X PREFACE. 



To his numerous correspondents the Editor can but proffer 

 thanks for past, and solicitations for future, support, bidding them 

 remember that, the scope and object of this publication embraces 

 the literature, the manners, the geography, physical and mineral, 

 the arts, the natural productions of Asia, the phenomena of its 

 climate, and observations of the heavens. In the words of the 

 illustrious founder of the Asiatic Society, " the bounds of its 

 investigation will be the geographical limits of Asia ; and within 

 these limits its inquiries will be extended to whatever is performed 

 by man or produced by nature." 



