TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 741 



Sorotclinitsi, in the valley of the Psiol, I visited a Stundist, one of a sect which is 

 likely to cause no little trouble to the Government, the measures hitherto taken 

 against them having defeated their object. 



The Little Russians are a finer race than the Great Russians ; they are enter- 

 prising colonists, and the charge of laziness made against them is unfounded. 

 Their social and political tendencies are different from those of the Great Russians. 

 Whereas these favour communal tenure and the patriarchal family life, Little 

 Russians are all for individualising property and severing the family tie. In earlier 

 times their gro^nada, answering to the Mir of Great Russia, freely discussed local 

 affairs. The present aristocracy of landowners is descended from the Hetmans and 

 other officers of Cossacks who were in power at the time of the rebellion against 

 Poland in the seventeenth century and their union with Russia, or Muscovy as it 

 was then called. 



8, Third Report of the Committee appointed for the purpose of drawing 

 attention to the desirahility of .prosecuting further research in the Aiit- 

 arctic Regions. — See Reports, p. 31G. 



FEIDAT, SEPTEMBER 7. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. Explorations on the Ohindwin River, Upper Burmah, in 1886-87.* 

 By Colonel "Woodthorpe, R.E. 



2. A new Route from India to Tihet.^ By Captain W. J. Elwes. 



3. Russian Topographical Surveys. By E. Delmar Moegan, F.R.G.S. 



4. Notes on the Geography of the Region from the Nile to the Euphrates as 

 hnown to the ancient Egyptians.'^ By the Rev. Henry George Tomkins. 



No route was so important in the most ancient times as the great drift-way from 

 the Persian Gulf to the Nile mouths by way of the Orontes valley, Ceele-Syria and 

 Palestine, or of Damascus and across the Jordan. The Egyptians were the 

 greatest of primaeval geographers, and have preserved for us on a profuse scale 

 their records. Narratives of conquest, tribute-lists, despatches and private letters, 

 and many other memorials have come down as our materials; and none are more 

 interesting than the cuneiform tablets lately found at Tel-el-Amarna in Upper 

 Egypt. . . . 



The results of examination are not yet fully available, but we are quickly filling 

 up the map of all the country from the Egyptian ea.stern frontier to the banks of 

 Euphrates for the ages before the conquest of Joshua. 



From the fortified border of the Delta three routes led eastwards and north- 

 wards across the desert. 1. From Tanis (Zoan) by Pelusium along the coast. 

 2. From the Wady Tumilat, the ancient road rediscovered by the Rev. F. W. 

 Holland. 3. The way of the Red Sea, represented by the present Hajj road. 



The Etham of the Exodus was not any Khetani, but the Atima of the papyri, 

 probably the el Adam mentioned by the Rev. Grevile Chester between Pelusium 



' Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. 

 * Published in extcnso in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration 

 Mind. 



