302 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
XLIX.—On tHe IpENTIFICATION OF THE ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF 
INDIA WHICH WERE KNOWN TO EARLY GreEx AurHors. By Y. Batt, 
M.A., F.R.S., Director, Science and Art Museum, Dublin. 
[Read, June 9, 1884. ] 
In a communication made by me last year to the Royal Geological 
Society of Ireland, entitled ‘‘ A Geologist’s Contribution to the History 
of India,” I endeavoured to identify many mineral productions which 
are mentioned by the writers of antiquity. Partly by the recorded 
characteristics of these minerals, partly by such indications as are 
given of the localities whence they were derived, I was enabled, by a 
comparison with our present knowledge of the mode of occurrence 
and distribution of minerals in India, to arrive at a number of con- 
clusions, the main tendency of which has been to show that many 
apparently extravagant and fictitious stories by these early writers 
rest on substantial bases of facts. 
While engaged upon that inquiry with reference to minerals, I 
came upon numerous allusions to animals and plants, for some of 
which, in spite of their apparently mythical character, I felt sure 
that equally substantial foundations could be found by subjecting 
them to the same sort.of analytical comparisons with known facts. 
From time to time, as leisure has been found for the purpose, I have 
carried on this investigation, and have occasionally published some of 
the results.’ 
Inquiries like these belong, if I may use the expression, to a border 
land where the student of books and the student of nature may meet 
and afford one another mutual assistance. 
I possess no special philological qualifications for this kind of work, 
and have only a slight acquaintance with a few of the languages of 
India; but, on the other hand, I think I may lay claim to the 
possession of some special knowledge of the animals and plants of 
India, the ideas about them which are current among the natives. 
and the uses they put them to. During my travels in the wildest 
regions of India I have ever taken an interest in the customs and 
beliefs of the so-called aboriginal tribes, and have had many opportuni- 
ties for tracing out stories believed by them, and also sometimes by 
Europeans, to the sources from whence they had originated This kind 
of experience enables me now to take up the tale of explanation where 
it has often been left by linguists and historians, and carry it forward 
to a satisfactory conclusion. 
A want of personal acquaintance with India, or when that was 
possessed, a want of such information as can only be acquired by a 
1 The Academy, April 21, 1888, and April 19, 1884. 
