GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 395 



RECENT ASIATIC EXPLORATIONS. 



THE explorations and journeys of Drs. Hooker, Campbell, and 

 others, in Tibet and Nepaul, have thrown much light upon the 

 Himalaya and adjacent country. Dr. Hooker made two ascents of 

 the mountain Bhonetso, (10,400 feet,) having one peak 28,178 feet in 

 height, in full view to the south-west, and another 23,930 feet high 

 to the south-east. Dr. Hooker's general observations on the geograpi- 

 cal distribution of plants from low hills to the loftiest mountains, are 

 of the highest interest. Shrubby rhododendrons having been gath- 

 ered at 17,500 feet; grasses, sedges, compositae, and other tufted 

 herbs at 18,000 feet, and lichens at 18,500 feet. In all his journeys, 

 Dr. Hooker used successfully the most delicate meteorological instru- 

 ments, and brought back safe to England his barometer, which, when 

 compared with the standard instrument of the Royal Society, showed 

 an error of only-^-.OOo. 



Tertiary fossils have been discovered in the region of the Himalaya, 

 at heights of from 10,000 to 15,000 feet, flanking the valleys of the 

 Indus and its tributaries. Explorations made upon the coasts of 

 Arabia have also shown that in addition to the granitic and other 

 eruptive and crystalline rocks, which prevail so much in that country, 

 there is also a series of sedimentary aqueous deposites, the lowest of 

 which is a compact micaceous sandstone, overlaid by strata of the 

 cretaceous period, and these by a very great thickness of the nummu- 

 lite or lower tertiary formation, surmounted by younger tertiary 

 deposites charged with corals, shells, and its like, approaching to, and 

 identical with species now living. 



An interesting work on the coasts of Arabia and the adjacent 

 countries, has recently been published by Mr. Carter of the East 

 India Company. Learned geographers will be gratified by this 

 author's comparison of the present features of this country, with those 

 described by Ptolemy and others, and by the accurate agreement of 

 the distances mentioned by them, with the measurements of English 

 surveyors. The Ichthyophagi of Arian are still the turtle-fed Arabs 

 of Masira. Some incense ports of the ancient merchants are yet to 

 be traced, and the aroinatiferous regions of the ancients, both in 

 Arabia, and on the opposite shores of Africa, may now be mapped out 

 with great certainty. " One geographical discovery," writes Mr. 

 Carter, " the passage round the Cape, destroyed the grandeur of the 

 Arabian empire, and throwing open the commerce of India to the 

 Europeans, deprived its people of their ancient office. Now Aden 

 has been taken possession of, the old routes of commerce between the 

 eastern and western nations, have again been established ; but the 

 Arabs are no longer carriers of that produce. They have become 

 poor and divided among themselves, the religion of Mohammed is dis- 

 appearing from among them fast, and they are returning to the 

 heathenism and barbarity of their original state." 

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