TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 669 



These •were evidently the sepulchres of a native dynasty, Catholic in religion, 

 ■vassals successively of the Romans and IJyzantines, wliich were swept away at the 

 time of the Arab invasion in the seventh century. 



lie also described a curious uieiralithic city called Mechera Sfa, on the banks of 

 the Mina, probably intended to ali'ord a place of refufre to the inhabitants of the 

 neighbourin'T country in time of dan>rer. The summit of a bill is strongly fortiHed, 

 the enclosure full of rude stone dwellings, and the bottom of the valley as well as 

 the sides aud top of the opposite hill covered with toiubs, generally formed of 

 immense monoliths, aud sometimes surmounted by tumuli of earth. 



5. Oil Two Models ill nxt rating the Action of the Winds in relation to Ocean 

 Currents. By A. W. Clayden, M.A. 



The principle upon which these models are constructed is to make a map 

 in which the oceans are represented by the surface of water, over which some 

 lycopodium powder is scattered. A number of tubes are connected with a 

 reservoir into which air can be forced, and they are so arranged that the jets which 

 issue from them set up movements of the air over the water surface, similar to those 

 of the prevalent winds. The result is to create systems of water currents re- 

 sembling those of the region represented. 



One model shows the currents of the Atlantic, the other those of the Indian 

 Ocean. This latter has an additional valve attached by which the winds can 

 be caused to blow as they do during either the North-East or during the South- 

 AN'est monsoon, and the consequent cliaiige of the currents can be seen. 



They are doigned with a purely educational object in view, being part of a 

 scheme for treating the study of physical geography in an experimental manner. 



G. The North-West Territories of Canada. B>j J. G. Colmei:, C.M.G. 



7. The South Coast of West Java. Bij H. B. Guppt, M.B., F.F.G.S. 



In this paper the author dealt with a part of Java wliich has not been much 

 described. It is one of the least familiar portions of this large island, a circum- 

 stance due partly to its paucity of anchorages and to the ditliculty in landing ; 

 partly to its having been allowed to become ia some places a kind of menagerie ; 

 and partly, also, to the fact that it lies remote from the chief seats of government. 

 Now that the Netherlands Indian Government are rapidly carrying out their 

 systematic survey of the Preanger Kesidency, it will not be long before the south 

 coast of West Java will be much better known than it is at present ; and the recent 

 extension of the central railway to Garoet and Tjirajap will do much tn effect this 

 end. The author's tracks over West Java would make a chequered pattern on a 

 map ; but he thought it better not to refer to localities already well known — 

 localities which are now yearly visited by hundreds of visitors. Taking the central 

 railway as his base, he performed nearly all the distance on foot, walking about 

 500 miles in all. In the paper he endeavoured to give a general idea of this south 

 roast alone. The huge volcanic cones were landmarks to him, and nothing more ; 

 they had been well described by Junker and others, so he resisted the temptation 

 of climbing them, and reserved his main efforts for the examination of the little 

 described and remote south coasts of the I'reanger and Bantam Itesideucies. 



The object he had in view was to ascertain what physical evidence there was 

 for the belief that the west end of Java was originally united with Sumatra. In 

 this paper the author .showed that all the evidence on the Java side of the Sunda 

 Strait points to the opposite conclusion. Zoological evidence cannot be held sufii- 

 cient to establish the previous connection between two i.slands without tlie physical 

 evidence of such a change. The problem, as usually stated, seems to bopin at the 

 wrong end of the matter. Given the present distribution of plants and animals, it 



