1862.] 
Order Chelonia. 
367 
Order Chelonia.—By S. R. Tickell, Esq. 
Maulmein , March 8 th, 1862. 
To the Secretary of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta. 
Dear Sie,—I. liave the pleasure to send to the museum of the 
Society a specimen, as well prepared as circumstances permitted, of a 
rare and little described species of Turtle, of which I beg to annex 
the following description, which may perhaps be considered worthy of 
publication in the Journal of the Society. 
Your’s obediently, 
S. R. Tickell. 
Family. Thalassidse. 
Genus. Sphargis (Merrem). 
Synonyms. Corinda (Fleming). 
Dermatochelys (Blainville), 
Species. Coriacea F (Auctorum). 
“ The Trunk Turtle” (apud Bell). 
The specimen herewith forwarded to the Society is a female. She 
was captured, February 1st, 1862, near the mouth of the Ye river (in 
the Tenasserim Provinces), on the sandy beach of which she had 
since Baber’s time, must be prodigious. The wild Elephant is now confined to 
the forests under Hemala, and to the Ghats of Malabar. A wild Elephant near 
Karrah (Currah), Manikpur, or Kalpi, is a thing, at the present day, totally 
unknown. May not their familiar existence, in these countries, down to Baber’s 
days, be considered as rather hostile to the accounts given of the superabundant 
population of Hindustan in I'emote times ?”—I have now reliable information of 
the unexpected fact of a two-horned Rhinoceros having been killed in Asatn ! 
where it is undoubtedly exceedingly rare. I w 7 as told this by a friend, whose 
informant (when in the province) had seen the two horns attached to the 
skin; but I cannot at present obtain further details.—As regards the 
reported existence of a one-horned Rhinoceros in Africa ( vide p. 153 anted). 
Dr. Livingstone incidentally remarks—and I cite the whole passage because 
of its interest—that “ Sportsmen have still some work before them in the w r ay 
of discovering the fauna of Africa. This country abounds in game; and 
beyond Berotse, the herds of large animals surpass anything 1 ever saw 
[elsewhere], Eilands and Buffalos, their tameness was shocking to me: 81 
Buffalos defiled slowly before our fire one evening, and Lions were impudent 
enough to roar at us. On the south of the Choba, where Bushmen abound, they 
are very seldom heard ; these brave fellows teach them better manners. My 
boatmen informed me that he had seen an animal, with long wide-spreading 
horns like an Ox, called Liombikalela ; also another animal, which does not live 
in the water, but snorts like a Hippopotamus, and is like that animal in size— 
it has a horn, and matt be a one-horned Rhinoceros. And we passed some holes 
* of a third animal, which burrows from the river inland, has short horns, and 
feeds only by night. I did not notice the burrows at the time of passing, but I 
give you the report as I got it. Sable Antelopes abound, and so does the 
INakong; and there is a pretty little Antelope on the Sesheki, called Teeanyane , 
which seemed new to me. These animals did not lie in my line, so you must be 
content with this brief notice.” ( Journal of the Royal Geographical Society , 
Yol. XXLV, 700.) A horned burrowing animal is not very likely to exist. 
