Towards nightfall, torches will be brought on the scene; some being thrust into the ground, and others fastened to the trunks and branches of trees. The comelier of the juvenile dancers now attired himself as a girl, with tinkling bells to his wrists and feet, and a prettily elaborate cap, also decked with bells, as well as with silver ornaments, and a long pendent veil behind. He proceeds to execute a quiet and restrained dance by himself, lasting, perchance, for about a quarter of an hour; and the other boy coming forward, the two dance together, and enact a love-scene in a really eloquent pantomime. The girl pretends to be angered, turns her back, and makes a pretence of jealousy, while the lover dances lightly around her, and endeavours to restore her to amiability by caresses and all kinds of devices. When all his efforts fail, he sulks in his turn, and shows himself offended. Thereupon the lady begins to relent, and to practise every conciliatory art. After a brief affectation of persistent ill humour, the lover yields, and both accomplish a merry and animated measure with every sign of happiness. When the Russians left Khiva in the month of August, Mr. MacGahan’s mission was ended. He had been present with them at the fall of Khiva, and in the campaign which they afterwards undertook—it would seem, with little or no justification—against the Yomud Turcomans. On the return march he accompanied the detachment in charge of the sick and wounded, descending the Oxus to its mouth, and then proceeding up the Aral Sea to the mouth of the Syr-Daria. The voyage on the Aral occupied two days and a night. Having entered the Syr-Daria, thirty-six hours’ sailing brought the flotilla to Kasala—the point from which, as we have seen, Mr. MacGahan had started, some months before, on his daring ride through the desert. After a sojourn of three days, he started in a tarantass for Orenburg. It will be owned, I think, that Mr. MacGahan’s enterprise was boldly conceived and boldly executed; that he displayed, not only a firm and manly courage, but a persistent resolution which may almost be called heroic. He showed himself possessed, however, of even higher qualities; of a keen insight into character, a quick faculty of observation, and a humane and generous spirit. COLONEL EGERTON WARBURTON, AND EXPLORATION IN WEST AUSTRALIA.