6414 Notice of the various 



Siam is a terrible country to explore ; there are no other means of 

 communication than by water or on elephants ; I have therefore pur- 

 chased a boat and engaged rowers, who have consented to follow me. 



The country is certainly most interesting and beautiful, and if I am 

 spared to return to Europe I hardly know how I shall like our cold, 

 dull and rainy seasons, our pale sun and our stunted vegetation : I 

 shall live in the memory of all that is most beautiful in Nature. How 

 pleasant it is to awaken to see the brilliant sun, to hear the thousand 

 sounds, the humming of insects and the noise of other beings : no 

 repose here. Always and everywhere an extraordinary vitality. 



I am more than surprised here at seeing little children of two and 

 three years of age towing barks of large size on the deep, rapid river ; 

 they swim like fish, and are exceedingly intelligent and precocious ; 

 for a small piece of cigar or tobacco they will run after butterflies and 

 render me a thousand little services ; whilst my great idle domestics, 

 on the contrary, sleep a great part of their time with a cigar behind 

 each ear and a third in the mouth. My little companions are ready 

 to help me everywhere. 



I have found here a kind of spider which produces silk ; she allows 

 herself to be milked or drawn, one may say, for you have only to take 

 a card and wind the silk, which comes from her abundantly : it is very 

 strong and very elastic. 



How happy people may be in this country ! Nature is so lavish of 

 her bounties ; excellent vegetables are found upon the trees, and roots 

 of the bamboo and others ; in the woods exquisite fruits, and the 

 rivers overflow with fish. 



November 4, 1858. — To day I have caught about twenty butterflies, 

 killed two owls, a cuckoo (quite black) and the most beautiful dove I 

 have ever seen, with green wings and a yellow head, — a very great 

 beauty. 



Notice of the Various Species of Bovine Animals. By the Editor of 



the < Indian Field.' 



(Continued from p. 6367.) 



The second group of taurines is exemplified by the domestic cattle 

 of Europe or ordinary humpless cattle. Their horns, as in the bison- 

 tines and also the humped taurines, are cylindrical ;* whereas in all 



* There is a considerable tendency to a flattened form in the horns even of many 

 humped cattle. 



