ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XIII 



geologist, Mr. "William Ashburner filling the post of assistant geologist, 

 and Prof. W. H. Brewer that of agricultural chemist and botanist. 

 The act authorizing the survey also contemplates the establishment 

 of a state museum upon a most extensive scale ; and the whole enter- 

 prise is started on a most liberal and enlightened basis, and com- 

 mences under more favorable auspices than any similar work hitherto 

 projected in this country. 



Dr. Newberry, the well-known geologist of Ohio, has returned to 

 his home during the past year, after successful geological explorations 

 in New Mexico and Utah. Some of the results ot' his labors are 

 noticed in the American Journal of Science as follows : 



" His collection of fossils is very large, offering conclusive evidence 

 of the geological structure of a very large area. Of the Cretaceous 

 deposits he was fortunate in obtaining a peculiarly satisfactory analy- 

 sis. Contrary to all our previous notions, these beds turn out to be 

 much more largely developed, tliat is, existing in much greater force, 

 stratigraphically, west of the Rocky Mountains than east of them. In 

 Southern Utah (just where Marcou claims there are no Cretaceous 

 rocks) he found beautiful exposures, of four thousand feet in thickness, 

 of strata of that age, with abundant fossils, both animal and vegetable. 

 The bones of a huge Saurian are among Dr. Newberry's novelties." 



M. de Khanikoff has published a map of levelling*, made by him in 

 1859, in Khorassan, Afghanistan, Seistan, and Central Persia, over an 

 extent of two hundred thousand square miles. They are located by 

 a triangulation connected with the triahgulation of Trans-Caucasia. 

 This vast country is subdivided into four terraces of unequal extent, 

 and with a mean height of fifteen hundred to three thousand feet, 

 each having a central depression and forming a ba>in. The first and 

 largest contains the great desert between Koum and Nichapoor ; the 

 second and southwestern, which is the driest of all, is the desert of 

 Loot, between Khorassan and Irak ; the third, the desert of Seistan, 

 has at its lowest point Lake Hamoon ; and the fourth occupies the 

 country between Toon Khaf and Selzar. The mountains which fur- 

 row these terraces are composed mainly of crystalline rocks, and are 

 remarkable for their uniformity and for the extreme dryness of their 

 slopes. The vegetation of the first and last named terraces is iden- 

 tical with that of the plains of Transoxiania ; the others present some 

 plants of tropical forms, similar to those of Southern Arabia. Wher- 

 ever the country is sheltered against the cold northern winds, the 

 date-tree is cultivated with success. 



A geological survey of Norway is now going on, under the direc- 

 tion of Prof. Kjerulf, of the University of Christiana. The greater 

 part of Southern Norway is already surveyed, and the northern part, 

 it is expected, will be soon completed. 



In 1858 the Imperial Academy of Science of St. Petersburg sent 

 two young Russian naturalists, Messrs. Sjiiwerzow and Borschtschow, 



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