commixed with the more nearly allied Arabs. Shakespere is, no doubt, in error when he calls the celebrated queen of Egypt a "tawny" beauty and a "gypsy," for Cleopatra was a Greek, and probably as fair as Cæsar or Antony. When the disparity of races is extreme, no amalgamation at all takes place, for an antipathy is the result, somewhat similar to that which prevents intermixture between closely allied species of the lower animals in the wild state. The Hottentots, the Caffres, and the negroes of Southern Africa have lived immemorially side by side without crossing. The pygmy negroes of the Malay Peninsula and those of the Philippines have dwelt immemorially in the same land with the Malayan race without the production of a cross race. So great, indeed, is the antipathy between these races (as far as we know, equally aborigines), that the weaker escapes exterminatiou only by sheltering itself in the recesses of inaccessible mountains. The red man of America and the Esquimaux, although immediate neighbours, never intermix.

But it is in that part of the New World in which one of the highest types of man, whether as to race or civilization, the Anglo-Saxon, and one of the lowest in both respects, the African negro, have by fortune been brought face to face, that the antipathy of race is presented in the greatest intensity and on the largest scale. There the great majority of the inferior are the slaves of the superior; but even those who have been manumitted are still a persecuted class, and held by the white man to be as impure as Bramins hold outcasts. A free negro,' says Col. Schaffner, an intelligent and liberal Virginian, 'is an individual, not a slave, having in whole or in part African blood, and society makes no distinction with respect to the degree of the mixture of blood. If there be the least African blood in the child, though there be every appearance common to the white race, even the straight black hair, it is, according to law, a negro.' According to the laws of the State of Tennessee, no white person can intermarry with a negro, mulatto, or other person of mixed blood down to the third generation. All marriages contracted contrary to this rule are declared null and void, the parties being besides considered guilty of a misdemeanour, and punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the judge. The laws of the State of Indiana go a step further, for by them 'one-eighth' part of negro blood vitiates a marriage and bastardizes the children. The State of Massachusetts adds Indians to negroes in their proscription, and that of Oregon wholly excludes negroes and even Chinese from its territory. It is

the presence of this African race, too prone to live and labour in slavery or in social degradation, and utterly incapable of rising to an equality with the higher race among whom it has been unhappily planted, that has caused the present distracted state of the NorthAmerican Continent."

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, (Somerset House).

November 4th, 1863.

The following communications were read: 1. "On some Ichthyolites from New South Wales sent over by the Rev. W. B. Clarke." By Sir P. de M. Grey Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Two specimens and three photographs, sent to England for the author's determination, enabled him to distinguish four genera, two of which were new, and allied to Acrolepis and Platysomus respectively; the known genera being Urosthenus, Dana (allied to Pygopterus), and Palæoniscus, Agass. Sir Philip was of opinion that these genera were sufficient to stamp the deposit in which they occur-namely, the coalformation of New South Wales-as belonging to the Paleozoic period, if they might be regarded as representative genera living at the same period as, but geographically distant from, their nearest allies; but, as regards the actual age of the formation, the allied genera were more abundantly represented in the magnesian limestone and the Kupferschiefer than in the coal measures. The materials, therefore, were, he considered, too meagre to justify a conclusion.-2. "Notes on the Geology of a portion of the Nile Valley north of the Second Cataract, in Nubia, chiefly with the view of inducing further search for Fluviatile Shells at High Levels." By A. Leith Adams, M.B., Surgeon 22nd Regiment. With a Note on the Shells, by S. P. Woodward, Esq.; and a Note on some Teeth of Hippopotamus, by Hugh Falconer, M.D., F.RS. In company with the late Mr. A. H. Rhind, F.S.A., the author made the usual boat-voyage from Cairo to the Second Cataract during last November and the two following months, when he was enabled to make some observations on the geology of that portion of the Nile valley. In this paper, he first described the physical features of the district, beginning at Selsileh and proceeding southwards, and then the lithological and stratigraphical characters of the Nile sandstone, as well as its mode of junction with the granite, noticing also the evidences of the Nile having shifted its bed, and of other physical changes occuring in Nubia. Near the Second Cata

ract were abundant proofs of the river having formerly flowed at higher levels, the author having found river shells-such as Cyrena Aluminalis, Paludina bulimoides, Iridina nilotica, and Etheria semilunata (the Nile oyster), as also Bulimus pullus and a Unio like U. pictorum-in beds of alluvium on elevated plateaus at various heights, ranging up to 130 feet, above the highest inundations of the present day. Dr. Adams concluded from these facts that the Nile was formerly a more rapid river than it is now, and that the force and wearing power of the stream had been steadily declining since the upheaval of the valley ceased. The determinations of the shells was made by Mr. Woodward, who gave a complete list of them in a note. Dr. Falconer also described two molars imbedded, in situ, in a fragment of the left maxillary of a very large hippopotamus; the specimen was dug up near the old Temple of Kalábshe, in Nubia; and Dr. Falconer was of opinion that it belonged to the same species as the existing hippopotamus of that country.

November 18th, 1863.

The following communications were read: 1. "On the Fossil Corals of the West Indies." Part II. By P. Martin Duncan, M.B. This communication embodied the second part of the author's researches on the Fossil Corals of the West Indies (the first part having been read before the Society last session), and consisted chiefly of a description of corals returned to the Society's Museum by Mr. Lonsdale soon after the reading of the first part. Some portions of these descriptions were stated to have been taken from an unpublished MS. by Mr. Lonsdale, now in the Society's Library, with the permission of that gentleman, such quotations having been duly indicated. The predominance of simple fossil corals in San Domingo, and their complete absence in Antigua, were pointed out; and it was remarked that the same kind of distribution occurs at the present day, pedunculated compound forms being very common around the northern Antilles, but rare around the north-eastern, although the corals are mostly of different genera to those found in the fossil state. The author concluded with some remarks on the physical conditions of the Miocene period in the West Indies, observing that the Nivaje shales and associated deposits are the remains of an ancient barrier-reef, and giving an analytical table of the affinities of the species, in which it was shown that the Pacific and East Indian element greatly predominated. 2. "Notes to accompany some

Fossils from Japan." By Captain Bullock. Communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.B., F.R.S. There having been no geologist attached to the late surveying expedition of H.M.S. Dove, the commander of that vessel had endeavoured to repair the consequent loss to science, so far as his professional duties would allow, by collecting fossils, and by recording their localities, and the circumstances under which they were found. The specimens were presented to the Geological Society through Sir R. I. Murchison; and this paper contained all the information respecting their occurrence which Captain Bullock had been enabled to obtain. 3. "On some Miocene Mollusca from Mount Séla, in the Island of Java." By H. M. Jenkins, Esq., F. G.S. With a Description of a new Coral from the same locality, and a Note on the Scindian Fossil Corals; by P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.G.S. A short notice of the scanty literature of Javan geology having been given, the author described briefly the geological and physical features of the Mount-Séla district, and made some general observations on, and gave descriptions of, the fossils which were the subject of the paper, and which had been sent to England by M. Corn. de Groot. Of sixteen determinable species, only three (or nineteen per cent.) are now known to exist, the remainder being new species; but Mr. Jenkins showed that the fossils were probably more recent than this small per centage of living species would appear to indicate, in consequence of there having occurred an emigration eastward of at least a part of the Southern- and Middle-European and Eocene fauna. This emigration was proved by the identity of many species which occur fossil in the European Miocene, and now exist in the Eastern seas, and also by certain genera being represented in that formation and the Eocene, and confined in the living state to the Indo-Pacific region. One of the Javan species being closely related to Vicarya Verneuilii from Scinde, the author was induced to investigate the claims of the Nummulitic formation of India to be considered altogether of Eocene date; and he inferred that there was a probability of some of the beds belonging to a less remote period. This inference was supported by Dr. Duncan in a note upon the Scindian fossil Corals, many of which (unnamed by M. Haime) were shown to have Miocene and recent, but not Eocene, affinities. Mr. Jenkins next referred to the diminutive character of many of these Javan fossils, and then reviewed the opinions of former writers upon the Tertiary formation of that island, coming to the conclusion that the MountSéla shells were probably of late Miocene date, and that the plants

N. H. R.-1864.

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described by Dr. Goeppert were probably newer than the Eocene. The fossil Coral from Mount Séla was shown by Dr. Duncan in a note to this paper to be allied to Astræa quadrangularis, Edwards and Haime, the habitat of which is unknown.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, (11, Hanover Square).

November 10th, 1863.

The Secretary announced the approaching departure of the Society's head keeper for Calcutta and Akyab, to take charge of, and convey to England, some valuable animals offered to the Society by Mr. Grote of Calcutta, and Mr. Dunn of Akyab.-A letter was read from M. J. Verreaux, corresponding member, describing the female of Perdix barbata (Verr.).-Letters were read from Dr. G. Bennett, F.Z.S., announcing the arrival in Sydney of two living specimens of Divunculus strigirostris, and his purchase of these rare birds for the Society.-Dr. P. L. Sclater made some remarks on certain new and interesting animals recently acquired for the Society's menagerie, amongst which was a new ground pigeon, proposed to be called Phloganas bartletti.-A communication was read from Dr. D. Walker, corresponding member, entitled "Natural History Notes made during a Passage from Liverpool to Vancouver's Island."—A paper was read by Dr. W. Peters, Foreign Member, "On the Galago demidofii of Fischer, and its Synonyms.”—Mr. A. R. Wallace read an article " on the true Hirundo esculenta of Linnæus," and gave a synopsis of the known species of Collocalia.-Communications were read from Dr. G. Bennett of Sydney, containing "Notes on the Kagu (Rhinochetus jubatus) of New Caledonia;" and from Mr. G. Krefft, corresponding member, "On the Batrachians occurring in the neighbourhood of Sydney, N. S. W."-Mr. W. O. Ayres, corresponding member, communicated some "Notes on the Sebastoid Fishes occurring on the Coast of California."-A paper was read by Mr. J. Y. Johnson, corresponding member, entitled "Descriptions of three New Genera of Marine Fishes obtained at Madeira."Papers were also read by the Rev. H. B. Tristram "On the Terrestrial and Fluviatile Mollusks collected in Guatemala by O. Salvin, Esq.;" by Messrs. A. Adams and G. F. Angas "On New Species of Freshwater Shells collected by Mr. F. G. Waterhouse during J. McDouall Stuart's Overland Journey from Adelaide to the Northwest Coast of Australia;" by the same authors, "On New Species of