658 EEPORT— 1880. 



game and also with tigers. On the evening of the second day the traveller arrived 

 at Lake Khanka. There were two Chinese houses, of which not a dozen had been seen 

 all along the Ussuri ; thirty-six Russian stations in all were passed. Lake Khanka is 

 65 miles long, and from 21 to 26 miles wide. Its shores, with the exception of 

 the south and south-east, are wooded, hut not mountainous. After steaming across 

 it during the night and arriving at Kamen-ruibaloiF at dawn on September the 11th, 

 Mr. Lansdell had to drive nearly 100 miles in the roughest of conveyances to the 

 river Sooifoon, through a country singularly fertile, but almost uninhabited. The 

 journey was accomplished by the evening of the second day, and on reaching 

 Rasdolnoi there was found a small steamer to carry him 30 miles on the Sooifoon 

 to the Amur Bay ; where he was transhipped to a larger steamer, which brought 

 him to Vladivostock — thus finishing his journey from London of 11,555 miles. 



FRIBA Y, A UG UST 27. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. The High Boadfrom the Indus to Candahar. 

 By Sir Richard Temple, Bart., O.G.8.I., CLE., F.E.G.S. 



2. Six Years' Exploration in New Britain and 7ieighhouring islands. 



By Wilfred Powell. 



After referring to the great variety and immense value of the products of these 

 islands to our markets, and the corresponding benefit to the natives likely to accrue 

 from the establishment of English trade, Mr. Powell remarked that they were 

 very anxious to obtain the articles dispensed by English traders, and to have 

 traders li-ving with them. He then gave a slight sketch of the first discoverers and 

 geographical position of New Britain (situate between the eastern extremity of New 

 Guinea and the Solomon Islands), which has a coast line of nearly 400 miles, from 

 Spacious Bay on the east to the island of Willaumez on the west. The natives 

 were at one time apparently identical all o-ver the island, though now varying in 

 different parts of it. They are subject to a disea.se called 'J3uckwar'; bigamy 

 exists among them, and they purclia.se their wives; their money ( 'Dewana') con- 

 sists of small cowries, which are strung together, a hole being made through the 

 cro'wn of the shell ; payment is made with these by measurement, and not by 

 weight. Mr. Powell described the arms of the people as carried in .war, tlieu- 

 method of making stone-clubs, and their different methods of making war, which 

 are marked by great treachei v, and accompanied by decided acts of cannibalism ; 

 also their civil rider (' Dook i)ook '), and his rights of succession and manner of 

 dispensing justice; their superstitions, marriage rights, dances, and special costumes 

 (including a human skull mask), sm'gery, bone-setting and implements, musical 

 instrimients, houses, fisheries, &c. 



3. Three Years in South-East New Guinea. 

 By the Rev. W. G. Lawes, F.B.G.S. 



The author's observations were made during a residence at Port Moresby and 

 Hood Bay, and comprised notes on the geographical and physical features of the 

 district between Yule Island and East Cape ; the flora and fauna, climate and 

 natives, with a description of the houses, canoes, occupations, habits, moral con- 

 dition, and religious beliefs of the people inhabiting the Port Moresby and Hood 



