TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 799 



features of the country render the establishment of a strong central government 

 exceedingly difficult, if not impossible. 



Physically the natives have probably degenerated from a higher standard. 

 Their emotional nature exhibits a manifest inferiority. Tliey are impulsive, easily 

 roused to laughter, and quarrelsome. Old customs are slavishly followed. The 

 sentiment of public justice is, however, very highly developed. The intellectual 

 development is stunted. All but the more pateut and mechanical cases are beyond 

 the grasp of the native, and little progress is made after adolescence is reached. Mis- 

 fortune is generally attributed to the ill-will of a ndochi (wizard or witch) whose 

 detection and punishment is aimed at by the prison ordeal, and whose evil in- 

 fluence it is sought to counteract by charms. The foundation of the social system is 

 the family, consisting of the chief, his wives, children, dependents, and slaves, and 

 marriages between families are much practised. Marriages between blood rela- 

 tions are, however, prohibited. White men are admitted as residents on payment 

 of ' black mail ' to the neishbouring- chiefs. 



6. A Visit to Diogo Cdo's ' Fadrdo ' at the Mouth of the Congo. 

 By R. E. Dennett. 



In April 1887 the author visited the supposed fragments of Diogo C'ao's 

 ' Padrao ' or pillar, immediately after their discovery by Baron Schweriu and 

 Senhor F. J. de Franja. Landing on the inner side of Shark's Point the author 

 came past King George's ' Palace ' and the old English cemetery (now submerged), 

 and on some neighbouring high ground he found the remains of the pillar sought 

 for. They consisted of a square base, 27 inches high, a fragment of the pillar, and 

 two ball-shaped pieces of stone, all in white marble. (There can be no doubt that 

 these fragments are identical with the fragments visited by Sir Pichard Burton in 

 1863, and described by him in ' Gorilla Land,' ii. p. 71. — E. G. P.) 



7. On Acclimatisation.^ By Dr. A. Oi'PLER. 



FRIBAY, SEPTEMBER •>. 



The following Papers and Report were read : — 



1. The Eaian Moeris. By Cope Whitehouse, M.A.^ 



The Raian basin is a depression to the south and west of the Fayoum, between 

 lat. 28° 40' and lat. 29° '60'. Its northern extremity is nearly on a line with 

 Beni-Suef, 73 miles south of Cairo. It is connected on the south-east with a 

 narrow valley, hitherto unexplored, known as the Wadi Muelah. At previous 

 meetings of the British Association it Las been shown how the author of this 

 paper was led to believe that some such depression must exist, and how, at first 

 alone and subsequently accompanied by competent engineers, his observations were 

 verified. It was his opinion that foreign engineers, about the fifteenth century 

 before our era. Lad conceived a gigantic scheme for the regulation of the flow of 

 the Nile and the redemption of the Delta, utilising a depression in the desert as a 

 storage reservoir, to avert the excessive rise of the river and to provide for the 

 season of drought. In Lower Egypt there are three seasons. From April 1 to 

 the end of July the discharge of the Nile is about 14,000 cubic feet per second, or 

 an average of about fifty million cubic metres per diem. A very high Nile dis- 

 charges 387,000 cubic feet per second, averaging 1,000 million cubic metres per 

 diem. Only about one-half of the Delta, 2,750,000 acres, is under culti\ation, for 

 want of sufficient water. In the province of Gharbieli alone the area of land 

 ' Publishel in the Proceedings of the Hoyul Gioyrcqjhical Societij. 



