ORDINARY MEETING.* 

 The Rev. Canon Girdlestone, M.A., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the 

 following elections took place : — 



Member :— S. P. Klein, Esq., M.A., F.R.A.S., F.L.S. 



Associates :— E. J. Gardiner, Esq., Kent ; J. Walter Brown, Esq., 

 Wilts. 



The following paper was read by the Author : — 



THE SUB-OCEANIC RIVER VALLEYS OF THE 

 WEST AFRICAN CONTINENT AND OF THE 

 MEDITERRANEAN BASIN. By Professor Edward 

 Hull, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. (With ]\lap.) 



HAVING on former occasions laid before the Victoria 

 Institute the evidence for recognising that the rivers 

 which enter the Atlantic from the British Isles and Western 

 Eui-ope liave their channels carried down to a doptli of 

 several thousand feet under the water of the ocean,t I 

 have now the honour of extending these descriptions to 

 the coast of West Africa, as far as the valley of the 

 Congo. In the discussion which took place after the 

 reading of my paper on " The Sub-oceanic terraces and River 

 Valleys of Western Europe," Professor Etheridge, F.R.iS., 

 expressed a hope that I would continue my investigations 

 beyond the Straits of Gibraltar to the south-Avestern ex- 

 tremity of Africa:}: ; and, feeling certain in my own mind, 

 that these straits could not form a physical limit to the sub- 

 marine features characterising the coast of Europe, I deter- 

 mined to follow my friend's advice, with the results I am now 

 about to lay before the Institute. I may observe, however, 

 that as the possibility of carrying out these investigations 



* February 19th, 1900. 



t Trans. Vict. Inst., vol. xxx, p. 305, and vol. xxxi. p. 259. 



X Ibid., p. 290. 



L 2 



