Correspondence. 285 



due to deposition from thermal waters under great pressure, or other 

 circumstances favourable to its induration, lias some grounds to rest 

 upon. I have only once had an opportunity of seeing the magnesite 

 in situ, which was near Trichinopoly, and about fifteen miles from the 

 S. bank of the Cauvery : it occurred in an extensive "pipe" issuing 

 from the mass of pyrigenous rock, (sienite and hornblende,) which form- 

 ed the country, and as it reached its upper and partially decomposed 

 surface, it spreads abroad into innumerable veins, clustering here and 

 there into a nucleus, but generally finding their way individually to 

 the clay. As the mine was on a hill side, we had only to scrape among 

 the loose friable rock, until we came to the solid mass or pipe, when the 

 mineral was brought away in prodigious quantities by simple quarrying 

 with the pick : we used it for cement for an anicut or masonry dam, 

 which was under construction across the Cauvery at the time. 



" The mineral, however, is found all over the districts which I have 

 named, coming to the surface in patches, and almost every where to be 

 worked in open day without any mining operations, pump work, &c. 

 for a considerable period of time. Steatite is found occurring in the 

 mass of the magnesite, and it is often deeply tinted by manganese. 

 It is also curiously associated with the chromate of iron, which is so 

 abundant and so rich in Salem; but the particulars of this association I 

 am unable to give you, from local ignorance." 



Report on the Botanic Garden of Seharanpore. By Dr. Falconer, Super- 

 intendent. 



The report of Dr. Falconer embraces a period of eighteen months, or 

 from July 1839 to January 1841. In the first paragraph we learn, that 

 the expenditure of the garden is about 1,100 rupees per mensem, exclu- 

 sive of the Superintendent's salary of 100. The entire expense of the 

 establishment throughout the period referred to, being 21,000 rupees. 



In the 2nd paragraph we learn, that parties of collectors were started 

 early in the seed season of 1839, into different parts of the Himalaya 

 mountains, and collections made along the wide range formed by the 

 plains up the Aluknunda river to the Niti Pass, on the Thibetian 

 frontier ; four detached parties in the hill tract between the heads of the 

 Ganges and Sutluj, with a range of collection extending from the outer 

 ridges to the Snowy Mountains ; a large and valuable collection from 

 Cashmere, gathered around the valley and the adjoining portions of 

 Thibet. 



2 o 



