THE following extract of a letter addressed to me by 

 Mr. Marsden, the author of the well known and ex- 

 ceilent Account of Summatra, ought to have been in- 

 serted in another part of the work, but was until thi* 

 moment mislaid* 



" In your instructive Notes to the Translation of M 

 Cuvier's Essay on the Theory of the Earth, you observe, 

 that I appear to have misunderstood that able naturalist, 

 when I say that he accuses me of confounding the hip- 

 popotamus with the dugong. You will not, I am per- 

 suaded, think me unreasonably pertinacious, when I take 

 the liberty of pointing out to you the passage in M. 

 Cuvier's writings that drew from me the remark (in the 

 last edition of the Summatra) which you have done me 

 the honour of quoting, and which you will find to be 

 quite distinct from that where he supposes that I may 

 have confounded with the former the succotyro of Niew- 

 hoff. This supposition, indeed, I should not have 

 thought of controverting, as the animals, if not in fact 

 the same, have a general resemblance to each other, and 

 I do not myself make pretension to any critical know- 

 ledge in zoology ; but with respect to the dugong (or 

 duyong) the matter was different, and it became neces- 

 sary to vindicate myself from the charge of so palpable 



a mistake* 



*f*. 



" Le nom de vache marine (says M. Cuvier, Annales 

 du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle. Tome treizieme. Sur 



