TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 197 



across the equator. They illustrate the action of both air and water when meeting, 

 as is constantly the case with the two trade-winds, and the cm-rents which they pro- 

 duce, showing' also how the air as well as water seems to eddy round a point of laud 

 from which the main stream is running. 



They also illustrate some very sudden changes of temperature in both air and 

 sea, for Avhich the paper endeavours to account. 



The paper also gives the specific gravity of the currents due to the N.E. and S.E. 

 trades, as well as that of tlie Guinea current, which indicates that the latter is a 

 surface back-drift above a colder current. 



The district is the birthplace of many West-Indian hurricanes ; and the place in 

 which one originated was pointed out on the diagram for August, it having been 

 afterwards traced to the island of St. Thomas. Besides many other allusions to 

 remarkable and unsettled weather, the paper tells of fi\"e earthquakes which were 

 experienced by ships in the district, two in 0° 30' N. and 30° W., three in 1° S. 

 and 20° W. 



In the course of the paper frequent allusion was made to swells of tlie sea wliich 

 had overrun by many hundreds of miles the winter gales which caused them, and 

 seemed to be related" to the rollers experienced at Ascension, St. Helena, and the 

 West Coast of Africa. 



The motion of upper clouds in relation to the direction of the winds was fre- 

 quentlj' remarked upon, their motion showing that the wind of one trade passed 

 above that of the other at their equatorial verge ; and, again, that above the south- 

 westerly monsoon, which blows to the northward of the equator in certain months, 

 the clouds very frequently move from the S.E. near the equator, and from the 

 N.E. when further to the north. 



Several allusions were made to the red dust which falls on ships at certain 

 seasons, and to the cetacea, land and sea-birds, fish, and insects met with. 



The whole paper may be said to be a resume of a large work about to be published 

 by the Meteorological Office, which is under the superintendence of the Meteoro- 

 logical Committee of the lloyal Society, and is published in extenso as a non-official 

 paper by that Office. 



Changes in the Course of the Oxus. By Major Herbert Wood. 



Trade-Routes to Western China. By Colonel Yule, C.B. 



ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 



Address hj James Heywood, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., Pres. Statistical Society, 



President of the Section. 



Having had the advantage of a school education in Bristol, I have_ noticed with 

 interest, in subsequent years, the gi-adual development of this great city, and of its 

 populous neighbom-, Clifton ; and I trust that the second visit of the British Asso- 

 ciation will be productive of benefit to your important district. 



Railway communication, free trade, and the reduction of dock-dues have aided 

 in increasing the commerce of this locality. Additional facilities for ocean steam- 

 traffic will be afibrded by the new docks alomst completed at the mouth of the 

 river Avon ; and fresh storage-room for timber, both by land and water, may also be 

 expected in the same vicinity. 



As an example of the utility of a free port, it may be mentioned that large sup- 

 plies of grain arrive here in screw iron ships from the Black Sea and the Mediterra- 

 nean. For barley, used for grinding, Bjristol has now become the first provincial 



