PROCEEDINGS
OF
THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
November 15, 1838.
DAVIES GILBERT, Esq., V.P., in the Chair.
The following gentlemen were, by ballot, elected Auditors of the Treasurer's accounts, on the part of the Society, viz., Thomas Galloway, Esq., Thomas Graham, Esq., Sir John F. W. Herschel, Bart., M.A., John W. Lubbock, Esq., M.A., and the Rev. Adam Sedgwick, M.A.
Monck Mason, Esq., was balloted for, but not elected into the Society.
A paper was read, entitled, "Discovery of the Source of the Oxus." By Lieut. Wood, of the Indian Navy. Communicated by James Burnes, K.H., D.C.L., F.R.S., in a letter to the Secretary of the Royal Society.
The following notice of the discovery of the source of the Oxus by Lieut. Wood, one of the officers serving under Captain Alexander Burnes, F.R.S., in his political and scientific mission to Cabul, is contained in a letter from Captain Burnes:
"This celebrated river" (the Oxus) "rises in the elevated region of Pameer in Sinkoal. It issues from a sheet of water, encircled on all sides, except the west, by hills, through which the infant river runs; commencing its course at the great elevation of about 15,600 feet above the level of the sea, or within a few feet of the height of Mont Blanc. To this sheet of water Lieut. Wood proposes to assign the name of Lake Victoria, in honour of Her Majesty."
November 22, 1838.
FRANCIS BAILY, Esq., V.P. and Treas.,in the Chair.
Lieut.-General John Briggs, E.I.C.S., was balloted for, and duly elected into the Society.
A paper was read, entitled, "On the State of the Interior of the Earth." By W. Hopkins, Esq., M. A., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., &c.
The object of the present memoir is to inquire into the modes in which the refrigeration of the earth may have taken place, on the