196 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[September 2, 1895. 



balloons can be made to bold gas for a lengtbened time. 

 Tbe Arctic regions were better adapted for ballooning than 

 any other area, from the uniform temperature and con- 

 tinuous daylight. General Greely opposed the project as 

 being too risky. The balloon might get to the Pole, but 

 how was the party to return with prevailing southerly 

 winds ■? He doubted if the balloon could live more than 

 three or four days. In his reply, M. Andree said that he 

 had tested his plan over a large region, and stated that 

 the required funds had already been placed at his disposal. 

 A paper by Mr. E. Payart advocated as a preliminary 

 measure the extension of telegraphic communications as 

 far north as possible, towards advanced points that might 

 be adopted as starting stations by different simultaneous 

 expeditions resulting from international action, which 

 would do more effective work in a couple of years than 

 would be accomplished by a large number of successive 

 expeditions. This was followed by a paper " Oq Eussian 

 Eesearches on a Sea Eoute to Siberia," by Lieut. -Col. 

 Shokalsky. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



M. G. Lenuier contributed a paper " On the Modifi- 

 cation of the Coasts of Normandy," in which the author 

 described the destruction of the coast that had taken place 

 and was now going ou, the cliff- falls north of the Seine 

 estuai-y, the cliff-falls south of the Seine estuary, the 

 destruction of rocks by marine animals, and tbe 

 modification of the coast-line by deposits. 



Prince Eoland Bonaparte, in a paper " On Periodic 

 Variations of French Glaciers," after giving the history 

 of the question, stated the methods employed as 

 information obtained from the inhabitants of the 

 localities ; study of old plans ; using simple points of 

 reference, by the aid of which the distance to the glacier 

 is measured as frequently as possible ; the placing of lines 

 of stones at the toot of the glacier, the plan of which is 

 prepared geometrically ; the annual construction of a 

 complete geometrical plan of each glacier. Upwards of 

 two hundred glaciers in tbe French Alps were under 

 observation, and the conclusion arrived at was that most 

 of these glaciers are shrinking, but that a tendency in the 

 opposite direction is beginning to manifest itself in many 

 places. The author concluded by a reference to the possible 

 relations which may exist between these variations and 

 general atmospheric conditions. 



Papers on the measurement of time and angles were 

 presented. 



GEODESY. 



General -J. T. Walker read a paper " On the Geodetic 

 Operations of the Indian Survey," which described the 

 great triangulation of India, by which the lengths of the 

 arcs are determined ; the astronomical operations for the 

 determination of the latitudes of some of the stations of 

 the survey ; and the electro-telegraphic operations for the 

 determination of differences of longitude. The astro- 

 nomical deductions are believed to be far more numerous 

 than in any other geodetic survey. On comparing them 

 with the corresponding geodetic deductions, it is found 

 that large deflections of the plumb-line are met with, and 

 frequently in places where there is nothing visible on the 

 surface of the ground to indicate causes of deflection, and 

 where the cause must therefore lie in variations of density 

 in the strata beneath the ground-level. Excluding all 

 places obviously affected by Himalayan attraction, there 

 are one hundred and forty-eight astronomical latitudes, 

 which have been combined into nine groups, presenting 

 eight meridional arcs of amplitude extending from 

 lat. 8 43' to lat. 30^ it', with amplitudes ranging from 

 2" 23' to 3 88', and increasing with the magnitudes of the 



local deflections apparently affecting the arc. For the 

 longitudinal arcs, four have been formed ou the parallels 

 of 12' .58', 17° 12', 23" 30', and 28° 22', by combinations 

 of the original arcs. The eight meridional and the two 

 central longitudinal arcs are believed to be the most 

 valuable contribution to geodetic science that has ever yet 

 been made, and the result of operations carried on in 

 India for a period of over ninety years. 



A paper was then read "On the Desirability of a 

 Geodetic Connection between the Surveys of Eussia and 

 India," by Colonel Holdich, who proposed, with the co- 

 operation of Eussia and Persia, the negotiation of three 

 arcs : (1), between the Indus and Charban, on the Persian 

 coast, a longitudinal arc ; (2), between Cliarban and 

 Mashad, a meridional arc ; and (31, between Mashad and 

 Teheran, a longitudinal arc. The first of these would be 

 about four hundred miles, the second six himdred miles, 

 and the third four hundred miles, all of them through 

 country most favourable for triangulation. 



M. Lallemand presented a paper "On the General 

 Levelling of France," giving an account of the new survey 

 operations commenced in 1884, to replace that of 

 Bourdaloiie in 18G0. From 1881 to 1892 a fundamental 

 network was laid down, extending to a distance of 

 twelve thousand kilometres in length, comprising twenty 

 thousand fixed points, and attaining a degree of precision 

 three times as great as that attained by Bourdaloiie. 



Papers on the geodetic survey of South Africa, by 

 A. de Smidt and Dr. David Gill, were also read. 

 (Ta he continued. J 



THE NEWLY-FOUND RACE IN EGYPT. 



By J. E. QuiBELL, ('/' tilt- Kiiyptian llfscarch Account. 



FOE years past certain mysterious classes of objects 

 have been offered for sale in Egypt by the dealers. 

 They had never been found by European exca- 

 vators, though the number of places at which they 

 were ofi'ered — Gebelt-u, Silsileh, Abydos — showed 

 that they were fairly distributed over Upper Egypt. No 

 date could be assigned to them, for no one had ever 

 observed the position in which they were found or what 

 objects of known date were above or below them. 



Whether they were Egyptian or foreign in origin, whether 

 they were due to one people or to several, no one could say. 

 During the past season, however, several of these classes 

 of objects have been proved to belong to a race of foreigners, 

 whose existence had not been suspected, and the date at 

 which these people overran Egypt has been determined. 

 When Prof. Petrie's private work and the excavations of 

 the Eesearch Account began last December near Dallas, 

 attention was at first directed to a large cemetery of early 

 Egyptian period. This proved to have been entirely 

 plundered by the dealers, largely within the last few years. 

 A town mound, the bricks of which bore the stamp of 

 Thothmes III., was examined and found to be the Ombos 

 mentioned in a famous passage of Juvenal. The temple 

 of the town was exhaustively cleai-ed and planned. 



And then came the great discovery of the year. 



Haifa mile back in the desert some circular depressions, 

 an inch or two deep and a yard wide, were noticed. Men 

 were set to dig. They cut down into graves, indeed, but 

 rifled ones. Trials were made near them, and other graves 

 were found. Then tbe remarkable fact was observed that 

 the bodies were not buried at full length, as the native 

 Egyptians always were, but in a contracted position. The 

 body lay upon its left side, with head south and face west ; 



