success, that the shore was covered the whole length of the net with the fish they caught, though the net was in a bad condition. I reckoned part of them, and judged that they might in all be upwards of 6000, the least of them as large as a fine carp. There you might see pilchards, rock-fish, mullets, or gull-fish, of different sorts; molebats, with other fishes very little known. The negroes of the neighbouring village took each their load, and the ship's crew filled their boat until it was ready to sink, leaving the rest on the seashore. In any other country, such a capture of fish would, without all doubt, pass for a miracle."*

The fossil fish of Africa are scarcely known. The following passage, in illustration of that curious branch, is from Lichtenstein's Travels " In the slate-stone from which the spring rose were the impressions of an innumerable multitude of fishes. We perceived this extraordinary appearance first upon the surface; but the impressions were larger, more distinct, and finer in proportion as we broke deeper and deeper into the stone. The form of the fish resembled that of the eel, and the length of the largest was about three feet. The brittleness of the slate made it impossible for us to get out a single specimen entire; and the fragments which we preserved, for the purpose of examining them at our leisure, were afterward destroyed by the jolting of the wagon. The more I made myself acquainted with this country by my subsequent travels, the more remarkable did the phenomena appear to me, as being the only remains of a former world which I found throughout the whole of Southern Africa."+ We must now proceed to the next division of our subject.

The Mollusca and Conchifera of Africa next demand our attention. To these extensive classes belong whatever species are known under the general names of shellfish and shells. The precise localities of African conchology are, in truth, so superficially ascertained that, even if the portion of our present volume originally allotted to the zoological department had not been already much more than exhausted, we should have found great difficulty in

* Voyage to Senegal, p. 178.

↑ Travels in Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 95

satisfying either ourselves or our readers. In the absence, however, of fuller and more circumstantial information, we must rest contented with the following brief details:

The shells of the warmer regions of the earth, as well as the birds and insects, are generally distinguished from those of colder countries by the greater beauty of their forms and colouring; and those of Africa, while they participate in this splendid character, are yet more highly valued in consequence of their comparatively rare occurrence in collec tions. The productions of the African seas are probably less known than those of any other quarter of the globe.

The Mediterranean affords very numerous species, although the very slight changes of level which its waters undergo render its testaceous productions less easily obtained than in more northern latitudes,

"Where the redundant seas wash up fresh stores."

A few of the more remarkable animals of these classes which occur in the Mediterranean are,-several kinds of cuttle-fish, such as Sepia officinalis, Loligo vulgaris, and L. sepiola; Argonauta Argo, Janthina communis, Isocardium globosum, Cardita sulcata, and ajar; Spondylus gaderopus, Avicula tarentina, Cardium costatum, Anatina globosa, Pholas dactylus, and several Pinna. The Tyrian purple of the ancients is supposed to have been obtained from the Purpura patula, common in this sea. The use of that splendid and regal die is now superseded by the discovery of the tinctorial uses of the cochineal,—a small and obscure insect, which the skill of the chemist has rendered indispensable even to the garments of kings.

Egypt and the Valley of the Nile were first correctly observed by the skilful Savigny and the other naturalists of the great French expedition; afterward by Olivier, and at a still later period by Cailliaud. A few species mentioned by Poiret, those described by Chemnitz, and the collection made by the Danish naturalist Grove from Morocco, form the chief materials of our knowledge of this department along the Barbary coasts. The Red Sea, so full of shoals and coral reefs, is said to be peculiarly rich in shells; but with the exception of the work of Forskall, and the more recent travels of Lord Valentia, we can scarcely

indicate any proper sources of information regarding that quarter.

The eastern shores of Africa are, in respect to this, as well as all other branches of natural history, almost entirely unknown.

With the species of the western coasts we are somewhat better acquainted. Adanson described many of the shells of Senegal, and Bowdich a few from the Gambia. Maugé, Von Buch, and Bowdich made small collections from Madeira, Teneriffe, and Porto Santo. Those islands are said to be rich in peculiar species, and therefore merit more particular attention than has yet been bestowed upon them. Along the western coasts numerous species also occur which are common to the tropical seas; such as Cypræa Tigris, moneta, and helvola,-several Olives, Cones, and Volutes, the pearl-oyster, Meleagrina margaritifera, &c.

Of the land and fresh-water shells of the interior of this continent scarcely any thing is known. Le Vaillant described only a single species from Caffraria, though Delalande afterward collected many in that country; and Bruce and Burchell have incidentally noticed a few from Abyssinia and the more southern districts.

At the Cape of Good Hope the quantities of shells which cover the beaches are immense, and the natives frequently employ them for lime. But the heavy surf which so often thunders along the shores of this promontory (the Cape of Storms) seems to prevent the shells from being frequently gathered in a perfect state; and South African specimens are therefore more rare in collections than might be expected, The coasts of Madagascar are said to be particularly rich in fine shells, although we have acquired as yet but a very meager knowledge of the testaceous productions of that great island. If its climate and political circumstances admitted of a closer and more assiduous search, treasures of great value would no doubt reward the toils of the conchological collector.

The northern and western coasts, though separated by so wide an extent of barren sands, offer in this department a few remarkable analogies. The Anadonta rubens of the Nile is found specifically the same in Senegal, and the Helix flammata of Nubia has been observed along the banks of the Gambia. Among the African shells, a few occur

extensively distributed over other countries. The Bulla striata is found in Egypt and Senegal, along the coasts of France and England, in the Antilles, and South America. The Turbo petræus, well known in Europe, is equally familiar to the sun-burnt collector at the Cape. The Helix aspersa, so abundant in all the temperate countries of Europe, has also been found in Africa, and as far west as the Canary Islands. Another species, the Helix candidissima, frequent in France and Spain, has been found in Tripoli and other parts of the African continent. The Helix agira of Egypt and Barbary is found in Provence, though not in Italy; while the Helix lactea of Spain and Algiers is unknown in Provence, yet extends northward as far as Rousillon.

Of other African shells we shall mention merely the Cassis Madagascariensis, Patella granatina and testudinaria, Conus ammiralis,—a species highly prized by collectors, Voluta armata, Haliotis striata, and Oliva erythrostoma.

The fossil shells of an extremely limited portion of Africa are partially exhibited in the great French work on Egypt; and those of Mount Barkal have been illustrated by M. Cailliaud.

Our knowledge of the geographical distribution of Insects, notwithstanding the more careful study of the subject which has prevailed of late years, may be said to be still in its infancy. Latreille's little work, however imperfect, is the most complete with which we have as yet been furnished.*

It is easy to suppose that if certain plants are peculiar to certain climates, so also insects, the greater proportion of which not only feed on plants, but are each according to its kind almost restricted to particular species, must in like manner be characteristic of special localities. The entomological characters of the southern shores of Europe strongly exhibit their geographical approach to the African continent. The Ateuchus sacer, various species of Scaurus and Akis, the European scorpion, several Cigala, Termites, and others, may be regarded, in the southern countries of Europe, as the avant-courriers of those more exclusively

* "Introduction à la Geographie Générale des Arachnides et des Insectes, ou des Climats propres à ces Animaux." This memoir was read to the Academy of Sciences in 1815, and forms part of the third volume of the Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle." It was republished in a separate volume by the same author, entitled "Memoires sur divers Sujets de l'Histoire Naturelle des Insectes," &c. Paris, 1819.

African forms which have their centre of dominion in the

burning deserts. Along the Mediterranean shores, the traveller may study the habits of many curious insects be longing to the genera Mygale, Onitis, Cebrio, Pimelia, Brachycerus, Brentus, and Scarytes, and may also enrich his collection by the capture of many beautiful butterflies, and other lepidopterous insects, which are more truly characteristic of Northern Africa. Spain especially exhibits many features of African zoology. The European entomologist there finds, for the first time, several species of the following genera:-Erodius, Sepidium, Zygia, Hemoptera, Galeodes, Brachinus, and Pimelia. But it is only after crossing the Mediterranean, and traversing the African shores, whether north of the Atlas, or eastward towards the coasts of the Red Sea, that our eyes are delighted with the hitherto unknown forms of Anthia, Graphipterus, Siagona, and numerous other species unknown to the colder and moister shores of Europe.

But no sooner do we leave the Mediterranean coasts of Africa, and enter upon the more weary and disastrous pilgrimage of the great deserts, the apparently limitless expanse of which so soon greets the eye of the yet undaunted traveller, than almost all vestiges of European life, whether human or brute, disappear; and Nubia, Ethiopia, Senegal, and a great part of Guinea exhibit entomological forms, cognate in character when compared among themselves, but separated, in every sense of the words, "longo intervallo," from those of Europe. As we proceed further southwards, where the chariot of the "Great Apollo" rolls on with a still fiercer and more fiery lustre, and the beams of a vertical sun induce even the tawny Moor and the woolly-headed negro to avoid his scorching and sometimes fatal rays, we discover many extraordinary forms of insect life, called into existence through the instrumentality of that bright effulgence which the pale-faced European has so often sought to withstand in vain. From the burning regions of Guinea, and the parched shores of the Congo, we derive the finest of those magnificent coleopterous insects, named generically Goliathus, by Lamarck. The western and equinoctial parts of Africa also yield us the species of Petalocheirus and Enceladus; while the Cape of Good Hope is remarkable for the genus Anthia and Brachycerus. The last named district is almost the exclusive domain of Manticora and Pneumora