200 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Physical Geography and Geology. 



The influence of meteorological phenomena, especially rain- 

 fall and rivers, in altering the physical geography, is well 

 illustrated by the following extract from Markham's chapter 

 on the "Physical Geography of India:" "The basin of the 

 Ganges has been minutely examined by the officers who 

 have constructed the works of irrigation, and the physical 

 laws which regulate the great Indian river-systems have been 

 discussed by Mr. Ferguson. The latter shows that all rivers 

 oscillate in curves whose extent is directly proportional to 

 the quantity of water flowing through them. Water resists 

 water far better than earth does, so that a river can attack 

 its banks in detail and carry the bits away; but still water, 

 by producing a state of rest, forces a river to deposit its silt. 

 Mr. Ferguson concludes, with regard to the Ganges, that from 

 4000 to 5000 years ago the sea, or at least the tide, extended 

 as far as Kajmahal, and that Bengal proper was a vast bay 

 or lagoon." The gradual raising of the delta is indicated by 

 the positions of the capital cities: thus, 3000 B.C., the only 

 practically habitable part was the water-shed between the 

 Sutley and the Jumna. The first cities really in the plains 

 were Hastanapura, on the Ganges, and Ayodia, on the Gogra, 

 which flourished from 2000 B.C. to 1000 B.C. Then followed 

 in succession Canonj, afterwards Palibothra, or Patna, then 

 Gour, and, finally, A.D. 1604, Dacca. 



A magnificent chart of Europe during the two glacial pe- 

 riods is published by Petermann, in the twenty-fourth vol- 

 ume of the MittheUitngen, in continuation of his earlier paper 

 on the same subject. 



Abich contributes a paper on the Glaciers and Snow-lines 

 of the Caucasus. The latter vary from 8000- to 10,000 feet, 

 according to localitv. Observations on the movement of the 



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glaciers seemed to give negative results. 



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T. Sterry Hunt communicates to the Academy of Sciences 

 at Paris some remarks on the Geological Relations of the 

 Atmosphere. lie says : " I have been led to see in the car- 

 bonic acid discharged from volcanoes and from some springs 

 of gaseous waters, only a product of the decomposition of the 

 carbonates which were previously formed at the surface of 

 the globe, at the expense of the carbonic acid of the atmos- 



