APPENDIX II. 



423 



upon our own exertions, neither Serjeants nor native students 

 being procurable at the Bombay Observatory. The case of 

 instruments and the mountain barometer have not been for- 

 warded, but may still find us at Zanzibar. Meanwhile I have 

 obtained from the Commanding Engineer, Bombay, one six- 

 inch sextant, one five and a -half ditto, two prismatic compasses, 

 five thermometers (of which two are B.P.), a patent log, taper, 

 protractors, stands, &c. ; also two pocket chronometers from the 

 Observatory, duly rated ; and Dr. Buist, Secretary, Bombay 

 Geographical Society, has obliged me with a mountain baro- 

 meter and various instructions about points of interest. Lt. 

 Speke has been recommended by the local government to the 

 Government of India for duty in East Africa, and the services 

 of Dr. Steinhaeuser, who is most desirous to join us, have been 

 applied for from the Medical Board, Bombay. I have strong- 

 hopes that both these officers will be allowed to accompany me, 

 and that the Royal Geographical Society will use their efforts 

 to that effect. 



u By the subjoined detailed account of preliminary expenses at 

 Bombay, it will be seen that I have expended £70 out of £250, 

 for which I was permitted to draw. 



(< Although, as 1 before mentioned, the survey of Eastern In- 

 tertropical Africa has for the moment been deferred, the neces- 

 sity still exists. Even in the latest editions of Horsburgh, the 

 mass of matter relative to Zanzibar is borrowed from the obser- 

 vations of Capt. Bissel, who navigated the coast in H.M's. 

 ships 'Leopard' and f Orestes' about a.d. 1799. Little is 

 known of the great current which, setting periodically from and 

 to the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, sweeps round the Eastern 

 Horn of Africa. The reefs are still formidable to navigators ; 

 and before these seas can be safely traversed by steamers from 

 the Cape, as is now proposed, considerable additions must be 

 made to Capt. Owen's survey in a.d. 1823-24. Finally, oper- 

 ations on the coast will form the best introduction to the geo- 

 graphical treasures of the interior. 



" The H.E.I. Company's surveying brig ' Tigris ' will shortly 

 be out of dock, where she has been undergoing a thorough 

 repair, and if fitted up with a round house on the quarter-deck 

 would answer the purpose well. She might be equipped in a 

 couple of months, and dispatched to her ground before the 

 South-west Monsoon sets in, or be usefully employed in observ- 

 ing at Zanzibar instead of lying idle in Bombay Harbour. On 

 former surveys of the Arabian and African Coasts, a small ten- 

 der of from thirty to forty tons has always been granted, as 

 otherwise operations are much crippled in boisterous weather 



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