January joih, I po6^^ Proceedings. ix 



Washington, 1905), presented by the Carnegie Institution at 

 Washington ; " Mexicati and Central American Antiquities" 

 by E. Seller and others (8vo., Washington, 1904), presented by 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology ; '^ A Monograph of the 

 British Desmidiacecz^^ vol. 2, by W. West and G. S. West (8vo., 

 London, 1905), " The British Freshwater Rhizopoda and 

 Heliozoa," vol. i, by J. Cash and T. Hopkinson (8vo., London, 

 1905), purchased from the Ray Society; "■ Les Quantites eie- 

 mentaires d" Elect ricite : Ions, Electrons, Corpiiscules" par H, 

 Abraham et P. Langevin, fasc. i, 2 (8vo., Paris, 1905), pre- 

 sented by the Societe Frangaise de Physique ; " Description 

 geologiqiie de rile d' Ambon . . .", par R. D. M. Verbeek (8vo., 

 Batavia, 1905), ''Atlas" (fol., Batavia, 1905), presented by the 

 Dutch Colonial Department. 



Mr. C. L. Barnes, M.A., shewed a group of stereoscopic 

 charts of the stars, issued with Mr. T. E. Heath's " Our Stellar 

 Universe." The charts are reduced from maps on which are 

 represented all the stars whose parallaxes have been measured, 

 or are conjecturable with some approach to accuracy. Since 

 the actual parallaxes are seldom more than small fractions of a 

 second of arc, it has been found necessary to magnify them 

 about 19,000 times for purposes of convenience. There are 

 twenty-six maps in all, two of which shew the polar regions on a 

 polar projection, eight the equatorial regions on Mercator's pro- 

 jection, and the remainder the intermediate declinations and 

 latitudes, north and south, on a conical projection. The object 

 aimed at is to shew the solidity of space, and to represent the 

 stars, not as on the surface of a sphere, but at different distances, 

 such as they actually occupy. 



At this point the Chair was taken by Mr. Francis Nichol- 

 son, F.Z.S. 



Mr. R. L. Taylor, F.C.S., F.LC, read the following paper 

 entitled, " On the Origin of the Salt in the Sea." 



This paper is a contribution to the controversy on this 

 subject, which was started more than thirty years ago by 

 Dr. Sterry Hunt. 



