1865.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 97 



Read the following extract from a letter from Col. Walker on tliat 

 part of Persia over which the telegraph passes. 



" Lieut. St. John of the Royal Engineers, writes to me to the fol- 

 lowing effect from Persia, where he is at present employed on the line 

 of the telegraph. 



u i A country more easy to get a rough but correct map of, I cannot 

 imagine. The hills are well marked, and run in parallel chains, with 

 level vallies from two to ten miles wide between them. The atmos- 

 phere is exquisitely clear for nine months in the year, and the hills 

 tolerably easy of ascent. Their height varies from 3 or 4,000 feet 

 near the Sea, to 15,000 or 16,000, the latter being I think not an over- 

 estimate of a chain I saw with at least 3,000 feet [of snow ?] on it, at 

 the end of August. The heights have been much under-estimated by 

 travellers. Shiraz is nearly 5,000 feet above the sea, and the passes 

 between it and Kazeroon 8,000. The rise of the country as it were in 

 steps, from valley to valley to the table land, may have led to this 

 error. 



" l A theodolite, I fear, we shall hardly be able to use, from the exces- 

 sive jealousy and suspicion of the Persians, who would say at once that 

 we were either prospecting a road to invade Persia, or searching for 

 gold ; the latter perhaps being the most dangerous suspicion to excite. 

 Sextant work in camp they do not object to, putting it down as 

 astrology, for which they have a great respect. The popular idea 

 about my own observations was, I know, that I was engaged either 

 in an attempt to ascertain the period of the next earthquake, or when 

 the line of telegraph would be finished.' " 



The following extract from a letter from Major- General A. Cunning- 

 ham was also read. 



" The principal places that I visited during the past season were 

 Bairat, Ajmer, Gwalior, Khajuraho and Mahoba. 



" At Bairat there are no remains of any interest, but the spot from 



whence the Asoka inscription, now in the Museum, was obtained, is 



still called Bijak, or " the inscription stone." It is the site of a 



think, without doubt due to erosion by atmospheric friction. Something similar 

 appears on the Durala stone in the British Museum, figured by Frof. Maskelyne 

 in the Phil. Mag., 4th Ser. No. 170 for June, 1863. PI. IX. A fuller notice 

 with figures will shortly be laid before the Society.— H. F. B. 



