168 REPORT— 1870. 



The prevailinp: winds over the globe, therefore, at all seasons, ohey Buys Ballot's 

 " Law of the Winds " with reference to the distribution of atmospheric pressui'e. 

 The inflow and outflow of winds are reducible to the single principle of gravitation ; 

 and so marked is this, that if there be any other force or forces which put the winds 

 in motion, they must be altogether insignificant as compared with gravitation. 

 The author gave, as the well-digested results of numerous observations, that there 

 was no general flow of the surface-winds of the north temperate zone towards and 

 from the polar regions ; the regions of high and low pressure were the true poles 

 of the winds. 



On the Physical Geography and Races of British India, 

 By Geokge Campbell, D.C.L. 



On the Ruined Cities of Central America. By Captain Caemichael. 



The author commenced by giTing a general descriptive account of these ruined 

 cities, and stated that, in his opinion, formed on piersoual investigation, the 

 architecture of the Aboriginal Indians of Central America was but a diversified 

 reproduction of that of Eastern countries. He then pointed out a number of simi- 

 larities in their architecture, designs, customs, &c. to those of the East, and showed 

 how, as a general ride, it was very difiicult to explore these ruins, owing to the 

 hostility of the existing tribes of Indians. 



As regards their antiquity, he assigned to many of them an earlier foundation 

 than that accorded by Messrs. Stephens and Squier, and adduced some very con- 

 vincing if novel proofs in support of his theory. The picture he drew of the palace 

 of Quiche, in Guatemala, fulh' bore out the statement of Torquemada, that they 

 rivalled those of Montezuma ; and he showed that if that city, whose foundation 

 has been authoritatively established as coeval with the commencement of a line of 

 sixteen reigns of kings fi'om Nimaquichi?, a king of Kichiquel, or, to speak briefly, 

 a city of some eight hundred years' standing, was some fifty years ago in such 

 thorough repair that the Padre of a neighboming Indian village, who walked 

 among its streets and palaces, imagined himself in Old Spain, what must be the 

 era of those numerous ruined cities compared to which Quiche was modern ? 



He then pointed out their great length, and added that, in connexion with this, a 

 remarkable fact had seemingly been overlooked by most Central American writers, 

 viz. that the stone buildings whose ruins we now find extant were used as temples, 

 palaces, and public ofllces generally, the poorer inhabitants living in palm-thatched 

 huts of a perishable nature, an arrangement which represented an almost incredible 

 amount of population. 



The author then proceeded to analyze the various elements composing the archi- 

 tecture of the ruined buildings and monuments, and gave an account of the various 

 uses to which the teocaH or tumuli were put by tlie Toltecan and Aztec priests, 

 viz. for sacrificial and burial purposes, to serve as beacons, as warlike defences, &:c. 

 He then explained the relations between the temples and alcazars or palaces, and 

 offered a few hints as to tlie deciphering of the hieroglyphics, a subject to which 

 he has paid much attention, showing that they chiefly were the works of the 

 Indian priesthood, and above aU were intended to inculcate moral and religious 

 precepts, chronological events being made entirely subservient, and pointed out their 

 analogy to the stone tablets of Moses, on which were engraven the ten command- 

 ments. 



The author r?fen'ed briefly to the round towers which contained the estufas for 

 the sacred fire of Montezuma in connexion with the worship of the sun, and passed 

 on to explain the nature and significance of the A^arious hideous idols to whom 

 human sacrifice was offered on the summit of the teocali, and stated it as his belief 

 that these idols, as well as all tlie planed stones, were carved with cliay or flint 

 instruments. He remarked that he had often found flint and obsidian imple- 

 ments, but in no instance an instrument of metal. He gave a detailed account of 

 a ruined city called Xmul, in British Ilondmas, which he claims to have discovered ; 

 and concluded by expressing his firm conviction in the belief of the existence in 



