> W $M § r' i VISHWlffitOUFS . ZOOLOGY. No. XXL Having been requested by the authors of the preceding narrative to describe the Zoological subjects collected during their journey, we think it right, in the first place, to notice the difficulties attending their acquisition and preservation. The European traveller, who is transported with equal comfort over the rugged heights of Mont Cenis, or along the level plains of Holland, can have little conception of the privations and distresses which attend the wanderer in the desert. The most feeble and timid may encounter the first task without fatigue or fear ; but the robur et ces triplex of a strong constitution, persevering patience, and undaunted courage, must fortify his resolution who directs his daring course through the sands of the Sahara. Having arrived at the farthest point of their route, our travellers were occupied no less than five months in their return to Tripoli, pursuing their “ weary way” almost wholly through deserts, and suffering severely by sickness and all sorts of privations. Their means, too, of skinning and preserving the animals they procured were of the slightest kind j the only cutting instrument they possessed being a penknife belonging to Major Denham, and a little arsenical soap, left from the stores of the late Mr. Ritchie, their sole antidote to protect the skins from moth and corruption. Such, however, was their ardour in the pursuit of Zoological subjects, that in spite of all the difficulties and drawbacks that beset them, they succeeded in collecting and bringing home upwards of a hundred specimens, and some of them in exceedingly good condition and of peculiar interest; though we regret to say, that less than a third of that number is all that have come into our hands, many of the subjects having fallen into utter decay.
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