158 REPORT — 1870. 



aborigines of Australia are : — the great prominence of the brow, associated, among 

 some tribes, with shortness of the lower jaw ; the wide expansion of the nostrils, 

 combined with great depression of the nose at the base ; the extreme width of the 

 mouth ; the absence, sometimes observable, of any difference between the incisor 

 and canine teeth ; the straightness and silkiness of the hair, except among certain 

 tribes in the north and north-west ; and the hairiness of the entire body, which is 

 a phenomenon apparently not uncommon. 



On an Implement of Quartz from St. Oeorge^s Sound. 

 By Heney Woodward, F.G.S., F.Z.S. 



The author drew attention to a ciystal of quartz, having its terminal planes 

 preserved at both ends, which was foimd by his colleague Mr. Thomas Davies 

 among a number of other minerals in the British Museum forming part of the old 

 Sloane collection. 



The interest attaching to the specimen is of two kinds : it is, first, of historic 

 interest, for upon close examination there was found inscribed upon it in ink (in 

 Gapt. Cook's writing), "St. George's Sound, N.W. coast of America : Gapt. Cook," 

 thus proving it to have been brought home by that illustrious explorer ; and, 

 secondly, it is of prehistoric interest, for the crystal had been employed to bore or 

 pick holes in the ice by the Esquimaux, as proved by the notches made in its sides 

 for fixing it securely in some handle of wood. Such implements are used at the 

 present day by the Esquimaux to bore holes in the ice to catch fish in winter. 



GEOGEAPHT. 



Address by Sir Roderick Impet Murchison, Bart., K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., 

 F.E.S., F.G.S., President of the Section. 



Whilst wars have fi'om time to time changed the political geogTaphy of foreign 

 states, we, who happily live in our sea-girt isle, possess frontiers which for many 

 long years have been preserved intact ; and now that we meet again, for the thu-d 

 time, in this rich and eutei-prising seat of commerce, we may tranquilly take note 

 of any changes which may have been lately made in the boundaries of other king- 

 doms. But such changes in political geogTaphy, though specially to be delineated 

 on maps, need scarcely occupy attention at a Meeting of the British Association, 

 and we may hand them over to the politician. Oiu' chief duties are to receive and 

 discuss all communications which reveal to us new discoveries in Physical Geo- 

 graphy and the affiliated branches of Science in all parts of the globe. 



This Section E had for many years the title of Geography and Ethnology ; but 

 the latter term has recently been abstracted from us, Ethnology having been rele- 

 gated to the newly constituted comprehensive Section of Biology. Now, although 

 I have often presided over this Section when it possessed its double title, I admit 

 the value of the change, seeing that we are relieved from the duty of receiving and 

 discussing those anthi-opological memoirs which are intimately connected with 

 physiology and comparative anatomy. Such memoirs could not be adequately dis- 

 cussed by geographers, and they are'^now submitted to competent judges. At the 

 same time I earnestly hope that papers relating to Ethnography, including accounts 

 of the language and customs of distant peoples, and which"^ is intimately bound 

 up with the physical geogi-aphy of countries, will, as heretofore, flow into our hall, 

 and thus render oiu- meetings on this occasion as successful and popular as they 

 have been during past years. In the course of the present Meeting a paper will be 

 read from that distinguished geographer Colonel Yule, which precisely illushates 

 my meaning. It is on the analogies of manners between the Indo-Chinese races 

 and tlie races of the Indian archipelago ; and is exclusively written for om- Section 

 by its learned author, who expresses, as you will learn, his astonishment that such 



