804 REPORT — 1887. 



5. Siam. By J. McCarthy. 



6. The Valley of the Bio Voce {Brazil). By William John Steains. 



The author in 1881 left England for Brazil, in the employ of Messrs. Hugh 

 Wilson & Son, contractors for the construction of a railway in the flourishing little 

 province of Alagaos. On the completion of this railway the author, at his own 

 expense, undertook an exploration of the Rio Doce and of its northern tributaries, 

 which, notwithstanding his narrow means, and in the face of considerable physical 

 obstacles, he carried to a successful conclusion. His expedition left Rio de Janeiro 

 on June 7, 1885, and for eight weary months it had to battle against hardships 

 and privations, such as want of provisions, inhospitable natives, fevers, and ague. 



The valley of the Rio D6ce is one of the most fertile regions of the empire. 

 Virgin forests cover nearly the whole of it. Gold is found in Cuithe, a district of 

 Minas Geraes, close to the right bank of the Doce, as also on the headwaters of the 

 Rio Tambaquary, a tributary of the Sussuhy Grande. Most of the basin of the 

 Rio Doce is inhabited by wild Botocudo Indians, who possess an inborn hatred of 

 the white man, who, on his side, looks upon these ' Bugres ' with feelings of intense 

 horror and dread. Until these wild Indians shall at least have been partially 

 civiUsed, the valley of the Rio Doce must necessarily remain a sealed Paradise. 

 The few attempts' made hitherto in this direction have hopelessly failed, perhaps 

 because of the gross mismanagement on the part of those to whom the task was 

 entrusted. 



The author's arduous explorations have resulted in a carefully plotted map of 

 the Rio Doce and of its tributaries, based upon over 4,000 magnetic bearings and 

 careful dead reckonings. 



7. On South-Easteni Alaska. By Professor Libbey. 



TUESDA Y, SEPTEMBER G. 



The following Reports and Papers were read . — 



1. Final Report of the Committee on the 'production of a Bathy-hypso- 

 graphical Map of the British Islands. — See Reports, p. 160. 



2. On some Defects of the Ordnance Survey. By S. H. Wilkinsox, M.A. 



The Ordnance Survey does not give us detailed maps of Great Britain on 

 scales reduced from I : G;3000, which are much wanted. 



The representation of the ground in both the 1-inch and the 6-inch maps is 

 inadequate. 



3. On the Utilisation of the Ordnance Survey. 

 By Colonel Sir Charles Wilson, E.O.B., F.B.S. 



4. On the United States Geographical and Geological Survey. 

 By Josiah Pierce, jun. 



5. On a Bathy. orographiral Map of Scotland.^ By H. R. Mill, D./Sc. 



' To be published in the Scottish Geograjihical Magazine. 



