148 REPORT— 1864. 



On the Physical Geography of the Peruvian Coast Valleys of Chira and Pitva, 

 and the adjacent Deserts. By Richarb Spruce, F.R.G.S. 

 This was a description of the soil and climate of those distiicts of northern Peru 

 in which the different Peru\dan varieties of the species of cotton-tree, named Gos- 

 sypinm barhadense, are so successfully cultivated. The memoir will be published by 

 the Indian Government for distribution amongst the planters in India, where these 

 varieties of the cotton-plant were introduced by Mr. Clements Markham. The 

 districts described are remarkable for the absence of rain, the only humid and fer- 

 tile districts being the valleys of the numerous short streams which flow from the 

 Andes to the Pacific. Seasons of heavy rain, nevertheless, occurred at long inter- 

 vals, in some cases of seventeen years. 



On the River Purus. By Eichard Spruce. 

 This river communicates with the Amazon by one principal mouth, and at four 

 narrow channels (called furos). When the author was at the Barra do Rio Negro, 

 in 1851, a man of colour, named Serafim Salgado, an-ived there from the Purus, 

 where he had spent some six months trading with the Purupurii (or Spotted) 

 Indians, who inhabit the lower part of the river, and fi-om whom it takes its name ; 

 and also with the Catauixis, whose settlements extend upwards to a distance of 

 two months' journey from the mouth. This Serafim Salgado was afterwards 

 officially commissioned to explore the river. It is clear, from Serafim's report, 

 that the plain through which the Puriis flows has a scarcely perceptible declivity, 

 for he nowhere encountered cataracts or even rapids. Indeed, the head of navi- 

 gation of the Purus must needs be on a lower level than that of the Beni and 

 Maniort5 ; and yet on a tributary of the latter (the Chapare) Gibbon found that 

 water boiled at 209° 5', indicating an elevation above the sea of only 465 feet. 

 This goes far to show that Humboldt may be correct in his supposition of a strip 

 of low land extending from the Amazon valley, between the Andes on the one 

 hand and the mountains of BrazU on the other, all through the provinces of Mojos 

 and Chiquitos, to the basin of the River Plate. The Pm-iis will at some future 

 day become one of the gi-eat highways between the Andes and the Amazon. 



Account of his Journey across Australia. By M'Douall Stuart. 



I^otes on Kurdistan. By J. G. Taylor, H.M. Consul at DiaheMr. 



On the Physical and Political Geography of the Jordan Valley and Eastern 

 Palestine. By the Rev. H. B. Tristram, F.L.S. 



The author communicated the chief results of his recent natural-history explo- 

 ration of Palestine. No signs of volcanic eruption were found in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley, and the statements of De Saulcy on 

 these points were shown to be wholly en-oneous. The depression of the Dead Sea 

 was coincident with the synclinal line of the great system of inclined limestone 

 strata of the region. The district of Moab was spoken of in most laudatory terms, 

 as regards its climate and fertility ; indeed, the southern portion of the Jordan 

 valley formed a tract of comitry entirely different as to its A'egetation and animal 

 life from the rest of Palestine. Its fauna and flora yielded many new species, and 

 showed Indian and African types ; the total results could not, however, at preseiit 

 be given, as the flora was still being worked out by Mr. Lowne, the botanist to the 

 Expedition. 



On the Turcoman Tribes of Central Asia. By M. Vambert. 



A Visit to Samarcand. By M. Yambert. 



Journey along the West Coast of Middle Island, Ifeiv Zealand. 

 By Albert Walker. 



