TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 147 
Rae put the hull of the new steamer together in about a uh after we brought 
up the keel. She looks beautiful and strong, and I have no doubt will answer all 
our expectations when we get her on the lake. 
“ River affectionately yours, 
“ Davip LIVINGSTONE.” 
On Serious Inaccuracies in the Great Survey of the Alps, south of Mont Blane, 
as issued by the Government of Sardina, By W. Maruews, Jun., M.A., 
F.GS. 
The maps referred to were the six-sheet map of Savoy and Piedmont which 
Pine in 1841, the great ninety-one-sheet map now in course of publication, and 
that attached to the work entitled ‘Le Alpi che cingono I'Italia,’ dated 1845, 
all of which were issued by the War Department of the Sardinian Government. 
Among the many cases of error, the most extraordinary was that of the Mont 
Iséran, a mountain stated to be nearly 13,300 feet high, hitherto supposed to be 
the culminating peak of the Graian Alps, and represented as situated in Savoy, 
immediately on the east of the Col of the same name. From investigations made 
in the country by Mr. Mathews and other travellers since the year 1859, it was now 
conclusively established that no such peak exists in the situation in which it is placed 
by the Sardinian engineers. The height of the so-called Mont Iséran was deter- 
mined trigonometrically at the commencement of the present century by Colonel 
Corabceuf, of the Etat-Major Frangais, and on referring to his original memoir, it 
appears that the peak he measured is situated in Italy, and is, in fact, the Grand 
Paradis, a mountain nearly fifteen miles distant from the supposed site of the Mont 
Iséran, Mr, Mathews next described the position of the eight principal summits 
of the Graian Alps, rising above 12,000 feet, most of which had een ascended for 
the first time, and their altitudes determined, by members of the Alpine Club 
within the last three years. He showed that these mountains were most incor- 
rectly represented on the maps, and stated his conviction that the main Alpine 
ranges had been roughly drawn in the office of the War Department and never 
properly surveyed. 
Decipherment of the Phoenician Inscription on the Newton Stone, Aberdeen- 
shire. By the Rey. Dr. Mitt. 
The subject of this paper was an inscribed stone, found at a village in Aberdeen- 
shire, some miles from the coast, and in a country containing many of what are 
commonly called Druidical monuments, Dr. Mill read the inscription backwards, 
decided that the letters were Phcenician, and explained them by the corresponding 
letters of the Hebrew alphabet. According to fis interpretation, it was a votive 
monument dedicated to Eshmin, god of health (the Tyrian Eseulapius), in grati- 
tude for favours received during “the wandering exile of me thy servant,”—the 
dedicator being “ Han-Thanit—Zenaniah, magistrate, who is saturated with sorrow.” 
Dr. Mill discussed the question whether Han-Thanit-Zenaniah had suffered from 
disease or shipwreck, and whether his sorrow had been caused by the loss of com- 
panions, or friends, or relations. He discussed also the peculiarity of the word 
used in the signification of magistrate, and pointed out that he appeared to have 
been a man of consular dignity who had commanded a ship or fleet which came to 
Britain, and that this and other circumstances pointed to the earlier period of the 
history of Tyre. 
On Recent Notices of the Rechabites. By Signor Prerorrt. 
Towards the end of April 1860, the author, travelling south of the Dead Sea, and 
in a valley about two miles therefrom, met a tribe of Rechabites, whose object was 
to procure a supply of linen and salt; the next day another tribe arrived, on a 
similar errand; these all described themselves as descendants of Ishmael—a mis- 
take of course if they were really Rechabites, which they also claimed to be. 
They were exceedingly clean in their dresses and persons—cleaner than any other 
Bedouins; but the most singular point connected with them was that they had a 
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