122 Geographical Collections. 



ceived your approbation, and is printed at the expense of the Society. Two of 

 our colleagues have wished to associate themselves more intimately to this publi- 

 cation. BIr. Brue' has offered the map which accompanies the orography, and on 

 which the great features of the system of Mr. Bruguiere are traced. Mr. De- 

 naix, on his side, had equally placed at your disposal another plan destined for 

 the same object. These acts of generosity have been participated in by Mr. Vi- 

 vier, who offered to the Society to engrave, without expense, and from a drawing 

 adopted by it, the coin of the medals that are annually distributed. 



As an auxiliary to the memoirs, the Bulletin of the Society, as in preceding 

 years, contains useful documents, which could not find a place in your large col- 

 lection, and it acquires, from this appropriation, a more especial interest. 



The sittings of your commission have often been fiUed up by reports intended 

 to make us acquainted with those works that were thouglit worthy of such a dis- 

 tinction. 



In the course of the year many scientific communications have been made. 

 Mr. Jomard has exposed to you the actTial state of our knowledge on the course 

 of the Dhioliba. He begins by acknowledging that all the suppositions that 

 have been emitted, to the present day, repose on facts that are either incomplete 

 or disputed, and that time alone can decide upon. Nevertheless, he discussed 

 the merits of the three that alone coincide with the information that had been ob- 

 tained, and stopped at that which appeared to him to be nearest the truth. He 

 thinks that the river has its issue in an internal sea, the lake Tchad. These dif- 

 ficult questions have been treated of by Mr. William Hutton, in the 15th chap- 

 ter of his Journey to Coumassie, 1820, — a chapter which has furnished to Mr. 

 JJenome the subject of annotations and of accounts which are destined to throw 

 light on the geographical problem of the identity of the Nile and the Niger. 



Ancient Africa has occupied the attention of Mr. Marcus, He lias presented, 

 in a notice on the history of the foreign colonies in Abyssinia and Sennaar, from 

 the seventh century before the Christian era to the fourth after Jesus Christ, a 

 rapid review of the work which he intends publishing on this interesting subject. 



Mr. "Warden, whose predilection for every thing that concerns North America 

 is so natural and so profitable for us, has given an account of the American colo- 

 ny of Liberia, founded on the coast of Africa, in the moral and philantrophical 

 aim of civilizing the interior of that continent. He recalled to our memory, on 

 another occasion, the ruins of Palenqua and of Mytla, and some other antiquities 

 of Mexico. The rich collection of Mr. Baradere has been appreciated by him, 

 and recommended to the attention of the Society, which required to wait, before 

 it could give its opinion, for the results of the journey of iMr. Corroy in the midst 

 of those remains of Mexican civilization, which we require to ^uess at as a 

 problem. 



We are also indebted to Mr. Warden for useful information obtained from Mr. 

 A. Storr's account of the country situated between the JMissouri and the internal 

 provinces of Mexico, and for some interesting details of General Ashley's expe- 

 dition into the countries neighbouring the Rocky Mountains. Blr. Giraud gave 

 you a short description of the Indian tribes that inhabit the deserts to the west of 

 the Mississippi as far as the mountains. 



Dr. Siebold has triumphed over the mistrust of the monarch, the nobles, and 

 the people of Japan. He has been living there these several years in the midst 

 of learned men : he traverses the country without obstacles : he is admitted into 

 the libraries without difficulty : enlightened men communicate their labours to 

 him, and he embraces several branches of human knowledge, more especially geo- 

 graphy, upon which he appears to have collected more facts and documents than 

 his predecessors. You are indebted to IMr. Derfelden for these curious details, 

 transmitted with other scientific information. 



Mr. Van Capellen, ancient governor of the Indian archipelago, de Vins de 

 Peyssac, Graberg de Hemso, Spencer Smith, Tanner, and several others, have 

 made interesting communications, which we regret not to be able to re-produce 

 here. 



