J895.] F. A. Shillingford— ^w«* River. 41 



control ; the process of self-purification is still at so early a stage that 

 the external conditions of the individual have to be carefully adjusted 

 to his weak condition. He is an ascetic, denies himself abundance of 

 food, he inhabits the woods, and carefully and scrupulously lives a life 

 away from the haunts of men ; thus he flies from temptations because 

 temptations may overcofue him. So in primitive Humanity the condi- 

 tions of life are simple. The second picture typifies a higher state of 

 self-control and inner development. The previous discipline has 

 borne fruit, and the ascetic no longer requires to live in the woods or 

 monasteries. At the time of Buddha, or of Christ, a new era was 

 inaugurated when the children of God *' live in the world though not of 

 it." Surrounded by temptations of every kind the present and future 

 ascetic maintains his firm hold upon the inner life, unmoved and 

 without attachment. Thus the two pictures show forth the law of 

 evolution as it affects and powerfully modifies the growth of character 

 and development of religion itself, or of the Human capacity to receive 

 spiritual revelations. 



The following papers were read : — 



1 . Description of a new Lathraea from the Eastern Himalaya^ — By 

 Surgeon-Captain H. A. Cummins, Army Medical Staff. Communicated 

 hy the Natural History Secretary {Fostjponed from last Meeting.) 



2. Notes on the bleaching action of light on colouring matters, — By 

 Alexander Pedler, Esq., F.R.S., &c. 



The papers will be published in the Journal, Part II. 



3. On changes in the course of the Kusi River, and the ;prohahle 

 dangers arising from them, — By F. A. Shillingford, Esq. 



The paper will be published in the Journal, Part 1. 



Sir Charles Elliott said : — *' The paper, as far as it has been ex- 

 plained to us by Dr. Grierson, is open to criticism on many points. 

 The past history of the Kusi river is uncertain. It is admitted that 

 it originally flowed in an easterly course, and has gradually reached 

 its present position where it flows almost direct south from the gorge 

 through which it debouches from the Himalayas. But why should not 

 the swing of the pendulum continue till it is deflected as much to the 

 west as it ever was to the east ? There seems to be no evidence 

 adduced to show that, the river has reached its westernmost position, 

 or to show that if it has, it will return violently from a direct southern 

 to an extreme eastern course, instead of doing so gradually. Neither 

 has anything been said about the well-known theory of the westering 

 of rivers in the Northern Hemisphere which, so far as it is a true 

 theory, would lead us to expect the river to trend in a westerly, not an 



