Xxil. ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS. 
ABSTRACT OF PROCEEDINGS, SEPTEMBER l, 1897. 
The General Monthly Meeting of the Society was held at the 
Society’s House, No. 5, Elizabeth-street, North, on Wednesday 
evening, Septemper Ist, 1897. | 
Mr. Cuarves Moors, F..s., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Twenty-eight members and two visitors were present. 
The minutes of the preceding meeting were read and confirmed. 
The certificates of two candidates were read for the second time, 
and of two for the first time. 
THE FOLLOWING PAPERS WERE READ : 
1. ‘‘Outburst of Springs in time of Drought,” by W. E. ABsort. 
After briefly noticing the principal explanations which have 
_been put forward, the author indicated his own opinion, based 
upon frequent observations, extending over a large number of 
years, of the phenomenon. The theory advanced was that the 
exhaustion by capillary action, and rapid evaporation, occurring 
through the characteristic dryness of the air in prolonged drought, 
of the water in underlying water-bearing strata, prevents it ever 
reaching the terminal ends of the strata, at which discharge on to 
the surface takes place. When the condition of dryness of the 
air passes away, the evaporation diminishes and the exhaustion 
indicated does not continue, hence the reappearance of water on 
the surface. Variations of barometric pressure are, in themselves, 
not a cause. 
2. “The possibility of Soaring in Horizontal Wind,” by LAWRENCE 
HARGRAVE. 
This paper deals with some experiments connected with those 
perplexing observations that have received the name of “ Aspir- 
ation.” Many careful observers have noted birds of various kinds 
moving through the air and ascending when no movement could 
be detected in their wings. This has often been seen where the 
conditions were such that no upward trend in the mean direction 
of the wind could possibly exist. It is therefore correct to say 
