TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 159 



mirer, the President of our own Hoyal Geographical Society, and in such felicitous 

 terms, that I cannot do better than refer our visitors and members to what Sir 

 Roderick Murchison says of the labours of our illustrious ^uest in his last Annual 

 Address. I am happy to be able to inform you that M. Tchihatchef proposes to 

 favour us with an address on the geography of Central Asia, and I feel assured 

 that the interest of the subject will render us all anxious to hear him, apart from 

 the privilege of discussing the subject with one who, on all topics connected with 

 the geography of Central Asia, is allowed by the great geographers of France and 

 England to be one of the highest geographical authorities of our age. 



Another equally distinguished guest is the Commaudatore Negri Christoforo, 

 who, as members are aware, is the President, and I beheve I may say the founder 

 of the Italian Geographical Society. I cannot better state to you bis claims to a 

 warm welcome among us than by describing him as the " Murchison of Italy." 

 After slumbering for ages, the spirit of geographical discovery seems once more 

 revived in the native land of Marco Polo and Columbus, and we mav look for the 

 most important results from the labours of the Society of which the Commandatore 

 is, at any rate, the foster parent. 



I have been commissioned by Sir Roderick to state how deeply he regrets that 

 he has been prevented being present this day to offer to these distinguished 

 foreigners the expression of that hearty appreciation and welcome which would 

 come most fitly from the President of our Royal Geographical Society ; and you 

 will all join with me in my regi-et, that our venerated friend and leader" is not here 

 himself to give to that welcome the personal weight which it would derive alike 

 from his official position and from his scientific standing among the first of living 

 European geographers. 



On a Canal to unite the Upper Nile and Red Sea. 

 By Dr. C. Beke, F.R.G.S. 



On the Bistrihution of Heat on the Sea-surface throughout the Globe. 

 By Vice- Admiral Sir Edwaed Belcher, K.C.B., F.R.G.S. 



On the Geography of the Frankincense Plant. By Dr. Biedwood. 



Notes on a Journey in Northern Abyssinia. By W. T. Blanfoed. 



Subsequently to the departure of the British troops Mr. Blanford made a journey 

 in Northern Abyssinia to the Anseba Valley and the Bogos Country, in company 

 with Mr. Werner Munzinger and two other gentlemen. The great mass of the 

 Abyssinian highlands, 7000 to 8000 feet in elevation, teiTuinates a little north of 

 the parallel of Zulla. From the northern side of the plateau two considerable 

 streams arise, the Anseba and the Barka, which afterwards unite and fall into the 

 Red Sea south of Suakin. Both are dry except in the rainy season, when they are 

 frequently impassable. The country drained by them is of a general level of 3000 

 to 6000 feet, and is inhabited by tribes of Bedawins, some of whom, the Boo-os 

 being the principal, still remain Christian. The party first marched due west 

 about thirty miles to Ailat, a village lying in a plain at the foot of the hills, 

 abounding in lions and leopards. From' this place they proceeded to Asus, and 

 thence to Kenzal and the Lebka Valley. The road, like all the passes leading to 

 the Abyssinian highlands, lay up the bed of a torrent — a gradual slope of 1000 feet in 

 twenty miles. At Kokai, some forty miles up the valley, the passage was sudden 

 from a perfectly desert region to hills covered with bushes and rich val^-s clothed 

 with fine trees ; this abrupt transition was to be explained by the upper part lyinc 

 within the sharply-limited area of the Abyssinian rains. At Kokai they found a 

 large encampment of the Az Temeriam, with immense herds of camels. These 

 people, and all others of the Habab and Shoho tribes, live a curious nomade life. 

 During the cold weather, from November to April or May, they inhabit the lowlands 

 near the Red Sea, which at that time, in consequence of the winter rain, aflford 

 pasturage for their animals. When grass and water fail here, they move with their 



