British Association for the Advancement of Science. 305 



this cavern did not militate against the received theory of the for- 

 mation of osseous breccias. It may have been a place of ancient 

 sepulture, the bodies being let down through a stratum of clay 

 and gravel. 



The next communication was on the Neiocastle coal field, by 

 Mr. John Buddie. This coal field occupies a tract in the coun- 

 ties of Northumberland and Durham of about 700 square miles. 

 Mr. B.'s very valuable essay was fully illustrated by a profusion 

 of accurate and highly-finished drawings, plans and sections. 



A paper was received from Prof Von Baer, of St. Petersburgh, 

 entitled '■^Recent Intelligence respecting the frozen ground in 

 iSibej^ia.'" Additional experiments on the temperatures during 

 the year at different depths have recently been commenced at 

 Yakutsk, details of which we shall have hereafter. 



Mr. Lyell, the President of the Section, read a paper on verti- 

 cal lines of Flint, traversing horizontal strata of Chalk, near 

 Norwich. 



Mr. Webb read a short notice of Lunar Volcanoes. He had 

 for some time examined the moon with an excellent five-feet 

 achromatic, and had found that several volcanic vents existed not 

 laid down in Schroter's lunar map ; and also, that several vents, 

 which had been so laid down, were now much enlarged in di- 

 mensions. On the whole, however, he considered that the moon 

 and the earth were similar in this respect, viz. that volcanic ac- 

 tion was now less violent than it had been in by gone periods. 



The secretary read a brief account of a Mandirigo, native of 

 Nyani-mara, on the River Gambia, by Capt. Washington, R. N. 

 This man, after many adventures, is now in England. As al- 

 ready observed by Goldberry and Laing, of the Mandingos gene- 

 rally, he resembles in his features the Hindoos more than the 

 blacks of Africa in general. His features are regular and open, 

 his person well -formed, full six feet in height, his nose Roman, 

 with the nostrils rather flattened, not thick lips, beautiful teeth, 

 hair woolly, color a good clear black, not jet. With the aid of 

 Mr. Renouard, a vocabulary of about 2000 words and phrases in 

 the Mandingo language had been gathered from this native, be- 

 sides itineraries in various parts of his country ; and when we 

 consider how extensively spread is this language, perhaps the 

 most so of any of the 36 families of languages into which au- 

 thors have divided the 115 languages of Africa, and that hith- 



VoL. XXXV.— No. 2. 39 



