TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E, 631 
3. The Glaciers of the Caucasus. By Maurice pr Décny. 
The author commenced his paper with a sketch of the manner in which the 
ideas prevalent in Europe with regard to the small dimensions of Caucasian 
glaciers were first created by incomplete maps, and subsequently dissipated ambu- 
dando by the incursions of English and other climbers into the mountain recesses. 
He proceeded to give statistics as to the snow-level in different portions of the 
Caucasus (showing that it rises towards the Caspian), and a detailed enumeration 
of the length and dimensions of the principal glaciers of the chain, and the depth 
to which they descend below the snow-level in various localities, He then 
dealt with the oscillations of the ice, which appear to have corresponded 
during the last fifty years with those of the Alpine glaciers, and concluded by a 
reference to the evidences that remain of the large extension of prehistoric 
glaciers on the flanks of the mountains. 
4, Scenes and Studies in the Nile Valley. By Artuur SitvA WHITE. 
Especial stress was laid on the organic unity of the Nile Valley as a physical 
fact of great political significance. The river and its tributaries flow from the 
heart of Africa to the far-distant Mediterranean littoral, being surrounded on all 
sides save one by desert and steppe lands. The watershed passes over barren and 
uninhabited tracts, except in the extreme south-west, where it abuts on the Congo 
basin. The Nile Valley may therefore be said to be physically isolated. 
Politically, no less than physically, Egypt turns her back on Africa and faces 
Europe and Asia, with the fortunes of which continents her past development has 
been closely associated. 
These considerations point to the recognition of the complete unity of the Nile 
basin as the basis of a national policy imposed by Nature and dictated by the 
teaching of history. Egypt, from the time of Alexander the Great to the present 
day, has always been dominated or controlled by the Power holding the command 
of the sea. Her physical and political insularity is, therefore, a fact which 
sufficiently accounts for the present situation. 
MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 
The following Papers and Report were read :— 
1. A Journey around Lake Titicaca. By Artuur W. Hitt, IA. 
Lake Titicaca is situated at an elevation of 12,500 feet above sea-level 
between the eastern and western ridges of the Cordillera of the Andes. 
The journey was made during the spring of 1903, which is the rainy season 
on the plateau. From La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, the route lay along the 
southern shore of the lake to Tiahuanaco, where there exist some of the finest 
and most ancient stone monuments in South America; thence to the Desaguadero, 
the only stream flowing out of the lake, and across this, going eastward to Copa- 
cabana. Here some stay was made, and the sacred island of Titicaca, with its 
Inca temples and palaces, was visited. 
The ancient terracing of the hillsides for cultivation is very marked in this 
region, and the terraces are still in use. The crops usually grown are barley, 
potatoes, quinoa (Chenopodium), ocas (Oxalis) and beans; wheat and maize can 
only be grown in sheltered spots at this elevation, 
On returning to Copacabana an interesting Indian festival was found to be in 
progress, which, though avowedly Christian, showed strong resemblances to some 
early pagan ceremony. The narrow straits of Tiquina were then crossed and the 
