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VII. Proceedings of the Asiatic Society.

Wednesday Evening, the 2nd December, 1835.

The Rev. W. H. MILL, D. D. Vice-President, in the chair.

His Excellency Sir HENRY FANE, Commander-in-Chief, and Mr. CHARLES AUGUSTUS NOTT, proposed at the last meeting, were ballotted for, and duly elected members.

Read letters from Colonel W. H. SYKES, and Professor W. BUCKLAND, acknowledging their election as honorary members.

Read letters from H. HARKNESS, Esq. Secretary to the Royal Asiatic Society, and NICHOLAS CARLISLE, Esq. Secretary to the Society of Antiquaries, acknowledging the receipt of copies of Mr. Csoma's Tibetan Grammar and Dictionary.

Read a letter from Dr. LAUTARD, Secretary to the Royal Academy of Marseilles, proposing an interchange of publications, and inclosing a diplo ma of honorary membership for the Secretary of the Asiatic Society; also presenting two volumes of the "Histoire de l'Academie de Marseilles." Resolved, that copies of the Researches be sent in return to Marseilles. The recent change in the currency of the Bengal currency, having been brought under consideration by the Secretary, it was

Resolved, that from the 1st January, 1836, all quarterly subscriptions and fees of admission to the Society, be collected in the new rupee; viz. 32 Company's rupees for the admission fee; 16 Co.'s Rs. for the quarterly subscription of ordinary members; and 4 Co.'s Rs. for the yearly subscrip tion of Associate Members.

Mr. CSOMA DE Körös, in a letter to the Secretary, intimated his intention of quitting Calcutta for the Western Provinces, and requested the loan of some Sanscrit books, which was granted.

Library.

Read a letter from M. Rouy DE ROCHELLE, President of the Central Committee of the Geographical Society of Paris, forwarding a copy of Bulletin de la Société de Geographie, vols. 1st and 2nd.

The following books were presented on the part of Lieut.-Col. W. H. SYKES, the Author.

A Catalogue of the Mammalia and Birds, observed in Dukhun.

On the Atmospheric Tides and Meteorology of Dukhun.

Description of the Wild Dog of the Western Ghats.

Some account of the Kolisura Silk-worm of the Dukhun.

Proceedings of the Statistical Society of London, No. I. vol. 1st.

The following works by Sir J. F. W. HERSCHEL.

A list of Test Objects, principally Double Stars.
Notices on the Orbits of revolving Double Stars.
Micrometrical measures of ditto.

On the Satellites of Uranus, and Observations of BIELA's Comet.
Also:-

The Indian Journal of Medical Science, No. 24-by the Editors.

Two copies of Impression of the Orrery and Simple Illustrations of Eclipses, translated into Bengali by Máhá Rájâh KALIKISSEN-by the Author,

Meteorological Register for October, 1835-by the Surveyor General.

DUMOULIN'S Gulistan, 1807, and Karab-ud-din, a Medical work, MS. were presented-by Professor H. H. Wilson.

The following books received from the booksellers :

LARDNER'S Cabinet Cyclopedia-Germanic Empire, vol. 3rd.

Ditto ditto-Greece, vol. 1st.

Literary and Antiquities.

Read a letter from W. H. WATHEN, Esq. forwarding a memoir on Chinese Tartary and Khoten.

[This will be published in our next.]

The Hon'ble Lieut.-Col. MORRISON, presented, on the part of the Author, a paper on the State of Arts of the Cotton Spinning, Printing, and Dyeing in Nepal, by Dr. A. CAMPBELL; with specimens.

Read a letter from Capt. T. J. TAYLOR, forwarding extract from a Journal of the late Major WARD, of the Madras European Regiment, regarding the inhabitants of the Varshagiri mountains in the Peninsula.

Read a letter from Lieut. H. ABBOTT, Mhow, forwarding an essay upon Comets, containing a new theory of the phenomena of the coma. Read a letter from G. W. TRAILL, Esq. forwarding copy of an inscription in the nail-headed form of Sanscrit in Kemaon.

Read extracts of a letter from Dr. BENZA, on the subject of some ancient coins dug up in a 'cairn' on the Nilgiris.

From Lieut. A. CUNNINGHAM, at Benares, were received several very beautifully sculptured small Buddha images, discovered in the excavations at Sárnáth; also copies of various inscriptions, and impressions of coins.

Physical.

The Secretary announced the arrival of six chests of fossil bones from the sub-Himalayas, forming the first dispatch of Colonel J. COLVIN'S munificent donation promised on the 14th January, 1835. (see page 56.)

In this collection, which Colonel COLVIN'S letter describes as containing the fossils in their rough matrix, as they were brought down by the native workmen employed in their excavation, a cursory inspection shewed several very large and complete jaws of the elephant, mastodon, hippopotamus, crocodile, and of other animals not immediately recognized. Col. COLVIN's letter of the 4th October, intimated the further dispatch of seven chests of fossils, more carefully selected and classified, of which a full catalogue has been furnished by the indefatigable collectors at Dadupur.

[We postpone our account of the whole until the second dispatch arrives.] Specimens of a crustaceous animal taken from the Greenland Whale, presented by Mr. STEPHENSON, with an explanatory note.

A specimen of Lophophorus Impeyanus, by Mr. C. W. SMITH.

A collection of bones of various mammalia, by Mr. J. T. PEARSON. Specimens of the soil and strata of the bed of the Samar lake, and of the salt in its different stages of formation, were presented by Capt. A. CONOLLY, Assistant Resident Jaipur.

A note of their chemical analysis by Mr. STEPHENSON, and the Secretary, was at the same time submitted.

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Meteorological Register, kept at the Assay Office, Calcutta, for the Month of November, 1835.

Observations at 10 A. M.

Observations at 4 P. M.

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One storm, then fine and cold.

On the 14th instant the Register Thermometer was removed from the top of a house in Calcutta, to Chowringhee; where it was placed in a garden 2 feet from the ground, near a tank. On this account it did not range so high in the day. A new correction-.020 is also applied to the Barometer on Sundays, now placed on the second story.

North.

JOURNAL

OF

THE ASIATIC

SOCIETY.

No. 48.-December, 1835.

I.-Memoir on Chinese Tartary and Khoten. By W. H. WAthen, Esq., Persian Secretary to the Bombay Government.

[Extract of a letter to the Sec. As. Soc. read at the Meeting of the 2nd inst.]

Having had opportunities of conversing with many natives of Chinese Tartary, several of whom were intelligent and well-informed men, I have drawn up a description of the country, from the information I obtained from them; and, as in the absence of any more correct accounts of a region which has not been visited since the time of GENGHIZ KHA'N and his successors, this may prove interesting, I transmit the memoir to you, to be laid before the Society.

I am well aware of the great caution with which oral information on such points should be received. The accounts I obtained were not elicited by any formal queries, or by giving the persons addressed any idea of the object in view; but in the course of daily interviews, and by friendly intercourse with them; and all my questions were casually introduced in the course of desultory

conversation.

I have been on friendly terms with at least ten of these persons, who were on their way to perform pilgrimage at Mecca; and where I had any doubts regarding the authenticity of information received from one, I took advantage, on a different occasion, to address myself, on the same subject, to another, and thus an opportunity was afforded to rectify any thing which might have been incorrectly stated.

My sole object has been to add, in any degree, however trifling, to our knowledge of a country so near our own frontier, and of which, at present, so little is known; and I trust I shall be excused, at least, in my humble attempt to imitate those great men MM. HUMBOLDT and KLAPROTH, who have been gaining information, in precisely the same manner, from natives of Chinese Tartary, who have resorted to Orenburg, or Orsk, on commercial pursuits, the result of which they have lately published at Paris.-W. H. W.

Chinese Tartary.-The province of Chinese Tartary contains, at present, nine towns of considerable magnitude, namely, Yárkand, Kashgar, Auksú, Eela, Yengí Hissár, Ooch Túrfán, and Koneh Túrfán, (which is sometimes called Hami,) Gúmmí, and Lopp.

Yárkand. Of these, Yárkand, from the extent of its population, may be said to be the capital of the province, though, in a political point of view, each of the governors and Chinese residents of those towns exercises independent authority. Yárkand is described as being a flourishing and populous city. It has two forts: the principal one is of large extent, but its walls are of clay; and it is uninhabited; the other, which is rather smaller, has four gates, is inhabited, and is considered by the natives as very strong, being built of stone and chunam, and surrounded with a ditch. The suburbs extend over a considerable space. The population of Yarkand is said to consist of about 30,000 families, as found by a census made by the Chinese--each family consisting of from five to 10 persons. Only 200 Chinese merchants are fixed residents; but many other traders of the same nation resort to the city-departing after a temporary stay. There are also many Túngání merchants resident in the place, and a number of Chinese artisans. Many natives of Kashmir have settled at Yárkand, a very few Hindus, and some Shíahs, or, as they are called, worshippers of Alí; but no Jews or Nogai Tartars. The houses are generally one story high, and built of clay, which answers the purpose sufficiently well, as very little rain falls in these countries. Yárkand boasts of numerous mosques and colleges. There are two spacious bazars-one within the fort, and the other in the suburbs, besides other smaller bazars in different quarters of the city. Horse-flesh is sold in the butcher's shops, and generally eaten it is not considered unlawful food by the people of the country, and generally sells for the same price as mutton. Kimmiz is not used by the inhabitants of the towns, but by the Kalmuks, and other roving tribes. The tenets of the Musalmán religion do not appear to be very strictly observed in Chinese Tartary; and the inhabitants seem to be much more tolerant than those of Kokan, and other places in Independent Tartary.

The Chinese government has a force stationed at Yárkand, stated to consist of about 7000 soldiers, partly Chinese, and partly Mandshus, or Mongols, of whom a portion garrison the forts; the remainder are cantoned outside the town, much like the English troops in India. The whole are under the orders of an officer, who has the title of Umbaun. There are no Túngání soldiers in Chinese Tartary; for, as they are Musalmans, the Chinese fear that they would,

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