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The Statistical Committee have met with the most willing and efficient support from the Government, and from the Parent Society. Access has been granted to all official records connected with the subjects of finance, commerce, education, and judicial administration. The Society has already contributed 500 Rs. to defray any expenses incurred by the Committee. High expectations are consequently entertained as to the harvest to be reaped from so fertile a field, by such active labourers, and under such warm and constant encouragement. The form best suited for the publication of the documents already prepared has excited considerable discussion, and still awaits a final decision.

Library.

The Librarian has been kind enough to comply with our request for a detailed report of the accessions to our collection during the last year, and he has classified the entire under the heads of languages and subjects. We now beg leave to present his report, by which it appears that we have received,

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On the last day of the old year, we had the pleasure of receiving from M. CASSIN the highly important consignments exhibited on the table at the last meeting.

199 vols. 4to, and 8vo.
109 Pamphlets.

The works in question embrace some of the most important and valuable publications in every department of Natural History.

The mode in which this supply has been obtained is also very gratifying, the expense having been defrayed by the sale of our Oriental Publications in Paris. It is pleasing to observe this reciprocation of benefits by the cultivation of apparently opposite pursuits-We have exchanged the ancient lore of the East, for the most modern and useful sciences of Europe. Each branch of our labors thus proves auxiliary to the other. The researches of the naturalist are promoted by the discoveries of the philologist and antiquarian, and thus, each in our particular sphere, we sustain the reputation and enhance the utility of a Society established for the universal purpose of investigating "whatever is performed by man or produced by nature" in the East.

Museum of Natural History.

Mr. EVANS has sent in an Annual Report, which will be published separately for your information.

Miscellaneous.

During the past year some miscellaneous passages in our history deserve to be recorded in our annual notice.

In January we had the gratification of witnessing the erection in our apartments of the bust of our distinguished associate, Professor WILSON. The feeling excited on

this occasion, led on the following month to the adoption of measures, by which we look forward to an early installation of the like remembrances of Sir WM. JONES, of Mr. COLEBROOKE, and Dr. MILL. This is indeed an object worthy of a grateful and wise Society, and must excite in the present Members the ambition of ultimately deserving such inestimable rewards.

In February a despatch was received from the Court of Directors, ordering 40 copies of each number of the Society's Journal-an act of generous patronage most fitly bestowed on the periodical, as it was then conducted. It was moreover but the forerunner of still greater munificence, in the grant authorized in September of 500 Rupees per mensem for the encouragement of Oriental Publications.

Nor while we acknowledge this princely aid from Government, should we be silent on the liberality of some individual benefactors. Among these, Mr. MUIR stands preeminent—his subscription of 1000 Rupees to the expenses of the "Sharira Vidaya” will we trust ere long be instrumental in placing a practical work on Anatomy within the reach of the hereditary physicians of the East. Another act of warm co-operation, and we have done. Let us commemorate the readiness with which Mr. JAMES PRINSEP SUStained, by an outlay of 6,000 Rupees, the publication of the "Mahabharata,” which would otherwise have necessarily been discontinued. For this we are fortunately enabled to indemnify Mr. PRINSEP, but he is not the less entitled to this grateful notice of his unrivalled liberality.

In conclusion of this very imperfect Report, we should have dwelt in due and deserved detail on the vast loss we have experienced in Mr. PRINSEP's departure to Europe, had not the subject been so fully and recently before the Society, and so perfectly dealt with in the President's address. We have now only to express our earnest hopes that in full health and spirit Mr. PRINSEP may soon return to the scenes of his brilliant and numerous triumphs. His absence must not however altogether nullify the movement he excited. It seems to us too that the best proof, of the esteem and affection in which we hold him, will be the perseverance in his pursuits, and in the support of his Journal, until his presence enables the Society to enjoy again the advantage of his inestimable labours.

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Meteorological Register, kept at the Assay Office, for the Month of March, 1839.

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ART. VIII.-Meteorological Register.

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JOURNAL

OF

THE ASIATIC SOCIETY.

No. 88.-APRIL, 1839.

ART. 1-Journal of the Mission which visited Bootan, in 1837-38, under Captain R. BOILEAU PEMBERTON. By W. GRIffith, Esq. Madras Medical Establishment.

(Continued from page 211.)

PART II

[Remarks on the nature of the country, especially its vegetation, boundaries, and dizisions-its government, population, sects, character, customs, manners, and diet—

political relations.]

The following remarks suggested themselves to me during the bird's eye view I had of Bootan; their superficiality is only to be excused by the shortness of my stay, the want of proper interpreters, the jealousy of the Booteas, and extreme mendacity of such of their Bengal subjects from whom, in my total ignorance of the Bootea language, information was alone to be expected. And as I had daily opportunities of seeing the constancy with which the head of the Mission amassed all available information, I contented myself with remarking on external rather than internal objects, on the face of nature, rather than on that of men. Bootan, I need scarcely observe, is a mountainous country, forming a considerable part of the most magnificent chain of mountains in the universe; in it are to be found all degrees of elevation, from 1000 to 25,000 feet. In its extent it is rather more limited than was supposed, since Capt. Pemberton has ascertained that the country to the eastward, which is ruled by the Towang Rajah, is directly dependent on, and forms a portion of the

Lhassa government.

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The boundaries of the country are, Thibet to the north; the plains of Assam and Bengal to the south; Sikkim to the west; and the Kampa country to the east. Its greatest breadth will hence be about 90, and its greatest length about 210 miles.

The physical aspect of this country, so far as regards its most essential point-mountains, presents perhaps but little deviation from that of other parts of the Great Himalayan chain; but on this point I am unable to give any information. Every variety of surface was met with, from bluff-headed to peaked highly angular summits. In some places the paths were built up the naked faces of precipices; in others, very considerable elevations might be attained by very gradual ascents, over a sufficiently practicable country. The two most rugged and most peaked were, as might be expected, the two highest-Dongdola and Rodola: the others, which generally averaged 10,500 feet, were very easy. Of the rivers, which are in all cases mere mountain torrents, nothing need be said. The largest we saw was the Monass, which forms the principal drain of the eastern portion of Bootan. No lakes appear to occur: there is below Santagong a jheel of small extent, but it is of no depth, and does not derive its presence from springs or the embouchure of small tributaries. It abounded with water fowl, and was choked up with sedges, and a plant belonging to the family Hydropeltida, hitherto not, I believe, found in India. Neither is Bootan a country of valleys; in fact, with the exception of those of Bhoomlungtung, Byagur, and Jaisa, we saw none worthy of bearing the name. That of Punukka owes its existence to the vagaries of the river, as its only level part has obviously at some previous time formed part of its bed. The three valleys otherwise mentioned are, if viewed in comparison with other valleys situated in similarly mountainous countries, perfectly insignificant, for they consist of a gentle slope from the bases of the contiguous hills to the bed of the draining stream. The valley of Tassisudon is probably of like extent with that of Punukka, but Turner's accounts are so little to be relied on, that even in a simple matter like this no just conclusion is to be formed. I have only to add, that the three valleys are represented as being close to some of the passes into Thibet: this alone is perhaps sufficient to account for their great elevation.

Hot springs occur one day's journey from Punukka, and appear to be the resort of many invalids, victims to the most frequent disease, lues venerea. From specimens procured by our guide, Chillong Soubah, there must be at least two springs; of one the water is of a yellowish tint, and highly sulphureous; that of the other is limpid, and possesses no sensible properties. I did not hear of the existence of such springs elsewhere.

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