In the British Museum there are many very singular documents of the kind, one in particular, which is written upon 390 leaves, bound, as it were, in a frame of gilt copper in the form of a tortoise, screws being passed through the strips instead of cords, the fastenings, with some addition, representing the limbs of the animal. And in the East India Museum may be seen a smaller one, protected by stout wooden covers, which has been carved to represent some animal, apparently a pig. The custom of writing upon leaves of trees, appears to have given rise to the adoption also of the interior bark; the outer being seldom made use of, in consequence of its extreme coarseness. When employed, it is customarily folded over, to admit of its being written upon both sides. The only documents of this kind, which have come under my notice, have been Batta manuscripts, from the island of Sumatra. Before the art of making paper was known to the Chinese, they appear to have cut pieces of silk to such sizes as they wished to make their books, and thereupon painted the letters with pencils; the silk being first steeped in a kind of size, to prevent the colour from running. But such material being liable to decay, various animal substances were afterwards employed, as being of a more durable nature. Of course the skins were principally used, after being tanned; but their bones, and even entrails, were also made use of for the like purpose. Thus, in the “History of Mahomet,” we read that the Arabians used the shoulder bones of sheep, on which they carved remarkable events with a knife, when, after tying them with a string, they hung those chronicles up in their cabinets. And in the library of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which is said to have contained 700,000 volumes, were the works of Homer, written in golden letters, on the skins of serpents. I might mention, that the term volume here, should not be understood in the sense which it is now customary to receive it, but in its derivation from the Latin; signifying simply a roll, which was the most ancient form of book.