60 



THE EDINBURGH JOURNAL OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



Of the other species, the Anlilopa Dectda of Riippell frequents the bushy moun- 

 tain-valleys of Abyssinia, and the animals go about in couples. This species may be 

 regarded as the Abyssinian representative of the A. scripta of Western Africa, and 

 the A. si/lvatica of the South. The other species (Antilope Beisa) of Riippell ap- 

 proaches nearly to the South African Oryx, in the entire colour of the body, and in the 

 shape of the horns, which are wanting in the female. It is found on the coast of the 

 Red Sea, and perhaps also in Egypt, at least it was seen by the unfortunate Burck- 

 liardt when on his voyage from Schendi to Suakin. It lives in small families among 

 low valleys, with bushes slightly interspersed, and feeds upon grass. When attacked 

 or hardly hunted, it fights courageously, and defends itself with its pointed horns. 



The remaining plate represents a Steinbock {Capra walie^ Rupp.) Its descrip- 

 tion is contained in the second part of this valuable work. 



to the Cape of Good Hope, IMadras, and China;" these were in conjunction with 

 Mr Arrowsmith, and on the largest scale ever published. " Remarks on Icebergs 

 which have been met with in the Southern Hemispherej" published in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions for 1830. 



Excursions illustrative of the Geology and Natural History of the Environs of 



Edinhurgh^ hy WilUam Bhind. Second Edition, Royal ISmo. Edinburgh. 



1836. 

 In our third number we noticed the first edition of this useful little work, and 

 we now^ turn to the second edition with increased interest. The present contains 

 more than double the matter of the first, and the different localities which the au- 

 thor describes are increased in an equal degree. These important additions to the 

 text have rendered it a most valuable companion in our walks around a district 

 which, our author justly remarks, " may truly be said to constitute the classic fields 

 of Geology. Here Hutton first exercised his active and comprehensive intellect in 

 rearing a system that bids fair to be permanent ; and here many a contest has been 

 maintained between the chiefs and heroes of opposing theories." Perhaps there is no 

 situation in Europe vihcre the elements of Geology can be more advantageously 

 studied than in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh; for we have, within the very limited 

 space of a few miles, alm.ost all the varieties of formation, except the Primitive. Cer- 

 tainly no district has been more thoroughly investigated, and by men of the first dis- 

 tinction in this blanch of science. Mr Rhind has most judiciously availed himself of 

 all that has been written, while he has himself visited every corner which he de- 

 scribes, and has added many interesting observations. 



Mr Rhind's remarks on the Coal Fields of this district are very judicious, and 

 "■ive a clear view of the subject. The Fossil Limestone of Bardiehouse, which excited 

 so much interest among the Geologists during the Meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation here, forms the subject of an interesting chapter, and several well engraved 

 vroodcuts of all the fossils have been introduced. 



The work contains 152 closely printed pages on a small type; a coloured map of the 

 Environs of Edinburgh ; two picturesque and geological views of the " Chain of 

 the Pentland Hills and Arthur Seat from the North, and the Pentland range from 

 the South;" besides 54 distinct figures on wood, representing vai'ious sections of 

 stratification and rare natural history objects of th.e district. The price is three 

 shiUings and sixpence. 



\ Under Meteorology, we shall Insert in our next number an extract from Mr Rhind's 

 work, wliich will not only interest cm* readers, but also give them some idea of the 

 contents of the work itself. 



OBITUARY. 



Captain Ja:\ies Horsburgh, F.R.S. died at his house in London on the 14th May 

 last, in the 74th year of his age. 



This distinguished individual and valuable man was a native of Elie, a small town 

 on the East coast of Fife, Scotland, where he sprung from humble, pious, and re- 

 spectable parents. He comm.enced his career in the obscure capacity of cabin-boy 

 and cook in a merchant vessel. Through long and unswerving good conduct, he at 

 last was elevated to the command of the Anna^ East Indiaman, in the year 1802, 

 chartered for Bombay; after reaching which he spent two years in coasting the 

 peninsula of India, visiting Canton and the China Sea, and the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago, whence he returned to England in 1805. 



The Captain possessed a dauntless and enterprising spirit, and a strong natural 

 capacity and inquiring mind, which enabled him to acquire a thorough knowledge of 

 every subject of practical impoitance and scientific bearing in reference to East 

 Indian Hydrography. It was from his letter written on his arrival from India to tho 

 Hon. Henry Cavendish, and published in the Philosophical Transactions, that the 

 scientific world became acquainted with the progress of that astonishing regularity in 

 the rising and faUing of the barometer, which so peculiarly distinguishes the tropical 

 rcf^ions, and becomes disturbed, or again lost, with an increase of latitude in the 

 station of observation. He also fully developed the nature of tho circumstances 

 under which it became manifest, or gradually disappeared, as a ship in her progress 

 alternately crosses the Line, and advances into higher Northern or Southern Lati- 

 tudes. 



Soon after his return he married, and never again went to sea, and left his profes- 

 sion to devote himself to higher objects. His first publication in 1805 was " Me- 

 moirs" of his voyage, containing mueh valuable practical information. He next 

 turned his attention to his great work, the "East India Sailing Directory," which 

 has secured to him the admiration and regard of every maritime nation in the world. 

 It was the result of five years indefatigable research among the archives of the East 

 India Company. In 1810, ho was appointed Hydrographer to the Company, in 

 which capacity he constructed the numerous inestimable charts, which appeared in 

 succession from the Hydrographical Ofilce by order of the Court of Directors ; 

 which arduous and unremitting labours he continued up till the ISth of April last, 

 when the first symptoms of water in the chest appeared. He lingered until his demise 

 under great bodily suffering, which he endured with fortitude and patience. 



The principal writings of Captain Horsburgh, besides his " Directory," are *' At- 

 mospherical Register for indicating Storms at Sea," 1816. In 1319 he edited 

 ' i BJackenzie's Treatise on I\iarine Surveying," and afterwards his " Compendium of 

 the SVinds," " The East India Pilot of general and pai-ticular Charts from England 



LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



Asmtoi-EAN Society, Oxford. — May 20. — The president in the chair. — Dr 

 Buckland communicated to the Society a notice on some very curious recent disco- 

 veries of fossil footsteps of unknown quadrupeds, in the new red sandstone of Saxony, 

 and of fossil birds in sandstone of the same formation, in the valley of the Connecti- 

 cut. 'Ihe sandstone which bears the impressions of these footsteps is of the same age 

 with that in which, in the year 1828, Dr Duncan discovered the footsteps of land 

 tortoises, and other unknown animals, near Dumfries. In the year 1834, similar 

 tracks of at least four species of quadrupeds were discovered in the sandstone quarries 

 of Hesseberg, near Kildburghausen. Some of these appear to be referable to tor- 

 toises, and to a small web-footed reptile. The largest footsteps mark the path of a 

 large quadruped ; probably allied to Marsupialia, or animals that carry their young 

 in a pouch, like the kangaroo. The name of Cheirotherium has been given to this 

 animal, from a distant resemblance, both of tho fore and hind feet, to the human 

 hand. The size of the hind foot was twice as great as that of the fore foot, being 

 usually eight inches long and five inches wide: one was found twelve inches long. 

 These footsteps follow one another in pairs, at intervals of fourteen inches from pair 

 to pair, each pair being on the same straight line. Both large and small steps havo 

 the great toes alternately on the right and left side, and bent inwards like a thumb. 

 Each step has the print of five toes. The fore and hind foot are nearly similar in 

 form, though they differ so greatly in size. No bones of any of the animals that made 

 these footsteps have yet been found. Another discovery of fossil footsteps has still 

 more recently been made by Professor Hitchcock, in the new red sandstone of the 

 valley of the Connecticut. In three or four quarries of this sandstone he has ascer- 

 tained the existence of the tracks of at least seven extinct species of birds, referable, 

 probably, to as many extinct genera. All of these appear in regular succession on 

 the continuous track of an animal in the act of walking or running, with the right 

 and left foot always in their relative proper places. The distance of the intervals 

 between each footstep on the same track is occasionally varied, but to no greater 

 amount than may be explained by the bird having altered its pace. IMany tracks are 

 often found crossing one another, and they are sometimes crowded, like impressions 

 of feet in the muddy shores of a pond frequented by ducks or geese. All these 

 fossil footsteps most nearly resemble those of Grallm (waders). The impressions of 

 three toes are usually distinct ; that of a fourth, or hind toe, is generally wanting. 

 The most remarkable among these footsteps are those of a gigantic bird, twice the 

 size of an ostrich, whose foot measured fifteen inches in length, exclusive of a large 

 claw measuring two inches. The toes of this bird were large and thick. The most 

 frequent distance of these larger footsteps, from one another, is four feet ; sometimes 

 they are six feet asunder. The latter were probably made by the animal when run- 

 ning. There are also tracks of another gigantic bird, having three toes, of a more 

 slender character. These tracks are from fifteen to sixteen inches long, exclusive o! 

 a remarkable appendage extending backwards from the heel eight or nine inches, and 

 apparently intended (like a snow-shoe) to sustain the weight of a heavy animal walk- 

 ing on a soft bottom. The impressions of this appendage resemble those of wiry 

 feathers, or coarse bristles, which seem to have sunk into the mud an inch deep ; — the 

 toes had sunk much deeper, and round their impressions the mud was raised into a 

 rido'C several inches high, like that round the track of an elephant in clay. The 

 length of the step of this bird appears to have been six feet; the footsteps on the 

 five other kinds of tracks are of smaller size, and the smallest indicates a foot but one 

 inch long, and a step from three to five inches. The length of the leg of the African 

 ostrich is about four feet, and that of the foot ten inches. All these tracks appear to 

 have been made on the margin of shallovtr water, that was subject to changes of 

 level, and in which sediments of sand and mud were alternately deposited. And the 

 length of the legs, which must be inferred from the distance of the footsteps from 

 each other, was well adapted for wading in such situations. Professor Powell after- 

 wards gave a short account of the progress of his researches on Light. Professor 

 Brongniart and Dr Milne-Edwards, of Paris, were present at the meeting. — Litei'ary 

 Gazette, 



Geological Society.. — There was read at the Society a letter from Mr De la 

 Beche, explanatory of the geological position of a collection of fossils from the north- 

 ern district of Cornwall. He states that, in the grauwacke of Western Somerset, 

 Devon, and Cornwall, natural divisions may be instituted, founded on well-marked 

 characters ; but ho conceives that the whole of this district belongs to a system older 

 than ths Silurian formations of Mr Murchison. Some of these organic remains were 

 procured at Dinas Cove, Padstow Harbour, Trcvqjga Island (Lower St Columb 

 Perth), and Towan Head, near New Quay, from the slate which is associated with 

 sandstone, conglomerates, and limestone, and which is of the same age with the fos- 

 silliferous slate of Tintagel. The other fossils of this collection were procured near 

 Bodmin, by Dr Potts, and in the vicinity of Liskeard. Mr De la Reche also states 

 that there are two distinct evidences, in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall, of two con- 

 siderable movements of the land, one to a height of thirty or forty feet above the 

 present level of the sea, and the other to an unascertained depth beneath it, since the 

 production of the existing vegetation of the land, and the BIoUuscous inhabitants of 

 the neighbouring ocean. 



Edikeurgh: Published for the Proprietors, at their Ofiice, IQ, Hanover Street, 

 London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill. Glasgow and the AVest of 

 Scotland: John Sjiith and Son, 70, St Vincent Street; and John MacleoD( 

 20, Argyle Street. Dublin: W. F. Wakeman, 9, D'OIier Street. 



THE rniNEURGH PRINTING COJIPANV. 



