arth and Overweg, contain information of their having accomplished the
journey across the Great Desert, or Sahara, and of their arrival near
the frontiers of the kingdom of Air or Asben, (Air is the modern
Tuarick, and Asben the ancient Sudan name), the most powerful in that
part of Africa after Bornou, and never explored by Europeans. On the
24th of August--the date of their last letter--they were at Taradshit, a
small place in about 20 deg. 30' N. latitude, and 9 deg. 20' longitude E. of
Greenwich. Among their discoveries are some of peculiar interest, one of
which is of several curious and very ancient sculptures, apparently of
Egyptian origin. The King of Prussia has, at the instance of the
Chevalier Bunsen and Baron Alexander von Humboldt, augmented the funds
of the two travellers by a grant of 1,000 thalers.

While Richardson, Barth and Overweg have penetrated the _terra
incognita_ of the north, Dr. Krapf and the Rev. Mr. Rebmann have
explored the region described on the common maps as the "Great Southern
Sahara," and found it to be fertile, healthy, abounding in mountains,
valleys and rivers, and inhabited by a race altogether superior to that
which occupies the Atlantic coast. Mr. Mansfield Parkyns is endeavoring
to cross the country southward from the Nile to the river Gambia; Mr.
Charles Johnson is travelling in Abysinnia; Baron von Mueller is
conducting an expedition up the White Nile; and the American
missionaries and colonists are gradually extending their knowledge over
the various settlements on the eastern coast of the continent.

* * * * *

THE PRUSSIAN EXPEDITION TO EGYPT, _Denkmaeler aus AEgypten und AEthiopien
nach den Zeichnungen der von Sr. Majestat dem Koenige von Preussen
Friedrich Wilhelm IV. nach diesen Laendern gesendeten, und in den Jahren
1842-45, ausgefuhrten wissenschaftlichen Expedition: Herausgegeben von
Dr. R. Lepsius_; published at the expense and under the guarantee of the
Prussian Government, will be completed in eighty parts, or eight hundred
plates. Most of the plates are printed with tints, and many in the
colors of the originals. This work forms a necessary completion of the
celebrated work of the French Expedition under Napoleon. Parts I. to X.
are now advertised as ready for subscribers, in London, at three dollars
and a half each.

* * * * *

A NEW WORK ON AFRICA, by H. C. Grund, is advertised at Berlin.