the watershed between the Sittang and Youngsalen to the Kweestookee branch of the Thaiboot river, and down their right or left banks to the Youngsalen, down and across which to Tzeekameedac; 6th, thence over the watershed between the Youngsalen and the Salween to our frontier-line under the Karen Hills, where we are within reach of all the Chinese and Shan caravans which traverse the country north-west of that point. Another most important feature in the project is the establishment of an electrotelegraphic communication along the whole route. The line, once brought to Esmok, could be easily carried across country to the Pearl river, and down the lower valley of that stream to Canton and Hongkong, and thence, taking in the principal towns along the coast (Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai), to Pekin. In like manner, by extending the communication to Niew-chiang, and down the Corea, the open ports of Japan might be brought to the very door of Rangoon, which already possesses telegraphic connexion with Calcutta. On the Capabilities for Settlement of the Central Parts of British North America. By JAMES HECTOR, M.D., F.G.S., F.R.G.S. The region noticed by the author extended from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, lying immediately north of the boundary-line of the United States, and was drained principally by the river Saskatchawan. A considerable amount of agitation had been employed in Canada and at home, in order to have this country thrown open for settlement; the whole, with the exception of that portion which fell within British Columbia, being under the direct control of the Hudson's Bay Company for the purposes of a fur-trading monopoly. It had been placed beyond doubt, principally through the labours of several government expeditions, to one of which he was attached, that there existed within these territories extensive areas, with good and varied soil, adapted for agricultural colonization, but which, from their geographical position, were necessarily subject to all the advantages and defects of a temperate continental climate. The winter was long and severe, the spring short and uncertain, and the summer tended to scorch the vegetation. The winter, however, was not more severe than that which was experienced in Canada and elsewhere. Many crops which were readily raised in Canada would not meet with equal success in the Saskatchawan; but all common cereals and green crops had been grown successfully. The depth of the snow was never excessive, while in the richest tracts the natural pasture was so abundant that horses and cattle might be left to obtain their own food during the greater part of the winter; and there was no doubt that sheep might be reared, were it not for the immense packs of wolves which infested the country. These remarks applied more especially to the "Fertile Belt." The Saskatchawan country offered a most desirable field to the settler who was deficient in capital, and who had no desires beyond the easy life and moderate gains of simple agricultural occupations. It was only the difficulty of access to it that prevented its immediate occupation. One route from Hudson's Bay, by a broken land and water carriage, was now almost abandoned. A second route was from Lake Superior to Lake Winnipeg, which had the same disadvantages. The third line of ingress, undoubtedly the natural one, passed through American territory, up the valley of the Mississippi river to the Red River settlement, by way of St. Paul's, Crow Wing, and across the low watershed which there divided the waters of the Mississippi from those flowing to Hudson's Bay. The progress of the adjoining American settlements was then noticed. In the rugged country which lay between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast, no doubt all the valleys were filled with rich auriferous deposits; diggings were constantly being discovered in fresh localities. The formation of a line of railway through British Columbia would involve great difficulties. Throughout the Saskatchawan country there were deposits of coal of considerable value, though not to be compared with that which was common in England. Coal of somewhat better quality also occurred at Vancouver's Island; and that colony was a valuable link in a chain of communication with China and the East Indies, by way of a line of route across the North American continent. On the Relations of the Population in Ireland, as shown by the Statistics of Religious Belief. By the Rev. A. HUME, LL.D., D.C.L. This paper was in continuation of an analysis which the writer had made of pr of the Ecclesiastical Census of Ireland for 1834. It referred to the two counties of Down and Antrim; and the results were published, with curious ethnological maps in illustration of them. Of 135 benefices, some one class of the people rose to more than 50 per cent. in 117 instances; viz., Presbyterians in 70, Roman Catholics i 36, and Established Church in 11. Looking only to the geographical counties (except in the cases of Dublin, Belfast, and Carrickfergus), and omitting decimals, every 100 people are divided as follows:-Roman Catholics (or Celts) 78, Churchmen (or Normans and English Saxons) 12, Presbyterians (or Scottish Saxons) 9, minor sects of Protestants (mixed) 1. The Presbyterians are most concentrated, 94 per cent. of their number being in Ulster, 3 in Leinster, 2 in Munster, and 1 in Connaught; indeed, 60 per cent. are situated in Down and Antrim, including Belfast; and if we add Londonderry and Tyrone, 81 per cent., or more than four-fifths, are in those for shires. The Established Church has 58 per cent. of its members in Ulster, 25 in Leinster, 11 in Munster, and 6 in Connaught. It is therefore better distributed. The Roman Catholics are best distributed; viz., Munster, 31; Leinster, 28; Ulster, 22; and Connaught, 19. The great towns, being recruited from the rural population round them, will in time become more Celtic or Roman Catholic, just as Belfast, which was originally English, has become Scotticised by the influx of neighbouring Presbyterians. The three classes of population attain their highest and lowest relative propor tions at different points of the country; and in general the explanation of the facts is simple. The Roman Catholics reach 97.71 in Clare, and shade off in Mayo, Kerry, Roscommon, Galway, &c., not falling below 90 per cent. in sixteen counties. The Established Church is highest in Fermanagh, where it rises to 39 per cent. of the gross population; then in Armagh, 31; softening down in Belfast, Tyrone, Dublin city, and Down county, in none of which do its numbers fall below 20 per cent. Presbyterianism reaches its maximum at Carrickfergus, 59; descending by Antrim, 53; Down, 45; Belfast, 36; and Londonderry, 35; but in twenty-two counties, embracing nearly the whole of three provinces, it does not reach 1 per cent. of the gross population. In general the numbers representing Churchmen (or English Saxons) and Roman Catholics (or Celts) are the complements of each other, the descending figures in the one case nearly corresponding with the ascending ones in the other. But five or six of the lowest Roman Catholic numbers are baanced, not by Churchmen, but by Presbyterians, as given in the previous paragraph; all the examples lying in the three shires of Down, Antrim, and Londonderry, where the Scottish element is strongest. Since 1834 the Presbyterian element has diffused itself, though still greatly concentrated. In general it is represented at the new points in the south and west by a preponderance of males; while the instances in which Roman Catholic males exceed the females are remarkably few. Persons of the former class find new homes by the demands of trade and agriculture; persons of the latter class serve to swell the tide of emigration which flows westward, the males being usually the pioneers. These are only a few of the inferences suggested by the figures already given to the public as anticipatory of the general census. A Letter from Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of Hongkong, relating to the Journey of Major Sarel, Capt. Blakiston, Dr. Barton, and another, who are endeavouring to pass from China to the North of India. By Sir R. I. MURCHISON, D.C.L., F.R.S. These travellers ascended the Yang-tse-kiang to 800 miles above Hang-kow, found much coal with limestones and conglomerates in the cliffs forming the banks of that mighty stream, had travelled in their European dresses, and had encountered no great difficulty until they were near the capital of the great province of Sze chuen (population 15 millions), and in which French Jesuit missionaries have long been settled. The country towards the frontier of Tartary was in such a disturbed state, and for the most part overrun by multitudes of rebels (not the Tae-pings), that the travellers, being unsupported, were obliged to return by the river to Hangkow and thence to Shanghai. A Letter from the Colonial Office, on the Exploration of N.W. Australia, under Mr. GREGORY. Sir R. I. Murchison communicated the substance of a letter he had received from his Grace the Duke of Newcastle (Colonial Office), assenting to the recommendations of the Royal Geographical Society, that a sum of money exceeding that which was originally contemplated would be guaranteed to Mr. Frank Gregory to complete his explorations of North-Western Australia. That traveller was to go northwards, turn the north-west corner of the continent, and proceed as far as possible eastwards towards Cambridge Gulf. The colonists of Western Australia who first recommended this exploration had a more limited object in view, wishing merely to extend their feeding-grounds. The proposed exploration was one of the utmost national importance at the present moment; for the land thus explored was where cotton grew as a native plant, and in abundance. It was partly with a view to ascertain some of the cotton-growing capabilities of this neighbourhood that the exploration was about to be undertaken. The feat of M'Douall Stuart in crossing the continent from South Australia to the northern watershed was one which the Royal Geographical Society had recompensed by awarding to him their gold medal. Remarks on the Proposal to form a Ship Canal between East and West Loch Tarbert, Argyllshire. By JoHN RAMSAY. The length of the proposed canal from high-water mark on the one side to highwater mark on the other would be 1600 yards. On the voyage between the Clyde and West Highlands the distance saved would be fully sixty miles. Eighty years ago the difficulties and dangers of the navigation had led to the consideration of this proposal, and it was again brought forward in 1846, when the probable expense was estimated at £101,267 18s. 9d. On the Direct Overland Telegraph from Constantinople to Kurrachee. In 1858 the Turkish Government undertook to execute, at its own expense, a line of telegraph from Constantinople to Bussorah, which would form an integral portion of the great line connecting India with Europe. It was foreseen that the line would be convenient both for the requirements of the Turkish trade and the purposes of the Turkish Government, and would thus benefit the empire; but the money return for the outlay was to be sought in the tariff established for British messages transmitted along the line towards India. The British Government engaged, as soon as there was a fair prospect of the completion of the Turkish undertaking, to carry on the communication from Bussorah to India at its own expense. Some of the officers originally engaged in the undertaking had retired; but three of Lieut. Holdsworth's employés, Mr. Carthew and the brothers M'Cullum, remained in the country, and, mainly owing to their zeal and skill, the line was now in a working and efficient state the whole way from Constantinople to Bagdad. The Porte had declined to accede to a proposition that Her Majesty's Government should incur half the expenses of the improvements, but had formally engaged to carry out all Col. Kemball's recommendations for giving greater efficiency to the line at his own expense. A submarine cable from Pera across the Bosphorus having been frequently damaged by the anchors of vessels, it was proposed to suspend a wire from the European to the Asiatic side at the narrowest part of the strait-a distance of not more than 1000 yards. Precautions had been taken as security against interruption from the Arabs, Kurds, &c., by the line of telegraph being taken from Marden along the chain of the Masius, where there are located a great body of Jacobite Christians. Col. Kemball reported favourably of the pro gress of efforts to conciliate the Arab chiefs living near the outer ranges of the Kurdish mountains. The telegraph consisted of two distinct wires, one of which was reserved for the exclusive use of the British Government; and a convention was about to be signed with the Turkish Government for the regulation of the respective shares of the expense to be incurred in keeping the line in working order, for fixing the tariff for the transmission of messages, &c. With reference to the Persian section of the line, attention was being more immediately directed to s continuation of the land-line from Bagdad, through Persia, towards India. Political and physical arguments showed the desirability of taking a northward line, and the author believed that it had been decided to continue the line, in the first instance, directly from Bagdad to Teheran, thence to Khanikeen and Kermanshah. From the latter place it would continue to follow the great high road from Babylon eastward. At Teheran the line would join another system of telegraphs which had been organized in Persia itself. From Bagdad it was proposed to continue the line to Bunder Abbas; and it was almost certain that the Shah would enter cordially into the scheme. The Commissioner in Scinde, the agent for the Government of India, and the Imaum of Muscat had reported as favourably as could be wished. They were working in what he believed, in the present state of oceanic telegraphy, to be the only practicable direction. On the Spitzbergen Current, and Active and Extinct Glaciers in South Greenland. By Colonel SHAFFNER. In June 1777, ten whaling vessels were beset in the ice about lat. 76° north, between Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen. They endeavoured in vain to escape, were carried by the ice in a south-western direction between Iceland and Greenland, and by degrees the vessels were all lost; only 116 of the 450 men who composed the crews escaping, they having reached the South-Greenland coast. Little was known of the loss of these vessels; but it might be supposed that the floe ice was not compact, and that they were chafed until their hulls were worn, so as to permit the water to enter them. On the 22nd of June, 1827, Captain Parry started on a boat expedition from Spitzbergen towards the North Pole-one of the most hazardous efforts known in Arctic annals; but he was obliged to put back on the 24th of the following month, and return to his ship at Spitzbergen, the drift or current having carried him 14 miles to the southward in the last two days of the journey. South of Spitzbergen and Jan Mayen the ice sometimes spread and came south upon North Iceland, the gales north of Iceland and south of Spitzbergen spreading the ice in detached pieces or small bergs eastward, from 100 to 200 miles from the current track, which runs southward along the Greenland coast. Directly west of Iceland, the floe ice had seldom been seen from the highest mountains. South of Iceland, the ice-floe was in the direction of Cape Farewell. Timber was often found drifting near the east and west coasts of Greenland. The width of the Greenland current did not, in his (Col. Shaffner's) opinion, exceed 50 miles; it carried with it floe ice and berg ice. It was not known that much of the floe ice came from the icy seas north of Russia. The year 1860 was remarkable for the great quantity of ice brought by the Greenland current, and, added to that brought south by the Baffin's Bay and other currents of Davis's Strait, produced the unusual dangers experienced in navigation from America to Europe in 1861. More ice had been seen in the usual track of the steamers during this year than at any previous period. This was to be expected after the reports from the 'Bulldog' and 'Fox' expeditions of 1860. Captains of vessels from Greenland reported that there had been but little ice in the Greenland current this year; and it might be expected that navigation between America and Europe would be but little hindered by the ice in 1862. When north-east winds blew, the coast was free from ice; a west wind drove the ice upon the coast. It might be safe to estimate the velocity of the Greenland current at 10 nautical miles per hour from north of Spitzbergen and Cape Farewell, and then northward to about latitude 64° north, where it began to spread and join with the northern or Baffin's Bay current. The length of this current being about 1600 nautical miles, and supposing its width to be 50 miles during four months of the year, they might estimate the decay of ice from 75,000 to 80,000 square miles, within the track of the Greenland current. On the subject of glaciers, the Colonel expressed his opinion that the "Igalikko" was once an icefiord, that the glacier extended where water was now seen, the water reaching even more into the interior than the edge of the present glacier-the moving of the ice having ground up the rocks, and the earth and the small particles gradually filling up the fiord. The supposed ice-area of Greenland being about 400,000 square miles, such an area ought, if all of it were ice, to give off more upon the known coast than was seen. It was reasonable to doubt the existence of such an extent of ice. The English Gipsies and their Dialect. By BATH C. SMART. The author of this paper was careful to explain in the outset that he did not profess to deal with comprehensive questions relating to the Gipsy race as a whole, but that his observations were limited to his own personal experience among the English Gipsies. He began with a short description of the chief physical and psychological characteristics of the Romany people as they are now to be met with in England. In addition to their swarthy skin and black hair and eyes, he remarked the prevalence among them of a well-marked aquiline nose, and the obliquity of the orbital arches, which slant upwards to the glabella or root of the nose, combining together into one common arch, instead of appearing to be segments of two separate circles, these several features forming a tout ensemble having an oriental cast strikingly different from the Anglo-Saxon physiognomy, or that of any other British race. The latter and by far the larger portion of the paper was devoted to the linguistic peculiarities of the English Gipsies. His remarks under this head were based on a vocabulary, which accompanied the paper, of upwards of 800 words collected by himself during actual intercourse with members of various Gipsy families. These words had all been minutely compared with Grellmann's and Borrow's German and Spanish Gipsy Dialects, and their homologies traced wherever it was possible. The following is a brief sketch of the remarks made on the composition of words and of the various parts of speech and their inflections :A peculiarity of the Gipsy language wherever spoken is the number of words terminating in engro or mengro, escro or mescro, but the English dialect seems especially rich in these compounds; e. g., Bockoromengro Massengry Sastermescro Poggeromesty. A shepherd. From Bokoro (sheep). A blacksmith. From Saster (iron). But perhaps the most characteristic termination of all is ben, or pen, added to adjectives and verbs to form substantives. This affix is also of frequent occurrence in Hindustani : Tatchipen Hobben (for Holben) ..... Truth. From Tatcho (right). Sickness. The Gipsies have manufactured and adopted a class of words, generally appellatives, which are essentially of the nature of puns. They consist of words in which a fancied resemblance of sound has suggested their translation into Romanes; e. g., Lalopeero (red foot) .... Milesto-gav (donkey-town) Redford. Interchanges of certain letters frequently occur in Gipsy words, but always according to rules; and this must be borne in mind in tracing their derivations. Interchanges take place between the following letters-K and H, K and T, G and D, F and S, &c., and the liquids are very often confounded. GRAMMAR. Masculine nouns generally end in a consonant or o. |