254 Miscellaneous. [April, 



trusting that some expedient may be devised for upholding the Museum, 

 which they do not think it will be possible to maintain in a state of effici- 

 ency without having a paid Curator. 



Edward Ryan, 



Chairman. 

 Asiatic Society's Rooms, \ 

 April 29, 1836. J 



XI. — Miscellaneous. 



1. — Postscript to the Account of the wild Goat of Nepal, printed in the Sept. 

 No. of the Journal, page 490. By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



Carefully as I thought my account of the wild goat of Nepal, recently 

 published by you, was executed, I find that there is one material error in 

 it, viz. the statement that the species has only two teats or mammae. A 

 recent dissection of a fine male led to the notice of the fact that there are 

 four teats, which fact was confirmed by the examination of two live fe- 

 males. There can, therefore, be no question that this species of goat has 

 four teats: and the circumstance is so remarkable, that I propose to sub- 

 stitute the name Quadrimammis or four-teated, for the popular name of 

 Jharal, under which I described it. Deer are distinguished by four teats, 

 goats and sheep, heretofore, by two; the intermediate genus antilope, by four 

 or two, in the several species. Capia Quadrimammis vel Jharal, by its four 

 teats, offers a singular and unique approximation (in this genus) to Cervus ; 

 and another proof that the infinite variety of nature cannot be designated 

 by our artificial signs and peremptory divisions. Antilope, Capra, and 

 Ovis, how shall we contradistinguish them ? Solid-cored horns, in the 

 first, is no unerring mark : and now we have a species of the second, and 

 a beardless species too, abandoning his congeners to ally himself with 

 Cervus, quoad the number of mammae. 



2. — Notice of the Basilosaurus, a new marine fossil Saurian, discovered in 

 America. By H. Piddington, Esq. 



The discovery of this most gigantic fossil species is due to Judge Bree 

 of Arkansas, by whom, in 1834, the first fossil vertebra was found in the 

 marly banks of the Washita river, in the Arkansas territory. In the 

 latter end of the year, more vertebrae, fragments of the lower jaw, &c. 

 were discovered in Alabama, about 30 miles north-west of Chairborne; 

 another portion of jaw, with several teeth; an os humeri, several immense 

 vertebrae ; numerous fractured ribs ; a molar tooth ; the extremity of a 

 tibia ; portion of the shoulder, pelvis, &c. &c. were now found : and 

 recently (May 1835), another skeleton has been discovered, and a large 

 collection of the fossil remains is promised. Near the same spot a speci- 

 men of the caudal vertebrae of the Mosaurus or Maestricht monitor was 

 also found. 



It is assumed, that the bones, though great disparity exists in their 

 proportions and size, constitute portions of one species, and the structure 

 of the lower jaw, which is hollow, place it amongst the Saurians as a lost 

 genus. The comparative smallness of the bones of the extremities seem 

 to indicate the tail as the principal organ of motion, and the superior 

 extremities must have been fins or paddles. 



The train of vertebrae extending upwards of 100 feet in length in one 

 locality, and estimated to be 150 feet in the Arkansas specimen, shew, that 

 this gigantic animal must have probably attained upwards of this length, 



