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tannica, when speaking of this plant, says, "Zostera Oceanica Linnæi, sui generis planta, nostras nunquam oras attigit."

There are several sorts of wood, but it is difficult to say to what species they belong. I was accompanied in my examination of this forest by John Acland, Esq. of Fairfield, and some of his friends, who seemed to agree very generally that some of the trees were distinctly oak and yew. Of these, and particularly the latter, the texture is still entire; there are others which are soft and easily cut by the spade, but even these when allowed to dry become very tough and hard. The trunks seldom appear more than a foot above the ground, and they seem as if the stem had been broken off. Some of them however are smooth, as if sawed across, which has probably been the case, for a great deal of the timber has been carried away by the country people; and I was told by a farmer who had lived a great many years in the neighbourhood, that he recollects when there were stems standing erect above the height of a man, with lateral branches extending from them. This farmer some years ago ploughed up a part of the forest, and took away about forty cart-loads of the trees, part of which he used as timber, and the rest as fuel; but for the latter purpose it was very unfit, on account of the offensive smell it produces when burning. He shewed me a gate-post, which he said was one of the sub-marine trees; it had been put into the ground 40 years before, and was quite entire: he had no doubt of its being yew.'

Description of a Clinometer. By the Right Hon. Lord Webb Seymour, F.R.S. F.R.S.E. F.L.S. M.G.S.-We are here presented with a simple and ingenious contrivance for determining the position of the plane of stratification: but the instrument and its application cannot be satisfactorily understood without references to the accompanying plates.

A Sketch of the Geology of the Lincolnshire Wolds. By Mr. Edward Bogg, Land-Surveyor.-This short communication is chiefly valuable on account of an annexed map of the bassetings of the chalk, oolite lime-stone, and sand-strata, with the alluvial earth and hills of the same formation, and a view of the succession of the strata. A tabular enumeration is also exhibited of the varieties of seams that occur in the shale-stratum, to the depth of 103 yards; and from which it is reasonable to infer that coal may be found at no great distance.

On the Tremotite of Cornwall. By the Rev. W. Gregor.The substance here described, and which is by no means of frequent occurrence in the southern parts of the island, is found both in a compact and a crystallized form in a rock which approaches to the nature of serpentine, about three miles from Liskeard, and very near to the great road to Plymouth. The portions of tremotite, which Mr. Gregor submitted to analysis, yielded silica, 62.2, lime, 14.1, magnesia, REV. JULY, 1817.

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12.9,

12.9, oxyd of iron, 5.9, water, 1, and manganese and soda,

a trace.

Some Observations on the Salt Mines of Cardona, made during a Tour in Spain, in the Summer of 1814. By Thomas Stewart Traill, M.D. M.G.S.-The notoriety of these quarries of rock-salt unavoidably deprives Dr. Traill's communication of the interest that is derived from novelty: but it possesses the more solid merit of superior distinctness and accuracy. It seems that this mass of native salt rather fills up a valley than constitutes a mountain; that it is of singular compactness and purity, accompanied, as in Cheshire, by red clay and sandstone, but not by gypsum; and that it is worked, on a very languid scale, under the strict vigilance of the government. The brine-spring, which flows from the foot of the great precipice of salt into the Cardonero, carries along with it, during the rainy season, such a quantity of salt as to kill the fish in that river. This assertion rests upon the authority of Bowles, an able naturalist; but he undoubtedly was led into error when he asserted, that the waters of the Cardonero at some leagues below the mines yield no trace of salt: from which he inferred that salt may, by motion, be converted into earthy matter. At Manresa, which is about twenty miles below Cardona, I tested the water of the Cardonero by nitrate of silver, which indicated the presence of an unusually large portion of muriate of soda.'

Description of a New Ore of Tellurium. By Professor Esmark, of Christiania, Foreign Member of the Geological Society. This newly-discovered modification of telluriumore is of a whitish tin-hue, has a perfectly foliated fracture, a strong metallic lustre, considerable softness and heaviness, and occurs coarsely disseminated and crystallized in perfect hexagonal plates, striped on the edges, in the Orndal coppermine; where it is accompanied by copper-pyrites, and a small intermixture of sulphuret of molybdenum.

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An Account of the Swedish Corundum from Gellivara, in Lapland. By C. T. Swedenstierna, of Stockholm, Foreign Member of the Geological Society. We learn from the history which attends the description of the mineral in question, that its crystals are small, and by no means frequent in the many specimens of Gellivara ore which the author had occasion to examine. His notices of the characters of this variety of Corundum are followed by some interesting remarks on the position and contents of the Gellivara mines.

To this volume is annexed an ample list of donations of books, minerals, &c. to the collections of the Society. We purpose to take an early opportunity of noticing the first part of the succeeding volume, which has just reached us.

ART.

ART. III. Travels in Beloochistan and Sinde; accompanied by a Geological and Historical Account of those Countries; with a Map. By Lieutenant Henry Pottinger, of the Honourable East-India Company's Service; Assistant to the Resident at the Court of his Highness the Peishwa; and late Assistant and Surveyor with the Missions to Sinde and Persia. 4to. pp. 423. 21. 5s. Boards. Longman and Co. 1816.

THE

HE magnificent account of the kingdom of Caubul lately published by the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, and reviewed in our Number for May last, may be compared with an epopea, of which the Travels of Lieutenant Pottinger were destined to form an episode. Why they have been dilated into a separate work, of nearly equal splendour, instead of being stationed in the appendix to that publication, is not obvious. The jealousy entertained at Calcutta of Bonaparte's views on India prompted both enterprizes: but the explorer of Caubul marched into the land with dazzling publicity, while the examiner of Beloochistan glided through it in versatile disguise; the one unpacks the colossal telescope of imperial vigilance, the other hides his spying-glass in a walking

stick.

Lieutenant Pottinger was accompanied by Captain Christie, in his undertaking to visit Beloochistan; and, as local reasons rendered a concealment of their object and purpose desirable, they procured letters of credit as horse-dealers, and in that apparent capacity departed from Bombay. They touched at Porebunder on the coast of Guzeratte; a country which still deserves a more minute examination, and of which the antient dialect of the people should be brought to the record of a copious vocabulary: since some antiquaries take this delta of the Indus to have been the original station of the Phoenicians of the antient world, who, about the time of Solomon, came up the Red Sea, and established a port of trade at Eziongeber. The mouth of the Indus is described, and the bay of Sonmeany, where the fleet of Nearchus assembled. Here the travellers landed, and proceeded on camels,

Bela is the first place of importance. It was reached on a holiday, when horse-races were celebrating, and many persons of distinction galloped on camels by the side of the horses; much hospitality was shewn to the strangers by the Jam, or chief; and every facility was afforded for proceeding up the mountains to Kelat. So cold was the weather at the beginning of February, that the mushks, or leathern bags of water provided for the journey, became lumps of ice,

Kelat, described in the third chapter, is the metropolis of Beloochistan, and is therefore called the city.

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Here the

travellers

travellers hired for themselves, in one of the suburbs, a house, to which a spacious stable-yard was attached. The city is commercial in its general character, and may be compared with the larger towns of Swisserland. The houses are mostly of wood, plastered; and every story projects over the one below, so that the garret-windows almost meet, although the street is wide enough at bottom. The bazar, or sheltered market, is well supplied both with food and wares; and a spring of excellent water flows through the town, the source of which is so abundant that it turns several water-mills, before it runs a quarter of a mile. Among the welcome luxuries of the place are mentioned dried apricots; the stones of which are taken out, and the fruit is then exposed repeatedly to the sun: it keeps for many months, but requires to be steeped in cold water for about three hours before it is eaten. The winter and the summer are peculiarly distinct in this climate, and the intemperance of each season is conspicuous; the dresses of the people therefore undergo a corresponding alteration. Four distinct classes of inhabitants are specifically described in the fourth chapter, the Belooches, the Hindoos, the Afghauns, and the Dehwars. Games on horseback form a frequent exercise of the gentlemen. Their funerals conclude with hospitable repasts, which give them an appearance rather of revelry than mourning. The description of Kelat is continued through the fifth chapter; and here also we learn that an opinion of the medical skill of our travellers became to them a source of useful introduction.

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On leaving Kelat, they proceeded to Nooshky: where they determined to separate, Captain Christie undertaking the more northern road through Herat and Yezid; and Lieutenant Pottinger agreeing to survey the central or more southern district. It was intended to meet at Kirman: but circumstances brought them again together first at Isfahan. Captain Christie was not destined to return to this country; being selected by his Majesty's minister for military service, and unfortunately killed in an attack made by a body of Russian troops on the Persian camp during the night of the 31st of October 1812. His untimely death is regretted by his friends, and by the public; and, though a journal of his route was found among his papers, and is given in the appendix, much of his observations had been trusted to memory and perished with him.

Lieutenant Pottinger's separate journey begins with the eighth chapter. Near Sarawan, and within sight of the bed of the river Bale, a remarkable cluster of monuments was

discovered

discovered that had never before been described by any European. We extract the account.

About four miles from our halting place, we, this evening, passed the remains of some very extraordinary tombs, built on the western bank of the river, about four hundred yards from it: they were of a quadrangular shape, and had each been surrounded by a low wall of curious open freestone work, which conveyed to me at the moment the idea of the meshes of a net stretched at one end into a conical shape: these walls enclosed an area of four or five square yards, and the entrances to them, as well as the buildings, fronted due east: there were several large mounds of earth and stones scattered over the desert to a considerable distance, which induced me to get off my camel, but as it was raining at the time, and I was but just able to walk, I did not stay to examine any of them minutely. I could discover no inscriptions, and it was in vain that I subsequently made strict inquiry with respect to these places, as I had not the good fortune to meet with any person who had seen them. All the satisfaction that my guide could give me was, that they were built in the time of the Guebres *, but that is the source, to which is ascribed every thing uncommon or inexplicable throughout this country, and ought not therefore to be implicitly credited; it is, however, probable that in this instance the conjecture was right: there was nothing whatever Mohummudan or Hindoo in the style, and if we remove the erection of them from those nations, it naturally rests with the Parsees † unless we choose to attribute it to a still earlier period. They were evidently very ancient, for notwithstanding the durable nature of the materials of which they were composed, they were every one mouldering and in a complete state of dilapidation. The most remarkable circumstance regarding them, if true, was pointed out to me by Moorad Khan, who informed me there was no stone of the same description (with that they were erected with) to be found in any part of the country, and added that it would be of no value, for the people of our days were incapable of executing such workmanship. I am still dubious whether these buildings were formerly sepulchres or places of worship; inside of each there was a raised mound covered with stone, which had, beyond a doubt, the appearance of a grave, but it is also possible that this was the altar for the sacred fire of the Atush Kudu ‡: their numbers speak, more than any other argument, to their having been cemeteries.'

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• * Infidels: so he styled the followers of Zoroaster.'

The

+ Parsee is the modern name for these people, it is distinct from Persians who are Moosulmans.'

A fire temple. The Guebres worship that element as an emblem of God. There are several Atush Kudus in India. At the city of Yezd in Persia, which is distinguished by the appellation of the Darul Ebadut, or Seat of Religion, the Guebres are permitted to have an Atush Kudu (which they assert has had the

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sacred

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