96 Chronicles of Science. | Jan., 
first excited curiosity about this country. The visit of Colonel 
Pelly comes to supplement the jottings that the disguise of a 
Syriac physician alone permitted to Mr. Palgrave ; in fact, one of the 
reasons assigned for the journey was that direct observations had 
not been made, and consequently the position of the cities in the 
interior had not been accurately determined. Official duty con- 
veniently coincided with the desire of geographical information, and 
accordingly with two officers of the Government civil establishment 
on the Persian Gulf, Dr. Colville and Lieutenant Dawes, Colonel 
Pelly started for the interior on the 18th of February in last 
year. From Kowait, in the north-western corner of the Gulf, they 
travelled on camels over the desert in a direction 8.8. W., journeying 
from a little before daybreak to sunset, when their tents were 
pitched with the door towards the north star, in order to enable 
them to make their astronomical observations durmg the night, 
when their Arab attendants were asleep. On this occasion Colonel 
Pelly did not, as formerly from Teheran, wear his uniform as a 
British officer ; but whilst not concealing his nationality, he never 
thrust it offensively forward, wearing the ordinary dress of the 
country. ‘The first part of the journey was over a country slightly 
undulating, inhabited only by snakes, lizards, and insects. Grass 
and flowers are common enough in early spring to give a slight 
tinge of green to the landscape. Seven ridges of hills traversed 
the line of their march and extended for some distance, for they were 
again crossed on the return by another route. It took seven days 
to traverse the sandy ridges and narrow valleys, a gradual ascent all 
the way to a plain called Ormah, over which some brushwood was 
sprinkled, and through which small streams flow until they are 
lost in the arid soil. The plain is bounded by a ridge of hills 
through a ravine, in which the travellers passed to another upland 
plain, and this kind of progress continued until they reached Riadh, 
the capital, in the midst of a country studded with groves of date- 
palms, fifteen days after their departure from Kowait. The mean 
of five solar observations gives this place long. 46° 41’ 48” and lat. 
24° 38’ 34”. Colonel Pelly had three interviews with the Amir, 
who is absolute head of his kingdom in both spiritual and temporal 
matters. The Amir himself placed no obstacle in the way of scien- 
tific investigation, but his attendants are extremely bigotted and 
intolerant, The magnificent stud of Nejid horses was opened to the 
inspection of the visitors, as it had been to Mr. Palgrave. 
A paper on the Korea was furnished by Captain Allen Young, 
who described it as an almost untrodden ground for geographers, 
being only known from the description of Chinese and Japanese 
writers, but few HKuropeans ever having set foot on its soil. It 
has been invaded and encroached upon by both those peoples, and 
