March 8, 1858.] GRAHAM’S EXPLORATIONS EAST OF THE HAURAN. 173 
Eighth Meeting , Monday , March' 8th, 1858. 
Sir RODERICK I. MURCHISON, President, in the Chair. 
Presentations. — Lord Keane and Captain Sidney Webb , Mr. T. W. 
Atkinson and Mr. Nathaniel Bridges , were presented upon their election. 
Elections. — Sir Culling E. Eardley, Bart.; the Bev. J. W. Hammond; 
the Bev. G. B. Lowden ; Lord Badstock ; Captain John Walker , Her 
Majesty’s 61st Foot ; Dr. G. Webster; and George Arbuthnot ; Augustus F. 
and John W. Birch ; W. Fowell Buxton ; Hugh C. E. Childers ; Charles 
H. Dickson ( Her Majesty* s Consul at Sukumkale ) ; William Lockhart 
(of China ) ; William Longman ; J. W. Towson ; Alexander Trotter ; 
Arthur Yardon; and Bobert F. Williams, Esqrs., were elected Fellows. 
Exhibitions. — A number of Inscriptions, copied by Mr. Cyril 
Graham, and a Japanese hat from the town of Ilakodadi, presented 
by Lieutenant Gilmore, r.n., f.r.g.s., were exhibited at the Meeting. 
Announcements. — The Chairman stated that he had received a 
letter that morning from Dr. Livingstone, from Birkenhead, who 
was in momentary expectation of starting, thanking all his kind 
friends who welcomed him at the dinner. 
The first Paper read was : — 
1 . Explorations in the Desert East of the Haurdn, the ancient ImuJ of 
Bashan. By Cyril C. Graham, Esq., f.r.g.s., &c. 
The principal results of the journey described in these papers, 
are : — 
1. A visit to a very remarkable region, called es-Safah, lying at 
above half a degree east of the northern portion of the mountains of 
the Hauran, and of which region hitherto only very imperfect 
accounts had been obtained by Burckhardt, Porter, and others, from 
information they had got from the Arabs of the desert, to whom 
alone this region was known. It resembles almost exactly the 
Lejah.* Like that wonderful region, it forms a complete island of 
basalt, and its interior is rent in the wildest manner ; crevices so 
wide and deep that no one can venture across them. Indeed, it 
seems as if the whole had once been a mass of molten matter, and 
while in that state acted on simultaneously by some internal con- 
vulsive force and by some violent external force, and then suffered 
almost suddenly to cool. 
* See Porter, ‘Damascus,’ vol. ii. p. 240. 
