32 M. Audre de Luc on the Openings in Mountain-Chains. 



pellation of rf«r Chinie, which signifies the wood of China. Cinuaraon 

 or cassia was for a long time imported into Europe under the name of 

 " China wood." The Malaj- word kayu (wood) seems to have been the 

 origin of the Hebrew word kiddah, which is translated cassia, and the 

 Latin term, by which this aromatic bark is known in commerce, is 

 Cassia lignea. In ancient times the unpeeled shoots or branches were 

 conve^'ed to Europe, and sold wood and bark together ; and hence, in 

 all probability, is the origin of the adjunct " lignea." Moses was di- 

 rected (Exodus XXX. 2.3, 25) to take of myrrh, sweet cinnamon, sweet 

 calamus, cassia, and olive-oil. certain quantities, and thereof to " make 

 an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apo- 

 thecary : it shall be an holy anointing oil." How was the art of the apo- 

 thecary exercised in preparing the holy ointment or oil ? Perhaps it was 

 prepared by a process similar to that which the natives of India have from 

 time immemorial practised to prepare odoriferous oils. The aromatic 

 substances employed are coarsely powdered, and put into an earthen 

 vessel along with a specific quantity of fixed oil. Water, sufiicient to 

 cover the aromatics, is then added, and the vessel placed upon a fire. 

 During the process of ebullition, the essential oil of the aromatics unites 

 with the fixed oil, by which means it is impregnated with the peculiar 

 odour of the seeds, barks, or otlier substances employed. 



Cinnamon is mentioned in the Song of Solomon, chap, iv., and in Pro- 

 verbs vii. 17 ; and cassia in Ezekiel xxvii. 19. The " sweet cane," men- 

 tioned in Isaiah xliii. 24, and Jeremiah vi. 20, is in all probability only 

 another designation of cinnamon. That it was not the sugar cane may 

 be inferred from the verse last quoted, where it is described as coming 

 " from a far country." The Crusaders found the sugar cane in great 

 abundance in Syria, which they denominated Canna Meies (honeyed 

 reeds) ; and, consequently, we may conclude that it was indigenous in 

 Palestine, although sugar seems not to have been manufactured from the 

 cane earlier than the fifth century. 



Oti the Transfserse Valleys or Openings in Chains of Mountains 

 which afford a Passage to Bivers. By J. Andre' de Luc. 



The phenomenon of transverse valleys or openings, which 

 afford a passage to rivers through mountain-chains, is met 

 Vf'ith. in the four quarters of the globe, and even very frequent- 

 ly ; but it cannot have been sufficiently attended to, since a late 

 traveller, when speaking of two Indian rivers which cross the 

 first chain of the Himmalaya by a deep opening, says, — " This 

 singular course has nothing else analogous to it in the other 

 chains we met with, where, in general, the currents belonging 



