436 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS— ASIA. [May 25, 1857. 



in the lapse of tliirty-five to forty years. An example of the effect 

 of this agency in by-gone times is adduced in the fact, that a great 

 city, of which the ruins are to be seen above Mohammerah, was an 

 island in the time of Sennacherib, named Billat, and can be shown 

 to have been still an island in the time of Alexander. At the present 

 time it is sixty miles from the embouchure of the river, and a suc- 

 cession of cities can be traced upon the desiccated delta below it, 

 along the river, down to the sea. 



A question of essential moment has also been explained by Eaw- 

 linson as to the frontier line between Turkey and Persia, — a point 

 upon which our maps have been greatly wanting in correctness. 

 The real line of frontier — as determined by the Commission of 

 Delimitation, appointed under the provisions of the Treaty of 

 Erzenim — comes down to Mohammerah, and then follows the 

 course of the Euphrates to the sea. It was agreed that the country 

 watered by the Euphrates belonged to Turkey, and the country 

 watered by the Karun to Persia ; but the question was, whether 

 Mohammerah was on the Euphrates or on the Karun. It was 

 decided that the place should be considered to belong to Persia, but 

 as according to Sir Henry's belief it is situated on the Eu- 

 phrates, this decision would seem to be contrary to geographical 

 accuracy. 



Thibet. — Early in this year some extracts were read to the Society 

 from the memoir of a journey across the Kuen-luen from Ladak to 

 Khotan, communicated by Colonel Sykes from the brothers Schlag- 

 intweit, already so well known to geographers and naturalists by 

 their labours on the physical geography and geology of the Alps. 



These accomplished gentlemen, who travel by the desire of the 

 King of Prussia, and at the suggestion of Baron Humboldt, have 

 been employed, under the patronage of the East India Company, 

 in the physical survey of the distant trans-Himalayan regions. 

 The extracts communicated to us, form a small portion only of the 

 information they have sent home, but from some brief allusions to 

 the groups of hot springs near the Kiook-Kiul Lake and the Valley 

 of the Nubra, we may feel assured that, when all their memoirs 

 are published, they will be found replete with curious observations 

 on many subjects ; and specially on those mineral springs to which 

 Humboldt long ago invited attention, as proofs that the Kuen-luen 

 was of volcanic origin. 



The brothers Schlagintweit have laid down the entire orography 

 of Kemaun. M. Adolf Schlagintweit, after visiting the glaciers of 



