ing to Diodorus, thirty or forty centuries ago; amongst whom we have the authority of Plutarch, that the fame ufages prevailed. It would indeed, as he adds, be whimfically curious, if we could allow ourfelves to imagine that a fingular cuftom at this day fubfifting could be traced back to an origin fo very remote, and should have taken its rife in a period when the world was yet in its infancy; or that the relations of Diodorus and of Plutarch, which, confidering the times of which they treat, might, with much appearance of reafon, be deemed fabulous, fhould be corroborated, and, as it were, authenticated by a custom at this day fubfiting.

Curious Letter from the Telhoo Lama to Governer Hatings; from Tranfactions of the Royal Edinburgh Society.

MR

R. Maconochie communicated from Robert Bogle, of Daldowie, efq. a copy of a letter, written in 1773, by the Tefhoo Lama of Thibet, to Warren Haftings, efquire, governor general of Bengal, while a brother of Mr. Bogle's was refiding at the Lama's court, as envoy from Mr. Haftings. Mr. Maconochie remarked, that the turn of thought and expreffion rendered the letter a very great curiofity; but that it was fill more interefting on two accounts: ift, That it established beyond all queftion, that the Tefhoo Lama, though a pontiff of inferior rank to the Dalai Lama, is understood to poffefs the foul of faints, or divine perfonages that flourished in former times, and to retain the remembrance of

what happened to them in those past periods of existence. 2dly. That the fame places which are regarded in Bengal as peculiarly facred, are likewife regarded by the religion of Fo as holy; that the Tefhoo Lama, in fome of his former ftates of existence, is fuppofed to have refided in thofe places; that the Ganges, fo revered among the Brahmins, is also revered by the worshippers of Fo; and that the reference by the followers of that religion in Japan to fome region in India, as the origin and holy land of their faith, is here af certained to belong to Bengal. Thefe circumstances, he thought, fuggefted very important reflections with regard to the hiftory of the religions of Eastern Afia. The letter is as follows:

From TESHOO LAMA to the
Governor.

Received the 22d July, 1775. "Mr. Bogle, whom, out of your kindnefs, you were pleafed to fend into this quarter, having (thank God) arrived here in perfect health, I had, at an aufpicious hour, the pleasure of an interview with him, and was rendered fo completely happy on the occafion, that it might in reality have been thought an interview with yourfell. The utter which you addrefied to me, and the prefents you fent by Mr. Bogle, I have likewite received fafe. May your happiness and profperity daily increafe All the particulars which Mr. Bogle verbally reprefented to me, I perfectly underftad. You were pleafed to write me, t had fent orders for eftablishing peace with the Debe Doria, agreeable to my request. True; t

E 4

pleafu.e

Account of the Bouquetin, or Mountain Goat; from Coxe's Travels in Switzerland, vol. ii.

I

Obferved at Michael Paccard's, a guide of Chamouny, a head and horns of the male bouquetin, or mountain-goat, and ftuffed fpecimens of a female and a young one. As this animal is extremely rare, and inhabits the highest and almoft inacceffible mountains, the defcriptions of it have been very inaccurate and confused. But a new light has been lately thrown on the fubject by Dr. Girtanner of St. Gallen, and by M. van Berchem, fecretary to the Society of Sciences at Laufanne; and although these two naturalifts differ in fome inftances, yet their joint labours have affifted in afcertaining the nature and economy of this curious animal. The following account, therefore, of the bouquetin, is drawn principally from their obfervations in Rozier's Journal, and from additional information obligingly communicated to me by M. van Berchem himself.

This animal is now chiefly found upon that chain which ftretches from Dauphiné through Savoy to the confines of Italy, and principally on the alps bordering on Mont Blanc, which is the moft elevated part of that chain. Its particular haunts are the valley of Cor

mayor to the fouth of Mont Blanc, thofe heights which lie between Mont Blanc and the frontiers of the Valiais, and the mountains which border the Val Savarenche; but it is met with more abundantly in the mountains of the valley of Cogne, which is the frontier of the valley of Dent in Piedmont; and almost always frequents those parts that have a fouthern afpect.

The feveral names by which the bouquetin is known in different languages, are, in Greek, by Homer and Elian, Ai aygios; Latin, Ibex, which name has been adopted by most modern naturalifts; Italian, Capra Selvatica; German and Swifs, Steinboch, or Rock - goat, the female, Etagne, or Ybfchen and Ybjchgeifs, perhaps from the Latin Ibex; Flemish, Wildgbeit; French, Bouquetin, anciently Bouc-eftain, the German name reversed. Belon named it Hircus ferus; Briffon, Hircus Ibex; Linnæus, Capra Ibex; Pennant, the Ibex; and Dr. Girtanner, Capra Alpina. I have adopted the name of Bouquetin, because it is the provincial appellation of the animal in the Alps.

The fyftematic naturalifts agree in taking the specific character of the bouquetin from the beard, and the horns, which they defcribe as knobbed along the upper or anterior furface, and reclining towards the back.

The

The male bouquetin is larger than the tame goat, but refembles it much in the outer form. The head is finall in proportion to the body, with the muzzle thick, compreffed, and a little arched. The eyes are large, round, and have much fire and brilliancy. The horns large, when of a full fize weighing fometimes 16 or 18 pounds, flatted before and rounded behind, with one or two longitudinal ridges, and many tranfverfe ridges; which degenerate towards the tip into knobs; the colour dufky brown. The beard long, tawny, or dufky. The legs flende, with the hoofs fhort, hollow on the infide, and on the outfde terminated by a falient border, like those of the chamois. The body fhort, thick, and ftrong. The tail fhort, naked underneath, the reft covered with long hairs, white at the bafe and fides, black above and at the end. Space under the tail in fome tawny, in others white. The coat long, but not pendent, afh - coloured, mixed with fome hoary hairs: a black lift runs along the back; and there is a black spot above and below the knees. Its colour, however, like that of other animals, must neceffarily vary according to its age and local circumftances.

The female has been little noticed among naturalifts. She is one third lefs than the male, and not fo corpulent her colour is lefs tawny: her horns are very fmall, and not above eight inches long. In thefe, and in her figure, the refembles a goat that has been caftrated whilft young. She has two teats, like the tame fhe-goat, and never has any beard, unlefs, perhaps, in an advanced age. The young ones are of a dirty grey colour, and, the lift

along the back is fcarcely difcernible.

There is a ftuffed fpecimen of the male bouquetin of the Alps in Mr. Parkinfon's, late Sir Afhton Lever's, Museum, of which I have here given fome of the principal dimenfions, as they are not to be found in any author that has fallen under my obtervation, except in Buffon's Hiftoire Naturelle; and those were taken by Mr. Daubenton from a young fubject.

In a state of tranquillity, the bouquetin commonly carries the head low; but in running holds it high, and even bends it a little forward. He mounts a perpendicular rock of fifteen feet at three leaps, or rather three fucceffive bounds of five feet each. It does not fcem as if he found any footing on the rock, appearing to touch it merely to be repelled, like an elastic fubftance ftriking agaiaft a hard body. He is not fuppofed to take more than three fucceffive leaps in this manner.

If he is between two rocks which are near each other, and wants to reach the top, he leaps from the fide of one rock to the other alternately, till he has attained the fummit. He also trave fes the glaciers with rapidity; but only when pursued, for otherwife he avoids them.

The bouquetins feed, during the night, in the highest woods but the fun no fooner begins to gild the fummits, than they quit the woody region, and mount, feeding in their progrefs, till they have reached the moft confiderable heights. They betake themselves to the fides of the mountains which face the east or fouth, and lie down in the highest places and hotteft expofures: but when the fun has finished more than

three