of those among them which really are. Halleyan as well as Delislean, failed to notice that both ingress and egress can be observed, the strange charts illustrating his paper not suggesting in any way that such is the case. Eight stations have been provided for by the Home Government, while one is now provided for by the Indian Government. Originally five stations were to have been occupied, and solely for the application of Delisle's method; and the region in North India, for which the Indian Government will provide, had been overlooked altogether (Monthly Notices, vol. xxx. p. 37), being strangely omitted from the charts illustrating Sir G. Airy's paper.

It is well to note, first, that ample provision has been made for the application of Delisle's method. No less than three stations will be occupied in the group of the Sandwich Islands, where Captain Tupman (the head of the entire enterprise) will be stationed. Here photography will be applied specially to the determination of the moment of ingress, by a contrivance of Janssen's (improved by De la Rue) enabling the photographer to take sixty successive pictures of the ingress. Under Captain Tupman's command will be Lieutenants Ramsden and Noble, and Messrs. Johnson, Forbes, and Barnacle. The observation of accelerated ingress has been well provided for, especially as some of the Halleyan stations in Japan and the north-east of Asia are excellent for this phase also.

Retarded ingress will be observed at Kerguelen's Land and Rodriguez. According to the published statements there will be two stations on Kerguelen's Land, but Fr. Perry, who is chief in this region, has power to assign one party to Heard Island if a landing shall be found to be practicable. The three stations here are all Halleyan as well as Delislean, the whole transit being most favourably visible. It is well, therefore, to note that ample provision has been made for applying Halley's method, as well as for photographing the whole progress of the transit. The observers under Fr. Perry will be Fr. Sidgreaves, Lieutenants Corbet, Goodridge, and Coke, and Mr. J. B. Smith. At Rodriguez, Lieutenants Neate and Hoggan, and Mr. C. E. Burton, will be the ob

servers.

Accelerated egress will be observed at Christchurch, New Zealand, by Major Palmer and Lieutenants Darwin and Crawford. This station, like the stations for observing retarded ingress, is Halleyan also, and is now well provided for as a station for observing the whole transit.

Retarded egress will be observed at Alexandria by Captains Browne and Abney, and Mr. S. Hunter.

The names of the observers at Peshawur, in North India, have not been published, but it is known that the whole

transit will be observed at that station, and photography employed. I may be permitted to note, in passing, the slow approaches made towards the course now actually adopted. When I pointed to Peshawur as a station which ought undoubtedly to be occupied, at first for some months nothing was said or done; then a photographic station at Delhi was suggested, Peshawur being scouted; then the locale was changed to Peshawur; lastly (and quite recently) it was announced that contact observations had been amply provided for, so that in the long run, or about March 1873, what I had advocated in March 1869 was adopted to the letter. Although at Peshawur the whole transit will be visible, this station is specially suited for the observation of the retarded egress, being for this purpose superior to Alexandria.

The total cost of the British expeditions, exclusive of the Indian station, will be about 15,000l.

Lord Lindsay's station at Mauritius must be mentioned in this connection. The work done there will probably be at least as reliable as that done at any other station, and the photographic preparations are, on the whole, more complete than those adopted anywhere else.

It may be mentioned, also, that Colonel Campbell will proceed to Thebes on a private expedition, working with the Egyptian party as a volunteer.

Russia is distinguished by the largeness of the number of stations she will provide for. She will have no less than twentysix stations, ranging from the Black Sea to the region occupied by American astronomers in North China. Eleven of these stations (the more easterly section) will be Halleyan, the remainder covering a large part of the region whence the retarded egress will be favourably observable.

It has recently been announced that the German astronomers will occupy five southern Halleyan stations, one of these being the desolate Heard Island. Their original purpose was to occupy one station in the North, viz. at Chefoo, in China, one in the Auckland Islands, and Macdonald Island, besides a photographic station in Persia. They will rely considerably on the "direct method" of observation.

France will occupy five stations, all Halleyan, having declined to occupy (as invited by our Astronomer Royal) the three Delislean stations, Marquesas, Bourbon, and Suez. The selected stations are, in the North, China (two) and Japan; in the South, Campbell Island and St. Paul's Island.

On the whole, it may be said that ample provision has been made for the observation of the most important astronomical event of the century. Every region whence useful observations can be made, will be occupied by observing parties, and use

will be made of every available method.* Let us hope that the success of the expeditions will remove any unpleasant recollections of former controversies. In the words of a leading weekly journal, "If weather and other conditions only favour the observers at the various stations, we believe that results will be obtained so satisfactory as to leave no thought or inclination in any quarter for a return to less pleasing considerations."

* I should have been glad, however, to hear that photographic observations were to be made at Cape Town, Port Natal, and in South Madagascar, where, though the whole transit will be visible, the planet will be projected farther from the sun's centre during the middle of the transit than as seen from any other accessible station.

250

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF LIVING AND EXTINCT

BEARS.

BY A. LEITH ADAMS, M.B., F.R.S.

HE contracting of the range and feeding grounds and diversities of food and climate, from far back geological epochs up to the present day, have unquestionably influenced not only the bulk and outward aspect, but also modified the bony skeleton of many animals.

With reference to the Bear Tribe, which is only one of many examples, we find that the largest specimens of fossilized individuals discovered in European caverns, surface soils, and in bogs are relatively much larger than any instance among living species, only very bulky examples of the grizzly bear (U. ferox) being comparable, and they fall short as regards dimensions. A comparison between the smaller fossil cave bear (U. priscus) and the brown bear (U. arctos), shows that if not identical they were closely allied; indeed, taking into consideration the various modes by which animals have been expelled from their ancient haunts, there seems good cause to suppose that these two bears claim a common ancestry. According, therefore, to the above view it may be fairly advanced that the grizzly bear was at one time common to Europe and North America. Again, considering the relative degrees of ferocity of living species-and in these respects they differ specifically to some extent it is well known that the grizzly bear is the only one which will attack man unchallenged; indeed, the Arctic, brown, black, and sun bears, &c., rarely assail him, unless when pressed, as in case of wounds, or in guarding their young. We may believe, therefore, that primeval man would have waged a deadly warfare against so conspicuous and powerful an enemy, and would have exterminated the more ferocious bears, thus leaving the brown bear (Ursus arctos) to pursue its ways and frequent its ancient haunts, until advancing civilization in Europe finally repelled it to a few mountainous and secluded regions. The alliance between the brown and grizzly bears is

close, but not sufficiently intimate to lead naturalists to consider them one and the same species. In size of course the latter is superior, but now and then individuals of the brown species are met with in Asia, if anything, only slightly less. bulky. These, however, are exceptions, whereas the remains of the great extinct cave bear (U. spelaeus) show that the average dimensions of the animal exceeded considerably that of any recent species. Now to return to the geographical range of the brown bear (U. arctos). In Asia it is spread over Siberia and the Himalaya. On the latter chains, probably from a long sojourn in the snowy regions, its fur has become more fulvous; hence the appellation of Isabella* and white bears bestowed on the denizens of the Cashmere and more eastern ranges. This aberrant form of a well-known animal, the fur of which generally varies from a dark brown to even black, such as obtains in the bears of Northern Europe and Asia, is intensely instructive to naturalists, who, for lack of better information, are often compelled to bestow specific names on slender foundations. A still lighter coloured variety (U. syriacus) is met with on the mountains of Eastern Turkey and the Caucasus. In America, in the Aleutian Islands, there are "brown and red bears," which, unfortunately for our wants, are not yet described with greater accuracy; it is, however, recorded by Sir John Richardson, that "the barren lands lying to the northward and eastward of Great Slave Lake, and extending to the Arctic Sea, are frequented by a species of bear which differs from the American black bear in its greater size, profile, physiognomy, longer soles and tail, and from the grizzly bear also in colour, and the comparative smallness of its claws. Its greater affinity is with the brown bear of Norway, but its identity with that species has not been established by actual comparison. It frequents the sea coast in the autumn in considerable numbers for the purpose of feeding on fish."‡

This shows how cautious naturalists should be in giving specific names to objects from imperfect materials. Dr. Horsefield, in the "Linnæan Transactions," vol. xv., p. 334, from a mutilated Nepaul specimen sent to the Museum of the India House, enumerates, among other characters, that this so-called U. Isabellinus has its "claws small and straight." Now I have shot or examined, I may confidently state, upwards of one hundred specimens, and can assert that the claws on the fore feet are fully curved, and on the hind feet that they are small but curved. The question contemplated by this distinguished traveller and naturalist at the time was, whether or not the above bear was a tree-climber. Now, although it does not often ascend trees, the curved claws are of great utility in preserving its footing on glaciers and soft or yielding soil, and on rocky declivities.

† Langsdorff's "Voyages and Travels," vol. ii., p. 74. "Fauna Boreali Americana," p. 21.