Dec. 3, 1885] 



NATURE 



115 



acco\int of the borings made near Rosetta, in which a depth of 

 84 feet was reached without apparently attaining the bottom of 

 the fliiviatile deposits ; and I hope that circumstances may 

 shortly permit the resumption of the original project of carrying 

 a line of borings across the Valley of the Nile on the parallel of 

 Tantah or thereabouts. 



In the meanwhile the Committee in charge of the investigation 

 has presented a report by Prof Judd on the results of the exami- 

 nation of the borings already made. I have been favoured by 

 Prof. Judd with the following brief summary of these results, 

 which have been fully fully set forth in a paper read at the first 

 meeting of the .Society after the recess. 



Although two of the recent borings in the Nile Delta have 

 attained depths of 73 and 84 feet respectively, yet neither of 

 them has reached the rocky floor of the old Nile Valley, nor, 

 indeed, ha\'e they afforded any indications of an approach to the 

 solid rock. The samples of the Delta deposits obtained by these 

 boring operations are found to be in all cases mixtures in varying 

 proportions of Nile mud, or material carried in suspension by the 

 river, and desert sand, or particles swept up from the surrounding 

 districts by the action of winds. The study of these materials by 

 the aid of the microscope has revealed a number of facts which 

 may be made the basis of generalisations of considerable interest 

 to geologists. 



The minerals present in these sands and muds are found to be 

 such as characterise the granitic and highly crystalline metamor- 

 phic I'ocks ; there can be little doubt, therefore, that tlie vast 

 regions included within the Nile basin are in the main composed 

 of rocks belonging to those classes, or of sedimentary deposits 

 derived from them. 



Of still greater interest is the fact that the fragments of felspars 

 and other complex silicates in the Delta deposits exhibit but 

 slight e\idences of kaolinisation or other chemical cliange. This 

 points to the conclusion that, in rainless districts drained by the 

 Nile, the disintegration of rocks is effected by mechanical rather 

 than by chemical agencies. A very striking confirmation of this 

 conclusion is afforded by the study of the composition of the 

 waters of the Nile, our knowdedge of which has been greatly 

 advanced by the recent researches by Dr. C. M. Tidy. In spite 

 of tlie circumstance that the waters of the Nile must undergo 

 great concentration during its passage of 1400 miles through 

 regions of exceptional heat and drought, it is found that those 

 waters actually hold in solution little more than one-half the 

 percentage of mineral matter which is present in the river waters 

 of temperate and rainy regions. The chemical disintegration of 

 rocks being so largely due to the action of rain and vegetation, 

 it is not surprising to find that. where these agencies are almost 

 entirely absent the rocks exhibit but few signs of chemical 

 change. 



The Krakatab Committee, which is now rather a large one, 



consisting of thirteen members, has been steadily at work during 



the year ; and the discussion of the very varied and large mass 



of data has been undertaken by sub-committees, dealing 



I respectively with the following branches : — • 



Geological — including eruption and earthquake phenomena, 

 and the geological features of the distribution of dust and 

 pumice. 

 ^Meteorological (A) — including air-waves, sounds, and the 



geographical distribution of dust and pumice. 

 Meteorological (B) — including twilight effects, coronal 



appearances, cloud haze, coloured sun, moon, &c. 

 Magnetic and electric phenomena. 

 Tidal waves. 

 With the exception of the -last-named Sub-Committee, viz. 

 «hat upon Tidal Waves, of which the work has been delayed by 

 the illness of Sir F. Evans, all the reports are now in a forward 

 state, and there seems to be every prospect of the work being 

 concluded in the course of a very few months. 



The question of the proper administration of the funds 

 administered on behalf of the Government by the representatives 

 of the Royal Society and of other scientific bodies, who con- 

 stitute the Government Grant Committee, has frequently been 

 debated with much care by the President and Council, who are 

 held responsible for the final assignment of the grant by the 

 Government. 



On the 20th of May last the Council determined, once again, 

 to devote special attention to the subject, and on the 25th June 

 the minutes will inform you that the following resolutions were 

 passed : — 

 I "That in every case of renewed application for a personal 



grant, after such grant has been received by the applicant in two 

 consecutive years, the application be made not less than three 

 months before it is to be considered, accompanied by a full 

 statement of the case from the applicant, and that before being 

 presented to the Committee, it be referred by the Council to two 

 referees, who shall i-eport to the Council on its merits." 



" That the Secretaries be instructed to return to the applicants 

 for aid from the Government Grant such applications as do not 

 in all particulars comply with the conditions laid down in the 

 circular to applicants." 



It is very desirable that our intention to enforce the latter 

 resolution strictly should be widely promulgated. I may add 

 that we have considerable reason to complain that too frequently 

 those who have obtained grants through the Committee make no 

 report of the work done to the Society, but leave information on 

 that head to reach us as it may through the publications in which 

 the results obtained by the grantee are made known. 



Nineteen large royal quarto volumes of the Official Reports on 

 the Scientific Results of the Challenger Expedition have 

 now been issued from the press. These contain thirty-seven 

 zoological, three botanical, and eight physical and chemical 

 reports, together with the narrative of the voyage, which con- 

 tains the general scientific results of the Expedition. Six more 

 volumes are now passing through the press, a considerable part 

 of each being already printed oft". The work connected with 

 the remaining memoirs is in a forward state. The whole of the 

 investigations and the manuscript will be completed during the 

 next financial year, and in the course of the year 18S7 the whole 

 of the Reports will be published, and the work connected with 

 the Expedition brought to a close. 



In the Treasurer's address last year the Society was fully in- 

 formed of the action taken by the President and Council in the 

 inatter of the position of this country with respect to the inter- 

 national "Bureau des Poids et Mesures." I am happy to be 

 able to report to the Society that, last December, we received a 

 letter from the Treasury, stating that my Lords had asked the 

 Secretary of State to instruct the British Ambassador at Paris to 

 make known to the Comite International des Poids et Mesures 

 that Her M.ajesty's Government were willing to join the Conven- 

 tion on the terms described in our Secretary's letter of the l8th 

 August, 18S4, and that the proposal had been accepted. 



Your President is, ex officio. Chairman of the Board of Visitors 

 of the Royal Observatory. As such, it was my duty to preside 

 at a recent meeting of that body, when my colleagues agreed to 

 recommend the adoption of a day, commencing at midnight, in 

 all observatories and in the Naidkal Almanac, from and after 

 the commencement of the year 1891. 



Much to my regret, I have been unable to take part in the 

 work of the City and Guilds Institute during the past year, but 

 I have reason to know that considerable progress has been made 

 towards the attainment of its object — the advancement of tech- 

 nical education in London and in the provinces. The Finsbury 

 Technical College is fulfilling its purpose in the most satisfactory 

 manner, and its day and evening classes are so numerously 

 attended that an e.xtension of the building is under consideration. 

 About 250 technical classes in different parts of the Kingdom are 

 now affiliated to the Institute, and some of them are already 

 developing into efficient technical schools. The assistance which 

 the Institute is enabled to aftbrd to these classes is restricted by 

 want of means ; but there can be no doubt that far larger oppor- 

 tunities of obtaining evening instruction in the application of the 

 different branches of science to industry are afforded to the 

 artisans of London now than was the case even four or five years 

 ago. 



Large additions have been made to the equipment of the 

 Central Institution at South Kensington. The engineering 

 laboratory and the extensive chemical and physical laboratories 

 are organised, and the systematic instruction of students has 

 coinmenced. Scholarships of the value of 30/. a year, tenable 

 for three years, have been offered to, and accepted by, the 

 Governors of a number of public and other schools. These 

 scholarships are to be awarded by the head-masler (not neces- 

 sarily on the result of a competitive examination) to any pupil 

 who is competent to pass the entrance examination of the 

 Central Institution. 



The City and Guilds Institute is the outcome of the percep- 

 tion of the necessity for technical education, in the interests of 

 industry, by the wealthiest city and the wealthiest guilds in the 

 world ; it may, therefore, seem singular that the chief obstacle to 

 the proper development of the important schools which it has 



