284 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1787' 



to any questions on the quality of the water, and the mineral productions of the 

 soil. All they could say of the former was, that it was very hot, very foul, and 

 as it were greasy; that it boils up in many places, and has a very offensive smell: 

 and the latter remarkable only for the saline appearances above described. That 

 country however in general produces considerable quantities of iron, copper, and 

 sulphur. After being purified, it sells in the market here for about 1 5 rupees 

 per maund; and I am assured, by many of the natives, that all the borax in 

 India comes only from the place above-mentioned. 



I am afraid you will think this at best but a very unsatisfactory and unphiloso- 

 phical account of the matter: but what can be done, where the only mode of 

 information is through some of the wild and unsettled mountaineers? for the 

 place is inaccessible even to the inhabitants of Hindostan, and has never been 

 visited by any of them, except a few wandering Faquires, who have been some- 

 times led that way, either to do penance, or to visit some of the temples in the 

 mountains. The cold in winter is described to be so intense that every thing is 

 frozen up, and that life can only be preserved by loads of blankets and skins. 

 In the summer again, the reflection from the sides of the mountains, which are 

 steep and close to each other, there being little or no plain ground between 

 them^ renders the heats insufferable. I shall conclude with a few observations 

 regarding the credibility of the relation ; and first that it is really brought from the 

 mountains is certain, as I have myself often had occasion to see large quantities 

 of it brought down, and have purchased from the Tartar mountaineers, who 

 brought it to market; 2dly, I have never heard of its being either produced or 

 brought into this country from any other quarter; and 3dly, if it was made on 

 the Coromandel coast, as some books mention, I think there can be little doubt, 

 but that the whole process would have been fully inquired into, and given to 

 the public long before this time. 



XXIX. A Letter from the Father Prefect of the Mission in Thibet, F. Joseph 

 da RovatOy containing some Observations relative to Borax. From the Italian, 

 p. 301. 



The father prefect of the mission in Thibet has the pleasure to acquaint the 

 R. s., that, residing at Patna, he has frequently been desired by M. Vogles, an 

 able naturalist from Germany, to obtain some circumstantial account of the 

 places where, and the manner in which, the borax procured from the kingdom 

 of Thibet is obtained; no one else, as he said, having any communication with 

 those almost impenetrable parts. Though our mission have long since forsaken 

 that kingdom, yet the Father prefect being somewhat connected with the Ba- 

 hadur Shah, brother to the king of Nepal, whose kingdom extends northward 

 as far as Kuti on the frontiers of Thibet, he wrote to him, and requested all 

 the information that could be obtained on the subject. The Bahadur Shah, in 



