Wellington Philosophical Society. 555 



ABSTRACT. 



The author exhibited a part of a roll of a Samaritan Pentateuch, brought by him from 

 Nablous, the ancient Shechem. He then read a paper briefly narrating the history of the 

 Kingdom of Israel or Samaria ; discussing the question of the probable origin of the 

 " Samaritans " who were in occupation of the country at the time of the return of the 

 Jews from Babylon ; tracing the history of the Samaritan nation under the Koman Empire 

 and through the middle ages ; and mentioning the accounts contained in the Samaritan 

 chronicles. He then referred to the bringing of the Samaritan Pentateuch to Europe, and the 

 controversy which raged as to its supposed superiority to the Jewish form ; butfstated that 

 it is now all but universally believed that the latter represents the original text. After 

 describing the great MS. at Nablous, which he had himself examined, he discussed the 

 question of the way in which the Samaritans had become possessed of the Pentateuch, 

 maintaining that the more probable view was that it had been brought to them by 

 Manasseh, a Jewish Priest expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah. He then mentioned 

 more in detail some of the points in which the Samaritan differs from the Jewish version, 

 especially the shape of the letters, and the words added by the Samaritan to Exodus xx., 

 18. After speaking of the rolls now at St. Petersburg and Cambridge, he gave a full 

 account of the Samaritan Passover, Nablous being the only place in the world where the 

 Passover, as described in the Book of Exodus, is still celebrated. 



The Bev. Mr. Van Staveren examined the fragment and expressed himself highly 

 pleased with it and the author's remarks. 



5. " The Law of Gavelkind," by Coleman Phillips. (Transactions, 

 p. 518.) 



6. Dr. Hector exhibited the original curve drawn by the large barograph at the 

 Melbourne Observatory on the 27th and 28th of August last, which have very courteously 

 been sent to him by Professor Ellery. This curve shows abnormal oscillations similar to 

 those which he (Dr. Hector) had pointed out at previous meetings of the Society on 

 29th August and 26th September last as having been produced simultaneously by the 

 barographs at Wellington and Dunedin. By expressing these curves in the same local 

 time it was found that the oscillations occurred about 90 minutes earlier at Melbourne 

 than in New Zealand. If, as was very probable, these remarkable oscillations were 

 connected with the great eruption in Sunda Straits, by measuring the distance along great 

 circles the actual difference in the time would be reduced to about 75 minutes, which 

 would give for the velocity of the transmission of these curious atmospheric waves 600 

 miles an hour or 1,000 feet per second, or nearly the velocity of sound. 



This seems to point to the dispersal of waves through a medium very different from 

 anything we are acquainted with, and suggests the probability of the existence of a some- 

 what definite limit in altitude to the terrestrial atmosphere with which we are familiar, 

 and in which all our winds and slow moving cyclonic impulses are transmitted. On the 

 occasion of a great outburst of force from the earth's surface, such as the late Java eruption, 

 it is probable that a volume of gaseous matter may be projected through this denser part 

 of the atmospheric envelope, and being there condensed under very different conditions of 

 temperature and pressure, gives rise to pulsations that traverse the upper and more 

 attenuated medium. 



Dr. Hector mentioned that the extraordinary coloured glow in the sky which has been 

 visible every clear night and morning since the first week in September, seemed to support 

 this view by proving the existence at an enormous altitude of some vapourous matter 

 capable of refracting the sun's light into its prismatic components. He had observed, to 



