1832.1 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 41 9 



of 2000 perpendicular feet over our heads, and were such as to hide the sun from 

 our view. What a country for a geologist ! The Hindu Kush is almost desti- 

 tute of vegetation ; but the asafcetida plant grows in great exuberance, and forms 

 the principal pasture of the flocks, which browse over them. 



We have now fairly debouched into the plains of Tartary, but we have no plateau 

 or elevated land, as seems to have been imagined by some geographers to exist in 

 these regions. Here water boils at 209£° = [Bar. 28.40 inches], and before we reach 

 Peshawer, since we follow the Oxus, it must even rise. This climate is 

 considered insalubrious, but it looks a very nice place, and produces the most 

 delicious fruit: the apricots are as large as small apples, with the mellowest 

 flavour. 



You must not suppose, that we took the route of the Hindu Cush in our jour- 

 ney to this place, but followed the grand caravanseras. The Hindu Cush is but the 

 name of one pass over these mountains, and though it is the highest of all the prac- 

 ticable passes and is only traversable for three months in the year, it is described as 

 the best road. Twenty horsemen may go abreast on it, but the snow is eternal, and 

 it is a three days journey without grass, wood, or supply. It must be very high, 

 since men and animals all experience a difficulty of breathing. There appears to 

 be a phenomenon of nature in this mountain, which deserves mention — I allude to 

 snow-worms. They are described to be as large as a silk-worm before it begins its 

 cocoon, and white and transparent ; they die on being separated from the snow." 



2. — Lithontrity practised in Persia. 



The following notice of a method of breaking up a stone in the bladder is ex- 

 tracted from the Khaw&s-ul-hejar, an anonymous Persian translation of a treatise 

 on the properties of minerals, composed in the Arabic language j the date of the 

 work is not known, but it is accounted ancient. Were the spirit of the author to 

 appear before the Acad^mie at Paris, we know not whether it might not become 

 a claimant for a share of the Monthyon prize of six thousand francs lately ad- 

 judged to M. Leroy, for his various lithontritic instruments. The passage oc- 

 curs in describing the qualities of the diamond. 



" One of its properties is to reduce urinary calculi to powder, and it is used in 

 this way : — a diamond of the size of a grain is fastened firmly to a kind of probe 

 of copper (jj*^ mil, an instrument used for applying collyrium) with mastich 

 or lac, which probe is then brought in contact with the calculus and rubbed upon 

 it until the stone is broken to pieces, when it is voided with the urine." 



3. — Extract from a letter from Major Burney, Resident in Ava, to Mr. Swinton, 

 dated Rangoon, 2ith August, 1832. 



" I lately discovered in the 21st volume of the Burmese History, that the Cho- 

 lera is no new disease in this country. In the year 1706, it raged in the city of 

 Ava, and destroyed a great many of the inhabitants. The Burmese History, in 

 which I find this account, is said to have been compiled before the Talain conquest 

 of Ava in 1751, and the copy of the work which I possess is marked as having been 

 transcribed in the year 1790. These are the words in the original. " On Thurs- 

 " day, the 4th day of the waning moon of Katshoun (our April), in the Burmese 

 " year 1068 (A. D. 1706), past six o'clock in the evening, the whole of the golden 

 " city was seized with panic, and made a great uproar, shouting and beating with 

 " sticks. And from this month of Katshoun the whole city of Ava suffered from 

 " purging and vomiting, and a great many persons died of the K&la-na, or Kala 

 " sickness." The above is a literal translation of the passage. The Burmese still 



