142 REPORT — 1864. 



the Thompson, and for about 200 miles along the Frazer River, forming three tiera 

 on each side of the valley, each tier being of the same height as the corresponding 

 one on the opposite side. The lowest terrace was of great ■\\adth, and presented 

 a perfectly level surface, raised some 30 or 40 feet above the river-bank. The second 

 was seldom more than 200 or 300 yai-ds wide, and stood at about 50 or 60 feet 

 above the J/iwer one. The third lay at a height of 400 or 500 feet above the river, on 

 the face of the inaccessible blviffs. They were all perfectly uniform, and free from 

 the roclvs and boulders which encumber the present bed of the river, being com- 

 posed of sand, gravel, and shale, the detritus of the ueiglibouring mountains. The 

 explanation of these phenomena is to be sought in the barrier of the lofty Cascade 

 chain of mountains, through which the Frazer has pierced a way lower down the 

 vallev. At a former period, the valleys of the Frazer and the Thompson seem to 

 have been occupied by a succession of lakes, the Cascade range then forming a bar- 

 rier which dammed up this great volume of water ; the highest tier of terraces 

 would mark the level at which it then stood. Some geological convulsion caused 

 a rent in the mountain barrier, allowing the waters to escape partially, so as to 

 form a chain of lakes at the level of the middle teiTaces ; and subsequently, after 

 lono- periods of repose, two other similar disturbances successively deepened the 

 cleft, and drained the waters first to the height of the lowest terrace, and finally to 

 their present level. In the course of the paper, the country east of the Kocky 

 INIountains was highly extolled as a promising region for settlement, especially by 

 an agricultural population. 



On the Sources of the Stipx>ly of Tin for the Bronze Tools and Weapons of 



Antiqvifi/. By John Crawfued, F.R.S. 

 Tin, as is well known, is found only in a very few parts of the world, and the only 

 localities producing it which have reference to the que>'ion under consideration 

 are England, the INIalayan peninsula, and Northern China. The ore is easilj- reduced, 

 and in early times was found in drift or alluvium. The tiii-formations of the 

 INIalayan countries are the most extensive in the world. These three sources 

 are the only principal ones fi-om which the nations of ancient Europe could have 

 derived this metal. Tin would be supplied in the same manner as silk and spices, 

 with the difference of being imported from the West as well as the East. Mer- 

 chants dealing in the metal would convey it as far as it fetched a profit, until 

 western and eastern tin met nt a central point, which may have been Eg^pt. All 

 the nations west of it would be supplied with British, and all those east of it with 



gypt. 



voyages of the Phoenicians to the Scilly Islands, through which they are imagined 

 to have supplied the Eastern world with Cornish tin. The voyage from the entrance 

 of the Mediterranean would be 1000 miles in a straight line over a .stonny ocean— 

 a vovage very unlikely to be performed by ancient mariners, who, we Imow, even 

 in the Mediterranean," only crept along the coasts, hauling their craft ashore in foul 

 weather. Besides, the Scilly Islands, the supposed Cassitci-ides, aftbrd no evi- 

 dence of having ever produced tin. There is, in fact, no evidence that either the 

 Greeks or the Phoenicians ever passed the Straits of Gibraltar. 



On the Supposed Infecundity of Human Hyhrids or Crosses. 

 By John Crawfurd, F.R.S. 

 The object of this paper is the refutation of a theory which has lately obtained 

 Countenance in France and America, the purport of which is that the cross offspring 

 of different races of man is essentially sterile, and must without intermixture of the 

 pure blood of one or other of the parents, in due time die out. In refutation of 

 this extravagant hj-pothesis, the author refers to the dense populations of France 

 and England, the most mixed nations of Europe, and the millions of ^lulattos and 

 IVIestizos which have come into existence since the discovery of the New World. 

 Even where the two races were perfectly equal, he shows that no sterility was the 

 result, and for this pm-pose quotes the case of the mutineers of the 'Bounty,' in 



