Skulls. 7513 



sounds that disturb the silence are the harsh note^ of wild swans 

 passing high overhead, and the frightened caw of a rook soaring, 

 dodging, and trying in vain to evade (he pursuit of a determined 

 hawk. The solitary wildness of the seals' graveyard is hardly relieved 

 by the sudden appearance of three Ainos, aborigines of Saghaleen, 

 who have come over the neighbouring cliffs to gaze upon the brown- 

 haired strangers. These stand, motionless and silent, watching our 

 every movement with a fixed and wondering stare. Long white spi- 

 nous processes of the dorsal vertebrae of a whale stick up above the 

 grass, looking like tombstones of departed Phocae. Here I dis- 

 cover a rare prize, in the skull of Lobicephalus, a large fierce seal, 

 with a vertical bony crest extending from the frontal bone to the 

 occiput. An imperfect skull of the Halicore, or dugong, is another 

 grand addition ; and I obtain, besides, the crania — both, alas ! much 

 injured — of two species of Delphinus. 



We are now in St. Vladimir Bay, a wide and deep bay on the 

 Manchurian coast, a Utile north of Alga. Sea-cliffs bound the long 

 curved outline of the bay, their summits green with oaks. Belovsr 

 them the ground is level, and a belt of verdure extends from the cliffs 

 to the water's edge. The undergrowth is dark and humid, and the 

 number of fallen trees, in various states of decay, promise well for 

 snails and slugs and fungus-loving beetles ; Boleti stud their rotting 

 boles, and in these Mycelophagi reward our diligent research. Shade 

 of Fabricius ! what swarms of insect life ! The ants alone are worthy 

 the pen of Nylander ; and as for the spiders, the erudition of Walken- 

 aer and the industry of Blackwall would be needful to pourtray their 

 varied forms, and illustrate their wondrous instincts. I penetrate a 

 thicket, and bushes laden with bunches of currants grow all around. 

 Feeding on these with the greedy voracity of a schoolboy, my atten- 

 tion is diverted to a split bamboo, with the valve of a Pecten stuck in 

 the fissure. A nearer scrutiny assures me this means water; and lo ! 

 a clear pool lies hid among the herbage. Some wandering Tartar 

 has been here, and, having slaked his thirst, has in gratitude placed 

 this useful beacon. But what is that suspended from a bough which 

 overhangs the beach ? It is a skull, and the skull of a bear, for the 

 lower jaw and other bones of the defunct Bruin are lying on the 

 shingle beneath ; and there hangs his cranium, like as the sour 

 grapes above the desiring fox. Sailors must obtain the skull, for I 

 cannot. Now, as good luck would have it, the sailors wanted water, 

 and close at hand a tiny spring distilled a slender trickling rivulet 

 from the cliff, and filled an excavation in the shingle. By enlarging 

 VOL. XIX. 2 F 



