1843.] Asiatic Society. 915 



Naval Officers at Kyook Phyoo, and to the Commissioner, Captain Bogle. Captain 

 Williams' last reply was, that he feared that for the present they had no one who 

 would be likely to furnish a good account, but mentions Captain Siddons, the local 

 Engineer Officer, to whom I intended to write, but illness for the last five weeks has 

 prevented the preparing of my report to Government, and further correspondence on 

 the subject. 

 Capt. Williams' letter was read at the meeting, but omitted in the Proceedings. — 



My dear Sir, — An apology is due from me to you for having neglected to reply 

 to your letter of May last, (1 believe,) about the Copper Mine on Round Island, of 

 which I am reminded by your letter, just received, of the 28th ultimo. 



I should then have informed you, or I now beg to do, that it is necessary for a 

 scientific person being sent to examine the spot. There is no such individual in this 

 province that I am aware of, unless Lieut. Siddons of the Engineers, just arrived, 

 may be ; this must be done too in the fine season between November and April. 



I lately sent up two gold Coins found on Chedooba to the Asiatic Society ; since 

 then I have had brought in two lumps of iron six inches long by l| inch broad in 

 the centre tapering to the ends, found on the same spot with the coins ; the natives 

 here tell me, they are v/eapons used by the Eastern pirates, which they hurl like a 

 javelin at boats in attack, and that some such pirate boat must have been wrecked 

 on Chedooba where the iron and coins have been found. I do not give sufficient 

 credence to so improbable a story as to induce me to send up one of the Javelins, but 

 will keep them for the Asiatic Society's orders. Yours very truly, 



Ramree, July 20, 1843. D. Williams. 



3. It was proposed and sanctioned at the Meeting, that the Society should respect- 

 fully represent to Government the importance of dispatching some fully qualified 

 person to the spot to examine into, and report upon it for general information. 



4. The principal grounds upon which we may do so are, as they occur to me, the 

 following : — 



First. — The great, and indeed intense interest which geological phenomena of this 

 kind invariably excite in Europe, as being connected with, and most strongly illus- 

 trating many researches and theories relative to the past and future changes of our 

 globe. 



Secondly. — Their interest in a maritime point of view, as connected with the ap- 

 pearance and disappearance of shoals, &c. in seas extensively navigated. 



Thirdly. — The occurrence of the phenomenon so immediately in our own vicinity, 

 and at a spot with which by means of the H. C. S. Amherst, we have a regular com- 

 munication ; so that, to use a homely phrase, " we have no excuse" for neglecting to 

 investigate it. 



Fourthly. — The great interest attaching to it as occurring so near to the spot of the 

 recent eruption of the mud volcano of Ramree, and so soon after the great earthquake 

 at Pulo Nias, on the coast of Sumatra, and its forming the Northern extremity 

 of the great volcanic band laid down by Von Buch as extending only to Barren 

 Island. 



