The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1 — John Shaqi
The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Science
The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, 1821-1890; Hejaz (Saudi Arabia) -- Description and travel
My private collection of mineralogical specimens was deposited
with Professor M. H. N. Story-Maskelyne. The spirit-specimens of
zoology filled three large canisters: and the British Museum also
received a hare and five birds (Mr. R. B. Sharpe); four bats
(Rhinopoma) and a mouse; six reptiles, five fishes, thirty-five
crustaceans, and about the same number of insects; five
scorpions, six leeches, sixty molluscs, four echinoderms, and
three sponges. Dr. A. Gunther (Appendix III.) determined and
named two new species of reptiles. Mr. Frederick Smith (Appendix
III.) took charge of the insects. Mr. Edward J. Miers, F. L.S.,
etc., described the small collection of crustaceae (Annals and
Magazine of Natural History for November, 1878). Finally, Edgar
A. Smith examined and named the shells collected on the shores of
the 'Akabah Gulf and the north-eastern recess of the Red Sea.
The main interest of the little hortus siccus was the Alpine
Flora, gathered at an altitude of five thousand feet above
sea-level. The plants were offered to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker,
of Kew; and Professor D. Oliver, of the Herbarium, has kindly
furnished me with a list of the names (Appendix IV.). Mr. William
Carruthers and his staff also examined the spirit-specimens of
fleshy plants (Appendix IV.).
Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, Keeper of Coins and Medals, and Mr.
Barclay V. Head were good enough to compare with their rich
collections the coins of ancient Midian found (Chap. III.), for
the first time, at Maghair Shu'ayb[EN#1]. Some years ago, Mr.
Robert Ready, of the British Museum, had bought from a Jew, Yusuf
Kalafat (?), a miscellaneous collection, which included about
sixty of the so-called Midianitic coins. But the place of
discovery is wholly unknown. The Assistant Keeper read a paper
"On Arabian Imitations of Athenian Coins," Midianitic,
Himyaritic, and others, at a meeting of the Numismatic Society
(November 21, 1878); and I did the same at the Royal Asiatic
Society, December 16, 1878. The little "find" of stone
implements, rude and worked; and the instruments illustrating the
mining industry of the country, appeared before the
Anthropological Section of the British Association, which met at
Dublin (August, 1878), and again before the Anthropological
Institute of London, December 10, 1878.
Finally, the skulls and fragments of skulls from Midian were
submitted to Professor Richard Owen, the Superintendent of
Natural History; and my learned friend kindly inspected the
Egyptian and Palmyrene crania which accompanied them. The whole
was carefully described by Dr. C. Carter Blake, Ph.D., before the
last-named seance of the Anthropological Institute (December 10,
1878).
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