The Sun. — 1863-12-15 (London, England)

COLLINS, I.t w. .s resolved be called in and reprimanded by that Mr. Christy the was done accordingly ; and Mr. Christy chain:lamb whlaii emphatically denied that ho had ever made use of such language as had been attributed to him. The board soon afterwards adjourned. The other business was not of general importance.  N.E.; S PAPER /tegomi-o-ittoes. "1:44611:).13: 'phical Sr ‘o\l--,,,, .4454/41 \:41:4-ard?4l' At the meeting of this society yesterdity evemit ns —Lord Strangford in the chair—a Met was ret, 3, communicated by Mr. Swinhoe, on Fbrmt )sa, whic island was opened to Biitish commerce b 3 the is to Lord Elgin.- Mr. Swinhoe was appointed vice-consul of Formosa, and visited different part of The coast to ascertain which port would be best a dapted for trade. In his communication he stated some of the results of his investigations in the character: of the island and its inhabitants. A ridge of mountainous hills extends north and south nearly through its centre, those portions of the country being inhabited by native tribes principal:3- of Malay origin, the lower country on the west and north belt g in possession of the Chinese. On, the north of the island there are extensive seams of coal, N, thieJa is highly bituminous; so much so indeed as not' to be fitted for combustion in the furnaces of steam: Chips, but when mixed with Welsh coal is very suita h'ha for the purpose. This coal Mr. Swinhoe conside rs to be of the character of lignirc, and as the scam a occur in tertiary strata, he does not think that thnlcan be very deep. At present they are worked net. x the surface, and to a small extent. The rocks ar e volcanic, and not far distant from the coal there is: a sulphur hill, in the vicinity of which there are hot springs and other indications of volcanic action. The summit of the highest of these hills is covered with coral, indicating ;hat The the country, so whole rangfahr as Mr. e as been elevated from the sea. Swinhoe had an opportunity of observing, is very fertile, and on the east side of the island it )713 well called attentionthe natives.of t particularlya ntf o the society S soow ln•ietyh°e to the want accurate maps of the coast, the absence of wAich renders the navigation very dangerous. Admiral COLLINSON, who said he consider ed Formosa a child of his own, as he had surveys d the coast sixteen years ago wren little or nothing was known of it, described the general eh,?.racter of the island, and mentioned that on the east coast the equatorial Gulf stream is stronger than at any other part of the globe. It carried his ship in one day 95 miles against the wind, and on another (lay upwards of 100 miles. On the west side of t:he island there is a strong current in the opposite direction.  Sir HARRY PARKES noticed the original occupa— tion though 4 of P Formosa hby the Dutch and Japanese, and stated that th tshe island is so large that it uow forms one f and is only divisions of the Chinese empire,coast, it was not abouttake2nopo9osssession of by the Chin ese miles distant from the until within the last. years. He mentioned tve difficulty of trading with th savage character of e island, owing to its want of harbours, and to the some of the native tribes, and even of the Chinese themselves. There is, he said, a south-east all tribe, not amounting to 300, who occupy the hof the island, and make it a practice o t cot B east point head of every one who falls into their hands. that tribe and by the Chinese nearly the whole of the crews of the two English ships were wrecked on the island were murdered. He took a more favourable view of the probable extent of the &lamas of coal than Mr. Swinhoe, and stated that though, there is no trade with Formosa carried on directly with this country, there is nevertheless a consideeable indirect trade through Hong Kong. After some observations from the chairman, a second paper, describing a journey from Nazareth to Bozrah-Moab and Damascus, by Mr. Eaton, was read, and the meeting adjourned to the 11th of January.