to the amount by which they are traversed by planes of joints and fissures, and the extent these may run parallel or at right angles to the valleys which cut into and expose the water-bearing beds. The proportion of the annual rainfall that is absorbed by different classes of rocks is a subject that requires further examination. The quantity is largely regulated by the quantity stored from previous years. After a succession of dry years the permanent water-level is reduced to minimum figures, and the water gradient becomes nearly flat and springs cease to flow. The first heavy rains will be nearly wholly absorbed, until the maximum water-gradient is reached and the rocks are stored with the largest amount of water they can hold. After they are once charged, all excess of rainfall runs off in floods, and the amount absorbed is practically nil. Spread over the twelve months, the annual amount absorbed is probably never more than fifteen inches, and the average ranges from five inches in chalk countries to ten inches in new red sandstone areas. In millstone grit districts about eight inches are absorbed, but the permeable beds are thin, and the water is thrown off again in numerous springs, as a rule in the same drainage basin, giving permanence to the dry-weather flow of the streams traversing them. Except in waterworks drainage areas but few observations exist as to the actual volumes run off daily by the rivers of this country, and data on this subject are much required, as well as a permanent record of the height to which floods rise in the various river basins. Further observations are required as to the action of faults in acting as ducts, along the face of which water is constantly passing, and barriers separating districts into distinct drainage areas. The facts so far obtained point to faults traversing thick permeable sandstone and limestone, having their formations on both sides of the dislocation, as offering no obstacle to the free passage of waters, which, even if locally obstructed by the hardened face or slickenside jointing of the fault, invariably finds its way through cracks extending across the width of the fault to faults traversing thick shales and clays of any age. The fissure, be it wide or narrow, always appears to have been filled with the impermeable material forming the sides, and in some cases, when porous rocks have been immediately overlaid by impermeable material since denuded, the fissure of the fault has been filled from above at a time when the fault had an upward prolongation, destroyed with the denuded material referred to. daily registration of the heights of the streams might easily be made on gauges, painted on the county bridges, but the organisation necessary to carry this out is entirely beyond the scope of the British Association, and should be carried out at the national charge, being of the highest importance to the country. The determination of the number of cubic feet of water carried down at selected points on the English rivers, particularising whether it represents dry-weather, average, or flood flow, would be of very high value, and might well be undertaken by the Association. Such observations, stating the run-off per square mile of drainage area and the geological character of the area drained, would have more than a local value. Permeable rocks below the permanent water-level of a district may be regarded as a reservoir of which the cubic content is limited by the size of the spaces between the grains, and the width of the fissures and cracks by which the rock may be traversed. The quantity of water such rocks are capable of storing has had much light thrown upon it by the investigations of Mr. Wethered, published in the fourth appendix to the eighth report.

The

Third Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. Sclater, Mr. Howard Saunders, and Mr. Thiselton Dyer (Secretary), appointed for the purpose of investigating the Natural History of Timor Laut.-In the month of January a box containing seventy birds' skins was received from Mr. Forbes, with the note, "This first instalment of birds is a rough selection, which, probably, may contain new species." The collection was examined by Mr. Sclater, who communicated an account of it to the meeting of the Zoological Society on February 20. The species were fifty-five in number, sixteen of which were described in the paper as new to science. The general facies of the avifauna, as thus indicated, was stated to be decidedly Papuan, with a slight Timorese element, evidenced by the occurrence of certain species of Geocichla and Erythrura, while the new one (Strix sororcula) was apparently a diminutive form of a peculiar Australian species." About the same time the Committee received from Mr. Forbes a detailed report of his proceedings in Timor Laut. This was an extremely interesting document, but dealt principally with ethnographical

This is

details. The Committee, therefore, decided that it should be communicated at once to the Anthropological Institute; and this Mr. John Evans, Treasurer of the Royal Society and VicePresident of the Institute, very kindly undertook to do. The paper was read at the meeting on March 13, and has since been published in the Journal of the Institute. In February the bulk of Mr. Forbes's collections reached Kew in four cases. They contained an extremely complete ethnographical collection, a further collection of birds, a collection of twelve crania and specimens of human hair, and a miscellaneous zoological collection. The Committee decided that a selection from the ethnographical collection should be handed to Mr. Franks, keeper of the Department of Ethnography in the British Museum; that the additional birds should be examined by Mr. Sclater, and that the miscellaneous zoological collections should be sent to the zoological department of the British Museum to be selected from. This was accordingly done. A series of the ethnographical specimens was sent to the meeting at the Anthropological Institute to illustrate the reading of Mr. Forbes's report, and a description of these, drawn up by Mr. C. H. Read, is printed as Prof. an appendix to the paper in the Journal of the Institute. Flower, who presided on the occasion, also stated that "the results of a cursory examination of the twelve crania which Mr. Forbes had collected were that eight were brachycephalic, and of decidedly Malay type; one was dolichocephalic, prognathous, and with large teeth, indicating Papuan or Melanesian affinities; and the other three were more or less intermediate. what might have been expected on the border-land of two distinct races; but the great preponderance of the first-named was very marked. Nearly all showed signs of artificial flattening of the occipital region. At the meeting of the Zoological Society on April 17, Mr. Sclater read a second paper on the additional birds collected by Mr. Forbes in the Tenimber group. "The avifauna of the group, as indicated by Mr. Forbes's collection contained fiftynine species, of which twenty-two were peculiar to these islands." At the meeting of the same Society on May 1, Mr. W. F. Kirby reported on the small collection of Hymenoptera (five new species were described) and of Diptera sent home by Mr. Forbes. On June 5 a communication was read from Mr. A. G. Butler, containing an account of twenty-three Lepidoptera. These comprised twenty-three species of Lepidoptera; the butterflies were well preserved, the moths in poor condition. Mr. Butler described ten new species. Deducting wide-ranging forms, the following is his analysis of the characteristic species:-"IndoMalayan, 2; Austro-Malayan, 10; Australian, 3. The only surprising thing in this distribution is the preponderance of Timor over Aru or New Guinea forms; the species characteristic of that island being only equalled by those from Aru, New Guinea, and Amboyna combined." Mr. Boulenger also reported, at the same meeting, upon the reptiles and batrachians. Two new species were described-the one a lizard of the Australian genus Lophognathus, and the other a snake of the Indian genus Simotes. "The snake was of special interest, as no species of the genus Simotes had hitherto been previously known to occur eastward of Java."

Report of the Committee, consisting of General Pitt-Rivers, Dr. Beddoe, Mr. Brabrook, Prof. Flower, Mr. F. Galton, Dr. Garson, Mr. J. Park Harrison (Secretary), Dr. Muirhead, Mr. F. W. Rudler, and Prof. Thane, appointed for the purpose of Defining the Facial Characteristics of the Races and Principal Crosses in the British Isles, and obtaining Illustrative Photographs.-Owing to the comparative scarcity of skulls and other remains of the earlier inhabitants of the British Islands, and the imperfect condition of many of them owing to lapse of time, more difficulty has been experienced in completing the identification of the Long-barrow type than occurred in the case of the Round-barrow and Saxon types (B and C), the features of which were defined in the Report of 1882. There appears, however, to be little doubt that the short dark type, which, as the Conmittee mentioned last year, certainly exists in the population at the present time, and which offers a marked contrast to the other types, accords in stature, lightness of frame, narrowness of skull, and fine osseous features generally, with the skeleton remains found in the majority of the early barrows. The Committee, therefore, have no difficulty in considering it as the main Type A; and its characteristic features have consequently been inserte i in the annexed table, for comparison with Types B and C. The question whether there was a second pre-Celtic race in this country is hardly ripe for discussion; but it is receiving the special attention of several members of the Committee.

In the mass of the population one or other type of features is found to predominate. The prevalent type differs in different localities; and the principal cause of the difference appears to be ancestral. Progress has been made in the identification of several sub-types, especially the Gaels, Picts, Angles, and Jutes. But the definitions are not at present complete. The Committee trust that whenever ancient remains are discovered which there may be reason to believe belong to the above people, or to the Long-barrow race, they may be carefully preserved, and information forwarded to the Secretary. The long bones, which are often put away, are specially required for the purpose of ascer taining stature. They request also to be informed of the existence of any skulls in local museums or private collections, that would assist in the identification of the above types. Negatives have been taken of very pure examples of the Cymric type in North Wales, and several photographs have been purchased.

Report of the Raygill Fissure Exploration Committee, consisting of Prof. A. H. Green, M.A., F.G.S., Prof. L. C. Miall, F.G.S., no. Brigg, F.G.S., and James W. Davis, F.S.A., F.G.S. (Reporter).-The fissure occurs in an anticlinal of limestone in Lothersdale, near Skipton. The limestone is extensively quarried, and whilst removing the limestone, the fissure, which descends almost perpendicularly, has repeatedly exhibited new sections during several years past. It was decided by the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society to investigate its contents in 1879, and a grant was made by the British Association to assist in this object. It was found that the fis ure contained, besides laminated clay and layers of sand and stones, a brown, sandy clay with rounded boulders of sand-tone and limestone derived from the immediate locality, and numerous

bones of animals. The latter comprise the bones, teeth, and tusks of elephant, teeth of rhinoceros, hippopotamus, hyæna, bear, and others, broken horns of the roebuck, and bones of birds. The bones are, when found, soft and friable; and, being cemented to the matrix, are frequently difficult to extricate and individualise. The Committee express their indebtedness to Mr. Spencer, the proprietor of the quarry, and to Mr. Todd, for the kind manner in which they have assisted in the operations.

It

Report of Committee on Erratic Blocks, presented by Dr. Crosskey. Additional facts were reported respecting the distribution of erratic blocks. A remarkable group occurs at Crosspool, near Sheffield, at a height of 730 feet above the sea. consists of slate rocks and tuff from the Borrowdale Volcanic series of the Lake District, Carboniferous limestone and chert from North Lancashire and North-West Yorkshire, New Red Sandstone from North Lancashire, and specimens also occur which were probably derived from the East Lowlands of Scotland, with magnesian limestone from the north east of England. Near Clun, Shropshire, boulders from Rhayader and Machynlleth and neighbourhood are recorded. The highest boulder is upon Black Hill. It travelled from Rhayader, twenty-three miles west-south-west, and has an elevation of about 1400 feet. The Report included a description of an enormous number of

In place of "prominent brows." as in the report for 1882.

At

boulders spread over an area of about two miles long by half a mile wide, the longer direction being south-east of Markfield, Leicestershire, from whence they were derived. It also gives an account of the erratics of the north of Hertfordshire. Kelsall, on the ridge dividing the district draining into the Thames from that draining north and north east into the Cam, are two boulders lying about 500 feet above sea-level. The boulders noted point generally to a derivation from the Midland oolites and coal-measures, and from crystalline rocks further north. The position of many boulders in the Midland Counties and the Isle of Anglesea was also recorded.

Report on the Fossil Plants of Halifax, by Prof. W. C. Williamson, LL.D., and W. Cash.-Clear evidence of the existence of at least two new types of Racheopteris, which are most probably stems or petioles of ferns. A third is a curious stem in which the vascular bundle approaches that of a Lepid dendron in its defined cylindrical form surrounding a cellular pith, a condition rarely seen among the ferns.

Report of the Committee to Explore Caverns in the Carboniferous Limestone in Ireland, consisting of Prof. Valentine Ball, Prof. Dawkins, and Richard F. Ussher.-The Shandon Cave, near Dungarvan, which yielded remains of extinct Post-Pliocene mammalia in 1859 and in 1875, has been explored during the past year. So far the work has imply been removing the loose material overlying the bone-bearing bed.

Fourth Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. H. C. Sorby and Mr. G. R. Vine, appointed for the purpose of reporting on Fossil Polyzoa.-Tabulates the Cretaceous Polyzoa of the British area only. Gives the classification of Cyclostomatous Polyzoa, &c., from the Silurian to the Cretaceous epochs. Describes pseudo-polyzoan forms, and gives the bibliography of the subject.

Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. R. Etheridge, Dr. H. Woodward, and Prof. T. Rupert Jones, on the Fossil Phyllopoda of the Paleozoic Rocks.-Gives a classified synopsis of the genera of this group and detailed descriptions of certain

genera.

Report on Seismic Investigations in Japan during the Years 1882-83, by Prof. John Milne.-When in England, arrangements were made with Mr. James White of Glasgow for the construction of a seismometer which will give a complete diagram of all the sensible vibrations of an earthquake in conjunction with the time of occurrence of these vibrations. The results of observations on earth-tremors are given, which show that the pendulum is seldom completely at rest, that a vertical motion is occasionally observed in the pendulum, the style of which oscillates up and down with a rapid, tremulous movement. With sudden changes in the barometer, the motions of the pendulum are relatively very great. A second set of observations has been recorded, which are the motions of the delicate levels placed beneath glass covers.

The Reports prepared by the Chemical Committees appointed at Southampton last year were read at the opening of the Chemical Section. The Committee on Chemical Nomenclature presented an interim Report, and asked to be reappointed to complete their Spectra, which dealt especially with the disappearance of short labours. Prof. Hartley read the Report on the Ultra-Violet Spark lines, the lengthening of short lines, and alterations in the spectrum of carbon.

SECTION B-CHEMICAL SCIENCE

Sunspots and the Chemical Elements in the Sun, by Profs. Dewar and Liveing. The authors, having made an examination of the spectroscopic observations of sunspots made at Greenwich, point out that the dark lines peculiar to spots are not necessarily due to new elements, for cerium and titanium in the arc give a great number of new lines, of which some show coincidences with dark lines seen in sunspots too striking to be merely accidental. Although a spot is less luminous than the photosphere it does not follow that its temperature must be less, inasmuch as the radiation of short wave-length generally increases very rapidly with the temperature, and the spectra of some of the metals most abundant in the sun, such as magnesium and iron, are stronger in the ultra-violet than in the visible part of the spectrum. The unequal widening of the Fraunhofer lines in spots has an analogy in the unequal widening of the lines of some of our elements when the density of their vapour is increased. The disappear

ance of some Fraunhofer lines from spots has been attributed with much probability to the emission of the upper regions of the sun's atmosphere just balancing the absorption below: the rays for which this happens are those of vapours of low tension (corresponding to Mr. Lockyer's long lines) emitted by the elements in their least complex state of aggregation. The singular ray with wave-length 4923, which is a line of iron of high vapour tension, but behaves in the sun as a line of low vapour tension, being frequently seen high up in solar storms and disappearing from spots, probably belongs to some other metal as well as iron.

Mr. R. Meldola read a paper on The Colouring Matters of the Diazo-Group, in which he gave an historical sketch of this important class of bodies discovered by Dr. Griess, and proceeded to describe a number of new compounds in which the diazo-grouping occurred three times. These compounds prepared by the author yielded excellent dyes, specimens of which were exhibited. The great importance of these new products was shown by the fact that since their introduction the cochineal industry had gradually declined.

Mr. H. B. Dixon exhibited tubes in which a dried mixture of carbonic oxide gas and oxygen was submitted to the electric spark. The tubes were shaped like the letter W, the two outer arms being open and sealed with mercury in the two lower bends. In one arm of each tube anhydrous phosphoric acid had been introduced to dry the gaseous mixture. The tubes had been so charged for a period of three days. On passing the spark at the top of the central bend, a very slow and quiet combustion was propagated down the tube in which no phosphoric acid had been placed, but no combustion was propagated down the tube containing the phosphoric acid. In an experiment with another similar tube, only a small fraction of the mixture ignited in one arm. Water was then introduced by a pipette into the mixture, and after the steam had diffused, the spark was passed, producing a loud explosion.

Prof. A. W. Williamson in discussing the Chemical Constitution of Matter remarked that when any sufficiently careful attempt has been made to decompose one of our elementary substances this attempt has always failed. Referring to Prout's hypothesis that the atomic weights of the elements were exact multiples of that of hydrogen, Dr. Williamson showed that this idea had been fruitful because it had led chemists to make most accurate and conscientious determinations of atomic weights. The result of the labours of Mendeleeff, Lothar Meyer, and others has shown that the elements belong to a natural family, and has given an authority to the established weights which could not be assigned to them previously on chemical or physical grounds. When chemists speak of matter, they always limit themselves to that which can be weighed: it would be better to throw off that limitation and not hamper our ideas with a condition which may some day have to be removed. What many chemists have regarded as the most fundamental property of matter, its weight, may not be an inherent property in the matter itself, but may depend on forces reacting between the "matter" and the ether surrounding it. All that we know about the atomic weight of atoms is not inconsistent with varieties among individual atoms, but only proves that the average weight of large aggregates of

atoms is the same.

Prof. Dewar read papers, by himself and Mr. A. Scott, on The Atomic Weight of Manganese and on The Molecular Weights of Substituted Ammonias, in the latter of which the authors pointed out the advantage of using the molecular weights of these compounds for accurately determining the relation between the atomic weights of hydrog n and carbon of which elements several atoms are contained in the introduced radicle. The authors conclude from their experiments that if oxygen be taken as 16, the atom of hydrogen must be less than unity, and not larger, as is the generally received opinion.

Prof. W. Ramsay, in a paper on The Application of Bisulphide of Carbon to the Scouring of Wool, drew attention to a curious difference in the quality of the bisulphide manufactured in France and England.

The Rev. W. A. Irving exhibited tubes in which trioxide of phosphorus had been sealed up and exposed to sunlight. The tubes contained dark crystals of phosphorus. The author stated that on opening the tubes he found pentoxide of phosphorus present, and argued that the sunlight had decomposed the trioxide into free phosphorus and the pentoxide. In the discussion it was suggested that free phosphorus might have been sealed up together with the oxide, and have changed its condition on exposure to sunlight.

Prof. Dewar pointed out an important relation between the critical temperature and pressure of volatile liquids and their molecular volumes. The ratio of the critical pressure to critical temperature is proportional to the molecular volume, so that the determination of the critical temperature and pressure of a substance gives us a perfectly independent measure of the molecular volume. Prof. Dewar pointed out the great advantage of employing a liquid of low critical temperature and pressure such as liquefied marsh gas for producing exceedingly low temperatures. He hoped to be able to approach the absolute zero by the evaporation of liquefied marsh gas whose critical temperature was less than 100° Centigrade, and whose critical pressure was only 39 atmospheres.--Sir W. Siemens hoped Prof. Dewar would soon succeed in producing a temperature near to the absolute zero, as he had the greatest desire to test at such a low tem, erature the magnetic and electric behaviour of metals.

Dr. Gladstone, in a paper written in conjunction with Mr. Tribe, on The Electrolysis of Dilute Sulphuric Acid in Secondary Batteries, was led to the conclusion that besides the molecular change in the electrolyte, there was also an actual passage of sulphuric acid into the limb containing sulphate of copper. No data exist to decide the question whether it is sulphuric acid or some hydrate of it that is electrolysed, but analogy would lead to the conclusion that it is sulphuric acid.

Mr. H. Brereton Baker, in a paper on The Alleged Direct Union of Hydrogen and Nitrogen, described the carefully conducted experiments he had made with nitrogen, derived without heat from the air, and pure hydrogen. These gases led over hot platinum sponge gave no trace of ammonia. He found that, in an apparatus similar to that used by Mr. Stillingfleet Johnson, the oxides of nitrogen produced by the passage of hydrogen through the nitrate of silver solution used to purify it were not completely arrested by the ferrous sulphate absorbers, so that the ammonia produced in Mr. Johnson's experiments was doubtless due to the action of these oxides on hydrogen in presence of hot platinum.

Messrs. Friedel and Crafts communicated a paper on The Decomposition of Hydrocarbons by Aluminic Chloride. Chloride of aluminium is not only a synthetical agent but also a reducing agent causing the sub-titution of hydrogen for methyl, ethyl, &c. For instance naphthalin distilled with 25 per cent of aluminic chloride gave a distillate of benzene and hydrides of naphthalene. Benzene, heated to 235° C. in a sealed tube with the chloride, gave off marsh gas on opening, and the contents of the tube on distillation with water gave hydrocarbons boiling at from 80° to 160°. Diphenylmethane, distilled with chloride, gave a distillate containing benzene and toluene. Triphenylmethane distilled with more than half its weight of chloride gave only benzene. Hexamethylbenzene heated with one-third its weight of chloride gave off plenty of a non-illuminating gas; from the residue crystals of durene were deposited. In the case of the poly-methyl benzenes one or more methyl groups are replaced by hydrogen with the formation of very little hydrochloric acid. The same equation previously adopted to explain the synthesis of hydrocarbons by aluminic chloride, is sufficient to explain the present decomposition :--CHI + AlCl = CH.AlCl + HCl. The compound CH5. Al,C15, is broken up by heat into diphenyl and aluminous chloride; the latter is decomposed by the free hydrochloric acid into aluminic chloride and hydrogen, and the hydrogen thus set free exerts the reducing action. The Section recommended the paper for publication in extenso in the Transactions.

6

Prof. B. Warder of Ohio, U.S.A., communicated a short paper called Suggestions for Computing the Speed of Chemical Reactions. He recommended for unit of volume the cubic centimetre, for mass the chemical equivalent expressed in milligrams, and for time the hour. Prof. Warder drew attention to the fact that many determinations of the rate of etherification had been published for twenty years, and yet no mean value of the "rateconstant " had been worked out. Such calculations might fitly be undertaken by students at colleges, and the Chemical Section of the Ohio Institute had begun such work and invited the assistance and cooperation of che nists engaged in teaching.

Mr. P. M. Parsons gave an account of different varieties of manganese-bronze prepared by heating copper with ferro-man| ganesc. The spiegeleisen, as in the Bessemer process, removes the oxygen from the copper, with which part of the manganese forms an alloy of extraordinary tensile strength. One of the varieties, capable of resisting a great transverse strain, is largely employed for making screw-propellers. These are cast in sand.

SECTION E GEOGRAPHY

OPENING ADDRESS BY LIEUT.-COLONEL H. H. GODWINAUSTEN, F.R.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., &c., PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION.

My predecessor, Sir Richard Temple, selected for the subject of his address to this Section last year "The Central Plateau of Asia," and he treated it not only from a broad and general geographical, but also, and to some extent, a political and historical, point of view. Following him, in a measure, over some of the same ground, I have selected the mountain region south of the Central Asian highlands-viz. the Himalayas, and more particularly the western portion of that range, as the subject of this paper. I propose considering this mountain chain with reference to its physical features, past and present; and consequently with reference to its geological history, so far as that relates to later tertiary times-i.e. the period immediately preceding the present distribution of seas, land, rivers, and lakes. It is not, however, my intention to enter very deeply into the purely geological branch of the subject.

Comparatively little of the earth's surface now remains unexplored, but much remains to be surveyed and examined in a more scientific manner. Within the last fifty years explorers have made known to us the general features of those dotted or blank spaces which, as boys, we used to look at in our school atlas sheets with so much curiosity, mingled with no little desire to discover the hidden secrets of the unknown lands so shown. The student of the present day enjoys information more or less accurate respecting countries which to us were mere speculative shadows.

But there are other atlas sheets beneath, and only a very few feet beneath, those of this present day, which are closely connected with the latter, and beneath them again others lie still deeper which have modified the geography of this earth over and over again. It is to such a sheet or two relating to the great Himalayan chain that I now invite your attention. If we wish to deal with physical geography (and to my mind it has equal charms with either pure geography or exploration), our inquiry must, if we wish it to be of any really scientific value, be based on geological structure. We must study the ancient atlas sheets, one by one, which nature is, day by day, revealing to us by the denudation of the present surface, taking away and building up the material for atlas sheets of future epochs. Geography and geology are very intimately related; each is truly based upon the other. Local changes of temperature on the surface of this earth, and internally the slow shrinking of its crust, have effected gigantic changes of its surface, and are still altering the topographical features of every country. Directly we look back in time and space and note what changes have taken place, the science of geology steps in, and with it mathematics, chemistry, botany, and zoology. A raised sea. beach with its dead shells, or a submerged forest with the remains of its former fauna and flora, geologically an event of yesterday, sends us back thousands of years into the past, thinking of what were the aspect and dimensions of the former land; therefore, to be a good geographer, something should be known of geology and its kindred sciences. This will be my excuse if in this address I dip somewhat below the surface, and, as some may think, introduce too much geology into this Section. The basis, however, of this branch of knowledge is geography, and this the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association in this particular Section do all they can to foster. There is no gainsaying the fact that very many of our ablest men of science, the ablest naturalists and geologists this country has produced (and it has taken a leading part in geology), have commenced their careers in connection with geographical exploration. Darwin's earlier studies were prosecuted whilst he was attached to marine surveys in other parts of the world; through the same school passed Huxley and Edward Forbes. There was no better example of an able geographer and geologist than Sir Roderick Murchison, who for years took a leading part at these meetings. The list might be largely extended— Sir Joseph Hooker, Wallace, Wyville Thomson, Moseley, &c. That most seductive of all studies, the geographical distribution of species, is intimately connected with geographical exploration. Just as the navy owes much of its efficiency to our coasting and mercantile marine and to our hardy fishermen, so have geography and other sciences been strengthened by the labours of those practical and scientific men who have been engaged in marine or territorial surveys.

The Himalayas, the highest mountains in the world, have excited the interest of many travellers and many geographers; very much has been written about them, some from personal knowledge, and a good deal on second-hand information. Much confusion has resulted from the features of the north-western area being so dissimilar in composition to those of the rest, or eastern part, of the chain, and the limitation placed on the breadth and extent of the whole as a mountain mass. There has been a tendency to apply the term "Himalaya" in too extended a sense: it should, I consider, be restricted to those portions which dominate the plains of India, from the inhabitants of which country we have derived the name. This would, strictly speaking, apply only to the snowy range seen from the plains of India bordering upon the course of the Ganges; but we might, I think, use the term in an extended sense, so as to include that which we may call the north-western Himalaya, north of the Punjab, and also the eastern Himalaya, bordering on Assam.

The orography of this mountain mass has been recently ably handled by Messrs. Medlicott and Blanford,1and I follow them in all their main divisions and nomenclature, which are based upon a thorough understanding of the rocks of the country. Some line must be selected where the term Himalaya in its widest sense must cease to be used, and this certainly cannot be better defined than by the valley of the Indus from Attock to Bunji. On this line we find the great bending round or change in the strike of all the ranges. Strictly speaking, the change commences on the south, where the Jhelum River leaves the mountains, but this line, north of Mozufferabad, continues on into the above-mentioned part of the Indus valley. To the mountains north of the Indus on its east and west course the name Himalaya should certainly never be applied. For this north-west, Trans-Indus part of the Asian chain we have the well-known name Mustagh, so far as the head of the Gilgit valley; the Hindu Kush being an excellent term now in common use for its extension to the Afghan country.

The observations made by many of the assistants of the Indian Geological Survey, more especially by Stoliczka, and more recently by Lydekker 2 in the Himalayas, combined with those made by myself in the same region, have, when considered in conjunction with the ascertained strike of the granitoid or gneissic rocks, led me to separate the great Central Asian chain into the following five principal divisions, with some minor subdivisions:

I use the word "chain" in its widest meaning, so as to comprise the whole length and breadth of a mountain mass, and not, as it has been sometimes used, to describe a "chain" or single line of mountain peaks.

I show these and the equivalent ranges of other geographers and authors in the accompanying synoptical form; and if sections be made, at intervals of about 100 miles apart, through the whole mass of the chain from the plains of India to Thibet, they show where the different ranges are locally represented, and how they separate or are given off from the main axis lines. The same scale for both vertical and horizontal measurements should be used, because there is nothing more misleading than sections in which an exaggerated vertical scale is used. In our present state of ignorance as to the composition of the chain eastward from the source of the Sutlej, we cannot attempt to lay down there any axis lines of original elevation. The separa tion by Mr. Clements Markham and Mr. Trelawney Saunders 3 of the line of highest peaks into one range, and the water-parting into another, is an acceptable solution of the physical features as at present known of this part of the chain. I am led to think, however, that when this ground is examined it will resolve itself into a series of parallel ridges more or less clo e, and oblique to the line of greatest altitude as defined by the line of high peaks, cros-ing diagonally even the main drainage line of the Sanspu, just as we see the Ladak axis crossing the Indus 1A Manual of the Geology of India, 1879, p. 9. Memoirs of the Geology of India.

3 Consult Atlas Sheets of the Indian Survey, 1 inch=4 miles, and latest map of Turkestan and the countries between the British and Russian dominions in India-1 inch = 32 miles. Compiled under the orders of Lieut.-Gen. J. T. Walker, C. B., R.E., F.R.S.

4 Thibet. Boyle and Manning. Introduction. 5 Geographical Magazine, July, 1877, p. 173.

being on terminal butt-ends of the successive parallel ranges, the watershed following the lowest parts of the ridges, and the drainage crossing the highest, in deep gorges directly transverse to the main lines of elevation.

It will be seen from sections, drawn as above, that the mountain mass of the Himalayas increases gradually in height from the south to about its central portion and then as gradually falls towards the north side. There is no abrupt and conspicuous slope from the higher line of peaks to the plains; a succession of spurs from the main water-parting intervenes, and these spurs retain often a very considerable altitude far to the south. The spurs terminate, usually, abruptly towards the plains of India, at an altitude of 5,000 to 8,000 feet, just within a more or less broad belt of fringing low hills, the well-known Sivaliks.

It has been laid down that the Himalayan chain culminates in two parallel ranges running through its entire length from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, and these have been called the north and south Himalaya, or central and southern; the two combined (they are very close in parts) really constitute the above chair. We can apply this system to certain portions of the range, but it breaks down when we reach the Sutlej on one side and the Monass on the other. The more we increase the scale of our maps, the greater the number of axial lines we can establish, all intimately connected with, and subsidiary to, the run or strike of the greater series of axial elevations.

EXPLANATION of the DIFFERENT RANGES

2

1

1. Kuenlun Range.-The most westerly extension of this granitoid axis is found W.N.W. of the Zangi-diwan pass at Oikul and the Victoria Lake. Here Stoliczka records it with slates and schists resting on it to the southward. Now the next great granitoid axis south of the above, with paleozoic rocks on its northern face, is at the Mustagh pass, fifty miles to the south of Kuenlun at Zangi-diwan, and it coincides in position with the gneiss of Kila Panza, the granitic axis of the Mustagh being continued W.N.W. in the high peaks of Hunza-Nagar. The Kuenlun axis passes by Shahdula eastward by peaks E. 61, 23,890, E. 64, 21,500, up to Yeshil-Kul on the Keria route, for a distance of about 450 miles; beyond this is unexplored country. I have adopted the term Mustagh as one well known to the people on both sides of the range, and better known than Karakoram, applied by them to the pass of that name. The Karakoram pass also lies on an axis of elevation further to the north and intermediate between the Mustagh and Kuenlun.

2. Mustagh. This axis, as I have shown above, commences near Kila Panza in Wakhan, thence by the Baroghil and Keram. bar passes to the great peaks dominating the Hunza valley to the Mustagh pass, eastward by K,, 28,250, to the great peaks north of the Shayok, K9, K10, K11, K123, the Sassar pass, and thence S.E. on to the Marse Mik La and the high mass north of the Pangkong Lake, crossing at Nyak Tso on to the high range south of the Rudok plain, where we again enter unsurveyed ground. It is probably continuous to the Aling Gangri, the old original drainage of the Shayok passing through it at the Pangkong Lake, thus repeating in a similar way that of the Indus through the Ladak range near Hanlé. This most remarkable depression of the whole area, the Rudok plain, lies S. E. of the Pangkong Lake, where, on the same meridian as the sources of the Indus and Sanspu, we have a plain only a little abɔve 14,000 feet, which once drained in glacial and pre-glacial times into the Shayok, rendering that branch as long as, probably longer than, the present Indus. From a high point above the Pangkong I have looked over this plain; for a distance of some sixty miles it was seen bounded to the south by mountains of over 21,000 feet, and no mountain ranges broke the horizon. The depression is a broad and continuous one here, lower and more extensive than that at the head of the Indus. It is not improbable that it indicates the head waters of the next great drainage area north of the Indus, viz. of the rivers that find an exit to the sea through Burmah. The Gang-rhi and Karakoram, or Mustagh, cannot be therefore considered as one range separating the Indus basin from that of the northern or central plateau of Thibet. This must lie across the broad elevated plateau that extends from the Karakoram pass, having a general parallelism to the Kuenlun certainly so far as 34° N. and long. 82° E.

The crystalline limestone near the west end of the Pangkong Lake would appear to be the same as the similar limestone 1 Scientific Results of the Yarkand Mission, p. 38.

2 Stoliczka, loc. cit. p. 38.

3 Unknown and unnamed peaks were thus designated during the progress of the triangulation.