350 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



S.E., very billy, and very fertile, with about 250,000 inhab- 

 itants. 



In the Deutsche geographische Bliitter of Bremen, No. 4, 

 is a long and interesting description of the island of Timor, 

 by Professor Th. Studer, who visited Kupang and the interior 

 in 1875. He describes the flora and fauna of the island as 

 assimilated in some regions to those of India, and elsewhere 

 resembling those of Australia. The high volcanoes, general- 

 ly common to the Malay group, are here missing. 



Trustworthy information regarding the climate, tempera- 

 ture, air-pressure, winds, and rainfall for the Russian settle- 

 ment of Vladivostock, on the Japan Sea, has been given by 

 Mr. E. Hansen, recently director of telegraphs at that place, 

 in the Geografisk Tklskrift of the Royal Danish Geographi- 

 cal Society (1878, Nos. 7 and 8). 



The numerous voyages made to Siberia during the past 

 summer have been so successful that a regular summer trade- 

 route to the rivers Obi and Yenisei may be said to be estab- 

 lished. The principal difficulties to be encountered seem to 

 arise from hazy weather and faulty charts. 



In a paper read by Mr. Henry Seebohm before the Royal 

 Geographical Society, it is stated that the Yenisei River is 

 4000 miles long, with a width of from 1^ to 20 miles. 



There is every indication of an immense trade in the future, 

 but, like the Mississippi, the river cannot be ascended very 

 far with safety by the steamers which come from sea, the diffi- 

 culty being principally in the return trip down the river, the 

 stream setting strongly on to the numerous sand banks. The 

 commerce of the river is carried on by the Russians in steam- 

 ers drawing about 32 inches of water, and carrying cargoes 

 of wheat, hemp, flax, furs, etc., to depots at the mouth of the 

 river, whence they are shipped to European ports. 



The fifteenth volume (August, 1878) of the Mittheilungen 

 der Deutsche)! Gesellschaft filr JYatur- unci VolkerTcunde Ost- 

 Asiens has an extended treatise on Earthquakes and Volcan- 

 ic Eruptions in Japan, by Dr. Edward Naumann, accompa- 

 nied by a chart of the volcanoes of Japan, both active and 

 extinct, several special plans, and a large diagram showing 

 the earthquakes from A.D. 080 to 1872, the volcanic erup- 

 tions and tidal waves, with curves of simultaneous periods 

 of sun-spots, as well as the periods of November meteors. 



