WATERTON ' S NONDESCRIPT APE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Can the history of Charles Waterton's "A Nonde- script," and the drawing of it in the third edition of his " Wanderings in South America," have been already for- gotten ? In a letter in the Athenzum of July 15th on the " Anthropoid Apes in South America" Lord Southesk refers to the Nondescript as if it were a genuine anthropoid ape. It is many years since I saw the frontispiece, but I heard the story of it in 1848 or 1849, first from the late Dean of Can- terbury, who, I believe, had it directly or indirectly from Waterton himself; then from Dean Buckland, in the last lectures which he delivered in Oxford. The story is this according to the best of my recollection. Waterton, in the first edition of his " Wanderings," had told of his exploit of leaping on an alligator, twisting his fore- legs over his back, and thus riding on the animal in the water, while it was being dragged to land. This, though perfectly true, was universally discredited by his critics. To take his revenge, Waterton, who was an excellent taxidermist, sewed together some monkey-skins, manipulated and stuffed them, until he fabricated the wonderful Nondescript, which figures as a frontispiece to his third edition. Most of his critics fell into the trap, and some scientifically discussed the apocryphal animal, to the intense jubilation of Waterton, and the subsequent dismay of his victims. Dean Buckland told us how he was saved from the mistake by the accidental posses- sion of two alligators. He proved by experiment that their front limbs could be treated as Waterton alleged. He was thus enabled to see when Waterton was stating facts and when he was mystifying his readers. I presume that all this is told in the biography of Waterton.—I am, Sir, &c.,
W. W.
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