ed, as the tree was falling, to see him effect his retreat to another, with apparently undiminished vigour. In fact, they were obliged to cut down all the trees before they could drive him to combat his enemies on the ground, against whom he still exhibited surprising strength and agility, although he was at length overpowered by numbers, and destroyed by the thrusts of spears, and the blows of stones and other missiles. When nearly in a dying state, he seized a spear, made of a supple wood, which would have withstood the strength of the stoutest man, and shivered it in pieces; in the words of the narrator, he broke it as if it had been a carrot. It is stated by those who aided in his death, that the human-like expression of his countenance, and piteous manner of placing his hands over his wounds, distressed their feelings, and almost made them question the nature of the act they were committing. When dead, both natives and Europeans contemplated his figure with amazement. His stature, at the lowest computation, was upwards of six feet; at the highest, it was nearly eight; but it will afterwards be seen that it was probably about seven.

In the following description, which I give in the words of my informant, many of my readers will detect some of those external conformations which distinguish the young eastern orang outangs that have been seen in Europe. The only part of the description in which the imagination seems to have injured the fidelity of the portrait, regards the prominence of the nose and size of the eyes, neither of which are verified by the integuments of the animal's head. "The animal was nearly eight feet high, and had a well-proportioned body, with a fine broad expanded chest and narrow waist. His head also was in due proportion to his body; the eyes were large, the nose prominent, and the mouth much more capacious than the mouth of His chin was fringed from the extremity of one ear to the other, with a beard that curled_neatly on each side, and formed altogther an ornamental rather than a frightful appendage to his visage. His arms were very long, even in proportion to his height, and in relation to the arms of men; but his legs were in some respects much shorter. His organs of generation were not very conspicuous, and seemed to be small in JANUARY-MARCH 1827.

a man.

B b

proportion to his size. The hair of his coat was smooth and glossy when he was first killed, and his teeth and appearance altogether indicated that he was young, and in the full possession of his physical powers. Upon the whole,” adds his biographer, " he was a wonderful beast to behold, and there was more in him to excite amazement than fear."

That this animal showed great tenacity of life, is evident from his surviving so many dreadful wounds; and his peculiarity in this respect seems to have been a subject of intense surprise to all his assailants. In reference to this point, it may be proper to remark, that, after he had been carried on board ship, and was hauled up for the purpose of being skinned, the first stroke of the knife on the skin of the arm produced an instantaneous vibration of its muscles, followed by a convulsive contraction of the whole member. A like quivering of the mus cles occurred when the knife was applied to the skin of the back, and so impressed Captain Cornfoot with a persuasion that the animal retained his sensibility, that he ordered the process of skinning to stop till the head had been removed.

It seems probable that this animal had travelled from some distance to the place where he was found, as his legs were covered with mud up to the knees, and he was considered as great a prodigy by the natives as by the Europeans. They had never before met with an animal like him, although they lived within two days' journey of one of the vast and almost impenetrable forests of Sumatra. They seemed to think that his apарpearance accounted for many strange noises, resembling screams and shouts, and various sounds, which they could neither attribute to the roar of the tiger, nor to the voice of any other beast: with which they were familiar. What capability the great orang-outang may possess of uttering such sounds does not appear, but this belief of the Malays may lead to the capture of other individuals of his species, and to the discovery of more interesting particulars of his conformation and habits.

The only material discrepancy which I can detect in the dif ferent accounts which have been given of this animal, regards his height, which in some of them is vaguely stated at from above six feet to nearly eight. Captain Cornfoot, however, r who favoured me with a verbal description of the animal when

brought on board his ship, stated that "he was a full head taller than any man on board, measuring seven feet in what might be called his ordinary standing posture, and eight feet, when suspended for the purpose of being skinned."

The following measurements, which I have carefully made of different parts of the animal in the Society's Museum, go far to determine this point, and are entirely in favour of Captain Cornfoot's accuracy. The skin of the body of the animal, dried and shrivelled as it is, measures in a straight line from the top of the shoulder to the part where the ancle has been removed, 5 feet 10 inches, the perpendicular length of the neck as it is in the preparation 3 inches, the length of the head from the top of the forehead to the end of the chin 9 inches, and the length of the skin still attached to the foot from its line of separation from the legs 8 inches ;-we thus obtain 7 feet 6 inches as the approximated height of the animal. The natural bending posture of the ape tribe would obviously diminish the height of the standing posture in the living animal, and probably reduce it to Captain Cornfoot's measurement of 7 feet, whilst the stretching that would take place when the animal was extended for dissection, might as obviously increase his length to 8 feet.

(To be continued.)

On the Lead Mines in the South of Spain.

THE metalliferous limestone of the South of Spain is so rich in galena, as to furnish, even in the present imperfect state of mining in that country, about 20,000 tons of lead, a quantity nearly equal to half of the total produce of the lead mines of England (45,000 tons). It is worthy the attention of the leadmine owners in England, that those of Spain consider themselves well paid if they get L. 19 sterling per ton, on delivery in London; and that the quantity actually made will go on increasing, as the population becomes more numerous, or as the power of machinery is substituted for manual labour. The introduction into this district of machinery from England, also deserves the most serious consideration, as it would not only give the great

est stimulus to the lead trade, but would also enable those who have lately discovered valuable iron mines near Marbella (25 miles south-west from Malaga, and not 4 miles from the sea), to ruin a branch of trade almost exclusively in our hands, namely, the construction of iron-hoops for barrels, &c. for which, in a wine-country, there is a great demand. It is certain that there are now in England agents employed for the purpose of purchasing machinery for the owners of these mines, who are only waiting for its arrival, and for that of an Englishman to superintend it, to commence their projected manufactory. Having stated this much, I may now ask, how far we might be justified in refusing the introduction of machinery to a country, which rigidly prohibits almost every article of British manufacture, and charges the few that are permitted with such exorbitant duties, that they can only be smuggled into it? Should the prohibition of machinery be deemed expedient under the above circumstances, it would be necessary to prevent any being sent, as it now is, when intended for Spain, to Gibraltar, under the idea of this being an English and a free port. Every one knows that there are neither mines nor manufactories on the rock of Gibraltar; it is therefore absurd to make use of such a pretext for the introduction of machinery into Spain, thereby enabling that country to rival us in interesting branches of our commerce. I am of opinion, that the captain of this port, who is now a Magistrate, and is empowered to visit every ship in the bay, ought to be directed to seize any machinery he may discover; for, as it cannot be intended for Gibraltar, nor for English interests, it is evident, that its being put into the bill of lading as destined for that port, is a mere stratagem; and it no sooner arrives there, than it is transferred to another vessel, to be landed at some place along the coast. Political economists will perhaps say, that if our machinery enriches Spaniards, they will purchase more of our articles. As a general principle, this I admit; but when we know that almost every British article of trade is strictly prohibited (even coals, although there is not a single coalmine wrought in the Spanish Peninsula), I cannot help thinking, that such prohibitions on their part should be followed by similar prohibitions on ours, with respect to articles so likely to operate to our immediate disadvantage, and that they call for

legislative interference, as being subversive of free trade in general. H. WITHAM, Esq. F. R. S. E. &c.

Letter of Professor BUCKLAND to Professor JAMESON, and of Captain SYKES to Professor BUCKLAND, on the Interior of the Dens of living Hyænas.

DEAR SIR,

Oxford, 5th March 1827. IN the 4th volume of the Memoirs of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, a paper has been printed by Dr Knox, in which he expresses doubts as to a circumstance I have insisted on in my history of the Cave of Kirkdale, namely, that it is the habit of living hyænas to drag home their prey to the interior of their dens.

These doubts he allows are founded only on the two negative facts, that, during his residence at the Cape, he has never seen hyænas engaged in the act of dragging dead carcases into their den, nor ever examined, or caused to be examined, the interior of their habitation, to see what may be its contents. He at the same time candidly admits, that negative evidence is never reckoned so good as positive; and that, after all, my theory is perhaps the best hitherto offered.

In No. 28, also, of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, Dr Fleming contends, it is more probable that the bones discovered in the cave of Kirkdale have been drifted in by water, than gradually accumulated by the agency of hyænas that once inhabited it; and adds, that "the evidence proving the Kirkdale Cave to have been an Antediluvian Den, seems in all its parts so deficient in precision, as to warrant the rejection of that hypothesis it had been produced to support."

As in cases of this nature, where the question is concerning facts, the evidence of accurate and independent observers is most competent to decide the point at issue, I subjoin a copy of a letter I have lately received from Captain Sykes, a friend of Dr Somerville, now on service near Bombay, who has recently been investigating this subject. From his observations, it appears that the interior of a living hyæna's den, presents an exact