PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. Ixxv. 



have been made, and on the borders of Darfur and Wadai, 

 where there is a sandstone plateau of from 2,000 to 2,800 feet 

 high, the meeting-place of the basins of the Rivers Shire*, 

 Congo, and Nile has been located. In Asia an expedition to 

 Thibet, which must interest us all at the present moment, led by 

 Captain Rawlin, surveyed about 33,000 square miles of country 

 hitherto unexplored, and for the most part desert and almost 

 destitute of animal life ; though pasture land, abounding with 

 wild game and frequented by nomads, was to be found in 

 exceptional spots. Explorations amongst the Himalayan 

 glaciers by Dr. Workman and in Corea by Dr. .Koto, a Japanese 

 geologist, are also reported ; and in North and South America, 

 notably in Canada and Brazil, the work of discovery has been 

 pursued with equal vigour. 



Geology. Cavern researches in Cyprus have during the past 

 year yielded some mammalian relics of exceptional interest, and 

 one especially, discovered by Miss Bate, of a dwarf hippo- 

 potamus, not bigger than a pig (Hippopotamus Minutus], and of 

 a species of pigmy elephant (Elephas Cypriotes] deserve particular 

 notice. In Siberia a unique specimen of the mammoth has been 

 found, in which the flesh was so well preserved that, although it 

 must have been frozen for thousands of years, yet, when exposed, 

 the foxes began to feed upon it. The skin and fur were 

 complete, and in the mouth grass was discovered newly cropped, 

 but not chewed. At home still more wonderful discoveries have 

 been made. Although numerous bone caverns have been 

 explored in this country, it is remarkable that no bone cave has 

 hitherto yielded any relics older than the Pleistocene period. It 

 is, therefore, particularly interesting to geologists to know that 

 an ossiferous cavern at Doves Holes, near Buxton, has been 

 discovered, in which relics of distinctly Pliocene age have been 

 found. This cave was exposed in 1901 whilst working the 

 carboniferous limestone at the Victoria Quarry at Bibbington. 

 The cavity, when found, was filled with red clay associated with 

 numerous pebbles, which must have been introduced by means 

 of running water, at a date so remote that the geographical 



