disposition is gentle; even when wild, in his native hills, he is not considered to be a dangerous animal, never standing the approach of man, much less bearing his attack. The Cúcis (a race of mountaineers) hunt the wild ones for the sake of their flesh. The Gayal delights to range about in the thickest forest, where he browses, evening and morning, on the tender shoots and leaves of different shrubs; seldom feeding on grass, when he can get these. To avoid the noon-day heat, he retires to the deepest shade of the forest, preferring the dry acclivity of the hill, to repose on, rather than the low fwampy ground below; and never, like the buffalo, wallowing in mud. • Gayals have been domesticated among the Cúcis from time immemorial; and without any variation, in their appearance, from the wild stock. No difference whatever is observed in the colour of the wild and tame breeds: brown of different shades being the general colour of both. The wild Gayal is about the size of the wild buffalo in India. The tame Gayal among the Cúcis, being bred in nearly the same habits of freedom, and on the same food, without ever undergoing any labour, grows to the same size with the wild one. He lives to the age of fifteen, or twenty years; and, when three years old, the Gayal cow receives the bull; goes eleven months with young; and will not again admit his embrace, until the following season after she has brought forth. The Gayal cow gives very little milk, and does not yield it long; but what she gives, is of a remarkably rich quality; almost equally so with the cream of other milk, and which it also resembles in colour, The Cuces make no use whatever of the milk, but rear the Gayals entirely for the sake of their flesh and skins. They make their shields of the hides of this animal. The flesh of the Gayal is in the highest estimation among the Cúcis; so much so, that no solemn festival is ever celebrated without slaughtering, one or more Gayals, according to the importance of the occasion." At the conclusion of this paper, the author corrects an error into which Mr. Kerr and Dr. Turton have fallen, in their translation of the Systema Natura; and he observes that the Bos Arnee of these gentlemen ought to be rejected from systems of from 488 = Zoology as an erroneous description. Mo-y. An Account of the Measurement of an Arc on the Meridian on the Coast of Coromandel, and the Length of a Degree deduced therefrom! in the Latitude 12° 32'. By Brigade Major WILLIAM LAMBTON.-Though this operation, in point of extent and importance, cannot be compared with the grand measurements executed in England and France, yet it seems to have been conducted with great caution and nicety of skill, and by the aid of excellent English instruments. The meridional arc measured was between Paudree, Latitude 13° 19′ 49′′,02, and Trivandepoorum, latitude 11° 44′ 52,59: consequently, the difference of the latitude of these two places is 1° 34′ 56′′,43 The number of fathoms in the terrestrial arc was 95721,3266; and hence 10, 58233: 1° :: 95721,3266: 60494 fathoms for a mean latitude between 13° 19′ 49′′,02 and 11° 44′ 52′′,59, or for a latitude 12° 32′ nearly. 380 If we suppose the earth to be an ellipsoid, and the difference of the diameters to be th, part of the whole diameter, a degree in latitude 12o56772 toises, and a degree in latitude, 13"-56776:-consequently a degree in latitude 12° 30′. 56774 toises. If this be reduced to fathoms, we shall have 60506,8005 for the length of one degree of the meridian; and the computed length on the hypotheses of the difference of the diameters differs from the length measured by Brigade-. Major LAMB FON 12 fathoms in sixty thousand fathoms; which is no great disagreement. Besides the measurement of a meridional arc, the author has measured the length of an arc perpendicular to the meridian in latitude 12° 32'; and he found the length of one degree to be 61052 fathoms nearly. It is very essential,-and the operation requires great nicety and attention, to determine the latitude of the extremities of the meridional arc. The method employed by the present writer is the same as that which former observers have adopted. The zenith distance of a star whose declination is known is observed, and thence, by addition or subtraction, we obtain the co latitude: the star chosen 'was Aldebaran, with a transit circular instrument: the zenith distance was taken on a certain night, and on the following night it was again taken with the instrument turned half round, or moved in Azimuth through 180°: the mean of the two was allowed for the zenith distance; and half their difference is the error of the line of collimation. This observation was often repeated; and we subjoin a short table in order to shew the near agreement of the whole : • Observations at the Station near Paudree. This memoir fills sixty quarto pages; and the account of measurements like the present, if it goes beyond mere arithmetical results, cannot be satisfactorily given within a short compass. The tables require some 'space: the narration of the circumstances under which the observations were made also occupies space; and it is necessary besides to specify peculiar artifices and precautions, in order that other observers may either profit from them, or, in case of any anomaly and disagreement of results, that materials may be ready for investigating the cause. We hope that the ingenious conductor of these operations will be induced to resume his labours, in the measurement of a meridional are of a more considerable extent. On the Hindu Systems of Astronomy, and their Connection with History in antient and modern Times. By J. BENTLEY, Esq.-This long paper, according to the author's own statement, prematurely appears in the world, in consequence of an attack madeon his former essay on the same subject by an European periodical critic. The discussion itself is of a nature but little calculated to interest the general reader in this part of the world, and the arguments are not easy for him to comprehend: but, more especially, as it is in reply to observations with which it would be improper and contrary to our invariable practice for as to interfere, either pro or con., we must refrain from any attempt to abstract the reasonings or to state the results. When Mr. B. has terminated his controversial discussion, he passes on to the explanation of matters of considerable importance to those who are desirous of forming a true judgment respecting the real antiquity of Hindu history; and he states, at considerable length, the construction of some of the most antient Hindu chronological systems. A's his remarks on this subject, however, cannot easily be compressed within a short compass, we must refer the curious or the interested reader to the memoir itself. The result of Mr. B.'s statements and inquiries is that small, if any, reliance can be placed on what is usually called the general opinion of the Hindus. This volume closes with an Appendix containing-Intraductory Remarks, intended to have accompanied Captain Mahony's Paper on Ceylon, and the Doctrines of Buddha, published in the Seventh Volume of the Asiatic Researches; but inadvertently omitted in publishing that Volume. By J. H. HARINGTON, Esq.Kk 3 These все радец Moy These remarks are designed to support the relation of Captain 499,501. ART. VII. Lettres inédites de MIRABEAU, &c.; i. e. Unpublished Letters of MIRABEAU; Memorials, and Extracts from Memorials, written in 1781, 1782, and 1783, in the Course of his Suit at Pontarlier, to reverse a Sentence which had been passed on him, and of another at Provence, for a Separation between him and his Wife: the Whole forming a Continuation of the Letters written from the Dungeon of Vincennes, from 1777 to 1780, inclusively. Published by J. F. Vitry, formerly employed in the Office of Foreign Affairs. 8vo. pp. 490. Paris. 1806. Imported by De Boffe TH HE space in public opinion which once was filled by the person whose name this title page announces, his singular adventures, his extraordinary talents, and his astonishing political displays, strongly excite attention to all that his pen had at any time traced. The volume now offered to us is stated to form the completion of all that has been yet discovered of his works; and it refers to a period of his life which was the most agitated, and does not seem to have been the least interesting M Vitry professes to have ransacked all the repositories of the law, and the offices of government, in order to arrive at the exquisite pieces of eloquence which he has now given to the public; and which, as he justly observes, in respect to address and energy, are worthy of the best days of antiquity. In these, the writer appears the same person who, in the Constituent Assembly, astonished Europe with his genius; and we are of opinion with the editor, that some of the legal addresses are in no respect inferior to the most splendid of his state harangues; that we meet in them with discussions which are as luminous as they are profound, and which have as much force as precision; that they are distinguished by the clearest reasoning; that they bespeak a courage which nothing is able to subdue or shake; and that they proceed from views not less solid than comprehensive.' It is to be observed, however, that the memorials have been printed before; though we are here assured that the public was never fairly in possession of them, because pains had been taken on their first issuing from the press to make them disappear; and the editor is of opinion that his copy is the sole one now remaining. Besides the letters, the reader will here find the first of MIRABEAU'S memorials which he composed in the prison of Pon tarlier. tarlier. The whole of it is inserted, because, besides its point and neatness, it furnishes the most exact and detailed account of events preceding his arrest, and of his flight with Madame Mounier to Holland. The volume includes also interesting sketches from the second of these memoirs, and the whole of the third diatribe vented against the deputy of the king's advocate, which the best judges, on its first appearance, named the Philippic of Comte Mirabeau. The orator himself most highly effimated this grand effort of his genius; exclaiming in reference to it, "if that does not display eloquence unparalleled in these barbarous ages, I know not what this fascinating and rare gift of heaven means." To these we are to add his correspondence after his departure from Pontarlier, and during his residence in Provence with the Marquis de Marignane, his father-in-law, and with his wife; and his argument before the tribunal of Aix. The editor highly commends this last performance, as a model of eloquence, yet replete with moderation; as displaying the utmost penetration and the most. masterly reasoning. We have also remarkable fragments, selected from observations on his memorials contained in the scarce work before mentioned: extracts from his memorial before the Grand Counci!; and his opinion in 1784 on the indissolubility of marriage, and the distinction between it and separation, which concludes the book. We have omitted to specify what forms by no means the least interesting of the contents of these pages; namely, his conversation with the keeper of the seals, relative to the suppression of the last memorial by the order of that magistrate: a conversation which attained. much celebrity at the moment, and which will remain a curious monument of the firmness with which MIRABEAU resisted, even at that period, the oppressions and vexations of ministerial authority. As the editor remarks, the letters are the most remote from being laboured compositions; and in his eyes, this negligence has value and attraction, since they are full (he asserts) of characteristic traits. With the writer's countrymen, they may have an interest which is not felt by strangers: but we see among them many which, we think, might have been omitted, without greatly diminishing the interest of the volume: though it must be granted that scarcely one of them is devoid of some expressions that are strongly indicative of the vigour of mind which distinguished the writer. We select the following letter, to shew that this most ambitious and (we suspect that we may add) unprincipled man was not destitute of amiable private feelings. It is an interesting domestic picture, which presents reflections that dis Kk 4 play 1 |