PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. cvii. 



unsuccessful in its object of finding coal. One of the deepest, 

 if not the deepest, boring in Dorset was that made near Lyme 

 Regis in 1901, of which specimens of the core are in this 

 Museum. A depth of 1,300 feet was reached, but as no coal was 

 found the attempt was given up. The core down to 160 feet or 

 more is of Rhsetic black or grey shale and about sjin. in 

 diameter. At 490 feet it is 4^in. and at 850 feet about 3^ in. 

 to the bottom, the lower part being of the Red Marl series. 

 The marks of the tubular drill can be seen on the outsides of 

 the cylindrical pieces of core. Mr. Pope tells me that his 

 artesian well in Dorchester was made with percussion drills 

 and not with a tubular drill. It is interesting to note that 

 ancient boring in Egypt in hard rocks must have been executed 

 with similar tubular drills, as holes up to 12 inches or so 

 have been found with cores in them still attached. Possibly 

 metal cylinders were used with sand as the cutting agent. 

 A line of pipes no less than 550 miles in length has lately 

 been completed for conveying petroleum from Baku to 

 the Black Sea, and other shorter similar systems are in 

 use in America. The effect of a sand blast is used as a test of 

 the durability of various building stones by comparing the 

 amounts abraded in a fixed time. Another new invention is a 

 method of exploding mines by means of sound waves. A disc, 

 free to revolve about its diameter, and contained in a cylindrical 

 resonator, will, when the fundamental note is sounded, place 

 itself in a plane perpendicular to the cylinder, and is arranged so 

 that when in this position it completes an electric circuit. The 

 right note is then sounded by a syren on a warship, and the 

 mine explodes. The dangers of this ingenious method sound 

 considerable, but I do not know what further precautions may 

 be taken. 



GEOGRAPHY. 



In spite of the numerous expeditions that have been made for 

 many years past with the object of reaching the North Pole, this 



