938 KEPORT — 1898. 



1896 by tlie captains and officers of merchant ships. At the request of the author 

 the captains of a number of the vessels also collected daily samples of surface water, 

 and the densities of these, numbering about 0,000 in all, have been determined by 

 chlorine titration. The material has been found sutficient to allow of the construc- 

 tion of charts showing the distribution of temperature and salinity over a large 

 pai-t of the area during each of the twenty-four consecutive months. The series, 

 which is the first of its kind, shows the progressive changes in the manner of 

 synoptic charts, and provides the data necessary for extending the work recently 

 done in and around the North Sea, in connection with sea-fisheries and long-period 

 weather forecasting. Specimens of the maps were shown on the screen. 



4. The Oceanographical Results of the Austro- Hungarian Deep-sea 

 Expeditions 1890-96.' By Dr. K. Natterer. 



The chemical investigations carried out by the author on board the vessels of 

 the Austro-TIungarian deep-sea expeditions in the Eastern Mediterranean, Black 

 Sea, and Red Sea took account of the dissolved oxygen, the chemical composition 

 of the sea water, and the character of the deep-sea deposits. In places such as the 

 neighbourhood of the Nile Delta, where the low salinity of the sea water keeps 

 the same layer on the surface for a great length of time, and where diatoms are 

 very abundant, the amount of dissolved oxygen was found to be greater than could 

 have been absorbed from the air. Hence such portions of the sea replenish the 

 oxygen supply of the atmosphere by the action of light on the marine vegetable 

 organisms. 



The nature of the deep-sea deposits was found to be largely dependent on the 

 precipitation of carbonates and silicates, which are obtained by the solution of terri- 

 genous deposits. Through the ammonia and carbonic acid produced by the slow 

 oxidation of organic matter in the deep-sea ooze this precipitate often forms a 

 continuous stony crust on the surface of the sea-bed, where its formation is not 

 retarded by falling particles or remains of surface organisms. 



In the Sea of Marmora solution, not sedunentation, is the rule, and this sea 

 has peculiarly steep walls, subject to earthquakes, after one of which, in 1894, the 

 depth was found to have been distinctly increased. 



The author's study of the Red Sea and its bordering deserts leads him to believe 

 that a veiy important part is played in rainless regions by the capillary ascent of 

 sea water in the rocks bordering the sea, and that owing to the evaporation of the 

 water thus drawn up are formed many of the salt and gypsum deposits found in the 

 deserts. 



FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9. 

 The folio wdng Papers were read : — 



1. Theories on the Distribution of the Oceans and Continents. 

 By J. W. Gregory, D.Sc 



The main object of geomorphology is to explain the existing distribution of 

 land and water on the globe. A remarkable series of coincidences in the form and 

 arrangement of the land masses suggests that the distribution has been determined 

 by some general principle and not by local accidents. The three most striking 

 features that require explanation are the antipodal position of oceans and continents, 

 the triangular shape of the geographical units, and the excess of water in the 

 southern hemisphere. Attempts to explain this arrangement have been made 

 deductively from general physical considerations, as by Elie de Beaumont, Lowthian 

 Green, and G. H. Darwin; and directly from the evidence of stratigraphical 



' The full Paper is published in the Scottish Geographical Magazine. 



