Learned Societies. 407 
Royal SociETy.—The papers read on the 14th ult. 
were, “On the Relation of Insolation to Atmospheric 
Humidity,” by J. Park Harrison, M.A., communicated by 
the President; “On the Conversion of Dynamical into 
Electrical Force without the aid of Permanent Magnetism,” 
by C. W. Siemens. Mr. Siemens’ apparatus was exhi- 
bited. A paper on the same subject by Professor Wheat- 
stone was read to the society, and an apparatus exhibited. 
Next week the paper will be by Dr. J. J. Bigsby, “A brief 
Account of the Thesaurus Siluricus, with a few Facts and 
Inferences.” 
ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—At the meeting of 
this Society on the 11th ult., Sir R. I. Murchison, President, 
in the chair,a letter was read, supposed to be the last 
written by M. Jules Gérard, the lion killer and African 
traveller, who met his death while on his way from West 
Africa to Algiers, vee Timbuctoo. The letter was dated 
Mano, lat. 8 deg. 10 sec. N., in the interior from Sherbro, 
on the west coast, south of Sierra Leone. It was addressed 
to a French trader at Sherbro, by whom it was given to 
Lieutenant Alwin S. Bell, who had now communicated it 
to the Society. Gérard had met with the usual difficulties 
in passing the territories of the chiefs near the coast, and 
was, at the time of writing, staying with Bagon, King of 
the Kasso tribe. The letter gave some interesting details 
concerning the rivers in the Kasso country, and described 
ivory and cotton as very abundant and low in price, the 
country never having been visited by traders. The death 
of the traveller occurred, according to Lieutenant Bell, 
within a month of the date of the letter, by the upsetting 
of a canoe in crossing the Jong river; but whether by acci- 
dent or the design of the natives was not known with cer- 
tainty at Sherbro. The papers of the evening were, “An 
Ascent of Mount Hood, in Oregon,” by the Rev. H. K. 
Hines, and “ A Journey of Exploration in Eastern Oregon 
and Idaho,’ by Colonel C. S. Drew, U.S.A., and Mr. 
Robert Brown, F.R.G.S. Mount Hood was described as 
an active volcano, and the ascent picturesquely described 
by the author, the altitude being given as 17,640 ft., thus 
proving it to be the highest mountain in North America. 
The accuracy of this observation of the altitude was, how- 
ever, disputed by Admiral Sir Edward Belcher in the dis- 
cussion which followed. Mr. R. Brown, Mr. Casella, Mr. 
A. G. Dallas, (late Governor of Prince Rupert’s Land), and. 
Mr. W. Lane Booker (Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul at. 
