TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 



of that glacier and its tributaries. This was the only portion of the chain accurately 

 laid down when the Mont Blanc sheet of the Swiss Federal Survey came out in 

 1861, which, as the Swiss surveyors only gave, from their own work, the small 

 portion lying within Swiss territory, filling in the rest from the Sardinian Survey, 

 was found to be untrue to nature. The author commenced his surveys in 18G3. 

 The glacier system of Mont Blanc may be roughly said to be divided into three 

 parts by two large clefts ; that on the west beiug formed by the north and south 

 glaciers of Miage, and that on the east by the glaciers of Argentiere and Mont 

 Dolent. In each case the two glacier-valleys advance from opposite sides deep into 

 the heart of the chain, and their upper heads are only separated by rocky walls 

 scarcely half a mile in thickness. The centre of the chain is occupied by an im- 

 mense glacier-basin, which again is subdivided into three glaciers having but one 

 common outlet, the Mer de Glace. From the point where it makes an abrupt turn 

 to the north to return again on the other side of the Glacier de Miage, the back- 

 bone of the chain runs pretty nearly from south-west to north-west. At several 

 spots, as, for instance, the Aiguille du Glacier, Aiguille Verte, and Mont Dolent, a 

 number of ridges radiate towards the same point, culminating in a magnificent peak, 

 and at others the main ridge thickens into an enormous mountain mass, like the 

 Grandes Jorasses. The Swiss surveyors, in carrying their triangulation up to the 

 eastern side of one of the ridges on the Sardinian frontier, which had been triangu- 

 lated by the Sardinians on the western side, mistook the position, and inserted it on 

 their map as a separate mountain-chain. In order to correct this it was necessary 

 to annihilate four square miles of glacier, and to pull together into one, two moun- 

 tains which had previously stood a mile and a half apart on the maps. 



On the Flints of Pressigny le Grand. 

 By Professor Steenstrup and Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., F.B.S., Pres. Ent. Soc. 

 The authors related that the discovery of these flints was due to Dr. Leveille", 

 who had been induced, by the interest which the general subject had excited, to 

 search for flint weapons in his neighbourhood. He was so fortunate as to find them 

 in astonishing abundance, and the neighbourhood of Pressigny was evidently the site 

 of several manufactories, as the distribution of the worked flints is very local. In 

 one case they were found in abundance on one side of a little valley, while on the 

 other side not one was to be seen. The i( livres-de-beurre" and their chippings, at 

 the manufactory of La Claisiere, at least, were found to extend not more than 18 

 inches below the surface, and among them numerous fragments of charcoal were 

 discovered. The authors took pains to set at rest all doubts regarding their being 

 the refuse of a gun-flint manufactory. Gun-flints were first adapted to the muskets 

 used by the French army in the year 1700, and they proved the much greater an- 

 tiquity of the flint implements by finding several on excavating under the roots of 

 an oak-tree, ascertained to be at least 400 or 500 years old. With regard to the age 

 of the flints, the authors thought that there were not, as yet, any actual proof that 

 the livres-de-beurre belonged to the age of the extinct mammalia, although other 

 and probably older worked flints are foimd in the neighbourhood, which closely 

 resemble those of the Palaeolithic period. 



Notes on the Aborigines of Formosa. 

 By R. Swinhoe, H.M.'s Consul, Formosa. 



The approach to the Kalee savages, who inhabit a mountainous district in the 

 southern part of the island of Formosa, is now comparatively easy, owing to the estab- 

 lishment, by the Roman Catholic Padre Fernando Sainz, of a small church and resi- 

 dence in a village of half-castes at the foot of the mountains, where he numbers some 

 forty converts. The villagers to whom he preaches speak the Chinese dialect, with 

 which he is acquainted, hut he is now turning his attention to the Kalee language. 

 In the villages adjoining the Christian village of Bang-Kimsing, are chiefly Hakka 

 Chinese from North Kwang-tung, who are almost always at war with the Kalees. 

 It is only therefore at night that the Kalees can he induced to come down to visit 

 the priest. Mr. Edwards, an enterprising photographer, visited the village in 

 company with the author, and took the portraits of two groups of these savages. 



1865. ' 9 



