ORDINARY MEETING, FEBRUARY 20, 1888.

THE PRESIDENT, PROFESSOR G. G. STOKES, D.C.L., P.R.S., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following Elections were announced :

MEMBERS:—Major-General R. P. Anderson, B.Sc., London; R. Holmes White, Esq., London.

ASSOCIATE:-Rev. J. Neil, M.A., Camb., London.

A lecture on “Babylonian Early History," illustrated by maps and drawings, was delivered by Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, F.R.Hist. Soc.

A discussion ensued, in which the Honorary Secretary, called attention to the fact that during the year 1881 the firman granted to England for the purpose of carrying out explorations and excavations on the sites of the buried cities of Babylonia, terminated. The discovery by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam in 1881 of the buried city of Sepharvaim, one of the first mentioned in Holy Writ, had thrown a fresh flood of light upon the history of early times. The inscriptions already discovered, however, specially indicated the immense value of what still lay buried. The knowledge obtained was essentially fragmentary; to make it perfect, and even to complete many an inscription now in the British Museum,one needed further excavations, and these excavations must be carried on by experienced men, accustomed to deal with the sun-baked inscriptions, which soon perish after being brought to the outward air. It was sad to think that seven years had now elapsed without another firman having been obtained to enable this great mine of ancient history to be further explored, the more so as England just now possessed the services of the original English discoverer of these buried monuments, and of men whose special training as decipherers placed us in a far better position than any other nation to continue the work we had begun.

ORDINARY MEETING,

APRIL 9, 1888.

H. CADMAN JONES, ESQ., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following Elections were announced:

MEMBERS.-Rev. Principal J. Culross, M.A., D.D., Bristol; Rev. E. H. Hopkins, Richmond; R. Mountain, Esq., Harrogate; Professor J. H. Panton, M.A., F.G.S., Prof. Nat. History and Geology in the Agricultural College, Guelph, Canada; Vice-Principal, R. Weston, the Old Hall, Shropshire.

ASSOCIATES.-The Hon. T., F. Bayard, Minister of State, United States; W. W. Colborne, Esq., M.D., Margate; F. Hasluck, Esq., Birmingham.

A lecture on "The Diluvial Effects of Waves of Translation" illustrated by maps and drawings, was then delivered by Admiral Selwyn, R.N. A discussion ensued, in which Admiral Scott, R.N., Mr. W. St. C. Boscawen, the Rev. Dr. Syle, Herr Kamptrenvener, and the Chairman took part.

VOL. XXII.

inquiry took place with a view to ascertaining the particulars regarding such discovery, and it was found that the rocks in question were volcanic.

The following remarks upon the subject were laid before. the American Philosophical Society during the past session, in a paper entitled "On an Ancient Human Footprint from Nicaragua," by Dr. D. G. Brinton.

The discovery of human footprints in volcanic rocks near the shore of Lake Managua, Nicaragua, under circumstances which seemed to assign them a remote antiquity, has been announced for several years.* * We owe thanks especially to Dr. Earl Flint, of Rivas, Nicaragua, for information about this discovery, and for sending several specimens to the United States. Four of these are in the Peabody Museum of Archæology, Cambridge, and recently I have myself received one from Dr. Flint, together with several letters describing the locality. The possession of this material has induced me to present, along with its description, a general review of the subject.

The surface of the Republic of Nicaragua presents in nearly all parts the signs of enormous volcanic activity. It is broken by a complex series of mountain ranges whose sides are scored with vast lava streams. Frequent earthquakes attest the continued energy of the subterranean forces and prepare us for incidents of elevation and subsidence on an uncommon scale.

The great lakes of Nicaragua and Managua are divided by a low plain, through which flows the river Tipitapa, connecting these sheets of water. South of this lowland rises a mesa or table-land 400 or 500 feet above the level of the lakes, and upon this stand the volcanic cones of Mombacho (4,588) feet and Masaya (2,972 feet). Beyond these, the land still rising, reaches its height in the Sierras de Managua, presenting the craters of the extinct volcanoes of Tizcapa, Nezcapa (Nehapa), and Asososco; and further to the north-west immediately upon the shores of the Lake Managua, the still smoking peaks of Chiltepec (2,800 feet) and Momotombo (6,121 feet).

* The following are the principal references: Letter of Dr. Flint, dated Jan. 7, 1884, in the American Antiquarian, March, 1884; 17th Report of the Peabody Museum for 1881, page 356; 18th Report of the same, 1885, page 414; Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 1884, p. 92. Letter of Dr. Flint in American Antiquarian, May, 1885.

The last named (Momotombo) was active in 1852, and Masaya in 1858 and 1872, while Mombacho, though quiet, so far as we know, since the conquest, according to tradition, destroyed an important town just before that epoch, and its sides still reveal signs of terrific outbursts at no distant date. In the eruption of March, 1872, Masaya vomited a lava stream two miles in width.*

I quote these facts to show the volcanic character of the country, and the powerful agencies at work there.

For our present purpose, we have to confine our attention to the extinct volcano of Tizcapa. Like its neighbours, the cones of Nezcapa and Asososco, it has long since burnt out its fires, and all three have changed their flaming craters into deep and still lakes, encircled by precipitous walls of congealed masses. Tizcapa is about two and a half miles from the shore of Lake Managua, and in ancient times its molten streams found their way into the waters of the lake. Its eruptions were irregular, and evidently long periods of quiescence intervened between those of violent action, periods extended enough to allow the earlier tufa beds and lava streams to become covered with vegetation, the relics of which we find imbedded beneath later overflows. How much time this would require is a vital question in deciding the age of the footprints. These are found on the surface of the first or lowest tufa bed, which itself rests upon a bed of yellow sand.

Before proceeding to a discussion of the antiquity we may fairly assign to the relic, I shall insert Dr. Flint's description of the locality, and add a vertical section of the cutting in the quarry on the lake shore, in which the footprints are found. Both of these he has kindly sent me in a recent letter.

“The Cordilleras east of Lake Nicaragua are a continuous succession of low mountains, spread out and gradually diminishing to the depression, where the outlet of Lake Nicaragua passes seaward by the San Juan River. In past ages the spur west of the lakes Nicaragua and Managua (formerly part of an ocean inlet) was the theatre of volcanic action seldom exceeded; and its latent fires, out of the axial line, at Ometepetec and Momotombo, still smoke. These magnificent cones may continue to burn for ages, until they disappear, like their neighbours, leaving like them an abyss to mark their location.

Zapatero has its deep lake, whose surface is but slightly above

* See Pablo Levy, Notas sobre la Republica de Nicaragua, pp. 83, 84 (Paris, 1873), and A. Schiffman, Una Idea sobre la Geolojia de Nicaragua p. 125 (Managua, 1873).