March 3, 1881J 



NA TV RE 



417 



deer, the Chinese have an extraordinary dislike for their 

 flesh. They are therefore only killed for the European 

 markets, and sold at a low price. The venison is coarse 

 and without much taste, but is considered tolerable for 

 want of better ; it is the only venison procurable in 

 Shanghai. The animal itself gives sport to the gunner ; 

 and numbers are slaughtered every winter by the European 

 followers of Nimrod in the name of sport. Their numbers 

 however do not appear to get much thinned." 



Another most remarkable characteristic of these antler- 



less deer is their extraordinary fecundity. Mr. Swinhoe 

 states that according to the testimony of the natives the 

 mothers have four or five young at a birth, and that this 

 is corroborated by Europeans who have killed gravid 

 females and found the like number of embryos in the 

 uterus. This account is to some extent confirmed by 

 observations on the Water-deer in captivity in Europe. 

 Although the Zoological tiociety have not succeeded in 

 inducing this animal to breed in the Regent's Park, this 

 feat has been accomplished by M. Josephe Corndly of the 



Fig. 5. — the 



Chateau Beaujardin, near Tours, in France — one of the 

 most successful "acclimatisers " in Europe. In M. 

 Corndly's beautiful park one of these deer produced three 

 young ones in the spring of 1879, two of which, it is 

 believed, lived to attain maturity. There can be no 

 doubt therefore that the Water-deer is much more fruitful 

 than the rest of its congeners, which certainly never 

 produce more than two at a birth, and for this reason at 

 least would be a valuable animal for domestication. 

 The adult water-deer standing reached at its shoulder 



a height of about twenty inches, and is generally of a pale 

 fawn-colour, paler below. 



According to Mr. Swinhoe the "Chinese at Shanghai 

 call this animal the Ke ; but at Chinkiang it is named 

 Chang -\.\i<i classical term for the Muntjac {Cerviiliis 

 Reevesi). The Chinese dictionary, compiled under 

 authority of the Emperor Ka/ighc, describes the Ke as 

 ' stag-like, with feet resembling those of a dog, has a 

 long tusk on each side of the mouth, and is fond of 

 fighting.'" 



NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE COREAN 



ARCHIPELAGO' 

 'X'HIS archipelago, which consists of a number of 

 -*■ smaller groups of islands separated by a depth 

 of water varying from twenty to fifty fathoms, lies oft' the 

 south-west coast of the peninsula of Corea. Whilst many 

 of the larger islands vary from two to six miles in their 

 extreme length, they are all of considerable height : their 

 highest summits attain an elevation generally ranging 

 between 600 and 1000 feet above the sea — Ross or 

 Alceste Island, in the south-west corner of the archi- 

 pelago, reaching to a height of as much as 1935 feet. 

 The large and naked masses of rock which crown their 

 summits give to these islands a somewhat rugged and 



' Made during a brief visit of H.M.S. Hornet to these islands in October, 



uninviting aspect ; and their quaint inhabitants view with 

 ill-concealed dislike the presence of foreign ships within 

 their waters. 



I was enabled to land on two occasions on the Island of 

 Mackau— the largest of a group of islands bearing that 

 name. About six miles in length, it possesses some half- 

 dozen lofty peaks, which range in height from 800 or 900 

 feet to 1400 feet above the sea. Naked masses of quartzite 

 or quartz-rock crown the summits and often compose the 

 upper third of the hills, whilst a thick and dense growth 

 of creepers, shrubs, and mimosas clothes the hill-slopes 

 for their lower two-thirds. The quartzite passes insensibly 

 into a compact quartzitic sandstone underlying it; and 

 lower down this rock assumes a coarse-grained texture, 

 ccasionally containing pebbles of quartz embedded m it. 

 From the nature of the ground it was difficult to find 



