TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 143 
by stating that the best and easiest line of communication to the Pacific across the 
North American continent was through British territory. 
Explorations in Greenland. By Evwarp WuyMPeEr, 
On the Seychelles Islands. By Prof. EK. Percrvan Wrienr, M.D., PLS. 
The Seychelles group lie in the Indian Ocean, about 950 miles from Mauritius, and 
about 340 from Madagascar, which may be considered the nearest land; they are 
thirty in number, and from their productions, which the author went out last year 
to investigate, possess a great deal of interest. The group was probably discovered 
by Vasco de Gama as early as 1502. Capt. Picault in 1742 landed on the largest 
island and took possession of the group in the name of France. Their present 
name was given subsequently in honour of a French official, the Viscount Hérault 
de Seychelles. At the time of the French Revolution, and at different periods after 
it, the French made use of the islands for transporting to them political offenders ; 
and thus members of the noblest and best families of France found themselves left 
on their shores, with a grant of land and but little else todepend upon. In course of 
time many of them were married to black slaves imported from Mozambique ; and 
it may be said that French gentlemen with their black consorts laid the foundation 
of the present population of these islands. Under the governorship of the Chevalier 
de Quincey in 1794 the Seychelles were surrendered to the English Commodore 
Newcome, under threat of bombardment of the chief town. At present the islands 
are in charge of a Civil Commissioner, dependent on the government of Mauritius. 
The largest of the group is Mahé, about 18 miles long and 7 miles broad; the second 
in size is Praslin, about two-thirds the area of Mahé, The chief town is Port Vic- 
toria, situated in a beautiful bay, land-locked, but with two entrances quite safe, 
not only for the large steamers of the Messageries Impériales, but for some of the 
largest ships of war which have as yet formed part of the slave-trade squadrons 
in those seas. Although lying out of the reach of the hurricanes that devastate 
the southern shores of India and Mauritius, the islands were once visited by a most 
destructive typhoon. It rained for five consecutive days; at the end of the fourth 
day a ereat storm arose, and a landslip, 300 feet in width, rushed down the preci- 
mens sides of the principal mountain, carrying down everything on its surface. 
locks of granite fifty and sixty tons in weight rolJed down in the yast avalanche, 
destroying almost the whole town of Victoria. The town was restored under the 
superintendence of the present Commissioner, Mr. Swinburne Ward, and has nowa 
very handsome appearance. The houses are nearly all built of coral and roofed with 
wood. At the last census the population of the whole group numbered about 
7500. The temperature during the cold season averages 83° F, (28°'3 C.) during the 
day and 75° F. (238°C.) atnight. The climate is excellent, and the heat scarcely ever 
disagreeable. The only serious disease is leprosy ; one of the smaller islands is, per- 
haps, the only station under the British Crown that has a leprosy es-ablishment, 
This island, called Curteuse, is also the home and centre of one of the most re- 
markable vegetable productions of the world, namely, the lofty palm-tree which 
epee the double cocoa-nut. The language spoken in Seychelles is French, 
ut very curiously corrupted among the lower classes of the population. There 
would appear to be no grammar, no tenses to the verbs, and no declensions to the 
pronouns. There is no phrase more common than “moi ne cont pas,” for I do 
not know. Many words are lengthened by the intercalation of vowels: thus, 
“ gelisser” for glisser, “belouse” for blouse, &c, To trace the process of this 
remarkable deterioration would be a curious philological study ; for we know that 
the language was three generations ago spoken in perfect purity by the original 
French settlers. The highest mountain in Mahé rises to a height of from 3500 to 
4000 feet. With the exception of a few porphyritic veins, the islands may be said 
geologically to consist of nothing but the remains of a large chain of granitic moun- 
tains, which are clothed up to the summit with tropical vegetation. The coral 
reefs lie generally at some distance from the shore. It is evident that the land is 
gradually subsiding. Looking at the land from the sea, there are two well-marked 
