May 20. Off Dumaun, the lady of Assist. Surg. Purnell, 13th N. I., of a son. 22. At Tellicherry, the lady of Mr. R. Corbett, of a daughter. 24. At Poonah, the lady of Capt. H. H. Hobson, 20th Regt., N.I., of a son. The lady of Mr. Fallon, portrait painter, of a son. 29. At Kaira, the wife of Mr. E. C. Watkins, acting sudder ameen, of a daughter. June 7. At Colaba, Mrs. G. Scales, of a son. 13. At Girgaum, the wife of Conductor J. C. Green, of a son. MARRIAGES. May 12. At Futteghur, James Maxwell, Esq., Mehndeeghat, to Ann Elizabeth, daughter of J. Churcher, Esq., Futteghur. 20. At the Mahableshwar Hills, Charles Hardy Bainbridge, Esq., solicitor, to Rosa Edwina, daughter of Capt. J. S. White. June 9. At Tanna, Henry Augustus, son of the late Richard Adams, Esq., formerly of the 2nd Dragoon Guards, to Johanna Charlotte, daughter of the late J. C. Ratie, Esq, of Baarhuis, Cape of Good Hope. DEATHS. March 29. At Malta, Thomas P. Weekes, Esq., late President of the Medical Board of Bombay. May 15. At Bombay, Lieut. A. G. Shaw, 22nd Regt. N.I., an assistant in the Road and Tank Department. 25. At Tannah, Ensign G. Scriven, 19th Native Infantry. June 8. Madame de Willaume, aged 77. 13. At Girgauin, Mr. Joseph Maria Duarte, aged 30. Lately. H. B. Crockett, Esq., Lieutenant 1st Regt. Native Grenadiers, Invalid Establishment, acting Mahratta translator and Interpreter to her Majesty's Supreme Court at Bombay. Ceylon. APPOINTMENTS. Lieut. Raitt, Ceylon Rifle Regt., to be commandant of Hambantotte from date of his assuming charge, vice Lieut. Vigors appointed to 9th Foot. Capt. T. Lillie, deputy assist. adj. gen., to resume duties of his office from 1st of April. SHIPPING. Arrivals.-April 19. William Wilson, from Calcu ta.-24. Helen Mary, from Aden.-26. Europe, from Mauritius. -- 27. Persia, from Cochin and Quilon.—Seaforth steamer, from Bombay.-29. Margaret Hardy, from Glasgow; Maria, from Bombay; Kate, from Point de Galle.-May 3. John Wm. Dare, from Bombay.-4. Phlegethon steamer, from England, Cape, &c. (for China). Departures.-April 16. Bomanjee Hormanjee, for Bombay.-25. Coringa Packet, for Madras.-May 1. Fairy Queen, for London.-2. Egyptian, for London.-3. Europe, for Penang. BIRTHS. May 2. At Colombo, the wife of Mr. J. F. Fuller, of a daughter. 11. At Colombo, the lady of Hon. P. Anstruther, Esq., of a son. 16. At Colombo, the lady of F. Norris, Esq., surveyor-general, of a daughter. 17. At Colombo, Mrs. D. Anderson, of a son: MARRIAGE. March 11. At Colombo, Mr. W. B. Sproule, to Mary Anne, second daughter of C. W. Hoffman, Esq. Penang, Singapore, &c. SHIPPING. Arrivals at Singapore.-Previous to April 7. Cowasjee Family, Seyed Khan, and Regina, all from Calcutta; Sir H. Compton, Helen, and Candahar, all from Bombay; Sir Edward Ryan, and Gunga, both from China; Fairfield, and Sumatra, both from Batavia; Samuel Horrocks, from Penang. Departures from ditto.-Previous to April 8. Amelia, Souvendrapory, Framjee Cowasjee, Susan, Cowasjee Family, Sir H. Compton, Sir Edward Ryan, Seyed Khan, સ્વ. LA Ariel, and Regina, all for China; Harriet, for Penang; Dumfries, and Gunga, both for Adelaide; Canopus, for Mauritius; Fairfield, for Calcutta; Sarah Parker, for Boston. Arrivals at Penang.-March 26. Apolline, from Madras, and sailed for China; Malay, from Madras, to load for London. DEATH. March 8. At Singapore, Aristakies Sarkies, Esq., aged 36. China. SHIPPING. Arrivals at Macao.-March 23. Louisa, from Calcutta and Singapore.-28. Pestonjee Bomanjee, from Chusan; Splendid, from west coast of America. Departure from ditto.-March 29. Leonidas, for New York. Mauritius. SHIPPING. Arrivals.- Previous to April 24. Caroline, Thomas Blyth, Lena, Achilles, and William Bailey, all from London; Rapid, from Llanelly and Cape; Louisiana, from Havre; Amwell, from Cape; Susun Crisp, from Simon's Bay; Gratitude, from Algoa Bay; Leocadie, from Marseilles. Departures (Eastward).—Previous to April 20. Swallow, for Java; Tapley, Reliance, Amwell, and Reflector, all for Calcutta; Tenasserim, for Madras. DEATH. Feb. 24. T. K. MacFadzen, Esq., late commander of the bark Ganges, aged 39. Cape of Good Hope. SHIPPING. Arrivals in Table Bay.-Previous to May 20. Winwick, Columbus, Paragon, Dale Park, and Thomas and Joseph Crisp, all from London; Elizabeth, from Nantes; Bolivar, from Leith; Emerald, from Bristol; Bertha, and Terra Nova, both from Clyde; Matilda, from Liverpool; H. M. S. Andromache, and Munster Lass, both from St. Helena; Apprentice, and St. Helena, both from Algoa Bay; Hannibal, from New York; Harmony, from Rio de Janeiro. Departures from ditto.-Previous to May 20. Romeo, Edward Bilton, Bolivar, Hotspur, and Dale Park, all for Calcutta; Paragon, and Columbus, both for Madras; Dream, Conch, and Briton, all for Algoa Bay; Winwick, for Hobart Town; Elizabeth, for Mauritius; Comet, for Saldanha Bay; Terra Nova, for Sydney; Sophia, for Mossel Bay. Arrivals at Algoa Bay.-April 28. Dream, from Table Bay.-30. Mary, from Table Bay.-May 14. Jane Cumming, from London. Departures from ditto.-May 5. Mary, for Port Natal.-8. Dream, for Mauritius. BIRTHS. March 15. At Rondebosch, Mrs. Townley, of a daughter. 29. At Cape Town, Mrs. Dr. Chiappini, of a son. April 1. At Cape Town, Mrs. Thomas Tinley, of a son. 7. At Belmont, Mrs. John Carlisle, of a son. 12. Mrs. H. C. Jarvis, of a daughter. 16. At Port Elizabeth, the lady of J. Chalmers, Esq., surgeon, of a son. 20. At Cape Town, the lady of Joshua Pearson, Esq., deputy ordnance storekeeper and barrackmaster, Simon's Town, of a son. 25. In the Keizersgacht, the lady of Mr. A. McDonald, jun., of a daughter. Lately. At Somerset, the lady of A. A. O'Reilly, Esq., of a daughter. The lady of H. W. Porteous, Esq., Madras medical estab., of a son. MARRIAGES. Feb. 23. At Cape Town, Alexander Charles Heyland, Esq., Hon. E. I. C. Bengal civil service, to Emily, daughter of J. M. Hill, Esq. March 25. At Uitenhage, J. W. H. Van der Riet, second son of J. W. Van der Riet, Esq., civil commissioner, to Rose Ellen, third daughter of the late Capt. A. C. Burnet, H. M. 54tn Regt. April 13. At Salem, the Rev. J. W. Appleyard, Wesleyan missionary, Beka, Kafferland, to Sarah Ann, eldest daughter of the Rev. J. Archbell, Wesleyan missionary. At Graham's Town, Mr. B. Booth, jun., to Miss Matilda B. Godlonton. DEATHS. March 18 At sea, Capt. Scott, of the ship Matilda. of Liverpool. April 4. At Port Elizabeth, Capt. Donald Stewart, of the bark Helen Stewart, aged 28, having been left behind sick. In the Keizersgacht, Jane, wife of Alex. Macdonald, Esq., aged 53. 11. At Malmesbury, Miss Geertruida Anna Smuts, aged 14. 20. At Somerset. Hottentots' Holland, Elizabeth, wife of the Rev. James Edgar. 20. At Wynberg, Mr. A. W. Cummings, aged 38. 23. At Beaufort, Margaret Sophia, youngest child of W. Kinnear, Esq. Lately. At Cape Town, Miss Sarah Ann Butler, niece of Mrs. Capt. Granger. HOME INTELLIGENCE. PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. A meeting of this Society took place on the 5th of June: Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart., M. P., in the chair. Various presents were made to the Society's library; and Lieut. T. J. Newbold, of the Madras army, was balloted for, and elected a member of the Society. The secretary read a letter addressed to him by Lord Robert Grosvenor, private secretary to his Royal Highness Prince Albert, conveying the satisfaction of his Royal Highness at becoming a member of the Society, and his regret that it would not be in his power to attend the annual meeting. Read also a letter from the Right Hon. the Earl of Munster, in acknowledgment of his nomination to the office of president of the Society, and stating his readiness to undertake any inquiry on Eastern matters that might be answered by a reference to Oriental libraries and universities on the Continent, where he was then travelling. A letter from the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone, returning thanks for his election as a vice-president of the Society, was read. Col. Sykes brought to the notice of the meeting the Chinese collection, illustrative of Chinese arts, manners, and customs, made by Mr. Nathan Dunn, a gentleman of large fortune in the United States, and which had been exhibited at Philadelphia for the benefit of the educational establishments of that city. Col. Sykes stated that some of Mr. Dunn's friends wished him to send the collection to Europe for exhibition; but that gentleman, with very proper feelings of delicacy, had hesitated to do so, from a fear that pecuniary objects might be attributed to him. It was, however, understood by Mr. Dunn's friends, that he would be quite willing to consent, if societies, or public bodies, like the Royal Asiatic Society, were to express an opinion that the exhibition would be useful and desirable in Europe, and thereby guarantee him from the imputation of interested motives. Col. Sykes said that the council of the Society had made no hesitation in adopting such an opinion, in which he felt sure the meeting would coincide. The proposition was immediately assented to by the meeting; and the Rev. — Parker, M.D., of the United States, an eminent Chinese scholar, gave some interesting details of the nature of Mr. Dunn's collection. He stated that it comprised complete shops of Chinese artizans; the figures of the workmen were of wax, and as large as life. Also, figures of all the different classes of the Chinese people, in their true costumes, of several dynasties in fact, it was a complete miniature of the celestial kingdom. As a proof of the accuracy of the details, and the general effect of the whole collection, he would mention that he had taken his own Chinese teacher unexpectedly into it, while on a visit to Philadelphia, who was so ove. come by the extraordinary verisimilitude exhibited, that he burst into tears. Mr. Parker then referred to the great benevolence of Mr. Dunn, who had applied to one charitable institution alone in Philadelphia no less a sum than 20,000 dollars, derived from his collection. He thought that collections from other countries, on a similar model to Mr. Dunn's, would be highly interesting and instructive. Lieut. Newbold read an account of a visit which he made, in June last, to Gebel Nákus, or the Mountain of the Bell, in the peninsula of Mount Sinai. The Mountain of the Bell derives its name from the extraordinary and singular property it possesses of giving out, under certain conditions, sounds similar to those of a large church-bell. Its apparent height is from three hundred to four hundred feet. On the western side, which faces the Red Sea, is a steep slope, of a triangular form, extending about eighty feet up the side of the hill, narrow at the top, but widening out as it approaches the bottom. This slope is bounded by low cliffs of sandstone on all sides except the base, and is covered with a very fine quartzose sand, of a reddish brown colour. The sand varies in depth from a few inches to five or six feet, and has evidently been conveyed to its present position on the slope of the rock by the strong prevailing westerly winds. It is from this slope that the mysterious Memnonian sounds issue, and which the superstitious Arabs, as noticed by Burckhardt, believed to be produced by the bells of a subterranean convent. Lieut. Newbold states that, the party having reached the foot of the slope, the Bedouin guide commenced its ascent, sinking knee-deep at every step in the loose sand. A faint musical sound, resembling the deepest chords of a violoncello at a distance, was heard, and the guide declared that the day was not propitious for the experiment. The writer and his friend, however, determined to make the ascent themselves, which they accomplished, after some fatiguing labour. Having reached the top, they watched the course of the sand they had set in motion, as it passed downwards in undulating and gradually widening lines to the base. About two minutes after they commenced their observations, a faint, rustling sound was perceptible; then, the low deep tone they had first heard, which gradually became more and more distinct, and apparently nearer. Successive and fast-repeated notes, whose sounds partook of those of a deep, mellow convent-bell, then followed. These were prolonged by again disturbing the sand at the summit; until, at length, they equalled the rumbling of distant thunder. The greatest intensity of the sounds was produced when the whole surface of the sand, from the summit to the base, had been set in motion; and the sensations felt by a person on the hill gave the idea of being seated on the body of some enormous stringed instrument, while a bow was being slowly drawn over its chords. About a quarter of an hour after the party had descended, the sand became still, and the sounds ceased. Various attempts have been made to explain the phenomenon of the Mountain of the Bell. Lieut. Newbold's opinion of the cause coincides in a great measure with that of Lieut. Wellsted, namely, that the sound is connected with the agitation of the sand, aided by the action and direction of the wind; and this is further strengthened by the fact, that no sounds are heard in wet or in very calm weather. The writer considers that Gebel Nákus is the only known spot on the globe where the necessary conditions exist for producing these remarkable sounds. He had seen several localities in Arabia, Egypt, and Spain, where loose sand had been accumulated on the sides of rocks in an apparently similar manner, but opportunity had not admitted of a careful comparative examination of them. The Society met again on the 19th of June; Professor Wilson, the Director of the Society, in the chair. A portion of the arms of Tomán Bey, the last of the Mamluk sultans, was exhibited, consisting of a spear and battle-axe, beautifully ornamented Asiat. Journ. N.S. VOL. 35. No. 140. (3 Z) with silver and gold inlaid-work. Also a very handsome Turkish rifle, with Damas The secretary announced a bequest to the Society's library, by the will of the late General Thomas Gordon, one of the Society's corresponding members, of all his books and manuscripts in the Turkish, Arabic, and Persian languages. The paper read was a botanical account of the Lodoicea Sechellarum, or double seacoco nut; written by M. Pierre Bernard, president of the Committee of Natural History of the Sechelles Islands. This tree belongs to the family of palms; and is indigenous to small islands only of the Sechelles group. The trunk is straight, and frequently attains a height of eighty or ninety feet. It is surmounted by a beautiful crown of winged and palmated leaves. The usual diameter of the stem is from twelve to fifteen inches; which gives so much flexibility to the tree, that a strong breeze can bend it till the large leaves hit and chafe against the neighbouring trees, making an extraordinary noise. The leaves of Lodoicea open like a fan, and average twenty feet in length, and ten or twelve in breadth. Only one leaf grows on each tree in the space of a year; and, from the leaf marks existing on the stems, it has been computed that some of the trees must have existed about four centuries. The fruit or nut is enclosed in a fibrous drupe, and has from one to four lobes. The drupe attains to a length of about fifteen inches, and a circumference of three feet; and sometimes weighs from forty to fifty pounds. [A specimen was exhibited to the meeting of even larger proportions.] The perisperm contained in the nut, if eaten at the right time, furnishes a sweet and agreeable aliment. When arrived at maturity, the drupe is detached from the tree, and falls to the ground. If not buried in the earth, or exposed to the sun, it germinates in a few months. The radicle descends vertically, and takes the form of a cylinder, from whence spring numerous hairy roots: the developed stem does not rise from the ground till about twenty years have elapsed. A very remarkable circumstance connected with this plant is the duration of its bloom, and the length of time necessary to mature the fruit-seven or eight years. The trees grow in all kinds of soil; but the finest are found in deep gorges, on damp platforms covered with vegetable earth, and in the midst of various aquatic plants. Unfortunately, no one cultivates the Lodoicea; and the custom which until lately prevailed of cutting the trees down to obtain their fruit and leaves has so diminished the number of the trees, as to give cause to apprehend their total extinction. The tree is applied to various uses the trunk furnishes building material; and when split, and deprived of its internal substance, forms good troughs for conducting water, and also to make fences. The leaves are used for thatching houses; and, when platted, are made into hats, bonnets, baskets, fans, and many elegant and ornamental articles. Water-vessels are made of the hard shell of the nut, which also furnishes oil. The entire nut is an article of trade with India, where, among other uses, it appears to be employed as an astringent medicine. It was this nut which, carried to the sea by torrents, and then transported to the coasts of the Maldives, gave rise to the fable that it was the fruit of a submarine tree, broken off by Vishnu when churning the ocean, and allowed by him to float on its surface, in order to supply mankind with a specific for various diseases. After the reading of the paper, Sir Charles Grey made some observations as to the desirableness of endeavouring to preserve this unique species of palm from being lost; and referred to the instance of the dodo, a bird which had been extinct nearly a century, and whose existence had often been doubted. The thanks of the Society were ordered to be returned to the Literary and Scientific Institution of the Sechelles for their communication; and it was resolved to open a correspondence with them on subjects of mutual interest to both institutions. The meetings of the Society were then adjourned till November. COLLEGE EXAMINATION. EAST-INDIA COLLEGE, HAILEYBURY. General Examination, June, 1841. On Tuesday, the 29th of June, a deputation of the Court of Directors proceeded |