226 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [July, 



The station of Ckerra was not only, as it had boon described, placed 

 not far from the southern face of a range of hills, which rise near- 

 ly perpendicularly from the plain of Sylhet, the face of the scarp 

 being nearly at right angles to the prevailing winds, bnt it was 

 also encompassed on either side by huge glens or valleys which 

 have been cut down to the depth of several thousand feet, and 

 which extend from the plains well into the hills, and curving round 

 on either side, leave but a very limited area between. Now not 

 only was the surcharged atmosphere which had floated over the 

 plains driven by the prevailing winds against the face of the hills, 

 but it was also driven up these gorges or glens, and the various 

 currents of saturated air met just over the station of Cherra. Rol- 

 ling up from either side the thick fog-like mist meets in a dense 

 mass above the station, and as he had expressed it some sixteen 

 years since, the saturated sponge, as it were, was suddenly squeezed, 

 and the moisture which it previously held, deposited. This also 

 readily accounts for the greater atmospheric pressure at these times. 



II. — Note* on Samarqand. By Monsr. de Khanikof. (From the 

 Russian.) Communicated by T. 0. Forsyth, Esq. 



(Extract.) 



Twenty-six years ago on the T \ September, 1841, I saw for the 

 first time the celebrated capital of Timurlang from an elevated spot 

 on the road leading from Bukhara to Samarqand, where I arrived 

 exhausted by the heat and covered with dust. 



Vast ruins scattered over the country immediately surrounding 

 the city, plainly indicated that its glory had passed away. Never- 

 theless in spite of its decrepit state, it presented an imposing aspect 

 when viewed from a distance. I must confess that the pleasure 

 with which I contemplated the landscape, was considerably enhan- 

 ced by the recollection, that since the 8th September, 1404, the day 

 on which Gronzales Clavijo, Ambassador of Henry III. of Castile, 

 entered Samarqand, no European had penetrated that celebrated 

 town. 



About three o'clock, I was informed that Ibrahim Dadkhwali, 

 the governor of Samarqand, had sont his horses and farrashes, and 

 wished to seo me. 





