I 
1B30.3 La Chevrette in the Indian Seas. 193 
well as of such properties or qualities as had struck them. This continued atten- 
tion to method is the more laudable, that (excepting Bourbon and Pondicherry) 
the ports visited by La Chevrette are not much frequented by our ships, and not 
one of our scientific expeditions has ever visited them. We allude particularly 
to Ceylon, to the Burmese country, and the river ITawddi, which waters it. 
Sailing from Toulon, the 29th May, 1827, this vessel put in at the Isle of Bour- 
bon the 27th August; anchored at Pondicherry from the 21st September to the 1st 
October ; from the 2nd to the 6th at Madras ; and from the 3rd November to 
the 1st December at Calcutta. She reached Rangoon, a Burmese port on the 
J'rawddi, the 21st December, and remained till the 9th January 1828. After a se- 
cond visit to Pondicherry, and one to Karikal, she put in at Trincomalee, on the N. 
E. coast of the Island of Ceylon — returned to Pondicherry — visited Batavia, where 
she anchored from the 20th May to the 10th June — traversed the straits ol Sunda and 
after a fourth visit to Pondicherry, reached the Cape, where she put into False Bay 
on the 2nd October, and remained at anchor there till the 11th April, when she sail- 
ed on her return to France. It is at these several places, and on the passage be- 
tween them, that the collections and observations have been made. According to the 
correct lists which have been prepared at the Museum of Natural History by MM. 
Isidore GeotTroy, Valenciennes, Latreille Audouin, the collections brought home by 
the Chevrette , comprise 6 species of mammifera , 236 of birds, 37 of reptiles, 238 of 
fishes, 271 of mollusca, 16 of the annclides , 132 of crustacea , 590 of insects and 
arachnides , and 161 of zoophytes. There are besides 108 species of shells : the number 
of individuals of each species varies, but in general it is considerable, and the sum total 
amounts to some thousands. The most valuable part of the collection are the spe- 
cimens preserved in spirits ; several of these, which we had already obtained in a dry 
state, are now more within the power of the observer, and affoi'd means of studying 
their interior structure as well as the most minute details of their exterior — this 
was much wanted, particularly in the class of fishes, mollusca and zoophytes. 
We have also acquired in this collection a number of specimens hitherto never dis- 
sected, but which being so well preserved may be examined under every point of 
view ; besides there are several species which were not to be found in the Royal 
Cabinet, .and others equally numerous, which, never having been published, may be 
said to be new for science. Amongst these there appear to be 3 of the mammifera ; 
24 of the birds, amongst which is a new genus in the family of the dentirostres ; 29 
reptiles, including a new genus in the family of the chelonii, more than 60 of the 
fishes ; 35 of the mollusca ; 12 of the annclides , including 3 undoubted new genera ; 
95 of the crustacea, and at the least 20 amongst the microscopic subjects. Such 
are the results to zoology, of an expedition which was by no means intended for the 
advancement of natural history ; results in one sense accidental, and attributable 
solely to the zeal and good understanding which prevailed amongst the officers, and 
the scientific education which medical officers of the navy are now enabled to acquire 
in those excellent schools founded by the Minister and directed by the Inspector- 
General Ke'randren. Such has been the general feeling, that M. Brossard, though 
detached on a specific duty, unwilling to be left behind by his comrades, has also 
made some very interesting collections, from which he has permitted the professors 
of the museum to choose such as they think may be useful to the establishment. 
The productions of dry land are, as might have been expected in an expedition 
of this kind, less numerous than those of the sea ; and this remark is particularly 
applicable to the vegetable kingdom. 
Nevertheless, among the nine hundred species nearly, which the herbarium that 
M. Reynard lias formed contains, there are found many new ones. The banks of 
the iTawadi particularly, which have scarcely been visited by botanistsi , have sup- 
plied some curious ones, the principal of which belong to the grasses. Many of the 
graminea and apocy nea of Ceylon appear new at the Cape, the families of the sy - 
nantherea, the proteacea, and the restiacea , include a number of interesting species, 
which have been added to the Royal garden. 
We have the honor to exhibit to the Academy three volumes of figures executed 
by M. Reynaud, and by MM. de Blosseville and Gabert, who so kindly assisted him. 
Competent judges will immediately appreciate the character of correctness which 
distinguishes them ; while naturalists must be pleased to see representations of so 
many medusa , of biphord, and of other transparent and gelatinous zoophytes, of so 
many microscopic crustacea, which could only be secured to science by the care which 
our observers always took to design them when alive, and in the very water in which 
1 With the«exception of Doctor Wallich, who discovered there that splendid tree 
Amherstia nobilis. 
