378 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



at Fort Rae being printed and published. The reports of tbe 

 expeditions undertaken by Austria, Germany, and the United States 

 of America, are, I believe, complete, and those by France, Holland, 

 and Russia are in a forward state. Before the accounts of the obser- 

 vations taken at different stations by the observers of different 

 nations shall have been for some time before the public, it would be 

 premature to expect general conclusions to be deduced from this 

 great undertaking. 



Very satisfactory progress has been made during the past year 

 with the publication of the "Report of the " Challenger n Expedition. 

 The volumes already published and in the Society's Library now 

 amount to sixteen on Zoology, and three introductory on other sub- 

 jects. Others are in a very forward state, and it is expected that 

 the whole will be published very nearly within the time mentioned 

 by the Committee, probably by the end of the next financial year. 



As mentioned in the Presidential Address last year, advantage has 

 been taken of the British occupation of Egypt to make some explora- 

 tions by way of boring in the Delta of the Nile, to the results of 

 which geologists attach great importance. The War Department has 

 allowed some of the staff of the Royal Engineers, when their services 

 were not otherwise required, to take part in the operations, and has 

 lent the boring apparatus, and the Royal Society voted the sum of 

 350 1, out of its own Donation Fund to defray the cost of labour and 

 other incidental expenses. It was contemplated originally to make 

 a chain of borings, but the depth to which it has been found necessary 

 to proceed in order to get through the ordinary deposit has turned 

 out to be so great that it was thought better, instead of attempting 

 many, to try and get if possible down to rock, or to something else 

 which might afford evidence that what could be referred to alluvium 

 from the Nile or drifted sand had really been got through. A deep 

 boring has accordingly been made at Zagazig, under the direction of 

 Captain Dickenson, R.E. This has now been carried to a depth of 

 190 feet 6 inches below the surface, or 164 feet 5 inches below the 

 mean sea-level at Alexandria, and yet nothing has been reached but 

 sand and clay with small pebbles. Professor Judd is now engaged in 

 the examination of the matter brought up. A derangement of the 

 boring apparatus prevented for the present further progress, and the 

 use of a narrower pipe than any at hand would be required for 

 carrying the boring deeper. The Committee considered that it would 

 be more important to extend this boring, so as if possible to get down 

 to rock, or else to some deposit with fossils, than to make a fresh boring 

 in a different place, and arrangements are being made accordingly. 

 The inquiry was deemed a proper one to be assisted out of the Govern- 

 ment Grant, and the sum of 200Z. has been voted from this source to 

 supplement the Royal Society's grant already mentioned. 



