250 ADDITIONAL NOTICES. [June 25, 1860. 



Thus, Gumri, where Kazi-MuUah, the prophet and mountain chief, fell in 

 1832, was followed hy Ahulko, Dango, and recently Veden, which have suc- 

 cessively heen abandoned by Shamyl and garrisoned by Russian troops. 



In closing my narrative I wish you to understand, my dear Doctor, that 

 not all of it is the result of my own personal observations. I have been 

 essentially aided in this sketch by consulting the materials which have been 

 collected on this interesting branch of ethnography by Mr, Berger, whose posi- 

 tion in that part of the world has enabled him to gather correct data about the 

 mountain tribes of the Caucasus, and who, I hope, will not slacken in his 

 praiseworthy efforts of raising the veil which covers many a part of Daghestan, 

 and dispelling the mist still brooding over the hilly regions of the East, 

 fraught with so much interest to the inquiring ethnologist.* 



5. Address to the Geographical and Ethnological Section of the British 

 Association at the Oxford Meeting of 1860. By its President, Sir 

 Roderick Impey Murchtson, d.c.l., f.r.s., Vice-President of the 

 Royal and Royal Geographical Societies, and Director-General of 

 the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom, &c. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — During the last two years only, the President of each 

 Section of the British Association having usually opened the business of the 

 Meeting by a short address, it fell to my lot to offer a few words to the geo- 

 graphers and ethnologists who were assembled at Leeds in 1858. I there 

 expressed the satisfaction I felt in proposing, at the Edinburgh Meeting in 

 1850, the formation of a separate Section for Geography and Ethnology, to 

 occupy the place left vacant by our Medical Associates who had seceded to 

 found an association of their own. 



Until that year geography had been attached exclusively to the Geological 

 Section, in which it was almost submerged by the numerous memoirs of my 

 brethren of the rocks, whilst Ethnology, forming a Sub-Section, with difficulty 

 obtained a proper place of meeting. Now, however, both these sciences are, I am 

 happy to say, fully represented ; and 1 tnist that the result of the coming week 

 will show, that the subjects to be illustrated will attract so many members to 

 our hall as will prove that Geography, in its comprehensive sense, is as popular 

 in Oxford as it is in the metropolis. 



Before I enter upon the consideration of any memoirs which may be laid 

 before us, let me allude to a few of the subjects of deep interest which have 

 been illustrated by British Geographers in various parts of the world in the two 

 years which have elapsed since I had the honour of last presiding over you. 



In Africa, the earlier discoveries of that great traveller Livingstone have 

 been followed by other researches of his companions and himself, which, as far 

 as they go, have completely realized his anticipation of detecting large elevated 

 tracts, truly Sanatoria as compared with those swampy and low regions near 

 the coast, which have impressed too generally on the minds of our countrymen 

 the impossibilit3^of sustaining a life of exertion in any intertropical region of 

 Africa. The opening out of the Shire river, that grand affluent of the Zam- 

 besi, with the description of its banks and contiguous lofty terraces and moun- 

 tains, and the discovery of the healthfulness of the tract, is most refreshing 



* Since these lines were penned, the military operations on the left flank of the 

 Caucasus have been carried on with so much success by the present General-in- 

 Chief, Prince Bariatinsky, that Daghestan has surrendered to the power of llussia. 



