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Show 544 COL. YERBURY AND MR. o. THOMAS ON [June 18, is a good deal of cultivation in the bed, but the greater part of choked up with a growth of gigantic reeds. Away from the bed of the river the country on both sides is an absolute desert. About eight miles beyond Zaidah the outlying spurs of the mountains are reached. The rise of the land between the Barrier Gate and Zaidah is probably under 100 feet; the cliffs at Haithalhim and other places are quite 40 feet high, showing that the river has cut itself a bed to tbis depth in the soft soil. The places collected at were Aden, Shaik Othman, Lahej, and Haithalhim, and all these places may be considered of the same altitude. Aden itself, i. e. the peninsula, is entirely composed of volcanic rock. The mammals are Monkeys, Foxes, an occasional Jackal, two species of Rat, a spiny Mouse, two species of Shrew, several species of Bat, and probably the Common Mouse, the Musk-Rat, and a species of Bandicoot. The greater part of the maritime plain inland has been at some period under the sea, but round Lahej a great amount of detritus brought down by the river has been deposited. The Arabic names of the various mammals met with are as follows :- Monkey : imbba. Fruit Bats : sir, or, perhaps nearer, the " Zumerset " zurr. Nycteris thebaica: choef, probably applied to all small Bats. Fox : clarain - occasionally taleb. Hare: drnub. Hyena: clheb. Porcupine: gendebah. Gazelle: dobbi. Ibex: weed. One other place may be worthy of notice, and that is the island in Ras Fakoum Bay beyond Little Aden. On this island is a large cavern, large enough to admit a ship's gig, which swarms with Bats. Three species were obtained there-Coleura afra in small colonies by themselves, andHipposideros tridens and Tricenopspersicus mixed up together. As the cave is lofty, all specimens have to be shot, and the walls of the cave rising straight out of the sea the specimens when shot fall into the water; this of course does not improve them as such. One word as to the names of places visited: the name of the Arab town inland from Aden is Al Hautah, while the name Lahej appears applicable to the whole of the territory of the Abdali Tribe; but as it is always customary to talk of the town as Lahej, we have done so here. All the specimens mentioned in this paper have been presented to the British Museum. The determination of Arabian mammals presents in some ways unusual difficulty, owing to the fact that the Indian and African faunas meet here, and that species described from each, without reference to the other, often prove to be unexpectedly similar. Arabian animals may therefore often be apparently with equal |