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GOLD MEDAL awarded at the FISHERIES EXHIBITION to THOMAS BOLTON, 83 Camden Street, BIRMINGHAM, Who last week sent to his subscribers Hydra viridis, with sketch a description. He also sent out Argulus foliaceus, Corethra. Trout Philodina roseola, Floscularia, Corethra plumicornis, Melicerta ninAYE Stephanoceros; also Amoeba, Hydra, Vorticella, Crayfish, Dog L Amphioxus, and other Specimens for Biological Laboratory work Weekly Announcements will be made in this place of organisms T E is supplying.

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MESSRS. T. COOKE & SONS have received Instructions from the Executors of the late JAMES WOUP WORTH. Esq., to offer for Sale the OBSERVATORY and INSTE MENTS erected by him at New Parks House, Scarborough, in 1 consisting of

A HEMISPHERICAL DOME, 30 feet diameter, of T and angle i framework, covered with papier maché, so constructed that it may removed without injury. The Dome is of Messrs. Cooke's lo design, giving a perfectly clear zenith, and the revolution is efferez by rack and pinion.

An EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE, having an object-glass of 15) ind clear aperture, guaranteed of the highest quality, the mounts being of Messrs. Cooke's latest design and best workmanship. R.A. and Decl. circles divided on silver, 3-inch finder, iris diaphra and complete battery of eye-pieces, solar spectroscope, &c., &c. LARGE MOVABLE OBSERVING STAGE.

The Price of the whole Observatory and Instruments at Scarbroug guaranteed in perfect working order, and almost equal to new (having r always under the care of Messrs. Cooke), £2000. Address

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YORK,

who will supply Photos of the Observatory and Instruments, and any furthe particulars, on application.

MESSRS. T. COOKE & SONS have also for Sale the following Second-hand Instruments :

A 5-INCH EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE, the Property of G. J No BEGIN, Esq., of Thorpe, Norwich, complete with driving-clock. 4 Decl., and position circles divided on silver, and set of eye-pieces, fect working order, and can be seen at Buckingham Works £133 10s. This Instrument is for sale owing to Messrs. Cooke lav. 4 erected a much larger Observatory and Equatorial for Mr. Nex at Thorpe.

The Copper Dome covering the 5-inch Equatorial is also for disposal, is on view at Thorpe.

A 4-INCH PORTABLE EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE (but with clock), mounted on C.I. pillar, with clock bracket, RA and De circles divided on silver, finder, and set of eye-pieces, &c. This bar. ment is in all respects equal to new, and is of Messrs. Cooke, ** design. It is for sale, owing to the death of the owner, the at THOMAS BAUCHOPE, Esq., of West Calder. Price £70.

A PORTABLE EQUATORIAL MOUNTING (without drive, 214 and circles) on Mahogany Tripod, with clasps for 5 inch tube. Mounting has never been in use; it was ordered by Mr. JLS of Shanghai, who, on its arrival, finding it not suitable for has tak ordered a 5-inch Fixed Equatorial, and returned this Mounting .. disposed of. Price £17.

A 3-INCH EDUCATIONAL TELESCOPE on Mahogany TThis Instrument is equal to new in all respects, and was only re for disposal as Messrs. Cooke were supplying the owner with a instrument. Price £20.

All these Instruments are of Messrs. T, Cooke and Sons' constru and are guaranteed by them. Address

MESSRS. T. COOKE & SONS, BUCKINGHAM WORKS,

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the Armandia Litterdali, lately brought from Bhutan.-Apply by letter to MISS FLEMING, Downside, Stoke Bishop, Bristol.

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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1890.

TAVERNIER'S TRAVELS IN INDIA. Travels in India of Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne. Translated from the original French Edition of 1676, &c., by V. Ball, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. In Two Volumes. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1889.)

JEAN

EAN BAPTISTE TAVERNIER was a Sindbad of the seventeenth century. To an insatiable love of travel, which prompted him even in his boyhood to rove through the greater part of Europe, and in his mature life to accomplish no less than six voyages to Persia, India, and the still more remote East, he united the faculties of a shrewd and successful trader. By his traffic in jewels and other costly commodities of small bulk, he turned his wanderings to profitable account, and amassed a fortune which enabled him to purchase the Barony of Aubonne, and to enjoy the dignified retirement of a wealthy old age. But, like a true traveller, he remained active-minded and active-bodied to the last. At the age of 79, attracted by the offer of the Elector of Brandenburg to conduct an embassy to India, he set forth on a circuitous journey through Europe, and, disposing of his estate and Chateau of Aubonne, he embarked on renewed mercantile ventures. The few remaining years of his life were passed, for the most part, in journeying to and fro in Europe, and he died while so occupied. The place of his death has long been doubtful, and it has only recently been discovered, on the authority of a letter from the Swedish Resident at Moscow, that the indefatigable traveller drew his last breath at Smolensk, in February 1689, when on his journey to the ancient Russian capital.

Despite some inaccuracies and inconsistencies, due mainly to the incompetent editing of the original work, Tavernier's account of his travels has long been appealed to by Indian historians as a recognized authority-the testimony of an eye-witness to the condition of India under the later great Mogul emperors. At the time of his visits, the Mogul Empire was in the zenith of its power and splendour. On the occasion of his first journey to India, he found Shah Jehan," the most magnificent prince that ever appeared in India," peaceably seated on the Imperial masnad; and throughout his dominions, though these were less extensive than in the time of his successor Aurungzebe, a degree of good administration and general prosperity surpassing that attained under any previous or subsequent emperor. He quitted India for the last time only about two months after the death of Shah Jehan, then deposed and imprisoned, when Aurungzebe was setting out on that career of conquest and oppression that in the following century brought about the wreck of the Mogul Empire, and exposed its rich cities and provinces to be wasted and despoiled by Maráthá hordes and Afghan invaders.

At a Court gathered around the famous peacock throne, where emperor and nobles vied with each other in the acquisition of costly jewels, an expert such as Tavernier was received as a welcome visitor; and in pursuit of his calling he travelled without hindrance through the length VOL XLI.-NO. 1058.

and breadth of India, visiting the European settlements of Surat, Goa, Madras, and Kásimbazár, the independent Court of Golconda (Hyderabad), and certain of the diamond-mines that were then actively worked both in Southern and Northern India. His work is a medley of historical memoranda, incidents of travel, itineraries, and details of his commercial dealings, put together without much system, but nevertheless highly instructive, and apparently far more trustworthy than was conceded to him by most of his contemporaries; altogether furnishing a fund of information respecting the state of India in the middle of the seventeenth century.

The latest English translation of Tavernier's travels appeared more than two centuries ago, and as Mr. Ball remarks, owing to the translator's misconception of the author's meaning, through want of local knowledge, and to serious abridgment, it gives a very inadequate idea of the true merits of the original work. Mr. Ball's own long experience of India, and his familiarity with its geography and the varied phases of native life, would alone have enabled him to correct most of the errors of his predecessors; and the deficiencies as a philological and historical critic which he modestly urges as having determined him, for a time, to abstain from attempting a new translation, have been made good by the invaluable assistance afforded by the late Sir Henry Yule, under whose advice he eventually undertook the work. The result is the two handsome volumes now before us, in which for the first time the old traveller's experiences are presented to English readers, elucidated by the results of modern research, and in a form which very greatly enhances their value for all purposes of future reference. Some few inconsistencies remain, and are duly pointed out in the footnotes, but they are such as relate to matters of detail, occasional confusion of dates or persons, and the like; and they do not appreciably detract from the general trustworthiness of the narration.

With the political and historical data of Tavernier's work it is hardly our province to deal in this place. Most of his facts relating to the Court of Delhi were probably furnished to him by his cotemporary and sometime fellow-traveller Bernier, and all that is important in them has been long rendered familiar to English readers in the lucid pages of Elphinstone. Neither need we dwell on his descriptions of native customs or the manner of life of those European exiles of various nationalities who were then, as pioneers, exploiting the riches of the East, with no small display of mutual jealousy and animosity, and indulgence in practices sometimes hardly less barbarous than those of the indigenous population amid which they dwelt. The social condition of the Indian people in Tavernier's day was essentially the same as when, more than a century and a half later, the British Empire having been raised and consolidated on the ruins left by Maráthás and Patháns, a new era of peace and civilization was inaugurated by Lord Bentinck, and the suppression of thuggi, dacoity, sati, and other barbarous rites of the Hindu religion, preceded the establishment of schools and Universities, and the opening up of the wilds of India by systems of roads and railways. The social regeneration of India, such as it is, has been almost exclusively the work of the last seventy years, and even now it has hardly penetrated far below the surface.

P