1847.] Proceedings of th e Asia tic Society . 989 



at Chusan as "Head Conicopolly" to H. M. Commissariat from 1842 to 

 1846, he succeeded in mastering the colloquial dialect, and at his own ex- 

 pense published his Vocabulary, for the benefit of future students. 



As the author was unable to read Chinese, and his knowledge of English 

 being far from perfect, the volume abounds in errors. Nevertheless he 

 deserves praise and encouragement for the literary zeal, which prompted him 

 to execute the work. Each square is denoted to the definition of an English 

 word. The first column from the left attempts to give the English sound in 

 Chinese characters. The second is the English, next comes the Chinese 

 definition, and lastly the sound of the Chinese in Tamil and Teloogoo charac- 

 ters. The book, therefore, is designed for the use of English, Chinese and 

 Indian Students. It may be observed, however, that this attempt, like all 

 others that have been made to imitate English sounds by Chinese characters, 

 is a failure. For example — for " White hair" we have " We lih hai 9 rh" 

 " Spring, Se puh ling," Lose, lo ho sze, Present, pa lih tsun teh, Slumber— 

 se lung pa 'rh" 



Commending S. Pillay to those who would foster native talent. 



I remain, dear Sir, 



Very truly, your's 



D. J. McGowan. 



From Capt. Scott, Secretary Military Board, presenting a parcel of 

 cotton cloth impregnated with oil, which had undergone spontaneous 

 combustion. 



A full account of several experiments made on this very important 

 subject, will appear in an early number of the Journal. 



From Capt. Jas. Abbott, Huzaree, forwarding mineralogical speci- 

 mens and describing the geological features of the district he is now 

 surveying. 



From Capt. Alexander Cunningham regarding the Serica of the 

 Periplus. Pending a more detailed memoir on this subject, we may 

 mention that Capt. Cunningham differs from Dr. Taylor in his identifica- 

 tion of Serica with Assam, and considers two points sufficient to prove 

 that Serica was the country about Yarkand, Khoten, and Beshbalik at 

 the foot of the Altai. Capt. Cunningham observes, " The first of these 

 is, that the road leading to Serica lay over the Komeclan mountains, at 

 the Source of the Oxus. This name still existed in a. d. 640, when 

 Hwan Thsang visited India, for he mentions Kiumi-tho on the northern 

 bank of the Oxus, along with Pho-mi-h, or Pamer, and Po~Iu-lo, or 



6 m 2 



