1838,] On the Zoology of Tenasserim 357 



VIII. — A letter to Dr. Helfer, on the Zoology of Tenasserim and the 

 neighbouring Provinces. By Assist. Surg. J. T. Pearson. 



In compliance with the commands of the Right Honorable the Go- 

 vernor General, I have much pleasure in offering" the following remarks 

 upon the points to which your attention may be usefully directed during 

 your expedition to the coast of Tenasserim and the neighbouring pro- 

 vinces. And I do this the more readily, that I am satisfied, from my 

 own experience, the hints of a long resident in a country may almost 

 always be of use to a new comer in the prosecution of his researches into 

 its natural history. 



The first grand problem of natural history, beyond doubt, is the dis- 

 covery of a new species of man. This, however, the naturalist will be 

 fortunate beyond all others who is enabled to offer any but negative 

 evidence to solve. But it is not impossible, perhaps not improbable, that 

 some variety but little known, or which we are totally ignorant of may 

 exist among the forests of the country ; in like manner as the Papuas of 

 Neiv Guinea, and the Shau holla of Abyssinia live wild and remote 

 from other men*. Accurate observations upon any portion of the human 

 race are valuable, especially upon those who are little known to their 

 civilized brethren. 



In the next order of mammalia, the Quadrumana, a wider field will be 

 open before you. Many unknown species or varieties of species are 

 probably to be found in the forests with which those coasts are covered ; 

 and the discovery of another specimen of the gigantic ape, found by 

 Captain Comefoot in Sumatra, and described by the late Doctor Abel 

 in the Researches of the Asiatic Society, may be made. This animal 

 seven feet in height, would be valuable to the naturalist, and a well 

 preserved specimen the greatest ornament of any museum. 



Among the Cheiroptera any species of the genera Galeopithecus and 

 Pteropus which you may meet with, will very likely be new, and con- 

 sequently well worthy of preservation, and, indeed, the chances are, that 

 in this family the greater part of the species on the coast of Tenasserim 

 are altogether unknown. 



At Malacca there is said to be a Hedgehog with pendulous ears : 

 but the species is not well authenticated. If it really exist at Malacca, 

 it will also, I should think be found in Tenasserim. 



In the order Rodentia the researches of the naturalist will, it is pro- 

 bable, be richly rewarded. An animal, somewhat between a mole and a 

 rat in form was found by Doctor Richardson, I imagine in no very 



* I believe Dr. Helfer has actually done what is here pointed out, by discovering 

 a new race in the jangals of Tenasserim. 



