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Preparatory Inquiries.   3

overwhelmed with the consciousness of their incapacity to observe, with intelligence, the country they are about to visit. I have been very frequently begged by such persons to put them in the way of obtaining a rudimentary knowledge of the various branches of science, and. have constantly made inquiries ; but I regret to say that I have been unable to discover any establishment where suitable instruction in natural science is to be obtained by persons of the age and station of most travellers. Nor do I know of any persons who advertise private tuition in any of its branches whose names I might therefore be at liberty to publish, except Professor Tennant, who gives private lessons in mineralogy at his shop in the Strand, where the learner might easily familiarise himself with the ordinary minerals and fossils, and where collections might be purchased for after reference. An intending traveller could readily find naturalists who would give lessons, in museums and botanical gardens, adapting their instruction to his probable wants, and he would thus obtain some familiarity with the character of the principal plants and animals amongst which he would afterwards be thrown. If he has no private means of learning the names of such persons, I should recommend him to write to some public Professor, stating all particulars, and begging the favour of his advice. The use of the sextant may be learnt at various establishments in the City and East End of London, where the junior officers of merchant vessels receive instruction at small cost. A traveller could learn their addresses from the maker of his sextant. He might also apply at the rooms of the Royal Geographical Society, 1, Savile Row, London, where he would probably receive advice suitable to his particular needs, and possibly some assistance of a superior order to that which the instructors of whom I spoke profess to afford. That well-known volume, ` The Admiralty Manual of Scientific Inquiry,' has been written to meet the wants of uninformed travellers ; and a small pamphlet, `Hints to Travellers,' has been published, with the same object, by the Royal Geographical Society. It is procurable at their rooms. There is, perhaps, no branch of Natural History in which a traveller could do so much, without more information than is to be obtained from a few books, than that of the Science of