Feb. 23, 1857.] LAUTUKE'S EXPEDITION UP THE NILE. 301 



of our countryman, Mr. Twyford, although with great difficulty, 

 had ascended for the first time with steamers the celebrated cataracts 

 of the Nile, and early in January had arrived in the town of New 

 Dongola. The Count, however, had been obliged to suspend ope- 

 rations until the next season. 



Colonel Sykes, v.-p.e.g.s., said he held in his hand a letter from the 

 Comte d'Escayrac de Lauture to the Secretary. In it he complained that the 

 Germans attached to the expedition threw impediments in the way. He also 

 said that the Austrians had a mission at Khartum, on the White Nile ; and 

 when the Pasha sent troops for the safety of the traders up the river, he 

 found that the Austrian missionaries had distributed little Austrian flags, 

 which had produced a great effect in Egypt, as if they were going to act 

 the part of the Spaniards in South America. The Comte adds—" I am very 

 glad that it was an Englishman who achieved this first success in thus ascend- 

 ing the cataracts of the Nile. With respect to Twyford, I have thought it 

 right to increase his salary." Then, he continues, he had no doubt this great 

 enterprise would experience very great obstacles ; " but with the two people, 

 the English and French — France bold, and urged on by the love of glory ; 

 England patiently indifferent to obstacles, and always looking to the future — 

 there can be no doubt about the ultimate results of the expedition." 



The President said that M. d'Escayrac had already distinguished himself 

 by the excursions he had made in Africa. He was a French gentleman who 

 had devoted himself to the cause of geography, and was therefore entitled to 

 the consideration of that Society. He had, at the request of the Pasha, invited 

 gentlemen of different countries to accompany him in this expedition, and it 

 was gratifying to find that with none of his companions had he been more 

 satisfied than with Mr. Twyford, the young English sailor. 



2. Proposed Communication in Asia Minor, between the Lake of Sahanja, 

 the River Sakaria, and the Gulf of JVicomedia. By General Jochmus. 



Cemmunicated by Sir Eoderick I. Murchison. 



History establishes that in ancient times the utility had been already 

 recognised of a communication between the Black Sea and the Gulf 

 of Nicomedia, by means of canals which should connect, on the one 

 hand, the river Sakaria with the lake of Sabanja, and on the other, 

 this lake with the Gulf of Nicomedia, directly, or by way of the 

 little river Kara-su. 



Down to the end of the last century, the question of this system 

 of canalization had been seven times agitated ; first in the time of 

 the kings of Bithynia ; next under the Emperor Trajan ; tJien under 

 two Byzantine Emperors — Anastasius and Alexis ; and again during 

 the reigns of the Sultans Bajazid II., Mohammed IV., and Mus- 

 tapha III. 



In ancient times there were technical objections to the execution 

 of this great enterprise ; a magnificent Eoman bridge 800 feet in 

 length, however, still exists, which, in the environs of Ada-bazar, 



