92 Address. [Feb 8 



noted, however, that Mr. Townsend's sample was taken from the surface ; 

 whereas a true estimate can only be formed on oil taken from a bore- 

 hole. 



In connection with the subject of petroleum beds, mention may be 

 made of a recent theory, advanced by Professor Mendeleeff, that petrole- 

 um is of mineral origin, and is formed by the combination of water 

 with glowing- metallic carbides, chiefly iron, below the crust of the earth ; 

 whereby it is decomposed, the oxygen uniting with the iron, while the 

 hydrogen takes up the carbon, and ascends to higher regions, where part 

 is condensed into mineral oil and part remains as a natural gas. 



Strictly geological work in Burma is still subservient to the exa- 

 mination of economic products such as the oil-tracts of Thayetmu, Yenang- 

 young, &c ; iron ore near Shengaung in the Shan Hills ; and the Ruby- 

 bearing limestones of Kya-nhyat : while only lately attention has been 

 directed to the Tin ores of Tenasserim, in connection with a mission 

 which has been carried out in Perak, with the view of ascertaining the 

 system of Chinese labour there utilized. 



The Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society contains some 

 papers bearing on Indian Geology, among which the following may be 

 noted : — " On the law that govenis the action of Flowing Streams," by 

 Mr. R. D. Oldham. " On some of the auriferous tracts of the Mysore 

 Province. Notes on the Melkote and Seringapatam areas and general 

 observations," by Mr. G. Attwood. 



A paper on " certain features in the Geological structure of the 

 Myelat District, Upper Burma, as affecting the drainage of the country," 

 by Brigadier-General Collett, C. B., has been read to our Society, and 

 will be published in an early number of the Journal. 



Meteorology. 

 In Indian Meteorology, I am informed, the past year was one of steady 

 progress. It was (probably) that of minimum sun-spots of the pi-esent 

 cycle, and like its predecessor of the two previous cycles, 1866 and 1877, 

 has been characterised by very marked abnormal deviations and weather 

 features. The hot weather was unusually severe and several tornadoes 

 and hailstorms of almost unexampled violence occurred in Bengal and 

 Upper India. Interesting and valuable accounts of two of those storms, 

 viz., the tornado at Dacca in April last, in which 118 people were killed, 

 and the hailstorm of May at Moradabad, in which 150 people were killed 

 or frozen to death, have been presented to the Society by Messrs. Pedler 

 and Crombie, and Hill. The commencement of the south-west monsoon 

 was mai'ked by a very abnormal retardation of the monsoon current at the 

 head of the Bay for upwards of a fortnight, during which the heat was 



