XIV NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



on a geological and botanical expedition to the steppes of the Kirghiz. 

 A brief account of their explorations has just been published. The 

 most remarkable result attained was the discovery, on the northeastern 

 side of the Aral, of a completely marine flora, consisting of numerous 

 species which are found in no other inland body of water, whether 

 salt or fresh. It has been known for some time that the mollusca of 

 the Aral, if not identical with those of the ocean, were at least very 

 similar to them. These two facts go far to prove that the Caspian 

 and the Aral formed originally a portion of one great oceanic bay. 



General Schubert has communicated to the Academy of Sciences 

 of St. Petersburg a determination of the figure of the earth based on 

 the principal measurements of degrees ; he believes that it is an ellip- 

 soid with three axes, or, in other words, that not only the meridians 

 are ellipses, but that the equator is also an ellipse, though differing 

 very slightly from a circle. 



The King of Bavaria is having executed, at his own expense, a 

 magnetic chart of Europe, to which several years of labor have 

 already been devoted. M. Lamont, director of these works, has 

 addressed to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, through the interven- 

 tion of M. Eiie de Beaumont, curious and important details upon the 

 determination of the constant inclinations of the magnetic needle in 

 the South of France and of Spain. Mariners will profit by the table 

 of the declinations of the needle in the principal ports of France, 

 Spain, and Portugal, traced by this savant. The declination is at 

 Toulon, 16 45' west; at Marseilles, 17 7'; at Oporto, 22 lp'; at 

 Brest, 22 33'; at Cherbourg, 21 38'; at Dimkerque, 20 10', etc. 

 This declination has, within a century, been diminishing at an aver- 

 age rate of seven minutes per annum. 



During the past year the Museum of Comparative Zoology, insti- 

 tuted at Cambridge, Mass., by Professor Agassiz, and for the founda- 

 tion and endowment of which $225,000 was raised from the state and 

 by private subscription, has been so far completed as to be formally 

 dedicated and opened to the public. The plan adopted by Professor 

 Agassiz differs essentially from that of any other museum in the world. 

 His aim has been to make the collection help the student by the sim- 

 plicity and progressive character of the arrangement, instead of per- 

 plexing him by the multitude of different objects to be studied. The 

 student finds, first, a simple collection of the representatives of the four 

 great types of animals, arranged as a vestibule, as it were, to the com- 

 plete collection, so that the beginner who has not made his first step in 

 zoology, or the visitor not conversant with the objects of the institu- 

 tion, can within half an hour obtain an index, as it were, of the 

 principles of zoology, and learn the essential characteristics of the 

 four great types of the animal kingdom, so as to recognize precisely 

 wha.t radiates, what molluscs, what articulates, and what vertebrates 

 are. Next in order are representatives of the above classes arranged 



