202 
[No. % 
Literary Intelligence . 
been taken op with full approval by Alexander Humboldt in his 
Kosmos. A more southern land the Northmen named Ilvitraman- 
naland (the land of the White Men) or Irland it Mikla (Great Ire¬ 
land). This was supposed by Rafn to be North and South Carolina, 
Georgia and Florida. The oldest historian of Iceland, Are Frode, 
states that his stam-father Are Marson came to this land about the 
year 983, and was baptized there. This same land, Irland it Mikla, 
Irlandeh el Kabirah, is also mentioned by an Arabian geographer of 
the 12th century, Abu-Abdallah Mohammed JEdrisi, who was born 
in Ceuta in 1099, and had studied in Cordova. He drew up his 
work at the desire of Roger II. King of Sicily (1130—1154.) The 
above geographical name as well as several other notices of the 
North, were doubtless derived by the Arabian author from hi3 inter¬ 
course with the North men at the court of this sovereign in Palermo. 
“ It is most interesting to follow the often highly successful identi¬ 
fication of the local names mentioned by the Arabian geographers, 
especially those of several islands in the Western Ocean, places in 
France and England, and also in Scandinavia, particularly Denmark, 
where Slesvig is mentioned in a curious manner, and also in Sweden. 
The same thing applies to Russia. An extract from a voyage in 
the 12th eentury (1132) by Ab4 Abdallah Hamid of Granada, 
gives an undoubted description of a Whale-fishery on the coast of 
the Arctic Ocean near the land Wisu. This, according to the admi¬ 
rable explanation of Frahn, is the tribe Wes, spoken of in the Rus¬ 
sian Annals, north of Novgorod by the White Lake (Bielo Osero.”) 
The following is an extract from a letter to the President from 
Dr. Sprenger, dated June 30th. 
“You are probably aware that Wopke is going to publish the 
Tarikh al Hind of Byruny, of which Reinaud has inserted some ex¬ 
tracts in his work on India. It is a most extraordinary work and 
proves that the author had a complete knowledge of Sanscrit liter¬ 
ature. Wopke is an excellent Mathematician, and a good Arabic 
Scholar, and he has made considerable progress in Sanscrit. He began 
the study of this language on purpose to master Byruny. Wiistenfeld 
intends to bring out the great work of Yaqut (o ji b) on geo¬ 
graphy.” 
