This man was taken suddenly ill with a country-fever. He sent for me. I saw his days were numbered. He knew it. Beckoning to me to kneel beside his charpoy, he paused for a moment, as if to collect moral as well as physical strength for the effort he was about to make, and then whispered distinctly in my astonished ear: a well-known English name.

"I am

"I am the murderer of ** **

This horrid truth was not entrusted to me as a secret; but it ought now to remain so.-MS. Memoirs of a Civilian.

MR. ROYLE'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF THE

HIMALAYA.*

THIS important work has reached us too late to enable us to give more than a mere notice of it; we intend, at a future opportunity, to examine it with the care which it evidently deserves.

Much as has been done lately towards illustrating the natural history of our Indian provinces, some of the most important points connected with which, such as the influence of climate upon animal and vegetable forms, the geological structure of the mountain ranges, and the atmospheric phenomena of those elevated regions,-still remained to be collected in one general and comprehensive view. The long residence of the author in the plains of Saharunpore, and among the hills at the elevation of 7,500 feet, gave him peculiar facilities for investigating such points, and accordingly it is to these interesting subjects, as well as to Botany and Zoology, that Mr. Royle has turned his attention; and we may now congratulate the public on a great blank in the physical geography of India being satisfactorily filled up. We have only room to add, that the plates are remarkably good, and that the general execution of the work reflects much credit upon both author and artists.

CLERGY IN INDIA.†

AN Account of the Salaries and Allowances paid by the Government in India at each of the Presidencies for the support of Clergy and Places of Worship, in 1830-31; viz. Bengal: Episcopal

Sa. Rs. 4,25,876

* Illustrations of the Botany and other branches of the Natural History of the Himalayan Mountains; and of the Flora of Cashmere.-By J. Forbes Royle, Esq., F.L.S. and G.S., M.R.A.S., &c.

+ Ordered to be printed 6th August.

Miscellanies, Original and Select.

PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

Asiatic Society of Calcutta.-At the meeting of this Society, on the 20th February, Mr. G. Swinton in the chair, the secretary stated that Mr. Wilson, previous to his departure, had reported to Government the completion of Mr. Csoma de Koros' Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary, and had offered to take the manuscripts to England for publication, but that the vice-president in council being of opinion that the works might more appropriately be published in this country, under Mr. Csoma's own eye, Mr. Wilson had made them over to the Society: he had therefore followed up the subject by a second application to Government on the 30th January, to which a reply had just been received, stating that the Governor-general in Council will be happy to defray the expense of publishing the work, and that, as it is obviously desirable that the work should have the benefit of the learned author's superintendence during its progress through the press, his Lordship in Council trusts that it may be entered upon immediately.

The secretary stated that arrangements had accordingly been made with the Baptist Mission Press to commence upon the Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary immediately.

Read a letter from Mr. Swinton on the subject of the garjan, or wood-oil, procured in the forests of the Tenasserim provinces.

This oil is in general use among the natives for mixing with colours, and is chiefly imported from Chittagong; but it would appear, on Major Burney's authority, to be still more abundantly produced in the Tavoy district, and at much less cost; the bazar price in Calcutta averaging about nine or ten rupees per maund, whereas at Tavoy it may be procured at about one-fourth that price. Both in India and in England it has been found to be a good substitute for linseed oil for outside work, especially in light colours, being worth for this purpose about £12 to £15 per ton. Mr. Dowie, a currier of Edinburgh, read a paper before the Edinburgh Society of Arts on the mode of applying this vegetable oil alone, or mixed with tallow, to the preparation of leather for shoes, and he considers it as far preferable to fish oil. This application is quite new, and at Mr. Swinton's suggestions some similar trials have since been made in Calcutta, by Mackenzie and Macfarlan, with success. The leather absorbs a great deal of the oil, and the specimens presented to the Society appear to be very soft and tough.

Major Burney describes the tree whence the garjan oil is extracted as forming large forests in Tavoy, growing to a great height and size; its native name is kaniyen. The flag-staff at Moulmein, ninety-two feet high, is formed of at single kaniyen tree. Mr. Maingy says that the oil is much improved by boiling, which gives it drying properties; he has often used it for boats, and has found it excellent in preparing tarpauling. The inhabitants of Tavoy and Mergui do not burn earth-oil like other Burmese, but torches made of this wood-oil and touch-wood. The imports into Calcutta for the last three years were as follows:

Read a letter from Lieut. A. Burnes, dated Bombay 26th Jan., announcing

that he had despatched for the Society some Bactrian coins, collected in his recent journey to the Oxus.

Specimens of copper ore from Nellore were presented on the part of Mr. Kerr. The mines appear to lie to the northward of the Pennar river, 36 miles N.N.W. of Nellore, and 37 W. from the sea, near a village called Ganypenta in Arrowsmith's map. The copper ore prevails over a considerable tract of country; it consists of malachite, and of black anhydrous oxide of copper, with red and yellow ochre imbedded in micaceous schist. Mr. Kerr points out that the ore differs from the English coppers essentially, in being free from iron pyrites and other deteriorating ingredients, as lead, antimony, sulphur, &c., which make that ore difficult to purify, whereas the Nellore ore becomes quite pure by simple smelting. The specimen of reduced metal sent with the ores is of a very fine colour and highly malleable. Dr. Thompson, twenty years ago, analyzed the ore, and found it to contain,

Four different varieties examined by the secretary contained from thirteen to forty-seven per cent. of red oxide of iron and silex. The appearance of the ore seems to promise ample success to those who have engaged in the working of these mines.

After the business of the evening was concluded, Mr. W. Macnaghten begged to remind the meeting that this might be the last occasion in which they would enjoy the society of the gentleman who now occupied the chair in this country, nay perhaps for ever! He had seen his friend in the morning overwhelmed with the fatigues of preparation for embarkation on the morrow, and little thought it possible for him to attend to other engagements; but his ardent zeal for the cause of literature and science had urged him to devote the very last moment of his residence in this land to the institution with which he had been connected so long. For the affection and interest thus manifested to the last, the gratitude of himself and of his brother members was most due, and for the modesty which had marked his services to the Society, and which alone had prevented his rising long since to the highest dignity it could bestow. From the time of his quitting college, Mr. Swinton had been distinguished as an orientalist, and his unimpeachable conduct had marked him as one of the brightest ornaments of the civil service. Mr. Swinton, he knew, would wish him to spare such eulogium in his presence, but it would be unjust in him and in the Society to allow their associate to quit them without testifying their anxious solicitude for his safe and happy return to his native land.

Mr. Swinton returned thanks for this expression of feeling on the part of his associates, which he attributed rather to their partiality than to his merits. He had always felt the warmest interest in the Society, and had endeavoured to contribute to its success whenever an opportunity occurred. He could but now for the last time tender his sincerest wish for its lasting fame and prosperity, and once more returning his best thanks, he bade them farewell.—Journ. Asiat. Soc.

Society of Natural History of the Mauritius.-From an excellent analysis of the labours of this Society, for the years 1830, 1831, and 1839, drawn up by

the secretary, M. Julien Desjardins, we are enabled to lay before our readers the following outline of its origin and operations.

After various preliminary attempts to establish a scientific society in the colony, on the 11th August 1829, some gentlemen, who cultivated natural history, were invited by Mr. Chas. Telfair to assemble at his house, where he proposed to them the formation of an association, which received the name of "the Society of Natural History of the Isle of Mauritius." The members, twenty-nine in number, elected Mr. Telfair president, Messrs. Delisse and Bojer vice-presidents, and M. Desjardins secretary. The Society held its first meeting on the 24th August (the anniversary of the birth of Baron Cuvier), and the ensuing meetings monthly. The rules, consisting of thirtynine articles, were founded upon those of the Society of Natural History of Paris. The meetings were held at the house of Mr. Telfair, till Sir Charles Colville, the governor, gave an apartment in the Royal College of Port Louis for that purpose.

At the opening meeting, a discourse was delivered by the president and another by M. Bouton; the former developing those philosophical views and that ardour in the cause of science for which Mr. Telfair is eminent.

At the end of the first year, the number of members had increased to thirtynine; and its funds consisted of 300 piastres, the contribution of the members. The second year (1831), the number of members was forty-two resident and twenty-eight foreign corresponding. In the year 1832, a long interruption of the meetings took place; the Society, owing to the political state of the colony, not having assembled for six months prior to the anniversary meeting of that year. It has since, however, we collect, resumed its periodical meetings.

In the year 1832, the class of natural history established at the Royal College was abolished; a circumstance which induced the president and members of this Society to endeavour to supply the want of that institution by their own counsel and instruction. "More fortunate than some amongst us," observes M. Desjardins, “the youth of this island, aided by the members of this Society, may advance with more certainty along the difficult and sometimes repulsive paths which present themselves to those who desire to follow the noble career of the sciences." He remarks a fact, which has probably occurred to many who have not drawn from it the same just conclusion, namely, "the innate taste in most children to collect flowers and ferns, and to try to preserve them, as well as butterflies, very often to the detriment of their books, which retain long afterwards the marks of these collections, made without discernment and from an ill-developed instinct: which proves that the productions of nature possess attractions for all." As an encouragement to youthful students, the Society last year offered, besides other prizes, a gold medal for the largest collection of new objects of natural history accompanied by drawings and detailed descriptions.

The analysis of the Society's labours is arranged by the secretary scientifically under the various heads; but as we can notice only the most striking, we shall take the articles as they occur.

M. Desjardins has furnished a description of a cavern in the Quarter de la Rivière du Rempart. This chasm, or sinking of an inferior stratum of the soil, is perhaps improperly termed a cavern, though it has most of the characters of one. It has two outlets, and the base contains a cavity filled with a beautiful current of water. It is 240 feet long. The same member has also described the little Isle of Amber so well known to the readers of Paul and Virginia; he has treated not only of its geognostic but its zoological

and vegetable history, and has controverted the assertion of M. Le Gentil, by showing that it is not of madrepore formation, but volcanic, like Mauritius.

M. L. Bouton read a memoir, in which he showed that the Grand Basin, a body of water situated in the midst of forests, at a height of 250 toises (1,600 feet) above the level of the sea, is the crater of an extinct volcano.

In botany, M. Bojer, professor of this science at the Royal College, has made numerous acquisitions. Amongst others, he has ascertained more than seventy varieties of the mango tree, mangifera Indica. M. L. Bouton has pointed out a variety of errors in M. Lesson's chapter in the zoological chart of the Voyage du Coquille, relative to the botany of the island. The same member has shown that the Flora of Mauritius offers more analogy with the continent of Africa (next to the island) than with the Indian archipelago.

In zoology, M. Desjardins has described the twenty-six species of mammiferi inhabiting Mauritius, of which twelve only are wild; M. Bojer, Dr. Lyall, and the Rev. Mr. Freeman, have described most of this island, as well as many from Madagascar, the natural history of which is but little known. In the other branches of this department various papers have been read, of which the analysis gives briefly the results.

With a view of making the curiosities of the island known, M. Desjardins drew up a detailed description of two places of some importance on the southern coast, in the Quarter of Grand Port. One is the Trou Galet, remarkable for a natural bridge formed by a mass of basalt, and which presents two butments, a pier, and two arches, beneath which the sea, which is not restrained by any reef, rushes with violence, and falls into a basin the walls of which are of the same nature as the bridge. The other, called the Souffleur or Montagne Chaour, is a rock detached from the coast, which in this part of the island is every where very steep. It resembles a bastion projecting into the sea, and is pierced with two natural openings, through which the waves rush from seaward to escape in the form of a plentiful shower towards the adjoining shore, the nature of which it has, as it were, changed by encrusting it with a calcareous deposit, which the water holds in solution.

"A science, or if you prefer it, an art," observes the secretary, “which is in a manner inherent in the country, since no where else, I imagine, is it mentioned, and which, practised in this island for more than fifty years, has been the wonder of some and the amusement of many others,―nauscopy, in short,— a term which has been invented in Europe to express those visions, of which we have heard so much said here,-has been treated of in our Society by our president, Mr. Telfair, who, from some hints from our colleague, Mr. Richard Barry, took up the subject, and with the sagacity and talent which we all know he possesses, has clearly demonstrated that this pretended art is a mere chimera, which has imposed upon the very persons who pretended to have discovered it. If fact, it ought to be a matter of astonishment that an optical effect, which was not remarked by Le Gentil, La Caille, Pingré, Rochon, D'Après, Borda, Thompson, Lislet-Geoffroy, Freycinet, and, still more recently, was not perceived by Capt. Dumont D'Urville, who had several conferences on this subject with M. Feuillafé, the Coryphæus of these visionaries,—should have been discovered by two or three persons almost destitute of science, and whose aspect is so grotesque that it never fails to excite laughter; not that I mean by this that they are deficient in the qualities which constitute men of integrity."

M. Sauzier has furnished an account of the phenomena observed at the