1888 - 89 .] Meetings of the Society. 815 
westward by the prevailing winds in a manner analogous to what Dr 
Murray, in a recent communication, showed to prevail in the Scottish 
lochs as the effect of winds. 
In the wide field of oceanic research, Mr Buchanan has further 
contributed materially to the improvement of instruments and 
methods of observation ; has made original observations on currents, 
temperatures, and salinities; commenced the work of contouring 
the bed of the sea off the coast of Africa; drawn attention to the 
remarkable manner in which deposits are being laid down from the 
mouth of the Congo for 600 miles westwards into the Atlantic; and 
made valuable suggestions as to the effect of the great Atlantic 
waves which accompany the storms of north-western Europe on 
the land and bottom of the sea immediately adjoining. 
In reference to fresh water lakes, he has shown, from observa- 
tions made in Loch Lomond and Linlithgow Loch in 1878-79, that 
the opinion generally held up to that time, that the bulk of the 
fresh water of a frozen lake presented a temperature of 39°2, was 
erroneous. 
The Chairman presented the Makdougall-Brisbane Prize, for the 
period 1884-86, to Dr John Murray, for his Papers on the Drainage 
Areas of Continents and Ocean Deposits, the Rainfall of the Globe 
and Discharge of Rivers, the Height of the Land and Depth of the 
Ocean, and the Distribution of Temperature in the Scottish Lochs 
as affected by the Wind. 
Professor Crum Brown made the following statement : — 
These papers are of great geographical, meteorological, and zoolo- 
gical value. By careful selection of the most trustworthy data, well- 
devised and laborious measurements, and judicious estimations 
where certainty was unattainable. Dr Murray has arrived at closely 
approximate results for the correct mean heights of the land of each 
of the great divisions of the earth, and of the mean depths of the 
sea in each ocean. From these he has calculated the total volume 
of solid land above, and the total volume of water below sea- 
level. 
He has made careful measurements of the drainage areas of the 
world, and shown that a very large proportion of the solid debris 
washed down by rivers is deposited in shallow land-locked seas, 
and that comparatively little, if any, finds its way to the great 
depths of the ocean which are distant from the land. The deposits 
in the depths of the ocean proceed at an excessively slow rate, and, if 
we except the earbones of whales and sharks’ teeth, which withstand 
