Geographical Collections. 57 
from Ceylon, have appeared new. At the Cape, the families of the Synanthere, 
Proteacex, and Restiacez, have offered a great number of interesting species, 
which have enriched the herbarium of the Garden of Plants. We have the ho- 
nour of placing before the eyes of the Academy, three volumes of figures, executed 
by Mr. Reynaud, and by MM. Blosseville and Gabert, who so generously af- 
forded their assistance. It is easy for those acquainted with the subject, to ap- 
preciate the character of exactitude which they present ; while, at the same time, 
naturalists must see with satisfaction the images of so many Meduse, Biphora, 
and other transparent and gelatinous zoophytes, and of so many microscopic crus 
tacee, which could not be preserved for science, but by the attention which our 
sbservers had, of drawing them alive, and in the very water in which they had 
been taken. We thus learn every day how many riches there remain to be ex~ 
plored in the vast depths of the ocean, and how little we can flatter ourselves with 
having filled up the frame of the great system of nature. 
If, as we may hope, the minister of the marine thinks proper that the account 
of this expedition should be published, a selection from these figures will make a- 
great ornament to it, and will constitute a very precious continuation of those splen- 
did works which natural sciences already owe to the French navy,—to the voyages 
of Peron, of Freycinet, of Duperrey, and to that of d’Urville, which they will soon 
have from him ; for we cannot doubt that this brave officer, and his learned com- 
panions, will arrive in a few weeks, * with the rich collections, of which our last 
reports may give some idea, 
These rich details in natural history, added to the geographical discoveries, are 
a new feature in the maritime expeditions executed in these modern times by the 
French. They are thus distinguished very advantageously from those of other na- 
tions, and the relations rendered interesting to a class of readers, to whom the 
nautical and hydrographical details appear rather dry ; and the acquaintance which 
they give with the production of different countries, is a necessary complement to 
the description of their coasts, and of all that which formerly constituted the almost 
sole object of these kinds of expeditions,” 
Report on the objecis of Geology obtained during the Expedition of the Chevrette. 
Mn. Cordier, appointed to the examination of the geological results, gave in 
his report at the sitting of the Academy on the 4th of May 1829. 
“A great number of geological researches was not to be expected from an expe- 
dition whose places of rest have been so little varied, and who have harboured on 
shores, generally speaking, low, and deprived of mountains. Nevertheless, the offi- 
cers of the Chevrette, amidst the multiplied labours which engaged them, have 
found time to collect several objects of the mineral kingdom, which are not with- 
out interest. These consist in twenty-seven species of rocks, obtained from the 
Cape of Good Hope, from Ceylon, from Java, from the coast of Pondicherry, 
from Bengal, and from the coast of Pegu: the number of specimens is about 200. 
Some confirm what we already know, as much with regard to the primitive 
formations of the Cape of Good Hope, and of the neighbourhood of Trincomalee 
in Ceylon, as to the sandstones, and tertiary quartzose, and argillaceous sands, on 
the coast of Coromandel. These specimens offer varieties, or duplicates, which 
will be very useful to the museum of Natural History. Others make us acquaint- 
ed, both with the position of the shelly deposits which constitute the bottom of 
the ocean six or seven leagues from the coast of Pegu, and with the nature of the 
infertile mud and fine sands, which two of the great rivers descending from the 
Himmalaya, the Ganges and the Trraouaddy, deposit at their mouths at the time 
of their annual increase. 
Among these alluvial deposits, we remarked that which the Hindoos, in the 
neighbourhood of Calcutta, use superstitiously, to close all the natural openings 
of the bodies of those who are about to breathe their last. 
* See first part of Geographical Collections. 
VOL. I. H 
