ADDRESS. 21 
Sir H. Barxty, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S.—I rise for the purpose of pro- 
posing, “ That our best thanks be presented to Professor Hull for the Annual 
Address now delivered, and to those who have read papers during the 
session.” The recommendation of the first part of this resolution to the 
members of the Victoria Institute requires very few remarks from me. The 
learned director of the Geological Survey of Ireland has rendered his descrip- 
tion of the country through which he has travelled in Arabia Petra and 
Western Palestine so interesting and instructive, and has also added so 
greatly to the charm of his lecture by delivering his remarks extemporarily, 
and illustrating them by the diagrams he has put before us, that he has fairly 
riveted the attention of all his hearers from the beginning down to the very 
end of his Address. In fact, I am sure that many of us will not feel satisfied 
until we have heard a little more about the matter, and are in a position to 
read the published account of the scientific expedition to which he has 
referred us. With regard to the other gentlemen who have read papers 
during the year, I will only say that our thanks are justly due to them, and, 
considering the late hour at which we have arrived, I will now conclude by 
at once moving the resolution I have read. 
Mr. Samvuet Surry, M.P.—I have great pleasure in seconding this reso- 
lution, and in doing so I must say that it has afforded me much gratification 
to listen to the Address just delivered. The scenes referred to’ by the 
learned Professor are familiar to myself; and I may add, that it is only two 
months since I passed through the Suez Canal, and discussed with the intel- 
ligent captain of the vessel in which I was, some of the topics to which the 
lecturer has referred. That officer had devoted a good portion of his life to 
surveying the district connected with the Exodus, and he seemed to have 
arrived at the same conclusion as the learned Professor—namely, that the 
point of the Red Sea at which the children of Israel crossed was not where 
the Gulf of Suez is now, but one further removed from the sea. According 
to the captain’s theory, the Red Sea must then have filled up a considerable 
portion of the district now lying between it and the Mediterranean. I 
was very much interested in the remarks made by Professor Hull in regard 
to the extraordinary depression of the Jordan-Arabah Valley. The matter 
is one that has always excited wonder ; but I think the explanation that has 
been given to-night is one that fully commends itself to one’s common sense 
and judgment. It must have been the site of a great lake, which has 
gradually disappeared in consequence of the great physical changes to which 
reference has been made. When I was out in that part of the world, in the 
month of May, the heat surpassed in its intensity anything I have ever expe- 
rienced in any other place. Nothing could exceed the sterility of the dis- 
trict—there being scarcely a vestige of vegetation—with the exception of a 
small belt of foliage along the banks of the Jordan; but, as we all know, 
there was a time when that district was the abode of a large population, 
although, through the changes alluded to, the climate has reached its present 
condition. I think I may truly say that we have all derived much informa- 
