TRANSACTIONS OF ASIATIC SOCIETIES.*

THE mass of miscellaneous papers contained in the works cited at the foot of this page, may be accepted as proof that the industry of collectors of facts on Oriental topics, is in no degree suspended through the absence, on the part of the public, of that interest in their labours, which rewards and animates the diligence of writers. How much the notorious repugnance of the nation towards Oriental reading is to be attributed to the subjects themselves,-how much to the mode in which they are usually treated, and how much to the reprehensible indifference of readers, is a question too invidious as well as difficult for us to discuss. But whilst this repugnance, whatever be its cause, exists, the great bulk of compositions on Oriental subjects must continue to find their way to the public eye through the medium of these periodical records, for authors of such works cannot be often expected to purchase a dim and transient reputation at the severe pecuniary responsibility of being their own publishers.

Our notice of the collections before us must unavoidably be very superficial: we take them in the order in which they occur. The eighteenth volume of the Asiatic Researches, a work of high character,† consists exclusively of papers in the physical class, embracing the zoology, meteorology, mineralogy, and geology of Hindostan. This is the first time in which this class of papers has been published in a separate form from the literary Transactions of the society. "By giving them a detached and separate existence, it has been thought that they would be more likely to attract the attention of the readers to whom they are chiefly addressed, or individuals engaged in scientific pursuits, than if they were associated with matters which are more especially addressed to literary men or to the general reader." This is the reason assigned by the committee for the separate publication of these papers, some of which, we observe, have been waiting publication since the re-establishment of the Physical Committee in 1828. It is unnecessary for us to analyse all the papers, because analyses of most of them (as will be pointed out) have already appeared in this Journal.

The first paper consists of General Observations on the Geology of India, by Mr. Jas. Calder, forming an appropriate introductory dissertation upon this important, and till lately much-neglected, branch of physical science. Of this dissertation, a copious epitome has appeared in this journal, comprehending the substance of the paper.

A paper on the geology of a portion of Bundelkhand, Boghelkhand, and the districts of Ságur and Jebelper, by Capt. James Franklin, follows, and this also has been briefly analysed in our journal.§ It is accompanied by a geological map and section, with barometrical heights.

* Asíatic Researches, or Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. XVIII. Calcutta, 1833. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. II. Calcutta, 1833.

Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. III. Part III. London, 1834.

† Complaints, we observe, are made that this work is difficult to be procured in Europe; this difficulty must be imaginary, or owing to inquiries being made in wrong quarters.

The same remark may be applied to the following papers, namely, on the Trap formation of the Ságar district, by Capt. S. Coulthard.* Remarks on the Geology of Udayapur, by Mr. Jas. Hardie;† On the Diamond mines of Panna, in Bundelkhund, by Capt. Franklin ;+ Observations on the Geology of the Malayan Peninsula, by Capt. Low ;§ On the Fertilizing Principles of the Inundations of the Hughli, by Mr. H. Piddington;|| On the Tides of the Hughli, by Mr. Jas. Kydd;¶¶ On the Geology of Central India, by Mr. Jas. Hardie ;** On the Formula for calculating Azimuth in Trigonometrical Operations, by Capt. G. Everest;++ and On the Geology of the Peninsula, by Lieut. S. C. Macpherson. Most of the other papers have been transiently noticed.

There are several interesting papers on the Zoology of Nepal, by Mr. Hodgson, including notices of a new large species of Buceros (B. Nipalensis), measuring four feet five inches from wing to wing, three feet six inches from beak to tail, with a bill eight inches in length; a new species of eagle (Aquila Nipalensis), a new species of falcon (Circaëtus Nipalensis), and a shrike (Dicrurus Indicus), called the Bhúcháng, common in the valley of Nipal; a curious account of the migration of the natatorial and grallatorial birds, observed at Kathmandu; the best descriptions and representations yet given of the Jháral, or wild goat, and the Nayaur, or wild-sheep, of Nipal; and an account of the Ratwa deer of the Great Saul Forest, a remarkable animal, bearing certain analogies to the giraffe, the musk-deer and the goat.

Two papers by the late Mr. Voysey,-one on the geological and mineralogical structure of the hills of Sítábaldi and Nágpur, the other on the petrified shells found in the Gawilgurh range of hills,-afford additional reason for lamenting the loss of this martyr to the cause of science.

A description of the coal mines of Burdwan, and the occurrences in sinking the shafts, by the late Mr. Jones, who superintended the mining works at Raniganj, is a curious paper. He thinks it not improbable that the coal line of Bengal enters China. He ascertained its continuation from the Garrow hills into Cachar, and was assured by the natives of its being traced into the Burmah country.

A paper by the late Capt. Herbert, on the mineral productions of that part of the Himalaya mountains surveyed by him, with an account of the mines there, is a valuable one. Besides the minerals useful to the metallurgist, the following are found: sulphur, green sulphate of iron, alum, bitumen, graphite, gypsum, limestone, potstone, or indurated talc, granite, and borax. The geological relations of the gypsum of the Himalaya, which seem in some respects peculiar, are the subject of a separate paper in this volume. The marble and potstone appear adapted to useful and ornamental objects. No mine of the precious metals has been yet found within the limits of the British authority, but circumstances indicate their existence. The metals which yield revenue are copper, lead, and iron, of

which there is no deficiency. The copper mines, of which there are seven, are the most valuable. Iron is neglected or mismanaged. The lead mines are numerous, and the supply is considerable. Capt. Herbert has not stated how these mines are worked, whether vertically, or by horizontal adits, as in Durham: we conjecture in the latter mode.

Observations, by Mr. Gerard, on the Spiti Valley, comprehend some interesting facts and conclusions respecting the great plateau of the Himalaya, with which that gentleman must be so familiar. He corrects the common and natural theory, which assumes the Himalaya to be a mere boundary between two countries of nearly equal level, by showing that the high country continues beyond any line we have hitherto discovered, and that "we still remain ignorant of the extent, the altitude, and the nature of the great central platform of Asia." The paper contains curious meteorological and zoological data, and occasional remarks respecting the inhabitants of Spítí. "Though poor in those resources which denote easy existence, there is, nevertheless, a degree of comfort in the necessaries of life, amongst the lowest classes, unknown to the natives of the southward hills. Strangers," he adds, "especially Europeans, arriving amongst them, and passing rapidly on their way, see nothing in the country or inhabitants to raise a favourable impression on their minds; they observe them in black, bare-headed groupes, timid, squalid, and in rags, and every third person a priest; but, however intelligible their conduct when debating in an unknown dialect about supplies, or the propriety of our progress, in their houses we were treated with friendship and hospitality."

The absence of moisture and the activity of evaporation are surprising in this climate. To this accelerated vaporization, Mr. Gerard remarks, is owing the fluctuation of level of the lakes in Tartary, in spite of increasing cold. Though that of Mansarovara has an outlet in the Sutlej, Chamoreril, in Rúpshú (probably fifty miles in circuit), at an elevation of 15,000 feet, has no passage outward, though fed in their season by broad and rapid streams. "Evaporation by an atmosphere, which, from its extreme rarity and dryness, greedily drinks up moisture, is here amply sufficient to graduate the marginal limit of those lofty reservoirs to the extent of four or five feet." Being in possession of Kater's hygrometer, in his tour to the sources of the Hyphasis and Chunáb and across the high land of Rúpshú into Spítí, Mr. Gerard compared the state of the air on both sides of the Himalaya: his general conclusions were, "that the atmosphere of the interior regions was more than twice as dry as that of the southern hills; that the aspect of vegetation and the rocks corresponded with the indications of the hygrometer; and that the climate of the valley of Spítí, at an elevation of between 12,000 and 13,000 feet, in October, was infinitely more arid than that of Súbathú, at 4,000 feet, in May and June, when the wind becomes heated and the country parched up."

Of the Journal of the Society, the work next in order, which offers a vehicle for the speedier publication of papers of interest than could be hoped for in the Researches, we have already spoken, in noticing the first volume.

* ཝཱ

Under the able management of Mr. Prinsep, the secretary of the society, and with the abundant local resources it commands, this work has attained a respectability, which makes it worthy of association with such a body as the Asiatic Society of Bengal. The large contributions we have levied upon this publication, will imply, upon Eastern principles, our conviction of its wealth: we shall, therefore, content ourselves with particularizing as the most prominent amongst the contents of the second volume, various details respecting the travels of Lieut. Burnes and Dr. Gerard; the valuable disquisitions on Indo-Grecian and other coins, by Mr. Prinsep; some of the results of M. Csoma Körösi's investigation into Tibetan literature; several of the dissertations contained in the recent work of Lieut. Burnes; a translation, accompanied with valuable notes, of a poem of Kálidása, &c. The miscellaneous and scientific matter, which makes up the complement of the different monthly numbers of the Journal, are selected with the judgment and skill of a man of real science.

We next proceed to the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society at home, of which the third part of the third volume,the last portion which is to appear in this form,-is before us. The terms in which we have spoken (with the regret which candid minds always feel when discharging a disagreeable duty) of the late fasciculi of the society, we are told, and we might anticipate without being told, have provoked ill-will in certain quarters. No critique was probably ever penned which satisfied every taste: shallow and groundless pretensions are hard to conciliate. Nothing could be easier than to cry "euge!" upon all occasions, and to make a display of ingenuity in varying the forms of compliment and the terms of commendation. But the value of a reviewer's opinions can only be in the ratio of their honesty and independence. The freedom of a critic should not be restrained by the rules imposed upon a writer of epitaphs. Every man who prints a book challenges the judgment of the public, and, in the first instance, of that portion of the public which conveys its opinion, in some sort, ex cathedrâ. If an individual is exposed to this ordeal, and ought to have his labours freely scanned, what, à fortiori, should exempt a society, from whose combined efforts more should reasonably be expected, and in which morbid irritability, the common infirmity of authors, is in some measure, at least, dispersed and dissipated? We doubt, however, after all, whether the sentences complained of be not in entire harmony with the sentiments of the most judicious members of the body, and whether the complaint may not have proceeded from self-constituted mouth-pieces. Whether this be the case or not, however, our opinions will be delivered with the same freedom, sincerity, and candour, as before.

The part under consideration contains fourteen papers, three of which are contributed by foreigners, and five others have been communicated by the branch-societies of Madras and Bombay.

The first is an account of the great historical work of Ebn Khaldún, by the Chevalier Gräberg de Hemsö, and details his efforts to procure an entire and accurate copy of this important work, whilst resident as Swedish Con

sul at Morocco and Tripoli. It consists, when entire, of three parts; the first, entitled Mokaddameh, usually translated 'Prolegomena,' is not rare ; but the other two parts are not to be met with in Europe. By dint of bribes and though the intervention of a friend, the chevalier succeeded in obtaining, at Tripoli, a copy of the whole of this invaluable treasure, a large portion of which, in its transit from Tripoli to Leghorn, was soaked with salt water and destroyed! The original was lent by its possessor to one of the European consuls (we believe, the late M. Rousseau is meant*), who, "dabbling in every kind of scholarship, and contrary to all honesty, sent away the MS. to Europe," without the consent of its owner, Sidi Hassuna D'Ghaees, now in England, and it is probably lost.

From the remaining portion, and his recollection of the contents of that destroyed, M. de Hemsö has supplied the memoranda contained in this paper, which by no means lessens our curiosity to possess the entire work of an author, who "has renounced the prejudices of his religious tenets in a much greater degree than any other Arabian historiographer."

The brief analysis of the first fourteen chapters of the third part seems to be taken (even to the title) from M. Schulz's translation, inserted in the Journal Asiatique.†

A copy of this third part (comprising a history of the Berbers) exists at Cambridge, and Professor Lee is now (and has been for some years) engaged in a translation of it, for the Oriental Translation Fund. According to Dr. Schulz,+ a copy of the entire work is in one of the libraries at Constantinople. Surely access to this might now be obtained.

Colonel Sykes' description of the Wild Dog of the Western Ghats proves that it is the same species as the wild dog of the Himalaya, described by Mr. Hodgson in the volume of the Researches just noticed, and of other parts of India, with slight modifications arising from climate.

Colonel. Vans Kennedy's paper on the Védánta system is one of the most valuable in the fasciculus.

The object of the learned President of the Bombay Society is to inquire, "whether the Védánticas adopt the system of material pantheism that prevailed amongst the Grecian philosophers, or whether they have invented a most refined system of spiritual pantheism altogether unknown to the philosophers of Europe." Colonel Vans Kennedy considers that most of the modern expositors of the Védánta philosophy, in which number he includes Mr. Colebrooke, regard its basis as material, contrary to the notion of Sir Wm. Jones; Sancara Achárya, in his commentary on the sútras of Vyása, the highest authority on the subject, is a determined maintainer of spiritual, not of material, pantheism, as is shown in sundry extracts. He adds: if, at the same time, the four great sentences,' one of which is ascribed to each of the Védas, be actually contained in those works, it must necessarily follow that the Védánta system is founded upon the Védas, and that consequently no change can have taken place in its original doctrine; for these sentences are continually occurring in Sancara's commen

* This person is said to have got possession of a complete copy of Ebn Batuta.

N. Journ. As. Vol. ii. p. 117.

+ See As. Journ. 0.S. Vol. xxv. p. 462.