162 Zoology of the International Exhibition. 



its name as inucli to its enormous size as to the possession, 

 by the male, of a proboscis. An adult specimen of this species 

 measures about twenty-five feet in length. Compare this spe- 

 cimen of seal leather, like rhinoceros hide, with another in the 

 Denmark Court, where J. W. Taylor, of Greenland, has a most 

 interesting collection (No. 183). These examples appear to be 

 the produce of the harp-seal, Calocephalus- Greenlandicus, which 

 has less wool than other species, and the hair of the leather flat 

 and lustrous. Amongst the specimens is the skin of a seal 

 foetus, which may remind the vistor that in certain remote parts 

 of Her Majesty's home empire, cows are killed just before their 

 time of calving, for the sake of the skins of the foetuses for first 

 class gloves. 



Horns appear in a thousand different shapes. In the Indian 

 department Messrs. Halliday and Fox (130) show buffalo horns 

 worthy the attention of students of the genus Bos, for the 

 Arnee is represented with others less rare. Natal (2) presents 

 us with samples of horns of the Gervidce of South Africa. New 

 Brunswick (31) sends a pair of moose horns of gigantic dimen- 

 sions. Let none who take interest in horns miss an inspection 

 of the horn furniture in the Austrian department, class 30, from 

 H. Kietel of Vienna (1206). 



Visitors bent on natural history studies, will have to con- 

 sider the contributions of classes 4 and 25 together. In the 

 first are wools, in the second skins, fur, feathers, and hair. The 

 sub-class B contains a grand collection of wools from the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England (1007). The Austrian fleeces 

 are equally interesting, but the French merinos surpass in beauty 

 all the many contributions in this section, and whoever has the 

 patience to search them out — scattered as they are through 

 many provinces — will be able to read the history of the merino 

 and the hitherto ineffectual efforts to mould its gaunt outlines 

 to models adapted for meat production. Classify all the wools, 

 and the result will be that climate is the main element in deter- 

 mining their character. Low temperatures favour the growth 

 of shaggy wools and abundant grease : high temperatures pro- 

 duce silky fleeces almost free from grease, and merge the sheep 

 and goat into such approximative forms that at last it is hard to 

 distinguish them. 



The English furs comprise gatherings from every climate of 

 the world. From the tropics, lions and tigers ; from arctic wilds, 

 white and blue foxes ; from Siberia, sables. The South Sea 

 sealskins, shown by Mr. Lillicrapp (4505), took three years to 

 collect in the Fa^land Islands. Generally, sealskins are scarce, 

 beavers more scarce ; the first is following the second in the 

 process of extermination. Among the colonies New Zealand 

 shows but a poor fauna, but the Australian settlements exhibit 



