1838.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 91 



ascent with apparent ease by a little mule scarcely more than 11 hands high, one 

 man leading the animal and one on each side supporting the back of the compound 

 of silk, good humour, dirt and rank, on the little animal. 



On the 5th, we paid our respects to the raja and were received with all the state 

 he could display on the occasion. He is a fine looking man of about 55 years of age 

 with a strictly Mongolian countenance (that is superfluity of cheek bone and paucity 

 of beard), he received us in the southern room of the second floor of a tolerably well 

 built stone house, the ascent to which was by a plank notched into steps of such 

 inadequate width that it is a service of no small danger to reach the presence by such 

 devious ways. We found the raja seated on a well-raised cushion with a colossal 

 statue in front of him which I have since heard is intended to represent any one of 

 the ten thousand dharmas who have been amusing themselyes for the last eighteen 

 centuries by periodical flights from defunct carcasses into living children. Every 

 thing was conducted throughout this visit with a degree of polite urbanity which 

 would hardly have been expected from a nation whom we have been accustomed to 

 regard as so low in the scale of civilization ; there was some distrust at first, but it 

 has now evidently worn off, and we have established a mutual understanding which 

 will, I trust, be productive of much eventual good. 



I am just now about to pay the raja a friendly visit, and intend taking Csoma 

 de Koros' Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary to shew him. As yet we are hardly 

 sufficiently far north to obtain any very accurate information regarding the coun- 

 tries in that direction, but I have seen one or two very intelligent men who confi- 

 dently affirm that the Eroo Chownboo, or river which flows between Teshoo Loomboo 

 and Hlassa, is the Burhampooter of Assam, and that just before turning to the south 

 it receives a river from the eastward which flows into it from China, which country 

 they designate Karree, not Geanna as Turner represents, this latter term being 

 applied apparently to eastern Tartary. We expect to leave this in a day or two 

 more, and hope to reach Punakha in twenty days. The general direction of our 

 marches will be about northwest, and on the seventh day we shall enter a snowy 

 region from which we shall not emerge until the eleventh march. The most inter- 

 esting portion of our journey is therefore still before us, and thus far I have 

 succeeded in having my instruments conveyed in safely. I have two excellent baro- 

 meters from which my estimate of altitudes are deduced, and as I have frequently 

 tested them in the course of journeys previously made by comparison with heights I 

 examined trigonometrically, I know they are to be depended upon. My observations 

 for latitude and time are taken with a Troughton's reflecting circle on a balanced 

 stand, and my chronometer is one by Barraud which I purchased from Mr. Gray 

 just before leaving Calcutta, Its rate is 1" per diem gaining, and I have deduced the 

 longitude of this place from Gowhatty by it. It is an excellent time-keeper and 

 fully sustains the character Mr. Gray gave it when it was purchased. We are 

 enclosed on the north by peaks which must rise from two to four thousand feet above 

 our present level ; but vegetation flourishes exuberantly to the very summits of all 

 the ranges visible, and I long for the sight of more rugged scenery. I have sent 

 you another dispatch of birds, of which I enclose a list." 



Mr. G. Evans submitted to the meeting the Prospectus of a work by 

 Capt. Harris of the Bombay Engineers, comprising twenty-eight paint- 

 ings of the south African game quadrupeds with appropriate landscape, 

 collected during a hunting expedition into the interior of Africa, wherein 

 he had penetrated to the tropic of Capricorn. Resolved, that members 

 should be invited to patronize the work. 

 [See the Prospectus and list of Subscribers on the cover of the present Journal.] 



The following bulletin of proceedings in the Nerbadda fossil field was 

 extracted from a letter from Dr. Spilsbury dated 15th January. 



Major Ouselev is very hard at work bringing out some unknown animal's head, 

 the teeth running like the radii of a circle, 18 inches long. You will hereafter receive 

 it along with a tusk that we cannot make out. The matrix is so very hard, that it 

 requires skill as well as labor to get on. It was first trusted to a native and nearly 

 spoilt. I chiselled out a splendid elephant's head at Saugor ; there is also one here. 

 As I have already sent you one, these are destined for different places. I hope you 

 got the box of shells from Walker, I have drawings of all the varieties we have 

 yet discovered which shall be sent you by and bye with an account of the sites, also 

 some new fossil sites, which I shall visit. 



Colonel Lloyd forwarded meteorological Journals from Darjiling for 

 October and November to complete the year's observations by Dr. Chap- 

 man. 



