PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 19 



climate in former ages, and many important zoological and 

 botanical facts, as well as observations of meteorological 

 and other phenomena. Another part of the world which 

 has of late been the subject of expeditions is Central Asia, 

 especially that barren and little known portion between 

 India and China, including Tibet and Eastern Turkestan. 

 Since the explorations of Drs. Stein and Sven Hedin, which I 

 spoke of last year in my address, a French expedition has 

 returned with wooden statues and paintings on silk, said to 

 be earlier than the llth century, and a large number of 

 MSS., printed records, and records stamped on wood, of the 

 7th century, besides much topographical information. The 

 Lorentz expedition to the interior of New Guinea has success- 

 fully reached the Snow mountains hitherto seen only from a 

 distance, and found glaciers at a height of 1,500 feet, but 

 details are not yet forthcoming. The geodetic survey along 

 the African meridian arc is progressing, and is only delayed by 

 want of funds. In an early map of the British Isles, recently 

 unearthed in the British Museum, of a date probably before 

 the middle of the 16th century, various interesting details 

 are shown. Portland is mainland, whilst Corfe is given as an 

 island. Though these can hardly be relied upon, they yet 

 suggest, especially in the case of Corfe, the possibility of 

 considerable changes. Portland, though called an island, is 

 of course really a peninsula. 



ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. 



The further excavations carried on at Maumbury Rings in 

 the past season have tended to confirm the general idea 

 that it was an amphitheatre for the display of combats 

 between gladiators and wild beasts, and one of the most 

 interesting discoveries, amongst many others of 1909, was 

 that of a rectangular area, of about 13| by 17J feet in size, 

 at the southern end of the enclosure, which is believed to 

 have formed the den where the wild beasts used in combats 

 were confined. Two more prehistoric pits containing antler 



