1868.] Proceedings of tlie Asiatic Society. 65 



The proposition was seconded by Mr, E. C. Bayley and unanimous- 

 ly agreed to. 



The following extract of a letter from W. T. Blanford, Esq. being 

 Natural History Notes made on his voyage to Abyssinia then was read. 



Mr. Blanford writes from Aden, on the 16th December — 



" We came in here on Saturday night (14th) having come across 

 from Bombay in 10 days and 9 hours, a very fair passage. We were 

 going too fast at first for a towing net, and all I made, for some time, 

 were carried away. At last I got one to work made of bunting, and 

 when we were going 8 knots instead of nine or ten, I managed to make 

 a fair haul. I got 3 species of Janthina; 2 of Hyaloea ; Styliola of course, 

 but not abundantly ; one or two small specimens of Glaucus ; a small 

 Atlanta, and plenty of Porpitoe and Velelloe. But the greatest catch was 

 an extremely minute species of Forbes's genus Cheletropis, which is not a 

 Pteropod, but I really don't know what it is. The species is almost as 

 minute as Opisthosloma ; so examining the animal with a lens was not 

 easy ; but it has some most curious ciliated mantel processes, the cilia 

 being constantly in such rapid motion, that I thought at first these were 

 rotifers adhering to the peristome.* I got two species of Litiopa and 

 several Crustacea ; crabs, Stomapods and Copepods ; besides several 

 small fish. The only bird was a night-jar, which got away again, and a 

 peregrine falcon which settled in the rigging, and I bowled him over. 



I have been climbing the hills this morning, (it is actually cool 

 here !) and am astonished at the resemblance of the rocks to the 

 Deccan traps ; allowing of course for chemical changes, and the filling 

 up of the vesicles (in the lavas). I am more than ever convinced that 

 the Deccan traps are simply lava flows and ash beds. I have never had 

 a turn at undoubted Volcanic rocks since I have been at work in 

 B ombay. 



I have found two land shells here. One is Bulimus pulhis ; the other, 

 another Bulimus of the same section, very near B. Sindicus. 



A second letter dated 7th January, and written from Loullu says — 



" I landed on the 24th. I have not been up to Senafe yet, but hope 

 to go off in a day or two, * *. I have not been out much, except to 



* The animal of this genus had been described by Mr. J. D. Macdonald ; and 

 shewn to belong to the Hettvopodous family MacgilUoragudxje. The name 

 Cheletropis is also to be changed to the prior name Simesigera Dbil. See 

 Appendix to Adams' " Genera of Recent shells." Vol. ii. p. 613. — Ed. 



