TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 187 



from a yery early period. The Somali country is but thinly peopled, the tribes 

 being purely nomadic, raising no corn, but subsisting on their flocks and herds, 

 and moving about for the convenience of pasturage. 



Encroachments of the Sea on the East Coast of Yoflcshire. 

 Bu the Rev. P. 0. Morris. 



On the Inundation and Subsidence of the Yang-tsze River, in Ghiiui. 



By S. MossMAN. 

 The author described the phenomena attending the annual floods of the Yang- 

 tsze-Kiang, which are similar to those of the Nile, but greater in inundation, and 

 more devastating in eflect. The floods depend upon rainfall from clouds caused by 

 the south-west monsoon rising in the Indian Ocean, and the melting of snow in 

 Eastern Thibet and Kokonoor, where the tablelands are from 12,000 to 13,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea. So far the origin of the floods in the Yangtsze-Iviang is 

 similar to that of the Nile, but the rise and subsidence of the former river are more 

 rapid than those of the latter. The inundations vary more or less in their htsight 

 from year to year, the range being from thirty-live to fifty feet, while the most fre- 

 quent rise is about forty feet. 



Letters from Vladivostolc and NiJcolslc, South Ussuri District. 

 By the Archimandrite Palladius. 



On the Geoyraphy of Moah. By E. H. Palmer, M.A. 



The author commenced by describing the country of Moab, which is about fifty 

 miles long by twenty broad, and includes the tableland on the eastern shore of the 

 Dead Sea, as well as that part of the Ghor which lies on the eastern bank of the 

 Jordan opposite Jericho. The uplands he described as consisting of a rolling pla- 

 teau, about 3200 feet above the level of the sea, the western edge being cut up 

 into deep valleys, and descending by a series of sloping hills, at angles of forty-five 

 and fifty degi-ees, into the Dead Sea. These uplands are naturally divided into 

 two districts by the great chasm of Wady Mojib, the Arnon of Scripture. The 

 author gave some interesting instances of his identification of moderu places and 

 terms with those mentioned in Scriptui-e historj'. For instance, he stated that the 

 modern town of Kerek, though little better than a collection of hovels, stands upon 

 the site of the ancient capital of Moab. In the Old Testament it is called Kir- 

 Ilaraseth, — Haresh, or Ileres. The first part of the name appears to signify "a 

 walled city," but the meaning of the suffix has sufliciently puzzled commentators. 

 But when the author was at Dhiban (the ancient Dibou), he unexpectedly met 

 with an explanation of this term, and it is very curious as an example of the stri- 

 king manner in which apparently trivial local idioms and customs often illustrate 

 the phraseology of the Bible. Asking one of the Arabs where the Moabite stone 

 was found, the latter replied that it was " between the harithein," that is, between 

 the two hariths. Now, in Arabic this word would mean a ploughman, and when 

 the author asked for a further explanation, the Arab pointed out the two hillocks 

 upon which the ruined village of Dhiban stands, and between them lay the frao-- 

 ments of the broken monument of Meslia. Nearly all the towns in Moab are built 

 upon similar eminences, and the author found that they are invariablj- called 

 Hariths by the Arabs. The word " Harith" is precisely equivalent in orthography 

 to the haresh, or hareseth of the Bible ; and tlius, in an apparently insignificant 

 idiom, is seen an imexpected illustration of the topography of the Bible, — an addi- 

 tional reason for identifying the modern Kerek with the ancient Krr-hareseth (" the 

 city on the hill"), and the interesting discovery of a local Moabite word handed 

 down from the time of Jehoram, son of Ahab, to the present day. The author 

 gave several other curious instances of this kind of identification, and described at 

 some length the investigations of Capt. Warren, Mr. TjTwhjtt Drake, and himself. 



