Letlers from J. MacGillivray, Esq. 21 IV. — Letters from i . MacGillivray, Esq., Naturalist to H.M. Purveying Ship Rattlesnake, Capt. Stanley, R.N. (Commu-unicated by Professor Edward Forbes.) II. M.S. Rattlesnake, at sea, May 3, 1847. My dear Sir, As we expect to rcacli the Isle of France tomorrow, and as I have a case of specimens ready to go by the first ship, I now proceed to write an accompanying letter giving a brief account of our voyage up to the present time. We sailed from Plymouth on December 11th, 1846, and after a quick passage of seven days reached Madeira, not sorry to have escaped from the sharp commencement of an English winter. Knowing that unless by dredging I need expect nothing new during a visit to a place carefully searched by resident zoological collectors, I was annoyed to find that the depth of water and the nature of the bottom required for the working of the dredge a more powerful boat than I could procure. During various ex-cursions on shore 1 attended chiefly to the land shells, and ob-tained twenty-three species* (exclusive of an Ancylus and a Lym-ncea) at various elevations up to the Pass of the Corral, 2700 feet above the sea, where single species of Achatina, Clausilia and Pujja were found under stones along with coleoptera of the genera Scarites and Pimelia. The ferns (Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, Da-vallia canariensis, &c.) about the dripping rocks would, to a bo-tanist, have made ample amends for the small number of plants in flower; yet many butterflies {Colias Edusa, Cynthia Cardui, and a Vanessa like V. Atalanta) were flitting about; but the lizards, which in the month of April I had seen basking in great numbers upon every wall, had not yet awoke from their winter^s sleep. Leaving Madeira we sighted Palma, and passed between St. Jago and Mayo, so close to the latter that various insects (espe-cially an Acrydium and a fine blue ^shna) paid us a visit and were detained. We crossed the line on January 13th with the usual ceremonies attending the introduction of upwards of a hundred novitiates at Neptune^s levee. In lat. 2° N. soundings were tried for with 2600 fathoms (or very nearly three statute miles) of line without success. In this neighbourhood also I procured specimens of a British storm petrel [Thalassidroma Bulla c kii) , the occurrence of which in such low latitudes would have surprised me had I not known (from Mr. Gould) that Th. Wilsoni was common to both * Among them were Biilimus decollatus, ClavsUia deJtostoma, Bulimus lubriciis, Pupa anconosioma, Helix maderensis, H. widata, II. cellariwi^ H. nilidiuscula, II. polymorpha and //. pulchella.
IV.—Letters from J. MacGillivray, Esq., Naturalist to H.M. surveying ship rattlesnake, Capt. Stanley, R.N. (Communicated by Professor Edward Forbes.)
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