representing a new 

 species, for which the name Cervus hortulorum— the deer 

 of the [Summer Palace] Gardens— was, appropriately 

 enough, suggested. 



For many years this species was regarded as inseparable 

 from one inhabiting Manchuria, which is now known to 

 be a very different animal. But among the deer now 

 living in "the Duke of Bedford's park at Wobum are a 

 herd of a very beautiful species from Northern Manchuria, 

 which has been proved identical with Mr. Swinhoe's 

 Cervtis hortulorum. These Peking deer (as it has now 

 been agreed to call the species) are remarkable for 

 the extraordinary difference between their summer and 

 winter dress — a difference so great that persons who have 

 seen them at one season may well be excused for not 

 recognizing them at the other. In the summer coat, as 

 shown in Fig. 2, they are of a brilliant reddish chestnut. 



