FIRST ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, October 18th, 1886.

DR. CARTER, President, in the Chair.

Mr. Isaac C. Thompson, F.R.M.S., and the Rev. R. Lomas, B.A., were elected Ordinary Members.

Professor HERDMAN, D.Sc., made a preliminary report upon the work of the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee during the past summer (1886). A number of dredging and other expeditions had been held, some new districts explored, and large collections made. The Committee had decided, however, not to proceed at once to the examination of the specimens and the publication of a report upon the results, but wished to continue their investigations for a year or two longer before issuing a second volume on the Fauna of Liverpool Bay.

Mr. HARVEY GIBSON, M.A., read a short Paper on the "Fertilization of Tropæolum."

Mr. ISAAC ROBERTS, F.R.A.S., exhibited a series of Star Maps which he had recently photographed, and gave an account of the present condition of Stellar Photography.

Mr. T. J. MOORE exhibited the following specimens from recent additions to the Free Public Museum :-Selections from a collection of marine specimens, chiefly Fish and Mollusca, from the Bay of Panama, lately collected and presented by Capt. W. H. Cawne Warren, ship Sardinian, Associate of the Society, including stuffed specimens of Acanthurus, Caranx, Holocentrum, Chatodon, Argyreiosus, Tetraodon, &c.

Living specimens of American Terrapins (Malaclemmys palustris), American Salamanders (Amblystoma tigrinum), and Bull Frogs (Rana mugiens), for the Museum Aquaria,

d

presented by Mr. Eugene Blackford, United States' Fish Commissioner, in return for living specimens of the Common Sole (Solea vulgaris), successfully imported to New York from the Museum by R. M. S.S. Britannic, Capt. Hamilton Perry (under the care of Mr. Bartholomew, Chief Steward), per favour of Mr. W. S. Graves, of the White Star Line.

A Fresh Water Crab (Thelphusa), Insects, Spiders, &c., recently collected at Tani, near Korti, 1400 miles up the Nile, and presented by Brigade-Surgeon S. Archer, Corresponding Member of the Society, through his brother, Mr. Frank Archer.

Some rare plants from the Botanic Gardens were also exhibited by Mr. RICHARDSON, the Curator, and described by Rev. H. H. HIGGINS.

SECOND ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, November 1st, 1886.

DR. CARTER, President, in the Chair.

Mr. BELOE exhibited a Map of a survey of the country between the Mersey at Bank Quay, and its confluence with the Irwell, published in 1712, with a view of making both rivers navigable.

Mr. Eli Sowerbutts, Secretary of the Manchester Geographical Society, read a Paper on "Recent European Acquisitions in Africa."

THIRD ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, November 15th, 1886.

Dr. CARTER, President, in the Chair.

Mr. Jas. Poole was unanimously elected an Ordinary Member.

NOTES ON THE LARGE GAME OF THE

CAUCASUS.

BY MR. ST. GEORGE LITTLEDALE.

(In a letter to Mr. T. J. MOORE, Curator of the Liverpool Museum, read by the Rev. H. H. HIGGINS.)

Dear Mr. Moore,

Tiflis, 16th October, 1886. You will like, I dare say, to hear how we are getting on. To commence with, the steamer with our tents, guns, &c., was much overdue at Odessa, and we had to kick our heels in that uninteresting place for ten days.

The next catastrophe was £40 Customs' duty on guns, tents, &c. Being unable to find an interpreter we were compelled to go to Tiflis to get one, and not to the north side of the Caucasus as we had intended. I called on Prince Sherematieff, who, in the absence of Prince Dandukoff Korsakoff, has the Caucasus under his thumb. He was very civil, and promised to give all assistance for the Caucasus, but said Ararat was out of the question; first, the two tribes of Kurds, which roam between Ararat and Alagoz, were fighting; second, Kareim, a noted robber, with a hundred followers, was in Turkey, just the other side of Ararat, and it would not be safe, no matter what the escort was. At one time Kareim used to be most polite, and after he had stripped anybody would give them enough money to take them home, and if it was a lady, would inquire if there were any particular article of jewelry she valued, and it was placed immediately at her service. But since the Russians have captured his father he has become more matter of-fact, and to be taken by him is a thing to be avoided. The Prince recommended the north side of the Caucasus, which entailed crossing the Dariel Pass, and we had an eight days' journey before we reached the foot of Mount Elbwy.

The bridges on the mountain tracks were so weak we had to unload our animals at each, and take them over one by one, and then carry the baggage over. We camped about 8,000 feet. For about a week I climbed those awful hills trying to find the male Tur; females I saw in dozens, but no males. The native hunters said that during June, July, August, and September they were all on the south side of the Caucasus, in an uninhabited country called Geepur. So I left our camp, took some food and blankets, and went over a high glacier pass into Geepur. There was no wood or shelter under a stone to be had,

but I stayed three nights, and got a couple of old males. My brother, not liking the hills, which were certainly very high though not particularly dangerous (some days I had to go over 13,000 feet), we went into a different country. There we found more Tur, which are a goat, about the same size as the Ibex, but with horns something between a Burrell and an Ibex.

It appears there are two different varieties of Tur. One found near Mount Kasbeck, which has another turn to the horns, and those found further west, of which I secured specimens.

Chamois I found in large bands of females and young. Two bands had sixty or seventy apiece. The males, like the Tur, at this season keep apart in small lots of threes and fours. One of the skins (a large male) you will find has the glands behind the horns (like the Alaska goat) much more developed. As it lay dead they stood out more than an inch above the top of the head.

Ollen, the Red Deer apparently, half way in size between his first cousin, the American Wapiti and the Kashmere Bara Sing, which is the elder or bigger brother of the Scotch Red Deer.

Herr Radde, the Curator of the Tiflis Museum, is positive they are all the same animals, having had more favourable conditions in our The only difference I could perceive was in the call of the stag, which was not so much a whistle as that of the Wapiti.

case.

season.

The Aurochs is found not far away, but we were too late in the The hunters were afraid of being snowed up. It was a thousand pities, as the men said they knew where there were some, though in a very inaccessible place. The shooting is illegal. We only saw Marmots once, and then had no guns, but I imagine gravid females would only be found in the spring; they were very small, not bigger than squirrels. I saw several of the large Snow Partridges, † with a very musical note, but could not get one.

I enquired from Radde about the "Eagle of the Gull tribe"; he did not know any such bird, and asked its scientific name. I do not

* Mazama Americana. See Proceedings of the Society for April 27, 1885; also Owen's Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii, p. 633.

† I had particularly directed Mr. Littledale's attention to the Caucasian Snow Partridge, Tetraogallus caucasicus, as we have only the T. himalayensis in the Museum.-T. J. M.

"Larus ichthyaëtos of Pallas. This most noble of all the Gull tribe is frequent in Spring on the Lake of Galilee" (Tristram); "and is found on the Caspian and inland lakes." Howard Saunders.

think we shall return by the Caspian, so shall have no opportunity of getting a specimen. I have been able to shoot for you—

Skeleton of female Bear, and two or three skins.

Mrs. Littledale, I am very sorry to say, has been very unwell, but she is much better now, and we hope to start homewards in a week or possibly ten days.

The Tartars we employed as hunters were Mahommedans, and refused to eat anything we killed at first. Afterwards if they were allowed to load the rifle, their religious scruples were satisfied, and they eat the game all right. It was the first time I had met with a case of Mahommedans considering that sufficient.

Yours sincerely,

ST. GEORGE LITTLEDALE.

[NOTE. This liberal donation, obtained at so much cost of time, money, fatigue, and exposure, forms a most important addition to the Liverpool Museum. Unfortunately, it has not been found possible to stuff the Ollen Stag or Hind, but the skins have been re-dressed and preserved as carefully as possible, to assist in the determination of this species of Cervus.

The specimens of the Tur (old and young males and a female) have been very successfully mounted by Mr. H. Reynolds, as also the specimens of Chamois, which are regarded as identical with that of the Alps, Rupicapra tragus. The Tur is an Ibex, probably the Capra caucasica (see Sclater's "Remarks on the various species of Wild Goats" in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1886, p. 315).

The fatigues of a hard day's stalking are sufficient for most men; and even the superintendence only of skinning the quarry after, for Museum purposes, must be a heavy tax to pay in the cause of science. Mr. Littledale has always paid it most cheerfully, and without a previous failure.-T. J. M.]