586 



NA TUKL 



[October 13, 1898 



Church, formerly of the United States Army, gave an address 

 full of original observations on the central parts of South 

 America, in the course of which he traced the origin of the main 

 features of that continent. This address as printed is enriched 

 with a series of maps and diagrams. 



Seven important papers were read on various branches of 

 physical geography, most of them being illustrated by lantern 

 slides. Mr. Vaughan Cornish discussed wave-forms, giving the 

 preliminary results of a research in which he is engaged on the 

 phenomena of waves in water, air, and drifted sand. The 

 results were made clear by a large number of carefully selected 

 photographs and diagrams. 



Mr. H. N. Dickson gave a brief account of his work on the 

 salinity and temperature of the North Atlantic, which promises 

 to produce results of great value. His paper described the 

 first results of a discussion of observations of surface tem- 

 perature made in the North Atlantic, during the two complete 

 years 1895 ^"^ 1896, by the captains and officers of merchant 

 ships. The captains of a number of the vessels also collected 

 daily samples of surface water, and the densities of these, 

 numbering about 5000 in all, have been determined by chlorine 

 titration. The material has been found sufficient to allow of 

 the construction of charts showing the distribution of tem- 

 perature and salinity over a large part of the area during each 

 of the twenty-four consecutive months. The series, which is the 

 first of its kind, shows the progressive changes in the manner 

 of synoptic charts, and provides the data necessary for extend- 

 ing the work recently done in and around the North Sea, in 

 connection with sea-fisheries and long-period weather forecast- 

 ing. Specimens of the maps were shown on the screen. 



Dr. K. Natterer, of Vienna, submitted the oceanographical 

 results of the Austro- Hungarian Deep-Sea Expeditions in the 

 Eastern Mediterranean, Sea of Marmora, and Red Sea. He 

 referred especially to his own chemical observations and the 

 deductions made from them. Of these the most striking was 

 the presumption that the salt- deposits of arid regions surround- 

 ing a deep sea were due to the evaporation of sea-water raised 

 by capillarity through the substance of the rocks. 



A report by Mr. E. G. Ravehstein was presented on behalf 

 6f the Committee for the investigation of the climatology of 

 Africa. The effijrts of this Committee during the last seven 

 years have resulted in inducing a number of the African colonial 

 governments to institute regular meteorological observations, 

 and the Committee feels that it is no longer necessary to supply 

 instruments to unofficial observers, although several of the sets 

 supplied to missionaries and others have led to the com- 

 pilation of important records. 



Dr. J. W. Gregory discussed the theory of the arrangement 

 of oceans and continents on the earth's surface in the light of 

 geological and physical observations, He pointed out that Elie 

 de Beaumont's famous scheme attached undue importance to 

 linear symmetry and was too artificial. It led, however, to the 

 tetrahedral theory of Lowthian Green, which regards the 

 world, not as shaped like a simple tetrahedron, but as a spheroid 

 slightly flattened on four faces. Such flattenings occur on 

 hollow, spherical shells, when they are deformed by uniformly 

 distributed external pressure. The oceans would occupy the 

 four depressions thus produced, and the land masses occur at 

 the angles and along the edges. The existing geographical 

 arrangement is in general agreement with this scheme ; for as 

 the tetrahedron is hemihedral the assumption that the litho- 

 sphere is tetrahedral explains the antipodal position of land and 

 water, the excess of water in the southern hemisphere, and the 

 southward tapering of the land masses. The main lines of the 

 existing system of fold-mountains have a general agreement 

 with the arrangement of the edges of a tetrahedron. Some 

 striking deviations occur, but are explicable by the variations in 

 the composition of the lithosphere, and the existence of impassive 

 blocks of old strata which have moulded the later movements. 

 The lines of the old fold- mountains of the Hercynian system 

 may have been tetrahedrally arranged, with the axes occupying 

 different positions from those of the great Cainozoic mountain 

 system. So far, however, there is no completely satisfactory 

 theory of geomorphology, for which we must wait for further 

 information as to the distribution of land and water in successive 

 epochs of the world's history. 



Two important papers on earthquake phenomena were 

 read — one by Prof. J. Milne, F.R.S., on the methods and 

 utility of seismological research; the other by Mr. R. D, 

 Oldham, on the great Indian earthquake of June 12, 1897, 



NO. 1 5 II, VOL. 58] 



which was the largest and, with a few possible exceptions, the 

 most violent of which there is any record. The area over which 

 the shock was sensible was not less than 1,7 50, 000 square miles, 

 while the focus occupied an area of 200 miles in length and 50 

 miles in width. Landslips on an unprecedented scale were 

 produced in the Garo and Khasia hills, and in the Himalayas 

 north of Lower Assam. A number of lakes have been produced 

 by changes of level due to the earth-movements by which the 

 earthquake was caused, and the mountain peaks have been 

 moved both vertically and horizontally. Monuments of solid 

 stone and forest trees have been broken across by the violence 

 of the shaking they have received. Communications of all kinds 

 were interrupted ; bridges were overthrown, displaced, and in 

 some cases thrust bodily upwards to a height of as much as 

 20 fee!, while the rails on the railways were twisted and bent. 

 Earth fissures were formed over an area larger than the United 

 Kingdom, and sand rents, from which sand and water were 

 forced in solid streams to a height of 3 to 5 feet above the 

 ground, were opened in incalculable numbers. 



Dr. J. Scott Keltic in a short paper on " political geography" 

 laid stress on the way in which natural conditions determined 

 the manner of the relations between land and people, and 

 showed how changing economic conditions produced corre- 

 sponding changes in political geography, e.g. the formation of 

 such forms as spheres of influence and leased territories. A 

 paper by Mr. G. G. Chisholm, on the impending economic 

 revolution in China, enforced by a concrete instance of great 

 practical importance some of the theoretical considerations 

 brought forward by Dr. Keltic. 



Mr. H. T. Crook, of Manchester, criticised the methods of 

 selecting place-names for the Ordnance Survey Map, and 

 brought forward several errors in the sheets of the new one-inch 

 map of the Manchester district. The paper gave rise to a 

 lively discussion, in which Mi. G. F. Deacon supported the con- 

 tention of the author ; while Colonel Farquharson and Sir 

 Charles Wilson, the present and late Directors-General of the 

 Survey, fully explained the methods employed and showed the 

 enormous difficulties with which the whole question of place- 

 names is surrounded. They stated that the Survey always wel- 

 comed criticism, and that corrections were frequently made on 

 the plates as the result of information sent by people in the lo- 

 calities when mistakes occurred. It was suggested that the public 

 could aid in the production of good maps more effectually by 

 communicating with the Survey Office than by writing critical 

 articles in the press. , 



A group of papers submitted to the Section dealt with geo- 

 graphical developments of the future. Prof. Reclus brought 

 forward his scheme for a great terrestrial globe on the scale of 

 I : 500,000, or about 84 feet in diameter. The surface of this 

 globe should exhibit the relief of the lithosphere on a true scale, 

 and separate plates of it would be available for use as relief 

 maps upon a surface showing the natural curvature. M. Reclus 

 spoke with great eloquence of the scientific and educational 

 advantages of his scheme, the initial cost of which, however, 

 could not fall far short of 50,000/. In the discussion Sir Richard 

 Temple spoke in support of the work being carried out, and a 

 Committee of Section E was appointed by the General Com- 

 mittee to consider and report upon the scientific value of the 

 proposal. 



Prof. Patrick Geddes described an interesting experiment in 

 the practical teaching of geography about to be tried in Edin- 

 burgh, where he is fitting up an " outlook tower " or 

 geographical museum of a novel character. Thus the exhibition 

 of the ground-floor centres round a globe with an outline survey 

 of the main concepts of world geography— £.^. an incipient 

 collection of maps and illustrative landscapes, an outline of the 

 progress of geographical discovery and of map-making, &c. 

 The first floor is devoted to the geography and history of Europe 

 in correspondingly fuller treatment ; the second is set apart for 

 an outline geography and history of the English-speaking world, 

 the United States having a room on the same level as the 

 British Empire. On the third story is preparing a corresponding 

 survey of Scotland, viewed at once as ati historic and social 

 entity and as an element of greater nationality ; while the fourth 

 story, naturally as yet in the most advanced state of preparation, 

 is a museum of Edinburgh, though again not without comparison 

 with Scottish and other cities. The flat roof bears a turret of 

 culminating outlook with a camera obscura. Descending from 

 the roof to the upppermost story, this succession and unity of 

 the physical, organic and social conditions is better understood. 



