Geographical Society, 
213 
their features are coarse, and the nose broad and flat, but the 
general expression pleasing. All the males above 12 years old 
were circumcised. The western side of the Gulf of Carpentaria 
is well peopled ; but beyond this, as far as the head of the gulf, 
the natives are few and scattered. Mr. Earl says he has observed, 
that on the north coast of Australia the population bears a striking 
proportion to the quantity of vegetable food, to procure which the 
natives take great trouble, while they do not seem to be near so 
partial to animal diet. 
May 25, 1846.—In the great room of the Society were dis¬ 
played two elaborately coloured Maps, each being twenty-five feet 
long, of Van Diemen’s Land and the south-eastern angle of Aus¬ 
tralia, by Count Strzelecki. 
June 22, 1846.—A paper was read, relating to the currents of 
the ocean, as shown by a bottle thrown overboard from the 
Erebus, by Sir J. C. Ross. At 8 p.m., on the 4th April, 1842, 
in 53° 59' S., and 60° 47' W., Sir James threw into the sea five 
bottles, as was his frequent practice during the voyage. These 
bottles were made to float at different depths, by being loaded 
with different weights of dry sand. The deepest would, of 
course, be more influenced by the current than by the prevailing 
winds; the lightest, on the contrary, would be carried forward 
more by the wind than by the currents ; those floating at inter¬ 
mediate depths would serve to show more nearly the joint effects 
of both. The vicinity of Cape Horn was considered by the 
captain an eligible position for one of these experiments. These 
details were given by Sir J. Ross to Sir R. I. Murchison ; who 
having seen, in the Scotsman newspaper, the account of a bottle 
picked up at Cape Liptrap, at the southern extremity of Australia, 
in September, 1845, wrote to Sir J. Ross on the subject. The 
bottle, picked up at Cape Liptrap, contained a paper which 
identified it as one of those so thrown overboard; and from its 
having no sand in it, was doubtless the lightest. It must, says 
the captain, have been hurried forward on its course to the east¬ 
ward by the strong westerly winds which blow in that parallel of 
latitude—with much greater force than, and with almost equal 
constancy as, do the trade winds of the equatorial regions in the 
vol. in, no. in. 
p 
