440 General Notes. 
GENERAL NOTES. 
GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL.: 
Asta.—Inpo-Cuina.—M., de Lanessan, in a paper read before 
the Commercial Geographical Society of France, gives the area of 
French Indo-China at about 600,000 square kilometres. The Me- 
kong, though the largest river of the peninsula, passes through a 
thinly peopled and almost uncultivated region until it enters Cam- 
bodia. The principal centres above this point are Luang-Praban 
in the north; Nong-Kay, in the southward bend of the Mekong; 
Lakhone, in the rear of the Annamite provinces of Hatinh and 
Nghe-An, and largely colonised by Annamites; Bassac, in a navi- 
able reach opposite to the mouth of the Se-Moum, which enters 
abandoned. The Donai is the only river of the region that can 
entered by large vessels, and a coral bank obstructs even this. The 
Bay of Touraine, the port of the province of Quang-Nam, so 
of Hue, is a safe and ample harbor; and that of Ha-Long, in the 
north of Tonkin, seems to be equal to it. j 
According to Mr. McCarthy, Superintendent of Surveys in Siam, 
two spheres of influence, English and Siamese, are prominent In 
the Malay peninsula. The inhabitants of the northern portion arè 
Siamese and Chinese, then come the SamSams, a mixture of Malays 
and Siamese, who are Buddhists and speak a mixed language; then 
the Malays, who are Mohammedans. 
There are also two very curious tribes which are supposed to be 
aboriginal, called by the Malays “Orang Utann,” or wild men, 
‘ Edited by W. N. Lockington, Philadelphia, Pa. 
