Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/206

6 on the other hand, is fatal only to goats and asses. The malady caused by it developes itself by enormous swellings of the scrotum and adjacent mucous membrane, and the animals breathe with difficulty. Blood and purulent matter flow from the nostrils, and death frequently ensues within two days after the puncture. On making a dissection I found the intestines covered with small tubercles, and what looked like blisters. I have never myself seen the Donderobo, and, notwithstanding the offer of a high reward, have never been able to obtain a single specimen. The natives told me that it looks like a large thick-bodied fly, and is most plentiful after the rainy season, when their flocks of goats are sometimes decimated. 

II.—Notes on the Island of Formosa. By Author:Robert Swinhoe,, H.B.M. Vice-Consul at Formosa.

, or Chinese Formosa, is considered a Foo or district of the province of Fokien, and is governed by a Taoutai extraordinary, who, though responsible to the provincial viceroy, possesses the privilege of memorialising the Throne direct. “The district of Taiwan,” says the Chinese Government Chart, of which a copy was supplied to me by the Formosan authorities, “is bounded in the rear by mountains, and in front by the sea. The ancestral hills of Formosa derive their origin from the Woo-hoo-mun (Five Tiger Gate), the entrance to Foochow, whence they glided across the sea. In the ocean towards the east are two places called Tungkwan (Damp Limit) and Pih-mow (White Acre), which mark the spots where the dragons of the Formosan hills emerged. These sacred reptiles had pierced unseen the depths of ocean, and announcing their ascent to the surface by throwing up the bluff at Kelung-head, by a number of violent contortions heaved up the regular series of hills, valleys, and plains that extend north and south in varied undulations for the space of 1000 leagues (applied figuratively). The mountain peaks are too multitudinous to enumerate, and the geography of the island too comprehensive to take into present consideration; we will therefore confine ourselves to a few general remarks. In rear of the hills, eastward, flows the ocean; facing them, to the westward, is the sea; and between lies the prefecture of Taiwan.” The map then proceeds to define the different departments of the district, and to state what hills in Formosa are visible from what hills on the China coast, and which ports on the island are nearest and most accessible to which ports on the main.

In December, 1860, I received my appointment as Her Majesty’s 