21 rits, where we hope to meet with pleasures unmixed with those dregs of humanity which deaden them in this world. Among a French collection of translations from the German, many of which the used to read with pleasure, there was one piece in particular, intitled Les Solitudes, by the baron Croneck, which was so perfectly congenial to her turn of mind, that she used to read it with particular marks of delight. Indeed there is so much in it of that tenderness which a delicate mind, highly susceptible of generous emotions, must often experience; and so little of the dreary gloom of fanatical despair, that I conceive there will be found much of nature in it, by all those who have formed in this world, any very pleasing connections that have been broken in the course of the ordinary events of life, that will make it very generally interesting. The husband of Julia, observing the warm partiality of his wife for this piece, and fond of it at the same time himself, thought he would give her an agreeable surprise by translating it for your miscellany, without letting her know of it. He therefore did this by stealth; and gave me the translation just before I came away to communicate to you. I now discharge the trust reposed on me, by transmitting it to you, along with this letter; and hope you will find it convenient to insert it early in your Bee. I have some remarks to make on your miscellany, but at present fhall only say, that I am happy to find you adhere so strictly to your declared purpose of chastenefs, both as to morals and politics; though on this last head, you have perhaps allowed yourself to be a

little drawn aside at times; but these I see are only temporary wanderings, and of trivial consequence. Continue to have your eye steadily fixed on promoting the general interests of humanity; and firmly determine to follow truth through good report, and bad report, as I am glad to see you have hitherto done, and you have nothing to fear. The fourteenth volume had reached Bermuda before I left it, but I had seen only the thirteenth, for I was told just as I was stepping into the vessel, that Mr Wells had that very morning received the fourteenth volume. Offering my best acknowledgement to your correspondent for his obliging re

membrance of me, I remain with esteem your sincere friend

The following letter from Patna was transmitted in a packet from Dr Anderson of Madras, dated the 28 February last. It contains a very distinct account of the formation of Borax; and gives a view of the natural state of some of the internal provinces in India, that will prove interesting to European readers. One of the most strik ing differences between Asia and Europe seems to be, that the former has a much greater tendency to produce natural saline concretions of various sorts than the latter. If the fact be admitted, it would prove an interesting disquisition to discover the circumstances that tend to produce this effect.

* The translation above named is thfully received, and will be inserted with the earliest opportunity.

The provinces of Thibet in particular, and Cafhemire seem to be very peculiarly circumstanced, in regard to soil, situation, climate, and productions of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; on which account any farther authentic information from thence will prove very acceptable.

DEAR SIR,

In compliance with your request, I will now give you all the information I am able concerning the formation of borax, at the solicitation of M. Voghet, a German naturalist. I was some years ago induced to inquire after this production, and for this purpose I wrote to the brother of the Raja of Nepaul, Bahadur Sab, on the subject, as our missionaries had not for many years visited the province of Nepaul, which extends towards the north as far as the frontiers of Thibet. The Raja's brother, for the better satisfying my curiosity, sent me down to Patna, one of his own servants, a native of that part of the country where borax is found. This man then, who spoke the Nepaleze language, and which I perfectly understood, answered to my different questions in the follwing manner :

In the province of Marmé, about twenty-eight days to, the north of Nepaul and twenty-five days to the west of Lafsa, there is a valley about eight miles in circumference. On the district of this valley there are two villages, the one called Scierugh, and the other Kangle. The whole occupation of the inhabitants of those two places is of digging out the borax, and to carry it to Nepaul, or Thibet, where it is sold. The soil of that valley is so barren that only a few scattered reeds are to be seen. The natives of Ne

Sept. 45 paul call the borax soaga, the same name as the Hin doos give it. Near the two villages in the valley there is a large pond, with several small ones, wherein after rain the water remains. In those very ponds after the water has remained for a certain time, the borax is to be found formed. The people then enter into those ponds, and with their feet try to discover in what part the borax is to be met with, because wherever they find the bottom very smooth as if it was paved, there the borax is formed, and directly dig it out in pieces without much force or apparatus. The deeper the water, the thicker is the borax found, and always found in its upper part covered with an inch or two of mud. Thus is the borax naturally formed, and not prepared, as all along it has been thought in Europe. The water in which the borax is formed is of such a poisonous nature as to cause death in a very fhort time to any animal that should drink the smallest quantity of it, bringing first a great turgescence on the abdomen. The ground in which the borax is produced is of a whitish colour.

Four miles from the borax ponds in the same valley there are the salt mines, whereby all the inhabitants of that remote mountainous part of the world are supplied. The natives of the two villages can dig out the borax without paying any sort of contribution: but the strangers are obliged to pay a certain sum to the person that governs there, according to the convention made, and the people of Marmè pay to a Lama called Pema Tupkan to whom the borax mines belong. Ten days more to the north

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of Marmé, there is another valley called Tapri, in which likewise borax is dug out. There are also ponds where borax is dug out, in another plain called Croga; but of this I could not learn the exact situation.

As the borax evaporates very quickly, the natives, to prevent any such lofs before they can sell it, mix earth with it thinly coated with butter.

In another territory sixteen days distant from, and to the north of Nepaul a great number of arsenic mines are to be found. Mines of brimstone also are to be met with in many parts of Thibet ; and besides, gold and silver mines of a richer and purer quality than even the Peruvian. All this is what I could collect from the conversation I had with the man sent to me by Bahadur Sah.

To that intelligence I can add that of a drug called by the European medical world, Terra Japonica; by the natives of Indostan Kat: but I fhall not detain you on its account, as I know it has been fully described and published in England by Dr Kier. Some years ago I obtained the information respecting it; and I sent to one of our missionaries at Bettiah an order to send me down the seeds, the wood, and a small tree of the Kat, which I gave to the learned Dr Hunter, then stationed at Patna, who communicated the whole discovery to his friend Dr Kier then residing also in Patna, from whom I am glad to hear the world has received the information.

Should you wish to have sɔme information concerning the animal that gives the genuine musk, Į can very easily satisfy your curiosity by sending you the skin of one of them; as it appears to me not VOL. XVII.