■pltOCEEDlKGS OF THE SCIEKTIFIC SOCIETIES OF LOll^DO:^. 425 



3- ** Note on Chatham Island." By Mr. W. Leed. The state- 

 ments in this letter were confirmatory of the accounts in the pre- 

 ceding paper. 



4. "On the Inhabitants of Asia Minor previous to the Time of 

 the Greeks." By Mr. Hyde Clarke. The question of who were the 

 aboriginal inhabitants of Asia Minor is one that has naturally occu- 

 pied many inquirers, and led to a wide diversity of opinion. This 

 discrepancy is to be traced back to the early times of Herodotus and 

 Strabo^ and the difficulty of dealing with the subject is indeed great, 

 as we have no known ot accessible historical relations of the migra- 

 tions or proceedings of the populations of that tract until long after 

 the period when the Greek colonies were introduced. The author 

 sought in those sources which have been found to yield successful 

 results in other cases for the means of investigation — viz. the mo- 

 numents and remains, human relies and bones, mythological records 

 and topographical nomenclature. Mainly relying on the last in vhe 

 present paper, he arrived at some general conclusions as to the 

 Iberian character of the ancient inliabitants of Asia Minor. 



March 21st, 1865. 



The following papers were read. — 1. " On the Arctic Highlanders." 

 By Mr. Clements E. Markham. The ethnological results to be 

 expected from North Polar exploration having been under the con- 

 sideration of the Council, the author submitted a review of all that 

 is known of the most northern inhabitants of the earth, as a subject 

 of sufficient interest to engage the Society's attention. Such a review 

 would have the effect of taking stock, as it were, of our present know- 

 ledge, and of recording the data on which an opinion may be formed 

 of the value and importance of future research. By the " most 

 northern" inhabitants of the earth, the author did not mean the 

 whole Esquimaux race, but only that interesting tribe which dweUs 

 far to the northward of any other, at the head of Baffin's Bay. The 

 country which may be called the home of the " Arctic Highlanders" 

 is that strip of land on the eastern side of Baffin's Bay and Smith 

 Sound which is bounded on the south by the Melville, and on the 

 north by the great Humboldt glaciers. The voyages which have 

 been made to this region are as follow : Tirst, Baffin, in 1616, in the 

 " Discovery," but it is not stated that he landed. Secondly, two 

 centuries after him, Captain John Eoss (1818), who was the first 

 European who had intercourse with the natives. Sir John was 



