SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— E. 339 



examination of the historical geography of these districts, the author has found that, 

 almost without exception, 1he present linguistic boundary is within a few miles of a 

 former boundary of Christendom on the eve of the official conversion of the heathen 

 country ; an event which occurred as early as the sixth century in Western, and not 

 later than the fourteenth in Eastern, Europe. Thus the boundary of Flemish and 

 German with Walloon occupies the same position as at the time of adoption of 

 Christianity by the Franks ; that between German and French in Alsace-Lorraine 

 marks the division between the Christian kingdom of Burgundy and the heathen 

 Alamanns, afterwards converted ; the Italian linguistic boundary in Tyrol that 

 between the Christian kingdom of Lombardy and the heathen Bavarians ; and in the 

 former Duchy of Friuli approximately that between the Christian Lombards and 

 Slavs before the conversion of the latter. The borderland of Greek language in 

 Macedonia and Thrace marks the southern frontier of the Bulgarian empire at its 

 official adoption of Christianity in the ninth century. 



An infiltration of Germans among Czechs has gone on for a long time past, but the 

 borderland of mixed language marks the limit of Bohemia at the time of conversion. 

 There is little trace upon the present map of the former linguistic boundaries of the 

 Slavs who remained heathen until after their conquest by the Germans, as in 

 Brandenburg, but the borderland of mixed Polish and German speech approximately 

 marks the position of the Poles at the time of their conversion in the tenth century. 

 The boundary of Russian language with Polish, Latvian and Estonian occupies the 

 same position as at the time of the adoption of Christianity by the Russians in the 

 reign of Vladimir I (980-1015). Similar results have been worked out for other 

 borderlands of European language where political reconstruction has occurred since 

 the Great War. 



The author calls attention to the light thrown upon problems of modem 

 nationality by a study of the dioceses and archiepiscopal provinces of medieval 

 Europe. 



Lt.-Col. the Kt. Hon. Sir Matthew Nathan, P.C., G.C.M.G.— The Great 

 Barrier Beef. 



While Darwin's theory of coral reefs growing up as the foundation on which 

 they rest subsides, so that coral-beds of great thickness can be formed within those 

 depths that are favourable to coral growth, is consistent with recent speculations as 

 to the influence of iso3tasy and radio-activity in producing a series of earth surface 

 revolutions creating mountain ranges and buckling the ocean bottom, neither these 

 speculations nor Darwin's theory are universally accepted. The bearing on the 

 latter of the results of borings in 1903 at Funa-futi, one of the Ellice Islands in the 

 Pacific, and in 1925 on the Great Barrier Reef itself, are discussed in the paper, which 

 gives a geographical description of the reef and of the neighbouring land and seas, 

 explaining the factors that have limited coral growth to the north and south, and 

 that have produced the high rocky inner and low coral outer islands on either side 

 of the long lagoon that runs by the coast of Queensland. The recently observed 

 crescentic formations and pinnacle growths on the inner reef are described, as well 

 as the manner in which the loose coral growths are gradually compacted by filling 

 and cementing, and the circumstances in which coral branches and masses are broken 

 off, disrupted, and triturated. The paper concludes with some remarks on the 

 zoological aspect of coral reefs in general, and of the Great Barrier Reef in particular, 

 and on the economic results that may flow from a greater knowledge of life on this 

 unique geographical structure. 



Dr. Bailey Willis.— The Palestine Earthquake, July 11, 1927. 



Friday, September 2. 



Papers on Studies in the Geography of Leeds, by members of the 

 School of Geography of the University of Leeds : — 



Dr. C. B. Fawcett.— The Position and Growth of Leeds. 



Leeds is a foothill town at the eastern edge of the Pennine Highland, on the 

 largest of the valleys which open on to the Vale of York. It is also near the western 



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