22 ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The " ar/ieveth which cheweth the cud, and divideth not the hoof," rendered "hare " in 

 our version of Deuteronomy xiv. 7, and Leviiicus xi. 6, is represented in tliis collectiim 

 by the Lepus Syriacus. The " slidphdn which make their houses in the rocks," rendered 

 "coney" in Proverbs xxx. 26, Psalm civ. 18, and elsewhere, is exemplified by the 

 Hyrax Syriacus. Tlie " Achbar," renderird " mouse " in Leviticus xi. 29, may refer to 

 the species oi Arvicola, or Gerbillus, or Acomys, as well as Mus, in Mr. Tristram's Collec- 

 tion. The specimens of Ibex and Gazella are probably the species alluded to under the 

 names" tzaphir," Daniel viii. 21 ; " Yehel," Job xxxix. 1, and " ez," Genesis xv. 9, and ren- 

 dered " c/iawoz's " in Deuteionouiy xiv. 5, and elsewhere. Of the " Aa^oZ/epA," rendered 

 "bats" in Deuteronomy xiv. 18, and Isaiah ii. 20, the collection includes species of 

 Mhinopoma, Rhinolophus, Noctulniia, Fespe) tilio, and Flecotus. It contains also a specimen 

 of Syrian badger, although it is doubilul whether the " tachash" is rightly so rendered in 

 Exodus and Numbers. Tlie " duyony^' {f/alichore Hemprichii, of the Red Sea), which 

 more probably supplied ihe covering of the Tabernacle, is still a desideratum. The species 

 of Genetta, Herpestes, and other small Carnivores brought from Palestine by Mr. Tristram, 

 are indicated by the term " Hholed" or " Choled" in the Hebrew Scriptures, usually rendered 

 "weasel" in the authorised version, Leviticus xi. 29. The " tanshemelh " or "mole" 

 may have referred to the species of Spalax in the present Collection, in which there is no 

 true Talpa. The specimens of Testuclo GrcEca, and of Emys Caspica, which Mr. Tristram 

 has shown to range to ihe Holy Land, exemplify the forms to which reference is made by 

 the Hebrew " tzav," or " tsab," rendered "tortoise after his kind," in Leviticus xi. 29. 

 The brief notices of the serpents in the Old Testament preclude a deiermi nation of their 

 species; but the .number of these, including three or more poisonous kinds, collected in 

 Palestine by Mr. Tristram, accords with the references to such by diverse names, as e. g., 

 " nahash" and " s/uphiphon," respectively rendered " serpent " and " adder," in Genesis 

 xlix. 17 ; the poison of the " nachdsh " and " pet/ien,'" rendered " serpent " and " adder " in 

 Psalm Iviii. 4; the species "which stingelh like an adder," " epheh" and " tzepha,'' 

 Proverbs xxiii. 32 ; the serpent whose bite inflames, " sai-aph," rendered " fiery serpent " 

 in Numbers xxi. 8. 



In acknowledging the valuable materials above briefly exemplified, which Mr. Tristram 

 has contributed to the Museum, in behalf of the students of Biblical Zoology, it is tn be 

 remarked that much remains to be done, by collections in Syria and Palestine of animals of 

 different classes, in order to supjily the deficiency in the Zoological Depaitment to which 

 the attention of travellers was requested in the Annual Report of 1862. 



Other noteworthy additions to the Zoological series are specified in the report from that 

 department. 



Amongst the additions to the Department of Geology the most interesting in relation to 

 questions as to the antiquity of man, and the crania) and dental characters of primitive 

 races, aie the partly petrified remains of the men who inhabited ihe Limestone Caverns of 

 the South of France at the period when chamois, bouquetin, wild horse, reindeer, the great 

 extinct ox, &c., existed, and especially the reindeer, abounded, in that part of Europe ; and at 

 a period when the use of metals being unknown, the primitive implements were chipped flints, 

 by means of which diverse weapons and instruments, including needles, were manufactured 

 from the bones and antlei's of the beasts captured and killed for food. On some of those bone 

 instruments the reindeer and horse had been delineated in outline, with much tiuth and 

 spirit, and these are probably among the earliest examples of the graphic art. The value 

 of this series of human remains, discovered at Bruniquei by the Vicomte de Lastic in 1863, 

 depends upon the care and accuracy with which every material fact as to "matrix," 

 "position," " chemical condition," &:c., of the crania was ascertained, on which a conclusion 

 as to their contemporaneity with the remains of the extinct animals could be satisfactorily 

 arrived at. To this end the cavern was visited by the reporter in January and February 1864 ; 

 the human remains were inspected, and others were then exposed in silu, and one almost 

 entire cranium was removed and transferred to the British Museum, with the large mass of 

 breccia, detached at a depth of four feet from the stalagmitic floor of tiie cavern, and 

 exhibiting, with other human remains and numerous implements, conditions of imbedding 

 identical with those of the bones and teeth of the Cervus tarandus and JBos primigenius. 



Whilst these evidences expand our knowledge of the relations of the human species with 

 quadrupeds locally or absolutely extinct, others have been received indicative of the con- 

 tinuance of species now extinct to a more recent period than we had previously evidence 

 of. Among such specimens are the valuable donations by the Hon. William Owen Stanley, 

 noticed in the Report from the Geological Depaitment. The jaws and teeth of the Northern 

 Elephant {Elephas primigenius) were discovered, with remains of red deer, stumps of large 

 trees, hazel-nuts and alder-berries, in a bed of compact peat, about three feet thick, covered by 

 a deposit of l)lue clay of varying thickness, overlaid by a sandy deposit with shells of existing 

 and neighbouring marine species, all cut through in excavating the harbour at Holyhead. 



But, amongst the evidences of pa^t animal existence, perhaps the oldest, geologically, 

 are of highest interest. The Museum has been enriched by donation from the Directors of 

 the Geological Survey of Canada, with fossils of crustaceous and testaceous rank from the 

 Cambrian or Lower Silurian shales; and more especially with a beautifully etched section 

 of the still Lower Laureniian Marble, exhibiting evidences of the protozoal foraminiferous 

 organism called Eozoon Canadense, which, at the present phase of Geological science, is the 

 most ancient fossil organism known. 



The 



