the Ganges, and some other rivers, is found a very rare and curious stone called salgrams, which are regarded with religious veneration by the votaries of Vishnoo. It is an ammonite or fossil shell, and is described by Sonnerat as commonly black, but sometimes violet, of a round or oval form, a little flat, and nearly resembling touch-stone; hollow, with a small hole outside, yet very heavy.* Rock salt, sulphur, saltpetre, naphtha, and coal, are also to be enumerated among the mineral productions of India. A considerable quantity of saltpetre is manufactured in Bengal and Bahar, and exported to Europe, Tatary, and China. +

A general view of the principal productions of India, so far as they are articles of commerce, will be obtained from a list of exports, abstracted from papers printed by order of the House of Commons: with this, the reader may compare the catalogue of the articles of commerce mentioned in the Periplus ascribed to Arrian, as illustrated by the learned diligence of the Translator.

* The upper part of the Gunduk is called Salgrami, from the number of ammonites contained in the schistous rocks over which it passes. Might not the Druidical anguinum, or serpent's egg (glain neidyr) be an amulet of a similar description?

In this imperfect sketch of the botany and mineralogy of India, we have availed ourselves of the article in Brewster's Ency. above mentioned, and of Malte Brun, vol. iii. pp. 28-35, to which we refer for authorities. Many of the statements, however, require to be verified; and we give the whole as a general guide to the inquiries of the future traveller, rather than as a satisfactory account of the vegetable and mineral productions of India.

* Vincent's Periplus, vol. i. Append. pp. 3-48. In the xxviith chapter of Ezekiel, there is what might almost be termed another

NATURAL HISTORY.

THE Zoology of India is not less rich in species than the vegetable and mineral kingdoms. We shall not attempt either a scientific classification or a full description of the Indian animals. M. Malte Brun may be very correct in commencing with the simiæ; but the half-reasoning elephant, the royal tiger, the rhinoceros, and the camel, claim a precedence over the sacred apes and marshalled armies of monkeys.

In the elephants of India, there is considerable variety with regard to colour, size, and the length of their tusks. The prevailing colour is a blackish brown : the white variety, which is held sacred in Indo-China,* inventory of the principal articles of the Indian trade, as carried on, overland, by Persian and Syrian merchants, and by sea, through the medium of the Sabean or Phenician traders, B.C. 588. Thus, from Dedan or Dadena, (ver. 15,) on the coast of Omaun, were brought horns (perhaps tortoise-shell), ivory, and ebony; also, (ver. 20,) precious clothes for horsemen (abolla?) From Sheba (Saba) and Raamah (Rhegma in Omaun), were brought the chief spices, precious stones, and gold. From Dan (or Vadan), Javan (Yemen ?), and Me-uzal, (which Michaelis also makes to be places in Arabia,) were brought wrought iron, cassia-lignea, and calamus aromaticus-either cinnamon or sugar-cane. And from Haran (Charræ), Canneh (Calneh in Shinar), and Eden in Mesopotamia, were brought blue hangings or robes, broidered work, chests of rich apparel perhaps the δικροσσια, ζῶναι σκιωται, and πορφυρα of the Periplus. Nine hundred years before, we find some of the most precious productions of India had become familiar articles of Egyptian commerce. The "chief spices" referred to, Ezek. xxvii. 22, are probably the same that are distinctly enumerated Exod. xxx. 23, 34; viz. myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, cassia, stacte, onycha, galbanum, frankincense. And about 240 years still earlier (B.C. 1729), we find an Arabian caravan transporting to Egypt, the balsam and myrrh of Hadramaut, and the spices, probably, of India. Gen. xxxvii. 25. See, on this interesting subject of the early Indian trade, Vincent's Periplus, vol. i., Prel. Disq., and vol. ii. pp. 232, 3; 533-54. Also, Mod. Trav., Egypt, vol. i. pp. 65-68.

See Mod, Trav., Birmah, pp. 286-9.

is supposed to be an albino, the subject of disease. In the forests of the Ghauts, there are flocks of two or three hundred. In the Tiperah district of Bengal, they are also very numerous. Those of Chittagong are highly valued; but the most docile and handsome, though inferior in size, come from Ceylon. On the mountains in the north of India they are still smaller, seldom exceeding 7 feet in height, and they are caught chiefly for their teeth. The common height of the female elephant in India is from 7 to 8 feet; that of the male, from 8 to 10. The largest ever seen in the country, measured 10 feet 6 inches at the shoulder: it was caught in the year 1796, and belonged to the Nabob of Oude. The largest tusks of the Bengal elephant seldom exceed in weight 70 or 80 lbs. These gigantic animals, once so formidable in the field of battle, are now employed in the disciplined armies of India, only to drag cannon and carry ammunition, to set in motion heavy engines, or to bear on their broad backs the purple tent in which some nabob reclines on his gilded cushions. The height required by the Bengal Government, for the elephants purchased for the service of the army, is 9 feet.

The one-horned rhinoceros is also a native of Bengal, and is found especially in the islands at the mouths of the Ganges, where he is frequently seen in company with the tiger. These savage and very different animals, although they have no instinct for mutual association, are brought together by their respective physical habits. The tiger finds, in the jungle and underwood of the Sunderbunds, the coarse aliment on which he feeds, while the rhinoceros seeks amid mud and water a protection from the scorching heat. The royal Bengal tiger attains a height of five feet, and * Seneca, in his dipus, speaks of the Gangetica tigris. See Pennant's Hindoostan, vol. ii. p. 153.

*

is said to be able to clear by his fatal spring a hundred feet. Such is the size and strength of these formidable animals, that they have been known to carry off bullocks. The ground colour of a young or vigorous beast is almost a brilliant orange, with intensely black stripes.

From the ancient Indian records, there is reason to believe, that the lion (called singh) was formerly found in most parts of India. Most naturalists, however, doubt whether the African or long-maned lion be a native of this country.* The other varieties of the cat kind are very numerous. The serwal, or panthercat, which is but little known, is found from the Deccan to Tibet. The ounce, the panther of Pliny, inhabits the central part of the Deccan and the province of Gujerat. In Bengal is found a peculiar species of panther, of a deep black colour, with the spots of a more intense black. The common tiger

[ Mr. Pennant affirms, that near the fortress of Gwalior, and that of Rhotas Gur, in Agra, are "numbers of lions." "Those," he adds, "who deny that those animals were natives of India, assert that here was a royal menagerie, and that the breed was propagated from the beasts which had escaped. I find in Bernier (part iv. p. 48), that Aurungzebe frequently took the diversion of lion-hunting, but do not learn that the noble animal was ever turned out for the royal diversion. The Ayeen Akbaree relates many instances of the valour of Akbar the Great in his engagements with this tremendous animal, but is silent whether they had, or had not, been aborigines of Hindostan. Mr. Terry, in the vast forests near Mandoa, more than once saw lions, or heard them; they were also frequent about Malwah. These must have been their most southerly haunts, as the tract between Lahore and Cashmere is the most northerly, where they were the game of Aurungzebe....Possibly, they may have been extirpated in other parts of Hindoostan."-PENNANT'S Hindoostan, vol. ii. pp. 185, 6. See also Ibid. vol. i. p. 78. Jehangir, it is there remarked, records that he had killed several. If the singh actually means the true lion, and not the leopard, its having a Hindoo name would certainly indicate that it was a native of India.