March 22, 1858.] DESERT EAST OF THE HAURAN. 
181 
Yet they collect this water very carefully, cover it over, and it lasts a long 
time. There are no trees in Hauran, except on the western side of the 
mountain, where there are springs ; but in the plain of Hauran there are no 
trees and no water. I found no bulls engraved on the stones ; but . the 
country where I found the stones is to the east of Hauran a good way. In 
Hauran itself none of these inscriptions were found. It shows that the people 
who inhabited the country to the far east must have been a different race 
from the inhabitants of Bashan. It is only there I found the inscriptions. In 
the Hauran inscriptions are plentiful indeed ; hut there are none in these cities 
in the desert. These cities never seem to have been under Roman rule ; they 
seem to have been deserted long before the cities in the Hauran were. They 
seem to have been cut off from the others ; and, therefore, I can well account 
for there being no hulls put upon the stones. 1 found many curious things — 
a greyhound , a monkey, and an Arab on horseback running a man through ; 
hut all on the very lowest scale of art. The inscriptions, I think, are read 
from left to right, and from right to left. 
The President. — I can only repeat my best thanks to Mr. Cyril Graham 
for this very remarkable communication. I coincide with him entirely as to 
the probable cause of the desiccation — at least of the want of water, by the 
destruction of large forests which formerly existed in that country. I have 
seen examples of 'it myself in Russia. The loss of water, the lowering of the 
great rivers in that country, the desiccation of the lakes, and the actual drying 
up of lands which were formerly wet and spongy, are entirely owing to the 
cutting down of vast forests which formerly existed, and which, attracting 
the clouds, caused the rain to fall. We have no need to refer this desiccation 
to any geological elevation of the country. That simple cause will alone 
account for the phenomenon. 
Ninth Meeting , Monday , March 22nd, 1858. 
Sir RODERICK I. MURCHISON, President, in tbe Chair. 
Presentations. — Major W. H. Sitwell , Dr. Geo. Webster , Sir Culling 
Eardley , H. li. Grellet, William Lockhart , A. Trotter , A. Vardon , and 
R. F. Williams, Esqrs., were presented upon their election. 
Elections. — The Rev. Thomas Marziot , Henry G. Bohn, L. P. Casella, 
Stephen Cave , Cyril C. Graham , Robert M l Kerrell, James Ewing Mathe- 
son, John Henning Nix , and Thomas George Staveley , Esqrs., were elected 
Fellows. 
The Papers read were— 
1. Contributions to the Knowledge of New Guinea. By Dr. Salomon 
Muller. 
Communicated by John Yeats, Esq., f.r.g.s. 
This was an account of those parts of New Guinea which are least 
known to Europeans, namely, the south and south-west coasts. It 
was accompanied by a large map containing the latest observations, 
soundings of the Princess Marianne Strait, and views of the land 
in the neighbourhood of Triton Bay, &c. 
