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fac-simile of the mangled antediluvian remains that occur in the caves of Kirkdale and Torquay.

MY DEAR SIR,

Poona, 11th June 1826.

Your commission with respect to the hyæna has not been executed probably with the promptitude you anticipated, but, in truth, it was only in my last campaign I was enabled to meet with a hyæna, to satisfy myself fully with respect to the habits of this beast. At the present moment, from having examined the dens of hyænas in three different districts, I can state to you confidently, that these animals do carry with them into the recesses of their dens their prey, or such parts of their prey, as the narrowness of the entrances and passages of their abodes will admit. I first examined some dens in the face of a hill about eighteen miles north of Poona in March 1825, near a place called Mahloonga, The rockiness of the ground disabled me from laying them open, but I pulled out myself, from some feet within the entrances of two dens, several bones. Bones also lay strewed about the mouths of the dens, but not in any great quantity. The hyænas evaded our pursuit, and the plans we laid to entrap them for some days, although they had the courage to come for two successive nights and devour more than three parts of a dead pony I had dragged to about one hundred yards from my encampment. Subsequently to this period, I had not an opportunity of examining another hyæna's den until the 23d December 1825. Being then encamped at Kowta, in the Pabool district, a den was pointed out to me about three and a half miles S. by E. from the village. I found it situated on the bank of a watercourse. The den had several entrances and outlets. I had these carefully closed, and trusted I had secured the animals within. The depth of calcareous soil on the banks of the water-course led me to expect that I should not meet with any impediment in laying open this den. Leaving a man to watch until I could send a sufficient number of my people with tools to dig at it, in the course of a couple of hours I set fourteen men to work, and in a few hours more the whole den was laid open to the day; they had closed it up before the hyænas had returned home, and therefore did not meet with them. We found the den to consist of several passages on two different levels; some of these terminated in the exits and entrances, others in small chambers, not of any determinate form. In the lowest passage, at the depth of several feet from the surface, and 18 feet from the nearest entrance, I found numerous bones, broken and whole. These bones appeared to be those of the camel, buffalo, ox, hog, dog, and sheep; but you will be enabled to judge for yourself, as I have sent you some of them dug out of the den.. At 24 feet from the entrance I took out the rib of an ox. Not near so many bones were found outside the den as inside, some few only were lying about the mouths of the northern entrances, and none whatever in the bed of the water-course below the southern entrance. The Latitude of this den is 18° 21" N. nearly; and Longitude 74° 24' E. The country near is amygdaloid greenstone in horizontal strata, and the elevation of the dens above the sea, determined by the boiling temperature, is 1650 feet.

I had almost despaired of getting you the skeleton of a hyæna, when fortunately, on my march from the Pabool to Cheencholee, on the 14th February 1826, I saw a large male and a female basking in the sun, with a couple of good sized cubs tumbling about them. The country is a table land, and perfectly open. The beasts were about half a mile from the road. I was obliged to approach them without disguise or concealment., As I neared them, the cubs disappeared in the den, and the female walked slowly away; but the male waited very coolly until I got within a hundred yards of him, when a ball from my gun brought him down. I had shot him through the shoulder, and on running up to him found he had sufficient strength left to move; and fearful he would get into his den, distant only five paces, Ip I put a ball through his head. I regret this now very much, as it broke the skull into fragments, and it will occasion you a good deal of trouble to put them together again. My people had most of them passed on to the new ground of encampment eight miles distant; and as it was getting very hot, I did not think it necessary to dig out the cubs. The hyæna family I found had been regaling themselves on the remains of a jackass, some of whose bones, with the half putrified flesh on them, were lying about. The rest of the animal was doubtless in the den, as I pulled out from one of the passages a hind-leg and haunch, with part of the flesh on it, which the hyænas had been disabled from taking into the recesses of the den, by the leg having stiffened into so angular a form, as not to admit of its passing where the rock narrowed.

I have to remark a very singular fact with respect to the habits of these carrion beasts. It was evdent frouu u སབམ་ཅད་ཤེས་པ་ the same spot, in a hollow about ten feet from the entrance of the den, and from this substance not being found in any other place, that these beasts, young and old, resorted regularly to a chosen spot; in short, that they had thought it necessary, in their domestic arrangements, to render a spot sacred to the goddess of filth. A very few words will now close the hyæna's history. The beast I had killed was taken to my tents, carefully skinned, and the skin cured in the native way, by being rubbed with turmeric and salt, and subsequently with thick acid milk. The flesh was boiled off the bones; and the skeleton, skin, and some of the bones found in the several dens, were packed into a box; put on board the Pyramus, and directed to you, and I trust you will receive this box almost as soon as you get my letter. I have omitted to remark, that porcupines' quills are commonly found in hyenas' dens; these animals, therefore, must be their prey. The hyenas, although sometimes as large or larger than a stout mastiff, contrive to creep along very narrow passages in their dens. I have farther only to remark of the hyena, that it is a cowardly beast. It never attacks where there is any risk; and, when chased and driven to extremity, submits to be killed almost without resistance. When the beast does bite, and gets a fair hold, the power of the jaws is so great as to admit of their fracturing any bone of a horse or an ox. (Signed)

W. H. SYKES.

To the above letter of Captain Sykes, I add no farther note or comment. Your readers will judge for themselves how far it may confirm the theory I have proposed in my Reliquiae Diluviance, to explain the accumulation of teeth and bones in the Cave of Kirkdale.

P. S.-I beg to correct an omission that occurs in No. XXVIII. of your Journal, p. 363. in the description of fragments of gnawed bones, from the cavern of Kent's Hole, near Torquay, that are stated to have been sent to the Edinburgh Museum by myself. They were only transmitted through me, and at my request; but they were both discovered and presented by the Reverend J. M'Enery of Torquay, a gentleman who, during two years' past, has exerted himself with the greatest zeal and success in exploring the contents of this cavern, and who has formed the most extensive and most instructive collection of gnawed and mangled fragments of skeletons of antediluvian animals, that has yet been made. It is highly gratifying to me to add, that the conclusions he has drawn from his own independent observations in the larger cavern of Kent's Hole, y with those I had founded on a display of similar phenomena, though on a less extensive scale, in the cave of Kirkdale.

On the growth and preparation of Straw used in the Tuscan Trade*.

THE following observations have been extracted from some

valuable communications which have reached the Highland Society from Mr H. Hall of Florence, Mr Boswell of Kingcausie, and others; and will perhaps afford information on some points of management in the growth and preparation of the straw used in the Tuscan trade, which may not yet be quite familiar in this country.

"The seed from which the straw for plaiting is grown, is a small round grain of wheat, called grano marzuolo, or more properly grano marzolano. It is so called from being sown in the month of March, and differs from common wheat in appearance, from its rounder and

* Extracted from the printed List of Premiums of the Highland Society of Scotland for 1827.

shorter shape. It is an error to suppose, that hats are made from rye, or any other grain in Tuscany. This marzolano straw is cultivated for the sole purpose of being made into hats; and is grown chiefly in the vicinity of Florence, and on the hills on both sides of the valley of the Arno. The growth of the straw is thus almost exclusively confined to a limited part of the province of Tuscany. A few years ago, the Pope, aware of the source of wealth which this manufacture produced in that quarter, attempted to introduce the culture of it into his States. From the habits of the people, difference of soil or climate, or from all these causes conjoined, the plan did not succeed; and the Grand Duke of Tuscany having now allowed the prepared straw to be exported, the idea of cultivating it elsewhere seems to be altogether abandoned. Tuscan women, in the mean time, have settled themselves in various places, such as Vienna, Petersburgh,. &c., where they carry on the manufacture with straw grown in Tuscany.

"The seed is sown on good ground, but not rich; some sow it on poorish land. In general, vines and olives bound the fields in which it grows, or are planted at intervals in the interior of these fields, like orchards in this country. The practice in sowing flax is known to every agriculturist; and nearly the same holds in regard to the marzolana, where the qualities especially to be obtained, are fineness, tenacity, and toughness.

"To obtain the first, it is sown so thick, that each blade touches another. Manure is never made use of on the ground to be under marzolana. The seed is sown on the ground in a flat state, and a person must be taught the method of sowing it, which is done "underhand." The seed is then covered in, by hoeing the ground with a draw-hoe, about three times the size of our common turnip-hoe. This is done as near the first of March as the season will permit. From the beginning to the middle of July (according to the season), it is ready, which is known by the ear being fully shot, but before it is formed into grain. The plant is then, if a good crop, eighteen inches in height. The straw is not cut, but plucked by main force from the soil, and then exposed for the purpose of bleaching, not in bundles, but scattered about in meadows or gravel grounds, exposed to the evening dew and the midday sun, until it is perfectly yellow; but constantly watched, to gather it together, and put it under cover at the least appearance of rain, which would spoil it, and make it turn out completely speckled. After it is sufficiently bleached, it is tied in bundles, and brought to the manufactory, where children are employed to pluck the only part of the straw which serves for plaiting, that is, what is comprised betwixt the ear and the first joint in the stalk. If the weather is fine, in fifteen days after the crop is pulled, it will be ready to work into plait, "treccie," as it is called. The natives say, that the dew tends greatly to whiten it; but if any rain falls it is ruined. The manner of separat. ing the top joints is by a smart jerk of the hand. These are made up for sale, and the remainder thrown to the dunghill, for no animal will eat it.

"To obtain the whiteness so much prized, the straw is smoked with sulphur previous to being worked; the plait is also smoked, and, lastly, the hat. About Sienna, the process is simply a little sulphur set on

fire in the bottom of a large chest, bunches of the straw being placed on long hazel rods across, and the lid shut down. Elsewhere, the articles are described as being placed in a small close room, in which a chafing dish of sulphur is placed and set fire to. Sometimes the operation requires to be done twice before it succeeds.

"The straw for use is classed or stapled like our wool. Children or inferior hands, work the course thick straw, while good hands work the fine only. Whether fine or coarse, it is only the part on which the spike grows that is made use of, and it is always the same plait, consisting of thirteen straws, which is worked. In the fine plait, there is a very great waste of straw, as they reject all that is in the least too thick, and they cut off a considerable part of the straw where it comes near the flower spike. Fine plait is not accounted good, unless very much drawn together, for which end it is worked very wet. The bunches of straw are always put into a small jar filled with cold water, which stands beside the worker. After being smoked and pressed, the plait is made up into hats by women, who do nothing else; it is put together by the edges, not overlapped. On the operation of pressing a great deal depends. There are only two good machines for that purpose in the country.

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"Such is the practice for procuring the hat-straw. What they sow for seed is in other ground: Not one-fourth of the seed is used, and the grain is allowed to come to maturity in the usual way. It is said to be a capital wheat for vermicelli, macaroni, &c. and also for making into bread.

"It ought to be taken into view, that, for the use of the manufacture in Scotland, the straw should not exceed one-eighteenth of an inch in diameter. When coarser, it does not answer the market; and much of the very finest straw is not required, because the bonnets made from it are too expensive."

Remarks on Dr Latta's Observations on the Artic Sea and Ice. In á communication from the Rev. Mr SCORESBY to Professor JAMESON *.

ON reading Dr Latta's " Observations on the Arctic Sea and

Ice +," in the last number of the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, I was rather surprised at the following hasty, and, if I mistake not, unwarrantable remark. Speaking of the climate of Spitzbergen, Dr Latta refers to my Account of the Arctic Regions, saying " Mr Scoresby, biassed by the indications of the thermometer, reasons himself into the supposition, that the climate, during summer, is more temperate than even

* Read before the Wernerian Society, 10th March 1827.

+ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, October-December 1826.

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