down to Bangkok. Major Burney, however, from what he ascertained himself at the latter place, and from all stated by Dr. Richardson, seems satisfied that this part of Northern Laos is subject to Siam.

The moment Dr. R. arrived at Laboung, an express was dispatched to Bangkok, where Mr. Maingy's presents were also forwarded, and much anxiety was evinced for an answer---Dr. R. was not allowed to visit Zemee. He describes the country as abounding in elephants and cattle. He saw no wheat, and the principal grain used by the people is a gelatenous kind of rice. He saw no frost or snow--but the thermometer at eight A. M. was so low as 46 deg. He does not appear to have observed any very lofty range of mountains. The language of the people is the same as that of Siam, with some slight difference of dialect. The appearance of the men did not strike Dr. Richardson as being of so large and robust amake as usually distinguishes the northern race. The women are eminently handsome and fair, with fine large eyes-having none of the Tartar and Chinese character. The men wear larger folds of cloth, by way of turbans, than the Burmese. The lower garments are the same as the Burmese, being made of silk or blue striped cotton. The young women go with the bosom uncovered, but their lower garments are of a more modest fashion than in Burmah.

The Priests are not held in much reverence, which is not surprising, considering the laxity of their morals. The account which Pere Marine gives of the people of Lanjang, or Southern Laos, roasting their fowls with all their feathers on--is perfectly true. Dr. R. repeatedly saw fowls roasted in this manner-and without even the entrails being taken out.

The coins current in the country are the same as the Siamese. With respect to productions-Dr. R. saw a good deal of cotton, ivory, stick-lac, and some musk, which he understood are bartered for articles from China, whence a Caravan, consisting of one or two thousand horses and mules, annually visits Laos. In consequence, however, of its having been plundered about three years before-the Caravan had not visited Laboung for two years, but it was expected this year. Dr. R. was told that the Chinese frontier merchants had sent a deputation to the King of Siam, with a present of gold, to solicit his Majesty's protection in future to their annual Caravan. Dr. R. supposes there are no copper mines at Laos, and he was assured, that all the metal was brought by the Chinese Caravan. There is a great deal of iron ore in the country, and the inhabitants can forge tolerably good musket barrels. He saw a small specimen of lead ore, and was informed that there is abundance of tin ore above Zemee. Cattle is very cheap, and of a small breed-the price is about two rupees eight annas a head, and Dr. R. had succeeded in bringing sixty head with him to Moulmein, and about three hundred more were to follow him. Here, of itself, we have an instance of immediate benefit from the Mission, for a supply of cattle for the use of the European troops at Moulmein was a great desideratum.

The people of Laos are in great dread of the Burmese; and the cruel system of border warfare and man catching, to which our occupation of the Tenasserim Provinces has put an end to the southward, still continues in force to the north, between Laos and Ava. It would appear that, as in Burmah, women are bought and sold at Laos-the price of one is ten head of cattle, or twenty-five rupees!

English broad cloths, chintzes, and cutlery, are much prised in Laos, and it is to be hoped that before long an useful and extensive commerce may be established between that country and Moulmein, and that even the Chinese caravan may be induced to visit the latter place.

The extracts from Mr. Gerard's letters relative to the Fossil Shells collected by him, on his late tour over the snowy mountains of the Thibet frontier, are very curious in a geological point of view, and, we doubt not, will occasion much speculation, if not a modification of certain theories. The loftiest altitude at which he picked up some of them, was in the crest of a pass elevated seventeen thousand feet-and here also were fragments of rock, bearing the impression of shells, which must have been detached from the contiguous peaks rising far above this elevated level. Generally, however, the rocks formed of these shells are at an altitude of 16,000 feet-and one cliff was a mile in perpendicular height above the nearest level. "This (observes Mr. Gerard) is an anomaly, I imagine, hitherto unanticipated, and will no doubt be received in a cautious, if not sceptical spirit. I know not how such relics of antediJuvian creation are viewed by other travellers, but I am unable to express the emotion I felt, when gazing upon the myriads of extinct animals, inhabitants of a former world, perhaps coeval with its formation; and reflecting upon the manner by which so many perished at that lofty level, where they have, for ages, bleached under the skies. In some places the fields are full of them, and the densest crops now vegetate upon the pulverised alluvium of a former sub-marine soil. At what remote period these elevated spots were inhabited by fish of the sea, and how whole cliffe

of rock have come to he formed out of the destruction of so many shells, is a question of no common interest to illustrate. I have only to remark, that the specimens I have collected are fresh and entire, as if they had been recently emerged from their own element, while the rock, when fractured, exhibits the most perfectly formed shells." In another place, Mr. Gerard states--" Just before crossing the boundary of Ludak into Bussahir, I was exceedingly gratified by the discovery of a bed of antediluvian oysters, clinging to the rock as if they had been alive.' In whatever point of view we are to consider the subject---or under the bias of whatsoever theory---it is sublime to think of millions of marine remains lying at such a transcendent altitude---and of vast cliffs of rock formed out of them frowning over those illimitable and desolate wastes---where the ocean once flowed--- deeper than did ever plummet sound!'

Mr. Wilson's paper on Ancient Coins found in India, is prefaced by some remarks on a communication of Colonel Tod's, contained in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society---on some ancient Greek, Parthian, and Hindu Medals, from a very considerable number collected by him in India-. Two of these verify the existence of two Sovereigns of Bactria---Apolladotus and Menander. The origin of the rest is only conjecturally determined, but from the Greek letters on some of them, combined with Parthian costumes and Hindu emblems, there can be little doubt of their being the coins of Parthian or Bactrian Princes ruling over In dian provinces. This has been further established by Augustus Schlegel, in a paper upon Colonel Tod's Coins in the Journal Asiatique. He has also he conceives, decyphered a name upon one of them, which he terms Edobigris, and considers it to bave been the appellation of the Indo-Scythic Kings, who reigned over the countries along the Indus to its mouth, in the commencement of the Christian era.

"The interest"-continues Mr. Wilson-excited by monuments of this description, has induced me to examine the collection of the Society, in order to ascertain if any such are in our possession. Besides a number of coins, we have also various drawings, made under the direction of the late Colonel Mackenzie, from originals in his own cabinet, or in those of different individuals. I have also referred to a small collection of my own, and to one made by Mr. James Prinsep-and from these sources have derived a number of interesting continuations to a subject hitherto almost untouched, the numismata of ancient India. Many of the Medals described and delineated by Colonel Tod, have been met with in my search, and although I have not been fortunate enough to discover any that authorise, by legible inscription, or familiar devices, positive support to his deductions, or those of Schlegel-yet it may be thought by the Society not altogether unimportant to verify their premises, and to establish the existence of similar coins over an extended portion of India, beyond a doubt." Our limits will not admit of our entering into the details of Mr. Wilson's valuable paper-which contains excellent descriptions of drawings of a great number of coins, neatly and ably executed. We hope that he will, some day, publish the whole in a compendious form-since in an Antiquarean and Historical point of view-it is full of interest.

Most of the Edobigris coins, in addition to human figures, have a trident--and a peculiar Monogram, somewhat like a four-pronged fork, with blunt points-the short shaft ending in a circle, or diamond. The long and short trident, are both to be found on ancient Parthian coins-but we have never seen on any coin a symbol like the Monogram in question.

Dr. Strong's paper on Boring Water-Springs commences with a reference to vari ous instances in England, where the practice has been attended with most beneficial effects. In some of the lower parts of Lincoln and Kent, for example, where the inhabitants and their cattle suffered greatly from the want of good water, the evil has lately been removed, and this essential necessary of life has been supplied by means of perforations made to a great depth in the soil, by boring with an iron augre, so as to reach and bring to the surface, the deep-seated springs. Thus, borings, which have been made from two hundred to four hundred feet deep, have been found to cast up from ten to fifty gallons of soft and remarkably pure water per minute, which, without the use of engine or pump, will rise from 20 to 30 feet above the surface, in a tube or guide pipe. The experiments that have hitherto been made in India, in the boring way, have not been successful, either from the boring not having been carried to a sufficient depth, or the rods breaking. The deepest that has ever been effected here, was one hundred and forty feet. The borer generally had to pierce through stiff clay. Kankur, and sand. Dr. Strong, himself, has bored more than once as far as seventy feet, in the vicinity of Calcutta. On one occasion the augre (a strong and large one) was twisted in a most extraordinary way; and on another, the rods broke. Notwithstanding this, Doctor Strong appears to be a great advocate for boring, and pour encourager les autre, mentions an instance of successful boring in

England, notwithstanding the great difficulty of the soil, which lately came to his knowledge. In the Sion House grounds they found two springs, the deepest at a depth of five hundred and thirty-five feet, in solid chalk, which rose to the height of five feet above the surface, at the rate of five gallons per minute." Dr. Strong has extracted from an English scientific work, an Estimate Table of the expense of bor ing compared with well-sinking-by which it appears that the expense of the latter is at least treble; the estimate for two hundred feet of boring being £35-and that of the same depth in well sinking £120.-"I should," concludes Dr. Strong-" think the chief expense here would be the tubes; but I find that sheet iron in the Bazar is now extremely cheap, and if it could be made into tubes, the cost of the iron alone would not be more than twenty rupees per hundred feet-beside the expense for making them into tubes."

A Meeting of the Society was held on the 5th May the President, Sir Charles Grey, in the Chair.

The Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of the Diocese, Mr. Lushington, and Major Burney, were admitted Members.

A Letter was read from the Secretary to the Van Dieman's Land Society, proposing to correspond with the Asiatic Society.

The following donations were presented-viz.-two Cabinets of Minerals, purchased at Benares, by Sir Charles Grey-also Specimens obtained from Messrs. Gerard and Royle, or collected by himself on his visit to the Upper Provinces.

Fossil Minerals from the Himalaya, presented by Mr. Gerard through Sir C. Metcalfe.

Mineral specimens, and some small figures of Bauddha worship, presented by Captain Mackenzie.

A Gatalogue of the Maps, Plans, &c. in the collection of His late Majesty, by the Trustees of the British Museum.

The 2d part of the Philosophical Transactions for 1828, and the 1st part for 1830, by the Royal Society.

The 3d part of 7th vol. of their Transactions, by the Horticultural Society.
The Journal Asiatique, by the Asiatic Society of Paris.

The 1st volume of the Ramayana, by the Editor, Professor Schlegel.

Pentopotamia Indica, by the Author, Mr. Lossen.

The 4th and 5th volumes of the History of the Turks, by the Author, Von Ham. mer-also Letters on the Library at Turin, and Observations on the Byzantine Historians.

History of London, by the Author, Mr. Norton.

The Mrichchakati, in the Original Sanscrit-Voet's Commentary on the Pandects, and Report on the External Commerce of Bengal, by Mr. Wilson.

Letters were read from Professor Rafn, presenting

Scripta Historica Islandorum.

The Krakumal, a Poem, and various Tracts, &c.

The following Papers were then read:

Extracts from Mr. Gerard's Letters to Sir C. Metcalfe, relating to the Fossils presented by him.

A letter from Mr. Prinsep, forwarding by desire of Government, Mr. J. Prinsep's Report on the Population of Benares.

Extracts from 2 Letter from Major Burney to Mr. Swinton, giving an account of Dr. Richardson's visit to Laos.

A Paper on Boring in the vicinity of Calcutta, by Dr. Strong.
Observations on Ancient Coins found in India, by Mr. Wilson.

The further consideration of these Papers, we must defer till our next.-Govt. Gar

THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

"Leonum arida nutrix!"

GENTLEMEN OF THE BENGAL CIVIL AND MILITARY SERVICES.

I write for your advantage and my own amusement. ed with dyspepsia and the liver. You sometimes find it absolutely indispensable You are occasionally afflictto get away for a short space from the coulter and the yoke. I trust I do not uselessly employ a vacant hour in the attempt to collect a few practical observations which may preserve you from the discomfort, privation, and inconveniences to which all are at present subjected whose constitutions stand in need of that renovation which is generally thought attainable by a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.

These memoranda can claim, as indeed I only expect for them, a very limited circulation. The works of Vaillant, Sparmann, Thomson, Barrow, preclude the possibility of offering any thing of novelty or interest to the general reader from this side of Africa, and I therefore beg to be understood as inviting the perusal of those only who contemplate a visit to the Colony with a view of making it their temporary or permanent residence. To such I address myself with, I trust, a well grounded expectation of being useful: for I shall endeavour to concentrate in a few pages that information which has been thought unworthy the research of the scientific traveller, or can now only be obtained by laborious examination of volumes which the invalid wants the spirit or the leisure to peruse or by a dear-bought and tardy experience purchased on the spot. The scientific reader will find nothing here. The general reader but very little. The Indian Invalid will find a practical register of facts which I confidently recommend to his attention.

That this effort to prove useful to the body to which I belong will expose me to some little vituperation, I am quite prepared to learn. Evil in most societies predominates so much over good, that he who shall only set down what he sees will usually and much more to condemn than to admire. I will not, however, travel out of the path which I have proposed to myself either to advertize a folly or expose a fault, and if it should appear that life in Southern Africa can amount to little more than mere animal existence, the misfortune should be attributed to circumstances which appear to be shared more or less by all colonies and which should not therefore be considered as the peculiar reproach of this. I have endeavoured, in speaking of a place so very little known to Indian invalids, and yet so constantly resorted to by them from India, to confine myself as much as possible to the mere fact. Those for whom I write may draw their own inferences :

I should have wished to have commenced this sketch with a few observations of practical utility to those who are compelled suddenly to come down from the Upper Provinces of India with a view to embark as expeditiously as possible in the first ship sailing from Calcutta. But this would have lengthened these remarks beyond the limits to which I propose to confine myself, and I rather prefer to embody at a future period in a few separate sheets that which relates to our Indian capital, its Society, the peculiar usages and modes of existence of its inhabitants, their merits and their defects. I proceed, then, at once to my task, and will suppose the invalid on the point of embarkation in the City of Palaces.

At the period when the state of my health made it absolutely imperative on me to quit India, it became matter of serious consideration to what part of the world I should direct my course. The beautiful climate of New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, urgently recommends itself, more especially that of the latter country, which appears to unite the bracing and salutary effects which result from resi

dence in our own native land, with the balmy softness of an Italian sky. I am of opinion, therefore, that the Indian Invalid should without hesitation avail himself of any opportunity which may be at hand to visit Australia, and such opportunities always present themselves by the way of the Isle of France. I know that this middle passage is in general considered an objection, I cannot discover any suffici ent reason. The ships, it is true are in general smaller, but they are less crowded with passengers, a point of the last importance to an invalid. An agreeable break is made in a long voyage by a short residence at Port Louis, and from thence opportunities present themselves every fortnight.

I should hope, for many reasons, that even if some direct communication be not established with Australia from India, the service generally will not allow the trifling obstacle of a circuitous voyage to prove, as it now does, so complete a bar to visiting a country so far superior in every respect to the Cape of Good Hope. Of the extreme beauty of the Isle of France there can be but one opinion, and the hospitality and kindness of the residents, their polite attentions to strangers, more especially those who happen to possess even a single introduction, make a visit to Port Louis a striking contrast to that which awaits the invalid in Cape Town.

There is an hotel in Port Louis, not a very convenient place of residence it is true, but the hospitality of the inhabitants in general makes it unnecessary to have recourse to it. The charges at the table d'hote are moderate, and the entertainment reasonably good. If any choice is allowed as to time, it is very desirable generally to avoid visiting the Island during the summer months, the town being intolerably hot, and all the inhabitants leaving it for the country in November, and seldom returning before March. All gaieties are then suspended; and, as it is not easy to go into the country, the attentions of the inhabitants to a stranger arriving at that season must be necessarily very limited. The hurricane season, which is just this period, is also deserving of consideration: but all this should not oppose the voyage to this charming spot: which, with that to New South Wales, will, I trust, ere long be substituted for that to the Cape.

The Quarterly Review, in a late number, has urged with much force the advantage which the new colony of Swan River appears to hold out as a sanatarium for the British possessions in the East. It is difficult at present to form any judgement of the extent of these advantages, saving in so far as regards climate and facility of access; the latter by the way of Batavia and Singapore appears to be certain, the former, according to Captain Stirling, equally sure. Late accounts of the prospects of the colonists have certainly not been flattering. It should seem that the land hitherto explored is sandy and unproductive: and that the bar at the mouth of the river must long obstruct its navigation even for small craft. It seems to be certain, likewise, that the settlers are undergoing very considerable privations; and a suspicion has gone abroad, that the prospects of the colonists have been painted rather too much "couleur de rose.' On the other hand, Captain Stirling is still sanguine as to success: and certainly the Indians are deeply interested in the results of his expedition: though at present an invalid might experience some inconvenience. Indeed it would be impossible to procure any shelter. A gentleman of fortune, who resigned a commission in the guards, and went out, taking with him every convenience and luxury that money could command, was living on the sea shore, at the date of the last accounts, in his carriage. The carriage was said to be the most convenient residence in the colony. A tent, therefore, would be indispensable. But I return to my subject

The port of Calcutta is in general so crowded with ships in the months of December, January, and February, some of which call at the Cape, that the selection is all that should occupy attention. I think it a great error to sail in a ship with a numerous party, however flattering the accommodation, however eminent the talents or character of the commander: and no consideration should induce the invalid to select any of those vessels which can merely be considered as floating hospitals for foundlings. I think it was the Robarts which sailed out of the port of Calcutta, with sixty children on board-what hope could the passengers have of bearable existence? unless indeed Herod had been the Captain.