the circumstance of the fresh water which is poured into the Gulf in immense bodies during the westerly monsoon being swept by the prevailing winds northward along the east shore of the Gulf, as it is now well known that fresh water is particularly inimical to the growth of coral; or, perhaps, when the geological character of the hill range which terminates at Cape York comes to be examined, the nature of the alluvium may afford some clue to the mystery. This however, is a question which need not be entered upon at present, and we may rest satisfied with the fact that vessels from the westward may enter Torres Strait, and proceed round Cape York to the east coast of the continent without encountering one of those formidable concretions which have hitherto been looked upon as the chief obstacle to the navigation of Torres Strait by steamers.

Route through Torres Strait from West to East.

The western entrance of Endeavour Strait is easy to make. At a distance of 120 miles to the westward the soundings begin to decrease from 36 fathoms the usual depth across the mouth of the Gulf of Carpentaria, to 30, 20, and 9 fathoms as the Strait is approached. The only precaution necessary to be taken when running for the Strait is to avoid going to the north of the parallel of Booby Island, as there are some shoals to the W. N. W. which have not been well examined from being out of the usual track. To the south of this parrallel the sea is perfectly clear of danger and has been well explored. In clear weather, Prince of Wales Island, which may be seen from a distance of 30 miles, will probably be made before Booby or Wallis Islands, which although moderately elevated are not visible from a ship's deck much more than 15 miles. There are several channels into the Strait through the sand banks which project from Prince of Wales and Wallis Islands, and from the main-land, but the widest and most available is that which lies immediately to the north of Red Wallis Island. By bringing Booby island to bear N. by E mag. distant 10 miles, when Red Wallis will bear E. by S S. a direct course steered for the latter will lead clear into the Strait between the spits which project from Cape Cornwall and the Wallis Islands, and will also clear two patches of 3 fathoms which lie in the channel. The depth is from 4 to 8 fathoms. The strait is perfectly clear within, with the exception of the Heroine and Eagle rocks which may easily be avoided; and as it has been repeatedly examined and sounded in the course of the last 8 years by Captains Blackwood, Stanley and Yule, Endeavour Strait may be considered as one of the best surveyed spots in the Eastern Seas.

The site recommended for the coal depot by a Committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, is Port Albany, in the strait which separates the Albany Islands from the main land.

The distance between Port Albany and the Wallis Islands is somewhat less than 40 miles, so that a steamer making the western entrance of Endeavour Strait at any time in the forenoon will arrive at the depot before dark.

The

The western margin of the Great Coral belt, of which the Barrier reefs form the outer limit, approaches within four miles of the Albany Islands. The width of the belt in the parallel of Port Albany is 80 miles, but it decreases towards the south, and in the parallel of Cape Grenville it is less than 40 miles across. coral reefs are very plentifully strewed over this portion of the belt, but very fortunately they are with few exceptions old reefs, which have not only reached the surface of the sea, but have had islets formed upon them by the washing up of the broken coral. They are therefore no longer dangerous during daylight, and when beacons come to be raised upon them, which will probably soon be the case, they will prove useful guides in pointing out the track. The belt is usually crossed betwen the parallels of 11 30' and 11 40" S. by the channel svrveyed by Captain Blackwood to the north of Cockburn reef. The belt is here 60 miles wide, and the distance from the Bird Isles, (where the track merges in that of Captain King's Inner Route) to Port Albany, is 70 miles more, in all 130 miles, rather more than a steamer would be able to accomplish between daylight and dark unless very fast vessels were employed. If the middle passage be adopted by the line of steamers, it will become an object to make the passage across the belt in a single day, so that the steamer, by leaving the depot at daybreak, may pass clear out into the open sea before dark. To effect this, a vessel that steams only seven knots an hour will have to take the northern track, E. by N. from Port Albany, but until this track has been fully surveyed, and the direction of the set of tide is better known, it is by no means to be recommended. The track from Islet (c) to Olinda's Entrance, which is 98 miles, has only been partially explored, and the last 35 miles remain to be surveyed, so that in the first instance, if it is intended to cross the belt in a single day, it will be necessary to choose between the Olinda's track, which diverges from Captain Blackwood's Middle Passage to the south of reef (e), the distance of which is 104 miles; the track by Islets (h) and (i) to Pandora's Entrance, which is 100 miles;-or the track by Islets (f) and (g) through the Raine Island Entrance, which is 108 miles. All this, however, will be sufficiently apparent to those have the recent Admiralty charts at their disposal, and few are likely to navigate the Straits without them.

Route through Torres Strait from East to West. Some years ago, when matters relating to steam communication were discussed by the colonists of New South Wales, a question arose as to the eligibility of the various routes through Torres

Strait, which was decided in favour of Captain King's Inner Route. They were led to this conclusion chiefly by the circumstance of the Inner Route having been traced and surveyed throughout its length by an hydrographer whose accuracy had become proverbial, and which, it was considered, would more than compensate for the loss of time occasioned by having to anchor during five or six nights. But so great has been the improvement in steam communication since that time, that days and even hours are counted, and as no less than three rival routes are in the field it will be necessary to take advantage of all the facilities offered by the Torres Strait route. Under these circumstances there can be but little doubt that the Middle Passage, which has been adopted by nine-tenths of the vessels passing through Torres Strait during the last twenty years, and on which the government has lately bestowed so much attention by sending out expensive surveying expeditions, will be the track chosen for steamers, at least in the first instance. There are several coral reefs scattered over the open sea lying between Australia and New Caledonia, but as common_precautions enable sailing vessels to pursue the outer track to Raine Island in safety, and as steamers, from the speed and regularity at which they proceed are less likely to be influenced by cross currents, no difficulty need be anticipated in this part of the route. The stone beacon erected by Captain Blackwood, which is 75 feet high, and is visible 10 to 12 miles from the Outer Barrier, affords a sure guide for vessels entering the reefs, and when once inside, there is anchorage everywhere should it be found necessary to stop for day-light while traversing the coral belt. The track across the belt may be materially improved at a very small expenditure of time and trouble by the erection of gin or triangle beacons on the sandy islets, which will serve as direction posts, and when the crowning labour comes to be completed in the form of a light house at each entrance, the navigation of Torres Strait will be looked upon by seamen as a relaxation rather than as a hazardous undertaking. As the western entrance of Endeavour Strait is only 40 miles from the depot, a steamer may pass clear out into the Indian Seas before dark if she leaves the depot at or before noon.

A delay of twelve hours will be experienced if the steamer makes either entrance too late in the evening to get in before dark, or if she enters the barrier from the eastward after eight o'clock in the morning, in which case she would have to anchor for the night before reaching the depot; but this is all the delay calculated to arise from difficulties of navigation. G. W. E.

L 3

ON THE ANCIENT CONNECTION BETWEEN KEDAH AND SIAM.*

By Lieut-Col. JAMES LOW, M. R. A.S.

It becomes now requisite to examine the pretensions set up in these Kedda annals, assigning to the race or family of Marong Mahawangsa the honor of having given at least one king to Siam. The early history of Siam is quite as much involved in obscurity as that of most of the Indo-Chinese nations. In the Mahawangsa of Siam, as the Siamese affirm, the word of Siamadesa is applied to their country. It implies the "country of itself." I have not yet been able to get a copy of this work. I suspect it to be a transcript or abstract of the Ceylonese Mahawangsa. It would be very interesting to observe how far it is in keeping with the latter.

It appears to me that previous to the introduction of Buddhism, the Siamese were an unlettered, barbarous and unsettled horde. This at least is the belief of the natives of that country whom I have consulted. They were spirit or demon worshippers. It cannot be doubted that, with that disposition to exaggerate which the Siamese have in common with most oriental nations, they would carry back their annals as far as they could go. But they have not endeavoured to carry their Civil Era further back than A. D. 21st March 638, which is also, according to some writers, a Burman Era. I shall not here allude to their religious Eras, for these have reference to India, and to periods long antecedent to the time when they first became known as a settled people.

Tartary is the direction to which we most naturally look for the origin of these hordes, which, like the barbarian invaders of the west, impelled each other on. But here the parallel ceases, for in this last instance there were no populous and civilized nations to subdue. But expanded regions slumbering in primeval forest, and watered by magnificent rivers, spread themselves out before these colonists, and tempted them, or rather compelled them, to substitute for their hitherto nomadic habits, those of agriculture, and to become in some degree a maritime commercial people. If we look at the map of Eastern Asia, we shall find that the great river of Cambodia has its source somewhere in lat. 3° N. and long. 90° very near to the sources of the two great Chinese rivers; that the Irrawady or river of Ava tends towards the same point but does not pass beyond the N. and E. mountain barrier about the 28th parallel of latitude, that the Me Nam or the great Siam river also points to the same direction, but falls short when closely approximating the Cambodian river in about N. lat. 24°, and lastly that the Martaban river, termed Me Kong or Acherawadi by the Siamese, flows betwixt Siam and the Burmese dominions, affording a direct outlet to Martaban and the sea.

This dissertation formed one of the notes to Colonel Low's Translation of the Annals of Keddah. (See Journal Indian Archipelago Vol. III.) Owing to its length it was considered advisable to give it separately.-ED.

Setting aside the Chinese, it would appear that after the first settlement in the interior of Eastern Asia, three principal races started, perhaps about the same period, in this southern career and diverging from a common center,-Lau or Laos. These were the Peguers, the Burmese, and the Siamese, but under other denominations. Time and geographical position would create marked discrepancies in the physical aspect and in the social and political condition of these hordes. Those which had reached the sea or had infringed on the more civilized people of India on the one hand, and of China on the other, would consequently make the most rapid improvement, and be able more readily to stem the northern torrent of immigration. Thus these successive offsets from the parent stem have been probably arrested in their progress, and fixed perhaps very nearly to the limits within which we find them at this day. These immigrating tribes, we may also readily believe, sent, during their march, offsets in various directions, and thus it has become almost impossible now to trace directly to their parent stems, the numerous Indo-Chinese races. The nations or tribes closely settled or bordering on the paramount nations, Ava and Siam, will be found to exhibit a greater affinity respectively to these in their general ethnographical features and in their languages, than those people further removed, when these last have not had a decidedly western or Indian origin.

This view is I think fully supported by the present condition, physical and moral, of the Laos nations north of Siam. These are the Lau-Kau where the features of resemblance are least striking and who inhabit Che-Ung-Mai, and who, although they tattoo their bodies, have some resemblance to the Chinese. They speak a dialect of the Lau. The second is the Lau-Fa or Chau-Fa, spread over the countries called Cheang* Een or In and Thong. The people of these regions are less tattooed than the Lau-Kau, and speak a dialect of Laos and perhaps a little Siamese. Lastly the Lau-Chau-Thai, who inhabit the countries of Patthawi and Sirraburi close to Siam. These use a dialect of the Siamese, and they do not tattoo their bodies. The Phau-Thai were the original Siamese, as the name implies. Besides the Assamese and Årracanese we have the people of Khamti or Campti, Malook, Mishmi, Singphoh, Abor, and the Shawn.

The language of Khamti, a country lying about fifteen days to the East South East of Assam, about the source of the Irrawady, is nearly identical with that of Siam, if I may be allowed to judge from a scanty vocabulary of the former which I long ago received from the late lamented Major Latter of the Bengal army. I received at the same time about a dozen words of the language spoken by the priests of Chang at Assam, which I also find to be almost pure Siamese. An ancient Assamese alphabet accompanied the above vocabulary, which Major L. obtained from Mr Scott * Cheang means a country.