1847.] 



Notice of cm Expedition, Sfc. 



181 



ficiently great eleration, the argument founded on the unhealthiness 

 of the country would not of course be applicable to them. But no 

 proof has been adduced before the Committee, of their existence ; no 

 veins have yet been traced in these mountain masses, and Lieutenant 

 Nicolson rests his assertion on the vague report of a native, communi- 

 cated to him in a letter. 



" The Committee on mature consideration of all points and guided 

 more particularly by the conviction on their minds of the usual un- 

 profitableness of speculations in gold mines, derived from a careful 

 perusal of various works on the subject, do not feel justified in recom- 

 mending the adoption of Lieutenant Nicolson's suggestion." 



On receipt of this report the Government, under date 25th Oc- 

 tober, 1833, ordered the search for gold to be abandoned — a resolution 

 which was approved by the Court of Directors Avith the following 

 pithy, addition, that if the Government had directed these inquiries 

 to be made before they authorized the commencement of any opera- 

 tions, a considerable expense would have been saved to them." 



VII. Notice of an Expedition into the interior of Southern 

 Jfrica, hy Mr. Oswell and Captain Vardon, with a sketch 

 of the course of the Limpopo, and a Figure of a supposed 

 new species of Rhinoceros, 



We have much pleasure in presenting our readers with the ac- 

 companying sketch-map, for which we are indebted to Mr. Oswell of 

 the Civil Service, showing the extreme points to which he penetrated 

 in the course of two expeditions into the interior of South Africa 

 made in search of game in 1845 and 1846. On the first occasion ac- 

 companied by Mr. Murray, he reached the Bahaa mountains and 

 returned by the valley of the Limpopo. This line nearly coincides 

 with the track of Mr. D. Hume in 1830. In his next journey he was 

 joined by Captain V ardon, and they together explored the course of 

 the Limpopo to a greater extent than had been done by any previous 

 travellers. Mr. Oswell was at first led to suppose that the stream 

 pursued a more northerly course, [indicated by the red line in the map,] 

 and he had placed their turning point in the Lingrvapa mountains 

 somewhere between the 20th and 215^^8. Lat. But subsequent 

 consideration and the result of a communication from Mr. Living- 



