be no doubt that, sooner or later, the cochineal insect will be sent from America to this country, and it will be of great consequence to have plants every where in readiness for their reception.

1

On the 18th November 1789, I had a promise from your board of obtaining from Sumatra trees of that country, but to this hour have heard nothing more of the matter what this silence can be owing to, I am at a loss to say, as Mr Crisp, governor of Bencoolen, is reputed to have much attention to subjects of this nature.

As the fhip Asia is about to sail for that island, I beg leave again to request your attention to my letter of the 12th November 1789, and having it in contemplation to promote an attention to the culture of the bread-fruit tree, I am induced to request you will particularly specify two kinds of bread-fruit trees, which captain Lewis of that establishment tells me grow there, and are mentioned in Marseden's history of Sumatra, under the Mallay names of Sookoon and Calawee. I am, c.

March 12 1792.

SIR,

Mr R. Clerk, to Dr James Anderson.

I AM directed by the governor in council, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th instant, and to acquaint you that letters will be written to the gentlemen at Bombay and fort Marlbro', agreeably to your request. March 14. 1792.

I am, c.
To be continued occasionally.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

THE favour of Liberalis is come to hand; but perhaps it is rather a little too late to answer fully the intentions of the writer. Postige not paid.

The observations of Sam. Bombshell are received; but they seem to be at present unnecefsary, as the event to which they allude has actually taken place, and no person has exprefsed difsatisfaction at it, which shows that the remarks of this writer are very just;-but it is unnecessary to combat a fhadow. His farther correspondence will be very acceptable.

The observations of A. B. fhall have a place as soon as conveniency will permit.

The third letter of Trader Political is received.

The verses by W G. are received, and shall be applied as he desires. Many acknowledgements still deferred for want of room.

92.

THE BEE,

OR

LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER,

FOR

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12. 1792.

THE ROYAL TIGER,

THE tiger is one of the largest and most ferocious animals of the cat kind, the peculiar distinguishing characteristic of which clafs is a set of formidable claws, which are capable of being extended or drawn in at pleasure. Fortunately they are a solitary clafs of animals which never unite for mutual defence, like those of the herbiverons kind, nor join in packs to hunt for prey, like those of the dog kind. They seek their food alone, and are frequently ene VOL. Xi.

mies to each other; though differing greatly in size and colour, they are nearly allied to each other in form and disposition, being all fierce, rapacious, and artful.

No quadruped can be more beautiful than this animal; the glofsy smoothness of his hair, and the extreme blackness of the streaks with which he is marked, on a ground of a bright yellow, agreeably strike the beholder. He is larger than the leopard, though slenderer and more delicate. The principal distinction of the tiger, and in which he differs from all other mottled beasts, is in the form of its colours, which run in streaks nearly in the same direction as the ribs, from the back down to the belly. On the leopard, the panther, and the ounce, the colours are broken in spots all over the body; but in the tiger they extend lengthwise, and hardly a round spot is

to be found on its skin.

Of all animals the tiger most resembles the cat in fhape; but in size it so much exceeds this common domestic that the resemblance does not strike one so strongly who beholds the live animal, as when he views a good representation of it in a print. Mr Buffon informs us that he had been afsured by one of his friends, that he saw a tiger in the East Indies of fifteen feet long. He probably included the tail in these dimensions; therefore, allowing four feet for that, it must have been eleven feet from the tip of the nose to the insertion of its tail.

The tiger does not pursue his prey, but bounds upon it from his ambush with great elasticity, and from a distance that is almost incredible. If they

mifs their object, they instantly retire; but if they succeed they carry off their prey with ease, were it even as large as a buffaloe, without feeling any impediment in its flight. They are thought to prefer preying on the human flesh to that of any other animal. They lurk among the sides of bushes, and almost depopulate many places. If they are undisturbed, they plunge their head into the body of the animal up to the very eyes, as if it were to satiate themselves with blood.

The tiger is peculiar to Asia, and is found as far north as China and Chinese Tartary: it inhabits mount Ararat, and Hyrcania, of old famous for its wild beasts. The greatest numbers are met with in India, and its islands. In the mouth of the Ganges, in particular, are many islands which, when that country first came under the dominion of Britain, were inhabited by a numerous people. The famines that were occasioned by the earliest effects of European rapacity in those regions, extirpated the inhabitants; and such is the rapid progrefs of desolation in a fertile country, destitute of people, that these extensive islands are now only covered with woods, and so overrun with wild beasts, that the people who go thither to take up salt from the lakes, must always have a strong guard to protect them from the tigers; notwithstanding which, there never is a season in which several people are not thus carried off and destroyed.

The following story is well authenticated. Some ladies and gentlemen being on a party of pleasure, under a fhade of trees, on the banks of a river in Bengal, were suddenly surprised at seeing a tiger

Sept. Its ready to make its fatal spring; one of the ladies, with amazing presence of mind, laid hold of an umbrella; and, unfurling it, directly in the animal's face, it instantly retired. Another party had not the same good fortune. A tiger darted among them while they were at dinner, seized on a gentleman, and carried him off in the sight of his companions. One of these, however, had the presence of mind to level his piece at the animal, and fired so fortunately as to kill him. The gentleman who was carried off escaped with a slight mutilation, and is at present alive in Great Britain.

'The tiger is the most terrible scourge of the coun try wherever he is found. He is not only strong and nimble, but ferocious and cruel to an astonishing degree. Though satiated with carnage he perpetually thirsts for blood. His restless fury has no intervals, except when he is obliged to lie in ambush for prey at the sides of rivers, to which other animals. resort to drink. He seizes and tears to pieces a fresh animal with equal rage as he exerted in devouring the first. He desolates every country that he inhabits, and dreads neither the aspect nor the arms of man. He sacrifices whole flocks of domestic animals, and all the wild beasts which come within the reach of his claws. He attacks the young of the elephant and the rhinoceros, and sometimes even ventures to brave the lion. His predominant instinct is a perpetual rage, a blind and undistinguishing ferocity, which often impel him to devour his own young, and to tear their mother in pieces when the attempts to defend them. He delights in blood, and gluts him.