163 



Notices of Boohs. [no. 3, new series, 



the beds, that it is impossible to extract the former without breaking still larger 

 quantities of the latter also. In order, therefore, to obtain a supply for their 

 fur naces, as well as to allow the miner the free use of his tools, large excavations 

 are made, and a selection of ores, as far as practicable, is made under ground, and 

 that which is too refractory for use is heaped up within the mine, to such an extent 

 as scarcely to allow sufficient convenience for the exit of the miner, and the re- 

 moval of the ore. The ordinary mode of extraction is in bags of shin, tied to the 

 person of the labourer, who crawls, when possible, on all fours, dragging the bag 

 after him over the rough floor of the opening. But in many places the opening 

 is too strait even for this, permitting passage only in a prostrate position, the suf- 

 ferer propelling himself by writhing, and by the aid of his elbows on the sides 

 and of his toes on the floor of the hole, In one mine, indeed, the opening is so 

 small, except in tbe part wrought under the Goorkha rule, that we found children 

 of only from 10 to 14 years old employed in the difficult and dangerous task of re- 

 opening a communication through fallen rubbish in a gallery of which the sides 

 were broken down." 



M. Hasskarl, Superintendent of the Botanical Garden at Bui- 

 tenzorg, and the successful introducer of the Cinchona into Java has 

 been compelled to return to Europe for the recovery of his health. 

 But before his departure he had commenced two works descriptive 

 of the Flora of Java, one entitled, — 



Retzia sive observations botanicce quas de plantis Horti Botanici 

 Bogoriensis annis 1855-56 fecit J. K. Hasskarl : and the other, — 



Observations Botanicje de Filictbtjs Horti Bogoriensis et 

 ad montem Gedeh sponte sua crescentibus, &fc. 



It is stated however that it is his intention now to embody all his 

 observations in a single work to be entitled Hortus Bogoriensis 

 Descriptus with notices or descriptions of about 600 species.— Kew 

 Misc. IX. 196. 



Miscellaneous Notices. 



Among the new works upon Eastern subjects that have made 

 their appearance within the last year or so, The Kingdom and 

 People of Siam, with a narrative of the mission to that country tn 

 1855, by Sir J. Bowring, F. B. S., H. M. Plenipotentiary in 

 China, 2 vols. 8vo. 326, stands pre-eminent perhaps for interest and 

 utility in a commercial and political point of view. At the same time 

 it is gratifying to find that India has made some important contribu- 

 tions. The personal narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Mecca, 



