190 Information respecting Scientific Travellei'S. 



cicntly acquainted with foreign authors," he ought at least to bo 

 so with British ones, ere he sets up a claim for such familiar dis- 

 coveries as the phosphorescence of zoophytes. The ' Dictionnaire 

 des Sciences Natm'clles ' refers to British authors, and rather old 

 ones too (as Shaw), on the very subject in dispute. 



But I have another " Retrospective Comment" for Mr. Hassall, 

 on a passage in his paper on Diseases produced by Fungi, in the 

 last Number of the ' Annals.' He there writes — " The produc- 

 tion of diseases through the agency of Fungi, whether in the ani- 

 mal or vegetable fabric, has not hitherto received that degree of 

 consideration to which the frequency of their occurrence and the 

 importance of the subject so eminently entitle them ;" and again, 

 " it has hitherto been supposed that their powers were confined 

 to dead organic matter." Who would suppose from this, that 

 only a year ago an elaborate memoir " On the Parasitic Vegetable 

 Structm-es found growing in Living Animals" had been published 

 in the Transactions of one of the lloyal Societies of Great Britain 

 (see Edin. Boyal Soc. Transact., vol. xv. part 3. for a paper 

 eighteen pages long, with two plates, by my friend Dr. J. H. Ben- 

 nett) ? Yet such was the case, and nearly fifty authors on the sub- 

 ject in question are referred to in that paper. 



August 1843. 



XXVII. — Information respecting Scientific Travellers. 



[A NEWLY published Part of the ' Journal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society' contains two narratives of an expedition to the Barima and 

 Guiania Rivers, communicated by our esteemed correspondent the 

 Chevalier Schomburgk* to the Colonial Office, from which we shall 

 give some extracts relating to natural history. — Ed.] 



River Maiiari (a tributary of the Barima), 

 June 22, 1841. 



The expedition under my direction left Georgetown on the after- 

 noon of the 19th of April, in the schooner Home, which had been 

 chartered for the purpose of conveying us to the Waini, or Guiania. 



On the 28th of April we received the visit of a Warran chieftain 

 from the Canyaballi, a tributary of the Waini, and about two days' 

 journey from its mouth, who, having heard of our arrival, came with 

 part of his men to visit us. The captain is known among the colo- 

 nists of this part under the name of Sam Peter, and appeared a very 

 intelligent old man. During the time occupied by the survey the 

 weather had changed, and it now became apparent that the short 

 rainy season had set in. We ascended the Waini to the remarkable 

 passage which connects that river with the Barima ; and which, 

 although not navigable for sailing vessels, aifords a ready communi- 

 cation, in boats and canoes, between the two rivers. This natural 

 * See also the notice in vol. x. p. 348. 



