400 New Publications. 



3. The South African duarterly PhihsophicalJournal. No. 1. from 

 October 1829 to January 1830 ; and No. II. from January to 

 April 1830. 8vo. Cape Town. 



A philosophical journal from Southern Africa will natu- 

 rally excite the surprise of some, and the curiosity of others. 

 To us it is delightful to observe a thirst for knowledge and 

 improvement springing up even alongside the Hottentot and 

 the Bushman ; in a country, too, which, as the eloquent 

 author of the introductory observations to the first number of 

 the journal remarks, " is placed on the highway of communication 

 betwixt the world's nations, whether aged in wisdom or in igno- 

 rance, or yet Uttle more than the half-formed germ of prospec- 

 tive empires; canopied by a sky of strange unsearched splendour ; 

 and nourished by a land of unrivalled interest ; with fantastic 

 mountains, immersing their foundations hi seas, and their sum- 

 mits in the vapours of a hemisphere, almost unknown." 



This journal is an auxiliary to the South African Institution, 

 estabhshed at the Cape of Good Hope last year, under the pa- 

 tronage of the present active and intelligent Governor Sir Lowry 

 Cole, and the presidency of Colonel Bell. 



The object of the Institution is the promotion of knowledge 

 in all tiiat relates to the Natural History, and geographic, phy- 

 sical, and economic statistics of South Africa, — the encourage- 

 ment of such investigations as tend to that effect, — the collection of 

 such objects as will confirm, augment, and diffuse information. 

 The two Numbers, transmitted to us by the Institution, we 

 consider highly creditable not only to the Institution itself, but 

 also to the authors of the different memoirs. Among these we ob- 

 serve communications by Dr Smith, a well known and active na- 

 turalist, — by Mr Bowie, whose name is familiar to the botanists 

 of Britain, — but we regret that an individual so talented and 

 accomplished as the Rev. James Adamson, one of the secretaries, 

 and a most active member of the Institution, does not appear as a 

 contributor. The following is a list of the communications pub- 

 lished in the first Number: — 1. Description of the Birds inhabit- 

 ing Southern Africa, by Dr Smith. 2. Notice of Earthquakes 

 which occurred at the Cape of Good Hope in December 1809, by 



