168 REPORT— 1869. 



graphic Commission sent across the Andes from Lima, -who aftei-wards descended 

 the river, to survey the boundaries between Brazil and Peru. The same Commis- 

 sion also ascended the Ucayali, with the view of exploring the River Tambo, but 

 were not able to reach far up that river, owing to the strength of the current 

 being too great for the capabilities of the steamer. The Commission had arrived 

 at the coucliLsion that the Ucayali must be considered the iipper stream of the 

 Amazons, and not the upper Maranon or Tunguragua, as hitherto supposed. The 

 distance from the port of Mayro, to which the smaller steamers of the expedition 

 ascended, to the mouth of the Amazons, is about y300 miles. The present popu- 

 lation of Yquitos is about 1000, of whom 72 are English. The Peruvian Govern- 

 ment oiFered grants of land in this new and fertile country to immigrants ; and the 

 author concluded his paper by stating his conviction that no other tropical country 

 offered so healthy a climate and so many advantages to Em'opean emigrants. 



A Visit to the Hohj City of Fas, in Marocco. Bif J. STrRllifG. 



Fas, usnally misspelt Fez, is one of the three or four capitals of Marocco, and has 

 rarel}"^ been visited by Eiu'opeans. It is termed " holy " probably because it was 

 once a substitute for Mecca as a place of pilgrimage for the Moors, during a period 

 when ajoiu-ney to Arabia was rendered impracticable. The author visited the city in 

 the suite of Sir J. Drimimdndllay, the British Minister, on his official mission in 

 November 1867. It is a- fortified place, situated at the eastern extremity of a fine 

 plain, sloping towardslhe great and fertile valleys watered by the Sebu river, into 

 whose stream flow the waters of a river which passes through the centre of the 

 city. This river forms an interesting feature of the place, supplying, as it does, 

 abundant water for domestic purposes, and numerous fountains, public and private, 

 besides irrigating the gardens outside the walls. There were no means of ascer- 

 taining with accuracy the population of the city ; the author estimated it at some- 

 •«yhat less than 100,000. There are numerous hotels, picturesque mosques, and 

 Mfdresat, or colleges, the latter containing libraries and apartments for the stu- 

 dents ; but the range of studies is limited to the Koran and its commentaries, 

 grammar, logic, and geometry. The official interview took place in the open court 

 of the palace, the Sultan mounted on a white horse, according to ancient Arabian 

 etiquette. 



On a snuill Altazimuth Instrument for the Use of Explorers. 

 By Lieut.-Colonel A. Strange, F.R.S., F.B.A.S. 



On Central Asia. By Pieeke be Tchihatchef. 



I beg leave to submit to your kind attention a few remarks in reference to a publi- 

 cation which is about to be issued, and which recommends itself by the name of the 

 author and the importance of its subject : I mean the intended publication of a new, 

 completed, and corrected edition of Baron Humboldt's 'Asie centrale,' a celebrated 

 work published in the year 1843, which was entirely exhausted even before the death 

 of the great German philosopher. This fact alone would certainly be sufficient to jus- 

 tify' the enterprise : but a peculiar circumstance conveys to it an additional interest and 

 renders it still more desirable ; it is the discovery of an autograph letter in French, 

 wi'itten in the year 1854, addressed by Baron Humboldt to M. Gide, his publisher 

 and intimate friend, — a letter which has been found among the valuable papers of 

 this gentleman recently deceased, and after whose death all those papers, as well 

 as the exclusive property of the works of Baron von Humboldt, wiitten in French 

 and published in Paris, have been acquired by JNI. Guerin, one of the chief and 

 ablest publishers in France. In this letter, which Baron von Humboldt designates 

 as his last will, entrusted to a dear friend ("c'est mou testament depose enti-e les 

 mains d'uu ami qui m'est cher ''), the illustrious philosopher enti'eats most warmly 

 M. Gide to xmdertake a new edition of the ' Asie centrale,' which Baron von 

 Humboldt declares to be the most important of all his writings ("le plus important 

 de tons mes ouvrages"), and .which, therefore, he wishes to be raised to the level of 



