562 General Notes. [June 
From the bridge of Saugil to the Thian Shan, from west to east, 
such a thing as a forest is not known. 
Manipur is a valley surrounded by mountain-ranges which 
have a rain-fall as high as or higher than one hundred and 
twenty inches. The valley has but thirty-nine inches of rain- 
fall. The snow-line is low here. The whole valley, three thou- 
sand feet high, was covered with hoar-frost in December, and 
Sarameti, under thirteen thousand feet high, has, the natives say, 
snow all the year. Dr. G. Watt correlates the lowness of the 
snow-line with the immensity of the rain-fall, which in winter is 
a snow-fall. This great rain-fail accounts for the volume of 
water brought down by the Irawadi, while a river travelling for 
hundreds of miles in Thibet would pick up but a small quantity. 
General J. T. Walker recently read before the Geographical 
Society of London a paper upon the Lu River of Thibet, the 
Lu Kiang or Lu-tse-Kiang of the Chinese. This river is gen- 
erally held to be the source of the Salween, but General Walker 
inwards between high mountain-ranges. e south coast of 
Huon Gulf consists of primitive and metamorphic rocks, with 
sedimentary rocks and volcanic formations. further survey 
afterwards made of the coast, from Astrolabe Bay to the mouth 
of the Empress Augusta River, led to the discovery of a series 
of bays, harbors, islands, and rivers. 
days of Moorish occupation, for it is crossed by numerous moun- 
