Various

“ In November, the country on the banks of the Swan and Canning Rivers, extending between the sea and the mountains, and to the distance of fifty miles to the southward of Perth, was thrown open to them. And many at once established themselves on their lands, regardless of any danger from the natives, who indeed were found to be so harmless, that single individuals even, who had traversed the country, and particularly among the mountains, had never met with any interruption, nor sustained any insult or injury at their hands. ”

“ In the wide ocean, however, where the marine productions were few, and those sometimes not well characterized, it was necessary to have recourse to the geographical distribution of the birds and animals that frequented its waters and coasts, as the vegetation of mediterranean shores lent its evidence in tracing affinity or dissimilarity between seas separated by slight geographical distances. In the narrative of Captain Beechey's voyage we find many facts of interest in a study of this kind, the most remarkable of which we shall briefly enumerate. ”

“ Cape Espenberg, its north-west extremity, is in latitude 66° 34′ N., and longitude 163° 36′ W. It is a narrow strip of land, on which are some high sand-hills, and a great many poles are placed erect upon it. The sea penetrates to the southward of this cape, but the entrance is closed by a bar which stretches all along the coast, extending to the inlet which Captain Kotzebue meditated to explore in baidars, and was very sanguine that it would lead to some great inland discovery. The extreme shallowness of the water prevented the examination of this inlet by the gig of the Blossom. ”

“ The altitudes obtained by barometrical or trigonometrical observations attach themselves peculiarly to physical geography, as illustrating the height of continents, of mountain chains, and of culminating points, which, however, are more often objects of curiosity than of scientific interest. ”

“ Egga is of prodigious extent, and has an immense population. Like many other towns on the banks of the river, it is not unfrequently inundated, and a large portion of it was at that time actually overflowed. The soil in the vicinity of the town consists of a dark heavy mould, uncommonly productive; so that, with trifling labour, all the necessaries of life are obtained in plenty, and cheaply. The inhabitants eat little animal food, but live principally on fish, which are sold at a reasonable rate. ”

“ This steam was at first of a brown colour, having embodied a great deal of the dust; as it rose it gradually recovered its pure white colour, depositing the dust in the shape of a shower of muddy rain. While this was being accomplished, renewed eruptions of hot cinders and dust were quickly succeeding each other; while forked lightning, accompanied by rattling thunder, darted about in all directions within the column, now darkened with dust, and greatly increased in volume, and distorted by sudden gusts and whirlwinds. ”

“ There is rarely a person to be met with who cannot read and write; and records are kept on the palm-leaf, beautifully lacquered in japan or red, generally on a grit ground, with dark letters. Their common accounts are written with a chalk pencil, resembling talc, on folds of paper made from the bark of a tree, and then covered with lamp-black, or a smooth board, besmeared with the same substance. ”

“ My reporter cannot form any satisfactory estimate of the number of the inhabitants of the districts belonging to the cities. In the mountains there are from three to four hundred houses of shepherds: but by far the greatest proportion of this very numerous class is nomadic, without other habitations than tents. Rating the population of the cities by six persons to each house,–which, from what I have seen of the towns of this country (Ladakh) , is rather below than above the average–it will amount to one hundred and two thousand individuals, independently of the inhabitants of the districts. ”

“ The place of their labour will probably soon become stations, or villages, where men and animals will not only be supplied with water, but with all other necessaries in their painful journeyings; and the names of the projector and executors of this work will be remembered with gratitude by all future travellers in this hitherto sterile desert. ”

“ Almost every house is provided with a well. The inhabitants are represented as being generally above the middle size: the males well formed and robust, with agreeable features and complexions of red and white: the females of delicate and elegant forms, and remarkable for the beauty of their eyes. ”

“ The coast here takes an abrupt turn to the northward, and the current sets strong against the bend. To the north, plains extend from the hills to the sea, composed of elastic bog earth, intersected by small streams, on the edges of which the buttercup, poppy, blue bell, pedicularis, vaccinium, saxifrage, and some cruciform plants, throve well. In other parts, however, the vegetation was stinted, and consisted only of lichens and mosses. Cape Mulgrave of Captain Cook is a range of hills, which terminate in a plain intersected by lakes near the beach, and probably not observed by that navigator. ”

“ The banks of the river were cultivated in some places where they were high, but in most places they were low, and the few villages that were seen were nearly concealed by thick jungle. Below Kirree the river is not so serpentine as above it; the banks are so low and regular that not even a simple rising can anywhere be distinguished: they are assuming a degree of sameness little different from that which prevails on many parts of the sea-coast, in the bight of Benin ”

“ We procured excellent ox-beef, with an abundance of vegetables, at Cheduba and Ramree, at the rate of three halfpence the pound: at Kyouk Phyoo, it was the same price; but the cantonment having been so recently formed, it was by no means so good, nor were vegetables easily to be procured, though we got a few of the best oranges I have tasted in India, and I was told they were abundant at the latter part of the year.
Though, in many respects, the people are far from being civilized, in others they surpass the most polished nations. ”

“ A range of hills extends eastward to Escholtz Bay, which terminates in a river about a mile and a half in width, and broken, at the time it was visited, into narrow and intricate channels by banks—some dry, and others only partly so. The shore around is flat, broken by several lakes, with cliffs principally formed of diluvial clay; and Captain Beechey has satisfactorily shown, that the bones which the naturalists of Kotzebue's expedition believed to have been incased in ice, were embedded in this clay. ”

“ It is not uncommon for the natives of Asia to call the principal city of a country by the name of the country itself, notwithstanding the former has a different appellation; as, for instance, an inhabitant of Delhi, on being asked the name of his residence, will occasionally answer Hindoostan; and thus the name of Khoten may incidentally have been applied to one of the cities of the country. ”

“ On the 13th we passed a village on the right bank. where the stillness of the water and much white foam we imagined to be the effects of the tide. This place is about seventy or eighty miles from the sea. Near the mouth of the river, and in our way up to Brass Town, the banks were so much overflown, that the trees appeared to be growing out of the water.'
The accompanying sketch of the course of the Quorra is combined with Captain Clapperton's map on a reduced scale, and it is due to the Society to offer a few remarks on the method which has been adopted in tracing it. ”

“ Here water has been found in a clayey stratum, at the depth of only thirteen feet, where a well is already established, to which the Arabs come for their daily supply. Above the clay is a bed of calcareous sandstone, five feet thick, through which the water filters; and in the stratum of clay three lateral galleries have been ingeniously struck to the extent of twelve or fourteen feet, which not only serve to collect the water, but, together with a further continuation of the well, to the total depth of twenty-one feet, form a reservoir of one thousand two hundred cubic feet of water. ”

“ It was the good faith, the hospitality, the kind and generous dispositions of these children of nature, that enabled M. Graah, in his isolated situation, to overcome the obstacles by which he was surrounded. During thirteen months he lost only a hatchet, and this he believed that he had forgotten somewhere; and his letters and journals have been transmitted to us by a Greenlander, who carried them from Nugarbik to Nenalalek. Polygamy is not common among them; they do not change their wives, and their morals appear to be irreproachable. ”

“ At present, except rice, there seem to be no surplus articles for export, though there is no doubt the country would afford abundance, were its resources brought out, which can only be done by a much larger population than it is likely to have for many years, even under the most favourable government. ”

“ If the opinion we have thus hazarded be correct, it is evident that, in different situations, there will be coral rocks, exhibiting very different characters; and thus, from the charts given of the coral islands which lie in the Indian and Chinese seas, in the regions of the six months' monsoons, it may be inferred that every side is equally advanced in formation. Chamisso says, that the larger species of coral insects, which form blocks measuring several fathoms in thickness, seem to prefer the violent surf on the external edge of the reef ”

“ Wheat, barley, maize, pease, and carrots are cultivated largely; but there is not any rice grown, the soil being too dry for this grain. The few forests existing scarcely deserve the name, there being few timber trees in them, and these are of the same character with those of Ladakh, as poplars and willows; but the mulberry abounds everywhere; and a vast quantity of silk is raised in this province, though a fine white cotton would seem to be its staple produce.
'The manufactures of Khoten consist principally of woollen, camlet, cotton, and silk cloths. ”

“ On entering the Quorra from this river, it was found running at the rate of two or three miles an hour. The banks of the river on the way down to Boossà, as well as its islands, were covered in many places with vast quantities of corn, which grows to the height of ten or twelve feet. The people on both sides are mostly of the Cumbrie race, who are poor, despised, and abused, but industrious and hard-working; in fact, they are considered as slaves by their more powerful neighbours. ”

“ The spinning of cotton affords them much in-door employment, as also the rearing of silk-worms and the winding of the thread; but the men gather and bring in the leaves of the mulberry for feeding the worms. Marco Polo says, that the people of Khoten are Mahometans; the translator of Abulghazi also observes, that "les habitans de la ville font pour la plupart profession du culte de Mahomet"—Marsden, vol. i. p. 153; and a preceding sentence in the same quotation leads the reader to believe that the Kalmuks formed the smaller part of the population ”

“ On the 28th of November the Blossom reached Ducie's Island. Iti s a coral rock, oval, with a lagoon in the centre, tenanted only by birds: the highest trees do not rise more than twenty-six feet above the level of the sea. It is situated in latitude 24° 40′ S., and longitude 124° 45′. The water was so clear over the coral, that the bottom could be distinctly seen when no soundings could be had with thirty fathoms of line. ”

“ The river below Madjie takes a turn to the east by the side of another range of hills, and afterwards flows for a number of miles a little to the southward of east. On leaving the island, we journeyed very rapidly down the current for a few minutes, when, having passed another, we came suddenly in sight of an elevated rocky hill, called Mount Kēsey by the natives. This small island, apparently not less than 300 feet in height, and very steep, is an object of superstitious veneration amongst the natives. ”

“ The only foreigners now in Arracan are the servants of the East India Company, who, both civil and military, spoke of the priests (or pondis, as they are termed) as being an unpresuming, well-disposed set of men, never interfering with the concerns of others, unless applied to as arbitrators, when they exercise their judgment with impartiality. The 'Mughs,' in their manners, are perfectly free from the servile hypocrisy of their western neighbours, and equally unlike them as to probity—their words being generally to be taken ”

“ With the exception of the dangerous rocks opposite Boossà, we were informed that, during our four days' passage thence, we had passed almost all the difficult places in the river, there being, as is said, neither rocks nor sand-banks either above Yáoori or below Boossà. We have said nothing of the direction of the river, because it is pretty well understood that this city lies nearly due north of Boossà; and also, that notwithstanding its windings, and the number and variety of its channels among the islands, the Quorra flows past Boossà in a single undivided channel. ”

“ It is only forty days' journey from Peking, but the road is interdicted.
'At eight days' journey from Yungee-kishlak, in the direction of south-south-east, is a district which abounds with gold in grains and masses, in collecting which five hundred to a thousand men are constantly employed on the part of the Emperor of China. Khoten is supposed to possess this and other metals; but if the inhabitants be acquainted with any mines, they carefully conceal them from the knowledge of their rulers, lest they should be compelled to work them on the account of the emperor [1] . ”

“ For when the Chinese governors of places, far removed from the seat of supreme government, have abused their power, and received such an intimation as convinces them that the tribunal to which they are responsible have proof of their delinquency, they, if their crime be of a capital nature, generally prefer the poisoned cup, which preserves their persons from public disgrace, and their property from confiscation, to the risk of losing life, honour, and estates, by the hand of the executioner. ”

“ And it is equally impossible to grant to all these animalcules one common impulse, or, as Captain Flinders has it, an instinctive foresight to shelter their habitations from the impetuosity of the winds, by forming constantly high walls and reefs to the windward: a circumstance, the explanation of which we think might easily be sought in physical causes alone. For if the lateral movements of the polypi, or their natural tendency to horizontal construction, happens to be impeded in any one direction, they will gain vertically what they lose horizontally ”

“ Exposed to the greatest physical suffering, and very often to famine, it is seldom that they live beyond the age of fifty; it is also alleged that the population is decreasing; and between the latitudes of 60° and 65°, M. Graah found only about five or six hundred inhabitants. The population appeared to have decreased on the south side of the coast, some of the inhabitants having emigrated to a new mission of Moravian Brothers, which has lately established itself at Fredrichsthal, near to Cape Statenhuk. ”

“ The Blossom, having navigated with considerable difficulty, and some danger, through a channel in the coral reef, was enabled to anchor in the lagoon. The strip of low land inclosing the lagoon is nearly seventy miles in extent, and the part that is dry is about a quarter of a mile in width. The lagoon is studded with coral knolls. This island is thinly inhabited, the natives not amounting to more than 100 souls. ”