GEOGRAPHY AXD ANTIQUITIES. 371 



through of stamping it on clay tablets. The decipherment of these inscriptions 

 led to important results in an ethnological point of view, both as indicating 

 the race to which the writers belonged, and affording important information 

 with reference to the habitat of races and their migrations. Among the many 

 points which they were now enabled satisfactorily to settle, he alluded to the 

 connection between the Turanian and Hamic families, and to the occupation 

 of "Western Asia by the Scythic, and not the Semitic race. He also mentioned 

 that from the inscriptions he believed it could be shown that the Queen of 

 Sheba came from Idumea. As to the advantages conferred on geography by 

 these discoveries, he would not attempt to give in detail the ramifications of 

 geographical knowledge which had been thus obtained. He would proceed 

 to the most interesting and important branch of the subject, the historical. 

 An erroneous impression was at one time hi circulation that the information ob- 

 tained from the inscriptions was adverse to Scripture. But so much was it the 

 reverse of this, that if they were to draw up a scheme of chronology from the 

 inscriptions, without having seen the statements of the Scriptures, they would 

 find it coincide on every important point. The excavations at Chaldea fur- 

 nished them with inscriptions showing the names of the kings, their parentage, 

 the gods they worshiped, the temples they built, the cities they founded, and 

 many other particulars of their reign. He then mentioned some circumstances 

 with reference to the mound at Birs-Nimroud, which he had recently uncov- 

 ered, and which he found laid out in the form of seven terraces. These were 

 arranged in the order in which the Chaldeans or Sabeans supposed the planet- 

 ary spheres were arranged, and each terrace being painted hi different colors, 

 hi order to represent its respective planet. Another curious circumstance 

 with reference to this excavation was the discovery of the documents inclosed 

 in this temple. From the appearance of the place, he was enabled at once to 

 say in what part they were placed, and on opening the wall at the place he 

 indicated, his workmen found two fine cylinders. He also mentioned another 

 small ivory cylinder which he had discovered, and round which were engraved 

 mathematical figures, so small that they could hardly be seen with the naked 

 eye, and which could not have been engraved without the aid of a very 

 strong lens. In concluding, he said that before the British Association met 

 next year, he hoped to be able to bring before them the decipherment of 

 several highly important inscriptions. 



DK. KAXE'S ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



The return of Dr. Kane's Arctic Expedition may be said to close the event- 

 ful history of modern Arctic exploration, commenced by the dispatch of Sir 

 John Franklin's Expedition in 1845. 



The expedition of Dr. Kane sailed from New York on the 21st of May, 

 1853. It consisted of the brig "Advance," which carried seventeen persons, 

 including the officers, and provisions for three years. The ostensible object 

 was to search for Sir John Franklin by a new route along the west coast of 

 Greenland, passing through Smith's Sound, and, if possible, into a Polar Sea, 

 which was supposed to exist to the north. Great success attended the Ex- 



