348 MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE MAMMALS OF FoRMOSA. [Dec. 9, 
not less than 80 miles. It is nearly equally divided by the tropical 
line, and in entire area is about equal to Ireland. One-third of the 
island, comprising the greater part of the western side, consists of 
level land; the rest, of undulated and mountainous country, the 
peaks of some of the ridges attaining a height of 12,000 feet, and being 
covered with perennial snow. This island was till lately a sealed book 
to us, the few naturalists who had hitherto visited it having had no 
opportunities of penetrating into the interior. To my researches last 
year good fortune cleared the way ; and on the opening of a port in 
Formosa by treaty, I had the pleasure of being appointed the pioneer- 
ing consul toit. I had on two previous occasions visited the island, 
—the first time rather venturously, in a native lorcha, in March 1856, 
when I spent a fortnight in Hongsan in the north-west; and a 
second time on a voyage of discovery in H.M.S. ‘Inflexible,’ which 
lasted a month, during which time we completely circumnayigated 
the island, touching and making a short stay at all the most inter- 
esting places. In both these expeditions my efforts had been re- 
warded with the discovery of some novelties ; I was therefore the more 
determined, on my being located on the island this last time, to carry 
on my explorations with redoubled vigour. I did not quite complete 
a year of office in Formosa before sickness compelled me to return to 
England. From July to November 1861 I sojourned in the south- 
west, in or near the city of Taiwanfoo; and from December to May 
I spent in the north-west district of Tamsuy. During these brief 
seasons, I must confess, I laboured very hard in the cause of natural 
history ; and though my researches do not enable me to give any- 
thing like a complete list of the mammals of the island, yet I think 
I have done my best to take off the cream in the shape of novelties. 
But in my series many widely distributed families are not represented, 
—the Mustelide and Muride, for instance. Doubtless some spe- 
cies of the Weasel group must occur, though I met with or heard of 
none. Moreover, there must surely be some examples of the Rat 
group ; but, beyond the cosmopolitan Mus decumanus, I found none. | 
My series of Vespertilionide, too, must be deficient from the difficulty 
in procuring specimens ; but this I will leave Mr. Tomes to deplore. 
There must also be a Fox in the island. The marine mammals I 
had no opportunity of collecting; but the distance from the coast of 
China is not sufficiently great to warrant one to expect distinctness 
of species. I heard of a large Whale, some 60 feet long, that was 
stranded on a sand-spit below Taiwanfoo, and demolished by the na- 
tives. I did not see the animal, but I imagine it was of the same spe- 
cies that is not uncommon, during May, in the Straits of Namoa, close 
to the mainland, and which I take to be a Balenoptera—perhaps the 
B. arctica, noted also from Japan. In my present article I have 
been enabled to bring before the Society eighteen mammals from the 
island of Formosa. All of these, with the exception of the Hogdeer 
and the Hare, are mountain animals, and consequently of a mountain 
type,—those that are identical with species found in China being 
generally darker and of more lively tints, and those that differ more 
resembling forms from the Himalayan Mountains than their represen- 
