1867.] frapky. 113 



Palestine Exploration Fund is of the character which we have 

 described above, a solid increase to our knowledge of an already 

 tolerably well-known country, but it contains no startling adventure 

 to make it attractive to any but the scientific mind. The sites of 

 forty-nine places of importance have been determined with accuracy, 

 amongst these the exact position of the synagogue at Capernaum. 

 The scenes of many events in the Old and New Testaments have 

 been fixed, the main back-bone of the country been mapped out, 

 besides photographs of natural objects, rums, inscriptions, &c, 

 prepared. Much light is likely to be thrown upon a subject as yet 

 but little understood, viz. Semitic Palaeography, of which several 

 scholars are springing up. M. Terrell has sent a paper to the 

 French Academy on the composition of the Dead Sea, in which he 

 states that he distinctly saw small fish thriving well near the site 

 of the ancient Sodom. 



The regions of Cambodia and Siam have been visited by Mr. J. 

 Thomson, who has photographed many most interesting ruins of 

 ancient cities and temples. An account of these was read before 

 the British Association, and it is probable that a fuller narrative 

 will appear before long of a very carefully undertaken and 

 successful journey in search of almost unknown records of a for- 

 gotten civilization. 



In Australia it was reported that the remains of Dr. Leichhardt 

 had been discovered by the exploring party fitted out for that 

 purpose, but the news turns out to be unfounded. On the other 

 hand, it appears that the leader of the expedition, Mr. Duncan 

 Mclntire, had died from fever, but the search was being continued 

 under Mr. Campbell. The continent has again been crossed from 

 Victoria to the Gulf of Carpentaria, but the main objects of the 

 expedition are reported to have failed. We are now promised 

 speedier intelligence by a new route to Australia — the natural one, 

 via Panama. The journey outwards was very successfully per- 

 formed, and New Zealand in particular reaps the benefit of the 

 change ; but the homeward mail, though starting a few days before 

 the so-called overland mail, arrived in this country after its rival. 

 A careful study of the ocean currents and the periodical winds may 

 perhaps help to overcome some of the difficulties. 



One of these currents, the Gulf stream, is said by M. Grad to 

 keep its identity beyond Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla into the 

 Polar Basin, thus affording open sea far to the north of these 

 islands, where an entrance must be sought by future travellers 

 searching for the North Pole — a subject we have discussed in a 

 former number. Slight alterations in the direction of this current, 

 arising from the abrasion of rocks where it first enters the ocean, 

 are from time to time reported, leading, we may suppose, to extensive 

 changes in the effects on this side of the Atlantic. Similar changes 



VOL. TV. i 



