90 Address. [Feb, 



Captain A. W. Stiff e recently read before the Geological Society 

 oJ; London a paper on the Glaciation of parts of the Valleys of the Jhelam 

 and Sind rivers in the Himalayan mountains of Kashmir ; in which he 

 gives an account of some observations he made, in 1885, which appeared 

 to indicate signs of former glaciation on a most enormous scale. 



Among the books on Indian Geology, published during the year 

 Mr. Medlicott's Sketch of the Geology of the Pnnjah merits notice. 

 Under the heads — Aravali Region ; the Plains ; the Salt-range and 

 its west extension ; the Himalayan district ; the Afghan region ; the 

 Suleiman range — considerable light is thrown on the geological struc- 

 ture of the whole Punjab region. 



Mr. R. D. Oldham's Bibliography of Indian Geology, which sliould 

 have been noticed in last year's address, is a very valuable aid to the 

 Indian Geologist and meets an urgent want. 



I also note a pamphlet by Mons. J. Marcou, on the Taconic in the 

 Salt-range in the Punjab. 



A Report by Mr. P. Bosworth- Smith, on the Kolar Gold-field and 

 its extension from Mysore into the Madi-as Presidency, has been pub- 

 lished at Madras. 



Meteorology. 



There is, on the whole, loss to record on the work of the Meteoro- 

 logical Department during the past year than during the previous two 



years. 



The most important event was the retii-ement of the head of the 

 department, Mr. H. P. Blanford, at the end of two years' furlough. 

 Mr, Blanford has been a most active member of the Society for many 

 years and was for some time before he went on furlough in May 1886, 

 President of the Society. His services to the Society have been already 

 fully acknowledged in the annual address of the year. 



Mr. Blanford's attention was first directed to the subject of Indian 

 Meteorology by the great Calcutta cyclone of October 1864, of which 

 he and Col. Gastrell drew up a full and interesting account. The 

 storm and subsequent inquiry led to the introduction of a system of 

 storm-signals for the Port of Calcutta and River Hooghly. A Meteoro- 

 logical Committee was formed in 1865 and subsequently this led to the 

 establishment of the Bengal Meteorological Department in 1867, and 

 Mr. Blanford was appointed head of that department as Meteorological 

 Reporter to the Government of Bengal. He wrote a series of valuable 

 annual reports on the Meteorology of Bengal and various papers on 

 meteorological matters, some of which were published in the Transac- 

 tions of the Hoyal Society and othci'S in the Journal of our Society. 



