276 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



high as the summit of the Faulhorn in Switzerland, and many of 

 whose habitable spots are nearly as lofty as the summit of Mont 

 Blanc, composed of prodigous mountain chains from 17,000 to 19,000 

 feet above the sea, with occasional peaks exceeding 22,000 feet, 

 winding and interlacing, intersected by deep and narrow valleys 

 ravines on an enormous scale with too arid a climate to support 

 forests, or any coniferous tree except alpine junipers covered by a 

 sky cloudy in winter, clear and bright in summer, and a powerful sun 

 heating the bare black rocks, whilst the air is rent by w r inds of fearful 

 violence and we can form a picture of Western Tibet, the region 

 explored by Dr. Thomson. 



Among the discoveries of our traveller is that of the locality 

 whence the borax imported from Tibet is procured. The plain of 

 Pugha is the result of the drying up or drainage of an ancient lake. 

 It is covered to the depth of several feet with white salt, principally 

 borax. By digging below the superficial layer, the borax is obtained 

 in a tolerably pure state. 



CRYSTALLINE FORM OF THE GLOBE. 



M. DE HAUSLAB in a recent publication, after discussing the direc- 

 tion of mountains, and of dykes and of cleavages among rocks, deduces 

 some general principles with regard to their direction, and then 

 explains his hypothesis that the surface of the globe presents approx- 

 imately the faces of the great octahedron. In an octahedron there 

 are three axial planes intersecting one another at right angles; and 

 the positions of the circles on the earth's surface which he lays down 

 as the limits of these planes (or their intersection with the surface) are 

 as follows. The first circle is that of Himalaya and Chi?nborazo, 

 passing from Cape Finisterre to the Himalaya, Borneo, eastern chain 

 of New Holland, (leaving on its sides a parallel line in Mallacca, Java 

 and Sumatra,) to New Zealand, thence to South America near Chim- 

 borazo, the chain of Carracas, the Azores to Cape Finisterre. The 

 second, passes along the South American coast and the north and 

 south ranges of the Andes, the mountains of Mexico, the Rocky 

 mountains, Behrings' Straits, the eastern Siberian chains, going to the 

 south of Lake Baikel, the Altai, Himalaya, the mountains of Bombay 

 in Hindostan, a point in the northeast of Madagascar (where the 

 summits are 12,000 feet high,) the mountains of Nfeuwedfeld, 10,000 

 feet high, Cape Cafires, to Brazil, the rapids of La Plata, Paraguay, 

 Parana, the elevated basin of Titicaca, the Andes, Illimani and the 

 defile of Maranova. The third circle cuts the two preceding at 

 right angles, and passes by the Alps, the Islands of Corsica and Sar- 

 dina, along the basin of the Mediterranean, the mountains of Fezzen, 

 Lake Tchad, the Caffre mountains of Nieuwedfeld, the Southern 

 Ocean near Kerguelen's Land, the eastern or Blue mountains of 

 New Holland, straits of Behring, Spitsbergen, Scandinavia, Jutland, etc. 



These three great circles point out the limits of the faces of the 

 great hypothetical octahedron. Each of the faces may be divided 



