306 British Association for the Advanceme?it of Science. 



erto a vocabulary of about 400 words is all that we possessed of 

 it, it will be admitted that this native of Gambia has not been 

 an miproiitable subject of geographical inquiry. 



Next was read a Sketch of the recent Russian Expeditions to 

 Novaia Seml'ia, by Prof. Von Baer. 



Lieut. Col. Don J. Velasquez de Leon gave a short account of 

 a map of Mexico recently made by order of the Government, 



Capt. Washington, R. N. communicated an account of the Re- 

 cent Expeditions to the Antarctic seas. This paper was illustra- 

 ted by a South circumpolar chart on a large scale, showing the 

 tracks of all former navigators to these seas, from Dirk Gherritz 

 in 1599, to M. d'Urville in 1838 ; including those of Tasman in 

 1642, Cook in 1773, Bellingshausen in 1820, Weddell in 1822, 

 Biscoe in 1831, and exhibiting a vast basin, nearly equal in ex- 

 tent to the Atlantic ocean, unexplored by any ship, British or 

 foreign. The writer pointed out that the ice in these regions 

 was far from stationary ; that Bellingshausen had sailed through 

 a large space within the parallel of 60°, where Biscoe found ice 

 that he could not penetrate : — that where d'Urville had lately 

 found barriers of field-ice, Weddell, in 1822, had advanced with- 

 out difficulty to the lat. of 74^-°, or within 16° of the pole ; and 

 that it was evident from the accounts of all former navigators, 

 that there was no physical obstacle to reaching a high southern 

 latitude, or, at any rate, to examining those spots which theory 

 pointed out as the positions where the southern magnetic poles 

 will probably be found. The paper also mentioned the expedi- 

 tion to the South Seas, which has just left this country fitted 

 out by several merchants, but chiefly under the direction of that 

 spirited individual, Mr. Enderby, whose orders were to proceed 

 in search of southern land, and to attain as high a south latitude 

 as possible. 



Mr. Murchison gave an account of a Geological map and sec- 

 tions of the border counties of England and Wales. 



Mr. Griffith gave an account of his Geological map of Ireland, 

 and of two remarkable sections in the south of that country. 



A paper on the stratification of rocks, by Mr. Liethart, of New- 

 castle, was next read. 



A short paper by Mr. Trimmer was read on the occurrence of 

 m,arine shells over the remains of Terrestrial Mamm<aKa in Cefn 

 Cave, in Denbighshire. The cave is in carboniferous limestone ; 



