476 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



on the point of sending another, of four or five thousand men, 

 into the interior of Africa. One division is to move on Darfoor, 

 by way of the Desert which Brown passed over. The second is 

 to keep along the hill, and to advance as far as Sennaar. This 

 force is commanded by his son Ismael Pacha. They carry 

 cannon, and provisions for three months ; they have already 

 been joined by a great part of the Mamelukes at Dongola, who 

 have come in and made their submission ; and that part of the 

 country and its adjoining districts have been put under the 

 command of Abdeen Cachief, who is to pass from the Theban 

 Oasis with 4,000 Arabs, and to take up his residence at Don- 

 gola, his orders being to keep open the communications with 

 the two advanced armies. There are several European en- 

 gineers employed on this service, from whom we may expect 

 to receive accurate accounts of what may occur. 



8. On the Root resembling the Potato, lately imported from 



South America, 



(To the Editor of the Journal of Science and the Arts.) 



It is remarkable that the root resembling the potato, lately 

 brought to England for cultivation from Santa-Fe de Bogota, 

 is an African root, which grows in the territory of Lower Suse, 

 near the Southern Atlas, inhabited by the Arabs of Woled 

 Abbusebah, and called by them by the same name which it 

 bears in South America, viz., Arak Atshan or Atshu, unques- 

 tionably true Arabic words , signifying the absorbing, or thirsty 

 root: Aruk, or root ; Atshun, thirsty. 



How has this root found its way to South America, and there 

 retained its original Arabic name ? Were the ancient Arabs 

 possessed of more nautical knowledge than we are aware 

 of ? Did they, at some remote period, and many centuries before 

 the discovery of America by Columbus, cross the Western 

 Ocean, transporting their plants to America? Or are we to 

 confirm the opinion of a submerged continent, which, before its 

 submersion, afforded a communication between Africa and 

 South America, countries now divided from each other by an 

 ocean of 30° across from shore to shore ? 



Jamks Grey Jacksox. 



