Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/321

Rh energy and perseverance to accomplish what he did, and I take the liberty of referring to these circumstances, as I think that every credit is due to him, for being the first to give any account of this previously unknown district. By comparing his sketch I recognise his McKerrow Lake as being the Kakapo Lake, and his Hollyford River and Pike's Creek as corresponding respectively to the Kakapo River and the Wawaihiwuk Creek mentioned in the foregoing narrative. 



of route which led me across the Arabian Peninsula from Gaza to Maskat, thus traversing the country in its greatest breadth, could not but afford special opportunities for observation both of the land and of its inhabitants. A few notes, the result of such observation, may not be unacceptable, while they contribute to fill up the blanks in our view of Arabia.

I am, indeed, aware that this very appreciation must be often imperfect, and on some points absolutely defective. This is mainly owing to the circumstances under which I undertook and carried out my investigations. For if, on one hand, my journey was conducted in a manner affording me ample leisure and great liberty for observation, whether personal or by means of inquiry from trustworthy sources; on the other hand, it was deficient in many conditions requisite for minute accuracy and absolute precision. Thus the medical disguise which I had assumed, for the greater facilitation of my project, succeeded indeed to the full in preventing or allaying native suspicion, and enabled me to visit undisturbed and at my ease many localities of special interest, and to stay in or near them so long as might be necessary for my purpose. It furnished me also with many convenient opportunities for asking questions and collecting knowledge about regions lying out of my immediate reach and off my path, without too much risk of thereby awaking the habitual distrust of the inhabitants, or displaying a dangerous appearance of over-curiosity. But this same disguise unavoidably deprived me of the means of taking with me any mathematical or geodesical instruments, indispensable to accurate observations, and no less of the freedom requisite for sketching or photographing, nay, often of even taking down on the spot notes however useful; while, at times, prudence rendered my interrogations and researches less precise and less frequent than I