GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF 1874. 221 



it, has also been explored, revealing the fact that the country drained 

 by the old river, whose channel is now dry, was the scat of an exten- 

 sive civilization, of which nothing now remains but the ruins. Ex- 

 plorations have been made in the Himalaya Mountains, with a view 

 to a railroad across Asia. The river Han-kiang, in China, hitherto 

 almost unknown, has been found to be of great commercial importance. 

 For the last four years the rich and prosperous country around Tien- 

 Tsin, in China, has been lying'under water from inundations to a depth 

 of nearly five feet, and the unfortunate inhabitants of this once fertile 

 region have been driven to seek new homes in the waste country north 

 of the Great Wall. Many unknown regions have been visited by trav- 

 elers and exi^lorers, who found new countries, peoples, and customs. 

 In the Kassia tribes, between Siam and Burmah, the doctrine of 

 woman's rights is fully carried out. The women own the land, live in 

 their own houses, do the courting, marrying, divorcing, and the lion's 

 share of work ; the men, being the weaker half, and not responsible for 

 the maintenance of the family, do comparatively nothing, and take 

 life easy ! 



A savage tribe, the remnant of a very ancient people, has been 

 visited on the western coast of India. They are remarkable for their 

 unswerving truthfulness. The women wear over their usual garment 

 an apron of green leaves, the relic of an ancient custom, siiggesting a 

 passage in Genesis. In the central provinces the site of an ancient 

 city has been discovered buried in dense jungles, and bearing inscrip- 

 tions of two and a half centuries before Christ. The inscriptions are 

 chiefly the records of donors of columns, like those seen in the gift- 

 windows of our own churches. 



In Palestine, Lieutenant Conder, R. E,, has made important dis- 

 coveries of ruins in the hill-country of Judah, which he thinks he can 

 identify with some of the lost Biblical cities. He has found lost boun- 

 dary-stones, w^hich may prove to be the ancient Levitical landmarks. 

 Discoveries have also been made upon Mount Zion. 



At the mouth of the Persian Gulf there is a small island, of about 

 twelve miles in circumference, called Ormus, or Hormus. Though a 

 barren rock, it became, in the sixteenth century, from its geographical 

 position, a place of great commercial importance and wealth, where 

 the trade between Europe and the East was transacted. A town arose 

 three miles in length along the coast and two miles in width. The 

 Abbe Raynal describes it as presenting a more splendid appearance 

 than any city in the East, and, he saj^s, unusual opulence, an exten- 

 siv^e commerce, the politeness of the men, and the attraction of the 

 women, made it the seat of pleasure as well as trade. Milton refers to 

 it in "Paradise Lost," where he describes Satan in council. Last year, 

 Lieutenant Stiflb, of the British Navy, visited Ormus, and found that 

 even its building-materials had been carried away, and that nothing 

 remained of the once great and opulent city but a ruined minaret 



