1889.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 55 



December 2, 1889. 



Regular Business Meeting. 



The meeting was held in the large lecture-hall of the Law 

 School building. 



The President, Dr. Newberry, in the chair. 



About a hundred and twenty persons present. 



The report of the Council was read, comprising the follow- 

 ing recommendations : — 



I. The election as Resident Member of 



Dr. Meade Bolton, of Brooklyn. 



II. The payment of bills as follows : — 



Publication of the Annals, Vol. IV., No. 12 1173.04 



Separate edition of Constitution, By-law?, and 

 Membership-lists, from Vol. VIII. of Trans- 

 actions 20.00 



Expenses of wrapping and despatching publica- 

 tions 29. 80 



Otlier minor bills 20. 10 



The opening lecture of the Public Illustrated Course for the 

 year 1889-90 was then delivered by Mr. F. Cope Whitehouse, 

 upon the subject of 



the RAIYAN-ilCERIS, AND THE IRRIGATION OF ANCIENT 

 AND MODERN EGYPT. 



The lecturer discussed his own and other explorations in 

 Egypt with reference to the location of the ancient Lake Moeris, 

 and the various views that had been held regarding it. He 

 identified it with a depressed basin lying to the Avest of the 

 Nile, above the head of the Delta, the elevations of which he 

 had carefully examined and tested, and which was unques- 

 tionably once connected with the river by the so-called Balir 

 Yusuf, or Canal of Joseph, asserted by Egyptian tradition to 

 have been constructed by the eminent patriarch. It only needs 

 that this ancient channel should be cleared, through a portion 



