60 T. H. D. La Tonche— Calcareous Tufa [July, 



Medallion Portraits of Sir George King and Dr. D. D. Cunningham to 

 the Society. 



The Secretary laid on the table the following letter from Mr. 

 William Irvine, I.C.S., (retired), relative to a paper entitled "Notes on 

 the Rangaii caste in Barar " by Captain Wolseley Haig, I.S.C., published 

 in the Society's Journal, Part III, No. 1 of 3901. 



On p. 3 of his "Notes on the Rarigari caste in Barar " (J.A.S.B., 

 Vol. LXX, Part III, 1901), Captain Haig says "some members of the 

 " caste still make pilgrimages to the temple of Hinglaj Mata, otherwise 

 " called Hinglaj Devi, and Hinglaj Bhavani in Gujarat. The temple, 

 " they say, is situated ' on the far side of Gujarat.' " 



I would suggest that the place intended is Hinglaz in Makran, 

 which is shown on the map in Sir Thomas H. Holdich's " The Indian 

 Borderland " (London, Methuen & Co., 1901). On p. 206 Sir T. Holdich 

 say " the most ancient and honourable ziarat of Hinglaz is hidden away 

 " in the clefts of the mountains (a ziarat so ancient that both Hindus 

 " and Mahomedans claim it, without recognizing its almost prehistoric 

 "Persian origin)." This Hinglaz ( = Hinglaj) may be described as on 

 the " far side of Gujarat ; " it being over two hundred miles west of 

 the most western part of Gujarat. 



Major A. Alcock, F.R.S., exhibited models of snakes and of a 

 deep-sea fish Odontostotnus atratus whicb had swallowed a cuttle fish of 

 considerably greater diameter than itself. 



The following paper was I'ead : — 



The grnivth of Calcareous Tufa in the Rivers of the Shan States, 

 Upper Burma. — By T. H. D. La. Touche, B.A. 



(Abstract.) 



The formation of beds of calcareous tufa in countries where lime- 

 stone is the prevailing rock is a well-known natural phenomenon. Rain 

 water containing a small proportion of carbonic acid derived from the 

 atmosphere, flowing through crevices in the rock, is enabled to dissolve 

 a certain amount of it, and on reaching tlie open-air tliis is deposited 

 as the water evaporates. 



In many of the rivers of the Shan States in Upper Burma, where 

 the hills are largely composed of limestone, large masses of calcareous 

 tufa are deposited, forming regular dams aci'oss the river often 20 feet 

 or more in height. These are built up wherever the water is in violent 

 motion, as at the heads of rapids, where it seems improbable that the 



