162 REARrADMIRAL F. W. BEECHEY'S ADDRESS. [May 26, 1856. 



Topographical. — The Survey of the Plains of the Punjab advances 

 satisfactorily. The work, we are informed, will be executed in a 

 style not inferior to that portion which has already been submitted 

 to the inspection of the members of this Society. The Ganjam 

 Survey continues to progress. As it is now being carried on in a 

 country hitherto almost a blank in our maps, and through a number 

 of petty states, the names of which were hardly known, its com- 

 pletion is looked forward to with much interest. 



Revenue. — These surveys are proceeding steadily. The districts 

 of Kajeshaye, Goalpara, and the Julindher Dooab have recently 

 been completed. 



Fifty sheets of the ' Indian Atlas ' are now published. Several 

 others will be finished during the ensuing season. 



Marine. — A new and elaborate survey of the harbour and outer 

 roads of Karachi, has been executed on a large scale by Lieut. 

 Grieve, i.n., and is now being engraved. This harbour, in connec- 

 tion with the railway and electric telegraph, will no doubt become 

 one of the most important stations on the western coast of India. 

 Another sheet of the Survey of the Malacca Strait, extending from 

 Cape Eachado to Mount Formosa, by Lieut. Ward; i.n., has recently 

 been sent home. The Survey of the North Preparis Channel, in 

 the Bay of Bengal, extending from Preparis Island to Cape Negrais, 

 by Lieut. Ward, has also lately been published. 



Turkey in Asia. — I have next to notice a memoir on the Map of 

 Damascus, the Hauran, and mountains of Lebanon, from personal 

 survey, by our associate, the Eev. J. L. Porter, containing various 

 journeys in Syria, in the performance of which he corrected many 

 errors in the received geography of that country. About Damascus, 

 he finds that the Bahr el Merj is not one lake, but three distinct lakes, 

 and that the plain around Damascus contains many villages, none of 

 which appear on the map. Balbeck is in error in its bearing from 

 Damascus ; the Antilibanus chain requires correction. Thus the 

 author proceeds, pointing out numerous errors in the topography of 

 the country, and concludes by observing that the present Ard-el- 

 Bathauzel is the ancient Batanea. 



Mr. Arrowsmith is preparing a beautiful map of Syria and Palestine, 

 in three sheets, for the Foreign Office. 



We have next an important paper, comprising notes of a journey 

 from Busrah to Bagdad, with descriptions of some Chaldean re- 

 mains, by Mr. William Kennett Loftus. 



In this paper the author furnishes a highly interesting description 

 of the country through which he passed, both in a geographical 



