Yncas, the Chibchas, and the Aztecs were based upon the progress made in the arts of civilization by the tribes which composed them, and on the united efforts of those tribes, after they had been welded into great nations. The difficulties of classifying or distinguishing the special characteristics of the component tribes having been shown, a description was given of the region which formed the empire of the Yncas. This vast tract is a long strip of mountain- and coast-line, bounded on the east by the forest-covered plains of the Amazonian basin, on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and extending north and south from 2° N. to about 20° S., or upwards of 1500 miles, with an average width of 400 miles. It comprises every variety of climate, and contains within its limits the most prolific tropical forests, valleys with the climate of Italy, a coast-region resembling Sind or Egypt, temperate hill-sides and plateaux, bleak and chilling pasture-lands, and lofty peaks and ridges within the limits of eternal snow. On one mountain-side the eye may embrace, at a single glance, sugar-cane and bananas under cultivation in the lowest zone, waving fields of maize a little higher up, shaded by tall trees, orchards of tropical fruits, stretches of wheat and barley, steep slopes clothed with potatoes and quinoa, bleak pastures where llamas and alpacas are browsing, and rocky pinnacles streaked with snow. In such a country, with such a variety of climates and products, and where communication is so difficult, the various nations appear to have gradually developed their capabilities in almost complete isolation. The tribal divisions of the empire of the Yncas agree well with its leading physical aspects. They consist of five clearly defined regions, four following the lines of the Cordilleras, and the fifth on the sea-coast. The first and most northern extends from the river Ancas-mayu to the knot of Loxa, a distance of 350 miles, and is included in the kingdom of Quitu. The second reaches from the mountain-mass of Loxa to the saddle which separates the drainage of the Huallaga and Ucayali. It is 450 miles long, and comprises the Ynca division of Chinchasuyu. The third and most important region is that which is drained by affluents of the Ucayali. It includes the home of the imperial tribe, and may appropriately be called the Ynca division. The fourth comprises the basin of Lake Titicaca, and is known as the Collao. The fifth is the coast-region, and extends along the shores of the Pacific, from the Bay of Guayaquil to the desert of Atacama, a distance of 1200 miles. There is no sufficient evidence for the belief that the Yncas originally came from a distance, and there is a native tradition to the effect that their civilization was altogether of indigenous origin and growth. The author referred successively, and in considerable detail, to the religion, the language, and the architecture of the Yncas, which afforded evidence of, and an index to, the progress of civilization among the tribes. He also briefly described the different regions which comprised the empire, and gave some account of their history and peculiar characteristics. The conclusion arrived at, after careful study, was that the tribes of Peru resolve themselves into two primary divisions, distinguished by a complete difference of language, both as regards vocabulary and grammatical construction, sufficient to establish an entirely separate origin. These are the people of the four Andean regions, and the Indians of the coast. They form two races and two civilizations. The tribes of the four Andean regions, on the other hand, spoke languages which, though differing as regards vocabulary, are identical in grammatical construction, and point to a common origin. The languages are our most reliable guides. Physical differences are caused by local circumstances connected with climate and habits of life. But the languages, when carefully studied, give us an insight into the original condition of the different tribes, and, with the aid of evidence collected from the earliest writers, enable us to resolve the great Ynca Empire into its elements, and to classify its component parts. In a geographical point of view it is important that we should be able to indicate the exact positions occupied by the different tribes, as well as their relative importance, and the degree of relationship they bore to each other. On the Sonali Corst. By Capt. MILES. This paper contained information regarding the country and its inhabitants, as well as the trade in gum and aromatic spices, in which the natives have engaged from a very early period. The Somali country is but thinly peopled, the tribes being purely nomadic, raising no corn, but subsisting on their flocks and herds, and moving about for the convenience of pasturage. Encroachments of the Sea on the East Coast of Yorkshire. On the Inundation and Subsidence of the Yang-tsze River, in China. By S. MOSSMAN. The author described the phenomena attending the annual floods of the Yangtsze-Kiang, which are similar to those of the Nile, but greater in inundation, and more devastating in effect. The floods depend upon rainfall from clouds caused by the south-west monsoon rising in the Indian Ocean, and the melting of snow in Eastern Thibet and Kokonoor, where the tablelands are from 12,000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea. So far the origin of the floods in the Yangtsze-Kiang is similar to that of the Nile, but the rise and subsidence of the former river are more rapid than those of the latter. The inundations vary more or less in their height from year to year, the range being from thirty-five to fifty feet, while the most frequent rise is about forty feet. Letters from Vladivostok and Nikolsk, South Ussuri District. On the Geography of Moab. By E. H. PALMER, M.A. The author commenced by describing the country of Moab, which is about fifty miles long by twenty broad, and includes the tableland on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, as well as that part of the Ghor which lies on the eastern bank of the Jordan opposite Jericho. The uplands he described as consisting of a rolling plateau, about 3200 feet above the level of the sea, the western edge being cut up into deep valleys, and descending by a series of sloping hills, at angles of forty-five and fifty degrees, into the Dead Sea. These uplands are naturally divided into two districts by the great chasm of Wády Mojib, the Arnon of Scripture. The author gave some interesting instances of his identification of modern places and terms with those mentioned in Scripture history. For instance, he stated that the modern town of Kerek, though little better than a collection of hovels, stands upon the site of the ancient capital of Moab. In the Old Testament it is called KírHaraseth, Haresh, or Heres. The first part of the name appears to signify "a walled city," but the meaning of the suffix has sufficiently puzzled commentators. But when the author was at Dhibán (the ancient Dibon), he unexpectedly met with an explanation of this term, and it is very curious as an example of the striking manner in which apparently trivial local idioms and customs often illustrate the phraseology of the Bible. Asking one of the Arabs where the Moabite stone was found, the latter replied that it was "between the harithein," that is, between the two háriths. Now, in Arabic this word would mean a ploughman, and when the author asked for a further explanation, the Arab pointed out the two hillocks upon which the ruined village of Dhibán stands, and between them lay the fragments of the broken monument of Mesha. Nearly all the towns in Moab are built upon similar eminences, and the author found that they are invariably called Háriths by the Arabs. The word "Harith" is precisely equivalent in orthography to the haresh, or hareseth of the Bible; and thus, in an apparently insignificant idiom, is seen an unexpected illustration of the topography of the Bible,- -an additional reason for identifying the modern Kerek with the ancient Kír-hareseth ("the city on the hill"), and the interesting discovery of a local Moabite word handed down from the time of Jehoram, son of Ahab, to the present day. The author gave several other curious instances of this kind of identification, and described at some length the investigations of Capt. Warren, Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, and himself. On an Acoustic Phenomenon at Jebel Nágús, in the Peninsula of Sinai. By Captain H. S. PALMER, R.E. Jebel Nágús is the name given to a high sand-slope in the western coast-range of the peninsula of Sinai, about five miles north of the port of Tor. The sand of this slope possesses the peculiar property of giving forth loud musical sounds when set in motion by design or by natural causes. According to a quaint native legend, founded on the former monastic occupation of this part of the peninsula, the sounds are said to proceed from the nágús, or "wooden gong", of a monastery buried beneath the sand. Hence the application of the name Nágús to the slope in question. The sand-slope is about 200 feet high, and 80 yards wide at its base, narrowing towards the top; it faces west-south-west. Sandstone cliffs overhang it, and bound it on either side, and an open sandy plain stretches from the foot of the slope to the sea-shore, about three-quarters of a mile distant. The sand of the slope appears to be that from the neighbouring desert plain, derived in the first place from the waste of the sandstone rocks, and then conveyed to its position on the hill-side by the drifting action of high winds; its grains are large, and consist entirely of quartz. The rock in situ is a soft friable quartzose sandstone, of a pale brown inside, and weathered externally to a dull dark brown. The sand of the slope is so clean, and in its usual condition so extremely dry, and inclined at so steep an angle (about 2910) to the horizon, that it may be easily set in motion by such causes as the passage of men or animals across it, falling débris from the cliffs above, or disturbance by the wind. Sometimes also movement on a smaller scale may arise from an abnormal excess of heat and drought, or from the separation of the surface-particles, after their consolidation by rain or dew, on the return of heat and the sun's burning rays. When any considerable quantity of the sand is in movement, rolling gradually down over the surface of the slope in thin waves an inch or two deep, just as oil or any thick liquid might roll over an inclined sheet of glass, and in similar festoons or curves, then is heard the singular acoustic phenomenon from which the hill derives its name, at first a deep, swelling, vibratory moan, rising gradually to a dull roar, loud enough, when at its height, to be almost startling, and then as gradually dying away, till the sand ceases to roll. The sound is difficult to describe exactly; it is not metallic, not like that of a bell, nor yet that of a nágús. Perhaps the very hoarsest note of an Eolian harp, or the sound produced by drawing the finger round the wet rim of a deep-toned fingerglass, most closely resembles it, though there is less music in the sound of the rolling sand it may also be likened to the noise produced by air rushing into the mouth of an empty metal flask; sometimes it almost approaches to the roar of very distant thunder, and sometimes it resembles the deeper notes of a violoncello, or the hum of a humming-top. The author found by experiment that hot surface-sand was more sonorous than the cooler layers beneath; it also seemed to run more quickly; the first experiments on any one part of the slope produced louder effects than subsequent ones. Surface-sand, at a temperature of 103° Fahr., exposed to the sun's full glare, produced the grandest effect observed, while sand in shade, at 62°, was almost mute. By day the heat on the slide is generally very great. Movement of the sand when moist is not accompanied by unusual sounds. Excavation was impossible, on account of the continuous flow of the sand when disturbed; in some places nothing solid could be reached by probing; in others, rock was felt a few inches below the surface, but whether in situ or not could not be ascertained. When sand is rolling down and producing sound, there is a distinct vibration on the slide, increasing with the intensity of the sounds. Throughout Capt. Palmer's stay, the wind blew from N.W.; the effects produced on the slide by winds from other quarters have yet to be observed. Experiments on two other sand-slides, a little to the south of Jebel Nágús, and resembling it in many particulars, did not result in producing any similar sounds. But phenomena of a kindred character had been noticed in other parts of the world, as, for instance, at Reg-Raván forty miles north of Cabul, and on the sandy plains of Arequipa in Peru. Jebel Nágús had been several times visited and described, but the author had * Used in place of bells in convents of the Greek Church. had better means and opportunities for investigation than those of previous travellers, and he submitted this paper in the hope of once more inviting attention to a curious and interesting subject. There could be no doubt that the sound arises from the movement of the surface-sand, and is intimately connected with the siliceous character of the sand and its extreme dryness, but the author was not aware that any exact explanation of the phenomenon had as yet been elicited from scientific men. Notes on British Gurhwal. By Capt. A. PULLAN. The Saskatchewan Valley. By Dr. RAE. On the Volcan de Agua, near Guatemala. By W. B. RICHARDSON. A Journey through Mekran. By Major E. C. Ross. On the Topography of Ancient Jerusalem. By GEORGE ST. CLAIR. On the Himalayas and Central Asia. By TRELAWNEY SAUNDERS. On Trade Routes between Burmah and China. By Major SLADEN. The author explained that the object in view in all explorations undertaken in Burmah had been a desire on the part of our Government and mercantile classes to ascertain the practicability of establishing an overland route from the Bay of Bengal to Central and South-Western China. Major Sladen referred to the expedition which he conducted up the Irawadi a few years ago, and pointed out the practicability of navigating this river nearly, if not quite, up to the Chinese frontier. At Bhamo, 900 miles from the sea, and probably 1000 miles from its source, the Irawadi, when full between its natural banks, is four miles in breadth, and during a third of the year or more it might be navigated with the greatest ease as far as Bhamo, by vessels as large as any that have ever ascended the Yangtsze, from Shanghai to Hankow. By selecting the Irawadi as a means of transit for produce from South-Western China, and Rangoon as a port of export for such produce, the voyage to Europe, both in distance and duration, would be reduced in a correspoding degree, the expenses of navigation would be reduced, the risks and dangers attending difficult navigation through the straits of Malacca and the China seas avoided, and the heavy insurances at present in force by reason of such difficult navigation would be altogether done away with. On the Proposed Ship-Canal between Ceylon and India. This officer, having given much attention to the study of Indian hydrography, devoted a portion of his paper to an historical sketch of the discussion which has been going on more or less during the whole of the present century regarding the practicability of forming a navigable passage between the Gulf of Menaar and the Bay of Bengal. The project of deepening the Paumben Passage for the navigation of large ships did not commend itself to Commander Taylor's approval. Sir James Elphinstone, as a practical seaman, had personally investigated this channel, but had come to the conclusion that it would never do for large ships. But during his examination of the neighbourhood in concert with Captain Dorman, MasterAttendant of Colombo, Sir James discovered a well-sheltered area of anchorage, with soundings of five or six fathoms, extending over five square miles, and thence gradually decreasing to four fathoms about half a mile from the Indian shore, where the canal's mouth is proposed to be. This harbour lies between Mostapetta Point and Moosel islet, lengthways on the plan; whilst its north and south limits are respectively at Poonamudum town and Moolee islet, the entrance, in which there is now a depth of three fathoms at high water, being about a mile and a half to the east of the last-named islet. The anchorage is well protected against the southerly swell of the monsoon by the coral islets and connecting reefs, extending from Valinookam Point to Rameswaram. On the American Arctic Expedition. By Capt. WARD, R.N. Exploration of the Headwaters of the Marañon. Captain Garnier's Expedition up the Camboja. In this paper the author described the progress of the French Expedition up the Camboja river, which was sanctioned in the end of 1865 by M. ChasseloupLaubat, then Minister of Marine, and also President of the Geographical Society of Paris. The object of this Expedition was to discover the nature and resources of the region in which the French had planted a colony, and also to extend French influence in that direction. But few Europeans had previously ascended the river, so that the Expedition had practically a virgin field for exploration. The party started from Saigon on the 5th of June, 1866, and included Capt. De la Grée, the chief, Lieut. Garnier, second in command and geographer, Thorel and Joubert, navy surgeons and naturalists, Delaporte, a young naval officer, as artist, and De Carné, a young civilian. There were also four European soldiers and sailors, but they were all eventually sent back, and natives employed in their stead. Proceeding first to the neighourhood of Udong, near the Great Lake, as it is called, they then directed their course to Cratieh in 12° 28', distant 300 miles from the mouth of the river. Here they took to canoes for the ascent, which was at first favourable, but was afterwards rendered difficult by rapids and cataracts, the river being also broken by a vast number of islands. Above the cataracts the channel became narrower, and the islands gradually ceased. Difficulties with regard to passports were also felt, and a variety of causes rendered travelling backwards and forwards several times imperative. Instruments also that were necessary to success, and that had been promised them, had not arrived, and now, to add to their troubles, an insurrection broke out which closed the river below. Lieut. Garnier volunteered to make his way by land to the Delta, where it was expected that both passports and instruments would be found. He started on the 10th of January, 1867, and, after a perilous journey, reached the French gunboat stationed on the frontier. The passports were found, though the instruments were still missing; and on the 8th of February Garnier once more started for the upper country. On the 10th of March he rejoined his party at a place called Huten, in the province of Khemarat, having travelled something like 1100 miles since quitting them. This fatiguing journey has added a large and before quite unexplored tract to the surveys resulting from the Expedition. On quitting Huten, the river turns more and more westward and forms the first immense elbow, hitherto quite unsuspected (running east and west for nearly 4° of longitude), in about the latitude of 180° north. As far as Vienchang, the country traversed by the river is an immense plain, rarely broken by a few mountain-ridges. A short distance above Vienchang, the Mekong is found definitively shut in between two ranges of hills, and instead of its breadth being measured by miles, it is contained in a channel of 500 or 600 yards wide. Having got on the borders of the Ava territory, the party found that their most serious difficulties commenced. The Burmese officials offered obstructions, and the rainy season added severely to the fatigues of the way, while the extortions of the natives caused them additional trouble. But at last they reached Kiang Hung, |