*

treasures of the St. Petersburg Museum, one of the singular horny palatine plates of the Rhytina, and described and figured it as a molar tooth, supposing it to be a modification of that organ. This discovery induced the learned Professor to take every means in his power to have the former habitat of the Rhytina ransacked, in order to obtain further portions of its remains. Baron Wrangel, who was then commencing his celebrated explorations in Northeastern Asia, and whose ardent zeal in favour of the Natural Sciences is well known, only succeeded in obtaining some fragments of the ribs of the missing animal, together with the information that the huge beast was certainly utterly extinct. But a few years later, Mr. Wosnessenski, who was sent out to the Russo-American colonies in 1839, to collect specimens of Natural History for the Zoological Museum, succeeded in disinterring portions of a cranium of the Rhytina from the soil of Bering's Island. This precious fragment served as the material for Professor Brandt's learned treatise, published in Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburg in 1849,† in which a complete history of the Rhytina, including all that was then known of its structure and habits, and a full discussion of its place in the Natural System is given. The conclusions arrived at by Professor Brandt, correspond nearly to those of De Blainville‡ and Owens-namely, that the Sirenia constitute an order of Mammals, quite distinct from the Cetacea, and in some characters more nearly allied to the Pachyderms. As regards the subdivisions. of the Sirenia, Professor Brandt clearly points out the remarkable characters which divide the Rhytina from Halicore and Manatus. These he considers necessitate the subdivision of the Sirenia into two tribes the first of which, embracing the two latter genera, he calls "Sirenia Dentigera seu Halicorea." The latter, containing only the toothless Rhytina, he names "Sirenia Edentata seu Rhytinea."

Shortly after the publication of this Essay, as we learn from a notice in the Bulletin of the Academy of St. Petersburg, the

Ueber den Zahnban der Stellerschen Seekuh. Mem. Acad. St. Pet. vi. Ser. Sc. Math. ii. p. 103.

† Symbole Sirenologicæ quibus præcipue Rhytina historia naturalis illustratur. Mém. Acad. St. Pet. Sc. Nat. v. (1849).

Osteographie, Vol. iii. Genus Manatus.

§ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1838, p. 45, et aliis locis. Bull. Acad. Imp. Sc. St. Pet. iv. p. 305.

Imperial Museum received further specimens of the Rhytina. These consisted of a complete cranium as well as of several occipital bones, ribs, and other parts of the skeleton. A few years later, Professor Brandt was so fortunate as to obtain through the Russo-American Company, a nearly complete skeleton, and a second not quite so perfect was procured through the same agency by M. Simachko. These materials have served as a basis for Professor Brandt's second Memoir on the Sirenia, which, if published, appears not yet to have been received in this country.

In the meanwhile, however, we have Dr. Alexander von Nordmann's Essay, describing a nearly complete skeleton of the Rhytina, received by the Zoological Museum of Helsingfors under the following circumstances. Dr. Nordmann's fellow-country man, Captain Furuhjelm, having been appointed Governor of Russian-America, was earnestly besought to try to obtain a skeleton of the Rhytina for the Museum of his National University. In 1861, Captain Furuhjelm succeeded in accomplishing this-a specimen of the much desired object having been dug up in Bering's Island by two Aleutians and wrote home to his friend that he had forwarded the same by water" along with other trifles." The skeleton thus received is described as being that of an immature individual—measuring 16 feet in length. The only parts deficient are the hand-bones, some of the caudal vertebræ, and the epiphyses of the shoulder blade, humerus, ulna, and radius. There seems no question that the rest of the skeleton must all have belonged to the same individual. All the bones were obtained in the same spot from the earth, and show no trace of Balanus, Serpule, or other marine product. As Professor v. Nordmann observes, had an expert been present he would probably have found the missing portions likewise.

Professor von Nordmann gives in his paper an elaborate account of every portion of these precious relics, and illustrates his descriptions with five lithographic plates, which represent all the more characteristic parts, as also the whole skeleton reduced to one fifteenth of its natural size.†

==

* Steller gives the length of the adult Rhytina as 296 English inches 24 ft. 8 inches.

† Professor v. Nordmann, states (p. 17 of his Paper), that " Rhytina, as Steller rightly remarks, possesses only six cervical vertebra." Brandt in his paper referred to by Mr. Flower, (Nat. Hist. Rev. 1864, p. 259), says there can be no doubt N.H.R.-1865.

C

In conclusion, we venture to make the impertinent suggestion to the Lords of Her Majesty's Admiralty that the crew of one of the vessels of war on the Pacific Station might be very usefully employed in visiting Bering's Island, and obtaining for our National Collection a skeleton of this very singular mammal. At present we have not a fragment of it in this country, except two ribs purchased by the British Museum some two years since from St. Petersburg. A cruise up to Bering's Island in the summer months, and a little digging would involve neither hardship nor risk to the vessel selected for this service, and might be the means of much increasing our knowledge of this curious animal.

III.-GÜNTHER'S CATALOGUE OF FISHES.

CATALOGUE OF THE FISHES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. By Albert Günther, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., &c. 5 vols. London: 1859-64. HALF a century ago our National Collection of Zoology was one of the most indifferent of the larger Museums of Europe, and certainly not to be compared either in value or in extent with the sister institutions of Paris, Leyden, Berlin, or Vienna. Now-a-days, thanks to the untiring zeal of the naturalist, who has so long presided over this department of the British Museum, it has become, taken altogether, the largest in existence, although as regards par

whatever of the necessity of ascribing to it seven, and certainly the figures and description in Nordmann's paper show distinctly that the anterior part of the head of the first rib is received into an articular fossa on the posterior edge of the body of the seventh vertebra, as in the mammalia generally, proving without any doubt that this is the last cervical and not the first dorsal vertebra. Brandt's description is therefore perfectly correct, and Nordmann is in error on this point.

It is rather surprising that the circumstance of the broad tubercle of the first rib being brought by the excessive antero-posterior compression of the neck bones into relation with the hinder edge of the transverse process of the seventh vertebra, should have caused Nordmann to have overlooked the far more important relation of its head to the bodies of the vertebræ.

Since the publication of the note above referred to, we are informed by Mr. Flower, that the skeleton of a West African Manatee (Manatus senegalensis) has been received at the Royal College of Surgeons, with the cervical vertebræ still united by their ligaments. There are certainly not more than six of them; so that it may now be affirmed with perfect confidence that the normal number of the cervical vertebræ in the genera Halicore and Rhytina is seven, and in Manatus only six.

ticular branches it may be rivalled, and perhaps even excelled by some of the Continental and American collections.

In the year 1843 Dr. Gray obtained the sanction of the Trustees of the British Museum to the publication of catalogues of certain portions of the Zoological collection. These were at first merely systematic lists of the specimens of animals belonging to the different species of the groups to which they referred, with indications of the locality from which they had been obtained, and of the mode in which they had been acquired for the collection. But the plan has been gradually extended, until from mere lists of the specimens in the Museum many of these catalogues have become elaborate treatises on different groups of animals, including not only the species represented in the Museum collection, but also all others known to science, and constituting in fact what are termed complete Monographs of the subject. Some of the lately issued catalogues, such as that of the Tortoises, by Dr. Gray himself, and that of the Lantern-flies (Phasmida), by Professor Westwood, are elaborately illustrated, and form the most recent and generallyreferred-to standard works on the subjects to which they relate.

Dr. Günther's above-named contribution to this series, of which five volumes are now complete, is of a still more important nature than those we have last mentioned. Although commenced simply as a catalogue of the "Acanthopterygian" Fishes in the British Museum, the limits of this great division of the class Pisces have already been passed, and, if the author is permitted to complete his work, we believe it is intended that the whole of this numerous and imperfectly known division of the Vertebrates shall be treated of in the same manner. And although the simple term "catalogue" is used in its title, Dr. Günther's work would be more fairly described by a much more important name. So far from confining himself to a mere enumeration of the specimens of fishes in the collection of the British Museum, Dr. Günther follows the lead of Dr. Gray and the other authors of the more extended catalogues, and gives descriptions of all the known species of each genus, whether they are found in the British Museum or are known to exist in some other collection. Diagnoses of the genera and higher groups are also included, so as to render the so-called "Catalogue," a complete treatise on general Ichthyology. In relation to this Dr. Günther well. remarks in the preface to his first volume, that the number of known species of fishes having been considerably increased of late years,

and the descriptions of the new species being scattered through a great many Journals, Voyages and Reports, such a general synopsis as the present in which all the species of which descriptions are accessible are contained, will meet a real want in Ichthyology.

Dr. Günther has commenced his labours, as we have already said, with the Teleostian Fishes of the great order "Acanthopterygii," as defined by Johannes Müller in his celebrated modification of Cuvier's System. Frequent, he says, as have been the objections against these modifications, "no one has yet proposed any arrange"ment which would give a more satisfactory result if put to the test "of carrying it out to a detailed subdivision." Under these circumstances our author, who was, we believe, in former years a pupil of the great anatomist, has been satisfied to adopt, nearly without alteration, his master's views as a basis, and to distribute the species into natural minor divisions according to Müller's ordinal arrangement. As regards the points mostly to be attended to in subdividing the orders, Dr. Günther is of opinion that there is no character equal in importance to the structure and position of the fins, as these organs stand in immediate connection with the entire habit of fishes and their mode of life, and therefore supply the best indication of their natural affinities, although isolated exceptions are occasionally met with. Another character of great importance for the distinction of the families is, according to Dr. Günther, the number of the vertebræ, but whether this has any bearing of still greater import cannot exactly be determined at present, as the osteological portion of the collection has not been yet completely examined.

The first three volumes of Dr. Günther's work are entirely taken up with the order "Acanthopterygii," of which no less than 3481 species are given, and 2811 of these are considered to be well characterized. In Cuvier and Valenciennes, Histoire Naturelle des Poissons (1828-1849)-the last published general work upon this class of Vertebrates-only 2146 species of the same group are enumerated, and upwards of 600 of these are considered by Dr. Günther to have been merely nominal species, so that we see at a glance what large additions have lately been made to our knowledge of this class.

In a synopsis of the Acanthopterygian Fishes at the end of the third volume, Dr. Günther furnishes the following scheme for the primary division of this Order :