Bickmore.] 392 [February 19, 



city to accompany him up the Kweikoug river to Kweilin, the capital 

 of the province of Kwangsi. 



These rivers are so dangerous on account of robhers that the Chi- 

 nese boats never go up or down, excepting in large numbers. Mr. 

 Bickmore passed a mandarin's boat that had been robbed the first 

 night after leaving the capital. Smuggling is universally practiced, 

 and the mandarin boats, which carry the officials and are not liable to 

 be searched, improve every opportunity of avoiding the customs. 

 The whole country from Wucliau to Kweilin, a distance of two hun- 

 dred ndles, is in a; state of such complete anarchy that every village 

 has its own fort, where all the rice and clothing not needed from day 

 to day are stored for safety. 



From Kweilin Mr. Bickmore continued northward down the Siang 

 and Yangtse rivere to Haukow and Shanghai. 



The object of this journey was to ascertain the nature of the rocks 

 and their order of position in the region traversed. The lowest form- 

 ation is granite, on Avhich rests a second series of rocks composed of 

 (jrlls and shales. These, in turn, are covered by the third formation 

 oiold limestones, which Mr. Bickmore considers as probably belonging 

 to the Devonian pei'iod. On them lie, fourthly, another series of 

 limestone strata, which are probably later than the carboniferous, and 

 may be of Triassic age. IVlr. Bickmore found that water communi- 

 cation really exists between the Sikiang and the Yangtse river 

 systems, so that a traveller, leaving Canton in the rainy season, can 

 make a journey of two thousand miles through the interior, and reach 

 the seacoast at Shanghai in one and the same boat. 



Mr. n. Mann read a letter from Dr. Sturtevant, accom- 

 panying cones of the white pine which were found in a peat 

 bog at Framingham. This bog was originally a small cove 

 of water, shallow at the edge and deepening toward the 

 centre. For about five feet the muck forms a compact de- 

 posit, showing no trace of structure ; it then becomes amass 

 of reddish vegetable fibre, with pine cones imbedded at the 

 deptli of three feet. Seeds of the pine are also found upon 

 the upper surface of this vegetable deposit, 



• Dr. Charles T. Jackson presented two specimens of fossil 

 or submarine guano, which he had recently received, from 

 the plantation of Mr. Toomers, in the vicinity of Charles- 

 ton, S. C. 



