45(!) On the Characters of [Aug. 



and clothing. But there are not wanting who say, the Pasha only 

 supports it to raise up for himself good officers; however, it is good in 

 itself, and the results must be good, and I give him credit for it. I 

 consider the principal points in his character to be ambition, and the 

 vanity of appearing a great and enlightened prince in the eyes of 

 Europe, and I think these will explain his whole policy. He has had 

 the tact to win our representative, Colonel Campbell, completely to his 

 interests, and the good Colonel is his warmest and most enthusiastic 

 eulogist. 



III. — Characters of three New Species of Indian Fresh-water Bivalves, 

 by Isaac Lea ; with Notes by W. H. Benson, Esq. 



While our countrymen in India are hesitating to name or to de- 

 scribe as novelties their acquisitions in Natural Histas'y, under the 

 apprehension of re-describing that which may be already known to 

 the scientific world, our brethren of the United States are forestall- 

 ing us, and are publishing in that distant land the acquisitions of 

 their fellow citizens, made under the unfavorable circumstances which 

 generally attach to cursory and hurried journeys through a country. 

 It becomes us, then, to bestir ourselves, and not thus tamely to allow 

 prizes to be carried off from our very doors, to swell the scientific 

 triumphs of our transatlantic competitors. 



The following descriptions of three species of Unio are taken from 

 the 4th volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical 

 Society, in which work characteristic figures are given of each shell. 

 The characters are from the pen of Mr. Isaac Lea, who has acquired 

 perhaps a greater knowledge of the species of this genus, and has 

 described more new ones than any other individual. Having during 

 several years attended particularly to this department of Natural His- 

 tory, and taken numerous specimens of the shells procurable in the 

 provinces, in which I have resided, I have ventured to add a few 

 illustrative notes. Besides Mr. Lea's three species, and the well 

 known Unio marginalis of Lamarck, I am acquainted with three 

 other perfectly distinct species of Unio from the streams of the Bengal 

 and Agra presidencies, which I propose to describe in a separate 

 paper.— W. H. B. 



Unio Oeruleus. Plate XIII. fig. 25. of Am. Phil. Trans. IV. 

 " Testa angusto-ellipticd, transversa, incequilaterali, subcylindraced ; val- 

 vulis tenuibus ; natibus prominulis, rotundatis et undulatis ; dentibus car. 

 dinalibus lamclliformibus, et in dextrd valvula sold duplicibus ; latcralibus 

 rectis ; margaritd cceruleo-albd et ii-idescente. 



