460 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society, [May, 



Statistical. 



Mr. W. Adam, presented on the part of Dr. A. Kean, some tables of 

 the population and of the births and mortality in a village of the Moor- 

 shedabad district. Referred to the Statistical Committee. 



Dr. Keaa hopes in the current year to be able to add marriages to his list, 

 and to extend it to a greater number of villages. 



Physical Department. 

 Museum. 



Mr. Kittoe proposed that two or more Musulman Lids be entertained 

 as apprentices to M. Bouchez, to learn the art of preparing birds and 

 animals, with the understanding that the)' are to be occasionally sent with 

 members of the Society, or officers of Government who may be deputed to 

 explore any part of the country, — and that the expense be defrayed out of 

 the Curator's allowance granted by Government. 



Mr. Kittoe said, that during his late trip, had he been provided with such an 

 assistant he would have been able to have brought back many specimens for the 

 museum. The proposition was approved, and referred to the Committee of 

 the Museum to be acted on. 



Tidal Observations. 



Mr. E. Blundell, Commissioner of the Tenasserim provinces, forward- 

 ed two series of observations of the tides, one by Captain McLeod, at 

 Mergui, the other by Captain Corbin, Harbour Master at Amherst, made 

 in conformity with Professor Whewell's circular. 



Geography. 



The following letter from Captain Pemberton in command of the depu- 

 tation to Bootdn, descriptive of the progress of the expedition, in conti- 

 nuation of the extracts published in the Proceedings of the 7th February, 

 was communicated by the Secretary. 



Tongro Bootdn, March 12th, 1838. 

 Lat. 27° 29' 32" Long, about 90° 17'; 6527 feet above the sea. 



" We left Devagiri on the 21st January, and reached this place in twenty 

 inarches, though forty days were consumed on the road from various unavoid- 

 able causes. The very first march we crossed an elevation of 7000 feet above the 

 sea, a good foretaste of what we had subsequently to expect. The third march 

 brought us to a village called Sasee, not more than 4300 feet above the sea, but 

 where we first found the most beautiful and extensive fir forests, I had ever seen 

 — all growing on mountains of hornbleude slate which proved to be the prevailing 

 rock in this part of Bootdn. From Sasee we ascended on the following day to Bel- 

 phaee, a mile or two beyond which is a temple whose elevation proved by measure- 

 ment to be 8300 feet above the sea ; this point is geologically important, as here 

 the hornblende slate is succeeded by a talc slate with garnets thickly dissemi- 

 nated, and traces of the transition began to appear between six and eight thou- 

 sand feet. Here we first saw ice on the ground, and traces of snow on a ridge to 

 the north about 2000 feet higher. On the 1st of February we reached Tassgong 

 called also Berhan, the residence of a sooba or prince of a district on the left 

 bank of the Monas river in Lat. 27° 19' 37" Long, about 91° 33' and 3182 feet 

 above the sea. The Monas flows 1200 feet below it over a bed of gneiss boulders, 

 with immense velocity and a very considerable volume of water. This river 

 which you may remember enters the Burhamputer at Jugigope nearly opposite 

 to Goalparrah, appears to be the principal drain of two- thirds of the waters of 

 Bootdn, every stream between it and this place falling into it, and the whole 

 forming a stream which in the rains rushes into the Burhamputer with a velo- 

 city which few boats can stem. At Phullury three marches from Tassgong, 

 we for the first time had a fall of snow which lasted two days, and gave to the 

 whole country an aspect precisely similar to that which you can imagine at home 

 in a November day. Snow balls were flying about in every directiou and the 

 Bhuteeahs appeared to enter as keenly into the sport as our party. We 

 were six thousand feet above the sea, and though the fall at this elevation was 

 sufficiently heavy to cover the ground to a depth of five or six inches, the hills 



