4 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



existing animals, and took refuge in zoomorphic combinations 

 of mammal and fish, or of bird and reptile ; or, not unfre- 

 quently, it found expression in the production of impossible 

 forms, whose chief significance is the testimony they bear to 

 the strong credulity or grotesque fancy of those who por- 

 trayed them. In so far, however, as these early artists con- 

 fined themselves to the representation of plant, and bird, and 

 beast with which they were well acquainted, their sketches are 

 often exceedingly true to nature, and of the most spirited 

 kind. From my own knowledge, I can assure you that the 

 chronicles, chartularies, annals, and volumes of correspondence 

 of early times, are rich in information for the working natu- 

 ralist, and often supply data of an important kind for deduc- 

 tions touching both climatal and industrial conditions in our 

 own country, and also in the western, central, and sub-central 

 European area itself. The " Capitular of Charlemagne," a.d. 

 812, De Villis Imperialibus — an ordinance concerning the 

 management of the royal estates — may be mentioned as 

 literally crowded with illustrative materials. 



Besides, some curious information as to the knowledge of 

 nature in our own country might be gathered from other 

 sources. For example, the occurrence of the bones of marine 

 mammals, as seals {Phocidm) and porpoises {Delphinidw) , in 

 the refuse heaps of ancient religious houses, is suggestive, 

 when set alongside of recent instances. Thus the kitchen 

 middens of lona have yielded remains of several cetaceans, in 

 association with the bones of the pig, the horse, the red-deer, 

 and the goat. The marine forms were used by the monks, 

 most likely throughout the year, but were in special repute 

 during Lent, being supposed to be warm-blooded fish ! From 

 J. Beete Jukes's "Excursions in and about Newfoundland, 

 1839, 1840," I quote the following : " The good fathers of the 

 Church, however, either in pure ignorance of natural history, 

 or by a little pious fraud, willing to indulge their flocks dur- 

 ing the cold and hardships of a sealing voyage, have come to 

 the unanimous determination that seals are fish. ... I 

 am afraid I rather staggered one man by asking him if he 

 ever heard of any fish that had hot blood and suckled their 

 young ?" Jukes adds that he learned afterwards that in the 



