Scientific Intelligence. — Ethnology. 371 



lips of a tobacco-smoker, a little explosion usually accompanies the 

 puff ; but the nature of this is in a great measure dependent on the 

 state of the lips at the time, whether they be dry or moist. The 

 sound appears to be chiefly duo to the sudden bursting of the film 

 which connects both lips. If an inflated bladder be jumped upon, 

 it will emit an explosion as loud as a pistol-shot. Sound to some 

 extent, always accompanies the sudden liberation of compressed air. 

 And this fact is also exhibited in the deportment of our jet. If the 

 surface of the fluid on which it falls intersects its limpid portion, the 

 jet enters silently, and no bubbles, as before remarked, are pro- 

 duced. The moment, however, after the bubbles make their appear- 

 ance, an audible rattle also commences, which becomes louder and 

 louder as the mass of the jet is increased. The very nature of the 

 sound pronounces its origin to be the bursting of the bubbles ; and 

 to the same cause the rippling of streams and the sound of breakers 

 appear to be almost exclusively due. I have examined a stream or 

 two, and in all cases where a ripple made itself heard I have dis- 

 covered bubbles. The impact of water against water is a compara- 

 tively subordinate cause, and could never of itself occasion the 

 murmur of a brook or the musical roar of the ocean. It is the 

 same as regards waterfalls. Were Niagara continuous and without 

 lateral vibration, it would be as silent as a cataract of ice. It is pos- 

 sible, I believe, to get behind the descending water at one place ; 

 and if the attention of travellers were directed to the subject, the 

 mass might perhaps be seen through. For in all probability it also 

 has its " contracted sections ;" after passing which it is broken 

 into detached masses, which, plunging successively upon the air- 

 bladders formed by their precursors, suddenly liberate their con- 

 tents, and thus create the thunder of the waterfall. — Philosophical 

 Magazine, vol. i., No. 2, 4th Series. 



ETHNOLOGY. 



6. At the Meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 

 last 1851, some account was given by the Rev. J. Hannah, of an 

 elaborate and very important paper received, through Professor 

 Jameson, from Mr J. R. Logan of Singapore. The following is the 

 author's own account of its nature and contents : — 



Traces of an Ethnic Connection between the Basin of the Ganges 

 and the Indian Archipelago, before the Advance of the Hindus 

 into India ; and a Comparison of the Languages of the Indo- 

 Pacific Islanders with the Tibeto -Indian, Tibeto-Burmese, 

 Telngu-Tamulian, Tartar-Japanese, and American Languages. 



I. — Preliminary Enquiries. 

 § 1. Principal continental connections of the Archiac ethnology of 

 Asianesia. 



2 a2 



