1 66 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



" Physique* November 1787, byM. de Lametbrie), 

 " though his memoir contains, in other respects, 

 " some very interesting remarks on those animals. 



l < It is to M. Pallas that we are indebted for the 

 <c best natural history of the gerboise. But as it 

 " would be tedious to transcribe here the exami- 

 <e nation which he has made of the nomenclature 

 " of those animals, I must refer the reader to his 

 " book * ; and will say, after him, that there are 

 *' two species of gerboise. The first, of which M. 

 " Buffon speaks under the name of alagtaga, and 

 " which ought to be written alak-daaga, has five 

 te toes on the hinder (eet ; the second has only 

 " three, and differs from it likewise in several other 

 u characters. In order to distinguish this first spe- 

 " cies, which M. Pallas denominates mus jaculus, 

 fl I shall call \ijaJma, from the name given to it by 

 " the Calmucs, andshall preserve to the second spe- 

 ** cies the name of gerlo, or gerhoa. M. Pallas has 

 " observed three varieties in the jalma* which ap- 

 " pear to differ principally in the size. The most 

 11 common, which is of a middling size between 

 " the other two, is the jalma, or alak-daaga. It is 

 " often found in eastern Tajtary, in the deserts of 

 " Siberia, and in the regions beyond the Baikal-f . 

 ** It is likewise found in Syria, nay even so far off 



* Neva Species QuaJrupedum. Mus jaculus, p. 275, 

 I Ibid. p. 285. 



