48 Geographical Collections. 



Egypt, the honour of France, have not prevented Mr. Rifaud from collecting the 

 materials of a great work. At once examining the civil and religious instit«-> 

 tions of the country, the manners and customs of its inhabitants, and the ancient 

 monuments, he brings back with him more than six thousand drawings, of which 

 a part relate to the modem state of Egypt. A great number of his drawings 

 have the merit of making us acquainted with things quite novel. Antiquities 

 and natural history will more especially gain by the publication of his labours. 



Those of Mt. Fontanier have more than one title to your interest. They are 

 especially geographical, and they frequently answer the questions whose solution 

 you had entrusted to him. In his successes you will find some of your work- 

 manship. 



The itinerary of Mr. Fontanier led him into countries whose geography is far 

 from being complete. He visited the Russian provinces beyond the Caucasus ; 

 he went into the pachalick of Bagdad, by Hainadan and Kermanchah ; he made 

 observations in Guriel and in Mingrelia, and from Erzeroum he worked his way 

 to Constantinople, by a road the least frequented and the worst described. From 

 him you have learnt that the chain of the Elvend and the position of Kengawer, 

 are not more exactly marked on our maps than the direction of the mountains 

 which join that chain to the Zagros hills. From Bagdad to Bassora he carries 

 tlie course of the Tigris more to the east, and this brings the mountains 

 of Lourestan nearer. In Turkey in Asia, a very great part of what concerns the 

 coast of Lazzes, Erzeroum and its environs, Sivas, and the country of the Curdes, 

 is distinguished by interesting details. Ancient geography will profit by some 

 of his observations, as physical geography will be indebted to him for useful in- 

 fonnation. Let us add that Mr. Fontanier has merited the gratitude of his suc- 

 cessors, by tracing the plan of a scientific journey in the countries which he has 

 visited. 



Other travellers in the east, have given interesting specimens of their researches. 

 Mr. Vidal has led us over the arid deserts which separate Damas and Aleppo 

 from the city of Bagdad, over some parts of Babylonia and of Mesopotamia, as 

 well as a part of the banks of the Tigris. Mr. Charles Guys has conducted us 

 into the most picturesque and unfrequented parts of Liban. We have followed 

 Mr. Jouannin upon Mount Olympus, shaded with forests, and decked with the 

 remembrances of fable and of history. We have stopped with him in the town 

 of Prusias, with its ancient walls, its smiling vegetation, and its thirty-two. 

 mosques. We have accompanied him in the fertile plain of Broussia, rich in its 

 mulberry trees, its silk -worms, and its numerous hot-springs, where the Christiatt 

 and the Mussulman, re-united by the same wants, forget their religious antipa-. 

 thies under the laws of the most affecting hospitality. 



( To be concluded in the next.) 



Breadth of the Sound The frozen state of this great inlet suggested, a short 



time ago, to the citizen^ of Elsinore to make an exact measurement of its breadth, 

 when it was found to bfe 6CG5 Swedish ells, (above four miles,) at the narrowest- 

 part, viz. between the stone halls on the Swedish side, and the extreme point of. 

 the fortress of Kroborg on the Danish. But from the opposite harbours, Elsi- 

 nore and Helsinborg, the distance is greater, viz. 7395 Swedish ells, or fully five 

 miles. We need not thus wonder that the passage of the Sound should have been 

 twice effected by our fleets without loss from the fire of the Kxoborg batteries, - 

 viz. by Sir John Norris, a century ago, and by Six Peter Parker in the year 1801, 



Scientific Expedition in the Asiatic Provinces, lately conquered by Russia 



An imperial librarian has been sent, with naturalists and artists, into the Turkish 

 countries conquered by the Russian army during the late war, to collect geogra- 

 phical documents, and to copy the most remarkable inscriptions and monuments. 

 The winter before, an antiquary had been sent to Odessa in search of anti- 

 quities, along the banks of the Danube as far as Sizeboli. — Bull, de la Soc. de 

 Geoy. . ->■ 



