The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-13 00:00:00

Royal Geographical Society.

Yesterday evening an Drdinary meeting of this
society was held in Burlington: House—Sir Roderick
Murchison, the president, in the chair. Before the
commencement of the regular business Sir Roderick
Murchison directed attention to a magnifieent
volume on the table, which had been presented to
the society by the Emperor of Brazil, who had
been elected as an honorary fellow, and he
called on Mr Fletcher, through whose instrumen-
tality the work had been brought, to give some ex-
planation respecting it.
Mr Fletcher stated that the work, which had
been published under the auspices of the Emperor
cif Brazil, gave a description, with numerous maps,
of the river San Francisco, in South America. Ti e
river is 1,200 miles long, but for 400 miles near
the sea it is not navigable. For 890 miles, how-
ever, it is navigable for large vessels, and it is in-
tended to construct a road to tap the upper waters
of the liver, which will op.:a the communication
with an extensive and richly fertile region, where
cotton is cultivated by free labour, and may be ob-
tained in abandacce. He eulogised in high terms
the present Emperor, who possesses an extensive
knowledge of science and literature, and takes so
lively an interest in geographical end scientific pur-
suits that he attends twice every month the meet-
ings of the Institute at Rio Janeiro, and sits at the
right hand of the president. He concluded by say-
ing that the Emperor of Brazil is " every inch a
king, and that there are six feet four inches of him."
The first parer read, a communication from Mr.
Cameron, describing two small islands in the Malay
Archipelago, called Kalatowa and Paloweh. The
first he represented to be a low, flit, but luxuriant
island, about five miles long and three broad, with-
out any inhabitants and totally destitute of water.
The other island is smaller and more hilly, and there
he found about 5,000 occupants, but not a drop of
water ; the inhabitants, he said, use for drink the
milk of cocoa-nuts and the juice of the green fruit
of a palm-tree; the peculiarity of which is, that in
the morning, when fresh, the juice is tasteless, at
noon it becomes rather stimulant, and in the even.
ing it is intoxicating. He described the conduct of •
the natives durleg the day to vary with the quality
of their drink, and that in the evening they are
nearly all intoxicated. He only remained. a day
and night on the island, and was glad to escape in
his boats uninjured.
In the discussion which took place on the paper
Mr. Crawfurd threw doubt on the accuracy of the
statements. He contended that it was impossible
for 5,000 people to live on an island without
water, and that it was ridiculous to suppose they
could supply themselves with drink from cocoa-
nuts and palm trees. The very name of the latter
island contradicted the assertion, for in the Malay
language " Paloweh" signifies water island. Mr
Wallace also said that his experience of the India
Archipelago taught him that water is to be found
on all the islands. He mentioned as a curious fact
that, on small low coral islands not more than four
feet above the level of the sea, water is found on
digging into the rock below the sea level, which
fact, he thought, tended to confirm the opinion en-
tertained by some scientific men, that by filtration
through the coral rcck the salt water may become
fresh.

Two papers were then read relating to explora-
tions on Middle Island, Nov Zealand, one commu-
nicated by Dr Hector, the other by Mr Walker.
Dr Hector undertook an expedition in the spring
and summer of last year, in a small schooner, to
the west of Otago, and discovered a river that de..
bouches near Milford Bay. He ascended it for
about two miles, and came to a lake from which the
river flowed. He traced also another river that
entered the lake. Dr Hector desclibed the rugged
physical geography of the south-west coast of New
Zealand, and ventured on some geological specu-
lations, in which he expressed the opinion that the
precipitous rocky gorges indicate that the moun-
tains were formerly *much higher, though many of
them are now covered with perpetual snow. Mr
Walker's paper gave en account of a pedestrian
expedition acrcss the island from east to west, in
the northern and more rocky district. After a briA
discussion, in which the president and other gen-
tlemen noticed the importance of the discovery of
the river by Dr Hector, the meeting adjourned.