TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 731 



5. The Fiji Islands. By James E. Mason. 



6. New Britain. By Rev. Geokge Brown. 



7. The Connection of the Trade Winds and the Gulf Stream tvith some West 

 Indian Problems.^ By E.. G. Haliburton. 



SAT VB DAY, SEPTEMBER i. 



The Section did not meet. 



MONBAY, SEPTEMBER G. 



Tlie following Papers and Report were read : — 



1. BemarJis on a Curious Alhum. By H. Beaugkand. 



2. Beport of the Committee for drawing attention to the desirability of 

 further research in the Antarctic Begions. — See Reports, p. 277. 



3. Telegraphic Enterprise and Beep Sea Besearch on the West Coast of 



Africa. By J. Y. Buchanan. 



4. Biver Entrances. By Hugh Robert Mill, B.Sc, F.B.8.E., F.C.S. 



The entrances of rivers have liitlierto been studied almost exclusively from the 

 * practical ' point of view, and few facts concerning the mixture of sea and river 

 water, except those ascertained incidentally by engineers, are known. The want of a 

 proper geographical definition of a river leads to considerable difficulty in some eases, 

 when it is of importance to know exactly where the river ends and the sea begins. 

 This definition may be supplied by considering the physical conditions of the water. 

 A preliminary classification of river entrances divides them into — 



1. Those connected with inland seas, e.y., the Caspian. 



2. Those connected with tideless enclosed seas, e.y., the Mediterranean. 



3. Those connected with tidal seas. 



Hiver entrances of the third kind are of most interest in this country, and in 

 order to class them naturally it is necessary to consider the physical conditions of 

 the water as well as the topography of the shore. 



A typical river system of the third class comprises a river gradually widening 

 and deepening as it merges into a funnel-shaped sea-inlet, and such a system may 

 be clearly divided into three parts: — 



1. The river proper, a stream of fresh water with its connected tributaries 



and feeding lakes. 



2. The estuary, where tidal mixture of fresh and salt water takes place, and 



along which there is a rapid change in salinity and temperature, while 



• Published in the Proceedings of the Royal OeograpMcal Society, Nov. 1886. 



