'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from January 1847 to May 1849. Edited by the Secretary. Volume VIII.' [‎13] (28/496)

Xlll
to the Bombay Geographical Socieey for the copies of its Transactions forwarded
on the 12th August last.
From D. J. Bird, Secretary to the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Socie
ty, dated the 14th August 1847, forwarding copy of a letter from the Foreign
Secretary to the Government of India, intimating that a Mission was about to start
to the Frontiers of Chinese Tartary, and that he would be glad to learn whether
there were any questions of Literary or Scientific interest which Members of the
Society might wish to be made the subjects of investigation by the Mission.
From Dr. J. Bird, dated the 11 th September 1847, acknowledging the receipt
of the Society’s letters of the 6 th and 7th instant, and returning the thanks of the
Asiatic Society for the suggestions on various points to which the attention of the
Members of the Mission proceeding to the Frontiers of Chinese Tartary may be
usefully called,—and intimating that the same had that day been forwarded to Mr.
Elliot, the Foreign Secretary with the Governor-General at Simla.
From Dr J. Bird, Secretary to the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic So
ciety, dated the 18th October 1847, forwarding an original letter of thanks from
the Foreign Secretary with the Governor-General, for the able questions on the
< Ancient Beaches’ and ‘ Salt Deserts’ of Central Asia, furnished by this Society
for the Members of the Thibet Mission. 3 *
« No. 32 of 1847.
“ To the Secretary of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
« Sn^—I have the honor to acknowledge your letter of the 14th instant, contain
ing an extract from a letter of the Secretary to the Government of India, in which
it is intimated that an exploratary expedition,, consisting of Captain Cunningham,
Dr T. Thompson, and Lieutenant Strachey, has been appointed to proceed into
Chinese Tartary, the Secretary desiring to be informed whether there be any
question of Literary or Scientific interest desired by you to be investigated by
the Mission. In reply to this I am directed by the Geographical Society to state
that the names of the gentlemen composing the Mission are too well known to
permit of any suggestions being made to them with hope of advantage, on the sub
ject which more especially engages our attention, and which will be one main object
of their researches—Political Geography,—as on this their objects must be the
same as our own. In Physical Geography the Society might perhaps draw their
attention to certain points on which enlightenment, were it procurable, would be
pre-eminently desirable: not doubting, at the same time, that the suggestions about
to be made are just those most likely to have occurred to themselves as pre-emi
nently worthy of attention.
“ The Baron Humboldt has rendered it much more than probable that at a period
shortly before the commencement of our historical sera, the concavity of Turan
may have been one vast inland sea, connected on the one hand with the Caspian>
on the other by the Balkash and its adjoining lakes, and by channels more or less
intricate, with the Icy Sea; and that in the time of Herodotus, or probably as late
as the Macedonian invasion, the Aral was merely a Bay or Gulf of the Caspian;