1847.] 



Notices. 



199 



Dr. Gundert's in a letter dated March, 1845, and received subsequent 

 to the publication of his paper. " When I wrote about the name 

 Tarisa, I was not yet aware that Tarsa ^-^y signifies a " Christian'^ 

 in Persian. This agrees then with Cosmas' description of Christia- 

 nity in Malabar and Ceylon, as originating with Persian merchants.'* 

 In the same letter he further remarks *' I have become convinced 

 by a perusal of Anquetil du Perron's Journals that the last plate is 

 lost to us. He begins a list of Malayalam names, as witnesses sub- 

 scribing to the document — with Vel cula Sundara, the next name is 

 Vijaya Marayana^ many others follow. The plates as we have them 

 close with the word (^<os>^\u \_Vijaya\. My translation of the pre- 

 ceding sentence is therefore incorrect. It ought to be : * agreed to 

 and subscribed by Vel cula Sundara^ Anquetil du Perron has his 

 account of the documents from a Sanscrit version, in the hands of Sy- 

 rian Clergymen. This may perhaps still be in existence in Travan- 

 core though the plate is lost." 



Temperature of the Earth in Travancore. 



The following mean results of a series of observations of the tem- 

 perature of the earth made by Mr. Caldecott at Trevandrum were 

 exhibited by Prof. J. D. Forbes at the 17th Meeting of the British 

 Association for the advancement of Science in June last. 





Air. 



3 Feet. 





12 Feet. 



January, _ - - _ » 

 February, 



78-9 



85-0 





85-5 



83-4 



16-6 





85-8 



March, _ - . - - 



82-7 



88-8 





86-4 



April, 



83-4 



89-6 





86-9 



May, - - - - ^ - 



81-6 



88-4 







June, 



79-9 



85-0 





86-9 





79-4 



83-2 





86-5 



August, - . - - - 



790 



83-6 





85-9 



September, - - - - - 



80-0 



84'6 





85-6 



October, - - - - - 



79-1 



84-7 





85-7 



November, - - - - - 



79-7 



84-6 





85-7 



December, _ . - - 



78-0 



84-2 





85-6 





80-0 



85-7 





860 



Professor Forbes exhibited also curves showing the mean changes of 

 the temperature of the air and of the earth at different depths through 

 the year, which indicated clearly two maxima and two minima corres- 

 ponding to the two summers and two winters of Trevandrum j the lowest 



