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Show 1867.] DR. J. MURIE ON AN AFRICAN ANTELOPE. 3 1. Remarks on an Antelope from the White Nile, allied to or identical with the Kobus sing-sing of Gray. By J A M ES M U R I E , M.D., F.G.S., Prosector to the Society. (Plate II.) Before entering into the subject of the present paper, I feel ic my duty to pay a slight tribute to the memory of a noble-minded and gallant, although little-known, White-Nile traveller, the Baron Wil-helm von Harnier, a native of Hesse Darmstadt. Having planned a journey into Central Africa, for the double purpose of hunting and collecting objects of natural history, to enrich the Museum of the capital of his native Duchy, he proceeded, at his own expense, by way of Egypt and Nubia to Khartoum, where, after a brief sojourn, he embarked in a native boat with hunters and stores for land travel, and started on an expedition up the White Nile. Possessing great inherent talent as au artist, and a fair share of information as a naturalist, Baron Harnier sketched with truly scenic effect the inhabitants, country, and animals of the region which he was exploring. Unfortunately for the interests of zoology and geography, death snatched him off too early in his career ; nevertheless he had already produced sufficient material in portfolios of drawings and notes to enable his brother (Baron von Harnier, of Ehzel, Hesse) to give to the world a posthumous volume, ' Reise am Obern Nil,' 1865. This Avork, almost unknown in our country, forms (I can safely say from personal knowledge of that river) the most splendid volume of its kind, so far as truthful plates are concerned, delineating the peculiar scenery and savage tribes bordering the White Nile. Notwithstanding the successful journeys and works of our daring and enterprising fellow-countrymen Captains Speke and Grant, Sir Samuel Baker, and others, I have no hesitation in saying that Baron Harnier's posthumous volume will carry down to posterity a more vivid impression of the Nile valley and its inhabitants, just previously to the sweeping away of its savagery and the introduction of semicivilization through the hordes of Arab and Egyptian adventurers, than any book yet published on the subject. As, however, I do not mean to give a memoir of his life, I shall further merely allude to the sad manner of his death, as evincing a degree of courage highly creditable to the German nation. He had spent but a few months in slowly ascending the stream, and reached the Kytch and Aliab country, between lat. 6° and 7° N., where he made a stay at the Catholic Mission Station, enjoying the hospitality of Herr Morlang, a native of the Tyrol. One morning he went off to shoot buffalos, when a wounded animal rushed at the hunters (as these creatures are often wont when badly hurt and unable to get away), singling out and attacking a poor Arab attendant, who ran imminent chance of a cruel death without any succour from his frightened fellow-servants. But the Baron, brave and generous to a fault, dashed with unloaded gun to his assist- |