PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY. 



.1838. No. 35. 



November 15, 1838. 



DAVIES GILBERT, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



The following gentlemen were, by ballot, elected Auditors of the 

 Treasurer's accounts, on the part of the Society, viz., Thomas Gal- 

 loway, Esq., Thomas Graham, Esq., Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., 

 M.A., John W. Lubbock, Esq., M.A., and the Rev. Adam Sedg- 

 wick, M.A. 



Monck Mason, Esq., was balloted for, but not elected into the 

 Society. 



A paper was read, entitled, " Discovery of the Source of the 

 Oxus." By Lieut. Wood, of the Indian Navy. Communicated by 

 James Burnes, K.H., D.C.L., F.R.S., in a letter to the Secretary 

 of the Royal Society. 



The following notice of the discovery of the source of the Oxus 

 by Lieut. Wood, one of the officers serving under Captain Alex- 

 ander Burnes, F.R.S., in his political and scientific mission to Cabul, 

 is contained in a letter from Captain Burnes : 



"This celebrated river " (the Oxus) "rises in the elevated region 

 of Pameer in Sinkoal. It issues from a sheet of water, encircled on 

 all sides, except the west, by hills, through which the infant river 

 runs ; commencing its course at the great elevation of about 15,600 

 feet above the level of the sea, or within a few feet of the height of 

 Mont Blanc. To this sheet of water Lieut. Wood proposes to as- 

 sign the name of Lake Victoria, in honour of Her Majesty." 



November 22, 1838. 



FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V.P. and Treas.,in the Chair. 



Lieut. -General John Briggs, E.I.C.S., was balloted for, and duly 

 elected into the Society. 



A paper was read, entitled, " On the State of the Interior of the 

 Earth." By W. Hopkins, Esq., M. A., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., &c. 



The object of the present memoir is to inquire into the modes in 

 which the refrigeration of the earth may have taken place, on the 



