OM THE ISLAND OF SOCOTEA. 487 



least in the cool season, frequently enshrouded in mists, and at night 

 very heavy dews fall. The climate on the hills is very healthy ; but on 

 the plains, especially at the changes of monsoon, fever is j^revalent. 



Of zoological features one of the most striking is the paucity of 

 indigenous mammals. The antelopes and rodents of the adjacent continents 

 are absent from Socotra, and there are but two mammals indigenous : a 

 bat — of which, unfortunately, we did not obtain a specimen — and a civet 

 cat. Rats and mice occur in the villages. Of the cassowary, mentioned 

 by Wellsted, we saw and heard nothing. Birds are plentiful, so are 

 lizards, and there are some snakes. The rivers are stocked with fish, 

 and in them crabs are also found in abundance. Land moUusca are, as 

 might be expected, frequent, and the whole island teems with insect 

 life. 



Our collections have been pretty nearly fully worked out. Mr. Sclater 

 and Dr. Hartlaub have done the birds. Dr. Gunther has taken the snakes, 

 and Mr. Blanford the lizards. The shells have fallen to Colonel Godwin- 

 Austen, and Mr. Butler and Mr. Waterhouse have respectively worked 

 out the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera; all their results being published 

 in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for 1881. Though the 

 collections are very fragmentary, yet they present features of interest, 

 and show that whilst the fauna of Socotra possesses a fair amount of 

 individuality, it is distinctly African in character. The specimens are 

 too few in number to allow an estimate of the extent of the endemic 

 fauna to be made, nor will that be practicable, as Mr. Sclater points 

 out, until we learn something more of the zoology of the African coast 

 around Cape Guardafui, which at present is almost unknown. The con- 

 clusions, however, that may be drawn from our present knowledge of the 

 fauna of Socotra may be best expressed in the words of Colonel Godwin- 

 Austen when speaking of the affinities of the land moUusca : ' Thei^e 

 is strong evidence that the island was once directly connected with Mada- 

 gascar to the south. We know the great antiquity of that island, and it 

 is not unreasonable to suppose that in Socotra, the Seychelles, Mada- 

 gascar, and Rodriguez we have the remnants of a very ancient, more 

 advanced coast line on this western side of the Indian Ocean, which line 

 of elevation was jDrobably continuous through Arabia towards the north. 

 With an equally advanced coast on the Indian side, the Arabian Sea would 

 under these conditions have formed either a great delta or a narrow arm 

 of the sea, into which the waters of the Indus and Euphrates drained. 

 Such conditions would have admitted the extension of species from one 

 side to the other, which the later and more extensive depression of the 

 area, as shown in Scinde, afterwards more completely shut off.' 



Of domesticated animals there are on Socotra — cattle, sheep, goats, 

 camels, and asses. Old voyagers speak of horses being used, but there 

 are none now. The cattle are small and have no hump. Immense herds 

 are found at the east end of the island. The sheep are all fleeced, but 

 there are none of the Berbera kind. Of goats there are some in a wild 

 condition. The camels are much smaller than those at Aden and else- 

 where in Arabia, and are able to climb like goats ; many are kept for 

 milking. Asses roam wild in herds all over the island. 



The vegetation of the island varies in aspect with the character of the 

 rocks. Starting from the shore one finds no representative of a marine 

 phrenogamic vegetation, although in the stagnant brackish waters at 

 the mouths of the streams naiads occur. The coast is not favourable for 



