25G Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 3. 



cultivated. Iron is found in great abundance, and a little north of 

 the Line coffee is grown to any extent. By ray observations and 

 from the inability to get any information of a termination to the 

 Lake northwards, coupled with a story generally known amongst 

 the Somali of Aden that a large sheet of water exists to the west- 

 ward of their country, there remains in ray mind little doubt but 

 that I have discovered the true source of the Nile. How I long to 

 go back there and finish the work begun by a Bengali. Cotton 

 and rice grow very well over the plateau, but the people are too 

 inert to make any good of it. Frankincense and other gums are 

 abundant in places. The people of inner Africa are generally speak- 

 ing mild savages. I was very much disgusted with the great paucity 

 of game, and animal life generally is not at all what I expected to see. 

 As my companion had a handy servant who could shoot, and stuiF 

 too after I taught him, I did not interfere in the zoological 

 department but left it to him. 



" Perhaps you remember taking me to the Surveyor General's, 

 where I showed him my maiden map, a sketch of little Thibet, 

 drawn with the aid of a common compass, and a five pound watch. 

 I have now done all the mapping in Africa, that has been my 

 especial province, but this time I have done it astronomically." 



3. The following letter addressed to the Secretary, Mr. Atkin- 

 son, from Dr. W. Haidinger of the Imperial Museum of Geology 

 and Mineralogy in Vienna. 



My dear Sir, — I beg leave to address you like an old correspon- 

 dent, though it be the first letter I write you. I should observe 

 however that it is already the second, the first official one having 

 been sent along with the new numbers of our " Jahrbuch" for the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, along with the acknowledgment of the 

 receipt of that most welcome and highly valuable set of publications, 

 you kindly sent over to us through Messrs. Williams and Norgate, 

 and which came safely to our hands. But I wish to propose to 

 you and the Museum of the Society in the name of our Imperial 

 Museum of Mineralogy, a measure of exchauge which I trust, as well 

 as Dr. Homes, Director of that Museum, may be advantageous 

 both to our Museum and to the one under your charge. I enclose 

 in the first place the list of meteorites and meteoric irons in our 



