114 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 342. 



hopes that the discussion of the particular 

 method whereby his object is to be attained will 

 arouse the interest of every educator in 

 America, and will create a determined purpose 

 to accomplish something definite without 

 further delay. — The Boston Transcript. 



A NEW MAMMALIAN GENUS. 



Professor E. Eat Lankester writes from 

 the Natural History Museum, under the date 

 of June 17, to the London Times, as follows : 



I have this afternoon received and unpacked 

 the case shipped at Mombasa on April 19, con- 

 taining the skin and two skulls of the remark- 

 able new giraffe-like animal obtained from the 

 Semliki forest by Sir Harry Johnston, and sent 

 by him to me for preservation in the Natui-al 

 History Department of the British Museum. I 

 write without loss of time to say that the speci- 

 mens have arrived in perfect safety and they 

 fully and completely bear out Sir Harry John- 

 ston's statements and inferences. 



The animal is a giraffe-like creature devoid 

 of horns, with relatively short neck and with 

 color stripes on the limbs, but nowhere show- 

 ing spots or areolae like those of the giraffe. 

 Sir Hari-y Johnston was amply justified in as- 

 similating the animal to the extinct Hella- 

 dotherium, but after an examination of the 

 skulls I am of opinion that the ' Okapi ' (the 

 native name by which the new animal is 

 known) cannot be referred to the genus of the 

 Ilelladotherium, but must be placed in a new 

 genus. 



I must say that, although the horny hoofs are 

 not present, yet the double bony supports of 

 the hoofs are preserved with the skin, and 

 leave no doubt, even without reference to the 

 accompanying skulls, that the animal which 

 bore the skin was not a horse-like creature, but 

 one with cloven hoofs. 



P. S. — The ' five-horned giraffe ' recently 

 reported as having been discovered by Sir 

 Harry Johnston is (I am told by Di-. Forsyth 

 Major) due to a misunderstanding of a French 

 translation of Sir Harry Johnston's description 

 of the Okapi as ' une girafe sans cornes ' 

 (grafe a cinq cornes). 



In connection with the above letter, Sir 



Harry Johnston has written as follows : Per- 

 haps I may be allowed to correct a slight mis- 

 apprehension that has arisen owing to a post- 

 script attached to my friend Professor Ray 

 Lankester's letter in The Times of June 18. 

 It has been thought by the authorities of the 

 British Museum tbat the telegram of a press 

 agency from east Africa announcing that my 

 expedition had recently discovered a giraffe 

 with five horns was a misleading variant of 

 the account sent some months ago as to the 

 other discovery made by us in the summer of 

 1900 of the existence in the forests bordering 

 the Semliki River of a giraffe-like animal, 

 without horns, which has just been named 

 ' Ocapia ' by Professor Ray Lankester. Quite 

 independently of this interesting discovery, 

 the credit of which, it must not be forgotten, 

 has to be shared by Mr. Karl Ericsson, of the 

 Congo Free State, who furnished me with a 

 complete specimen, my expedition has been 

 the means of discovering a species or variety 

 of giraffe, which, in the male, possesses five 

 horn cores, instead of the two or three found 

 in other known species of giraffe. Specimens 

 of the five-horned giraffe were shot by Mr. 

 Doggett and myself about five weeks ago in 

 the country lying to the east of Mount Elgon 

 in the northeastern part of the Uganda Protec- 

 torate. Of these specimens, two are males and 

 two females. The female has only three horns, 

 while both the m.ale specimens exhibit five 

 horn cores. 



In coloration it is my opinion that this species 

 of giraffe differs from those already known. I 

 have in my possession now drawings and photo- 

 graphs confirming these statements, and the four 

 specimens (bones of the head and neck and 

 skins) are on their way to England for presen- 

 tation to the Natural History Museum. 



Until these specimens are in the hands of 

 competent authorities it is rather premature to 

 discuss the worth of the discovery, or the 

 question of its substantiating the existence of 

 a hitherto unknown giraffe. 



Perhaps I may be allowed to add that the 

 fact that a month ago my expedition was still 

 travelling through a very wild part of the 

 Uganda Protectorate, and was passing through 

 enormous herds of wild game, recalling the 



