TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 133 
series, which has been favourably received by the public, and a second volume has 
just been published. As the Ethnological Society has had the good fortune to see 
the place vacated by the retirement of Mr. Crawfurd filled up by the pie 
of so skilful and philosophic a naturalist as Mr. John Lubbock, and as Mr. Francis 
Galton, the President of this Section at the last Meeting of the Association, has 
kindly consented to act as our Ethnological Secretary, we may reasonably calculate 
on receiving much sound support from men like these, who can so well connect the 
sciences which we cultivate with many other branches of human knowledge. 
In conclusion, I have now only to exhort you to profit by this Meeting, not 
merely by listening attentively to the reading of the various memoirs to,be brought 
before you, with many of which (particularly those relating to Ethnology) I am as 
yet unacquainted, but also by discussing all doubtful points in a fair spirit.of in- 
quiry. Above all, let us strive to show, by the amount of useful knowledge we 
ather together, that the value and interest attached to the proceedings of this 
Section are as effectively sustained on the banks of the Tyne as they have been 
at any other meeting-place of this our Parliament of Science. 
On some Curiosities of Physical Geography in the Ionian Isles. 
By Professor Ansrep, /.R.S. 
The Ionian Islands and the mainland of Greece abound with matters of interest 
to the geographer. Among them are:—l. Valleys and circular depressions re~ 
ceiving drainage, but without apparent outlet. These abound in Corfu, Santa 
Maura, and Cephalonia. They occur also in Zante, rendering the islands less 
healthy than they would otherwise be. They are, beyond doubt, results of the 
peculiarly cracked and open condition of the limestone-rock of which the whole 
of the islands may be said to be made up. 2. Inflowing currents of sea-water. 
Very clearly connected with the same condition of the rock is the curious pheno- 
menon presented near the town of Argostoli, the capital of Cephalonia. The town 
is on a low step of cracked and cavernous limestone, a foot or two above the highest 
ordinary level of the sea, on one shore of a small creek, separated by a higher ridge 
of similar limestone from the Gulf of Argostoli. There is hardly more than a few 
inches perceptible tide in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, and even in this - 
creek the rise, though multiplied, is small. At four places close to the town there 
are inlets or cracks, a few feet wide, entering some hundred yards into the land, 
and terminating in broken, rocky, cavernous spaces. Instead of the ordinary phe- 
nomenon of the fresh water running over the land to the sea, we have here the 
reversed phenomenon of the sea coming in by these crevices, running for some 
distance over the land, and finally entering and becoming lost in the earth. It is 
nothing unusual in limestone-countries to find water disappearing into the earth; 
» but it is certainly exceptionable that this should be sea-water, and that it should 
continue permanently. The author suggested as a better explanation of these 
inflowing currents than has yet been given, that they are probably results of the 
cracked condition of the limestone-rock and the great evaporation from the surface 
during summer. It is not unusual to see the vine—especially the grape-vine— 
growing and flourishing on piles of loose, angular limestone, without the smallest 
particle of visible soil. The moisture required by the roots is no doubt supplied by 
constant evaporation from the water underground. It goes on so long as there is 
any moisture left, and the hotter and drier the limestone at the surface, the more 
readily is the supply sucked up. Thus, whatever water enters the rock from rain 
falling on the surface, and all that comes in by these entering currents from the 
sea, is probably exhausted by evaporation from the surface. It would follow, if this 
explanation be correct, that a deposit of salt must be forming in connexion with 
the limestone into which the water penetrates. 
On some Points in the Cranioscopy of South American Nations. 
By C. Carrer Brat, /.GS., FAS. 
The object of the paper was to reconsider some of the primary principles on 
which those cranioscopists who have classified the races of South America have 
based their arrangements, and to call especial attention to a few important excep- 
