Oct. 4, 1883] 



NATURE 



549 



to the amount by which they are traversed by planes of joints 

 and fissures, and the extent these may run parallel or at right 

 angles to the valleys which cut into and expose the water-bearing 

 beds. The proportion of the annual rainfall that is absorbed by 

 different classes of rocks is a subject that requires further 

 examination. The quantity is largely regulated by the quantity 

 stored from previous years. After a succession of dry years the 

 permanent water-level is reduced to minimum figures, and the 

 water gradient becomes nearly flat and springs cease to flow. 

 The first heavy rains will be nearly wholly absorbed, untd the 

 maximum water gradient is reached and the rocks are stored 

 with the largest ami tint of water they can hold. After they are 

 once charged, all excess of rainfall runs off in floods, and the 

 amount absorbed is practically nil. Spread over the twelve 

 months, the annual amount absorbed is probably never more 

 than fifteen inches, and the average ranges from five inches in 

 chalk countries to ten inches in new red sandstone areas. 

 In millstone grit districts about eight inches are absorbed, 

 but the permeable beds are thin, and the water is thrown 

 off again in numerous springs, as a rule in the same drainage 

 basin, giving permanence to the dry-weather flow of the 

 streams traversing them. Except in waterworks drainage areas 

 but few observations exist as to the actual volumes run off 

 daily by the rivers of this country, and data en this sub- 

 ject are much required, as well as a permanent record of the 

 height to which floods ri«e in the various river basins. Further 

 observations are required as to the action of faults in acting as 

 ducts, along the face of which water is constantly passing, and 

 barriers separating districts into distinct drainage areas. The 

 facts so far obtained point to faults traversing thick permeable 

 sandstone and limestone, having their formations on both sides 

 of the dislocation, as offering no obstacle to the free passage of 

 waters, which, even if locally obstructed by the hardened face 

 or slickenside jointing of the fault, invariably finds its way 

 through crack* extending acres the width of the fault to faults 

 traver.-ing thick shales and clays of any age. The fissure, be it 

 wide or narrow, always appears to have been filled with the im- 

 permeable material forming the sides, and in some cases, when 

 porous rocks have been immediately overlaid by impermeable 

 material since denuded, the fissure of the fault has been filled 

 from above at a time when the fault had an upward prolonga- 

 tion, destroyed with the denuded material referred to. The 

 daily registration of the heights of the streams might easily be 

 made on gauges, painted on the county bridges, but the organi- 

 sation necessary to carry this out is entirely beyond the scope of 

 the British Association, and should be carried out at the national 

 charge, being of the highest importance to the country. The 

 determination of the number of cubic feet of water carried 

 down at selected points on the English rivers, particularising 

 whether it represents dry-weather, average, or flood flno, would 

 be of very high vjlue, and might well te undertaken by the 

 Association. Such observations, stating the run-off per square 

 mile of drainage area and the geological character of the area 

 drained, would have more than a local value. Permeable rocks 

 below the permanent water-level of a district may be regarded as 

 a reservoir of which the cubic content is limited by the sire of 

 the spaces between the grains, and the width of the fissures and 

 cracks by which the rock may be traversed. The quantity of 

 water such rocks are capable of storing has had much light 

 thrown upon it by the investigations of Mr. Wethered, published 

 in the fourth appendix to the eighth report. 



Third Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. Sclater, 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, and Mr. Thiselton Dyer (Secret- 

 ary), a/pointed for the purpose of investigating the Natural 

 history of Timor Laut. — In the month of January a box con- 

 taining seventy birds' skins was received from Mr. Forbes, with' 

 the note, " This first instalment of birds is a rough selection, 

 which, probably, may contain new species." The collection was 

 examined by Mr. Sclater, who communicated an account of it 

 to the meeting of the Zoological Society on February 20. The 

 species were fifty-five in number, sixteen of which were described 

 in the paper as new to science. " The general facies of the 

 avifauna, as thus indicated, was stated to be decidedly Papuan, 

 with a slight Timorese element, evidenced by the occurrence of 

 certain species of Geocichla and Erythrura, while the new 

 one (Slrix sororcula) was apparently a diminutive form of 

 a peculiar Australian species." About the same time the 

 Committee received from Mr. Forbes a detailed report of 

 his proceedings in Timor Laut. This was an extremely inter- 

 esting document, but dealt principally with ethnographical 



details. The Committee, therefore, decided that it should be 

 communicated at once to the Anthropological Institute ; and 

 this Mr. John Evans, Treasurer of the Royal Society and Vice- 

 President of the Institute, very kindly undertook to do. The 

 paper was read at the meeting on March 13, and has since been 

 published in the Journal of the Institute. In February the bulk 

 of Mr. Forbes's collections reached Kew in four cases. They 

 contained an extremely complete ethnographical collection, a 

 further collection of birds, a collection of twelve crania and 

 specimens of human hair, and a miscellaneous zoological collection. 

 The Committee decided that a selection from the ethnographical 

 collection should be handed to Mr. Franks, keeper of the Depart- 

 ment of Ethnography in the British Museum ; that the addi- 

 tional birds should be examined by Mr. Sclater, and that the 

 miscellaneous zoological collections should be sent to the zoo- 

 logical department of the British Museum to be selected from. 

 This was accordingly done. A series of the ethnographical 

 specimens was sent to the meeting at the Anthropological Insti- 

 tute to illustrate the reading of Mr. Forbes's report, and a 

 description of these, drawn up by Mr. C. H. Read, is printed as 

 an appendix to the paper in the Journal of the Institute. Prof. 

 Flower, who presided on the occasion, also stated that "the 

 results of a cursory examination of the twelve crania which Mr. 

 Forbes had collected were that eight were brachycephalic, and 

 of decidedly Malay type ; one was dolichocephalic, prognathous, 

 and with large teeth, indicating Papuan or Melanesian affinities ; 

 and the other three were more or less intermediate. This is 

 what mi^ht have been expected on the borderland of two 

 distinct races ; but the great preponderance of the first-named was 

 very marked. Nearly all showed signs of artificial flattening of 

 the occipital region, At the meeting cf the Zoological Society on 

 April 1 7, Mr. Sclater read a second paper on the additional birds 

 collected by Mr. Forbes in the Tenimber group. "The avifauna of 

 the group, as indicated by Mr. Forbes's collection contained fifty- 

 nine species, of which twenty-two were peculiar to these islands.' 

 At the meeting of the same Society on May I, Mr. \V. F. Kirby 

 reported on the small collection of Hymenoptera (five new 

 species weie described) and of Diptera sent home by Mr. Forbes. 

 On June 5 a communication was read from Mr. A. G. Butler, 

 containing an account of twenty-three Lepidoptera. These 

 comprised twenty-three species of Lepidoptera ; the butterflies 

 were well preserved, the moths iu poor condition. Mr. Butler 

 described ten new specie*. Deducting wide-ranging forms, the 

 following is his analysis of the characteristic species : — " Indo- 

 Malayan, 2 ; Austro-Malayan, 10 ; Australian, 3. The only 

 surprising thing in this distribution is the preponderance of 

 Timor over Aru or New Guinea forms ; the species character- 

 istic of that island being only equalled by those from Aru, New 

 Guinea, and Amboyna combined." Mr. Boulenger also reported, 

 at the same meeting, upon the reptiles and batrachians. Two 

 new species were described — the one a lizard of the Australian 

 genus Lophognathus, and the other a snake of the Indian genus 

 Simoles. " The snake was of special interest, as no species of 

 the genus Simoles had hitherto been previously known to occur 

 eastward of Java." 



Report of the Committee, consisting of General Pitt-Rivers, Dr. 

 Beddoe, Mr. Brabrook, Prof. Flower, Mr. F. Gallon, Dr. 

 Carson, Mr. J. Park Harrison (Secretary), Dr. tVuirhead, Mr. 

 F. 1 1'. Rudltr, and Prof. Thane, appointed for the purpose of 

 Defining the Facial Characteristics of the Races and Principal 

 Crosses in the British Isles, and obtaining Illustrative Photo- 

 graphs. — Owing to the comparative scarcity of skulls and other 

 remains of the earlier inhabitants of the British Islands, and the 

 imperfect condition of many of them owing to lapse of time, 

 more difficulty has been experienced in completing the identifi- 

 cation of the Long-barrow type than occurred in the case of the 

 Kound-barrow and Saxon types (B and C), the features of which 

 were defined in the Rep. it of 18S2. There appears, however, 

 to be little doubt that the short dark type, which, as the Co.11- 

 mittee mentioned last year, certainly exists in the population at 

 the present time, and which offers a marked contrast to the other 

 types, accords in stature, lightness of frame, narrowness of skull, 

 and fine osseou* features generally, with the skeleton remains 

 found in the majority of the early barrows. The Committee, 

 therefore, have nodilficuhy in considering it as the main Type A ; 

 and its characteristic fea'ureshave consequently been inserted in 

 the annexed table, for comparison with Types B and C. 1 he 

 question whether there was a second pre-Celtic raGe in this 

 country is hardly ripe for discus-ion ; but it is receiving the 

 special attention of several members of the Committee. 



