46 
discovered small undamaged foraminifera in the desert sand of Barmar and 
Bikanir, which must have reached the heart of the desert by wind trans- 
portation over a distance of 500 miles from the coast of Cutch. 
This interesting observation gave the first clue to the remarkable work 
organized by T. H. Holland,! to explain the origin of several intermittent 
saline lakes in the Rajputana desert, in which the quantity of salt stored 
is in excess of the amount that could be accumulated by normal freshwater 
rivers acting within any reasonable geological period under present physio- 
graphic conditions. ‘The Rann of Cutch dries up in the hot dry season, to 
be covered with a thin incrustation of salt. This salt is transported by 
strong winds from the south-west, which blow regularly from April to June, 
to be followed by the rainy season, when the salt, deposited on the surface 
of the desert, is washed in solution into convenient hollows, forming small 
lakes. It was found, as a result of this investigation, which should be widely 
' known amongst botanists, that during four months of the hot season of 1908 
the amount of wind-borne salt passing a front of 300 km. broad and 100 m. 
high must have been something of the order of 130,000 tons. 
Recently our airmen? operating in Mesopotamia have found the “ dust 
chokes the engines and the sand above blows as high as 4000'.” Further 
interesting proof of the constant direction of air-currents is afforded in the 
first report on upper air research in Australia,’ when difficulties were 
encountered owing to the fact that Melbourne is on the south coast of 
Australia, and the prevailing winter winds, as well as the upper currents in 
advance of cyclonic disturbances, are from a northerly direction, and thus 
carry the balloons out to sea. Material carried by wind is deposited on 
reaching contrary currents, when should the seeds carried be precipitated on 
to a suitable habitat germination takes place (12, i. 220). 
Cross-currents would be most likely met with on the summits of high 
mountains, where conditions in the tropics would alone be favourable to 
ombrophobous plants requiring temperate conditions. We have now sufficient 
evidence to prove that the area of high open country on the immense chains 
of mountains in New Guinea must carry an enormous number of species of 
this type of plant. The summits of Mt. Kinabalu in Borneo, Mt. Halcon. 
and others in the Philippines, and Bonthain Peak in Celebes, would offer 
the only suitable habitat for such plants between New Guinea and the 
Himalayas in the west monsun region of distribution. 
In those cases where not only the suitable area but also the fauna is much 
restricted, though identical conditions of temperature and rainfall prevail, 
‘ T. H. Holland: successive Annual Reports of the Geological Survey of India published 
in Records G. 8. I. during 1904-09; “ Discussion on the Physiography of Arid “Lands,” 
Report Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. for 1914, 363 (1915). 
* Candler, Edmund, ‘ Daily Mail,’ Dec. 19, 1916, 
* Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorol., Bull. 13 (Melbourne, 1915). 
