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ON EXPLORATION OF SOKOTRA. 4.63 
tains one genus and eight species new to herpetology. Of the scorpions, 
millepedes, and spiders obtained, Mr. Pocock has described one new genus 
and seven new species in the former group, and one new genus and four 
new species in the latter. Of the land-shells (numbering several thou- 
sands), Mr. Edgar Smith has described eight species as new to his depart- 
ment of zoology. Of insects there are several thousands, and Mr. Ogilvie- 
Grant has described three new butterflies, one of them a very beautiful 
and large charaxes (C. velox), while Sir George Hampson has diagnosed 
one new genus and fourteen new species of moths. Mr. Burr, who has 
examined the Orthoptera, describes two new genera and six new species ; 
while Mr, Kirkaldy has described the whole of the species of Hemiptera 
as new to science. Professor B. Balfour, F.R.S., of Edinburgh, reports 
that the plants, of which living specimens or ripe seeds, over 200 in 
number, have been brought home, are of great scientific interest. Their 
cultivation is being kindly undertaken by him in the Royal Botanical 
Gardens at Edinburgh. Among the most interesting may be mentioned 
species of Dorstenia, Adenium, Begonia, Crinum, Exacum, Ruellia, Den- 
drosicyos, Hemanthus, Helichrysum, with Punica protopunica and 
Dracena cinnabari. 
The true Sokoteri of the mountains, the Mahri, were found to be 
a light-complexioned Mahomedan people only poorly civilised, living in 
eaves or rude cyclopean huts, who possess but few utensils, implements, 
or ornaments, and almost no weapons. The ethnographical collections 
are consequently very small; still, there have been brought back 
specimens of their pottery, of their primitive quernlike mills, of their 
basket-work, and of their weaving apparatus. The expedition has like- 
wise brought back and deposited in the British Museum two large blocks 
of stone inscribed with an ancient script, which may perhaps throw some 
light on the language of the people who occupied the island in a past age, 
and of whose cyclopean remains interesting photographs have been 
obtained. 
In addition to the biological collections—in which six new genera 
and sixty-seven new species have been already described—a number of 
geological specimens were brought together, which have been examined 
by Dr. Gregory, whose report will shortly be published. 
Every day also a meteorological register was kept, and trigonometrical 
and astronomical observations conducted by Dr. Forbes. From the latter 
a new map of the island will be constructed. 
The results of the expedition, in regard to the question of geographical 
distribution, add little to what the investigations of Balfour, Schwein- 
furth, and Riebeck have established ; but several of the zoological species 
confirm the presence of a distinct American element in the biology of the 
island, which appears to have reached this now isolated area by way of 
an antarctic land, the existence of which is greatly confirmed by the 
recent discovery in Patagonia of Meiolania, originally described from 
Lord Eowe’s Island. 
It will not be out of place here to place on record the liberality and 
public-spirited action of the Museums Committee of the Liverpool City 
Council in taking part in the exploration of Sokotra, and the great credit 
which unquestionably belongs to it of having been the first in the provinces 
to recognise that it was within the duty of a great corporation to further 
in this way the advancement and increase of knowledge by actively 
sharing in the investigation of little-known regions. 
