TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 



89 



pressure of the air, the temperature and the humidity at so considerable a height. I 

 descended with Dr. Maretz ; but Colonel Khodzko remained from the 7th to the 

 ]2th having to make a series of observations on terrestrial refraction, while the 

 unstable condition of the limpidity of the air during the unfavourable summer of the 

 last year did not permit him to work without great interruptions. What shall 1 say 

 of the effect of this vast height upon men's constitutions ? It does not make itself 

 felt except upon the organs of respiration, which are considerably oppressed by the 

 rarity of the air, of which the mean pressure on the sea-coast corresponds with a 

 height of mercury in the barometer of 760 millimetres, while upon the summit ot 

 the Great Ararat it was only 410 millimetres ; this causes a certain inconvenience to 

 be felt all over the body, and makes one feel that the circulation of the blood is not 

 carried on as usual. As to the other symptoms indicated by several travellers— such 

 as tightness of the skin, loss of blood by the lips, the gums, the ears, and even the 

 eves consequent upon a nervous excitement resembhng delirium— nothing ot the 

 kind was experienced by any of us. In fact, the inconveniences of our position, 

 which certainly was not very comfortable, arose, not from the height at which we 

 were, but from the cold which prevails at that height (to be experienced everywhere 

 around in winter), and from the snow upon which we lay and in which our little 

 tent was overwhelmed, During the greater part of the time the thermometer was 

 between 9° and 27° Fahrenheit, which with the violent wind which prevails con- 

 stantly in these regions forms a temperature not very agreeable." 



On the Ethnological Position of the Brdhui, and on the Languages of the 

 Paropamisus. By 'R.G. Latham, M.D., F.R.S. 



Both these papers were thrown into one, as the question bore upon the ethnology 

 of India. The Brahui are a peculiar people, with a peculiar language, in Biiuchistan, 

 Mekran, and part of Scinde. It had been suggested by Lassen that their tongue 

 had affinitie? with the southern (Tamulian) tongues of India. This, by new facts, is 

 placed beyond doubt. If so, the displacement by which they are now isolated is 

 remarkable. Reasons were given for considering the Brahui as an old and aboriginal 

 population of the parts they now occupy rather than recent settlers. 



The Paropamisan languages are those of Wokhan and Shagnan, on the head- 

 waters of the Oxus ; those of the Dardos and Dhungers on the Indus i those of the 

 Siaposh and Chitrali on the Koiiur; and those of the Pashai and Lugmani, on or 

 near the Cabul-river. To these may be added the Baraki, the Dir and the Tirhai, 

 whose locality was once as f\ir south as the middle of Afghanistan. The great dis- 

 placements involved in the present confined limits of these populations were enlarged 

 on. Their language was transitional to the monosyllabic tongues and Persian. 



On the Volcanic Group of Milo. By Lieut. Leicester, R.N. 



On tJie Systematic Classification of Water- Sheds and Water-Basins. 

 By the Rev. C. J. Nicolay, F.R.G.S. 



Sir R, I. Murchison brought before the Section some notes of Sir James Brooke, 

 the Rajah of Sarawak, " On the Geography of the Northern Portion of Borneo," 

 He pointed out the present state of our acquaintance with the geography of this 

 great island, as derived from the researches of British travellers and surveyors, and 

 as published in the recent map compiled by M. Petermann. He described the 

 communication of the Rajah as important, in making known the ascent, by Mr. Low, 

 of the lofty mountain of Kira Balav (near 14,000 feet above the sea), situated in 

 the north-eastern district, and the intention of Mr. St. John to proceed up the 

 Barram river between Sarawak and Labuan, and to visit the populous country 

 of the Kayans and perhaps that of the Ruineah— a people unknown to our geo- 

 graphy, but numerous and hospitable, and speaking a language distinct from the 

 Kayans or Dyaks. 



