greatest disturbances both of pressure and temperature during the whole year. The dates are:March 3, Fenton. 9, Framwellgate, Durham. 14, Whiston, Lancashire. 17, Sheffield. March 29, Dudley. 31, St. Helen's, Lancashire. April 1, Congleton. 1, Merthyr. 4, Kilmarnock. 5, Hilda, Durham. 5, Leeds. A miner was suffocated by gas at Aberdare on the 3rd of March. No more great groups occur until October; but there is scarcely a single explosion that does not point to atmospheric influences, and in some cases in a very unmistakeable manner, as those of the 27th and 28th June, after the maximum thermometer had marked 81° F. and 80° 75 F. on the two preceding days, and the minimum thermometer showed 57°25 F. and 58°25 F.; and the two explosions on the 12th July, the maximum thermometer having marked 85°-25 F. and 90° F., and the minimum thermometer 52°-25 F. and 67.50 F. on the two preceding days. It will also be observed that there is an entire absence of explosions from July 30 to August 31, a period of high atmospheric pressure and mean temperature. The dates of explosions from April 5 to the end of September are :— The dates of fatal accidents from suffocation by gas during this period are: May 18, Bathgate, Scotland. July 8, Halifax. In the beginning of October the temperature was unusually high, even the minimum thermometer ranging above the mean for several days. On the 7th and 8th the reading of the minimum thermometer at Wakefield was 56° F., and three fatal explosions happen on the latter day. On the 18th began a remarkable atmospheric paroxysm which lasted until the 10th of November, and of which the Royal Charter' storm, on the 26th October, was only a portion. During this interval there were lost by shipwreck on the British coasts 877 lives and 77 vessels. On the very day that the Royal Charter' steamship was lost in a violent storm, there occurred three fatal explosions, two in England and one in Scotland. The October group contains 14 explosions, to which may be added 4 cases of death from suffocation by gas, of which the respective dates and localities are: Oct. 3, Walsall. 5, Seacroft, Leeds. 7, Dudley (suffocation). Oct. 8, Robert's Town, Leeds. Oct. 17, Groveland Pit, Rowley Regis (suffocation). 18, Tiviotdale Pit, Rowley Regis. 20, Hampstead (suffocation). Oct. 22, Washington, Durham. 24, N. Bitchburn, Crook. 26, Tipton. 26, Longton. 26, Tollcross, Scotland. It is instructive to compare this group of accidents in October, when the atmospheric conditions were highly favourable to the presence of inflammable gases in coal-mines, with the entire blank shown by the diagram in August, when the atmospheric conditions were as decidedly of an opposite tendency. The only fatal accidents from gas in mines during November and December were by explosions, thus : Nov. 2, Royton, Manchester. 11, Donnington. 14, Dukinfield. 24, Royton, Manchester. 26, Wakefield. Dec. 1, Burton-on-Trent. 6, Walker. 24, Atherton. 26, Ormskirk, Lancashire. 28, Leeds. Continuation of Report on Steam Navigation at Hull. By JAMES OLDHAM, C.E., Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers. IN 1853, when I made iny first Report to the British Association on the rise and progress of steam navigation at Hull, we had twenty-one sea-going and twenty-three river steamers; now we have sixty-six sea-going and twentyfive river steamers belonging to the port. There are also belonging to places on the waters of the Humber, more or less, but chiefly trading with our port, twenty-six steam-vessels of different kinds, and there are about twenty to twenty-three steam-ships belonging to other English ports and foreign states regularly trading to Hull, giving a total of about 140 in one way or other using the port of Hull; while in 1853 the total fleet of every class and country amounted to eighty-one, giving an increase of fifty-nine. Notwithstanding the many losses and changes which have occurred amongst our steam-vessels since my Report at Aberdeen two years ago, I am enabled to say that we never possessed so numerous and so fine a fleet as at the present time, a fleet which, for efficiency and seaworthiness, may compare, tonnage for tonnage, with any other port. It is not, however, the number of steam-ships connected with the port that is the true criterion on which to judge of an advance or otherwise, but the amount of tonnage of actual business performed on which we can draw true conclusions; and I find as a proof, that while in 1840 the gross tonnage (steam and sailing) on which dock dues were paid amounted only to 652,508, in 1852 it had reached 799,866, and in 1860 it had attained 1,215,203 tons; and while the actual steam tonnage in 1840 only amounted to 174,832, in 1852 it had reached 305,021, and in 1860 it was found to be 603,328, having within a fraction doubled in eight years. And what is still more remarkable is, that although steam is fast taking the lead, and has so wonderfully advanced, the sailing-ship tonnage has also in a most astonishing ratio increased; for in 1840 this class of tonnage amounted to 477,676, in 1852 to 494,845, and in 1860 to no less than 611,875 tons. The above statements of tonnage relate solely to inward traffic, and not outward. These facts not only justify the Dock Company in the steps they are now taking to extend the dock-space and wharfage-accommodation so imperatively demanded, but will show the necessity of still further providing for the great increase of space which, from the rapidly growing trade, and the increase in number and size of our steam-ships, we may fairly anticipate will shortly be wanted. To check and hold back the supply of necessary water-space is to produce a retrograde effect; and not to meet the wants of the port is to encourage any rivals who may be ambitious enough to attempt to take our trade from us. Great inconvenience has long been felt by steam-ship owners for want of more extended accommodation. At present the total area of the dock is under 43 acres for the whole of the shipping; but to give the facilities required it ought to be double that amount. An extension of 17 acres is, however, at once to be added to the present space in the construction of the Western Dock, specially for the steam-shipping, in addition too of an enlarged entrance tidal basin to be common to the Humber and Western Docks. Let therefore the Dock Company be true to its own real interests and those of the port at large, and long delays and expensive conflicts in obtaining the necessary accommodation for the rapidly increasing fleet of steamers will no longer be known and felt, and Hull, which has long held the proud position of the third British port, will still continue to maintain that honourable post. With the young and vigorous new blood recently imported into the directory of the Company, and with its active, talented, and enterprising officers at the head of its executive, the port asks for and expects extension of dock-space and every modern and improved appliance, to facilitate all the varied operations, and to meet liberally all its rapidly growing wants. I have only to add that during the last ten years upwards of 120 steamships have been built and equipped at the port of Hull, several of which are from 1000 to 3000 tons burthen, reflecting the highest credit both on the builders as well as on the port. Austrian Chambers, Hull, August 1861. Brief Summary of a Report on the Flora of the North of Ireland. By Professor G. DICKIE, M.D. THE district to which the Report refers comprehends that part of Ireland which lies to the north of a line passing to the west from Dundalk, embracing ten entire counties and part of other two. The information respecting the native flora of this district has been derived mainly from the following sources :-Dr. Mackay's Flora of Ireland;' a valuable list contributed by D. Moore, Esq., of the Glasnevin Botanic Garden; notes contributed by Mr. Hyndman, of Belfast; the MSS. of the late Mr. Templeton, of Cranmore, liberally placed at my disposal by Mrs. Templeton; and lastly, records of species observed by myself during excursions to different parts of the north of Ireland. Details will be given in the full Report for insertion in the next volume of the Transactions of the Association. It will be sufficient here to give a summary of the results. The standard adopted is the British Flora,' by Sir W. J. Hooker and Prof. Arnott; and in order to bring out the botanical features of the district, the types of Mr. Watson (in his Cybele Britannica') afford the best means for comparison. The total number of species of Phænogams in the district may be estimated at 725. In the entire flora of the United Kingdom, those of the English type are 396, the Scottish 68, Highland 108, Germanic 196, Atlantic 60, In the district there are 166 of the English type, 39 Scottish, 22 Highland, 17 Atlantic, and 3 only of the Germanic type; the remainder of course embracing those of general occurrence in Britain, hence called the British type. The fora therefore is characterized by a large admixture of species belonging to the English and Scottish types, with a fair proportion of those called Western or Atlantic; the number of Highland species is small, as might have been expected, owing to the physical characters of the country; those of the Germanic type are still fewer, only three out of 196 British species being referred to that type. On the Psychical and Physical Characters of the Mincopies, or Natives of the Andaman Islands, and on the Relations thereby indicated to other Races of Mankind. By Professor OWEN, F.R.S. &c. [A communication ordered to be printed among the Reports.] THE Andaman Islands extend from 10° 32′ to 13° 10' N. lat., and are situated in 92° 30' E. long. they are divided into Great and Little; the former, consisting of three islands, called North, Middle, and South Andamans, are so closely contiguous as to form one tract of 140 miles long, and not more than 20 miles across the greatest breadth, having a surface of 2800 square miles, and inhabited by a race of undersized or dwarf blacks, notorious for their audacity and implacable hostility to all strangers. The skin is of a sooty darkness; the hair of the head black, crisp, apparently short, and growing in small detached tufts; the nose is broad, short, and rather flat, but not particularly widened at the end, with the expanded nostrils of the Guinea negro; the lips are thick, but less prominent than in the Guinea negro: they are said to shave off or eradicate the hair of the face, except the eyelashes; it is doubtful, at least, whether naturally they are devoid, as they appear, of beard, moustaches, and whiskers. The hands and feet are small; but the heel does not project, as in some African negroes. The following notices of the habits and manners of the Mincopies, or natives of the Andamans, are condensed from the "Reports" of the able Superintendents and Surveyors of the convict settlements recently established by the East Indian Government on these islands; particularly from the statement of a Brahmin Sepoy, one of the transported mutineers, who, after escaping from the convict establishment, passed upwards of a year (from April 23, 1858, to May 17, 1859) with a tribe of Andamaners*. His statement accorded with previous accounts, that the diminutive aborigines of these islands have no notions of a Deity or a future state; that both sexes go naked. They generally inhabit the jungle along the sea-coast; but are migratory, rarely residing many days in one spot. They are divided into parties of from twenty to three hundred, including the usual proportion of males and females, adults and children; all having similar features, colour of skin and eyes, the same language, habits, and customs. After puberty, the females have promiscuous sexual intercourse, save with their own father, until they are chosen or allotted as a wife, when she is required to be faithful to her hus* Selections from the Records of the Government of India, No. XXV., " Andaman Islands," Preface, p. vi. I am indebted to General Sir Proby Cautley, F.R.S., for a copy of this volume. -R. O. 1861. R band, whom she serves. Brothers may have connexion with their sisters until the latter are married. Sexual connexion may take place before the men, women, and children of the party. "If any married or single man goes to an unmarried woman, and she declines to have intercourse with him, by sitting up or going to another part of the circle, he considers himself insulted, and, unless restrained, would kill or wound her. I have seen a young woman severely wounded in the thigh in such a case. All the women ran away into the jungle, and the men who restrained the violent man from further wounding her seemed to regard the matter lightly, as they laughed while they held him back*." The bridegroom and bride smear their bodies in stripes with red earth moistened with turtle-oil, and squat on leaves spread over the ground ten or twelve paces apart. They sit in silence for about an hour. The man who marries them takes the bridegroom by the hand and leads him to where the bride is, and having seated him, without saying a word, presents him with five or six iron-headed arrows, and leaves them sitting in silence by each other until it is dark. A pregnant woman performs her duties almost to the time labour commences. The party halts an extra day when she is confined. Several female friends collect around the woman in labour to assist her by punkahing away the flies and mosquitos. When the child is about to be born, she stands up, supported by the females, spreads out her legs, and the child is taken into the hands of one of the women ready to receive it. The umbilical cord is cut, about a finger's breadth from the body, but no ligature is applied. The afterbirth is allowed to be voided without assistance. Some hours after, the mother is anointed with the usual unguent of red earth and turtle-oil: she eats and drinks as usual. Convalescence is very rapid; and if the party has to move on the morrow, the recently-delivered woman accompanies them on foot. The child is washed in cold fresh water, poured upon it either from a bamboo water-vessel or a shell. Its wet body is dried by the hand, which is heated before the fire, and quickly and repeatedly but very gently applied. Any woman of the party who is suckling gives the new-born child her breast for a day or two until its mother's milk comes: children are suckled as long as their mothers have milk to give them. If it rains during a march, a few leaves are sewn together with rattan, and used as a covering for the infant. The parents are fond of the children, and reciprocally. The men go into the jungle to hunt for pigs; the women stay in the encampment, supply the drinking-water, firewood, catch fish and shell-fish, cook the food ready for the men's return, make small fishing-nets, baskets, and spin twine. They catch the fish left by the ebb-tide by means of a small hand-net stretched over a hoop, and collect shell-fish from the rocks. They tattoo by incising the skin with small pieces of glass, without inserting colouring-matter, the cicatrix being whiter than the sound skin. The women make a sling, six inches wide, to suspend the infant or young child, which sits in the loose turn, with the legs passing over the mother's loins or hips. Boys about the age of three years play with little bows and arrows, and when about eight years they are capable of taking a good aim and accompany their fathers into the jungle. The girls are very fond of playing with the sand on the beach, raising it into a circle or square around them, calling the interior their house (boov), and imitating the manners of their mothers. In their encampments, which enclose an open central place, there is Report and evidence of the Brahmin sepoy. |